oblivion. ▷ captain america. [1] •••DISCONTINUED•••

xxi ▷ the attack on the helicarrier.

T W E N T Y O N E

21. | the attack on the helicarrier.
the villain's always five
steps ahead of the hero

steve.

•

"PHASE TWO is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons."

I answer Tony Stark's question to Fury by slamming down one of the old Hydra guns used back during the war against the table in front of the two and Dr. Banner in his lab.

"Sorry," I tell Stark. "Computer was moving a little too slow for me."

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

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony shouts. He turns the computer screen around for the Director and myself to see. "What were you lying?"

There is the digital blueprint for a nuclear missile on the screen, clearly incorporated by the use of the Tesseract.

"I was wrong, Director," I growl at him. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asks Thor and Agent Romanoff as they walk in.

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

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

"Loki is manipulating you," she adds.

"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 get a little twitchy." Banner spins the screen for Agent Romanoff to see. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him."

Fury points over to Thor, who has kept quiet this whole time. The Asgardian seems shocked, his eyes widening in surprise. "Me?" he asks.

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

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

"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."

"Like you controlled the cube?" I ask him.

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

"A higher form?" I question.

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

"A nuclear deterrent." Tony shoves his hands in his pockets, showing little to no emotion on the situation. "'Cause that always calms everything right down."

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

I decide to pipe back in. "I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep—"

"Woah woah, hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony asks me, gesturing widely with his hands.

I casually rest my thumbs on the front of my tactical belt, keeping myself as composed as possible. "I'm sorry, isn't everything?"