Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.
Anywho, without further ado - read on.
Earth-6161 [May 2012]
Bayonne, New Jersey
–Tony Stark–
"We tell them the truth," Cap replied, with a straight face, too!
"Ehh! Pass! Next?" He snapped his fingers and moved on because it would just needlessly antagonize Weber, which was not something they particularly needed right now. See, Weber was a huge immovable wall and politicians were a wee bit drop of rain hammering on the wall.
The wall wouldn't even notice, unless the raindrop somehow managed to convince millions or billions of other raindrops to hammer on the wall at the same time. That was a possibility that he did not want to come true.
So, "Any other option?"
"No, he is right," Barton said. Before he could interject, the man continued, "We can't let the government have it right now. They would just fight Thor on the Cube, and lengthen and also complicate his return home. Remember, Asgard is a warrior race." Clint not so subtly reminded everyone and he had to agree.
If Point Break could devastate an entire carrier by himself and defeat a pretty significant portion of the army if he wanted to, he did not want to imagine what their Daddy dearest could do, especially since the myths were pretty clear about the considerable gap between Thor and his father.
He could not believe that he was relying on old religious myths to make decisions in the current era.
Romanoff of all people, agreed, "Yes, it could work. We tell the government that Weber is not budging on anything, which she will not, we all know that, and she has only agreed for Thor to take the Tesseract away. The sceptre will remain in her custody."
"Fury will not like that," Cap said.
"Well, then," He turned to the side as Banner slowly rose from the ground, rubbing his head, "Fury can take that up with Weber if he so wishes,"
He snapped his finger at Banner, "He gets it! Welcome back to the land of the living buddy. Had me scared for a second there."
"Where is she, anyway?" Banner asked him, to which Jarvis wordlessly complied, projecting a dozen screens all at once, showing dizzying amounts of investigation and data crunching done by his buddy, all for a single goal.
"It helps that everyone is looking for her so we can just piggyback off of their searches. NO need for any anomalous behavior because they are doing the same thing we would have done if we had hacked them." He said, feeling pretty smug and proud about Jarvis.
"What?" He said, defensively as Cap looked at him judgmentally, "I said, if we had hacked them."
____xx____
"What do you mean you don't know where she is? I thought she was on the team," The elder gentleman asked them, surprised and a little skeptical that they did not have the two world ending things that the government was asking for.
"With all due respect, Secretary Pierce," Romanoff began, "She left right after the battle, destroying the machine that opened the portal, and taking both the sceptre and the Tesseract with her. As for her being a part of the team, it was never the case. The only reason she even came was because she knew about the Cube and wanted to stop it from being used." It would seem that Romanoff knew about Pierce and how the person was the head of a body that had the sole power to regulate and order around SHIELD.
Meaning they had immense power, on par with the Heads of state of the strongest countries on the planet, and yet, they were relatively obscure. If he had not seen the man and had that not prompted him to do his own research, then he might have never known about a group of people, unelected, who held more power than most militaries worldwide, running an organisation with a budget exceeding that of most countries.
It made sense for Romanoff to know about people like these. After all, beyond her job as a super spy, she was an assassin beforehand and knowing the real shakers and movers of the planet probably helped a lot, either to make sure she did not end up biting more than she could chew or to know who to kill if things went sideways.
Pierce scoffed at Romanoff's statement, "You expect me to believe that, Agent Romanoff? You were all working together with her and now you are telling me that–"
"They are speaking the truth, Secretary," a rather familiar voice spoke in the lobby, one that made him smile and finally look up from his phone where he was performing research on the members of this World Security Council, just in case he needed some leverage on them in the future.
The One-Eyed was back on the scene.
"Fury," Pierce turned around, clearly surprised as Fury came onto the scene, with his very own contingent of armed men, swarming the lobby as well as the exterior of the building.
"Pierce. They are telling the truth. The matter of the fact is that Weber, she bows to no one, listens to no one but herself. And as of today, is completely untraceable. Rest assured though, we know her usual places and have already begun the search for them. I will make sure to inform you when we find her."
Pierce clearly had more to say, but taking a look around, he realised the conversation was better suited in closed offices so he just nodded and left, taking his merry band of mercenaries with him.
Once the lobby was clear, Fury ordered his agents to clear the area as he then turned to them, and sighed.
"Okay, Stark. Tell me what you know."
"What?" He played innocent. No need to tell them about his–
"I know that look on your face. I know when you have something that makes you so smug. So, spill,"
"Fine," He sighed and waved his hand, the projector in his phone showing the globe. A wave of something passed over the globe, which then narrowed their search to a few countries. Another wave passed over that area, before a single dot emerged, in a country called the Maldives.
"That is as far as I can get her. We don't really have anything more precise than this, well, the ones I can access are not equipped for more than this." He said, with a Cheshire grin on his face. He fully expected someone to ask him how he did it but unfortunately, he was not with company who could speak his language.
Bruce stayed upstairs, unwilling and uncomfortable being in the presence of so many guns, which was fair. But that meant he was stuck with people who were not interested in the same stuff that he was.
"Good enough," Fury said before turning to Romanoff, "I want you to report back to base. I am sure all of you are exhausted and have done more than enough for the planet. The rest, I can handle. I assume you will be coming," Fury turned to Thor who looked surprised for a bit before nodding in confirmation.
"Very well. Come with me. I don't think she likes company but I have just the man who can soften the blow for us, I think." While that was not very reassuring, he knew that Weber would not kill him, especially after reviving him and turning him into basically a superhuman with her last move.
So, he said, "Hey! Whoa? Where are you guys going? I am coming with. I have some questions as well.
Fury's sigh was like music to his ears.
____xx____
Maldives
"You know," He said, having to shout over the sound of the helicopter blades, "I thought she would be in one of the better beaches when I heard she was here but then again, I should have known she would choose something like this."
They were currently hovering about an island, very large, but completely uninhabited. The thing was, this island was not this large, just a day ago. In fact, it was so small that sometimes, the sea swallowed most of it, rendering it unusable for tourist purposes.
It was also near the edge of the touristy chain of islands so no one really came here for any purpose since it was so far out of the way. Which made it the perfect place for Weber to make her base.
As of today, this island, if it could even be called that in the past, was larger than most of the tourist spots in the country, creating a mystery for the locals but certainty for them.
For they now knew where Weber was.
Then, he looked down as his phone buzzed and beeped at the same time, "Aha!" He showed it to Thor, Loki, Fury and another agent, "I was right. She is here, or rather, the Tesseract and the sceptre are here so she must be here."
The Gamma signatures matched, so he was right.
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