~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For 40 advanced chapters, visit my Patreon:
Patreon - Twilight_scribe1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the bar counter, far from the bartender, two men sat shoulder to shoulder—one Black, one white. They didn't look at each other, seemingly unrelated, yet they were clearly in conversation.
"Fury, explain this to me," complained Owen Davis, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. "This time, I got screwed hard by the mess you people caused."
Nick Fury—the Black Nick Fury, who had narrowly avoided getting a mouthful of Molotov cocktail—looked just as helpless. "How was I supposed to know you'd move that fast? Find the slightest excuse and charge straight in. That kind of reckless momentum is something you'd expect from fresh recruits on their first battlefield."
"Who knew you'd pull an 'administrative error' and flip the whole situation on its head," Owen shot back. "If I didn't know exactly how many hairs you've got on your ass, I'd be wondering whether you dug this pit on purpose just to watch me fall in."
"Fuck!" Fury snapped. "We're not that close. And do you know what happened to me because of that goddamn 'administrative error'? I almost got cleaned up as a traitor. You guys just ended up with a headache—I nearly lost my life."
Owen Davis was startled. "Shit. What the hell happened on your end? Tell me whatever you can. I need to watch out for the same trick."
Fury figured his old war buddy had a point and chose his words carefully. "I can't go into too much detail because of classification rules.
"What I can tell you is this: the enemy found a way to impersonate our personnel and issued non-compliant orders, which led us into illegal operations and a cascade of mistakes. Fortunately, things were resolved in the end."
What Fury didn't say was that the Skrulls had already left with Carol Danvers—aboard the cruiser left behind by the Kree scientist—setting out in search of a new home.
To be honest, Fury had wanted to keep that cruiser. But it was in space. Without Skrull assistance, he couldn't even get off the planet, let alone figure out how to operate a spacecraft far beyond Earth's technological level—much less research what was inside it.
Before leaving, the Skrulls had complained that most of the research data onboard—including encyclopedic knowledge brought from their homeworld—had been looted by the Kree when they briefly seized the ship.
Fortunately, the navigation system and the research facilities were separated, which was why the cruiser could still fly.
That at least gave Fury a small measure of comfort. No one even considered the possibility that the data might have been taken by a third party, and the blame went neatly onto the Kree.
The only vehicle on Earth capable of leaving the atmosphere was the modified quadjet—but that craft had already been registered under S.H.I.E.L.D. and couldn't be used without authorization.
Besides, Carol Danvers had asked for the ship specifically to escort the Skrulls away. How could Fury possibly refuse?
Even though the Skrulls had left, Fury couldn't guarantee that all of them were gone.
He had no means of identifying Skrulls disguised as humans. All he could do was keep his guard up—and share that intelligence with his old friend in the FBI.
Owen Davis was no stranger to strange situations. His first instinctive question was, "Mutants?"
Fury shook his head. "No. It's rare enough to find mutants with even similar abilities. This time, there were quite a few enemies—most of them are dead now—but I can't confirm whether any are still hiding."
Though not entirely accurate—since "leaving" was being framed as "killed"—they were all off Earth either way. Fury was deliberately phrasing it as a warning.
"The Red Empire?" Owen asked. "Didn't they collapse years ago?"
"The regime collapsed," Fury replied smoothly, "but the people are still around." The guess was wrong, but Fury went along with it. They were old enemies anyway—no harm in slinging some mud their way.
"True…" Owen said, sounding subdued.
He tapped his fingers on the counter, thinking, then suddenly asked, "Fury, do you think it's possible those people planted a bomb inside that batch of information equipment? Why would they target Henry Brown?"
"Possible. No idea," Fury answered tersely, draining his bourbon and signaling the bartender for another.
The Skrulls wanting to blow up Henry Brown?
According to Barbara Morse's later report, even after Henry Brown left Maria Rambeau's house, the Skrulls continued targeted actions against him.
From Fury's perspective, more attempts at framing or assassination wouldn't have been surprising. Planting a bomb in Henry Brown's home was entirely plausible.
But why the Skrulls would insist on killing a Kryptonian—that was beyond him.
It clearly wasn't about Earthly grudges. As for cosmic grudges… Fury wouldn't even know who to ask anymore.
"Could it be competitors coveting digital imaging technology?" Owen Davis speculated from his own professional angle.
"Rich people doing shady things?" Fury replied, following the line. "Nothing surprising about that."
Poor people, after all, could only commit so many crimes—grab a gun, fire a bullet, one life gone.
But elaborate, bizarre schemes? Those took money, time, and leisure. Especially when things escalated into commercial warfare.
The reason such acts didn't make headlines was simple: the wealthy always had PR budgets scrubbing the mess.
But intelligence and law enforcement agencies saw these struggles clearly—and sometimes even played supporting roles in them.
They were the kind of affairs that challenged the limits of imagination, not morality.
Sensing that the questions were digging deeper and edging toward dangerous territory, Fury changed tactics and countered, "What about you? How are you wrapping this up?"
Owen Davis answered bluntly, "Mickey Schulhof is finished."
"Oh?" Fury asked. "You didn't consider giving him a hand? Selling him a favor?"
Draining his own drink and ordering another, Owen said, "Tony Stark stepped in. He needed to protect his people—and he wanted to take a huge bite out of Sony while he was at it.
"And Sony themselves had no intention of protecting Schulhof. From what our international affairs guys say, Sony's new president this year—Nobuyuki Idei—has wanted to replace him for a long time.
"It was only because the former president, now CEO, Norio Ohga—the Japanese executive who appointed him—kept backing him that he managed to hold onto the position.
"For the sake of his career, Schulhof took this gamble. He wanted to steal Stark Industries' technology to secure his seat. But he screwed it up. And we all know what comes next."
Fury asked curiously, "Even with everything blown to pieces, you can still build a case?"
"Yes," Owen replied. "The debris recovered from inside Sony America's LA building nails them. Those custom-built devices have a very distinctive look—comparing them with the records and photos from when we seized them, they can be positively identified as the same items."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
🎉 Power Stone Goal Announcement! 🎉
I'll release one bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones we hit!"
Let me know what should I do
Your support means everything—let's crush these goals together! Keep voting, and let the stones pile up! 🚀
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~