S.H.E.I.L.D. was in a state of urgency. The cube that they had been studying and using as an energy source for so long had began to act up. An evacuation was called, and all personnel were scattering out of the building like ants. From the distance, a single black helicopter rode through the chaos of rushing people and one man stood silently at its descent.
Agent Phil Coulson watched obediently as Agent Maria Hill descended, her brown hair tied loosely in a bun that somehow did not falter in the winds produced by their disembarkation. Following her was a man… or, to be precise the man; the man who is called when things go wrong (and things had, indeed, gone wrong): Nick Fury. As his name suggested, he was not in a particularly good mood. He almost never is, but especially not this night. He towered over the running crowds, intimidation and power (authority?) exuding from the top of his bald head to the bottom of his steel-toed boots. He surveyed the commotion with his one good eye, and his stare was nothing short of intense. He got out of the chopper and marched over to stand by Agent Hill, and they faced Coulson with a look of mild concern.
"How bad is it?" Fury asked, his voice resonating over the beat of the chopper's propellers.
The agent took off his sunglasses, his eyes lined with worry. "That's the problem, sir," he said. "We don't know."
Fury lifted his head and nodded as Coulson began to lead them through the base, down the elevator shaft, and towards the undercroft of the facility. All around them, hundreds of technicians and staff were running to their respective evacuation locations. The trio were making their way to the laboratory, where a group of elite scientists were trying to fix what was now malfunctioning in the most powerful and dangerous thing on the planet. The agent continued to brief his director as they made their journey.
"Doctor Selvig," he began. "Read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."
"N.A.S.A. didn't authorise Selvig to test phase," Fury accused, almost as if to immediately solve the problem by pinning it on their lead scientist on the project.
"He wasn't testing it," Coulson shook his head. "He wasn't even in the room-"
"Ah, spontaneous advancement?" a voice chimed in, obviously not part of the their original trio. It was obviously not American, either. All three agents turned to the foreign party member accusingly. He was a tall, slim man. Easily in his early to mid 30s, or he at least appeared to be. He was wearing a brown suit under a trench coat, and his cropped brown hair seemed to point up at the front. He was smiling excitedly as he spoke, and Nick Fury's bad mood only got worse.
"I'm sorry, sir," Coulson stepped to him quickly. "You're not authorised to be here, this is a highly secu-"
The foreigner but him off by pulling out a worn out leather card-holder from his trench coat pocket. He flipped it open to reveal an official NASA ID.
"John Smith, NASA, part of the faction that-as it has been noted-did NOT authorise-what's his name?-Selvig-to test phase on the Tesseract," he flipped the wallet back into his pocket, eyeing Fury a little longer than the other two agents. He did not waste any time trying to avoid further questions, and began to walk in the general direction they were all headed. "Now, the Tesseract, yes-beautiful name, did you think of it yourselves?-it released an energy surge four hours ago, and what a surge that was! Took me right to you lot-hook, line, and sinker. And the scientists were not in the room at all when this happened?"
"N… No, they weren't," Coulson was still trying to follow the words that Smith was saying. "None of them were."
"It just… turned itself on…?" Agent Hill cut in, shocked.
"Oooh," Smith raised his eyebrows. "Now, why did it do that…?"
"We can ask Dr. Selvig later, Mr. Smith," Fury said, glaring at the only person who did not seem to be in any distress at all. He turned to look at Coulson. "What are the every levels now?"
"Climbing," he replied, they continued to pass through the rooms leading down to the laboratory. Smith continued looking around in wonder. His gaze stopped on Agent Hill and she looked at him with deep curiosity. He replied with a cheeky smile as her fellow agent continued. "When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered the evac."
"How long to get everyone out?" Smith cut in, watching as people continued to run past them, some in panic and others less so.
"Campus should be clear," he replied. "In the next half-hour."
"Do better." Fury ordered plainly, and Agent Coulson nodded. He then proceeded to turn and double back as Smith, Fury and Hill continued down the stairs to the radiation facility floor. As more and more staff run around in a panic, Hill stepped closer to Fury.
"Sir," she began. "Evacuation may be futile."
He looked at her with deep irritation. "We should tell them to go back to sleep?"
"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy," she argued. "There-"
"There may not be a minimum safe distance…" Smith cut in suddenly, finishing her sentence as he hopped alongside Agent Hill. "But we can't really worry everybody like that, can we? They're all relaxed-well, more relaxed than any average person in an emergency evacuation-enough, though, to make an orderly escape." He turned to her. "Do you want to tell everyone that they won't be safe no matter how far they run from the power surge?"
"I need you to make sure that PHASE 2 prototypes are shipped out," Fury ordered.
"PHASE 2?" Smith cocked his head to Fury instantly, but the two ignored him completely.
"Sir," Hill sighed. "Is that really a priority right now?"
"Until such time as the world ends," Fury bellowed to her from the height of another set of stairs, his voice lined with exhaustion from her annoyance. "We will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of PHASE 2 on a truck and gone."
"Y-Yes, sir," she looked down, marching ahead. She gestured to two standing guards. "With me."
This left Nick Fury and John Smith alone together as they walked down toward the laboratory.
"So, what exactly is PHASE 2?" Smith turned to Fury. "Forgive me if I don't know… bit new, y'see, still getting the hang of the ropes and stories and-"
"I think I'll be asking the questions here, John Smith," Fury glared at him with his one good eye. Smith suddenly felt an oddly disappointing yet familiar jab as the director discreetly held a small semiautomatic gun to his side. "If that is your real name."
"Oh, sir," Smith shook his head as he began to put his hands up. "I don't really approve of guns, y'know…"
"I would shoot you right now, but I don't wanna cause any more panic than there already is," Fury continued, lifting his head up. "That ID you showed by two best agents was a blank piece of paper. Now, I didn't want to make a fuss out of it since you fooled the other two-and probably everyone else in this facility, and I don't even know how you got here-but now. Answers."
Smith looked at him, smiling, taking the hands that he had just raised in surrender around Fury's shoulders, grasping him jovially. "Oh, you are brilliant, you are!" he pulled out the worn leather wallet again and flipped it open. "It's psychic paper, shows people what I want them to see-good for getting into parties. But it didn't work on you-oh, you're good-it didn't work on Shakespeare either-are you a genius or did you get training?"
Fury fell short of words, but he kept the gun aimed still at Smith. "I'm not joking-"
"Neither am I," Smith said, his tone a little more serious, putting a hand on Fury's gun. "Now, let's not be rash here, I'm not here to cause a ruckus, I followed the trail of a ruckus." He followed Fury's gaze, and set his tone down. "Now ask yourself what's important right now, because we're both here for the same reason, we're just sitting on two sides of authority."
There was a silence, and Fury slowly began to lower his gun. His hard, intense glare did not falter even once. "First sign of trouble, Smith," he put his gun back into its holster. "And I'll take you out in a heartbeat."
He walked forward, with the strange man trotting on merrily behind him.