Interlude I : A Rogue Widow

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Triskelion

–Nick Fury–

In all his years of being a SHIELD Agent, he had seen some stuff. Stuff that was kept hidden from the masses for appropriate reasons. Stuff that he wished he forgot and yet was reminded of them occasionally during one of his regular nightmares. Stuff that would probably induce mass hysteria in the world.

Hell, he had even seen some stuff that even POTUS was not aware of. It was the nature of the job. It came with its perks but it also came with its own sets of disturbing nightmarish scenarios that the average person would not even think of.

And yet, despite having met Carol personally and seeing the footage of Banner throwing Tanks around as if they were mere toys, he could scarcely believe his eyes as he saw someone lift the Helicarrier on their back.

Sure, one could argue that one side of the Heliacrrier was held aloft by two working engines but that person would be stupid to do so. With the weight of the Heliacrrier tilted dangerously on one side, the amount of force that Green Guardian, Jack Sullivan, had to deal with was beyond astronomous.

He had thought that the hero had perished saving the Helicarrier and all the agents on board.

The pragmatic ruthless part of him thought that it would have been fine for him to rescue the people he could and then leave the rest to fall with the Helicarrier. The worth of a single person with that level of combat prowess could not be compensated even if all of the 4 thousand shield personnel on the boat had died.

And yet, he was glad that the Green Guardian had chosen to save them all. He had ultimately used his seeming death as a rallying point to unite the Avengers, what was left of the Avengers anyway.

Finding out that he was alive and kicking ass in New York was a huge relief but then the intense fight he had with that Asian fellow was very stressful. Not just due to the fact that man was able to fight on even terms with the single strongest member of the team but also because the skill of that level did not come easily and yet, they did not know neither hide nor hair of that fellow before he was recruited by Loki.

Apparently, Barton's memories of his time under Loki's control had been spotty at best due to the improper way he was brought out of said control and he did not want the man to think of the traumatic memories of his time so he had let the issue be.

He had been elated and somewhat gratified that although Jack had defeated the Asian man, he had not done so without injuries. That proved that Jack was not undefeatable and that was something that was necessary for them to continue performing their jobs.

Jack Z. Sullivan, the name of the Green Guardian, an identity that was not registered anywhere on any database around the world, and yet, he knew that Jack was being honest the moment he said that. He could see it in his eyes, the fear of death and the acceptance that came with it. In his last moments, Jack did not want his contribution to be nameless so he told Romanoff his name, his real name before he used the last vestiges of power to save Stark from a one-way flight, something that had been confirmed by Stark before he holed up in his house in LA.

He had seen the footage with his own eyes and still winced when he saw the baby face of Jack and the wounds he was sustaining as a result of that damned barrier behind him. His face, for one, was riddled with burn marks due to the Tesseract's energy. And yet, his eyes were a clear green as he looked straight at Romanoff and told him his name before he started rambling about the fight being unexpectedly hard.

His last statement was true. Loki had hardly done any real fighting in the Invasion. It was all due to the alien army and the man who had fought Jack to a standstill, taking away most of his time and attention. That was the thing that had prolonged the invasion so much.

And after reading the reports from the analysts, it turned out that Jack's decision was correct. The way things happened, even though it was an unfortunate incident, was literally as perfect as they could happen.

If Jack had fled from that man and he had set his sights on the other Avengers, he was not sure if even the likes of Thor and Hulk could come out of that encounter unscathed, less said about Tony and the others the better, such was the powerset of that man. Complete and partial intangibility along with daggers that could bypass any defense and cut straight into the skin, as when it bypassed Jack's indestructible barriers and stabbed him multiple times.

If the sceptre had stabbed Jack and closed the portal, the nuke would have no place where it could have been disposed of safely and if Jack's body had been left intact, the monsters hiding behind SHIELD would have desecrated in their bid to create more powerful super soldiers, despite their recent failed attempt.

Creating someone more powerful than even Jack and having that power in the hands of any single country was right up there in his nightmarish scenarios list, right after the Kree coming back without Carol around to save them this time.

The scene of Jack being skewered straight through the stomach by the sceptre by some unseen force was something that had been hammered into the minds of the masses. Along with his declaration that he was the protagonist and it felt nice to be that, combined with his age, meant that there was a huge uproar in every single country on the planet.

Romanoff had not wasted a single day and uploaded that footage to every single platform on the internet, making sure that it could not be suppressed in any way. Hell, last he heard, even North Korea had some activity in that regard when they saw Jack's mask come off.

That meant that there was now a huge uproar about Jack and honoring his memory. There was a small minority that were trying to inquire about the missile but thankfully, they had managed to stop the news about the Nuke from getting out to the common public otherwise New York would have rioted and he would have been in handcuffs, watching with savage glee as the members of the World Security Council with similar handcuffs as well.

Romanoff's stunt had pulled almost all the pressure that the WSC was putting on him to retrieve the Tesseract, as well as the Sceptre along with the DNA of Jack and the Asian man who kicked his ass before dying.

He scoffed to himself, of course, they would not pressurize him anymore. They were now more scared to save their own hides instead of looking for ways to find new and better weapons for their benefits, not that they would not come back to their ways soon.

While they had buried most of the uncomfortable questions, the biggest variable had appeared in their plans. 

The Black Widow.

Natasha Romanoff was officially declared as on extended leave but everybody knew what had happened. She had come to know that the World Security Council was responsible for that nuke and after a very heated argument with him about bringing the people responsible down, she had left the Triskelion about 3 days ago, never to be seen again.

None of her known aliases had been found on the radar and none of the safe houses had been touched. She had torched all her previous contacts, even so he had sent word out so that he would be notified immediately once sh3e was located. He was not going to force her back into duty but knowing where she was taking her vacation would be immensely helpful.

There was talk of a Congressional hearing of the event and he was sure as hell that Widow would be called there, after all, she was the last known person to have had contact with Jack before he…died.

He had even resorted to asking Barton to track her down since he knew her best but was surprised to find him denying that request to his face. He had been so taken aback that he had been speechless for a second before Coulson chimed in, basically telling him that he agreed with Barton as well and they should leave her alone for the time being. 

He knew that she was very disturbed, what with her being forced to have a hand in killing a minor once again but he didn't think that even Coulson would back her on this. Without her skills and knowledge, she would not be free anywhere in the world. If he so wished, he could declare her rogue, and the rest of the countries would finish her off but that was not what he wanted so he stayed his hand.

"Has she contacted you?" He said as Barton entered the suite where he was staying in Manhattan. 

"No, but I believe she would not miss this," Barton said as he sat on the sofa in front of him and began eating the apple from his fruit plate. About Barton, he had been acting a little different ever since he came back from being mind whammied by Loki. 

"You should go home. I'll authorise the paid leave. You haven't taken one in years if I am not wrong," He said in between a mouthful of tasty fruits.

"Hmm? Oh, thanks for that. I was going to ask you about it after this but…thanks," Barton said and fell silent, his eyes looking in the distance.

He sighed internally. The invasion had damaged him more mentally than physically. Jack's intervention made it possible to have just 21 casualties in a full-blown Alien invasion despite it being in a population centre. Even from those, half of the people had died of either panic or heart attacks, only half died from injuries sustained during the invasion.

They were gathered in New York for the funeral procession of Jack Sullivan. He had exploded in popularity, so much so that even the President was poised to make an appearance during the funeral, to erect a statue in his name in Central Park. 

'Politicians' he scoffed internally, not even leaving this event to make sure that they remained popular and seen doing work instead of staying in their bunker while a literal minor did the job of stopping something that could have grown on to become the single most devastating event since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

That had stung. The part of Jack doing the jobs of adults. Hell, they had a literal god on their team and yet, Jack had to do the heavy lifting both times when it mattered. 

No wonder, Stark had gone underground in his lab down in LA while his Tower here was being repaired. He was probably tinkering with his suits, trying to figure out a way to create stronger and better suits that could

He had seen him stopping the city from condemning it and was sure that it was not the last he had seen of Stark Tower. 

They were here to pay their respects to Jack. Even Thor had stayed back because he was adamant about paying his respects to the greatest Midgardian warrior he had come across, and one so young as well. In the meantime, Thor had kept the Tesseract in his custody.

The Sceptre was kept in SHIELD custody for research purposes but he would make sure that it remained in storage. No way he could allow the World Security Council the ability to have mind control in their hands. No, that was way too dangerous of an ability for any single individual to have.

Stark had not come, apparently, he was busy and would join them once Thor was ready to go back to Asgard. Captain had already arrived and was busy talking with the Secret Service, acting as security for the President with the Secret Service absolutely fawning over him.

He sighed and stood up next to the window, overlooking the packed street below. Major streets had been closed off with a holiday declared in Jack's name as tens of thousands of people gathered in the streets in his memory.

Preparations had been made but he was sure that it was going to be very chaotic with all the people. He just hoped that some rogue entity did not take advantage of this. That would not go down well, especially with the presence of Thor and Banner in the crowds below. 

He didn't know much about the Norse culture but not respecting the dead, especially the fallen soldiers, was akin to blasphemy for them and he was sure that due process of law would not be the first thought in Thor's mind if he found some punk disrespecting someone he considers a warrior worthy of respect. They would be electrified before they could even begin begging for mercy.

The less said about what Banner would do the better. The instigators probably wouldn't even see it coming before they were turned into meat paste.

Banner had a presidential pardon signed as part of the agreement for him to stay as part of the Avengers so he was out here in the open without any possibility of a mad general trying to imprison him to create more Hulks.

All that was left was looking for Romanoff.

She had been pretty shaken with the whole ordeal and it would be pretty amiss if she did not show up.

Just as he was about to head down since the President was done addressing the crowd and they were about to march to Central Park….

"Sir, she's here," Barton said as he pulled out his phone.

Well, let's get the Widow home then.

Word Count - 2389

A/N - One more interlude before the next Arc.

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