Chapter 6 – Fury's Big Week

The sound of a cellphone ringing woke Fury up from his sleep. Grumbling in irritation, Fury reached over to the nightstand and searched for the phone, eventually laying his hand on it and grasping it. Answering it, he brought it up to his face.

"Fury."

"Sir? In seventy-two hours, Tony Stark will be dead."

Fury's eyes widened and he immediately got out of bed, got dressed, and left.

ooooo

Fury stormed in through the entrance of S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, and was immediately swarmed by agents, all bombarding him with questions.

"Director Fury, Senator Stern wants to schedule a sit-down with the Department of Defense to discuss acquiring the Iron Man technology."

"Find out when he's busy, and schedule it for then." Fury ordered, and the agent nodded before leaving. Standing up from her desk, one female agent held out a clipboard and paper.

"Sir, I need your signature for the budgetary redistribution."

Fury nodded and signed his name down on the flyer, and once he finished, the agent saluted to him then left. Behind him, another agent came up.

"Sir, Agent Sitwell just checked in…"

Fury glanced at the agent. "And?"

"He said that Banner cleared customs."

"Tell Sitwell to stay on him." Fury commanded. The agent gave a yes sir and left. A much older agent stalked up, looking more serious.

"Sir, General Ross is asking for…"

"Tell him no." Fury interrupted. He could care less about that self-absorbed jackass right now.

"Director Fury?"

Fury turned towards the familiar voice. "What is it, Coulson?"

Coulson cleared his throat. "There's something you need to see."

Fury's eye narrowed. "Then why aren't you showing it to me?"

Coulson lacked the old half-smile he usually carried. "It's not exactly something that can fit in my pocket, sir."

Fury sighed. "Spit it out. I got a busy day."

Nodding, Coulson explained. "My team has picked up an atmospheric disturbance above New Mexico. At first they thought it was a subtle aurora, but the electromagnetic signatures are off the charts and extremely abnormal."

Fury didn't look to worried, in fact he honestly didn't care about a few weather problems. "Is there a chance that this disturbance is just a powerful lightning storm?"

Coulson frowned. "There's a five percent chance of that, sir."

"That still puts it at the bottom of my to-do list." Waving Coulson off, Fury opened a nearby door and walked through it, looking back at Coulson. "But keep up the good work."

And the door closed.

ooooo

In a laboratory, several scientists jumped when Fury barged in through the double doors. One scientist, a Dr. Baldwin, immediately got up from his seat to greet the director.

"Director Fury, sir, please come with me."

Nodding, Fury followed Baldwin over to a table, where a single microscope was set up.

"We did extensive analysis on Tony Stark's blood sample, and discovered an unprecedented level of palladium radioisotopes spreading through his bloodstream. You'll see that here…"

Baldwin motioned towards the microscope, and Fury looked in. He amplified the image and saw blood tissue, but it seemed to be getting overtaken by a dark, dirty looking tissue. Fury guessed it to be the palladium. While Fury studied the infection, Baldwin continued to explain.

"Obviously this is directly related to the arc reactor in his chest." Baldwin said. "You see, palladium is a tricky element. It can to any compound and form a chemical bond. In this case, Mr. Stark."

Fury grunted. "Yes I'm sure it's quite fascinating, but is there a cure for it?"

"No."

Fury blinked, and looked up from the microscope. "No? As simple as that? No cure at all?"

Baldwin shrugged, looking as lost as Fury. "As I said before, sir, its unprecedented. At no point in history has a human being endured such a prolonged and self-inflicted exposure to palladium." Baldwin sighed sadly. "Every second that the arc reactor remains in Mr. Stark's chest brings him closer to a complete breakdown of the circulatory system."

Fury ribbed his forehead. "And you said seventy-two hours?"

Baldwin nodded, but then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small capsule. "Well, there is this. Lithium dioxide. It's not a cure, but it could delay the inevitable. Stave off the systems and give Mr. Stark a little bit longer."

Fury took the capsule, studying it. "Can't you make it stronger? Permanent?"

"As an elemental solution, lithium dioxide is makeshift at best." Baldwin answered, looking a little unsure of himself. "No element known to man offers a permanent countermeasure to palladium."

Fury continued to study the capsule, thinking. Stark as an important asset. He couldn't afford to lose him at this point. He was pulled from his thoughts by an ahem from Baldwin.

"There is one other problem, sir."

Fury groaned slightly, and listened.

"In theory, the lithium dioxide should slow the spread of the infection, but as with any untested formula, there is a slim chance that it could… er…" Baldwin cleared his throat. "kill him instantly."

Before Fury could respond, his cellphone went off. Turning away from Baldwin, Fury answered it.

"Fury."

"Stark's losing control." The voice of Agent Romanoff answered.

Fury sighed, closing his eye. "How bad?"

ooooo

In Malibu, California, a party being held at Tony Stark's mansion had fallen into chaos. Heavily drunk, Stark had donned one of his Iron Man suits and basically put the party goers at risk. His friend, Colonel James Rhodes, donned another suit and attempted to stop Tony, but a fight ended up breaking out between the two.

Currently, Stark was beating roads down with a barbell, while a red-haired woman in an orange dress observed from a distance. She looked incredibly passive at the scene, despite the great abnormality it represented.

"Pretty bad." Agent Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow, spoke into her phone.

She could hear Fury grumble in annoyance on the other end. "Stay put and don't blow your cover unless Stark's about to kill himself. I'll be right there."

Before Natasha could respond, she noticed a flash of light and looked to see that Stark and Rhodes had both fired their repulsor rays at each other. Her eyes widened as the beams intercepted, and she quickly ducked behind a table as the ensuing explosion rocked the mansion.

Stark was blown back, while Rhodes was able to keep himself standing. Getting up from her hiding spot, Natasha watched as Rhodes slowly left the building and rocketed off into the sky. She turned towards Stark, who didn't seem to notice her, and watched as he stumbled slightly outside and flew away in the opposite direction. Soon, the house was silent, save the small fires caused by the fight.

"Natasha?"

Natasha turned towards her phone, which had fallen on the ground. She quickly picked it up.

"Don't bother coming here. Stark just flew the coop."

"Hold tight. I'll get back to you."

Natasha nodded, and hung up.

ooooo

Fury, who had walked out of the laboratory after putting the capsule in his pocket, put away his phone and leaned against the wall with one hand, pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. Damn Stark…

"Sir?"

Fury looked up to see Coulson walking towards him with a stack of papers in his hands. Fury frowned.

"Sir, if you'll just take a moment to glance at these satellite readings from the southwest region, you'll see that there is no way…"

"Damnit, Coulson, It'll have to wait!" Fury snapped, and Coulson took a step back. Fury took a deep breath and calmed himself down somewhat. "Get me a line to the World Security Council. They're gonna have to hear me out now."

ooooo

But predictably, they didn't. Several of the councilors didn't even respond to Fury's call, and those who did either dismissed the topic due to personal business or just didn't give a damn. Right now, there was only one councilor left on the screens.

"I apologize, Director Fury. But there has been an unforeseen delay. You must continue to hold for…"

But Fury cut him off before he could finish. Fury looked like he was about to blow a gasket, when an agent came into the room.

"Sir, we've located Tony Stark!"

ooooo

With Agent Romanoff in the passenger's seat, Fury parked the sleak black car into the parking lot of a donut shop. As expected, they found Stark, clad in his armor, sitting inside the enormous donut sign on top the building, munching on a few crispy creams. Not taking his eyes off of Stark, Fury handed Natasha the capsule.

"Go in through the back. When I get him inside, stick him in the neck with these."

ooooo

In the remains of Tony Stark's Malibu home, several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were bustling around as usual. Somehow, Stark was able to get past Coulson instead of staying to finish the research that Fury ordered him to finish, and was now driving around who knows where. Coulson looked outside to see Fury getting out of his car and marching up to the front door. Coulson went out to greet him, but Fury beat him to it.

"I posted you here with one simple task," Fury started angrily. "and you already let Stark break the perimeter!"

Coulson was unnerved. "I had my eyes on a different perimeter."

Fury raised his eyebrow. "Yeah? What perimeter is that?"

"Earth."

Fury frowned, not really understanding, and Coulson continued. "Director Fury, remember that electromagnetic storm that didn't warrant our attention yesterday?"

Fury looked at Coulson incredulously. "How am I supposed to remember something that didn't warrant my attention?"

"Regardless, the activity intensified to where there are now atmospheric flares, all of which resulted in large-scale gravitational lensing." Coulson said, and Fury was doing his best to try and keep up. "I presented the readings to Hikesh, and he confirmed that there is the possibility that this could be a precursor to the opening of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge."

Fury blinked. "A what-what bridge?"

Coulson looked up at the sky, pointing. "An Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Also known as a wormhole, a portal to another universe opening below the ozone layer."

Fury's face was dead serious. "Well… I think that warrants my attention."

Fury studied Coulson's findings for a few moments, and then returned his gaze to the agent. "This is a mighty big fish, Coulson. Are you sure you want it attached to your line?"

"Sir, normally it would sound unrealistic, but given that fact we have an actualy extraterrestrial in our services is enough for me to put confidence in my conclusion." Coulson argued. "I am also aware that we are doing important work here, and that I'm a big part of it. But this activity in New Mexico is a blind spot for us, sir, and we're not the only ones who have noticed the anomaly."

Coulson showed Fury a photograph, taken by a satellite camera. It showed three people standing near an RV in the middle of a desert. Two young women and one middle-aged man.

"Her name is Jane Foster, and we just flagged a call that she made to an old mentor of her's. Dr. Erik Selvig."

"Selvig?" Fury asked. Banner's old colleague?"

Coulson nodded. "Ms. Foster's been on the scene for weeks and likely knows a lot more than we do."

"Who's the third person?"

Coulson shrugged. "Her name's Darcy Lewis, one of Ms. Foster's peers from Culver University. We looked up some of her personal records, and didn't find anything big. We're guessing this trip is an attempt to heighten her college record. She shouldn't be a problem."

Fury looked a the research again, and then handed it to Coulson. "Congradulations, you just got yourself reassigned. Say goodbye to Stark if you're feeling friendly and get out to the desert asap."

Coulson nodded as Fury departed. "Yes sir."

ooooo

1 Hour Later

Coulson was ordering around the agents, who were quickly picking up shop. "Let's go! Five minutes to clear out."

Coulson noticed Romanoff, clad in her signature black suit, walking up, giving him a friendly smile which he returned.

"Hey."

"Hey, Natasha."

"What's going on here?" Natasha asked, looking around.

"I'm heading to New Mexico. Personal business." Coulson said. Natasha just nodded, understanding, but Coulson looked sorry.

"Sorry for the short notice. Think you can handle things here on your own?"

Natasha smirked. "What could possibly go wrong?"

ooooo

The Stark Explo was in chaos. What started out as a presentation by Justin Hammer turned into a dogfight between Stark, Rhodes, and several hacked combat drones. While the iron men dealt with the drones, Natasha and Happy Hogan, Stark's chauffeur, drove down to the Hammer Tech building to intercept the one responsible: Ivan Venko.

Natasha made short work of the security personnel, but found that Venko had already escaped. Hogan returned to the car, while Natasha worked her way through Venko's server.

"Stark?" Natasha said through the com.

"Yes?" Stark said, still busy.

"I've hacked Rhodey's suit. You got your best friend back." Natasha informed.

Natasha could hear the smile in Stark's voice. "Thank you very much, Agent Romanoff."

Natasha noticed a change in the readings. It looked like there was one drone left. But this one was more advanced. Bigger, too.

"Stark, there's one more drone incoming. This one looks different. The repulsor signature is significantly higher."

"Thanks for the input, ma'am." Stark responded. "We got it form here."

"Good luck, boys." And Natasha cut the call. Picking up her cell phone, Natasha dialed Fury, who instantly picked up.

"I restored Rhodey's suit, but he and Tony are on their own now. T-minus five minutes until the authorities arrive. Should I vanish?"

Fury's demanding voice came in. "Hack the mainframe, and find out what else Hammer has been developing. Take anything that's anything that's worth taking and burn the rest."

Natasha nodded. "On it."

Five minutes later, several police cars surrounded the building, but just as the officers exited their vehicles, the entire building was consumed in a bright explosion. Some of the officers were knocked flat on their backs, and didn't even notice the sleek shadow moving past them illusively.

Okay, now that took a really long time to write. My fingers really hurt now…

Just to inform you, a lot of this dialogue came from the short graphic novel, Fury's Big Week, with several added scenes. Poor Fury. Hate to me that guy…