Who We Used to Be

Chapter 6

2 Years Later:

POV: Nick Fury

Director Fury of SHIELD sighed as he lowered his gun. His remaining dark brown eye was fixed on the retreating form of the truck that carried their newest alien threat, glaring with every ounce of contempt it was possible for him to contain in his body. But it didn't matter. They were gone. And the Teserract was gone right along with them.

He reached up and wiped away a drop of blood that had dropped out of the cut on his cheek from his rather rough jump out of the crashing helicopter that now burned behind him.

"Director. Director Fury do you copy?", the sound of Agent Coulson's voice crackled from over the communications radio he held in his left hand.

"The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down", he cast a glance behind him at the burning helicopter, "Hill?".

"A lot of men still under. Don't know how many survivors", she replied, sounding quite out of breath while the creaking of metal sounded somewhere in the background.

"Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working on search and rescue looking for that briefcase".

"Roger that".

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level Seven". He paused to collect his thoughts, dreading what he was about to say yet knowing it was necessary all the same. "As of right now, we are at war".

He heard his two most trustworthy agents catch their breath over the radio at the declaration before both seemed to remember who they were and hardened up.

"What do we do?", Coulson asked.

Fury's mind immediately travelled to the Avengers Initiative. An idea for a response team that he had been trying to get off the ground ever since Tony Stark revealed himself as Iron Man. That thought process, of course, immediately lead him to think about the latest mission they had sent Agent Romanoff on. She had been sent to locate and contain a major threat that had presented itself to the intelligence community over the past two years. A threat which, if handled correctly, could end up being their greatest ally in the upcoming war.

He shook off his thoughts and focused back in on the question at hand.

"Coulson, contact Romanoff. Ask for a mission report and send her back-up if needed".

He could hear the confusion in the man's voice as he responded in protest.

"But sir! Doesn't this take higher precedence? I was under the impression that she would be called back for the beginning of the Initiative", Coulson said, lowering his voice towards the end of his sentence which let him know that he was with other people who weren't cleared for this information.

"And she will", Fury interrupted smoothly, "But I have a feeling we're going to need these people she's tracking".

"A feeling, sir?", he replied sceptically. "Are we sure we're both talking about the same people? The three most wanted mercenaries in the country?".

A wry smile made its way up onto Fury's face.

"Yes Coulson", he replied, sounding rather bored, "They may redeem themselves yet".

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POV: Percy Jackson

Chicago. Why did it have to be Chicago?

He didn't mind all that much when the trio had decided to stop there on their next half-blood run. But that was before he had actually arrived at the place.