The Avengers: Featuring Salem Ridge

Confrontation

"Stark, what the hell are you doing?" Nick Fury asked, walking into the lab.

Tony looked up from the monitor in front of him to see the one-eyed SHIELD director storming toward him. Tony cleared his throat.

"Uh, kind of wondering the same about you."

Fury glared at him. "You're supposed to be looking for the Tesseract."

"We are," Banner interrupts. "We're sweeping for the signature now. If we get a hit, we'll have the location within a half mile." He points to the large monitor in the center of the room, which displayed the algorithm he had worked out.

"Yeah," Tony said, crossing his arms. "Then you get your cube back. No muss, no fuss." He tilts his head at Fury. "Hey by the way, what's Phase 2?"

"Phase 2 is when SHIELD uses the Tesseract to make weapons," Steve says as he barges into the lab. He slams a large blaster onto the table in front of them, fuming. His fiery gaze is directed right at Fury.

"Rogers," Fury says calmly. "We collected everything related to the Tesseract, this doesn't mean - "

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony interrupts, standing from his chair. "What were you lying?" He spins the monitor around to face the room. The display shows the blueprints for a missile like object, powered by the Tesseract.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asks as Salem walks into the lab. She looks at the monitor, her jaw clenching as she fails to rationalize what's in front of her..

"I knew we were building prototype reactors to create sustainable energy," she turns to Fury, her eyes cold. When she speaks her voice breaks a little, the emotion evident in her words. "Not this."

Banner slams his fist onto the table, causing everyone in the room to flinch. "Dammit Fury, when do the lies stop?"

Nat, who had been standing in the corner, takes a step closer to Salem, her eyes on Banner. "You wanna consider removing yourself from this situation, Doc?"

Banner chuckled, shaking his head frantically. "I was in Calcutta, I was pretty far removed."

Salem swallows hard, her eyes locked on Banner too. She could feel the tension in the room rising, almost emitting a slight humm in the air. She raises a hand slowly, taking a small step toward him as she speaks. "Bruce," she said softly, "Loki is trying to manipulate you. I need you to think clearly here."

Banner flips around to face Salem, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. The look of rage in his eyes frightened her. "And you're doing what, exactly?" He looks around the room. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to create nuclear weapons."

Fury points to Thor. "Because of him," he declares.

Thor looks around the room, confusion on his face. "Me?"

Fury sighed, rubbing his face with his hand. "Last year, Earth got a visitor from another planet," he begins softly. He gestured to Salem. "For the first time in nearly 70 years. And we learned that we are hopelessly, utterly, and hilariously outgunned."

Thor speaks now, shaking his head. "My people want nothing but peace with your planet."

Salem watches Fury curiously. He looks at Thor. "But you're not the only people out there, are you?" he says, desperation in his voice. He points to Salem again. "As long as she's been here, we still don't know where Agent Ridge came from."

Salem's jaw twitched, her gaze dropping to her feet as she felt her face grow hot. Fury knew this was a sensitive topic for her, and he was throwing it in her face in order to justify something she never would have agreed with in the first place. So much for friends, she thought.