Coulson stood up and followed the director inside.
The staircase was short. They went down one level, turned a corner, pushed open another door, and entered a wider corridor. Glass walls lined both sides, revealing the rooms beyond. Some were filled with equipment, some were empty, and some had curtains drawn, making it impossible to see inside.
Fury walked ahead without stopping or looking back. He reached the end of the corridor and pushed open a set of double doors. Behind them was a large laboratory, bigger than all the rooms they had passed.
The lights were bright and white, spreading evenly down from the ceiling. In the very center stood a metal bed, with several monitoring devices connected beside it.
A man lay on the bed.
Homelander.
He lay there, one leg secured in a metal brace. His severed arm had already been treated, and his wrist was wrapped in stabilizing bandages. His face was bloodless, his lips cracked, his eyes shut, his breathing faint. Several people in white lab coats stood around the bed.
Some were checking data, some were adjusting IV tubes, and some were recording notes.
Fury walked to the bedside and looked at that sleeping face.
"We found him near the Vought International building. He was already barely conscious at the time, badly wounded, and had been dumped in an alley. When we found him, he had no identification on him, but scans confirmed his biometric data." That clearly did not match the place where Homelander had gone missing.
There had to be something fishy about it.
Only right now, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s focus was not on that.
Coulson stood behind Fury and looked at Homelander, the man who had once been so invincible and arrogant.
"Then what tests did you run?"
"He's safe for now. Without