On the night of the invasion, Liu A'dou was out on the highway saving lives, while Ada Wong was busy purging crime in New York. Neither of them had a moment to rest.
The next day, though, Liu A'dou had nothing to do with cleanup. At most, he chatted with Pepper Pots about how to compensate ticket holders for the postponed concerts scheduled over the following two days. His suggestion was to delay the concert, then offer a Frozen-themed artbook and an Elsa CD as compensation. He left the notification part to Pepper.
Pepper actually agreed with the proposal and immediately began informing everyone. Audiences who had seen the news about New York were understanding. Plus, Stark Industries had responded quickly and effectively during the crisis, and people trusted Pepper's capability.
While Liu A'dou relaxed, Ada had her hands full. S.H.I.E.L.D. had collected a large amount of alien tech that needed to be secured. At the same time, the agency had to provide explanations about the Avengers. What was their true purpose? Who held command authority? Were they a government asset? Would they remain a permanent team?
Director Nick Fury had no choice but to leave his work and attend a high-level inquiry to answer these questions. If he didn't explain things well, he'd be seen as a threat and possibly arrested. Alongside him were Helicarrier Commander Maria Hill and Assistant Director Phil Coulson.
Phil Coulson wasn't dead. Thanks to the butterfly effect, he had only been knocked unconscious by Loki. Fury used that moment to unite the Avengers.
With Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow all under quarantine for investigation, Ada ended up in charge of the Helicarrier. Holding the reins of the Helicarrier meant controlling S.H.I.E.L.D.'s front line. Ada had, unexpectedly, seized power—something not even Liu A'dou saw coming.
Now acting director, Ada received her first direct order from the higher-ups: deliver all collected alien armor and weapons to a place called the War Disposal Committee.
Ada smelled a conspiracy. She knew she might just be a scapegoat. The sudden decision to name her acting director already seemed suspicious. Now, changing the delivery location from the Air Force depot to some new "War Disposal Committee" only deepened her doubts.
But sure, they wanted her to deliver the goods? She would. Along with the weapons, she included a few extras—GPS trackers and audio bugs. Ada wasn't some rookie. She was a seasoned agent who wouldn't fall for traps. She also had trusted colleagues personally oversee the transport.
By the second day of the war, while the public was still shaken by the sudden alien invasion, a quiet power struggle was already unfolding inside S.H.I.E.L.D. All agents with knowledge of the Tesseract were being investigated to determine if they had links to the invasion.
Even those not under suspicion weren't safe. Hidden deep within S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra had finally bared its fangs.
Ada, from the Helicarrier, kept close watch on everything. The gear being delivered today was all operational—ready-to-use weapons, including a large number of Chitauri grenades. The same high-powered grenades that blew up a theater the day before.
"Acting Director, the National Guard wants to know—what should we do with the alien bodies?"
"Weren't they all supposed to be taken to the west-side waste disposal facility?" That site was actually a S.H.I.E.L.D. training base where Ada herself had trained.
"But the National Guard camp is now surrounded. Tons of civilians are crowding around trying to get a look at the alien corpses."
"What's so interesting about corpses?" Ada snapped.
The agent looked helpless. "Acting Director, what should we do?"
"Let them pick two intact and not-too-scary corpses for public display. Let the crowd take a look. Move the rest out immediately." Piling up bodies in the city wasn't a long-term solution.
Would that really work? The agent had doubts. Even though Ada had shown solid leadership since stepping up, this plan felt iffy. But she was the acting director now. Her word was law.
The National Guard was already overwhelmed by the noise and crowds. As soon as they heard Ada's suggestion, they roped off a small section near the camp as a display zone. The civilians were manageable, but the real headache was the reporters. Every time the guards tried to control the scene, they'd get accused of infringing on press freedom. This idea worked. It distracted the public and made it easier to load the rest of the corpses onto trucks.
The alien invaders had no human rights. Corpses were dumped in piles, scooped up with loaders, and stacked into trucks. It was a gruesome sight. Even though they looked different from humans, they'd been walking and breathing just the day before. Now, stacked like garbage, the scene left people visibly uneasy.
The cleanup crew kept telling themselves that these aliens were monsters, less than dogs, just to cope with the work.
The hardest part was handling the Leviathan corpses. Too big to move whole, they had to be chopped up—trim the edges, load the chunks onto heavy-duty trucks. The severely damaged ones had to be disassembled entirely before transport. The only surviving Leviathan had ended up with Osborn. S.H.I.E.L.D. could only try negotiating later. Right now, they didn't have the manpower to argue with Osborn about who owned the thing. Let him enjoy it for now.
The bodies were unpleasant, but what truly mattered was the weapons. They weren't powerful enough to overthrow the U.S. government, but in the hands of terrorists? The number of innocent people that could die was terrifying.
"Please don't let anything go wrong," Ada muttered to herself. If she were Hydra, she'd be after those alien weapons too. There were enough of them to equip an entire battalion—a serious threat by any measure.
Out of sight, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents escorting the convoy were ambushed, beaten, and dumped from the vehicles. The entire convoy veered off course, now headed straight for Boston.
At the same time, all the GPS trackers and bugs Ada had planted stopped working. Even the satellites lost the convoy. She had been outmaneuvered.
Ada frowned. "Deploy drones for reconnaissance. Get a team to retrieve our wounded agents."
She stared at the blank map, mind racing. Where were they going? Boston? Somewhere else? That so-called War Disposal Committee was probably just a cover.
The convoy now belonged entirely to Hydra. Leading it was a seductive young woman with flowing black curls. She wore a tight, glossy green leather bodysuit. A long snake-whip hung from her waist, soaked in venom, its greenish-black color a warning of its danger.
Her snake-like pupils glinted coldly. Danger radiated off her. She was the most infamous woman in Hydra—
Viper.
She was the one who had orchestrated the entire plan. Her goal: move the alien tech out of the U.S. Hydra's doctrine was simple—start wars, stir chaos, break the system. And now, Viper had come to take the weapons of war.