Q: Recruited to S.H.I.E.L.D. five years ago by Nicholas Fury, correct?
A: …
Q: Please answer the question, Agent Johnson.
A: …
Q: Let the court note that Agent Johnson refuses to answer but that records confirm her recruitment by Nicholas Fury himself. Now, Agent Johnson, would you please explain your relationship with Fury?
A: What do the records say?
Q: Not why Fury would recruit you specifically and then train you as the youngest agent with Level 10 clearance in the history of S.H.I.E.L.D. So please, explain your relationship.
A: Do you know who’s going to be in charge?
Q: Excuse me?
A: When we’re done here. Who’s going to be in charge?
Q: That’s irrelevant to the question, Agent Johnson.
A: No it isn’t. Because you ruin my day to ruin a man’s career, so you better be able to replace him with someone who has figured out how to answer all of your little questions. Are we done?
Q: (cough)… No further questions.
---
Q: Sir, will you please state your name for the court.
A: Agent Jasper Sitwell, level 5.
Q: And how long have you been acquainted with Nicholas Fury, Agent Sitwell?
A: Since, uh...nine years?
Q: Was it Fury who recruited you into S.H.I.E.L.D.?
A: I wasn’t really recruited. I applied.
Q: Did Fury have a close hand in your training?
A: All S.H.I.E.L.D. agents undergo a regulated training period, which may include personal interaction with the current Director where necessary.
Q: That sounds rote, Agent Sitwell. Your colleagues say you’re somewhat of a stickler for protocol. Would you agree?
A: (coughs) Um, yes. I mean, thank you?
Q: You’re welcome. So, you know the rules inside and out. Live by them. Tell me, in your expert opinion, does the Director follow S.H.I.E.L.D.’s rules as closely as you do?
A: As the Director, it is his job to interpret the rules as he sees fit.
Q: But the rules are there for a reason. Surely you of all people can agree with that.
A: They were made by the guy in charge to keep people safe. That’s what we do, sir.
Q: And yet, the ‘guy in charge’ doesn’t follow the rules, if I’m interpreting you correctly.
A: With respect, sir, you’re not.
Q: How so, agent?
A: He follows his own rules.
Q: Which aren’t necessarily always S.H.I.E.L.D.’s rules, the ones meant to keep people safe.
A: Is that a question?
Q: It’s a statement of fact, Mr. Sitwell. Nicholas Fury follows his own rules. To your knowledge, have those special rules ever willfully and needlessly put civilians in danger?
A: The U.S. military as well as S.H.I.E.L.D. maintain an excusable amount of collateral damage, as dictated by U.S. law.
Q: Which I’m sure you’ve got memorized by heart. But that doesn’t directly answer the question, Agent Sitwell.
A: Not ‘needlessly’, sir.
Q: Which is to say he has, to your knowledge, willfully put civilians at risk while following his own rules?
A: In a combat situation, minimizing the damage does not always mean eradicating it.
Q: A ‘combat situation’. Do you mean a battle zone in war?
A: We don’t fight wars.
Q: I think we can all agree that S.H.I.E.L.D. fights ideological wars. But that first and foremost it is an espionage agency. Intelligence gathering. Yet Nicholas Fury seems to find himself in a lot of these combat situations. Do you think, Agent Sitwell, if he followed the prescribed S.H.I.E.L.D. rules some of that collateral damage would be minimized?
A: S.H.I.E.L.D. is an hazard intervention and espionage agency, sir.
Q: Noted, Agent Sitwell. But answer my question.
A: I did, sir. As a hazard intervention agency, we do not create the combat situations, we neutralize them and minimize the damage.
Q: While utilizing standard S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol?
A: Where possible.
Q: Unless you’re Nicholas Fury.
A: Is that another statement, sir?
Q: Indeed it is, Agent. That’s all, thank you for your time.
---
Q: Will you please state your name for the court?
A: Natasha Alianova Romanoff
Q: And you are a special agent with S.H.I.E.L.D?
A: Yes.
Q: And was it Nicholas Fury who brought you into the organization?
A: He did, yes.
Q: At which point, if my records are correct, you were a top KGB assassin?
A: I was. Now I work for S.H.I.E.L.D..
Q: Yes, and at the time of your recruitment, you were their prisoner?
A: Yes. Nick Fury offered me a chance at reformation, so I took it.
Q: Because your only other option was execution.
A: Because I wanted to change.
Q: Oh, so the prospect of dying had nothing to do with it, then. Would you say you're loyal to Nicholas Fury, Agent Romanoff?
A: I am not afraid to die, Prosecutor. And yes, completely.
Q: Well, if only we were all so fearless. You're completely loyal to Nicholas Fury. How about to S.H.I.E.L.D.?
A: Experience has taught me many things, death is inevitable. Yes. Yes I am.
Q: And even to America, Miss Romanoff?
A: S.H.I.E.L.D. protects America, so yes.
Q: Would you agree that you are a dangerous person, Agent?
A: To enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D., yes.
Q: A diplomatic answer. Would you say that Fury is a dangerous man?
A: .... Yes. To enemies that threaten this country and this planet, yes he is dangerous.
Q: So you are a dangerous woman who is loyal to Fury.
A: Yes. Would you prefer we not be dangerous? It might make fighting crime quite hard
Q: I think we would all prefer that Fury not collect so many dangerous people to keep close to him.
A: Would you prefer we all be kittens? Soft and easily beaten then?
Q: Has Fury ever sent you out on missions that you suspected weren't for S.H.I.E.L.D.?
A: No.
Q: So you think every single thing you do is completely in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best interest?
A: Yes. I do.
Q: Tanzania, eight years ago.
A: ...
Q: Bitkine, April two thousand six.
A: ...
Q: Taiwan, December of oh-nine.
A: These were all necessary
Q: (Pause) Six months ago. Barcelona.
A: I repeat. These were all necessary, it saved countless lives.
Q: Is that what he told you or what you truly believe?
A: It is what I believe. Completely.
Q: I won't give any specifics to what you've done, Agent Romanoff, because it's Fury on trial for crimes against humanity here, not you. But surely you don't believe every choice that Fury makes is 'necessary'?
A:I believe that everything S.H.I.E.L.D. does is necessary. I would follow Nick Fury to the ends of the earth, because I trust his judgment. Objectivity can be misconstrued as unethical, but in a war sacrifices must be made and hands must be dirtied Prosecutor. Nick Fury is a good man.
Q: (snort) I wasn't aware we were at war, Miss Romanoff.
A: We are not, because S.H.I.E.L.D. is doing its job properly and preventing such things.
Q: With the way Fury behaves you would think we were never in peacetime. We are in peacetime, Agent, so perhaps everything Fury does or has others do for him isn't necessary. Particularly given his handling of our world's most recent crisis.
A: ... We appear to be in peacetime, that doesn't necessarily mean we are. It appears that way publicly because S.H.I.E.L.D. are doing their jobs and dealing with underlying threats efficiently. That is all under Nick Fury's supervision. We live in a city plagued by super Villains. Don't you think we're better off being vigilant? Would you rather preempt something that regret it?
Q: I would like someone in charge who can follow the rules, does what is necessary for his country rather than himself and who doesn't build himself a network of terrorists and enemy assassins. No further questions, Agent Romanoff.
---
Q: Tell us your name and S.H.I.E.L.D. clearance, please.
A: Philip Coulson, clearance level seven.
Q: You work directly under Nick Fury, don’t you?
A: He is acting Director. That is correct.
Q: How do you feel about his leadership capability?
A: Personally? He’s a capable leader, and someone I trust immensely. Objectively, no one in this room is chewing on anyone else. That seems like a point in his favor.
Q: I hardly think that has anything to do with your leader one way or the other. Was Nick directly responsible for the cure?
A: ...He was directly responsible for ensuring the cure made it to the people of the world, and was not kept in the hands of a known terrorist.
Q: But to take that line of logic then you’re saying the terrorist had equal responsibility in curing the world.
A: ...No, that is not what I’m saying.
Q: Then answer the question, yes or no, was Nick Fury directly responsible for creating the cure?
A: No. Director Fury is not a scientist.
Q: I never accused him of being so, Agent. My point your assertion, that Fury has any bearing on the state of the people of this courtroom is completely invalid. Fury did not help to cure the world.
A: I disagree.
Q: Let the court note that Agent Coulson disagrees. That aside, can you tell me what Nick Fury was doing during the crisis?
A: Researching the source and cause of the plague so that our scientists would be better able to tackle a cure.
Q: So, essentially, the Director abandoned his organization to go on a wild goose chase while the world was dying.
A: His findings were critical to the eventual success of the cure. Without Director Fury it might have been months, maybe years.
Q: But it was someone not even involved in S.H.I.E.L.D. who did find that cure.
A: ...They have a loose connection.
Q: A few denied weapons contracts is a very loose connection, indeed. So, to recap, Fury eventually gathered important information. Why didn’t he have this information from the start? He is the Director of an espionage and hazard intervention organization. That was quite a hazard and there seems to have been no intervention.
A: He worked with our support. We aren’t the CDC, this sort of thing isn’t usually on our radar. And S.H.I.E.L.D. personal worked to maintain survival camps while a cure was being found.
Q: We aren’t discussing the aftermath though, Mr. Coulson. Because I have inside information that says the zombie plague was actually a terrorist plot. So, wouldn’t you agree that it’s definitely within S.H.I.E.L.D.’s purview to prevent that sort of thing?
A: We do our best to intercept all threats. Sometimes it is simply not possible to catch them all.
Q: Sometimes it is simply not possible. I’m sure that makes all the families with dead feel perfectly appease. As, I’m sure, it comforts the families of the slain in the Horizon. That, if I remember correctly, was another threat that just wasn’t caught. It didn’t end very well for the world now, did it?
A: S.H.I.E.L.D. deals with homeland threats, I’m not sure it is entirely fair to pin an alien invasion on us. Nor are we the only organizations who police this sort of thing. May I ask when the trial for the acting Director of the FBI will start? Or the CIA? The Secret Service?
Q: Point taken, Agent Coulson, and perhaps you’re right. Perhaps we shouldn’t blame S.H.I.E.L.D. for the actions of one man. One man who, despite being the head of an organization that ‘deals with homeland threats’, rounded up a motley crew of dangerous individuals as well as government agents and chose to lead them into space to handle a threat. A threat that he not only failed to handle but that became worse and attacked the earth itself due to his direct actions. Yes, Coulson, I agree with you- Nick has great leadership abilities.
A: Would you have handled things so much differently, Mr. Paul.
Q: I’m not the one on trial here, Mr. Coulson. I’m also not the one that allowed the Hulk to rampage through New York.
A: We didn’t exactly sign a permission slip. He’s the Hulk. And the problem has been neutralized.
Q: No, the problem has just been temporarily handled, but who knows if Banner will ever return. I believe there was already a trial to hold Fury accountable for his actions in that debacle and his mishandling of other situations and he was only saved by the intervention of Anthony Stark.
A: I’m sorry, wasn’t he cleared in that case?
Q: It doesn’t change the fact that a trial was necessary in the first place. You may be impressed with Fury’s leadership capabilities, Agent Coulson, but the rest of the country has not been. Not for a very long time.
A: Maybe you should have called them to testify.
Q: I don’t think I need to. Fury’s record speaks for itself. No more questions, Agent Coulson.