S.H.I.E.L.D.

"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."

- Captain America and Nick Fury

The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, better known by its acronym S.H.I.E.L.D., was a United States extra-governmental military counter-terrorism and intelligence agency. With its advanced weapons and extraordinary agents, S.H.I.E.L.D. is maybe the greatest military power on Earth. Run by Nick Fury and the World Security Council in the modern age, S.H.I.E.L.D. has to deal with all kinds of superhumans, demigods, and extraterrestrials. The agency became publicly known after the battle of New York, partially because of the Rising Tide website. After it was revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated by HYDRA, the Triskelion was destroyed, and all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s classified files were dumped on the Internet, the agency was disavowed by its commanding governments and labeled a terrorist organization.

Foundation
"After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded, and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew, a beautiful parasite, inside S.H.I.E.L.D."

- Arnim Zola to Captain America and Black Widow

The exact date of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s foundation is unknown, but it was formed shortly after World War II as a successor agency to the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR), an Allied deep science agency which fought against the Nazi sponsored special weapons division HYDRA during the war.

Howard Stark, an industrialist of great wealth and one of the most prominent members of the SSR along with Chester Phillips were among the founders of the new agency. One of the first agents of the new agency was Margaret "Peggy" Carter, the former partner of the American war hero Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America. The SSR continued as the scientific division of S.H.I.E.L.D. and continued to work on researching the advanced weapons captured from HYDRA as well as the mysterious Tesseract.

Shortly after the war, as part of Operation Paperclip, S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited the scientists of Nazi Germany as a think tank for the newborn agency. The infamous Arnim Zola was among the recruited scientists, but he used his new position to secretly rebuild HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D. Over the next decades, HYDRA's top agent in S.H.I.E.L.D., Alexander Pierce, became one of the agency's leaders.

Pierce met Colonel Nick Fury, a distinguished officer of the United States Armed Forces and espionage veteran of the Cold War, and persuaded him to join the agency.

0-8-4
In 1991, the entire population of a small village in Hunan Province, China, were killed defending a small infant. Designated as an 0-8-4 by S.H.I.E.L.D., a team was sent in to investigate. After losing contact with the main team, the back-end team, consisting of Richard Lumley, Linda Avery, and three other agents, investigated only to find the infant sleeping in the arms of the dead lead agent. The rest of the main team were dead. After returning to the United States, the other members of the team started to be eliminated. To ensure her safety, the infant was dropped off by Avery at the St. Agnes orphanage and arrangements were made for her to be moved to different foster homes to keep her safe.

New Leadership
Pierce gave up his position of the agency's director to become a member of the World Security Council. Pierce's successor was Nick Fury himself. Under his leadership, the agency recruited some of the best marksmen and spies in the world, including Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff. At that time, agent Phil Coulson served as Fury's right hand man, though the actual deputy director of the agency was Maria Hill.

Kidnapping of Tony Stark
"I can be in Afghanistan by sunrise, Director Fury." "You can. But you won't. We're the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Note the word "Homeland". We're not currently authorized for foreign ops."

- Phil Coulson and Nick Fury

In 2009, wealthy industrialist Tony Stark was kidnapped in Afghanistan by the terrorist group called the Ten Rings, S.H.I.E.L.D. feared that Stark, being just a wealthy civilian and not a trained soldier, could tell his kidnappers everything he knows about the American national security, since Stark was involved in making many weapons for the United States Armed Forces. Fury sent Phil Coulson to to Stark's business partner Obadiah Stane, to see if Stark is a man who could sell his country to save his own skin. When he arrived at the Stark Industries headquarters, Stane told Coulson that Stark couldn't tell the Ten Rings much about the American defence systems. Back at the agency, Fury again refused Coulson's offer to search for Stark himself.

Birth of Iron Man
Three months later, Stark was found by the Army in the desert. Fury didn't believe Stark's story that the terrorists' ammo dump accidentally exploded. He thought that Stark was actually recruited by the Ten Rings and sent to the only place where he could have all the necessary equipment to make more weapons for them―his home.

Fury then sent Agent Phil Coulson who repeatedly attempted to talk to Stark, but without success. When Coulson met Stark's secretary Pepper Potts, he attempted to set up a meeting with Tony Stark regarding his abduction and subsequent "rescue" in Afghanistan. However, Stark was busy, as he organized a press conference where he announced that his company would not produce weapons anymore. When they discovered that Stark actually made an armored suit and used it not just to escape but also to repay to his kidnappers, they thought better of him.

A few days later, the agency's satellites detected something that looked like an unmanned aerial vehicle. But when Fury and Coulson saw the footage of the "vehicle's" flight through the streets of Los Angeles, they realized the "vehicle" is actually Stark in a flying armored suit. To be sure, they hacked Stark's computers and found confirmation that Stark is working on the development of the armored suit.

A few days later, S.H.I.E.L.D. were in Afghanistan, where they visited the village of Gulmira. When one agent found an abandoned camera, they saw footage of Stark in a repainted armor attacking the Ten Rings and destroying their piles of weapons. Back at the headqarters, Coulson and Fury saw that Stark is chased by two F-22 Raptors. When one plane went down and Stark risked his life to save the pilot, Fury finally realized that he was wrong. He then ordered Coulson to check Obadiah Stane's activities with Stark's financials. They investigated Stark's business partner Obadiah Stane and found out that he sold the Stark Industries weapons to the terrorists. S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately went to Stark Industries where he encountered Pepper Potts who informed him about Stane's involvement in Tony's kidnapping and attempted homicide. Coulson and four other agents tried to arrest Stane, but their efforts were thwarted by Stane who was now wearing his own armor. However, in the ensuing battle, Stane was defeated by Stark. Fury finally began to look at Stark as a good guy.

A few minutes after the battle with Obadiah Stane, Tony and James Rhodes were taken to a secret base where they encountered Agent Coulson. Coulson told them that Tony's fight against Stane was good, but that he needs to learn how to become a real fighter, and that his colleagues will teach him.

The next morning, Coulson came to Stark Industries where the journalists expected to hear from Stark about the incident that happened, and who the mysterious "Iron Man" really is. Coulson gave Stark a cover story for the incident, and when Pepper thanked him for all he did for them, he said they'll hear from his agency again. When she tried to say the whole name of the agency, he interrupted her and spoke the acronym "S.H.I.E.L.D." instead. When Coulson returned to the agency's headquerters, both he and Fury watched the press conference. When Coulson asked for Fury's opinion on Stark's possible future work with S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury liked the acronym so much that he decided to make it official. A few seconds later, both Coulson and Fury were shocked when Stark publicly revealed that he is Iron Man to the world.

A few hours later, Fury visited Stark in his Malibu home and informed him of the Avengers Initiative. Stark refused to join Fury's "superhero boy band".

Greenland
A few months later, S.H.I.E.L.D. led an expedition to Greenland in hopes of finding Steve Rogers, the American war hero from World War II. They didn't find Rogers, but they found one of the disabled flying bombs from HYDRA's super bomber, the Valkyrie. Though Fury wanted to continue the search, the World Security Council ordered them to shut down the operation and return to New York City. Twelve hours later, the Council ordered Fury to stop wasting time on what they called "wasteful programs" and focus on reigniting the Tesseract, naming that operation "Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.". Despite the direct order, Fury decided to continue with his usual activities, and he told Coulson to do the same.

Watching Over Stark
In the following year, S.H.I.E.L.D agents Phil Coulson, and Natasha Romanoff, alongside Fury watched over Stark. When Stark got drunk and had a battle with James Rhodes at his own birthday party, Nick Fury put Coulson in charge of guarding Stark, making sure he doesn't leave his house. Stark later learned that his father was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Coulson informed Fury about the appearance of a wormhole over New Mexico, and Fury agreed to send an expedition led by Coulson himself. When Coulson asked his colleague Natasha Romanoff, the famous Black Widow, if she could handle things at Stark's house, she said yes.

At the Stark Expo, Natasha attended and when Ivan Vanko started to control the Hammer Drones, she went with Happy Hogan to go to Hammer Industries. Natasha changed into a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform during the car ride with Hogan trying to watch whilst driving. Natasha broke into Hammer Industries. Hogan took out one guy finding that Natasha took alot more than that. She managed to get control over James Rhodes's battle suit. She then retrieved Hammer Industries data before Ivan Vanko's bombs went off.

After the battle at Stark Expo, Fury informed Tony that while Iron Man is a suitable candidate for the "Avengers Initiative", Tony himself is not. S.H.I.E.L.D. wants Tony in a consultant position, to which Tony agrees on the condition that Senator Stern present himself and Rhodes with their medals for bravery. A couple of hours later, Tony got his wish and took the job as consultant.

Bruce Banner
General Thaddeus Ross used the S.H.I.E.L.D. servers to help him track the e-mails from the fugitive Bruce Banner. Fury personally confronted Banner in one bar, and witnessed his transformation into the Hulk.

Later, S.H.I.E.L.D were given orders to go to Culver University and get eyes on Bruce Banner. Black Widow arrived and witnessed Banner get locked in the bridge by General Ross and his troops; Banner then transformed into the Hulk and a battle ensued. She called Fury and barely escaped uninjured. She revealed to Fury that she witnessed Emil Blonsky in action against the Hulk and that they enhanced him. Fury was forced to deploy Natasha to Empire State University after Ross revealed, in a short conversation, that he intended to capture Banner. She arrived too late, however, and informed Fury over the phone that Ross captured Bruce and was taking him away in a helicopter. Black Widow was then ordered to make sure that Bruce didn't leave anything for Dr. Samuel Sterns, who he had recently been with, to work on. As she headed up the front steps, she witnessed Blonsky, now as Abomination, emerge from the building. She was buried in rubble, but still managed to make her way upstairs. She stumbled upon Dr. Sterns, who's mutation had greatened significantly, and his brain power had been augmented exponentially. After a brief dialogue with him, during which Sterns identified Black Widow's birth place from a hint of accent in her voice, Natasha shot him in the leg.

Black Widow called in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cleanup team, and signaled her location on the roof with flares. She saw the chaos of Abomination and Hulk's battle in the distance. Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, Black Widow confronted Fury, stating that all of the events going on were too much to handle.

Finding Mjølnir and meeting Thor
Upon arriving in the deserts of New Mexico, Coulson and his team discovered the crater site with the mysterious hammer at the center. Though the locals have discovered the hammer before Coulson's team, no one was able to lift it or move it, not even with the help of their vehicles. Coulson and his men quickly set up a perimeter and a base of operations around the crater. A professor who specialized in the fields of Norse mythology named Elliot Randolph helped Coulson and his group with discovering what the hammer was.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agents then went to confiscate all of the research about the mysterious wormhole that Jane Foster and her scientific team had collected. They traveled to Puente Antiguo, and despite Foster's protests, Coulson and his men took all of their equipment.

The same night, an unknown man infiltrated Coulson's base and managed to single-highhandedly take out a dozen of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with various fighting styles. Coulson observed from a distance but not before asking Clint Barton to prepare to take action if necessary. When the attacker tried and failed to lift the hammer, Coulson's men easily captured him.

Shortly after, Coulson interrogated the stranger about his identity and his training believing him to be a warrior of some type. However, the stranger refused to answer his questions. The interrogation was interrupted when Foster's colleague Erik Selvig arrived and informed Coulson that the stranger is Donald Blake, a member of his scientific staff. An agent confirmed Selving's story by running a background check in the computer database and finding a falsified document created by Jane Foster. Though Coulson knew that Selvig was lying, he agreed to free "Donald", only to secretly assign agents to follow Selving and "his friend".

Attacked by the Destroyer
"Is that one of Stark's?" "I don't know. Guy never tells me anything."

- Cale and Phil Coulson

A few days later, an agent discovered the coordinates of another potential crater site that appeared to have an exact signature match to the mysterious hammer. When Coulson and a unit of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents went to investigate, they found a gigantic armor of unknown origin. As the armor slowly approached them, Agent Cale asked Coulson if the armor was one of Stark's. Coulson replied that Stark doesn't tell him anything, and tried to speak with the armor, but the iron giant attacked them.

Coulson managed to survive the attack from the armor. When the armor attacked Puente Antiguo, Coulson saw "Donald" gaining mysterious supernatural powers. When "Donald" summoned the hammer and defeated the armor, Coulson realized that "Donald" is actually Thor, the Norse God of Thunder and Prince of Asgard. Coulson confronted Thor who offered his services in protecting Earth under the sole condition that Coulson returns all of Jane's research and material back to her. Coulson agreed to Thor's terms and requested that they be debriefed just before Thor flew upwards with Jane in his arms.

Later, Coulson and Barton supervised the transport of the armor to a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. While Dr. Erik Selvig was taken to a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility where he met Nick Fury. Fury asked Selvig to study the recently-discovered Tesseract, an object of limitless power. Selvig agreed while Loki watched.

The Abomination
The World Security Council ordered S.H.I.E.L.D. to recruit Emil Blonsky, the Abomination, for the Avengers Initiative, Coulson met with Agent Jasper Sitwell in a cafe to discuss that order. The Council considered Blonsky a war hero, and that he destroyed half of Harlem just because he was attacked by the Hulk. Now S.H.I.E.L.D. had to convince General Thaddeus Ross to free Blonsky. Both Coulson and Sitwell agreed that releasing Blonsky from the Army's custody would be foolish, and they decided to send a consultant to talk to Ross and convince him not to free Blonsky, someone so irritating and annoying that Ross would simply refuse to free Blonksy. Unwillingly, Coulson decided to send Tony Stark.

A few days later, Coulson and Sitwell met at the same cafe. Their plan worked as they expected because Stark's annoying behaviour made Ross so angry that he refused to free Blonsky.

Russia
On a mission, Black Widow arrived in Moscow, Russia, where she searched for missing Stark Industries technology. Disguised as Tatiana Sokolova, she worked at a night club. While trying to interrogate Mikhail Fjodorov, one of the world's most successful illegal arms dealers, Fjodorov was killed by an unknown woman and Natasha was forced to leave the club via the roof, fighting several security men. After she returned to a hotel, she was attacked by a team of masked mercenaries, but she defeated them and received a SIM card to reach the mysterious woman she has seen in the night club. Later, Black Widow talked to the woman named "Sofia", and learned that she is a "fan" and wants to take over the name "Black Widow". Natasha agreed to meet with Sofia and broke all her contacts with S.H.I.E.L.D.

A few days later, Natasha confronted Sofia in a sport hall in Sochi, where she almost drowned in cold water, but she was saved at the last moment by Phil Coulson, who was following a pair of goons working for the arms dealer General Starodoub. Coulson gave Natasha the necessary equipment to infiltrate the yacht belonging to Yuri Klementiev one of General Starodoub's business partners, where she met Sofia again, an encounter which cost them the life of agent Gennady Markov.

When Coulson discovered that Sofia's employer was the billionaire Richard Frampton, Natasha infiltrated his headquarters in Vladivostok. She discovered that Frampton works for the Ten Rings terrorist organization and that he has made a Jericho missile that would explode near the border between Russia and North Korea, greatly destabilising the world peace. Natasha infiltrated the launching area and destroyed the missile. Both Frampton and Sofia were killed in the explosion.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s search for Captain America
"My God. Base, give me a line to the Colonel." "It's 3 AM, sir." "I don't care what time it is. This one's waited long enough."

- A lieutenant calling a S.H.I.E.L.D. base after finding Steve's body

Sixty-five years after Steve Rodgers crash landing, a S.H.I.E.L.D. team led by Nick Fury searched for his body. When they finally found his body, they defrosted him and then shipped his body to New York City and kept in a simulated 1942 environment to try and ease him into what was happening.

When he awoke he quickly realized it wasn't real and escaped into the streets of a 2011 Manhattan, New York. In Time Square, Rogers encounters Nick Fury who tells him that he's been "asleep" for nearly seventy years. Steve then realized that many of his old friends were very likely dead, including his love intrest, Peggy Carter.

War for Earth
When Loki stole the Tesseract and escaped along with several enslaved S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, Director Fury reactivated the Avengers Initiative to counter the threat. Agent Romanoff was sent to bring in Dr. Banner, Agent Coulson was sent to retrieve Tony Stark, and Fury himself approached Steve Rogers, all in the hope that together these individuals might combine their respective talents to help with the problem of Loki and the missing Tesseract.

S.H.I.E.L.D. assisted Rogers in his capture of Loki, and then provided a prison on the Helicarrier once Loki had been apprehended. It transpired that Loki had intended to be captured however, a ruse to sow the seeds of discord throughout the ranks of the forces assembled against him. His mind-controlled agents later attacked the Helicarrier to free him, heavily damaging it in the process. The attack became a bitter defeat for S.H.I.E.L.D, although Fury turned one of its defining losses into the motivational push that Stark and Rogers needed. In short order the remaining heroes set off in pursuit of Loki, and began referring to themselves as the Avengers.

During the Chitauri invasion in Manhattan, the World Security Council ordered the deployment of nuclear missile to the city in the hope of stopping the invasion. Nick Fury was able to stop a jet carrying a nuke from taking off, but was unable to prevent another. With Fury's help, Iron Man was able to prevent the other missile from detonating over New York City.

Operation: Insight
"This is Project Insight. Three next generation Helicarriers linked to a network of targeting satellites." "Launched from the Lemurian Star." "Once we get them in the air they never need to come down."

- Nick Fury to Captain America

After the Avengers' victory and departure, S.H.I.E.L.D. was given more resources than they ever had before in order to make sure that if a threat similar to the Chitauri attacks Earth, they would be prepared. With more funds to invest in homeland security, the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. started "Project Insight", a security network formed by three heavily-armed Helicarriers to protect the Earth. In S.H.I.E.L.D.'s plans, the Helicarriers would proactively strike out against potential threats before they actually happened. However, HYDRA's undercover operatives in S.H.I.E.L.D. intended to use the Helicarriers to exterminate any person that would pose a threat to HYDRA's plans of world domination. Soon, the crews of all three Helicarriers were composed entirely of HYDRA's undercover agents.

Providence
Fury set up a secret base after the Battle of New York, manned by Agent Eric Koenig. Koenig referred to the base as "Providence".

Revival of Coulson
Days after the death of Phil Coulson at the hands of Loki, Nick Fury ordered extreme measures be taken to save him. He was taken to a former World War II bunker called the Guest House. S.H.I.E.L.D. medical staff used a experimental drug to repair the wounded organs at a cellular level. After at least seven operations, Fury's doctors were actually able to bring Coulson back to life days after he had been killed. The process was extremely, inhumanly agonizing for Coulson, who begged the doctors to let him die.

During the process, they altered some of his memories with a robotic-assisted neural micro-surgery, to make him believe that he was revived in Tahiti, in order to cope with the pain he felt and to make him less suicidal, as he wanted to die due to the intense agony he was experiencing. S.H.I.E.L.D. Doctor Streiten maintained that the methods used to restore Coulson to life were unethical and felt that they should have let him die. The details of his revival are only available for agents with Clearance Level 10 or above.

Dr. Streiten was reluctant to release him back into active duty given the horrific nature of his recovery and was astonished to realize that Coulson was unaware of the truth of his survival. Agent Maria Hill told Streiten that Coulson could never know the truth.

Item 47
When two bank robbers, Claire Wise and Benjamin Pollack, come into possession of a Chitauri weapon, Felix Blake sent Jasper Sitwell to kill them and retrieve the weapon. Sitwell tracked them to a motel and stayed in the room next to theirs. He disturbed them with loud music and Benny went to investigate. Sitwell attacked Benny, who warned Claire of the ambush. Claire then attacked Sitwell with the Chitauri weapon. During the struggle, the gun destroyed most of the room, but was broken in the process. Sitwell then tied up Benny and Claire, but decided not to kill them when he discovered that the gun was working because Benny, who was a scientist, had repaired it. Seeing a great potential in the couple, Sitwell recruited Benny and Claire in S.H.I.E.L.D. as special agents, much to Blake's disappointment.

Coulson's Team
Some time after the battle of New York, Melinda May assembled a team of agents to keep an eye on Phil Coulson's recovery for Nick Fury. Coulson however believes he has set up the small, highly trained team of agents to tackle the cases that haven’t been classified yet. The team originally consists of Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Grant Ward, Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons. They later recruited Skye to the team and took part in missions in Los Angeles and Peru.

The Asset
In 2013 S.H.I.E.L.D. searched for one of its assets, Dr. Franklin Hall, who was kidnapped by his former research partner and CEO of Quinn Worldwide named Ian Quinn. His soldiers used a gravity device on the S.H.I.E.L.D. convoy that was transporting him. Quinn wanted to use Hall to take control of the planet's gravity by building a giant gravitonium generator. Coulson's and his team headed to Malta and Skye volunteered to infiltrate Quinn's mansion during his party so that Coulson and Ward could rescue Hall. Skye tricked Quinn into believing she is betraying S.H.I.E.L.D. for Rising Tide to get his guard down. However, Coulson discovered that Hall perpetrated his own escape and wanted to destroy the massive device as believed he is in the right. Coulson warned him that doing so would end up killing millions. There is a violent disagreement which lead to Coulson being forced to leave Hall to die as he fell into the middle of the generator. Coulson ordered that the gravitonium be placed under high security and off the books in the Fridge.

S.H.I.E.L.D. however did not notice that Hall is still alive but trapped within the gravitonium.

Centipede Project
The Centipede Group first came to the attention of Coulson's team in Los Angeles but the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. learnt about them when Index-registered pyrokinetic Chan Ho Yin was kidnapped from his Hong Kong apartment by a woman named Raina, who worked for the Centipede Project. Chan was brought to a nearby lab where Debbie managed to harvest the fire-resistant platelets in Chan's blood. The platelets allowed the Extremis element of the Centipede process to be stabilized without the explosive after-effects. Having gotten what they needed from him, Debbie ordered Chan be drained, killing him.

But before that could happen, Chan was released by a S.H.I.E.L.D. extraction team led by Phil Coulson and agent Kwan Chen. Unfortunately, Chan (Now going by the name "Scorch"), was tired of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s interference in his life, and killed Kwan. Chan then confronted Debbie and Raina. Raina abandoned Debbie, leaving her to be incinerated by Chan. Raina escaped, but the lab was destroyed when Chan detonated from an Extremis over-dose.

Before the destruction of the lab, S.H.I.E.L.D. consultant Skye managed to extract a few files from the building's mainframe, enough to give S.H.I.E.L.D some new leads on their activities.

Battle of Greenwich
S.H.I.E.L.D. were not present for the Battle of Greenwich but were present for cleanup after the event. The pieces of Dark Elf technology left behind after the battle were collected by S.H.I.E.L.D., and the damage was cleaned up overnight. The Jotunheim Beast continued to run freely through London, and it is unknown what became of it afterward.

Kidnapping of Coulson
Edison Po was broken out of Havenworth Federal Penitentiary by a squadron of Centipede powered soldiers. They took him to the new Centipede lab in Oakland, California, where Raina updated him on the project's status. Po determined that S.H.I.E.L.D. presented a threat that needed to be taken care of. He set a trap for S.H.I.E.L.D. with three Centipede-powered soldiers laying in wait.

However S.H.I.E.L.D. had recruited the Centipede-powered Michael Peterson. Peterson's presence turned the tide against the Centipede soldiers, but it also gave Po and Raina the inspiration for a plan of action.

Raina kidnapped Michael's son Ace and threatened to have him killed if Peterson didn't obey her instructions. Believing that Centipede wanted to exchange Peterson for his son, Coulson accompanied Peterson to the exchange site in Long Beach, California. Seeing no other way to save his son, Peterson betrayed Coulson to Raina. After seeing to his son's safety, Peterson tried to make up for his actions by returning to rescue Coulson, but he was seemingly killed in an explosion.

Raina escaped the scene with Coulson by way of helicopter. Upon leaving the scene, Raina explained to Coulson that their true interest was in the nature of Coulson's mysterious revival after his "death" before the Battle of New York, as this is seemingly the key to "Stage Three" of the Group's unknown plans. S.H.I.E.L.D. left no stone unturned in their search for Coulson. A sting operation performed by Coulson's Team under the direction of Agent Victoria Hand netted the international criminal Vanchat, who had had dealings with Centipede in the past. Between the intel gained from Vanchat, as well as an independent study of Vanchat's finances by S.H.I.E.L.D. consultant Skye, S.H.I.E.L.D. determined the locations of several Centipede operations around the globe, as well as Coulson's location in the Mojave.

S.H.I.E.L.D. teams struck simultaneously at multiple Centipede locations across the globe, Coulson's team headed to Mojave to rescue Coulson. After subduing a cadre of Centipede-powered soldiers, Coulson was located and Raina taken into custody.

The Guest House
After the events of Coulson's kidnapping, S.H.I.E.L.D. were then interested in finding the Clairvoyant. Coulson's team boarded a train in Italy on which a Cybertek security group were shipping a package to Ian Quinn. The Cybertek package is tracked to Quinn's mansion. In the basement, Skye was confronted by Quinn, who reveal that Mike Peterson is alive, having been kept in a hyperbaric chamber. The package contained a high-tech prosthetic leg that is then fitted onto Peterson's amputated right leg. Quinn then shot Skye twice in the stomach and left her for dead while Peterson escapes. S.H.I.E.L.D. then raid the mansion and Quinn was arrested. Skye however was left near death and was temporarily sustained by being placed into Peterson's hyperbaric chamber.

Skye was rushed to a S.H.I.E.L.D. medical facility to save her life. The doctors were only able to stabilize her, which forced Coulson to bring her to the S.H.I.E.L.D. location where he was revived. Agents John Garrett and Antoine Triplett boarded the Bus in order to claim Ian Quinn but instead helped Coulson's team in recovering the drug that revived him from the "Guest House", which was a former top-secret storage facility at a classified location that was previously affiliated with S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson, Ward, Garrett and Fitz entered and found the place rigged with explosives after they took out the only two guards. Fitz was able to find the drug, while Coulson found a room marked T.A.H.I.T.I. Fitz got back to the Bus to deliver the drug while Coulson explored the room. Inside, Coulson found more of the drug as well as discovering that the drug is coming from the upper half of a blue-skinned humanoid corpse.

The team was able to get out before the facility exploded, but Coulson raced to prevent Fitz giving Skye the drug, based on what he has seen in the T.A.H.I.T.I. room. Fitz managed to give the drug the drug to Skye, quick enough to save her.

Return of Lady Sif
S.H.I.E.L.D. was summoned to investigate an energy reading in the desert consistent with the imminent arrival of an Asgardian. They encountered Lady Sif, who had come to Earth seeking Lorelei, an Asgardian criminal who had traveled to Earth seeking to enslave humanity. The team and Sif traveled to a biker bar Lorelei was using as a hideout, but after a short battle, Lorelei enthralled agent Grant Ward and escaped with him. The pair traveled to Las Vegas, where Lorelei learned much of Earth's governments from Ward, and used this information to formulate a planetary takeover. However, Ward informed Lorelei of the threat posed by his team, and together, the two infiltrated the Bus in an attempt to kill them. Lorelei enthralled Leo Fitz, who in turn isolated the rest of the team while Ward took control of the plane. However, Lorelei's plans were ruined before they could even begin, as she underestimated the threat posed by Melinda May, who distracted Ward from Sif as Lorelei dueled her. Sif bested Lorelei in combat, silencing her with the collar. The enthralled were freed from Lorelei's control immediately.

Sif took Lorelei back to Asgard, where she most likely returned to imprisonment.

Hunt for the Clairvoyant
After Agents John Garrett and Antoine Triplett were attacked in a S.H.I.E.L.D. safehouse by former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Mike Peterson (now going by the name Deathlok), Phil Coulson invited them, Victoria Hand, Felix Blake and Jasper Sitwell to the Bus to hunt for the Clairvoyant. The The agents were split into teams so that they could pursue leads on different Clairvoyant candidates. Before Sitwell could take part in the mission, he was ordered by Director Fury to go to the Lemurian Star.

Felix Blake and Melinda May were sent to a nursing home to search for Thomas Nash who was a catatonic man who claimed to be a psychic. The pair however encountered Deathlok and Blake was critically injured by him. Before Deathlok escaped, Blake managed to tag him with a tracker. S.H.I.E.L.D. concluded that Nash is the Clairvoyant because of Deathlok's presence along with the falsifying of his nursing home records. A S.H.I.E.L.D. team converged on Deathlok's next location which was an abandoned horse racing track. Meanwhile Triplett and Simmons stayed behind at the Hub with Hand.

The team encountered Deathlok again, but he fled into the sewers soon after being engaged. The team however discovered a hidden room where Thomas Nash who was a vegetative man on life support who had to speak through a computer, was hiding. Nash surrendered and boasted that as the Clairvoyant, he would always be watching them. When he said that Project Centipede will kill Skye, Ward shot him in the chest, killing him. Ward was detained for his actions and accused by Coulson for working with the Clairvoyant by shooting Nash to misdirect away from the Clairvoyant's true identity.

Lemurian Star
"Target is a mobile satellite launch platform, the Lemurian Star. Setting up their last payload when pirates took 'em, 93 minutes ago."

- Brock Rumlow

After the arrival of Jasper Sitwell to the S.H.I.E.L.D. ship Lemurian Star, a group of pirates led by Georges Batroc attacked the ship. Captain America, Black Widow and S.T.R.I.K.E. were sent to the mobile satellite launch platform to retake command and free its hostages, when it was setting up its last payload in the Indian Ocean. The team sucessfully infiltrated the ship and rescued the hostages, however unknown to Captain America, Black Widow was sent to get valuable data about S.H.I.E.L.D. for Director Fury. Batroc escaped but was later captured and interrogated by another S.H.I.E.L.D. team.

"Death" of Nick Fury
After receiving the files from the Lemurian Star, Fury discovered that the data was unable to be accessed. Fury reported this to Alexander Pierce, who had just been speaking with the World Security Council about whether or not to let Fury continue to run S.H.I.E.L.D. Afterwards, while driving through Washington, D.C., Nick Fury was attacked by mercenaries disguised as the police. After getting the systems back online on his SUV he managed to escape but was then stopped by a surprise attack from the Winter Soldier. Although his car was totalled and he was badly injured he managed to escape using the Mouse Hole device and hid in Steve Rogers' apartment.

When Rogers arrived at his apartment he found Nick Fury sitting on his couch. He told Rogers that S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised and not to trust anyone. Fury gave Rogers the USB with the data and was then shot suddenly three times in the chest from a nearby rooftop. Rogers gave chase to the gunman but eventually lost him. Fury was taken to hospital but after some time he was pronounced dead. Maria Hill takes care of the body.

The Big Revelation
"S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was. It's been taken over by HYDRA."

- Captain America

After Captain America and Black Widow found Arnim Zola in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility now in a computer body, it is revealed that HYDRA grew inside S.H.I.E.L.D. with the intention of bringing order to the world by killing millions of innocent people. Captain America met up with Maria Hill and Nick Fury, infiltrating the Triskelion and exposing the truth. They succeeded in preventing three helicarriers from assassinating millions of civilians that HYDRA considered a potential threat, and Pierce was killed.

During all this, an encrypted message was sent out saying "OUT OF THE SHADOWS AND INTO THE LIGHT" and the word "HYDRA". This was a trigger message to all HYDRA sleeper agents that the time for hiding themselves was over. In the ensuing internal conflict, HYDRA attempted to pre-emptively take over several S.H.I.E.L.D. installations, including the Hub, the Treehouse and S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. They were successful in some of these locations, but were denied the Hub by the actions of Victoria Hand and Coulson's Team who swiftly identified most of the traitors. Subsequent to this, S.H.I.E.L.D. was in disarray - Fury was believed dead, Pierce and Sitwell dead and disowned, Hill left to work for Stark Industries, Garrett was arrested, Blake was in hospital and as far as any in the Hub could tell, Hand and Coulson were the highest-ranking agents left. However the situation worsened further when Agent Grant Ward killed Hand and released Garrett.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Disbandment
After this first insurrection, only four S.H.I.E.L.D. installations were confirmed to have resisted HYDRA (the Triskelion, the Hub, the Fridge, the Cube), and the Treehouse and another unnamed base in East Africa were confirmed to have been taken over by HYDRA. One of the bases that had resisted the initial insurrection did not last long as Ward and Garrett raided the Fridge, acquiring various weapons that the Slingshot was supposed to have fired into the Sun (in reality, each item had been kept and catalogued) and freed the prisoners held there. The U.S. government declared S.H.I.E.L.D. a terrorist organization and sent Colonel Glenn Talbot to take the agents at the Hub into custody. Coulson, the ranking agent on-site, decided to order the base's evacuation before Talbot's forces could arrive and went on the run. After taking his team on the Bus and erasing their identities, Coulson received a signal from Fury which led him to the top-secret Providence Base.

Status
Although the Black Widow testified at a committee hearing on the events at the Triskelion and insisted S.H.I.E.L.D. had done its best, the U.S. government declared S.H.I.E.L.D. a terrorist organization and many former agents are now to be considered fugitives. Coulson's team evaded capture and have erased their identities.

Facilities

 * The Triskelion (Primary HQ)
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters
 * The Hub (Operational planning and support)
 * The Slingshot (Study and disposal of dangerous technology)
 * The Fridge (High-security detainment and storage facility)
 * The Sandbox (Study and disposal of hazardous or contagious material)
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Trauma Zentrum (Medical facility)
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Training Facility
 * Maria Hill's Field Office
 * Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility
 * Providence (S.H.I.E.L.D. Facility)
 * Ice Box (High security detainment)
 * Treehouse
 * Cube
 * The Guest House (formerly)
 * The Coventry (formerly)
 * Shangri-La (formerly)

There is a Wall of Valor located at every S.H.I.E.L.D. facility.

Paraphernalia
S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel have access to an extensive array of cutting edge technology at their disposal.

Weapons
Regular S.H.I.E.L.D. field agents are usually equipped with a 9mm pistol. A military branch used for heavy security has access to military grade personal armaments. A few selected elite agents carry less conventional armaments, such as explosives, or bows. The S.H.I.E.L.D. project titled, "Phase 2", was dedicated to advancing alien technology weapons and reverse-engineer them into laser weapons.
 * Destroyer Armor Prototype Gun
 * Night-Night Gun and Pistol
 * Sonic Staff
 * I.C.E.R.s

Vehicles
S.H.I.E.L.D. maintains a fleet of Acura vehicles for the regular deployment of field agents and scientists. S.H.I.E.L.D. editions of the Acura MDX, Acura TL, and the Acura ZDX are painted in black and equipped with sophisticated surveillance technology. The military arm of S.H.I.E.L.D. uses a range of surface vehicles suitable for urban security, and aircraft with combat capabilities extending to fighter jets and helicopters. This branch also has access to previously unknown aircraft types.
 * Helicarrier - Airborne aircraft carrier
 * Quinjet - Armed VTOL transport
 * CXD 23 Airborne Mobile Command Station - Airborne command unit
 * Modified 1962 Corvette  - Flying car
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Railbike
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Motorcycle
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV

Misc.
S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists work tirelessly both in the lab and in the field to develop new equipment, technologies  and compounds on the fly.

Codes

 * 0-8-4, an object of unknown origin.
 * Clearance Level, the level of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
 * The Index, a short-list of people with special powers.
 * Odessey Protocol, emergency evaluation of a team.

Projects

 * Avengers Initiative (2009-present)
 * Phase 2 (2009-2011)
 * Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. (2010-2011)
 * Project Mr. Blue (2010-present)
 * Project Insight (2012 - 2014)

Missions
See for the mission list: List of S.H.I.E.L.D. Missions

Known members
See for more information: List of S.H.I.E.L.D. Members.

Famous agents:
 * Nick Fury, director, cl 10, director
 * Maria Hill, cl 9, deputy director
 * Victoria Hand, cl 8
 * Phil Coulson, cl 8, field officer
 * Anne Weaver, cl 8, academy director
 * Steve Rogers (Captain America), cl 8, leader of the Avengers
 * Felix Blake, cl 7
 * Clint Barton (Hawkeye), cl 7, specialist
 * Sharon Carter (Agent 13), specialist
 * John Garrett, cl 7, field officer
 * Melinda May (The Cavalry), cl 7, specialist
 * Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), cl 6, specialist
 * Antoine Triplett, cl 6, specialist
 * Grant Ward, cl 7, specialist
 * Erik Selvig
 * Jemma Simmons, cl 5, bio-chemist
 * Dr. Streiten
 * Leo Fitz, cl 5, engineer
 * Tony Stark (Iron Man), consultant
 * Skye, cl 1
 * Galaga Guy

Allies

 * Avengers
 * Thor
 * Bruce Banner (Hulk)
 * Sif
 * Jane Foster
 * Darcy Lewis
 * Thaddeus Ross
 * Pepper Potts
 * James Rhodes (Iron Patriot)
 * Sam Wilson (Falcon)

Enemies

 * Obadiah Stane (Iron Monger) †
 * Samuel Sterns (Leader) (imprisoned and being studied for Project Mr. Blue)
 * Ivan Vanko (Whiplash) †
 * Justin Hammer (imprisoned)


 * Hammer Drones (destroyed)
 * Emil Blonsky (Abomination) (imprisoned)
 * Georgi Luchkov
 * Destroyer (confiscated)
 * Sofia †
 * Loki
 * Chitauri
 * Vanchat (imprisoned)
 * Rising Tide
 * Centipede Project
 * John Garrett (Clairvoyant)
 * Grant Ward
 * Ian Quinn
 * Debbie †
 * Raina
 * Scorch †
 * Edison Po †
 * Camilla Reyes (imprisoned)
 * Ian Quinn (imprisoned)
 * Franklin Hall (imprisoned)
 * Norse Paganists
 * Marcus Daniels
 * Jakob Nystrom (imprisoned)
 * Petra Larsen (imprisoned)
 * Lorelei

Video game only

 * A.I.M.
 * Kearson DeWitt
 * Crimson Dynamo

Trivia

 * A S.H.I.E.L.D. film was planned but it was eventually scrapped and turned into Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..