//------------------------------// // Chapter 32 – Lighthouse // Story: Infinity Era // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// 32 Lake Ontario, USA The Lighthouse 8:51 p.m. The agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. exited Zephyr One and led Gabe and Robbie Reyes throughout the Lighthouse. As if literally landing within the lake’s waters without a single drop touching them wasn’t impressive enough, the underground bunker and the bustling agents were all quite the sight to see for Gabe. His head weaved back and forth, eyes wide and mouth agape to the size and spectacle of it all. Robbie just couldn’t wait to get out of there. He mostly couldn’t stand Coulson’s smile. “Welcome to the Lighthouse!” Phil declared, walking backwards and holding out his arms. While Daisy wheeled Gabe through the sliding bunker door, Robbie stepped inside and observed his surroundings. Phil continued to lead them, still walking backwards, still trying to impress them. “Safest and most secure bunker S.H.I.E.L.D. has to offer. And I can confirm that this baby can survive even the Earth splitting apart.” Reyes turned his way, his brow curling into a frown. Phil pursed his lips, waving it away. “I’ll tell you later,” he said, spinning around. “Because right now…” Daisy picked up for him, turning her attention to Phil Coulson’s approaching office. The next corner and the fifth door on the left would lead them to their destination. Well, Phil and Robbie’s destination. She and the other agents behind her just waited for their next orders. Robbie twisted his attention to Johnson on his right, the Inhuman wheeling his little brother down the hall. She finished off her statement by saying, “Coulson needs to debrief you on the situation.” Phil nodded at that, not even turning around. “Daisy, take Gabe to the guest room, the one next to yours. Should be safe for him,” he ordered. She nodded, smiling down to Gabe, who smiled back at her, a slight blush on his cheeks. Robbie slapped his shoulder, Gabe staring at him bewildered. Robbie’s eyes told Gabe to watch himself. To not do anything stupid. He sent the same stare to Daisy, though increasing the flame and ensuring hell to pay if she let anything happen to his little brother. “I’ll watch out for him,” Daisy assured him, her eyes and her nod giving him her word. That would be enough for now, Reyes thought to himself. “Everyone else, back in the Zephyr for takeoff and await further orders. May, you’re with me,” Phil continued, giving out the orders and the agents responding in kind. Mack led Yo-Yo, Davis, Piper, Deke, Fitz, Simmons, and several other agents back where they came from, disappearing on the turn down the hall. Daisy was the only one left with Coulson, May, and Reyes. She continued to push Gabe down the hall, past Coulson’s office and towards his guest room. The two brothers cast one glance to each other before Phil broke their eye contact. He held open his office door for Robbie, hand gesturing inside. “Mr. Reyes, if you will…” That same damn smile. Robbie stared at him for a moment, eventually giving in with a disgruntled sigh and turning left into Coulson’s office. He closed the door behind him only after he let May inside. The two of them stood abreast, watching as Reyes observed Coulson’s office, walking about slowly, taking in his environment. Watching as Reyes picked up Phil’s bobblehead of Captain America, Coulson stepped forward, saying, “So, as you can see—” “Aliens,” Robbie finished for him, staring deeply into the red, white, and blue shield the small toy held. It was the same shield and attire that Captain America wore into battle during the attack in New York. Reyes curled his lips upwards. “Same ones that attacked New York six years prior. Yeah, I got that part.” He turned around, facing a simple smirk on Coulson’s face. At least, he thought it was just a simple smirk. Knowing Coulson, there was something else behind it. “You know your history,” Phil said. “It’s more than history,” Robbie responded, setting down the bobblehead on Phil’s desk. May watched the toy’s head bounce up and down, bringing her eyes back on Reyes. “These freaks came and tried to annihilate us once before. We know our enemy. We take from our enemy. We learn from our enemy. You see any of those Chitauri weapons on the black market?” Phil and Melinda looked at each other, then back to Robbie. They both shook their heads, keeping their knowledge about the black market away from Reyes. “Got in a few run-ins a couple years back. It doesn’t matter,” Robbie explained, shaking his head at the unpleasant memories. Hands rising to rest on his hips, Robbie sighed, facing Coulson and May. “So, they tried New York, and now Los Angeles? Why?” “It’s a little easier to understand than that.” “What are you talking about?” To emphasize his next point, Phil pulled up his jacket’s black sleeve, holding out the prosthetic limb that replaced his left hand. In his palm, a light shot out and displayed a hologram right above his hand. It showed an image of planet Earth, several red anomalies appearing over its surface and creating ripples like several stones to a pond. “The Chitauri aren’t just attacking Los Angeles. They’re attacking almost every major city on the planet, crippling our military, and even invading the alien world above the atmosphere,” Coulson explained. Reyes slowly broke his gaze from the hologram, staring at Coulson questioningly. “Alien world?” “Appeared not too long before the invasion started,” Phil said, the hologram over his palm showing a second planet near Earth, the same alien army invading its surface. “What’s curious about all of this is that the Chitauri are also invading the alien world.” “While simultaneously invading ours,” May added, her cold stare locked with the hologram. “Two birds with one stone,” Robbie muttered, shaking his head. “Question is…” “Who threw the stone?” Phil finished for him. When he brought down his hand and the light from it died, all that was left was a slightly confused Robbie Reyes. He furrowed his brow, his lips rising in what appeared to be the start of a sneer. Instead, he just asked, “Why do you need me?” “Your ability to travel to other dimensions can be especially helpful, especially if we might be dealing with something beyond our understanding,” Phil explained, then slowly began to smile. “Plus, I’m also a big fan of how you turn into that skeleton with the flaming head.” Phil waved his hands over his hair as he said that, almost trying to mimic the flame that consumed the Rider’s skull whenever Reyes turned. Robbie didn’t even flinch a smile. “You’re welcome to keep it,” he muttered “I’m good,” Coulson told him, dropping his hands to rest by his sides. “Dealt with it once. Definitely don’t need it again.” “I don’t blame ya,” Reyes murmured, looking away. Phil let his grave tone, the way he worded it, the way he looked, rest in the back of his head for the time being. He continued, walking back and forth across his office. “Our mission, given directly from Nick Fury, is to bring the Avengers back together. We…” he paused, looking to May who only crossed her arms at him, “… I thought it would be a good idea to get you back on the team. We could use your strength, your powers, anything to help us bring back Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and push back against this invasion.” His journey across his office led him directly in front of Reyes, pausing and meeting the gaze that Coulson knew Reyes was capable of increasing. Capable of terrifying and breaking. Burning and enslaving. It was a gaze he used once himself. “What do you say?” Phil asked, holding out his hand. “One more time?” Robbie seemed to contemplate Coulson’s offer with little thought given, almost like he had already made up his mind the second he stepped foot on Zephyr One. And those decisions he had made were either to help them… or take his brother and leave. Coulson really hoped he hadn’t chosen the latter. Staring down at Phil’s hand for several seconds, Reyes, lifted his gaze, meeting Coulson’s. “You promise to keep Gabe safe?” “With our lives,” May assured him. That was all he needed to hear. “All right,” Reyes said, gripping Phil’s right hand with his own and squeezing it. “I’m in.” Phil smiled, then broke away from Robbie, feeling the growing heat on his palm slowly rising over unbearable. He knew what it was: a promise. That if they got Gabe hurt, then they’ll have to deal with the Rider. “Thank you, Robbie, you won’t regret this. You’ll be saving billions of lives,” Phil told him, turning to his right. “May, get the Zephyr ready for takeoff. We still need to pick up Bobbi Morse, Lance Hunter, and Agent Peterson.” May didn’t move. Not right away, at least. She stood with her arms falling flat on her sides, her eyes meeting Phil’s and needing a promise. Another one Phil didn’t know if he was able to keep. “Then we’ll be ready?” she asked. It was fairly simple enough. He smiled at her, nodding just once. “Then we’ll be—” Three gentle knocks came from the office’s door. Breaking away from May for just a second longer than he would have hoped, Phil told whoever stood on the opposite side to come in. A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent stumbled inside, his attention only on Phil and not on the Ghost Rider they had brought in. “Director Coulson, sir.” His voice was shaking, uneven. Phil took a step forward. “What’s the problem?” “It’s… Glenn Talbot, sir. He… wanted to speak with you.” The Lighthouse, Talbot’s Cell 8:57 p.m. As Phil Coulson made his way through the dark hallway, into the secure area, and finally on the opposite side of Glenn Talbot’s cell, he still had a hard time believing that the same man curled up in the corner of the cell was once a highly-respected member of the United States Air Force, someone who had led the attack on HYDRA during their uprising four years prior, and someone who had become one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s biggest pains in the ass. His rise and fall to that status was certainly an interesting one. Ever since he had taken the fight to S.H.I.E.L.D. once HYDRA revealed themselves, Talbot had always tried to go out of his way to show that Coulson and his band of misfits that called themselves “the new S.H.I.E.L.D.” were nothing but terrorists. After many failed attempts, Coulson had managed to convince Talbot otherwise, and the two would work together to put S.H.I.E.L.D. back in the spotlight, ready to help protect the world. With the failed Project Patriot, and with one of Aida’s robots disguising itself as Daisy Johnson to shoot Talbot in the head, S.H.I.E.L.D. was once more labeled as nothing but a threat to the world they swore to protect. Talbot survived, but ended up in a coma. When he awoke, he was held under the jurisdiction of General Hale. A HYDRA sleeper agent. She forced him to reveal to her the location of the Particle Infusion Chamber, a device that would create a super soldier for HYDRA, much like the Americans did when creating Captain America. They also brainwashed him, HYDRA forcing his wife to tell him his trigger words over the phone. Under their control and following orders from powers beyond his control, Talbot was forced to capture the young Robin Hinton and unveil the location of the Lighthouse to their unfortunate alien invaders. Talbot wasn’t well. For all Coulson knew, he could still be brainwashed. They couldn’t take any chances. Especially not with the mission ahead of them. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way.” Glenn continued to mutter to himself in the corner of the cell, like he was all alone, in his own little world. Like he was insane. Phil knew otherwise. Talbot may have been an ass, but he was a smart ass. He knew how to get shit done. He did everything in his power to see S.H.I.E.L.D. shut down for good. He may have failed each time, but Coulson couldn’t deny his fighting spirit. So, to see him curled up, practically shivering and losing his mind was something Phil just couldn’t accept. “How was it supposed to go, Glenn? Enlighten me,” Coulson said, his breath fogging up the bulletproof glass in front of him, separating him from the inside of Talbot’s cell. Glenn didn’t even turn around. He just flicked his head slightly to the right. Phil took that as him paying attention. “You kidnap Robin—a child for God’s sake—take her away from her mother, and then proceed to reveal the location of the Lighthouse to Qovas and his alien goons!” Placing his prosthetic hand on the glass, Coulson shook his head, sighing, “If it hadn’t been for the Chitauri, who knows what the Confederacy could have done to the Lighthouse.” Talbot wore several layers of shirts and a large, black jacket that he basically worshipped in his current state. He continued to mutter nonsense, and for a moment, Phil could have had him confused with Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Even when he spoke, it was slightly pitched higher than normal, the man flinching his neck every second or two. “I had to…” Talbot whispered, punching his opposite palm repeatedly. “Dammit, don’t you see? I had to!” “No, you didn’t,” Phil retorted. “I know you, Talbot. I know how strong you are. Anything HYDRA forced in your head, you can easily force it right back out. Like how you survived that bullet. That’s who you are: strong-willed. You were built to fight, Talbot. I need you, the real you, to come out and fight for what really matters now!” He never removed his hand from the glass. He could only see, through his cautious breaths on the cell’s glass, as Talbot stopped shivering. He stared in silence at the corner, the only movement Phil could register being that of his own breathing. He had him now, with his mind focused, his attention waiting for the next words that came from Coulson. He needed to make them clear. “Am I able to do that yet?” Talbot slowly turned his head around. Until he met Coulson’s eyes. Until Phil saw his face and how dreaded it appeared. His thick, brown mustache was terribly kept together, his beard faring no better. Phil could still see the scar on his head where the bullet hit. And through it all, through everything Coulson tried to tell him, all he could ask was: “Where’s my son?” Phil dropped his hand. His face read disappointment, a hint of sadness, and a pinch of defeat. But he knew within that Talbot’s heart was in the right place. His mind, however, would still need some healing. “Your family’s safe, I assure you,” Phil told him. “Take me to him.” Didn’t even mention his wife. Just his son. “No can do,” Coulson said, keeping that earlier thought in mind for possibly later use. He could see the rising anger build in Talbot’s features when he denied him escape. He didn’t let off. “Until we can get the Avengers back together and stop this alien invasion, you’re staying in this cell where you can’t be a menace to anyone else.” “Don’t leave me in here,” Talbot breathed, quickly rising to his feet and approaching the glass. Phil didn’t even take a step back, nor did he flinch as Talbot practically pressed his nose into the glass. Even when he slammed his fists into the glass, Phil still didn’t move. He just held that same poker face he had mastered over the years. “You’re making a mistake! I can help!” Glenn yelled, his fingers curling and trying to dig at the glass. Phil just nodded to him. Not in understanding his plight, but assuring the man of what they intended to accomplish. “We have it under control. And trust me… you’ll be safer in the Lighthouse.” He left Talbot to his own thoughts and screams, choosing not bother with either any longer. Not until they figured him out and got him the help he deserved. Forced to watch as his only means of escape left the room, Talbot roared and slammed his fists into the glass over and over again. Until his knuckles began to bleed, and even then, he still punched them. Glenn Talbot settled his bloody palms onto the glass to rest, his heavy breaths being the only sound he could hear for so, so long. He shook his head, breathing softly, “It wasn’t supposed to go this way. This isn’t how it’s supposed to end. Not here.” He stared out of his cell, towards the hallway that led to the laboratories, where he witnessed the agents take the Gravitonium and store it for safe-keeping. “I can fix this.”