Chapter Seventy-Six: Human Trafficking

Nick Fury cast a puzzled glance at Tony. "What made you think of him all of a sudden?" As the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he kept even the peripheral personnel firmly in mind, let alone someone he had been paying special attention to.

Tony shrugged. "Nothing much. I just happened to see him when I got off the plane. Besides, he already knows a lot of classified information, doesn't he? Bringing him in is better than you racking your brains trying to reassign someone else."

Due to the recent surge in incidents, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s senior agents were spread thin across the planet. Fury was struggling with the personnel shortage, and due to strict protocols, he would never allow agents without the proper clearance to participate in highly sensitive missions. Hyral was exactly that kind of unique case.

Having experienced mysterious events, he had signed non-disclosure agreements equivalent to those of a senior agent. However, due to his past, he had yet to pass the formal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent screening, making him the only peripheral staffer with top-secret clearance.

If he had passed the screening, the shorthanded Fury would have long since deployed him as a full-fledged agent. Tony's logic was sound.

Natasha and Barton had been sent on missions the moment they stepped off the plane. The Avengers needed a S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison, a role usually filled by Coulson, but with manpower so scarce, even Coulson had been dispatched elsewhere.

Still, Fury suspected Tony was hiding something. He didn't believe Tony was being this considerate for his sake. Even though S.H.I.E.L.D. was indeed desperate for help, Iron Man rarely tolerated the agents sent by the agency. Why bring up Hyral now?

Fury’s mind raced. The only thing that set Hyral apart from everyone else was his intimate contact with that mysterious statue. If Tony was acting this uncharacteristically, he must have made a new discovery. But Hyral had been under his watch for so long without yielding any secrets; perhaps it was better to let Tony take over, especially since the statue was already in his possession.

Fury nodded in agreement. Tony raised an eyebrow and asked, "So, you called us here the moment we landed. What’s actually going on?"

Fury’s expression turned solemn immediately. "A faction has been trafficking people on a massive scale. Every time S.H.I.E.L.D. is about to catch their trail, we suddenly lose it. I suspect there is internal involvement, which is why I want the Avengers to investigate this in secret."

Tony crossed his arms, brow furrowed, but remained silent. Captain America, Steve Rogers, looked up at Fury instantly. "Are you saying there’s government involvement? Human trafficking? I suspect it's more like human experimentation."

Any trafficking case that caught S.H.I.E.L.D.’s attention wouldn't be simple. As Steve contemplated this, a surge of anger rose within him. The nation he and his comrades had sacrificed their lives to protect was now doing exactly what their enemies had done back then—conducting experiments on its own people. History, it seemed, had changed nothing at all.

"It’s not what you think, Steve." Fury’s face remained grave, his emotions unreadable. Ever since Steve discovered the weapons S.H.I.E.L.D. had manufactured using the Tesseract in their secret warehouse, a seed of distrust had been sown. Although the ensuing battles had distracted him, this latest case of missing persons clearly touched a nerve.

"While our people haven't obtained concrete intelligence, the disappearances aren't limited to civilians. Many children of the elite have vanished as well. It’s unlikely to be human experimentation; I suspect a supervillain is behind this," Fury explained earnestly to the Avengers.

"A supervillain?" Steve paused. Before he could ask further, Fury elaborated, "Since superheroes exist, it stands to reason that supervillains do as well. You’ve all seen how strange recent events have been—these 'true gods,' 'false gods,' magic, and sorcery—they no longer seem like things from movies. We suspect this is a case of super-powered crime."

"Then what does the obstruction from within the government imply?" Dr. Banner asked for the first time. As a product of military human experimentation himself, he was skeptical; large-scale experimentation on the general public was not standard government procedure.

"You must be aware of the statue S.H.I.E.L.D. recovered," Fury glanced at Tony, and seeing no reaction, continued, "According to records in Odin’s manuscripts, we have reason to believe it is the statue of an evil deity, and such statues possess the power to control minds. Therefore..."

"So you suspect a cult is behind this?" Tony finally interrupted. He had been pondering the disappearances himself, but the recent influx of too many factions had clouded his judgment.

Fury nodded. "Yes. I suspect government officials have been compromised by a cult, but without hard evidence, I cannot move against them." What Fury didn't say was that he felt something strange going on within S.H.I.E.L.D. itself, which was why he had specifically requested the Avengers' help.

"Very well. We will get to the bottom of this." Steve looked at Banner and Tony, and seeing no objections, agreed. He, too, wanted to know who was truly behind these disappearances.

...

Artanis was analyzing data recently uploaded by the probes. With Aiur descending upon Midgard and considering Midgard's unique nature, the military experts of the Protoss Empire had reached a consensus: Midgard would undoubtedly be a primary battlefield in the future. Due to the nature of the Dark God’s divinity, no location could be taken lightly before the war officially began.

Artanis’s primary task was to parse the probe data and monitor the activity of dark forces on Midgard. The support fleet he had previously negotiated for was already en route to the planet and would be stationed on the dark side of the moon, hidden by cloaking fields to remain undetected by any human empire.

The probe data had been pre-filtered by the artificial intelligence, or even Artanis, with his Level 10 psionic abilities, would have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume. Yet, Artanis felt something was wrong. His intuition told him a major event was imminent, but the data showed everything to be normal.

This caused Artanis a measure of unease. He knew the instincts of a psionic were sharp; while not on par with the prophets cultivated by the Dark Templar, his intuition had guided him to victory in countless battles. This time, the unease must be the work of dark forces.

But the probes had found no traces. Artanis was forced to suspect that the data had been filtered out by the AI or had not been collected at all. Either way, it suggested that the situation was far more complex than it appeared.