On paper, Nick Fury's idea was a good one, but he'd reasoned from his own point of view and underestimated the pull of the superhero life. Two of his most capable agents had been enticed away into the heroes' camp, so rather than gaining strength, S.H.I.E.L.D. had actually come out a notch weaker.
Still, Daisy didn't object. To each their own — Hawkeye had already been planning to retire, and Black Widow had all the more firmly made up her mind to become a superhero. Forcing them to stay in S.H.I.E.L.D. would only sour things.
Besides, out with the old, in with the new.
The Supergiant affair had taught S.H.I.E.L.D. a lesson too: the agency had to have psychics of its own, and a half-baked one like Daisy simply wouldn't cut it.
While Hill went to reassure her crew, Daisy laid out her own proposal to Nick Fury.
"The White Queen? You want to recruit the White Queen into S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"That's right. Psychics are dangerous, but we can't just ignore the threat because it's dangerous. Recruiting the White Queen into S.H.I.E.L.D. is the best way to handle it."
Daisy went on to explain. "The White Queen has her own company, and her powers are fairly well known at a certain level. To the top brass, she's no stranger. If we went out and recruited some unknown psychic right now, the higher-ups would be terrified — but with the White Queen, there's no such problem."
Her argument ran along the lines of those with property have peace of mind: with her vast holdings and thriving business, the White Queen wouldn't take reckless gambles by breaking the law, because she wasn't short of money.
Nick Fury rubbed his bald head. Recruiting a psychic was a matter that called for great caution, but like nuclear weapons, it was something you couldn't do without. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been dodging the issue all along, which was exactly why it had suffered such heavy losses under Supergiant's attack.
Nick Fury knew for a fact that Stryker had a psychic of his own. Stryker had turned his own telepathic son into a lab experiment; however inhumane the method, one psychic really had kept a large number of mutants over there in check — a fact plenty of people were aware of. The question now was whether S.H.I.E.L.D. was willing to do the same.
"Emma's certainly no match for Professor X, but she's one of the few options we've got." Daisy's gaze was resolute. Even if Nick Fury disagreed, she could recruit the White Queen on her own; she was raising it with him now only out of respect.
Just as Daisy had agreed in principle to forming the Avengers, Nick Fury in the end agreed in principle to recruiting the White Queen.
Even with the carrier crashed, Hill went right on carrying out her duties as captain. Daisy notified the White Queen to come and go through the formalities, then set about contacting the Ohio state government — with a carrier down on their soil, someone still had to give the local authorities a heads-up.
Nick Fury, meanwhile, went to check on the super-team he'd worked so hard to assemble. He'd pinned high hopes on the Avengers, but their showing hadn't lived up to everything he'd put in.
Nick Fury frowned as he took in the scene. Black Widow and Hawkeye were each resting off on the fringes, and Bruce Banner, back to normal, crouched on the ground with a vacant stare. Captain America, Stark, and that Norse god Daisy had mentioned — Thor — were locked in a three-way argument, none of them giving an inch.
The topic they were arguing over still had to do with S.H.I.E.L.D.
"The Tesseract should never be activated again. I'm against fishing it back out — weren't these aliens drawn here by the cube in the first place?" Captain America had put his uniform back on, shield slung across his back, and though he was hardly the strongest of them, his presence faintly overpowered the other two.
"You are a warrior worthy of praise, Steve Rogers, and you have my personal respect. But the Tesseract must be recovered. It is a thing of Asgard; it does not belong to Earth." His time on Earth had matured Thor somewhat, and he no longer spoke or acted quite so rashly.
The two began to argue over salvaging the cube. Stark agreed with digging it out but didn't accept that it belonged to Asgard, and the three of them each refused to give ground.
"Is it really appropriate for them to be debating this?" Hawkeye asked out of curiosity, seeing that Nick Fury had been listening for a while.
Never mind which country the Tesseract belonged to — at the very least it ought to be humanity's, shouldn't it? Going by humanity's possessive streak, whatever ends up in your hands is yours; and besides, the cube had been in human hands for over a thousand years. By any measure, the thing had to belong to humanity itself!
Nick Fury gave no clear answer. Watching the group bicker, he felt a headache coming on. He'd stood before the World Security Council and thumped his chest, guaranteeing he could keep these people in line — and by now half of that confidence had drained away.
The group argued for half an hour, and just as Nick Fury figured it was time for him to step in with some closing remarks, a roar sounded overhead: Daisy brought a Quinjet down to the ground and waved them over.
"Come inside — this is important." She called in not only Nick Fury and Hill but the whole group of Avengers as well, ushering them aboard the aircraft.
She clapped her hands lightly to draw every eye to her, signaling that she had something to say.
Daisy glanced around — good, she'd had dealings with all of them to one degree or another. "You all know me, so I'll skip the pleasantries. Time is short. Let me introduce the man beside me, Mr. Jesse Alexander."
She gestured to the middle-aged man on her left, dressed in a shabby set of work coveralls, a flashlight and a pair of cloth work gloves stuffed into his trouser pockets.
"Uh, Miss Johnson, if my drains ever get clogged, I'll be sure to call on Mr. Alexander here for help. Thanks for the kind thought." Stark tossed out the remark with a snide little edge.
Daisy didn't bother arguing the point — she'd poked fun at the plumber's getup herself earlier. "Tony, Mr. Alexander really is a custodian at Carefree High School in Arizona. But that doesn't contradict his other identity."
"Mr. Jesse Alexander is a space cop. He calls himself a member of the Nova Corps. Fifteen years ago, Mr. Alexander left the Corps for personal reasons, and now his equipment is sounding an alarm — a great catastrophe is bearing down on Earth."
Seeing that the middle-aged man was a little nervous, Daisy simply relayed his words on his behalf.
Disbelief — that was most people's first reaction. Even Captain America, who never judged by appearances, had his doubts; the plumber's outfit was just too far removed from any space patrolman. Had the man had one too many drinks?
"My name is Jesse Alexander. Fifteen years ago, I left the Nova Corps because my son, Sam, was born. For his sake, I gave up the glory of the Nova Corps and chose to live as an ordinary man on Earth. Ten minutes ago, I sought out Miss Johnson to talk about this. She believed me — didn't take me for a madman — and I'm grateful to her."
It had been a long time since the middle-aged man had spoken at any length. He talked slowly, but with a clear order to his thoughts, not at all like some country man who'd spent his whole life in a small town and never gone anywhere.
"You may not quite believe what I'm saying, but I'll say it anyway: catastrophe is upon the Earth. A band of space pirates called the Chitauri are crossing the far reaches of the stars, heading straight for us. They'd already entered Jupiter's orbit earlier, and by now, I'm afraid, they're closer still…"