InsaneJournal

Who: SHIELD
What: Orientation meeting
When: Yesterday
Rating: Green



The bakery was closed, which made sense since it was 9 at night. Fury had chosen a later time because, well, they were spies and darkness seemed to make sense.

Plus, this way, the day old pastries could be eaten, since there was nothing sadder than an abandoned cookie. Angela, the bakery manager, had set up an impressive tray, made coffee and left, trusting Fury to clean up afterwards. Obviously, she had no idea what actually happened on the second and third floors. He told her he worked in imports and exports, and left it at that. She also thought he was her landlord, and he never bothered rectifying that. The money went to Stark anyways.

It worked well for all parties if there was minimal curiosity.

Looking around the table, he waited until everyone was there, listening to the chatter and smiling inside. It was nice to see camaraderie again, people who obviously had working relationships, as well as personal ones as well.

He also incredibly happy that the Guardians were not invited. They were contractors, not actual employees and as such, he didn’t feel like he had to keep them in the loop. Both Peter and Drax came and went as they pleased, did the jobs they wanted. He needed them to keep an eye out in space, and they were happy to do that. It worked for everyone involved.

“Well. I think that’s everyone,” he said finally, standing up. “Welcome. I know I don’t have to introduce myself. I know each and everyone of you, in different ways, and sometimes, in a different world entirely. One thing I’ve been assured is that you are you, no matter where you came from, so I’m not going to get into details. All I want to say is that things are different now.” He looked pointedly at Nat and Bucky. “Very different. It’s me and Morse. Stark helps. There’s communication and open lines between everyone. We may deal in information but that doesn’t mean we’re hoarding it. Not anymore. If anyone -- ANYONE -- suspects, worries, or generally needs to talk something through, I’m here. I’m available. I’m ready to listen. We’re here to help the world, so let’s do that, alright?”

He cleared his throat and sat down. “So in the interest of full disclosure, how about we go around the table. List your strengths, what you want to do. Let’s build this team together, and I’ll start. It may be hard for you all to believe, but I’m an expert marksman -- yes, even with just the one eye. I have black belts in tae-kwan-do and jiu-jitsu, and I speak over 7 languages fluently. I am ultimately the head of this organization, so you don’t fuck with me, and I don’t fuck with you.” He gave a cold smile.

“Co-Director Morse?”

With a lead in like that, how could she follow it up? But Bobbi was going to try. She stood up from the table to reveal what her ex-husband called her unnatural height.

“Bobbi Morse,” she said. “Pretty sure most of you know me so I’ll make this short and sweet. I have multiple masteries in various forms of martial arts. My weapons of choice are staves, but I can shoot just about anything I can get my hands on. I also have a special talent for blending in.” She grinned. “I successfully infiltrated HYDRA as a lieutenant until I had to blow my cover to haul a scientist out of their hands.”

And with that she sat back down.

Phil couldn't help but give Bobbi a slight grin as he stood. "Phil Coulson," he introduced to the group at large. "And I'm who sent her into Hydra."

He looked at the group for a moment. "I know half of you, so for the half that I don't know? I've been a part of SHIELD for... well, if you have to stop and think about it, it's been forever. I've been the Director's right hand man, I've been Natasha's handler, I've led my own team, I've been the Director myself. I've pretty much done it all."

He stopped to think for a second. "I'm as skilled as any of you, though I don't get as many chances to put it all into practice -- trained in multiple martial arts, hand-to-hand combat, a variety of weapons. I'm a logistics specialist -- believe me, it's come in handy trying to wrangle people."

And then he smiled wryly, holding up one hand. "Also? Lost my hand a while back, got a prosthetic one. Bucky and I can start a club. Make t-shirts, meet on Tuesdays, that sort of thing." Phil tucked his hands into his pockets. "I'm looking forward to working with all of you, even if I'm not entirely sure what my part's going to be in all of this yet."

Or how he was going to contribute.

Natasha glanced around the room at familiar and unfamiliar faces then stood up. It felt like the old days. “Natasha Romanoff, former Team Delta,” she said with a glance toward the seat Clint normally would’ve taken. Of course there were some exceptions. “I think much like the folks that’ve gone before me, you know who I am and a large part of what I’m capable of. I’m trained in a number of martial arts, know how to handle just about any weapon, can hack my way into pretty much anything, and oh, I know entirely too many languages with many more I can get by in.” She grinned. “I will also be serving as the unofficial/official SHIELD/Avengers liaison and helping out on both sides where I’m needed or wanted.” With that she sat back down and gave Bucky a slight encouraging smile.

There was an uncomfortable pause when it was Bucky's turn to speak. Phil's joke set things at ease a bit more, and Bucky nodded over to the other man with a ghost of a smile. Most of all, it helped that Fury wasn't holding a grudge. And that if there were any concerns, then Fury wanted to hear about it.

"I think a few of you know I'm a sharpshooter," Bucky finally said after standing up, but he wasn't really looking at anyone when he said it. The topic was uncomfortable since he shot Fury through a wall and shot through Natasha, but he knew what he was capable of and he wanted to use it toward something good someday. Naturally, he didn't want to mention HYDRA's involvement in his training. Which was probably known by everyone already, anyway.

"I have a super soldier knock-off serum in me," he continued, in a flat voice. "Former assassin. My conditioning was removed in Wakanda. I can speak thirty languages. Fighting style is mixed martial arts. Kali knife fighting, welterweight boxing, taekwondo, and Krav Maga. I can fly planes and helicopters. I was trained to blend in, infiltrate, and destabilize countries. And I have this."

Bucky held up his metal arm, the one he was given in Wakanda.

All done, he looked over to the next person which was Peggy Carter. For her, he mustered up a small smile and a single nod to take her turn.

Peggy returned his small smile, more for being proud of him than needing any encouragement herself. As intimidated as she was walking into SHIELD she definitely preferred this group of company to the frankly useless ones she would have been stuck with in her own time. “Right, of course.” She mumbled mostly to herself as she stood. She’d swapped her normal daytime sundress attire that she enjoyed at home with Steve for a more work ready pair of black skinny jeans and a tucked in black shirt.

“I’m Peggy Carter, and while I may not know all of you as well as you might know me I do think I’m highly qualified to be here.” She swallowed momentarily and took comfort in the words Steve had spoken to her when she mentioned being nervous for this moment. “I’ve fought Nazi’s and was a member of the SSR, I was a founding member of this organization and I am a former Director as well. I speak and read English, Russian and German and I’m currently learning Spanish and brushing up on my French. I’m an expert marksman, and while I have no bloody idea what Krav Maga is,” She gave a pointed confused look for a split second at Bucky before continuing, “I don’t need defended in hand to hand combat, I can take of myself in that regard. I’ve led multiple rescue missions behind enemy lines and have an impressive record of undercover missions as well and I plan to be a great asset to this team.” She smiled politely before sitting down and nudging Bucky’s elbow sweetly like ‘we did it!’ before she settled back into her chair and her quiet observance.

Great, so Hope was supposed to follow Peggy Carter - one of the founders of SHIELD, just a few years ago (not to mention that Bobbi looked like a supermodel and while Hope was about ninety percent straight, she’d reserve the other ten percent for...that). But for some reason, she actually didn’t feel too intimidated when she considered it - first of all, she wasn’t the type to really allow herself to get that way. For another, she felt comfortable around Peggy, who knew Hank when he was in the prime of his SHIELD career - and also when he’d left it behind, after Janet’s disappearance. There was history, lots of it.

She flashed a smile at Peggy, then continued. “Hope van Dyne,” she introduced herself. So help her, her next words would not be ‘daughter of Hank Pym.’ She was far too stubborn about carving her own way to go down that route. “I’m trained in a few styles of martial arts, plus I trained your resident Ant-Man. Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Judo, and Aikido. I’m pretty good with a firearm, handguns mostly, a Glock 17 - but it’s not my first choice of weapon. I speak bug.”

A slight smirk at that, an upturning of her mouth splashed with cherry-red lipstick - and in a business suit, with sleek black heels, she believed she could hold her own in this bakery meeting of the minds (those pastries were delicious too, damn). “What I mean is, I’m an expert in ant entomology and communicating with ants using an EMP device. They make good spies and so do I - I hope to bring to the team my expertise in nanotechnology, quantum physics, and atomic studies. Shrinky-dink tech,” she added helpfully.

Then, yeah. Whomever was next to talk could talk, thaaaaaanks.

Fury nodded in appreciation as each member talked in turn. He had a good team, knew it before they had sat down, but the fact that they all opened up? Good. This trust, this communication, it had to continue. It was the only way to ensure HYDRA didn’t infiltrate again, or really anyone else. The mistakes from the past could not be allowed here.

“It sounds like we are all a group of people who shouldn’t be fucked with.” Fury didn’t say anything bluntly. He gave a light smile, one that those closest to him would recognize as pride. Even having Barnes open up and speak, well -- that was an accomplishment in itself. He tried not to think about Clint’s absence.

“I appreciate all your honesty and candor. I think we can do good things here again, and I can’t wait to start.” Picking up a stack of blue manila folders, he started to pass them around. “This is our latest mission. Thanks to Morse, we got some info out of Eastern Europe about some counterfeit Wakandan weapons. The Guardians and the Valkyrie confirmed this, and got us these.” When everyone had folders, he went back to the head of the table and stayed standing. “What you have in those files are approximately five different bases where Thomas Green, a no-name scientists with links to HYDRA is working on the fake vibranium.”

He looked around the table and his smile turned dangerous.

“We’re going to get Thomas Green.”