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""I am Iron Man". You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe, you just don't know it yet." "Who the hell are you?" "Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.." "Ah." "I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative."
"What do you want from me?" "What do we want from you? Uh-uh. What do you want from me? You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems in the southwest region to deal with."
"At ease, soldier!" "Who are you?" "Colonel Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. You would have known us as the Strategic Scientific Reserve." "Where am I?" "46th and Broadway. I'm sorry about that little show back there, but we didn't know what your mental state might be, so we thought it best to break it to you slowly." "Break what?" "You've been asleep, Cap. For almost 70 years." "How am I alive?" "Well, to be honest with you, we don't really know. My docs say it was suspended animation. Could be Dr. Erskine's formula, the extreme cold. I don't know." "What about the war? Did we win?" "Hell, yes. Unconditional surrender. Taking down HYDRA was a big part of that. But the world hasn't changed all that much. There's still a lot of work to be done. A soldier's work. The world can still use a man like you, Cap. There's a place here for you."
"There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to to fight the battles we never could."
"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
"Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us. I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables." "You think Fury's hiding something?" "He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets."
"Please don't. I still need that." "This doesn't have to get any messier." "Of course it does. I've come too far anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard and I am burdened with glorious purpose." "Loki, brother of Thor." "We have no quarrel with your people." "An ant has no quarrel with a boot." "Are you planning to step on us?" "I come with glad tidings of a world made free." "Free from what?" "Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart...you will know peace." "Yeah, you say "peace," I kind of think you mean the other thing." "Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us." "Like the pharaohs of old." "He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical." "Well, then..."
"Doctor, thank you for coming." "Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?" "Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear. "
"Director Fury, the council has made a decision." "I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it."
"I don't think you understand what you've started. Letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous." "They surely are. And the whole world knows it. Every world knows it."
"You think you could make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?" "I do not know. Loki's mind is far afield. It's not just power he craves, it's vengeance, upon me. There's no pain would prise his need from him." "A lot of guys think that. Until the pain starts." "What are you asking me to do?" "I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?" "Loki is a prisoner." "Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?"
"I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." "Because of him!" "Me?" "Last year, Earth had a visit from another planet that had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned." "My people want nothing but peace with your planet!" "But you're not the only ones out there, are you? And you're not the only threat. The world is filling up with people that can't be matched, that can't be controlled!" "Like you control the cube?"
―Bruce Banner, Nick Fury, Thor and Steve Rogers[src]
"I thought Humans were more evolved than this." "Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"
"I'm sorry, boss. The god rabbited." "Just stay awake. Eyes on me." "No. I'm clocked out here." "Not an option." "It's okay, boss. This was never going to work... if they didn't have something... to..." "Agent Coulson is down." "Paramedics are on their way." "They're already here. They called it."
"In case it's unclear, if you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass...it's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant... boot." "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." "Built for something a lot stronger than you." "Oh, I've heard. The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" "How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did." "Ooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what real power is." "Well, let me know if "real power" wants a magazine or something."
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it... and his allies. It is a signal to the Realm that Earth is ready for a higher form of war!" "Higher form? You forced our hand! We had to come up with some way that we could..." "A nuclear deterrent? Cause that always works well..." "Remind me how you made your fortune, Mr Stark."
"This is Project Insight. Three next generation Helicarriers linked to a network of targeting satellites. Once we get them in the air they never need to come down."
"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility. See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."
"My grandfather operated one of these things for 40 years. Granddad worked in a nice building. Got good tips. He'd walk home every night, a roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say, "Hi." People would say, "Hi" back. Time went on, the neighborhood got rougher. He'd say, "Hi." They'd say, "Keep on steppin'." Granddad got to gripping that lunch bag a little tighter." "Did he ever get mugged?" "Every week some punk would say, "What's in the bag?"" "What would he do?" "He'd show them. Bunch of crumpled ones, and a loaded .22 Magnum. Yeah, Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much."
"We're going to neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen." "I thought the punishment usually came after the crime." "We can't afford to wait that long." "Who's we?"
"This isn't freedom. This is fear." "S.H.I.E.L.D. takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. And it's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap." "Don't hold your breath."
"Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."
"Really? Really, Coulson? Six days? It only took you six days to take a completely renovated piece of state-of-the-art machinery and turn it into scrap?" "My team acted with my authority."
"It must be nice to be off that plane. I understand you're almost through your recovery." "The plane has nothing to do with my recovery." "I only know what I've read. Seems Fury has a soft spot for his favorites."
"You should give your buddy the god of thunder a shout. He gets his power from his hammer, right? What if this is his nail to the hammer?" "I already did. Director Fury told me he's off the grid. And if he has a cellphone, we don't have the number."
"I've been on the phone all day Director Fury, Commander Hill everyone wants an update. Frankly, I don't understand it. No single agent is that important." "Coulson is."
"After New York, you weren't dead for 8 seconds or 40 seconds or whatever they put in your file. You were dead for days." "That's impossible." "It should be, but Director Fury moved Heaven and Earth. He had a team of scientists working around the clock using procedures that no good Doctor would ever allow." "You were there." "Fury brought me in during the seventh operation."
"I just can't get my head around it. I remember what happened, the pain, but I also remember Tahiti. It's-" "What's in that file, it's the truth." "Says who?" "Director Fury."
"The only record of it being opened is by a level 10 operative. Director Fury." "So, Fury's been to this place, and he's the person who sanctioned the operations on Agent Coulson."
"You know, usually, when a friend wants a favor, they do something nice takes me to a nice restaurant, buys me a bottle of wine." "Want to go to a movie, hold hands? Okay. But I need to ask you a question first." "I don't know where Director Fury is. Don't be so shocked. For a quiet guy, you make a lot of noise. How many favors have you called in?" "Clearly, not enough." "Something I can help you with? Fine. But Fury is a high-level agent who's off-grid. You don't find him unless he wants to find you."
"No, listen to me. I trust them, but we need to protect them from this. Fury went to dangerous lengths to keep this under wraps lied to me, lied to S.H.I.E.L.D. This is a powerful secret, a secret men died for. Until we know why, we can't share this with anyone, for their safety and ours." "Got it. So, what'll it be, A.C.? What do we go after first?" "The person responsible for this. And we make him pay."
"Just got a message from H.Q. Director Fury's back. He's waiting for you at the Triskelion." "About damn time." "You can talk to him about what's been bothering you." "A lot's bothering me."
"The Clairvoyant only knew you'd be at Quinn's Villa-" "After I dropped a Tracker. And the only thing he's had trouble seeing is what happened to you after you died." "Because Director Fury wouldn't release that file to anyone." "No." "The Clairvoyant doesn't have abilities. He has security clearance. He's an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.."
"Fury is not dead." "What?" "Yeah, HYDRA thinks they killed him, but he managed to escape from D.C." "So you just lied to my team." "Well, I don't know them. And those are Fury's direct orders. Only a select few people can know that he's alive Maria Hill, Cap, a couple of others, and now you and me."
"A Lie Detector." "The lie detector, Agent Coulson. This baby measures galvanic skin response, oxygen consumption, microexpressions, biofeedback, brainwaves, pupil dilation, voice biometrics. Ninety-six variables in all. Fury designed this himself. He wanted a lie detector Romanoff couldn't beat."
"And you sir? Where are you heading now?" "Well I'm trading in my bird's eye view for two solid feet on the ground. This is the last time you'll be seeing me for a stretch." "You going to disappear. Nowhere to be found." "Nowhere? (Laughs) You know me better than that Phil, I'll be everywhere."
"Fury's quietly started a new initiative. Instead of this catch-and-release with powered people, we form a team, take Earth's mightiest to find out if they're heroes."
"Obviously, you and Fury have been keeping busy." "What can I say? I'm a company man. With the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury felt we needed a failsafe, something completely off the books, a "break in case of emergency" type of thing."
"When I found out that this ship had survived HYDRA's attack and still had that classified cargo onboard, that you placed spies on my base, that I couldn't keep my own people safe, I felt like I'd failed as director. And the truth is, I did. A coup will make you think about things like that. I tried to do it all alone. That was a mistake. Even Fury had a World Council watching over him, providing guidance."
"When S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, Fury sent us onto the Iliad to keep HYDRA from getting their hands on that Monolith. What if he knew that they wanted to bring this creature back through it?"
"Can I offer you some advice something I learned from Fury? "It's important to know when to throw out the plan."" "And you think this is one of those moments?" "That's for you to decide, Director."
"Is that the bookmy uncle was talking about?" "I think so." "Well, you know where to find it?" "No one ever has. Not Daniel Whitehall, not the Red Skull, not even Nick Fury himself... He's an old friend, sort of a mentor, really."
"You see? Yours is not the only life Agent Coulson has so easily tossed aside or hidden behind. This is what he does. Everything is his S.H.I.E.L.D.. The Government, behind you, Director, behind Nick Fury, Stark, all of it, stands Agent Coulson, quietly pursuing his alien agenda."
"A wise man once told me that a person can do anything once they realize they are a part of something bigger. It's taken me a while to understand that."
―Phil Coulson on a S.H.I.E.L.D. subversive broadcast[src]