Chapter 53- Meeting some Shrinking Legends

New York- SHEILD Headquarters, March 17, 2008 (18:45)

Nicholas ‘Nick’ Fury            

Fury sat in a dark room waiting for his guests to arrive. He had been pinged that they were in the building, and had them sent to a conference room that he had customized for security reasons, and so that some guests wouldn’t need to go all the way to his office to meet him.

So Fury sat in the dark for several minutes while two, well one person, he wasn’t on good terms with was brought up to him. The other he kind of got along with. Then the waited ended, and the doors opened and three people walked in.

Fury stood up to greet them, but Hank Pym wouldn’t let him be civil, as he barked. “What are we doing here, Fury? I heard from your attack hounds radio that the meteors are gone, so why are we here?”

Fury ignored the question for now and turned so he could better see the third person who escorted them in. "Good work Agent Romanoff. Would you wait outside for this meeting, maybe take a break or something?"

The redhead looked past him towards Agent Hill, before nodding and muttering. "I could use a coffee." Then she went out the still-open doors. Fury triggered the remote in his left hand, and the doors both closed and locked without anyone touching them.

After she left, Hank asked. “Where did you dig the snowwoman up, Antarctica?"

Agent Hill muttered behind him. “Budapest.”

Then Fury turned his attention towards the married couple. He pointed at them with the remote as he said. "There before you are standard SHIELD Non-disclosure agreements. Before I answer anything you and Janet need to sign. This is both to protect you as well as us. Your special requests that you made to help us with the meteors are still on the table for you, all you have to do is sign."

The couple shared a look before Hank asked. “Can you turn the lights up? It’s kind of hard to see in here.”

Fury did with the remote, giving him a better view of them too. A look he took as the two of them signed. Hank Pym looked a lot older than he should for being only in his mid-thirties, with the early signs of wrinkles and grey hair in his beard and on top of his head.

Meanwhile, his wife Janet Van Dyne, looked much younger, while actually being closer to forty than her husband. Her body was still firm and in shape. While her dark hair was full of color and looked young. She differently didn't look like the mother of a seven-year-old. So she was either taking better care of herself or he was abusing his body too much.

Hank threw the pen across the table once they had both signed and muttered. "There it's done."

Fury then said, before triggering the remote. "You may want to sit down first." With the press of a button, the monitor on the far wall came to life and showed the clearest image of the meteors they had. Before the angry scientist could say anything, the Director pressed the button for the next slide, showing the same scene, but one of the meteors was now a debris cloud, and the other was spinning at a different rotation, no longer moving toward the earth.

"Wow, those are big," Janet muttered.

Before Hank could complain, saying. “So we’re here for you to brag?”

"No, you're here to analyze this," Fury said before pressing the button again, and the image changed to when the alien craft was first taking shots at the smaller meteor. They only had stills of the event, but they had a several. So every couple of seconds he pressed the button and gave them another image to gaze at.

Janet had to sit down after her brain started to catch up with what she was seeing. While Hank wandered closer to the images with his mouth hung open. As he got within reach he muttered more to himself than to answer Fury’s request. “They appear to not be using heat or light for their weapons… not plasma either, not enough mass.”

"The later shots against the bigger meteor seem to have more mass than these shots," Hill said in response to his comments. Fury pressed the button multiple times to show the shots taken at the large space rock. Just as Hill had said these attacks seem denser and brighter than those used against the smaller space rock.

Hank continued his personal comments as he studied the image before him. “A variation in weapon's strength and no protruding parts either. Their weapons are built directly into the craft's frame… this is…"

“Terrifying.” Janet finished for him.

Although Hank didn't show the same expression or seem to agree with her about what the images meant. He looked younger after having seen them, while she looked sick to her stomach.

Hank turned to face her, and she flinched at his expression. A flinch that he seemed to miss. As instead he explained. "Janet this is proof of alien life. Howard had mentioned having met some back in the late fifties, but this is actual proof that there is life out in the galaxy."

"Advanced alien life." Fury corrected.

The man literally seemed to lose some of his wrinkles as he took a seat and asked. “What do you know about it besides what you’ve shown us here?”

"Little. It showed up, destroyed or stopped the meteors, and then seemed to leave." Fury answered. While he did he also turned off the monitor showing the images. When he did Janet seemed to look better, while Hank pouted for a second.

“Seemed?” Hank asked having caught his wording.

Hill explained. "None of our satellites could follow it once it came up to speed, but we could follow the trail of energy wake that their engines gave off. We lost them around the moons of Mars."

“That was last night. Then we detected trace amounts of it again, this time around our own moon.” Fury added as he too sat down.

“You think they doubled back?” Hank asked. Janet seemed to pale at the thought.

"It's possible," Fury answered before adding. "A world power came forward to us claiming to be allied with the craft, so its crew may be back just to receive their payment for saving our bacon."

“Who?! Even Doom isn't anywhere as advanced as what you just showed us." Hank asked in surprise while pointing his thumb at the monitor behind him.

"The Citadel of the Savage Lands," Fury answered, he held up his hand to stall them before adding. “They’re a newer power, about to take their first on the world stage. Up until now, they have been nice enough to keep quiet and in their corner of the world."

"And where are the Savage Lands?" Janet asked more in confusion than surprise.

"Antarctica," Hill answered for him.

The married couple laughed at their answer. So Fury turned back on the monitor and shifted the images to those that they had taken of the special region before the first meteor took out their satellite. They both quickly stopped laughing when the monitor zoomed in on the large patch of green and blue otherwise surrounded by white.

Once again it took them a moment for their brains to register what they were seeing, and again it was Hank who recovered first, asking. “How?”

“Don’t know, that's why I sent a team," Fury said. "The US is planning to send part of the Pacific fleet, but that is now up in the air. After the leader of the Citadel captured my people and had them call us to negotiate their release. On top of that, my team reported finding Hydra and Nazi personnel down there, and in less than an hour a meteor impacted the base they reported."

“Hitler’s Lost Legion? Charter always thought they went to Argentina.” Hank muttered.

“Are you saying this Citadel can pull meteors down on our planet?” Janet asked her face very pale again.

Making Fury worry about his plans for the woman, then he thought. ‘Course if my suspicions are accurate, all her best work was done before she became a mother. And all of it under Peggy’s nose.’

He cleared his throat before answering. "We're not sure… What we are sure about is that they have allies. During his call with me, he indicated that the ship came at their request. And we have no reasons at this time not to believe them. So at this time, we will take him to be allied with that craft and its creators. Additionally, we know for a fact that they have somehow recruited the Brotherhood of Mutants to be their agents." As he mentioned the other group Fury stared his good eye on Janet.

“Those psychopaths?” Hanks asked in an outrage.

"Not the same group. The group you thinking of disbanded shortly after you quit here at SHIELD. This version of the Brotherhood is more like freedom fighters, than outright killers and thieves." Maria Hill corrected the former agent's misconception.

"They're still criminals," Hank argued.

"Well, some people think mutants are getting mistreated. What do you think Mrs. Van Dyne?" Fury asked, his eye never leaving her face.

She blinked and sat back, but she couldn't look away from his stare either. Hank struck the table and shouted. "She has nothing to do with them. Why are you bugging her about this?"

“Because two days before you quit Mr. Pym, a news article came out in a tabloid, claiming your wife tested positive as a mutant.” Hill countered.

Fury while continuing his staring contests added. "Add to that when we did finally track you down, you didn't ask for money, to buy back majority stock in your own company. Nor did you ask for a new lab. No, to help us save the world, you asked for a full pardon for your wife.'

“So unless Janet is secretly a serial killer, with bodies hidden all over the country. Which I am sure I would found out about by now. There isn’t a current crime that she would need to be pardoned for, now is there?”

Fury waited a moment as the two of them tried to find an excuse. Then he added. "I won't ask, and I won't tell." He then slid his own signed non-disclosure towards them. "But I need some honesty from you two."

Janet only took a look at the paper to see that it was indeed signed before she disappeared from her clothes. Her blouse and skirt just deflated as her body vanished. Hill drew her sidearm, but Fury held his arm out to block the shot. With her being on his bad side he couldn't tell if she was still aiming, but he didn't hear her holster the weapon either.

"So you quit so we couldn't investigate the rumors of you harvesting your mutant girlfriend." Hill then said in accusation of Hank's work.

Hank struck the table again. As he did Fury, saw the eight-inch tall woman that had been standing on said table take to the air, after the table shook from the impact. "No! Did I study her powers to figure out how she did it, yes. But not till I could make my own Pym particles did I claim the work as my own. Besides she has disadvantages and advantages that I couldn't solve or replicate.'

"No, I quit so the investigation wouldn't ruin her business. Van Dyne's clothes and undergarments are her life. And I wasn't going to have her lose that over some bull shit blood test."

“She can’t talk while shrunk.” Fury guessed as he watched Janet fly around with her rapidly flapping wings that had grown out of her back. Additionally, she seemed to be covered in some kind of bio-armored suit. Most of it was black, but some parts of the suit seemed to glow with a soft yellow light, reminding him of a bee or a wasp.

“No, sound is too big to pierce her armor. So she can’t hear nor can she talk. But her armor has some kind of micro-projectile weapon system that I couldn't replicate. As soon as a bullet or other thing is disconnected from my suit it returns to normal size, and it loses most of its momentum in the transformation." Hank explained.

“Signal her to resize. And Hill, holster that weapon.” Fury ordered the two of them. He heard his agent obey, but Pym waited.

“She will be naked.” He muttered.

Fury turned so his bad eye would face her clothes and began a new staring contest with the ex-agent. He watched Hank press a button on his watch, and a small puff of blue dust was emitted from the timepiece. Fury heard rather than saw Janet stretch and reform into a full-sized person.

“So a secret for a secret, is that it?” Hank asked, after checking on his wife.

"No, I want her on a team I am putting together," Fury answered. "Your Ant-man is on my maybe list. But either way, I have work for both of you for her pardon… You see I thought you had another suit, stashed away somewhere. Then Hill dug up the old news article and we guessed its claims were true. Either way, I knew she had already posed as you twice. Once in Berlin in ninety-one, and again in Hong Kong in ninety-five.’

"See you're a glory hound, Pym. Not much of a team player and you like to take souvenirs. Be it a king's personal car, or an experimental tank, or heck a damaged Eifel Tower." Fury said, pointing at the tower with most of its tip missing hanging out of his pocket. It looked like a simple key ring decoration, but Fury knew that back in the day the tower 'vanished' for repairs. When in truth it had just vanished.

"So when I read those two mission reports, and not only did nothing goes missing, but the work seemed a grade above your usual work, I knew someone else did your job for you. Add the injury reports you filled, tied to those missions, which looked more like a bar fight, rather than injuries sustained while on duty. So prove to my people that you can be a team player, and then you can be on the team… Regardless of the outcome, I have work for you.”

Fury then pulled out a file from a drawer in the table and slid it across the table towards the man. Hank stopped the file from falling off the table onto the floor and read the title. “Project: Goliath? Didn’t Charter axe this back in the day, when I first proposed it?”

“Everything gets mothballed, and she did. She cited worries over the lasting effects of stretching a human mind. But she didn’t have an alien ship above her head capable of dusting Manhattan in minutes.” Fury explained as he crossed his arms.

“Before I agree what team?” Janet asked once she was dressed again.

He turned to face before he answered. “I call it the Avengers Initiative. And the WSC has been delaying me for a year on it, but with that and some other dangers popping up. I think we will soon get a green light."

“How is it different from being a regular agent?” She asked as she sat back down.

"Most SHIELD work is patchwork, no dedicated teams. But we have seen where good teamwork and dedicated relationships change the course of a battle or even the war." Fury explained, then proved it with evidence as he sited. "Back in WW2, the Nazis had more super weapons than us. Yet we won, why?'

"Because their Enhanced and advanced tech were deployed basically alone, or with miscellaneous troops for support. So when, our allies formed three teams, the Invaders, the Maulers, and the Howlers. It wasn't just the Enhanced among them that won the day. But their good teamwork pushed them above what they normally should have been able to accomplish.'

"We see that even today, with teams like the Fantastic Four, the X-men, and even the Brotherhood. Facing terrible odds, and yet, they come out winners… I want my Avengers to be the best of the best. And I want them to be dedicated to the job of protecting this world, from possible threats like that ship. So that parents like you can rest easy, even if there are aliens or other threats out there, because the Avengers are on duty."

“Laying it on a little thick their Fury?” Hank asked.

“Just saying the truth… Since everyone here is under NDA, I am not afraid to admit that I worry about my own daughter out there, living in the world that we have today.” Fury said, after rubbing the tip of his nose.

"I didn't know you were married sir," Hill said in surprise.

"I'm not," Fury said before unlocking the doors with the remote. "Work out the lesser details with Hill here. I have an agency to run."