"You're not kidding?"
"Of course not."
Mario watched Coulson's shell-shocked expression and felt his mood improve dramatically. Nothing like dropping a truth bomb to cheer yourself up after getting shot at by government assassins. He turned back to the brewing stand, shoving more materials into the slots.
The bubbling sounds snapped Coulson back to reality. Even for a trained agent like him, this kind of revelation was impossible to process. For a moment, he had no idea what the hell to do with himself.
If Mario wasn't bullshitting, and even S.H.I.E.L.D.'s former director Pierce had been Hydra all along, then how the fuck was anyone supposed to play this game anymore?
The safe house fell into silence. Mario wasn't in any hurry, news like this naturally needed time to digest. He kept brewing potions like a man possessed, cranking out not just invisibility potions but speed, strength, and healing potions too. If he'd had more glass bottles, he would've been tempted to brew enough potions to last a lifetime.
More than ten minutes passed.
"Do you have any proof of what you're saying?"
Coulson's voice was strained. Deep down, he didn't want to believe Mario's claims, but the corpses on the ground weren't fake. They really were S.H.I.E.L.D. strike team members. The key problem was that Mario had killed them, yet Coulson, the agent assigned to handle contact with him, hadn't received a single report about their mission. That clearly meant someone inside S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't wanted him to know, and that someone had very high clearance.
"I don't have proof," Mario said flatly, not looking up from his brewing.
"But you're missing the point here. I'm just an ordinary citizen who got attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives. The only thing I can do now is hit back. Evidence means nothing to me."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. is beyond saving. Might as well call it Snake-H.I.E.L.D. at this point."
"I'm only telling you this because I consider you a friend. That's all there is to it. Now, what I want to know is the location of the Hub."
"Of course, I won't put you in a tough spot. If you don't want to tell me, I can find it myself the hard way."
The Hub was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s three main facilities. He cared about it mainly because it was located in New York, close and convenient for his plans.
He still looked completely unconcerned. He knew Coulson would want to get to the bottom of this situation and wouldn't just stand by doing nothing.
"Can I report this to Director Fury? You know I can't make this kind of decision on my own."
"Up to you."
Mario didn't elaborate. If Fury learned about the plot ahead of schedule, what difference would it make to the future? What did any of that have to do with him?
At worst, if things went sideways, he could just hide out in the Nether, pop back to the surface occasionally to cause trouble. He had no family in this world, so it didn't matter where he lived. And if he ever got lonely, he could always drag some people into the Nether with him for company.
Just as Coulson finished speaking and was about to contact Fury, his phone rang first. The caller was none other than Fury himself.
He glanced at Mario before answering.
"Director!"
"Coulson, Tony Stark has been located. Drop whatever you're doing and prepare to make contact with him."
Coulson hadn't tried to hide the call from Mario, so Mario heard Fury's voice clearly. He looked up in surprise.
"They found him already?" He didn't even bother lowering his voice, so Fury heard him on the other end too.
"Mr. Argento?"
Fury immediately called out his name. Sharp as ever, definitely worthy of being S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director.
Mario stepped closer to the phone. "Director Fury, hello there."
"How's Coulson doing?"
Fury's first thought was that Coulson had been taken hostage by Mario.
"Him? He's fine, totally fine. Coulson, why don't you say a few words?"
Coulson started making small talk with Fury as if nothing was wrong, which would've sounded bizarre to anyone listening. But Mario understood that the two were exchanging information using some kind of coded system. S.H.I.E.L.D. was no longer secure, and Coulson couldn't afford to be careless.
A few minutes later, Coulson ended the call and looked at Mario. "Director Fury is sending people over. He wants to talk with you."
"No problem."
Mario agreed cheerfully, then added, "Can you get me some firearms? Heavy weapons would be best. Grenades, explosives, I want them all."
After getting thoroughly worked over by that heavy sniper rifle, he had developed an appreciation for high-caliber weapons.
Coulson walked over to a cabinet and pulled it open. Mario's eyes lit up as he leaned in for a look. It wasn't clothes inside, it was a massive cache of weapons and ammunition.
"You never cease to amaze me!"
Well, he was an agent, how could his safe house not have weapons? That would be ridiculous.
Coulson hauled out a jet-black sniper rifle and handed it to Mario.
"Thought you might like this."
Mario took it and felt no strain at all. These days, things fell into two categories for him: things he could pick up, and things he couldn't. "Strain" no longer existed in his vocabulary.
Seeing the satisfied look on Mario's face, Coulson smiled and explained, "AS50 anti-materiel long-range sniper rifle, designed by Accuracy International specifically for U.S. special forces, more precisely, for the U.S. Navy SEALs."
"It fires .50 BMG rounds, 12.7mm by 99mm."
"Serious stopping power. It's part of my personal collection, should meet your needs perfectly."
Mario nodded eagerly, grinning with satisfaction. If this rifle didn't do the trick, nothing would.
He worked the bolt once, took the spare parts and magazines from Coulson, and stuffed everything into his inventory.
He leaned in to examine more of the weapon stash, but Coulson stopped him.
"Sorry, there's nothing else worthwhile in there. But you can ask Director Fury, I doubt he'll be stingy."
Mario shot Coulson a look, then turned back to his brewing stand. He packed up his materials, stored the brewing equipment, and collected the bodies from the floor. The two of them climbed out of the underground safe room.
Soon Fury sent new instructions. Under Coulson's guidance, they drove out to an empty lot on the outskirts of the city.
A transport aircraft that Mario recognized descended slowly from the sky. The rear ramp lowered with a mechanical whir. Sitting in Coulson's car, Mario watched the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives in tactical gear and smiled to himself.
The transport flew quickly and smoothly to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New York facility.
The entire flight, Mario wasn't worried at all that Hydra would make a move to eliminate him and Coulson. The three Insight helicarriers hadn't even been built yet, there was no way Hydra would expose themselves now.
Under Coulson's escort, he finally arrived at Fury's office, where he got his first look at that famous S.H.I.E.L.D. director in person.
"Hello, Director Fury!"
He didn't give a damn about Fury's intimidating stare. With a cheerful smile, he extended his hand for a shake.
"I'm Mario."
Fury's expression was serious, like someone owed him money. Then again, he was the kind who hardly ever cracked a smile. He looked Mario up and down with sharp eyes, but still extended his hand.
"Mario, then. Your first documented appearance was in Hell's Kitchen, but that's not how we found you. We've been getting daily complaints from a concerned citizen about a 'murder' in Central Park. Took us a while to realize he was talking about a tree named Elaine."
Mario's eyebrows shot up. "Someone named a tree?"
"In New York, every tree in public spaces has an identification number and is tracked by the Parks Department. When our investigation showed multiple trees missing from your area of the park..." Fury gestured slightly. "Well, it wasn't hard to connect the dots."
"Trees have ID numbers?" Mario looked genuinely surprised.
"It's a multimillion-dollar urban forestry program. Each tree is catalogued, monitored for health, and has a replacement value. When several started disappearing without any authorized removal permits... It raised flags."
Mario scratched the back of his head. "Mamma Mia! I had no idea they were keeping track of individual trees. That's actually kind of impressive."
"Based on the intelligence I've received about your subsequent activities—"
Seeing that Fury was about to launch into a formal briefing, Mario immediately cut him off.
"Alright, enough with the file reading. That stuff's useless anyway."
"You don't want to suddenly get taken out yourself, do you?"
At Mario's blunt words, Fury paused, then said, "You're not the only person in this world who has—"
"Of course I know. Right now there's Dr. Banner, the Inhumans, aliens, and your ultimate ace in the hole, Carol Danvers. Oh, by the way, you'd better test that pager she left you. If it craps out on you at a critical moment, you'll regret it when it's too late..."
This time, Fury finally lost his composure. The rest wasn't such a big deal, but only he and Danvers knew about the pager. If Mario knew about that, then the rest of his intel on Hydra couldn't be fake.
"'Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye.' Director, how can you even say that line with a straight face? Are you sure what you trusted was a person, and not... a cat?"
Coulson stood to the side in bewilderment.
Am I even allowed to be hearing this stuff? Fury's eye was scratched out by a cat? Damn, I'm about to get silenced, aren't I?
Hearing this, Fury immediately forced a smile, terrified that Mario might reveal something even more damaging. He shot Coulson a threatening look out of the corner of his eye.
"What exactly do you want?"
Humans were always wary of the unknown, and Mario had already shattered his psychological defenses by revealing so many secrets. At this moment, he no longer saw Mario as someone he could manipulate like a pushover.
Mario raised an eyebrow. "You're asking me?"
"Right now I feel like opening that door, walking out, and taking down every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent I see. I doubt any of your people can withstand a .50 caliber round, can they?"
Suddenly, the AS50 anti-materiel sniper rifle appeared in his hands. Fury's smile froze on his face.
Simple, brutal, and completely lawless.
That was his most honest assessment. He suddenly understood why Hydra wouldn't try recruiting Mario. Recruit a guy like this, and who would really be in charge? Besides, Mario had no family, nothing to leverage against him, he acted with recklessness.
"Let's... negotiate," Fury said quickly, eyeing the sniper rifle. At his words, Mario immediately made the weapon disappear, acting as though nothing had happened.
"Can you tell me the source of your intelligence?"
Mario gave Fury a surprised look. "What's this, Director Fury? Last I checked, this isn't a police station. Shouldn't you be more concerned about verifying whether your own people are trustworthy?"
"If I'm not mistaken, don't you have ways of making people tell the truth? Some kind of... interrogation serum?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D. is already beyond saving. What you should do now is make sure it goes out with a bang, burn bright before it falls into the abyss, and drag Hydra down with it."
"I've already told Coulson who you can still trust. The rest, you'll have to root out yourself. But I can tell you that about eighty percent of your people are Hydra operatives..."
Fury leaned back in his chair. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that if what Mario said was true, he really was powerless to turn things around, unless every loyal agent he had possessed superhuman abilities.
The thought of the Avengers Initiative surfaced in his mind stronger than ever before.
While Fury was deep in thought, Mario glanced over at Coulson. That guy was staring intently out the window, as though the view outside was utterly fascinating, like there were supermodels doing yoga out there.
The office fell into silence.
After a while, Fury adjusted his mindset, looked directly at Mario, and asked, "What do you want?"
He didn't believe Mario was acting purely out of revenge. He had to have his own agenda. Fury just hoped those goals wouldn't conflict with his own. Cooperation might still be possible. As for recruiting Mario into the Avengers, that thought appeared briefly in his mind before he quickly crushed it.
"I want the Tesseract, or help me find Skye."
Mario had expected Fury to reject him outright, but to his surprise, Fury actually seemed to consider it. After a moment, he asked, "Who is Skye?"
"Shouldn't you be asking why I want the Tesseract?"
Mario's reasoning was simple: he wanted to see if the Tesseract could send him home. After all, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was the Space Stone. If even that couldn't get him back, then he'd have no choice but to settle down and make a life in this world.
"Skye's full name is Daisy Johnson. About twenty years old, female, a hacker. That's all I know about her."
Fury frowned. The name sounded familiar. Since Mario had mentioned her in the same breath as the Tesseract, she clearly wasn't ordinary. He made a mental note to look into her later.
"What exactly can the Tesseract do? If S.H.I.E.L.D. is truly as compromised as you claim, I'll consider handing it over to you."
Mario shot Fury a look but said nothing.
Realizing Mario wouldn't budge without concrete action, Fury immediately turned to Coulson.
"Go to the Sandbox and retrieve Item 084, the Tesseract. I'll provide authorization."
At this point, Fury hadn't yet witnessed the Tesseract's power and hadn't attempted to weaponize it, so the artifact was still stored at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Sandbox facility.
Hearing the order, Coulson felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders. He quickly turned and left, if he stayed any longer and heard more state secrets, he was afraid he'd end up getting silenced.