Director Maria Hill of BRIDGE Maria and Fury sat in her office, the sun shining down on the Triskelion making interesting patterns as it shone through the Diamondhead crystal that sat in the center of her office. They had a holographic screen in front of them, displaying the varying topics of conversation between them. “You want me to reach out to a mystic?” Maria asked Fury with a raised eyebrow. “Isn’t that the same as reaching out to one of those psychics that work out of their living rooms?” “Considering the world we live in now, we might end up hiring one of those psychics one day,” Fury snarked. “But in the meantime, I pulled this woman's file out some of the more unknown and classified ones. The things that SHIELD kept under wraps from even the top-level agents. She was one of our top consultants.” “Yeah, back in 1952,” Maria noted, pulling up a photo of an elderly woman. She had her hair spread outward behind her head, was wearing a purple dress, and had a white shawl over her shoulders. She was scowling at the cameraman as though offended at his clothes. “So, how old is she? I’m guessing she’s somehow still alive?” After hearing Thor describe his adventures in terms of centuries, immortality wasn’t as crazy a concept as it might have once been. “We don’t know,” Fury admitted. “And that makes her worth talking to.” “She looks like she survived all these years off the souls of orphans,” Maria noted. “The old bat’s on our side,” Fury shrugged. “We need magic consultants from Earth. So far, Fantasma is the closest we have, and she’s admitted to being barely able to understand her skills.” “...And this woman reached out to us?” Maria asked. “Said she wanted to show the ‘girl’ how to take full advantage of her power,” Fury shook his head. “Still as ornery as ever. Only thing I ever liked about her was her honesty and her cat.” “I always forget you liked cats,” Maria touched the screen. “And Dial’s files?” “He mentions something about her, but she fell under the more esoteric parts of everything,” Fury shrugged. “The files have some basic information, though he can’t seem to remember if she is or isn’t Atlantean.” Maria shook her head at that. “I wish we didn’t have to guess so much on those files Dial made. This would be easier if he had a better memory.” “How many people have to share knowledge they got channel zapping on an interdimensional TV to spy organizations?” Fury pointed out. “Even the best agents have gaps in their memory, let alone untrained civilians.” “You ever notice you still lecture me?” Maria pointed out. “Do I?” Fury shrugged. “Sorry. Old habits.” Maria didn’t mind too much. There was something to be said for not letting your head get too big. She flipped through the files that they had on the old woman before nodding. “All right. I’ll meet with her after the whole Antarctic thing is done. Speaking of which...” She brought up another image. This one of an older man and woman, Dr. Bernard Kloss and Dr. Dana Bergstrom, both half-dressed in warm cloths that had been partially ripped apart. They made an odd image, considering they were wearing winter clothes in the middle of what looked like a rainforest. They were smiling happily as they gestured toward the camera to their friend. Their ‘friend’ stood uncomfortably in between them. He was tall and muscular, rivaling Thor or Steve in terms of size and build, with long blonde hair that was dirty and tied into a rough ponytail behind his head. He wore a necklace with teeth of varying sizes and shapes on his bare chest, and a loincloth of what looked like some sort of reptilian skin rested around his hips. His feet were covered in boots of the same material. He was smiling as well if uncomfortably, holding a modern machete in his hands. Behind them, a sabertooth tiger was curled up on the ground. It was devouring what looked like a giant reptile leg and was ignoring the humans. “Well, you did say you like cats,” Maria noted once again. “Because cats can’t hurt me, and never will,” Fury scoffed. “That thing looks like it’s been eating nothing but elephants.” Fair point. The thing had to be hundreds of pounds heavier than the largest tigers. It was the same size as the gamma-infused tiger Dial had saved, a true testament to how massive creatures of the primeval past could be. “I can’t fucking believe that he was right,” Fury rubbed his face. “I mean, dinosaurs?! In Antarctica?! A jungle?!” Maria felt like laughing and reaching for the whiskey all at once. Of all the things that had been revealed by Dial, somehow the ‘Savage Land’ had sounded like one of the more fantastic ones. Even more so than aliens in some ways. She shut down those feelings. The Director of BRIDGE couldn’t be thrown by the strange after all. Instead, she turned the screen to display an image of a field that was covered in dinosaurs, like Jurassic Park in reality. “Since arriving, they’ve confirmed the existence of several modern counterparts to dinosaurs, as well as the young man in between them, who survived there since his father left him there. He seems to be very distrusting of anything that isn’t of the Savage Land,” Maria leaned back in her seat. “He doesn’t want to leave and doesn’t seem to care if he has any family to return to. We can’t even tell how he speaks English. Keeps saying the sabertooth taught him.” “Is this dude just pulling every Tarzan cliche out of his ass?” Fury shook his head. “He was left alone from the time he was a toddler. He’s an experienced hunter, tracker, and warrior. He’s got some very big tales about the things that run around the place. Stories of ancient temples, technological empires, ritualistic cults. As well as some human or ‘humanoid’ tribes. Once again, I don’t want to be too disbelieving, but we should have some of our guys drop in soon.” “Which guys?” Fury asked. “I’m tempted to start with a science team. But considering we might end up battling dinosaurs, of all things? Avengers team. One week from now, with some BRIDGE backup. Might end up changing the makeup of the team, but I want someone who can at least lift a few tons,” Maria shook her head with a small sigh. “This isn’t the only problem we have to deal with of course or even the most important one. But the promise of this Anti-Metal Dial says is supposed to be there is worth looking into. And if it turns out that all we’re doing is confirming the lack of a threat, I don’t mind that.” “It’ll confirm a threat.” Maria cocked her head, confused. “Is this where I find out you have more information than I do again?” “Just guessing. So far, every time the Avengers have taken a trip, something new pops up on our radar. Hell, almost every time any of us take a mission. The ante just keeps getting raised over and over again.” Maria pursed her lips. That was… fair. Extremely fair. Which reminded her. “There are other concerns. Winter Guard may have been the first ‘National Supers’ to pop up, but they aren’t the last. Granted, the ones that revealed themselves directly after Winter Guard surprised me.” She flipped through the holoscreen until it displayed the images of several groups of people spread across a map of the world. One in Japan displaying what looked like a group of people waving in front of a temple, one of them about eight feet tall and covered in armor that hid a body that was… oddly shaped. In China, Australia, and the Winter Guard in Russia of course. And the one directly north to them. “Alpha Flight,” Fury said calmly. “The Canadian superteam program… That guy in the front is short as hell.” “Puck, AKA Eugene Judd. Kind of a legend in his hometown,” Maria noted. “They say he killed a grizzly bear when he was eight years old. Black Widow speaks highly of him.” “Looks like a lot of these teams are short-handed,” Fury noted. “Only four on Alpha Flight, three in Australia. Greece only has one guy?” “They say he’s all they need? Claim he’s one of their old heroes or gods, which means yet more when combined with Chernobog and what our agents in Egypt are dealing with,” Maria said. “I say claims, but we have Thor, so…” she shook her head. Fury mumbled about getting a team of historians together because of all the ‘damn gods’ that were showing up. “Where are they getting all these superhumans? None of these people were on the Index,” she said, referencing the list of enhanced assets SHIELD used to have. “Thankfully it looks like the only ones picking them are governments. Even as twisted as things get with politics, I’d rather not see crime families or human traffickers getting their hands on them.” “...There is one thing we showed have expected. Celebrity superhumans,” she flipped the holoscreen again. A song began to play, one with a strangely compelling tune to it. A young woman appeared before a screen. As the music crescendoed, she began to sing in Korean. She was pretty good. The young Korean woman had hair that was black and longer on the right, white and shorter on the left. Her left eye was bright blue while her right was black. She was wearing a blue and grey colored skin-tight outfit that looked like a mad cross between Natasha’s original costume and something out a fantasy video game. She waved her hand on screen and trails of white followed the passage of her hand. She stopped to display a hovering ice crystal in the shape of a snowflake. With a smile, she clenched her hand into a fist. Ice erupted around her to show she was standing in an arena, the chill light illuminating the world. Behind her, two other women, girls really, walked up. One was younger than the others, either in high school or about to leave it. She was wearing a leather jacket and a pair of tight blue jeans, hair pulled up into a tough black ponytail, the glowering look on her face falling with the tough look. As the video continued, she raised a hand holding a red mask up to her face. A blue form flowed up from behind her, shaped into the tall and powerful shape of a full-grown grizzly bear glowering at the camera. The last of the girls had pale white hair and wore a skintight black costume with a flowing white scarf behind her. She raised her hand and smirked as she flashed claws at the audience. The bear spirit and the high schooler rushed forward as one while the fully white-haired girl flipped into the air and the first woman unleashed torrents of cold. “Seol Hee, known as ‘Luna Snow’ by the press. Ami Han, AKA White Fox. And the high schooler is Dan Bi, called Crescent for the symbol on that mask of hers,” Maria said. “You know, I blame Tony for this. And I'm not even sure if this will help the reputation of enhanced or not.” “Huh. Girl can rhyme,” Fury noted when Crescent began to rap something in Korean. “See 언제든지 내 모습 magic, 단 한 번에 내가 잡어 절대 기죽지 않지, uh!” “I’ll take your word for it,” Maria mumbled while turning off the video. “The fact is, all these enhanced showing up, there is a lot of talk about putting sanctions on them. Of treating them the same way we would nuclear weapons.” “You think we have to worry about a ‘Registration Act’?” Fury asked. “Or something similar,” Maria crossed her arms. “I’m not so naive that I believe enhanced individuals shouldn’t be treated differently from others, but some of the laws that have been suggested are unconstitutional.” “How do you plan to deal with it, then?” Fury asked pointedly. Maria thought about that for a very long time before answering. “I already have lawyers working on drawing up a proposal. One that can protect the freedoms of human and enhanced alike. I can’t promise it will be perfect, but hopefully, it’s a start.” It had better be. Because she knew at least a few people would fight back in a hurry if such a law came to pass. ------- Across the United States While Maria Hill and Nick Fury discussed the high and mighty aspects of life on Earth, Stark Industries had shipped several products across the country. First among them were small items sent to tech reviewers for some of the more reputable magazines and newspapers in the world. Those had been sent out a few weeks before most of the products would hit shelves, the new StarkPhone being the chief one for mainstream consumers to feast their eyes on. A sleek and robust looking black phone, it was shipped in a box boasting of ‘Jury-Rigged’ technology, with a picture of Jury Rigg laughing as he held an arc reactor in one hand and a super-advanced rocket launcher in the other. A bit much, in terms of marketing, but it did the job of telling you exactly what the phone was promising. Tony Stark’s genius melded with alien technology. The reviewers had taken their new toys in hand and immediately started to play with them. They discovered several things about the ‘StarkRigg’ as the phone was soon nicknamed. First, it had an insane amount of battery life. It could go a full week without recharging while being used at a normal pace, three-four days when going all out with apps, games, and data. Second, the software was very fast and intuitive, having little to no lag whatsoever. Crashes were near non-existent, though it did happen a few times (no accounting for human error after all). Still, it was one of the high points, that the phone was incredibly powerful, able to support even the most taxing apps and games with ease. There was a lot of talk of people making apps specifically to take advantage of all of that power. And third, it didn’t disconnect from data. It just seemed insanely good at staying connected to cell service. No one was sure how, but Stark Industries had made a game out of challenging people to test the phones’ ability to connect to the internet, to the point of insanity, with one man testing the phone while diving, thus testing if the phone was waterproof as well (It was). All in all, a massive success the second they hit shelves, with pre-orders through the roof and stores immediately running out of them the second they hit shelves. What wasn’t spoken about as much however was that much of the profit for the phones was being poured into humanitarian aid across the world. Stark industries sent money to the Rio recovery effort, several charities with good records in helping people in reliable ways, and the opening of schools funded by Stark Industries, as well as scholarships. Well, Stark Industries still made a ton of money as well. They were a business after all. Besides the phone and various other products made for the public to purchase, there were also shipments sent to police stations across the world. A new brand of ICER pistols specifically. BRIDGE had allowed Fitz-Simmons to give the formula to Stark, after much contract writing, and the first police-issued versions of the ICER pistol were put in the hands of officers of the law. They were simple weapons, only carrying two things. First, the ability to hold up to seventeen ICER bullets at a time, each capable of putting even the most heavy set people down for the count with a single round, and without any danger of killing them from an overdose. Second, a small chip that acted as a tracker, in hopes of making sure no one but officers of the law could get their hands on it. Those had gotten some interesting responses. The fact was, ICER’s were the safest way to take down an assailant ever devised. Hit any non-superhuman criminal with one, they were down. That was it. Granted, they weren’t going to replace tasers or pepper spray. After all, blinding pain was a hell of a deterrent. And they wouldn’t replace regular guns since death was even more of a deterrent. But they were certainly a relief to have around. Stark Industries also sent out some emergency battery banks to hospitals and government buildings. Designed by Leopold Fitz, they were made to hold enough power to support a fully running facility for a week if need be, longer if power was conserved, much longer if more than one was installed. It was made to be fully insulated from EMP as well. It wasn't the fanciest of devices, but that was the beauty of it. Just a big tough power bank the size of a big broom closet made to take abuse if need be and sold for a damn good price. Besides those ‘big ticket’ items, there were new video game consoles, computers, and electron microscopes. Overall, the most important change Stark Industries had made to the landscape of the world was the one that had been plaguing modern science and technology for decades. Power. No arc reactors were involved of course, but the batteries Stark Industries had released were immediately the most powerful ever made for their size. In a year when most phones had batteries the size of the phone itself, Stark Industries’ phone's batteries were about the size of an Oreo cookie. And this was important because a lot of what had been holding back what could be done with electronics was the fact batteries were advancing more slowly than anything else. In the past five decades, there had been a trillionfold increase in computing power. But battery life had only increased by about seventeen percent since 2007. Until now. Of course, Stark Industries wasn’t the only one making a name in the tech world. AIM was back in business. ------ Army Brigadier-General Everett Buckler “What the fuck am I walking into here, Talbot?” Buckler asked the man across from him. Army Brigadier-General Everett Buckler was not a man to mince words. He’d long since learned from his first battle that messing around and trying to pretty your language was a fuckin waste of time. Say what you had to say, make it quick. The man was tall and muscular, his head and face shaved smooth except for a simple goatee. His skin was black under the clean black army officers uniform he was wearing with the single star signaling his rank to the world. Buckler was staring out the window at the passing forest with some distaste. Sitting in the back of an SUV with a fellow soldier next to him while driving through the woods was far too close times he’d done similar trips in war zones. Somehow he couldn’t help but feel the same combination of trepidation and excitement. “Believe me, Buck, I felt the same way the first time I went to visit these Eggheads,” Air Force Brigadier-General Glenn Talbot said. The other man was wearing a dark blue military dress. He was a white man, with a close-cut haircut and a neatly trimmed mustache. Though slightly shorter than Buckler, Talbot carried himself with a similar sense of authority. “For one thing, it’s plain stupid they have us drive all the way out here. Their lab is on the border of Canada for crying out loud!” Talbot said in disgust. “Granted, the wife does like when I pick up some syrup on the way…” Buckler scoffed. “That ain’t the problem, Talbot. The problem is the fuckin ‘Mandarin’! This whole bunch of nerds was involved in a plot against the President of the United States. Not to mention the damn Vice President was in on it.” Talbot scowled. “I know that Buck, but these eggheads have a lot of tech they can give us. We got those damn Commies making their own superteam, BRIDGE gets another enhanced every few weeks it feels like. The US Military needs an edge of its own. And it's up to us to make sure it isn't going to turn on us.” “What have they got so far?” Buckler asked. “A big gun sound good to ya?” Talbot said with a smirk. A smile grew on Buckler's face. ------ Inside AIM's facility, Buckler eyed the security guard leading Talbot and him through the hallways. After a moment, Buckler spoke to the woman. “You ex-military?” The guard looked back at him in surprise. “Uh, yes sir. Master Sergeant.” “Impressive,” Talbot noted. “What are you doing working for these nerds?” “My wife had a baby,” the guard shrugged. “I wanted to stay in the States and make enough money to support her. This job lets me do it.” Buckler hummed to himself while eyeing the woman. Ex-military. Every single guard was ex-military as far as he could tell. Made sense, since AIM was a military Think Tank, but the fact that there were so many was disturbing. The place had to have as many guards as scientists. Last he knew, AIM was about to get shut down. Where were they getting all the money for this? The guard led them into a room with a big window looking out at a group of three scientists surrounding a large weapon that had been set on a pole. A man standing in front of the window turned to look at him as the guard took a position next to the door. Buckler blinked at the man’s outfit. He looked like he was wearing a big yellow beekeeper-looking outfit, with a cylinder-shaped helmet covered in some sort of canvas on his head that had a window revealing his face on the front. “Getz, you look ridiculous,” Talbot said bluntly. The man in the outfit rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’m sure. It’s much more svelte than the hazmat suits we were dependant on before. Considering the precision necessary for our work-” “Just take the helmet off and talk to us, will ya?” Talbot said impatiently. Getz’s face soured, something Buckler found amusing to watch. The older man removed the helmet. “Well, let me tell you we were quite happy we had these during the last few weeks. Now, I believe you’re here for today’s test?” “That’s right. This is Brigadier-General Everett Buckler by the way,” Talbot gestured to his counterpart. “He’s Army, but don’t hold it against him.” Buckler scoffed while taking Getz’s hand to shake. The feel of the hazmat suit against his palm was rather strange. “I’ve been told I’ll be assessing your technology from now on.” “Ahh, then you’ve come at a great time,” Getz’s enthusiasm seemed to return in an instant. “Take a look at this! A weapon we’ve developed very recently! We’re just about to test it.” Getz tapped the glass. The scientists within looked up at the head scientist, who waved at them. Moving quickly, they started to prepare as Getz spoke. “This is one of our energy weapons, already prepared for mass-reproduction. As of now, we still haven’t developed plans for it to be used by infantry, but it’s perfect to mount on a vehicle. It fires bursts of concentrated microwave radiation capable of melting steel and killing a man in a single shot. It’s made to kill even the most durable of beings. Oh, you’ll need these,” Getz gestured to a nearby scientist wearing a lab coat, who passed Talbot and Buckler a pair of tinted safety glasses. “Trust me, put ‘em on,” Talbot grumbled to Buckler. “Tried to be stubborn about it the first time. Spots in my eyes for two days.” Buckler smirked. Leave it to Talbot to have his bullheaded nature bite him in the ass. The scientists around the large cannon-like weapon rushed away from it, exiting through a door behind it. As they did, a ten-foot-tall slab of solid concrete was wheeled into the room. Then a wall of steel of the same size. Both were a foot thick. “Let’s do 80 percent power,” Getz said. “Commence demonstration!” The cannon lit up and fired in the blink of an eye. That alone would have impressed Buckler. Of the many problems with energy weapons that kept them from being used in modern combat, among them was the fact that nothing was really powerful enough to charge them fast enough to let them be used against anything that could dodge. Granted, there was more, but Buckler had yet to see a laser weapon that was better than a simple kinetic weapon. The cannon in front of him made a hell of a first impression, however. It fired a single blast of yellow energy, the bolt smashing into the steel wall and melting its way through before digging a hole into the concrete behind it. “Impressive,” Buckler said softly. “How long till it can do it again?” “Ah,” Getz smirked. “That is the fun part. Commence rapid-fire!” The cannon lit up, then unleashed hell. Dozens of bolts of light flew into the steel wall like it didn’t exist, tearing apart the concrete wall in moments. Buckler stared in shock as the metal was turned to molten slag with horrific ease while concrete exploded apart. ‘Insane,’ Buckler thought to himself. This wasn’t just advancement to current weapons technology, this was decades ahead of anyone else that wasn’t named Stark. Even after studying the alien technology left behind in the New York invasion, Buckler had yet to see anything this potent ready for mass-production. Buckler kept his thoughts to himself as Getz chuckled. “Impressive, yes?” “It is. What’s it called?” “The Microwave Emitting Beam System, or MEBS for short,” Getz said. Buckler carefully kept from rolling his eyes at the stupid name. “We’ve made a lot of headway recently! In fact, come this way!” Getz turned and started walking, forcing Talbot and Buckler to follow. As they tossed the safety glasses they’d been given to a scientist who was left to fumble with them frantically. “Talbot,” Buckler hissed. “What the fuck is this? You gonna tell me these muthafuckas have this kind of gear now? They were getting shut down. Now they can make rapid-fire fuckin’ laser turrets?” Talbot nodded. “I know it’s crazy but that’s what they’re offering us. Can you imagine our tanks and planes getting outfitted with those bad boys? I’d be a lot less worried about Russkies sending monkeys to kill us all in our sleep.” Getz led them into the next room. “We’ve developed this for superhuman containment. After several failures, we managed to find a way to contain any enhanced short of energy absorbers.” The second they entered the next room, Buckler knew what he was talking about. In the center of the next room stood a cylinder of greenish-yellow light. It was being created by a pair of rings on the top and bottom that made the whole thing look like a giant jar. “The Energy Containment Cell!” Getz waved at it proudly as more scientists worked around the cell. “Transportable in moments, capable of holding even the Hulk! The energy is held within a magnetic field and can be used with just a little training.” Buckler internally shut down. Too much. Too fast. Something was very, very wrong here. Of course, there had to be some drawbacks anyways. As fancy as these weapons was, fancy only took you so far. One only needed to remember the AK-47. A gun whose popularity came to one point. Reliability. It worked. Even if hadn’t been maintained in days, had been shoved in mud, had been taken apart and put together as roughly as possible, and used by small children who had never even learned how to read, it would fire. And while not every weapon had to survive to the extremes that the AK-47 did, there was something to be said for weapons that wouldn’t jam up or stop the instant you needed them. Buckler was worried these new weapons would have similar issues. But worse. He was worried if they didn’t. Because if all these worked perfectly, he would need to make inquiries as soon as possible. There was a saying about looking a gift horse in the mouth. That was bullshit. You look, and you look, and you look. Make damn sure what you have is a gift and not a swift kick in the rear. As Buckler thought about that, he never noticed a screen flicker with red symbols.