Chapter 8 – Meet Arthur Black

It was 3 am when a high-profile guest entered the base. Fury was just about to call when he received the report from the guards. He moved to the window and observed the night sky as he waited for his guest.

The door opened silently but the person who walked in was loud.

"I heard you made an agreement with my son, took his artifacts and then reneged without even talking to him." Retired general Arthur Black's voice was loud but there was no anger in them, in fact one could even feel that the general was happy. "What's the matter fury? Now that you are the director of shield, you got the balls to mess with someone from the black family?"

"Well, I could not force the black widow. Maybe you would like to try?" Fury smiled and approached the retired general. He hugged him and said, "Its good to see you sir."

"Likewise, Fury." The retired general returned the hug and asked, "so, tell me Fury, what are my chances of meeting my grandson soon?"

"Zero, sir" a crisp voice came from the door.

"Come in agent Romanov," Fury invited Natasha into his office. "Agent Natasha Romanov meet retired General Arthur Black, THE legendary general and father of Chris. General, meet Agent Romanov."

Arthur shook hands with Natasha and looked her in the eye. "I heard that my son has a thing for you. He even exposed his skills, identity and resource to try to get you. I'm curious. Do you have someone else or is there something wrong with my son that I don't know about?"

"It is not about that sir and I don't have anyone right now." Natasha answered the general's question but she was reluctant to continue the conversation. She looked at Fury and he nodded.

"It is ok Natasha. The general can be trusted." Fury reassured Natasha and urged her to answer.

"I can't give you a grandson sir." Natasha forced herself to look at Arthur in the eye.

"Is that…" trailed the general as he gives it some thought. Then he looked at Natasha and said, "are you a man with feminine looks and nice hair? I know Fury has lots of people good with disguises but this is incredible, almost impossible."

"Hrmm, Hrmm," Fury cleared his throat in order to stop himself from laughing. He avoided looking at Natasha because he did not want to see if she is shocked or insulted. All he can do is to explain to the general to avoid any misunderstanding.

"They operated on her and removed her ability to become pregnant." Fury said solemnly. He knows it is one of Natasha's biggest regret in life.

"Oh. That's it. I thought it was something else." Arthur looked at Natasha and said, "if that's the problem then I might have a solution."

Fury and Natasha was shocked. They were already amazed by the bracelet and thought that was the end of the surprise from the black family. Do they have an artifact that can help regrow organs? What other secrets do they have?

Seeing the look on both of their faces, Arthur spoke to clear the misunderstanding before it happens. "I don't have any healing artifact. I have the next best thing." He took something from his suitcase.

Fury and Natasha can't wait to see what the general will pull out. Although he said that he does not have a healing artifact, what if he is just joking? If he has a healing artifact then she might consider marrying Chris and settle down somewhere quiet.

Arthur picked up a satellite phone from his briefcase, gave an order and told Fury and Natasha to wait for his men.

Agent Phil Coulson entered at this time with a few other agents carrying trays of snacks. There is food from McDonald's like burger and fries, biscuits and a few other bite sized treats and tea. They placed the trays on the nearest table and left immediately.

Arthur took some fries and three burgers and started eating. Natasha and Fury were in no mood to eat. But since they have to wait for Arthurs surprise, they took some snacks and began eating.

Fury talked to the general about the lawmakers blocking most of his projects and the general promised to make a few calls to change things. Natasha was silently eating the whole time. One is her boss and the other is a former boss of his boss. Her position is not high enough to join the conversation.

While she was trying to focus on her food, something fury said made her pay more attention. Fury asked Arthur for a special gun. Retired general Arthur was known as the best sniper and until this time no one has broken his record. Although the record is unofficial. Shield has several mission reports proving the skills of the retired general.

Arthur only smiled and picked up the satellite phone and gave another order.

They ate in silence after that and when they were finished, agent Coulson took the trays and left.

A minute later the door opened and three men came in. One of them is carrying a small box and a file that says classified. One is carrying two boxes of what clearly looks to be designed to hold snipers' guns. And the last man is carrying a big square box.

Arthur picked up the small box and opened it. Inside are three vials that is golden in color.

"These are healing serums we created years ago. One of the orphans I sponsored, found a man with many lethal wounds. You can even see his organs spilling outside his body. She was surprised to see the man's wounds heal at a visible rate. Because the man was unconscious, she was able to extract a few bottles of blood which she sent to me. This is the result."

Arthur was proud as he presented the serums to fury.

"Can this regrow an organ or a limb?" Fury asked.

"Not really. You can use this to buy a few minutes. It can give you enough time until help arrives. It can close wounds, increase you blood and increase your regeneration ability for a few minutes. But it can't regrow an entire organ or limb. Only parts of it." Arthur looked at Fury and Natasha. Seeing them pay close attention to what he is saying, he continued speaking.

Arthur looked at Fury and then at Natasha. "This serum has potential but this is something we created using his blood many years ago. Many things have changed since then and there are many more scientific breakthroughs. Imagine what the scientist nowadays can do with his blood."

"Let me just ask, sir." Fury waited until he saw Arthur nod before he continued his question. "You found a person that can heal several lethal looking injuries. Took his blood and developed it into serums with such incredible healing capabilities..." Fury stopped for a second and saw that Arthur is nod again, then he continued, "after seeing that much potential, why didn't you continue studying him?"

"Well," Arthur twirled his fingers as he answers Fury, "at that time I was just promoted as general. If I do any human experiments and they found out, then I could be court martialed. Besides, you know that I am perfectly ok with putting bullets in the bodies of enemies but I don't want to hurt civilians. My father raised me better than that."

Fury facepalmed in anger. This is one of the things he hates about the general. The general would be at ease in storming an enemy base alone but there are instances where he would say that he would not do something and no matter what, he would not do it. Sometimes he would change his mind but months would have passed before that happens. This is why it took so long for him to become a general. If he stopped being stubborn then with his achievements, he could have been the youngest general in history.

Arthur smiled sheepishly and tried to avoid looking at Fury and Natasha. He just took the file and gave it to Fury.

"The man's name is Logan. We kept pretty good track of him over the years and cleaned up after him. He has a tendency to go berserk and he never went back to apologize or fix things. We paid for the medical bills and gave some money to the affected people." Arthur went on and on with a proud look.

"What are you being smug for?" Fury smacked Arthur with his words. "You are a billionaire that earns hundreds of millions every year. Why are you so proud of giving a few thousand dollars to people?"

Arthur tried to ignore Fury and just opened one of the sniper boxes. He took out a beautiful gun that shines a metallic black color.

"This is one of my new creations. This is accurate until 4000-meter range. This one is black in color and the other is silver. Natasha you pick first. The other one will be for Hawkeye."

"As for you mister cranky director," Arthur wanted to surprise them but he was a little mad at fury's outburst earlier. So, he gave the sniper gun to Hawkeye instead of fury. "This box contains bullshit. The most powerful handgun known to man or unknown to man because I have just made it."

Arthur took out two silver guns. Its body looks like a 38-caliber revolver with 15-inch-long barrel. Arthur showed them large bullets that goes with the gun. "I called this bullet 'Fury'," Arthur said as he holds the bullet and shows it to Natasha and Fury.

��I named the gun bullshit and the bullet Fury because Fury can bullshit his way into any situation. Since I wanted a bullet that can penetrate any armor, I named the gun that way. This is an armor piercing bullet that can penetrate nuclear shelters. Believe me, I have tried."

He gave one to Fury and the other to Natasha. The three men placed the boxes on the ground and left.

Arthur grabbed the file from fury and gave it to Natasha. "Convince him to participate in research and then marry Chris. After that, give me a grandson."

After saying his piece, Arthur stood up, he left without waiting for either Fury or Natasha. If he stayed, he could have heard Fury cursing.

"M*th*rf*cker! Arthur, this is a diamond tipped bullet. Do you think we have that much money to be throwing diamonds around?" despite his angry outbursts, Fury took half of the bullets and carefully placed it in his desk. He liked the gun. He just hates the names given by Arthur. He plans to give his gun a new name. As for the bullet he will think of a name later.