BIOGRAPHY page 3
National security was in a state of disarray after the downfall of Norman Osborn. Daisy Johnson was "director of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” an organization that only existed on paper until Congressional approvals were finalized. Meanwhile, Steve Rogers was named Osborn's replacement by the President after the siege of Asgard. He inherited the collapsing infrastructure of Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R., which technically existed independently of the newly-funded S.H.I.E.L.D. 
championed by Reb Ralston in Congress. Rogers referred to his group as S.H.I.E.L.D., however, to avoid any further association with H.A.M.M.E.R. As a result, the jurisdiction and hierarchy of the new organization was in a state of confusion for several months. Daisy Johnson, director of nothing, also served as a field asset under Steve Rogers' group, and came to the attention of Rogers again during the transition period. [Avengers (4th series) #16, Battle Scars #2]
Rogers returned to his role as Captain America and active membership with the Avengers around the same time Norman Osborn was freed from prison by H.A.M.M.E.R. loyalists. Daisy Johnson oversaw the investigation into the escape and once again impressed the Captain with her skills. Daisy was making her report at Avengers Mansion when Rogers was prepared to announce the Avengers' new roster and, seemingly on a whim, Captain America invited Quake to stand up with 
them as a new member of the Avengers. [Avengers (4th series) #18-19] This proved advantageous when Osborn struck back at the Avengers. Most of Cap's team was captured by H.A.M.M.E.R. agents prepared for their specific abilities. Daisy was an unknown quantity, pursuing leads on Osborn independently, and avoided capture. She interrogated some of Osborn's men and located his secret base. Her earthquake powers allowed her to free the captive Avengers and turn the tide on Osborn's cronies. [Avengers (4th series) #20-24]
Eventually, the organizations of new S.H.I.E.L.D. and ex-H.A.M.M.E.R. were properly consolidated. Captain America fully stepped down as national security chief to operate with the Avengers full-time. In reverse, Daisy Johnson left the active Avengers roster and was acknowledged as director of S.H.I.E.L.D., but in title only. Being Nick Fury's heir was not an official 
confirmation, and the United Nations Security Council still had to officially vet and authorize her, especially considering her young age. As a result, Captain America's chief liaison officer to the Avengers, Maria Hill, was named as ACTING director of S.H.I.E.L.D., overseeing the day-to-day operations and coordinating with Daisy until her confirmation hearings were completed. [Avengers (4th series) #33-34]
While the confirmation hearings continued, Daisy struggled to keep the lights on for S.H.I.E.L.D. Although it received its initial funding, the new S.H.I.E.L.D. needed constant support from the United Nations' member nations. Without the assets, manpower and equipment of its predecessor, S.H.I.E.L.D. could not sustain the constant needs of a global peacekeeping 
organization. Maria Hill agreed about the need for special assets in the field, and saw an opportunity after the Secret Avengers team previously led by Captain America and Hawkeye disbanded. She proposed her own “Secret Avengers Initiative” to Director Johnson, a small covert strike force to be deployed in trouble zones as needed.
Daisy agreed to Maria's general proposal, but the details concerned her. Maria intended to revive the “Reverie” tech, the memory suppression and manipulation implants used by Nick Fury on his super-hero assets back during the secret war in Latveria. The intent was to keep agents unaware of their own involvement in the Initiative when they were off-mission, activating their memories of 
the unit only when they were on assignment. Daisy's scruples made her insist that participation in the program must be voluntary for all agents. She made one moral compromise by allowing Maria Hill to covertly infect the potential agents with the nanotech before the invitation, ensuring they could remove memory of the program at least from anyone who refused to volunteer. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #1, 9]
Director Johnson met with Senator Ralston at a defense expo to introduce him to Nick Fury, Jr., an agent of the Initiative and the old Nick's recently discovered son. Daisy was shocked and concerned to see Norman Osborn's Iron Patriot armor on display at the expo. It seemed some OsCorp tech fell into Department of Defense hands outside of her purview after the fall of H.A.M.M.E.R. Someone had the brilliant idea to mass-produce the Iron Patriot as drones to sell to 
the highest bidder. This situation became even more tense when Andrew Forson and A.I.M. arrived in attendance at the expo as well. Forson made some veiled threats as his men brandished their weapons, prompting Daisy to set off a quake. She was attacked by A.I.M.'s Minister of State, Yelena Belova, a bio-adaptoid. Senator Ralston fired at Yelena to defend Daisy, only to be cut down by Yelena in an instant. Forson and A.I.M. fled with the Iron Patriots while Daisy and Nick were left to mourn the senator. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #3]
The Scientist Supreme was a skilled politician who previously talked Barbuda (A.I.M. Island) into the United Nations as a recognized nation in exchange for their technology. He went on the talk show circuit and identified Daisy as the aggressor in the incident, while his people only acted in self-defense. His next gamut made the Iron Patriots sentient, sending out into the world patriotically painted drones to eliminate high-value anti-American targets. S.H.I.E.L.D. had not 
acted on these targets because of shaky intelligence or the probability of civilian casualties. Quake and S.H.I.E.L.D. were therefore left in the position of either taking credit for the sloppy attacks or admitting their own technology had been co-opted by A.I.M. Daisy and Maria Hill commissioned the Hulk and Jim Rhodes into the secret initiative to prevent more politically harmful strikes, but A.I.M.'s damage had been done to America and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s reputation. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #4]
Feeling guilty and furious over the death of Reb Ralston, Quake orchestrated a black ops mission to execute Andrew Forson on A.I.M. Island. Tactical considerations aside, this was a direct violation of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s charter and international law, as Barbuda was a recognized member 
state of the United Nations, and killing Forson would amount to the unsanctioned assassination of a foreign leader. Daisy's team was already in the field when Maria Hill received word of her actions. Maria secured the support of the U.N. Security Council and removed Daisy Johnson from power, stripping her of her position as director and access to S.H.I.E.L.D. The assassination attempt failed, regardless, leaving Daisy with nothing. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #4-8]
Daisy knew she was living on borrowed time. One of the conditions of the Secret Avengers Initiative was that Daisy and Maria accept the Reverie tech in their own minds, testing whether it was viable and ensuring they could never be tortured or turned. It was only a matter of time before Maria Hill remotely removed all actionable intelligence of value from Daisy's mind now that she was burned from the agency. Daisy reached out to Eden Fesi from her Secret Warriors team, now 
an Avenger named Manifold, to help her access a memory cradle once designed by Tony Stark to back-up his own mind. Daisy wanted a physical copy of her memories to reinstall once the Reverie tech did its work. S.H.I.E.L.D. detected what she was doing, however, forcing Maria Hill to jump up her time table and begin extracting national security secrets from Daisy's mind while she was trying to back them up. In the end, Daisy only managed to hang on to 62% of her Level 10 clearance knowledge, fragmented knowledge for her to put to use as a free agent, if she so desired. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #9]