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"THE FREEZER"

SECURE SHIELD HOLDING FACILITY

Location: [Redacted]

ONE WEEK AFTER TONY'S SNAP

Helicopter blades thumped in the air, slicing through the eerie silence of night. Miles of black, barren land whizzed beneath the aircraft as it flew for its destination.

Inside, the helicopter was dark and relatively quiet, the noise of the blades muffled by its thick bulletproof shell.

Nick Fury sat in the back, studying a holographic image on a tablet in his lap. Maria Hill sat across from him. She, too, held a tablet, quickly skimming through details about the Freezer.

She spoke first. "Freezer's been having a multitude of problems since the Snap – system failures, computer errors, complete power grid shutdowns –" She shook her head, pursing her lips.

"One disaster follows another." With a weary sigh, Fury set his tablet down and ran a hand over his eyes. "Five years is a hell of a long time to have been away, Miz Hill."

She looked up and flashed him a wry smile. "Welcome back to Earth, Director."

With SHIELD running point on a large percentage of the problems popping up all over the globe in the wake of Banner's restorative Snap, there hadn't been much good news along the way. Even working alongside multiple national governments, SHIELD's workload ahead was massive. Families had been separated. Tourists were misplaced. The sheer number of missing persons reports was overwhelming.

At the top of SHIELD's priority list right now, however, was something else altogether – a check on the Freezer, a housing facility for some of the most dangerous cons in SHIELD custody.

The pilot spoke quietly into his headset. "Freezer, this is Eagle 1. We are approaching, you may show yourself."

Almost immediately, lights snapped on below them. The earth below them was thrown into sharp, artificial light, exposing a wide white building that had been invisible a moment ago. More slowly, a landing pad opened up below them, previously hidden by mirrored panels. Little white lights blinked along its perimeter.

"Approaching landing zone," the pilot called back to Hill and Fury.

Nick straightened in his seat and re-tightened his seatbelt, and Hill did the same, setting her tablet down on the seat next to her.

"You are clear, Eagle 1."

"Descending."

The helicopter glinted in the white light as it swerved downwards, settling lightly onto the landing pad.

Nick Fury stepped out of the helicopter, the blades whipping up the tails of his coat. He and Hill strode for the Freezer itself – a low, heavy building, solidly built, starkly alit with stadium LEDs. A solid white brick from the inside out.

An agent stood waiting for them just outside the building.

"Give me good news," Fury shouted as a greeting as they approached the agent.

The man standing in front of him looked grim. "Sorry, Director."

Fury hadn't been expecting much else. "Alright then, how bad is it?"

"Empty House, sir," the agent replied.

Hill's expression didn't change, but Fury heaved out a sigh, his breath leaving a trailing cloud in the cold air. "Damn," he muttered under his breath.

HEL had escaped.

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"So, Tony Stark is dead."

King tapped a finger on the tabletop in front of him, and the sound echoed around the room.

"Any other –" He waved one hand in the air, "– world-changing kind of events I should know about?"

Silence stretched in the empty room, and King's eyes flicked up to meet the eyes of the person sitting opposite him – Sean Marcus, one of the top three dogs of Fury's Circuit.

"You missed a lot of things, King," Marcus said. "Not all of them were quite so glamorous."

King had been the only member of HEL to fade in Thanos's Snap five years ago. In the sudden return of half the population, he had found himself once again in SHIELD custody in the Freezer, exactly where he had been five years prior.

As of last night, at least. HEL had broken him out of the Freezer, using a combination of social engineering and hacking into the building's electronic locking system.

King had been taken to some kind of sub-level structure, obviously underground, with metal struts and frames holding up the ceiling above them. Water dripped somewhere in the distance. He hadn't seen where he had been taken, and he hadn't asked.

Until now. They had been talking for over twenty minutes, and it was starting to get ridiculous.

"What are we doing here, Marcus?" King said. "I'm sure hoping this isn't where you've set up base."

Marcus leaned away from the table and crossed his arms. "Consider this an evaluation," he said.

King raised an eyebrow. "I'm being vetted." It was a half-question, half-statement. "Like our SHIELD days?"

"You've been gone a while, King," Marcus said. "We just wanted to make sure you're still on our side."

King made a scoffing sound, partly amused, partly irritated. "I turned to dust, Marcus. What'd you figure I was doing?"

Marcus' face sobered up. "The world's changed while you were gone, King," he said. "The world's changed a lot."

King narrowed his eyes.

Marcus stood up. "In any case, though, I think you've passed," he said.

King stood too. "So now what?"

Marcus grinned. "Now," he said, "we brief you."

We? King's gaze shifted as another person stepped into the room.

King recognized him instantly; of course he should.

Yuri Novikov, the third and final head of Fury's Circuit.

"Novikov," King said, partially a greeting, partially an exclamation of surprise. The first thing he did was glance at Marcus. "You brought Novikov in on this?"

"Novikov brought us in on this," Marcus said. "We wouldn't be here without him."

Novikov raised an eyebrow, highly aware he was being spoken about in the third person. "Is there problem?" he asked, his voice thick with a Russian accent.

King made a scoffing sound as he turned to him. "Problem?" he said. "Yeah, actually. You went AWOL in the Stark mission. You waited for us to score the prize while you were off doing. . . what, exactly?"

Novikov didn't look away, didn't break the gaze. "Searching for next job," he said.

King smirked without a trace of humor on his face. "What, the Stark mission wasn't dynamic enough for you?"

Novikov only gave a catlike smile in response. At twenty-four, he was almost textbook-pretty – thick eyebrows, bright blue eyes, curved lips, a slender frame – the poster child of Russian beauty.

King, on the other hand, was taller, broader, more solid in muscle. And definitely older. Even now, with Novikov having aged five years, King stood over him by a few inches.

Novikov had always been younger than King; he had been a kind of child prodigy in the hacking field. SHIELD had recruited him at fourteen after he had been imprisoned for hacking into a government website.

He had been assigned to Fury's Circuit at nineteen. King had been thirty.

Whether it was their age difference or varying skill level that made them constantly bicker was unclear, but the two had never gotten on well.

King shook off his irritation. "So what's the mission this time?"

"All-new op," Marcus said. "Which means a new boss, new rules. You in?"

King was starting to get irritated. "Maybe if I knew what the hell I'm walking into."

"It's a Data Zero op, King. Either you go in knowing nothing or you don't go in at all. So are you in?" Marcus said again, more intensely.

A Data Zero op. They hadn't done one of those since the old days of SHIELD. And they used to resent them – blindly swearing themselves to a mission that they didn't know enough about. King looked between Marcus and Novikov for a long moment.

A lot had changed in five years.

"Yeah," he said finally. "I'm in."

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A/N: IT'S FINALLY HERE FOLKS

I'm so glad you're here! I hope you enjoy this new installment just as much as I am! Is there anything you'd want to see happen in this story? I love reading your speculations and theories. :D

Chapter 2 will be posted this Monday. See you then!