Chapter 22 - New Friend?

3rd POV SHIELD base NY

Releasing what felt like his hundredth sigh of the week Coulson entered the meeting room with his third cup of coffee in hand. Taking his seat, at the far end of the room, he leaned back into his seat and closed his eyes, trying to get some rest while he waited for everyone else to file into the room.

{click} opening his eyes some ten minutes later Coulson watches as Barton enters the room. Technically Barton wasn't supposed to be in this meeting. Fury had yet to officially assign him to the mission so for all lengths and purposes he shouldn't be allowed to hear what was said in this meeting. Let alone attend.

But well as Coulson gave him a brief nod and went back to resting his eyes no one was going to point that out. There first contact with Reaper had ended with an agent dead and all their assumptions about his behavior thrown in the trash. They had operated under the assumption that he was just another idiot high off his newfound powers, and while that may still be true his reaction to mutants showed he was much more aware than they had given him credit for.

Not to mention he was much more skilled in combat than any regular soldier, the way he had moved and so swiftly dealt with Rumlow before leaving had shown skill that placed him at the top of special ops units globally. SHIELD had a file open on all active ops of his level and the fact that they couldn't find anything that matched what they knew about Reaper was disturbing for most of the team. SHIELD agents, while trained to be able to handle any type of situation, were still not used to working on so little information. It unnerved most of them, for the first time they were presented with the knowledge that SHIELD wasn't all powerful.

It was something most would think was obvious considering the basic knowledge about mutants given to all agents, but SHIELD was such an organization. It didn't matter what they were dealing with, they handled it orderly and quickly with the least casualties possible. SHIELD always knew what to do, how to act regardless of the circumstances you could count on SHIELD. Coulson and Barton, being Nick Fury's direct subordinates, have had more than their fair share of 'supernatural' encounters and had learned that you to some extent would always be operating with some degree of blindness. But for the rest of the team this was their first time going in blind.

Therefore, Coulson couldn't really blame anyone when the time of their meeting struck, and everyone filed in as if they had been waiting in a line outside the room. There tense expressions and postures brought an amused smile to Bartons face which slid away as quickly as it had appeared when their head researcher stepped to the front of the room and turned to address everyone.

"Considering the unexpected results of our encounter with Reaper we have gone over and reassessed all our information on his actions before and after the confrontation. We've managed to develop a new profile and a list of his abilities and his possible motives. Since our confrontation Reaper has stopped hiding himself as well as he did before. We still don't know where he stays or of any places, he frequents besides that most of his time is in Hell's Kitchen but that can be tracked back to the idea that he is targeting criminals." Hands quickly shot into the air at his last statement and the researcher released a sigh before pointing towards the agent closest to him.

"Yes? What do you not understand so far. This should all be rather basic information."

The agent shrunk slightly under the criticism but asked his question regardless "Sir, after his attack on agent Rumlow shouldn't we be discarding the theory that he's targeting criminals?"

It wasn't a horrible question, but it highlighted the agent's inexperience with situations where the answers weren't given immediately. Glancing around the table Coulson sighed once more at the numerous nods the agent had received for his question. After this situation ended, he'd need to contact Fury to make corrections to the SHIELD academy course material. The researcher seemed to share the sentiment if his sighing was anything to go by.

"Why would we change a theory that still holds true? Just because he killed agent Rumlow does not change the fact he's only killed criminals. To suggest that he could have other motives after killing one of us in a confrontation is ridiculous, I mean really can you even use that brain in your head or is there just dandruff up there." By the end of his reprimanding the agent in question looked like he'd rather be fighting hostile terrorists than continuing to sit in his chair. Thankfully the researcher soon turned back to explaining Reapers new profile and left him be.

"Now with new information on how aware Reaper is on the shader side of the world and with the recent death of Kilgrave and his acquisition of suspected mutant Jessica Jones we believe that Reaper is most likely trying to accomplish some kind of grander goal and his actions so far are just steps to reach it." This time only one hand went up after the researcher took a pause. There was only one question on everyone's mind.

"What is his new goal?" The agent asked the question with caution as if trying to prepare to receive back lash for asking another stupid question.

Luckily for him the while the researcher gave a huff of annoyance, he didn't show any further displeasure. "We can't be certain as of now. But the most likely end goal considering all his current actions is that he wishes to become the new Kingpin."

There was silence in the room for a few minutes before Coulson looked at the researcher and asked a question "Has anything else besides the death of Kingpins political and criminal allies led you to that conclusion?"

"No." with a shake of his head, the researcher gave a frustrated sigh before continuing his answer "We know too little about him. We can only make bare bone guesses and assumptions until we learn something more concrete about him. Until then we can only keep guessing."

This time it was Barton who spoke up "What about the other player?"

The other 'Player' Barton talked about was the masked super solider that had appeared a day after Reaper saving a young girl from being kidnapped before disappearing afterwards. Until recently when they started to shadow Reapers movements. From what they could gather it seemed he was chasing after Reaper. Considering what he'd done to the kidnappers they had theorized that he may be hunting Reaper but after seeing him track Reaper with no problem while there best and brightest failed to even begin to understand his movements had led them to the idea that there might be a more personal tie between them.

That's why they hadn't approached him yet. As much as they took pride in their abilities none of them were stupid enough to approach a modern Captain America who might be on the same side as someone even more powerful.

The researcher must have expected the other 'player' to be brought up because he took out a photo of him from his pile of files before sticking it to the wall. "Considering his estimated physical parameters and his familiarity with Reaper he should have made contact with Reaper roughly 3 days ago. We can't confirm the reason why or even if they truly haven't meant. We still know very little about the military movement they use to move around the city. I don't advise engaging with him right now. We should sit back and watch a little longer. If they don't meet soon, we should assume they are at least mutually aware of one another and don't wish to get into conflict with each other."

"Is there any good news?" one of the more experienced agents asked to try to alleviate the heavy atmosphere that had begun to spread at the idea of facing not one but two super soldiers.

"Actually yes. After analyzing the wound of agent Rumlow we have pieced together what we believe to be the source of Reapers seemingly mutant abilities." There was some whispering at that. They had met with Reaper assuming he was a mutant and had activated the appropriate counter measures only to find out that none of their mutant suppressors could do anything to him.

"We believe that Reapers body is made from an assortment of chemicals. We won't be able to confirm the full effects of these chemicals without a DNA sample but for now we believe these chemicals give him the ability to transform his body mass thus giving him his partial intangibility. We haven't found any good explanation for his teleportation unfortunately, but we've compiled a list of weapons that should damage his body."

Speaking to hear he began to give a handout to all the agents in the room while Barton read over the shoulder of the agent sitting next to him. Flipping through the thin package Coulson skimmed over the first few sections and found himself on a page detailing various weapons that could affect Reaper. Coulson noticed quickly that the key linking feature between them is that they all created an effect greater than just physical force. All the items listed were grenades and special ammunition of various kinds.

"You believe his intangibility to only work on purely kinetic attacks?" Coulson looked up and asked the researcher. He had certainly seen weirder, but it wasn't very often he saw such a simple but incredible ability. Abilities like his were classified as 'dedicated'. To signify their single purpose use. They were one of the more annoying types to deal with because until you knew what you were dealing with, they were practically unbeatable if you weren't skilled enough to disrupt their rhythm and most weren't.

"That's right. If his body is truly made up out of chemicals, it means that the kinetic force isn't harmlessly passing through him. It just isn't strong enough to affect his particles when there that distributed. The amount of force needed to damage him in that state would do more damage to the city than it would to him. So, for now it's best to treat kinetic attacks as simply ineffective against him. In contrast something like thermal grenades should force his body to take on a more solid form or risk his body collapsing in on itself."

Coulson made sure to commit the researchers' words to memory before relaxing back into the chair as the meeting quickly resumed in full swing. The next few hours were spent going over all their resources and allocating manpower. They decided to stop studying the movement pattern he used and instead put more effort into tracking the other super on the field. They would learn far more from him than they would be studying a model far to advance for their current capabilities.

Walking out of his room Coulson planned to quickly enter his room to get some sleep but before he could an alarm blared throughout the facility. Cursing to himself he rushed down the hallway just in time to watch the reinforced metal door fly off its hinges. Pulling out his pistol he quickly flipped a table next to him and crouched down peeking through the stairs towards the front door. There standing at the entrance to their facility stood the other 'player' they had just discussed. Seeing him every muscle in Coulson's body tensed and he looked around rapidly trying to spot the others. He saw Barton on the opposite stairway with his bow in hand and gave him a signal to stand on guard as Coulson slowly stood up.

This man was there only led right now and starting a fight here wouldn't help them. Before he could speak Soldier's gaze looked onto him and he found himself wilting slightly under the pressure the red visor put on him.

"Agents of SHIELD." He spoke slowly in a voice that sounded like it hadn't been used in a long time. "You and I have much to discuss."