Captain Maria Hill had to admit, this wasn't how she'd imagined her day would be going. The Fake Mutant Terrorists in the White House had steamrolled their way through the secret service and most of a Company of Marines without taking so much as a scratch. Colonel Fury, the Skipper, and her had managed to get to President Clinton and bundle him into the command bunker under the Oval Office, but it'd been a near thing. Colonel Fury's SHIELD-Issue Laser Pistol didn't have the firepower to do more than scratch the enemy, and bullets seemed to just deflect off the damned things. At the very least, they'd figured out exactly what had been odd about the attack. Colonel Fury had caught Dani Moonstar right in the face with a three-pulse burst from his sidearm that burned off the synthetic skin to reveal the alloy skeleton underneath. More Robots, possibly courtesy of the NSA.
Unfortunately, that discovery wouldn't do anyone any good if the robotic assassins managed to kill everyone before they could spread the word. The President was furious that one of his own agencies would try something like this. Hell, Maria was pretty pissed about it too. If Gyrich was behind this attack like everyone thought, well, they didn't do firing squads these days, even for treason, but the Skipper had suggested they bring the practice back just for this occasion and Maria couldn't help but agree. Of course, they would have to survive this false flag assassination first before they could actually do anything about the people behind it. Right now, that wasn't looking too likely, as whoever had built the robotic assassins had clearly managed to copy the powers of the people they'd duplicated robotically. Alloy blast doors could stop a nuke, but not the phasing powers of Kitty Pryde.
Oddly, Colonel Fury had been surprisingly calm through the whole thing, and it couldn't just be a grace under fire thing. After all, the Skipper had been in combat before too and he was practically spitting fire. Hell, Maria had been in firefights as well, first in the Gulf War as a fresh Second Lieutenant, then in Genosha as a First Lieutenant at the Embassy. It seemed like every time she got a promotion and a new post, she was dropped in the shit. She should be just as used to it as the Skipper and Colonel Fury, but she was just as pissed off as the Skipper was. No, this was something else. Colonel Fury had a calm both Maria and the Skipper lacked. Was it just because he was used to all this weirdness with superhumans, robots, and mutants? She had to know.
"Colonel, how the Hell are you so calm?" Demanded Maria.
"Indeed, Nick. It seems almost like only a matter of time before those things up there finish tearing apart the Marines and Secret Service. You said it yourself that the blast doors won't stop them. I'd think you should be more concerned." Frowned the Skipper.
"I'd like to know the answer to that too." Chimed in the President.
"You wanna know why I ain't concerned? Answer's easy. Th' second we got down here, I sent a call to th' cavalry." Grinned Colonel Fury.
"The Cavalry?" Questioned Maria.
"Damn right. They oughtta be here soon." Grinned Colonel Fury.
Unfortunately, as he said that, Maria heard and felt a gigantic explosion from outside the sealed, carbonadium alloy, blast doors that knocked her to the floor. That was followed by the sound of a pair of general purpose machine guns opening up from the emplacements outside the Bunker. The Skipper raced for the monitors displaying the CCTV footage from the cameras in the underground corridor outside and let out a growl of frustration. He raced for the secure arms storage locker and pulled out an M-Seventy-Nine Grenade Launcher and a bandolier of rounds, before he turned to the others.
"They've blown open the corridor and there's a crater leading up to the outside. I don't understand how, since the walls and ceiling are concrete reinforced with Carbonadium alloy and we're twelve feet below the basement, but they've done it. They'll be through the last checkpoint soon." He intoned.
Maria nodded and picked out a second M-Seventy-Nine Grenade Launcher from the secure arms locker along with a bandolier of grenades. Once again, Colonel Fury looked unconcerned, simply readying his laser pistol. President Clinton even picked up an M-Four Carbine out of the locker and slid in a magazine of Armor Piercing Rounds, ready to go out fighting. Maria was dimly aware that the President had been part of the Naval Reserve during the Vietnam War, which meant he would at least know how to shoot, even if he only had what little reserve training the Navy gave reserve officers. It was better than nothing, anyway. Soon, however, the machine guns were silenced and for a few brief moments, silence reigned.
Then the form of the Robot Duplicate of Kitty Pryde phased through the sealed, Carbonadium alloy blast doors and hit the manual release. In that split second she was tangible, the President opened up with his Carbine, only for her to phase through the wall after the first armor piercing bullet took a chunk of alloy out of her back. Colonel Fury growled out to hold fire as the blast doors ground open to reveal the crater to the outside illuminating a scene of carnage. The scorched and perforated bodies of several marines lay strewn amidst the blood spatter and wreckage of the twin machine gun nests. Standing in the center of it all, backlit by the sun shining down through the crater to the outside, were the trio of Robot Duplicates. They'd taken damage in the fighting, with uniforms torn and synthetic flesh missing in places, dents from heavy rounds that impacted their alloy chassis standing out, but still very much functional.
As the trio of Robot Duplicates stepped forward, one of them, the Duplicate of Tabitha Smith stepped out in front of the other two and began to speak in a voice that didn't sound at all like the real Tabitha Smith. This one was harsh, cruel, and most importantly, Male.
"Congress shouldn't have begun sniffing around the NSA. Now you'll all have to die." Growled the Voice.
"You think you can get away with this? You're attempting to assassinate a sitting president! Plus, everyone's seen the robots underneath the charade." Demanded the President.
"Please, anyone present has already been dealt with. Once I kill you all, my Synthezoids will self destruct and all anyone will know is that Mutant Terrorists massacred the White House Staff including the President and the Director of SHIELD before taking their own lives to avoid capture for the act. Then none will dare question why we're purging this mutant filth from the world, in fact, they'll welcome it!" Scoffed the Voice.
"Yer countin' yer chickens a might early, ain't ya?" Queried Colonel Fury.
"Your Bravado is unbecoming Colonel. At least have the dignity to die with a little class." Sneered the Voice.
"You ain't able to hear it, huh?" Asked Colonel Fury.
"Hear what? Have you finally gone mad now that you're facing your own mortality?" Scowled the Voice.
"Th' Thunder? Ya can't hear th' thunder, huh?" Grinned Colonel Fury.
As he said that, the sunlight from the crater dimmed suddenly and with a giant cracking noise, a bolt of lightning streaked out of the opening of the Crater to strike the Dani Moonstar Replica, smashing the robotic duplicate into the wall and frying its circuitry. As the other two Synthezoids turned around, the blonde form of Thor, the God of Thunder descended as if on the wind itself down the crater, landing in the tunnel. There was a massive scowl on the Thunder God's face as he beheld the scene in front of him. The Dani Moonstar Synthezoid stood from where it'd been struck into the wall, moving jerkily and sparking in places.
"Nay! Not this day! Thor will not stand idly by whilst this treachery takes place!" Boomed the Thunder God. As he said that, the red and gold mechanized form of Iron Man swooped down on his repulsors and landed in the corridor, ready to back up the Thunder God.
"Is that Skrull tech? Really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, huh? What, you couldn't get anything better?" Snarked Iron Man. As he said that, the last member of the Cavalry that Colonel Fury mentioned made his way down the crater, shield in hand, landing in a crouch.
Captain America stood up and said, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself. A false flag on a sitting president? This ends now!"
"Took yer sweet time, Cap." Chuckled Colonel Fury.
"Enough of this! Kill them and then the others! Self destruct if you have to, I don't care!" Snapped the Voice.
"Avengers! Assemble! Don't let them touch the president!" Ordered Captain America.
"On it!" Announced Iron Man, firing a rocket at the Kitty Pryde Duplicate. She attempted to phase through it only for the rocket to explode in a shower of ionic bolts as it passed through her, bypassing whatever EMP hardening the Synthezoid had and shutting it down. The Dani Moonstar Duplicate attempted to rush for the President, glowing as if preparing to explode, only for a blur of motion to intercept as Thor smashed her with his hammer, smashing her up out of the crater and into the sky, where she exploded in a brief ball of plasma.
Meanwhile, the Tabitha Smith Duplicate attempted to fire one of her time bombs at Captain America only for him to bat it back at her with his shield. The rebounded time bomb rolled to a stop near her leg and blew it off sending her to the ground, where Iron Man fired another of his EMP rockets at her. She tried to scramble away only for Cap to toss his shield at her, smashing her back into the rocket's path and allowing it to explode in a burst of ionic rays that immediately disabled the Tabitha Smith Duplicate. Cap caught his shield on the rebound and the attack was finally finished. Maria let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as the adrenaline finally started to drain from her system. She slumped into a nearby chair as Iron Man went over toward the Tabitha Smith Duplicate and began doing whatever it was he did to scan for clues.
The next few minutes of conversation between Captain America, the President, and Colonel Fury were tuned out as Maria dealt with the most intense experience of her life so far. Now that the Adrenaline had left her, she felt mostly hollow, like she always did after a firefight, but there was something else underneath the hollow ache. A sense of satisfaction of a sort she hadn't felt when she was in the Gulf or Genosha. A moment of introspection later, and Maria realized it was because she had saved lives for the sake of it, rather than just protected Geopolitical Interests. She may have actually done some tangible, no-strings-attached, good by helping get the President to the bunker.
"Hill. Ya handled yerself well today." Grunted Colonel Fury, drawing Maria out of her funk.
"Colonel?" Questioned Maria.
"Th' Skipper told me ya were lookin' fer a change o' postin'. How'd you like a job with SHIELD?" Queried Colonel Fury. Maria didn't have to pause for even a second to think on that.
"Absolutely, Sir." She grinned. She was so happy about the new job that she almost missed the news that Iron Man Shared about this definitely having been an NSA False Flag.
After all, with SHIELD, she could do even more of the unqualified good she'd done here today. . .
XXXX
AN: Apologies for any spelling or grammar errors in this one. My editing software is on my now-dead laptop. Hopefully this isn't too bad on that front.
Here we see Bastion's overreach, the reforming of the Avengers, at least the core three, after their return from Counter Earth, and the prevention of Bastion's False Flag from killing President Clinton. We also get to see Maria Hill join SHIELD earlier under different circumstances than Canon. She hasn't had time to become the cynical, authoritarian, bitch she would be when she joined in canon here. A few more years as a Marine would have turned her into that, but not here.
At any rate, next chapter we'll be back with Jan.
Stay tuned. .