(Black Friday sale at Patreon for anyone for cares)
The blast doors buckled behind them, heat and pressure slamming through the corridor like the breath of a dragon. Dust came down in choking clouds as klaxons wailed and emergency lights flickered red.
"Move, move, move!" Fury barked, dragging Sue forward with one hand and shoving Johnny ahead with the other. Hill and the remaining agents needed no such help as they were running as fast as they could.
As they ran through the dark underground corridors of the compound, the walls around them trembled as one explosion after another shook the facility.
They reached the underground vehicle bay far faster than any of them had thought possible, but then again, it wasn't every day you ran like you had a possible nuclear explosion happening behind you.
"Go, go, go!" Fury barked as he threw himself into the back of one of the cars, which wasted no time speeding off.
Never before had Fury been so happy that he didn't cheap out on the cars for SHIELD, and didn't go with some stupid electric model; no, he very much enjoyed the zero to sixty feeling, even if it threw him around a bit.
Outside, the night air greeted them, and not a moment too soon before more explosions started to tear apart the facility behind them.
"Honestly… I expected it to explode sooner." Johnny said as they looked back at the building collapsing onto itself.
"Really? You hoped we would all die in there?" Hill shouted as she held onto the car for dear life.
"No, but from what Reed said, it sounded like it would be a lot bigger." He tried to defend himself.
Fury couldn't help but agree, he really hadn't expected to make it out alive, but for some reason, they had.
"I think it was Richard." Sue said after a moment.
"What do you mean? Didn't you see him? He got sapped by that blue light, and just like Ben and that agent, they all became loyal minions, some kind of mind control or something." Johnny pointed out.
"Yes, but we don't know how it works. He was still working until he was told to move… so maybe he was forced to obey, but since he wasn't told not to try to stop the explosion, he kept doing that?" Sue said, her voice hopeful that somehow Reed and the others could still be saved.
Fury did agree that the theory did have some merit, but he didn't know a lot about how mind control worked. That was as good as any theory he had heard.
"Which means, that if not worded correctly, Reed and the others could still help us?" Jonney asked, half-hopeful, half-desperate.
Sue's eyes stayed locked on the horizon where the compound burned, her hands twisting in her lap. "I don't know. But I have to believe it's possible. If he was fighting back even a little… then he's not completely gone."
Johnny sighed from the seat beside her, his gravelly voice low. "Hope's fine, Suzie. But right now, we gotta focus on the fight in front of us. Whoever that creep was, he's walking around with your brother and the Cube."
The car hit a bump, jostling everyone. Fury braced against the door, his expression set like stone. "You're all right. We have to hope for the best, but assume the worst. We need to act before that alien can do whatever he is planning, because whatever it is, it's bad, really bad."
Fury had met countless people over the years, and he personally thought he was good at reading others, and this extended even to beings from beyond Earth.
This creature was a fanatic, someone who believed their own lies and would die for those beliefs. But before that happened, he would no doubt drag Earth to the death with him, something that couldn't be allowed.
"You got a plan for stopping that guy? Because he just kicked our asses, and I don't mean to brag or anything, but we are kinda like the fantastic four… and now just two of us are left." Johnny pointed out.
He pulled a scorched folder from under his coat, slapped it down on his knee, and flipped it open. The pages inside were wrinkled, smudged with ash, but the words on the cover were still clear: Avengers Initiative.
Hill glanced back at him, wide-eyed. "You're really going to dust that off?"
"I don't see another option," Fury said. His voice was steady, but there was iron under it. "That thing we saw back there—he wasn't just some alien terrorist. He had power. Control. A mission. And if he serves who he says he does, then Earth isn't ready. Not by a long shot."
Sue tore her gaze from the flames, fixing Fury with a fierce look. "Then get us ready. We're not sitting this out."
Fury stared at her for a long moment. He let the wind and the smell of burnt ozone fill his lungs, let the ash settle on his collar, and then he reached down and snapped the battered folder closed with a sound like a gunshot.
"Good," he said. "Because nobody else will do it for us."
Only moments after he said that, a massive explosion happened behind them, the light was blinding, and their car was instantly thrown into the air, crashing brutally into the ground and rolling multiple times before finally coming to a stop.
The car's frame groaned, glass shattered, and metal screeched as it finally came to rest on its side. For a moment, the only sound was ragged breathing and the ticking of overheated engines.
"Thanks, Miss Storm, without you… Well, let's not think about that." Fury was quick to say when he realized he wasn't hurt, and the reason for that was Susan Storm, having protected them from the worst of it.
Sue slumped forward, her arms trembling, the faint shimmer of her shield fading around them. "I… I caught most of it," she whispered. "Not all."
Johnny shoved the crumpled door off its hinges, coughing smoke from his lungs. "You did more than enough, sis. Without that bubble, we'd be toast."
Hill dragged herself upright, one hand pressed against a bleeding cut at her temple.
Fury pushed the door open with his shoulder and hauled himself out, brushing soot from his coat. His one good eye fixed on the destruction, unblinking. "That wasn't just a lab going up. That was a message."
Johnny spat into the dirt. "Yeah? Well, message received loud and clear: alien freak with a god complex just declared war."
"No," Fury corrected, his tone grim. "He didn't declare war. He thinks it's already over." He reached into his coat again, retrieving the battered folder. "But we will prove to him that this isn't over."
"Hill!" He shouted. "Get us out of here. I've got some calls to make." He said, as Hill started making calls to have them evacuated and call in support, while Fury made a few special calls.
…
Engines sputtered in the distance as SHIELD transports moved into position, headlights cutting across the smoking treeline. Hill was already on comms with command, voice clipped and professional, but Fury tuned it out. He crouched low against the battered vehicle, pulled a secure line from his coat, and keyed in a code that only a handful of people alive even knew.
The line clicked. A woman's voice answered, calm but sharp. "Romanoff."
"Agent," Fury said, voice gravel. "We've got a situation."
"I figured," Natasha replied. Her image flickered onto the cracked screen of Fury's secure device, the background dim and nondescript. "Montana's been lighting up every feed for the last fifteen minutes. What happened?"
Fury exhaled once through his nose, steady. "We lost the Cube. An alien came through the portal—smooth talker, carrying a staff that bent minds. He walked in, walked out with Richards, Grimm, and Barton under his thumb."
Natasha's eyes narrowed, her jaw tight. "Clint?"
"Compromised," Fury said flatly. "He's one of theirs now."
For the briefest moment, Natasha didn't move. Then she nodded, the flicker of something dangerous in her eyes. "Then I'll get him back."
"You'll get your chance," Fury said. "But first, I need Banner. This situation is one that normal people can't handle, so I need extraordinary people. I need the Avengers."
Natasha leaned back, considering. "And if he doesn't want to come in?"
"You're Natasha Romanoff," Fury said. "He'll come in."
There was a pause—half a heartbeat—then she smirked faintly, without warmth. "Where do I start?"
Fury rattled off coordinates from memory. "Brazil. He's been moving, but he won't get far without us knowing. Find him. Bring him in. Carefully."
"Understood," she said. The line clicked out.
Fury closed the device and slid it back into his coat. Around him, the night was still thick with smoke, the horizon lit by the fading glow of the ruined compound. He looked to Hill, who was waving down the first evac vehicle.
"Banner first," Fury muttered, almost to himself. "Then the rest. This isn't over."
(End of chapter)
Support me at patreon.com/unknownfate - for the opportunity to read up to 30 chapters ahead.
Or on boosty.to/unknownfate