That's Gin!
Moscow, Russia
November 1, 2025
4:59 AM
As Nick left the safe house Maria and Talos looked at each other. Neither of them felt particularly confident by Nick’s return. Nick was just different, he wasn’t the same Fury that brought together the Avengers and faked his death from Hydra. He didn’t give them the same vibe.
“Uhm Talos…” Maria hesitated to even ask this question but she needed to. Talos looked at Maria curious about what she didn’t want to ask.
“How do we know that’s really Nick?” Maria asked. She really was starting to question if this Nick ‘I-get-a-lot-of-calls’ Fury was really the same person she always knew.
Talos took a deep and heavy sigh.
“We don’t.” Talos shrugged.
“What are we going to do?” Maria looked at Talos. She still wasn’t convinced that even if this was the real Fury that he was going to help or that he could.
Maria was really worried, there was no one for them to call or get help from because they had no idea how deep the invasion was, they had to find out who was and wasn’t a skrull before they could talk to anyone and they did not have a lot of time to investigate.
“He needs time. We just don’t have it.” Talos sighed.
“You know there’s a chance he’s not coming back.” Maria raised her brows at Talos, after that conversation Maria thought maybe he would not come back to do this, maybe he will go back up to S.A.B.E.R. Maria was kind of mad Fury even went out and risked his life for a walk, but he was his own person he had to make his own choices.
Maria was emotional she didn’t know how to help Fury, but part of her could’t stop being mad at him. She knew that didn’t help the situation and she was trying to tell herself to just get over the past and move on, just like Fury said. She couldn’t be mad about stuff that happened in the past she had to give her attention to this pressing issue, just like he needed to.
“I probably shouldn’t have said all that stuff.” Maria sighed questioning herself, she never had to hide her thoughts or concerns before with old Nick, but with new Nick maybe he couldn’t handle Maria being as blunt and straight forward as usual.
Talos narrowed his gaze at her.
“You weren’t. He needs to hear this stuff and he’s a grown man he can take it. Does he go soft on you?” Talos asked with a little joke and Maria shook her head no with a little smirk. Fury never held back what people needed to hear, why should Maria if Fury was the one who needed to hear it.
“I am really not very confident about this…” Maria admitted and Talos nodded in agreement, it just didn’t feel right she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.
“Yeah…” Talos agreed reluctantly. It was hard to say this about Fury, especially for Maria and Talos, two people who always put their faith in him and trusted him. Now they just didn’t know what to think.
—-
As Fury walked outside it was clear to him that he was being watched. He knew he was an unusual sight in Moscow. He didn’t know if the faces he saw were just shocked to see a man like him or if they were faces that knew he was. He couldn’t help himself but stare back at the countless faces that glared at him as he took a calming stroll. It wasn’t very calming he had a lot to think about. His stroll was interrupted when Fury was grabbed unexpectedly from behind, a hood placed over his head. Maria and Talos were right he shouldn’t have gone out for a walk, alone… in Moscow…
When Fury came to he found himself in a familiar space. He wasn’t at the mercy of an enemy or the rebel skrulls, instead he was looking at the smiling face of his old friend, Sonya Falsworth.
“So the rumors are true.” Sonya said in a pleasant tone.
“Rumors? About me?” Fury asked surprised.
“Well, you know you hear a one-eyed black man is walking around Moscow and you start to wonder…”
“Sonya, did you have these fine men rendition me to your office off the streets of Moscow?” Fury looked at the two bag men beside him.
“Fine men? They are … well actually fine is exactly how I would describe them.” Sonya said like it was a diss to them.
“Harsh boss.” Fury grumbled.
“So you’ve made it.”
“Apparently, I have.”
“Do you really think Nick Fury should be strolling around Moscow? Seems a bit risky.” Sonya tilted her head.
“I like a risk.” Fury said in his classic style.
“And what compelled you to take such a risk today?”
“I was looking for you.” Fury smirked and Sonya smirked back.
“And so you have found me, or more accurately, I have found you..” Sonya clarified, the two old friends stared at each other.
“It is good to see you again, maybe you lot can give us a few to catch up?” Sonya said kindly to Fury and then dismissed her mediocre men.
“And it’s good to see you.” Fury said as he got up from the chair and Fury admired Sonya’s office pretending to look around, he placed small clear recording device over the eye of a golden owl statue. Sonya was one the people Maria thought could be a skrull so he wanted to find out for sure before he told her anything. But Fury had his doubts that Sonya was a skrull, Sonya was just one of the few people who knew of the skrulls which is how her agents and those working with them got entangled into this mess with the rebels.
“I was borrowing a good friend of yours for a bit. I think I might even like her more than I like you.” Sonya smiled.
“People say she’s the funny one between us.” Fury smirked to himself.
“I think she’s quite talented.” Sonya remarked casually.
“She is talented, indeed.”
“If you don’t need her then, I know of lots of things she can help me with. She said she hadn’t heard from you in quite some time, like the lot of us, leaving us all to wonder if you’ve moved on.” Sonya huffed.
“Well..” Fury sighed. Was he going to get this from Sonya too? What is with this women can’t they let a man be sad and ignore his problems and exist in denial up in space alone. Why do they have to be so concerned and annoyed with him.
“She was around, you know, but I can’t seem to reach her now.” Although Sonya’s voice sounded concerned and she was—she was also fishing for information too. She was sure Maria called Fury here but Sonya did want to make sure he had an actual story or connection to why he was around. After all, Sonya was chasing a skrull rebellion too and Nick Fury would be a perfect person for the skrulls to go after and replace. Maria could be dead just like Prescod and this could all be quite a complex but compelling ruse.
“She’s fine, in fact, she told me to help her or get lost.” Fury said with a mild chuckle.
“Did you teach her that?”
“Inadvertently, maybe.” Fury laughed.
“It’s hard to see our
“Have you missed me?” Fury asked in a charming tone.
“Well you did destroy a flat I quite liked last summer.”
“I can’t take credit for that.” Fury shrugged off.
“That’s too bad, I have a bill for you.” Sonya joked.
“So what exactly has Ms. Hill asked you to help her with that she didn’t want to share with anyone?” Sonya changed the subject quickly, she had enough of the pleasantries.
Fury was going to take a leap of faith and give Sonya a little of something to see what she did with it.
“What can you tell me about a break in at a black market storage facility in Kazakstan, it happened a couple days ago..” Fury lead on vaguely.
“Not a thing.” Sonya said quickly shooting Fury down.
“Look, I think you and I were brought together to take down something dangerous and we have to do very quickly and quietly as possible. I may not be able to tell when a skrull is pretending to be a human but I know when a human is lying to me.” Fury said in a huffy voice.
“Hm.” Sonya shrugged.
“You do know, you know exactly what was taken.” Fury groaned.
“Are you just directly fishing for information now?” Sonya laughed a little.
“Well, let’s not pretend I’m not here for a reason.”
“And the fact is, Fury, I do know what that reason is, and I think you not knowing what was taken from that storage vault is showing me that this new, returned Nick Fury, is not up to speed and maybe not up to the jobs you once were. It’s quite the let down, really.” Sonya sighed.
Fury looked offended. First, Maria was telling him this, now Sonya? Maybe Maria and Sonya were the skrulls just putting these ideas into his head.
“I have 30 years of hands on experience with skrulls. I know them, I know the nature of this threat way better than anyone, and I will know it way better than you ever will.” Fury said in agitated tone. For some reason these two friends didn’t exactly trust each other anymore.
“Is that your attempt at asking me to collaborate with you?” Sonya looked unimpressed.
“We used to work pretty well together way back when.” Fury sighed.
“Back in the old days, you didn’t come to me with a hood over your face… you’d have seen my mild mannered bag men coming ten miles away… and if you can’t see them coming, how are you going to see Gravik and his rebellion coming? You working with me? That’s a bit pointless for me.”
Fury’s widened his glare at Sonya. Pointless? Truth be told that is what life felt like to him now sometimes.
“I’m sorry.” Sonya added as she knew her words were harsh and then Fury really felt something he hadn’t before—she felt pity for him.
“I know Gravik. I know skrulls. You don’t.” Fury warned again but for some reason he couldn’t feel like anything but a begging child.
“Maybe you knew him, but now, you don’t know anything.” Sonya sighed. It was hard to say these things but she wasn’t going to sugar coat it for the man.
Fury really sighed loudly, his frustration clear.
“I hate that it’s true, but as far as I can see, it is. It’s not your fault, you know, you are carrying a heavier weight than half the other people in this world, and what that experience of the blip has done to you is different than what it has done to the rest of us. You can’t pretend it hasn’t affected you or caused a change for you. You can’t ignore it, you know? For the people who blipped it’s like all you want to do is ignore it and pretend it never happened because it feels like it didn’t but for those of us who went on without you for so many years, we couldn’t ignore it and we would have given anything to pretend it didn’t happen too.” Sonya explained with sigh. Fury did know this but with the way he was acting lately it was like he couldn’t think reasonably, he messed up with Thanos and he was over compensating.
“Although, it must make you feel a little better that at least Hill thinks you are still relevant. I have to wonder why she went out of her way to find you and not me.” Sonya pondered out loud.
“I’m not going to flatter myself with that. She didn’t want to call me and she thinks you’re a skrull.” Fury said with a light shrug and smirk.
“Mmmm. A-hah. She was all out of options, then.”
“I guess, today, I am everyone’s last resort.”
“That’s not really helping your case for a partnership between you and I.”
“You know, Sonya, I haven’t been the underdog in a fight in a long time.”
“It’s not like the movies, in real life they don’t always win.” Sonya gave a cheeky grin.
“Inspiring words.” Fury grimaced.
“There’s nothing more inspirational than the cruelty of reality, is there?” Sonya proposed and she and Fury exchanged a stale glance. Things were not bitter between them but they weren’t like they used to be.
MOSCOW
November 1, 2025
7:02 AM
When Fury finally returned to the safe house in the morning hours around 7 AM, Maria and Talos were eating instant noodles playing gin rummy at the table. Neither of them could sleep after Fury decided to go off for a little walk. After he didn’t come back in 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, two hours. Both of them got worried but neither of them said anything. They just stayed up. Maria told Fury to come back, and he didn’t. Now she was mad at herself for letting into him.
When they heard the door open and saw Fury return, Talos and Maria were relieved but still annoyed. Fury scowled to himself as he saw what passed for breakfast here.
“Well it looks like I missed a fun time.” Fury said as he peeked at Talos’s cards.
The two were awake all night waiting for Fury to return. Maria didn’t think he was coming back.
“You made it back.” Maria said as a bland statement not taking her eyes off her cards.
“But is it really him?” Talos asked as he looked over at Fury.
“Good question, how do we know for sure?” Maria pondered jokingly.
“He could cut off a finger, or a toe.” Talos suggested.
“Let’s keep our feet covered.” Maria mumbled
“Finger it is.” Talos held up a butter knife and then put it down, tapping Fury on the arm.
“I feel like there’s another way, I think the real Fury would have brought back donuts or something.” Talos remarked as he looked Fury over.
“Bagels and coffee.” Maria corrected.
“You think I was out picking up breakfast? Good thing I didn’t, it looks like you two ate, if you can call it that…” Fury questioned.
“The real Fury would have.” Talos shook his head and Maria smirked.
Fury sat himself down next to Maria.
“Hey, don’t help her, she’s beat me five times in a row and is 4 points away from winning. You just looked at my hand.” Talos shot a sharp look to Fury.
“Is there any real food in this place?” Fury asked looking miserably at the styrofoam cups of noodles these two adults were eating out of and pretending it was breakfast. It was very cold so at least Fury could understand them wanting to eat something warm.
“Well, there could have been bagels and coffee.” Maria snarked and Talos snickered. Fury smirked at Maria’s sass.
“Yeah, bagels, the great Russian delicacy…” Fury mumbled sarcastically and shook his head at the two of them. At least they were joking with him now.
“You couldn’t make some eggs?” Fury looked at Talos.
Talos pointed at Maria rather aggressively and Maria made a questioning face as if Talos was suggesting she make eggs, she would not do that.
“Real Fury would have brought back blintzes.” Talos declared. Then Maria realized why Talos was pointing at her and she nodded in agreement and then Maria looked at Fury and he looked unamused by this bit.
“Is this little joke over now?” Fury asked raising his brows and Talos and Maria laughed.
“Well, at least you came back.” Maria said in a genuine tone and Fury could tell that she meant it despite the tension they experienced.
“And while I come back not bearing bagels or blintzes, I did come back with something…” Fury started
“Oh, wait!” Talos said.
“That’s gin!” He put his cards down and Maria rolled her eyes.
“See what you did there is you put that 8 down.” Talos explained how he just bested Maria finally and Maria sighed.
“Should I count up my points?” Talos joked, he still didn’t win overall but he was happy to get gin once before he and Maria put the cards away.
“Happy, now?” Fury asked Talos.
“Okay, now tell me the truth, she cheats at cards right?” Talos mumbled to Fury and he looked at Maria.
Fury shook his head no.
“Don’t suck up to her to try to get her on your side now, tell me the truth.” Talos huffed jokingly.
“I don’t play cards with Maria.” Fury said ominously.
“Because you can’t win?” Talos asked and Fury nodded.
“You can’t cheat at gin rummy, you show your opponent your cards.” Maria mumbled eating her noodles from her styrofoam cup.
“Eerrrr..”
“Well…”
Both the men grimaced at Maria’s claim shaking wavering their hands like there were ways to cheat.
“Let’s not have sore losers in here.” Maria rolled her eyes.
“But… if you two had any money or bagels I’d make you play poker so I could clean house.” Maria sighed and Talos and Fury laughed.
Fury got up and he walked around the kitchen looking for something to eat. He did not care for his options. All Talos had was mostly junk food, things that were cooked quickly in the microwave.
“Talos, man, what are you doing?” Fury said looking through the food options and grabbing a bag chocolate chip cookies and coming back to the table.
“I cook for myself now.” Talos reminded.
Fury sat down and opened the bag of cookies and Maria and Talos stared at the man.
“What?” Fury asked looking at both of their glares.
“Cookies for breakfast? Are you serious?” Talos shamed jokingly and Fury threw a cookie right at Talos. Maria really laughed.
“Are you two done pretending to be an elderly married couple playing gin?” Fury joked with a little laugh looking at Maria and Talos.
“Now that you’re back I guess I can step aside and leave that to you two.” Maria snarked to Fury and Talos laughed. Fury ate some cookies.
“Are you going to show us what you have?” Maria asked Fury getting right down to business, per usual.
Fury set up the display on the kitchen table that watched in Sonya’s office. Fury checked to see if he missed anything after he left and then they just waited with it running for anything they could get. They were checking for intel and for signs that Sonya was affected by the skrull invasion.
So far, Fury felt pretty confident that he could trust Sonya, well, that she wasn’t a skrull, but winning Sonya over seemed like it was going to be a challenge for him. Then Fury realized he did have a tool he could use to gain faith with Sonya. Sonya told Fury to send Hill her way and if he did would that be a show of trust? But then Fury really thought about what Sonya was saying. Maria did call Fury even though she didn’t want to, she did keep her trust in Fury even though she had no reason to keep doing so. Fury was pretty confident Sonya wasn’t a skrull, but now he wondered separating from Maria seemed kind of like a divide and conquer strategy of the enemy. Or maybe it was nothing.
WASHINGTON D.C.
THE WHITE HOUSE // A SECURE ROOM
OCTOBER 31, 2025 11:02 PM
(Moscow time: 7:02 AM November 1, 2025)
Senior Advisor James Rhodes, President Ritson, CIA Director Allegra de Fontaine, National Security Director Allen are working on locating the missing CIA agents Ross and Hill.
“We have nothing on Hill and Ross, still?” Ritson asked frustrated and the table was quiet for a moment.
“Well, we have nothing else on Ross, but we do know for sure that Hill sent a message to Fury on S.A.B.E.R. and that Fury came back down to earth.” Rhodey said the news the room already knew.
“So, has anyone called Fury?” Ritson asked in an obvious tone.
“Any devices that we can contact him on he left on S.A.B.E.R.” Val added with an eye roll.
“Well what did the message say?” Ritson growled.
“It’s encrypted.” Rhodey explained.
“Are you telling me a woman who has been dead for five years is better at encrypting messages than every security agent that works for me? Because if that’s the case you better find her so I can hire her and fire all of you.” Ritson said with an angry tone.
“Have we considered that Hill is the bad actor, here?” Security Director Allen asked, everyone in the room raised their brow at him.
“Are she and Fury pulling something dirty over us?” He continued.
The room was quiet for a moment because really it wasn’t something that anyone considered.
“It’s not that Hill and Fury are pulling something over on us, it’s that they think they are better and smarter than everyone like this is the pre-blip days, and that they should be the ones to decide who gets to know what information and when. That is what they do. That’s why I didn’t want to hire her!” Val huffed.
“What was she doing for a year not working?” Allen asked Rhodey
“Learning quantum physics…” Rhodey grimaced a bit and everyone in the room looked at Rhodey curiously.
“Why…” Ritson pondered because that did seem suspicious.
“To be prepared for time jumping threats?” Rhodey shrugged.
“Why wasn’t she in space with Fury? Clearly they are still close and something must be up that they know, and we don’t.” Val huffed. This really perplexed Val and she hated not being the one with all the information.
“Or maybe it’s what you said before, someone on her team is dirty and she can’t communicate on her regular lines without being killed.” Rhodey recalled back to Val’s first suggestion.
“But there are measures in place for that.” Val cut in, she had said that before but now it seemed like Rhodey was pointing the finger at Ross to stop people looking into Hill.
“Well maybe you’re. The problem and she doesn’t trust you, and why would she?” Rhodey snapped.
“Look in the mirror Colonel Rhodes, she didn’t call you either.” Val snapped right back at him.
Val’s words actually cut Rhodey pretty deep. Part of Rhodey could not believe that after all Fury did to Maria she still called Fury for help and not Rhodey. Rhodey showed Maria goodwill, he thought he opened the door as a viable alternative for her, but no, still, her loyalty remained to Fury like there was truly nothing that man could do that end her trust in him. Rhodey couldn’t believe it. As he thought about what he knew about Maria, that did make sense though. People were desperate to have someone as loyal to them as Mara was to Fury, you didn’t really find that anymore. Even when she worked for Stark she was working for Fury and no one even questioned it. Why Rhodey thought now would be any different he just couldn’t explain but the two of them separating for so long and not talking, it just made him think there was an opening there. He was wrong, even partially jealous really. Plus, Maria not calling Rhodey and going to Fury was sign though. Maria knew something was up.
The NSA director took a call in the room.
“We got it!” He said excitedly holding the phone to his ear.
“Hill’s location?” Rhodey asked eagerly.
“No, the message she sent Fury, we decrypted it.” The NSA Director clarified. People looked disappointed.
“What’s it say?” Ritson demanded impatiently.
“… check..?” Director Allen paused and tilted his head as he said it out loud.
Everyone waited patiently for the message to be relayed the room was silent and the director looked at them.
“Check what?” Rhodey asked
“Check?” Ritson repeated
“Check?” Val also joined in.
“What are we checking?” Val questioned
“What it says.” Rhodey answered in a sharp voice.
“No, Sir, the message says the word ‘check.’” The NSA Director clarified for the President.
Ritson looked at Val and Rhodey.
“What the fuck does that mean!” Ritson huffed.
“Check, like to check and see if it was working?” Ritson groaned.
“It’s probably a code.” Val sighed.
“If it’s a code why did she spend the time and effort to encrypt it!” Ritson said furiously.
“To waste people’s time!” Val scowled.
“She knew someone was going to decrypt eventually so she sent him a code. There is something going on that Nick Fury has decided not share with the rest of us. Once again, I implore you two to stop putting trust into these people! They blipped and think they run the world!” Val threw her hands up annoyed.
“I don’t trust him!” Rhodey snapped at Val and Ritson did look surprised.
“She’s just an extension of him!” Val said sternly.
“No, you’re just mad she knows something you don’t.” Rhodey sighed.
“Well I’m the CIA Director so that’s a fucking problem!” Val snapped right back.
“Okay, okay.” Ritson calmed his warring advisors.
“If she’s getting help from Fury do we even need to spend this time finding her and Ross? I mean, maybe they have it under control and are going to call in as soon as they can.” Ritson suggested.
“Yeah.. we need to find them because I have a dead CIA agent and two agents who were working with him who went offline immediately after…” Val explained this situation.
“We need to find them Mr. President and quickly before the Russian government does.” Rhodey agreed with Val, and if those two agreed Ritson figured this search must continue.
MOSCOW
November 1, 2025
11:34 AM
Later in the day, Fury was looking for something to eat that you didn’t microwave. He was not having great luck.
“Leaving the fate of the world in the hands of you two who can’t even cook for yourselves doesn’t bode too well.” Fury sighed as he pulled out a bag of popcorn from the counter drawer.
“Is that an offer to cook for us?” Maria asked with a smirk and Talos chuckled.
“I am.” Fury gestured to the microwave he placed his popcorn in.
Maria, Fury, and Talos watched as Sonya retrieved the intel that Fury inquired about. Maria took notes as she watched from the counter. Fury opened the bag of popcorn for Maria. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at him.
“Don’t ever say I didn’t cook for you.” Fury joked as he took some popcorn for himself and then offered her the bag again.
“Fine.” Maria grumbled helping herself as she grabbed some popcorn.
“Well she’s … endearing.” Talos said watching Sonya’s uniquely brash yet polite sounding demeanor.
“I think she’s great.” Maria said from the corner.
“Yeah, she’s charming until she sees an ugly ass skrull like you and then she goes into hunting mode.” Fury joked.
“I’m actually considered very good looking among my kind.” Talos bragged.
“I’ve seen some good looking skrulls in my day…” Fury said to Talos.
“Guys, c’mon.” Maria gestured to the display, she was trying to listen. And the two of them looked at Maria like teenage boys who wanted to tempt a strict school teacher.
“It was cute five hours ago with no sleep but now let’s focus.” Maria mumbled, they had serious things to do now and they were only going to be one step ahead of Gravik’s plan for so long, they had to be smart and act fast.
“Who taught you to be such a work horse?” Fury asked Maria, and Maria tilted her head at Fury with a glare.
“Tony Stark.” She answered boldly without missing a beat and not even smirking or grinning at her own joke. Talos really laughed at Maria’s retort and especially at Fury’s shocked face from Maria’s response.
“Alright.” Fury huffed.
“Let’s go!” Fury said in an action style voice, gearing up for a fight.
“Can we get some coffee first?” Talos asked ruining the moment.