Reality in Motion

a safety net

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize." Fury recounted as he stared at the picture of him and Secretary Pierce, "He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility." he quoted before letting out a disappointed sigh, "See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues." he said matter of factly before tossing the photo away from him. It landed amongst the other files Maria had managed to steal before leaving SHIELD so she wouldn't be targeted by the takeover.

While Steve and a few others were on their heist mission, Q had been catching up. She learned that Pierce was the ringleader of the Hydra takeover. He had used his position of power with the World Security Council to push forward his goals, but under the guise that they were also SHIELD's goals and for the good of the people. He had played his part and his victory was only a few short hours away from launching.

"We have to stop the launch." Steve stated the obvious. He was hovering near her chair, wanting to keep an eye on her and make sure she was okay while they had their conversation. Dawson was sitting across from her, with Fury on the other side and Maria by him. Natasha had taken the seat next to Dawson while Sam stood a few steps away from Steve.

"Yeah no shit, Sherlock." Dawson sassed back with a slight eye roll.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury added with a huff of a laugh, even though nothing about the situation was funny. Time was ticking down and soon the bomb would explode.

"Okay so what do we do?" Q cut in before anyone else could say anything else. She glanced around the group, lifting her hand in the air, "I mean, how do we stop it?" Her gaze landed back on Dawson, who leaned forward in his seat to grab the case which had been sitting on the table the entire time. She didn't think anything of it - figuring it was some sort of hardware she wasn't allowed to touch. He clicked the locks on the front and opened up the top, then spun it around dramatically to show them what was inside.

He made a gesture similar to the one Vanna White used on Wheel of Fortune. There were three equally sized chips with similar designs of code etched into them. It didn't mean anything to her or, she assumed, anyone else sitting across from the three who were the only ones in the know.

"What are they?" she asked the obvious question, ignoring his annoyed expression to her question.

"Safety nets." he explained shortly. She raised her eyebrows, vaguely remembering him talk about something like that several weeks ago. But he never expanded on it. Just like he wasn't then. Her gaze shifted over to Maria, who was more willingly to explain what the chips actually did.

"Once the helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized." she started to explain, opening up a corresponding laptop and pulling up a demonstration onto the screen. Turning it around, she allowed the others to see a concept video of what she was saying, "We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own." she glanced to Steve and then Natasha, really the only ones capable of doing such a thing, "One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational..." she paused for dramatic effect, "a whole lot of people are gonna die." her tone was final and serious, wanting to get her point across as clearly as she could. Q looked from her to Dawson, who was picking at the skin under his thumb with his finger.

"And you made these?" she asked. He scoffed at her question, like she was asking him if he made the brownies for the school bake sale.

"Obviously." he shifted forward in his seat, folding his arms on top of the table before launching into the specs of the chips. Q barely understood what any of his nerd talk meant, so she tuned out until she heard him say, "Hill's right. This is the only way to make sure those things never hurt anyone."