Chapter Text
~Undisclosed location, New York - 2025~
A matte-black Cadillac parked up to an out of order phone booth.
A woman in her mid 40s stepped out. Dressed smartly in black, she walked into the booth and punched a few numbers in.
RING RING, the phone rang
She picked it up, "MH092018" she said as a low hum followed. The windows of the booth gradually started to tint until the hum suddenly stopped.
A rush of air could be felt from the floor as the woman felt the ground drop.
DING "Ground floor" a soft AI voice announced before the booth door slid open.
The woman turned around and walked out into a huge open space.
~SHIELD Headquarters - The remains~
She wandered past each glass room, observing agents go by their mundane jobs, play solitaire, drink coffee and what not, until she reached the surveillance room. Lost in her thoughts, the woman stared at the many big screens of satellite images. Specifically, they were on close watch over the Queens sector, after a multiversal incident involving a bug-themed crime fighter whose identity is still unknown. She was very quickly brought back to reality after she noticed a dark overcast tower her.
A shadow from behind overlooked her, "Look who decided to finally show up" an authoritative voice echoed. She turned around and smiled as this figure stepped into the light, "Agent Hill... How was your vacay?".
Maria stepped closer, "And I see you've been busy". They both inched closer and stared at each other for a few minutes.
Nick squinted, trying to hold it in, but Maria got the better of him, so he blinked, "Alright, you got me, what've you been up to?"
Agent Hill switched the black folder in her hand to her left
"Follow me boss" she said and the two walked into Director Fury's office. Maria switched the projector on while Nick took his seat and sipped on the coffee made 1 hour ago.
"So, as you know I was in London collecting intel for a case I really didn't wanna work on, but hey. Anyway, while I was cleaning up, I received an 084 from a familiar agent in the vicinity. Agent Sharon Carter reported unnatural behaviour from the Natural History museum. So as the protocol might suggest, we went in and found him".
Maria switched slides to an image taken from CCTV footage of a man in his late 30s. As anyone one would assume, he didn't look anything near the suspicious-type. This man with his brushed dark-brown hair and casually dressed, seemed like any other civilian you'd see on the streets.
"But that's not all sir" Maria added, before switching slides.
"Really? This guy looks like he's about to give me a goddamn lecture about fossils."
Maria continued, "Anyone that knows him describes him as a nutcase. I however, feel like there's something about him, something doesn't add up".
She switched to the next slide but quickly realised, that was it, just intel on one potential asset.
"yep, that's about it. There's this guy, the vigilante who wreaked havoc in queens and former Agent Barton's little find".
Nick let out a sigh, and picked himself off the chair to walk over to his clutter-free desk where his laptop sat.
"Alright, it's time," he said, logging in and opening a word document. Maria followed over...
"Agent Hill, there was once an idea, Stark knew this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Today, I'm relaunching that Initiative". He declared fearlessly while typing those words out and hitting the enter button.
An initiative that was once called irresponsible and under-planned, was now in a state of resurgence. Nick Fury was well aware of the risks he was taking when he made the decision. But this was the only way. There were always going to be more threats, such threats that these new recruits would be capable of handling. So he took his chance and relaunched "The Avengers Initiative".
"Alright, I'll pay Mr Spider-guy a visit and you go see what that nutcase is about". He ordered. She smiled and nodded as she made her way out.
Just as Maria swung the door open, he remembered something,
"What did you say his name was?".
"Steven Grant" Maria said as the door closed behind her.