KellHound270s Work

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Ooh, we're getting there, boys! It's almost time for the King to rise! Be ready for it!

Enjoy, and please R&R!

Chapter IV

"Well, good evening, Mr. Stark," Fury said, watching as the security guards escorted the aforementioned man into the room. "First you deliver a nuke through a wormhole, then you piss off the greatest terrorist we've ever faced, now you're breaking into quarantine zones? Apparently, you're a living example of devolution."

"Yeah, I'd be laughing if this was actually a quarantine," Tony coldly replied. "J.A.R.V.I.S. measured the radiation. It's clean."

Fury frowned. He walked up to Tony, looking at his face closely.

"Man, you are an idiot. You really let an AI tell you what's clean? You need a rad shower." He felt Tony's cheek with his fingers, as if he was looking for something.

"Stop!" Tony angrily slapped Fury's hand away. "You keep telling everyone that this is a death zone, but it's not! Enough lies!"

Fury sighed, a surefire sign that he was defeated.

"The lone crusader for the truth, huh?"

"Not me. I just helped. Talk to Brody. His wife died here, and he deserves answers."

"You know I can't do that, Stark."

"Why, Fury? Some stupid clowns on the Defense Council worried he'll tell everybody? All he wants is to know what killed his wife. You'd do the same in his shoes."

Right after Tony finished speaking, they heard a knock on the door. An agent leaned in through the doorway.

"Sir? You'll want to see this."

"Don't go anywhere," Fury said as he stood up.

"Like I have anywhere to be." Soon after Fury left, Tony's phone went off.

He took it out and looked at it. Thank God it doesn't register in the metal detector.

A notification declared that the decryption of Fury's email was complete. He read it through.

Fury,

You need to come in. We have received intel that we have a mole. Bring your most trusted agents to guard the Power Room. We can't take any chances.

Serizawa

"Serizawa? The one in charge of all this?"

Tony dialed a number under the name 'Widow.' He hoped she was allowed to answer her phone.

Her phone went off just as she was about to put on her stealth suit. She hurriedly picked it up and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Agent Romanoff," a familiarly smug voice replied. "Hope I didn't catch you in the middle of changing your clothes."

An awkward silence followed.

"Sorry. I just called to let you know that the decryption is finished."

"What's it say?"

"There's a mole in Monarch. He brought you and Barton in because he trusts you."

"Well, about that..."

Natasha really didn't want to tell him, but he needed to know.

"They have Loki's scepter. Fury brought us in because he needs professional spies to steal it."

"Well, there's the mole for you. Wait, did you say that they have Loki's scepter?"

"Yeah."

"This is bad. Once you have it, Don't let that thing out of your sight."

"Got it."

Nat turned off her phone and hung her head. She was so embarrassed that Tony had to say that.

Fury walked with the agent into another interrogation room. He saw a man behind the glass, being interrogated by another agent.

"What's his name?" Fury asked.

"Joseph Brody," Serizawa replied. "He was with Stark and Rhodes in the city."

"You're not fooling anybody when you say, that what happened fifteen years ago was a natural disaster," Brody coldly said to his interrogator. "It was not an earthquake. It wasn't a typhoon, OK?"

Fury looked at the stuff that was found on him. He held up a seismograph from 1999, recorded at this same nuclear plant.

"I thought we lost everything in the meltdown," Fury stated.

"Doesn't look like it," Serizawa replied. He was looking through several disc cases, all marked '1999.'

A loud groaning was heard as the building suddenly shook. It almost sounded like growling.

"You're hiding something out there, aren't you?" Brody asked rhetorically. "Well, I hope you enjoy your lives while it lasts, because this thing is gonna send us back to the Stone Age!"

Fury and Serizawa looked at each other before running to the main control room. The lights were flashing red as everybody ran around in a panic.

"Vivienne!" Serizawa called to his assistant. "What happened?"

"We don't know!" she replied, the British accent in her voice higher than usual. "He suddenly started to act up!"

Fury looked through the window. The maple leaf-shaped spires were now rapidly pulsing blue. The groaning continued.

"What is the power flow?" Serizawa asked a nearby technician.

"I can't bring it up!" the man replied in a high-pitched voice.

"Serizawa," a nearby agent called out. "The power is at full flow! What do we do!"

"Engage wildfire protocols!" Serizawa commanded. "Get the perimeter secured!"

Fury looked at the pulsing blue spires. He had a feeling something like this would happen.

"Perimeter's secure," an agent announced.

Fury looked at Serizawa. He could see the pain in his eyes as he struggled to make a decision. He didn't want to do it, but protocols demanded it.

"Kill him," he finally said.

An agent nodded as he pressed a red button. Arcs of electricity whipped out at the spires. The spires held their blue glow for a time, before they suddenly went black.

All was quiet, even the EKG that they had on the creature.

"Readings are flatlined," an agent called out.

Another bout of silence, before Fury spoke up.

"Get a visual."