Boots on the Ground

In the days following Maria’s return to D.C. and the meeting with the President, Fury and Varra went to S.A.B.E.R. together—not as a couple, but as friends. They both questioned if rekindling their previous relationship was ever going to be possible. Loyalty meant everything to Fury and losing Varra’s hurt deep, like he never knew her at all. Varra did come through, though. She helped free all the hostages, she convinced the other skrulls to turn on Gravik and come back to Fury’s side. There was something between them, but what it was, was unclear to both of them.

Helping the skrulls was now Fury’s number one priority, which it should have been for a long time but now the issue was more urgent than ever. Although Gravik was a despicable terrorist, in the end, he did get Fury moving in the direction to genuinely start helping to looking for a home for the skrulls. So maybe he really did accomplish what he set out to do.

Talos and G’iah stayed on earth to protect the skrulls there in hiding and keep a line of communication with Fury and Varra so they could move out the skrulls when the time came. Fury was holding off Ritson’s round up and attack order. Fury promised Ritson that he could safely evacuate all the skrulls on earth and Ritson was going to hold him to it, but Ritson did know he was going to have to give a talk or a speech about what happened soon and he had to say something. What he was going to release to the public was up to him, but he knew he had to put forward something after all the attacks and chaos that went on. The people needed an explanation and Ritson wasn’t sure that even if Fury did remove all the skrulls, some angry ones wouldn’t return.

Some of Ritson’s team were urging him to the out the skrull rebellion, but there were somethings that were just for governments to know, that the people couldn’t handle. Since they had been able to identify and arrest all the skrull impersonators and rescue the hostages—-with the help of numerous skrulls— Ritson knew he couldn’t call for all out war on the skrulls, yet. Fury created this mess and he had one last chance to fix it.

The world was so broken and fragile right now that announcing the presence of a hostile alien race that could shape-shift into anyone would cause such chaos and paranoia it would be devastating. Ritson wasn’t against outing the skrulls if Fury didn’t get rid of them quick enough but Ritson knew had to be smart about it. Fury was on the clock with this, but even Ritson knew it was better to sweep them under the rug and pretend they were never here than take them head on again. If one band of skrulls go this far, how far would the next one get? Earth couldn’t be home for all these alien races, it already housed the Asgardians—a relatively harmless race—minus one particular Asgardian who almost destroyed the entire world, but his brother did help to save the it and bring everyone back from the blip so, past crimes forgiven, apparently. What had the skrulls done to earn their place here? According to Fury and Maria a lot, but who could check them on that?

Maria stayed with her mom, and she was jobless again. Her mom did not mind, and as much as Maria wanted to have a spy career again, she knew working for Val was not the best option or even a good option for her. Despite Val being the absolute worst, Maria had to admit that she had been rather helpful during this ordeal and Maria was even surprised a few times. The worst part was that Val actually, potentially, made some good points to her when she fired Maria.

Maria really couldn’t work for anyone other than Fury, but it kind of seemed like President Ritson ordered her specifically to not do that. She was kind of confused by that meeting, and she didn’t technically work for the government when he said that and he couldn’t really order a private citizen not to seek employment somewhere specific! But Maria didn’t need to make any more enemies and she was just going to lay low for awhile. She also had to recover physically, she had a broken hand, many bruises, broken ribs, she needed to rest and her mother was insisting that she did.

After a few days of doing nothing but sleeping, Maria found herself quite bored. The last week was miserable in every way, but it was still exciting. She did love being ‘in the moment.’ Elizabeth had also taken time off to be there to support her daughter, but since Maria just wanted to sleep, Elizabeth was out doing errands.

When Maria woke up after a few days of ‘rest and recovering’ she felt ready to return to the world, even though she probably should have slept for another week. As she walked around her mother’s house she found herself quite bored. When she was eating almost stale cereal at the counter and she had deja vu. This was exactly what returning from the blip was like. Just aimlessly wondering around with nothing to do, feeling simultaneously overwhelmed and without purpose. Maria started looking around for something to do and finally she set herself on a project.

A few hours later when Elizabeth returned and she groaned to herself as she saw Maria had pulled out every single one of her cook books in the kitchen cabinets and was rearranging them.

“Just… why?” Elizabeth sighed.

“I think they should be organized by which ones have the highest salt usage to lowest, in case you ever want to decrease your sodium intake later in life.” Maria explained flipping through the pages and investigated.

Elizabeth just shook her head as she put down a bag of groceries on the counter.

“Is there any way for you to be at my house where you are not rearranging things in some random alignment or order that I will not remember?”

“Well, I can always do it by color or alphabetically.” Maria offered.

“Fury really couldn’t have taken you up to space, huh?” Elizabeth sighed and Maria laughed and Maria started to help empty the grocery bags.

“Stop.” Elizabeth ordered.

“I can help. I can do things.”

“Go to bed.” Elizabeth said sternly like she was talking to a young child who kept waking up on a school night.

“I have slept for days. I’m bored.”

“Oh, god. Not being bored, thats the worst!” Elizabeth sighed to herself and mocked lovingly.

“You thought you would miss me when I went back to work, and then when I was gone you remembered I am a pain.” Maria reminded with a cheeky grin.

“You pulled all those books down from the cabinets, with broken ribs, didn’t that hurt?” Elizabeth said looking at the books on the floor.

“A lot.” Maria nodded.

“How were you going to put the books back up?”

“I assume it will also hurt.”

“The doctors told you had to rest and take it easy.”

“I’m .. reading …” Maria made a face knowing that lie wasn’t going to fly with her mother.

Elizabeth walked behind Maria and then she pushed her gently away from the kitchen floor where she had scattered all the books on hardwood and she nudged her all the way to the couch in the living room.

“Watch some TV, take a nap, actually read a book, go on the internet. Find something to do with yourself that is low key.” Elizabeth warned and Maria sighed.

“I mean, I have to go put all the books away.”

“Do that later.”

“They’re all over the floor.”

“Yes, well, maybe I will trip on one, fall and hit my head, and by the time I wake up you will be healed and employed.” Elizabeth teased and it was clear where Maria had gotten her snark from growing up.

“I can’t watch t.v., all that stuff is all over the news and there’s all these conspiracy theorists talking on the air, I hate it.”

“Watch something else, watch Bridgerton.” Elizabeth dismissed with a suggestion.

“What the hell is Bridgerton?”

“It’s a show where a bunch of wealthy British people marry off their daughters as child brides.” Elizabeth explained casually and Maria made a harsh face.

“That sounds horrible.”

“Well, the costumes and music are fantastic.” Elizabeth tried to make up for it.

“I don’t want to watch that.” Maria shook her head.

“Well, the entire database of every known streaming service is available to you with the click of a button, so I am sure you can find something to keep you resting and not occupying yourself with projects that involve rearranging my house.” Elizabeth said handing the remote to her fully grown, over 40-year-old daughter. Maria stared at her.

“You know, I am an adult woman.” Maria stared at her mother.

“Yep, and I’m your mom, and a mom is going to mom, especially in her own house.” Elizabeth said unbothered as she walked back to the kitchen to put the groceries away.

Maria put something on the television to watch mindlessly as she was sentenced to mom jail. Elizabeth picked up the books on the floor and put them away quickly in a random unorganized manner that would drive Maria insane.

“This girl looks twelve!” Maria yelled from the other room and Elizabeth just laughed to herself. She couldn’t help it, she was happy to have her childhood home and recovering even if she was a driven spirit who needed engaging things to keep her busy.

When Elizabeth returned to the living room with two cups of tea, she gave one to Maria and sat down next to her. She was now watching a home renovation show.

“Thank you.” Maria said for the tea and then she looked at the show on the screen. "I could paint this room.” Maria offered.

“I like this color.” Elizabeth said taking a sip of tea and opening the newspaper to start reading.

“Really?” Maria made a face and Elizabeth turned the paper down and looked at her.

“Really.” Elizabeth took a deep sigh and went back to the paper.

“What about some shiplap?” Maria asked and Elizabeth took a slow dramatic head turn and glared at her daughter. “What? It would add some texture to the room.”

“You watched HGTV for four minutes and are lecturing me about adding texture to my walls…”

Maria changed the channel and put on a nature show that was following some big cats in the forests.

“You should get a cat.” Maria suggested taking a sip of tea.

“I can’t get a cat.”

“Why?”
“Because, one day I will die, probably before the cat, and who will be around to take care of it? Not you, you’ll be too busy working, I can’t sentence a cat to that life.”

“You can get an older cat who will die before you.” Maria suggested and the two women glared at each other and Maria smirked.

“Do you want to read the comics section of the newspaper, dear?” Elizabeth snickered to herself and Maria shot her a quick look and then she leaned her head back into the wall behind the couch and grunted because it hurt a bit and her mother tilted her head down at her.

“You know, when I was pregnant with you, I was ordered to remain on bed rest for 6 weeks. You just wanted to get out of me so bad, they were worried you going to be too early. You were terrible when I was pregnant, by the way, just wouldn’t sit still, kicked me all the time. You gave me morning sickness all day, all night. And, you would make me crave, just out of my mind bonkers crave fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice with some seltzer water with a salted rim. I think what you really wanted me to have was a margarita, but that did the trick.”
“You could have had one…” Maria joked and Elizabeth shook her head no.

“You were always to take on the world even when the world was not ready for you.”

“Oh, god. Am I getting a talk?” Maria asked and Elizabeth squinted her eyes at Maria’s brashness that so much echoed her own.

“I am just saying, I am not unsympathetic to your.. condition.”

“Condition? They told me to rest for a bit, it’s not a big deal.” Maria shrugged like it was nothing and Elizabeth shot a look at her.

“Right, exactly, so just rest for a bit, it’s not a big deal.” Elizabeth said smugly as if Maria made the point she had been trying to make the whole time. Maria groaned as her mother turned it everything around on her, but she was right.

————

The following day, Maria heard that Rhodey was still in a hospital recovering in D.C., she decided to go visit him now that things were a bit calmer—-relatively.

Rhodey was still in the hospital because his legs had not been used for so long. There was a lot the doctors needed to check out and review for his future medical care. Science had advanced significantly, and medical procedures could help him walk again, but he had to have leg muscles that worked to support the scientific advances. When Rhodey came to, he didn’t grasp what had happened at all. It made no sense. He was overwhelmed by it and spent a few days in total shock as he learned just how long he had been gone.

Maria found Rhodey’s room in the hospital and she knocked outside the edge of it. There were two secret service agents stationed outside his door already, but they recognized Maria and knew they were friends.

“Yeah?” The irritated voice of the real James Rhodes answered at the knock. Since he came out of the skrull pod everything had changed so horrifically in the world. Anytime somebody came by they did not have good news. He learned that Tony was dead, Natasha was dead, people disappeared for five years and came back, time travel was possible, he was there but not there during all of this. He estimated he lost almost ten years of his life being impersonated by some alien, a skrull—something he never even heard of. He didn’t understand why he was targeted in this way or what the skrulls had wanted or what his impersonator had even achieved.

Maria wasn’t really sure if she was a face Rhodey was going to want to see, but they had always gotten a long and been friendly. And she could relate to just waking up one day and the world being an entirely different place. She knew the shock of it was going to take him months if not longer to process, maybe he never would fully adjust to it. She never felt she fully adjusted to the post-blip world. Some of the rekindling of her relationship with Rhodey that happened after the blip she was a bit disappointed to learn that it wasn’t real but at least it helped them bring down the skrull rebellion. Really, Maria just got lucky that the skrull could access Rhodey’s feelings and emotions that made the skrull believe her.

“Hey…” Maria popped her head into the room and then walked into the doorway and Rhodey’s irritated expression softened when he saw her. He was genuinely surprised to see her, she looked beat up, her hand in a cast, clearly she had gone through something. He shook his head as he saw her standing the doorway.

“Can I come in?” Maria hesitated based on the tone he gave.

“You didn’t bring me flowers did you?”

“No, but I have a bottle of whiskey in my bag.” Maria smirked.

“Are you serious?” Rhodey looked intrigued.

“No, the secret service confiscated it.” Maria joked and Rhodey laughed.

“We did not.” One of the agents muttered and both Maria and Rhodey laughed over hearing the agent’s voice.

“Yeah, you can come in.” He nodded and Maria came in and sat next to him. She knew he had to be miserable, she had been on this rest and recover bit for awhile and it sucked, but at least she didn’t have to do it in the hospital.

“You look a little, uh, survival mode here.” Rhodey acknowledged nodding to Maria’s hand and Maria scoffed.

“Yeah… that is exactly what I look like. You look great though.” Maria smiled.

“Well, I did just get ten years of beauty rest.” Rhodey snickered trying to make a joke about for the first time about everything, which surprised Maria and she smiled at it.

“Skrull pods are good for the skin and soul, I guess.” She joked back.

“So you got tangled up in this mess, too?” Rhodey observed.

“Sure did.” Maria sighed and she came and sat down next to Rhodey.

“I’m sure you’ve had lots of visitors, though, so I can go any time I just wanted to check in and see how you were.”

“No, I haven’t really had any, just some family.” He shook his head and Maria paused and pressed her lips together tilting her head at him.

“They haven’t really dropped the impersonation news out to the public.” Rhodey sighed. How did anyone come back from this?

Maria nodded.

“I know, it’s all a big awful mess.” She frowned.

“I don’t even understand it.” Rhodes sighed.

“You didn’t get abducted by skrulls and impersonated too, did you?”

Maria shook her head no.

“No, they just tried to kill me to prevent their exposure.” Maria shrugged like she wasn’t important.

“Of course, you figured it out.”

“Actually, it was another CIA agent who figured it out, Prescod, but he was killed by a skrull impersonating Everett Ross who he trusted with the information instead of me because he thought I was the skrull plant instead of Ross.”

“Oh, wow.”

“I know.”

“You know, if I was a bad guy, you’d be who I would want to kill, too.” Rhodey joked.

“Wow, that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, but I will keep it in mind for your pending villain arc.” Maria laughed.

“I seriously hope people have said nicer things to you.” Rhodey looked at her and she smirked.

“Do really you think a villain arc is where I’m headed, though?” Rhodey made a dramatic face.

“No, but just in case, maybe give me a heads up if you feel yourself going that way.” Maria tried to suppress a smirk.

“WOW!” Rhodey exclaimed dramatically and Maria laughed.

“I mean, that seems fair, given what you just said.”

“Yeah, you’re right, that’s fair.” Rhodey nodded.

“How much… uhm… do you, how much have you been told?” Maria paused wondering how to ask this question.

“I know Tony’s dead, I know Romanoff is dead, and that people died for five years and the remaining Avengers, including my replacement, time traveled to bring everyone back…” Rhodes explained calmly.

“You got a briefing?” Maria asked very casually and Rhodey nodded.

“Some cliff notes, really.”

“You were able to pinpoint when you were abducted?” Maria asked.

“Almost ten years ago, after I got hit by Vision. He died too, huh? Are there any of us left? Did everyone die divided.”

“They didn’t, they got played and were defeated when they fractured, they remainders brought everyone back and fought off Thanos, and some of them gave up their lives to do so, and it was a united front and then everyone dispersed and went off into the most broken, sad, confused world that there’s ever been.” Maria explained.

Rhodey sighed deeply, he should have been there helping. Maybe things would have been different, maybe Tony would still be alive. How could he ever know?

“Can I ask you a dumb question?” Rhodey tilted his head and Maria nodded.

“If the Avengers can travel through time, why didn’t we go back in time and bring everyone who died back before they died?” Rhodey asked and Maria laughed.

“Wow, I didn’t think you would laugh at me.” Rhodey looked a little embarrassed and Maria pulled out Scott Lang’s book that the impersonator Rhodey gave her as a joke.

“I really don’t understand that part, something about infinity stone magic.” Maria shrugged and Rhodey opened the book to see the skrull’s note to Maria, in hand writing identical to his own, he couldn’t believe it.

“Fake me gave this to you? Why?” Rhodey asked looking at Maria.

“Because you’re really good friends with a genetically modified cybernetic enhanced raccoon from space.” Maria smirked and Rhodey just stared at her confused.

“That Lang guy seems pretty annoying.” Rhodey said looking over the book.

“He is not for me.” Maria added in with grin.

“I’m really sorry this happened to you and you are going through this.” Maria said sincerely and Rhodey was taken back. Nobody had said they were sorry to him yet, but Maria was the last person who should be apologizing, it’s not like this was Maria’s fault.

“You don’t need to apologize for it.”

“It still sucks, I can’t even think of another word for it.” Maria shook her head.

“Yeah it does. You would think if someone pretended to be you for ten years, someone would notice.” Rhodey snickered under his breath in disbelief.

“You would think…” Maria agreed and Maria and Rhodey were both quiet for a few moments.

“Tony died and I never got to say goodbye.” Rhodey sighed deeply and emotionally and Maria nodded she tried to keep her own eyes from watering because she knew that horrible feeling of coming back and realizing you would never see or talk to someone again.

“I don’t know if it helps, but Tony died thinking you were helping save everyone with him, at least.” Maria shrugged, at least it was something, right? Maybe? He could have died thinking Rhodey tried to kill him.

“Should that make a difference?”

“I don’t know.. I guess it depends if you think what matters is what he thought at the time, or how you feel now. I don’t know which one is right, I think it’s just preference.” Maria shrugged with a quiet sigh and Rhodey looked at her curiously because that was an interesting statement he had to think about.

“Did you disappear, in the snap?”

“Yeah, I died, no other word for it. I blinked and I was dead for five years in reality..”

“I guess we have something in common.”

“I don’t know where or who I am in this world, what do you do? It’s like I’m living in a different universe.” Rhodey admitted rather suddenly and brazenly. “This isn’t the same place it was before…”

“It’s very different. You probably aren’t going to feel like you belong or are part of this world for a very, very long time. If at all. But it keeps turning whether you feel like you are part of it or not. So..”

“Well… thanks for being honest about what to expect, I guess.”

“Just give yourself a lot of time and patience.”

“Really wish you did have whiskey in your bag.”

“Maybe next time.”

“Maybe we should go out for a drink when I get out of here.”

“We can definitely do that.” Maria nodded.

“Can you tell me about these skrulls, are they still here?” Rhodey asked eagerly.

“Is that really what you want to talk about?”

“Well, one of them did take over my life for ten years and learn everything about me, I might as well learn about them.’ He shrugged and Maria nodded as she went into the history of skrulls, Captain Marvel, Fury, the promises, the rebellion. Then Rhodey wanted to know how she got involved, so she explained the fake Rhodey helping her get her documents and ‘alive’ status restored, telling her to get to work and helping her get a job, and so on from there. Rhodes was on the edge of his seat like he was watching an action movie.

“That really happened?” He asked his jaw dropped.

“Yeah.”

“Why aren’t you on a beach in Hawaii resting?”

Maria laughed, “I really don’t know.”

“Where is Fury?” Rhodey asked.

“Back in space.”

“You’re not with him?”

“No, Ritson told me I had to ‘untangle myself’ from him.”

“Based on that story, it sounds like good advice. So, you work for Ritson now?”

“No.” Maria shook her head confidently.

“Still at the CIA?”

“No.” Maria repeated just as firmly.

“I don’t understand, where do they have you now?”

“Nowhere because I was fired.”

“But Fury kept his job!” Rhodey asked stunned.

“He sure did.”

“That sounds right, sadly.” He admitted.

“Doesn’t it?” Maria couldn’t help but smirk. “I hope you get out of here soon.”

“I am hoping so too, but at least in here it’s like I understand everything that is going on, I’m not overwhelmed here.”

“It’s going to be a journey out there, for sure.” Maria nodded.

“I hope you’re around for it.” Rhodey tried say nicely as he could tell Maria was getting ready to leave.

“If you want me to be, I can. I living at my mom’s house with no job so schedule wide open.”

“It’d be good to have a friend around, I mean one who I really know, I mean.”

Maria and Rhodey lightly hugged for a moment and then she headed out saying goodbye. She knew she’d see him again soon. He was going to have a big adjustment period.

As Maria walked down the hospital hallway to exit, she could hear a hurried loud clacking on the sterile tile floor and then a tall red headed woman turned the corner almost crashing into her. Maria paused as she recognized her instantly, she was holding two phones in her hand and she looked very rushed.

“Maria?!” Pepper tilted her head as Maria stood before her, she looking a bit rough and worn. Pepper wasn’t really clear on what she had watched unfold on the news, seeing Fury shoot Maria was jaw dropping and no one had really cleared this up yet, but it looked like Maria was alive, at least.

“Pepper!” Maria exclaimed in complete shock.

“You’re alive!” Pepper said echoing Maria’s surprise.

“You’re here?” Maria turned her head to the side.

“To see Rhodey…” Pepper said like it was obvious.

“Right! Yeah, that makes sense. I just saw him.”

“I’m really glad you’re okay, I was stunned, I just couldn’t believe what I saw… how are you alive?”

“Because of a Stark vest, actually, saved my life.” Maria recalled with a nod and Pepper gave her a hug because they had not seen each other since Tony’s memorial, years ago.

“Is something big happening?” Pepper asked as they let from their embrace and Maria nodded and Pepper sighed.

“I’m glad you’re okay, is Fury… is he in jail?” Pepper questioned. “What is it that’s happening, was it really him? Was it someone pretending to be him with a photostatic veil? That’s all I could think of.” Pepper admitted.

“It wasn’t really him, and I wish I could tell you.” Maria mumbled and Pepper looked concerned.

“Where are you working now?” Pepper questioned. The two had gotten close for awhile back when Maria was at Stark, but she went right back to Fury despite how well she did there.

“Nowhere.”

“Nowhere like you can’t tell me because it is classified, or nowhere like you are literally not working?” Pepper asked, she couldn’t imagine the latter was true.

“I am unemployed.” Maria said with a sigh.

“Huh.” Pepper paused. “That doesn’t seem right, does it…” She liked having people who knew what was going on in the world working for her, it kept Stark on top.

“Well… maybe we should talk, really soon.” Pepper made a curious face at Maria and she handed Maria her card with her private number on it and Maria nodded.

“I would love to catch up more and I’m glad you are okay, but I really need to go see…” Pepper gestured toward Rhodes’s room and Maria nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, of course!” Maria said as the two women gave a brief goodbye and Maria just shook her head to herself as Pepper left. Maybe history really did repeat itself.

- FIVE MONTHS LATER - (After the events of The Marvels)

Over the last few months, the news of skrulls replacing people and being arrested did finally break, and some isolated incidents of violence erupted that were mostly egged on by conspiracy theorists and anti-government or resistance organizations.

Most governments were able to quell the violence, but there were was one casualty, the true Prime Minister Lawton was gunned down accused of being an invader in disguise. When she crashed to the ground and died, bleeding red and remained human for all the see, much of the disbelief the upset members of the public had that the skrull invaders had been caught eroded. It was very clear, that the true Prime Minister had been assassinated and not some alien impersonator like the rumors claimed. Lots of places tried to keep it secret who was and who wasn’t impersonated, but it was overwhelmingly complicated. People claimed that skrulls committed crimes as them and that they were innocent, it became known as the skrull defense.

Fortunately, with the events that culminated with Ms. Marvel, Captain Rambeau, and Captain Marvel and the defeat of Dar-Benn, the skrull-kree conflict seemed to be coming to an end.

President Ritson assured that all skrulls were removed from Earth. This was mostly true and it was done with the help of Nick Fury, Captain Marvel, Talos, G’iah, and Valkyrie, but the skrulls really did not have anywhere legitimate to go still, but they had more options with the conflict ending.

Things on Earth, were as always, not great. People did not trust each other very much and no one really ever recovered from the blip and the returnees coming back, and the loss of Tony, Natasha, Vision, and Steve. The world was a very fractured place where people didn’t really believe in anything good anymore. There was a lot of fear, paranoia, lots of discontent. There was no such thing as going back to ‘normal’ instead everything was just replaced with, ‘just move on.’

Maria had fully recovered from her ordeal with the skrull invasion, and she was now working in New York City, a good few hours drive from her mother’s house but still close enough. She had her own apartment again, and she found herself returning to a corporate world with she did somewhat despise, but ultimately, she knew there was safety at Stark, that she could hide in the nostalgia of what Stark Industries once was and what had once done for the heroes of Earth.

On a sunny and far too warm spring day, Maria met with Melinda May for a quick coffee and chat. They sat at a window booth in a cafe that they could tell once had a lot of charm but now was a bit rundown. It made them like the shop just that much more that it wasn’t hip or new, it was aging, just like them.

“I can’t believe you went to work at Stark again.” May said taking a sip of coffee sitting across from Maria as she leaned back in the booth.

“It’s been good." Maria shrugged biting her bottom lip.

“You didn’t even like it the first time. You should come teach with me.”

“That’s not true, I liked it… I think. Also, are there over one thousand lawyers at Coulson Academy in case of any pending legal concerns?” Maria asked.

“They would be nuts to touch you, you saved the President and many others.” May rolled her eyes. “You have the best resume in the world and you think you are not hirable and you are out here hiding behind Stark again, it’s something.”

“I don’t think he’s going to be President very long… I don’t know…” Maria made a face and May nodded as that was probably true.

“I guess you are slightly less hirable when half the world thinks they saw you get murdered on the news over and over again.”

“I don’t know why half the world would even care that I did.” Maria muttered and May nodded.

“They cared about Fury trying to kill you, not that you might have died. People do love seeing a woman fall as collateral damage to a man’s image.” May said unbothered and Maria almost spit out her sip of coffee from her boldness. Maria coughed recovering.

“What?” May asked casually.

“I really missed you.” Maria mumbled as she wiped her mouth with a napkin.

“I know.” May smiled.

“You know, they really didn’t show much coverage of the resolve of that situation… of that video on the news.”

“Nope.” Maria shook her head in agreement, the news played that footage of Fury shooting Maria over and over again and no one ever explained anything it kind of just got washed away with the news about the skrulls, and the assassination attempt on Ritson, and everything else that happened.

“Nobody is trying to kill you for allegedly being a skrull, right? Like they are doing over in Europe, were most of the replacements supposedly were?” May asked.

“Well, there was an online conspiracy theory that it was really Fury killing a skrull version of me. And the only reason I know that is because the FBI came to my apartment and warned me to be alert and then that fringe group tried to dox me and the Stark anti-hacking software that we have set up disabled and locked them out of all of their electronics, networks, phones, everything and it got sent to the FBI and the preserved data revealed that they were also illicit arms dealing racists.” Maria shrugged like that was no big deal but May looked happy for her.

“Good work.” May nodded proudly, she loved taking down arms dealing racists.

“Thank you.”

“I guess it’s like you’re a spy with cooler tech.” May smirked.

“And you wanted me to come teach.” Maria and May laughed a little.

“Actually when you first texted me I was like, this has to be a scam, she’s dead!” May joked and Maria tilted her head like that wasn’t funny but she did smirk after a moment.

“I think you texted me.” Maria pointed out.

“That’s why the joke is funny.” May rolled her eyes eating the last bite of her scone.

“Do you want to come with me to see Nick?” Maria asked as she checked her watch and the two of them got ready to go.

“No. I owe him fifty bucks and I don’t have any cash.” May muttered.

“I’m sure he takes Venmo.” Maria laughed.

“I bet you 50 bucks in cash that he doesn’t know what Venmo is.” May widened her eyes at Maria to take the bet and Maria shook her head no.

“What bet did you lose that you owe him 50 dollars?” Maria snickered as the two of them walked out of the cafe.

“I said you were going to come teach and he said not yet.” May smiled and Maria sighed loudly.

“Great.” Maria muttered and the two women hugged goodbye.

Back at Stark Industries, in a very beautiful high end conference room with a lot of windows looking out over the skyline of New York, Kamala Kahn sat a few seats away from Kate Bishop, who sat many seats away from Yelena Belova, at the very end of the table sat a white boy with glasses who none of them recognized and he looked nervous to be here. Everyone was silent, except for Kamala who was buzzing with excitement.

“Uhmm… this is cool!” Kamala said anxiously tapping her foot.

Yelena rolled her eyes.

“We’re in .. in trouble, right?” Kate asked looking around.

Yelena sighed loudly.

“I have no idea why I am here.” The boy said.

“Nobody knows why they are here.” Kate snapped quickly.

“Do you think we are getting internships!?” Kamala asked excitedly.

“Work for free? Pass.” Yelena scoffed.

“Hi, I’m Kamala.” She introduced herself to Yelena.

“I don’t care.” Yelena dismissed.

“She’s alright.” Kate defended Kamala.

“I don’t care.” Yelena repeated.

“What are you even doing here?” Kate asked giving Yelena a skeptical look.

“I think we have covered that no one knows what they are doing here.” Yelena snarked at Kate.

“Do you guys know each other?” Kamala asked.

“No.” Yelena and Kate both answered reluctantly and Kamala made an awkward face.

“I don’t know anyone.” The boy at the end admitted unprompted.

“How long am I supposed to be kept waiting here!” Yelena huffed.

Fury, Pepper, and Maria met in the hallway. They observed the four of them in the room taking shots at each other. Fury chuckled.

“It never really changes, does it?” He asked looking at Maria and Pepper.

Maria paused.

“Let’s hope it does.” Maria and Fury exchanged a glance and then the three of them walked into the room.

The four people in the conference room looked up at them, Kamala eagerly, Yelena skeptically, Kate inquisitively, and the kid with glasses over acting confused.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here. What is going on, why was I called here?” The kid with glasses asked as they entered the room.

“Parker, I’ve been in a group text with Dr. Strange for longer than you’ve been alive.” Fury joked and Peter Parker froze.

“You know who I am…?” Peter mumbled.

“Yes, and we know of your skills.” Maria nodded at him.

Peter paused.

“You text with Dr. Strange? Is.. is he really good at wordle?” Peter asked Pepper and Maria smirked.

“Wait, does Dr. Strange play wordle?” Kamala asked amazed.

“What the hell is wordle?” Fury looked at Maria and Maria and Pepper laughed.

“So you guys know.. you know who… uh… you know even with the hex, or the spell?” Peter asked.

“Do you really think a Stephen Strange spell is a match for Stark encrypted data?” Maria raised a brow at Peter.

“Is that not how magic works?” Parker raised a brow back at Maria.

“Even magic has rules and limits, Parker.” Maria said sternly.

“Well, that kind of defeats the purpose of magic…” Peter mumbled disappointed.

“Don’t get me started.” Maria rolled her eyes, this kid had no idea.

“By the way, thanks for ruining my vacation.” Peter looked at Maria sternly now that he had been outed.

“What the hell are you talking about, Parker?” Maria said confused.

“In Prague and London…” Peter looked at her with an obvious glare and Maria had no idea what he was talking about.

Maria looked over at Fury intensely for an explanation.

“He means Soren.” Fury explained.

“Oh. That’ wasn’t me. It was a skrull in disguise as me.” Maria clarified.

“Oh.” Peter paused. “Oh! So you could be nicer than her?”

“I am not.”

“Oh.” Peter sounded defeated.

“Wait, so you were impersonated by a skrull?” Kate asked looking at Maria questionably. Clint told Kate that Maria was ‘good people’ that’s why she was here.

“Not recently.” Maria answered trying to clarify for Kate.

“So you didn’t shoot her, it was a skrull that was shot?” Kamala asked Fury.

“No, I was shot, by a skrull pretending to be Fury.” Maria clarified for the room and they all nodded except Yelena who was looking out the window.

“So, is this like .. is this a new or future Avengers meeting?” Kamala smiled and she gave Kate a little wink.

Maria, Fury, and Pepper were quiet for a moment trying to think of how to answer.

Kamala gasped reading into their silence—the wrong way.

“So, it’s official you are asking us to be Avengers! Finally. Also, you are way behind, I got this going a while ago.” Kamala held out the tablet she held onto from when Monica and Fury left it in her home.

“That is a classified piece of technology containing highly sensitive intel. Where did you get that?” Maria asked trying not to sound too stern and cold but it came through.

“Fury… gave it to me.” Kamala half truthfully answered and Maria glared at Fury and Fury shook his head no.

“Well, he … he gave it to my couch… Fury and Monica left it on my couch.” Kamala answered finally.

“Oh. So you are returning it to him now? Having never looked at it?” Maria asked in a bold voice.

“Yes… yes… I am… ” Kamala shoved the tablet across the table toward Fury.

“The finger prints were there before I touched it. They aren’t mine…”

Fury chuckled.

“That’s good to hear, because we don’t want to commit any felonies that would ruin your life and result in jail time.” Maria looked at Kamala and Kamala nodded.

“That’s why I am so eager in returning it.” Kamala fibbed and smiled and Maria faked a smile back at her.

“It’s okay, Kamala, Ant-Man is also a felon.” Kate smirked and Kamala half smiled back.

“Oh, god.” Yelena huffed to herself unimpressed with this group.

“Uhm… I am not sure I —uh the I should be here, I already AM an Avenger, technically, I think, right? So should I really be at the new Avengers meeting, since I am kind of an O.G. as the kids say.” Peter asked and Maria rolled her eyes but Pepper really laughed.

“An Avenger? You?” Yelena scoffed at Peter.

“Who are you?” Kate asked.

“Uh..” Peter paused “I am .. Spider-Man, but don’t tell anyone.” He said in a shaky voice.

“You’re Spider-Man?” Kate asked in disbelief.

“You don’t look like a spider or a man.” Yelena joked.

“Spider-Man? Seriously? Seriously!?” Kamala was shocked and she moved to sit closer to him trying not to fan girl too hard.

“No, this is not ‘new Avengers.’” Maria looked at Peter and then at Kamala seriously and she had never seen someone’s hope and excitement dwindle so quickly and it made Maria a bit sad because Kamala actually wanted to be on a team unlike the Avengers of years past.

“It’s not that because.. it’s going to be something better.”

“Better than the Avengers?” Peter asked skeptically.

“Yeah, the Avengers had problems, big problems, and I don’t recall for how much of that you were around for, Parker, or as you claim to be an ‘O.G.’ but some of that was not a great time, like when they were all fighting each other and getting each other arrested… hurting each other.. I was here with them since day one…” Maria explained.

“So, you’re the O.G.” Kamala clarified.

“I don’t know what an O.G is.” Maria shrugged like it was no big deal.

“Oh yeah, that fighting thing, that’s right when I joined… or when I think… I joined…” Peter mumbled.

“Yeah, that was weird.” Kate sighed.

“It was.” Maria agreed. “But this is something different. Right now, you guys are— this isn’t my phrase but you are classified as ‘street-level heroes’ but you could be, if you want to be, more than that.” Maria explained.

“Street-level? I’ve been to space!” Peter declared boldly and Pepper, Maria, and Fury seemed unimpressed by this.

“Oh, me too! Space buddies!” Kamala smiled and she and Peter high fived but then Peter felt a little less triumphant about being to space if even this girl had been.

“I don’t want to be in your superhero kids club. I work on my own.” Yelena snapped in a harsh voice.

“Okay. Well, thanks for coming in.” Maria said quickly and dismissively and went back to talking to Kamala, Kate and Peter. Yelena looked offended.

“That’s it? You don’t want me?” Yelena asked after a brisk pause.

“I only want people who want to be here.” Maria didn’t even look at Yelena when she spoke as she was pulling something up on the screen for all of them.
“You aren’t going to make a plea to me? Fight for me to stay?”

“We are looking for genuine team players who want to be here and work together. If that’s not you, that’s fine. Good luck, be careful, stay safe. You can take my card if you want it.” Maria shrugged like she couldn’t be bothered.

“I can be a team player when I want to be.” Yelena huffed.

“Well, do you want to be?” Fury asked tilting his head at Yelena, she did just have that Romanoff vibe.

“I need more information.” Yelena answered.

“Look, there aren’t any plans to make a super group, a new Avengers, or anything like that. But there are going to be problems, big world ending problems heading our way. I want to prevent those and if you want to help, which I think most of you do, I want to help you, I want to make sure you are set up for success, have training, have tools and top of the line equipment, the skills to win, and all the medical and other support you might need to be successful and protected. We spent billions of dollars making a training facility at Avengers compound with lots of things that could help you, all of you.” Maria explained as Fury and Pepper nodded.

“So, would you be like our corporate sassy lady boss?” Kate asked skeptically to Maria with snark.

“No.” Maria shook her head, “but you have to listen to me.” She added after a pause and everyone tilted their heads and Fury snickered to himself.

“What I mean is, I want you to feel like you trust me enough that you want to listen to me and know that you can and will be safe.” Maria rephrased and Kamala grinned.

“I like that.” Kamala said thinking about it.

“And I know you’re the ‘Avengers helper lady,’ but why isn’t Fury doing this?” Kamala asked Fury looking over to him.

“Really not loving this constant use of the word ‘lady.’” Maria mumbled and Pepper laughed.

“At least they didn’t call you hashtag ‘Girlboss.’” Pepper snickered.

“Did you just say the word hashtag?” Kate looked at Pepper.

“Girlboss does not mean good things.” Kamala added.

“Yeah, I learned that from Morgan’s babysitter… I was trying to be cool and she explained it.” Pepper muttered and Maria and Pepper exchanged glances, it was for sure a new world order and the youths owned it.

“You are cool, Pepper.” Peter added sympathetically.

“Oh, I just got pity coolness.” Pepper tucked her hands over her face and laughed.

“Well, I guess talking about old and out of touch is really my cue.” Fury jumped in and Maria laughed to herself.

“I already had my project, and I’m 83 years old. Seriously. I’m going to retire… any day probably, and this world is going to need somebody like Ms. Hill and the people just like you in this room, to be ready. Do you want to be those people? I know new is scary, I know change is tough, but new and different is here, and there’s no one better to take this on then the group of people in this room.” Fury said as all the younger heroes stared at him in awe listening to him rallying them.

“I can say from experience, that the only thing you need to face the end of the world is an honest friend who you can count on, and you have that in Ms. Hill here.” Fury assured and Pepper nodded.

Fury looked over at the four of them sitting there and then sincerely at Maria and it was a sweet moment and Maria stayed stone cold because if she didn’t she would blush and turn all bashful and she couldn’t show these kids she had any emotions at all.

“And having access to top of the line Stark tech probably helps too…” Kate added in ruining the awkwardly sweet moment Fury was giving to Maria, which clearly made her uncomfortable.

“It sure does.” Pepper smiled.

“People don’t just give four young strangers access to the best technology in the world for free. So, what do you want then? What’s the trade, what do you want from us? No legitimate person just offers this without a quid pro quo.” Yelena asked skeptically.

“That’s right, they don’t. That’s why it’s not for free.” Maria added in quickly.

“I can’t pay for these things, I don’t have this kind of money, I barely even have a job.” Kate mumbled.

“This would be your job. You would get trained or more training, get the skills you need on the ground or anywhere else in or out of this world, with the tools you need to be successful. If that interests you, this is how you get it, if it doesn’t that’s fine too, it’s your choice. The trade is your time, working hard, your life, skipping your vacations and not whining about it.” Maria looked at Peter with some side eye.

“It was my first trip to Europe!” Peter whined.

“And based on how it went, probably your last.” Maria snarked and Yelena really laughed at that but the others didn’t know why.

“So, I can quit school and fight bad guys full-time and get paid and be trained with the best technology and things available and all I have to do … is do it!?” Kamala asked thrilled.

“No, you have to graduate high school first. Wait, are you supposed to be in school right now?” Maria asked.

“Oh, c’mon, I went to space remember!” Kamala whined.

Maria made a face like that was not that impressive and Fury chuckled.

“I saved skrulls.” Kamala added.

“I helped stop Dar-Benn from stealing the energy of the sun and killing everyone and destroying our whole solar system because it would have turned the sun into a black hole eventually.” Kamala kept going.

“That’s not totally how that works.” Peter added in.

“Do not mansplain science to me, Parker.” Kamala defended herself.

“Great, and when you get that high school degree you can add that to your list of accomplishments.” Maria dismissed Kamala quickly.

“He didn’t have to graduate high school to be an Avenger.” Kamala pointed out.

“It’s a new policy.” Pepper explained. “It’s an insurance thing, literally.”

“But you can intern, after school and on the weekends until you graduate.” Maria tried to make Kamala feel better, she was so enthusiastic about this and of course she was the one getting the slight, but it wouldn’t be for long.

“This seems unfair.” Kamala sighed.

“Blame Parker.” Fury added in quickly.

“What did I do?” Peter looked surprised and Fury and Maria looked at Peter like did he forget what happened in all of Europe a few summers ago? “I am starting to miss the skrull versions of you two.” Peter mumbled to himself.

Maria shot her head quickly at Fury and couldn’t even suppress her smile at that comment because Parker was pretty funny.

“Is it just us you are asking?” Kate asked.

“No.”

“You’re talking to others?” Peter questioned.

“Of course.” Maria answered quickly and again unbothered.

“We have very large, very expensive, state of the art training facility, it works best when there are multiple people training there.” Maria added with a smirk.

“I want to go to there.” Kamala said eagerly like a child pointing at Disneyworld on the tv.

“And I am very sure that one day, very soon, you will, Ms. Marvel.” Maria looked at her optimistically and Kamala smiled because she did feel validated now even if she did have to graduate first, but Kamala could understand, you kind of needed to be an adult to go fight badges and be a superhero, kids should get to be kids.

“The things that we are sharing with you, we hope you will keep to yourself. There will be people who approach you and will try to buy you off, they will have ulterior motives, lie to you, they may claim they have your interests at heart, but they won’t.” Pepper started to explain.

“And you do?” Yelena asked with a brow raised.

“Yes, because we have done this before, and we will work hard to protect you and help you. We have access to the best medical technology, defense systems, defensive armor, and bullet proof fabrics that have saved the lives of people in this very room, we just want to help you succeed. We know you will all be out there being vigilantes on your own with out us, but you can get hurt, you could die. We want to keep you alive.” Pepper replied.

“It’s true, they do—-when they deem you old enough.” Peter added.

“I already went through real training.” Yelena squinted her eyes. “Nobody just wants to help people. There’s no such thing.” She added skeptically.

“I mean, yeah, I kind of agree with that. I can’t believe this is legit.” Kate sighed.

“I do.” Kamala said after a pause.

“Me too.” Peter added.

“And if I… we do, is it so weird if someone who does this for a living wants to help?” Kamala asked Kate and Yelena, the two of them remained quiet.

“Do you like the way the world is right now?” Maria asked the group and they all shook their head no.

“No.” Kate mumbled audibly.

“Do you want to help fix it?” Maria asked in a genuine tone.

“You have skills, you have gifts, you have talent, but the decision to bring those to an elevated supported role is up to you. It won’t be soon, you are all very young, but if this a career choice you are thinking about, his could get your foot in the door and keep it there.” Maria explained.

“Are there rules?” Yelena asked.

“Of course.” Maria answered.

“And how loose can we get with those? You’re kind of by-the-book as I recall.” Yelena glared at Maria.

“You have to follow the rules.” Maria said sternly but Fury wavered his hand in a teetering manner behind her which made Yelena smirk to herself.

“Some of us are fine keeping ourselves safe.” Kate added triumphantly, Yelena wasn’t stealing the cool girl factor from her in this room.

“Yes, that’s true, until you aren’t.” Maria turned her head, she was not unaware of events that had happened with Clint, Kate, and Laura.

“I’m good.” Kate huffed

“You’re all good.” Maria shrugged, “but do you want to put in the work to be better and make sure you are safe and supported while doing it? That’s what you have to think about, and let us know, sooner rather than later. Like Pepper said, we know you are going to keep being out there on your own anyway.” Maria said and the four of them were quiet, all of them knowing they were being offered a once in a lifetime—or well for Peter a twice in a lifetime opportunity, but did this really mean giving up their whole lives? There were definitely risks, but they all faced similar risks even without taking Fury, Hill, and Pepper up on their offer.

“Do we have to give up our WHOLE lives?” Kate asked.

“No, just sometimes, prioritizing, you know?” Maria explained again giving Parker a glance.

As the invited group of heroes left the Stark conference room Maria looked at the mixed emotions of Kamala, she did feel bad that she was going to have to wait longer since she was so eager to start.

“Ms. Marvel, can you hold on a moment?” Maria asked and she stopped before leaving with everyone else.

“If this is about the tablet…”

“It’s not.” Fury shook his head.

“Okay, phew. Also, I just want to say that I kind of had this idea first and I know you didn’t know that, but…” Kamala started. “Well, I didn’t have the Stark part first, or the training part, but the young Avengers part, totally mine, just saying.” Kamala said proudly and Fury nodded in agreement.

“Am I in trouble for that?” She asked shyly.

“I can’t get in trouble with Nick Fury and Pepper Potts and the Avengers’ lady who everyone thought died but apparently lived and no one understands how or why. Like are you a ghost? A robot? My parents will be really upset if I am in trouble with a ghost robot.” Kamala continued.

“Do you want an after school job?” Maria cut in as Kamala started to go off.

“I thought I had to finish school first?”

“It’s a different type of job, that you can work remotely, or in person, on the weekends, or in your free time, it’s not a give up your whole life kind of job, it’s a school comes first type of gig..” Maria explained.

“And I get paid?” Kamala questioned with her voice raising up in tone.

“That is the standard arrangement for jobs, I believe.” Maria looked at Kamala with a funny questionable look.

“Can I get paid in bitcoin?”

“No…” Pepper answered quickly.

“I actually don’t really know anything about bitcoin, but I figured I should check.” Kamala shrugged.

“So, Ms. Not-Boss-Ghost-Robot, what’s the gig?” Kamala asked leaning over a chair but the chair was on wheels and it moved slightly and she had to catch herself from falling awkwardly and embarrassing herself in front of everyone after she tried to sound so cool and witty.

Fury, Maria, and Pepper all paused looking at Kamala with concern.

“I’m fine.” She added in. “I meant to do that.” She feigned confidence.

“It would be helping me, and learning how to work all these systems so when you are out of school you can jump right in.” Maria explained.

“Like, I’m.. the.. but aren’t you the…” Kamala paused.

“No, Ms. Marvel. I promise I am like a silent entity except for the fact that you will constantly hearing me in your ear and having to listen to me tell you what you have to do.” Maria answered in a serious voice yet Fury and Pepper laughed which confused Maria and Kamala.

“So, I’d be like the group leader of the nonexistent super group that doesn’t exist but I would kind of be similar to the leader of the Avengers who was…”

“Captain America.” Maria said.

“Iron Man.” Pepper remarked at the same time.

“Me.” Fury answered in unison with Pepper and Maria and they all looked at each other and Pepper and Maria glared at Fury.

“I was joking about me.” Fury shrugged with a smirk.

“Uhm YES! I want this job, since it was my idea, but I wasn’t really sure how to fund it, or organize it the right way and get all this cool stuff, but once I am all set I will take over from here.” Kamala grinned.

“That’s what I thought.” Maria nodded.

“Uhm, just an idea for our first mission, partner… Ms. Hill…” Kamala started unsure of what to call her and what their relationship was.

“Call me Maria.”

“Call me… Kamala.” Kamala came over and shook Maria’s hand, Kamala noticed how much taller the woman was than her, and how experienced she looked. Kamala liked that she was very direct and straight forward, no bullshit, these are the facts and this is why it matters type of person. She could see why she spent her life working with Fury and the Avengers—-at least in this one brief meeting, she got a good sense.

“Okay, Maria, I have a good idea for our first mission, can we find my friend Monica?” Kamala asked.

“Captain Rambeau, we can try, of course. There are people working on that you, trying to figure something out.” Maria informed.

“I just don’t want her to think… we just left…” Kamala started to explain. “I don’t want to leave anybody behind.”

“We won’t, I promise.” Maria assured and Kamala did feel weirdly comforted by that.

“I’ve never been to Stark Industries before, never really thought I would… it’s not like what I thought it would be…” Kamala continued.

“Would you like a tour?” Pepper asked with a smirk.

“I would, actually.” Kamala nodded and Pepper escorted her out to find someone to give her a tour.

Maria and Fury were alone in the conference room and Maria sighed with relief.

“You did great.” Fury assured and Maria rolled her eyes.

“Why did you say those things about me?”

“… the nice things?” Fury lowered his brow confused.

“Yeah.”

“Because they were true and nice…” Fury tried not to laugh at her.

Maria made an awkward face at him and shook her head no.

“Did you want me to tell them you are a miserable, cold, unfeeling, workaholic with no life?” Fury questioned with a smirk.

“I guess it’s better they find that out for themselves.” Maria and Fury glanced at each other and grinned.

“Do you have any updates on Monica?” Maria asked and Fury shook his head no.

“We think she crossed dimensions.”

“We better hope she did, because there’s a greater chance she lived if she did since we haven’t found a sign of her.” Maria mumbled.

The two were silent after that and Maria pulled out her phone and she was playing a chess game with someone online, Fury looked over her shoulder, noticing it was not the game she was playing with him.

“You have two of these going on at once?” Fury asked raising a brow.

“Yeah, I had three, but Rhodes bested me this morning, but I am going to you and this guy.” Maria said confidently.

“Who else are you playing?”

“Oslo.”

“He’s not very good.” Fury frowned looking at the board.

“He’s learning, but no, he’s not very good.” Maria laughed.

“You sure Kamala’s the one?” Fury asked.

“Am I sure?” Maria paused. “I don’t need to be sure, she needs to be sure, and she was. She knew it, and that’s all I needed to know.” Maria shrugged and Fury smirked because he knew Kamala was indeed the person to keep this group together—this nonexistent group.

Maria did talk about things and approach it in such a different way than Fury did, and he thought that was a good fresh look on things. This wasn’t the Avengers of SHIELD days or anything like that, it was exactly what Maria said, something totally and completely different.

“Hey, May owes you fifty dollars?” Maria asked.

“Is she around I want to collect.” Fury grumbled.

“Where is she?” Fury questioned.

Maria shrugged, “I don’t know.” And then Maria smirked at Fury and he rolled his eyes with a laugh because he could tell Maria was protecting her.

“How is space?” Maria asked, she wasn’t particularly a fan of it.

“It is great because it is difficult for Congressional process servers to reach me.” Fury smirked.

“I know the feeling. But they are coming for us, you know, seems increasingly likely after that assassination.” Maria sighed.

“You’ve noticed some leering folks?” Fury questioned and Maria nodded.

“Well, if anyone goes down for what happened, it will be me.” Fury assured and Maria made a face at him.

“You and I both know that’s not true.” Maria snapped back quickly.

“I will make sure of it.” Fury said with great confidence, he wouldn’t let Maria take the fall of any of this and if that meant he had to hide her up in space, he’d do it, but at some point a reckoning had to be coming for Fury from what happened, he knew that.

—————-

As Yelena left the Stark building alone and a bit grumpy she walked the New York City streets that she loved so much. She loved every inch of this city and she wished Natasha was here to share it with her. She thought about what Maria said and she had a lot of questions of Maria she wanted to ask but didn’t. She knew it wasn’t the place and she wondered about calling her an talking to her again. She couldn’t blame Maria for not keeping Natasha safe back then because she learned Maria had blipped too, but it was hard to hear Maria promise Yelena her safety when Natasha didn’t have hers.

As Yelena walked she noticed a black car rolling up toward her and she stopped her arm going behind her jacket to grab something. The window of the car rolled down and Val was there.

“Hello, again.” Val smiled at her.

“What do you want?” Yelena looked at her skeptically. “Are you following me?”

“Interestingly enough, I just happened to be leaving a security conference when I was being driven past the Stark Industries building and I noticed you exiting from there.” Val said in a kind tone but Yelena could tell it was a scheming or fishing expedition.

“You were wrong before, about my sister and who killed her.”

“Do you want to come in and talk?” Val offered.

“No.”

“You are right, I was wrong before, and I want to apologize.” Val acknowledged her misgiving from the last time she met up with Yelena and exploited her grief. Val opened the door and slid down in the car and Yelena reluctantly got in, but on alert. She could take this woman in one second if she had to.

Yelena sat next to Val and glared at her waiting for an apology and Val stared at her wondering why Yelena was staring at her.

“Well, apologize.” Yelena demanded.

“I did.”

“No you said you wanted to apologize.”

“Is that not the same thing?”

“It is not.”

“I am sorry, I was given bad information.”

“I could have killed him. He was her best friend.” Yelena said angrily.

“And look how smart and adaptable you are to realize the truth, you did great work.” Val manipulated and Yelena looked at her skeptically.

“You know, another one of your sister’s friends works at Stark now, Maria Hill, is that who you were talking to?”

“No.” Yelena quickly lied.

“She used to work for me, but we don’t really see eye to eye.” Val admitted quickly and Yelena felt a little better because she was shocked to hear Maria had worked with this woman.

“But, the thing is, I know that Fury is here in that building, and I know she is there too and I happen to know a few other interesting folks were visiting Stark as well.”

“You are spying on them?”

“Haha well, you are the only of them who was bold enough to walk out the front door and not use the secure exits.”

“I didn’t know there were secure exits.” Yelena grumbled to herself.

“Hill didn’t tell you that?” Val asked raising a brow trying to get Yelena to confirm her meeting.

Yelena glared at her without answering.

“I don’t owe you anything.” Yelena huffed.

“You don’t, that’s true, but what if we were to trade something?” Val asked and Yelena was silent again. Should she trust this woman? She really didn’t think so, but was she any better than Hill and Fury? They all kind of seemed the same to her, Maria’s only saving grace was her closeness to Natasha. Yelena knew she should probably consider Maria’s offer.

“Okay, you tell me what you know and then I will decide if I tell you what I just did.” Yelena said taking the power away from Val and Val smirked and then laughed under her breath.

“I don’t know what flashy things and offers they made to you, but it’s not real. Just look what happened to the last set of Avengers, half of them are dead, one of them was an alien in disguise almost the whole time and one turned into an evil witch. It’s not going great over, do you really want to align yourself with that mess?” Val asked. “I can offer you so much more, and I have access to information Hill and Fury couldn’t even dream about. People you might want to see again, people you want to avenge…”

“Just like the last time?” Yelena asked annoyed as she started to open the car door.

“That was an honest mistake, I’ve only ever wanted to help you. I’m like you a lone wolf trapped in this system. Used, chewed up, mistreated…” Val started.

“You just want them gone so you can take over, and you want other people to do the work for you.” Yelena corrected. Really Val didn’t want to get blind sided by Fury and Hill again and she could feel that those two were undermining her attempt to be the new person in security and intelligence.

“Please, there is so much in fighting in that hot mess of a train wreck that we used to think of as global security, it’s just inevitable that implodes on itself. If you stick with me, no one would even know you were with us, anonymity is all the power in the world, a former widow should know that.” Val said confidently.

Yelena sighed glaring at this repugnant woman.

“You can do both you know, take their offer and take mine just don’t tell them you took mine too.”

“You want me to spy for you after you lied to me?”

“I provided you with the information I had at the time because I believed you would want it. I know talent, I know skills…”

“You want to use other people’s talent and skills.” Yelena corrected.

“And why is that any different than what just went on in there?” Val asked Yelena and Yelena glared at her because it did feel different but she didn’t know why.

“At least I’m honest about what this really is. You have to ask yourself who would you rather align with, someone who willingly lies to you to manipulate you, or someone who is accountable for their mistakes and is honest about what this would be?”

Yelena tilted her head down at Val.

“Which one are you?” Yelena smirked trying to be witty but Val lightly smiled to herself as that was all the confirmation she needed about what was going on in that building, her hunch was right.

“Just think about it.” Val said as Yelena got herself out of the car and shut the door. She walked in the opposite direction she was going as Val’s car drove away.

Val immediately called Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross.

“Fury and Hill are up to something, I know that for sure. I don’t know if they are doing secret Avengers, Avengers 2.0… they are trying to do something right under our noses.” Val said on the phone.

“Given the last year we had, why is that a surprise. They always are.” Thaddeus was not at all shocked.

“When you get into office you need to fire Fury immediately.” Val warned. “Those two align and act like they can control the world and pretend they are doing it for us instead of what they are really doing.. running everything in the shadows without an ounce of accountability.”

“I think they are pretty open about it.” Ross shrugged it off in his voice, honestly, given what happened with Ritson, Ross didn’t want an enemy in Hill and Fury. Hell, he’d rather have Hill around to shoot down an attack on his motorcade. But Val, wasn’t wrong. It would be hard to navigate his likely future presidency with Fury and Hill undermining him, but it would be great to have them helping him.

Val was concerned about it though, she knew it would make things difficult for what she wanted to accomplish if Hill and Fury were skulking around.

“Ritson ordered Hill to untangle herself from Fury and his messes and here she is defying orders, no accountability, once again.” Val grumbled.

“As I recall, Val, she was held accountable when you fired her so she’s a private citizen now, and we can’t really order people who don’t work for us who they can associate with, unless you know of some new law that I don’t. You more than anyone should know if you want to control or keep tabs on someone you should be keeping them in your pocket not throwing them to the curb.”

“I tried that with her, it didn’t work, she still ran a counter intelligence operation for Fury right under my god damn nose.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“HERS. HIS! Well… his, but she’s an adult.” Val rolled her eyes as once again, ONCE AGAIN, some powerful man was going to bat for this woman! Even aliens pretending to be humans did this for no explanation that Val could think of.

“What is it with all of you military male idiots that send you to defend that for that empty headed cardboard lesbian with a bad haircut who has never been to a Sephora in her life?” Val scoffed.

“Well, if alien invaders are trying to shoot down my motorcade it seems like she can get up on the defense systems real fast to take them down.” Ross laughed.

“That was a crime!” Val huffed loudly into the phone.

“Yeah, a crime that saved a lot of American service members and the President and killed a bunch of rebel aliens, it evened out.” Ross shrugged off. “You know, she might be good at your job once I take over.” Ross said like this was a new idea.

Val had learned something though as her jaw dropped when she listened to Ross act like he had some brilliant idea. Going after Hill was the wrong move, it served her no purpose and she made nothing but enemies when she tried, but that might not be the same reaction if she went after Fury. He was really the problem.

“You know, I looked into all the evidence and videos that we have from November in Moscow, and there’s actually no proof that it really was a skrull who shot Hill in Moscow and not the real Nick Fury. We just took her word for it, but the evidence doesn’t point that way, she is always trying to protect that man. If he was a skrull, there would have been two Fury’s in the videos we collected from Moscow, but there wasn’t.” Val said sinisterly into the phone.

“Well, that might be something to keep in our back pocket, huh?” Ross asked and Val nodded to herself. Fury could definitely be a pain in his side and Val did have some points about him, he pretended to follow orders, but really he went off and did his own thing and covered it all up. And this secret alien invasion in order to prop up his own career, well Ross really felt like Fury was the one who should be on the chopping block, and if Ross was going to be the next President he wanted to know every single thing about these shape-shifting aliens he could since Ritson had not been very forthcoming.

—- TWO MONTHS LATER —-

Maria walked up the sidewalk of a busy street square in New York, wearing sunglasses, a leather jacket, pants and boots as she strolled along with the other hustling city commuters sipping her coffee. She went through the park and she looked to the right side of her sunglasses and a name popped up in her lenses for a man sitting on one of the benches, then she got another name, and another. All men who were recognized for their dirty dealings, supplying hydra off-shoots with weapons, and trying to manufacture and offshoot of super soldier serum. Yep, still today, people tried and tried to manufacture and make this no matter how it always failed. At first, she thought there was some kind of controlled drop going on, but then she realized it was going to be a mass panic effort. People loved doing this to cause everyone to freak out and lure any gifted folks or police out of the crowd before something big went down.

“I got a total of three sitting in the park square on the black benches starting at the street lamps with the American flag banners.” Maria said quietly into her ear piece.

“I have two more over by the magazine stand and one of them is pretending to gett a hot dog.” Kamala answered.

“I have three at the front entrance of the square.” Peter chimed in as he hid in a high vantage observing the criminals.

“And I found a lone wolf. I bet he’s the one with the vial.” Kate confirmed.

“Quick and stealth, please very shadowy conditions like we were never here. Civilian safety, always the number one priority.” Maria said into the earpiece.

“You got it.” Kamala said back confidently.

“I will monitor your blindspots and keep the civilians away.” Maria remarked.

“I’ll keep the high ground.” Peter confirmed to the group.

“And I got the long shots.” Kate snickered.

“I’ll take the close quarters.” Kamala grinned to herself and hit her fist into her palm with a big smirk and and all three of them waited for a fourth and final witty comment but it was just the three of them, Yelena did not return.

“Man, that moment would have been so cool with a fourth witty skills related remark.” Peter sighed.

“We almost had it…” Kamala sighed.

“Parker on your left side..” Maria started to warn.
“I got him.” Peter wrapped a web around the arms and legs of one of the men they after and he tripped over himself falling to the ground.

Just as the group started to set on their targets, a giant Belgian shepherd ran into the crowd wildly, barking, and growling causing everyone in the park to jump up and scream and run away, the creating mass panic they were trying to avoid.

“Oh my god an attack dog!! I can web him fast.” Peter yelled.

As people ran away from the dog, the dog ran up to a bench and cornered one of the targets and prevented him from leaving and barking in his face and pinning him to the bench. Maria assed it but she realized some of the targets ran in the chaos from the dog.

“Parker, focus on your task, the dog is helping at the moment.” Maria decided, hedging her bets.

“Aww, he’s a good boy.” Kate called in as she targeted the sole individual, the head of this crime ring she figured.

“I bet it’s a girl.” Maria added in.

“Aw, Maria, you should adopt it!” Kamala said cheerfully into the ear piece as she caught two of the bad guys in her crystal prisms. as the dog raged and riled terrifying one of the perpetrators they were targeting, members of the public who weren’t in on the evil scheme going down ran from the center of the square afraid of the vicious dog.

“I’m all set.” Maria answered.

“Having a dog is good for your soul.” Kate added in.

“Don’t worry about the dog!” Maria responded.

“But you do need a dog, though. It’s good for you. You’d be such a good dog mom.” Kate talked casually as if she wasn’t in active pursuit.

“Aww yeah, he’d.. she’d have so much structure. You gotta do it! Look how sweet she is!” Kamala chimed in as the dog barked and growled holding one of the bad guys in place on the bench as he cowered fearfully.

“Seems like your type.” Kate laughed.

“I can make a quick web leash and collar right now for you.” Parker laughed.

“Ignore the dog!” Maria huffed again right as one of the targets she lost from the bench went to take out Maria and she grabbed his arm and flipped him. “The fuck.” Maria growled as the man slammed his back into the ground from the force of Maria’s flip.
“Uh oh, they know who we are…” Kamala said worried.

“I got my guy, but he doesn’t have what we thought he would have…” Kate called in as she used one of her arrows with a rope to wrap around him and then she punched the guy in the face knocking him out and searching his person for any vials or weapons.

“Oh… maybe he wasn’t one of them.” Kate grimaced.

“Bishop!” Maria called in alarmed as she fended off yet another one of the targets who came after her, elbowing him in the neck forcing him forward kneeing him in the crotch and then throwing him on the ground in a rage.

“Oh, wait no, he is one, whew, close one.” Kate rubbed the back of her head.

Peter webbed up three of them he found who went on the run as the chaos started. He was hiding a high vantage point as people ran through the fighting and the pending dog attack.

“This is going okay…” Parker mumbled a bit unsure of himself. “Don’t panic! Everything is under control!” Peter yelled into the air to the worried people which no one heard as they ran away from the violence. “I don’t think they heard me…”

Maria groaned, this was the opposite of what she intended to have happen today.

“Ms. Marvel, can we get an update?” Maria asked as she held her gun on the two aggressors on the ground annoyed that she lost her coffee and had to take these two out with her bare hands.

“Ms. Marvel!” Maria said back sternly after the silence.

“I got it!!” Kamala yelled excitedly as she raised her hand with the vial in it proudly after she had tackled a person who was running from her and she found it.

“Ms. Marvel, incoming!” Maria warned as she got an alert but before Kamala could react a ominous smokey figure appeared above her and swiped the vial from her hand flying away quickly into the air.

“Great, good work.” Kate called in with a huff.

“Uh…” Kamala froze. “Uhmm…” she felt ashamed.

“What the hell is that thing?” Peter asked as he jumped around trying to follow it.

“I don’t got it… anymore…” Kamala answered a bit delayed.

“Yeah, we know.” Kate grumbled as she aimed an arrow at the smoke monster and the arrow flew right through the smokey blob just missing Peter as he flung himself after it.

“It’s made of smoke… what is an arrow going to do?” Kamala shot back.

“It’s made of smoke but it has enough physical matter to grab something? That doesn’t make sense! I had to try! What are you doing?” Kate growled back to Kamala.

Peter tried to web the smokey figure but it flew through all his attempts.

“Okay, is this like that fat green ghost from those old ghost hunting movies? What are those called again? Ghost killers? Ghost fighters? Ghostbusters?” Peter asked.

“I’ve never heard of that movie…” Kamala said as she entrapped the smoke figure with her crystalized light based powers only for a moment confusing the figure when Peter shot a web at the vial and and grabbed it from it’s hand as it slowed down, but as Peter pulled the web with the vile toward him he felt his warning senses tingle as jumped to the ground he was about to be tackled by one remaining bad guy, the one who had been trapped by the dog, Peter moved backward quickly and the man missed tackling him and just as he lunged at Peter the dog lunged at him pining him to the ground and barking in his face. The vial flew through the air and was then caught by Kate as she ran after it, the vial fell against her fingers as she clasped it and she pulled it close to her but then she tripped over some left over picnic supplies on the ground falling forward and Kamala sprung forward diving for the vial and she slid on the ground catching it as Kate fell on top of her.

“Are you two in a dog pile?” Peter asked with a smirk.

The dog continued to bark in the man’s face as he screamed and called for help and Kamala, and Kate got up from the ground and Maria and Peter walked over to him the dog growling at him viciously never moving. Kamala and Kate walked over too.

“Such a good girl.” Kate cooed at the dog who stopped barking but kept guard on the man and they all looked around at the mess that was in the park from the chaos they just caused.

“Okay, be honest, did we do a good job?” Kamala asked out of breath to Maria and Maria made a face as suddenly everything in the area just vanished, there were no people, no benches, the bad guys who looked human were drones, the dog disappeared, and they were in a very large empty room, the four of them were out of breath though.

The simulation ended and everything that seemed so real to them and looked real, felt real it was just instantly gone. That was the benefit of spending some time at Avengers’ compound. It all went a bit chaotic there but they got vial and the bad guys, they adapted to the situation, but it wasn’t perfect… it was their first one though after all and no one was expecting perfect.

“It was a … good… effort.” Maria gave a strained compliment because it was a good effort even if it wasn’t a perfect job and Kate made a face, she knew what a mess was when she saw one.

Kamala, Kate, and Peter all looked at each other. They were all pretty new to working on a team and they had a lot to learn about each other and how to play on each other’s strengths.

“Can we do it again?” Kamala asked still catching her breath.

“Not today.” Maria shook her head.

Maria turned her head over to the far away controls of the room looking over at Sam Wilson and Clint Barton who were trying very, very hard not to laugh.

“Did you have to turn some of the drones on me?” Maria asked and Clint and Sam smirked with big grins at her and then laughed.

“Just making sure you’re still sharp, Hill.” Clint laughed and Maria shot Clint a look.

“Why don’t you come over here and see how sharp I am in person.” Maria muttered and Clint laughed.

“You said make it chaotic.” Sam shrugged.

“You two should jump in and see where your skills are.” Maria snarked.

“I’m retired.” Clint answered quickly.

“I’ve heard that one before.” Maria huffed and she and Sam rolled their eyes.

“Fine, if you got something for me, I’m game.” Clint smirked, almost daring Maria.

“I got something for Laura.” Maria joked raising a brow at Clint and Clint met her snarky look narrowing his eyes.

“You’re not funny.”

“I wasn’t joking.”

“I’m so glad I set one of those things on you.” Clint muttered and Maria rolled her eyes again and Sam really laughed.

“There were two.” Maria huffed.

“Second one was my idea.” Sam bit his bottom lip trying to conceal a smirk.
“It’s for them to learn, not me.” Maria emphasized to Clint and Sam.

“Captain America, you weren’t watching that, were you?” Kate asked Sam and Sam nodded that he was.

“Don’t worry, there’s something about these fake things that you just know is fake so it feels different than the real thing, and it’s also you’re first one, right?” Sam assured.

“I’ve actually been to space…” Kamala looked at Sam and Sam smirked.

“I haven’t. That’s pretty sweet, maybe you can take me sometime.” He nodded and she smiled.

“What happened to the dog though?” Kate asked.

“It better not have got taken to the pound.” Kamala huffed.

“The dog was fake just like everything else.” Maria sighed

Peter, Kamala, and Kate all looked at Maria tilting their heads.

“It was fake. That’s not a surprise, you knew it was all fake going in.” Maria repeated.

“But she was so cute.” Kate smirked.

“I mean, it looked real.” Kamala added.

“It all looked real, felt real.” Peter threw out.

“You could still adopt it then you don’t have to feed it or clean up after it, the best kind of dog for someone with your schedule.” Kamala said to Maria.

“Wait, but why was there a fake dog?” Peter asked again.

“Extra chaos.” Clint smirked.

“So what’s the dog’s name?” Kate asked.

“It’s not real.” Maria repeated.

“It looks real, so it should have a name.” Kate glared at Maria.

“It’s name is K9D-236A.” Maria read the drone number off the drone that was the dog.

“Let’s name her Loki!” Peter suggested eagerly.

“NO!” Maria and Clint answered in unison loudly.

“What about Chip?” Kamala asked.

“Yep, fine, Chip.” Maria wanted this conversation to end, they had a lot to talk about.

“We should get some chocolate chip ice cream.” Peter suggested.

“Or mint chocolate chip.” Kamala added.

“Or some fish and chips.” Kate threw in.

“I am starving.” Peter sighed and they all looked at Maria like she should do something about this.

“Great, okay…” Maria paused. “There is a state of the art cafeteria in campus B.” Maria suggested. “Go get a snack and then we can watch that video of what we just did and talk about everything we did wrong.”

The three of them made a face because they knew it was probably a lot but then the three of them wandered off the explore the campus and Maria sat next to Sam and Clint keeping a solid and serious expression on her face but the two of them laughed at her.

“Is babysitting potential Avengers your favorite hobby?” Clint snickered.

“It is not.” Maria sighed. “But they are easy compared to you.” Maria snarked right back.

“Hey!” Sam interjected.

“Well, you were always wonderful.” Maria said to Sam and he smirked.

“Except for that time when you were fighting half of us.” Clint joked.

“We were on the same team!” Sam reminded.

“There is one team. Remember?” Maria said sternly and they laughed at her again.

“Classic, Hill.” Clint mumbled and Sam laughed.

“Am I doing the right thing?” Maria looked at the two them, one of them ‘retired’ and the other the new Captain America, two of the greatest heroes the world ever knew, even though Clint had problems, serious ones, he still had done a lot for this world. Being close to Clint felt like being close to Natasha still in some way.

“I think so, I mean, I’m not really sure what else you would be doing.” Clint assured and Maria appreciated it, Sam nodded in agreement.

“I don’t mean for me…” Maria looked at the two of them.

“Yes.” Sam confirmed. “You are.” Sam and Maria exchanged a glance and that yes from him did mean a lot, and Sam also felt a strange sense about the ‘yes’ he was giving her. Like he shouldn’t be giving her any sense of authority, but she was asking for it from him, like she unquestionably accepted his new role—she was one of the few, really.

“I’m not going to do it forever.” Maria said but she didn’t seem confident those words.

“Sure.” Clint muttered not believing her and Sam was grinning to himself because they both knew that probably wasn’t the case.

“I’m not.” Maria said more sternly looking at both of them.

Clint played back the video of Maria decking the bot that they made attack her by surprise and both Clint and Sam laughed.

“Hill will be 82 years old and still doing this.” Clint said with a smirk.

“You’ll be out here beating ‘em with your cane.” Sam smiled.

“With her walker.” Clint laughed.

“I am never inviting you two back here.” Maria snarked.

“Do you think they are going to bring the ice cream back here?” Clint asked.
“or the fish and chips…” Sam mumbled.

“You can’t eat or drink in here.” Maria growled.

“You had a coffee!” Sam pointed out.

“Yeah and you made me spill it all over the floor, so now there’s a new rule you can’t eat or drink in here.” Maria made a face at Sam and the three of them laughed together, for the first time in more years than any of them could remember. It was reminding of them a time that they didn’t think they would have again with each other, but they knew this moment would pass quickly and return to the real dark world they were in. The world had a lot to watch out for, but at least they knew dedicated, talented, and thoughtful people were here to protect it , including themselves, regardless if it was from known or secret invasions among them or whether it was just with just ordinary boots on the ground or most sophisticated technology in their hands or hovering in space. People cared, retired people, new incoming people, people with new roles, or people trying to find their roles in the new world, they all cared and that was enough to ensure that no one had to do any of the fights and battles to come alone.

- THE END -