Chapter Four:

A Chat with Director Fury

A helicopter picked me up, and I headed up to the Helicarrier. An agent led me to the bridge where Director Fury was waiting, sporting his black uniform and eye-patch. The man's beard was well-shaven, and he looked very at-ease.

"Care to fill me in, Cap?" Fury asked, "Got anything on The Mandarin?"

I nodded; "I was at a bar in Brooklyn when I overheard a couple guys talking, one of them said The Mandarin was real, and mentioned how he met someone who met someone connected to the Ten Rings. The person was an operative, he spoke about his connection to The Mandarin, and then the story passed to the guy at the bar."

"We heard about the attack in Brooklyn..." Fury said, "SHIELD has agents across the world, looking into already-known or potential terrorists. We've kept tabs on the Ten Rings for some time, but The Mandarin was hard to track."

"And we don't have a clear image." Maria Hill chimed in.

"He's still dangerous." I raised my hand; "We can't just let him remain at large, Tony didn't let Kilian and the actor playing The Mandarin remain at large. Kilian had the Ten Rings take credit for explosions caused by experiments, that led to the group becoming more active..."

"...and you want to bring down their leader, just so you can have a story to tell Tony when you see him again." The SHIELD Director assumed.

"And you're going to help." I remarked.

Fury nodded. "SHIELD owes The Avengers after New York..." He moved to a computer monitor, "...and it was I who started the initiative to bring together the team. You're an Avenger, you decided to embark on the mission, and it would be best if you had SHIELD backing you up."

"Thank Thor you're not going to say no."

"A few hours after the attack in Brooklyn, and as we heard you'd suited up, and headed to Afghanistan..." An agent said, tapping on a monitor, "We began scoping areas where the Ten Rings had set up shop, sending out drones, and getting some of our agents to speak with some operatives. Managed to get some details, like, for instance, The Mandarin isn't in Afghanistan."

"Yeah, no shit." Another agent remarked as if he hadn't heard that.

"Language." I chided.

"We're speaking English, Cap." Fury told me.

"I believe that's the wrong kind of 'language'."

The first agent raised his hand; "Our sources indicate that The Mandarin was seen in Europe, we've gotten news about Ten Rings-related terror attacks happening in England, France and Poland in the last few days. And just a few hours ago, there was an explosion in South Rome, and a source says that it was a bomb detonated by the Ten Rings."

"Did you discover anything else?" I inquired.

"Well, according to acquired intel; There's been some activity at an old World War II base in Belgium near an abandoned town, looks like it hasn't been used since the war. And according to images, the base belonged to... HYDRA."

"But HYDRA's gone." I commented, "We're talking about the Ten Rings, so the activity at the base may be from Rings' agents, and The Mandarin himself may be in that region."

Nick Fury scratched his chin with puzzlement; "Kinda makes one wonder why a terror group would start using an old war base once ran by the Red Skull, it's as if the Nazis left something behind that the Rings may want."

"I'll head there and see if I can find anything on the whereabouts on the Ten Rings' leader."

Fury turned to an agent. "Prepare a jet!" He ordered, "We're going to Belgium. Cap, you know what to do. We'll send a squad of SHIELD agents with you as back-up, you don't have to go alone."

The director was right, we both knew it never hurt to have a team. I nodded, and I left the bridge, preparing for my trip to the old HYDRA outpost, as Fury had his team prepare me the jet that would transport me to Belgium without delay.

Whatever else was there, waiting in the shadows, I was ready for action again, and my trusty shield could handle anything.