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{Chapter: 57 - SHIELD, Steve And Aiden Talking Out}
"Aiden! Don't forget your identity! You are a SHIELD agent! Do you even understand what you're doing right now?!"
The man standing at the front of the group shouted furiously, his voice shaking with a mix of anger and anxiety. Though his hands were trembling slightly, he dared not make any sudden movementsânot with dozens of guns hovering in the air, pointing back at him and his team like mechanical reapers ready to strike.
Aiden remained seated, reclining slightly on the couch as though he were completely unbothered by the chaos that had just unfolded. His expression was calm, but there was an edge in his eyesâsharp and unyielding. His aura had changed. It was no longer the carefully veiled presence of someone playing nice with an organization. It was now the calm of someone who knew exactly how powerful he had become and was no longer afraid to show it.
He raised a single hand and lazily gestured. Instantly, the floating firearms mimicked his motion, tilting in eerie synchronization.
"First of all," Aiden said, his voice cool and controlled, "I am not a SHIELD agent. I've never signed on as a full member. I'm a consultantânothing more. I assist when I feel like it, but I don't take orders."
He slowly stood up, brushing invisible dust from his jacket before walking toward the group of intruders with slow, deliberate steps.
"Second of all... Chan Ho Yin is no longer under your jurisdiction. He's decided to follow me, of his own free will. That means he's not your asset. He's not your project. He's not your pawn. He's mine nowâone of my knights."
The man clenched his jaw, clearly furious. "Are you seriously going down this path? Do you understand what this means? SHIELD will not stand idly by while you defy direct protocol!"
Aiden stopped a few feet away from him, smirking as his eyes glowed faintly with powerâpower that was no longer limited to just one domain.
"Trying to scare me with SHIELD's name? That might've worked in the past. I used to keep my head down, used to play by their rules, because I didn't have the strength to do otherwise. I complied, I adapted, I waited. But that version of me is gone."
He lifted his right hand again and casually snapped his fingers.
One by one, the intruders' weapons were forcefully disassembled midairâpieces of metal, springs, and wires scattering across the room and falling with metallic clinks to the ground. The agents instinctively stepped back, stunned and helpless.
"I'm not laying low anymore. Not now. Not ever again."
There was a long silence. Even Chan Ho, who had been standing quietly behind Aiden this entire time, was struck speechless. He had always known Aiden was powerful. But seeing him like thisâdecisive, unyielding, untouchableâwas something else entirely. It was the moment he realized just how vast the gap had become between Aiden and the people who once tried to control him.
The leader of the SHIELD unit scowled, but didn't move. He knew he was outmatched. Everyone in the room did.
"I hope you won't regret this decision," the man hissed finally, his voice low but filled with frustration.
Aiden's eyes narrowed. An idea formed in his mindâa spark of strategy igniting behind the calm facade.
This guy wouldn't act. He knew it. He was just a mouthpiece. The real authority still sat behind closed doors in some control room. So why not take this chance and escalate it on his own terms?
"Go ahead," Aiden said, folding his arms across his chest. "Tell Nick Fury. Tell him exactly what I said: I'm not one of his pawns, and this is just the beginning. I'm building something bigger, and I won't be reporting to SHIELD anymore."
---
Elsewhere â The Helicarrier Command Center
A low beep echoed through the dimly lit command deck as an urgent report flashed onto the main screen.
Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, stood at the center of it allâhis single eye scanning the incoming message. The room fell into a heavy silence as the operators around him paused, awaiting his reaction.
He read the brief summary with furrowed brows.
Aiden had confronted a SHIELD team, neutralized their weapons effortlessly, and declared that he would no longer follow SHIELD's lead. Furthermore, he had taken Chan Ho Yin into his own custody.
Maria Hill approached, holding a tablet with more detailed data.
"Director," she began cautiously, "Aiden's made it clearâhe's distancing himself. He used telekinesis to disarm the squad in less than three seconds. They had no chance."
Fury rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He had expected pushback from Aiden one day, but not this soonâand not this publicly. The kid had always been a wild card, and now it seemed the cards were falling out of Fury's hand.
Still, he had to tread carefully. If Aiden was truly accumulating power, then strong-arming him might do more harm than good.
"I'll be honest," Fury muttered, more to himself than to anyone in particular, "I didn't think he'd take it this far."
He turned to Maria. "Notify Steve Rogers. I want Captain America to talk to him directly. If anyone can reach him, it's Steve."
Maria hesitated. "Director... Steve Rogers' phone is currently offline. We've been trying for the last fifteen minutes."
Fury narrowed his eye. "Offline?"
"Yes, sir. Completely unreachable."
That unsettled him.
Fury pulled out his own device, rapidly dialing the number. The call rang once, twice... then dropped.
No signal.
A deep frown creased his face.
"Find Rogers," Fury commanded. "And in the meantime... keep a close watch on Aiden. I want everythingâhis location, who he contacts, even what he eats. I want daily updates."
Maria nodded. "Understood, Director."
As she walked off, Fury remained at the center of the command deck, staring at the digital map of global assets. Aiden's signal glowed steadily in one corner of the screen.
"Let's see how far you're willing to go, kid," Fury murmured. "But if you're going to break away from SHIELD... you better be ready for the consequences."
---
At the same time, Aiden gave a faint smile, his calm yet sharp gaze locked on Steve Rogers, who stood a few feet away with a confused expression on his face. Aiden, exuding quiet confidence, lifted his chin slightly.
"Nick will call you soon," Aiden stated firmly, his tone resolute and unquestioning.
Steve blinked. "What�"
He hadn't even been briefed on what this meeting was about. All he knew was that Aiden had contacted him personally, asking him to come to this secure and isolated rooftop with an urgent tone in his voice. That alone had been enough to pique Steve's curiosity, and now he found himself thrown into a situation that seemed more complex than he'd imagined.
Before Steve could formulate a response, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Curious and mildly suspicious, he fished it out and looked at the screen.
The name "Nick Fury" lit up the caller ID.
Steve raised his eyes to Aiden, who remained still, watching him with a knowing smile that only deepened Steve's confusion.
He slowly answered the call. "It's me⌠Um, Aiden's here?"
Nick's voice came sharp and direct through the phone. [That's right. Where are you right now?]
Steve glanced around briefly. "In front of him. He brought me here just a few minutes ago."
[What? He got to you before I could even get a call through?]
"Yeah. It's strange, but it's like⌠he knew you were going to call."
There was a pause on the other end, and Steve could practically hear Nick processing the implications.
[It doesn't matter how he knew. What matters is that you're there. Handle this, Steve. Try to understand what he's doing, and make sure this doesn't blow up into something bigger.]
"Understood," Steve said before ending the call.
As he slid the phone back into his pocket, Steve looked up at Aiden, studying the young man in front of him.
"Well," Steve said slowly, folding his arms across his chest. "I should thank you for the ride, I guess. That ability of yours⌠Seeing the future? It's impressive. Rare. Even a little unnerving."
Aiden smiled. It wasn't a proud smile, nor was it smug â it was the kind of smile someone wore when they had seen the pieces of the game shift before they even began to move.
"I don't see everything," Aiden admitted. "Most of the time, the visions are scattered. Flashes. Fragments. Not very useful. But once in a while, when it matters the most, I see just enough."
In truth, Aiden had foreseen this encounter â not every detail, but enough to predict that Nick would reach out to Steve. Enough to act first. He had Blink place a speed call to Steve just a few minutes ago. Aiden understood one thing: influence came not only from power, but from foresight â from being a step ahead of everyone else.
Now that Nick and Steve had both seen what he could do, he knew they would no longer dismiss him as just a rogue asset or a lucky fighter. They would start watching him more carefully. And that was exactly what he wanted.
"Those guys," Aiden continued, casting a glance at the group of agents who had just confronted him earlier, "they came out of nowhere and pointed guns at me. I was really scared, you know?"
His voice carried an innocent, almost playful tone â a deliberate mockery of the situation. He even widened his eyes a little for effect, as if truly traumatized by the incident.
Steve sighed. "Are you sure it's not them who are scared of you?"
The agents in question, still visibly shaken, held onto their weapons like lifelines. They weren't amateurs, not by any means. But facing Aiden, with his strange and ever-growing collection of powers, had rattled them more than they cared to admit.
Steve turned to them and spoke calmly but firmly, in his authoritative yet reasonable tone. "You guys can leave. I'll take it from here."
They hesitated for a moment, glancing at one another. Then, when the guns automatically reassembled and levitating finally returned to their hands â as if dismissed by some invisible will â they nodded quickly, retreated in silence, and disappeared down the stairwell.
With the threat gone and the rooftop now quiet, Aiden turned to Steve with a more relaxed expression.
"Much better for a conversation, don't you think?"
With a flick of his hand, a sleek black table hovered into view and gently landed between them. Two comfortable couches floated into place behind it, as if the rooftop had suddenly transformed into a private meeting room in the sky. Moments later, two glasses flew from a nearby crate and hovered in the air as a dark, ornate bottle followed, tilting itself to pour a rich burgundy liquid into each cup.
Aiden handed one of the glasses to Steve, the wine swirling inside like liquid ruby. "Sit," he offered casually. "Let me introduce you to my team. These are the people who will be working with me from now on."
Steve raised a brow. "You've got a team now?"
Aiden nodded. "We're not SHIELD. We're not Avengers either. Think of us as⌠independent. But with similar goals. We want to protect the world, just not under anyone's leash."
"And that includes Nick's leash?" Steve asked, taking a cautious sip of the wine.
Aiden chuckled softly. "Especially Nick's leash."
He gestured behind him, and one by one, his teammates step forward from â Blink, with her violet eyes glowing faintly; Marrow, with her arms crossed, leaning against the ledge; and finally, Chan Ho, who now stood tall, no longer under SHIELD's thumb.
"They all have stories. They all have reasons to fight. And most importantly⌠they chose to follow me. I didn't recruit them â they came to me."
Steve's eyes swept over the group, his expression unreadable. After a long silence, he finally said, "So what now? You going to keep predicting the future and doing your own thing while SHIELD and the world just⌠watch?"
"No," Aiden said calmly. "I want cooperation. But it has to be on equal footing. I'm done playing subordinate to people who think they can control everything."
Steve looked at the young man across the table, seeing in him not just power, but conviction. It reminded him of himself in his younger days â of the time when he first began to challenge the rigid flawed systems around him.
*****
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