Marvel: A Tale of Shadows

"Coulson! Your agents helped tear up half the neighborhood." Iron Man yelled from his suit of armor while standing opposite of him was Agent Coulson.

"Mr. Stark with all due respect the damage was minimized due to Shield's interference. Not to mention that this is an abandoned part of the city with very few people." Coulson calmly stated while watching him.

"I am sure that is the same for Rhino, that you and your people were able to 'handle' that without any help." Iron Man stated while glancing at the trio of Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, and Natasha Romanov. "I assume these three are part of Fury's little pet project?"

This time Steve frowned at those words. Pet project? He clearly had not volunteered for anything. Hopefully Fury does not want to get him involved in something he doesn't want.

"Mr. Stark… this area is currently under the jurisdiction of Shield. I would like to ask you to leave. Before I have you removed due to interfering with an investigation." Coulson stated, this time a threatening tone could be heard in his voice.

The silent mask of Iron Man only stared at Coulson for a moment before he flew away.

Coulson turned back to the trio. "Okay… So the only lead we have for this Reaper guy is that note that Mystique from the Brotherhood has in hand." Coulson simplified their explanation.

But Steve frowned at this, "we also gained conclusive evidence that Hydra is operating out of New York." Then he repositioned himself, "unless that was not Shield's objective." When he stated this he saw Coulson nervously shuffle.

"Of course that is Shield's objective. We plan to track down the Hydra remnants that have been hiding."

Steve grunted, "where's Fury?"

"Europe. There was an invasion into Transylvania. Fury went to help negotiate a truce." Natasha stated.

Steve shook his head as he walked away in a huff of anger. Once he was out of ear shot Coulson turned to the remaining duo. "Well this has been a colossal waste of time and manpower. What has Fury hoped to get out of this?" Only to get a shrug from both.

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As Steve made his way down the street he was looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar landscape. He walked for a few minutes until he arrived at a diner. Entering inside he found the place was modest yet comfortable. When the waitress came over to get his order he just ordered a burger and fries. Then he sat and waited until eventually a fancy black car pulled up and parted at the meter outside the diner.

Stepping out of the car was Tony Stark in a suit and tie with his goatee in all its glory. Tony looked over to where Steve was sitting. Then entered the diner and walked over to his table.

"May I join you?" Tony asked.

Steve looked him over for a moment before he nodded, "and you are?"

Tony stuck out his hand to shake and Steve reciprocated, "Tony Stark. I heard stories about you while I grew up from my old man." Steve showed a look of surprise. "I had not heard you were back… or even alive. I recognized you back there. Of the things my old man had, his memorabilia from the war was what he was really proud of. Even had a few photos with you in them."

Steve nodded as understanding slowly came over him, "you were in that metal… thing?" He asked hesitantly.

Tony nodded in confirmation, "yes, the Iron Man suit. I use it and suits like it to help people and unfortunately more often than not, stop any illegal deals regarding my merchandise."

Steve frowned at that, "well at least you are doing something about it. Your father only got involved in stuff like that when it was costing his company money." Then shrugging, "but I can tell he would be proud, and I am sorry for your loss."

Tony had a sad smile on his face, "thank you for your condolences as well as your praise. So I do not know much about your situation but I am guessing you were found by Shield."

Steve nodded, "yes. They found me encased in ice inside of the airship that I stopped from bombing major populated cities. Apparently a side effect from the serum helped me survive." Steve then nodded to Tony, "what issue do you have with Fury and Shield?"

Tony was about to speak when the waitress walked up, "I will have a country fried steak and biscuits with gravy. As well as water." As the waitress walked away he turned his attention back to Steve, "saying we had a difference of opinion would be a toned down version of what happened."

Tony sat straighter, "Fury has this dream or idea of a team of superpowered or super talented people that work together. He will say it's for peace or combatting villains but he feels more threatened by the mutants, inhumans, and independently powered people. He has had some assassinated before they ever became a threat to him or Shield. He portrays himself as a saint, but he relies on the pyramid of lies he built to stay on the top."

Steve frowned as he leaned back, "how did you figure this out? I doubt he would leave a file like that lying around."

Tony chuckled, "no. I hacked into Shield's database to take a peek at the files." Tony nearly laughed when he saw Steve's confused, "I guess that doesn't make sense to you. To put it in terms that you would understand…" Tony took a minute to think, "I basically snuck into a computerized Shield facility and took the files."

Steve seemed to be thinking his words over for a minute before he nodded, "okay I think I get it. But why were you looking for that anyways?"

Tony shrugged, "I realized Shield had stolen and was still stealing my tech, I hacked in to delete all files and find further evidence of their misdeeds. I happened upon a slew of projects that you might be interested in."

"Like what?"

"Super Soldier Program, Nordic Artifacts, Tesseract based weapons, then of course the Avengers Program." Tony continued to list a few more things he could think of from memory.

"Hmm… you're right. You wouldn't happen to have those files in hand? Would you?" Steve asked curious about all that Fury was keeping from him.

Tony shook his head, "nope, I got kicked out before I could download anything and I haven't been able to get back in. Luckily I deleted the tech files they stole from me. But I wasn't able to get any evidence against Shield."

Steve sighed, "I guess I am in a pretty bad situation. What about the World Security Council? I heard from Fury that those are the people he reports to."

Tony nodded, "yeah the World Security Council runs the respective international agencies and focuses their objectives. There is of course Shield, whose objective is to track threats that are planetside. Sword, for those aliens and threats that come from the great beyond. And Sword stands for Sentient World Observation, and Response Division. Then finally there is Sit which tracks down any secret agencies and organizations to make sure they aren't over reaching. That acronym stands for Secret Intelligence Trackers."

Then Tony seemed to think something over, "if you are asking if they are clean then I don't know. But each of them has climbed the ladder through the blood and tears of their subordinates. So I doubt their closets are clean nor empty of skeletons."

Steve nodded as a burger and fries arrived for him. He took a sip of his soda, then sprinkled his fries with salt and pepper. Then dipped them in ketchup before eating them.

"Hmm… I suppose I understand. Not everyone is clean. But why do you oppose Fury's 'pet project' so fiercely." Steve asked.

Tony nodded, "because it essentially hands the government the equivalent of the modern day nuclear weapon. When that occurs, each country will do whatever it takes to get their hands on their own version. The kind of thinking that it leads to, is pure disaster."

"So you are trying to prevent superpowered people from being weaponized?" Steve asked with a frown. Remembering his days in the war and the amount of powered and mind controlled individuals he came across.

"Yes, unfortunately it is already happening. Hell the majority of the nasty stuff done on behalf of the United States is done through either Shield or a shady organization. Fortunately there were a whole bunch of facilities that closed post-cold war but they keep making them. Hell there's this new one that is getting on my nerves. It is called Archeon, and they call themselves scientists for some reason but I just know they are conducting inhumane experiments." Tony explained as he prepared his knife and fork as a dish was placed in front of him.

"So either way 'superpowered weaponization' will happen either way. But you figure it is safer to start public opinion against it instead of it being seen as a means for the greater good?" Steve asked in between bites of his burger.

"Yes. It will make it a lot easier to take down these guys if we start doing it in response to an external threat instead of a national threat between nations." Tony clarified.

"I am surprised you are eating. I figured someone like you would have already eaten a fancy meal." Steve started to speak casually.

Tony only shook his head, "nope. I haven't eaten since this morning. I sometimes forget to eat if I am busy. Usually Pepper reminds me but she was having dinner with an old friend." Tony made a face as he remembered.

Steve chuckled, "girlfriend?"

Tony nodded, "and secretary. Which is more of a stationary title, she all but runs half the company."

Steve nodded, "nice." Then he thought for a moment, "but seriously? You and your secretary?"

Tony chuckled, "trust me. She's different."

Steve only shook his head, "okay. Okay… hey have you ever heard the name 'The Reaper'? It came up when we were trying to track down the person that has been breaking into defunct secret facilities."

Tony stopped eating and looked up at Steve, "hmm… There has been some recent chatter on the darkweb. But I would have to dive deeper for that. Unfortunately I am not that connected in the hacking underworld to do that. Give me a few days."

"Okay. Do you need anything?" Steve asked.

"Hmm… let me think about it." Tony stated as he dived back into his food.

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Sitting in pitch black was a woman at a circle table with a purple embellished cloth on it. The design on it was a mix of black, white, and gold. The designs were spiderwebs overlapping. The woman herself had seemingly black hair with a purple and blue hue to it, that made it shimmer.

Her skin was a milky white that seemed to shine. Yet if one were to feel it they would feel the hard skin in the form of chitin. Her eyes were pitch black and she wore a white web woven dress that accentuated her curves. At the moment she was looking at a deck of cards while she casually looked up every once in a while at several screens that were floating in the air.

There were eight screens in total, two of the bigger ones were focused on Ethan and Felicia. The other six were focused on Mary Jane Watson, a woman that was sitting in a log cabin with her daughter, a young girl that was covered in dirt, muck, and blood that was eating a burger out of a wrap. The last three were focused on Jean Gray, a group of four that were in the midst of an argument, then the last was a black egg that sat in pitch black. The only sign of its existence being the gray, blue, and purple hue that it had.

Suddenly a swirl of black and white formed until it turned into a white male silhouette.

"Hello there." The silhouette stated.

"Hello little turtle, bored of binge watching your multiverse?" The woman's voice was melodic yet had a strange tone of danger that would give one a shiver up one's spine.

"You know I prefer Ao just as you prefer Neith, big sis. For the record I just came to check on you. Do you really prefer to not know what happens next? I thought we all got joy out of just watching these lesser beings struggle in the situations we force them into." Ao boldly stated while looking at the screens she was looking at.

"No, I would much prefer to watch my version even if it is slow to unfold. Unlike the rest of you, I much prefer not knowing the ending of the story." Neith stated as she glanced at him. "If you are going to visit, then at least come in person, don't send a projection."

Ao chuckled, "then sorry to bother you sis. But I don't think that character is in any of the other stories."

"You mean that person in the world I am overseeing. Or have you and the others forgotten these are living beings." Neith snapped back.

Ao shook his head then pointed at the egg, "what is that?"

"No clue…"

Ao stayed silent for a minute staring at Neith, "isn't that bad?"

Neith only shrugged, "if you are only here to bug me then shoo…" She waved her hand and the white silhouette popped like a balloon. The white specks slowly disappeared until they were gone.

Suddenly Neith looked between Ethan and the Egg, ""The Reaper' huh? How curious? A cause of my actions to preserve an unaffected universe or something else entirely?"