Chapter 29: Fury's Death

(Fury's Office)

"Secure office." Fury said to the computer as he took out Natasha's drive from the Lemurian Star.

The office started to secure itself by having some metal shutters fall on top of the windows and emitted a low-level EMP to verify there were no listening devices and then he pressed a button on his desk and some nanites formed into a laptop.

Fury then placed the drive into the laptop. "Open Lemurian Star's satellite launch file." Fury said to the S.H.I.E.L.D. computer.

{Access Denied}

"Run decryption." Fury said.

{Decryption failed}

"Director override Fury, Nicholas, J." Fury said to the S.H.I.E.L.D. computer.

{Override denied. All files sealed.}

"On who's authority?" Fury asked the S.H.I.E.L.D. computer.

{Fury, Nicholas J.}

Fury had a look of trepidation as he went towards the world security council office to talk with his friend Alexander Pierce. He asked him to delay Project Insight.

"That's not a favor, that's a sub-committee hearing. A long one." Pierce said as he heard Fury ask for the delay as a favor.

"It could be nothing, it probably is nothing. I just need time to make sure it's nothing." Fury said with clear distress.

"And if it's something?" Pierce asked.

"Then we'll both be damn glad those helicarriers aren't in the air." Fury replied.

Pierce agreed but asked for Fury to have Ironman at his niece's birthday party as a favor to him.

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(Fury's Office)

Fury had went back to his office and was waiting for Agent Grey. He had already told him to come later as something had come up and he just made it to his office by that time. Fury was sitting at his desk when he heard a knock at the door.

"Come in."

"Sir, Agent Grey reporting."

Fury merely nodded and looked around. "Secure office" Fury said while looking directly at Luke.

"Grey I've gotten some worrying information. The Intel Romanoff grabbed has been tampered with, but it's not on her end." Fury said mysteriously.

"What are your orders Director?" Luke said as he nodded.

"Lay low for now. Either myself or someone I appoint will contact you." Fury said.

"Understood, Director."

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(The VA)

Sam was leading some sort of veterans group therapy and Steve came by and caught the latter end of the meeting.

"The thing is, I think it's getting worse. A cop pulled me over last week. He thought I was drunk. I swerved to avoid a plastic bag. I thought it was an IED." a random veteran that was in the meeting said as she was sharing her experience with being back in the civilian population.

"Some stuff you leave there. Others you take back. It's up to us to decide how we're gonna carry it. Is it going to be in a big suitcase, or a in a little man purse. It's up to you." Sam said as he ended the meeting.

"Look who it is, the running man." Sam said jokingly as he walked over to a table.

"I caught the ending there. It was pretty intense." Steve said as he walked up to Sam at the table.

"Yeah man, We all got the same problems. Guilt, regret." Sam said with sadness edging into his voice.

"You lose someone?" Steve asked as he noticed Sam's tone.

"My wingman, Riley. We were flying a Night Mission. Standard PJ Rescue OP, nothing we hadn't done 1,000 times. Until an RPG knocked Riley's dumbass outta the sky. Nothing I could do. It was like I was up there just to watch." Sam said sadly.

"I'm sorry." Steve said.

"After that, I had a really tough time finding a reason to stay over there y'know." Sam sadly replied.

"But you're happy now, back in the world?" Steve said trying to cheer Sam up.

"Hey, the number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So hell yeah. You thinking about getting out?" Sam asked after making a joke.

"No...I don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I'd do with myself if I did."

"Ultimate Fighting? Y'know like your buddy Luke. Just a thought off the top of my head you know. Seriously though, you could do anything you want to do. What makes you happy?" Sam joked then asked.

"I don't know." Steve said after sighing heavily.

_____________________________________

(Fury in his car on the streets of DC)

{Activating Secure Communications Protocol} Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D. computer said.

"Open secure communications line 0405." Fury said to his car's S.H.I.E.L.D. computer.

{This is Hill} Agent Hill said over coms.

"I need you here in DC. Deep shadow conditions." Fury said to Hill.

{I'll be there in 4 hours}

"You have three. Over."

"Open secure line 0203" Fury said to the computer.

{Agent Grey.}

"Grey, where are you I need you to pick up a package."

{I'm at my apartment in the city Sir. Where do you need me?}

"Meet me at Dupont Circle."

{Be there in 5 minutes Sir.}

"See you in 5. Over."

Fury was stopped at a red light when a cop car pulled up next to him and the officers were giving him the stink eye.

"Want to see my lease?" Fury said sardonically.

The cop car started to drive off and Fury started to go across the intersection until he was side swiped by a different cop car and then the original cop car reversed into the front of his car and he was also rammed into his fender by another car.

{Fracture detected. Reccomend anesthetic injection.}

As Fury was grabbing the anesthetic injection, a SWAT team came out of a large van and started to aim at Fury's car.

{D.C. Metro Police Dispatch shows no units in this area}

Fury knew that meant that these weren't real cops and he was being targeted. Fury couldn't be more happy about the recent upgrades he got to his car.

"Authorize non-lethal action."

{Non-lethal Action Authorized. Activating Hardlight Holographic Generator}

Fury had asked both McCauley as well as Apex for upgrades to his car, Apex gave him the most combat oriented upgrades while McCauley's was more defensive oriented. The generator came online and hardlight holos that looked like S.H.I.E.L.D Agents appeared and began attacking the cops. Even though the cops shot the holos there were still 3 that replaced each destroyed one.

The cops were shooting the vehicle over and over and were straight up shooting through the Holos now and attempted to reach Fury inside the car but realized the windows were bullet proof and the metal the car was made of was a lot stronger than they expected and I only every 10 shots fired did damage.

"Activate Operation Shocker"

{Operation Shocker Activated}

A opening appeared in the roof of Fury's car. A small cube then came out and started to glow blue and spark with electricity. A shockwave then shot out from it and stunned all the enemies in the vicinity knocking them unconscious. Fury then pressed a button on the Dashboard and a gun came out of the hood of the car, controlled by a joystick with a red button on it that came out of the center console.

The gun went off and it seemed to be some sort of sonic technology that used a sonic wave to send the car in front of Fury flying and he then drove off trying to make it to Dupont Circle. He needed to make it to Agent Grey. He knew that he was more powerful than he let on. Fury knew that he at least had the ability to teleport, and had some form of telekinetic ability. Fury never asked about it, nor did he care as Agent Grey almost never used them. and almost always just used his wings and even that would be enough to extract Fury and get him to a safe house.

As Fury was driving he heard and saw more police heading after him and Fury was going to get caught in traffic. The police cars continuously rammed into Fury's car with minimal impact to the metal itself but the internals were taking a beating. Fury was using the joystick with the red button to aim and fire the sonic cannon at the police and keep the cars at bay.

Fury eventually got stuck with traffic and had to squeeze through two cars which slammed on their brakes and caused the cop cars to stop and the fake cops to get out and begin shooting at Fury's car. All the shots to the windows finally broke the glass and the driver side was windowless. As Fury was trying to navigate between the cars, he was in-between a bus and one of the cops who was shooting through the bus to get to Fury.

Fury had finally gotten ahead of the bus and saw the one cop aiming directly at him. Fury switched the car in reverse and slammed on the accelerator. The other cop was behind him shooting at the back of the car. Fury hit him with his car and then switched to drive and then slammed into a car that was near the first cop. The car near the cop smacked into him and sent the cop through a glass bus stop window and then Fury continued to drive away.

Cops continue to chase Fury and one has a MP5 in hand and was leaning out the passenger window of the cop car, shooting at Fury. Fury was using other vehicles to get in the way of the bullets until he had no other cars he could use to block the bullets and then veered into the cop car and grabbed the guy with the gun. They struggled back and forth and Fury managed to get the MP5 from the cop who just pulled out his sidearm and tried to shoot Fury.

Fury then heard the voice from his on-board computer.

{Warning Approaching Intersection}

Fury slammed on his brakes and the two cop cars went into the intersection. Both of the cars were hit by a truck. Fury turned off onto another road and shouted at the computer.

"GET ME OFF THE GRID!"

{Calculating route to secure location}

It was then that Fury saw someone through his damaged windshield. It was a man with long hair and mask over the bottom half of his face and goggles over his eyes and it seemed as though he had a metal hand. The man shot some kind of gun and a small device inplanted itself on the undercarriage of Fury's car and blew up and caused the car to flip end over end and the man simply sidestepped the crashing vehicle.

Fury saw the man slowly walking towards his downed vehicle and grabbed a device from a compartment that looked like a torch and got to work.

The man walked to the car, but when he got there, he saw a square hole was burned through not only the door of the vehicle but the ground itself and his target had escaped.

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(Steve's Apartment)

Steve had just had an awkward moment with his neighbor when he tried to kind of ask her out but it didn't turn out well. As Steve turned to unlock his door his neighbor let him know that he had left his radio on when he left.

Steve thanked her and put his ear towards the door and he immediately realized that something was wrong, he hadn't left the music on and he wouldn't have chosen that specific song.

Steve slowly made his way inside from the window by the fire escape and grabbed his shield on the way into the living room and when he entered his living room, he saw Fury sitting on one of his recliners.

"I don't remember giving you a key." Steve said sarcastically.

"Do you really think I'd need one. My wife kicked me out." Fury said back after he groaned slightly in pain.

"I didn't know you were married." Steve said.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me." Fury said back.

"I know Nick, that's the problem." Steve said as he turned on his light and saw how beaten and bloody Fury looked.

Fury put a finger to his lips and turned off the lamp next to him to make him hidden in the dark again. Steve looked concerned and then he saw Fury typing something on his phone before he showed it to Steve.

[EARS EVERYWHERE] the message said.

"I'm sorry to have to do this, but I had no place else to crash. I couldn't make it to my father's old apartment." Fury said making up things to stand for different codes.

Fury typed another message.

[SHIELD COMPROMISED COULDN'T REACH EXFIL.]

Steve's eyes widened in shock but he nodded. "Who else knows about your wife?" Steve asked refering to S.H.I.E.L.D being compromised.

Fury stood up and showed Steve another message. [YOU, ME AND GREY]

"Just my friends." Fury replied pretending he was having a normal conversation.

"Is that what we are?" Steve questioned seriously.

"That's up to you." Fury replied.

Just then the sound of 3 shots were heard and Fury dropped to the floor having been shot and Steve ran to him to check on him. Steve looked out the window and saw the shooter and then quickly dragged Fury out of the way.

Fury grabbed Steve's arm and then held out his hand. He was holding two drives one silver, the other black.

"Find Grey, he'll know what to do, and don't trust anyone." Fury said as he was gasping in pain.

Steve nodded and then he heard his neighbor at the door banging on it before she kicked the door open.

"Captain Rogers?!?"

Steve looked at his neighbor holding a gun and looking at her strangely after she broke his door down.

"Kate?" Steve asked confused.

"Captain, I'm Agent 13 with S.H.I.E.L.D Special Service. I've been assigned to protect you." Kate said as she walked towards Steve

"Assigned by who?!?" Steve asked

"By him." Kate said gesturing toward Fury.

Kate/Agent 13 bent down to check on Fury and then pulled out a radio.

"Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs." Kate said into the radio.

{Do we have a 20 on the shooter?} The agent asked over the radio.

Steve looked out the window and saw the shooter leaving and looked at Kate.

"Tell him I'm in pursuit." Steve said as he grabbed two gauntlets off his table and jumped through the window following after the shooter.

As Steve was chasing after the shooter, he put both gauntlets on and closed his fists all while putting his shield on his back. Starting from the left gauntlet, a nanite suit started to form over Steve's body and it was like his normal suit but all black with a silver S.H.I.E.L.D symbol across the front near his right pec with his Captain America symbol below it in the center of his chest and he had his helmet appear on his head with his classic A on it. The right gauntlet on the other hand, activated a hardlight Shield and made his hands glow blue for a second.

Cap followed the shooter from inside the building as he saw the shooter running on the top of the building. Cap followed after him slamming through door after door until he finally saw the window and the shooter land on the roof across from it. Cap took his shield off his back and slammed through the window and threw his shield at the shooter.

The shooter caught the metal shield with one hand, this shocked Cap but he then threw the Holoshield at the shooter which caught him off guard and smacked the shooter in the chest. Cap rushed forward just to have to catch his own metal shield thrown by the shooter. Cap caught the shield, but it caused him to slide back several feet until he stopped. Cap was then about to control his Holoshield to attack the shooter, but when he looked up, he didn't see him. Cap ran to the edge of the building and looked down. he didn't see the shooter anywhere and was confused as to how he just disappeared.

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(S.H.I.E.L.D Hospital)

Nat had just parked her car outside and rushed into the hospital and into a room where she saw Steve, Maria Hill, and Luke looking at Fury having surgery done on him.

"Is he gonna make it?" Nat asked.

"I don't know." Steve replied.

"What about the shooter?" Nat asked

"He was fast strong. He had a metal arm. Even in my combat suit I wasn't prepared for him."

Hill then walked up to the mirror.

"Ballistics?" Nat asked.

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable..." Hill started.

"Soviet made." Nat finished.

"Yeah." Hill said and looked at Nat.

Just then the doctors started freaking out as Fury was going into Cardiac Arrest. Nat was very worried.

"Don't do this to me Nick." Nat said quietly.

Fury was being defibrillated and Nat was repeating what she said to herself over and over as she saw Fury had no pulse. Luke walked over and put a hand on her shoulder.

"He's gone Nat. I'm sorry."

Nat continued to stare at Fury's body as she heard the doctors.

"Time of death 1:03 am."