Nick Fury didn't dodge the issue. He nodded once.
"Yes. When our cleanup team secured the Akray GenTech facility, they found spent shell casings marked with Stark Industries identifiers. That narrows the field. I suspect the person who rescued Tony Stark from the Iron Front, altered your memories, and wiped out the entire Akray GenTech base is the same man we can't trace. George. Or an organization operating around him."
Coulson looked genuinely unsettled. "Still nothing on him?"
That was the alarming part. A missing file was one thing. Weeks of deep investigation yielding nothing was another. With SHIELD's reach, even layered false identities usually cracked under pressure.
"No," Fury said. "It's like he appeared out of thin air. I met with Tony Stark last night. He didn't give me anything useful either."
Fury leaned forward, fingers steepled. "Effective immediately, you're both off field duty. Full focus on memory recovery."
A group with the ability to manipulate memories and erase a black-site facility couldn't be ignored. Fury needed answers, and he needed them fast.
Two weeks later, assisted by experimental technology, cognitive specialists, and some very uncomfortable hypnosis sessions, fragments finally surfaced.
"So that's it," Fury muttered after reviewing the consolidated report. "He was a mutant created by Akray GenTech."
With Coulson's and Romanoff's restored recollections, the picture became clearer. George had been engineered by Akray GenTech, broken free of their control, and escaped with several younger mutants. Somehow, he'd located the long-missing Wolverine. With Logan's help, they fled to New York. From there, they tracked Tony Stark to Afghanistan, rescued him, and with Stark's resources, wiped Akray GenTech off the map.
Some details still didn't add up. How George found Stark in the first place remained a mystery. But with mutants involved, conventional logic stopped being reliable.
Fury issued orders.
"Coulson, you stay on Stark. Continue his Avengers eligibility assessment."
Then he turned to Romanoff. "You find George and Logan. Somewhere in New York. We can't let a group of unregistered mutants operate unchecked."
It wasn't about hostility. It was about control. Unknown variables were unacceptable.
Elsewhere, at the mutant school.
Wolverine leaned against a wall, cigar clenched between his teeth, watching Rowan trace intricate symbols across the stonework.
"What're you doin'?" Logan asked.
"Setting up a runic barrier," Rowan replied without looking back.
Logan blinked. "A what now?"
"You wouldn't get it," Rowan said lightly. "Just think of it as a way to keep unwanted guests out of the school. History class is about to start. Aren't you supposed to be teaching?"
Logan grunted, crushed the cigar under his boot, and ambled off. After everything he'd been through, teaching kids felt… grounding.
With Logan gone, Rowan worked faster.
Since joining Fairy Tail, Rowan had been steadily learning Script Magic under Levy's guidance. Unlike many mages who were constantly out on missions, Levy spent most of her time in the library, buried in books. That made her the perfect teacher.
Script Magic demanded deep theoretical knowledge more than raw power, and that played to Rowan's strengths. He struggled with Requip magic no matter how much Erza explained it, but script-based systems clicked immediately.
He focused on runic scripts rather than three-dimensional text.
Script Magic branched into several categories. Three-dimensional words, runic scripts, dark scripts, and demonic scripts. The library only held material on the first two. The rest were forbidden.
Three-dimensional text manifested effects directly. Write "fire" and flames erupted. Write "silence" and sound vanished. Versatile, but shallow. Power was spread thin across too many effects. Even Levy, after years of study, had only mastered it to a moderate level.
Rowan also noticed something else. Many of those effects could be replicated through spellcasting from other magical systems. Efficient, yes. Unique, not always.
Runic scripts were different.
They couldn't be deployed instantly in combat, but once established, they were formidable. By inscribing rule-bound symbols onto objects or space itself, a hidden barrier took shape. Anyone entering the area triggered those rules automatically. Brute force rarely worked. Only those who met the conditions could pass.
The downside was precision. One mistake in a symbol, one alteration, and the entire structure could collapse or even be hijacked.
Rowan finished the final line and stepped back, eyes narrowing in satisfaction.
The school was no longer unguarded.