Chapter 121: Arc Four. Chapter One Hundred Twenty. Clean Up

Over the course of a week, Shield began the slow and messy clean up of the failed takeover.

Staring at the pile of reports, Fury rubbed his head as the death count was tallied. Made easier by a lot of bodies, it was estimated that out of the half a million people on Staten Island there were over two thousand casualties. What was worse was the victims weren’t dead. While callous, death was easy. These people were walking corpses. Whatever Harry Osborn had done to them left them functional, alive but unresponsive to any stimulus. ‘The Lost’ the media dubbed them and their sheer number brought the emergency services in New York to a grinding halt. Nobody knew what to do with them, other than sticking them in a bed and feed them using an IV, and it was mainly being left to the families to decide. Those with no insurance or no family were being moved to a facility where, much to Fury's dismay, they were barely cared for and most would die within weeks.

While most of them were the symbiote soldiers Harry had created, a fair chunk of civilians was amongst the count, and the World Security Council had gone, as Fury called it, ‘apeshit’ over it.

Contracts were being redrawn, military funding was being redirected away from private companies and into those controlled by the WSC itself. There were even calls to enact a new set of laws, The New York Accords. Requiring all super-powered individuals and, with the emergence of the symbiotes, aliens to register themselves with the WSC. The top brass was not happy and their ire and anger were being spread over each government department. There was even a call to start a new agency, one specifically suited to deal with extraterrestrial threats but Fury knew it was bullshit. Another grab for power from people who had no clue what a real threat was.

Venom and the rest of his team had withdrawn before Shield agents got there. There were several unidentifiable bodies but thankfully Parker was thoughtful enough to identify them. Harry Osborn, missing international thief Thomas Hardy, and finally serial killer and supposedly executed, Cletus Cassidy were the three names that leapt out at him. Peter had destroyed the spawning tanks and all hostile symbiotes had been taken care of, and after the week of delicate forensics, he was proven right.

Parker had even wiped all computer systems clean, all the research Harry had been doing, the formula research, the cloning, and the symbiotes were all gone. Fury didn't buy Parker's explanation and knew he had the backups. Thankfully Carol stepped in and quoted a whole bunch of intergalactic laws in front of them. Real or not, the very real threat of a huge alien fleet turning up to protect a very endangered species was made clear. Plus with Thor and Loki making a case for Asgardian diplomatic channels being opened as well, it gave him the nice neat bow he needed to get the WSC to shut the hell up.

Nick Fury read the after mission report, filed by Carol Danvers and the one handed in by Peter Parker.

Carols was full of facts, reports on army strength, armament, deployment tactics, civilian casualties, and finally a statement on Gobin and his strange hammer.

Parkers read like a school report, summed up in, “we punched them till they stopped fighting back,” and he rubbed his head as the headache began. Parker was still a loose cannon. No formal training, and once the Shield agents turned up and started to grab back the tech they’d ‘liberated’ from Life Incorporated, he realised how much of a headache it actually was.

Parker had two suits of trashed Gobin armour, the glider, and a whole bunch of stolen lab equipment. When the agents moved to remove them they found several pissed off Symbiote hosts, as well as two Asgardians, and a supposed Shield agent, Captain Marvel, stopping them. The agents did what any good agent should do, they ignored them, radioed for orders, and then left it up to their superiors.

It made its way all the way up the chain of command until it landed on his desk and now, it was his headache to deal with.

Thor and Loki had refused to hand back the Tesseract, arguing that the Earth was incapable of defending such a powerful artefact, and with the fact that twice now two governments had used it to mass-produce weapons, Fury had to agree. 

While it was ultimately up to the World Security Council there was very little they could do to stop them. Thor and Loki both proved more than a match for any security team Shield had. It was now just one less thing to worry about in the future, he even wondered if he would get them to take that damn cat as well.

As he read and typed out his final report, Fury's recommendation to the council was in two parts.

First, that as long as Peter Parker kept to himself, that the machinery he liberated was his. The two suits had been stripped of military tech and were just scrap now. The technicians that looked them over doubted they could even get them to move without them exploding or just falling apart and after the remaining Gobin ammo had been confiscated. The rest, well it was high-end lad equipment but nothing major, a mass spectrometer wasn't going to kill half of New York, and once Olivia Octavius had given her statement Fury had the warrant lifted properly and just brushed it all to one side. A chemical sequencer capable of analysing protein strands over a few days wasn’t going to make any difference if it sat in a warehouse with a bunch of kids. 

There was also the issue of proving they actually took it, which was more of a headache than Fury needed and he just brushed it to one side, making a note to take a deduction from Parker's pay for his brazenness.

The second however was what was giving him the headache. With the four women all reported as Symbiotes, and Peter himself as the source, Fury wanted to throw them all in the Fridge. That was a problem. As Carol pointed out, under galactic law, they were a protected species and he didn't have the right. The whole Asgardian situation was because they broke several treaties and Goblin was being taken to stand trial on Nova Prime, where the Earth's situation would be decided.

If the Nova Corp decided to interfere, then the Earth would be visited by a huge armada of troops, soldiers, and scientists, all with one goal in mind. Keeping the Klyntar on the planet. If they didn't then nothing would happen, a patroller might turn up once in a while to make sure they hadn't turned the Earth into a raving pool of symbiote slaves but Carol doubted it would happen a second time. She even gave Fury an assurance that the patroller would probably be her, as she was from this sector of space.

That was the problem though, right now the WSC was using the situation to force anyone with super or enhanced abilities to register as such, even if it was a handful of people they wanted them under control. Osborn had been bad enough but once his son started and then Venom and company joined in, they saw them as more than a threat, they saw them as an asset to exploit.

And therein lay the problem, as Carol explained, as Peter and the rest were protected by intergalactic law. If the WSC did something stupid, no Fury corrected himself, when the WSC did something stupid, then Peter was within his rights to call in a big ass fleet of trigger happy alien soldiers to blast their way across the planet. No matter how he worded that, the answer from the WSC was the same, ‘until they get here, we don't care.’

Which was why Fury, at 11 am, was nursing a glass of very fine scotch as he read his last report.

Thor and Loki taking the cube was a blow to several weapon projects. The lack of cooperation from Parker over symbiote research and formula research was a problem the WSC refused to budge on, but as he had the backing of one of the most dangerous people on Earth, there was nothing they could do.

Of course, the WSC were up his ass about that as well, stating he needed to get the Avengers initiative up and running but that maybe a more homegrown approach was necessary and that a new list had been handed down to him. Carol and Parker were both unsurprisingly missing. Instead, the team was headed by Steve Rogers and included Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton,  and Tony Stark. Natasha was a maybe, she’d dropped enough hints at teaming with Parker that he’d considered it. He’d made some inquiries and had thought about recruiting Spider-man or Agent Webb to the team, they were both a good fit and being untrained he could mould them into perfect agents.

If the New York accords were going to be signed, and Fury already knew they were, several teams were being earmarked, even the Military had started their own. The Thunderbolts, headed by General Ross. had gone after Banner for recruitment. Fury had almost choked on his drink when he heard that Ross had personally apologised to get him on his team.

The world was changing. and Fury felt that sometimes change would be a good thing but this was bringing a lot of hurt to a lot of people, not that the WSC cared. They wanted their pie and were refusing to share.

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Fury looked over the list and decided. If Shield was to prosper it needed a team as well, he doubted he could persuade Spider-Man to come back and Flash had made it clear he wasn’t going near Parker for any money in the world. His only choice was to have a team led by Venom, but as he rubbed his forehead and leaned back in his chair, letting the ice-cold glass rest against his head, he wondered who else?

Carol would probably say yes, as would Thor, but both were heading off-world. He knew the women of the warehouse were hosts as well, so one of them would be perfect as well, but a team that sleeps together fighting together as well can cause problems. No, he needed new blood, new talent, and he needed them to be loyal to Shield. In fact, as Shield seemed to be heading more and more into the WSC’s pocket, he needed a team that was loyal to him, or at least willing to work a little off the books. For that Venom was perfect, now he just needed a few more.

Natasha would have been perfect, but it was apparent that Venom wasn’t too enamoured with the woman after her little stunt. Maybe though, he could just ask her to be nice, and send them on a mission or two together. If they spent time alone, it might just solve their little issue, or they would screw again and it would fix itself. Fury sighed and held the glass against his forehead, the headache was coming back.

Liv Octavious had been mentioned a few times, but she had no training, but then again, neither did Parker. Her technical expertise would make her an asset to any team, and he made a note to get a full report on her done.

Fury could only think of two agents that would be willing to walk a grey area. Phil Coulson, who’d been Fury's right-hand man since the invasion and knew when to keep his mouth closed and his eyes open, and Sharon Carter, Peggy’s niece.

She’d been tasked with keeping an eye on Steve Rogers, a task she was constantly complaining about. She didn't mind making sure the man was adjusting comfortably, she was just bored. Steve wasn't exactly the most adventurous man in the world and tailing him around New York as he visited museums and art galleries weren't her idea of a great assignment.

A knock at his door brought Fury back from his musing and hitting the door buzzer in strode a very angry looking Natasha.

“What the hell is this?” she slammed a file down on his table and Fury shrugged and frowned as he put down his glass.

Flicking open the file, it was Natasha's new assignment, to take over watching Steve and to begin prep for the Avengers initiative.

“It's your new assignment, and?” Fury knew exactly where this was going, so he grabbed another glass from the bottom drawer and put a finger of scotch into it, sliding the glass over to Natasha.

“It's bullshit. Captain America and Tony Stark? Clint I can understand, but me? I do wetwork, shit jobs nobody else takes, not superhero stuff," and eyeing the glass, she grabbed it and downed it in one mouthful as Fury raised an eyebrow and shook his head

“That was 20 years old,” but Natasha waved a hand at him, 

“I don't care, this,” and she stabbed a finger down on the desk at the report, ”this I care about. I'm not working with the apple pie squad. I know you’re making a different team, one with Venom, I want that.”

“Well, Parker was pretty mad at you after the incident. So, get him on side and not only will I approve, I’ll let you lead it,” and Fury smirked, “If you can get him back on side.”

Natasha undid her suit a bit and pulled out a second file, “that's being arranged" and handed it over to Fury.

“You stole my mail?” he asked and she frowned and shrugged.

“Should have better security,” she said and took his glass, draining it and crunching the ice between her teeth.

Fury shook his head and opened the envelope. It was an invitation for Fury and Natasha to attend a demonstration of the new Stacy Formula. Natasha handed over a letter of her own, contents the same but asking if she was willing to be its first recipient.

“I guess you already replied for me?” Fury asked, feeling the headache coming back stronger this time and snatched back his glass, opened the drawer and poured both himself and Natasha another drink.

“Of course, so don't be late,” she replied, slugging back the second glass to Fury’s dismay and leaving.

Fury looked at the bottom drawer again, and taking the bag of ice cubes from its compartment placed it on his forehead while resting the glass on his chest. He realised it was going to be one of those weeks.

~

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