Heat of the New World - Book 2 (The Avengers)

Chapter 4 - Contents Under Pressure

Tony went back over to his station as Annabelle went back over to the scepter, cupping her hand around the orb.

"Does this thing change temperature?" she spoke up, glancing over her shoulder.

"Not from what we've tracked. We've been monitoring it since we came into possession of it," Bruce told her, not looking up from his work. She bit her lip, her brows furrowing. They continued working, all walking over to Tony's screen as he got the files up.

"Oh my God," she let out as they went through them.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury demanded as he walked in.

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

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."
"We are," Bruce spoke up. "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," he pointed at the computer.

"Yeah, then you get your cube back. No muss, no fuss. What is Phase Two?" Tony asked, looking at the screen.

"Phase Two is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons," Steve said as he sat one of the guns he had found down on the table. "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"That's a Hydra gun," Annabelle said as she looked at it.

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

"I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?" He turned the screen around to show the blueprints for weapons they had found.

"Maybe you aren't making weapons like that, but you are making weapons," Annabelle said.

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

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked as Natasha and Thor walked in.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she asked.

He chuckled. "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 get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
"Because of him?" Fury said after a moment, pointing at Thor.

"Me?"

"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."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet."

"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 that can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve asked.

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

"A higher form?" Steve asked.

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

"A nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything right down," Tony said sarcastically.

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