Chapter 28: Chapter: 28

Chapter 28:

Everyone in the room was looking at me in surprise. Nick Fury's one good eye was looking past me; however, it honed in on my three pairs of black wings. I could see his brow already furrowing in curiosity and worry about why I now had an extra pair. He didn't say anything about them out loud though. Tony looked happy to see that I was up and about. Steve Rogers just looked gobsmacked, probably at the fact that he was meeting an Angel... Fallen or otherwise. I used "observe" on Steve Rogers because I was curious about the legendary Captain America.

[Captain Steve Rogers Lvl 8 → He just woke up from his ice coma a week ago. He is extremely confused about what is going on, and every morning this week he has woken up hoping his trip to the future has been nothing but a fever dream.]

I felt kind of bad reading that extra information, but there was nothing I could do about it at the moment. I'd have to talk to him in private later. What was interesting to me was that he was only Level 8... I guess that wasn't too surprising. Although, even Heather Potter had a higher level than he did when I first met her. I guess that made some sense. At the end of the day, all he had was moderately enhanced super strength and reflexes. Did that mean he'd lose to Heather in a one-on-one fight? I didn't think so. I just think it meant that the overall amount of damage he could dish out was lower than someone who had magic at their disposal.

"Layla! I'm glad you're not dead," Tony said. "You slipped into some kind of coma when that Hydra guy shot you." He added with a pained grimace. Something didn't look right about him. He looked really sickly.

Before I could bring that up, Natasha and Clint then tried to apologize to me about not noticing that Agent Rollins had drawn a weapon on me. I just waved them off and told them it was fine. To be fair to them, they had just faced off against actual evil wizards for the first time in their careers. They had just truly discovered how weird this world could really be.

"So what's happened in the time I've been unconscious... and are you alright Tony? You're not looking too good," I asked. Tony waved me off with a pained smile. I wasn't buying it.

"What's happened!?" Fury cut in to answer me. He did not look happy as he spoke. "Almost full-blown motherfucking panic is what has happened! On international television, the world discovered that magic was real AND that an evil wizard wanted to rule the world. Then they found out Angels were actually real – which we'll get back to later. And finally, Hydra, the organization that almost destroyed the world in World War 2 is still alive and kicking. So… yeah, it's been a big fucking mess. A bunch of countries all over the world are now locked down under martial law. And the world governments expect SHIELD to deal with all this as quickly as possible! That's why we're having this meeting right now. To plan how to fix this big mess." Fury huffed out as he finished his minor rant.

"Which would have been a lot easier if half of our agents didn't turn traitor and abscond with a whole bunch of our weapons and equipment…" Coulson added with a sigh.

"The Hydra agents just fled?" I asked in surprise. "They didn't try to take over and lead a revolution or something?"

Fury just scoffed. "How? SHIELD only had 2000 members total. 1000 traitors can do some damage for sure, but they aren't leading any major revolutions. Now, if they had waited to reveal themselves once a certain project we've been working on was off the ground. Then that would be a different story…" Fury said without elaboration further. I suspected he was talking about the flying Helicarriers. Without those superweapons at their disposal, Hydra's threat level was much lower. Even the Winter Soldier was just one guy only slightly stronger than Steve.4

"Rollins always was a hotheaded asshole," Clint added, "Right now, we are proceeding under the plausible theory that he was not supposed to expose Hydra's survival to the whole world at that time." He explained, and I would have to agree with that. It sounded like they Hydra gained absolutely nothing from shooting me on live TV except exposing themselves much earlier than they would have wanted.1

"So who's the bigger threat right now?" Tony asked us all. "The evil wizards or Hydra. And that has nothing to do with the fact that they tried to kill me..."

And I, for one, want to know how Hydra is even still around!" Captain Rogers cut in. "What the hell did I fight for? What did so many of my friends and fellow soldiers die for!" Steven exclaimed in anger.

All the other humans in the room looked down guiltily. Coulson, the calmest and most reasonable person here, then explained to Steven how America recruited and pardoned Nazi scientists at the end of World War 2 so that the USA could maintain a leg up on the other nation's technological levels. Needless to say, Steve was not happy to hear that. He was on the verge of storming out in anger when Tony almost collapsed in a coughing fit!

*Cough* "Shit…" Tony muttered between hacking out literal black blood. That was not a good sign at all…

I used "observe" on Tony next. He looked like he was about to keel over... oh wait, he already was keeled over.

[Tony Stark Lvl 5 → Tony is suffering from severe Palladium poisoning. He is in a constant state of pain and nausea. It's taking all of his willpower, at all times, to not give up and fully collapse. HP 22/130]

"No, don't bother. It's too late. All your little concoction will do is hide the symptoms. It won't heal me. I'm out of time," Tony explained while wheezing. His poisoning was spreading rapidly. I used "observe" again, and his HP was down to 20…

"Shit…" Fury muttered.

I walked over to where Tony was kneeling on the floor. There was no time like the present to put my new reward to good use. "Sacred Gear: Twilight Healing!" I spoke aloud as a green ring appeared on each of my hands.3

XXX

--------------------------------------------------