Chapter 352: Backup
13th June 2013, Avengers Tower
(Tony Stark POV)
The two giants seemed to freeze momentarily, until a blonde woman wearing a blue jumpsuit revealed herself. Tony immediately recognized her as Susan Storm, and she was holding a forcefield to stop the two gamma monsters.
Of course, the two monsters broke through the fields quite easily and attacked the blonde, only for them to be hit with a fireball courtesy of Susan's brother who arrived flying down. Ben Grimm ran at the Hulk with a giant needle in hand which somehow penetrated the giant's skin.
As for the Abomination, Reed Richards hand entangled himself around its body, immobilizing it, and stabbed him with the same kind of needle.
The two gamma monsters stumbled around and then fell unconscious, and that was it. The Abomination and Hulk were out, Cap and Wilson were restrained by Susan Storm, and her boyfriend spoke up, "Emil Blonsky, Bruce Banner, and Steve Rogers, you are under arrest for violating the Enhanced Registration Act. Sam Wilson, you are under arrest for vigilantism and firing a lethal weapon illegally in a public place."
Tony sighed in exasperation and closed the television. The remaining Avengers just stayed silent at the clusterfuck that just occurred. Rhodey was the one to break the silence, "Well, that just happened."
Tony nodded solemnly, "Yes, it did. I told Cap not to get involved, to do things the right way. Now, we're fucked. Our reputation is in ruins, and whatever voice we had regarding the Accords is gone."
"What do we do, now?" Natasha asked.
Honestly, Tony didn't know, "I don't think there's anything we could do. We're not much of a team, are we? We're three humans, two of which use high tech armor, and another is an assassin. I don't think that the Avengers are a thing anymore."
"That sucks!" Rhodey snarled.
"Yeah, it does. But Ross played it well. The Abomination was right next to us, and Steve wouldn't have been able to stop himself."
Tony downed his drink and called out, "To the Avengers. We had a good time."
The moment he finished, he heard a voice behind him, "That you did, Stark. That you did."
The billionaire turned around and saw the two redheads that he was supposed to help change the Accords. They had a plan which backfired disastrously. Tony didn't keep his part of the bargain. Honestly, Tony didn't care that he was going to get chewed out by the two women; he was too devastated because of what happened to his team.
He gave the intruders a sad smile, "Are you here to yell at me again?"
Maximoff seemed to be the one snarling at him, "How the hell did that happen? We had a plan Stark."
Tony nodded, "We did, and I didn't do my part. Arguing with Steve Rogers against saving people and fighting monsters is like talking to a wall."
"Screw Rogers," Grey exclaimed, "The biggest problem is Banner destroying half a city block in his fight with the Abomination. Who let the idiot join a fight near civilian settlements?"
"He thought that it was his responsibility because the Abomination was made using his blood or something. Look, what am I supposed to do? I'm not the leader here, and half my team didn't ever respect me enough to listen to me."
The billionaire turned towards what remained of his team and noticed that both Rhodey and Nat had raised their guns, and were pointing them at the intruders. He snorted, "Put the guns down, trust me, they wouldn't do much against them. Plus, they're my guests. We hatched the whole silent protest plan together, and they helped us guarantee Wakanda's help as well."
Natasha seemed to recognize them, "Wanda Maximoff and Jean Grey, two of the most powerful mutants in the world. Yeah, I get your point."
They both lowered their guns, but still stayed alert in case of an attack. It was sweet in a murdery sort of way. Still, for all he wanted to get wasted and stop thinking about the sinking ship that was his team, Tony needed to plan on what to do going forwards, "So, what now?"
Jean groaned, "Well, we tried the peaceful way by working with them to make the damn things at least adhere to basic human rights. But Ross and Richards have done their best to destroy any hope of that. So, now, we'll need to destroy the Accords entirely and set back the official recognition of Enhanced beings in laws by years. But it's better than our whole race being enslaved."
Tony didn't like the sound of that. It reminded him eerily of fanatics. Natasha seemed to have gotten to the same conclusion, "And how are you going to do that? You're sounding too much like Magneto for my liking."
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Maximoff snorted, "I killed that man for what he was planning to do, and what he had done to me. Trust me, you have no idea what he was like."
The redhead grabbed her companion's hand to comfort her, "No, we won't be using violence at all. Did you really think that we would put all of our eggs in one basket. No, Stark, you were just the safest and all-around best choice. No, we'll do to the Accords what Jasmine did to SHIELD and Hydra. We're going to use the entire public against them."
"And how are you going to do that?" Rhodey questioned.
"Did you really think that we have been doing nothing for the past few days? Ever since our last meeting with Tony, we have put invisible bugs near every single influential person that is heavily supporting the Accords. In mere days, we have a collection of videos ready to be leaked about politicians trying to use the Accords to make their own Enhanced armies, or to use them in certain experiments, or maybe even to just kill them in fear of their powers. We have everything we need to destroy any credibility the Accords might have." Wanda said with a smug voice.
"Then why haven't you?" Natasha asked with a frown.
"The idea of the Accords isn't really bad in theory. It was the logical step to deal with the rising number of people with superpowers around the world. Laws specific to these cases needed to be written, and registering powers was always going to happen," Jean explained, "we were all for the Accords, as long as the people registering weren't hunted down in their civilian lives, and the Accords were fair to everyone. But what was written didn't even try to be fair, just exert the most control over the population. Which is why we resisted. Using the Avengers' population to amend the troublesome sections of the laws would have helped bridge the gap between regular humans and enhanced ones. Tearing it apart entirely wouldn't be a step in the right direction and will only prolong this integration. But it's far better than following the current Accords and rolling over."
Tony snorted, "So, either way, Ross loses?"
"Yeah, he does. Our bugs on him did reveal an interesting conversation between him and Richards, where Ross blackmailed him into trying to convince you to sign the Accords. Ross is done for, that's something that we're sure about. All we have to do is click one button, and all his ambitions, all his reputation will be gone. We tried playing nice with him, but he wanted to fight dirty. It's only right that we do too," Wanda replied with a bloodthirsty grin.
"What about our teammates?" the former assassin questioned.
The two intruders looked at each other and burst into laughter, "They're already in Wakanda, safe and sound. King T'Chaka should take care of them there. And we did leave Ross a nice present in their place."
The redhead nodded, "Look, let's just get this thing started," She opened her phone and pushed a button, "Now, it's done. All we have to do is watch as the Accords burn."
Huh, Tony liked the sound of that, although he did wonder what the surprise, that they left Ross, was.
----------------------------------------
(Thaddeus Ross POV)
Thaddeus Ross was over the moon. His plan worked without a hitch, and Richards played his part perfectly. The Hulk and Captain America were now under arrest and would soon sign the Accords, and serve their country in his name.
Blonsky – also known as the Abomination – had been released in the middle of a street in New York, right next to the ridiculous Avengers Tower. Trust Stark to make such a disgusting and high profile building to satisfy his ego. Richards had designed a drug especially made to deal with the Hulk, which would mean that it would work on Blonsky as well. He had even made a special needle that could break through their skin to administer the sedative.
Of course, the idiots that call themselves Earth's mightiest heroes decided to fight the Abomination, although unfortunately only half of them showed up, and Stark hadn't come to do it. Still, the Hulk and Captain America were enough to discredit Stark and his team, enough for people to start seeing the Accords as a viable option and not follow the Avengers' lead and not sign.
Because Ross knew how the Enhanced thought. They were arrogant in their powers, dismissive of the police and military, dismissive of regular people as a whole. They thought themselves to be gods, and Ross had shown the world time and time again that they were not. This was why he was hired as the Secretary of State. He had experience in dealing with these kinds of people, and what happened to the Avengers were proof of that.
And now it was time for him to reclaim his prize. He walked to the cells designed specifically for each captured Avenger. Their gear was collected to be sent to the labs and studied later. When he saw the cells, he imagined seeing the terrified face of Bruce Banner, the man who had cost him his relationship with his daughter, the man that Ross had chased for almost a decade and cost him many of his men.
And yet, when he looked through the cell, he didn't see any of that. He blinked to make sure that he wasn't imagining it, but instead of Banner, there was a huge stuffed toy of the Hulk, that was the size of a grown man.
He gritted his teeth, looked at the Sergeant that escorted him in, and snarled, "Are you joking with me, soldier?"
"Sir?" the man responded with a confused tone.
"Tell me why a toy is in that room instead of my prisoner." Ross responded while gritting his teeth.
The soldier looked inside and paled, "I swear to you, sir, that the prisoner was unconscious, and in that room, the last time I was here."
"I want the security footage, and check on the other prisoners," the Secretary of State ordered.
"Yes, sir," the Sergeant responded.
He ran back and returned two minutes later, visibly tired, "The prisoners are all replaced by toys, but Blonsky is still in our custody. The surveillance footage has been sent to you."
"And the gear?"
"Also replaced by toys, sir."
Ross gritted his teeth and opened his phone to see the footage sent to him. It didn't show much, only that everything happened in a single frame. Everything was looking fine; the prisoners were all locked up and their gear was fine. And in the next frame, they were all replaced by toys. It was madness. Whoever had done this wanted to rescue the Avengers. It was probably Stark; he was the only one with the pull and technology to pull something like this.
Before he could say anything, he was called by the President of the United States. How did he know about this so quickly? The former General responded, "Hello,"
The President seemed to be calm and very nervous at the same time, "Thaddeus, we have a big problem."
Oh, he didn't like the sound of that at all.
----------------------------------------
As usual, I generally post three chapters a week, on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
If you want to support me, check out my Patreon. I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.