Chapter 40

Walking into the room is a statuesque woman with the grace of a gazel and yet a lion's deadliness. The red-headed woman was dressed in a completely black, specially made jumpsuit fit to her exact requirements and loaded with all the weapons she needed.

"Romanov. Excellent work on your last assignment." Fury says, nodding to Natasha, the Black Widow. She does impeccable work, one of his top operatives that had just finished their last operation. He knew she was coming. He expected her at this exact time, and yet he does not stop his finger from hoovering over the button. Fury has learnt many times over the years that there is no such thing as trust, only naivety. It pays to be prepared against everything, and safety is no reason to be lax.

"Thank you, Director Fury. What is my next mission?" A superb set of skills, excellent judgement, deadly abilities and a willingness to do what is necessary, the perfect subordinate. The Red Room indeed did affect work, unethical, but effective. He could not deny their methods, no matter how despicable. They made the perfect operative, too perfect. Fury made it a point to consciously not trust her too much, at least inwardly though he may present differently outwardly, as he does with everyone.

"Yes, your next mission. Everything you need is in the folder. I trust you to handle this operation on your own. We do not have the man force to spare." He says, reaching into one of his desk drawers and placing a folder on the desk. She comes forward and grabs hold of it, Fury preparing to press the button should she make any overt movements, but she merely falls back and stands a distance away. She does not take a seat, and neither does he offer one to her. The chair is meant as an attack on people he wants to interrogate without actually doing so, and she knows this.

"Batman? There are more and more superheroes coming out of the woodwork every day. So why are we investigating this one? We have left others such as Spider-Man and Daredevil alone, leaving them with their autonomy as they do low-level work that we do not have time to do, and this one looks much the same," She enquires, correct in her judgement. Indeed after some low-level enquiries into the street-level heroes, they are left alone to continue the work they do. But this time, he wants a proper investigation into Batman.

"It is because he is not like the others. Spider-Man and Daredevil go out on patrols, helping whoever they can. Their goal is to protect others and take down criminals. Batman is similar but different. He is not patrolling. He is hunting." After a light skim of the folder, she answers her own question a second later, discovering exactly why she is being sent to investigate this new element. Such an aggressive new person must be investigated and quantified.

"Standard rules apply. I will leave the actual operation to you. Carry it out however you deem fit. Simply observe and investigate. However, if needed, do not initiate contact in a non-hostile environment, and do not make contact when he is not in his heroic persona. Do not let him know when you learn his identity and give him the privacy he is due, and do not put it in any reports. Only inform me in person. We want to gather information on him, not alienate him." Fury dictates, very specific in what it is he wants, not needing to waste words on other things that should already be understood.

They do not need Batman knowing they are already on his trail either, which is why contact, if required, should only be made in a hostile situation. That way, Batman will not think his agent is there for him precisely as he cannot be sure. Romanov may be there for Batman's current enemy instead.

"Understood, sir." Then, without any further words, Romanov departs and exits the room to get started on her next assignment. Fury watches her leave, his finger still not leaving its position over the button, not even after she had left the room. If there was one thing Fury had learnt over the years, it is that no one is entirely trustworthy or even infallible, himself included. In fact, himself especially, given he has been getting blackmailed since the end of World War 2 though thankfully the demands or not heavy.

Ridding himself of less-than-pleasant memories, Fury quickly pressed a button on the underside of his desk, doing a deep scan of the room to ensure it was secured. Which it is, no extra weight added, no objects and no bugs, the green light to go ahead is given. Next, Fury reaches into the inside of his trenchcoat and pulls a device out with a singular button which he presses, doing a second scan of the room, and he gets the all-clear.

Putting the device away, he picks up his pen and gets back to business. While losing people over the years, dealing with annoying bastards every day and stifling the plans of madmen were all some of the worst things that came with such a long life, dealing with paperwork was also very up there. Writing his papers, the minutes tick by slowly, but it has to be done.

Once more, the sound of the door opening echoes through the room and Fury puts down his pen and resettles his hands once again on the armrest of his chair, settling his finger over the button again. Similarly, the meeting was arranged, Fury was expecting the person to enter the room, and again Fury was being cautious, even against one of his most loyal agents.

"Director, what did you want to ask of me?" Maria Hill asks, walking forward to stand at rest in front of the desk, the perfect picture of discipline and order. She is dressed in the same jumpsuit as all of the other Shield agents, except her outfit is different in the fact that it is pitch black, and the secondary colours are dark grey. Another femme fatale with pale skin, short black hair and blue eyes. She is a loyal and stringent operative.

"How is the observation of subject 35 progressing?" The director of Shield asks. The identity of the person in question is unknown entirely and simply labelled as a number. Such information has to be well kept and limited to only those who need to know, which is the operatives that gathered the information and who they reported it to, which was him. Information was power, and the more obscure the information, the more powerful it was. Such information is on a need-to-know basis. Only when it is crucial and pertinent will it maybe be revealed.

"We have kept up surveillance of the subject, though we have had to cut back seriously. The subject discovered our more invasive methods of surveillance and destroyed them. Thankfully the subject does not suspect us and believes it was done by a third party. We have since kept surveillance strictly manual methods and technological methods that can't be detected." Maria Hill says, answering professionally. Straight to the point, no bullshit, a good agent but not someone he would be able to trust running Shield as a whole, which is why he is still here after all these years at the reins, waiting for someone appropriate for the station to take over.

"What methods are these? Is there no chance of subject 35 discovering them?" Fury asks, concerned. Subject 35 is a very important possible asset, though much about them is unknown. This is why observation is necessary, but if it is discovered, then a potential asset becomes a possible enemy.

"We are monitoring his daily activities with multiple agents placed throughout the city, strictly observation and nothing else. Tailing is kept to a minimum. None of the agents knows anything about the subject, only his description and information needed to observe them." Again, Agent Hill dutifully answers.

"Good. Do not let anyone know any more information about the subject. Keep everything under wraps. I am trusting you with this mission, Hill, do not scare the subject off. Carry on as you were." And with that dismissal, Agent Hill gives a nod, turns about face and exits the room. Fury once again scans the room using the in-built function under his desk and then the device he keeps on his person, after which he resumes his paperwork.

Silently writing word after word in monotonous form, Fury thinks about the ongoing situation and the possible results from it and whether those results could benefit Shield or perhaps even damage it. But, of course, being the director and being in charge, you have to think about a lot of perspectives and decide whether specific opportunities should be nudged along or entirely cut off.

This new situation was one such situation that could go either way, and Fury had decided to take a wait-and-see approach. The benefits Subject 35 could provide Shield could be immense, but alternatively used against Shield, the subject could do severe damage to infrastructure with their skills. But, of course, either option was possible with the actions the subject had taken so far, which is why they had to keep up surveillance and determine which way the subject is leaning, so they could cut off the threat before it manifested or nudge it along to become a strong ally. Then, hopefully, Fury could gain a partner that would work purely at his discretion without being known to the rest of Shield, a secret-secret agent.

Sighing, Nicholas Joseph Fury finishes his last report, pacing his pen to the side and gathering his documents together. Pressing something under his desk, a compartment opens up in which he places the papers, and then he closes it, hiding the reports away. Pressing another button, a holographic keyboard and screen appear on his desk, and he immediately gets to work.

With the factual and correct reports being done and hidden away, never to grace anyone's eye except his own in the future, he starts to compile and manufacture entirely new reports. Official reports which would be stored on Shield databases, with important and sensitive information being discluded from it.

Indeed, being the director of Shield was tiring. However, Fury could not wait to finally hoist this responsibility onto someone else and finally get a vacation. Thankfully, he has a few candidates in mind.

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I calmly sip my coffee while looking out of the window and watching the busy New York roads, people rushing by with their own problems. It was calming, even somewhat of a relief, knowing that each of these people had their own worries and concerns. Their own lives where they didn't bother anyone else and only focused on themselves and those close to them, such a life is quite envious. No crime organisations, no super meetings on rooftops, no deadly fights, just peace and satisfaction in living a good life.

I take another sip of my coffee, happy for the respite that had been quite helpful during this past month, where I had been very active and constant. This shop, the Daily Grind Coffee Bar, has become my relaxation space which I go to every day to relax, to wind down from the stressful undertakings I take on the night previous.

For the past month, I have been on a relentless pursuit on all crime related to Fisk in New York City, which isn't that hard to find when pretty much all crime is related to Fisk in New York City. Just have to beat up a few thugs that look to be somewhat organised, and from there, the spider web unravels, little by little being led to more significant and worse crimes and taking them down. I have gotten very good at being as efficient as possible on my late-night escapades, which involve a heavy amount of brutality to put them down quickly. After all, I have no time to waste on scrubs.

Overall there has not much resistance over the past month. No secret organisations or agents to deal with. Just regular scum that goes down with a good hit, but even they build up. Not physically, they are not even a challenge, but mentally I have been burdened a lot. Day after day of hitting and kicking, just pure violence and nothing else, is not good. So to destress every day, I come here to this coffee shop, and I have a coffee, and look out the window and just take twenty minutes to relax before getting on with the rest of my day and going to my multiple martial arts lessons.

As for Felecia, well, I don't really know. Nothing has really happened since our trip to the mall because I have honestly not seen much of her. For the past month, while I have been busy with taking down Fisk's operation, she has been busy working for Fisk. So this last month, I have hardly seen her, she is sleeping during the day, and then at night, she is going out. So I only really see her when she returns, and she looks dead tired, so I leave her be.

Apparently, instead of giving her an actual job or mission, Fisk gave her a simple objective. To find a specific object, I have no idea what that is, and I also don't care. All I know is that she is beat, and when we see each other returning late and totally wiped out from our activities, we only give a light greeting and then retreat to our rooms. I thought we were friends, but that day at the mall changed things, and I realised that it was really fun. So after that, I have kept my distance and not tried to get any closer. I don't want a reason to stay. I don't want to stay in New York longer than needed, I am just staying to help Felecia and repay her for helping me out, and then I am gone.

"Hey, Ben. Enjoying your coffee?" Hearing a voice, I look up, and I see a woman approaching.

"Hey, Jessica. How are you?"

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