04. | LINES IN THE SAND

S.H.I.E.L.D. HEADQUARTERS loomed over Washington, D.C.'s Potomac River. Although the building sat on the edge of still waters, inside it was a bustling center of activity for its elite team of agents.

Christina and Natasha were ordered to deliver the package to Director Fury under the pretense of taking Natasha to Medical. Fury nodded at them both and didn't say a word to them as he sauntered out of the bay.

"I have this feeling that he's trying to turn us against each other," said Natasha.

Christina glanced at her and sighed, gently dabbing at the wound on Natasha's forehead. "I have it, too and don't think it's intentional. But, he is definitely starting something and we're automatically drawing lines in the sand. You know how it is, Nat. It's nothing new."

"I don't know...I just don't like the feeling it's giving me."

▲▽▲

In Nick Fury's sleek, ultra-high-tech office, Steve Rogers stood looking down at Fury, who sat at his desk. Dressed in his stealth suit, Steve glared at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director. "You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?"

Nick Fury defended himself. "I didn't lie. Agent Sitma and Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours."

With a slight attitude, Steve leaned in and retorted, "Which you didn't feel obliged to share."

"I'm not obliged to do anything."

"Those hostages could have died, Nick." Rogers explained, visibly upset that Christina's main focus wasn't the hostages but the hard drive. Wasn't Fury upset about the Lemurian Star being taken over by pirates? There had been a S.H.I.E.L.D. officer aboard that carrier. Didn't Fury have a conscience?

"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen."

This statement didn't stroke Steve Roger's ego. He stared down Fury. He was genuinely annoyed and Fury could tell. "Soldiers trust each other. That's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around shooting guns."

But Fury wouldn't give Steve the last word, saying, "Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." Then he paused. "Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Sitma is comfortable with everything."

"I can't lead a mission if the people I'm leading have a mission of their own." Steve wasn't taking any excuses from Fury. He'd had enough of being kept in the dark. He'd told Christina that he was tired of cleaning up Fury's messes and he meant it.

"It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets, because nobody knows them all," Fury told Steve.

"Except you," Steve replied.

"You're wrong about me. I do share," Fury said with a devious smirk. "I'm nice like that."

Cap was confused. What did Fury mean? Then the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. stood and walked out of his office, motioning for Steve to follow. The conversation wasn't over. As they headed into an elevator, a sensor detected both men.

"Insight Bay," Fury called out to the sensor.

"Captain Rogers does not have clearance for Project Insight," a computerized voice announced.

"Director override, Fury, Nicholas J.," he ordered the computer.

Although Steve had been unfrozen for some time, he was still adjusting to the modern world. Even a ride in an elevator seemed strange compared to when he used to ride them back in the forties. "You know, they used to play music," he said to Fury.

"Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years."

This wasn't your typical elevator. It was made of glass, and the D.C. skyline was visible. Maybe there wasn't piped-in music, but a tourist would definitely break out a camera to take a picture of the view.

Fury continued, "Granddad worked in a nice building. Got good tips. He'd walk home every night, a roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd day, hi; people would say hi back. Time went on, the neighborhood got rougher. He'd say, hi. They'd say, 'Keep on steppin'.' Granddad got to gripping that lunch bag a little tighter."

The view of D.C. turned black as the walls of the elevator shaft came into play. The car descended under the streets at an accelerated rate. They had to be more than a thousand feet belowground.

"Did he ever get mugged?" Steve asked.

"Every week some punk would say, 'What's in the bag?'" Fury said.

"What would he do?"

"He'd show'em. Bunch of crumpled ones, and a loaded .22 Magnum." Fury said with a grin, "Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much."

The elevator finally came to a stop and the door hissed open. Steve stared past Fury, stunned at what he saw. Three massive Helicarriers stood before him. What was S.H.I.E.L.D. making? And was he a part of it?

"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a .22 Magnum."

Steve was speechless, focusing on the airships. They were sleeker and more menacing than the old one he had once called home with his fellow Avengers. But that older model was being decommissioned. As they walked beneath the new Helicarriers, Fury clued Steve in on the latest information about them.

"This is Project Insight. Three next-generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites," Fury explained.

It was all beginning to make sense. Now Steve knew why the pirates had taken over the S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier. "Launched from the Lemurian Star."

Fury added, "Once we get them in the air, they never need to come down. Continuous sub-orbital flight, courtesy of our new repulsor engines."

Steve had a hunch who was behind this new technology. "Stark?"

"He had a few suggestions once he got an up-close look at our old turbines," Fury said, referring to Iron Man's close encounter with a Helicarrier engine, courtesy of the Asgardian Loki.

As they walked the gangway, Steve eyed the weapons on the deck. The targeting hub, a clear large sphere, bulged below, thousands of little needlelike weapons bristling out of it.

"You are going to need one heck of a paper bag." Steve remarked.

"These new long range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles in a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole." Fury turned to Steve with determination. "We will be able to neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen."

Steve didn't like the sound of what S.H.I.E.L.D. was planning. It didn't seem ethical to him. You didn't target people who hadn't done anything wrong.

"Thought the punishment usually came after the crime." He said innocently.

"We can't afford to wait that long."

"Who's 'we'?" Steve questioned.

"After the events in New York, I convinced the World Security Council that we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once, we're way ahead of the curve."

They were all shell-shocked after the Battle of New York, but this was taking it too far. Steve was getting angry. "By holding a gun to everyone on Earth and calling protection, it's been done before. You know how it works out. I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect people, not threaten them."

"I've read the Special Scientific Reserve files. 'The Greatest Generation', you guys did some nasty stuff," Fury said with a glare.

"Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so people could be free," Steve said as he turned to the Helicarriers and pointed. "This isn't freedom. This is fear."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. And it's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap."

"Don't hold your breath." Steve wasn't taking part in this type of military strategy. Sure an army should be prepared, but this was not typical. Not typical at all.

Steve walked away in disgust as Fury just stood silently.

▲▽▲

From his office window, Fury watched Cap drive away from the S.H.I.E.L.D. offices on his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle. He felt the weight of Christina's data drive in his hand. He sighed heavily, knowing that the fate of the world was in his fingertips.

Fury called out, "Secure office."

Suddenly, the windows went black. Metal shields dropped over the doors. Fury inserted the drive into his computer.

A computerized voice boomed, "Welcome, Director Fury."

"Open Lemurian Star satellite launch files," Fury told the voice-activated computer.

"Access denied."

"Run encryption." Fury was annoyed.

"Encryption failed," the monotone voice from the computer informed him.

Growing even more infuriated, he said, "Director override. Fury, Nicholas J."

"Override denied. All files - sealed."

"By whose authority?" Fury asked the machine.

"Fury, Nicholas J."

Fury stared at the flashing "locked" computer file logo. This wasn't good.

This wasn't good at all.