Infatuated with a God

Chapter One-Hundred and Twenty-One

The consequences weren't too far behind. Soon everyone was piled into a meeting with now Secretary Ross, someone I'd hoped wouldn't progress further through politics than he already had. With more people coming into power with very obvious bias against us, it was no surprise that legislation was being brought in against enhanced individuals. Honestly, it was a surprise nothing had been done sooner, with more and more people out of the woodwork, it was only a matter of time before something was done to protect the greater public against anyone with bad intentions and superhuman abilities. The problem stemmed from people using that fear to pass through unquestioned restrictions that were so easily exploitable by those in power. As we all walked in and sat down a silence fell over the room. I took a seat at the front, wanting to keep an eye on Wanda and far too worried about her health to care about the likelihood that Ross would have been right in front of me. Even Rhodey was here, something virtually unseen over the coming weeks given his affiliation with the military and being in active service. Once Tony had walked in with Ross, nodded briefly to me in a solemn sense of recognition, Ross immediately commandeered the space. Launching into some clearly prepared bullshit story no one cared about to make some point. Talking of all the good things we've done followed by a but, obviously making all of it useless. He didn't want to thank us for our service in protecting the world, only make the point that it ultimately never mattered. It only brought each of us fame and scrutiny. People loved us, or loved to hate us, some more than others.

However, through all the nonsense one thing remained clear to me. It was never going to matter what we did, or why we did it. No matter how many terrorists we stopped, no matter how many world ending threats we faced, we were never going to truly be thanked. If one person dies, it falls on our shoulders not to have saved them time. If there is destruction, it would never matter how much more there would have been, only that we didn't stop the destruction entirely. We'd never win. And in being caught defending the Earth so publicly, we gave the government the scapegoat they needed. The US government never really defended New York in 2012, instead it publicly tried to nuke it. No matter how much they attempted to cover that up, the video was still circulating, the surprisingly correct conspiracy theories still spread. The public masses had consistently seen how little chance they actually stood without us, and no country's government could stand for that. Because that fear would paralyse the world. The knowledge that without us there would be no protection against external forces would cripple the world. So to stabilise it, they turned it on its head and blamed us for the failures and successes. They needed us for far more than saving the world. They needed us to keep them in power to stop chaos from swallowing every country whole. If everyone realised there was no hope, then there would be no reason for society to continue. Anomie would prevail and that's just as harmful as an alien fleet.

To really hammer the point home, Ross stepped to the side and showed footage of incidents we'd been involved in. It wasn't long before I refused to look or engage with the video. The very first clip of Loki in the museum was enough to know I couldn't bear it. I didn't need to see what I already knew. Without looking, I knew some part of it was designed to impact all of us in the room. The sounds of Hulk's roars upset Nat, reminding her that he should have been in this room. Hearing the screams caused Rhodey to look away too. Clips of D.C. targeting Steve and Sam. Sokovia, a direct target to Tony, but also a reminder to Wanda of the destruction of her home. Finally, clips of Lagos, further digging into Wanda for what so recently plagued her. I looked back to the screen too early, seeing the video still on an image of a dead child. They clearly didn't care for subtlety. I gripped Wanda's hand as I heard her slight gasp. Ross really was sick enough to go that far.

"Okay. That's enough." Steve spoke up. At least someone did, it wouldn't have panned out well if it was anyone else. Soon the weight finally dropped and the legislation was revealed. It was obvious to most people where this had been heading, we were just waiting to see how significant the consequences were. He pushed the large document past me and to Wanda directly, who gave it to Rhodey when he held out his hand. I knew I'd have to read over it later, find all those loopholes they'd be so willing to exploit.