...

"Sir, you have a visitor." The machine beeped following the message as Alexander Pierce calmly laid back against the chair. With a single click of the intercom system, he called the man up.

He'd been wondering when Nick Fury would finally bother to visit him.

The last few days had been... hectic, to say the least.

Idly raising a single finger towards the covert agents scattered around the room with him, he bade them to keep out of sight. The high-rise building office built in mind for it. He ignored the way three of them set about to their own hiding spots. From the casual 'secretary' pinned behind a desk filled with non-sensical notes to the one that had elected to hide in the ceiling of the room, behind a make-shift trap door. Lastly, to the 'assistant' he had standing beside his desk.

There were a few that weren't even in the current building itself, electing to hide in the building across the other street, with sniper sights converging on his office.

Was it paranoia affecting him? Possibly. Either way, over the last few days, Nick Fury had been rather difficult to reach, his long-time friend electing to keep whatever secret mission he had to himself, for his own 'safety.' An occurrence he'd certainly dealt with before.

Most of it, he'd assumed, had involved the stranger capable of a form of teleportation that he'd kept hearing about. The stranger that had somehow tracked down Bruce Banner and brought him into the states, under the guise of instigating an attack on American soil. The stranger that had somehow convinced Iron Man to make an unknown modification towards his own suits- Likely meant to sabotage him when he needed it most.

All hypothetical scenarios of course, but as it were his fellow heads were obscenely optimistic that was the case.

When Nick Fury had, either intentionally, or unintentionally thwarted one of those plans by offering Bruce Banner a pardon for his non-compliance and future aid- Well, Pierce wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, now was he?

The paranoia itself however had appeared the moment Nick Fury had stumbled upon Captain America.

While the others may have refused to believe it was possible- He was certainly suspicious enough to not risk it.

When Captain America's first action entailed a nostalgic touring of his old base, he was certainly glad for the sudden force change in location. Even if Zola hadn't been particularly pleased about it.

Nick Fury had directly called him after the Super-Soldier had started making his way after all, for 'approval.'

He idly watched as his long-time friend made his way through the open doors, a smile stitching itself onto his own face in the process.

He made to rise up off his own seat in an attempt to greet his longtime friend before halting at the raised hand from the other.

"No need for that, I am not Oprah you know?"

He held in the urge to react to the strange words, before slowly sitting back down, albeit with the slightest of narrowed eyes.

"No, you're certainly not. If you ever find yourself meeting her, try and get a family visit out of her." He stated nonchalantly. "The wife would love it."

Nick Fury nodded, idly glancing around the office before whistling.

"This place gets bigger every time I am here." The man snorted, briefly looking back down towards the strange device in his hands- Was that a calculator?

"...Right." He idly reached into the bottom drawer of his desk, his hand latching around the pistol inside.

Nick Fury hadn't been to this particular office yet.

"You know, what really grinds my gears, Alex? Stupid guys that think they can trick a Sling-ring."

"You're not Nick Fury." He immediately stated, narrowing his eyes further.

"How many black guys you know with an eyepatch and a trench coat?" The man questioned, passively as he kept glancing around the office.

Idly clicking the earpiece on the side of his head with his free hand, Pierce made an exaggerated motion of calling for security.

"Oh, we really playing that game now?"

"I don't know how you managed to make it look that realistic, but you screwed up on the character," Pierce remarked easily, as he watched his building's actual security start to walk in, bemusedly.

"To be fair," The man remarked, "All I needed was to get through the door. You know, without you running for it immediately."

His eyes didn't even have time to widen as he watched the other immediately place a piece of paper down on the desk between them- An electromagnetic surge of some kind immediately filling up the office as dizziness filled his view. He ignored the sudden grunts of everyone else around him as he watched the hand before him reach out to him.

He was pretty sure the grin on the fake Fury's face was going to haunt him for the nights to come.

It looked so very wrong.

Before he could say so much as a word, he promptly found himself been pushed through a portal that had opened up behind him.

When the dizziness cleared, he found himself in a blank, white room, with the imposter before him.

He watched as the fake Fury removed a piece of paper that had been stuck to the back of his neck- And stiffened as he watched the man change forms right before his eyes, as he casually held up the beeping calculator from earlier to his face.

"Look at that, you're a Nazi." The man deadpanned, as he internally swore. The door behind the man immediately opened up to reveal the real Nick Fury, and of course Steve Roger.

Pushing himself up, whilst dusting himself off, he immediately made to request the lunatic's arrest.

"We found Zola, Pierce." The real Nick Fury stated before him, completely resigned as he stared at him.

Alexander didn't rise to the bait, merely showcasing indifference as he turned a look towards Steve Roger.

Briefly considering what to say to him, his words died in his throat as he watched the last person he wanted to see walk out from behind the man.

Bucky Barnes.

"... I've... Seen his face before." The haggard-looking Hydra assassin stated morosely, as he gripped the side of his head. "Never gave a direct order though."

"Oof, that's two strikes already," The stranger added on with a snort.

His gaze rapidly swapping between the three, Alexander grit his teeth as he inwardly cursed, his mind briefly considering using the assassin's trigger words before faltering at the thought.

Steve Roger had only been back for a few days- The last check-up on the Winter Soldiers had been a week before that- There was no way they could've undid all of their conditioning in such a short amount of time, which meant there was something else at play.

"So... Uh, who had money on speechless?" The stranger questioned, completely oblivious to the air in the room.

"Alexander Pierce." Steve Roger's voice filled the room almost immediately after, the man ignoring the other in the room as he locked gazes with him. "Where do you rank in Hydra's organization?"

He almost scoffed at the question.

Briefly containing himself, he made to reject the notion he was ever part of the dead organization.

"I am one of its heads." He immediately froze at the words that had come out of his mouth, his confusion and bewilderment showing through as the stranger adopted a shit-eating grin on his own face.

"Truth seals are a bitch aren't they?" The stranger cackled, idly pointing to his neck again as he started walking past him. "If you'll excuse me, I am going to go watch Tony make Stern lose his breakfast."

Briefly raising a hand up to his own neck, Alex's hand briefly shook as he felt the piece of paper attached to it. Briefly making an attempt to try and remove it, he cursed at the sudden pain and let go.

"You have fifteen minutes, I want to move onto the next one." Steve Rogers remarked with ease before he turned his gaze back towards him.

He let the instinct to gulp take over then and there.

Between the two Super Soldiers before him, it was Nick Fury's dark gaze that worried him the most.

After a brief moment of thought on the situation, he couldn't help the sudden deranged chuckle that came out.

How the hell did everything go so wrong so quickly?

...

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