kiss with a fist

Maria always tried to be on when she was at work, and even if she wasn’t in uniform, being surrounded by a bunch of people in SHIELD uniforms, hearing the bustle of a busy super spy organization around her made Maria’s back a little straighter and something a little more severe slide over her features.  Even if she officially didn’t work here anymore.  The only one that could speak to that, though, was still technically dead, and Maria didn’t know if she still had the pull she ought to have.

But she couldn’t help just acting like it, giving Hendrix a wry smile, one that barely lifted the corner of her lips.  "I can’t believe it either.  But I couldn’t stay away any longer.  I’m sure there are people here that would like me to, but I just couldn’t do it in good conscious.“  Maria chewed at the inside of her lip for a moment and looked around.  "There is way too much to do, and it honestly doesn’t look like the right people are in charge,” Maria said, a little lowly, knowing at one point she could almost trust Hendrix.  She could only hope that was still true.  "Who is the higher ups these days anyway?“ she said, taking the compliment with a slight raise of her lips, glancing at Hendrix with something approaching amusement.  "Flattery will still get you everywhere,” she said and smirked a little wider.  "But really, who did they turn the reigns over to?  I hope someone that’s going to take it with grace when I tell them that Fury made me acting director.  And that I’m not taking no for an answer.“  She sighed.  “From what I can see we haven’t been doing much out there.  It’s chaos as far as I can see. I hope you have some insight on that.” 

While she wasn’t in any sort of position to call the shots, the trust that S.H.I.E.L.D had given her was a nice change, and something she was sure of taking weeks to procure. It felt almost unjust, but they were desperate and Gemma seemed to be one of the only good candidates for the big picture things that they had remaining. Not that she was really complaining, because in the grand scheme of things, she would have much rather been on the front line in dealing with this issue, than watching from afar. She can actually try to do something, try to make some of their information worthwhile. 

“Honestly? I’m really glad you’re here, we could definitely use your help. They’re all a bit hopeless, if you ask me.” Gemma said, looking around them for a brief moment and nodding in agreement. “Yeah, it’s rather questionable. They’ve been doing a lot of switching around, but we have a new top dog named Mack, Alphonso Mackenzie. I just kind of got... pushed into everything so I’m still trying to learn names and such. I was always kind of the worst with that stuff.” she said, letting out a soft laugh. That, on top of the other list of things she had to make sure she did, a few things were bound to fall through the cracks. “Honestly? I would much rather have you as director, because I know you’ll get stuff done. Keep everyone else in line. Some times I feel like I’m the only one making an effort. They’re not taking this seriously, half of them think that we’ve already lost but I know there’s a way that we can get out of this. I’m sure of it.”

.. Hi? 

Time for recovery wasn’t something that Maria really had the luxury for.  Or the patience.  The day after she was officially discharged from the hospital, she started working.  And that work included tracking down whoever had been running SHIELD while she’d been, for lack of a better word, dead, and then…  well.  Maria didn’t really want to say the word ‘coup’ but that was more or less what she was thinking.  Maria wasn’t really about to trust anyone but herself at the helm until she got Nick back.  SHIELD  had a rocky enough history for her to trust that she couldn’t trust it.

It didn’t take Maria long to track down the new unofficial headquarters that SHIELD was operating out of and most everyone seemed to know who she was to let her in without much of a fuss, even without her credentials on her.  The surprising part really, was seeing who had risen in her absence.  Maria took her in for a moment from a distance, surprised at how young she still looked, though there was something that was definitely more mature about the way she carried herself, and the set of her jaw.  Maria smiled a little to herself as she approached.  "You know, Hendrix, I was pretty sure I told you that you can’t go around expecting anything when you work for SHIELD.“  Her smile brightened just a little when Hendrix turned to her.  "I was worried about who I might find in charge, but if you’re still here, maybe I shouldn’t worry so much.”

Having to step up so soon wasn’t something that Gemma had anticipated, but she knew that she could be able to rise up to task. Or at the very least, she could try her best. When everything started to go down in New York before the snap, she had found herself cooped up inside trying to do some research, any research, on what it could possibly be. Overachieving, sure. But she couldn’t just sit around and do nothing, she had to do something. She’s kept that same mindset up until this point, knowing that one of the reasons she had joined SHIELD was for this very reason. Alien attacks, world destruction, the whole nine. This one just didn’t have the ending that she was expecting. 

Once she realized who she had been talking to, Gemma couldn’t help but smile brightly towards her. “Hill! I can’t believe you’re actually here. I mean, I heard you had come back.. to life. But I can never tell what’s baseless gossip and the truth around here, I think they’re getting bored. There’s so much that still could be done and they’re just..” she trailed off, pinching the bridge of her nose before taking a deep breath. “I’m here, but I can’t say I have too much pull. I got moved up, by default. We had a lot of SHIELD agents.. go. With the snap. “I did get trained by the best of the best though, so maybe the higher ups made a good call.” 

Natasha had been out and about the city ever since the rift. She was fighting along side a few other volunteers. She had those who thought it was the PURGE and could go around thinking new york had no more laws. A group of mysterious men and women in white mask going around killing innocent people. As if thanos killing half of everyone wasn’t enough. Some of the law biding leaders were ashed away, leaving New York and the rest of the world in a mess.

Some people praised the rift. They wanted to sacrifice themselves or others Natasha was out there kicking ass and helping put away crazy citizens away. She knew they were all reacting to the unexplained, but more people did not need to die.She was glad when that rift closed, and was proud of her boyfriend for being the one to do it. Reed Richards hardly helping, thanks to Bruce it was sealed.

the bad news their teammate Thor was trapped, the good news. Maria was back and a few others. She turned to the voice beside her. “Hey Gemma.” she knew who she was. Natasha had oen of those anonymous terrorist in an arm lock. “Me too.. you think you could be a dear and help me with him? ” She handed her a gun. “Don’t kill him unless he tries to hurt you. ” She wanted her to held hold him hostage until she could get him into a prision van. One wasn’t too far off, just a few yards.

Having been too caught up in her own internal panic about being so rapidly moved up in SHIELD, Gemma had failed to fully process what was currently happening around her. She tucked away the device that she was using to look through what information they did have into her pocket. “Yes, definitely. Sorry Natasha I’m just.. This whole thing has been a lot to wrap my head around.” she said, accepting the gun that was handed over before she sprung into action right alongside the woman. She maneuvered her arms around the male in question, shaking her head a little. 

Despite everything that had happened, there still seemed to be crime going on, people have gotten greedier. From the things that she heard, Thanos had only done what he did to make things better for them, end poverty and end any suffering, but what he didn’t take into account was the state that he’d left everything in. New York was still partially destroyed from what happened with Iron Man and co., and everyone dusting away had caused for even more mayhem as cars and planes lost their drivers and crashed into whatever was closest. “You would think that given everything that has happened, people would learn their lesson.” she said, looking at the man she had securely locked in her grip for a second. 

With a decent portion of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents dusted away, Gemma got moved up a bit prematurely in efforts to try and figure out what was going on. There had to be something they were missing, especially with the addition of the people who came through the rift. It was a sign that there was another place where those who had gone were still alive, it was just getting them back that was going to be a bit of struggle. “Of all the things that I was anticipating going into this, our current situation was the last thing I was expecting.” she said with a slightly uneasy laugh, turning her head to look towards the closest person to her.