Prologue: S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Base – 2012
When Nick Fury himself called in the early hours of the
morning, Agent Sean Livingston knew that it was worth losing a few measly hours
a sleep for. A quinjet was provided to fly him out of his home in
Anaheim, California and across the California coastline, heading right over the
Pacific. Despite the quickness of the quinjet, the flight was long and
exhausting and Sean was left only with songs downloaded on his MP3 to keep him
from falling asleep on the way to the Helicarrier. During the entire flight, he
wondered what the big emergency was that required him – a typical S.H.I.E.L.D.
operative – to take care of. With Fury’s “Avengers Initiative” in full effect
for merely a month, Sean figured the problem must not have been too major for
“Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” to handle.
After nearly an hour, the quinjet arrived upon the
Helicarrier; it was in its aircraft carrier position upon his arrival, floating
gracefully upon the waters of the Pacific. The pilot received his clearance for
landing on the flight deck and, as soon as the quinjet landed and the engines
were shut off, Sean exited the jet. The dawn loomed over the sky as he walked
across the flight deck, seeing Fury standing near the entrance and waiting for
him. “There’s the man of the hour,” he said, shaking Sean’s hand as soon as he
reached him.
Sean went right to business. “What’s the emergency, sir?”
“Follow me, Agent. I’ll explain on the way.”
While Fury led him inside, the Helicarrier began to
disengage from the Pacific waters and take flight to the skies, activating its
camouflage mode upon moving skyward. Hundreds of S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel passed in and out
of the halls as Fury and Sean walked and talked. “As you know, your aunt
stumbled upon a miraculous discovery in the Mojave Desert thirty-five years ago.
Next to Captain America, it was the biggest one for the government.”
“And after Aunt Nicole’s retirement, my mother had been
recruited for project that involved the…the…is ‘giant golf ball-looking thing’
the appropriate term, sir?”
(Authorial Note: In the original draft of World of Disney 2, these Helicarrier scenes happened at the main setting of the Project Geo Base in the Mojave Desert. There were no references to Nick Fury or S.H.I.E.L.D., since the story had not yet taken place in the Marvel Universe, with focus predominantly on an agent that was Caucasian, redhead, and female.)
“Bruce Banner calls it ‘The Sphere.’”
Sean swallowed hard upon hearing the name of the
scientist who was also known as “The Hulk.” “B-Bruce B-B-Banner, s-sir?”
Hearing the nervousness in his voice, Fury calmly told
him, “Relax, Agent. I have it on good authority that Banner has his
‘transformations’ completely under control. It was the Hulk who helped save the world last month, wasn’t it?”
After a brief moment of hesitation, Sean nodded. “Yes,
sir.”
“Good. Now that we’ve assessed that, let’s refocus on the
reason I’ve brought you here. Earlier this morning we encountered a visitor who
somehow managed to get inside the top secret Mojave base. We brought you here
to get some answers from her.”
Sean’s eyebrows rose in surprise of the gender of the
“visitor.” “Her?”
“Yes, our perpetrator is a woman, Agent. Is that gonna be
a problem for you?”
Sean shook his head. “No, sir.”
“Whatever she knows could jeopardize the project – a
project that the government placed us in charge of, should I remind you. So it’s
up to you to see just how much info she has in her intelligence. If it’s more
than we anticipated, then we’ll have to put her in the deepest hole in the
earth…whatever confinement we can muster up.”
Sean accepted his orders with a nod, but also gave a
curious inquiry. “Is she dangerous?”
“We didn’t seem to have a problem taking her down – Cap clogged
her over the head real good with his shield…knocked this clean off of it.” Fury reached inside of his long black
leather coat and retrieved what appeared to have been a sparkling, pointy blue
hat with a crescent moon and a few stars decorated upon it. It was the oddest
thing Sean had ever seen, which was amusing since he had seen a lot of weird
stuff in his still-fresh career as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. “We’ll be keeping
surveillance on your interaction. If our ‘visitor’ makes a move of any kind,
just use the code word and we’ll send in backup.”
(Marvel Note: Captain America's shield is the primary defensive and offensive weapon wielded by Steve Rogers. It is made completely out of a nearly indestructible metal alloy known as vibranium, a very rare element in the Marvel Universe.)
“What’s the code word?” Sean inquired.
“Help.”
The sarcasm was evident in Fury’s voice as he gave his
answer. Sean knew it was done to help lighten the mood before he went in to
face what could have been a being that was twice as powerful and dangerous as
Loki was. Fury’s words made him greatly nervous of the task that he brought in
to take care of. If this woman was capable enough of getting into a top secret
facility, then what more could she be capable of while he was in that room with
her. It sounded like a situation suitable for the Avengers – or at least one or
two of them; but Sean refused to make himself look weak…especially on his first
major assignment.
The two men stopped by a holding cell door that could
only be accessed via keypad. Fury dialed in the code that unlocked the door,
allowing Sean to walk into a room with four steel walls and no windows. There
was a working sink with a mirror above it, a functioning toilet that was out in
the open, and a bed that looked more like a flatbed attached to the wall.
Currently occupying the bed was a woman with long dark blonde hair, wearing a
red robe. Her back was facing Sean at the moment he entered, leaving it
impossible to see what she looked like. From the way in which Fury described
her, Sean wondered if the woman was a legitimate freak like The Elephant Man.
(Pop Culture Note: The Elephant Man film starred Sir Anthony Hopkins, better known to many MCU fans as Odin from Thor.)
There’s only one
way to find out, the young S.H.I.E.L.D. agent thought.
“Hey there,” Sean enthusiastically said.
The woman’s head slowly turned in response to Sean’s
voice, and he got a clear view of her face. This woman was Caucasian with eyes
that randomly changed from blue to green to grey and a perfect complexion; she
looked to be in her early thirties – about a few odd years older than the
twenty-six-year-old Sean. Indeed the woman was beautiful, if not remarkably
gorgeous, making it hard for him to see her as any type of threat to
S.H.I.E.L.D. Even the lovely, bright smile that emerged on her face upon seeing
Sean did not classify her as intimidating as he believed.
He was about to continue his greeting with an
introduction for himself, until the woman happily shouted his name before he
did. “Sean!” She then leaped off the flatbed and ran to him, giving him a
tight, warm hug. “Never thought I’d be so happy to see a familiar face in this
insane world!”
The action greatly confused the young agent; this woman
was certainly as strange as Fury said. Pulling her off of him, he gave her a
strange look as he asked, “Have we…met somewhere before?”
The woman was surprised over his confusion. “Sean…it’s
me…your mother.”
“Uh…no. My mother isn’t white, young enough to be my
sister, or crazy.”
She lightly touched her face and had an expression on her
face that was as if she was remembering something important. Turning to the
mirror above the sink, she oddly looked at her reflection and examined every
detail of her face. “I knew I wasn’t dreaming. It really did happen.”
Her words only puzzled him even more. “What happened?”
Returning her focus on him, she softly said with a grin,
“I died.”
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