Italy

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe.

HYDRA Desertion
In 1943, Johann Schmidt and his HYDRA division went rogue, separating themselves from the Nazi regime and intended to nuke the capitals of all countries that would resist his conquest, including Rome.

Battle of Azzano
Bucky Barnes, Dum Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones, among other members of the United States Armed Forces, were battling German troops in Azzano when a battalion of HYDRA soldiers sent by Johann Schmidt arrived.

One of the HYDRA Uber Tanks fired upon the German troops, signaling HYDRA's abandonment of the nazi cause.

Over 200 soldiers battled the HYDRA forces, but less than 50 managed to return to their base camp, with most members of the either killed or captured inside the Austrian HYDRA Weapons Facility.

Captain America' USO Shows
In November 1943, Steve Rogers, America's public symbol to boost morale during World War II, traveled to Italy to host one of his "Captain America" shows, in order to entertain American military personnel stationed in the base. The soldiers began to mock Rogers' colorful costume and threw rotten tomatoes, demanding his female chorus, the Star Spangled Singers, to return to scene.

Slightly depressed, Rogers began drawing himself as a simple dancing monkey when agent Peggy Carter, one of his instructors during his time with the Strategic Scientific Reserve, greeted him. Rogers was surprised to see her, as Carter's presence in the base was unofficial and kept secret.

Rogers and Carter discussed his role as "America's New Hope", with Rogers defending the increases in the purchase of War Bonds in the cities he had visited, and his gratitude to Senator Brandt for offering this alternative to Colonel Chester Phillips intentions to seclude him in a laboratory. Carter reminded Rogers that he was much more than a lab rat or a dancing monkey, and Rogers claimed that he managed to fulfill his dreams of crossing the ocean and serve his country, although maybe just not the way he expected to do it.

Carter informed him of Johann Schmidt's latest moves in Azzano. Learning the whereabouts of the, Rogers was concerned about the status of his best friend Bucky Barnes, destined to that regiment.

Rogers went to see Colonel Phillips, who mocked his celebrity name and status, and reminded him he was none to give orders to a colonel when Rogers demanded to the see the KIA list from Azzano. Rogers only asked the status of Barnes, and Phillips said that he reminded the name from one of the many condolence letters he had signed.

Phillips also explained why a rescue mission was not ordered, as the prisoners were held in one of the most fortified areas in Europe, and dismissed Rogers' offer of helping. Carter realized that Rogers was planning to rescue the prisoners alone, and offered to help him in his mission.

Liberation of Allied Prisoners of War
Colonel Chester Phillips was dictating a letter about Rogers' disappearance to Senator Brandt at the Italian basecamp, when agent Peggy Carter informed him of the data collected by the last reconnaissance flight.

Phillips, visibly upset by the events, warned Carter that Stark would not suffer consequences for helping Rogers, as he is a wealthy businessman and the army's most important weapons supplier, but she wasn't. Phillips condemned Carter's actions that seemingly led to the death of Rogers and many other soldiers, but she justified herself

However, on the outside, many soldiers gathered at the entrance of the base camp, as Rogers returned having successfully rescued the prisoners from HYDRA. The soldiers greeted their comrades, while Rogers respectfully addressed to Colonel Phillips, demanding medical assistance for the ones who needed it, and accepting being subjected to disciplinary measures.

Phillips considered those disciplinary measures unnecessary, and the soldiers gave a big ovation to Captain America.

Sicilian Mission
John Garrett was assigned on an undercover mission in Sicily, getting involved in a gunfire without backup from the Sicilian team. Garrett dropped through a skylight and shot every enemy, running out of ammo before killing the final opponent. Garrett used a flare gun as an improvised weapon, surprising the enemy once the flare hit his chest.

Over the years, this mission became one of the stories that Garrett usually told about his field missions. Phil Coulson, who was also present during the whole mission, told him that it didn't occured as Garrett told, as Garrett changed some of the events to make a better story.

Hunt of Bruce Banner
Bruce Banner, on the run from the United States Armed Forces and labelled as a fugitive, traveled to Italy searching for a safe place to research a cure for his transformations into Hulk.

One of his transformations was triggered in Rome, and Hulk was reported to be seen on March 1, 2007.

General Thaddeus Ross, responsible of the hunt of Banner, figured that Banner could be anywhere in the world, after his track was lost following an incident in the jungles of South America, and he could even be in Venice steering a gondola.

Identity Theft
Tony Stark used an advanced traceroute routine in the system from Stark Industries mainframe to track down the source system of a malicious code sent to his computers by Cordo Gaines to obtain access to all information about Stark and his company, and used to redirect Stark's outlays to front organizations with untraceable sources.

The source was the city of Genoa in Italy, so Stark traveled there as Iron Man, where he came across a carnival funded using his money masquerading as a charity event, but in reality a front to steal account informations.

Iron Man located Gaines and his henchmen, with a shipment of Stark Industries weapon stolen with one of Gaines's previous hacks. Iron Man recognized them as Ten Rings insurgents and hacked the chips installed by Stark Industries in their weapons to render them useless, easily defeating them and making them being arrested by the Italian police.

Stark met the organizer of the carnival, who had no idea that Stark wasn't really behind the funding, and told him that the carnival would be immediately cancelled. However, Stark maintained the funding of the carnival to increase its duration from two days to a week.

A few hours later, Potts received a phone call from Stark, who informed her he managed to arrest the culprits, and invited her to come to Genoa, telling her that he was incarcerated for property damage so that she couldn't refuse to attend to a party there.

When she arrived, a welcome party was thrown up, but Stark also tasked Potts to find the moles inside Stark Industries that performed other identity thefts. He also told her to infiltrate a beauty contest in order to mingle and gain information from other known cyber-criminals at the event.

That night, at the beauty contest, Stark announced Corinna Vilon as the winner of the contest and a date with him, and ordered Potts to begin her investigation while he dated Ms. Vilon.

Corporate Retreat
Tony Stark, wanting to spend what he thought would be his last days in a relaxing environment, tried to convince Pepper Potts to go to Venice instead of returning home. However, due to the media pressure of the recent incident in Monaco with Ivan Vanko, and given her recen appointment as CEO of Stark Industries, Potts refused the offer.

Stark later reminded that they should have traveled to Venice when given the opportunity as he battled hordes of Hammer Drones and Potts inadvertently learnt of his Palladium poisoning.

Jewelry Theft
Former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Akela Amador performed a seemingly impossible jewel theft in Milan, breaking into an armored car in order to gather a grand total of 30 million dollars in diamonds.

Amador was coerced by the Centipede Project to collect the diamonds to buy a proxy card to infiltrate Todorov Building in Belarus.

Undercover Mission
Phil Coulson designed an undercover operation to board a train in Italy travelling through the Italian countryside from Verona to Zagreb, that was going to transport a package bought by Ian Quinn from Cybertek, that was going to be delivered to him in Italy. Coulson though it was the best opportunity to capture Quinn due to his connection to the Clairvoyant.

Coulson obtained information from the Italian authorities, led by Luca Russo, who had been monitoring the situation, and asked Russo to step aside the operation and hand it over to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Cybertek transported the package protected by a large security team of former military members, led by Carlo Mancini, so Coulson designed the operation so that the security team didn't even know about their presence on the train, with Grant Ward and Melinda May posing as a rich couple travelling in first class, acting as front and center of the operation to locate the package and tag it with a Tracker; Leo Fitz and Skye posing as a tourist couple and running the communications of the mission, and Jemma Simmons and Coulson himself posing as a father and daughter to monitorize Mancini.

Once they all boarded the train, Ward and May asked the Conductor about the location of the first class section, and entered their compartment to prepare for their respective tasks, with May advancing over the train to locate the package using a pair of Infrared Goggles, and Ward posing as a conductor to place the tracker. May and Ward talked about their current operations, and how they were becoming more and more personal to Coulson. What Coulson recently discovered about his own resurrection and Skye's origin as an 0-8-4 changed her too, making her more focused as a S.H.I.E.L.D. trainee and into helping Coulson track down the Clairvoyant through Quinn.

Talking about how personal urges could adversely affect tactical decisions, May considered her relationship with Ward was not a personal urge, and revealed that she told Coulson about her relationship with Ward, before climbing to the roof of the train.

Fitz and Skye talked about their nervousness for the mission, and agreed that they should fake their accents to maintain their cover and act as if they were from the same country, choosing an American identity as Fitz's American accent was much better than Skye's Scottish accent.

Skye went to make a question to the Conductor about restaurants in Zagreb, posing with Fitz as a couple travelling through Europe in order to distract the Conductor and steal the keys for the caboose. Entering the wagon, Skye and Fitz discussed their successful move, with Fitz even revealling that he had a device that could have opened the door, but he wanted to do something without gadgets for once. They started to set up the equipment to run the communications for the mission and track the Cybertek package, checking the channels to see if Coulson and Simmons were in position.

Coulson and Simmons discussed their individual target, Carlo Mancini, head of security. Simmons showed the preparations she made for their mission, memorizing everything related to the mission and establishing a detailed cover for them, as a father and daughter travelling together with the ashes of their deceased wife and mother, respectively. Her past event in the Hub when she was unable to lie to Jasper Sitwell made her prepare a detailed back story to avoid having to improvise something.

As Mancini started to move, Simmons got into character and had an argument with Coulson as a resented daughter, with another passenger of the train feeling sorry about her situation and lecturing Coulson to treat his daughter better. Simmons continued arguing and bumped into Mancini, spilling the ashes to the ground so that Mancini stepped on them and left a track that could be followrd by May.

May activated her Infrared Goggles and started to follow Mancini's tracks to the package. Fitz revealed to May that as Cybertek's cases were lined with tungsten polymer to avoid scanning, it should appear black on the infrared. May located the package in of the last wagons of the train.

Hijacked Mission
As one of the train's tourist guides announced that the train was about to pass near the famous, each Phil Coulson and each of the members of his team found that their mission was hijacked.

Carlo Mancini gave the order to move the Cybertek package they were transportting, and Melinda May, who was on the roof of the dining car, tried to inform the rest of her team that the package was being moved, although the communications were down.

Coulson continued hearing Jemma Simmons' backstory, but he soon realized that the communications had been jammed, so Coulson told Simmons to keep her position as he went to check the status of the package. Coulson arrived to the last wagon were the package was located by May, but he found that the package was missing.

Meanwhile, Grant Ward, dressed as a train conductor, headed to the dining car to tag the package, but his communications were also jammed. He was asked by a female passenger, Sofia, to help her with her luggage, and although he dismissed her at first, Ward agreed to help her.

Sofia, who was a member of the Cybertek security team, tried to kill Ward, but he was able to knock her and another member of the security team unconscious, but he couldn't inform the rest of his team as communications were down. Ward went to inform Simmons, and told her to go to the luggage car with Leo Fitz and Skye, and stay there until he came back for them, as Ward went to find Coulson.

Mancini heard their conversation and followed Ward with some men to the dining car, when he came across Coulson and, before the later could react, Ward told Coulson that Cybertek had discovered them and they were following him, and that they had to jump off the train as Carlo Mancini was about to throw them a grenade. As they were hit by the weapon, the train seemingly disappeared before their eyes.

As Fitz and Skye where in the luggage car, Skye tried to learn more about the nature of the 0-8-4, as she had recently discovered she was labelled an 0-8-4 herself. Fitz commented that he had seen many types of items labelled as that, such as weapons, space crafts and energy sources, but never a person. For Fitz, the only thing they had in common is that they where dangerous.

Fitz and Skye realized that both the communications and May's Infrared Goggles were offline, and as they were going to leave and inform their team, a member of Mancini's security team suddenly appeared and tried to kill them, destroying their equipment. Fitz and Skye managed to retaliate using a Night-Night Gun, and Skye managed to disarm him and take his weapon. However, the man took a Dendrotoxin Grenade and activated it.

As Simmons suddenly appeared, he saw the man with the grenade in his hand, and shielded her teammates from its effects with his body. Skye ran to check Simmons' status, finding her pulse, and Fitz realized that the grenade used the same dendrotoxin that his Night-Night Gun.

May was attacked by another member of Mancini's security team, forcing her to jump off the train using a Tactical Parachute, and found Coulson and Ward unconsciuos, with their faces displaying the effects of the dendrotoxin from Cybertek's grenade. She ran to check Coulson's pulse, showing relief that he was still alive.

May ran to find a way to get Coulson and Ward to a safe place, and found a truck that she wanted to use to pick them up. However, as she hot-wired the vehicle, Luca Russo appeared and kidnapped her at gun point.

Russo took May to a barn in order to torture her, revealing he was on Cybertek's payroll and he sold Coulson out. Russo wanted to know Coulson and Ward's location. As May was not going to cooperate, Russo stab her with a knife near the shoulder. As Russo got distracted for a second, May used the knife to free herself and kill Russo's men, although Russo managed to flee.

Fitz and Skye moved Simmons and left her with another Night-Night Gun to protect herself once she woke up, and trapped the Cybertek agent inside a case, shooting him with two more rounds of dendrotoxin to keep him unconscious for a larger amount of time, and the train suddenly stopped. Mancini and his security team moved the package out of the train into a jeep, in order to take it to Ian Quinn, and Skye and Fitz decided to follow them.

Once Coulson and Ward recovered, they found that the train appeared to have vanished and realized that May was also out of the train as Ward found her discarded Infrared Goggles. They also found the device that Mancini used of them, guessing that it could be a cloaking mechanism for the train, or even a device to open a portal, explaining the sudden disappearance of the train, although it simply switched tracks shortly after they jumped.

Coulson and Ward fleed as more of Cybertek's men were coming for them, finding the truck that May previously hot-wired and using it to return to the Bus, where they received a call from Russo, who informed them that Cybertek discovered their operation, and wanted to reunite with them at the Bus, as most of his men where dead.

However, as Russo arrived to the Bus, a blood-covered May killed him with a knife thrown from behind, having followed him from the barn where she was tortured, and they traveled to the current location of the train in the middle of the Italian countryside.

Coulson, Ward and May found no trace of the package, Cybertek's men or their agents, but they entered the luggage car to check the last known location of Fitz, Simmons and Skye. They found evidence of a gunfight and, suddenly, Simmons recovered from her unconsciousness and started shooting with a Night-Night Gun, until realizing that the other members of her team were at the car.

Italian Villa
Leo Fitz and Skye followed the Cybertek package to an Italian villa, where Carlo Mancini delivered the package to Ian Quinn, who arrived shortly after all of them. Fitz and Skye activated a Tracker to let the rest of their team know their location.

Skye decided to infiltrate the villa and apprehend Quinn herself, as she didn't want to let Quinn escape because that is what Coulson would want them to do. Skye also asked Fitz to disable the cars, so he retrieved a Localized EMP Device and handed her a Night-Night Gun to defend herself inside the villa.

Skye was able to shoot the guard at the entrance of the compound, hitting him before he could retrieve, while Fitz hid under the different cars, disabling them with the EMP device. Inside the villa, Skye went to the basement, having overheard Sofia about the location of the package.

As she descended, she located the package, but she also saw a large Hyperbaric Chamber where Michael Peterson was being contained. However, Quinn managed to catch her by surprise, and Carlo Mancini easily disarmed her and pointed at her with her own gun.

Quinn revealed that the Clairvoyant told him to expect her, and also that he was responsible for giving Cybertek the specs of the Night-Night Gun so they could transform it into an aerosol grenade. Quinn opened the chamber and awoke Peterson, badly scarred from the explosion that cost him his right leg.

Peterson had previously received orders through his Backscatter X-Ray Eye Implant, and Quinn had bought an item from Cybertek to help him complete them. The package S.H.I.E.L.D. had been tracking turned out to be a technologically advanced prosthetic leg designed to replace his missing limb; Mancini painfully attached to Peterson's stump and activated it to expand into a fully functional leg.

Quinn dismissed Mancini, telling him he would receive his payment, then tested Peterson's loyalties, knowing that he received orders from the Clairvoyant. Peterson wasn't allowed to hurt Quinn, even if Quinn tried to hurt him. Skye tried to plead with Peterson, asking him to leave there with her. Peterson refused to hurt Skye, as that wasn't his orders, and left to fulfill his actual orders.

Skye tried to stop Peterson, but as he departed without listening, she confronted Quinn, who shot her in the stomach without saying anything, and another time at point blank range. Quinn apologized for doing it, but he also had his orders from the Clairvoyant. Quinn left the basement, leaving a badly injured Skye crawling to the door in order to ask for help with her last strength.

Peterson confronted Mancini, Sofia and the rest of the Cybertek security team, telling them they failed as they led S.H.I.E.L.D. right to them. Sofia tried to negotiate with Peterson, asking to speak to Quinn, but Peterson grabbed Sofia's neck and broke it, effectively killing her. Peterson threw Mancini through a window, and his corpse fell right next to the car Fitz was hijacking. As Fitz tried to enter the villa to rescue Skye, Phil Coulson, Grant Ward, Melinda May and Jemma Simmons arrived to the compound, with Ward saving Fitz from a guard that was about to kill him. The whole team entered the compound, with Ward disabling Quinn's bodyguards and Coulson personally holding Quinn at gunpoint.

Peterson killed the remaining Cybertek agents, but he was ordered not to engage S.H.I.E.L.D., so he left the compound unnoticed.

Coulson interrogated Quinn about Skye's location; Quinn mocked him for sending her alone in a mission when she meant so much to him. Noticing that Quinn had blood in his hands, Coulson ordered his agents to find her in the house, but he was the one who entered the basement and located her, badly injured and dying.

Simmons promptly examinated Skye, noticing she had lost too much blood, but she ordered Skye to be placed inside the Hyperbaric Chamber where Peterson was to save her life. Fitz lowered the temperature inside the chamber, managing to let Skye breathe again, as the chamber managed to stabilize her condition until she could be properly treated.

The chamber was taken to the Bus in order to get Skye to the nearest medical facility before she sustained permanent brain damage caused by a long exposure to the conditions inside the chamber.

Italian Living Standard
Ian Quinn spent some time in Rome, visiting a hairdresser who charged him thirty dollars for a haircut. Quinn compared its cost to five dollars Ernesto charged him for the same haircut and shave at the barbershop in Cuba that served as John Garrett's headquarters.

Contingency Plan
Melinda May devised a contingency plan to deal with Phil Coulson in case he got overwhelmed by the side effects of the GH.325. Instead of killing him as he desired, May had already prepared passports, travel tickets and money needed to establish Coulson in a remote place.

Coulson, moved by May's concern, guessed if the location would be a villa in Tuscany, though May had thought about a cabin in the Australian outback.