Star Dust (A Paladin Adventure)

Something about frying pans and fires

Tony's footsteps turned into the room, and when I looked at him, he was surveying us crossly, and a flash of some other emotion crossed his face so swiftly I couldn't identify it. "This is cozy," he said with an edge to his voice, surveying us.

"Knock it off, Tony. I've been working since five this morning with only pee breaks and a ten minute lunch break," Steve said wearily.

Tony ignored him. His deep-shadowed eyes flicked over Bucky and settled on me. Yippee. "Now that you're back, Harrington, let me bring you up to date." He efficiently told me how the cleanup efforts had progressed. "The civilian authorities want all heroes assigned to teams, for efficiency in assigning responsibilities. We want you back on the Avengers."

I wondered if Tony's bad mood was the reasoning Steve hadn't brought this up himself, because this situation wasn't awful.  "Sure," I said. "It makes sense that coordinating the response would be easier with teams rather than teams and individuals."

"It wouldn't be just for this incident, though," Steve said after a short silence in which I wondered what I was missing. Tony glared at him.

"What?"

"The government is using the UN accords that we signed to mandate the registration of all heroes, including the street-level ones. You can operate on a team, or...on a  team not of your choosing."

"But why?" I asked in confusion. "I don't have enhancements that are offensively useful. I can't shoot lasers out of my eyes like Superman, I've only got thicker skin and slightly higher durability that the average person. I'm not a particularly skilled fighter, especially hand to hand. I can handle the odd petty thief or crook if they're human and under specific circumstances. I don't belong on a marquee superhero team." My burner phone began signalling the arrival of texts. The first was from Batman, with a link to a breaking news article that described what Tony was telling me and contained an offer to join the Justice League, if I was looking for a team. There was also a message from a blocked number that questioned Tony's motives.

"Why this sudden push to include those of us with weak power? We're not a threat to anybody, and there's the small matter of our very finite worth in the field." I studied Tony, who looked impatient. Another text; this was from Deadpool, in one of his rare serious moods, advising me that some of the other street-level heroes--Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage--were forming their own team to be called the Defenders. I got along pretty well with Iron Fist, but Matt never had forgiven me for discovering his identity, Jessica didn't play well with others, and Luke and I had never spent much time together, so I couldn't count on an invite there. Plus, they were all leagues better and younger than me.

"Did you even even point any of that out?" I asked, as things started to gel a little in my brain.

"Look, you might not have a lot of strength in the field, but you're far from useless. You were a legitimate Avenger, you survived the Arena. And yeah, I want you back on the team. We're going to be looking outward from the planet and we're going to need to create new defenses and weapons for the next time aliens come looking. The aliens we've encountered, the Skrulls, the Kree, even the Asgardians, regard the superheroes as Earth's law enforcement. We need all the strength we can muster. And besides," he exhaled sharply. "The government found out about your...atomic abilities. They're interested in you. If you rejoin the Avengers, we can protect you from them."

My mouth went dry. I didn't know anybody with any sort of power who didn't worry about the government, disappearing forever into some lab complex. ""You didn't mention the government's interest," Steve said, a hard edge on his voice.