In a world where black and white are difficult to define for even the bravest heroes and most righteous citizens, the United States begins to rebuild after its terrible Civil War. Captain America is jailed after a long battle of wills with Tony Stark and his own American government; Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvel, who was the cause of the Superhuman Registration Act that started the war, has been acquitted of her crimes based on evidence she was being mind-controlled at the time, but she is far from a crowd favorite; Harry Osborne is still leading a group of ex-cons as the Thunderbolts; And, Colonel Nick Fury is still missing and it appears SHIELD is under the management of Stark for good. Now with America's reconstruction comes a period of peace and an almost audible exhale is heard from its citizens. Though all is not well, society thinks it is and that is all the government can hope for.
So business begins again as usual for heroes and villains alike, except in some cases those lines are still blurry to the man in charge of the Avengers and SHIELD. While he is trying to manage a working relationship between his organizations and the Thunderbolts, SHIELD has stumbled onto an innocuous discovery; one Tony doesn't see as much concern considering everything else going on. So he leave Maria Hill to deal with most of SHIELD's administration while he focuses on Public Affairs and the Avengers.
Hill, grasping at greatness, latches on to their newest discovery in hopes it will bring her the glory she needs to completely replace Tony Stark as head of SHIELD.: an alien symbiote. No one knows its origin, but Hill feels Providence is smiling down on her and seizes the moment to use this alien as her stepping stone. But she was playing with fire. As SHIELD scientists to begin experimentation, they think they have the alien under their control - but the symbiote escapes! Now Hill is trying to cover her backside by covering up the failed fiasco completely.
A few days have gone by since the incident of the escape and all seemed well. But now, reports are coming in of people going crazy. Local authorities say it's just mental break downs due to the hard times. Nothing to be concerned with. Meanwhile Hill is starting to worry, and she is beginning to think the two could be related...
