Shields Struggles

POV Nick Fury

I was sitting in my office waiting for Coulson to arrive with some reports I asked for.

Knock Knock

I checked the cameras and confirmed it was Coulson.

Fury: "Come in."

Coulson: "I have the reports right here sir. I was able to rush some of them after the security breach."

Coulson hands me a few files and I look through them before looking at him to continue.

Coulson: "We checked footage from all the cameras we had and we can confirm that whoever is behind the theft is related to thefts of Nuclear Weapons in our care."

Fury: "Do we have any clues as to who is responsible?"

Coulson: "No, sir. No one has claimed responsibility, and we have no leads or evidence that can lead us to anyone."

Fury: "Sigh. Keep investigating and don't let your guard down. Now what about the Oak Island investigation?"

Coulson: "We finished our investigation and have determined that someone had used an unknown technology to dig up a secret vault on the island. We cannot be certain what was contained in the vault as no residue was left behind but legends about the island indicate it could have been old Christian relics or a sizeable fortune of gold."

Fury: "Have you found anyone selling the artifacts or a publicized finding?"

Coulson: "We looked into it and we have found no old gold being sold on the market nor any relics. We didn't find any evidence on who dug it up but we can keep looking."

Fury: "No, just have an automated alert made to tell us if anything is sold. Otherwise, close the rest of the investigation we need the agents elsewhere."

Coulson: "Yes sir. Next, we have detected 2 new Satellites in orbit."

Fury: "Motherf***er where are these damn satellites coming from!"

Coulson: "We have no idea, sir. We have attempted to contact them but have not gotten a response. What our analysts were able to tell was that one of the new satellites is likely related to ODIN as it is called LOKI and has a similar design. However, we have no idea what the satellite called ARCHIMEDES II is. Nor could we find records of an ARCHIMEDES I."

I rub my forehead as I feel a headache coming on.

Fury: "Sigh. Fine just continue observation and let me know if they do anything. Now have we found anything new on Team Galactic or Rocket?"

Coulson: "Understood. We have obtained a video of Team Rockets leader Giovanni and we have run him through every face recognition software but got no results. The recent fight with Kingpin has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to Hell's Kitchen and surrounding neighborhoods. As far as we can tell the attack by Kingpin caused Team Rocket damages and caused a negotiation that has Kingpin the leader of the USA underground while Team Rocket will be receiving a monthly payment from Kingpin. We haven't received much confirmation beyond that but continue to look."

Fury: "Very well. Give the footage we have to Interpol. Now what of Team Galactic?"

Coulson: "We have confirmed sightings of Team Galactic in Puerto Rico specifically in San Juan. Beyond that we have not found any leads to their bases or when they will attack. Nor have we found anything on their leaders beyond what we already have."

Fury: "San Juan? I want you to lead a team there and find out what they are doing there and to stop whatever it is."

Coulson: "Next we have found a strange hammer that seems to be impossible to lift in New Mexico."

Fury: "Send Hill to New Mexico and have her contain the hammer and find out why it is there and if it's dangerous. Make sure to bring Barton with you to San Juan and don't let your guard down. Team Galactic has injured and killed many agents. What of Project Insight?"

Coulson: "We are on schedule to complete Project Insight by mid-2010. We have acquired numerous Sentinels to assist with construction."

Fury: "Can we trust the Sentinels to not sabotage the project?"

Coulson: "While they are constantly connected to the central computer we have made the Techno Union sign a confidentiality agreement. Moreover, the government is giving them tax cuts to work on Project Insight for cheap. We monitor the Sentinels but they have done only what we have asked them to do. They also eliminated 3 spies."

Fury: "Very well. I have seen the psychological profile of Rio and I doubt he would betray his contracts since he seems to value honesty above almost everything. Keep monitoring them but otherwise what else do you have to report?"

Coulson: "Yes sir. The last thing I have to report is that we have taken account of what we lost. It is the 4th file. The thief took all 084 items except the Tesseract. We lost all of our Adamatium and all devices that were related to extraterrestrials. They also stole most precious metals we had and any of our advanced tech. Also an experimental stealth Quinjet. We also found most of our digital databases were wiped clean. Decades of physical files have also gone missing."

Fury: "Do we have backups?"

Coulson: "We did but those were also either destroyed or stolen."

Fury: "How bad is it?"

Coulson: "We have lost around 96% of our files in all forms. The only files we managed to salvage were files that were from the SSR days. Research files on everything other than the Tesseract are gone. Samples of the Super Soldier Serum are gone. We surprisingly still have the records of members who are currently serving. However, past member files are gone. We can only tell who was a previous member by memory and the records kept by the government."

Fury: "Are we certain that the records of current members haven't been copied or tampered with?"

Coulson: "We cannot say for certain but our analysts have given a 97% chance they haven't. The 3% is only because the thief might have advanced technology. Though they doubt anything could infiltrate and leave no trace at all."

Fury: "Put Shield on high alert for a while and see if any of our agents or spies become compromised. If they are we will know the records have been copied."

Coulson: "Yes sir. That was all I had Director."

Fury: "Good, now go do as I asked."

POV Alexander Pierce

Pierce: "Thank Fury. I will be cautious."

I end the call and check in with Rumlow to see his progress.

Brock: "Sorry we have lost her. Her tracking device has stopped working and her trail has seemingly vanished 38 Miles outside New York City."

Pierce: "How did she vanish?"

Brock: "We have no idea, sir. We are going over the entire area but it's as if she just vanished into thin air."

Pierce: "Keep looking she couldn't have vanished without a trace."

Brock: "Yes sir!"

I hang up and call Whitehall.

Whitehall: "Do you have new information about our thief."

Pierce: "Only that Shield was also hit. It seems our foe knows about Hydra and Shield which is worrisome. But what I was calling about was to let you know the subject has been lost and we are trying to find the trail again."

Whitehall: "Well I am glad to say I have good news. I have been in contact with Stryker. He has said he is willing to rejoin Hydra but he expects to be a head."

Pierce: "Sigh. I assume you intend on giving him it."

Whitehall: "Yes, we need a new head with Strucker being either a traitor or dead. Moreover, we need Styker's help. We are not in a position to be picky."

Pierce: "Fine I agree to his appointment. Now have we determined the status of our bases?"

Whitehall: "It's quite grim. Only 3 bases are left. 2 in the U.K. and 1 in Antarctica. All attempts to contact Team Galactic have failed and even when we fortify our bases heavily it doesn't stop them. In other words, Shield is more Hydra than Hydra is outside of it."

Pierce: "Should we team up with the 10 Rings? They have lots of resources."

Whitehall: "I will see if I can't negotiate with them. In the meantime, we need to start recruiting more."

Pierce: "I will use all our connections to get more funding and I will have Kingpin start paying back our investment."

Whitehall: "Speaking of which what of Team Rocket."

Pierce: "They have reached an agreement with Kingpin. Kingpin and all the allies he brought together we slaughtered but Team Rocket's leader spared Kingpin in exchange for Kingpin paying a tribute to them. They are also taking any bodies Kingpin needs to get rid of. Kingpin has been given control over all of North America's underworld."

Whitehall: "Do you think Team Rocket could be an ally of ours?"

Pierce: "I can't say for certain yet. I will gather all we can on how Team Rocket operates. We can say for certain that they are the single strongest criminal organization on Earth. They could undoubtedly give us a lot of resources if we can convince them. Our involvement in the attack on them should have not been revealed yet."

Whitehall: "Hmm, I will try to avoid antagonizing them for now. Was that all?"

Pierce: "No that was all."

Whitehall: "Hail Hydra!"

Pierce: "Hail Hydra!"

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Authors Note:

I wanted to make another chapter based on how Hydra and Shield are reacting to Rio's movements. Even if they don't realize it's Rio. Nick Fury is a paranoid person but the Santa Aura makes him less paranoid when it comes to Rio. Not to the point where he would ignore blatant crimes or bad activities but enough that Fury sees him as a fairly trustworthy person. Also, Hydra is in a bit of a corner as Rio has forced them to move more and more to Shield instead of being independent. Oh, and when Rio said he stole everything but living beings and the Tesseract he wasn't exaggerating. The only thing Rio didn't really steal was their money as it was to traceable. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and until next time Ciao.