Chapter 29: Undercover Operation

Ending the connection with the three field agents, Nick Fury turned around and sat on his desk. In front of him sat two agents, two familiar faces that many people would see as Scarlett Johanssen and Jeremy Renner.

Unfortunately both of these people did not exist in this world, instead, the two people who sat before Fury were the agents Hawkeye and Black Widow.

"Seems like more problems are coming up, don't you want me to go deal with Stark instead of Giovanni?"

Black Widow, also known as Natasha Romanoff said calmly as she sat on her seat with a lax posture.

"Coulson's on the job, also, we have reason to suspect that Giotto Giovanni is somewhat related to various interesting things that eluded us for quite some time-"

Fury said as he placed a file on his table, a big red stamp that read, "Level 10" was on it making the two SHIELD agents pause.

They looked around and saw that Fury's office was already blacked out.

"Level 10? Who is this guy?"

Natasha said as she picked up the file and started to read with keen interest. Hawkeye, also known as Clint Barton, was more relaxed as he turned to Fury waiting for an explanation.

"As you may have recalled, less than two months ago, an interesting video and images spread on the internet about a young man in a black suit flying around New York. But for some reason, at one point some agents found that the images circulating on the internet and even their own documents were compromised…"

Nick Fury paused his words and Natasha took this opportunity to sneak in her comment-

"A data breach? So we're up against a fire wielding mutant who is also a hacker?"

Hearing her words, the first to respond was Barton who added.

"When you said images you mean the photos and videos had been edited or something right?"

Fury did not say anything, instead, Natasha spread out photos from the file on the table.

All of the photos were the same, it pictured a man whose hands were covered in flames. He wore a classic pinstripe suit with a pure black coat and some trinkets were hanging on this coat of his.

What was interesting though was the fact that in all the photos the man's facial features, his hair and eye color and even the facial hair on his face were verified greatly.

"Yeah, doesn't look like photoshop to me"

Barton said after looking over the photo's for a moment. 

"Unfortunately, they all went through various checks and even our top experts could not find any sign of tampering. This changed overnight, the computers did not show any problems indicating that nothing was wrong but all the agents assigned on the task of gathering information on this man had the same description on the appearance they recalled from their memories."

Fury explained to the two agents who both had a look of understanding flash in their eyes.

"So their descriptions match Giotto Giovanni?"

Natasha remarked as she held a photo of Giotto wearing more modern clothes. One of the few photos of him when he was out showing the world that he existed.

Fury's words made Barton think but he was still skeptical as he said.

"Still, all we have are statements from our agents, what level are they? Who trained them? If we make a mistake here we will be targeting an innocent man who is currently the center of attention. Not as big as Stark but he is going to be a household name in a few months."

Barton's words held some weight, in fact, his reasoning was also the reason Fury did not take action when Celestial Being suddenly rose to prominence. Their sudden rise and the lack of intervention from their competitors such as Roxxon Corp. and the politicians who are backed by oil giants made Fury feel something off about Celestial Enterprises.

He wanted to investigate it deeply but all the agents he sent to try and infiltrate were unable to get through. 

In fact, Giotto was the center of Fury's suspicion, but without any proper reason, and also, a lack of knowledge on the man, made it near impossible for Fury to make any moves that would not compromise SHIELD.

But that was before, when he did not have any just cause to send his greatest manpower to infiltrate Celestial Being.

He can't really delegate his greatest agents to a task that could turn out as a failure. Especially during this time when Tony Stark was obviously up to something crazy. SHIELD did not know about Tony's upgrades to his armor but they did see his very first armor.

The video of Tony escaping from his captors was caught on satellite footage and Fury believed Tony was working on this new toy of his.

Fury knew that Tony was not a man who would wallow in depression and PTSD after all that he experienced. Instead, he believed Tony was the type to use his PTSD and other negative feelings to fuel as fuel for his motivation.

He could not confirm this but he believes that Tony would create an interesting new toy when he appears again.

But Tony's matter, as huge as it was paled in comparison to Giotto.

A little bit over a week ago, another suit was captured by SHIELD's satellites-

"The reason why Giotto Giovanni is important and also why this file is level 10 is because of this-"

Fury then showed the two agents videos and images from the flashdrive that came with the file.

The video showed the first flight of Giotto using his mini Exia, although SHIELD did not know this so they simply labeled it as "Unidentified Humanoid Flying Object" or UHFO for short.

There were various images of green particles, then notes on radio interference and the loss of monitoring drones that tried to get near the UHFO.

The analysis of the recovered drones showed that instead of mechanical, all drones simply-

"Fell from the sky?"

Barton said as he read the information to which Fury explained-

"It was confirmed that the drones system suffered from electromagnetic interference causing its internal systems to go haywire, its GPS lost connection and its onboard autopilot was unable to fly the plane after all its sensors short circuited."

Barton remained silent while Natasha asked after listening to Fury's explanation.

"So the green particles are believed to be the cause of the interference? Well, I could see why they believe that, the video does cut out when the drones got near the area where the green particles were slowly falling… but- 

Based on the reports of the various warships that responded, the particles were not solid and were almost illusory and aside from a failure in communication devices and radar, their systems seem to have been fine.

Also, will someone be stupid enough to make their interference systems be visible? Well, given the fact that the green particles were not solid then why would they make it have such an effect that makes it easily visible?"

Natashs had various questions about the information and conclusions. But when she thought about it, she felt that the conclusions drawn were quite… far fetched.

"Agent Romanoff, we're not dealing with a spy but a probably scientist hiding his technology"

Fury responded to which Natasha replied with still filled with skepticism.

"And a scientist would have a profile that looks like that a spy would? A scientist would work behind the scenes and never appear? A scientist would cover his tracks so much that we barely found anything about him?"

Hearing the words of Natasha, Fury paused as he also had the same thoughts before but now, things have changed.

"Of course that's not all, take a look at this-"

Fury then showed them two different videos, one was a recently captured video from their observation satellites.

In the video, the water near Tony Stark's Malibu mansion started to shift, it was like something invisible was rising from the ocean. 

Natasha and Barton were about to say something when their words got stuck in their throats as an unbelievable scene played out before their eyes.

Water fell of an invisible "something" and when all the water was gone, what was once invisible suddenly turned visible.

What appeared in the video was what could only be described as a floating container, it was wider and looked to be more like a container for some huge vehicle than the containers used in transporting common goods.

Though that was not what shocked the two agents, instead it was the fact that the floating container did not have any visible engines or propellers. But it was able to fly and land smoothly on Tony Stark's helipad better than any modern helicopter.

"There's not sign that it was using hidden propellers or jet engines"

With her sharp eyes, Natasha noticed that the grass near the helipad did not sway like it would when an aircraft would land near it. 

Even the F-35, a VTOL fighter jet, still used its jet engine for propulsion to lift off the ground and hover.

But the weird container vehicle did not seem to use any sort of propulsion device. Something that both Fury and Barton also noticed.

Though that was not the biggest shock as what happened next made them understand why Fury placed so much importance on Giotto Giovanni.

"Emma Frost"

Natasha whispered as she watched the person known as the "White Queen" appear from the mysterious vehicle.

Her moniker was given to her by the many admirers she had. From men who admired her beauty to the women who respected her ability.

She would always appear in public wearing all white. Her fashion sense was impeccable but she had a bias towards the color white which matched perfectly with her platinum blonde hair. It also greatly accentuated her blue eyes which always held a certain "queenly" gaze.

But all this was unimportant right now as both Natasha and Barton were more focused on the fact that they were watching this prominent woman meet with Tony Stark using an aircraft that was obviously using technology far above the current level of earth.

"The mysterious man that appeared out of nowhere, Celestial Enterprises sudden rise and the mysterious Billionaire Giotto Giovanni. If we tie this up with the fact that his company's CEO is using such tech, then it's not hard to tie in Celestial Enterprises to the UHFM"

Hearing the words of Fury, Natasha quickly understood what he meant as she asked.

"You believe Giovanni's the man behind the suit?"

But to her word s Fury simply smiled as he added-

"Not only the suit-"

Fury then showed them various documents, these all detailed mysterious transactions that occurred in New York City before Celestial Enterprises rose to prominence.

Black market deals on construction materials and other electronics.

Mysterious vehicles that picked up said purchases quickly vanished into thin air.

The rise of Miles Morales and even the unexplained explosion that lead to the death of Kingpin… many mysterious and unknown events that had been occurring in New York City, all of which were treated as unimportant, when all of these were tied together-

When all things were considered, it just fit in so perfectly that many would scrunch their eyes thinking, "How did we not see this before?!".

But even then a huge question would pop up making all these connections and conclusions mute-

"It's like we got to the bottom of Celestial Enterprises, of Giotto Giovanni's true identity… but the question is-" - Barton

"How did he do it in such a short time?" - Natasha

Barton and Natasha each gave their opinions, as great as the idea was, there still remains one glaring issue. 

This was the question on how one man could make all this happen?

When did he actually start this plan of his?

Why did he suddenly appear like that in New York?

If he was doing this for a long time why pick people like Emma Frost and her associates?

Why did he only start now?

Why make such a big scene when he remained hidden for so long? And-

"How did he make the world turn a blind eye?"

Fury said as he gave the two agents before him a brazen look.

"..."

"..."

Both Natasha and Clint were silent, they exchanged glances and their eyes did not lit up with any positive feelings. Instead a tired look appeared in their eyes.

At first, they thought this mission was pointless, but now they found out that it was a LOT more dangerous and difficult than getting into contact with Tony Stark.

But as Barton was lamenting his fate, Natasha suddenly smiled as she turned to Fury saying-

"I think dealing with Stark would be easier for me, how about Coulson and I switch missions? I'll deal with Stark and he deals with Giovanni instead?"

Though her proposition was quickly met with refusal and she knew she can't really do anything as she heard Fury's reply.

"Coulson was already blacklisted by Emma Frost, also this Emma Frost is more trusting of women than men"

This time, Barton was the one to propose something saying-

"Then wouldn't my participation be problematic? How about-"

Though his words were shot down even before he could give his own proposition as Fury said-

"This is not an easy job, unlike Tony Stark who's both prideful and filled with openings, Celestial Enterprises and Emma Frost are really good at keeping things tight. Using subtle actions would not succeed, why do you think I had you two take this mission together?"

When the two agents heard Fury's words they quickly understood what kind of mission they were given.

In the end, the two agents could only sigh as they left Nick Fury's office after Fury cleaned up all the documents.

When both Black Widow and Hawkeye left the room, Fury sighed as he turned towards the windows.

Gazing at the scene before him, Fury thought about all the things that were occurring all over the world as he whispered under his breath-

"Why did these motherfuckers have to show up at the same time?"

Fury rubbed his forehead as he agonized over this whole matter. In fact he felt that something was really wrong with this. After all, he did not share it with Natasha and Barton, but another key point about this matter was that the information on Celestial Enterprises came out of the blue.

The sudden information they learned about Celestial Enterprises. These were not given to them but instead, it was like the veil that clouded their eyes was suddenly taken off. 

He would have shared it to his two most trusted agents but he did not want whoever was behind this matter to find out that he saw through the inconsistencies.

"Whoever the fucker manipulating things is, they better not let me catch them! I swear, I'll make them understand what it true torture feels like…"