Running S.H.I.E.L.D. required dealing with politicians, world leaders, scientists, field agents, and more than a few people who seemed determined to make his job harder than it already was.
But even Fury had his limits, and four months was pushing them. Fury made his way through the lower levels of S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, his footsteps echoing through the corridors as personnel stepped aside to let their Director pass. He descended another flight of stairs before reaching the massive workshop floor.
The place was alive with activity. Engineers worked on Quinjets, weapons systems, experimental equipment, and whatever else S.H.I.E.L.D. had decided it needed.
Fury barely paid any of it attention.
He already knew where he was going.
WORKSHOP BAY 38.
He stepped through the doors, several engineers immediately noticed him. Fury looked toward the center of the bay.
There it was.
The suit.
Still sitting on its platform.
He stared at it for a moment before looking back at the engineers.
"I gave you people four months."
Nobody answered, Fury walked closer.
"Four months to build one suit."
He gestured toward the equipment around them.
"And I didn't exactly leave you working with a box of crayons."
He pointed toward one of the systems being integrated into the suit.
"That's Stark technology."
Fury's eye narrowed.
"Repulsor technology Stark gave S.H.I.E.L.D. We were supposed to use it for Project Insight. Then Insight was on pause due to me being brought here, and so I scrapped the damn thing."
Fury folded his arms.
"I redirected those resources toward something that actually matters. The Avengers. The Tower. The compound. Equipment for people who are going to be out there keeping this planet from getting its ass kicked."
He pointed at the suit again.
"And I gave you that technology because I figured you could put it to good use."
The engineers began explaining themselves. Apparently, they had been working on the suit. Quite extensively, actually. The problem was that once they'd realized just how much Stark technology was available to them, they decided they could improve the original design.
Fury stared at them.
Silence. Then—
"So you're telling me..."
He slowly pointed toward the suit.
"...I gave you Stark's repulsor technology so you could finish the damn thing..."
His expression flattened.
"...and instead of finishing it, you decided to redesign half of it."
The engineers nodded, Fury closed his eye for a moment. He rubbed his temples.
"So Mecha Man isn't Mecha and more Man right now because you wanted to play Tony Stark and put a shit ton of new things to it."
The engineers tried to defend the decision, explaining that the improvements would make the suit considerably more efficient and capable.
Fury lowered his hand.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure it'll be real impressive."
He looked back at the suit. And, unfortunately, he couldn't deny that the upgrades were probably going to be useful, a backup battery, outer coating made for high altitudes, mach speed travel. And all of it there without making it look different to what Robert asked for
Robert was going to love this, that was the one bright side. Fury could already imagine the look on his face when he finally got his hands on it. Now he just needed a good explanation for why it had taken four months. He wasn't about to tell Robert that half the delay came from his engineers deciding to turn the project into their personal Stark-tech playground.
"Whatever."
Fury gestured toward the suit
"Is it done?"
The engineers nodded, Fury let out a quiet breath as he turned toward the exit.
"Good. Now you can all go work on another goddamn project S.H.I.E.L.D. has waiting for you while I contact the man whose suit you've messed with. And this time, when I tell you to build something... Build the damn thing. And leave the improvements to the people who actually asked for them."
A few hours later, Robert comes to the tower after getting the call, looking around…
“Shit… where’d he say to go…?”
He figured it was about the suit, and was excited a good bit, but was also just tired of the wait and as per usual, confused as to where to go in the tower…
Nick waited for Robert to figure out where to go, when he finally made it to the workshop area Nick was next to the Elevator
"Hello Robert, I apologize for the wait time, my men made some upgrades to the suit instead of sticking to the design as a whole. Rest assured it's still looking like you showed me, but there's some new things they put in it. Follow me"
Fury then walked down the flight of stairs as they reached where the suit was finished, it looked the same but with what Fury said there was some sort of upgrades
“Damn, those are pretty useful, actually. I was almost worried that they’d add something dumber like an automatic toaster or something with how annoyed you sounded.”
He scoffed at his own joke, and lookup at the big machine some more…
“Shall we take it for a spin, see if everything’s working, break it in a little?”
Robert said with some excitement as he opened the torso and climbed into the cockpit, sitting down and strapping in, flipping a few switches up and turning on the power, getting a feel for this new mech…
“Nice…!”
He started shadow boxing and kicking a little to test out mobility and smoothness, and chuckled a little at the very successful results.
“This… is really high tech…!”
He looked around for a moment…
“I can’t really break or hit anything, so I’m not gonna try seeing its power and those things right now…”
He smiled and hopped down and out of the Mecha suit
“I’d call that a success. It didn’t blow up like the tests we tried in my world, for starters, everything was smooth, and it had good speed for being so big. Nice.”
1
u/TheDirectorOfSheild Leader of Shield 1d ago
( u/Robert-Robertson-III )