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. After meeting with Agent Coulson, Fury appointed him the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and tasked him with rebuilding the agency from scratch.

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, beced 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 took 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.

Branded as Terrorist Organization
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 erased their identities. Maria Hill took a job at Stark Industries where she would have protection through Tony Stark's network of top lawyers.

Rebuilding
Despite this, Fury, giving last orders as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., appointed his trusted agent and right-hand man, Phil Coulson as his replacement. Coulson, as of now, is rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. to confront threats posed by HYDRA.

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
 * S.H.I.E.L.D East African Headquarters
 * 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
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. UAV
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Jump Jet

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.
 * Odyssey Protocol, emergency evacuation 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 T.A.H.I.T.I.
 * 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:

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
 * Franklin Hall (imprisoned)
 * Norse Paganists
 * Jakob Nystrom (imprisoned)
 * Petra Larsen (imprisoned)
 * Lorelei
 * Marcus Daniels

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..