May looked at the paper he was holding, then back at the lawyer. "I'm looking for a Mr. Gregory Walters?"
The mousy-looking woman standing in front of her nodded. "Um, yeah, the 'Mr. Gregory' part would be the mistake. I transitioned a few years ago, but nobody at the office seems to want to update any of the contact information..." she trailed off, biting her lip nervously. "I go by Jennifer Walters now."
May nodded in understanding. "Well, that's a shame your practice operates that way. Still, your number was at the top of the list of lawyers to contact for S.H.I.E.L.D. related events, so clearly you're doing something right."
"I would hope so." Ms. Walters opened a file by her desk and began rifling through it. "After my big case defending my cousin I had Fury calling me up at least once a week asking me to work for him or his employees. Of course he stopped after he died..." she paused. "Sorry to hear about that."
May waved her off. "It's fine. What did your cousin do that got Fury's attention?"
"He kinda broke...Harlem. Ah, here we go." She pulled out a file and dropped it onto her desk. "This is everything I have on Grant Ward from previous cases I was involved with, along with everything I was forwarded by the D.A., the NSA, the FBI, Stark industries, and the Kremlin."
May tilted her head to take in the thickness of the file. "He's been busy."
"Yeah, busy doing bad stuff. When you look at all this supposed 'hard work' in the light of his betrayal, everything looks pretty suspect. We've basically got an airtight case against him here, but if there's anything that you wanted to put in here yourself this is as good a time as any. "
May nodded and handed Walters a sheaf of paper from under her arm. "These are the after-actions reports from after each of my team's missions. I wrote the majority, though some contain commentary from other agents."
Ms. Walters gave a small smile. "I'm not sure if the rest of the government would like it if they heard that you're still calling yourselves agents."
May shrugged. "It's mostly honorary at this point. There isn't anything major in them that we found, but like you said before, in hindsight it all looks suspicious." She handed Walters the papers. "Sorry we couldn't have been more help with you. If that's everything -"
"Actually, there is one other thing." Jennifer shrugged awkwardly. "Nothing that you weren't already aware of, I'm sure. Just that the D.A. wanted me to remind you that part of the deal, along with dropping all charges and you all testifying, was that you were to cease all S.H.I.E.L.D.-related activities immediately."
May narrowed her gaze. "And you suspect that we haven't complied with that?"
Ms. Walters raised her hands innocently. "Sorry, I didn't mean to accuse you of anything. It's just that from what I read about your team, you all seemed to have gone to great lengths to continue doing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s dirty work even after ordered under military retaliation to cease and desist. You seem to be the type of people who don't like giving up on their ideals." She looked downward, crossing her arms. "Even when it's against their better interests. I'm sure you think that continuing your work would be for the best, but it's only going to make problems for everyone if you try to keep playing your secret agent game."
May nodded and moved to exit the office. "Don't worry Ms. Walters. You have my word that me and my team have cut all ties with S.H.I.E.L.D."
Bob Kaminsky of HYDRA sat nervously in a S.H.I.E.L.D. lie detector, deep inside a S.H.I.E.L.D. base, across from a pair of seasoned S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Phil Coulson and Antoine Triplett.
"You think this machine will make me betray my cause? Ha! You'll have to try harder than that...losers." Despite the bravado in his voice, the HYDRA agent squirmed nervously in his seat and his eyes glanced around the room in fear.
Triplett rolled his eyes as he booted up the machine. "Whatever you say. We just need to see how much information we can get out of you before we tie you up and drop you off at the nearest state penitentiary."
"What colour is your hair?" Coulson asked brightly.
"What? It's, uh...brown?"
The two glanced at the machine's read outs. Despite Kaminsky's rapidly pounding heart rate, there was no lie detected. They had a baseline.
"Awesome." Triplett said. "Alright Bob, what is HYDRA planning?"
Bob grinned maniacally. "The same thing we've always been planning. In order to save the world we need to remove mankind's freedom and place it in the hands of a capable leader."
"What do you consider a capable leader?" Phil asked, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth in an attempt to be personable.
"Somebody ruthless. Somebody unafraid to destroy those who get in their way to victory." Bob's eyes glimmered, loving the opportunity to talk about his commander. "She will rule the world with an iron fist and guide humanity towards a golden age!"
Triplett looked up from the readout. "So your leader's a woman?" he inquired.
Bob's face went pale and his smile faded. "Huh? No! No I...I didn't..."
Coulson frowned. "You kinda did. Sorry. So what's she like, this new HYDRA leader of yours?"
Bob shook his head furiously. "Uh uh, now way, I am not telling you guys a single thing about her...or him." Bob glanced between the two, foolishly hoping that he had somehow duped them.
"Alright, we'll talk about something else," continued Coulson. "How do you all plan to take over the world?"
"I said I'm not telling you anything else!"
Triplett glared at the captured agent. "Silence isn't going to help you, Bob. We have ways of making you talk."
Coulson pursed his lips and turned around, walking to stand beside Triplett while keeping his back to the prisoner. "Actually, we don't have ways of making him talk. We're not Gitmo and the closest thing to a torture device that Koenig put in here is the defective coffee machine."
Triplett paused, then nodded. He looked back to Bob. "Excuse us," he said with a smile. He turned and left the room with Coulson in tow. Bob watched them as the door closed, and as soon as it clicked shut he began to struggle against his restrains. Every twitch and wiggle elicited a groan of frustration from the man. After several minutes of futile writhing, he settled back down and tried to catch his breath.
"Hello?" he called nervously.
Outside, Coulson and Triplett observed the man's actions through the security feed. "How are we not breaking this guy?" Coulson griped. "He's the most incompetent agent of anything I've ever seen, and I've been around for years."
"Maybe he's so stupid he doesn't even realize he should be concerned?" Triplett suggested. "Or beyond that, so stupid that they just didn't tell him anything."
Coulson shook his head. "He had a squad of trained HYDRA specialists under his command at the airfield, and Dr. Allen knew him by name. He may not be the highest ranking agent they have, but he's definitely important enough to know something." He sighed as Bob began to try and escape a second time. "This level of terribleness can't just be a act."
Triplett shrugged. "Hey, maybe we just need time. It may have been a nearly a week, but at least we found out that the new HYDRA leader is female now."
Coulson nodded. "True. Still, he only let that go because he was on the verge of fanboying about her." He crossed his arms, then paused. "Maybe that's what we need?" Triplett raised an eyebrow as Coulson went on. "He needs to get excited enough to want to talk about what he's doing with HYDRA. I mean, he's clearly incredibly invested in their goal. If we can find somebody that he can brag to, maybe we'll get something out of him."
Triplett thought it over in his head, then said "It could work. But the only person I imagine he'd brag to is a HYDRA agent."
Coulson smiled. "Or a failed HYDRA agent."
It took a moment, but then Triplett understood. "Nice idea, boss."
"Thank you," Coulson replied with a grin. He then reentered the interrogation room.
"Back already?" Bob said with a facade of toughness. "Going to try and break me again?"
Coulson reached into his coat pocket. "Nah, we're just gonna do this." He pulled out his I.C.E.r and pointed it at Bob, who shrieked like a child before being put out cold.
Triplett moved in and began unstrapping the unconscious body from the chair. "Night night."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Introducing some more Marvel characters! Well, character. And if you don't know who Jennifer Walters is then I'm very disappointed in you.
As for the last chapter, AnonymousRex gets a half-point for knowing that Justin Baldwin is a Marvel lawyer. Specifically, he's the father of Robbie Baldwin, aka Speedball. The S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits, however, are all OCs. I decided to not base them on any existing characters because the main team aren't from the comics either, and I liked that synergy.