What follows is a long conversation that can ultimately be summed up as Clark and Fury repeatedly agreeing with each other while trying to maintain their collective masculinity.
It might be worth bringing Clark up at the next Order of the Phoenix meeting. If he knew, he might be able to… Do what? He couldn't do anything until Hydra outs itself in three years. There's no obvious face to punch or bomb to throw into space. That would be like asking him to solve political corruption. It's just not his domain. Hydra is a job for spies, not Supers.
Finally, Clark brings up the interesting part, "And about your team? If you want me to sign anything I'm gonna need to know what kinds of things you'd be sending us to do."
Fury takes a deep breath, "The Avengers Initiative is still in the planning stages. Ms. Bronze spoke severely out of place."
I innocently admire the ceiling.
Clark pushes the issue, "But since I know anyway…"
"The Avengers was originally theorized as a response to you or one of your kind if we ever had a need for it."
"Gee, thanks."
Fury pretends not to have heard that, "Now that you've proven yourself an ally," And now that SHIELD has an alternative failsafe in the Kryptonite, "you're the first person we'll ask, should the time come that the project is activated."
"But, what would the average mission look like? What kind of orders would we get? What limitations would be put on the actions we could take?"
"The Avengers Initiative is a Hail Mary, Mr. Kent. There is no average mission that would call for it."
Clark nods, "I still have a lot of questions, but if the situation is dire enough, you can count on me to be there."
Oh right, like if a big-ass portal opened up over New York and started spewing alien murderbots? Sometimes I wonder just how close to canon things would've gone without me here. I mean, Superman's gotta change something about the Avengers, right? Or the Sokovia Accords? And if my suspicion is correct, Arrow couldn't possibly take place in a world with the Avengers in it, could it?
Well there's no point in worrying about that now. I'm here. Things are different.
Fury holds out his hand and Clark shakes it, "I appreciate that, Mr. Kent." He starts walking out, "Ms. Bronze."
I take that as a prompt to follow him. Man, Fury walks fast.
"Melinda May."
I look at him, "Sorry?"
"You suggested Melinda May for the Avengers. Why not Romanoff? Or Morse?"
Ah, "Romanoff is already on the list. Bobbi may be good, but May's better. She can take down opponents so far outside her weight class it boggles the mind."
He nods, "And your other recommendations. Who are they?"
No reason to bring up Oliver or Kara. I don't know where Oliver is, and I might as well let Kara have a few more years peace before her life gets crazy.
"Well, sir, you know Rhodes. War Machine. In combat brings most of the same stuff to the table as Tony, and he's a much better team player. Matt Murdock is a fighter on par with Romanoff who has superhuman senses. Jessica Jones is super strong. Not quite Hulk but probably stronger than Rogers was. John Constantine is a magician."
He raises a skeptical eyebrow at me as we enter the elevator, "A magician?"
"Yup. Magic. It's real. Deal with it. The Avengers are likely to run into it sooner or later, so it's better if they have an expert on the scene, and Constantine's one of the best. Or at least most... creative."
He takes a second to think of a response, "Constantine, Murdock, Jones. None of these people are on SHIELD's index."
"No, I didn't think they were."
"So you just knew about them, just like you know who we're already considering."
"Pretty much. All from Earth Prime. Can I ask why you're still considering Tony instead of Rhodes? I know I keep bringing it up, but it seems like a pretty obvious switch, considering Romanoff's evaluation is spot-on." Ultron and the Civil War would've never happened with Rhodey.
He turns to me, "I don't believe we are anymore." Ouch. Sorry, Tony. The elevator dings open on the bottom floor and we walk out, "Thank you for the recommendations, Ms. Bronze."
I hesitate to ask, "Can I ask another question, Director Fury?"
He stops and looks at me, "You can ask."
"Did Hill tell you-"
His hand jumps up his comms unit, "Make sure the truck is gassed when we get back. I don't want the next person who uses it getting stranded."
His message comes through loud and clear. This isn't a safe place to talk about that.
"You were saying?"
I instantly think of something else, "Am I being considered for the Avengers?"
He looks amused, and then walks on, "Like I said. You can ask."
There are good and bad parts to working with SHIELD. The almost bottomless resources are nice. The constant inscrutable answers and lack of information... not so much.
Nick moves us on to a new topic as we climb into a government issue black truck, "You were attacked by the Ten Rings this morning. Care to tell me why?"
So it was the Ten Rings, "I think I made it pretty clear in my report, sir. I met a Ten Rings operative in the Spirit World. They asked me to steal something the Mandarin wants. I said I would, and then betrayed them to get back here."
"The Spirit World. Forgive me if I found that report a little hard to believe."
I chuckle, "Just wait until Star Labs gets up and running. You'll have to start believing in things a lot more far fetched than the Spirit World and magic."
"Very few things frighten me. We left one of them in that apartment up there. But when I read the things you've said about where this world is headed, and the kinds of threats we might have to face… It frightens me to think that you might be right."
I smile, "Don't worry. At the front of every new frontier of crazy, there's usually someone willing to help who knows what they're doing."
"Why do I get the feeling you're talking about yourself?"
I freeze, "I… honestly didn't think of that until you just said it. I was talking about Stephen Strange, actually."
"The doctor?"
Damn it. I need to learn to shut my mouth more. I point at Fury warningly, "Leave him alone. He might become a valuable ally someday. But only if you let his story play out like it's supposed to. No interference. In fact it might be best if you not share that I said that name at all."
He nods briefly, "Consider it forgotten."
