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DAY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND 2012
1700 HOURS
HELICARRIER
INTERNATIONAL WATERS ON ROUTE TO NEW YORK AREA
NICK FURY
DIRECTOR OF S.H.I.E.L.D
It took me longer to reach the Helicarrier then Coulson because they had to send back a helicopter to take me to the nearest airfield first. All the ones we had at the P.E.G.A.S.U.S base were destroyed the same time the base was, half buried in the rubble as they slid into the chasm the Tesseract left behind.
There were a lot of things I wanted to do once I landed on the deck of the carrier, but the first thing I set out to do wasn't on the list. The World Council wanted to talk, and I could fathom a pretty good guess why. After all, once Agent Hill was safely cleared, being my second in command, she was medevaced here before I arrived.
"Director,..." Just from the tone of that first word I know exactly what kind of conversation this is going to be. "...S.H.I.E.L.D operates under the World Security Council we should have been informed of all the details."
But that's okay, it isn't exactly something new that I have to endure. Their scolding attitude almost always makes them disagree with my methods but certain things can't be argued at the end of the day. "The Council's interest in our work has always been about results not procedure."
"Agent Clint Barton is intimate with S.H.I.E.L.D procedure I believe and now we learn he's working with the enemy? A man whose talent appears to be..." Hearing that name spoken fills me with a bit of disappointment. I know Agent Hill is a strict follower of procedure but I didn't think she would turn on a teammate so quickly. "Killing." This one can and damn well will be argued though, that's why I force my own words in and cut him off with an undeniably fact.
"But he didn't kill me." He knew I was wearing a vest, every Agent who isn't an idiot knows that if I'm wearing clothes I'm wearing that too. "He didn't take the head shot."
Any assassin knows to do that like a body knows to breath, if they don't it's because they 'choose' to. "He's been brainwashed but I won't write him off." Whatever control Loki put him under couldn't have been complete if he managed that, and he is too valuable to condemn to death if there's a chance of getting him back. S.H.I.E.L.D is nothing if it's not loyal.
"This is out of line Director." A sentence I've heard before if there ever was one. "You're dealing with forces you can't control." And a mute point, because it's the very reason S.H.I.E.L.D exists, to deal with forces outside the realm of control.
"You ever been in a war, Councilman?" I know the answer to that question, but the Cold War doesn't quite fit my particular definition. However even without having been a soldier I know he has a strong grasp of war. Councilman Boothe was born shortly after the end of WWII and from what I understand was named after a friend of his father's that was killed in action. "In a firefight? Did you feel an overabundance of control?"
He accepts my point without offense and moves right onto his own. "You're saying that this Asgard is declaring war on our planet?"
"Not Asgard." But it's a point I want there to be no room for interpretation about, because that would only lead to an even bigger conflict and its one I'm sure we would lose if the rest of the Asgardians are anywhere close to those we have seen so far. "Loki."
"He can't be working alone. What about the other one? His brother." This time the valid point comes from councilwoman Hawley, someone who despite her cold demeanor I respect for her no-nonsense attitude. Before she became a member of the Council she was actually one of us, she always considers the interests of those in the field in her argument.
"Our intelligence says Thor is not a hostile." Our last and only encounter with him had him pledge himself as our ally for the small price of some returned scientific equipment. "But he's worlds away, we can't depend on him to help, either." With the exception of Loki's arrival, we haven't seen any signs to indicate the arrival of another Asgardian. "It's up to us." Just like it always has been.
"Which is why you should be focusing on Phase 2." It doesn't surprise me that he returns to this point, since he was one of the biggest backers of that program. He understands the point of superior weaponry, growing up in an age where having the bigger gun was the policy of the world powers. "It was designed for exactly this..."
"Phase 2 isn't ready, our enemy is." I unfortunately have to remind him, because like him I would be very happy if it was. "We're on Loki's trail and we need a response team."
"The Avengers Initiative was shut down Director." This time I find myself alone on the direction we should take.
"It was a volatile concept at the best of times which this is not." That's not a point I can argue or intend to. It's a fact to me as much as it is to them. Any team with Tony Stark in it, no matter the reliability of the other members, is only going to be as dependable as Tony Stark himself."
"This isn't about the Avengers." I tell them anyways. In my mind it's all about necessity. Still I'm not surprised when "We've seen the list." Is the response I get from councilman Darbinyan.
"You're running the world's greatest covert security network and you're going to leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks?" This may come from one councilman, but I know it's the thought shared by all of them.
"I'm not leaving anything to anyone." I promise them, however much they choose not to believe that. "We need a response team." And repeating the fact of the matter, this foe is greater than human, so we need people who are greater as well. "These people may be isolated, unbalanced even, but I believe with the right push they can be exactly what we need."
"You believe?" The councilwoman asks, half in disbelief that I would let something like faith come into my decision making, let alone with a threat this large looming over head before the other European representative adds his opinion. "War isn't won by sentiment, Director."
"No, its won by soldiers." There's a finality in that sentence, but it isn't the final point, instead it brings us to another.
"And what about the sentiment of soldiers?" She asks, leaving no doubt to who the conversation shifted to. "We advised against your treatment of that woman." Despite being a woman herself she never let anyone's gender influence her policy. "But you choose not to listen to us."
"There has never been any proof that Agent Elaine posed a threat to us." I attempt, bringing attention to the fact that in three years, we have never seen an ounce of disloyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D or the human race, and no emergence of any supernatural abilities at all, let alone that one could be considered dangerous.
"Except that she is now an emotional liability to several members on your 'response team', and is in the hands of our enemy." She fires right back.
"There will be no more discussion about this Director." Councilman Li continues for her, and the rest of them. "We may have been lenient in the past but not anymore. Something needs to be done about her."
"You're right Councilman." This time though the voice that speaks, having been silent for the conversation thus far, I can count is a friend. Councilman Pierce, the man who I replaced as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D when I convinced him we needed a direct voice on the Council. "Something does need to be done, which is why you should let us handle it."
"No Councilman Pierce, I don't think a S.H.I.E.L.D team can be trus …" Councilman Li adds, with the belief that this is a ploy for us to sneak around their order. After all Pierce has always shared the same opinion about her as I have. However I know him better than that.
"I plan to use a S.T.R.I.K.E team actually." He clarifies, silencing them all. He may believe in the usefulness of her but he is just as cold and pragmatic as councilwoman Hawley when it comes right down to it.
"Is this because of the missing MI-6 team, the one led by your son? Are you sure you aren't too close to the situation to give this order Alexander?" She asks, showing what resembles something like emotion because she knows both Alexander Sr and Jr personally just like I do.
MI-6 had a joint task force operating with S.H.I.E.L.D on American soil trying to infiltrate a terrorist cell operated by a suspected gun runner, they lost contact with the whole task force the same day Loki arrived. It's a coincidence we can't ignore.
"It's because I'm so close that I'm giving it." He offers her back, reassuring her that even his own son takes second place to the fate of the world. "They'll do what needs to be done."
"Then I suggest you make your response rapid. We all know what's at stake." She offers back in what passes is apology from her, before the screen goes dark.
NOTES FOR THE READERS:
This chapter is a combination of the scene where Fury discusses the 'response team' with the World Security Council, and the alternate version of that scene which didn't make it into the movie.
In the Avengers, all the World Council members are unnamed, and since then only one has repeated her performance, and received a name. Councilwoman Hawley in Captain America The Winter Soldier. So for the sake of my story, since I can't believe Fury wouldn't know their names, I am naming them after their respective actors. Arthur Darbinyan, Donald Li and Powers Boothe. I also included a little history for the last Councilman, pulled directly from some Powers Boothe trivia.