Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This story is not Tony-Stark-friendly, so if you stan him this story is not for you.

Watched Captain Marvel last Sunday. What a fun movie, I enjoyed it very much. So nice to see Agent Coulson as a beginner and nevertheless be a badass. Fury was hilarious with Goose and I liked Brie Larson as Captain Marvel.

11. Fury & Coulson

The phone ringed and Coulson looked at the number, smiling as he took the call. "Hey, Markus, how are you? A little busy or so I have heard."

"Very funny, Cheese, as I recall it was your plan. Pepper called, she is now truly on the warpath and wants another meeting with Daisy. She needs the help of a good hacker and has a plan to make life difficult for Stark. We should help her with that."

"I agree. What is her plan?" asked Coulson curios. Fury told him. "Interesting. Do you know, what did make her so angry?"

"Pepper researched the data Daisy gave her about Stark Industries. Stark lied to her about the true purpose of his little inventions he gave to Ross. Pepper is a decent person with strong morals, something what Stark severely lacks, and to find out she played a part in the enslavement, subjugation and torture of so many people and profited from it too, makes her more than ill. She will no longer tolerate to be a part of this and with this plan she gets a foot in the department which is till now alone Stark's responsibility."

"Alone that sounded very suspicious for me from the beginning, Stark taking responsibility for something", said Coulson.

"Yes, a sure sign that something is very wrong."

"Daisy will absolutely love it to help Pepper with this. Tell Pepper to meet Daisy in two days."

"Where?" asked Fury.

"Daisy told me about a good place." Coulson gave Fury the details, Daisy had given him in advance for the next meeting, where and when the next meeting should take place. "Is there something else?"

Fury hesitated because he knew Coulson would not like this, as he was worried about the safety of Barton and his family. "She wants a meeting with an Avenger who was on the other side of Stark's civil war. Any suggestions?"

"The only Avenger who is at the moment in the States she knows personally from before is Barton and he is justifiably more than angry with Stark, Pepper wouldn't get a warm welcome from him.

As an alternative, she could as CEO of Stark Industries approach the king of Wakanda for trade relations. T'Challa could get her together without difficulties with Rogers and the other Avengers. As far as I know are they just at the moment in Wakanda to rest from their secret avenging."

Coulson chuckled. "Ross and Stark foam at the mouth because of this by the way. Everybody talks about the Secret Avengers and why the Avengers under Stark's command are not helping anyone anymore."

Fury laughed too. "There are no Avengers under Stark's command. After Ross demanded from Vision to have a bug implanted and Stark did nothing to help him against Ross, Vision is more interested to reconcile with Wanda than to work for Ross and Stark. By the way, he is making progress with it; there were a few rendezvous, of course with the help from Rogers and the others. And Rhodey is still undergoing treatment because of his injury."

Now serious again came Coulson back to his previous topic. "Barton's position with Ross and Stark is precarious enough already and he will not be silent or restrained if Pepper starts asking questions. And there is no way that a visit from Pepper Potts to Barton would not attract attention from Ross, Stark and their cronies."

"I will tell Pepper about the idea with Wakanda. However, consider, Barton can give Pepper the best account of the fight in Leipzig and what happened to them in the Raft. She knows him the longest and she knows too that Barton isn't the type to lie or twist his words to make himself or others look good."

Coulson sighed. "It must be Barton's decision."

"Of course, as always. There is another problem. By their last meeting Pepper mentioned Barton's family to Daisy, has she asked you about them?" asked Fury.

"Yes. I told her that I would explain everything later but for the moment, she may not tell a human soul about Barton's family. She accepts it and promised me she would keep it a secret."

"Stark told Rhodey, Happy and Vision about Barton's family too", said Fury seriously.

"Rhodey and Vision are not a big problem but Happy is stupid enough to tell other people about them", replied Coulson bitter. "And the way he helped Stark with the kidnapping and abuse of Parker let me doubt his ethics and common human decency very much."

"Agreed, Happy has never shown much aptitude to think for himself. He has always followed blind Stark's orders and without a second thought about the right or wrong in these orders."

"Stark and his faithful thug if you want to be polite", replied Coulson hard.

"Stark is good in finding people who do his dirty work for him or take the blame for him. He tried to do the same with the Avengers but they were much too smart for that." Coulson looked proud.

"I believe that was another reason Stark was so eager to sell them out to Ross, they didn't let themselves be manipulated by him and they were always willing to call Stark out on his shit decisions. Stark had too big an ego to accept that."

Fury contorted his mouth. "And a lot of the enhanced beings are much stronger than Stark, regardless of whether he is wearing his armour or not so of course he wants them under his command without the right to make their own decisions. He is such a coward."

"That he is. Do you need help with your mission?" asked Coulson.

"No, I have everything under control", replied Fury. "As soon as that changes I will call you."

"Please, do that, be careful."

"I will." Fury disconnected the call.