Begin Again In Marvel

POV Nick

I was sitting in my office trying to figure out how to maintain Shield in the face of the most recent crisis. Almost everyone on the planet was controlled by the Music Meister and now Trillions of dollars of goods are missing. Needless to say, I was not happy. I heard a knock at the door and let Coulson in.

Coulson: "Sir I have urgent news!"

Fury: "What happened?"

Coulson: "The Music Meister has escaped."

Fury: "WHAT?! How the hell did he get out?! He was in the most secure facility on the planet and it was completely soundproof. He was the only person we had that could tell us where everything he stole went."

Coulson: "Team Galactic attacked the facility and killed all the guards. We didn't even know he was gone until 4 minutes ago when Agent Romanoff entered the facility to interrogate him. Moreover, we have several video recordings of Team Galactic taking the materials that the Music Meister stole."

Fury: "Did we at least learn who he is from the DNA swab?"

Coulson: "He isn't in any record and facial recognition has come up empty. His equipment was also stolen. We are using everything we have but so far we have no idea where he has gone."

I feel a massive headache as I try to figure out how Shield is supposed to deal with this.

'The silver lining is that I let those idiots on the council take custody of the Music Meister. Which means it's on them and not Shield. Still, we need to recapture him as soon as possible.'

Fury: "Sigh. This isn't the worst thing that could have happened. Keep looking for him. When he shows up use everything we have to capture him. We are to take him alive. Every nation on Earth wants him alive so they can get their stuff back. Has our informant been able to give us any info?"

Coulson: "They have gone dark. All previous dead drop locations have been emptied. I used some funding to contact the ICA and Team Rocket and inquire about our informant. Team Rocket said that they flew too close to the sun and were burned."

Fury: "Damn it. They were are only lead on Team Galactic. That will be a major problem going forward. Who else besides the 5 of us knew about the informant?"

Coulson: "Pierce, Rumlow, and the contact that connected us to the informant in the first place."

Fury: "From now on only the 5 of us will have access to the info related to the Informant or the info learned. This will be all off the record. No clearance levels just the info in physical form."

Coulson: "Yes sir."

Fury: "Do we have an estimated cost of what the Music Meister stole? And any leads on where it could be?"

Coulson: "The estimated loss is in the hundreds of Trillions. Most Gold, Silver, Platinum, Iridium, and other metal stockpiles have been taken completely. Most cultural and historic pieces have been stolen as well. We have also received reports of centuries of data and documents have also been stolen. It is estimated that less than a few tonnes of Gold and Silver are left outside of what the Music Meister stole."

Fury: "It's worse than I thought. The entire world economy will crash and burn from this."

Coulson: "Surprisingly our analysts think that while we will see a massive upheaval, the world economy will recover within a few years. The biggest change will be that all the precious metals stolen are worth far more. They believe that they will be made illegal to sell as the need for electronics is higher than civilian uses. The biggest disturbance will be from the nearly years' worth of metals stolen from several industries. However, it is likely many insurance companies will go Bankrupt from all the payouts they will have to give out."

Fury: "Several industries. Which ones?"

Coulson: "The Steel industry was hit particularly hard. Much of the stockpile they had was stolen including the raw iron ore. Same with other metals such as Aluminum and Copper. There is also an alarming amount of radioactive materials that were stolen. Hundreds of Billions of tons of materials have gone missing and we are not sure how."

Fury: "It should be impossible to take all that material. We would have found it if it was transported in any form."

Coulson: "At the very least we can simply mine more material from the ground so not all is lost. Still, the things stolen are quite odd. Almost no money was stolen just things worth money. Many of the things stolen will be impossible to sell due to the high profile of the thefts. No one will be willing to touch the items. Most of what was stolen were raw resources or processed materials."

Fury: "What about technological thefts?"

Coulson: "There were quite a few but most of what was stolen was data and only a few prototypes. They also didn't steal the Tesseract."

Fury: "Perhaps that is a clue. The Tesseract is a source of limitless power. It is also supposedly capable of creating portals and teleportation. Were the agents in the base controlled?"

Coulson: "Yes sir. They never attempted to steal the Tesseract instead they sent data on what we researched at the facility. Which brings me to the next problem. Those controlled over long range seemed to have no memories of what happened while they were controlled. Most of what we know was from digital surveillance and the extremely rare instance of someone not being controlled because they had earbuds in or headphones on. And of course, those who were deaf."

Fury: "Besides Music Meister and our informant is there anything else that needs to be reported?"

Coulson: "The Russian Federation has collapsed in all but name after the ICA destroyed the Red Room. China is currently puppeteering the Federation as a buffer state between the new Empire of Russia and themselves. Belarus is expected to fall in the next few weeks. Ukraine under its pro-Russian president has joined Belarus in the defense of Russia. There have been rumors that Mongolia and Georgia are being pressured to join the Federation in the war. The Russian Empire is in talks with Kazakhstan and the Baltic states. But we haven't been able to figure out what they are discussing."

Fury: "Have we approached this new Russian regime?"

Coulson: "We tried but they unilaterally denied Shield any access to Russian territory. The Federation on the other hand only wants us to assist in destroying the Imperials. The Russian Empire has been recognized as the legitimate Russia by over a dozen countries and more are doing so. Other than Russia there is the investigations into possible members of the Avengers Initiative."

Fury: "And how is that going?"

Coulson: "So far we have only identified 5 candidates. Ironman, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Spiderman, and Nick Valentine. Of which only one has confirmed superpowers. There are a few other candidates but they are still put as unlikely."

Fury: "Those being?"

Coulson: "A mercenary that goes by the name of Raiden. He seems to be a highly advanced cyborg capable of moving at high speed and a master of stealth and infiltration. Another mercenary that goes by the name Snake. We don't know much about him other than he works for the ICA and is likely responsible for a one-man infiltration into China that destroyed Billions of dollars in equipment damages. The biggest point of interest is that he has never seen and never killed anyone only incapacitated them. The last one is the strangest."

He hands me a file and I raise an eyebrow at him.

Fury: "Is this a platypus?"

Coulson: "Yes, Perry the Platypus. He has been spotted defeating several criminals, breaking into a facility controlled by the Ten Rings, and escaping. Despite his appearance, he is a highly skilled combatant. Even while outnumbered and outgunned he manages to defeat them without injury."

Fury: "Yes but what is he? A science experiment that got free? A magical creature?"

Coulson: "We... don't know sir. All we know is that he is a master of escape. He can seemingly vanish without a trace. He can also appear out of nowhere."

Fury: "Let's ignore this one for now. The other 2 are mercenaries what makes you think they could fit the criteria?"

Coulson: "Both seem to be above normal humans and avoid killing when it isn't necessary. But they are willing to kill if there is no alternative. The only reason why I haven't put them as confirmed candidates is that they work for the ICA. However, they don't seem to work only for the ICA and instead go through the ICA to get contracts and work."

Fury: "Keep an eye on them for the time being. I will consider them."

Coulson: "Yes sir. The last thing to report is that Project Insight will be slightly delayed due to a shortage of materials. We expect it to be done by the end of 2010 if not then the first quarter of 2011."

I nod and dismiss him while I start reading the files he gave me.

'Nick Valentine huh.'

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Authors Note:

So I did some research into the effects of a theft of this scale and the answer I came to is that it would hurt the economy but not destroy it. Especially since little money was stolen just lots of goods and materials. That being said many things in the world will be stuck or slowed down for a year or so. Most of what was stolen can be replaced via mining or recycling things that weren't stolen. Like gold and copper for instance. They can be collected in areas that were once not as valuable. Most of what was stolen will either be used or sold to the system. I imagine around a quarter trillion tonnes of material was stolen. Most of it being metals. We mine around 3 Billion tons of metals each year. Combine that with the decades of stockpiles. As for the value well it would be tough to say but the value of the world economy is around 100 Trillion Dollars and the world's Gold supply is around 20 Trillion Dollars. So a ridiculous amount. Much of which will not technically be worth anything. Art is valuable but to a questionable extent. So he is sort of super rich but not really as most of the materials will never be sold and instead used for numerous projects or transmutation. Until next time Ciao.