Chapter 21

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The new Accord system has been based partly on the UK's RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) which is run almost solely by volunteers and saves hundreds each year.

Moving back to Stark Tower Tony began revamping the Avengers Initiative immediately. He started by leasing Stark Tower to the council for the use of the New Avengers, the penthouse and topmost floors were kept for himself and any guests but the lower floors returned to the role last used when the previous Avengers were using the building. With the building sorted out Tony began a drive to recruit heroes to the new team, he was amazed to find an almost literal queue waiting for him. The newly improved Accords called for the Avengers to go through basic first aid training as well as strategy meetings and a plethora of competency assessments, aside from that they were left to their own devises. Tony's new system changed the official roster of heroes into a voluntary based system, this allowed the heroes to have a normal life until disaster struck. The voluntary heroes were added to a list and given a watch, the watches acted as a pager which contacted them in case of an emergency they could chose to accept or decline the mission, much to the council's relief Tony added a locator for the council to use while the heroes were on duty. The biggest change was in how the Avengers were called, from them choosing whether the emergency services needed help it now fell to the police, firefighters etc to choose. The month since the instigation of the new system the Avengers had been called to help in a number of large scale disasters and each time they had been restricted to supporting roles. For example a house block fire was too dangerous for firemen so Iron Man had been called with Spider-Man who's suits were fire resistant and they'd helped evacuate the building via ropes and drones. The individual heroes like the Spiders and the Defenders kept to their areas and helped where they could, with the influence of the Superhero Registration Council, liaisons were set up to manage the criminals brought in by them.

Even this was to be only the start, a month later after a series of minor victories Tony's team was contacted be the remnants of SHIELD, apparently they had stayed in the background but with the current seismic tilt in the perception of powered individuals they had come forwards to offer their services. Tony liaised with the council to sort out integrating the willing SHIELD agents into a series of hubs across the world where the heroes would be organised from. They were set up as safe houses for the agents and occasional homeless hero where they could stay, train or socialise, they had a hero on constant duty at all times who rotated daily. Tony tried not to be too hurt when his own former SHIELD staff members chose to join the new hubs across the globe, even so it allowed him to offer more jobs for none powered people which improved his image with the world. The biggest surprise, to Tony at least was the identity of the current Director of SHIELD, former corpse Agent Phil Coulson.

"You've got a huge pair on you to turn up now," growled Tony as Coulson stepped slowly from his private lift.

"Yes well it felt time for us to return from the shadows again."

"Oh no you don't get to say that, I've watched the footage, you died, pool of blood, no heartbeat, the whole shebang. I mourned you and here you are alive."

Pepper chose that moment to walk into the lounge, "Tony what's the... Oh hello Phil, I thought you were dead."

"It didn't stick," Phil looked slightly nervous talking to the couple who marked both a significant business associate and some of the few people he viewed as more than merely acquaintances.

"Well that's good, will you be joining us for tea."

"No I'm afraid not I just came to offer my teams help in your superhero program," said Coulson looking to Tony as he said the last bit.

"Ok give me your coordinates and I'll be there tomorrow," he replied dismissively waving his hand.

_LINEBREAK_

The following day Tony took off in the Starbird from the newly adapted landing pad, from there he shot out across the Hudson and into the bay once over the coordinates he keyed in the appropriate code phrase and began his descent. He landed atop a freshly uncloaked helicarrier and if he needed anymore evidence of SHIELD's involvement he was surrounded by quinjets and plastered across the deck was the eagle of SHIELD. The landing was just rough enough to dislodge his two uninvited guests from the ceiling with an "owww," and a yelp.

"Well if it isn't Incy Wincey and Miss Muffet," Peter and Jess had the decency to look ashamed, for a second.

"Are we really gonna meet the big boss of SHIELD Jess said he was cool, d'you think he has a cool code name, or like a Q with loads of gadgets and stuff. Oooh maybe he's..."

"... Shush Kid don't make me regret letting you come."

"You didn't..." he looked at Tony's exasperated face, "... you did? Awwww."

"Don't worry if I didn't install the trackers in both your suits then I'd have taken a lot longer to find you."

"So we gonna stay here chatting or can I go and tear the Director of SHIELD a new one," grinned Jess.

"Oh god if I had spider hands you'd have driven me up the wall months ago."

"Hey wait did you just... was that a pun... Mr Stark," shouted Peter as Tony rushed down the gangway. He got to then end of the ramp and grew silent, "awesome, hey Karen can you video this?" His lenses flashed blue to signify he was recording as he stared wide eyed at the jet filled tarmac. Jess too was in awe at the amount of people, she like the rest of them assumed that the remnants of SHIELD would be just that, remnants. Instead it appeared to be a fully functional system, with a hierarchy if the uniforms were anything to go off. Making his way slowly towards the group Coulson appeared the picture of calm and composed, beside him stood a tall Asian woman similarly composed.

"Mr Stark," nodded Coulson, "I wasn't aware you were bringing guests."

"Yes well the chance to see a zombie who could resist. Who're you?"

"Agent May."

"Ah talkative much, have we met?"

"Sometimes it is better to not speak than to speak ill of someone."

"Aaaah we have met," grinned Tony. Jess watched through her helmet at May's reaction and was impressed to see a minuscule quirk in her eyebrow.

"Shall we," interrupted Coulson motioning towards the control tower.

"Lead the way DC," Coulson's eye twitched as he turned and walked away from them.

"I'm glad to see you survived Melinda," said Jess as she followed the woman into the control tower.

"You are?"

"I don know whether to be insulted you don't know me or impressed with Tony's voice modulation tech." May simply raised an eyebrow, "Oh no I'm not caving to that look."

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage, I have no idea who you are yet you seem to know me."

"Oh, we've got history," replied Jess before walking away from her to join Spider-Man, May was left to compose her expression before following.

As they entered what appeared to be a lab Coulson turned to Tony, "if you wouldn't mind I'd like to talk to you in private, your associates can stay here."

As Coulson and May led Tony towards the exit he shouted, "Daisy Fitzsimmons, stop hiding." As the three adults left Peter and Jess alone they began wandering the room looking at all the devices from the mass spectrometer to a handgun. They were interrupted by a woman walking through the door, "oh hello," she said in a British accent.

"Daisy?" Asked Jess.

"Oh no I'm Jemma, Jemma Simmons." She turned to the door and spoke to someone just outside, "Fitz come on hurry up."

A Scottish brogue came from the doorway as a man came to join the woman, "sorry bout that Daisy distracted me," he tugged at his ruffled hair nervously.

"Guilty as charged," added a second woman this time with a cheerful American accent, a huge smile stretched across her face.

"Errr," Peter's head was starting to hurt, "so there's three of you."

"Mmm hmmm," nodded Fitz.

"I've got it," interrupted Jess, she pointed to the American woman, "Daisy," then the Scottish man, "Fitz, and you must be Simmons," she added pointing to the English woman.

"Oooh," stared Peter realising where the confusion came from.

"Wow, How d'you do that?" Stared Fitz.

"What?"

"Your eyes how do they work?"

Jess watched as Peter tried to keep up with Fitz's rambling it wasn't long before they were talking about physics far beyond her level.

"Sorry for the confusion, earlier" said Jemma coming over to shake Jess's hand.

"Yeah sorry DC likes to confuse people and since we've no problem he does it all the more," explained Daisy. "We're the support crew for most of the agents in the field around New York, I'm computers, Fitz is technology and Simmons is biology."

"Hey you're not just computers," called Fitz, "you're a superhero," he added in awe.

"Does secret identity mean anything to you Fitz," reprimanded Jemma.

"What? They're heroes too."

"Yes but argh."

"For a genius you're really thick," said Jemma a fond tone to her voice.

"Tell you what tell us your alias and I'll share me identity," said Jess. She had a warm feeling about the excitable trio and if she'd learnt one thing from her many run ins with danger it was to trust her gut.

Daisy's eyes lit up, "Daisy Johnson," she held out a hand for Jess to shake, "also known as Quake."

With a subtle press of a button to release a directional EMP disabling the labs cctv, Jess then pressed another button causing her helmet to fold back into her jetpack, "I'm Jessica Drew also Spider-Woman, former SHIELD agent."

"Wow, cool," stared Fitz in awe.

"You're amazing," gasped Jemma, "you made me want to be a biologist, I love you." Jemma began blushing as she realised what she'd just said, "not in a weird way, just in a respectful way, not that you're not pretty, you are, I mean..." Jess was fighting giggles as Jemma covered her face by hiding it in the crook of Daisy's neck.

"Sorry she's just a bit excited and socially awkward," explained Daisy.

"Hypocrite," laughed Fitz, "if you could, you'd not leave our room and binge watch whatever you could get your hands on."

"Oh yeah and who forced us both to watch all the paranormal activity's in one go," Fitz had the good idea to look apologetic.

In the corner Peter was watching with awe as the trio bantered back and forth, it reminded him of the times Ned and MJ came over to watch tv or revise. Before he could dwell on it too much Karen notified him that Director Coulson was returning with Mr Stark and the other agent. Jess managed to close helmet in time to greet the arrivals, "so you sorted out all your super secret spy stuff?"

"Yep all done," grinned Tony, "apparently SHIELD wants in on the whole privatising world peace thing I've started. Oh yeah and how would the three little elves like to move to Avengers tower help with the whole superhero gig, DC's given permission, seems to think you need to stretch your legs."

"Errrrrr," all three stared in shock.

"Don't answer straight away but it's a limited time offer, limited to about a week."