Operation Piercing Justice // Site Mission

CANADIAN WILDERNESS, OCTOBER 28 2013, 02:08

He was running, running as quickly as possible, through the brushes. Agent William Johnson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Division, was running for his life, he was in a panic, the rest of his team was dead, they were all dead, their target ripped the team to shreds, he was the only survivor. As he ran, trying to get back to the Quinjet and the hell out of this god forsaken place, William could not resist the urge to look back, and he instantly regretted it. What he saw was a monster from legends, the locals called it the Wendigo, and it was approaching him, it wanted him. William in a panic took out his weapon and opened fire upon the beast without aiming, all he wanted was for the monster to stay away from him. In some miracle, the beast ran, it went back to the forest, William then thanked god for his luck and continued his attempt to reach the Quinjet.

William ran out of the forest and arrived at the Quinjet, he ran onto it and shouted for the pilot to take off. "TAKE OFF, WE NEED TO GET OUT!" William shouted repeatedly, but he noticed the plane was still grounded, he ran to the front and the sight terrified him, the pilot was dead. The cockpit windows were broken, and the pilot's body was mutilated. William used his remaining strength to move the pilots body and tried to get the plane of the ground, but he was too late, the monster had returned, and it was hungry.

S.H.I.E.L.D HELICARRIER, OCTOBER 31 2013, 09:53

Phil Coulson was walking from S.H.I.E.L.D's command deck and toward the briefing room, he was about to brief the team on a developing situation. The situation was delicate, one team had already gone missing. The last time the team reported in was four days ago, to inform command they have located the target. Coulson had the feeling that the team was mostly dead, their bodies would likely be unidentifiable. Phil was not pleased at the current situation, the situation had gone critical and this time he was personally leading a team to discover what happened to the first team and terminate the target.

Coulson walked into the briefing room and stood infront of a screen. He looked at all those inside the room and cleared his throat. "Greetings Agents, if you have read the brief that was developed you should know what I am about to tell you, if you have not, be glad we have this briefing." Coulson then took out a remote and pressed a button, causing the screen to flick to the picture of a corpse "James Roberts, age twenty three, body mutilated and consumed." he clicked the button again "Susan Marshall, age twelve, body mutilated and consumed." and again "Lee Wang Huang, age eighty nine, once again body mutilated and consumed, are you getting the picture." Coulson was serious, he wanted to make sure every single operative knew what the situation was.

"We sent into a team in a week ago to hunt down the killer, the last time they reported in was four days ago, we do not know what happened to them, but we suspect they have fallen to the same fate as all the others." Coulson said as he closed the screen and walked closer to the table, "The current body count is nine people are confirmed dead, and five agents are missing, local legends claim the killer is called a Wendigo, you are to exercise extreme caution in this mission." God damn it, was he sending everyone to their deaths, Coulson wondered as he spoke. "Our orders are to terminate the target, but our first goal once we touch down is to locate the missing team, we leave at twelve hundred hours, any questions?"

Coulson looked once more at each and every agent in the room, wondering how many of them will return alive. If they were lucky, maybe half. You have grown cynical, Coulson told himself, in the past, even in these type of missions, Coulson usually gave a eighty percent survival as his estimate. Coulson was waiting for them to ask him about the mission, he wanted everyone to be prepared for this mission.

It wasn't often that a mission could shake Maria and make her nervous. In fact the occurrence was so rare that it happened only, as the cliché went, once in a blue moon. Maria prided herself on being unshakeably calm and as emotionless as possible while preparing for a mission. Emotions, after all, had no place in this job. They hindered by obstructing any sort of logical thinking, especially if one was under pressure. And if you couldn't think logically under pressure, mission over. And not in a good way.

Maria was already in the briefing room when Coulson came in, standing off to the side of the screen for all the mission notes. She gave her partner an almost imperceptible nod in greeting, before turning to look at the gathered team as he started the brief. Seasoned as she was, this was one of those once-in-a-blue-moon missions that unsettled her. Their previous team had failed and were most likely scattered all over the Canadian wilderness by this point. Although given that there had been five agents, there was a good chance that not all of them were yet dead. Though Wikipedia wasn't the most reputable of sources, through it Maria had learned that in times when human bodies were plentiful, a Wendigo would keep its catches alive, storing them in caves or caverns to feast on later. Which meant that there was a chance albeit slim, that they might find the other team members alive. At least some of them.

Coulson was now talking about the previous team and as she listened, Maria's blue eyes studied each and every agent sitting in front of her. A master assassin, two hunters specialising in the supernatural, and (Maria sighed internally) a rookie. Not a complete disaster of a team, save for the rookie. Who's bright idea had that been, to take her on? If a fully-trained team hadn't made it out alive, what chance did a probie have? They had enough on their plate without baby-sitting an agent. Despite her reservations however, Maria felt about as safe as she could on a mission where it seemed that they were all going to their deaths. Phil she trusted with her life, Natasha she knew would always have her back and the Winchesters did this sort of thing for a living. So they were safe. Ish. 

Finally when Coulson finished, Maria stepped forward, arms crossed. "Given that our agents were armed to the teeth when they went missing, it is a safe assumption that regular bullets do not work on it. Some sources say that fire can be used to destroy the beast, while others claim that only a silver-tipped bow and matching arrows. Not having our best archer, we'll be using silver bullets and flame-throwers. Any questions or comments that would aid the mission?" she asked, looking at the Winchesters for a moment before returning to nonchalantly look at the other team members.

The alien invasion was over.  The city or should she say the world was safe. The sky was clear blue with not one cloud in sight. The weather was good at the moment. The sun was out and it was warm for that day.

Natasha was in pain. She pushed her body beyond its limit. It surprised her she was even walking let alone in working order.  Each member of the Avengers had got hurt pretty badly. They all were dealing with it in their own way. She sucked it up and didn’t complain to any about it. There really wasn’t anything anyone could do about it. So…it was best to not say anything at all. With her having the super solider serum she would be back to normal in a few hours.

What was this work coming to? She got there were some strange stuff, but alien from out of space. Monsters and Magic have come to life. It wasn’t what she had expected. Now she had to keep an open mind about things. It was going to get interesting.

Natasha was going to join her partner Clint in Paris France. They needed a little R&R. They deserved it. They were a team, and they didn’t take time off unless it was forced on them. She did hate when Clint wasn’t able to watch her back. She felt a lot safer when he was with her. This trip is what they needed maybe it would give them a chance to really talk.

Natasha had decided to visit Stark. She knew on way or another they all would end up moving into the Stark Tower. It is best to get it over with. Once she finished with Stark then she was going to join Clint. She wanted to have Clint get this done also, but he decided to head straight to his vacation. She didn't blame him. Loki did a number on him. If she saw Loki again, he would be in a world of pain. She wanted to get this over with so she could spend time with Clint and make sure he was okay.

Natasha loved Clint. She would die for him. She knew she would probably live longer then he would, but she had no idea what was stopping her from telling him she loved him. It could be because of their job. No, that wasn't it. She knew exactly what it was. It was fear. She feared Clint didn't love her back. Natasha didn't want the knowledge of him not returning the feelings.

She had started to fall for him when he recruited her for S.H.I.E.L.D. She did not know at the time she was falling in love with him. She did not give it any mind. Now it finally hit her, they could have been killed and he had no idea how she felt about him.

She was a master assassin and she was afraid of rejection. She had better get over it soon, due to the fact no one knew how much time they had with the one they loved. When she was with him next she would tell him how she felt, damn the outcome. She was going for why she wanted.

A figure caught her eyes. She didn't know it could be possible. She moved a bit quicker to catch up with him. She was right behind him. It was not the person who she though it was. Thor was on Asgard with Loki.  It would be good to see him. She wondered how everything was. What was Loki punishment? She wanted to know how he was punished. She actually wanted to see him being punished. If she could she would inflict more pain on him for what he did to Clint.

Natasha heard her phone beep. She got it out and  listened to the message. It was from Deputy Director Hill. It was asking her to go on a mission. Natasha knew Maria trusted her to have her back, but she trusted Clint to have her back. She wasn't sure if she should call Clint on this or not.  She called and left a message for him. She headed back to the Hellicarrier.  

She went straight to the briefing room where she knew she would find Maria at. She did get a surprise when she got there. There standing beside Maria was no other then Phil Coulson, a dear friend to her.  Seeing him alive made her pissed for the fact they had lied to her about his death. Her face revealed nothing to the two who now stood before her. She was going to keep her cool and be professional.
"Deputy Director Hill, Agent Coulson what is the mission? Just to let you know I did leave a message for Agent Barton to let him know I have been called into a mission. Haven't heard from him yet. I am sure he will join us later." Natasha said, as she looked at both Maria and Phil.

Dean was grumpy. He had not signed up for this. Doing what he and Sam already did for a living but actually getting paid was awesome. Flying because of this - not so much. Having to live on a giant plane because of his new employers - even less so. Dean had thought that he'd be living on a ship and that was bad enough given the amount of water demons and spirits there were roaming the oceans. But a plane? That was infinitely worse. He hated flying; nothing worse than being in a tin box 30,000 feet in the air. Dean missed his darling Impala dreadfully. That was the only way to travel, in his books. He couldn't wait till they were next on 'shore leave'.

Leaning back in his chair, he listened to Agent Coulson speaking about the victims, the body count, the previous team, blahblahblah. Dean was only half listening to Coulson's words. He didn't need to know how many agents were missing or what the body count was. Because there was only one reason he was on this mission - because the killer wasn't human. And that was right up his and Sam's alley. So all Dean wanted to know right now was whether they had identified the creature yet. Should have given Sam the job, Dean thought with a slight smile. He would have had the creature named in no time.

To their credit, the agents had a name for the creature. Dean's ears perked up at the sound of it, memories coming back of Black Water Ridge and Haley. Saving her brother from a Wendigo had been his second case with Sam. But what the hell was a Wendigo doing as far north as Canada?! He pushed the thoughts out of his mind, zoning back into the conversation only to hear Maria asking about anything that would aid the mission and looking at him. Dean met her gaze with his usual confident look, ready to impart all his Wendigo knowledge to the team from his Mind Encyclopaedia Of Things That Go Bump In The Night. Agent Coulson was right, the mission was dangerous and the team needed to know exactly what they were up against. And who better to impart this knowledge than someone who did this for a living?

He'd just opened his mouth to add to Agents Coulson's and Hill's words when a newcomer walked into the briefing room. His mouth closed and a slight smirk curled up the corner of his mouth; the agent was smokin' hot. So she was the final addition to their team, huh? Dean wasn't complaining. "Wendigo. A beast that used to be human but upon becoming a cannibal became an immortal evil spirit. Body count is 9 confirmed dead, 5 missing agents. Probably countless others too, whose deaths were put down to grizzly bear attacks by local cops," he answered in reply to the redhead's question, even though it hadn't been directed to him. He figured that the agents wouldn't want to repeat themselves and besides, he and Sam knew more about the Wendigo than all three agents put together. "Wendigos are incredible hunters, especially at night. They're unbelievably fast and strong, and they can also mimic human voices to lure their victims. Bullets can't stop it. Not even silver ones; it's not a werewolf or vampire. Basically, you have to torch the sucker." He gave a small grin. "So bring lots of flame-throwers and flare-guns."

Coulson was about to repeat his briefing to Agent Romanov when Dean Winchester stated the basic situation; the Winchester's were experts in these type of missions. SHIELD did not deal with the supernatural at a daily basis, contrary to popular belief. SHIELD was the successor to the Strategic Scientific Reserve, the government project that produced Captain America, and like the SSR, SHIELD was more about intelligence gathering than direct action. SHIELD and the SSR also shared another similarity; both are used to test the newest equipment and ideas. Coulson took a moment to greet Natasha, “Natasha, good to see you, how’s Clint?" he then said "We will be providing one flamethrower per fire team, rules of engagement state you will not be allowed to use them unless you get a positive confirmation on the target, the Canadian government do not want us to burn down everything, but we are cleared to erase any evidence of the attacks." Coulson then turned on the screen once more, and played the slideshow of corpse once more for Natasha to get a basic idea on the situation.

Once the slideshow was done, Coulson closed it once more and took a seat. He then opened up the file composed for the mission and flipped to the map of the operation area. Coulson saw there were a few towns in the area, they may have to send a team to check those towns out. The forest and surrounding mountains would be good areas for the target to hide in. By now everyone in the town may already be dead, if so SHIELD will have to remove any trace of the attacks. SHIELD would be deploying a squad of twelve, and operationally this would be further separated into three fire teams. Each fire team would be equipped with a flamethrower, other weapons to be brought along would be which ever firearm the operative wished to bring with them.

"Agent Hill, Agent Romanov and I will each be commanding a fire team. Agent Romanov, you will be bringing Winchester with you, his task would be to give advice on how to deal with the situation. Romanov and Winchester will begin the search for the missing agents and Wendigo since Winchester has the most experience dealing with these things; Maria and I will head to the towns, our objective is to assess the situation, and if the towns have already been attacked remove the evidence, once that is done we will split up." Coulson was giving out a basic plan to this mission, tactical orders were to be given by the fire team leaders, he would only assign the objective. Coulson opened up the file again and could not help but have a terrible feeling about the situation. The body count was rising, how many people would be dead before the threat was neutralized?

Coulson looked around at Natasha and then at Dean, "Mister Winchester, you may be the most experience member of this team against these creatures, but you will be under the command of Agent Romanov. You will provide advise on how to deal with the situation, but as of yet we cannot trust you with command of a fire team." Coulson knew he would need Winchester's experience at dealing with monster, but Winchester was also the weakest link of the team, he was not tested in commanding yet, thus Coulson could not trust him to lead a team, but Coulson could trust Romanov to properly command a team.

Maria gave an internal sigh at Winchester's words. His information, while helpful did nothing to put her at ease. On the contrary it confirmed her thoughts that not all the teams would make it out alive. All the agents assigned to this mission were more than competent enough to handle this situation, but to say that SHIELD was mildly unprepared for this particular mission was an understatement. This was the agency's first dealings with a supernatural attack; for once SHIELD was out of its depth.

Biting the inside of her lip, Maria looked around the room at all the agents gathered round and listening intently to them talking. How many of them would die on this mission? How many bodies would she and Coulson be bringing back to base? The answer wasn't one that she wanted to mull upon. Though she might not be as much of a "peoples person" as Coulson or various other agents, the death of an agent still weighed heavy on her mind. Though for more practical reasons, rather than sentimental. Agents that suited to the field were not only damn hard to train, they were harder to find. Any agent could wish to be a field agent, but not everyone could handle it.

"Take-off is at 1200 hours sharp," she reminded the agents once Phil had finished assigning the objective. "Except for Agents Romanova and Winchester, you are all dismissed." As the agents started filing out the door, murmuring amongst themselves, Maria turned towards Natasha. "It is good to see you again, Natasha. I'm glad you could make it. We're going to need as much skill as we can muster on this." And it was. Maria was really glad to see her. Save for Coulson and Fury, there was no one Maria trusted as much as she did.

Natasha then took the time to see exactly who was in the room. She saw other agents as well as a person she didn’t know. She wanted to get this mission done. Natasha need to spend time to make sure Clint was okay. It was going to be a good thing if she goes and spend some quality time with him to find out how truly okay he was. She hated the fact she was away from him at the moment.

Her attention was brought back when the young man whop sat at the table gave her a run down with everything that happened so far. Clint would defiantly be good on this mission she hoped he got the message in time to join them.

“It’s good to see you too. Last time I saw you, it was before you died by Loki hand. Clint is okay.” Natasha said. She wasn’t exactly sure how okay he was really. Natasha moved to one of the empty chairs and sat down. She knew she was not going to be sitting down much once the mission started. She looked at Coulson.

“Okay,” Natasha replied as Coulson showed them the slideshow. It was a few minutes before Coulson talked again. He told them what was going to happen. Natasha nodded her head in agreement. She was in charge of one of the Fire team. She was fine with that. Phil had put Winchester on her team. With his help this mission should finish quickly. She wasn’t going to dwell on how many people might not make it out alive.

It was Maria who told them what time the mission started. There wasn’t too much time before they have to leave. Maria then excused everyone else except for herself and Mr. Winchester.
“Good to see you again as well. I am glad I could make it,” Natasha started then she looked over at Phil.  “We are going to have a talk later about a certain agents death.”

As the rest of the agents got dismissed except for him and the gorgeous Agent Romanova, Dean wondered why exactly SHIELD was sending so many operatives on the mission. He knew it was dangerous (hell, no one here knew it better than him) but this many agents seemed excessive. He and Sam had managed to kill a Wendigo with just themselves and a flare-gun. Yes, he understood the whole “safety in numbers” concept that was probably in play here since the last team on this had disappeared, but six agents seemed plenty between three teams. Maybe even nine, but not twelve. That was a bit much for a group that Dean knew could take the creature down all on their own if only they had the right equipment. What was SHIELD expecting to find? A tribe of Wendigos?

As the three senior agents talked amongst themselves, Dean stayed in his chair, not exactly sure what was expected of him. Were they going to pump him for more information, out of earshot of the other agents? Because Dean knew plenty more that he could tell them if need be. As he watched the trio talk, Dean suddenly really missed Sam. He hadn’t realized this before because he’d expected that Sam would have been also called onto this mission, but this would be his first case alone without him since they’d gotten back together. Even on the Vanir scarecrow case that Dean had thought he’d do alone, Sam had come back in the end and saved his butt. Doing a mission without him, especially when it concerned a creature they’d already fought together, would be weird.

He snapped out of his musings just in time to hear something about an agent’s death. He wondered who had died though he wasn’t about to ask. He didn’t really feel like receiving a “that’s classified” to his face this morning. So he decided to make his own introductions with his new ‘partner’. Standing up, he walked over to Agent Romanova and stuck out his hand to shake. “Guess you and I are partners on this thing,” Dean said with a grin. “Agent Hill already introduced me, sort of, but you can call me Dean. Agent Winchester is a bit of a mouthful under duress.”

When Natasha told him that they had to talk latter about a death, Coulson gave a slight shrug and looked at Maria. Coulson then started to walk out of the conference room and said "If you do not like the term agent, try consultant." Mister Winchester was not a agent of S.H.I.E.L.D anyways, technically he was a consultant like Stark and Banner.

Coulson then left the conference hall and went to some more sleep before they left, he would need it. He had a bit of sleep yesterday, he had to since he received news on the mission, on other days he would have went on caffeine, but when there was a mission on the next day, agents were almost required to take some sleep, lest caffeine fail them.

CANADA, OCTOBER 28 2013, 7:48

It was another sunny day, a man walked out of his house with his son, starting up his car. He greeted his neighbor before he started to drive to his son's school, the man had no idea of what was going to happen, he had no clue. The son could not wait to return home, it was his birthday, he could not wait to return home.

As he drove his car, the man looked around, but hen all of a sudden something was in the middle of the street, he was people running away. He had no clue what they were running from, thus he stopped his car and told his son to stay inside as he checked what was happening.

He walked closer to the source of the panic until he saw what was causing it, he was terrified, frozen in the spot, but then he managed to start running back to his car. He ran and ran once he was in, he step on the gas and started to drive as fast as possible back to his house.

Once he was back, he ran inside to fetch his fetch his father and wife. He needed to get his family out of here, away from here. The man then saw the monster approach his car, no how could this be, the monster was far away how could he get here so quickly? Just as the man entered his car, he heard one of his cars window break, he stepped on the gas once more as he looked at the source, he was terrified, he saw the monster's hand reaching for his son, but he saw another beast. This one was in front of his car, it then jumped onto his car and smash through the windshield grabbing him, lifting him out of the car.

With the briefing officially over, all Maria wanted to do now was to go and get a coupla hours of sleep before the start of the mission. Obscene amounts of coffee to keep one going were all well and good, but some sleep, even the smallest amount, to allow one's body to rest and recharge was even better. Not that you got such chances often, working for SHIELD. Getting enough sleep was something wishes were made of.

She turned to go, the corner of her mouth rising in an amused smirk as she heard Winchester replying that he wasn't complaining at all about being called an agent and that on the contrary, there was something James Bondish about it.  Leaving Natasha to deal with him, Maria headed in the direction of the surgical ward. Svetlana would surely have a spare bed for her to kip on until the mission start.


S.H.I.E.L.D QUINJET, OCTOBER 31 2013, 11:55

Sipping away on her second coffee in thirty minutes, Maria stared at the file in her lap. She knew it well enough by now, given the amount of times she'd read the damn thing, but Maria wanted to be as prepared as possible for this mission. There was simply no room for errors.

Save for Winchester, Coulson and Romanova, the rest of the agents were aboard, scattered around the Quinjet, preparing for the daunting mission ahead. Their low murmurs reached Maria's ears and just like this morning she tried to block out the thought of how many might not make it back.

The brunette turned another page, skimmed through it. The report was becoming bleaker and bleaker by the paragraph. Suddenly a thought popped into her mind that made Maria's stomach twist itself into a knot. What if the creature got Coulson? She'd already lost him once; Maria wasn't sure she'd manage if it happened again. No, there was no way it was going to happen. She just wouldn't let it happen. Coulson owed her a trip to Tahiti and no demonic creature was going to stop that.

She smiled at the thought, taking another sip of coffee. She checked her watch: five minutes until take-off.


_{STATUS``: active
TAGGED``: Phil, Natasha, Dean
OUTFIT``: her usual SHIELD uniform
NOTES``: super sorry about how long this took. turns out Maria is harder than the rest of my babies combined
LYRICS``: this is war by thirty seconds to mars
CREDIT``: this template was made by the amazing TAYLYNOSAURUS REX! of caution 2.0. if you erase this credit & she finds out then she'll either come & steal all your cookies or send you to the realm of eternal tickling: your choice.}

Natasha didn't get a reply from Maria about going to meet after the meeting. She didn't say anything about it. One way or another they were going to talk about it. If she had to end up make up a false emergency then she would. That was going to be after she gave Maria some time to come to her to talk about Coulson's death, before she use the extreme method. She watched Phil and Maria leave the room. Natasha then turned to Dean and shook his hand.
"It's good to meet you Dean. I need to make sure I have everything I need packed for this mission." Natasha said, as she let go of his hand. Then she turned and left the room. Her mind was on the fact she could be with Clint at the moment, but she decided to take a mission. They wouldn't have called her in if it wasn't important. Once she got a chance she was going to find out how Clint really was.

Natasha made sure she packed what she needed for this mission. Natasha then checked her phone to see if Clint called her back, he hasn't. She cut her cellphone off and stowed in a pocket on her uniform. Then she headed to the Quinjet. She board and took her seat and buckled in. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. He thoughts were of Clint at the moment. Once they got to where ever they needed to be her mind was on the mission.

S.H.I.E.L.D QUINJET, OCTOBER 31 2013, 11:58

Dean stared morosely out of the Quinjet window. The rest of the agents were all busy preparing for the take-off, joking quietly and talking about normal things like football and hockey as casually as if they were preparing to go out to a pub for the day, and not to hunt and destroy a cannibalistic demon that had the capability of tearing them to tiny shreds before they'd even be able to yell for help. Meanwhile he was fighting the urge to sprint out of this damn tin box that passed as a form of transport, yell that he quit, and go hide out at the SHIELD bar. He hated flying. So. Freaking. Much.

All of this was made all the worse by the fact that Sam was not here to join the mission. Since they'd started hunting together, they always did cases together, always. But Sammy, bookworm that he was, had gotten roped into researching Torchwood (whatever the hell that was) and tracking them down, along with Amy. So while Dean had to fly and risk his life to save some town he knew nothing and (if he was being honest) cared just as little about, Sam got to cosy up to the gorgeous redhead at the library. Lucky jerk.

He checked his watch. Two minutes until take-off. He wished he had his flask on him to help steady his nerves (flying shattered his calm like nothing else could), but like an idiot he'd forgotten it in his room that morning. So Dean turned to his next coping mechanism - humming Led Zeppelin. As he hummed 'Stairway To Heaven', he withdrew his phone and found Sam's number. 'If something happens to me while I'm in this damn tin box, take care of my baby. And don't you even dare douche her up.' The text sent, he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. This was going to be a long flight.