"Agent Romanoff?! Agent Barton?!"
Fury shouted into the communicator, gripping the edge of his desk tightly. Hill, standing beside him, bit her lip as the tension in the room continued to rise. He took several deep breaths, trying to steady himself.
"Damn it! You son of a..."
"Finish that sentence, Nicholas, and I will mount your head on my wall as a trophy," Spider-Man's voice came through the communications line.
Both Fury and Maria froze.
"Spider-Man."
"Fury."
Both agents could hear the annoyance and irritation in his voice, almost able to picture the look of displeasure behind every syllable. Nick gritted his teeth.
"You will pay for everything you have done to my agents."
"Be grateful I have the last shred of patience left and that I spared their lives. You will need to move quickly if you want to save three of them. They are bleeding out. They will survive only if they receive immediate medical attention.
Agents injured because of your incompetence. Everyone saw what I was capable of, and you still sent them into the lion's den."
"You... what?"
"The other two are unharmed. One is at my feet, and the second is standing right in front of me. You should be thanking me."
"T-thanking you?"
He spoke the word as though it were something profane.
"Because they are still alive. One has a better chance of surviving because he is a father. The other... not so much."
"You... How do you know that?"
"I know considerably more than you think, Nick. You may believe you run a covert organization, but believe me, you are about as subtle as a flasher during rush hour."
The remark made Fury growl in annoyance, while the corner of Hill's mouth twitched upward before the smile vanished as she remembered the situation.
"Now, Fury. I have come to negotiate."
"What do you want?"
"I want you out of my way and out of my city."
"Why?"
"You are a nuisance, and I already have plenty of nuisances to deal with, with more on the way. I do not need you adding to my headaches with your covert interventions, or you will not like the consequences your valued employees will suffer."
"What?"
Pure anger filled Fury's eyes.
"Do not force me to add you to the list. My word would be enough."
"Arrogant. Listen carefully, Spider-Man! You are not a hero! You are a coward hiding behind a mask! Killing people like cattle? People like you always end up falling."
"Fury, there is no one like me. I never claimed to be a hero. I do not need to wrap my actions in the packaging of righteous justice. I do what I believe is right and what I decide is necessary. As it happens, the people I protect are quite satisfied with the results. You may question my methods, but not my results."
"To me, you are merely a manageable problem. One that will eventually find itself beneath my boot the moment I decide to lower it."
"Big words from a man hiding behind a mask. You think you can take on all of us..."
"You are a hypocrite, Nick. You criticize me for hiding, yet what about you? You sit aboard your multi-billion-dollar flying fortress, pulling your agents' strings like puppets from the comfort of your chair, and still have the nerve to criticize me. Would you like proof?"
Fury felt a knot form in his throat as he braced himself to hear a gunshot.
It never came.
"Killing these two would be easy."
Nick quietly exhaled.
"You do not have the..."
"But neutralizing an entire crew of hundreds of people? That is considerably more interesting."
"Wait, wha—"
"Do you know how to float?" Spider-Man asked.
Fury's eyes widened.
Whoomp.
Before either of them could react, Nick and Maria were plastered against the ceiling as alarms began blaring throughout the Helicarrier.
"Sir! Someone has sabotaged our entire navigation system! There is nothing we can do!" an agent shouted.
"Do something!"
"There is nothing we can do, sir! Nothing is responding! We are losing altitude rapidly!"
"Damn it!"
Fury desperately tried to grab onto something.
"I hope you have a standing agreement with Atlantis. I doubt they will appreciate what is about to happen."
"Shut the—"
"I wonder how catastrophic the resulting tidal wave will be. The casualties. All because one man refused a simple agreement."
"Shut up! You have made your point! Just stop this!"
"The magic word, Nicholas."
"Ple... please!"
Nick and Maria crashed onto the floor as the Helicarrier regained flight control, frantic agents finally managing to halt its descent.
"I hope that demonstration was sufficient, Fury....Stay out of my way."
He paused.
"Whether you believe it or not, in the larger picture we have similar goals."
"What the hell did you..."
"You want to protect humanity. I want to protect what I care about. We will both do whatever is necessary to accomplish that."
"We are nothing alike."
"That is correct. The difference between you and me is that I am not a hypocrite who hides his intentions behind a mask of moral righteousness. I am morally gray, and I know it."
------
"Trust me when I tell you that the best thing you can do is take my advice, because I am genuinely dangerous to your health," Spider-Man said.
He lowered the barrel from Natasha's head, crushed the pistol in one hand, and placed the mangled remains into her palm.
"Good talk, Fury. Maria."
He crushed the communicator as well.
Tilting his head over his shoulder, he saw Black Widow still frozen in place and smiled beneath his mask.
"I do love the smell of fear."
Then he disappeared.
"That man is a monster," Barton said, giving up and simply lying on the rooftop.
"Y-yes," Natasha answered, still trembling.
Her body continued to shake involuntarily as she relived the ghostly sensation of his hand slipping beneath her mask, the oppressive closeness of something that embodied death itself, the effortless way he had controlled her, the aura surrounding him, his voice, and the overwhelming killer instinct he radiated.
Being subdued so completely... so effortlessly.
It was terrifying.
And, much as she hated to admit it, it had also been genuinely exhilarating.
Damn... I want that date, she thought, barely above a whisper.