29th April 2011 SHIELD Facility- Unknown location
SHIELD agents were running around in a hurry as they worked round the clock to shift the entire contents of the facility to a new location. This facility was actually a nuclear bunker created during the Cold War. After the USSR disintegrated this facility has been transferred to SHIELD by the CIA for safekeeping several Nazi-era projects and relics.
This was the only information Sharon Carter knew when she was briefed for this mission. She also knew the destination where the cargo should be delivered but that was it. She didn't have the clearance to know more than that. There were huge container trucks that were being loaded with large crates. Then the trucks would transport the cargo to a military base and from there it was going to another SHIELD facility. It was a tough call to make as the cargo would be vulnerable on the open road but without the facilities to land cargo planes near the airfield of this bunker.
Anyway, Sharon was new to such a field mission and she searched for a familiar face among her team that was assigned for the escort job.
"You are new to this aren't you?" a voice said from her back startling her. She turned around to see a familiar face.
"Gabriel Heavens! You are here! Last I heard you were with the CIA." Sharon exclaimed in surprise and pulled her old friend into a hug
"I left that boat and joined up with NASA after the Stark expo went boom. Since then I was having a nice quiet life until SHIELD managed to drag NASA into a new joint project. Apparently, tech guys with military training is the new attraction in town." Gabriel smiled and patted her back as they walked to a corner not to disturb the loading crew
"Why did you leave? I mean you always dreamed of being in the CIA since High school." Sharon asked and she could see her friend's smile dimmed a little bit
"Things are a bit different when you work up close and see the level bullshit our country is into. Couldn't take it anymore and with last mission in good old Russia and I was out." Gabriel said with a small smile remembering the good old times
"Was that the mission involving in taking out a Satellite in the geosynchronous orbit?" Sharon asked as she remembered a mission detail that was a few years back and she knew that kind of work was right up her friend's alley.
"How do you know that? That was a classified mission." Gabriel asked incredulously
"SHIELD has access to all such files and I have some limited access to such files. I worked as an analyst at that time but I don't know more details than that." Sharon said
"Oh, that explains a lot." Gabriel hummed
"So what was it?"
"What was what?" Gabriel asked confused
"The technique you used. Did you increase the temperature by overheating the systems or did you just mess up the spin rate?" Sharon asked curiously knowing that her friend was an expert in this field
"Nah, I just used sound transducing." Gabriel winked playfully
"I don't follow..." Sharon looked on in interest
"Well, simply speaking I just jammed a whole lot of music tracks across the globe into.." Gabriel was cut off from finishing
"What are you two doing over there?" the Agent overseeing this mission barked at them
"Sorry, sir." They stiffly saluted and parted ways quickly returning back to their respective stations
As the last of the crates were loaded up there was only one more left. A small wooden box was sitting innocently on the corner. One of the agents was about to load it into the container but NASA officials stopped it.
"Stop. That contains a radioactive component. Please remove the box and let us secure it somewhere else where the radiation does not leak in this alarming level." Head of the NASA delegation spoke as they checked the radiation levels around the box
SHIELD agents slowly cracked open the wooden box and inside lay the glowing blue cube that was commonly known as the Tessaract.
"Place the cube in this case please." Gabriel opened the case that was designed by NASA engineers to minimize the radiation and shield the energy signature of the cube as much as possible.
One SHIELD agent plucked the Tesseract from the box with a tongs. As the agent was about to put the cube into the case the Tesseract slipped from the jaws of the Tongs and fell on the floor. A single pulse of energy ripped through the floor striking straight at Gabriel's heart.
For a moment all SHIELD agents and NASA officials saw the energy seep into Gabriel's body at an alarming rate and then there was an explosion that blew away everyone off their feet
When Sharon regained her senses she saw the pulsing energy of the Tesseract has stopped but her friend was lying face down with a blue glow slowly sinking into his body.
"Medic! We need a medic. This is agent 13, we have code orange at the 'Warehouse'. I repeat we have code Orange at the Warehouse." Sharon barked through the coms and immediately put the Tesseract back into the case and locked it up for good measure. She just knew that this was not going to end well. At least, she will be spared the dressing down that Director Fury was going to give. At least, that was her hope.
XXXXX Somewhere in the Pacific XXXXX
Nicholas Fury prided himself in keeping a lid on any and all unprecedented incidents that threatened American interests and that of the world. Lately, that was being challenged by the likes of hammer-wielding gods, enormous green rage monsters and to top it all off a guy in an iron suit with an ego the size of the moon.
Despite all this, he had managed to keep the Asgardian invasion under wraps and had even kept the Hulk out of the limelight by clearing up the trail left by Bruce Banner. The only incident he couldn't control even remotely was with Tony Stark. Even then he had managed to help Stark somewhat with his blood poisoning and the Russian maniac. He had even managed to rope in Stark into a consultant role. Already SHIELD was planning to negotiate with Stark Industries for a joint project to build next-generation hellicarriers.
Even though he had managed to pull the will over public eye the Asgardian invasion had some interesting consequences. The World Security Council had rejected his Avengers Initiative and was going with the plan to harness energy using the Tesseract. Said energy will then be weaponised and used against extra-terrestrial threats as well as local ones that seem to pop up at an alarming rate.
With everything that was going on, he didn't fancy himself having one more headache on his shoulders but that was exactly what he got when Agent Hill and Agent Coulson entered his room together.
"We have a problem, sir." Agent Coulson started uncomfortably
"Of course we do. When have we not gotten one? What is it this time? Just say it up straight." Fury said as he looked at the pinched expression on Coulson's face
"The Tesseract activated on its own and one of NASA officials was exposed to its energy. The good news is the guy in question is stable and in our care. The Tesseract and the rest of cargo has also been safely moved to our facility without further incidents." Coulson reported
"Give me the bad news." Fury sighed and prayed to all gods and demons he knew to not let this be another Hulk incident
"The bad news is that it was one of our agents that dropped the Tesseract which resulted in this incident. NASA is calling for our heads for endangering one of their best assets. The real kicker is that the one that got exposed is Gabriel Heavens." Coulson said uneasily understanding the nuke mine they have stepped into
"Holy mother of God are you kidding me?" Fury jumped from his seat and stared incredulously at Coulson and Hill
"I am afraid we are in a tight spot, sir." Agent Hill confirmed Fury's worst fears
"Holy shit." Fury cursed as he threw away the cup of coffee in his hand at the nearby window. Coulson and Hill flinched lightly as the cup broke against the glass window splashing it with hot coffee.
"I warned those retards in the World Security Council that this kind of magic mojo might happen if we mess with things that we have no clue about. But what do I get, some empty platitudes and orders to create apocalyptic weapons." Fury thundered and turned to Coulson
"I am telling you, Coulson, the world is going to the dust bin and all of our leaders have a few screws loose up there." Fury fumed as he paced around his office like a rabid dog
"Sir, perhaps you should contact the Heavens directly as soon as possible. We don't want to turn them against us at this point. We won't be able to bear the political heat if they turn on us." Coulson advised while Hill nodded along
"Don't I know it. The entire Republican party is dancing in the palm of their hands and let's not forget Victoria Heavens is a senator of Texas and her husband Thomas Heavens is a business tycoon that has his hands on Oil, Communication, Military and even shipping. This is going to hurt us if we don't do damage control quickly enough." Fury began to think of some way to spin this off that will leave him out of the picture
"They are too clean for us to have any leverage, sir. Perhaps we should approach through Gabriel Heavens himself. We have Agent 13 with him in the medic bay and they are old family friends." Agent Hill suggested
Fury thought about the situation some more and he decided to take Hill's advice.
"Get the chopper ready. It seems I have an appointment with Gabriel Heavens. Coulson, you are coming with me. Hill, take charge of the carrier." Fury ordered and both Coulson and Hill nodded and left his room leaving Fury to ponder alone.
XX SHIELD BASE (Unknown location) XX
Sharon Carter looked up from the medical report she was reading as she heard hurried footsteps coming her way. She was unsurprised to see that it was the director and agent Coulson.
"Good morning, sir." Sharon greeted her superiors
"Talk to me agent." Fury gave his famed one-eyed stare
"Mr Heavens came in contact with the energy of Tesseract approximately two hours back. We extracted him five minutes after the incident and arrived at this facility within 20 minutes. Since then Mr Heavens has been put in a ventilator and fully under the supervision of the staff. We have conducted several scans till now and outside of a higher brain activity and neural signal transmission nothing is out of the ordinary. Me Heavens is still in a coma but his bodily functions are stable." Sharon reported as she handed over the medical report to Fury who began to flick through the pages
"You had a prior connection with Mr Heavens, did you not?" Fury asked without looking up from the medical report
"Yes, sir. We dated when we were in high school." Sharon said earning herself a look from Coulson
"He was my senior." She added on flustered at the look from Coulson
"Where is the doc?" Coulson asked
"Inside, sir. Shall we.." She opened the door to let Fury and Coulson in
The three of them walked inside and was greeted by the doctor in charge.
"Anything to add on doc?" Fury asked as he observed the projected brain activity on the screen and the patient that was in the bed safely behind a glass pane
"Mr Heavens is perfectly healthy and so far we have not been able to identify anything that poses a threat to him in his body. From what I understand Mr Heavens came in contact with Gamma radiations of the highest level but I can't find any traces of Gamma radiation in him. Outside of being in a coma, I don't see any problem with him whatsoever." The doc said even as he carefully monitored the brain activity
"What is that scar on his chest? Is that one from this incident?" Coulson asked pointing at the thin scar on Gabriels body
"That's actually the scar left by a heart transplant surgery. We have monitored his heart as well but there is no need to worry. His heart is strong and pumping strong in full torque." The doc said absently as he began to play with the monitoring instruments a little bit
"Did you know about this?" Coulson asked as he turned to Sharon
"No, sir. We were out of touch until now." Sharon said with an unreadable expression
Suddenly they all jumped in surprise as they saw Gabriel sat up coughing and heaving on the bed. The docs rushed in trying, to help while Fury let out a sigh of relief that their friend from NASA was at least awake.
Half an hour later, after a thorough check-up, they were allowed to visit Gabriel Heavens. Seeing the three of them enter Gabriel sat up in the bed and to their eyes, he was healthy as a horse.
"Mr Heavens, we have not met but I have heard a lot about you. I am Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD." Fury shook hands with the relief that he had dodged a minefield by the grace of god
"Its good to see you, sir." Gabriel greeted back
"So when can I escape from here?" Gabriel lightly joked as he looked at Sharon not the least bit intimidated by Fury
"Two or three hours max. You have been exposed to a radioactive element after all but I think you will be released provided that you remain home in isolation for a period of two weeks." Sharon confessed
"What about the project?" Gabriel asked
"I think it is best that you sit this one out Mr Heavens. Look at the bright side, you can enjoy a few weeks of vacation. Perhaps read a few books and watch TV. But please do keep this incident between ourselves. You know the drill." Coulson said with a gentle smile
"I see. I just had a minor brain aneurysm during work. I was immediately treated and has been given leave for a few weeks. Just do me a favour and create medical records as accurately as possible. My mother can see through made-up reports even if it is a medical one." Gabriel advised
"We will keep that in mind. Thank you for your cooperation and we apologize on behalf of our agent in the field." Coulson said
"Don't worry about it." Gabriel smiled reassuringly
After everything was said and done Fury and Coulson watched Gabriel Heavens board a jet straight to Texas. Transportation was already arranged at landing with a token escort to the guy's home.
"You are thinking about tailing him aren't you?" Coulson asked out of the corner of his mouth
"Last time someone took in the energy of Tesseract that person went on to crush an entire alien fleet singlehandedly. I have a feeling that we will be seeing more of Mr Heavens in the coming days. Keep an eye on him, Coulson. There is a war coming and we need all the soldiers we can get." Fury nodded at Coulson and together they returned back to their base.