Chapter 234: Furious Warnings

Chapter 234: Furious Warnings

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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27th September 2012, New York City

(Nick Fury POV)

As Fury was pondering all of this from his office on the Triskelion, Maria Hill entered the room. The woman was one of the main reasons Fury didn't go crazy in the last few months. She was a rock, efficient and loyal to a fault, and the director of SHIELD appreciated all the effort she made in helping him try to salvage the current situation. For some reason, she had a small smile on her face, "Sir."

He nodded, "Hill."

"We have some news."

Fury nodded and she continued, "the satellites have found Jasmine Sayre in a restaurant in New York."

The director of SHIELD had a bloodthirsty smile on his face. Well, if an opportunity presented itself, just before the UN vote, he was going to take advantage of it. After all, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

However, Fury knew for sure that his opponent wouldn't be a regular one. He vividly remembered the fear he felt when he last confronted the woman, trying to pressgang her into the Avengers initiative. When his old friend, Charles Xavier, warned him about her, he hadn't expected how fearsome and intimidating the young woman was.

If he was honest with himself, Fury had wished that the woman had died during the Asteroid M fiasco. She had just disappeared and with no signs of her in years, he considered her to be dead, probably by Magneto's hand. It was quite the victory for SHIELD, that fiasco. It had gotten rid of the threat that Magneto posed, the threat that Jasmine posed, and while Fury does regret Xavier's death, it allowed SHIELD to fill the hole that he left behind and be able to hire more mutants into the organization.

Still, for all his confidence, Fury needed to be very careful in how to proceed. Bagging Sayre was a must right now, especially with the vote being so close. Having her convicted of murdering Pierce and Evanshade to take over the country was bound to be a large PR boost to the sinking ship that SHIELD currently is.

To do that, he needed all hands on deck, he needed the Avengers. Fury had his own team of mutants, but truthfully, they just weren't as efficient as the saviors of New York. They couldn't account for the Hulk's raw power, Stark's intelligence and firepower, Barton and Romanoff's strategic prowess, and Captain America's charisma. Having them fighting alongside SHIELD would be a big win for him.

Fury dismissed Hill from his office and started calling Romanoff. She was the one he was the closest with. The woman was riddled with guilt from her actions as the Black Widow and Fury was the one that provided her the opportunity to clear her ledger.

The phone rang for a few seconds before the Black Widow's voice answered, "Hello, Romanoff here."

He didn't expect a response like that. He knew that Sayre had messed with Romanoff a lot during their last encounter, but he didn't expect it to distress her this much, "Don't get emotional on me, Romanoff."

The woman had calmed herself and answered, "Look, Fury, things are a lot more complicated than you think. Do not go after Jasmine Sayre. It's suicide. You will lose everything."

The director of SHIELD gritted his teeth, "And how do you know that?"

"Seriously, Fury, you have no idea what you're dealing with. We both know that you're usually not that reckless, and that you don't attack anyone without proper intelligence. And I know that you don't have proper intelligence, because if you knew did, you wouldn't have even considered the situation. Yeah, you're probably right in the fact that Sayre killed Pierce, but she didn't kill Evanshade and that's a fact. Don't do this, Fury. I'm warning you for old time's sake."

The director of SHIELD had to admit that Romanoff's clear aversion to the idea of going after Sayre unsettled him, "You know something that I don't?"

"Yes, I do. I shouldn't even be telling you this. I'm only warning you because of what you've done for me over the years. Please, Nick, don't go after her. I will tell you right now, that not a single Avenger will support any attack on that woman and for good reason. If you have any sliver of trust in me, don't do it."

So, there was more to the situation, and the Avengers knew about it. Nevertheless, the woman had killed the Secretary of the World Security Council, and there has to be consequences for doing that. He appreciated Romanoff's warning her really did, but these were desperate times and desperate times call for desperate measures.

"I'm sorry, Romanoff. The world needs to see SHIELD doing something, fighting a dangerous foe. They need to see that even with the last few scandals, that SHIELD was needed. This is the only way that I can see SHIELD surviving."

"No, it isn't. There has to be something else you could do, someone else you could go after," Romanov pleaded, "There's Ulysses Klaw who was last seen in South Africa. You could have the gratitude of Wakanda and all the other African countries surrounding it, just for returning the Vibranium he stole. They could feed their people if they sell it to you anyway, and then it would open a lot of doors for research. I could even get Tony to finance you, if you can get him to do some tests on some pure vibranium ores."

Fury denied the offer, "Klaw went underground. We've been tracking him, but he left South Africa a few months back. And even if we did get him, it wouldn't impact the UN vote this much. We need something bigger and bagging a mutant who took over one of the biggest companies in the world, could be the push we need. Plus, we both know that it's the public we need to sway not the UN representatives."

"Fury, I'm begging you here, don't do this."

No, the director of SHIELD had already made his mind. This was the only path he saw where SHIELD would still be still standing after the vote, "I'm sorry, Romanoff."

He hung up on the assassin. This didn't bode well for Fury. The Avengers being so opposed to fighting this woman put a wrench in his plans. For now, he needed to adjust things slightly. He didn't know if he could beat Sayre. His team of mutants, while strong, probably wouldn't be enough to fight her, considering the confidence she showed in front of him and Charles when they confronted her.

But he didn't need to actually defeat her, did he. He only needed to show that she was a threat, get her to use her powers and show the world that the woman in charge of the Marvel Media company was a mutant. The public opinion was generally against mutants in general, and she could be found guilty of the murders in the eyes of the public. This would show the world that SHIELD was still fighting the good fight and removing dangerous threats even after the fiasco that was the New York invasion.

Ok, that would be an adequate plan. As for now, he needed to assemble a small task force of SHIELD's mutants to get them to do the mission at hand. They needed to be either extremely tough, or long range fighters. It was a good way of minimizing the risk to his own agents while revealing Sayre's nature to the world.

Still, he was wary of Natasha's warning. She seemed desperate to stop him from doing this. Maybe she had a point, maybe going after Sayre was suicide. But Fury was a fighter, he didn't become the director of SHIELD without fighting his way up, and he sure as hell wasn't going to give up on his organization without a fight.

With that small bit of hesitation gone, Fury sent a message to his second in command, "Hill, assemble task force X, we're going after Sayre."