Chapter 87: Rotten Paradise, part 2

I followed Natasha's colleague up to the second floor and into what must be the club owner's private suite. This is evidenced not only by the luxurious, and clearly excessive, decoration of the room, but also by its total area and its location. The vast suite has a great view through the huge, full-wall glass of everything that goes on downstairs in the common room.

On the back wall of the room is a not very skillfully, in my opinion, painted portrait of a black woman, with a puffy face, a bulging look of a criminal who thinks he is the king of the streets, and a massive - probably to confirm his royal status - gold crown. This masterpiece of Harlem art is supposed to arouse guests' awe and confusion for the owner of the office; alas, for me, it evokes only a nostalgic yearning for the dignified art of painting. Tasteless. It is, however, like everything else here, excessively garish and pretentious, as if the man who created this place simply did not understand what a real sense of style means, and instead tried in every possible way to flaunt his wealth.

Fortunately, the real owner of the club was not here at the moment. Instead, Nicole Fury was there in person. As always, collected and stern. I chuckled involuntarily, remembering how I had found out the background of the head of the Shield, and, specifically, the rumors that wandered about her among the other employees. Even in my world, the headmaster's identity was shrouded in mystery and laden with legends. But those were mostly rumors about Fury's exploits and stories about how he lost his left eye. In this world, there were many more gossip fans in the agency. People say about Fury that she never lets herself relax for a second and never goes anywhere without a gun. I've heard talk that she even sleeps with a gun. Others speculated that the gun replaces her lover. No one says that to her face, though. Smart people think carefully about what to say to the head of the Shield and what not, and stupid people don't talk to Nicole Fury.

"It's a strange place you've called me to, not much like Shield Headquarters," I remarked, taking a seat across from Fury, at the negotiating table, literally.

"Don't take it personally, it has nothing to do with you," Nicole said calmly, then, after thinking for a while, added, "under the current circumstances, there's no room for comfort."

And yet, what could have happened in this place last night to make Fury trade normal headquarters for this rotten club? Given that there was no sign of a riot, no police presence, not even press... was it the appearance of a new mutant or something like that?

"As for the circumstances," I begin, "if you called me, it means you've come to some kind of decision."

"That's right," Nicole agrees, looking at me with one eye, searchingly, "as you said yourself, 'We're going to clean up this shit. Are you ready to take part?"

"You're recruiting me," I grinned.

There was no rebuttal. Just the same cold appraising look. But is Fury really ready to show the world the Avengers yet? I thought it would take her more time.

"You already know the answer," I answered without pausing long enough. "Destroying those who threaten my family is my top priority."

But what could Peter Parker do that the Shield director would personally take it upon himself to recruit him? Fury hasn't said a word yet about Venom or Spider-Woman... it's not like they could recover the camera footage from the compound, which means they can't assess my, um, talents for sure. All they have is the survivors' tales, some conflicting facts about my resurrection, and maybe some footage of me and the girls having a brief fight already at the Shield base, Gwen said she looped the picture to fool the guards, but the cameras themselves hadn't been disabled, so the experts could recover the data. But that doesn't give much information, although I've demonstrated that I can withstand the blows of two supers and one extremely dangerous mercenary for a while.

"I understand," Fury nodded, "you can rest assured that, as part of an international terrorist organization, they are among the first on our list, regardless of your answer."

"That's good to hear. Then what exactly do you want from me?"

"I see almost everyone's here," Stark said, not bothering to take off her armor, heading to the conference table, accompanied by the heavy gaze of the headmaster, "why the sour faces?"

At ease in her chair, Stark deigned to remove her helmet, and then looked around at everyone present: Barton, Colson, Rogers, and, of course, Fury herself. Agent Sitwell supervised the Avengers initiative until yesterday, but she turned out to be a double spy. That's why she's not in this room at the moment, but is busy fulfilling the idiotic demands of the World Security Council.

Information received from Parker messed up all plans and forced to force the events. Among other things, there was no more time to smooth over the corners and prepare a proper standard headquarters for the Avengers in secret from the rest of the world. The base below New York was already compromised anyway, and the Helicarrier would not simply be lifted into the air. Questions would arise, including those who should be targeted. It's ironic that the Avengers' first mission will be a repeat of the Roaring Team's feat, and under the same man.

"With a jet suit and a fleet of private jets, you were still the one who was more than half an hour late..." Fury stated the obvious fact.

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"I flew fifteen hundred miles in record time just to get here," Stark did not even think to admit her guilt.

"Your flight was an hour and a half late..."

"You didn't even give a reason for the meeting. Why the urgency? I've already sent over all the files on Sarasti... my opinion: she doesn't belong with us. She's unfit for teamwork," Stark replied with a sarcastic smile, clearly alluding to Agent Romanoff's own characterization of her.

"Forget it. There are more important problems," Fury interrupted her, "in light of recent events and the information we've been given, we don't need the Avengers in the future, we need them now."

"Now? I mean, that's the whole team, but where's Romanoff?" Toni looked around at the crowd, but no one else showed any surprise, "What events are we talking about? Apparently, I'm the only one who doesn't know..."

"Agent Romanoff has already begun her part of the mission, along with a new member of the team," the last statement caused surprise in all but Phillip. "Agent Colson, your report."

"Yes," Phil stood up from his seat and began, with his usual friendly smile, "I'm sure many of you have heard about the Midtown School incident, which the news has dubbed the most senseless terrorist attack of the year. Well, there's a very long and unpleasant story behind that attack..."

As he spoke, Philip showed pictures from the scene and, later, data seized from the underground organization. Beginning with the attack on the school, he eventually moved on to the current situation, the deep infiltration of state and military services around the world by Hydra agents, only mentioning in passing how the information was obtained. During the descriptions of apostles' atrocities any hint of cheerfulness left the present people's faces, and when it was about the information about Hydra, everyone was shocked.

"I can't believe it... thousands of victims, right under our noses, this biological supercomputer and fucking Hydra," Stark exhaled shocked when Colson finished his report, "I thought Hydra was long gone."

"We all did," Fury retorted grimly, "which is what they've been using all along."

"So the team you've been assembling" Rogers summed up rather coolly, probably because, to him, Hydra isn't a myth, but a reality, "is the Avengers. You want to use us to confront Hydra."

"It's a matter of the utmost importance," Fury immediately confirmed, to which there was no objection. Steve only nodded in response, "We have data on Hydra agents in the Shield and the government. We need to act as quickly as possible."

"As far as I understand," Hawkeye decided to make her presence known, "we're not supposed to talk to the Council. And what about this boy? How did he get this kind of information, what happened, did he manage to escape the Hydra base on his own?"

"In the first stages we'll have to operate separately from the Council, the army or anyone else, we can't let Hydra's high command prepare and strike back. As for Parker... he's in Agent Romanoff's care."

"So he's the new member of the team?" surprised Stark, "right, I remember now, Peter Parker, the guy who supposedly invented the cure for cancer."

"That's not what you should be worried about right now. Everyone in this room will have their own task to concentrate on," Fury retorted, paying homage to the good old-fashioned method of data fragmentation; she already had too much to bring to the discussion table.

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