C5: Agents in Action (Part 1)
Not far from Patch's cramped apartment, a black SHIELD-issued GMC Yukon XL hybrid rolled to a silent stop. Its polarized windows, reinforced with Wakandan vibranium mesh, gave no hint of the conversation happening inside.
"May. Melinda May." The white man in the driver's seat spoke to the composed but clearly distracted Asian woman beside him.
The woman known in SHIELD files as the Cavalry didn't respond until the second time. She blinked out of her haze, turned, and asked, "What is it, Coulson?"
"May, you're not in the right state for field duty. Maybe we take a beat?" Agent Phil Coulson suggested gently, the empathy in his voice familiar to those who'd worked with him since his early days shadowing Tony Stark during Phase One of the Avengers Initiative.
"Anyone yanked off R&R mid-flight is going to be off their game, Phil."
May's tone was dry as a desert in K'un-Lun, and she shot him a pointed look. "What do you think?"
Coulson smiled tightly but didn't answer. He knew her distraction wasn't about a canceled beach vacation, it was about Bahrain. The blood, the screaming, the one girl she couldn't save. That shadow had never left her.
But rather than reopen those scars, Coulson let silence do the talking.
"You're still boring," she muttered, shaking her head. Then, clapping her hands together, she added, "Alright. I'm fine. Let's get this over with."
"What's the mission this time?" she asked, reaching for the folder Coulson handed her red-marked and sealed with Level-5 clearance.
"Engagement and evaluation of a non-listed enhanced individual," Coulson replied.
May arched an eyebrow. "Huh. Level 5. That's higher than the file we used to track Jessica Jones before she went full Alias Investigations."
Opening the dossier, May read aloud: "Patch Meiwes. Parentage unknown. Abandoned shortly after birth. Taken in by Sister Martha Meiwes of Paramount Orphanage, Queens. Registered with New York City's child welfare program."
"Didn't speak labeled non-verbal or possibly cognitively delayed. That assessment changed by age fifteen."
Meanwhile, miles away in the New York outskirts, Patch, prepping something suspicious involving copper wire and a stolen Stark Industries stabilizer coil, sneezed and rubbed his nose. "Who's talking about me again?"
May continued: "From age fifteen onward, he self-taught disciplines including biochemistry, electronics, and mechanical engineering. Earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Harvard, verified with the help of Xavier Institute's data crossmatch."
"Left the orphanage at sixteen. Currently resides at 198 Thirteenth Street, in the Clinton district, and is registered as a field tech contractor at Hammer Industries. No known interactions with Justin Hammer himself."
She flipped the page.
"Two months after his arrival, reported crime in Thirteenth Street dropped by 78%. Several illegal operations vanished. Local gang presence fell to near zero. Around that same time, an unidentified figure dubbed 'The Cloak' began operating at night."
May frowned. "From the pattern, Patch Meiwes is either the Cloak, or close enough to warrant investigation."
"But Phil, seriously? You and me? That's two Level 7 field agents tracking a vigilante who's barely out of puberty."
May snorted. "Also, who names themselves 'The Cloaked Man'? Sounds like something a Gotham dropout would pick."
Had Patch heard her, he would've been moved to tears, declaring May his soulmate. That is, of course, before she judo-flipped him through a trash bin.
Melinda May was no joke. Personally recruited into SHIELD at age seven by none other than Peggy Carter, she had been trained under the same program that once tried to create the next generation of Black Widows. Her cold, surgical efficiency in the field earned her the name The Cavalry, and if you dared say it to her face you'd wake up in traction.
And Coulson? He wasn't just any SHIELD agent. As Nick Fury's most trusted aide, Coulson had handled alien diplomacy, survived Loki's scepter, and once even dealt with a malfunctioning Life Model Decoy version of himself. After Fury's off-the-grid retirement post-Infinity War, Coulson briefly served as Acting Director before passing the torch to Daisy Johnson.
To May, this "Cloak" character cleaning up petty crooks didn't feel like much of a threat. After all, the "gangsters" in Thirteenth Street weren't exactly Kingpin-level. Most were glorified thugs who couldn't spell "syndicate," let alone run one.
With a dry expression, she muttered, "Honestly, I could do this in my sleep."
As for Patch, yes he had brains. Self-taught biology, electronics, and the mechanical chops to impress even Riri Williams. But inside SHIELD, geniuses weren't rare. Between Fitz-Simmons, Amadeus Cho, and the tech prodigies lurking in Wakanda, Patch barely made the Top 50.
Still, Coulson smiled and said nothing. May's skepticism was normal. But this file had caught Fury's attention personally.
"Keep reading," Coulson urged.
May rolled her eyes, but obeyed.
"Profile remains clean. Full social compliance, legal tax filings, public transport use. No known affiliations with underground metahuman groups like the Mutant Underground, or enhanced vigilantes such as Spider-Man or Daredevil."
"If not for the vigilante angle, Patch wouldn't have even pinged on our radar."
Coulson nodded. "Exactly. Classic sleeper case low profile, isolated talent, high impact. Someone who's trying to stay under the radar... but not staying low enough."
Had Patch been there, he'd have groaned in frustration and thrown his hands in the air. "I'm not on some noble superhero journey, man! I just needed rent money! You think I risk my neck to make the NYPD look good for free?"
Unfortunately for him, Agent Coulson didn't believe in coincidence especially not in New York.