Chapter 53:
"Ok, so what are you doing here, Fury? Not that it's not nice to see you, but you could have sent Natasha instead," I said with a hint of longing. It had been a while since I'd seen the other woman. I missed her. I wasn't exactly sure what the status of our relationship was after the night we spent together in the hotel, but I hoped it was more than just casual 'acquaintances.'
"Agent Romanoff is busy on another mission for the time being. Something too important to miss out on. You'll have to get reacquainted with each other later," Fury said as he smirked. "I've come to you for another matter. This isn't a mission, obviously. As you pointed out to Coulson earlier, you do not work for SHIELD… even if I wish you did…"
"You do?" I asked with some surprise. I was under the impression he didn't like me very much.
Fury nodded. "Of course, I do! Yes, your methods might tend to be on the extreme side, what with always leaving bodies behind… but damned if you don't get shit done! SHIELD could really use more of that." Fury lamented.
Well, now he was just trying to butter me up to accept his request. I can't say it wasn't working. I was a gamer, and this sounded like the start of my newest quest after all! I suppose it couldn't hurt to hear the man out. "Alright, hit me. What's going on?" I asked.
"There have been some odd weather patterns occurring over New Mexico," Fury explained. "Really odd."
"Odd how?" I asked.
"The weather keeps changing from desert sunny to rainforest stormy within very short periods of time. It's definitely supernatural or something. We actually know of a woman who can do that – a mutant who goes by Storm, but it's not her. We checked. No, this is something different. On top of that, there has been some more gruesome news that came out of the same region." Fury said as he grimaced. He pulled out an envelope and plopped it in front of me. Inside were a series of photographs. They were pictures of what looked like very gruesome crime scenes. This was something I had seen before – on the other Earth.
"These people all look like they've been ripped apart…" I said as I looked at the grisly pictures. And it wasn't just that. They looked like they had been–
"These people were eaten," Fury said plainly. "The autopsies revealed giant teeth marks on ALL of the corpses. Some kind of monster has been hunting people in New Mexico and devouring them. This looks to be an exact match to the so-called stray devils you explained to us before." He said.
A stray devil! Here already? Was that possible? Was the barrier between worlds already weakening to the point that such a creature was able to slip through? I didn't think such a thing could have occurred that quickly though. "Is this a one-off occurrence or…"
"No, it's only happening in New Mexico, thankfully," Fury said. "You told us about stray devils earlier, and this definitely sounded like one. We've been on the lookout, but thankfully our systems haven't gotten any reports of such gruesome unexplained killings anywhere else in the world." At least that was some relieving news. To be honest, with the two world halves returning together, I was expecting some instances like this to occur at some point. Hopefully, there wouldn't be too many stray devils popping up though. These abominations are always ravenous. They can devour multiple people a day and still never be fully sated. Ajuka really was an evil piece of shit for creating such a fail safe for any 'servants' that rebelled.
[Quest Started! Dimensional Breach→ A stray devil has entered this half of the world. Find out the beast's origins before slaying it!]
[Reward: Level up! ???]
I guessed I was heading to New Mexico then. The location and the weird shifts in weather made me think that Thor was occurring. I vaguely remembered it took place around the same time as Iron Man 2. The 'plot' of that had been wrapped up much earlier with my involvement, and Iron Man 3 was also now never going to happen, so I would have those events to rely on as a calendar in the future. Speaking of Iron Man 3…
"How's Killian doing, by the way? It's been a while since I handed him and the Winter Soldier over to you guys. Have you gotten anything out of them?" I asked Fury.
"Killian started singing like a canary only a few days into his capture. Unfortunately, his Extremis formula might be a tad bit more complicated than we had anticipated. Mass production, even at a lower formula power output, will not be possible," Fury explained with a sigh. That sounded like we hit another roadblock.
"Why is that?"
"Because one of the core ingredients of Extremis is Phoenix blood." He said.
"What!?" I exclaimed. "Phoenix blood? How would a non-magical company even acquire that!?"
Fury shook his head. "That's because they had a genuine Phoenix locked up in some kind of Faraday cage underneath AIM's headquarters. Somehow they had developed a containment system that prevented the bird's unique teleportation ability from allowing it to escape." He elaborated.
Oh… That didn't sound good. We were in the Marvel universe, and one of the strongest beings here was the Phoenix Force. Torturing an actual Phoenix – which could be a descendant/avatar of the cosmic firebird – was not a good idea. I supposed I'd just have to hope nothing comes of that and focus on my current quest.
[Yeah, I'm sure nothing will come of that. Everything will be absolutely fine.]
'Was that sarcasm, System?'
[Obviously…]
"Alright then, it sucks about Extremis not working out for mass production, but Oscorp is currently working on its own serum. It just has some side effects…" I said.
Fury scoffed. "Some side effects? Oh please. SHIELD commissioned Oscorp to recreate the formula in the first place. The current serum they put out not only wears off very quickly, but it permanently makes whoever takes it develop a psychotic split personality. It's so bad that even the secret Hydra section of SHIELD wanted nothing to do with that serum. Forgive me if I don't put my faith in Oscorp." He explained. He didn't seem to have any faith in my newly acquired company. It seemed Oscorp didn't have the best reputation.
I pouted. "Well, the company is under new management now, so you know. I'm planning on changing the name and completely revamping all departments." I explained.
"While you're at it, you should fire Osborn's crackpot team of scientists," Fury suggested. "I heard one guy is actually trying to create a miniature sun. Why the fuck!? Does he want to burn down half the country!?"
Yeah, I'd probably have to do some in-house cleaning of my new company once I got back from New Mexico. Creating miniature suns in the middle of a populated city is a big no-no.
XXX
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