1959 Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Series 2

1959 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series 2

S.H.I.E.L.D. has been running pretty smoothly for some time now. But a pair of terrible twins are about to disrupt things for the team…Fenris! They are older (77) in 1959 (their age is related to where The Gifted is in this timeline) and some of their story will be told in flashback.

They have been setting up Hellfire Club chapters around the world, trying to manipulate world events in the club's favour. They create terrorist incidents and blame them on other factions, plant misinformation etc. They have also been finding or rescuing promising mutants then enticing/forcing them to join.

Nathaniel Essex is referred to as "our employer" but never by name. No one has been able to work out how the bombs were planted in these incidents, but Howard works out that Fenris are the bomb, managing to link these incidents together and build up a profile for the now elderly Von Struckers. 

In a slight rework from the original The Gifted timeline, the London incident should be 1915 and it's the Police in pursuit, Rio should be 1930 with SSR investigating and pursuing. They manage to evade capture until this series. 

They chase them across the world after the latest incident in Plac Zamkovy, which kills hundreds. They can't figure out what gives them this power (no one knows about mutants, except Otto Strucker). They finally catch up with them and Andrea is killed before they can detonate. Andreas flees to grieve and consider his next move.

They have embedded themselves in Hydra to disguise their true allegiance.

Peggy, Howard, the Howling Commandos, Brian and Jacqueline Falsworth are all present but Adam Brashear is now off world and Sousa 'died' in 1955 as per original AoS s7 continuity. James Braddock (actor tbc) is more prominent here after being a background character previously, also he had "mystically given" powers, but kept them secret from all but a select few, also a great scientist. Very useful for S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.T.R.I.K.E.

As a second arc in this series Howard and Anton Vanko finalise their prototype for the arc reactor. Howard wants to keep developing it in secret, with a view to sharing it when he is sure it can't be copied or duplicated without them both. He has learned his lesson from season 1 of Agent Carter where some of his technology was dangerously flawed or misappropriated. He doesn't want the arc reactor rushed. He doesn't want the technology to fall into the wrong hands. Vanko wants to patent it and start selling the idea straight away. 

Vanko: It's too important not to share it right now.

Stark: I see that it could help the world right now, but I am not prepared to compromise on safety or security. If we rush out a design that could be reverse engineered relatively easily it could start another world war.

V: You just don't want to share the technology with Russia, do you? You think Russia is Leviathan? You think I am with Leviathan? I have known you 13 years Howard…

S: Now Anton, it's not like that, I just need to put in some checks and bal-

V: You want to take all the credit! Where is the proof I was involved in the design if there is no patent?

S: Now wait a minute Anton-

V: You want all the profit too?

S (scoffs): This shouldn't be about money.

V: This is easy for you to say. You live in America like a billionaire,  I live here like a Russian immigrant.

S: I pay you well enough Anton…Let's just…let's just cool off…talk about this in the morning. We can work this out.

V (tersely): Good night, Mr Stark.

By the next morning, Vanko has gone and so have the blueprints. S.H.I.E.L.D. tracks him down and recover the blueprints and hand him over to the company lawyers who have him charged and deported. Howard is too angry to object to the industrial espionage charges or the deportation. He does, however, offer to pay Vanko his share of any profits their design makes. Vanko refuses, arrogantly thinking he can recreate the designs on his own in Russia. He cannot and ends up drunk and destitute setting up Iron Man 2.

Post credits:-

With the Fenris bomb duo out of the picture, we see Sebastian Shaw at the Las Vegas chapter of the Hellfire Club taking a phone call from his employer saying he "would be delighted to be the new black king". After he hangs up he says "now to find myself a queen".

1969 Blue Marvel II

This story line seems like a good fit…mostly. Set in '69 not '72. Also the team won't be referred to as the 'Mighty Avengers' as the Avengers are a long way off…

Adam has an undersea base that Namor made for him at Peggy's request to keep Adam safe from persecution.

Adam has moved on from Peggy after s2 of Agent Carter as she was more romantically interested in Sousa/memory of Steve. He has a family now, Candace (formerly Marlene) and Kevin that help out with his secret superheroing from his secret base. It has been secret as the President thought that America wasn't ready for a black superhero as per the comics (to be further explored in TFATWS). Candace is a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was assigned to make sure Adam wasn’t trying to be a superhero. She quit, changed her name and married him and helped him carry on Superheroing in secret.

The plot:

Open on a character called Lichidus overseeing the upcoming dissection of a scared and frantic half-human creature. They inject it with a small amount of silver to get it to cooperate. Then he monologues about how their plans are nearly come to fruition. Then he sling rings out of there but he should have stuck around because they didn't use enough silver and the creature's hand begins to twitch…

Cut to:

Lord Montgomery Falsworth has been investigating sightings of his missing brother and his supposed victims for nine years. S.H.I.E.L.D. won't give time or money to it anymore so he has been doing it on his own time and dime. However when he does get a tip, the trail has usually gone cold by the time he gets there. So Peggy suggested he seek out the Blue Marvel who can travel faster than the speed of sound.

Adam is living undersea as mentioned above. He has secretly been fighting crime with his family's help ever since the President's no superheroing decree forced him underground/underwater. He feels bad that Kevin's education is being disrupted. Candace agrees but very much blames the government and not Adam. Kevin loves the adventure and doesn't care as much about missing school, though he does seem very bright and feels he is missing out on friends and having a normal life.

When Falsworth contacts him they bring him back to base (he is impressed with the Talokanil engineering and technology) and run through the supposed sightings of his brother.

Several victims were mauled or bitten to death in very similar ways. It started in Austria but now there are reports across much of Europe. Every victim had been completely drained of blood. In many of these cases witness reports describe a man who looks like a vaguely monstrous John Falsworth near or actually leaving the scene. 

There had been no sightings for several months but Peggy had called in with another drained victim with similar wounds at a small village near Tunguska, Siberia two days ago and suggested Falsworth come to visit Adam.

Adam goes as fast as he can. Falsworth and Candace are picked up by Howard Stark in his mkII Quinjet and go by air (so Kevin has to go too, but it will take them some time). They are all equipped with special long distance wireless communicators by Howard. They are also backed up by Peggy, Brian and Jacqueline Falsworth and a contingent of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. There is a risk that other S.H.I.E.L.D. higher ups or the American government would come down hard on helping the Blue Marvel and on wasting S.H.I.E.L.D. resources. But Peggy and Howard want to support James after everything he's given to the cause.

Adam arrives in Siberia at night. He scouts near where the victim was found from the air. He widens the search and spies a humanoid figure moving strangely a few miles off. He flies down to engage and is caught off guard by a sudden attack. Surprised by the creature's strength, he is struggling to regain the upper hand as it tries to bite him. Though he would have come out on top eventually, he gets a surprise assist. They fight him off together but the new hero wants to make sure Adam wasn’t bitten before pursuing. Adam introduces himself. His 'saviour ' is Eric Brooks aka Blade aka Daywalker aka the Dhampir aka the half vampire. He is immune to vampire bites as he is half vampire. He is not vulnerable to sunlight or silver as he is half human but garlic gives him indigestion. He has tracked the creature on and off for several years but this was the closest he's ever been.

Adam explains who they think it used to be.

Blade: Don't care who he was, only care what he's gonna be. Dead. Permanently this time.

Adam informs the following team that they believe he has found John and is following the trail.

Blade is very good at tracking vampires (Adam is taken aback that vampires are real), so leads the way.

They come across the aftermath of a battle. There are several dead soldiers dressed in black combat gear. A bear is poking around the cadavers.

They try not to disturb the bear, but it picks up their scent. It charges. Blade says if you stand your ground it will stop charging. Only it doesn't.

Adam takes off and, not wanting to hurt the creature, blasts nearby to scare it off. But it doesn't flinch. Blade has to dive out the way at the last moment and he and Adam fight and manage to subdue the bear, which transforms into a woman, unconscious in the snow.

Surprised, they nonetheless spring into action. Blade wants to leave her and follow the monster's trail, but Adam shames him into helping the woman, who would otherwise die from exposure. They find a groundsheet in one trooper's pack and wrap her in it. They reason that the troops must have come from a base nearby and follow their trail instead. Adam uses his flight to spy ahead and they find and reach the base swiftly. There are signs of a breakout. The heavy main door is hanging off it's fixings.

The clues that led Blade to Siberia suggested the creature had been taken against its will, so the breakout made sense. But there doesn't seem to be a lab or holding cell.

Eric's tracking skills lead him to a hidden door, but they don't know how to open it. Adam starts working to figure it out and Blade finds some combat gear for the woman to wear.

Thanks to her part bear physiology she recovers quickly and starts growling and shouting at them in broken Russian. Her appearance and voice are becoming more bear-like as she gets more aggressive.

Adam (To Blade): How's your Russian? 

Blade: Not so good!

They try to calm the situation and she eventually realises they mean her no harm. Adam calls Candace with his special Stark designed communicator and she translates for them, allowing the three to talk:

Bear (after dressing): *I never thought I would wear this uniform again.*

Adam: You know those troopers?

Bear: *Some of them. I thought you were with them.*

Blade: Who are they?

Bear: *Deathwalkers. They are a death cult, dedicated to the order of Chthon.*

Blade: The order of what?

(*indicates translation by Candace)

Chthon is an elder god, who would destroy this universe and remake it in their own image. To bring them from their dimension requires a great sacrifice. The Deathwalkers believe the destruction of an entire continent is necessary.

To achieve their aims and to live to see this rapture, they need to drink vampire blood as it slows the aging process to the point of near immortality. However, the more immortals you create, the more vampire blood you need and the less vampires you have.

They decided to create their own vampire/human hybrids using the bones of an ancient vampire and the Talisman of Kamar Taj. The Talisman merges two creatures together and had been stolen from Kamar Taj by a rogue sorcerer.

Bear had been a Deathwalker and had drank vampire blood many times, granting her a very long life.

In return, she had been "volunteered" for early experiments with the Talisman and more simple creatures, without really knowing what she was getting into. She was merged with a bear. She became a bear for so long afterward that she almost forgot who she was.

A former friend took pity on her and released her into the wild. She believes she mauled them on the way out, being more bear than woman at that time.

As things stand now, she can't remember her name or family and is trying to piece her history together. She thinks she was a believer, but her transformation without consent showed her how monstrous the Deathwalkers were. She means to stop all their operations and kill their leader. His name is Lichidus.

She reasons John Falsworth was discarded as a failed experiment at their former base in Austria (taken over by Hydra during the war) but he came back to (un)life anyway. The Deathwalkers must have caught up with him and brought him back here for more experimentation. Bear, who never strayed that far from the base, saw him escape and his treatment at the hands of the Deathwalker troops prompted her to intervene. The surprise of her attack gave Falsworth the upper hand and allowed him to escape.

Bear shows them the secret door and the three of them manage to wrench it off with their super strength. There are several vampire hybrids in cages, some are children. The adult ones draw the children in close and hiss at the intruders. They are all having blood pumped from them via intravenous lines.

There is a file, in Russian, on John Falsworth and the aftermath of a fight round an operating table.

Blade is checking more dead Deathwalkers for bite marks. As he is doing so one comes back to life and attacks him. He dispatches them with ruthless efficiency. The caged vampires all hiss at him for killing one of theirs and he wields his blade at them.

Bear is angry at him in Russian. Candace says that the Bear said he shouldn't kill them, they're victims, like her. They just have to remind them they're human. He says try saying that when a vampire has just ripped your throat out. She doesn't understand. They talk at eachother angrily. Adam is trying to make peace when more of the Deathwalker troops and scientists come back to (un)life.

They retreat, battling their way towards the broken secret door and when the broken main door comes into view they see the troopers from the earlier battle coming through the gap. They have been turned as well. The Bear's strength and Blade's skill aren't enough to hold them back. Even Adam's strength and concussion blasts only halt them temporarily.

Adam: Didn't you check them for bites?!

Blade: We were being attacked by a bear!

They fight hard but are almost surrounded. Adam calls to Candace and asks if they're almost there. She says they're just a few minutes out, hold on, but they can't. The vamps pretty much match Blade and the Bear in strength. The Bear doesn't want to transform as, though she'll be stronger, she'll more vulnerable to being bitten. Adam is strong enough to hold them off but is in increasing danger of a bite from the sheer number of vampires. Blade is struggling to move his sword. He and the Bear are about to be overwhelmed.

In his frustration, Adam builds up and releases an energy pulse knocking out friends and enemies alike. He passes out from the sheer expenditure of energy.

When he comes to they are on the Quinjet. Candance said she didn't know he could do that. Adam says neither did he.

Blade comes to and doesn't appreciate being knocked out, but is relieved to be alive. The Bear wakes up still in fighting mode but is talked down by Candace before she goes full bear.

Howard is trialling a new collar that dampens superpowers once it can be tailored to the individual. Candace has translated the file on John Falsworth and it seems like the process mutates both sets of dna to accept the other. It also details the make up of the vampiric genome allowing Howard to calibrate the collar. This means they can safely transport the hybrid victims and the Deathwalker vampires back to their base. Though the remaining Deathwalker vampires are restrained. And the effect of the vampire blood they drank is an unknown factor. Risky! But Howard assures them that it's safe. They have Union Jack II and Spitfire to back them up too.

The file on John Falsworth suggests there is a Deathwalker base in New York, though it doesn't detail where.

Adam, Blade, the Bear and James Falsworth stay behind as they have yet to find John. Candace and Kevin stay behind too to be near Adam.

Falsworth is concerned the trail may go cold (figuratively) again. Blade assures him, with the sun coming up, he can't have gotten far.

This gives us Eric Brooks in the 50s! Minor change to his backstory in the Blade movies required!

To be continued…

For the exception of that horrible giggling the announcer does, this looks quite interesting. And the sims vivas look so much better than life by you people.

Mcu Invaders AU art by Marvelite

Namor Week - Day 4 - Alternate Universe