｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆
CHAPTER TWO— PROJECT INSIGHT

          After the mission, Hope went straight to her apartment with Lizzie and fell asleep. She wasn't actually that tired, Hope just needed a break from everything.

She was stressed out, wondering why Fury would give Natasha a separate and secret mission in the first place that could've jeopardized the original mission of rescuing the hostages.

Normally she would've trusted Fury but after all that he hid from them during the Loki incident about the plans to use the Tesseract to make weapons, she wasn't sure how trustworthy he could be anymore.

And apparently, Steve Rogers felt the same because the next day he and Hope went to the Triskelion, the SHIELD Headquarters in DC, to confront the Director.

Lizzie had already left for school by this time, otherwise, she would've noticed something was wrong and force Hope to explain before she did exactly what every Mikaelson did, act before thinking.

Fury had fully expected both of them to show up at his office during some time that day. He knew after hearing the report of the mission that they would be furious with him. He sat in the wheeling chair at his desk in his giant office, facing the huge window as he heard his two agents enter his office. He didn't bother to turn around.

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Steve scowled as he practically marched into the office, not caring about attempting to be professional, unlike Hope who still attempted to keep a professional air around her.

"I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours" Fury corrected as they got close enough to his desk that they stopped.

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share" Steve corrected, recalling having such a similar conversation two years previous.

"I'm not obliged to do anything" Hope decides to step in, hoping her boss would listen if she stayed cool and collected even if she just wanted to snap at him.

"Agent Romanoff's separate mission put our original objective of rescuing hostages at risk, sir" She stated, finally capturing the full attention of the man who swiveled around in his office chair to face the two.

"I sent the greatest soldier in history and the most powerful supernatural being that exists to make sure that didn't happen" Fury retorted, still acting as if he wasn't bothered by the situation, which he probably wasn't.

"Soldiers trust each other, that's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around and shooting guns" The room grew even tenser as Steve spewed those words out, getting Fury to move out of the office chair and stand up. He leaned over his desk and looked Steve in the eye.

"The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye" He then took a more calm approach, yet not changing the tone of his voice as he did so. "Look, I didn't want you two doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything" Hope knew he was right, Nat was able to do whatever Fury asked without questioning orders due to her past.

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own" It was a standoff now between the two men. Hope could practically imagine her aunt Rebekah commenting that this was why 'us woman have to stick together' because some men did shit like that.

"It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all" Steve held back a scoff, looking over at his friend and fellow agent who didn't know how to respond to Fury's words.

She missed having Coulson around, especially when Fury was acting all shady like this. He was one of the only people Fury would listen to and allow to call him out without consequences.,

"Except you" Fury kept his stoic expression. "You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that" He then had them follow behind him to the elevator.

"Insight bay" Fury spoke once they all got inside.

"Captain Rogers and Agent Kenner do not have clearance for Project Insight" The robotic voice answered back.

"Director override, Fury, Nicholas J".

"Confirmed" The elevator started to move them to whatever floor Fury was bringing them to.

"You know, they used to play music" Steve commented about the elevator. "Welcome to the new age" Hope muttered, ignored by Fury who started to talk.

"Yeah. My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. My granddad worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say hi, people would say hi back. Time went on, neighborhood got rougher. He'd say Hi, they'd say, Keep on steppin'. Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter" While Steve listened intently to Fury's words, Hope was just confused on why he brought it up in the first place.

"Did he ever get mugged?" Steve asked. "Every week some punk would say, What's in the bag?" Hope, realizing that Fury was trying to bond with Steve in his own way, bit back an amused smirk.

"What did he do?" Hope wondered what her own family would do, mentally shaking herself out of imagining that when she realized that they would probably rip the mugger's throats out and go on with their day as nothing happened.

"He'd show 'em. Bunch of crumpled ones and loaded .22 Magnum" Fury smiled to himself at the memory of his grandfather. "Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much" It had been a normal elevator ride(besides Fury's storytelling) until the elevator started to get to the floor they were going to.

From the huge glass windows on said elevator, Hope got a good look at what the destination would hold and she did not like what she saw. Tons of Helicarrier's and other things that she couldn't even identify. She didn't even have to look over at Steve to know that he was just as shocked as she was.

"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a .22" Steve inched a bit closer to Hope as his wariness started to unfold. Hope held back a plethora of cuss words that instantly came to mind as she saw more and more of what Fury and some of SHIELD had been doing.

They followed Fury through the maze of stuff, staying silent as they took in all the upgraded war products around them, not talking at all until Fury did.

"This is Project Insight. Three next-generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites" He explained to the two agents.

"Launched from the Lemurian Star" They kept walking as they spoke. "Once we get them in the air they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight courtesy of our new repulsor engines" Hope had a feeling that something wasn't right. None of this was, it was like they were stalking up on nuclear weapons. Was this even legal?

"Stark?" Steve guessed, not knowing too many people that would be able to pull any of this off.

"Well, he had a few suggestions once he got an up-close look at our old turbines—" The look Hope have Steve when Fury wasn't looking hinted to him that Fury was lying about Tony's involvement. Even he knew that Tony wasn't a fan of SHIELD and wouldn't have helped them create anything like this.

"These new long-range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen" Hope frowned, also remembering how Fury revealed that they[the Avengers] were all on some sort of threat list. Was he also going to be doing the same to the supernatural?

"I thought the punishment usually came after the crime" Steve commented. "We can't afford to wait that long" Hope narrowed her eyes at the director before speaking up.

"Who's the 'we' you're referring to, sir?" She inquired. "After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once we're way ahead of the curve" Fury seemed proud of what they were doing when there are so many people that would actively protest against it. Hell, Hope knew that there would even be a lot of government officials that would be against it. So how the hell did Fury get away with this?

"By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection" Steve agreed with all of Hope's initial thoughts, that they would be doing a lot more harm than good.

"You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff" His eye then traveled over to Hope. "So have you and your family" She had to dig her nails into the palm of her hand in order to keep her cool, the werewolf inside of her wanting to growl at him for mentioning her family at all.

"Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so the people could be free. This isn't freedom, this is fear" Steve's gaze grew harsher. "And leave her and her family out of this" Fury was annoyed with the two, more so Steve who was glad to voice his own opinions.

"SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. It's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap. And you know all the secrets of this world that most humans don't, Hope. You know better than us that we need defensive measures against creatures like you who are unhinged" Hope shook her head, refusing to listen to his words anymore.

"No offense sir, but this is fucked up" She blurted before walking away, not hearing whatever quip Cap gave the man before following behind the tribrid.

The two stayed silent as the elevator brought them all the way up to the main floor. Steve could tell that Hope was upset and she had every right to be.

It wasn't until they both left the building, eyes and ears away from them, that Hope spoke up. "Tony told me that Fury wanted him to help with some stuff for SHIELD around a year or two ago" Her words caught Steve off guard as he had been stuck in his own head, trying to make sense of everything.

"He didn't go in detail, but he said it sounded too shady and denied the request. Fury lied in there...what else is he lying about?"