Fury had rendezvoused with the other heads, who were a tad worried by the looks of it, but in reality, they were thinking of ways to summarize the losses and how to approach the staircase. Fury was not too happy with their faces. The other heads discussed while they continued to ask questions for Fury, as he was the head for this sort of thing. Fury gave his honest answer, voice full of gravel, but he also proposed a compromise regarding the counter-offensive if rumors were believed to be true.
Fury had proposed that each agency take a part in the operation, and they would use the best specialty of each agency, while having the National Guard on standby in case of any incidents. Needless to say, after a few quick changes, everything was in order since the agencies themselves didn't take kindly to listening to the military, or General Ross. The meeting had taken course over the reappearance of Natasha from the staircase. Natasha had returned from the underground, 30 minutes after Fury left. She was physically fine except for the overexertion in places, but the real harm was done in the mental plane, as she was in full regard effectively dunked into a place where all her mental training was useless, as what she was dealing with directly forced the nerves to emit those chemicals.
She walked in as a good agent and left an even better agent. Even in her deplorable state, she was still on high alert and only slightly relaxed when she saw Coulson. When she appeared, the ones left behind by the commanders quickly peppered her with questions, Coulson shushed the noisy neighbors, and hurriedly brought Natasha to the medical ward. When Coulson believed everything was fine and dandy, he sent Fury a message about Natasha's escape.
Fury had only seen the message after the meeting; he shot Coulson a quick message telling him that he would arrive soon. He then wasted no time and made his way back to the school, going by all the security checks. His nerves had significantly calmed down, but the mystery of the staircase remained, as well as what was so important to seal down there that required a second bloody avalanche, excluding the face, of course.
Natasha had been lying in bed ever since she got there. She usually would never allow her guard to be this down, but even she couldn't hold it up forever after what her brain had just been through. It's like a drug addict re-experiencing their first high. She was conditioned to null the fear and everything in between, yet now she could barely recall anything after the face appeared, if fired all the nerves which hadn't seen use since she was a child, and forced everything they had out. She was in a haze, but still combat capable except that a well-trained soldier could knock her out swiftly.
Fury had entered with sparkling lights behind him, the one that stood out most was reflecting off his bald head and momentarily blinding all those inside. Fury faked a cough and walked up to Natasha with no haste, but even a fool could see he was worried about her. He asked her some preliminary questions, which Natasha answered sluggishly. They talked for a while before a doctor stepped up and insisted she be moved to the hospital, and for everybody to stop trying to pull information from her when she was essentially a vet with ptsd. Everyone backed off, and Fury ordered the SHIELD agents to transport Natasha to a hospital.
After he said what he wanted to say, he exited the tent and went on his way, preparing for a counteroffensive if the info was confirmed to be true.
[Days Later]
The scouting was completed, and some signs of funny business were detected. After confirming this was not any of the criminal enterprises or anything of the sort, they decided they were going to launch the raid, not much harm either, they thought they could easily cover it up.
The 2 Guards were left to run the store at the top, while the rest were armed 24/7. Barely any measures were in place in case of a raid, most of them being decided by the captain of the guard squad. Ant was highly incompetent in this field, as all the knowledge he had was for the universe, not combat. Being the well-trained force they are, they had caught on to the espionage and had been preparing for a raid. Captain Lemon had been directing all affairs to Ant, so he quickly became aware of the situation at the corner store.
[With Ant]
Shit, that's the only words that come to mind right now. I got the call I didn't want to receive, especially this early on. The agencies had found the location of the small site; not only that, but according to Lemon, they are also preparing to raid the small site. I am no gosh dang Batman, I'm poor, stupid, and weak as a twig, no amount of prep time will save my behind. The only silver lining is the fact that I'm not there; I'm at the border between the US and Canada, to visit the large site, which, in the near future, if everything works out, will be holding the top dogs of the foundation.
I'm in absolutely no danger, but being reduced to 1 site will be really not great, and I can't lose the nullatron inside the hat; it's strong, especially this early on. I'm not about to risk my precious life, however, don't get me twisted voice in my head! I'm too far out to expect to make it in time to negotiate, so I'm going to have to do it over the phone. I will also play a power move, or at least I hope it is, and send out the MTF fully restocked with ammo from the large site, which I must say is insane. There are like 20 different areas to restock on ammunition.
It's truly time to see if my looks translate to speaking; an idiot can be charming, also I'm not an idiot, I have exponential intelligence right now its just at the bottom... am I like Deadpool? Why do I make remarks about myself to myself and speak to the voice that is just me?
[Operation: fake it till you make it -Ant]
[Operation: Cobra's Maw - Agencies]
Stark Industries had been thriving ever since Tony revealed himself as Iron Man. Tony has been flying around all day, continuously upgrading his gear, while also trying to solve deaths game. Palladium poisoning was inching ever closer to killing him, and he had to solve it, or else he would die. When Tony returned from the Middle east he made some stark discoveries. So much went down while he was gone, he was convinced something had rotted too deeply inside the military. He had been on the lookout for SHIELD ever since they contacted him after the fight with Stane. He had been using sources within the government to assist him on counter espionage if they became a hassle, he accidentally ended up discovering the information on the operation happening soon, he was confused and suspicious at first since this was clearly not low level information, but after confirming it himself he was at a loos for words, how could a agency that prided themselves on secrecy be this easy to infiltrate and steal documents about?
Alexander Pierce was the answer; he had intentionally leaked the info to tony hoping he would cause a distraction, and Hydra could sneak something out, the Nullatron, taking full priority as they knew best what it was. A relic from the past used by Red Skull. Pierce was unsure how the brat in the circus managed to obtain it, but it didn't really matter much, as it was stolen on debut day, and he died.
It is time to begin the thumping of the war drums and the blowing of the war horn. If not handled decisively and correctly, most of New York would vanish in a fireball of radiation, for one thing was certain: no SCP site that was tasked with containing anomalies lacked a nuclear warhead, and if that warhead were to explode, it would cause irreparable harm to the entire universe, as the main world had just deviated so far from the original timeline.
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That's the end of this chapter
1445 words
Next chapter will be full of descriptions I promise 🥹🙏(next chapter will also be the first time Ant interacts with a person of ultimate value in marvel)