Natasha Stark: SHIELD

Chapter 17:

Steve: I was called in to talk to Alexander Pearce, a man who was equal with Fury on SHIELD's food chain. "Ah," he said when I walked in, "Captain. Have a seat. I'm Alexander Pearce."

I shook his hand. "Sir," I said, "An honor."

"The honors all mine Captain. My father served in the 101st. Come on."

He handed me a photo. Nick with two eyes. "That photo was taken 5 years after Nick and I met, when I was in the State Department in Bogaton. ELN rebels took the Embassy. Security got me out, but the Rebels took hostages. Nick was deputy chief of the SHIELD station there. And he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the the building through the sewers. I said no. We'll negotiate. Turned out the ELN didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement and what do they find. They found it empty," Pearce sat down next to me, "Nick had disobeyed a direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil. Saved the lives of a billion political officers, including my daughter."

"So you gave him a promotion?" I asked.

"Never had any cause to regret it," Pearce said, "Captain, why was Nick at your apartment last night?"

"I don't know," I said. Pearce went on to put an idea in my head that Fury was a traitor, saying he bugged my apartment and that he had hired the pirates who had taken the Lumarian Star.

He went on to exaplain how he got his seat on the Council. "We were both realists. We knew that, despite, all the diplomacy, that to build a better world, often means tearing the old one down," Pearce said, "And that makes enemies."

"Captan," Pearce said a few moments later, "You were the last one to see Nick alive andI don't believe that's an accident. And I don't think you do either. So I'm going to ask again. Why was Nick in your apartment last night?"

"He told me not to trust anyone," I said.

"I wonder, if that included himself?" Pearce said.

"I'm sorry," I said, "Those we his last words."

I started towards the door. "Captain," Pearce said, "Someone killed my friend and I'm going to find out why." Then I left.

I got in the elevator, and many other people got in as well. I noticed little twitches in all of them. One with a bead of sweat trickling down his face, another, holding his briefcase with white knuckles. "Before we get started," I asked, "Does anyone want to get out?"

A moment later they all attacked me. One guys pulled an electronic weapon out and lunged at me, while another hit the stop on the elevator. I blocked. One guy pulled a magnet off his briefcase and tried to pin it on me. I took that guy down and the magnet flew up and hit the roof of the elevator. Another guy got his around my wrist and I was stuck for a minute. I continued to kick and use my other arm to fight. I pulled myself down from the magnet and Romallo, who had been the first to get in got me with his electronic sticks. It hurt, but I kept fighting until I turned around. "Woah buddy," he said, "Listen, this isn't what it looks like. Its not personal."

He lunged at me. We fought for a short time, until I threw him against the ceiling of the elevator and he was knocked out. "It kinda feels personal," I said. I made it so the elevator would move again and the doors opened, showing me a full strike team.

"Put your hands in the air!" one of them yelled. Nope. I broke the glass around the elevator walls and cut the cable that held us up. They turned on the automatic brakes before I hit the ground. I opened the door, but a strike team was assembling there as well. I thought for a minute. I didn't have a ton of options. I looked at the walls. I could jump out. There was a glass ceiling below, but that didn't seem like a totally brilliant idea. But it was my best one. I went back to get a good start. This is going to hurt I thought before I ran and jumped out.