A/N: More madness from the mind that brought you "Hammer Time", "Growing Up is Optional", and "Music Hath Charms".
Namaste,
Sunny
Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be. ~ Jack Welch
Avengers: Infinity War Tag
Reality Sucks
Special Agent Everett Ross of the CIA stood to one side and just behind Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross. To Everett, the office's décor was overly extravagant for one who claimed to serve the best interests of the American people. The room itself was, minimum, the same size as the oval office. Indicative of "Thunderbolt's" aspirations within the political structure, he was sure.
Idle thoughts such as his host's ambitions should've taken a backseat to the current international crisis, but Everett found he couldn't help it. Ross had been standing in the same spot for over an hour, angrily clicking through the channels, watching the same reports over and over, hoping to see something new, or a tidbit they'd missed the first hundred plus times. But that wasn't the only thing pissing him off.
Everett had been out of range of the holographic projectors during Ross's conference with Colonel James Rhodes at the exact moment that Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, Sam Wilson, and Vision showed up at the Avengers Compound.
"I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking for permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you wanna stand in our way, we'll fight you, too."
Ross glared at the fugitives, saying to Rhodes, "Arrest them!"
"All over it." Rhodes deadpanned as he shut down the hologram.
Ross had been furious, and Everett had silently applauded Rogers's comment when challenged, and Rhodes's response.
Ah, good times. Good times. When it all started, Everett felt that the Accords were an inventive and practical way of keeping the world safe by having all enhanced beings on a leash. The consensus being that there would be fewer incidents like Manhattan, Sokovia, and Lagos with controls, checks and balances in position. But as months turned into years, his way of thinking had done a complete one-eighty. Especially with this latest threat, whatever it was. As it stood, the world was ill equipped to fight aliens on any level except with the assistance of the very people they wanted to rein in.
Ross broke into his wandering thoughts by angrily muting the television. "Dammit! What the hell is going on? And where's Tony Stark? He's usually smack in the middle of anything even hinting at another alien invasion."
"We have our best people looking for him as we speak." He checked his messages. "Nothing since the traffic cams picked him up in the company of Dr. Stephen Strange and a man by the name of Wong." What he hadn't told Ross was that Bruce Banner had also been in Stark's company.
"Tell them to look harder and faster!" The phone rang, Ross thumbed the answer key but not the speaker, leaving Everett in the dark. "Ross… Where?" He used the remote to switch over to a secure channel not available to the general public.
The two men watched as bogies headed for Africa and disappeared. Everett knew they'd landed near the protective dome surrounding Wakanda, but didn't say so to Ross. He hadn't included being shot and taken to Wakanda for life-saving treatment, or his part in stopping the attempted coup in his report surrounding the meeting with Klaue.
Everett was about to excuse himself to check in with his superiors regarding this new world crisis. He stayed at Ross's next words.
"What the hell?! When? It's happening where? All over the world?"
There was no way to know to whom he was speaking. Whoever it was, Ross wasn't happy. He looked closer. Not just pissed. He was terrified.
"Something wrong, Mr. Secretary?"
Ross swung around, eyes blazing. "Hell yes there's something wrong. People are…"
On the plasma screen, the camera's focus changed, zooming in on the crowds in Times Square. "Oh, my God…"
Everett couldn't help the shocked whisper coming out at seeing roughly half the people dissolve into a black ash that was picked up by the wind and scattered over the streets.
His vision was brought back to the office when the remote and the phone thumped to the carpet. Ross raised his hands, watching himself turn to black ash too. There was a sickening crunch and the Secretary was gone.
Stunned for a moment, Everett merely stared at the pile of ash that had once been "Thunderbolt" Ross, war hero and Secretary of State.
Holding his hands up, Everett waited to see if the same thing happened to him. When it didn't, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Outside the office, he could hear people running around, calling out to each other in disbelief. Some crying. Others screaming. Still more on the edge of panic, their brains unable to fathom what was happening.
He should be horrified at the loss of life, and he was. But Ross was no great loss to the world, or at least his little part of it. Everett opened the door and stepped out. No one paid him the least bit of attention.
One of the janitors was coming down the hall with headphones on, oblivious to the turmoil around him. Everett ran to catch up, touching the man on the shoulder to get his attention. "Excuse me. I spilled something on Secretary Ross's carpet. Would you be kind enough to clean it up before he returns?"
The man, in his nineties if he was a day, pulled off the headphones, leaving them hanging around his neck. "Sure thing, pal."
He grabbed a hand vacuum and Everett stayed with him, mostly because he didn't want to miss Ross getting what was coming to him for being a royal asshole all his life.
The vacuum powered up, and Everett again tapped him on the shoulder. "Please, allow me." He indulged in an internal smirk. "I love vacuuming, don't you?"
He sucked up the black dust making sure to get every spec, and taking great pleasure in the entire operation. The janitor reclaimed his equipment, put the headphones back on, and walked away shaking his head.
~~O~~
Everett was rudely jolted out of his daydream when the janitor started up the floor vacuum in time to see the on-the-spot reporter turn to dust and vanish, her microphone falling in the pile. A moment later, the transmission shut down.
Ross threw himself into his chair, using his feet to move it nervously back and forth. He took a phone from another pocket, scrolled his contacts and dialed. Calling his daughter, no doubt.
To give him privacy, Everett made himself scarce, quietly pulling the door shut behind him. The Secretary's executive assistant was nothing but a pile of ash. "Too bad. She was the one thing that made coming here halfway pleasant."
At the elevator, Everett slammed a fist into the opposite palm. "****!"
A member of the staff pulled up short next to him. "Are you alright, sir?"
"Yes," he assured the man. As he walked away, Everett muttered under his breath, "Reality sucks."
End?