Heroes Assemble!

There Are Some

"Sorry to break this up, guys, but you're all needed," she said.

"I'm guessing something important?" Steve asked.

"Secretary of State Ross has asked to address the Avengers," she replied. "I've told him that we'll meet him at the Compound. And before anyone asks, no, I don't know what this is about."

"You don't know," Nat repeated flatly.

"No," Maria replied and this time it was easy to hear the annoyance in her voice. "I know that there's been something in the wind for the past couple of months but all my contacts have clammed up about it. I would guess, with Ross involved, that we're finally going to find out what it is."

"Alright, everyone, you heard the lady. Gear up and head across to the Compound," Steve ordered.

ooo00ooo

All of the Avengers (minus Thor who was currently off-world and Melati who hadn't committed to the team yet, despite how often she'd been joining in with the Academy program) filed into the largest of the conference rooms and took a set at either one of the two long tables or in one of the extra chairs set around the perimeter. The last to enter was Maria and Lavender who accompanied Secretary Ross and his aide.

"You're all here, good," Ross stated as he took a position at the front of the room and surveyed them all.

Harry noticed that the man frowned at each of the ones that was currently masked, their identities still hidden – Peter, Doreen, Matt, Teddy and himself.

"I'm assuming that you have something for us," Steve half-stated, half-asked.

"Yes, but not in the way that you mean. I'm not here with a mission," Ross replied.

"Then why are you here?" Maria asked pointedly from where she leant against the back wall, her arms crossed.

For some reason, instead of answering, Ross started with an anecdote.

"Five years ago, I had a heart attack," he said. "I dropped right in the middle of my batting swing. Turned out that it was the best round of my life because after a thirteen-hour surgery and a triple bypass, I learnt something that forty years in the Army never taught me: perspective."

He glanced at Bruce then, a deep scowl flitting across his face so quickly that, unless you'd been looking, it would have been missed, as he paused in his stride across the front of the room before seeming to gather himself and starting again.

"The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You've fought for us. Protected us. Risked your lives. While a great many people see you as heroes, there are some ... who would prefer the word, 'vigilantes'."

Harry stiffened in his seat and he noticed that he wasn't the only one.

"And what word would you use, Mister Secretary?" Nat asked for all of them.

"How about 'dangerous'?" Ross replied quickly. "What would you call a group of US based, enhanced individuals, who routinely ignore sovereign borders and impose their will wherever and whenever they choose and, quite frankly, don't appear to care about the mess that they leave behind?"

"I think that you'll find that we do care. Every single one of us," Steve countered. "There are nights when we don't sleep because of what we've done, what we've seen. But we do our best. Tony there's even set up the Stark Relief Foundation, to go in after the danger has passed and to help the civilians still there."

Ross, though, apparently didn't agree with Steve's reply or perhaps, Harry thought, he simply disregarded it. Turning to the large screen behind him, Ross picked up the controller and tapped it, bringing up a large map of the world with various places on it pinpointed in yellow.