Chapter Text
SHIELD HQ, aka ‘The Playground
Location: Virginia
"What the hell?" Hearing the question Mack looked over to see Fitz looking up at the laboratory’s tv screen in disbelief. The small Scotsman had his hands clasped at the back of his head, mouth hanging slightly open. He looked back up to the dashboard cam footage to see the officers approaching the downed subjects. He’d seen a lot of crazy stuff since joining SHIELD but watching a pair of cops being forced to gun down a grandma and a paramedic filled him with a level of dread he hadn’t felt before. Somewhere behind him he heard a scientist try and hold in his stomach. These newbies were going to have to be toughened up. He had to wonder how much influence Jemma had with the new director over hiring.
"What. The. Hell."
"You've already said that Turbo." Mack looked around to see Phil standing behind him with Melinda by his side. Their bodies were still but their eyes ..."What do you think boss ... biological ... Hydra maybe?" Phil may not technically be in charge anymore, but under the circumstances he didn’t think anyone could blame him for slipping into old habits.
When Phil replied, his eyes did not leave the madness that was being shown on the screen. "This seems too random for Hydra. As for anything else we have to leave that to Jemma to figure out." He looked around at the staring eyes. "Ok everyone we have work to do, if you have any contacts now is the time to reach out.” He turned to look at the Asian woman. “Melinda ..."
"I'll do a check on our biohazard gear and get the strike team ready for deployment." Melinda paused as her eyes made contact with Phil's. “I’m guessing the new director won’t be unhappy with us being proactive?” She looked at Phil with an eyebrow raised. Her voice might have sounded flat to the newcomers who were still milling around, but those who knew her could pick up the slight disdain permeating underneath her words.
Phil only just held in a sigh, he appreciated that change could be hard, and that his decision to stand down hadn’t gone down well with many, but this was getting a bit silly. “Not as long as we don’t do something like try to leave base and capture one of these infected for study without authority.” Which was probably what Jemma was going to request for, if she hadn’t already. “I’m going to speak to the Director and Jemma now, see if I can get more information." He wasn’t even sure if she had technically had permission to share that footage.
"Phill.” He looked over to Mack, the tall African American had such a worried look on his face which almost made him look small. “What about Yoyo and Daisy ..."
"I'm sure they’re Ok.” He gave his partner his best reassuring smile. But it didn’t work. “I’ll go and talk with the Director and Jemma and see if they have more information.”
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For Coulson, walking down the brick walled hallway to his old office always a brought about a weird feeling. And it wasn’t just because of the completely unnecessary guard that now stood outside the room. As he looked up at Cecilio he couldn’t help but wonder how long the big guy would last in a spar against Melinda. He wondered how Director Mace felt about friendly beats. “Cecilio nice to see you again, I need to speak to the Director.”
"Is that Agent Coulson?” Came the Director’s voice through the open door. “Phill come in.” Walking in he saw the Director Mace with a bunch of … actually he wasn’t sure what they were supposed to be aids? Advisors?
To his left he saw Jemma hunched over her computer on the shiny black conference table. She looked up at him not saying anything, just giving a brief nod in recognition. The English girl’s ponytail was not as immaculate as usual, and she had a sad smile on her face. All which basically screamed bad news.
"Ok everyone.” He turned back to look at his boss who was giving his best version of a reassuring smile. With the fancy smile and good looks the smile made Jeffrey Mace look like a stereotypical politician, but wasn’t a bad thing under the circumstances. “That’s enough for now I need to have a quick word with Agent Coulson and Doctor Simmons.” As they all left the Director looked over Phil’s head. “You to Cecilio.”
As soon as the big guy had moved off Phil turned to look at the man he’d pressed to have his old job. "We’ve just watched the video, why weren't we notified earlier?”
His boss dropped the smile and ran a hand through his short brown hair, as he walked to a free chair on the conference table. "SHIELD's existence is still highly classified.” The man sat down with a pensive look on his face. There were no greys in his hair, but Phil doubted that was going to last for much longer. “I only asked the President about it cause one of the congressmen overseeing our budget came to me directly. "
The sound of a throat clearing had both men turning towards the brunette. "I’ve just had a message from a contact I have in the NHS.” She looked up at both of them. “There has been no cases reported in the UK, but it looks like there are similar cases in France, including Paris. I ...."
Her throat visibly tightened. "Which means that in all likely hood this, whatever this is, has most likely reached the UK.” She slumped back into her chair. “And if somehow it hasn’t it soon will, as well as the rest of the EU.”
The silence was broken by a “Jesus Christ” from Mace. The man took a breath then leaned forward in his chair. He splayed his hands out as he looked between the two of them. “So where do we go from here?”
As far as Phil was concerned the fact the man wasn’t panicking was a good start. “We have to assume, even if travel restrictions are put in place, that this is going to spread throughout the United States.” He looked over at Jemma. “And there is nothing to indicate how this is spreading?”
“Nothing. Some people have bite marks ranging from barely more then a scratch to mortal wounds. But others don’t have any markings at all, or anything show up in autopsy. But one thing is sure, whoever gets infected becomes extremely aggressive.” She paused, frow tightening. “Though thankfully they seem to lose most of their cognitive functions.”
“You want to study one of the effected.” Stated Phil, feeling slightly smug that he’d already seen where Jemma was going to go with her thinking. “If necessary, capture one in a containment pod.”
The doctor just shrugged. “There is only so much I can learn from reading other people’s reports. And the biometric scanners built into the pods are better than anything most medical facilities have. They’re probably even better then what the CDC or the army’s medical research staff at Fort Detrick have access to.” She looked over at Mace. “Plus, we can use it to see how the effected react to changes in light, temperature ….”.
“Ok, I get the picture.” The director sat back and drummed his fingers on the table. “I’ll start making some calls. But I want to see a full containment proposal on my desk before I give the go ahead.” He stood up, flattening down his suit as he did so. “I’ll also see that we’ve got as many food and medical supplies as possible. If there is going to be some kind of temporary restrictions on movement, I want us prepared.”
A quick look at Jemma’s expression made it painfully obvious to Phil that the chances of any restrictions being ‘temporary’ wasn’t wishful thinking. He tried to put that aside as he stood up as well. “There is also something else we have to consider.” Mace looked across to him. “Our people out in the field and those on the index. We can’t just leave them in the dark.”
Jeffrey looked at the two, he knew that this was personal to them in a way it wasn’t for him but atleast they weren’t spouting out names. “Those on the index we’ll give them option to come in, starting with those closest to us. As for our staff …” He paused, thinking. “We can’t stop doing our jobs, but we’ll ban unnecessary travel to areas where this has been reported. Till the decision is made to go public with this we can’t really do much more than that.”
As Phil gave a polite nod to his boss his mind was already That all sounded quite reasonable, but it wouldn’t go down with Mack. Hell, it didn’t really go down well with him. Still, that didn’t mean they couldn’t make some phone calls. In fact, it was probably time he quietly reached out to Fury and Maria again.
And what they decided to do with the info, well that was not really on him now was it?
That evening: Avengers Compound
Location: New York State
“Jesus Tony.”
Tony Stark looked over at his girlfriend. She looked pale but not outright scared or nauseated. "Maria forward it to me. As far as I know Natasha could have forwarded it to her." Though that didn’t make sense, any of Steve’s band would have just contacted him or Friday directly. Or possibly Vision, as he suspected the synthezoid was having some contact with them.
"And you can't reach any of them?"
He sighted. "I haven't heard from Maria or Fury in a while.” Ideally his hand brushed over his right pocket and the flip phone inside. “Honestly, I don’t know what good the others would do. “This isn’t something that can be fixed by throwing an expensive frisbee at.” Rubbing his eyes he tried not to bury the growing thought that he may be out of his deep. He really wished Bruce was here. “I’ve left a message for Helen, but she’s probably not up yet. I’ll try and get her back from Hong Kong.” God if this had reached there …
Pepper rested her hand on his shoulder and gently dropped her head on top of it. "You're trying to figure out how to save everyone, aren't you?"
“Well, I am an Avenger." He dropped the smug look. "Rhodey is looking into if the military has intel of this being some kind of biological attack.” He looked out the window, slightly ashamed to find himself wondering how safe they were here. New York city alone and a population of what, 20 million? The compound had no active defences, hell they only had a basic fence backed up by sensors. And since the whole mess in Germany all those troops that had made Steve feel so nostalgic seemed to have been vanished.
"We have to look at bringing the staff from New York out here.” He looked over at Pepper her hand left her shoulder. “If we can’t tell them the truth we will need to portray it as some kind of open day, something to bring their kids to. And their pets, well dogs anyway as even I can’t think of a good reason to bring out anything else.” She looked back up at him. “Actually, it would have to be an open weekend, so they don’t feel like they’d be better to just get a sitter to look after the kids.”
Tony didn’t bother to hide his awe. "And people think I'm the genius of the relationship." God, he loved her. Sighing he tried to get his mind back to the matter at hand and, he had to admit himself, back above his waist. "I’m going to need to tell Peter something, though the only chance I have of getting him out of New York is if I get May up here. Hell he probably still won't want to leave. Won't think it right to leave his friends let alone all of Queens." He had the feeling he was going to hear a lot of variations of ‘protecting the little guy’ from the kid when they talked.
"What are you thinking Tony?"
"That there are a couple of people I need to speak to." He pulled out the flip phone. What the hell was Steve going to do? Or Natasha? Or Sam? His hand hovered above the dial button. God he was like a teenager trying to get the courage to call a girl. Not like he had any first hand experience of that kind of nerves. Except maybe when he first asked out Pepper.
Holding in a breath he pushed the dial button.
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Location: Scotland
Phone still in hand Steve leaned forward in his chair and looked around the motel room at his friends. He wasn’t sure if he should be proud or worried about how well they were taking what Tony had just told him. Though, to be fair, he wasn’t exactly how they should be taking it. It wasn’t as if Tony had been asking for help busting some HYDRA lab, he was saying something potentially manufactured was already out in the public making them violent.
“So, what’s the play?” Asked Sam, trying to get comfortable on a bed that had to have one of the worst mattresses of all the places they’d been staying at. “We going to head back to the States? He looked across to Wanda sitting on the bed opposite him, then to Natasha leaning against the door, and finally back across at Steve. “I hate to say it Cap, but I got to think about my family down in Louisiana.”
“Go to the Bartons first." Natasha said, leading to all to look at the newly dyed blond. "Don't land on the property itself in case it's under surveillance." She paused. "I have to get word to Yelana and to our .... parents." The former spy said the last word like she was still unsure how to say properly. "Mel … My mother is a scientist and may be able to help." Gracefully she pushed herself off the door and took a step forward. She looked at Steve and gave a quick shrug. “I can find my own way back to the states.”
“Nat…” Getting to his feet, Steve looked at her knowing what she was going to say. Hating himself for knowing that he wasn’t going to argue with her.
And from the look on her face she knew it to. “I’ll be ok. Go back to the states, make up with Tony, and get back your shield.” She took a step towards him, giving him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I think everyone back home is going to need to need some of that old red, white, and blue spirit.”
Home, a term that still felt like it was more about people then a place to him. He forced a smile onto his face, one he knew didn’t reach his eyes. “You better make it back soon. I think Clint will put an arrow into me just on principle if you don’t. He held out his arms. “Give an old fossil a quick hug for the road?”
That did get a proper smile from his teammate. “You are such a big softy.” She did give him a hug though.
“Hell, I’d like one of those as well.” Said Sam, big smile on his face. “Don’t worry, my bones aren’t as brittle as the old man’s.”
Wanda didn’t even bother asking, as soon as Sam was done almost pushed him out of the way.
Looking at his comrades Steve couldn’t help but wonder if this was the last time the four of them would be in the same room again. After Wanda and Nat pulled apart from their hug an uneasy silence filled the room. Clearing his throat, he got all of their attentions. “Whatever comes next.” They all looked at him. “Whatever we see, or have to do to survive, we’re still Avengers. What we’ve done matters, ever person we save in the future matters.”
With one final look he struggled to keep his voice as calm as he needed it to be. “Now, lets get to work.”