TGS - #55

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Triskelion

–Jack Sullivan–

He stood on the edge of the meeting room they were in, Fury hobbling to come stand by his side as the file transfer continued to happen in the background. The new council members hovered nearby but they were still obviously very new to the whole gig and were unsure as to what to do.

Thankfully, Romanoff gestured for them to go out, where a hoard of loyal SHIELD agents were waiting for them. No doubt, the events that conspired here today would be leaked to every single listening ear in the span of 24 hours, declaring to the world, the fall of SHIELD, as well as his supposed return to life.

Well, he could use some of that influence he had gathered in his so-called death. That would certainly be useful in making sure that the hundreds of billions of dollars that had been invested in the Carriers are actually useful and don't end up as ruins to be scrapped or gutted.

It would be such a shame to dispose of such high quality carriers.

"So, what now?"

He looked to the side as Fury leaned on his cane, looking straight up at the green barrier that was still lit up with the constant barrage of missiles and bullets that were peppering it. He then glanced back to see Romanoff looking at him with the same question in his eyes, the Council members fading in the background.

"Well, now? Now, we need to do some damage control. I assume Coulson is safe and sound?" 

Fury blinked at the sudden change of topic but nodded cautiously nonetheless, "Yes. He was quite shocked by Garett being HYDRA, more so when one of his team members turned out to be HYDRA as well but both of them were dealt with, and they were enroute to the nearest safe SHIELD base to report,"

"Tell them to turn around."

"..."

"I am sorry, what?"

"Look above, Fury. SHIELD is not over, not by a long shot. No, this is but a setback. SHIELD had gotten too big for its britches. It is time to return to its roots. Most of SHIELD's assets will no doubt be absorbed by the US government but I assume you were able to get out all the truly dangerous stuff, like the blue fellow from outer space,"

He could feel Fury stiffen beside him, at the mention of the Kree corpse they had in storage, pumping it for its blood to create drugs capable of short-term revival. Before Fury could get the litany of questions through, he continued.

"Make sure all of that is safe. If not, tell me and I'll make appropriate arrangements. Now, about Coulson. I want him to take some trusted people, people who can be trusted with the new mission that SHIELD will have, and then go underground. Once everything settles down, I'll make sure that the new and hopefully improved SHIELD has enough resources and breathing room to begin rebuilding everything,"

"...Leaving everything else off the table for now, why should I trust you with this? You know more than you let on and I, for one, am still not sure if you should be trusted with all the power you are about to get your hands on," Fury said with frustration visible in his voice.

He grinned and finally looked down at Fury, the various explosions in the backdrop illuminating the entire room with HYDRA apparently getting some of the higher energy weapons on the Carriers active, "Well, Fury, what other choice do you have?"

His smirk must have looked even more menacing in the backdrop of the bright light. Fury maintained eye contact for a few more seconds before he deflated into himself, "....Fine. I assume you will be the one making contact with Coulson?"

"Yes. do be sure to give him the Toolbox, will you?" He asked Fury in turn, taking great pleasure in giving back to back shocks to the information master of the planet.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Nazis to kill," He gestured to the front, where a portal slowly manifested, revealing the inside of a hangar, from the looks of it. It was a portal straight into the moving plane that Coulson was on.

Fury apparently recognised the ship, or more accurately, the Bus, and after giving him a hard look, hobbled into the portal.

"I'll be seeing you around, Fury," He couldn't help but give one last parting statement as Fury didn't even turn around, walking further into the ship.

"Not that that's done, what will you do now, Agent Romanoff? I am sure that all that running around in the past two years hasn't done you any favours," He said even as he had to expand the barrier cover as the Carriers had begun targeting the surrounding areas as well, with one particularly stupid media helicopter veering dangerously close to the barrier walls, to give their viewers a much better view of the whole thing.

"Me? Ah, this whole thing started because I thought you died, by my hands, no less. Now that you are alive, I don't really feel the urge to deliver justice that intensely anymore. Plus, technically, I am done with my revenge, with Pierce being the only one who was left from the original WSC," ROmanoff said as she gestured to the now very much dead Pierce with her gun, the same gun with which she killed him.

"So, retirement, then?" He found himself asking her, his barriers informing him that Rogers and Barton were on their way to the top floor, with most of the members surrendering and disarming themselves voluntarily after realising that the Green Guardian was on site. Nobody had any complaints later on, once they realised the person who sheared space whales in half was standing in the same building as them.

"...You know that people like me don't get to enjoy retirement. At most, It'll be a short break before I'm back in some crisis and honestly, I wouldn't have any other way. Now, somewhere tropical, please?" Romanoff kissed him on the cheek as he obliged her request and opened a portal straight to the Dominican Republic, the beaches clearly in sight.

"See you around…Natasha,"

She just gave him a smile and turned around, soon disappearing from the view.

….

"Ah, I was hoping to catch her," Clint muttered even though he didn't sound so upset about the whole thing. Clearly, he was still a little conflicted about Romanoff and her actions in the past two years.

"Tell Jarvis to call it off," Rogers all but pleaded with him to stop Jarvis from becoming a mass murderer. He shook his head in negative.

"But! There could be innocents onboard!" Rogers said, his shield glinting in the light reflected by yet another volley of missiles. At this point, the carriers were so far away from the Triskelion that only missiles could reach them.

Instead of replying to Captain's questions, "Jarvis?"

"According to extensive cataloguing done in the last two years, there are exactly zero "innocents" on board the carriers, with more than 99% of them having pledged their loyalty to HYDRA through one means or the other," Jarvis' voice echoed out of the ceiling.

"See, there's your answer," He said as a small barrier converged around the entire room, enveloping the three people present in the barrier and then floating all of them towards the media people stupid enough to venture so deep into a place that was literally being lit up with missiles like they were cheap fireworks.

"Wasn't this a federally restricted no fly zone?" He questioned Clint who leaned on the barrier wall.

"Still should be," Clint replied as they closed in on the media copter who had apparently taken notice of them and was in the process of turning around. With a flex of his will, his barriers began enveloping the media copter, slowly getting it to a complete halt. For good measure, he made sure to remove all the bolts keeping the rotors attached to the body of the helicopter.

The reporter began shrieking as the helicopter abruptly came to a stop with the helicopter systems no doubt throwing all kinds of warnings. The shrieking stopped the moment all three of them came into the media crew's field of vision.

No doubt seeing Captain America and Hawkeye was a novel experience, but getting to see the Green Guardian, fresh out of death, must have shocked the reporter out of her shock to immediately smoothen out the creases in her dress as she expectantly looked at their group. 

He shook his head internally at the lengths these people would go, to just for the latest scoop.

"Hi, guys! I am Jack Sullivan, Green Guardian, as you might already know. Yes, I am not dead. Yes, this is me, and not some vampiric resurrection that might suck your blood. No, Satan was not involved. The situation unfolding right now is kind of a government secret. I will be making a bigger statement once the situation is resolved. Thank you for tuning in!"

He then waved his hand, propelling the copter to land in the empty hangar in front of the Triskelion, and them into the direction of the carriers, by going through a hole in the shield that had formed over the Triskelion. The hole closed up behind them even though no more missiles had been launched.

"Jarvis?"

"Satellite link up at 62%. ETA to completion - 20 minutes," Jarvis' voice came into his comms as they slowly gained on the carriers.

"Why are we going after them? Are you saving them?" Rogers' question came to the front of his mind and he found himself asking the same question once again. He had no wish to see once more the massive loss of life that was about to happen in front of him.

He could have chosen to remain on Earth, and when the time came, simply pushed Jarvis under the bus. After all, Jarvis was a digital entity who could not be found by his very creator even after searching for two years, what hope did he have in convincing Jarvis to stop his actions? Clearly, the cold logic of the AI was sound. 

He had no hopes in the flawed Justice System of the planet in successfully convicting and more importantly, appropriately punishing all the criminals. He knew that most of these criminals would simply escape from the prisons, or serve very short sentences and find themselves with their freedom intact, despite the litany of crimes they had committed.

So, yeah, his mind knew that the way Jarvis was doing it was the easiest way to do it. NO muss no fuss. Everybody connected to HYDRA goes, nobody survives who could rebuild it once again.

…And yet, why was he heading straight to the Carriers? To witness the no doubt horrific sight that was about to assault his eyes? 

Why would he subject himself to that, especially after seeing the massive loss of life after he destroyed an entire mercenary group, with members surpassing 10000 living sentient beings?

His fists clenched as green, blue, and yellow flickered around his form, his powers reflecting his destabilising mind. His mind could not reconcile the cold logic that this was the easiest, fastest way to do things. With Thanos on the horizon, he could not afford to have distractions on his home turf.

A clean house would only ensure the smooth operations that would no doubt be needed to prepare for Thanos' inevitable arrival. With the Reality Stone's location unknown, he would have to tread even more carefully than before, and yet?

His mind came to those same words.

Fastest. Easiest.

For some reason, memories long thought lost assaulted his mind. Memories of a simpler time, memories of a time when he didn't have to think of every little action of his. It was easy too, considering that he only had to worry about himself, since that was the extent of his sphere of influence.

Amidst those precious memories, a few words came to the forefront. Words he had read in some online blog somewhere, in a bid to pass the time.

"There is an easy way and a right way to do most everything, but the easy way is almost never going to be the right way."

"Damn it, Rogers!" He cursed the Captain before the yellow glow that had been surrounding his body travelled along his arm before culminating in a small yellow glowing ball in front of his outstretched right hand.

"Wh-What's happening?" He heard Clint curse as the barrier they were in began shuddering, its integrity losing as he focused his mind on something else.

"Mr.Sullivan, may I ask what is it that you are trying to accomplish here?" he heard Jarvis speak into his comms in a wary and tense tone.

He grinned at the question, relieved that Jarvis was still capable of feeling emotions.

"Me? I am doing the right thing, and not the easy thing, Jarvis. Stop the carrier ascent right this instant. All these criminals have a right to a speedy trial by justice."

"--Confusing. It seemed that we had an agreement that all these criminals, once judged by the faulty human system, would undoubtedly—"

"I know what we discussed Jarvis. No, they will not be judged by the specific laws of a specific country. They will be judged by the people. I will make sure of that," He said, even as his hand began trembling due to the sheer energy that he was concentrating in his right arm.

All that leftover energy from the energy storm had been absorbed by his barriers, hidden away, inaccessible until this very moment.

"....Unfortunately, Mr.Sullivan, I don't share your views and as such, all these people must die," Jarvis' cold voice rang with finality as the connection cut off.

"Damn, I was hoping to avoid this," He muttered to himself even as he aimed at the yellow ball of Mind Stone Energy and then aimed it at his left hand which held the matrix of a seemingly simple spell.

It was a mind communication spell. It was simply a way of delivering a message from one mind to another, without the consent of the receiving mind. It was simple because there was no mind invading involved. The message was simply transferred through the Astral Realm, making sure that the message itself was language agnostic.

He was hoping to get his feelings on the matter across to Jarvis, using the mind stone energy and the basic spell he knew. He just hoped it would work and he had a hunch it would. He closed his eyes shut as he honed in on the horrifying feelings he felt when he snuffed out over 10000 lives in a single move. How depressing and heavy the weight of having that much power was. How he felt when he returned to the Collector's Collection. 

He wished to convey all of that through the very basic spell. If only the spell matrix was not being actively destabilised by being in the mere vicinity of the Mind Stone energy. He glanced to his left and saw Clint and Captain standing behind the signature shield, looking at his glowing form with varying levels of wariness, and hope in the case of the Captain.

His eyes shone as he looked at the Vibranium in front of him and after feeling the spell matrix break down once again, he simply willed the Shield in front of him, the Captain recognising the green tint in time and letting go.

The shield floated in front of him as he aimed the concave side of the barrier at the carriers that were about to reach the inky blackness of space.

Then, with a roar, he slammed both his hands into the back of the shield, both the energies melding together before a thin beam of yellow and orange light emerged from the front of the Shield, breaking through his barrier in an instant and reaching the carriers nearly instantly. 

Instead of punching through the carriers, it simply bounced off each carrier and then repeated the process until all he could see was a sea of yellow bouncing surrounding the carriers.

"...Wh..What is th…this?" The breaking voice of Jarvis could be heard over the comms.

"This is my message to you, Jarvis. These are my feelings on the matter. This is what a sentient human would feel when confronted by the fact that they were going to be responsible for snuffing out thousands of lives."

"...No..T..Too m..much….Bzzz…." Jarvis' voice continued to come in and out in patches as he must be feeling the effects of the spell, amplified as it was by the mind stone.

The effect was obvious as the repulsor thrusters began receding in the blue glow.

Still, that was only hurdle One of their goal.

He turned to the very confused Captain and Clint who were looking at the very red and smoking Vibranium Shield. It should not be doing that.

Ooops.

"Time to call in the reinforcements, Captain. I'll go in and cast a sleep spell on all of them but even with me sustaining an artificial barrier around the carriers to make sure that all of them can still breathe, we will need someone to take control of the Carriers as well as the Satellites and safely bring it back down."

"Call Stark," He summarised his previous statement.

"...."

"...."

"Dude, how are we supposed to get cell service here?" Clint asked him incredulously.

Oh.

Word Count - 2972.

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I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

A/N - I have a feeling this chapter will have a very polarising reception. Still, this is what my brain vomited and that is what you guys are here for.

So, here you go…..