Chapter 7: "One Pissed-Off Star-Spangled Man With Some Opinions and Anger In Him"

Word had gotten around the school pretty quickly once the telepaths caught on to what had happened with the senior X-Men's mission to North Dakota.

The whole idea was met with a general sense of terror and dread, whispered between kids in the hallways as very suddenly the prospect of going home for the holidays, or of going outside the school, was that much more daunting — and it was only a few weeks out from Thanksgiving.

It didn't help that the rumor mill was working overtime, so that by the time the weekend hit, a few weeks after the fact, and Leslie Ann was headed home for a dinner with her whole family — Scott and his family included — she had heard every kind of embellishment and worst-case scenario. That they'd had to go after some X-Men who were captured, that the camp was already imprisoning people, that there was another one right there in New York… Gabriella in particular seemed to be convinced that they were all going to die, no matter what Leslie Ann said to try to reassure her.

There wasn't a whisper of it on the news, though — and Leslie Ann had checked. Not… that she expected there would be. She did pay attention in class, and she did know enough to realize that this kind of stuff just didn't get talked about. But her dad had always told her to expect the best of people, so she did.

So when there was no report on the destroyed camp, she clung to the optimistic hope that it was just because there was a new president to focus on instead, and all the news that came from the election results, the new leadership transition, all that.

She'd meant to ask her uncle about it, but she wasn't sure how to start that conversation. Hey, Uncle Scott, is it true we're all going to die? just wasn't really something she could wrap her head around. And besides, she definitely couldn't bring it up now, when she was getting a ride from the school to her parents' house with her little cousins in the backseat going on and on about how there was a new boy in their class and how Charlie li-i-i-i-i-iked him.

"And he has a cool part in the side of his hair that goes kind of zig zag," Chance was saying. "I can't get my hair to do that because my hair isn't short."

Charlie reached over and shoved her brother in the shoulder. "Sto-o-o-op."

"And — and he let Charlie have the Snickers from his Halloween candy, and everyone knows those are the best ones."

"I don't know," Leslie Ann said with a teasing smile. "What about Reese's?"

"Charlie doesn't like peanut butter," Chance said as if this was obvious. "She gives Julian all her Reese's."

Charlie wrinkled up her nose at Chance. "Cuz it's fair," she said reasonably. "I get my favorite, and he gets his favorite."

"It's 'cause you like him!"

"Stop! No it's not!"

"Uh-huh!" Chance grinned delightedly. "You want to give him cupcake kisses."

"Cha-a-a-a-ance!" Charlie wailed, covering her face with both hands.

Cody was giggling the entire time he watched his older siblings go back and forth, completely delighted with the whole thing. "You like him!" he sang out to Charlie, siding with his brother, which finally seemed to be the last straw for the little girl.

"Mom!"

"Boys, quit picking on your sister," Annie said without even looking back.

"It's not picking if it's the truth!" Chance argued, though that got Annie to turn around and give him an incredibly withering look for sassing back, and he very quickly gulped and looked down at his hands. "Yes, ma'am."

Cody covered his mouth, still giggling, "You gotted in trouble."

"So did you."

"You gotted in trouble."

Chance stuck his tongue out at his brother as they finally pulled into the Wrights' driveway, and the three Summers kids who weren't dead to the world asleep in the baby car seat (luckily Chloe had slept through the whole fight) tumbled out of the car en masse, escaping from Annie so they could pick up their relentless teasing as both boys chased after Charlie — and Scott had to get after all of them before it could turn into a real fight.

Leslie Ann stayed behind to help her Aunt Annie get the baby all settled in, holding her bag full of baby things as Chloe finally started to wake up.

"Sorry about the chaos," Annie said with a tired grin.

"No, it's fine," Leslie Ann assured her. "I like getting to be with my cousins. They're fun."

Annie smiled at that as the two of them got in to see that Anton and Rachel very nearly had dinner all set out, and Mary Beth was just so excited to see her big sister and tell her all about her week at school — so for most of the dinner, the conversation was dominated by the Kindergarten teasing of the Summers twins and just general catching up as both kids and adults chatted long after dinner was over.

Chloe was asleep, and Cody had passed out on the couch. Mary Beth was playing a highly competitive game of Sorry with the twins… and Leslie Ann ended up drifting toward the adults as they were discussing, for the moment, the new president and how likeable he was. Her dad hadn't voted for him, but he did like his stance on police and security, and they were discussing the state of affairs when Leslie Ann sat down nearby, feeling a little out of place since she didn't quite fit with the adults but she didn't want to play with the little kids either.

The conversation on security had turned to one where Anton and Scott were comparing their jobs again, trading stories since the last time they'd met up — this always happened and was actually Leslie Ann's favorite part, so she wound up sitting closer as her mom and aunt smiled and made room for her.

Scott was just saying that his most recent project had him spending more time in information gathering than anything else when Leslie Ann didn't even think, just blurted out, "Is that so you can make sure they don't build another camp?"

The entire group of adults paused, and Leslie Ann flushed pink as she realized she had their full attention. "Where did you hear that?" Scott asked at last.

I should've known Gabriella was full of it, she thought, sure that she had over-exaggerated as she pulled on her ponytail. "Everyone at school is talking about it," she said quietly. "Someone said they were building one in New York City, but we'd know about it, right?"

"No one is building a camp in New York City," Scott assured her.

"But what about the other one?" she asked, a little emboldened now. "I heard there were already people there — and someone said Miss Marie got captured, but I don't think that's true."

"We've always watched out for things like that, and there are no camps with anyone being held," Scott replied. "And right now, I don't think there are any standing."

"So I can tell Gabriella to chill out and stop spreading rumors?" Leslie Ann asked with a half a smile.

"Where did Gabriella hear something like that anyhow?" Scott asked.

"From someone on the senior team thinking about it too much."

"That … I'd like to know what's been passed around," Scott replied. "Since the rumors are getting much bigger than they should."

"Well, like I said, someone said there was a camp in New York, which I said was just wrong, but Miss Marie did have to go see Hank for those microfilament things, and someone said she got captured, and someone else said there were, like, a hundred people there…"

Scott shook his head and turned to Annie. "I think we're going to need to address the school first thing on Monday. Better to get the truth out there than to let them have their imaginations go wild."

"And what exactly is the truth?" Rachel asked, one eyebrow raised.

"That there was a fully operational — empty — camp that was levelled," Scott replied, making sure to emphasize the good rather than the bad, especially considering how clear Anton had been about wanting the parents to have a say in what was going on. "No one was there but guards."

"Where?" Anton asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Near the Canadian border in North Dakota. Several hundred miles from anything."

Anton's eyes narrowed even further, and Leslie Ann thought her dad might go for a drive for as mad as he looked. "Why doesn't anyone know about this?" he asked at last.

Scott very nearly let out a laugh. "Honestly? The media has never given us a fair shake. We could save the world on camera and they'd twist it to say we brought hell down on everyone. They don't want anyone knowing it was there — or to have to explain what it was built for. Not until they have more support."

"They can't think…" Rachel looked between the adults at the table with wide eyes, looking toward Leslie Ann in particular before she looked mad. "This kind of thing doesn't … well, it's not supposed to happen anymore!"

"Who was running it?" Anton cut in as Rachel seemed to flail for words.

"Government property. Military instalment not too far off," Scott replied. "It's official."

Anton swore under his breath and shook his head. "Scott, this is one of those things you call me on."

"If SHIELD won't do anything about it, I'm not sure what one state cop can do. No offense," Scott pointed out.

"None taken. I'm not telling you as a cop; I'm saying as a father, you call me and you tell me what kind of crap my daughter is facing," Anton said in a low and dangerous tone.

"We're not entirely sure yet," Scott said, trying to level with him. "We know what it looks like, and one of ours has confirmed those suspicions based on personal experience in the past, but … we have no proof. Yet. Unfortunately, some of us were a little … overzealous when we saw it for what it was." He wasn't going to tell Anton that he was the one being overzealous, especially not with his brother-in-law in the state of agitation Scott was seeing.

Anton shook his head in pure disbelief. "You'd think someone would have blown the whistle…" he muttered before he pushed back from the table and got to his feet, starting to clear away the dishes. "Just tell me you're going to keep tearing them down as fast as they can build 'em."

"That's the plan," Scott said.

"For now, anyway," Anton said, still looked completely ticked off before he made a visible effort to try not to look so upset when the kids were just one room over. "And Leslie Ann is off any missions related to this."

"All the junior team is benched," Scott agreed.

"Good. They don't need to be dealing with that," Anton said. "I'd say no one should, but even I'm not that optimistic."

"If we don't go out, it'll just go forward," Scott said.

"I know, and that's what pisses me off about it," Anton said, still scowling. "You watch your back, Scott. This ain't a game any of us can afford to lose."


For the last few months or so, the rotation between the Avengers and X-Men had been put on a temporary hold simply because there had been so many pregnancies and newborns to deal with that the focus was on their own families and teammates for most of the late summer into the fall.

But it was slowly picking back up again, and Kate had signed herself up for one of the first rotations back so that she could go see her friends before December hit, with her anniversary, Christmas, and birthday a little more important, to her mind, than proving to Clint that she could still totally keep up with him even after being out of the game for a while with Elfling Number Three.

And seeing as Kaleb wasn't even three months yet, Kate had decided to just go ahead and bring him along. Not just because he was still so little but because the Avengers always loved getting to see the littlest ones, no matter which team they came from, and it was just so fun watching Thor with any of the kids, not to mention Steve, who was getting pretty good at playing with the kids after that initial awkwardness when his friends and teammates had first started having them.

She wasn't disappointed, either. Kaleb took an instant liking to Thor, totally enraptured by the huge Asgardian. Thor even got a gummy smile for his efforts holding and playing with the little boy, and Kate just had to lean back and watch the show, totally tickled.

"Gee, I hope you weren't planning on bringing your kid back home with you," Teddy teased as he and Billy sat down on either side of her to join her.

"As long as he's giving Thor the 'this is so cool' face, we're good," Kate laughed. "He's been like that since he was born — just wants to see everything."

"Genetics," Teddy teased.

Kate rolled her eyes at that and bumped her friend's shoulder with hers. "And how are Sammy and Harry doing?"

"Talking a lot more," Billy said, a proud little smile creasing his features. "It took them a while, and then it just came in a flood."

"Now we can't get them to stop," Teddy agreed with a little laugh.

"And you're sure you didn't magic them?" Kate teased Billy. "Because that sure sounds like you."

"If I'd magicked them, one would be blonde," Billy pointed out. "Or both. Since I'm partial to blondes," he added, grinning Teddy's way.

Kate rolled her eyes at her friend, and the three former Young Avengers fell silent for a while, just enjoying each other's company as well as Thor's laughter as Kaleb kept grinning at him.

"I've been meaning to ask you something, Billy," Kate said after a moment, and Billy seemed to straighten up. "You came in to stop a few people on the team from going after those filaments… but what did you see?"

"A whole lot of crap, Kate. You really don't want to know," Billy said with a deep frown. "Why?"

"Well, I'm just wondering if you saw the camp we found in North Dakota."

Teddy looked toward Billy, who seemed to take a long time to think over his answer. "Yes, I did," he said finally, slowly. "But… the one I saw was operational before you found it. If you'd pushed the MRD, they would have moved up their timeline and started sending mutants there, in addition to sending Logan and K to Canada when they caught them."

"But you knew they were making one," Kate said, her eyes narrowed.

Billy let out a sigh and nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us?" she asked, totally exasperated as she hit him, hard, in the chest.

Billy rubbed the spot where she'd hit him. "Kate, I literally can't warn you about every single bad thing that you're going to run into. For one thing, I'd only have enough time to do that for everyone if I bent the rules of time, and I'm not going to do that."

"But you can tell us about futzing camps, Billy! That's something you can tell us about!"

Billy bit his lip. "Kate... right now, everyone in the X-Men is working overtime to keep anything like that from ever being used. If you hadn't found it, would you be working that hard?"

Kate glared at him.

"If I'd told you what they were building, you'd just go and destroy it, and they'd be in the process of rebuilding it right now, and covering their tracks a little better. Now, you have an established pattern, you know what to look for, and you wrecked a fully operational camp that they spent billions of dollars putting together. That's a much bigger hit to their program than if I'd told you about it on my own."

"I think I liked you better when you weren't all-knowing," Kate grumbled, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I'm… it doesn't really work like that," Billy said. "If I was going to predict every bad thing, I'd never be able to live in the present with Teddy and my kids. And the future is literally always changing." He looked honestly apologetic. "I can't tell how bad things are going to get. I know there's a rough patch ahead, but until the pieces all fall in place, I don't know… there's four or five different ways the future could go just right now. It's only when it's something major, like the filaments that would weaponize mutants for the wrong team, or pushing the MRD into using camps before you can destroy them — then it gets bad enough I can't ignore it." He gestured to his eyes. "I'm still learning the rules here, Kate, and I'd much rather err on the side of caution then screw up reality here. I condemned an entire world to Weapon X rule for four years just by being in the wrong place. I'm not doing it again. So unless the future is screaming at me, what do you want me to do?"

"Just… promise me you'll tell us if they get one of those camps operational. Before they start shipping people off."

"Yeah, I promise," Billy said.

"You cut it close with the one in North Dakota," Kate said with a glare, and Billy raised both hands in a gesture of defense.

"You guys had it covered."

"What are you guys talking about?" Steve asked suddenly, looking both shocked and stern all at once. Every muscle in his body was tense as he stood there, staring at the group — who hadn't even known he was eavesdropping until that very moment.

The three former teammates startled slightly, especially on seeing how Steve looked, and Kate swallowed before she waved him over. "Right. I guess you wouldn't have heard about North Dakota, since we've been a little isolated dealing with family stuff and all this… crap."

"What happened in North Dakota?"

"We found a fully-operational — but empty — honest-to-god concentration camp," Kate told him frankly, the tone in her voice unmistakable as she glared at the memory. "Government land, too. Military-owned. Just sitting there waiting to be used — and chock full of weapons to neutralize mutant powers."

"That … that's not supposed to happen here," Steve said, sounding outraged already.

"Well, it did happen, and we levelled it," Kate said, matching his tone. "And nobody knew about it. We only knew because we were tracking the MRD's new anti-mutant weapons. Actually, our junior squad found that out, too, the hard way. We got really lucky."

"Wait … they shot one of the teenagers?"

"Four. Four teenagers," Kate corrected him. "That's how we got on the scent. They hit our entire junior squad with microfilaments that act as inhibitors under your skin. You can only get them out with surgery — or Shadowcat."

Steve stood there for a moment just … mentally sputtering. He opened his mouth a couple of times — only to close it again before he finally turned on his heel and marched right out, muttering about better lines of communication between the two teams.

It wasn't a long flight in a Quinjet to Washington, and obviously, when he had called to say he wanted to speak to the outgoing president, the press secretary had jumped at the opportunity for a photo op later, especially with the incoming new guy in town getting his own briefings to prepare for the new administration.

The way the press secretary had fallen over himself to set up the meeting, though, just meant that Steve didn't have long to wait — so he was still freshly angry when he got there.

"Captain Rogers!" the president called out with a beaming smile, looking up from whatever he was reading at his desk to cross the room to shake his hand — though he stopped short when he saw the look on Steve's face. "What can I do for you?" he asked, this time more seriously.

"You can tell me what the hell is going on," Steve replied, obviously too irritated to keep all of his professional tone. "There was a detainment camp? On American soil? Why?"

"There hasn't been anything like that since the internment camps of your era, as far as I'm aware," the president said with a frown.

"The problem here is that my source doesn't make things like this up," Steve said. "And I have a hard time believing that something that big would have happened without your knowing it."

Again, the president shook his head. "I can ask the Pentagon, talk to my generals. If you can give me a location, that might help, but I'm telling you, I haven't heard of anything like this."

"Sir, it's my sincere hope that for something like this? I wouldn't need to give you a location. Because if there are more than one of these … things... then there is going to be big trouble on the horizon. And not just from the mutant citizens of this country."

"That wasn't my intention," the president said quickly. "I just meant that I don't know of anything like that in existence, but I can check military locations in an area. If they've been repurposed without my knowledge, I'd like to know just as much as you would." He looked entirely serious. "You have to know I would never sign my name to any kind of… detainment camp," he said, clearly disdainful of the idea.

"I hope that's true, Mr. President," Steve said in his most serious tone. "I'll be looking into it personally."

"So will I," the president assured him.

At that, Steve nodded and offered him his hand. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"Always a pleasure to help Captain America," the president said with a wan smile as he took Steve's hand and frowned slightly at the grip. "I promise you: I'll get to the bottom of this before I hand the keys to the White House to the next guy. I'll clean out the entire Situation Room and Joint Chiefs if I have to."

It wasn't exactly the best note to leave on, especially as Steve was sure that the president was lying as he left the Oval Office, though he didn't get far at all before a new voice called out from the Roosevelt Room — "Captain Rogers. Leaving already?" — and he turned to see the new president-elect, Josh Bradley, poking his head out.

"Pressing matters to attend to," Steve replied, though he stopped and took a moment to offer the new president-elect his hand. "Congratulations."

Bradley grinned widely. "Thanks. It was a close run," he said, then gestured around the room. "And very humbling. Just being here, just visiting…" He shook his head. "I'm sorry to hear you're leaving. I had hoped to get to talk with you, but of course, more pressing matters..."

"I'd be happy to take a moment if there's something on your mind," Steve said, hoping to strike a clean chord with the incoming leader.

"Just the state of things generally — it's a little overwhelming," Bradley admitted, stepping back from the doorway so Steve could come in. "I could sit in this room for the next three years and still not feel prepared for the magnitude of it — and of course, half of it they don't tell you until you're elected. I think it's entrapment, Captain, it really is."

"I'm sure you'll adjust your stance on that with a little time," Steve said with a little smirk. "No job ever tells you the dark side of it upfront."

"Well, that's exactly it, isn't it? There are so many dark corners in this job… do you know, I'm just finding out, for example, how the old administration handled that fiasco a few years back with the tracking bill? Outrageous treatment of its own citizens…" He shook his head. "Of course, I can't say as much on the campaign trail. Optics, you know, especially over the summer with those international incidents with the X-Men, but I was always taught that government should help people."

"Those international incidents were all related to an organization spanning several countries operating with no oversight and refusing to follow the laws of any given country," Steve said. "As far as I'm concerned, they weren't so much incidents as they were human rights battles."

Bradley nodded along to Steve's assessment. "That isn't something I can do much to stop, unfortunately," he admitted. "Even as president, I can't barge into other countries, you know."

"So I understand."

"But — and be honest with me — as an Avenger, you've played with the optics... Well, you'll pardon me for being a bit political, that is the game here — but you've had mutants on your team. And you've worked with the X-Men. How badly do you think I would take a hit if I were to order a task force in my first one hundred days to look specifically into mutant problems?" Bradley asked. "Give these people a place to voice their concern — so they don't have to go gallivanting around fighting on their own?"

"I think you'd have to be very careful on how that would be handled," Steve replied. "Too many politicians have gone too far. Which is how we ended up with problems like Magneto."

"So, you think it's a bad idea," Bradley said, his shoulders deflating obviously. "I know it's a risk… hot button topics always are, especially treading new ground…"

"It's always a risk, particularly when the people pushing laws and groups like that don't know what it's like to be in that group."

Bradley seemed to consider this for a long time. "If it's an executive task force, they can't do a damn thing about it on the Hill," he decided with a little nod. "And really, I ran a platform of peace. Hard to do that if I don't give these people someplace to speak up."

Steve took a breath and held it for a moment as he watched the man carefully. "I'm sure you're going to pay more attention to your advisors, sir, but you might want to let democracy handle things without avoiding the Hill."

"The same people who were ready to pass that sad excuse for a bill on mutant tracking four years ago?" Bradley said, the tone of distaste clear.

"Many of those were replaced with new representatives," Steve replied.

Bradley nodded. "True," he had to agree. "Still, you can understand why I'd be wary. It wasn't too long ago you were fighting registration yourself, Captain Rogers."

"You asked my opinion and I'm giving it." Steve crossed his arms, a little wary of getting into an argument about this, especially because something was starting to smell in this town. More than usual.

Bradley shook his head. "Well. I'll talk with my advisors. But I do appreciate your candor; don't get me wrong. It's refreshing." He grinned and stuck his hand out for Steve to shake. "I hope I can look forward to working with you and the Avengers after I'm sworn in. Politics aside, I did mean what I said about wanting to do right by the country and keep them safe. Couldn't do that without you."

Steve shook the man's hand with a tight smile before he wished him a good day and headed out. He'd had enough of politicians for a lifetime.