Disclaimer: Fair Use, Transformative Work.

A/N: These are deleted scenes from my longer story, "Action Figures Sold Separately." Where possible, I've excerpted from that story to orient readers to where the deleted scene came from.

DELETED SCENE 1: SITWELL's REPORT

"Hell's Kitchen." Jasper tilted his head. "If you're headed out there, leave Lola in the garage. And take a few extra clips." Convenient as it might be to have a less observant boss, Coulson at least recognized competence and was Jasper's fastest opportunity for advancement.

"I intend to." Coulson met his eyes for a moment. "The Director wants a report at 0600." Which really means that the Director wants Rogers back here by 0600. "Call me when you find something."

"What's the rundown." Seated at his desk – which was suspiciously clear of paperwork – Fury didn't bother looking over from the computer screen projected across the far wall.

Jasper swallowed, working spit up to wet his tongue. "Tracker 926541. Out of all the options, it looks like this one stayed with him the longest."

"Where was it picked up?"

"On the steps of the New York Supreme Court, fifty-three minutes ago."

That got a reaction; Fury settled back in his chair, fingers steepled, eye on Jasper. "Why the delay?"

"Traffic." He was not sweating.

"At 00:17 on a Thursday morning." Fury closed his eye momentarily.

Welcome to New York. In front of Coulson, he might have said it. Now? I like my head where it is, thanks. Employment was also better than not.

Fury didn't bother to hide his sigh. "Run through the list. I want all equipment accounted for, and cross-referenced back to the map."

In detail, then. "Sir." Jasper cleared his throat, checking the printout carefully. Twelve hours to piece together forty minutes. And that timeline would probably be the only thing standing between certain agents and unemployment, once Fury got the full report. And the reason for firing a few others; none of which will be me. "Rogers escaped from the 7th Avenue entrance to SHIELD Headquarters at approximately 11:38:54 hours, proceeding west and south until he reached Lennie's Park'n'Go at 10th and 21st at approximately 11:56:27 hours. At this point we lost Tracker 375528, which was recovered in pieces. Initial assessment is that it got crushed."

"We'll have to ask whether that was accidental or not."

"There were birds in the air at 11:41:44. You deployed with several teams on the ground at 11:43:02. Birds were recalled at 11:57:29 due to an increasing number of calls to the FAA and 9-1-1. The recall of all STRIKE teams went into effect at 12:06:48, except yours, which cleared Lennie's Park'n'Go by 12:13:37."

Fury leant back in his chair. "And in the meantime, Rogers was dropping the trackers as fast as he could."

"Yes, sir." And this was where it was going to get complicated; Jasper kept his eyes on the tablet's stream of data. "As far as we can tell, he got rid of Trackers 928348, 129573, 387153, 238584, 213565 and 430572 within the first five minutes after the cluster at Lennie's Park'n'Go started to move again at 12:03:05."

"Six minutes to find eighteen trackers that took hours to place." Fury shook his head. "Which begs the question: How did he know they were even there?"

"I'll put it on the list," Jasper muttered.

"You were saying."

"928348 and 129573 were recovered from taxis," he continued, fingers swiping the tablet screen past a series of written reports in favor of the chart one panicked individual had put together in hopes of saving their job. "The power source for 129573 failed more than three hours earlier than anticipated, which complicated the retrieval. But the driver remembered a tall guy, in a white t-shirt, hailing his cab, opening the door, and then changing his mind. Thought he was crazy to be dressed like that, in this weather, and deciding to walk."

"At least something went according to plan," Fury muttered.

"The driver of the cab where 928348 was recovered never saw anyone matching Rogers' description. Best the agent on the ground could determine, Rogers probably tossed the tracker through an opened window while the driver was pulled up to the curb for a smoke break."

"Huh."

"387153, 238584, 213565 and 430572 were recovered from a Trader Joe's cloth grocery bag, a left rain boot, a Coach purse, and a closed umbrella, respectively. Their owners were passersby, no connection. Only the woman with the rain boots remembered seeing Rogers, because he crouched down to deal with his shoelace and a few minutes later she had a pebble in her shoe." In the concrete jungle of Manhattan.

Jasper had been in deserts wetter than Fury's tone. "What a coincidence."

Some people really were too stupid to be allowed to reproduce. "Between 12:08 and 12:14 he got rid of trackers 874650, 442957, 736935, 600124, 629472, and 905247."

"More oblivious pedestrians?"

"Not completely." One more glance at the paper. "874650 was in a coat pocket; 442957 was pulled from a busker's guitar case; 600124 was in a stroller; and 736935 was probably in a dump truck before it stopped signaling."

"Crushed?"

"Most likely. But unravelling 629472 and 905247 took some time. Initially they took off on a path together, travelling around fifteen miles an hour. Thirty minutes or so uptown, their speed slowed and the two split; 629472 stayed stationary at one location and 905247 resumed travelling at the previous speed, heading back toward the financial district."

"And?"

"Bike messenger and package," Jasper said. "Which he pulled off without the messenger seeing him." He couldn't help the rueful shake of his head. "He's good, sir." The stories are true; well, true enough. No wonder Pierce was keeping such a close eye on this particular aspect of Fury's Initiative.

"The last four were difficult to parse, because they seemed to disperse at the same time. 792438 was in the back of a delivery van. 408132 and 219645 both used the same type of power source as 129573, but before they also prematurely failed, they stopped moving; both were recovered at the same site, in an alley that also is on the path 926541 continued on from."

"I want the route."

"Here, sir." Jasper handed over his tablet, where all routes had been mapped and timestamped on a map of Manhattan that was almost detailed enough to pick out individual cockroaches in the gutters. A few swipes grayed out the irrelevant paths, highlighting the route 926541 had registered in their computers.

"What's this?" Fury's hand hovered over three areas shaded red.

"Hot zones," Jasper replied. "Those are points where the GPS pinged more than once and registered the same location. Which means that the GPS was stationary at that location from anywhere between three and six minutes. The final retrieval point was excluded; the tracker sat there for almost eight hours."

"I want the specs for each tracker, and reports from the developers in Sci-Tech who designed each prototype."

"Developer, sir." Jasper accepted the tablet back.

"What?"

"Just one. Leo Fitz."

Fury hmmphed, contemplating. After a moment, "Add him to your team for this project."

"Yes, sir."