章 64: TGS - #60
Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).
Caribbean islands
–Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff –
Well, there it was, sipping Margaritas and sunbathing in the Carribeans, enjoying the laidback and chill atmosphere of the party capital, meeting people from all walks of life and actually enjoying her life for a moment.
She had multiple hidden caches with enough cash to survive for years, and she would later burn the identity anyway, so spending it on a tropical island with the best weather would not hurt her identity at all.
"Thanks, Carl," She thanked the bartender as she took her drink and went back to the beach. This was fast becoming a weekly ritual for her as she simply chilled in her apartment and then came to the beach whenever she felt like it. By all means, life was nearly perfect for her.
Jack was back, and stronger than ever, judging by the display during the Helicarriers, although it was certainly not as impressive as holding up an entire Carrier all by his lonesome.
If she looked up using a telescope, she could still see the Three carriers in orbit. Conspiracy theorists were having a field day about the eventual ownership of the carriers and how it would completely shift the balance of power in favour of whichever country managed to convince the Green Guardian to give the command of the best weapons that Humans had managed to build.
She had managed to expose HYDRA, all of the WSC that ordered that nuclear strike were dead, and while SHIELD itself was no more, she knew Fury and he was not one to accept defeat so soon. She had no doubt that Coulson was probably running around somewhere, gathering up the remnants of SHIELD to get some sort of underground agency up and running.
She applied a healthy amount of sunscreen and simply laid down on the beach, sipping Margaritas and looking at cute boys. The dream scenario for a whole lot of girls, especially for retirement, and yet…
She couldn't find much joy in this slow life. Sure, it was something that she once thought would cure all of her life's troubles away but real life was different than fantasy. She had greatly enjoyed it at first but in less than two weeks, she was getting quite bored of this place. For one, she already knew most of the good spots and had already tried most of the good food and drinks.
So, she was thinking of bouncing from this place, burning her identity as Karen Judy, and then heading to some other place. She was thinking of Europe, doing some old architectural touring, and then seeing where her new path in life leads her.
So, she was understandably pissed when her plans for a cold quiet touristy life in Europe went up in flames as Tony landed in front of her with that stupid three point superhero landing, throwing up sand everywhere.
She glared at him and just threw the margarita at him, the glass breaking against his steel suit.
"Damn you, Jarvis. You snitch!" She yelled as she began gathering her stuff and stomping back towards the cute scooter that she purchased second-hand after coming here, trying to fit in with the whole hippie traveller vibe. Now, seeing it next to the shining red and gold of Tony's suit, it just looked stupid.
CRACK…
Especially since Tony just cracked its headlight's plastic housing when he tried to lean on the scooter with his stupid heavy suit.
By this point, there was a crowd gathering as she had to shed her disguise. She was able to hide her identity by doing some small changes to her face and hair but now that everyone has seen her with Tony, this identity was burned as well.
Such a shame, that Karen died so young. Only 3 years and 4 months since she was created out of thin air.
"What do you want, Tony?" She sighed and threw her towel on the suit.
"Um, actually, I am not actually here. Jarvis just piloted the suit straight to your location since his promise to you made it impossible for him to "tell" me the location. Nothing that would not lead one of my suits straight to you, however. You should really make ironclad promises to beings based on logical thinking," Tony's insufferable voice only grated more on her.
"Look, some new information has come to light. The sceptre is missing from SHIELD's custody,"
Her eyes widened as her demeanour changed instantly at the news. If the sceptre was missing, and if it was last seen in SHIELD custody, then it meant that…
"Yup. HYDRA probably has it. I know you did the whole retirement thing and the world governments are still after you for the murder of the World Security Council but as soon as it was revealed that most of the WSC was HYDRA, the President himself would probably give you a pardon."
"Really, Tony? You want me to come back on a "maybe"? That too from a seasoned politician?" She scoffed as she looked around and realised that they were filmed and probably live streamed for the world to see.
"I'll send a compatible suit in the evening to come pick you up. Pack light," She covered her eyes as the suit rocketed into the air. She snatched the towel that fell from the sky and covered her head with it. She took a look at the steadily approaching crowd and promptly raced out of the area on her scooter, lest she get mobbed to death by some rabid fans.
_____xx____
–Jack Sullivan–
He had a meeting with the POTUS in two days. He had a problem when he finally decided to have the meeting because he didn't know whom to contact for the same. His go to contact before was Fury but since that was clearly not an option, with Fury having gone underground, he had resorted to contacting the NYPD Commissioner who was just exhausted with the ordeal as he had to contact his superior to contact his superior to contact his superior, and so on and so forth, right up until they reached the White House.
It was a very brisque call where he was given a possible schedule when he could enter and he was also very politely requested not to open a portal straight to the White House as that might make the people in power very nervous.
Now, he was a little but confused at first because almost the entire world knew by now that he could open portals, seemingly without any limitation to the distance covered but apparently, the Politicians would lose their shit if he opened one up in front of them.
Nevertheless, he agreed and thus, he had to reach Washington DC in less than 50 hours.
He had confirmed that Pops was fine and after doing a routine fly-by of all the gang areas and sufficiently warning them against open warfare in the civilian areas, he was reasonably certain that Pops would be safe. He would meet him once the heat had died down.
When he had awoken from the heavenly nap in the spaceship, the first thing he had noticed was that it was cold, well–he had told the computer to do so, so it was fair, but it was unreasonably cold. For him to feel cold meant that the temperatures were in the single digits or even sub zero.
The second thing he noticed was that it had been over 4 hours since he had slept, the handy alarm built into the ship informing him. Now, 4 hours for a normal person would not mean much but for someone like him, 4 hours was equivalent to being out cold for a day.
He was just more mentally exhausted than he had thought.
It was almost the end of 2014 and aside from the whole SHIELD fiasco, he didn't remember anything else of note happening in the year. So, that meant that at least for the remaining 2 months, he could sort of chill.
Take Pops out on a few trips. Help New York, go to Wakanda and plan for their eventual introduction to the wider world.
Also, he still had the issue of those carriers up in orbit, to resolve before they could be handed over to any other agency. He also had to broach the subject of SWORD or some other agency to the President.
Now, where did he get those heavenly subs from? He knew the truck's looks and the person but the food truck had apparently moved in the last two years that he had spent in space.
So, he did what everyone with superpowers should do: Make their own lives infinitely easier.
Now, he could have searched around on his own but what were his powers for then? His finger twitched as he flew by the Avengers Tower as a flood of green surrounded him before hundreds of observatory barriers flew throughout the streets of New York, starting with the areas surrounding the original location of the truck.
He still didn't know how to effectively handle the carriers, aside from just giving their custody to the newest SHIELD like organisation that would come up. But how would one go about preventing another SHIELDRA like situation, not just in terms of infiltration but also in terms of maintaining the moral fabric of the entire organisation?
Because no matter how it might look for the average Joe, it would have been impossible for nobody to notice the general behaviour and mindset of HYDRA's operatives in SHIELD. If nobody flagged it as odd, then it meant that the general sense in SHIELD was similar enough that it did not raise any big red alarms.
Since they were not really involved with HYDRA itself, most of SHIELD's operatives were given the OK to be absorbed by various other US agencies but some of them did end up retiring, or working for private entities, like Maria Hill (Robin Sparkles?) began working for the Avengers on Stark's payroll as a contact between governments and Avengers.
He looked to the side as an Iron Man suit was approaching him. He suspended her sub finding operations and floated mid air.
"Mr.Sullivan, Mr.Stark has some critical news that he believes would be of interest to you as well," Jarvis' voice filtered out through the suit's speakers.
He instantly understood that Jarvis had returned to Tony's side. He didn't understand why he had left anyway. Maybe something to do with avenging him or something, as much as he had heard from Romanoff.
Let's see what Tony has to say for critical information. As far as his memories went, there was nothing aside from SHIELDRA's fall that happened in 2014 but he couldn't discount any butterflies that his existence might have created.
"Very well," He said as he flew to the Avengers Tower. He was also curious as to how Tony had decorated the Avengers Tower. Did each Avenger get his own room or floor? How was Banner doing?
Was he living with Tony, as was shown in canon?
[To find more, watch the next episode of Drago– *Copyrighted content*]
______xxx_____
Birnin Zana, Wakanda
–T'Challa–
"So this is what you plan on gifting him? The strongest human on Earth? You do realize he doesn't need this to be safe," He asked his sister incredulously as she showed him the advanced nanite package that she had invented to replace the current gen Black Panther armour.
And instead of giving it to her beloved brother, she instead wants to gift that to an…outsider.
"So what? I asked Father and he was alright with it, as long as I destroyed any Wakandan code present in the suit," Shuri stuck her tongue out at him, showing real maturity for someone who just invented nanotechnology, something that was shown in movies even in Wakanda.
While Jack Sullivan was an outsider, he was not like other people. He was the saviour of the planet and also someone who could change the world order in mere days. Not even Bruce Banner, the Hulk commanded this level of influence.
"Now, when is he coming back? I can't wait to show this to him. Also, this might also give us an opportunity to get close range scans of the Green Guardian. I might even figure out just what makes him so strong!" Shuri said as she excitedly opened a hologram and began talking in a language so foreign to him that unless he had at least a single doctorate in the specialised field that Shuri had just moved on from, it would only be gibberish for him.
His sister really made him look like a monkey, something that she never failed to rub in.
"Don't get your hopes up. Despite our recent changes, it could be a while before he comes to visit. His friend is still in stasis and unless we can develop medicines powerful enough to negate his super soldier physique, we can't risk exposing him to therapy. I assume even if the Green Guardian did come back, he would talk only to Father, or maybe Me, considering I am to be King," Here he looked smugly at Shuri who only showed him the middle finger.
Rude.
"--Anyway, as I was saying, he might just talk about work and his friend and then immediately leave. So, my dear sister–" He walked through the hologram and appeared in front of her annoyed face, and flicked her on her forehead.
"--Your nefarious plan to experiment on your idol might just never come to fruition,"
He laughed as she just ignored him and turned her back on him.
Sigh, so much for her genius.
Word Count - 2317
If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon or Ko-fi .
I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット