Days later at the offices of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway; Jennifer was walking through the offices of the law firm as it was clear that every employee was extremely busy. No shortage of cases including the relatives of the superheroes killed when Tony and Grant Ward had that miniature hospital destroyed. She ended up having to call Peter since he had accidentally left some paperwork back at their place so she asked if he could drop it off. Jennifer was waving to the staff as she went to her office as most of them were glad to see her back there.
"Hello Jennifer, it's been nice having you back here at the office. I had been wondering if you were ever here again then you would be coming to us as a client since I don't think even Tony Stark would get away with just locking up his former teammates and throwing away the key." said a voice and Jennifer sighed as she turned to see a short brown haired woman in a black suit and miniskirt with a model like figure, it was Mallory Brook was an office rival of her.
"I missed you too Mallory and as you can see everything worked out in the end with us just having to pick up the pieces. It just means that we will be busy for a while." Jennifer told her trying to be friendly with her tone and a smile on her face as she put out a hand to shake and Mallory accepted it.
"Just glad it's not as busy as it could have been; we have people come to us wanting to sue the Avengers for letting Stark get out of control but with you on staff that would be a conflict of interest." Mallory told her and Jennifer dropped her smile and just went on inside. Getting back to work meant having to deal with some office drama.
She went through the door and was startled as there was a web from the window and then there a web connected to the wall facing the window with the files there inside an envelope. She spotted Peter hanging from the outside of the window waving casually. "The nice thing about having my identity out in the open is that I am free to do this. Plus I can understate how it adds to your sexiness seeing you in glasses and wearing a ponytail..." Peter said before Jennifer used her arms to forcibly dragged Peter through the window and he caught himself before he landed face first.
"You know that you are trespassing coming in like that and I knew that I should have closed that window! You bored what to do when you're not Spider-Man, find a job in the labs in the Triskellion. You wonder what the press or the public would say if you just stayed out my window all day? The phone pictures would be trending in no time!" Jennifer told him shaking his head as Peter said something apologetically. "Well I am used to having my love life trending and you are not the only boyfriend that I had come here to distract me from my work." Jennifer told him as she got the envelope from the web strutting her stuff with her walk.
Then there was a ring from their phones and they answered the same text messages from Agent Quartermain saying to come to the Avengers Tower as there were two agents coming back on duty making them expected:
Mr & Mrs Rogers were coming home!
At the base of the Cabal; Robbins was doing his best calm down Ronan who was getting restless while Masters, Macpherran and Creel were sent out again to do some more robberies. Harry Osborn's fortune was helping with the funding but without any ownership of what used to be Oscorp or any stocks, it would sure to dry up and the Taskmaster known as Tony Masters would only be loyal to the Cabal for as long as they could pay him.
"I agreed to work with you and your idea of a Cabal and yet you make me stay here Hood while treating me as a minion to issue orders to! I am Ronan the Accuser, without a Kree Empire to serve thanks to the actions of Danvers and Stark! We should be storming where they are being kept so that I can carry out the sentence of their utter destruction of Hala!" Rona snapped at Robbins pointing the Universal Weapon at him while Venom then lunged at him only to be knocked back by the Universal Hammer.
"They are being kept in a highly secured and protected location Ronan and it will take time before we can mount an assault. Remember that I took you in as a refugee from your destroyed home while I could have easily left you to be hunted down by SHIELD and the Avengers who all know about the biggest thug of the Kree. Push me while i have offered you hospitality and I shall have Venom take care of you. Does your Kree brain have the phenethylamine that his other half needs?" Robbins said in a warning tone as Venom dared him to do it again and he did so as he punched him with the Universal Weapon, he then grabbed Venom looking like he was close to ripping the Symbiote off.
"You think that you could threaten me using this beast Hood? Do you have any ideas how planets that I have carried out sentences on that has had Klyntar possessed inhabitants fight back? I shall continue to work with your Cabal but remember; I will only work with you and not for you!" Ronan said as he walked off with Robbins not looking happy.
"Venom is supposed to make me stronger..." Harry muttered as his Symbiote recovered and he became Venom again before storming off.
"What did you expect when you recruited disparate individuals who all have different goals and expect them to listen to you? The Avengers have somehow made such a dynamic work and yet you desire to do the same when you are no Captain America." said a voice and Robbins looked to Octavius in his lab area of the base.
He looked and saw Octavius starting to cough as he put on a breathing helmet and there was a pod slash armor suit he was working on. "...I am not as healthy as I used to be... Years of fighting Spider-Man as a normal human despite my technology has taken its toll as well as the chemicals that I have used to power my experiments. This is for when my human body may not be able to take much more..." Octavius explained sounding bitter.
"The work of Spider-Man and Norman Osborn has ruined your life but now you only have one more individual to put your vengeance towards. They made you a criminal and shunned by the world." Robbins said as Octavius shook his head.
"Truth be told, my life has been anything but easy. I have been looked down for my genius, my father would always berate me and the family stigma of having known Nazi supporters who never recanted even after America entered the 2nd World War. Seems you need to be in bright colors to be noticed or respected anymore..." Octavius said bitterly as Robbins nodded.
"We all are victims of the roles that society has forced upon us. Ronan while difficult has lost everything thanks to the Avengers and he shall be pleased when we will be able to avenge the world with the executions of Iron Man and Captain Marvel." Robbins said as Octavius scoffed.
"SHIELD and the Avengers have gone all out on security within the Raft with even the Wakandans lending assistance. It will take a lot more assistance to even have a chance of penetrating the first line of security for the two former Avengers." Octavius said as Robbins smirked.
"There are plenty of people now that would love to see them both dead, we just have to search out and find the ones that can help us." Robbins answered.
Peter, Jennifer, Janet, Wanda, Loki, Hulk and off course Sam were there to greet Steve and Natasha as they came to them arm in arm. They had turns embracing them as Jennifer said "don't worry about us having a wild party at the Tower while the Avengers parents were gone as we really didn't have the time!" Jennifer said as they shook their heads.
"Shame you have to end your honeymoon and have to get back to work making sure the world hasn't fallen apart. You heard about what is happening?" Sam asked as Steve nodded.
"I never expected anything less; I know about this Hood and his Cabal plus the possibility of doppelgangers. We all knew what we were getting into with our paths and it would have been foolish to expect everything to suddenly become peaceful after everything that had happened last year." Steve said as Natasha nodded.
"I knew it now and I always knew that marrying Captain America meant that I had to share him with the job of being the first Avenger." Natasha said as Steve frowned at this but the other giggled.
"So Cap is practicing polyamory and he's legally married to Natasha while being married to the job?" Peter joked with snickers from that but Steve sighed. Quartermain coughed to get everyone's attention.
"At first the case I am about to share with you doesn't seem like it would ever be near SHIELD's jurisdiction let alone the Avengers but the more we dug into it the more complicated it had begun. 2 weeks after the end of the Stark Administration this individual was found drunk and intoxicated in a Florida beach house when the property's owner came over. He insisted that he lived there and had managed to by luck make an escape as the police arrived at the property. Days later he was found and had the ID of Trevor Slattery with it being assumed to be a forgery. Processing him was a long process as it was considered a low priority with how busy most of the law enforcement of the world had been. The police after months of trying to find a match for his fingerprints had been found for Trevor Slattery. The real Trevor Slattery was found and gave his blood to do a comparison and to their stunned reactions the results was a positive match to being the same. Then this became SHIELD business." Quartermain explained as the monitor showed the processing photo of Trevor Slattery with long hair and a beard.
"Trevor Slattery, are we supposed to know who this is?" Loki asked as Sam spoke up.
"A lesser known actor who has been on TV and theatre, best known for this 80s cop show called Caged Heat..." Sam said as Peter's spoke up.
"I loved that show when I was young, with the drinking monkey!" Peter has said with their faces coming towards incredulously. "I used to watch reruns, in the Parker house watching TV after 8 meant watching what Uncle Ben wanted to watch." Peter explained as they put their focus back to Quartermain.
"Mr Slattery claimed that the beach house was his, he said something about seeing a portal in the sky before finding the Earth different from what he knew. He claimed that he saw Captain America and Iron Man fighting through the portal." Quartermain said as Steve was suddenly alarmed wide eyes remembering.
"You said Steve that Tony took you both out of the universe, you were speaking literally?" Janet asked remembering when they had the chance to speak to Steve on that Quinjet on the way back from the final battle.
"It looks to be that our fight outside in the Multiverse may have broken down barriers." Steve said still looking alarmed.
"So the 2nd Aaron Davis and now this Trevor Slattery guy come from alternate Earths?" Peter asked and the looks on their faces made it seem like this would be the case.
"We brought Mr Slattery to the Triskellion to do some questioning..." Quartermain said as the screen now showed a video of Slattery at an interrogation table next to Quartermain:
"So Mr Slattery, you claim to be from a different Earth?" Quartermain asked as Trevor nodded. "You say you have no idea how you got here, only that you went from your beach house home to the same location in this Earth after seeing a vision of Captain America and Iron Man fighting in the sky?" Quartermain asked as Trevor once again nodded. "Well Mr Slattery, can you please tell us what exactly is different in your Earth then?" Quartermain asked as Trevor scoffed.
"There were people without taste, that's what! CBS never picked up the pilot for Caged Heat, too intellectual that's what! I used a computer cafe to search myself up and it was super validating and amazing to learn that it would have gone for 4 seasons plus a reunion movie! Plus before they kicked me out but I saw the trailer for the movie made by the Phil Lord & Christopher Miller people and it looks well even if you could never replace me!"
"I am fast forwarding through a lot of meandering and the fact that I sat through it and I am sparing you from how apparently he never learned that there weren't any real apes in the original Planet of the Apes should tell you about my character." Quartermain said sternly fast forwarding through the footage with it looking more like that Quartermain had been ready to rip his hair out and throttle him.
"...Now that ends the injustices of my career before I was picked up by Tony Stark, hard for me to take in when I learned he was President here." Trevor had said and it looked like Quartermain was thanking God but then asked him to talk about him apparently working for Tony Stark.
"Well you see I am the Mandarin." Trevor said as Quartermain was silent before asking him to clarify. "I was picked up by a representative of his saying that I was chosen to play this new character called the Mandarin! A Middle Eastern inspired terrorist leader with magical rings, a lot of green screen and shiny holograms when we were 'fighting out in the open'. It was months before I learned that he was using me to spread fear about a made up bad guy and that I wasn't playing a movie or TV bad guy. When I learned that , Stark had me confined to my Mansion. Haven't seen him since our climatic 'final battle' but I was told he was keeping me around in case he wanted to bring me back like as part of a Masters of Evil or something." Trevor continued on.
"You are saying that the Mandarin isn't real in your universe?" Quartermain asked as Trevor shook his head.
"No real villain is, sure Iron Man and his Avengers stop terrorists and others stop common criminals but the aliens and monsters? I think as a corporate capitalist American he wanted an opposite nemesis so he made up a bad guy reminiscent of the Communist China."Trevor said as Quartermain took this in.
"Basically you are saying the Avengers are frauds in your universe and you a British man was chosen to play a bad guy steeped in Yellow Peril stereotypes?" Quartermain asked as Trevor nodded.
"Now I think about it more, not very culturally sensitive..." Trevor said.
"Wow... The less I know about his world the better..." Janet muttered as they were in agreement.
"Wait, how about Aaron Davis?" Peter asked as Quartermain shook his head.
"Unfortunately he has been keeping quiet, earlier we got a message that he wants to speak to you and Captain Morales if they want him to answer any questions." Quartermain replied as Peter thought that he could handle that.
Should be easier than thinking about what the world this Trevor Slattery came from is like...
I know I am in a minority but I love Trevor and just in case I have to clarify this; yes the Earth the Trevor that has come to this Earth came from is the same one that the Guys came from. I was playing about with this figure of Trevor as the Mandarin when I realised his Iron Man 3 backstory would perfectly go with a Boys inspired Marvel Universe.
Plus I personally liked the Eternals which is a different sort of MCU film and I freely admit off course it won't be for everyone and it could be a tad too ambitious for its own good. I bought my ticket last week which was a good call as my local cinema slightly increased ticket prices starting yesterday.