Magic | Steve Rogers

8

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"

"Kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"Yeah, then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss. What is Phase 2."

Just as Tony asks, Steve walks into the room and slams a gun down on the table.

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making..." Fury starts.

Tony's monitor begins to beep.

"I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?" Tony asks as he flips the monitor.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit," Steve says.

Natasha, Lauren and Thor enter the room, all their eyes on Bruce.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asks.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asks.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what, exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you girls get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury responds.

All eyes now on Thor.

"Me?", He asks.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned," Fury says.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor says.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled," Fury says.

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve asks.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor says with a hint of anger lacing his voice.

Lauren's head twitches as she hears ringing in her ears.

"A higher form?"

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something," Fury says.

"A nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything right down," Tony says.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?", Fury asks.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep..." Steve starts, but gets cut off by Tony.

"Wait, wait. Hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony asks.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve asks.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this", Thor says.