Melting Chapter 87: Tesseract? I want it! (Patreon)

New York, 47th West Avenue, Building #219.

Nick Fury, Agent Hill, Natasha, Barton, and Coulson were gathered around a round table, all exchanging looks of unease. They looked at each other wordlessly.

These people were the most trusted core of Fury’s senior agents. Other trustworthy agents were away on missions in different locations, and this issue wasn’t something they could share widely.

Natasha sighed with a trace of frustration, “Director, I just requested a day off… Could we maybe reschedule that for tomorrow?”

Fury shook his head.

Coulson stuck his head forward, “Boss, I spent all last night drinking with Thor, and my mind’s hazy. Maybe let me get one night’s sleep first?”

Fury frowned – oh right, he’d forgotten about that.

“Anything come of it?” Fury asked.

Coulson sighed. It looked like no one was getting any rest tonight.

“Yes. I found out more about Aaron’s connection with Asgard.”

Instantly, Hill, Natasha, and Barton all grew serious. Especially Natasha—she was the most unhappy about the news that Aaron had become a ‘king’ among the gods. In her eyes, he had such a nasty personality, yet rose to the top in a matter of days. In under a month, from Osborn Group CEO to the King of the Gods! She couldn’t figure out where she’d lost to him.

Coulson continued, “From what Thor says, Aaron is the son of Borr, possessing Asgard’s divine power. At the same time, he’s also the son of a Celestial, wielding Celestial might. From a lineage standpoint, he’s Odin’s brother and the uncle of Thor and Loki. In the Mjolnir incident, Odin invited Aaron back to Asgard to share Asgard and the Nine Realms with him.”

He paused a moment before adding hesitantly, “But I noticed Loki was rather dismissive of that explanation—though at the same time, he shows even more respect toward Aaron than Thor does.”

Coulson sounded uncertain. Fury merely let out a sarcastic laugh.

“‘Odin’s brother’? The ‘son of Borr’? Odin’s nearly five thousand years old, right? And Thor’s about fifteen hundred. So by that logic, Borr’s been dead for, what, three thousand years—and Aaron’s only twenty-two. So he’s truly Odin’s brother? Did Borr climb out of his grave to have a kid with someone?”

Fury shook his head. He didn’t know how real these so-called gods were, but logically, Odin’s story didn’t hold water. Probably just a convenient excuse.

He didn’t dwell on Odin’s true agenda. To outside observers, Aaron was the King of Asgard, the King of the Nine Realms.

Possibly Odin valued Aaron’s strength to keep everyone in line—maybe Odin was too old, even a god can die? That possibility made Fury shiver inside. So maybe Aaron really was stronger than Odin. Damn, better mark him a bigger threat level. The guy was insane, all right.

The others all had their own reactions.

“Anyway,” Fury said, rapping his knuckles on the table for attention, “we need to talk about something more urgent.”

Everyone stiffened in surprise. More urgent than Aaron and Asgard? The so-called gods and their Nine Realms? Indeed, that was huge. But Fury had other priorities. Asgard was important, but S.H.I.E.L.D. was facing imminent crisis.

He selectively told them part of what Aaron had said. The room fell silent. Absolute hush.

“So… thoughts?” Fury asked once they’d had a moment to process.

No one spoke. Coulson gave a wry smile, Natasha frowned without speaking, and Barton, who’d been fiddling with his hands, sank into contemplation. Finally, Coulson, face still ruddy, said, “Boss, so do we pack it in, take whatever payoff we can, and split for good?”

Fury glared at him.

Coulson shrugged helplessly. “If it’s as bad as you say, then S.H.I.E.L.D. is like a dying patient—incurable. So maybe we should, you know, part ways and find a real job before Hydra blows it all up.”

Under Fury’s death-stare, Coulson grimaced. “All right, I was just trying to lighten the mood.”

“What about you, Natasha?”

She sighed, “I’m thinking about where the heck I’m sleeping tonight,” lamenting the fact her day off was gone. Even if it hadn’t been canceled, there was no way she could relax. For all she knew, Hydra was watching her every move.

“Barton?” Fury prompted, seeing the archer still lost in thought. Then his gaze settled on Hill, who was busily jotting on a notepad.

Fury’s spirits lifted. “Hill, you’ve got a plan?”

She didn’t answer, so Coulson leaned over and looked: “A résumé?!” he exclaimed in astonishment.

Hill glanced up. “I’m planning on applying at the Osborn… correction, the Aaron Group tomorrow.”

Everyone else exclaimed, “What?!”

“At the moment,” Hill said, “the only safe place seems to be Osborn’s domain. I’d like to secure a fallback.”

Fury’s lips twitched. Now they’re trying to quit?

Coulson and Barton exchanged glances. Coulson considered forging closer ties to Thor, while Barton wondered what special skill he had to join Osborn’s outfit. Natasha fumed—everyone else had the option, but not her, not after all that’s happened.

“All right, enough jokes,” Fury said. “We need to figure out a solution.” But nobody responded. By the look of things, it was hopeless. S.H.I.E.L.D. might be riddled with Hydra. Possibly half the staff. Who knew how many? And how could they be sure the five people in this very room were all loyal? Hydra had apparently been burrowed in for decades, since long before any of them joined. That meant all of them were potential suspects.

Fury produced a file, handing copies around. “This is the S.H.I.E.L.D. communications protocol. If I get attacked, you inject me with tetrodotoxin B to slow my heartbeat so I can fake death. We’re in the open, they’re in the shadows—we need an edge to turn the tables.”

That was Fury’s improvised plan. In the open, he might command great resources, but every move would be monitored by insiders. So it was too risky to mount a big cleanup. He’d also thought about cooperating with Aaron, but realized that was Aaron’s trap. The man wanted him to butt heads with Hydra—some sort of “knife-lending” maneuver? Actually, maybe Aaron just wanted to enjoy the show. Either way, Fury had repeatedly stalled on fulfilling Aaron’s earlier requests, so their partnership was iffy now.

Coulson hesitated. “We might ask Aaron for help?”

Barton shook his head. “He won’t agree,” he said quietly, also thinking about how Fury had delayed so many times that even a previously arranged agreement might be impossible now.

Fury understood too, cursing his own miscalculations. If only he’d known how monstrous Aaron was, he never would have stalled.

“Hill, where’s that stuff?” Fury asked. She rummaged among her notes, then produced another document.

Fury scanned it. All these items were S.H.I.E.L.D.’s prized possessions, many costing excellent agents’ lives. On second thought, those agents might also have included Hydra. That notion brought Fury a bit of grim satisfaction. He planned to use these as peace offerings to fix their bond with Aaron— or at least get him to prefer S.H.I.E.L.D. over Hydra.

The group refined their approach for the rest of the night. By the next morning, Fury, Coulson, Hill, and Natasha— all with dark circles under their eyes— stood at the building entrance. Staring outside, they waited.

Coulson checked his watch: 9:00 a.m. sharp. “Boss, are you sure he’s coming?”

Fury nodded. “He said it’d be today. That means today.”

“Maybe he’ll show up in the afternoon?” Coulson groaned, fatigued after a night of planning, plus all the drinking with Thor. His middle-aged body was wearing down.

Fury shook his head. “According to his usual routine, he never does serious business in the afternoon.” Or rather, Aaron never does anything ‘serious’ at all. They waited, 10:00 came and went, and they began to suspect he would arrive in the afternoon. At last, that “Savior star descending from heaven” kind of silhouette appeared in sight.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, the big shot is here!

The moment Aaron’s foot crossed the threshold:

“Welcome, Mr. Aaron!” Natasha, Coulson, and the others called out, smiling tensely. Aaron paused. “Um, what’s going on?” He took a step back outside, then stepped in again just to watch them greet him.

“Welcome, Mr. Aaron~”

“!!!” When did S.H.I.E.L.D. turn into a supermarket? Fury sensed eyes from deeper in the hallway. He cleared his throat. “Mr. Aaron, the items you want are inside. Come with me.”

He might have thick skin, but this obsequious stuff felt humiliating. Aaron followed them deeper, eyeing the S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. The atmosphere was nothing like a normal business. Everyone was rushing around, scarcely pausing to chat. No idle breaks, as though each person wanted to be in two places at once. Efficiency to the extreme.

When Fury’s group arrived at the eighth floor, a beaming, bespectacled man came around the corner. He seemed startled to see them. “Nick, what’s up? None of you look rested.” He glanced at Aaron, astonished. Then he smiled warmly and extended a hand toward Aaron. “Is this the ‘God of Miracles’? Wow! Didn’t think I’d see you in a place like this. I’m so honored!”

Ordinarily, Fury wouldn’t suspect Alexander Pierce for being here. He was supposed to be in the Triskelion or the U.N. But now, everything seemed fishy. He never visits here; why show up the exact morning we bring Aaron? Coincidence?

Fury and the others exchanged discreet glances. “Ahem, Pierce, I’m here on the President’s orders, showing Mr. Aaron around for some ‘inspiration.’ If you’ve got business, maybe you can handle that first,” Fury said pointedly.

Pierce guffawed. “If it’s a presidential directive, then sure. Usually no outsiders come in here, but if it’s Mr. Aaron, that’s different! I was just finishing something. I can accompany you and Mr. Aaron for a tour.”

Get lost, you cunning snake! Fury’s suspicion soared. Possibly he was the Hydra bigshot. “Coulson, you had something urgent with Mr. Pierce, right?” Coulson immediately played along: “Uh, yes, something about the U.N…” Pierce hesitated, not wanting to leave, but realized it involved international security. “My apologies, Mr. Aaron. Next time, I’d love to show you around,” he said politely.

Aaron showed no warmth, just nodded. He and Fury resumed their path, while Pierce turned to talk with Coulson about possible Asgard negotiations in the U.N. Those were huge deals, so he forced himself to pay attention.

Meanwhile:

“So here are all the 084 items you collected?” Aaron eyed one sealed crate after another, voice laced with skepticism.

Fury opened his mouth, but Hill spoke up first: “We have 157 items here in total, 25 of them designated 084. Some others are in the Triskelion building in D.C. Here’s the list. If you don’t see what you want here, we can head to D.C.” She handed Aaron a doc.

Fury stared at Hill with his single good eye. Something felt off. I’m the Director, but she’s taking initiative? Recalling her talk last night about job-hunting at Osborn, he felt uneasy.

Aaron flicked through the file. “Is there any more detailed info?”

“Absolutely!” Hill had a laptop ready, hooking it to the local network. Standing at Aaron’s side, she explained: “This one is a special energy engine seized from a Hydra base during WWII…” She didn’t mention the Tesseract or the exact specifics, but Aaron had his guesses.

“This item is an 084: ‘zero matter,’ a dark power of sorts…”

“Zero matter?” Aaron felt an odd familiarity. “Peggy Carter?”

Hill nodded. “Yes. Zero matter was first discovered by Peggy Carter, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s founders. She encountered that dark energy in a mission. Considering how dangerous it was, Ms. Carter and Howard Stark disposed of the case, then sealed the substance away.”

Spotting Aaron’s interest, Hill elaborated: “In 1945, during a nuclear test by Isodyne Energy, they recorded a rift at ground zero, sucking in matter around it. After the blast, a black, tar-like fluid remained. That’s zero matter—”

She couldn’t finish before Aaron cut her off: “I want it.”