Crisis

"Last thing. Theta Protocol. Is it ready?"

"Yes it is." Coulson nodded. "Time to bring in the Avengers. Do you need the Eagle?"

"No... this looks manageable." Hill shook her head, scanning Coulson's data packet. "Almost too manageable, really, now that we've got Thor and Rogers back in the roster."

"It's not the most dramatic threat, I know. But once it's resolved..."

"...they'll fall apart again. I know." Hill nodded. "Thor, I don't think we can prevent, but Tony's likely to host a going-away party... I'll bring the subject up. If these Hydra power-armor diagrams are accurate, Tony should be a bit more open to sharing his toys."

"It's not the dramatic reveal we planned."

"It'll have to do." Hill shrugged. "It can't always be some world-destroying event."

"We will make it right. You and I can hurt them. But you..." The massive robot turned to regard Wanda, "will tear them apart from the inside."

Wanda gave a venomous grin. "I can't wait."

"You'll have to." Ultron shrugged. "Sorry. I need you to... run an errand for me, first."

Coulson stepped into the control room. "Anything new on the Avengers trip to Sokovia?" He asked. Newsreels were playing on the central monitor.

Gonzalez turned to face him. "Apparently, that castle they attacked was Strucker's base."

"Or at least that's what Stark says." May muttered.

"Contact in NATO confirms it. They have Strucker in custody." Weaver said.

"Well, that's one head down." Coulson frowned. "Now we just need to worry about the two that will take its place."

"You don't seem terribly surprised." Gonzalez's gaze was even.

"I worked under Stark for two or three years." Coulson shrugged. "Nothing he does surprises me anymore."

"So you had nothing to do with this attack?"

Coulson gave a disbelieving look. "If I could command the Avengers, I wouldn't..."

At the moment, all the screens turned utterly red.

"Hey, kids."

The lights in the base went dark. Every agent in the room drew their weapons.

"This is a nice base." The voice commented. "Nice bunch of people... family? Team! Team, you have here."

"Coulson?" Gonzalez asked.

"No idea." Coulson answered, Icer locked up and pointed at the nearest door.

"A Lovvvvve-ly team."

"The Inhumans." Weaver hissed. "Fitz, anything?"

"I-I-I dinna... I dinna have the... the..." Fitz sputtered at the computer. "This isn't..."

"Such an adorable bunch of cavemen." The red screen purred. "Children, trying to get in with the big kids by cozying up to them and sharing their pretty toys."

"Get Skye out of the box." Coulson snapped to May.

"I don't think..."

"We're being hacked! We need her down here!"

"Not if it's the Inhumans, we don't." Gonzalez muttered.

"They wouldn't bother with a digital attack! This is someone different!"

"How about I share your toys?"

And then the building shook. The agents had barely a moment to prepare themselves before robots came bursting through the walls

"Can you snap her out of it?" Jiaying asked.

"We've never seen anything like Thorn's ability before." The doctor said, bending over Raina. "I've got no context for what she might be doing or suffering right now."

"What's the matter?" Gordon, looming over Jiaying's shoulder, asked.

"Our Thorn has become a proper oracle." Jiaying said, an unamused grin twisting her lips. "She just predicted the apocalypse."

"What?"

"She was even appropriately cryptic about it... great cities under attack and metal men... before conveniently collapsing." Jiaying blew out a breath through her nose. "Prophets."

"Are you sure you don't want me to recover Skye and Lincoln?" Gordon asked. "They might be in danger."

"So might we." Jiaying answered. "She never said what cities they were."

"Jiaying!" Another Inhuman came running into the surgery.

The immortal turned to face him, but at that moment Raina started upright and grabbed her by the arm.

"He comes from above!"

And robots started crashing through the roof.

"Don't let them get to the data banks!" Coulson shouted, firing away with the P-90 (Icers had been discarded nearly immediately). "It's the only info that isn't stored on the netw—"

Another robot smashed through the ceiling behind Coulson and landed on top of the computer banks. Coulson whirled around, but Bobbi took a running leap and kicked the robot clean off. They crashed onto the floor beyond and Bobbi took the moment to stab both electro-batons deep into its chest cavity. It convulsed just long enough for three bullets to put it to rest.

Gonzalez lowered his smoking Glock. "The Iron Legion." He turned around. "Why is Stark attacking you?"

"There's something different about them!" Coulson insisted.

May leapt up onto the computers and pointed her rifle up the hole left by Bobbi's robot. Rattatat. Ratatatt. Rattatt... a badly-mauled robot shot out of the hole and tackled her off. They crashed to the floor. The robot reared back, a machine gun folding out of its arm...

Mac's giant monkey wrench swung through the air and took the arm clean off. It's other arm swung around and punched Mac square in the chest, sending the big man flying. May used the opportunity to kick it back, and Coulson's P-90 finished if off.

"Guns don't seem to be having much effect!" Coulson shouted.

"Not sure hand-to-hand is better, sir." Mac said, picking himself up off the ground.

"Y' keep going for the head-shots, the primary driver is in the chest cavity." Fitz poked his head up to comment. The technician was perched by the databanks with a shotgun he could barely lift. "Y'need to...

Another robot came through the door in the front. Coulson and Gonzalez fired at the same instant. Its eyes went dark, but it leapt at them and bowled Coulson over, charging for the databanks. Coulson grappled desperately at its leg, holding it back. Hissing angrily, it reared around, raising a metal, pneumatic-powered fist.

Gonzalez's cane smashed down on the robot's head and caved it in. Its whole frame collapsed on top of Coulson.

Coulson hurled the body off him and fired at another robot just over Gonzalez's shoulder. It did little more than knock the droid back, but that was all the space Weaver needed. A sticky-bomb went sailing through the air and caught onto the metal frame.

"What's that cane made out of?" Coulson asked, scrambling to his feet, firing away as the robot exploded.

"Adamantium tip around a ceramic core." Gonzalez said. "If I have to have a cane, it better be a damn good one." His gun clicked empty and he fumbled, one-handed for a magazine; Coulson grabbed the empty gun and handed him his sidearm.

Six robots exploded into the room—Two through the door, two through the hole in the ceiling, two through the wall. The band fired wildly; one twitched and fell but the others charged at them...

One was suddenly convulsed in a crackle of lightning, another exploded, the rest suddenly crumpled up into small metal chunks. Coulson, Gonzalez, and the others stood staring at Lincoln, Deathlok, and Skye.

Deathlok's missile launcher retracted. "Sorry sir." He nodded at Coulson. "Took me a while to reboot."

"That's... fine." Coulson said, lowering his P-90.

"Got here as quick as we could." Skye added, adjusting her gauntlets. "There were a couple robots in the way."

"Who let those two out of containment?" Gonzalez said, struggling to his feet—the explosion had knocked the old man over.

"That would be me." Simmons peeked her head out from behind the door. "Hullo. Lincoln was the quickest way to get Agent Peterson back online."

"Clearly this isn't an Inhuman attack." Coulson cast a glance at the elder operative. "Maybe Stark, but..."

"Frankly, I don't give a damn." Weaver aimed her gun at Lincoln. "If they're not back in..."

Suddenly, Weaver's gun was gone. So was May's. And Coulson's. And every other gun in the room.

Coulson frowned at his empty hand. "Okay, that was weird."

"I... thought I felt..." Bobbi glanced around, looking for her batons.

Crackling red energy swept through the room.

Bobbi stared down at Lance's body, eyes traveling from the gun in her hand to the hole in his head. No, what have I...

Gonzalez saw the jumping green shapes, the raging fires, the screaming children—he saw the ships looming in the skies and knew they had nothing to match it.

Jiaying and May, Cal and Coulson, lay in a bloody heap at Skye's feet, their eyes staring up at her accusingly.

Fitz saw the looks. They hid them, but the mocking, pitying, disappointed faces glowed through their turned backs and shaded faces. Only Jemma faced him openly. Idiot... should have died in the pod...

The Hydra agents herded the children with assault weapons and cattle prods, she could see years of torture and brainwashing stretching out before her students...

Please let me die... Please let me die... Please let me die...

Jiaying dropped the robot's head and watched the body crumple before her. "Any others?"

Gordon materialized before her in a flash of blue light. "I left ten inside Korea's new nuclear testing ground."

"Any others?" Jiaying repeated, looking at Thorn.

Thorn's brow was furrowed in concentration. "Fifty. He will approach with fifty towards the southeast cliff."

"He?"

Thorn shrugged. "I don't know his name."

"But I know these robots." Gordon insisted. "They are creations of the human Stark."

"Stark works—or at least worked—with SHIELD." Cal said, picking himself up from the body on the floor.

"They're not coming to attack." Thorn stressed. "Just to talk."

"To talk?" Cal sneered. "What for?"

"I don't know why he does it, just that he does." Thorn answered testily. "He talks, and then he leaves. But only if we talk, and do not attack."

Gordon disappeared and then reappeared in another flash of blue light. "She's right." He said, looking in Thorn's general direction. "There's another group of robots approaching from the southeast."

"Take us there." Jiaying ordered.

Gordon grabbed her and Thorn—completely ignoring Cal, and the next second they found themselves on the cliff. Gordon vanished again and was soon back with Ginger. Then with others. And others.

Jiaying focused her attention on the cluster of steel robots flying toward them. She couldn't count them, but it seemed around fifty. Fifty was not a sizeable threat—yes, Raina was probably right. An escort, not an attack. But an escort for who?

"He's curious, I think." Thorn told her. "He's never seen anything like us before, and he wants to know how he can use us. Don't let him."

"I have no intention of letting anyone use my people, Raina." Jiaying put just a touch of steel in her voice to remind the girl that she was, still, leader of the Inhumans.

Raina didn't seem to notice. "You have to tell him that we have nothing to do with the humans."

Jiaying closed her eyes and promised herself that she would have a talk with the girl about respecting rank.

As the cluster of robots approached, one, much more massive and complicated than the others, detached from the rest and started to float down to them on the cliff. The rest of the cluster began to spread out, surrounding the cliff, still retaining a respectable height. Gordon, just behind her, tensed but did nothing.

"Sorry for all that fuss earlier," said the large robot, as it lowered to an acceptable height. "I literally just found out about you guys, I had to get to know you a bit better."

Jiaying took this to be the 'He' that Raina kept referring to. "Why have you attacked my people?" She said, stepping forward.

The android cocked an eyebrow—or what passed for an eyebrow; it had a very expressive face. "What did I just say?" And a very expressive voice.

"How did you find us?"

The robot waved its head back and forth. "Oh, a little spy-satellite imagery here, a few dozen Hydra files there, a half-dozen internet rumors everywhere... it's amazing how absolutely abysmal humans are at processing information." He shook his head. "You guys are, like, in plain sight and no one even knows about you."

"So you attacked us to find out about us?"

"You say attacked. I say poked." The robot held up a finger as if the distinction was a fine one. He cocked his head at her. "It's interesting. You're the next stage... the logical next step. A vision of what humans might be." He looked away for a moment. "I should get one of those." He mused.

"We have nothing to do with the humans." Jiaying said clearly, calmly. "We will endure the worst either you or they have to throw at us."

"Hmm?" The robot looked around, as if just remembering her. "Oh, them! Yeah, duh." It gave a whirring nod. "Me..." He considered this. "...you almost might survive."

"Survive what?" Jiaying definitely did not like the turn the conversation was taking.

"Fire and brimstone. The flood. Meteeeeorssssszzz..." the speaker made a mechanical noise not unlike a hum. "Boom! You might not be bad to have around, later. Or more of you. Crystals! That's an idea."

Jiaying could not follow the robot's train of thought, it made no sense. "We will always be around." She stated, clearly. "We will always endure. For thousands of years, we have endured, and we will continue to do so for thousands more."

"Like a rock." The robot frowned.

"Like a mountain." Jiaying amended, gesturing.

"Like a big, tall, pile of rock." The robot actually rolled its eyes. "These mountains are... SO much smaller than they were two million years ago." He turned around to study the skyline. "In two years more they probably won't even be here."

Jiaying blinked. "What?" She liked to think that she was pretty good at understanding people, but this droid was pushing her limits.

"You are rocks. Using your little crystals to gain the same powers, over and over... never getting any larger... never even moving. Sitting here, for hundreds of years." His gaze seemed to shut off, and Jiaying sensed he had suddenly grown bored.

"You're really not that different from the humans at all." The robot concluded, floating back up to join his entourage. "So die with them."

Jiaying tensed, but the rest of his entourage floated to meet him, pulling away from the village and floating back into the southeast.

"What did he mean?" Gordon asked, looking at Thorn.

"Does he come back?" Jiaying asked.

"Not here." Thorn shook her head, feeling her forehead. "But... what he meant... I can see, elsewhere, people dying, another city..."

"Then it is none of our concern." Jiaying cut her off levelly. She turned to Gordon. "Post some of our people around the village, refresh them hourly. We need to be prepared if he comes back."

As she walked back to her hut, Jiaying could hear the robot's words ringing in her ears: "Sitting here, for hundreds of years. You're not that different from the humans at all."

"The twins, definitely." Coulson's voice sounded tired. "We couldn't see them, but the cameras caught it—a silver streak and a red-eyed woman."

"What did they get?"

"Everything." Coulson said. "He hacked the network and they downloaded the hard data. We're working on what they were most interested in, I'll let you know the second we find anything.

"Understood." Hill nodded. "I'll keep you advised as to any breakthroughs on this end." She clicked her phone off as she walked into the room. Captain Steve Rogers turned to look at her. "Report?"

"He's all over the globe." Hill reported. "Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs..." ...espionage headquarters... "...reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place..."

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..."

"I thought your father said he got the last of it."

"I don't follow." Banner looked puzzled. "What comes out of Wakanda?"

Both Stark and Rogers glanced to Captain America's shield.

"The hardest metal on earth." Stark said.

"Where is this guy now?" Rogers demanded.

"Whoah, whoah, hang on there, Holmes and Watson." Barton held up his hands. "We have one arms dealer out of hundreds here in Strucker's files, who Tony ran into at a party. He was branded as a thief. That's all we really know. Nothing to connect him to Ultron or even reliably to Vibranium. Don't you think we ought to have something more to go on before we race around the world?"

"It's gotta be this." Stark thumped the page. "It makes too much sense."

"We haven't even finished going through all of the files yet." Barton said. "How can you know?"

"Sir?" Hill spoke up. The Avengers started, they'd forgotten she was there. "If you want, I can look into it? I am, after all, your intel officer." There was just the thinnest level of dryness to her words.

"Oh, right." Tony handed her the paper. "But get the jet prepped. I'm like 87% certain this is our guy."

"Yes sir." Hill tilted her head to look at the boxes. "Also, do you want me to send up some analysts to help you look through those files? We DO have people for these sort of things, you realize."

"Analyst wouldn't have met Klau at a party." Rogers said, still leafing through paper. "We keep at it."

Hill's jaw tightened but she gave a short nod and left through the doors. On the other side, she took a picture of the file. Strucker's Files. She typed into her phone. Stark suspects vibranium. Analysis?

She pocketed the phone and walked to her desk—she had hundreds of other contacts who might be able to offer insight. Coulson was just the most likely to know something.

She didn't even get to the desk before her phone vibrated.

Files on Klau and Vibranium were the first downloaded from our database. Latest intel places him in South African shipyards.

Hill smiled victoriously and turned around.

"The news is loving you guys. No one else is, though." Hill was scanning several monitors adjoining her feed with the Quinjet—newsreels, cost estimates, texts from a senator she was blackmailing. "There's been no official call for Banner's arrest yet..." She said, noting the transcript of an Oval office meeting, "...but it's in the wind."

"The Stark Relief Foundation?"

"Already on scene." Hill gave a short nod, eyes flickering over to her line with the project leader. He'd already noted several complications with authorities. Hill had told him to be fast and loose with his money—Stark needed to make friends FAST there. She glanced back to the screen. "How's the team?"

Stark's usual bravado was lacking. "Everyone's... we took a hit." He tried to assert himself. "We'll shake it off."

Hill somewhat doubted that, but it didn't change her next bit of advice. "Well, for now I'd stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here." She checked the surveillence footage of the protestors outside.

"So, run and hide?"

Please, Stark, for once, listen to me. "Until we find Ultron, I don't have a whole lot else to offer." Except for a helicarrier that's still a few days from being airborne.

"Neither do we." The Quinjet feed cut out.

Hill glanced at the closed window in shock for a few moments. Then she stabbed at another button and two more screens popped up. "They're in trouble." She stated.

"Could you be more specific?" Coulson asked, from his screen.

"Stark just listened to me and agreed to play things quiet." Hill said.

"...That sounds bad." Coulson agreed.

"I've never seen him like this... or the rest of them, for that matter." Hill said. "The Maximoff twins must really have done a number on them."

"If it's anything like what she did here, then that would be bad." Coulson bit his lip. "That explains what I've been seeing about Banner on the news, at least."

"It's not just her." Hill said. "Stark's... dalliance raised some tempers in the group. He and Rogers are butting heads."

"That does seem to be a thing with them." Coulson sighed.

"Right now, there's nowhere for them to go, anyway." Hill scanned all her monitors without result. "They're laying low at..." She checked the Quinjet's trajectory, "...Barton's place, but once we find Ultron, they need to be ready to fight."

"Guess that means it's time for a pep talk." Fury said, from his side of the screen.

"Mind if I borrow Hill?"

"She's all yours. Apparently." Tony said. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." Fury grinned. "Something dramatic, I hope."

Fury walked straight out of the farmhouse, hearing behind him Cap's rapid-fire orders regarding the Avengers pending trip to Korea. He paced quickly off into the darkness of the forest, straight toward a Quinjet that materialized in front of him.

"All set?" He said.

"Ready." Hill turned from the cockpit, eyes alight. "What's the time-frame?"

Fury shrugged as he dropped into the co-pilot's chair. "No word on Ultron yet, but he's bound to show up soon. Let's get some backup."

"Agreed." Hill took the controls and the quinjet lifted into the air. "Damn, it feels good to be back in one of these things again."

"Talk to Stark after this is over." Fury advised her. "Secretary work REALLY doesn't suit you."

The room cleared as the big man strode in. Every face turned to regard him, and not all of them were welcoming.

Fury didn't seem to care. "Gonzalez." He nodded. "How's the leg?"

"Fine. How's the eye?" Agent Robert Gonzalez regarded the man coldly.

Fury turned his gaze to the next in line. "Agent Morse." He said. "Good work on retaking the Illiad."

"Didn't retake it for you." Bobbi bit back.

"Should hope not." Fury shrugged. "Didn't think I was THAT unclear." He nodded to Coulson. "Director."

"Director." Coulson nodded back.

Fury held up a hand. "That's not me. I'm here to pick up some support material, but I think we can all agree SHIELD's better off without me." His gaze softened a moment. "Sorry to leave you with this mess on your hands."

Coulson shrugged. "Never thought leading SHIELD was going to be easy. Didn't expect everyone to be on board."

"Pardon me for breaking this moment up, Fury." Gonzalez interrupted. "But if you're not here to reclaim power from your lapdog, what exactly are you here for?"

"My ship." Fury answered.

"The Illiad is..."

"I recognize the Illiad isn't mine. If she was, I'd have sent her to the bottom of the sea. I'm after something the Director..." nodding to Coulson, '...promised me."

All eyes turned to Coulson. "He's talking about the Eagle. Well..." He shrugged. "The Aegis."

"The what?" Hunter blinked.

"Aegis Mk I." Gonzalez answered, staring at Coulson. "My old ship."

"That... that was the very first helicarrier," Weaver breathed. "...the prototype they based the later models on. It... it had no armnaments, they gutted the frame for parts...

"But they left the frame." Gonzalez finished. His eyes went to Hill. "And you sold it to her."

"In a sense." Coulson shrugged.

"A sense?" May looked dangerous.

"It was... a thought." Coulson spread his hands. "SHIELD simply doesn't have the muscle to operate like it used to. But the Avengers," here he nodded at Hill, "even with Stark, are too limited to be a proper standalone global defense force."

"Stark's an idiot." Hill rephrased. "He privatizes world peace like a celebrity. He refuses to acknowledge the need for a larger defense force."

"Something everyone here can agree the world sorely needs." Coulson glanced around the circle. "We all know what's coming."

There was a sober silence.

"I understand what you're afraid of, Gonzalez, because I'm afraid of it too." Coulson said. "In a way, it's what SHIELD's been afraid of since its foundation, and the thing its been constantly preparing for for the last fifty years, since Carter found the GH specimen and the Monolith."

Gonzalez gave a slow nod.

"So." Coulson looked around. "In the interests of global security, we need a legitimate force that can support the Avengers in their world peacekeeping missions."

"A new SHIELD?"

"Not SHIELD." Coulson shook his head. "No one would look to SHIELD for protection now. My SHIELD, our SHIELD, will have to disappear into the shadows." He nodded to Fury. "Gathering intel and quietly defusing conflicts before they become a problem. If they do..." He shrugged. "We call in the Avengers."

"Another one of your schemes, Fury?" Bobbi did not look convinced.

"Coulson's the devious bastard this time around." Fury shook his head. "He reached out to me and to Hill."

"The project needed Hill's resources and Fury's experience." Coulson said. "A new organization, playing SHIELD's role under the Avenger's name."

"We were waiting for a dramatic moment, to sell people on the organization." Hill pointed out. She snorted. "Guess this qualifies."

"And so Fury stands at the head of world power once again." Gonzalez shook his head. "Convenient."

"Hill and I decided that Rogers will lead the Avengers." Coulson spread his hands. "Fury will provide discipline and advice, but he'll have a backseat role."

"Right. Because you two are totally unbiased when it comes to Fury." Bobbi pointed out.

"I'll have you know that Hill squashed my plan to retake the helicarriers, and my man Coulson here nearly swore at me for bringing him back." Fury raised a finger. "Considering how my last tenure went, I think it's time for some fresh leadership." A shrug. "After all, that's why I picked Coulson."

"So you say." Weaver's gaze was level. "How do we kn..."

"One way or another, agree or disagree, we have a world to save and a ship to pick up." Hill snapped, crossing her arms. "Now kick Coulson out if you want, but he's the only one who knows where the Eagle is, so he's coming with us."

The trip to the Attic, now renamed the Nest, was tense. Hill had disappeared up front to fly the plane after a few quick instructions from Coulson. The rest of the party—including Gonzalez, Fury, Bobbi, May, and Weaver—sat in the lounge where they could all glare at each other furiously.

The one exception was Coulson, who had never really practiced glaring. "Koenig's been prepping the helicarrier for launch for the last few days." He said, clearing his throat awkwardly. "I just checked in—the armnaments are light, but it should be able to fly in roughly twelve hours. The crew is the larger concern—they've all been in simulations, but most were desk jockeys and administrative assistants that..."

"That you had Andrew interview and clear?" May spoke up.

Coulson winced. "I needed the best, and I needed someone I could trust." He said softly. "That was Andrew."

"And Koenig, apparently." May said. "But not me."

Coulson looked very uncomfortable. "I... needed someone to help me give Hill the runabout."

"And that couldn't be me, because?"

"Because the Director decided not to." Fury spoke up. "That's all you need to know."

"No." Gonzalez said. "That's all you ever needed anyone to know."

Fury shrugged. "Considering how things went when I told people what I was up to, I'm not so convinced that was the wrong call."

"The rest of us are." Bobbi said.

"Oh?" Fury raised an eyebrow. "How helpful would it have been if your mission had been more widely known, Morse? Say, to Hydra? I kept things secret from our own people because I didn't trust our own people. With good reason, as it turned out."

"Those people wouldn't have had as much opportunity to hide if you hadn't kept things so compartmentalized." Weaver said.

"Maybe. Or maybe..."

"The reason," Coulson said, "why it couldn't be you, May, is because if the plan went south and I got caught, someone needed to be around to keep SHIELD on the path." He shrugged. "It was entirely possible that the CIA or someone would have stumbled onto Hill and my 'arrangement,' and managed to arrest both of us. I needed to keep SHIELD—and its potential leadership—completely separate from that possibility."

The group quieted. Coulson looked first one way and then the other.

"The Old SHIELD had some problems." He said, quietly. "We're here because of that. And we're trying to figure out what the New SHIELD should look like. But that shouldn't keep any of us from doing our jobs."

"Three of the reactors aren't at full capacity, and the fourth..."

"Coulson..." Hill walked up to the director and the frazzled technician he was talking to.

"Get in touch with Rhodes, yet?"

"...he's on the Eastern seaboard. I've arranged for him to meet us over the Atlantic." Hill said. "No word from Wilson. What's our status?"

"Running a little behind." Coulson answered, not taking his eyes off the charts he'd just been handed. "But we should be ready to begin liftoff procedures in an hour or so. Why?"

"The countdown just got moved up." Hill pushed her tablet in front of him. Coulson read the text.

I feel it would be relevant and helpful to inform you that we are planning to attack Ultron's stronghold in Sokovia. There will likely also be need for an evacuation.

Coulson frowned. "Stark sounds... different."

"It's not Stark." Hill pulled the tablet away. "I'm not sure who it is, but I accessed the Stark feeds and he's right. They're prepping the quinjet for launch, and they're bringing all the big guns."

"And Sokovia is where all this began." Coulson nodded grimly. "Our carrier can't match the Quinjet's speed, we need to go now or we'll never get there in time." He touched his ear. "Koenig, Code Orange! Emergency launch!"

"Now? But..."

"Emergency, Koenig. Now!"

A klaxon began to blare, and immediately everyone dropped their tasks and ran back to the carrier.

"Guess that means I should get to the bridge." Hill said, glancing around.

"Fury's up there already." Coulson nodded. "It's just like the old days."

There was a touch of wistfulness to his tone, and it made Hill take a last look at Coulson. "Phil, are you sure you don't want to..."

"I'm kinda over helicarriers." Coulson smiled. "Bad memories. Anyway, I'm more useful here than confusing matters with the Avengers."

Hill looked troubled, but she nodded and clasped his hand. "Phil, I hope you realize..." she said, "...you've done more for this than anyone."

"Everything except the part that really matters." Coulson grinned shamefacedly. "That's down to you."

Hill shook her head. "One day, Phil." She ran for the ladder. "One day."

A scant twenty minutes later, Coulson and the rest of the SHIELD team watched from a glass enclosure as the massive airship slowly lifted off its moorings. The soundproof glass walls shook with muted vibrations as the jets roared into life, sending the helicarrier through the upper shutters of the hangar and soaring into the sky.

"Wow." Skye breathed.

"Doesn't matter how many times I see that." Coulson shook his head. "It's still damn cool."

"There's probably no greater feeling." Gonzalez nodded. "No greater expression of SHIELD's power and reach." His gaze hardened a moment. "Or elitism. Floating high above the people we were supposed to protect."

"If the attack comes from above, that will be the best place to be." Coulson said.

"Perhaps." Gonzalez allowed.

"...Assemble!"

Fury frowned as he looked down at the training floor through the glass of the darkened viewing booth. "Well, it's not the catchiest battle cry."

"You're kidding, right?" Coulson looked at his former boss in disbelief. "I'm disappointed I didn't think of it first."

"'Agents Assemble' doesn't have quite the same ring to it." Hill said.

"Doesn't matter anyway." Coulson shook his head. "We have what we needed."

Fury nodded. "The New Avengers are more disciplined. More used to taking orders. Less alpha males involved. They'll follow Cap without question."

"People seem to do that."

Hill snorted. "Some people."

"Should make for a much tighter, more efficient team." Fury ignored both of them. "And hopefully Rogers will be more open to a wider network."

"We're already in talks with the UN." Hill pointed out. "And several nations have privately approached me to express support for the program." She winced. "On the condition that Banner not be a part of it."

"Banner knew what he was doing when he left." Fury nodded, but he didn't look particularly happy.

"We'll find him." Coulson promised. "We'll keep him safe. Plenty of bases we're not using, especially now that we have the Illiad back..."

"Shame about Gonzalez." Fury said.

"Shame about your hand." Hill added.

Coulson shrugged, as well as he could in a sling. "There were... a lot of losses." He said. "My hand seems pretty insignificant compared to most. Mac's working on some ideas."

"Not Fitz?"

"Fitz is a bit... preoccupied right now." Coulson did not elaborate. There was a short silence.

"About these... Inhumans..." Hill said, at last.

"Better kept to the shadows for the moment." Coulson shook his head. "The world's not ready for them, especially so soon after this. Involving the Avengers would be too public. SHIELD is already developing a task force to handle the situation."

"Another Avengers? A secret Avengers?"

Coulson shrugged. "Nothing so dramatic. But a Gifted team, to handle problems too big for the rest of us." He grinned. "No offense Hill, but as much as I enjoyed the teamwork, we need to have our own Howling Commandos."

"No offense taken." Hill tilted her head. "In fact, it may be worthwhile to have a team to carry out missions Cap doesn't have the stomach for." Fury nodded.

But Coulson frowned. "That won't be my people." He shook his head. "They're meant to support SHIELD, not undermine Cap."

"Understood." Hill held out her hand. "But if you ever need more backup..."

Coulson smiled and shook it. "We'll activate the Theta Protocol."

a/n: There! In before Season 3!

Just really quickly-it seems like it could at least have indicated something of what SHIELD was doing during the crisis. Or why suddenly the council is willing to work with him on everything. AoU takes place over several days, what was SHIELD doing that whole time? It could NOT have been pleasant when Fury showed up looking for his boat.

As always, reviews are appreciated.