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[b][color=#ffffff]Briefing Room Six, Pegasus Helicarrier[/color][/b]

[color=#ffffff]Guy Gardner and Ben Grimm walked side by side into the briefing room. It had been two hours since they had boarded Guy’s old ship, the Pegasus, at the Triskelion on the orders of Dum Dum Dugan. They had been told next to nothing. Gardner had spent most of that time catching up with old colleagues. Valentina Vostok, Gardner’s old commanding officer, had showed him pictures of her new baby whilst the rest of the crew clamoured over Ben. Even on a SHIELD helicarrier, a walking, talking rock monster was something of a novelty, after all.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Dugan was stood with his back to Guy and Ben. The old SHIELD agent was inspecting a holographic reenactment of what looked to be an assault on a convoy of trucks. His eyes remained trained on it long after the two SHIELD agents had taken their seats in the briefing room. After a few moments, Guy grew restless and cleared his throat in the hope of catching his mentor’s attention.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“You mind telling us what’s going on here, Dugan? Something tells me you didn’t drag us back onto the Pegasus so I could see my friends.”[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“Heh, friends?” [/color][color=#ffffff]Ben murmured through a mischievous grin.[/color][color=#f6b26b] “You ask me, your “friends” didn’t seem all that too happy to see you, Carrot Top.”[/color]

Guy scowled. He still quite hadn't gotten over Ben's little "[i]Condiment King[/i]" prank the other day – which was made worse by the lecture he'd been given by the eggheads down at the infirmary when he'd explained how he'd broken two of his fingers. In light of both of those things, ribbing Gardner about the Pegasus proved a step too far and his famous, or perhaps infamous, ability to laugh at himself failed him for once.

[color=#b6d7a8]“You don’t know what you’re talking about. I was the best damn ca-”[/color]

[color=#b45f06]“Enough,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Dugan shouted as he finally turned to face them. [/color][color=#b45f06]“This is serious. We don’t have time for … whatever [i]this [/i]is. I’m going to need the two of you at the top of your games if we’re going to make our way out of this godforsaken mess. So you both need to settle the fuck down.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]It was clear from Dugan’s voice that he would brook no further argument or interruptions. Usually an affable man, the weight of the task facing him was clearly wearing on him. Perhaps more than he would like to admit, his regret about what had happened to his longtime partner Nick Fury was making him second guess his every decision.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sensing the seriousness of the situation, Ben nodded earnestly to Dugan. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“We’re all ears.”[/color]

[color=#b45f06]“Chin escaped,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Dugan sighed. [/color][color=#b45f06]“His transport convoy was attacked just outside of China. Nine MSS officers and four of ours are dead. Needless to say, the Chinese are livid. We’re talking the kind of angry that might end up with them pulling their support for SHIELD altogether.”[/color]

Suddenly the holographic images of a vehicle under siege made sense to Guy and Ben. The reenactment had been stiched together out of bits and pieces of CCTV footage that SHIELD had been able to collate from different sources near the scene. It wasn’t perfect, but it created some sense of what SHIELD had been up against. The attackers moved fast, using deadly force as if it were nothing, and had Chin out within a minute – in short, they were professionals.

[color=#ffffff]Sensing that Dugan wasn’t telling them all of this out of the goodness of his heart, Guy frowned.[/color][color=#b6d7a8] “So what do you mean for us to do about it?”[/color]

[color=#b45f06]“See, that’s where things get a little problematic,"[/color] Dugan said gingerly. [color=#b45f06]"We’ve got our hands on some reliable intel that suggests that Chin has taken refuge in Lowtown. No prizes for guessing why he's holed up in the only town in the world that SHIELD isn't authorised to operate in.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The words left Dugan’s mouth as matter-as-factly as if he were describing water as being wet. They were accepted as much by Guy Gardner too. Next to him, Ben Grimm’s mouth was agape. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The shock was writ over his face long before he had a chance to voice his disapproval vocally so Dugan was almost prepared to field the inevitable follow-up question.[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“Now I know you're yanking my chain? I thought SHIELD had the UN’s authority to go in [i]wherever [/i]it needed. You’re trying to tell me that Madripoor is off-limits for the world’s biggest peacekeeping body? That place is as big a hive of criminals as there is on the face of the Earth.”[/color]

Guy shrugged. [color=#b6d7a8]“It’s not a matter of legality, Ben, it’s ... well, the [i]complete[/i] opposite. You thought Juba was bad? Lowtown makes Juba look like one of those Scandinavian countries where all people do is ride bikes and congratulate each other on how frigging perfect-looking they are.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Ben pinched the bridge of his nose as he struggled to try and make sense of what Guy had said. Whilst his eyes were closed, Dugan shot Gardner a disapproving look, as if to compel him to silence, and then set about trying to explain the grubby little compromise that he and Nick Fury had helped broker with the Madripoorians nearly three decades ago.[/color]

[color=#b45f06]“SHIELD entered into an agreement of sorts with some of the local criminal element to turn a blind eye to all the drinking and whoring that goes on in Lowtown. We don’t go after them for trying to have a good time occasionally, and they keep things [i]fairly [/i]above board in the region.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]It was clear from Ben’s sigh that he thought that the Madripoorian agreement was ridiculous.[/color][color=#f6b26b] “Just when I thought I’d heard everything.”[/color]

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[color=#b45f06]”It’s not perfect,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Dugan conceded. [/color][color=#b45f06]“Heck, it’s not even [i]close[/i] to being right, but it works for both parties. Neither of you were around to see what Madripoor was like before – or what the helpless sons of bitches that lived there had to put up with. If you had, you would understand.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]It felt like a lifetime since the war in Madripoor – though [i]no one [/i]was allowed to call it that, of course. Dum Dum had spent eight summers fishing the bodies of dead SHIELD agents out of the drink without so much as putting a dent in the colony’s drug trade. It was too ingrained in its culture. They hadn’t realised that when they went in, but they soon realised it once the bodies started to pile up. Since SHIELD had stopped operating in Madripoor, it had cleaned its act up some. Now it was mostly casinos and brothels – and fugitives from SHIELD like Zhang Chin.[/color]

Ben rolled his eyes. [color=#f6b26b]“Well if SHIELD can’t operate in Lowtown, then why the hell are you telling us all of this? As much as I want to see Chin's narrow butt taken down, it doesn’t sound like there’s [i]anything [/i]we can do about it. Not unless Chin suddenly decides to take a vacation.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Suddenly there was intent in Dum Dum's eyes as he looked at Guy and Ben, but there was also doubt. Of the two of them, Guy knew Dugan better and was quicker to sense that something was amiss. [/color][color=#b6d7a8]“Why are you looking at us like that?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Dugan swallowed hard.[/color]

[color=#b45f06]“Guy Darrin Gardner, Benjamin Jacob Grimm, effective immediately you are stripped of your positions as Agents of SHIELD. Director Hill has asked me to thank the you both of for your distinguished service over the past three months. You will be escorted off board this helicarrier by SHIELD security staff at the next possible juncture. SHIELD wishes you the best of luck in your future endeavours – [i]whatever[/i] they may be.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]A knowing smile crept onto Guy Gardner's face as the true meaning of their sudden dismissal from SHIELD sunk in. [/color][color=#b6d7a8]“Oh, you son of a bitch.”[/color]