First In The Fight

Chapter 12: Hunting

Location: Paladin HQ
Time: 1600 Hours Eastern Atlantic Time

5 days later

The Paladin held an ominous, practically funeral like atmosphere. While the person of the inside the flying fortress was going about doing their usual business, the Avengers along with the Spartans, Sentinel, and S.C.A.R Team were in the Command and Control center using the S.M.I (Strategic Mission Interface) as the live connection between them and the heat-carrier.

Fury stood uncomfortably as Carter And John gave him impassive stares of anger and suspicion. The other Avengers remained silent, holding in their thoughts and opinions on the matter. They didn't exactly want to interfere with Spartan's personal business but seeing as how Fury was now involved they had to step in eventually. They had all been in this room for the past hour now and nothing had been accomplished save for the little detail on SHIELD housed an ancient cosmic entity since WWII.

"Let's start from the beginning," Chief said "You knew about Loki's arrival. What's more is he stole technology, not just SHIELD technology but alien technology."

"When were you going to tell us this?" Tony demanded

"If at all" Jen chipped in, also glaring at Fury.

"It was before the battle of HYDRA." Fury began. "This was a project set up or has been in development ever since the Avengers, Mutants and basically all super-powered sentient beings made themselves present to the world. It was named Project Counter."

"Counter?" Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"The project was meant to respond to threats if any superhuman wasn't present or if you all went rogue" Fury admitted, though he felt some shame "For a long time, we had many schematics and blueprints for weapons of mass destruction, but they lacked the power source and extra boost that can take on the likes of Thor and Hercules."

"So you use HYDRA's secret weapon?" Steve scowled. He remembered clearly the power the tesseract possessed and the damage it can do "Tell me, Fury, do your superiors ever think?"

This surprised everyone present. Captain America was the calm, composed and strong leader of the Avengers. Normally everyone would hold open distrust towards Fury to some extent. Cap was always the man who worked best with Fury amongst the Avengers. The two held great respect and regard towards one another. To see Steve like this truly showed how badly Fury has messed up.

"Steve I know"

"No you don't" Steve nearly shouted, making half the avengers flinch and the other half gape in total shock "Last time I ran into that cube, I ended up freezing over and waking up in a time I don't even belong in."

The room went deathly silent. No one moved or breathed until Chief placed a restraining shoulder on his fellow super-soldier. Steve glanced up at Chief. Master Chief may have had his helmet on but Steve knew the look he was giving him under the helmet. Nodding in appreciation, Steve backed down before things turned for the worse.

"Before we continue." Cormack said getting everyone's attention. "What about the shipment, that the Six stole from one of your underground bases?"

Fury adjusted his seat and shared a document containing the stolen shipment. "The shipment they obtained is a prototype particle accelerator. This device has the power to level at least a small town with a single hit. I believe they're using this and the tesseract to create a weapon of mass destruction. The guards that you're gonna be facing are S.H.I.E.L.D agents mind control by Loki. Only use non-lethal we need them back

"Any idea where their base of operation is located?" Cormack asked the Director.

"The facility that there hiding right is located in Benghazi, Libya in a safe house filled with militia and our own agents." Fury said showing them the location under the city.