"Sir, are we really doing this?" Phil Coulson asked as he stepped down from the car following his boss under the heavy rainfall.
"You got a better idea for me?" Nick Fury asked, his eyepatch glancing at Coulson with the same look one would give a rhetorical question that just sounded stupid.
"I think we should… be more certain, sir." Coulson said with reluctance, knowing fully well what the implication meant.
This time Fury turned to him fully, both ignoring the rain because nature's hissy fits were secondary to government duty, with a harsh eye. An understanding one but warning all the same.
"Agent Coulson, my best agent came to me after a halfway done recon mission in some nappy neighborhood, frightened and unraveled in a way that the Red Room could never achieve in two decades. What do you expect me to do, Agent Coulson?"
Coulson picked up the pace to follow after Fury's brisk walk. "You believe her? That someone rewrote our timeline?" The notion itself was a ludicrous one. The fact his boss was acting upon it was another.
"Let me tell you what I believe," Fury started, "I believe in motive. I believe in reactions. I believe in superpowered beings scared of superpowered things. And I believe in the fact that a crippled man I've known for the better parts of two decades is now walking on both legs. That, Agent Coulson, is what I believe in."
Coulson held his remark with a sigh as he finally matched Fury's pace. He understood the man, he believed he did more than most, but what Yelena had reported was not something that was part of the scale they usually dealt with. It was not even part of the scale that they might be able to theoretically deal with later in the future.
This wasn't about alien propagandas and human evolution. This was straight out of a movie. A time travel movie of the most horrific proportions. Rewriting timelines – never in Phil Coulson's years in the CIA and in SHIELD did he ever think this would one day be something that would come across his desk.
"What do you think we're dealing with, sir?" What, because if Yelena's hyperventilation was to be believed, Subject X 'Isaac' was not human, except in physical appearance.
"Ain't that the million bucks." Fury sighed and turned around with a frown on his face. "Agent Belova, my ears must be ringing in the rain but I've got five bucks that you were ordered to stay behind."
"With all due respect sir," Yelena said as she stepped out of the shady corner.
"With all due respect, you're compromised, Agent." Fury said.
"She's my sister." Yelena said, looking dead in Fury's eyes, the same eyes that had decided to spare her and recruit her all those years ago. As far as the ex-Red Room assassin was concerned, he was the only one who stood up for her and made her become a person that could live with herself.
"What part of compromised don't you understand, Belova?"
"Please." She simply said.
Coulson looked between the two of them apathetically, not commenting his thoughts, not even when Fury simply walked away and Yelena started walking beside him.
"We're in hostile territory, sir. Without any backup and without any external directive." Coulson helpfully added. "At least let me get my team ready."
Fury ignored Coulson as he pushed open the door and sauntered in with all the swagger affordable to a spy boss.
He ignored the bell overhead, an oversight with him being a spy and willingly stepping into hostile territory, but that was what the two behind him were for, and another was because Nick Fury didn't do fear.
He walked around the place like it was his childhood playground(before it became a gang spot), intentionally ignoring the all too amused man who was watching him and his hanger-ons.
He gave a satisfied nod to himself at the cursory examination of the shop, specifically the array of alien/futuristic weaponry at the top of some shelves.
He turned around with a smile on his face and spread open his hands, "Isaac! I didn't even see you there."
Isaac chuckled, "Look at you! You've gained weight since the last time I saw you."
The smile on Fury's face disappeared when Isaac, or as a newly created folder called him, Subject X, committed to the bit. From the looks of it, the guy could take a joke.
"That's how I would sound if you had been anything other than the extreme butt ache that you've been in the past few hours I've known of you."
"No you wouldn't." Isaac shook his head as Coulson and Yelena came up behind Fury, with the latter giving him an intense stare.
"Let's cut the bullshit, I've got a new folder in my cabinet with your name on it and me not hitting 'send' is the only thing stopping crayons of suits from barging into this little chop shop of yours." Fury leaned on the counter, his one eye staring into Isaac's brown. "So give it to me, what's your deal?"
"Deals." Isaac said with a shrug.
"Jokes huh."
"Unfortunately, that's one area I'm inadequately lacking in." Isaac shook his head. "But on a more serious note, give me what you can and I'll give you something of generous worth."
"And if I decide to scurry away with your 'generous worth'?" Fury asked sarcastically.
Isaac looked at him, not saying anything, Yelena behind Fury shifting her leg and shaking her head at Coulson whose hands were sifting into his coat.
"Okay," Fury raised his hands in surrender and took in another look of the shop, "let me see them."
He didn't flinch when the two marbles Yelena described appeared a few centimeters away from his hand, nor did he react to her caught breath breathing down his neck.
His hands tightened as his back straightened when the two marbles turned into a spark show and in their place were two people he knew like the back of his hands.
He could never forget them, even if he did, and he did not for one second think that it was a smartass telepathic implant.
They looked shocked to see him here but the fact that they both relaxed and said nothing said everything.
He looked back at Isaac, thoughtfully silent, "An ingot of Adamantium."
He looked at the man, eyes daring him to spout some bullshit, but he seemed to have the sense to keep it to himself.
"And what about these guys?" This time it was a vase of feathers, SHIELD agents if their theory was correct.
"We'll get to that later." Fury said noncommittally and then turned to Coulson who was trying hard not to gape at the newly reinstated agents. "Coulson, I want you to go to 1105-B350."
The man gave a nod and instantly marshaled his way out of the shop.
"So what's up with them?" He pointed at the two agents that stood to his side.
"He'll get fitted in the new timeline good enough, but she won't." Isaac replied as he pointed at Barton and Natasha.
Fury raised his hand to silence any question from them while his eyes remained on Isaac. "I said no bullshit."
"Unless you want her to fizzle away, that's what you get." Isaac said pointing at Yelena, which to Fury meant that, not only was his interference with timeliness casual, but that he also knew about them, or at least the timelines of the people he messed with. "And I don't care about them anywhere near enough to start fixing every little thing time did in their absence."
"His family?" Fury asked, seemingly unperturbed at speaking out what was classified information.
"They might remember him, probably, but they won't remember her. Normally I would take what I want from them as a price but since you're already paying a premium, I guess I can void the release clause."
"So and so." Fury snorted. Yeah he knew Isaac's type. Whatever it was that he could do already made him ten times worse as an unknown. "And what about Xavier and Magneto. I know they both been in here."
"That's against store policy. I don't discuss other customers' business." Isaac said. "Is that all or will you like to try out some of our–"
"Guns. And energy weapons." Fury interrupted. Since it had come to this he would be going all in.
"For a collectors item, how about this–"
Malorian Arms 3516 (Cyberpunk 2077): It doesn't get more signature than this. A compact high powered deletion device.
Smart-linked targeting. High piercing power. Heavy fire. Negligible recoil.
This isn't just a handgun. Oh no. This is what happens when a weapon manufacturer says, 'what if elegance and excessive force had a very dangerous child?'
Fury looked back at Clint who was trying his best to give Natasha and Yelena space from their googly eyes and then back to Isaac. For a second, a traitorous thought came to his head about just forcing his way through but the reminder of Clint and Natasha compelled him to decide otherwise.
Besides, this was not the first time he was dealing with autonomous people with a lot of power in their hands.
This could yet be a very productive relationship. Of course there was also the fact that he couldn't tell the council anything about this.
While he would like to fulfil his patriotic duty and have the United States benefit from this alien merchant, he was not stupid enough to do so. The man just casually rewrote their timeline in front of his face. What if he did the same to Ross or any stupid idiot they sent? They would effectively forget them and Isaac altogether. It was simply not worth it.
The best way to stop this from spiraling into outward chaos was limiting the number of people who knew, really knew, about Isaac and his little wonder shop. Charles Xavier and Magento would be doing the same, that much he was certain of.
.
...…
Mystique couldn't quite believe it even though she was there when it all happened. Staring at the thirty-ish year old Magneto in front of her still felt like a fever dream.
She had expected things of this nature to occur the moment Eric got his metallic gloved hands on the magic counter but seeing it happen and it happening so soon and right in her face left her feeling somewhat.
That red pill he had purchased and swallowed immediately after had not only rejuvenated his health but also gave him the youthful buoyancy it came with. If Magento as an old man had already been terrifying, then what would most think of a fully realized Magneto in a young man's body?
"So what now?" She asked after he finished admiring his new-old body for the seventh time. He turned to her, his age-long familiar scowl on his face, which no longer merged well with the younger mug,
"Now." He exhaled like a tired old man which, once again, did not fit his current body. "I think I'll pay our old friend a visit. That and see what I can do for her." This time the sigh fit perfectly on his face.
"And what about that other thing?" She asked, curious about what the nature of the other thing he bought from the Merchant was.
"Until such a time as I deem it necessary, I would appreciate it if you refrain from ever asking me that question."
Honestly, his reaction was understandable given the ridiculous amount he spent to purchase whatever it was. Knowing Eric as well as she did, it was either something that would help him out in the long run, ergo help out the Brotherhood in the longer run, or it was something for someone else. She heavily doubted it was the latter because Eric didn't do sentimental pieces.
"Well, call me when it's time to leave. I have this blue dress I've been wanting to try out for some time now." She said as she left him to his new thing.
Now, regarding Isaac, there was but one thing that she could do. What was it that Blob and his group of youthful miscreants liked saying?
"I think it's high time I got my paper up."
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