An early morning had hit the bustling city of New York with a vibrant air. Even if it was early, the streets of the American capital were rapidly filling with people of all kinds going about their daily business.

Within an apartment bedroom sat a sleek black alarm clock sitting on a nightstand. The time read 4:59 with only a couple of seconds left before it soon changed.

Upon changing to 5:00, the alarm clock could only let out a singular beep before a finger pressed the button to dismiss the alarm.

The person that had dismissed the alarm moved to the curtains and opened them, letting in the shimmering glimpses of the rising sun. This highlighted the meticulously clean bedroom and the person who inhabited such a space, that person being the Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Maria Hill.

She was dressed in her S.H.I.E.L.D. jacket, black jeans, black boots and a black overcoat to put the ensemble together.

She left the bedroom and walked towards the front door of the apartment, picking up her keys on the way. Once she left the apartment, Maria locked the door and made her way out of the building whilst scrolling through the hundreds of unending emails and reports on her phone.

She walked across the road ahead of her and made her way into the large building ahead of her, a suited security guard opening the door for her.

"Good morning, ma'am." The guard greeted.

"Hm." Maria hummed, more focused on the emails and reports on her phone as she entered.

As she walked through the lobby, a young woman noticed her and hurriedly walked over to her with a cup of coffee in hand.

"Good Morning, Deputy Director." The young woman greeted nervously.

This young woman was a trainee Maria had personally picked as her pseudo secretary. It wasn't that she wanted to in the first place, but her boss had seen the work load she took on and ordered her to lighten the load in this way.

She still wasn't thrilled about it, but orders were orders. Oh, and her trainee's name was Casey.

"Reports." Maria ordered and Casey handed her a tablet as Maria put away her phone and took it, now scrolling through that.

"The jobs in Vancouver and Minnesota went off without a hitch, all our undercover agents have sent reports and are accounted for, although one mission did have some complications." Casey reported.

"Which one?" Maria asked, still focused on the tablet.

"Agent 420, ma'am." Casey informed.

"Keith? I thought he was still in recovery." Maria asked as she took a brief glance at Casey

"He was, but he wanted to get back on the job." Casey said, "Intelligence operations issued a simple surveillance job for him, but he collapsed and room service found him two days later."

"His accident is still affecting him?" Maria asked.

"Cripplingly so." Casey nodded.

"Did we ever find out who gave him the chronic diarrhea?" Maria asked.

"No, ma'am." Casey shook her head.

Maria sighed as they reached the main elevator, "I don't have time to deal with that shit show. Get him back on his recovery route and no more missions until I approve of them."

Casey nodded whilst Maria pressed the button of the elevator and they opened.

"Anything else?" Maria asked.

"The boss is here and he wants to see you, ma'am." Casey informed.

"Of course he does." Maria muttered as she took the cup of coffee and stepped onto the elevator, she took a sip and hummed in satisfaction, "Yours are still the best, good job."

Casey smiled happily as the elevator doors shut, doing a little dance that quickly ended when a few agents passed by her.

The elevator traveled up the many floors, stopping on one of them at the request of the one that pushed the button.

The doors opened to reveal a group of agents that stopped and recoiled in a mix of fear and nervousness upon seeing Maria.

"W-we'll take the next one." One of the agents voiced.

Maria simply sipped her tea with a bored gaze as the doors shut and the elevator continued to travel up the building.

The doors opened once more, but this time it was to the floor of her required destination.

She stepped off the elevator and walked through the relatively empty hallway, passing a few experienced agents that just gave her a respectful nod as they walked past.

The top floor was a league above the rest. Specialized for the top brass agents that were in the know and on a need to know basis on the very secretive plots and information S.H.I.E.L.D. had stored.

She reached two large double doors at the end of the hall and took a deep breath. She was never one for nerves or anxious feelings, but there was a rare few that did tend to break that façade and her boss was one of them.

She knocked on one of the doors and only received a deep hum in response as an affirmation of entrance. She opened one of the doors and entered the large office, shutting it behind her.

It was a large office space with a relatively large desk in the center that had been equipped with a mechanical ring which projected a holographic image of the globe with multiple monitors surrounding the ring. To the left was another desk, although this was more traditional and befitting a corporate CEO of sorts. The most stellar thing about the office though was the view that it came with. A whole wall of glass was made to show off the view of the city, and all of this was just for one person.

One person. One man. A man that stood with his back turned towards Maria as he stood opposite of her and looked out at the view, hands held behind his back.

She walked around the hologram powered table and stood next to the man, looking out at the view alongside him.

"You wanted to see me." Maria stated.

The man turned to her with a smirk, "Took your sweet ass time, huh?"

He was a tall African American man with a cleanly shaven head, a black goatee and one black eye with the most distinct feature in his appearance being the black eyepatch he wore over his left eye with claw mark scars running across the damaged eye. He wore a black sweater jacket, a black belt, dark blue pants with a gun strapped to his right leg, black gloves and boots and a notable black overcoat. This was the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury.

"Did what I could on such short notice." Maria replied with a shrug, "Is this important, sir? I've got a few reports to sift through."

"You mean thousands?" Fury asked amusedly.

"Like I said," Maria said, turning to face him, "A few."

Fury chuckled, "Ah, Maria. All work and no play as usual."

"I don't have time to play, sir." Maria stated.

"That's good. No one is as dedicated to S.H.I.E.L.D. as you." Fury said.

"Except you." Maria retorted.

"You're not lying." Fury stated as he took out a file from his coat pocket and handed it to her, "Your next assignment."

"It's been a while since I got one." Maria said with a confused look as she opened the file.

"Then now is as good a time as any." Fury said, "Wouldn't want the Deputy Director all rusty now, do we?"

"As much as I'd like to go on field missions again," Maria said, shutting the file and holding it out to him, "You know I can't. I'm too busy."

"We'll hold down the fort while you're gone, and..." Fury said, his playful smirk now gone, "This isn't a request. It's an order."

Maria sighed and opened the file once again, "You couldn't have just sent an email or a pdf?"

"Call me old fashioned." Fury said with a shrug.

Maria read through the file and widened her eyes at the attached images, "Is that...?"

The images were all hidden and grainy glimpses of Sage at different points. One in a crowded area, one with a group of shady looking individuals in a garage and one exiting a night club.

"It's been 6 months since you've seen that very old friend of yours, right?" Fury asked and Maria nodded, still staring at the images, "Well, let me tell you, she's hard to track much less find."

"You want me to find and capture her?" Maria asked, finding it hard to keep her eyes off the pictures, fully drawn in by the long unseen sight of her.

"I thought it'd be easier to bring her in if you were the one in charge of this." Fury stated.

"But she hasn't done anything notable to warrant any attention from S.H.I.E.L.D." Maria said.

"She did compromise all our information and steal some dangerous files." Fury reminded.

"After that," Maria reiterated, "She hasn't done anything after that."

"With how secretive she's been and how ingenious you, Agent Carter and the reports say she is," Fury states, "I'm sure she's got something cooking."

"And why me exactly?" Maria asked, "We're not exactly the best of friends. Why not Sharon?"

"Agent Carter is currently unavailable." Fury states.

"Right, the Bolivia mission." Maria says with a remembering nod.

"You're the only one with some kind of connection to her. The only one she'd least expect for a capture mission." Fury stated.

"That could be the case, but she still won't make it easy." Maria stated.

"You'll figure something out." Fury said with a shrug.

"Is this really about finding out what she's been up to all these months or is there something more?" Maria asked.

Fury stared at her for a few moments before turning back to the view of the city.

"I want to meet her. The genius cave woman of the 21st century, who wouldn't want to see that in person?" Fury stated, "A genius mind unchecked can lead to dire circumstances. I'm sure you and I both agree that having a second Tony Stark running around is just asking for trouble."

"I've only met the man once, and let me tell you, Sage is much more bearable than the billionaire, playboy, arms dealer." Maria said with an eye roll.

"And that's why you're on this one." Fury said and Maria nodded, "The file has a rough estimation of her current location, I suggest you get there, fast."

"When do I start?" Maria asked.

"Oh, you already have, Agent Hill." Fury stated, "Tick, tock."

Maria nodded and shut the file, turning to leave. She walked to the doors and grabbed the handle on one of them to open it, but stopped when Fury called out to her.

"Oh, and Hill," Fury said and she turned to face him as he smirked at her, "Try to have a little fun on this one."

"It's a job." Maria stated as she opened the door, "They're not meant to be fun."

"I got a feeling this one might be." Fury said amusedly.

Maria didn't respond to that as she left the office and walked down the hallway with another sigh escaping her lips. She pushed the elevator button and the doors opened up for her.

Taking a step inside, the file fell to the ground and Maria knelt down, picking up one of the pictures of Sage. She placed the file under her arm as she stared down at the picture intently, taking a sip of her coffee as the elevator doors shut.

~

"I mean she walks around like she freaking runs the place!" A young red haired woman behind the lobby desk exclaimed to Casey who stood by the desk.

"I mean, she technically does." Casey said with a shrug.

"Yeah, when the Director isn't here." The redhead said with an eye roll.

"He's almost never here, Candice." Casey reminded.

"Still doesn't give her the right to have such a massive ego." The redhead, Candice, said with a scoff, "She barely even looks at us, much less spare us a glance."

"She's just really focused on her job, that's all." Casey argued.

"A little too focused if you ask me." Candice said with an eye roll, "She really needs to loosen up. Like, for real. Go get laid will ya?"

"Candice!" Casey exclaimed as she held in a laugh.

Candice smirk, "What? The uptight ones do tend to be the freakiest."

"You need to stop!" Casey said in between laughs.

"Just imagine it. The esteemed Deputy Director Hill bent over and-"

Candice stopped mid-sentence when she heard someone clear their throat. Casey had wide eyes as she looked across the secretary desk whilst Candice shut her eyes with a silent prayer running through her mind.

She slowly turned around and gulped when she saw Maria standing there with a very unamused expression. Much colder than the typical Hill glare she'd often give everyone.

"D-Deputy D-Director...d-didn't see you there..." Candice stuttered with a nervous smile.

"I bet." Maria stated and Candice's smile immediately dropped as she looked down, fearful of the glare, "If you have time to discuss me in such detail then I'm sure you have time to get back to work as well, no?"

"Y-yes, ma'am..." Candice muttered as she sat down and started typing with shaking fingers.

Maria walked around the desk and handed Casey a paper with a list typed onto it.

"This is a list of things I need packed into my car." Maria stated, "I expect them there by the time I get back."

"W-where are you going?" Casey asked nervously.

"To pack." Maria stated as she turned to leave, "Get to work."

Casey looked at Candice who muttered a sorry to her and Casey just rolled her eyes, heading towards the inventory room.

~

A week had passed since Maria's mission had begun and with due diligence as well as unmistakable intel gathering, Sage seemed to be at arm's reach at this point.

She was sat in front of the window of her hotel room within the port city of Casablanca in western Morocco. She used her binoculars to look out at the busy street, specifically across the hotel which was another luxury establishment that wasn't more so a hotel, but a nightclub, a cover for the den of a prominent gang within the city.

"Paging doctor Hill, I repeat, paging doctor Hill." A male voice on her earpiece called out.

"Any reason why you're choosing to bother me again, Coulson?" Maria asked.

"Ouch, bother you? I just thought you needed some company. Y'know, ease the stress a little." The male voice, Coulson, spoke.

"I don't get stressed. I get the job done. Simple as that." Maria responded.

"Wow. You sure you wanna die on that Hill?" Coulson asked amusedly.

"Hilarious." Maria said dryly with an eye roll as Coulson chuckled.

"And I heard you specifically requested not to go with a team." Coulson pointed out, "Any reasons why?"

"I work better alone." Maria stated, "Less messy that way."

"Hm, and what's the current situation over there?" Coulson asked.

"The city's full of shady people. Had to interrogate a few to get any kind of information, but I'm pretty sure she's going to be here today." Maria explained.

"I was actually asking how their martinis were, but that works too." Coulson said and Maria couldn't help but roll her eyes again.

"Goodbye Coulson." Maria said.

Coulson chuckled through the coms, "Call me if you need me, Hill. Y'know I got your back."

The call ended and Maria let out a breath as she kept an eye out, eating some grapes mid-watch.

The watch went on for a few hours with nothing out of the ordinary occurring, that is until she spotted her. The woman that she had been hunting, the one that admittedly would pop up from time to time over the course of the six months away from her.

Sage Alanna had arrived.

At the angle Maria was at she could only see mostly the back of Sage's head and the side of her face. If that wasn't enough to confirm that it was her, then the distinct tunic she always seemed to wear was more than enough proof, albeit the tunic seemed to be equipped with many more technological factors than she had last seen.

"What's been going on with you, Sage." Maria muttered, worry evident in her tone.

Maria watched as a group of suited men led her inside the nightclub and that was all she needed to get up. She put on her leather jacket and holstered her gun, keeping it hidden under the jacket as she left the hotel room.

~

Sage Alanna had gone through some...upgrades as a way of putting it. While not much had changed in regards to physical appearance, mentally she had become wiser on the inner workings of the new world. It had become a place that encouraged the mentality of a lone survivor. Everyone was on their own sides and everyone was fighting everyone else. The world was divided, that much was apparent to her.

Over time she had used her intellect to turn whatever fiction she had thought of into reality. Her inventions served many purposes, most in defense of her and her main most long running project being the reason why she had become involved in some 'deep shit' as Sharon would put it.

Her outfit hadn't changed much, more so added upon than anything.

Her belt of pouches was now a fully-fledged utility belt with golden designs embedded onto dark green leather pouches along with her trusty hammer as well as golden holsters of its own to create a stylized belt full of unique and varying inventions.

Strapped to her right on the belt was a specialized gun that seemed to resemble a pistol, but it was larger and much more modified with a wooden grip. This gun was a high caliber, semi-automatic revolver that Sage aptly dubbed as the WINGMAN.

Strapped to her left hand was a large gauntlet that seemed to be put together with a varying amount of spare parts. It had a dark green minicomputer attached to an old dark green coms radio as well as a danger meter that had specialized buttons right next to the scale. This gauntlet was Sage's main interface, it could do what a cell phone could and much more, essentially one of her most important on hand devices. This was Sage's Personal Information Processor or her PIP-Boy for short.

Strapped to her back was a currently inactive drone created by Sage that was specifically designed to suck things up in a way. It was a highly beneficial tool for crowd control. This drone was named after an inspiring scientist to Sage, N.E.W.T.

On her right hand was a golden bracelet that seemingly looked like a normal bracelet, but there was more than meets the eye. This was Sage's Jump Drive.

Sage wore a silver shoulder guard on her right shoulder and attached to it was a black disc with blue glowing lines emanating from it. This was Sage's Phase Chamber.

Sage stood on the top floor in the middle of a lavish room with multiple gangsters that were frankly amused by Sage's mere presence. The head honcho in charge sat in front of her with an uncaring smirk, legs spread wide and two models sat on either side of him.

"A-And you said your name was what again?" The head gangster asked in between laughs.

"Sage." Sage stated, "It's four letters. I'm sure even you can remember that much."

"And what is it you want, Sage?" The leader asked.

"As much information you can provide on your boss, that's all." Sage stated, "Where's Sergei?"

The head gangster stopped mid laugh and dawned a more serious expression as he snapped his fingers. One of the gangsters approached him as one of the models put a cigarette in his mouth, the gangster held out his lighter and lit the cigarette for the leader who blew out a puff of smoke as he sat up straight.

"Listen, girl-"

"Sage." Sage interrupted.

"Whatever." The head gangster said as he pulled out a golden pistol and looked her in the eye, "You come in here with no fear, acting like you own the place. Walking around in your little outfit, like what the fuck even is all of that?"

Sage looked down at her gauntlet and pressed the red button next to the screen as the gangsters around her raised the guns and aimed them at her.

"Easy," Sage said with her hands raised, "I'm just checking the time."

"I think you have worse things to worry about than the time, Sage." The leader stated with a dark chuckle.

Sage glanced down at her gauntlet and sighed as she looked back up at the leader, "Do you know what it feels like to have trust mean so little in such a new world?"

"What are you on about?" The leader asked uncaringly.

"I've been in this world for less than year and I've met people, lots of people. Both good and both bad." Sage stated, "My absolute belief is that humanity is strong. There's absolutely no such thing as a useless person in this world. With all our combined efforts and talents, humanity will continue to thrive and survive the coming futures. That is the absolute truth I believe."

"That's sweet, but-"

"So when that truth continues to be tested, time and time again, is it foolish to still believe? To still have so much faith in the same species that thrive upon betrayals?" Sage asked as she glared at the leader, "Sergei asked me this question when he betrayed me. Took something from me. Something that I will get back."

"And you expect me to tell you where he is? Betray that man for something that had been done to many others?" The leader asked with a scoff, "Welcome to the real world, sweetheart. Newsflash, you're not special. Just another sucker that helped him get stronger in some way."

"I don't expect you to tell me anything." Sage stated as her gauntlet beeped and she smirked raising it up and showing the screen to him, "Because you already did."

The gauntlet's screen showed off a detailed bio on Sergei, including his picture, businesses, evidence on his crimes, business locations and most importantly, his current whereabouts.

The leader widened his eyes and raised his gun to shoot her, "Kill her!"

The other gangsters raised their guns and aimed them at her just as the doors burst open with the two guards that had been outside falling to the ground.

"Sage!" Maria shouted as she ran in with her gun raised.

Sage turned to look at her in surprise as she grabbed the disc on her shoulder and tossed it to the ground, "Activate Phase Chamber!"

Every armed individual besides Maria fired their weapons just as a blue dome surrounded the top floor and exploded in a bright blue flash.

Maria opened her eyes and was more than shocked to see that she was in what seemed to be a completely different realm. Everything and everyone was ethereal in a way as if they were trapped in some void.

"Maria!" Sage's voice echoed and she looked up from her ghastly hands to see an ethereal form of Sage in front of her.

"S-Sage?" Maria asked, surprised by the echo her voice came with.

"We have to move, now!" Sage shouted as she ran past her.

"Wait!" Maria shouted, trying to grab Sage by the arm, but her arm just went through her.

She blinked in shock once again as she ran after Sage who turned down the hall. Catching up with her, another blue flash hit them and Maria blinked to see that they were back to normal. She stumbled deliriously and hit a nearby trashcan to balance herself just as Sage held onto her.

"Easy, now. The first time's always the worst." Sage said soothingly as she steadied Maria who looked at her in absolute shock.

"Sage! Just what the hell is going on!?" Maria shouted.

Sage's soothing smile disappeared as she looked ahead with a serious gaze, "We have to move, now."

"W-What?" Maria asked as Sage kicked open a door and went through, Maria although still slightly woozy followed, spotting Sage walking down the long winding steps of the building.

Back in the lavish room, the bullets flew in all directions, completely missing any target they were aimed at. Everyone was the same as Maria, delirious and dizzy from the entire phase shift that had occurred.

"W-what the hell!? Where'd she go!?" The boss shouted as he steadied himself by leaning against his couch.

"B-Boss..." One of his goons muttered.

"What!?" The boss shouted and the goon pointed to an item left at the spot Sage had been standing.

It was a Frag Grenade that had the red nodes shining to signify that it was activated.

"Fucking run!" The boss shouted just as the grenade exploded.

The entire room exploded in a fiery blaze and Maria stopped walking down the stairs to look up after feeling the building shake.

"What was that?" Maria asked.

"Contingencies." Sage stated, as she continued walking.

But then the nearby door she passed burst open and two suited men entered the scene. They looked between Sage and Maria, raising their guns to shoot the both of them.

Maria grabbed the one aiming at her by the arm and elbowed her in the face. The guard recoiled just as Maria used this momentum to trip her up, grabbing her with both hands and flipping her over her shoulder.

Sage gripped the rails of the stairs and leapt over them, falling to the bottom floor and luckily avoiding the bullets fired at her. She grabbed her bracelet and tossed it up to where the scuffle had been occurring.

The bracelet landed behind the guard that had shot at her just as Sage crossed her arms, this causing her teleport to where it had landed.

Sage landed behind the guard and before he could notice, she hit him over the head with her hammer, knocking him out cold.

Sage picked up the bracelet and put it back on just as Maria knocked the other guard out by stomping her in the face.

"C'mon, we'll get out through the back door." Sage stated, exiting through the guards burst through.

Maria followed her, both entering the loud and chaotic room that was the bottom floor nightclub. They pushed their way through the dance floor, Maria noticing that Sage had gripped her hand and she was holding it in an effort to keep each other together.

The elevator opened to reveal the bloody and battered leader stumbling his way out in an enraged march. He raised his gun up high and fired some shots, silencing the music and shocking the crowd.

He looked around and spotted Sage and Maria as they kept walking, pointing to them.

"Stop those two bitches, right fucking now!" The leader shouted as the spotlights aimed their sights on both of them.

They stopped when the crowd blocked them off and both turned to see the leader smiling through his bloodied teeth, an army of suited guards now standing behind him, all of them armed.

"Fucking whore..." The leader muttered as he glared at Sage.

"Anything else in your bag of tricks?" Maria asked as she aimed her gun at a futile attempt at a defense for them.

"N.E.W.T." Sage called out and the drone on Sage's back beeped with the red eye moving up and down, "Let's play with physics, yeah?"

N.E.W.T. beeped in agreement, once again shocking Maria in the process. Sage grabbed the drone and tossed it forward to the army of gangsters.

A cylinder popped out of N.E.W.T. and activated, creating a micro black hole that sucked them all in. It wasn't just sucking the gangsters in though, but it started sucking in everything in the surrounding area.

People screamed and shouted, trying to run from being sucked in as well. Sage took out an Arc Star grenade from her belt and tossed it into the black hole.

The leader widened his eyes within the black hole upon seeing yet another bomb of some kind and he could only shut his eyes just as it exploded.

The micro black hole dissipated and Sage ran over to N.E.W.T., picking him up and put him back on her back.

"Good job." Sage said and N.E.W.T. beeped enthusiastically.

Maria thought she couldn't be shocked by today's events anymore, but there she was with her jaw dropped and eyes wide once more. She looked around the destroyed nightclub, seeing people sprawled around everywhere, trying to recover from such a bizarre and detrimental situation.

The leader groaned in pain, barely blinking awake. It's safe to say that he was one lucky man, since both encounters had only left him alive and in relatively one piece. The same could not be said about his guards though.

He widened his eyes upon seeing Sage standing over him with a smirk as she pulled out her WINGMAN.

"Oh, and by the way," Sage said, aiming the gun at the leader's head, "I still believe."

She fired it and in one powerful shot, his head was completely blasted apart, leaving a mangled remnant of what used to be a human skull.

Maria ran up to her and grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the exit, "We gotta go, now."

"Alright, alright! Ow! You're tugging too hard!" Sage exclaimed as Maria pulled her out of the nightclub.

The two of them ran out and across the street, stopping to take a breath just as paramedics and police officers arrived on the scene.

"Ah, don't worry. My ride is almost here. We'll be long gone before they could think about catching..." Sage slowly stopped speaking when she noticed Maria pointing her gun at her with a serious gaze aimed at her, "...us."

"Don't move, Sage." Maria ordered, turning the safety off for her to hear, "You know I won't miss."

Sage looked between the gun and Maria, letting out a laugh and shaking her head. She stood up straight and looked at her with a tired smirk.

"I guess now is a bad time for a 'Long time, no see.' huh?" Sage asked as she raised her hands.