Lost in Time

TRISKELION - NEW YORK CITY

If there's one thing that both Director Fury and Clara have in common, it's their tenacity to work late nights and suffer the repercussions in the morning. This night is just like any other, with Clara tucked away in the Triskelion's lab, finishing her latest project for Shield while Fury is up in his office meeting with the World Security Council.

"This is out of line, Director." one of the council members states. "You're dealing with forces you can't control."

Fury hums in thought. "Have you ever been in a war, Councilman? In a firefight? Did you feel an overabundance of control?"

The councilman rolls his eyes. "Are you saying that this Asgard is declaring war on our planet?"

"Not Asgard. Loki."

"He can't be working alone." another council member mentions. "What about the other one? His brother?"

Fury shrugs. "Our intelligence says Thor is not hostile, but he's worlds away. We can't depend on him to help, either. It's up to us."

"Which is why you should be focusing on Phase Two." The first councilman reminds him. "It was designed for exactly this..."

"Phase Two isn't ready." Fury cuts in. "Our enemy is. We need a response team."

"The Avengers Initiative was shut down."

"This isn't about the Avengers."

"We've seen the list." another member states.

The first one sighs. "You're running the world's greatest covert security network, and you're going to leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks."

"I'm not leaving anything to anyone." Fury defends. "We need a response team. These people may be isolated, unbalanced even, but I believe with the right push they can be exactly what we need."

"You believe?" The second council member reiterates.

The first one hums, "War isn't won by sentiment, Director."

"No," Fury agrees. "It's won by soldiers."

With his meeting finished, Fury makes his way through the Triskelion down to the labs where he knows Clara will be busy at work. They're debuting her latest design in the next few days to the world, but he hopes that with all the chaos Loki and the Tesseract wrought upon them, the carriers could be put to good use now. "Miss Brown, if it's alright with you, we'll be debuting your helicarriers to The Avengers tomorrow."

Clara's pencil clatters to her desk and she looks up at him in disbelief. "I'm sorry." She huffs. "Did you just say that you're revealing the brand new helicarriers to The Avengers?"

Fury gives her that shit-eating grin. "What are you so worried about? They'll love it."

"Because it's your new team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' or whatever I overheard."

"And your point?"

"What if they're not what we expected?" Clara finally breathes. "What if the carriers fail?" After working with Fury and Shield for less than a year, he had a way of getting her to speak her mind; especially with whatever failure she feared despite having tested theories, hypotheses, and mock designs multiple times. "Then all that publicity is on me."

"If they succeed, that publicity will be on you regardless," Fury says flatly, and Clara groans.

"I don't want that, though."

He gives her a kind, knowing smile. "Whether you like it or not, you are quickly rising as one of the most intelligent minds in the world, let alone Shield's best scientist. However, I'm sure the Avengers will have no problem pulling that spotlight off of you and onto them."