Fury was already in a foul mood from morning, as this night had been rather hectic and had not allowed him much sleep or rest.
First, there was a massive explosion deep in the middle of nowhere in Texas. Then, there was the news of an enormously special auction, apparently in which 084 items were sold to the highest bidder.
Then came the news that Tony Stark had been attacked in the middle of the night, held at gunpoint, and some valuable piece of technology had been stolen.
And that was just adding on top of the already complex landscape he was dealing with. Do you 084 item Coulson had been guarding in a secret warehouse had been stolen? The entire place rated everything destroyed, and the object, a large spherical room made of flesh, disappeared into the night.
Problem after problem just kept popping up, and he was expected to stamp out the fire each time. Fury wasn't this stupid man. He knew that something had changed, and he believed that it all came down to those two new organizations he had learned about.
The bulwark and the chaos insurgency. Clearly, it was the chaos insurgency who was messing with the operations of the bulwark, which were causing cases that they would normally deal with to slip through the cracks and become a headache for Fury.
Honestly, he couldn't really decide whether it was a blessing or a curse to have learned of these two behemoths fighting in the shadows. On one side, he hated not being aware, and he hated not being in control of things because if he wasn't in control, chaos would ensue; only his hands could possibly keep the world safe.
On the other side, however, was the monstrous task it apparently was to deal with these new 084 items constantly kept popping up everywhere, and if Natasha was to believe there were already thousands of such items locked up by the bulwark.
This highlighted the enormity of the sheer scale of operations required to keep the world safe. Now, he had to somehow fit that in with his already busy schedule and find additional resources.
This meant that he somehow managed to get the World Security Council to increase his budget by a few times. The only way he could possibly take on this new task was also to secure whatever funding the Bulwark was using.
This just made dealing with that organization much more difficult, not to mention chaos and insurgency. This mysterious organization's intent of ending the world, if Natasha's words were to be believed, was only kept in check by the bulwark.
While he was sure that some of what Natasha had been fed was lies, he did believe that there was still plenty of useful information mixed in. To further verify that information, he had sent Natasha and Clint to one of these known so-called containment objects to verify its nature.
Sighing to himself, he made a call. "Coulson, I need you to go visit Stark, there has been a situation." He quickly briefed the man before sending him off. And with that it was back to ever more work.
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[With Phil Coulson]
After the failure of his last super secret mission and the loss of the 084 item Coulson was sure he was being punished by being put on the Stark case, the man was a nightmare to deal with. Already the meeting arranged for a debrief of his escape had been delayed.
Or even saying that was a bit too much, since he just showed up and waited for hours in a room, alone and clearly forgotten! There was clearly no one who was able to deal with Stark. He was a constant pain in the ass.
Even more so since he was also meant to protect him, something that wasn't easy when he ran off to one of the biggest no-go zones in the world. The only current known place where the mysterious bulwark operated from.
Really, that man is hanging out with criminals and whatnot. Making the task of watching over him nearly impossible, even more so with that stupid stealth jet of his that meant they couldn't track him at all.
And if that wasn't enough, he had gone and gotten himself attacked yet again! Something which should have been all but impossible since he was currently under SHIELD watch, though Coulson was indeed unable to get in contact with the agents who were working the night shift.
So it was while cursing Stark, his boss, every god he knew of and the world itself for being out to get him that he arrived at Stark's house.
"I'm here to question Stark." He told the police, standing guard, and flashed his badge as he pushed past them and into the house. All around him, he could see the signs of the break in. doors broken down, and the fact that the lights didn't seem to work.
Still, it was easy enough to find Stark since there were lights sat up in the room he and his assistant were currently inside; though they weren't alone, inside was a man Coulson would never forget.
"Jonathan Graves." He couldn't help but say the words out loud, drawing attention from anyone onto him.
"Ah, Agent Coulson, good to see you again; I was just about to finish up my interview here." He replied with a smile. And Coulson saw the SHIELD badge on his chest.
"I was wondering why it wasn't you, Agent Coulson, who came to ask Tony, but I guess you were clearly too busy with something else." Pepper Pots said. She clearly sounded angry, though it was likely from worry.
Coulson reached for his weapon but paused as he felt someone come up behind him. There stood two of the police officers from before, weapons in hand. "Any problems here, Agent Graves?"
Coulson instantly knew that these people were also with Bulwark. He was clearly outnumbered and outgunned. So he slowly moved his hand away from his own weapon.
Tony, who watched all this happen, grew concerned. "What's going on here?"
"Nothing to worry about, just Coulson here being a bit, nervous it all." Graves said with a light smile.
The atmosphere was tense. Tony and Pepper knew that something was wrong but weren't sure what it was; after all, Graves and Coulson were both from SHIELD.
"Well, I do believe I got what I came here for, Mr Stark. We at Shield." He said, putting heavy pressure on the word Shield while looking at Coulson. "Will do our best to ensure that the stolen item is secured."
As he filed out of the room, and the police officers followed him out as well, the tension finally disappeared.
"Have you met Graves before?" Coulson quickly asked.
To this question, Tony only nodded his head. "Yeah, he came by to collect some robot that had run off from a SHIELD lab, though he lied to me about some names back then."
Countless thoughts went through his mind as he heard Tony say that he knew very well what Graves represented and that if he showed up to collect something, it would be a 048.
"Graves Isn't with SHIELD, so I will need you to explain everything both about that time, and this attack and what he asked about." HE quickly demanded.
Tony sighed and sat down while Pepper looked nervous at the news. Tony, who just wanted to get down and work on his suit, soon found himself once more explaining everything.
"Thank you for your time Mr Stark," Coulson said once everything had been told to him, including the incident with the so-called Doom Bot. something he would have to report of Fury as soon as possible.
"Now it's your turn. Who is Graves?" Tony said, wanting to know what game he had become a player in.
Coulson took a deep breath, knowing he had to tread carefully with his next words. "Graves is part of a covert organization known as the Bulwark. Their purpose is to contain and secure anomalous objects, things that defy our understanding of reality. They're similar to SHIELD in some ways but operate in much darker and secretive corners."
Tony frowned, processing the information. "So, these guys are like the cleanup crew for weird stuff?"
"In a sense, yes," Coulson replied. "But their methods and motives can be... questionable. And they're not the only ones. There's another group called the Chaos Insurgency, who are the polar opposite—they want to use these anomalies for their own gain, regardless of the consequences."
Pepper's eyes widened. "So, that's who attacked us?"
"Most likely," Coulson said. "The Chaos Insurgency could have been after your technology to weaponize it or use it to destabilize the Bulwark's operations."
Tony shook his head. "This is insane. I can't believe this is happening."
"It's the world we live in," Coulson said grimly. "How much damage do you think this AI could cause if released into the world and used for evil?"
At this question, Tony's expression turned grim. "If it can truly learn without limit, it will be the end of humanity in the end. Unless it's stopped quickly enough." He explained his thoughts on the matter, and everyone felt the pressure of his words.
"Alright, thank you for your time Mr Stark, but as I'm sure you can understand, I need to go and report this. In the meantime, we will have some agents stationed to look after you."
Coulson made his way out of Stark's mansion, dialing Fury as soon as he was in his car. "Director, it's worse than we thought. Graves was here, so Bulwark is paying attention to this, so it's likely the Chaos Insurgency who stole this AI. And Stark's convinced this AI could pose an existential threat if it falls into the wrong hands."
Fury's voice was as grave as Coulson had ever heard it. "Understood. We can't afford to let this escalate further. You need to find out where they've taken the AI and neutralize the threat. I'll have a rapid response team on standby. And Coulson, keep me updated every step of the way."
"Will do, sir," Coulson replied, ending the call.
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Far away from Coulson's stressful day, another high-ranking SHIELD agent was having a very different type of day. Malinda May who had the call sign of "The Cavalry" a name she truly hated.
Only three people knew the whole truth about how she had gotten that name; others used it gladly and expected her to be proud of it. However, it had scared her for life and made her request a desk job, of all things.
These mad times, with the talk of enhanced children running wild. It brought her back, back to that day and that mission.
Many thought that she had single-handedly taken out all those terrorists and had just failed to save the poor girl. But that wasn't the truth; sure, she had taken down many of the so-called terrorists.
Only to learn the dark truth later. They weren't the enemy; the girl they had captured, the one she tried to save. She had been the true enemy all along.
She was enhanced; she possessed the ability to control others, all those people; they were but puppets dancing at the whim of a little girl.
In the end, she had to kill her, with her own hand. The entire mission had been nothing but a massive failure and loss of innocent lives. Something Fury had buried deep, allowing everyone to think that she was some kind of hero.
And now it seemed like there were more of those children around, those with powers, those who didn't know good from bad and caused nothing but harm. She didn't know what to do, but when she heard a rumor of one of those, she decided to investigate independently.
She had ensured that no one knew about what she was doing, that she could face her demons on her own… though the closer she got, the more nervous she became. Would this be the same as back then? Would she have to kill this child?
As she stopped the car and looked out at the building before her, she couldn't help but sigh. She wasn't much of a believer, never had been. Still, she couldn't help but feel strange about finding a child with possible supernatural powers in a catholic nunnery of all places.
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