Arc Twelve. Chapter Three-Hundred Thirty-Seven. On The Cards

"You know, since you became director, I seem to be losing a lot more games of poker than before," Fury said as he threw his cards on the table. Coulson had pulled a full house from the deck, and Fury's two pairs got him nothing,

"Don't have to lose against the boss anymore," Coulson said, with a girn, as he moved the pile of chips towards himself.

"Yeah, yeah," Fury said, as he shook his head, "so, what are we going to do about Cap and Flash? I know they're not welcome on the Avengers anymore."

Coulson shrugged, "now Caps recovered I really don't care what you do with him. Parker took care of that mess, but you're right. The New Avengers is a Shield team now, and needs to listen to its director."

"You know I'll take him, hell I'll take them both. I just want to know you won't be kicking my door in to arrest them, or me." Fury said as he shuffled the deck once more.

"Nope, Caps old news. We've got the New Avengers, The Gamma Troopers and with Starks manufacturing, even a fleet of new Machines Of War, three fully sanctioned teams."

"Charles turn you down huh?" Fury asked as he dealt the cards,

"Charles, in a very impolite way, told me to go to hell. If we want an Augment team we can find and recruit them ourselves." Coulson said, lifting his hand.

Maria sat down at the table, putting down a plate of nachos, "well, what did you expect? I mean, you did sic giant robots on them." she said before lifting a chip and dipping it in salsa and eating it, "Scott was going to join in but once he heard you were here, he declined."

"I didn't, that was Malik, and he got a life sentence for it."

Maria snorted, "at a minimum-security prison. They dont even lock the doors there. You could walk out and nobody would bat an eye."

Coulson sighed, lifted the edge of his cards and shrugged, "he was a senator and well connected. Even though we got the files it was under duress. It was the best we could do."

Fury laughed, "give me three, and no, the best you could do was wait until he was alone and let him have a convenient accident. We spent too long cleaning house to let even one of those Hydra bastards live."

Maria handed him three, Coulson lifted two fingers, and she dealt him two and as she looked at her own cards, she put the deck down.

"We tried that. He's under guard twenty-four-seven, and so far nobody that isn't approved goes anywhere near him. As I said, he's got connections." Coulson admitted.

"So, maybe drop me a list of visitors he's had, maybe I can do something about that, as long as you turn a blind eye."

Coulson smiled, he already had a list in his pocket and would have left it once the poker night was over.

"So, we heard about the Asgardians and our new friends. The Xandarians." Fury tossed a pile of chips into the centre, "want to spill, or do we go in blind."

Coulson matched the bet, looked at his cards and threw in a stack more, "not up to us. The US government and its allies are in a closed session. But, the word is they agreed. Nobody likes Wakanda being the big dog, so they found a bigger one."

As they checked their new cards, Blonsky opened the door, slid four large pizza boxes down and flipped them all open, sliding four pieces on a plate for himself as well as grabbing a beer from a cooler Fury had brought.

Blonsky pulled out the last chair, popping the top of his beer, "thanks for waiting," and as he lifted his cards he groaned, "yeah, out, not even gonna bother." and he tossed his cards into the discard pile.

"So, Ross not got you locked up?" Maria asked as she took a swig, but Blonsky shrugged,

"Nah, got out before the shit hit the fan. Didn't even bother to go back. Bloody stupid mess it was," he admitted.

Maria nodded, the gamma troopers had been raked over the coals after not only did they only capture two of the associates of Parker but then failed to contain them and lost Sterns in the process.

"So, any chance of-" Blonsky began but Fury cut him off,

"No,"

"Oh come"

"No"

"Not eve-"

"No, You were on the wrong side Emil, and while A-Bomb is handy, we've got a big enough team." Fury reached into his coat, and pulled out a dossier, "Yelena Romanovich, now called,"

"Widow's sister?" Maria said as she snatched the dossier and began to flick through it, "another host?" and Fury nodded, "You know that might be problematic. They are pretty territorial, and if she." and Fury raised an eyebrow

"I expect my agents to act professionally. On and off the job. What you and Yelena get up to with or without Scott is none of my concern, unless you get me shot, and then I will be very angry with you." He warned her as she waved a hand at him, engrossed in the file.

Blonsky leant back, looking at his bottle, "I've got a question, do you still go to the toilet, or does your little squiddy thing just, I dunno, eat it?" and Maria ignored him, "Oh, or what about you know, when you an Scott get the bed squeaking, cause those jets ain't as soundproof as you think."

That got her attention, "it's not?" and as Emil looked over at Coulson and Fury he realised nobody had told her,

"Uh, so I heard. But uh, you know, do you stuff it in a jar? To get some privacy?" he asked, hiding a small smile behind his bottle as he took a drink.

"You know, Liv might be the only one who knows the depowering formula well enough to make it, but I can get her here." Maria said with a deadpan face, "Dont push it."

"Fuckin' hell Luv, keep your knickers on. Just joshing you. We all know Parker keeps his little squiddies under wraps. Even Flash keeps mum about it. Just curious. I mean, you've got someone living in your head. I'd be too scared to take a piss in case it laughed."

"Yeah, I understood some of that," she smirked as she took a swig, "they dont care, plus, they dont even have that part."

Blonsky shrugged, "still weird though. Does Scott-" and Maria glared at him,

"So, how did you get away from federal custody and into one of our safe houses," she asked, knowing full well Blonsky was a wanted man.

"I figured savin' your arses was worth something, so Fury is giving me a lift. Taiwan."

Maria shrugged, "yeah, you can make that trip on your own. Wrath isn't a taxi firm."

Fury snorted, "it's a one way trip for him, and I would appreciate my second in command allowing me some downtime during the flight."

Maria frowned and shook her head, "You want to give him a ride, do it on your own time. I'll get Yelena up to speed on our current operations." and she gave Fury a look, "and make sure she won't compromise us."

"I never said she was going to. I don't care. Just like I don't care about anything Parker gets up to. As long as he remains professional, and stops stealing my jet to go on cross country trips to visit giant robots."

Maria shrugged, "should have thought of that before you said yes, plus Taiwan? What the hell is in Taiwan."

"Illegal Enhanced boxing, plus, fifty grand for fifty cc's of blood," Blonsky admitted,

Coulson's face palmed. "You didn't sell your blood on the black market did you?" and Blonsky shrugged,

"The Asians dont have a formula, so yeah. Damn right I'm gonna make some money. Who cares if some dumb bastard gets messed up. I've read Banners file. I know what Sterns got up to, and I know what a huge cock-up it all was. So what?"

"Because we dont need Chinese or Japanese Hulks running around. It's bad enough with their own Augmented without you making more of a mess." Coulson added, "We already had several strike teams trying to steal research data on the Synthezoids as well as Warmachine."

"Then pay me not to. Dont piss down my neck and tell me it's raining. You know I'm persona non grata in the US now. I gotta eat somehow." Blonsky said, as he folded a slice of pizza and bit the end off, "I did notice the presidential pardon you all got didn't extend to the military. I was facing permanent cryosleep."

Coulson shrugged, "Only because you did smash up Harlem. You were on probation."

Fury laughed, "Oh yeah, double-secret probation. Faking an injury to get out of fighting was smart, but a bit dumb as well. You're a goddam Hulk, nobody was going to believe that."

Blonsky chewed his pizza, "I saw Ross after he pissed off Octavious. Think I'm gonna fight anything that can make me explode. Plus, it's just blood right?"

Fury shrugged and nodded, "they would get it eventually, plus your formula isn't pure?"

Blonsky laughed, "Got it in one. Even Bruce took one look at me and wondered why I wasn't dead. I got the original Erskine, Banner and Banners blood in 'ere. Liv just shook her head and laughed. Said I was a miracle of modern medicine."

"She said you were lucky the only thing Abomination had was a few physical mutations. She said you were lucky you didn't have four arms and bright red skin."

"Oh, shit, that would be cool. Four arms. Now that would win me some good money in the pits."

"Yeah, or in a Chinese dissection table. You can be an asshole Emil, but be careful out there. A lot of people are scared after the Sentinel mess, and scared people do stupid things."

"Yeah we all know about that," he said, giving Coulson a sideways glance.

Coulson shrugged, "I cleaned it up."

Fury laughed, "you got Parker to clean it up, and forgot to mention Ross double-dosing himself."

"I was not aware of that fact. Contrary to popular belief Ross doesn't answer to me, at least not now."

"Yeah, we heard. Gamma Squad is under his control. Rhodey is in charge of the Machines of War, a crack team of suit pilots. Sam Wilson is leading the New Avengers, and Shield is stuck babysitting Asgardians."

Coulson shrugged, "babysitting gets us a lot of intel. We have top people working the Asgardian edge, and getting good results."

"Oh yeah. I know you've been contacted by Parker, and that you ignored him, and I know that Charles isn't happy about being chased from the moon. Sounds like all Shield is doing right now is letting them have their way." Fury said staring at Coulson, "am I wrong?"

Coulson sighed, "The President was quite adamant that we do nothing to interfere with the integration of Asgardian and Xandarian technology. Wakanda wasn't playing ball, so they got another one."

"You know Parker isn't going to like that." Fury said, leaning back and taking a drink, "and neither will Wakanda."

Coulson snorted, "Oh I know, but while Director of Shield has pull, it's not 'override the President of the United States' level. So, we have a few contingency plans in place, but nothing I can share."

Fury smiled, "I get that," and as he lifted his drink, "Let me see. After Sharon, Mocking Bird right? She's the only one ballsy enough to take over Maria or Sharon's position." Fury said and laughed as Phil smiled but shrugged,

"She does good work."

Fury laughed, "yeah, six-foot-tall, multiple diplomas in several fields, physically fit, a master of several hand to hand combat techniques as well as special ops training putting her in the top one per cent of all Shield Agents. Not to mention supermodel beautiful."

"Your point?" Coulson asked as he took a look at his cards "Call."

"Unless your plan is to get her keeping Parker busy in bed, then I suggest you keep her away from him. He has a nasty habit of seducing and corrupting my agents. Oh, and aces high. You lose Director."