Title: Mortem Cantor: Behind the Shield

Summary: It was a good thing the new scientist, Dr. Harry Evans, was working out so well. Because nothing else was going Fury's way. And that was before Loki made off with the Tesseract and some of his people. Maybe AU to Mortem Cantor by Kyandua.

Characters: Nicholas Fury, Harry Potter

Rating: T for Fury's language, lots of it

Disclaimer: Merely borrowing the characters and plot lines. The Harry Potter series belongs to J. K. Rowling. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (Avengers, Thor, Ironman, Hulk, Captain America, etc) belong to Marvel. Mortem Cantor (excluding parts that belong to the Harry Potter or Marvel Cinematic Universe) belongs to Kyandua. You'll also find occasional references to other movies, which belong to their respective owners.

ooo

Chapter 3: Deeper into the wormhole

[Companion to Mortem Cantor Chapter 3]

Evans was the worst liar Fury had ever met. Well, perhaps that was an exaggeration. He was okay for a civilian... maybe. Unfortunately for the kid, Fury was used to reading blank walls and perfect facades like Coulson and Hill and Romanova.

It looked like he wouldn't be having Agent Barton train Evans to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent after all. The conditions surrounding Evans' double PhD degrees were suspicious as hell (Why hadn't a 20-year-old-double-doctorate candidate appeared on anyone's radar before now? If he had contacts, why didn't he already have a job in astrophysics or chemistry?), but it sounded like Evans might actually have the knowledge to back them up. He certainly had the enthusiasm. And they needed more astrophysists. It'd be a while, if ever, before he could be trusted to work with Dr. Foster on the bridge work, or with Dr. Selvig on the Tesseract. But at least he could free up their other scientists to work on the more sensitive research. And in the meanwhile, Fury had a few new avenues to investigate Evans' background.

ooo

"Anything turn up in Great Britain?"

"No, sir. He's not in the citizenship records. None of the schools in Surrey had a student named Harry or Evans that matches his description. We've expanded the search. And we're still looking into physical matches under a different name."

"Hm. And Gringotts?"

"Doesn't exist, sir."

ooo

[Companion to Mortem Cantor Chapter 5]

"He used the GRR on himself."

As expected. Fury hadn't wanted to tip his hand by ordering blood tests and other scans. That kind of stuff tended to spook people. But including the Gamma Radiation Reader in a standard tour by a fellow scientist... well... not one of the scientists they'd hired had passed on an opportunity to play with the detector. "Any reaction?"

"He came up clean except for the scar on his forehead. Very low level readings. Wouldn't have even shown up if we hadn't maxed out the gain on the detector. He claims it's from a chemical explosion when he was a kid from his scientist father."

Potential gamma radiation accident as a kid? Lovely.

ooo

[Companion to Mortem Cantor Chapter 7]

"Dr. Foster says he's working at the level she expects out of a new postdoctoral student. Gets along with people, carved out his own niche, doesn't need his hand held, but asks for help when he needs it." Evans hadn't been interviewed by their science department when Fury hired him, so it was good to know he was working out.

"Good. Anything else?"

"He hasn't found a cure, yet."

Fury frowned at Agent Hill, hearing something in her tone, "But?"

"He found a way to turn the Hulk purple."

The fuck? "And I care why?"

"Applying the treatment would probably only have localized effects given the Hulk's size. It's well documented that Americans find the combination of green and purple disturbing but non-threatening. In fact 'Hulk' is more of a description than a name. If we need to push a softer image for Hulk to the public, we could-"

"Denied." Fury wrenched his imagination away from visions of a dancing singing purple and green monstrosity. Barney the Hulk, indeed. Why did all his top agents enjoy messing with him? First Coulson with those damn recordings. Now this. "Anything else?" he demanded.

Hill didn't smile at his reaction, she was too good an agent for that. "Evans also hacked into the database. We let him into the Level 5 information."

The Level 5 information included their desire for Banner's assistance, but not the information about potential countermeasures and worse-case-scenarios. He wanted to emphasize to Evans that S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to work with super-humans and hide the part where they captured them and locked them in cells when they were threats. Not that it was likely that Evans was a super-human. The only suspicion Fury had was the lightning symbol right after the Norse God of Thunder... and Evans missing files... but they just didn't know. (It wasn't paranoia.) And now that he knew about it, gamma-radiation as a kid was definitely a predisposing condition.

It was unlikely a junior scientist would be able to solve the super soldier serum when everyone else so far had failed (oft-times spectacularly). But studying the problem should keep Evans busy until Fury knew what to do with him.

Fury nodded, dismissing Hill, "Keep watching him."