INFERNO │ Marvel

5.2 old friends and feelings

Steve had marched into the Triskelion, SHIELD headquarters, with a purpose. Amelia followed behind the fuming man, half of her wanting to see how this went down and the other half wanting to yell at Fury herself.

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" he questioned Fury the second they entered his office. He had clearly been expecting them.

"I didn't lie," he defended. "Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours."

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share," Amelia retorted.

"I'm not obliged to do anything, Miss Stark."

"Those hostages could have died, Nick."

"I sent the greatest soldier in history and a damn superhuman to make sure that didn't happen," he said as he spun around his chair.

"Soldiers trust each other," Steve chided him. "That's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around shooting guns."

"Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." Fury stood from his chair to be on their level. "Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything."

"And I would've been comfortable with it too," Amelia commented. "And I could've gotten whatever you needed quicker and more efficiently than she did. But you didn't say anything."

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own," Steve added.

"It's called compartmentalization," he replied. "Nobody spills the secrets, because nobody knows them all."

"Except you."

"You're wrong about me," Fury continued. "I do share. I'm nice like that."

He led the two to the elevator.

"Insight bay."

"Captain Rogers and Miss Stark do not have clearance for Project Insight," the robotic voice spoke.

"Director override. Fury, Nicholas J."

"Confirmed."

"You know, they used to play music," Steve commented to break an awkward silence.

"Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for 40 years," Nick explained. "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 say 'hi'. People would say 'hi' back. Time went on, the neighbourhood got rougher. He'd say 'hi'. They'd say, 'keep on steppin'. Granddad got to gripping that lunch bag a little tighter."

"Did he ever get mugged?" Steve asked. The elevator began to move underground, stone walls showing behind the glass box they were in.

"Every week, some punk would say, 'what's in the bag?'. What would he do? He'd show them. Bunch of crumpled ones, and a loaded .22 Magnum. Yeah, Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much."

Finally, the dark stone gave way to a huge hangar bay. Three large vehicles, not unlike the Helicarrier they had previously been on, were lined up in a uniform manner. Each had large guns pointing out of them, front, back and centre. Scaffolding was everywhere, giving a sense of how big the vessels actually were.

"What the hell, Nick?" Amelia gasped quietly.

"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a .22," he smirked. "This is Project Insight. Three next-generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites."

"Launched from the Lemurian Star."

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