Aurora and the Avengers have been extra busy dealing with the aftermath of the fall of both SHIELD and HYDRA. After finally rounding up the rest of HYDRA, they now have new, unusual and personal threats to deal with. New friendships will be made, an...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
★。／｜＼。★
The Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross, is standing at the head of a table. Kilorn, Veronica, Rhodey, Natasha, Steve, Tony, Sam, Vision, and Wanda are gathered around sitting in office chairs in our conference room. As soon as Tony arrived with the Secretary of State it was something bad.
"Five years ago, I had a heart attack. I dropped right in the middle of my back-swing. Turned out it was the best round of my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass . . . I found something 40 years in the Army had never taught me: Perspective."
I want to roll my eyes at his little story. No offense to Ross, but I could care less of his little surgery story. No offense to him but he was old enough to be someone's great-great grandfather. Not even my own Father is that old. Well, he is, but he is a bill of health. He should just get to the point, even though I know I'm probably not going to like it.
"The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives." Really? I didn't know about that. I would kindly prefer to just forget all about that. "But while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some . . . who would prefer the word "vigilantes."
Vigilantes? What do we wear dark hoodies and hide out in the shadows just waiting for someone to get mugged in an alley?
Nat pursed her lips. "And what word would you use, Mr. Secretary?"
"How about "dangerous"?" Well that's just awfully rude. "What would you call a group of US-based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?"
Technically, I'm not American. Half of us aren't. We have citizenship, sure, but we aren't really American. Ross activates the flat screen behind him. News footage from our past Avengers and SHIELD missions flash on the screen as he speaks. "New York."
A Chitahuri leviathan. Terrified citizens. A soldier firing a gun. The Hulk smashes into a building and sends a dust cloud to engulf the camera. Rhodey looks regretful and glances at me. I looked away. I somehow had formed a bond with Hulk. I helped Bruce regain control. And now he's gone. We haven't found Bruce, ever since Ultron we haven't seen him. Ever since he took the Quinjet, we thought that we had found him about a month later, but it wasn't the jet at all. We think he's dead, which just haunts me. Especially since I told him he would be alright.
I looked away, swiveling in my chair forward when a video of Loki showed up. That was a bit too much now. He's been dead for 3 years now. I'm spending my third birthday without him. Again. I'm 1035. In 5 years I'll be freaking 1,040!
Steve put his hand on mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I can only manage to give him a smile. They don't know that Loki sacrificed himself for Thor, that he did something selfless. And they still paint him as a villain here. Well, I mean they aren't totally wrong but still.
