The Sage of the Mind

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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 103[May 2012]

Manhattan

–Phil Coulson–

"Agent Coulson, you are ordered to stand down, under direct orders from the WSC. Please refrain from making any overt moves while we process your defection," He maintained the same placid smile on his face, even as the people he proudly called colleagues pointed their guns at him. 

"An entire STRIKE team, just for me?" He couldn't help but shout, as he pressed a few buttons on the dashboard of the car he was sitting in, turning it into a veritable fortress capable of taking punishment far above what any pedestrian car could take. 

Jasper Sitwell, one of the people who graduated the same time as him through the SHIELD academy shook his head, regret clear on his face, "You know as well as I do that I am not the one giving orders right now. It is out of my hands. Please, just come with me and we won't have any more problems," 

He shook his head at that. No, they were far beyond that point now. Director Fury was dead. Project Pegasus was shut down, the Tesseract was in the wind and they were no closer to doing anything than they were 24 hours ago, when the entire base in NewMexico imploded on itself, leaving behind just a handful of survivors, recently promoted Deputy Director Hill being one of them.

As for him? Well, he smiled as the logo on the dashboard finally finished loading. There was a reason he was in a car, instead of a ship or a container where hiding would have been infinitely easier. He had received clear, precise instructions from Director Fury, instructions that had been recorded before his death and to be handed over to him, just in case.

He was now the proud keeper of secrets that he would rather now know, at all. It was not fair, Director Fury should have been able to evacuate in time but apparently, Loki's mind control was so heavy that Barton shot the Director straight in the head.

"Agent Sitwell, I am sure you were just following orders and for what it's worth so am I," with his words spoken, he slammed his foot on the accelerator, making the car whine with a particular sound. A sound that was most probably heralded by the arrival of a man in a suit.

He could hear the dings of bullets hitting the underbody of the car as it floated, straight to New York City. He had to make sure that Invisible Man was aware of the threat that Loki and the Tesseract posed to the world.

The system was very rough and very prototype phase so it was a rough ride in the beginning but it soon smoothed out. His mind flashed back to the message he received, in the middle of the night.

For some reason, all of SHIELD was put on a high red alert but no one seemed to know what was going on or if the emergency was even real or not. He wouldn't put it past the the taskmasters that were the emergency readiness team at SHIELD to manufacture multiple emergencies to prove that SHIELD agents are the best the country has.

Unfortunately, even after hours of no confirmation, he was getting jittery and that was when he received the data packets. A series of coordinates, container multiple secure caches, an emergency toolkit just in case Director Fury died due to a traitor, and could not inform anyone before dying.

That had jolted him into awareness and he had spent the next few hours securing the data caches and this car, with SHIELD already having revoked all his accesses, declaring him as a deserter, and had made chasing him down one of their priorities. Fortunately, this car was very stealthy and the only reason he was found was because he stepped out for nature's call, something that his car already had in the third row of seats, about which he did not know then.

Soon, it was only a few hundred miles before he reached the boundary of New York and entered the official domain of the Invisible Man. SHIELD had so far not made any moves in the New York division and had not even informed most of them about anything, probably to make sure that nothing of the literal WORLD ENDING situation reached the ears of the Invisible Man. 

He shook his head in disgust at the sheer politics of it all. The WSC was confident that ordinary agents, normal unenhanced humans would be able to go after Loki, an Asgardian? No chance in hell.

He winced as a bird hit the windshield and promptly exploded into pieces, which were immediately cleaned by the wipers. 

He sighed as the exhaustion of the past 24 hours began setting in. He still had Alpha Level access to SHIELD's databases, something that only the Director and the Secretary were supposed to have but then again, when did Fury ever do anything half asses?

He half laughed, half grimaced as he activated the cruise control, along with the stealth mode, something that reduced the top speed to half of what it was capable of but he didn't have it in him to care all that much. He climbed back into the rear seat and just tried to get some shut-eye, before he had to deal with this huge clusterfuck that was Loki's attack.

Barton was reportedly under Loki's mind control. Romanoff had been pulled back from a mission. Captain was still in New York so SHIELD had refrained from calling him back but he could see them trying to get him on board when things inevitably got too heavy for them.

ETA - 2 hours. He read it on the roof of the car, which also had a screen somehow and then drifted to sleep.

He was awoken by a gentle beeping noise that only half awoke him as he began searching for the alarm. Then the beeping intensified and his eyes snapped open as she realised where he was.

The car was floating right above the Staten Island, Manhattan visible in the distance. He was sure that The Invisible Man was probably seeing him right now. As much as the stealth systems of this car were touted, they did come with a built in warning that the Invisible Man did not rely on any of the conventional senses that the car dampened.

Rubbing his face, he entered the driving seat and slowly began floating straight to Manhattan. He was only halfway through when a voice spoke up all around him, jolting him, nearly throwing the car off course.

"Hello Agent Coulson," He never thought that the eerie voice of the invisible Man speaking right into one's ears would make him feel so much relief.

Then he realised that he was wasting time, so he immediately began speaking,

"Invisible Man, the Director is Dead. SHIELD has been compromised. The World Security Council has taken over. Loki, brother of Thor, has invaded the planet and taken a very important artefact. He is suspected to possess Mind Controlling abilities along with a myriad of other powers, not to mention the sheer number of advantages that probably come from being a so-called Asgardian. We have to…"

"Coulson," That single word, accompanied by a sudden surge of pressure, along with the feeling of the car being catapulted to a certain location, silenced him completely. He let the Invisible Man do his thing while he continued to monitor the SHIELD database for any new entries and aside from letting their respective nations know that a nuclear-like weapon was on the loose in the hands of a rogue entity, they hadn't done anything new.

Nothing has been assigned to Raomnoff as of yet.

There were no new orders for any members of the New York branch.

Also, the international warning for all the global superpowers held the face of Clint instead of Loki. They were trying to downplay the threat posed by Loki.

This would help no one.

Still, he was in New York now, in the territory of the strongest man on the planet, someone who has a direct line even to the President. He was sure that they would win.

Such were his thoughts as the car finally came to a halt, showcasing water on all sides to him before, to his shock, the car was dumped into the icy cold waters. He was about to shout when the car was enveloped in a bubble of air as it rapidly traversed the water, entering the sea bed, going through twists and turns, million year old socks folding and bending for the car as it were putty, until finally, the car stopped and they emerged out of the war, into what could only be called a futuristic lab and bunker.

"Agent Coulson, meet Randall. Randall, make sure that he is healthy, and rested. We will have an all hands on meeting in an hour. Give him the vitality shot," He heard the Invisible Man say before the door was ripped open, and the face of Randall was revealed to him.

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