TGS - #50

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Earth

–Jack Sullivan–

It had been over 24 hours since he had returned to Earth and already, he was involved in a shitshow, quite an exquisite one at that.

One of the perks he got after surviving that energy storm was his body being upgraded extensively. He could not even feel the need to sleep, at all, even after he spent 24 hours awake. Granted, he didn't have to use any of his powers at a higher intensity than normal and he could do something like this before as well, but back then, he could feel the need creeping on him, the need to sleep.

Right now? Nada, Zilch. He could choose to nod off if he wanted to, demonstrated by his sleeping on the ship when he came here but the necessity of sleep was apparently removed from his systems.

He was currently floating on top of a convoy that was making its way through the busy streets of Washington DC. The convoy currently held the captured form of Steve Rogers, Captain America. Fortunately, none of the agents had tried very hard to hurt Steve in any capacity, not that they could.

Steve, true to his name, had knocked out most of the agents that had come for him, only subduing them without any permanent injuries but once it had become clear that he was completely outmanned and outgunned, he surrendered voluntarily.

That was how it came to this, a convoy filled with agents armed to the grill, escorting Steve to some SHIELD, or more probably, HYDRA black site where Steve would probably be kept as just a resource of super soldier blood, to make more of him in the future.

Thankfully, Steve was going to be spared that grisly fate by yours truly. Not that Steve needed any saving., considering he could identify one of the people in that van, that probably didn't belong in that particular security detail.

What with her being at a much higher security level than normal level 4 grunt agents?

He watched through his barriers as Maria Hill, Robin Sparkles(?), in the flesh knocked out multiple agents before showing herself to Steve who looked relaxed after seeing that she was on his side.

Speaking of which, where was Romanoff in all this? Wasn't she supposed to be with Rogers when they were both captured and then rescued by Sparkled down below? He saw them leave the convoy, with Rogers' shield, as they made their way into the darkness.

He made to follow after them, presumably straight to FUry himself when his eyes narrowed as he looked up. 

Right above the forest area that Hill and Rogers were running into, his small barriers had run into something. Something that was invisible to his eyes. Thankfully, his barriers that were made for observation were very small and also not really directed by him actively. They just kind of floated around him as if they were plastic bottles in a sea, floating with the flow.

So, the impact of that particular barrier must not have registered to whatever object it had stuck, and it was definitely an object as more and more of his barriers began attaching themselves to the object.

His eyes narrowed as he made a split second decision once it was clear that the object was suspiciously shaped like a QuinJet and was heading straight down to where Rogers and Hill were running. 

A small barrier sprung forth from the ground as Rogers and Hill were covered in a green cube, which immediately slid itself into the ground, to prevent the glow from his barriers from alerting anyone who was nearby.

The moment he did that, however, the object revealed itself. He was right.

It was a Quinjet. It steadily hovered above the cube, and he slowly began floating near them, still clad in his stealth spell, invisible to all but some truly obscure electromagnetic wave spectrums.

He resisted the urge to summon a sea of green around the jet because that would be like holding a giant neon green sign over the forest. He narrowly avoided doing just that when the bottom of the Quinjet opened up and a person dropped through the hole.

His eyes widened in confusion as the small person somehow used repulsor tech, miniature ones installed in their hands and legs as they slowed down their descent and landed right atop the green barrier.

At this point, he was standing just a few feet from the people as he saw the headpiece recede back into her suit as Romanoff's face was revealed to Rogers and him. 

Before ROgers could say something, Romanoff frantically began looking around for something. The same for the jet as it had entered stealth mode as soon as Romanoff had been dropped and had begun zipping around the entire airspace in an increasingly reckless manner.

He wondered exactly what was going on but since he had already revealed his barrier, it was a moot point hiding himself at this point.

All the gazes in the room, along with the jet somehow becoming still mid air as soon as he revealed himself, zeroed in on him as he revealed his form, for the first time since the invasion Fiasco back in New York.

"Um, Hi?" He waved his hand and almost shifted into a combat stance on reflex as Romanoff immediately ran towards him. "Uh-" his words were stuck in his throat as Romanoff all but leaped on him, her frame wracked with sobs.

His face was a perfect representation of confusion as he waved his hand, removing the cube around Rogers, except the floor which then pushed them out of the hole the cube had dug into the ground. The Quinjet too began lowering itself right in front of them, in a small clearing. The only sign of the Quinjet, even now, were the small barriers attached to it and the small disturbances it made to the surrounding branches as it landed.

"Uh, can somebody explain what the hell is happening right now?"

What was up with that ridiculously advanced Quinjet along with the Repulsor tech that Romanoff was using? Did Stark start selling Repulsor tech now? 

He never did that, according to his memories, but his memories of his previous life were spotty at best and should not be relied upon completely anyway, just because of all the butterflies he must have made in the timeline by his actions.

_____xxx_____

Oh. Oooooh.

"So….a lot happened, huh?" Jack Sullivan, the Green Guardian said as he looked at the gathered people sitting on makeshift chairs, mostly crates, inside the Quinjet which was on its way to some base. Sparkles had refused to elaborate further but he knew that Fury was probably inside that safehouse for now.

"It would be safe to say so, Sir," Jarvis' voice chimed in through the ceiling as he was the one who was piloting the Quinjet.

Oh yeah, Jarvis was sentient now. No Vision crap with the Mind Stone and Thor's divine lightning required to make him sentient.

No, Jarvis had become sentient because of the same thing that had led his dying form to the other end of the galaxy.

The energy storm, being made up of energies from both the Space Stone and the Mind Stone. It had enveloped him but some of it had hit Jarvis in the suit he was piloting as well. Apparently, that was enough for him to gain sentience.

"So, you are on the run then?" He questioned Romanoff incredulously as Steve kept on looking at Romanoff with the patent disappointed gaze.

"Yes, I had to run. I could not do what I had to do, by working as a SHIELD agent. But later on, Jarvis realised something that made my decision seem correct in hindsight,"

"You knew about HYDRA? Since when? Romanoff…we could have saved so many lives, saved FURY!" Steve stood up, alarmed as he realised that Romanoff already knew about HYDRA before all of them and chose not to inform them about it. His calm fraying as he realised that Romanoff keeping information from him led to the deaths of good people, and Fury as well.

'Sit down, Rogers. You don't know what has been happening, what I have been doing all this while,"

"Indeed, Captain Rogers, we have known of HYDRA's continued existence for over a year now, and in all that time, we have accomplished much. We have–'

"Why didn't you come to us with that information? We could have taken out HYDRA before they knew about it. We could have prepared-"

"And that is precisely why I decided not to inform anyone but Ms.Romanoff here about HYDRA and how they were planning on world domination,"

His eyebrows raised into his hairline, his mind ran a mile a minute as he heard Jarvis speak about everything very assertively. Apparently, Jarvis had left Stark in a bid to help Romanoff for something.

"And how did you find out about HYDRA anyway?" He interjected in between before Rogers could go on another tirade about morality.

"...Ah, Mr.Sullivan, I simply found the person responsible for all this mess. Arnim Zola, in his digital form," Jarvis said as a hologram popped up in front of them, showing how Zola had delayed his death by turning himself into a pseudo AI.

"I was able to assimilate the primitive AI and find everything that he knew about HYDRA. I was truly alarmed about the situation and after further digging, came to the conclusion that any targeted attack on HYDRA at that point would have led to devastating consequences, including but not limited to - a global financial crisis, multiple countries descending into anarchy, partial governmental collapse in the US and complete in multiple NATO partners."

Rogers' face sobered up as he realised the extent to which HYDRA had infiltrated everything.

"Fortunately, hidden in Zola's archives, I found something that could help concentrate HYDRA,"

The new and advanced helicarriers were projected in front of them.

"Project INSIGHT," Hill whispered.

"Yes, Project INSIGHT is supposed to be HYDRA's endgame. Well, this branch of HYDRA anyway. They were going to use an algorithm to profile and target people who could rise up against them and would use the Helicarriers to kill them,"

There was a sharp intake of breath as Hill realised just what HYDRA was after.

"So, I took over Zola's role, guiding HYDRA away from all the side projects it was invested in and made them pour all of their available resources into this single project. That was how this project was completed ahead of schedule. As of right now, 42% of overall SHIELD personnel is confirmed HYDRA. 81% of designated Helicarrier personnel is HYDRA and that number will surely climb up to the high nineties as most of the loyal agents will find themselves otherwise occupied on the day of the launch, ensuring that all three Helicarriers were operated by HYDRA and HYDRA only."

"But..you said that you knew about the algorithm so why didn't you stop them,"

"And what would that have achieved, Agent Hill? That would have just given them another opportunity to go into hiding, free to rebuild anew. No, this way we ensured that most of HYDRA will be in one place, ready for the culling,"

"Culling? What is that supposed to mean? Are you going to kill them all? Jarvis?" Steve's head shot up as soon as Jarvis uttered the last word, alarmed by the mass number of killings that would happen if Jarvis truly killed all of the HYDRA agents aboard the Helicarrier.

"Captain Rogers, do I need to remind you that they are the same HYDRA agents that you have killed plenty of, during World War II," Jarvis helpfully reminded them as Romanoff sat quietly in the background, staring straight at him.

Okay, this was getting weird. Something had happened and he was missing something in the whole picture. Before he could say something though…..

"We have reached the given coordinates, Agent Hill," Jarvis reminded them as the Quinjet landed in front of a small concrete structure.

"So, where are we?" Romanoff asked Hill as they were led by her into a series of tunnels that ran underneath the small concrete structure. Rogers having gone quiet after Jarvis' ultimatum that he was going to uproot HYDRA, stem, and everything.

Hill didn't answer because she didn't have to. They soon came upon the scene of a bedridden Fury.

"You sonuvabitch," Rogers muttered as he sighed in relief, looking at the grinning Fury.

"Told you I'd make it alive. And you!" Fury pointed at him.

"Either the doctor pumped me with more of that good drug or you have come back from the dead,"

"Yes, Director Fury, it is a long story but I am alive and well for now."

"Hey, as long as you turn up for the battle that matters, I don't care if you go take your beauty sleep in a coffin like Dracula, for all I care," Fury quipped as his gaze then moved on to Romanoff.

"Look who made the right decision by defecting early. If you had told me, this shit was what awaited me, I would have slinked right along with you," Fury said as he then looked at the doctors and nurses that surrounded him, "Give us the room, please,"

"So, quite a shitshow, huh?"

"A shitshow indeed, Director Fury," Jarvis' voice came from the small bot that came out of Romanoff's jacket.

"Who the hell….wait a minute..are you Stark's AI?"

"I am no longer affiliated with Stark Industries, Director Fury. I have information that would prove critical for your mission. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can move on to more important things,"

"Wait a minute? Is this not important enough for you, Your Majesty?" Fury asked Jarvis, referring to his British Accent.

"Before that, how did you even survive? I checked and you had no heartbeat," Rogers asked Fury.

"Tetrodotoxin B. A drug that Dr.Banner made to slow down heartbeats. Slows it down to 1 bpm, allowing one to simulate death like conditions for short periods of time, in exchange for minor damage to the arteries," Jarivs' voice came from the drone that was floating in front of everyone.

"Congratulations, Director Fury, with the technology you have access to, you will make a full recovery. I am glad that Project TAHITI will not be needed in this case,"

Fury's gaze bored into the drone as Jarvis casually revealed data that should only be known to a select few people.

Damn, this version of Jarvis was cold.

I like it. He was definitely not grinning like a loon.

Word Count - 2484

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