The Chase is On
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Phil Coulson quickly hopped from the helicopter onto the roof of the SHIELD New York office, a bubble of excitement making him want to hurry into the building but with an effort he maintained his dignified stride. From the smirk Clint shot his way he could tell that the beta had guessed at his feelings but wisely he kept his mouth shut. Natasha at least pretended that she did not know how excited he was to meet his idol.
If it were anyone else he might feel a bit bad about his fan boyish behavior but he had maintained and still maintained that Captain America was worthy of such admiration. He wondered ideally if the Captain might consent to signing his trading cards once he was awake and had been debriefed.
His thoughts were derailed as an agent came running toward him a barely veiled look of panic on his face. He instantly shifted into emergency management mode and felt more than saw Natasha and Barton shift stride as they readied for a fight.
"Sir, Captain America has broken containment and has made his way into the corridors. Director Fury is going after him but sent me to bring you down to the control room to provide any intel or advice you might have."
The agent had barely finished speaking before they were racing past him and into the secure elevator. Quickly he brought out his key card and flashed it at the scanner. As the detector beeped he typed in an emergency code into the panel by the door.
"Hold onto the rails tight," he shouted to the other two who nodded grimly before he took a secure hold himself before pressing the floor number for the control room. Immediately it was as if the cables of the elevator had been cut and they were rocketing downward. The sensation had his stomach leaping into his chest area but he merely gritted his teeth. Looking at the other two he actually saw Clint shoot Natasha a shit eating grin which she answered with a smirk of her own. He sighed as he mentally asked himself why he was always picking the crazy, adrenaline junkies for his team.
"I am scheduling both of you for an early phyc eval," he murmured and watched as their grins widened. Clint looked particularly proud as he said happily "Oh good, haven't seen Hannah in two weeks. She must be missing me by now."
Phil shot an unimpressed look at Clint, as his confrontational nature with his therapists was well known, but was saved from commenting by the emergency brakes slamming on. He very nearly lost his grip on the railing as they were abruptly slammed upwards but was saved from smashing into the ceiling by Natasha wrapping her legs around his and Clint swinging his entire body over his. His heart lurched as Clint let go of the railing with one hand during one part of the maneuver convinced the archer would lose his grip completely but with a deft twist Clint managed to grab the rail by the side of his head.
Clint catching the residual concern in his eyes leaned next to his ear and whispered to him with a grin "This is certainly my favorite part of this mission so far."
Phil let out a put upon sigh before deftly flipping the smart ass little shit onto his stomach as the elevator came to a screeching halt.
"And this is mine," he whispered to him before rising smoothly to his feet.
"Barton, Romanof stay with me until we figure out the situation," he ordered as he easily fell into the role of lead agent.
The elevator opened onto the secure floor with a swipe of his security card and a quickly typed passcode. They walk into a hall eerily quite but beyond the double doors at the end of the hall they could hear a babble of noise. As one they moved down the hall and walked into a scene of organized chaos. People were flitting from station to station trying to gather information while on the big screen a picture of Captain America in what looked like Times Square was front and center on the monitors. The Captain was looking around the area with a considering look and Coulson cursed whoever thought it was a good idea to focus in so much on the Captain without panning the shot to include his surroundings.
He took in the chaos of the room and with a sigh stepped forward to get the agents back in order.
"Sit rep," he barked and watched as several of the agents froze before an agent approached him quickly.
"Sir," the alpha started respectfully "Captain America broke containment a little over six minutes ago. He broke out of SHIELD headquarters through the back of the building, he then ran out onto the street on the left side of the building before arriving in Times Square. He paused in Times Square for approximately a minute which gave the Director and the containment squad time to catch up with him. They have made contact with the Captain and are attempting to talk him down."
Coulson nodded before motioning the man back to his station.
"Pan out the screen I want a good visual of the area around the Captain. Get me audio also," he ordered. He noted the way that Natasha wandered the room taking in various statistics on the screens but ignored her for now as he knew that she would eventually report back with what she found.
Soon enough the sounds from the square fill the room. Coulson studied the screen as he watched the Captain straighten up from his fighters crouch into a threatening alpha stance. The stance immediately sent alarm bells ringing in his head as the stance was so atypical of the Captain America he had seen in both public and classified films. From the right side of the room he saw Natasha freeze up slightly and cock her head, one of her few tales for when a situation or person was confusing her, before resuming her roaming around the room. He could tell she was keeping an eye on the screen while appearing to be paying it no attention.
The next words out of the Captain's mouth had his hackles rising involuntarily and once more he saw Natasha freeze before she was making her way easily toward him.
She reached him just as the Captain drawled in a thick, 1940s Brooklyn accent "Well I'm sure they briefed you real good, Director. Just leaves me to wander who you pissed off enough to make them want you dead."
"He is deliberately baiting, the Director," Natasha murmured from beside him and he glanced at her before going back over the tone and way that the Captain was holding himself. Suddenly the niggling suspicion he had had that something was not right came together into a fractured picture with several of the pieces remaining outside of his reach.
"But why," he asked as he forced his muscles to relax. Even knowing that the tone and stance were contrived the acting was good enough that his body was still trying to react instinctively to the provocation.
"Unknown," Natasha murmured as Fury said on screen "I've pissed off a lot of people over the years, Captain, any number of who would like me dead."
"Fury is rattled," Natasha remarked quietly and he nodded. The unease was not obvious but Coulson could read his superior's unease and confusion in the set of his shoulders and the slight pinch of his mouth. Thankfully anyone else should not have noticed the reactions but as he glanced at Captain America he realized that the man was not just anyone and that he had realized exactly how his actions had affected the Director.
"Get me on a secure line to the director," Coulson ordered one of the communication techs. The woman nodded nervously before turning back to her console and typing quickly.
"Takes a special kind though to get your allies to assign a Solinite alpha to your command."
Those words dropped into the room like a bomb and distantly Coulson was aware that even Natasha had to repress a flinch but for Coulson the words had suddenly slammed the last piece of the puzzle into place and the picture presented made him go cold.
"Get me that secure connection now," he barked at the technician who blinked at him from where she had frozen before hurrying back to setting up a secure feed.
"He can't actually be a Solinite can he," a technician asked from the row in front of them, a near heart broken expression on his face.
"No, he is not. Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan was a beta under his direct command during WW 2. There interactions were well recorded, the pair were apparently known for pulling pranks together during down time, there is no way that he could be a Solinite," Coulson told them simply as he waited for the technician to setup the connection while praying that the Director would not answer the question.
"It is a code," Clint said as several of the techs looked at them hopefully "and if the Director answers incorrectly it will solidify Captain America's belief that we are HYDRA."
Suddenly, the atmosphere tensed as the techs shifted their attention to the screen or to the tech racing to setup the connection. The young woman had sweat on her brow but she finally sat back with a huge grin as she handed him a headset saying triumphantly "The connection is ready, sir."
His heart plummeted when as his fingers touched the headset he heard the Director's voice telling the Captain that there were therapy's for Solinites. The hearty laugh that the Captain let out felt like a splash of cold water.
Without a moment's hesitation he ordered "Romanof, Barton head out and intercept Captain America. Do your best to bring him in without hurting him?"
The two nodded before racing out the door and he told the crushed looking tech from earlier to set the headset he currently has to include the frequency from Natasha and Clint's coms. The young woman nodded determinedly and within a moment he heard both Clint and Natasha's coms click into sync with his.
"Director, I have Barton and Romanof heading to intercept Captain America," Coulson told Fury as he watches the screen where several different images are on screen. All the images appear to be from the dash or body cameras of agents with one screen flashing through images taken from security cameras in the area. As he watches the Captain dodges to the left at a group of three SHIELD operatives. One of the operatives moves to fire their stun gun but is fouled by one of her fellows jerking back into the path of the shot. Coulson grimaces as he notes the smirk on the Captain's face and realizes that the man had noted the agents lack of experience and was exploiting it now. Without effort the Captain breaks through the perimeter line and off into the streets of New York.
A few foolish agents try to fire their stun guns and dart pistols after the Captain's darting form and Coulson winces as he sees one stunner almost hit an onlooker.
"Cease fire," Fury shouts angrily over the mics and thankfully the few agents who had been foolish enough to fire after the retreating Captain pull back guiltily.
"Coulson, I want all streets closed off in the area and techs going through the old files trying to find any other codes that we might be able to use," Fury barks as Coulson sees him climbing back into his car. The crowd of onlookers is going to slow him down immensely in the car but given the Captain's top rate of speed nothing but the cars will be able to catch up to him at this point.
Muting his mic, Coulson issues orders quickly before moving out of the room and activating the private link to the Director's communication set.
"Sir, I have several cars moving into position to block off routes out of Manhattan, as well as three copters in the air. With your permission I will also send someone to Peggy Carter's home to see if she can remember anything that might be useful," Coulson says neutrally. He can hear Fury practically grinding his teeth in anger and frustration at what just happened, and plainly Coulson couldn't blame him. The whole situation was a giant cluster fuck and Coulson was going to go over the whole operation from the beginning to see why they now had a national icon running around New York with the belief that Hydra was after him.
"With Carter's dementia anything we do get will be suspect at best," Fury finally says with forced calm. Coulson knows that tone well, it is the tone that Nick uses when he is beating himself up over a mission gone wrong. It is rare for a mission that the Director heads personally to go south but when it does he always takes it hard.
"There is one other option that we might try, sir," Coulson tells him as he pulls up the SHIELD secure net on his phone.
"I am open to any suggestions at this point," Fury growls. Coulson lifts an eyebrow as he hears the man let out several colorful curses as the sound of the crunching of metal comes over the speakers.
"Sir, are you alright," Coulson asks worried as he listens to the sounds of Fury cursing over the sounds of crashing cars and squeeling tires.
"Get medical to the area around 6th Avenue and W. 47th Street. We have several agents down," Fury growls out over the communal comms then adds having switched to the private channel with Coulson "We need more intel on this Bastard. He just ripped up a light pole and used it like a javelin to take out the left tire of the lead vehicle and sent it into a tale spin taking out two other cars. Our files didn't report that he had that kind of strength. What was your other option?"
"Jim Morita, he is the only surviving member of the Howling Commandos," Coulson tells him as he is pulling up the information on Morita's whereabouts. He sighs quietly when he sees that the man is still living in San Francisco.
"Which one is that," Fury demanded distractedly. In the background Coulson could hear the sounds of the crash receding as he answered "He was the omega on the team. After the war he married an alpha doctor in San Francisco and largely disappeared from the public spotlight. But as of our last report, despite his age, he still retains his mental acuity."
"Get the San Francisco field agents to interview him and find out what he knows," Fury barked before cutting the secure feed in favor of the general comms.
Coulson walked calmly back into the Control Room and immediately had one of the techs that he had assigned to go through the old WW2 files beside him.
"Sir, we are still going through the files that have been digitized but we have found that most of the files have not yet been digitized and are currently in a secure government facility in Washington, DC," the tech told him nervously. Coulson resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose and instead simply nodded to the tech as he told him to get what he could off the computers.
Quickly, he sent off a text to Deputy Director Hill in DC to notify her of their urgent need for the information in those files. He trusted that she would have agents at the secure facility as quickly as possible in order to go through the file. Knowing her he wouldn't doubt that she would oversee the project herself given the urgency of his text. As expected the buzzing of his phone alerts him to a text message moments later and he saw a text message from Hill with the words 'Leaving now.'
Turning his attention back to the multiple images on the main screen he prepared to wait as they searched for the Captain.