Fury

Three weeks passed, long dragging weeks full of reporters swarming around like sharks. Rumors of a hero fighting against a powered lunatic spread like wildfire, the name Recluse may or may not have been slipped in there by Mick and his friends to stop the ridiculous names being spread around. It turned out several officers had lost their lives that night in Grant Reigns rampage, as well as three students. No of them would ever know how many SHIELD agents fell, as SHIELD was never mentioned in the available reports. With all of that, no one really questioned the fang marks on Mick's neck, as Patten said to just call them mosquito bites that got infected. It was quite the easy sell for south Louisiana. 

Mick stepped off the bus, watching as the school reporters were now following the lead of the actual reporters. Harassing every student they could about their involvement in the homecoming dance. It wasn't long before Mick was confronted as he tried to make his way to his usual spot in the commons. 

"Hey! You were at the dance with Laynie Daniels, weren't you?" The girl acknowledged him. That was at least something new. 

"Yeah, what about it?" Mick glared at her, slightly frustrated. 

"Did you get to see that guy they're calling Recluse? Or maybe that web shooting monster he fought?" The girls' eagerness was a bit much for this early in the morning. To make it worse, part of Mick wanted to just tell her 'Yes, I am Recluse, I fought Arachnid and kicked his butt,' but he knew that was a terrible idea. People would never leave him alone again. Instead he reverted back to his new natural when it came to his powers. He lied. Just like he did so many times since that night. Several times with the Daniels, the Bennets, the Hales, even his own parents. 

"No," Mick's answer was quite rehearsed at this point. "We heard the screaming, and started running to the back exit. We didn't stop running until we reached the Antique District." 

"Oh," the girl was a little perturbed. "Well, it's good that ya'll were safe, but that just doesn't make a good story!" With that she was off to her next victim. 

"If you only knew the truth," Mick scoffed. 

Laynie was standing with Emily, Patten, Jerren, and Davis by the time Mick arrived. They all had a sympathetic expression. "You look tired," Laynie said as Mick rolled his eyes. 

"Tired of all of this Recluse talk, and not even being able to be a part of it," Mick grunted. 

"You know you'd hate having everyone fawning over you. They'd treat you like a celebrity, you'd never be able to have a private moment again," Jerren said as Mick shuttered at that horrid thought. 

"But you'd have any girl you want, the would all be throwing themselves at you," Davis said as Mick looked at Laynie, then back at Davis. 

"Would you really want that?" Laynie asked as Mick shook his head. It's not like they were dating, Laynie was terrified to be the girlfriend of a superhero. She couldn't imagine Mick doing something heroic and dying. Mick was terrified of her being a target for being connected to him, so they both agreed to keep things as they were. Friends, ish. Friends who may sort of have crushes on one another. 

Mick stepped off the bus, seeing Mr. Coulson's SUV in his driveway. He wasn't sure what would prompt another visit from SHIELD, had he done something he was unaware of? Was this going to be a new thing, that Mr. Coulson was just going to surprise him with check-ins? On one hand, he was a little excited. At least going somewhere with Mr. Coulson meant escaping from everything going on, hiding from the real world into the secret reality where SHIELD operated. On the other hand, did this mean something happened with Arachnid again? 

"Hurry up and get in. My Boss wants to meet with you and all of your friends. There's already agents in route to intercept them as we speak," Coulson said firmly. 

"So I don't even get a choice in this?" Mick said with a bit of teenage angst. "Do I have time to change? What about bringing my Recluse suit?" 

"Your choice is get in the car, now," Coulson sounded like an angry father, to which Mick reluctantly obliged, tossing his backpack in the back seat. 

"What's so important about this meeting that I have to stay in my sweaty school uniform?" Mick asked grumpily.

"Director Fury prefers to put his eye on situations like yours," Coulson said, driving much faster than Mick was used to. 

"Don't you mean eyes?" Mick looked over at Coulson. 

"No," Coulson responded bluntly. "And don't stare at his eye patch. He really doesn't like that." 

"Eye patch?" Mick was trying to hold in his amusement. "Like a pirate?" 

"Like a veteran," Coulson corrected. "Also, don't ask him about it. As a matter of fact, it'd probably be best if you didn't ask any questions at all. He's not really in a good mood today." Mick pictured a rather tall, muscular man, bigger that both Arachnid and Mr. Daniels, with a torn sleeved trench coat, bearing the SHIELD logo as a tattoo on his right arm and a military logo on his left, an eye patch on his scared up face. He shuttered for a moment, that was quite intimidating. Surely the real Mr. Fury couldn't be that scary, right? 

The vehicle stopped in a mostly empty parking garage, the only other cars here seemed to be SHIELD ones. Several agents stood with Mick's friends behind their vehicles, none of which Mick recognized. Mick followed Coulson and joined the group, each one of Mick's friends wearing the same look of confusion and concern. "I guess that's all five of us huh?" Mick said hoping to break the tension. It failed miserably. 

Another car pulled in, this one seemed different. The windows were darker, the plating seemed thicker. The driver door opened, no one spoke. A tall dark skinned man stepped out. Oddly enough he was wearing a black leather trench coat, only it did have sleeves. He had a black shirt with a barely visible SHIELD logo on his right side, black pants with black leather combat boots. His bald head stood out with the eye patch, and the two cuts that went above and below it. 

"Director," all of the SHIELD agents said in unison. 

"So which one of you is our little hero?" The man's voice was just as intimidating as his appearance. It had Mick unnerved, he couldn't imagine how unnerved his friends had to feel. 

Mick took in a deep breath, mustering up the courage as he stepped forward. "My name is-"

"Mick Bellouve, AKA Recluse, am I right?" Director Fury cut him off. Mick simply nodded, unable to speak or comprehend just what was about to happen. "My name is Nick Fury, I am the Director of SHIELD. It's my job to keep tabs on things that make people uncomfortable; superpowers, war criminals, crime syndicates, and those unexplainable things that go bump in the night." 

Mick tried hard not to stare at Director Fury's eye patch like Mr. Coulson advised, but it was quite difficult. Everything in him wanted to stare, he wanted to question, but at the same time, he wanted to divert his eyes. He felt like an underling looking at an alpha, he wanted to look away, but couldn't. "Did I do something wrong, Mr. Fury?" Mick's voice trembled as Coulson shook his head. 

"Now why would you think that?" Director Fury asked looking around at the terrified teenagers. "I'm just our here doing my best to keep you kids out of the spotlight, but someone had to go spreading their little nickname to the crowd." 

Both Mick and Davis' faces flushed. "To make matters even worse, some really bad people seem to have found your blood all over the place after cleaning up the debris from your fight with Mr. Reigns." 

"Sir, not to be rude, but how would they know it's his?" Patten asked timidly. 

"Good question," Director Fury smiled, which was just strangely just as scary as his scowl. "The only way they know it could be his, is if they had a prior sample, and we don't know who or what these people are connected to. We just know they're very interested in Recluse." 

"But why bring my friends here, I'm the one they want?" Mick asked brashly to Coulson's frustration. 

"If somehow they found out who you are, do you think they would just go after you, or do you think they would go after everyone you care about to get to you?" Director Fury's word hit Mick hard. That was what Jerren had been saying. Maybe this was much more dangerous that Mick was ready to accept. 

"What if it's all just a bluff?" Davis blurted out. 

"Unfortunately, in my line of work, bluffs are something you chance. You either hold all of the cards, or you risk the end of the world as you know it," Director Fury said as the teenagers looked amongst themselves with great fear and concern. 

"So what is it that we're here to do, Mr. Fury?" Jerren asked nervously. 

"We need you to sign these," a woman with bangs running across the left side of her face, and her hair pulled back tight who wore a black pants suit walked up to each of them with a clip board. "Normally we would wait until your of legal age to sign off on being affiliated with SHIELD, but given your direct involvement with the Recluse." 

"We're also going to have to tell your parents about all of this," Director Fury said as Laynie began to panic. 

"My parents are going to freak out. They're never going to let me see you again!" She ran to Mick. 

"I'm sorry to cut this short Director, but we have a meeting to attend, and traffic getting into New Orleans in a nightmare this time of day," the woman with Director Fury stated. 

"Thank you Ms. Hill. Mr. Bellouve, we'll be in touch," Director Fury stated as Mick gulped. 

He embraced Laynie, who had become hysterical. "It's going to be okay," Mick tried to comfort her to no avail. 

"I hate to break all of this up, but we've got to get you kids home," Coulson said as Laynie released Mick, running toward the car she came in. 

"I'm sorry I got you all involved in this," Mick said before Laynie shut the door. 

"Young love can be pretty tough," Coulson said as Mick glared at him. "Would you rather me give you my condolences for your break up?" 

"No," Mick grunted as he slammed the door closed. 

"Just think about it on the positive side, now you're going to get to go through semi-official SHIELD training," Coulson said as Mick simply groaned, wallowing in his angst. "It'll help you be a better hero, and you'll even get a better suit, one that you won't have a heat stroke in." 

"Great," Mick grumbled. "Some consolation prize to possibly losing all of my friends, and the girl of my dreams." 

"Trust me kid, there's going to be other girls," Coulson said as Mick had a hard time believing he'd ever find someone better than Laynie Daniels.