oOoOo
Control room
Coulson surveyed the agents monitoring various parts of the base as well as contact with outside operatives. Thankfully, most of the world was cooperating by being in no more chaos than normal. There was, of course, one additional point of concern. A ship had been spotted on their long range scans. It was rapidly headed toward Earth. Coulson remained at the terminal keeping track of the vessel until it was verified that there was no reason to worry. Radio communication confirmed it was merely Dr. Banner returning with Valkyrie. Coulson had word sent about the basics of their current security level due to the contagion; however, as the medical team reported the cure brought to them was working, the ship would be permitted to land.
Once that moment of excitement was over, Coulson turned back to another visitor who had arrived through the main gate not long ago.
Hope Pym had made her way to the base after she felt her memories had cleared more. She had new information she wanted to impart to someone. The trouble was, no one was interested in listening to her. It was only when she made herself a sufficient bother and was on the verge of being locked in a cell that her presence was raised to the attention of Coulson.
"We have a lot going on here right now," the agent explained.
"I can help, I think," Hope said. "That is, if your current problems are related to my father."
"Why don't we find out what you have to say before looking for connections," Coulson offered. "You said you remembered something."
He kept his expression bland as he gestured for her to step aside and follow the guard he was assigning to escort her. The trouble with taking and acting on any information from Hope Pym was that they were certain her memories had been tampered with already. Everything she had to offer was instantly suspect.
As Coulson sent her to give her statement, he waited tensely for word on Barton's location. There was a tactical team standing by to take him into custody as soon as he was located. Considering the allegation against him (and the knowledge of what Hill nearly did to herself) no chances would be taken. He was to be subdued instantly and placed in restraints while they determined if he was threat to himself or others and whether he was acting of his own volition. Coulson's gut told him that Barton wasn't a willing participant. The mere act of suspecting him of being anything but faithful to the Avengers turned the agent's stomach. Coulson had helped train Barton when he first joined SHIELD. Despite the pun, Coulson would swear on his own life that Barton was a straight as an arrow when it came to loyalty.
Which was why he was so startled to hear the man's voice behind him in the same instant he heard weapons drawn and cocked. Coulson turned around. He blinked as he saw Peter holding the archer up on one side with Hope Pym doing the same on the opposite.
"What's going on?" Coulson asked and signaled to the agents in the room to lower their weapons. "Agent Barton, we've been looking for you."
"He's been on the ground, uh, bleeding," Peter said. "Or that's what it looked like when I found him. Someone plowed him into a wall. Well, not just someone…"
Coulson shook his head to show his confusion and asked for an explanation. Barton eyes were glazed as Peter held a blood soaked rag to the back of the man's head. Coulson asked why they were in the control room rather than in the infirmary. Peter sputtered that he tried to take him to see the doctors in the quarantine hut, but Barton insisted he needed to speak to Fury and Coulson.
"Wanda isn't Wanda," Barton said groggily.
As his words drifted on the air, Fury stormed into the room. He focused his attention on Barton and swiftly demanded the man explain his recent disappearance. Barton mumbled he wasn't aware he was missing then restated his perplexing statement regarding his fellow Avenger. Fury took the information with just as much confusion as Coulson did.
"What does that mean?" Fury asked succinctly.
"She's not her," Barton said slowly as if the words pained and drained him.
"Then who is she?" Fury barked.
"I mean, it's her but she's not the Wanda we know," Barton said unhelpfully then nodded and waved sloppily at Peter. "Explain the thing I said."
"Wanda's not acting like herself," Peter said quickly. "She attacked Agent Barton. She nearly killed him. He told her that he suspected someone here was behind the sickness and that it's got something to do with Tony. Right after that, she threw him into a wall and left him there. She's… not herself today."
Coulson and Fury caught each other's eyes and nodded. They still did not understand any better what was happening, but both seemed convinced that Barton was in the clear as their traitor. Whether Wanda was the one they needed to focus on or whether she was another victim of the mind manipulation remained a mystery; although both men were reminded that one of her abilities was the skill of altering a person's perception.
"What did she tell you?" Fury demanded.
Barton rambled about her not saying much of anything. He offered his theory that she was not in her right mind. He did not get farther in his theory as Hope inserted herself into the discussion.
"That's what I came here to tell you," Hope insisted as she pulled away from her handlers. "My memory is still a little cloudy, but I have a hazy recollection of Wanda Maximoff coming to the house to see my father several times. The first time was right around the time my mom left. As far as I remember, my mother didn't even have a fight with my father. Wanda came and the next thing I know, my mother just told me she was leaving him. I know it sounds strange, but I didn't question it at the time. It just seemed like it was a normal thing to do. Then she left and it was like she'd never been there. I woke up the next morning and I was certain she had never been there. I mean, I thought we'd never gotten her back. I can't exactly explain it."
Coulson nodded, understanding better than Hope. He gave a high-level explanation on her behalf as pieces fell into place for him.
"For lack of a more clinical explanation, she messed with your head," he said. "She has that ability. She's done it to others before, but that was before she joined the Avengers."
"Be grateful all she did was give you fuzzy memories," Fury added sternly. "We believe that she's behind one of our agents trying to set herself on fire. Can anyone tell me where Miss Maximoff is now?"
Coulson nodded and, with regret heavy in his words, told the director what he'd done.
"I sent her to join Sergeant Barnes to guard at the computer core to keep an eye on The Consultant," he admitted in a quiet voice only Fury, Barton, and Peter could hear.
"Of course," Fury growled, "because we're our own worst enemy today."
To the side, Peter questioned Barton on the name he'd heard twice now.
"The Consultant?" he asked quietly. "What or who is that?"
"The super-secret codename," he mumbled.
"For who?" Peter wondered.
"Tony," Barton said.
"It is?" he puzzled. "I've never heard the one before. Tony never mentioned it even."
"Because we haven't told him," Barton remarked. "Parker, the guy doesn't do secret unless it's something he's creating. He can't be trusted with his own secret codename."
Peter nodded initially then frowned. Before he could ask more questions, Fury loudly ordered additional teams to the server room and to see the security cameras in that sector up on the monitors. Peter volunteered to go as it was related to Tony's security, but he was soundly refused and told to remain where he was.
After that edict was issue, everyone was turned toward the immense screens at the front of the room. By doing so, no one noticed the slim man with the white and silver hair and matching moustache slip into the room. They were all more focused on the surveillance for the hallway outside the computer core.
"Sir," a technician reported, "the cameras are not responding."
"Not responding?" Fury repeated with heat. "Naturally. Why?"
"I don't know exactly, sir," the man replied as they stared at the static filled screen. "We didn't get a warning or an error signal. It's just like the system doesn't understand that they're one. The power is fine and there's nothing diagnostically wrong according to the system; they just aren't showing the live feed. I can pull up the last few minutes of recorded security footage before it stopped broadcasting."
The technician then tapped a few keys and the last bits of captured information from the cameras. The images flickering onto the large screens to show Barnes locked in vicious combat with Wanda, whose hands and eyes glowed menacingly as tangled. Eventually, Barnes was flung aside much the way Barton described his dispatch by Wanda. That effort was followed by the video feed turning to static.
"Ouch," Barton muttered. "That looked familiar and painful."
"What just happened?" Fury demanded.
"She attacked him, sir," the technician reported.
"I saw that," Fury snapped. "I mean to the system."
"The sensors went offline just as the video feed stopped," the technician reported. "There are still no errors alerted in the system, sir. As far as the system is concerned nothing happened there; everything is reporting as normal."
"Everything is normal, but nothing is what it seems?" the director huffed. "Well, obviously there's a problem. Figure it out."
"Sir, I heard a rumor that The Consultant is on the base," the technician said hesitantly. "He would be able to diagnose the problem quickest. If he's around or in any way available, it would be best to…"
"He is unavailable," Fury said flatly.
"But if we could call him," the technician persisted.
"The Consultant is in the room we just lost contact with," Fury said. "Give me eyes and ears on the team I just sent to the server room. I need to know what the hell going on. Do we have any contact inside the room?"
As the footage from inside the room was pulled up, Coulson radioed to the team sent to the location to report in. Like the hallway outside the actual room, the security cameras in the core were not functioning. The team leader's reported only added more anxiety to the tense situation as it was determined there was no way to get inside the building in question.
"What do you that mean there's no way to enter?" Fury asked sharply. "If the door's locked, knock it down."
"No, sir," came the staticy reply. "The entire structure is gone, or I guess melted is more accurate. Sir, I can't get my camera to broadcast. I can barely heard you in the command center. In front of me, is a… shell where the building should be. There's no door."
"It's made of concrete," Fury said. "It doesn't melt."
"At 1400 degrees Celsius an above it does," Howard's voice unexpectedly offered.
Fury and Coulson turned in unison to see the man looking at the same static filled screen everyone else saw. He lifted his eyebrow and nodded at the unhelpful visional information. Neither Fury nor Coulson wasted their breath bothering to ask how or why the man was present in the room as it didn't seem to be among their top priorities.
"Whatever create that much heat likely melted everything within a few hundred yards of that spot," Howard explained casually. "It's likely radioactive, which would account for your communication issues as well. Of course, if we're on the same base as that, we probably aren't that far, so that would mean the radioactivity is somehow being kept localized and contained, which is not precisely possible—not with normal enthalpy properties. You must have a few new toys that can do things I don't know about yet, which just makes me wonder why you only have morphine as your main painkilling opiate in your infirmary. Nick, we really should talk about how you folks are spending your time and effort around this place before I leave. I have a list of few improvements I feel obligated to suggest."
Fury turned away from the man and fixed his attention purely on Coulson and asked what Wanda hoped to accomplish with melting a building. She had essentially trapped herself.
"If she's had her mind altered, she might not even know what she's doing," Coulson suggested. "After all, she recently tried to convince me that Agent Barton was our traitor."
Howard scoffed and muttered under his breath about Fury having a traitor in the organization then issued a few mumbles about SHIELD as he was still smarting from Cap's reveal that Armin Zola had been a double agent the entire time he was with SHIELD. Fury ignored the man.
"Her claims seem strategic given what she did to Agent Barton," Fury noted. "She was deflecting and redirecting suspicion. Barton was supposed to be her patsy."
"Wanda," Barton insisted, "I mean our Wanda—when she's normal—wouldn't do that. Not to me. Not to any of us."
"You're the one who theorized that the person behind this was seeking revenge on just one person," Coulson added then cut his eyes briefly at Howard and modified his words. "What would her issue be with… The Consultant?"
Barton shook his head, regretting the motion as the world tipped sideways. Peter kept a tight hold on him.
"I don't know," Barton mumbled. "He couldn't have done anything to piss her off recently."
"Why not?" Howard shrugged. "She's woman… of some sort; he's a man. That's pretty much all it takes in my experience, unless your guy a saint or a hermit."
"He's more one than the other," Barton responded while narrowing his eyes and trying to focus on the man's face. "Who are you?"
"Uh," Peter began, unsure if the man's identity was supposed to be a secret, "he's… another consultant."
"We've got two now?" Barton groaned. "It's hard enough somedays with the one. I seriously need to get copied on more memos around here."
"Well, this one figured out how to cure the illness," Peter offered cautiously, not adding the man also helped create it.
Fury's cheek hitched not a knot as he turned his eyes away from his junior team member and his groggy head of perimeter security for the day.
"I need answers," he barked so the room and everyone who could hear him over the open channel. "Someone get into that room!"
oOoOo
Outside the command center, a space ship slowly descended after receiving permission to land. While the touchdown was without incident, the crew disembarked and made their way into the building with considerable haste.
Banner led the way, proclaiming he would go to the command center and speak with Fury as he was certain the man would be in that room considering what they had just observed from the upper atmosphere. Thor and Valkyrie agreed with the plan and began making their way to the place of concern. They were cutting through one of the buildings to take the shortest route to their destination in the stealthiest way possible in case the situation was as dire as it appeared. While doing so, they passed quite a few base personnel who appeared confused as to their hurry. One of those was an elderly man walking hand in hand with a young child. Thor skidded to a halt as he spotted them in a side hallway.
"Rogers!" he called and turned toward him urgently and hurried down the hallway with Valkyrie close at his heels. "What's happened? They called for you?"
Cap looked confused at the man's tension. Until spotting Thor, Cap was intent upon going to Fury's office to report Howard's missing status and hope that they could locate him on a security camera before he got off the base and into who knew how much trouble by seeking his own answers to his many questions. Cap was surprised to see his old teammate approaching.
"What do you mean?" Cap asked as he held tightly to James's hand as the boy decided hopping was a better way to traverse the hall than simple walking. "I'm looking for someone. When did you get here? Did Fury call for you? We've been under quarantine."
"Quarantine?" Thor shook his head. "No. Banner was returning with Valkyrie. I came along to pay a visit to Jane and the Asgardians who remain here. We saw the disturbance from the air."
"What disturbance?"
Valkyrie explained that they observed one of the buildings on the base morph into a circular glob as they descended as though it was imploding or melting upon itself. The energy signature the change emitted was troublesome.
"It was remarkably similar to the one that was registered when Thanos attacked our ship in space as we fled Asgard years ago," she reported angrily. "Did someone here used an infinity stone? However did you get one? I was told they were destroyed."
Her eyes were like sharp daggers of betrayal as she spoke. Despite her tone, Cap's small companion grinned at her twiddled his fingers in a wave. She lifted an eyebrow at the child but returned her attention to the adult holding the boy's hand.
"The stones are gone," Cap assured her. "Thanos destroyed them. I'm not sure what you saw, but whatever you saw was caused by something else. I'm not aware of anything happening here of that magnitude. We've been facing a contagion all day, but I believe that's being resolved. You said you came back with Bruce. Where is he?"
"When we saw the readings, he rushed to get to your so-called command center," she said. "He said something about radiation. What are you doing here, and why are you accompanied by a child?"
Thor seemed to notice the boy for the first time, who had begun hopping in pace. The leader of the Asgard grinned in return then waved in a jolly fashion. He bounced his shoulders in time with the little boy's exuberant jumping.
"That's Stark's son, isn't it?" he asked still smiling.
"Yes, it's James," Cap nodded.
"He's rather mobile now," Thor observed. "Is Stark here?"
"Tony is here," Cap replied. "He's working on… something."
"Ah, well, that might explain the disturbance," Thor nodded. "Do we know if melting buildings was what he was supposed to do?"
"I don't think so," Cap said. "I'm not sure what's happened, but I don't see how Tony could be the cause of it. He's been working on a computer program with Rhodes to help find someone who Fury's people lost."
"Perhaps," Thor winced, "but our mechanical friend has a habit of being at the center of any number of odd and unexpected troubles. It's not entirely his fault, but he's like Loki that way, only without the homicidal tendencies, I supposed. I still contend they would make for an interesting pairing with the right supervision… and restraints."
He struck a thoughtful pose as he again made the comparison between the men that he'd noted before. His brother, he added for good measure, was not with them during this visit. Cap relaxed, glad that was one issue they would not have distracting their focus. However, he questioned the travelers on which building they saw change and reform as they landed. Their description of the location put Cap's heart in his throat.
"That's the computer core," he noted with urgency. "Bucky's there guarding Tony and Rhodes."
Thor questioned why they were being held under guard and received the clarification that the guard was for their protection. Cap then rapidly gave a rundown of an illness and possible links to unauthorized time travel wreaking havoc on the base and a possible plot to harm Tony. Thor took in the information with a simple nod. Valkyrie groaned and rolled her eyes at the latest intrigue plaguing Midgard.
"Banner can sort out the illness," Thor commanded as he placed a steady hand on Cap's shoulder. "You and I will see to this problem with the energy pulse. We'll retrieve your friend as well as Stark and Rhodes. Valkyrie, take the child."
She scoffed and folded her arms, reminding him that although she was technically one of his subjects she had yet to take an order from him. Thor grimaced then added the word please which only earned him a dire stare.
"Do I look like a nursemaid?" Valkyrie objected as she pulled her dragon's tooth sword from its sheath. "Why do I have this job?"
As she spoke, Cap let go of James's hand and directed him to the woman. The child did so without hesitation. Valkyrie looked down at the child sourly as the little boy smiled coyly then pointed at her weapon.
"Stick," he said. "Like it."
She scoffed and glared at Thor.
"Is this child flirting with me?" she asked.
"He likes assertive women," Cap noted. "They remind him of his mother, I guess. Valkyrie, whoever is behind what's happening here is targeting Tony. They already got at half of his family. James needs to be protected."
She scoffed and sighed then reluctantly agreed, but only because (as she said) there was a chance of an attack by someone formidable because she certainly wasn't babysitting.
"Thank you," Cap said. "Don't let anyone near him other than Peter Parker."
The two men then turned and started to depart.
"Hold on, Captain," she insisted. "Just so we are clear, you know this child and I do not, and of the two of us, I'm far more suited to facing whatever trouble you fear lies ahead. That building could be under siege or in the middle of something catastrophic from within."
Cap shook his head and did not bother turning around as he objected.
"But Bucky is in there," he said simply but with a hint of desperation as he broke into an average speed run (still much faster than any regular man his age should be able to attain).
Thor looked at Valkyrie then shrugged bashfully before animatedly waving at James, who grinned deeply then flashed him a peace sign for reasons passing understanding. The boy then turned his attention back to Valkyrie as he took her hand. She groaned with resignation as the boy started marching forward with her. She groaned and rolled her eyes while keeping them sharp for dangers as she began to search for a spot in which to deposit him. Thor then turned on his heel and began running to catch up with Cap to determine what was going on at the other side of the base.
oOoOo
Control Room
Banner entered the command center to a tense atmosphere and a lot of chatter. He reported what Valkyrie's ship detected, confirming part of what Howard had theorized for the cause of the damage to the computer core. The multi-PhD then turned to Barton, who slumped against Peter's shoulder as his head continued to weep blood.
"Clint, you need to lay down," Banner asserted. "I'm taking you to the infirmary."
Barton put up little resistance but mumbled something about Wanda needing help. Peter shrugged then pointed at the static on the security monitors. Howard stood beside him with his eyes wide and his chin hanging loose. Banner took note of him by doing a double-take.
"Wow, you look a lot like Howard Stark," Banner observed. "Just older … and alive, obviously. I mean, I'm no expert, but I studied a lot about that man and his work. You might even make Tony do a double take."
"Tony?" Howard found his voice as he continued to stare at the man .
"Sorry," Banner shook his head as he hefted Barton to his feet. "I forgot. We don't say the name on base unless we're talking to him. I meant The Consultant."
"Uh," Peter waved his hands in warning to Banner and shook his head. "No. We're not… That is… Um… Dr. Banner, that is Howard Stark. How he got here is a bit of a mystery, but…."
Banner nodded slowly. Considering what they'd seen happen during their descent, the fact that there was a touch of insanity going on seemed reasonable and expected.
"So you're really him?" he asked. "You're actually the Howard Stark, the engineer and inventor and Tony's father? Wow. I've studied a lot of your work from the super solider program and the attempts to recreate the serum. It's impressive, sir."
Howard ignored the compliments. Instead, he whipped his head around to look at the others in the room. No one seemed surprised there was a 10 foot tall green creature among them talking. What also had Howard's eyes blinking and his nerves tingling was what the creature said.
"Hold on," Howard said. "Did I hear right? The Consultant is Tony? Tony Stark? Anthony Edward Stark?"
"Uh, yeah," Banner replied. "It's just a codename. We just don't tell him because… Well, he doesn't do covert… anything, which you probably know having raised him. It's a… surprise meeting you—and not a lot surprises me anymore."
"What the hell are you and what did you mean about my son?" Howard demanded.
"Well, I'm a specialist who works here," Banner explained then looked at his body. "This is the byproduct of a gamma ray experiment. It's a long story."
"Fine, you got a short one involving what you said about my son?" Howard continued.
"Well, Tony's one of a kind so that's part of why he's The Consultant," he answered. "Also, that's what he does for us now. He consults. It's how he started, too, if I remember right."
"He's The Consultant?" Howard repeated as he felt the blood drain from his face as he looked again at the static on the monitors. "My Tony is the one who's in the building that just had the unexplained radiation emission?"
He felt his pulse spike and his head begin to spin. Peter stepped forward and thrust and hand under the man's arm and held him up as his knees looked iffy. He grabbed a chair and slid it under the elderly man then looked at Banner.
"Are you okay?" Banner asked. "Maybe you should come with me to the infirmary."
"I'm not leaving this room until I see my son," Howard proclaimed.
Peter shrugged to Banner then looked at Barton, who's head was looking too heavy for him to hold it up much longer. Banner nodded at Peter, conveying a silent order to watch the older man. He got a similar reaction in return showing the message was received.
"Wait, did he say Tony's in the building we saw melt?" Banner asked as he began putting together all the pieces of the puzzle he discovered upon returning. "I didn't think the servers could get hot enough to do something like that. They don't give off that kind of radiation."
"The woman the glowing hands who beat up that man did it," Howard said as he pointed at Barton. "I think she just killed my son."
"What?" Banner gaped.
"Dr. Banner," Fury snarled and pointed at the door, "get Agent Barton to the infirmary and fix his head. We might need him soon. If we need you, we'll call you. You said Thor and Valkyrie were heading toward that building?"
He nodded, but paused in his departure to address a quiet question to Peter to verify what Howard had just said about Tony's location as Barton rambled incoherently about Wanda and illnesses and mania. Peter shrugged and said anxiously that there was a lot going on but it seemed that Wanda had started something that was getting far out of control.
"But how did Tony's father get here?" Banner wondered. "It has to be time travel, which is Tony's field, not Wanda's. She objects to using it, or she did the last time we had a mission involving it. Is that what's going on? Tony brought his father here and now she's mad at him for it?"
Peter shook his head although he didn't know for certain his mentor was not in some way responsible for the appearance of his dead father.
"What do you mean it's Tony's field?" Howard asked as he stared in wild-eyed amazement at the immense green man in front of him.
"Obviously time travel is involved with your presence," Banner offered as he took charge of Barton to escort him from the room. "Tony's the world's expert… maybe even the universe's expert. If history is any indication, he's in the middle of this mess somehow."
As Banner departed, Howard turned his attention to Peter, who remained at his side with his hand resting on the older man's shoulder. Howard looked hard at his former lab partner and narrowed his eyes.
"What the hell are you keeping from me, kid?"
Peter looked back at him with a troubled expression. The man suddenly appeared frail and weary from every one of his recently attained years. His hands trembled and his voice sounded strained. Despite the worry it caused him, Peter was glad for it. It meant that the man did care about Tony. However, Peter's own feelings of protectiveness and worry were beginning to churn as well. He looked around the room for someone to assist him with Howard. His eyes fell on the only other person in the command center who didn't appear to have a job. He recognized her only from the coverage he saw regarding the Nobel Prize ceremony two years earlier in which her father was a co-recipient with Tony. Hope caught his gaze and moved closer.
"Can you stay here with him?" Peter asked her quietly.
"Okay," she replied. "I'm sure they'll do everything they can to get them all out of there in one piece."
"But radiation?" Peter blinked. "Enough to melt a building? That's not good."
"Or it's an illusion," she said quickly. "She can mess with minds, remember?"
"But they got a reading on the ship that we didn't get in here," he argued. "Something's happened. I can feel it. I gotta get Tony out of there."
Hope nodded, anxious for a good outcome. As far as she knew, Tony was her father's and fiancé's only hope of safely returning from their quantum jumps. As the two stared at each other flanking Howard's sides, Fury turned to the room. However, Peter's departure was halted as Fury (without turning around) addressed him specifically.
"Mr. Parker, you haven't been dismissed from your assignment," he said. "You were told to keep an eye on someone. Do that. And only that."
Peter clenched his jaw and huffed silently as he tossed a stinging look at Coulson, who initially set up him as Howard's assistant/guard. The agent merely shrugged. Fury ignored the nonverbal discussion and addressed the rest of the room angrily.
"I'm waiting to hear my options," he said firmly. "Someone start talking. Now."
The possibilities that came up first were less solutions than they were negative assessments for what would not work. There was no visible way in. Tunneling in was not possible as it sat on several feet of concrete. The many conduits that carried cables out of the building were too dangerous to traverse (those that were wide enough to all a man to enter) due to the high electrical current that ran through many of the lines. Hope wished she had brought her suit so that they could have shrunk in order to gain entry that way, but she left everything at home when she traveled east. It never occurred to her that she would need to step in to save someone while on the Avenger's base.
"So you're telling me we've got no ready-access," Fury scoffed. "Our only hope is something strong enough or hot enough to cut through recently melted and re-hardened concrete. Do we have jackhammers or something that does the same job?"
Someone muttered "Dr. Banner" as an option, but Coulson quickly stated that Thor was now in contact the team leader sent to survey the situation. The man reported that the Asgardian had just arrived and was readying to take a swing with his axe at the barrier.
"What about explosives?" someone in the room asked. "Couldn't we just blow a hole in the concrete with some ordinance?"
"The problem with that is the concussion from the blast in that enclosed space would likely kill everyone inside that stone cocoon," Coulson shot down the suggestion.
His words sent Howard leaning forward and burying his face in his hands. Peter swallowed the lump of worry that was rising in his throat.
"For now, we are assuming everyone inside is still alive," Fury noted. "I know we don't have eyes on the inside. Do we know if we have ears? Is there any audio communication available?"
"All our radio and camera feeds are down," a technician reported.
Howard then huffed and offered his own assessment.
"Too bad none of those fancy phones can't do more than store photos and music," he huffed. "If you had one of those with a strong enough signal, you could use it. I have to say, it's hardly a technological wonder if you can't even use the damn thing to make a call."
Coulson and Fury looked at each other as realization dawned on them. There were two phones in the computer core that operated off one of the most powerful satellites circling the earth—one that was strong enough to penetrate something a lot denser than a husk of one-story melted concrete as it used a patented nano-wave technology. At that moment, the only reason those two phones were offline was because the control room was specifically scrambling their signals.
"Do it," Fury ordered Coulson. "Try Rhodes, now."
oOoOo