GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, JUNE 27,9:00 AM UTC - THE UNITED NATIONS SUMMIT
"And so our humble General Assembly, I will begin to conclude this address by telling you that the United Nations, and other multilateral organizations are needed now more than ever." The spokesperson for the United Kingdom spoke confidently.
To Francis he struggled to find it more than just chatter. He didn't care what Pym, Tony, or Azari told him. The UN did nothing. "Jackshit" as he once told Tony. Francis was confident that most of the world governments actually did nothing.
The people in power just sat around jerking each other off waiting for the Avengers to come save the day like the good little puppets they were. Really, they were the government. And that was true no matter how annoyed James and Tony got when he made that notion.
Still he was probably being a bit too cynical. The governments could be lazy, and take long times to approve things but they could be so much worse. They were for the most part co-operative in most of their missions.
And if they truly were trying to become more autonomous, without killing the Avengers, well then...Who was he to stop them?
"In position Francis?" A voice in his mind suddenly rang out. The Avengers fearless leader's voice blared out on the other end of the line and he couldn't help but roll his eyes despite the fact that Cap couldn't see it.
"I've been in the same position for nine days. I'm not gonna change it now." Francis responded, a bit irritated at James, and probably the mission itself.
If you asked the archer, it was a bit stupid. Actually, really stupid. They had Taskmaster who was leaking all of this sensitive information about the UN, Worthington, and the Masters of Evil as a whole.
He also told them every bit of there very stupid and ill-advised master plan that after hearing, the Avengers were sure they would have be able to stop anyway. Mind you this is BEFORE you add in the new reinforcements the X-Men's Blue team was offering. They were a certified force at the moment.
So you have Taskmaster who gave the entirety of the master plan, from the two decoys, where he was as a shooter, and who the target was, and for some odd reason they were just going along with all of this.
No they didn't decide to get the UN to shut down the Geneva Convention, they didn't use the information Taskmaster gave them to head over to Madripoor and arrest the dubious bastards, no instead they were going along with.
Because apparently after giving them all this information they owed a favour to Taskmaster. Was he the only one thinking: What the fuck?
"Regardless of what you are thinking Francis, you understand we can all hear it right? We are connected to the mind link." Azari's voice rang out shortly after his rant.
"Oh." was all Francis could muster. He had forgotten about the mind thing. It was a good and useful tool especially for missions, but the Avengers were new at this and every once a while someone's thoughts slipped up. Usually his own and it seemed it was more embarrassing each and every time.
"Okay look, I meant what I said. Guys this is bullshit. Let's arrest these guys and go home. There are so many better ways we could be spending our time."
"Come on Francis, we've been over this." James told the archer with a sigh "This is the only way we can ensure Taskmaster is co-operative and doesn't pull a fast one on us."
"And I say that's bull. We know for a fact they don't have an ace up their sleeve. Let's stop being so worried and arrest all of them instead of just letting Taskmaster go free because he helped out."
"He's not going free. He and Black Ant are going to be heavily watched from this point onwards. Plus like you say he's basically a non-threat. He only kills for money, and it's fairly obvious there is no amount of money that can coerce him to come out of retirement once more. So as long as he's telling the truth today. He's not getting locked up with the rest of them."
"Whatever." Francis mumbled. "And this has nothing to do with the fact that he almost killed me by the way. I would be saying the same if it was any of you."
"We know Francis." Torunn responded. She wanted to move on from this topic as she didn't like when there was bickerking on the line from the Avengers, especially since they had these new guests in the young and impressionable X-Heroes.
"So Blue Team, are you in position?" Torunn struck up conversation, as the United Kingdom's representative continued talking about teamwork and unity.
"Blue Team is a definite go." Jessica's voice was loud and clear
"Yup, we are ready to serve. Though could I be honest?" Michael directed his question towards the Avengers. And despite not being able to see each other, the mind link made it obvious who he wanted an answer from.
"Go for it." James told the teen in his mind. In person his eyes hadn't left Valerie, nor the two decoys pretending to be a part of the security detail of the Summit.
"This may sound...insensitive but I was expecting a little more...action?" Michael told him, sounding a little unsure of telling everyone this. But to the Avengers it wasn't a really big deal.
"It's only natural." James assured all of them "I think I would be lying to you if I said wanting action has never dictated some of our moves. Wanting a real fight is part of the reason we ended up fighting Ultron in the first place." he explained.
"I might add that, action is great, fighting is almost calming at times. But it's the simpler missions you will learn to appreciate as you do this more. It may be more fun to use our fists, but we've truly won when it's our last option." Azari added
"Yeah well, this is probably going to be our last fight ever." Jane said broodily. The X-Men were on their way. And the Blue Team had been dreading it ever since they heard the news.
"Pshh, I really doubt it. Right when we deal with this problem, everything is going to be left in the past." Francis told them.
"I really hope so." Sofia added in. She could only imagine the face of absolute fury Ms. Frost was going to have when they saw them again.
"Guys." Pym's voice came in very quiet, even in the mind link. "The UK rep is ending, the plan is now in motion, everything should go down in the next 10-15 minutes."
"Right, everyone understands the plan?" James asked for the last time.
"I think so, and I have to admit it's pretty genius." Jimmy told Captain America. And he was right, the plan was pretty genius.
After getting all of that information Tony, James, and Francis sat in the meeting room for hours scheming up a foolproof plan that could be enacted every day of the summit because they hadn't been sure when Taskmaster and the decoys were going to do the assassination. But they managed it.
The plan had many parts and roles, and it started with Amadeus. The man in the booth who was calling most of the shots. Everyone's eyes and ears.
Because they knew exactly how many of Zemo and Viper's men to be looking out for they were able to pinpoint who they should be watching and who was legit. Amadeus and Riri easily looked through the credentials of every single security member there. And they quickly found two men on the security detail of the General Assembly whose credentials didn't not fit in the rest at all. The decoys.
It said a lot about Zemo and Viper that they could only manage to get two decoys and Taskmaster into the building. According to Tony and Banner years ago they could probably get 80% of the detail in.
James and Azari's eyes were constantly on Valerie, from what it sounded like Taskmaster was still going to take that shot which James could admit was pretty dangerous, but they both knew they could stop what they already knew was coming. The Blue team were supposed to have eyes on the decoys as well, so whoever they tried to attack would be quickly neutralized by the mutants, allowing them to have a quick re-introduction into the World's spotlight.
Hopefully a good reaction would incentivize the X-Men to give everything a chance. Francis would chase down the shooter, and make sure nothing went wrong. And Pym and Torunn were playing defense. Torunn was in the sky outside of the building, and Pym was blocking the route for the getaway car if they ended up trying anything fishy.
With Taskmaster in the rafters he was supposed to take the shot and then take a hidden exit to the getaway car where Ant would help him escape, and that was basically the entirety of Zemo and Viper's plan.
Yup. That was it. It was probably around two days ago the Avengers were going over everything when they realized that they had won already. And that they had won a long time ago.
As James told them the idea of Zemo and Viper was way scarier than it actually was. They had kept worrying that they had hundreds of super villains waiting to attack the Avengers or that they had some crazy super plan to reinstate Hydra or the Masters of Evil as the pinnacle of world power. But no this was it.
It was almost embarrassing when they thought back to the amount of worry they had in this situation. But in reality things were only really bad for about a week. And then Valerie did that press conference and everything was basically okay again.
It wasn't realistic to believe that everything they fought would be this easy but things from the past were certainly going to become much less of a high priority after this. Still everything kind of felt...special.
Like the world really was entering a new era. But for Azari and James, they still weren't sure if it was all good yet.
"And with that we conclude our 2010 United Nations Summit." A man told the crowd of government officials.
"Alright people. Eyes on your targets. We do this, and we'll be able to cruise through the rest of summer." James told them he got a lot of grunts through the mental link, and was satisfied.
The officials all began to stand up and shake hands and speak with other members of the United Nations, making connections like it was a High School lunch, but none of them noticed the two decoys on the security detail. Or Taskmaster set up in the rafters.
But in these next five minutes they were going to. Jimmy knew he looked a little out of place. He had a ball cap over his head, and a leather jacket on his shoulders, as he manned the cameras of the broadcast, but really it was the look on his face he couldn't really control. Everytime someone caught his eye they immediately turned away.
He didn't really care though, right when he and the others saved everyone's lives it should hopefully mean good things for him and the other X-Men.
Jane manned the camera's with him. Her telepathy had been a big factor in the plan. She had been able to confirm the identities of the two decoys, and her Telepathy was good enough that she could easily read their intentions knowing exactly when they decided to enact their plan.
"Jess there splitting up." Jane mentally told her friend "Jimmy and I will take the one going to the left, you take the one heading for the Spanish ambassador."
"It's Cascade Jane, get it right." Jessica teased the telepath, who wasn't having it "Whatever just go!"
Jessica was also an integral part of the plan. The Avengers had quickly found out that Jessica's luck powers were very potent. They worked to an unbelievable extent and for that reason she was tasked with tailing one of the decoys.
Her powers were interesting enough that everyone had wanted to spar with her, as they found her powers accounted for the random situations you usually couldn't simulate in a simple sparring session. After fighting her the first time James insisted she be one of the mains, as he believed it would guarantee a successful mission.
"Alright Michael, there's our man, let's get him." Jessica told the shapeshifter. He gave her a nod and they both started shifting through the crowd barely being noticed by anyone as Jessica used her telepathy to make people believe they weren't even there.
The Spanish ambassador, a fair woman, was having an in depth conversation with the man from Sweden. And as one of the decoys began to pull up from behind her. It seemed the entire thing was about to kick off.
"Get ready…" Jess told everyone on the mind link "...Now!"
Michael and Jessica sprang into action, Cascade headed straight for the ambassador using her telekinesis to propel herself forward faster pushing her and the ambassador out of a quickfired shot.
This one shot turned everything into a chaotic mess. At least for those who didn't know what was going on. Michael himself wasted no time in pulling out his own weapon, an energy pistol and shooting the gun out of the decoy's hand.
The man looked at him and growled, before pulling out a knife and attempting to attack the metamorph. He used his quick reflexes to dodge the attacks, before punching him in the face. The punch didn't hurt the man nearly enough, so it was clear that he was enhanced in some way.
Still he didn't stand a chance. Michael dodged another swipe of the blade from the man, and then dodged a kick and a flurry of fists, The man was a good fighter, but Michael had help, and with another clean dodge, managed to push the man straight to Cascade who gave a strong punch to the face backed with Telekinetic force.
As the man stumbled around Jess and Michael backed off and watched as Sofia swooped in, in her fiery form and punched the man in the stomach before flying him up high and then dropping him knocking the man unconscious.
"Decoy One has been dealt with." Jessica told the others proudly.
"Great, Decoy Two status?" James asked.
With Jimmy and Jane it was only a few seconds after the first decoy shot, that the second one made his move.
He had moved near the camera and Jimmy and Jane were right behind him for the takedown. The man aimed his gun at one of the many ambassadors at the stage and was ready to shoot to kill. Unfortunately for him. Jimmy and Jane knew exactly when to move and so right as he was prepared to shoot the bullet Jimmy dropped down in front of the man.
And was subsequently shot straight in the chest with not one but two bullets. He grimaced as it had been a while since he felt real pain, but as his bones covered themselves in his own organic metal it didn't take long at all for the bullets to be spit back out from his body, and it was all worth it as he saw the look on the Assassins face.
"Are you regretting everything yet?" Jane questioned with a large smirk. The man attempted to shoot the gun again but the bullet was stopped as it exited the chamber by Jane's TK. She then wasted no time in sending a blast of psionic force, causing the man to scream in agony.
And with a strong punch to the head Jimmy managed to knock the man out in one punch. "Great, Decoy Two status?"They heard James' voice ring through the mind link.
"Decoy Two is down and out for the count." Jane assured. And just like that there was one to go.
James and Azari always knew Taskmaster wasn't going to make it easy on them but that didn't make it any less annoying when he began to shoot around at other targets forcing the other X-Men to start helping block the shots from the shooter. As well.
James saved countless people jumping from person to person blocking sniper bullets with his shield, and he was getting tempted to just throw his shield at where he knew the weathered assassin would be, but alas things were coming to an end.
Azari's electric force field was stopping nearly every bullet that was raining down from the top, and it was clear this fight was coming to a close. In the mix Valerie's detail clearly had lost the important woman, and this was when Taskmaster decided to take the shot.
However Azari was on it, sending a blast of electricity that seemed to simply vaporize the bullet, and then immediately James threw his shield towards the gunfire. If Taskmaster didn't want to be caught. He had better run, and run very fast.
Francis was the one chasing him, and James knew he wasn't going to make it easy on the man. But really this was it. It was a little anticlimactic. But this was really it they had just won again.
They had won again and it seemed the press knew exactly who they wanted to talk to. They rushed past James and thrust a microphone in front of Jane's face who looked a little shocked but was ready to speak as she was bombarded with questions.
"Your heroics today were outstanding. You and your friends saved many lives today? What may we call you?" The woman asked "Why did you help out today?"
"Well...we helped out today because we can." Jane answered immediately "My friends and, we've had powers basically since birth. We were born with the ability to do great things, and so we decided to help out in the best way we know how."
"And your names?"
"Um well, I'm Psylocke." Jane remembered to use their superhero names "That's Cascade, Copycat, Solstice, and the Wolverine. We're a part of the X-Men." Jane told them proudly.
"You wouldn't happen to mean-
"The long retired, haven't been seen in 20 years X-Men? Yes, those ones." Jess interrupted "And we were glad to help."
"Wow, well I guess the last question is...Are you working with the Avengers?"
"Today we worked hand in hand with the Earth's mightiest heroes, and it's something that will probably happen again. But we are not a part of the Avengers...We are X-Men."
"And we're here to stay." Jimmy added in seriously.
"Alright, thank you for your time."
The words mutant were never used but the world would get the picture and it would be up to them whether they wanted to ostracize mutants for simply being different once again. But as James watched the X-Men take dozens of pictures with various government officials. It was hard not to have hope.
Right now they really did look like the Heroes of Tomorrow.
ARCTIC CIRCLE, BIODOME, JUNE 27, 15:00 UTC
"What in the world were you thinking!?" Emma roared right as she entered the living room of the Avengers.
Behind her Hank, Laura, and Kitty chased behind the angry telepath who seemed to be on a warpath more than ready to tear into the 5 irresponsible children who decided to run away to a country they hadn't been to in years.
The X-Men sat in the corner of the room all of the not exactly sure what to say as their impending doom got closer to them but it was fairly obvious Emma wasn't going to take silence as an answer.
"Well!?" Emma questioned the young heroes once more, and Jimmy was the only one who could speak up.
"We thought we could help out." Jimmy answered but you could tell that even he was a little shaken by the look of pure fury on Emma's face.
"Oh so you thought that wanting to help out was a good enough reason to steal the blackbird and fly off to America without telling anyone. You have no idea how angry I am right now!"
Seeing the scene in front of him James thought it might be a good idea to help out but, it probably wasn't the best idea "They were a big he-"
"Mr. Rogers." Emma cut him off very quickly "I appreciate everything you've done in getting this world back on track, But I'd appreciate it if you stopped talking."
"Uhhh, yes ma'am." James conceded very easily. There really wasn't much any of them could do but, watch how everything played out.
They all watched as Emma took a deep breath and tried to calm down. But while the Avengers might have not seen this a big deal, This was the first time they had to deal with anything like this in years. And despite not having students active in the field for such a long time, the feeling of fear was all too familiar.
"You all were too irresponsible. Somebody really could have been hurt. You could have messed up with Cerebro, or never found the right location. And you've never had real field practice and today the stakes were very high."
"Oh come on Gran, we did our best to be careful. We took all the extra steps. We just didn't want to sit around anymore, Is that so bad?"
"It's bad when you directly disregard our orders Jess. And you know that." Emma insisted, ignoring Jessica's attempt to sweet talk her.
The Avengers on the other hand didn't say anything. But the five heroes were trying to figure out how Emma could look so young and be Jessica's grandmother. It wasn't really adding up.
"It is also bad." Laura spoke up "Because we had been planning on making a trip over here anyways. You all jumped the gun. We were also going to come and help."
The five X-Men looked at each in varying states of embarrassment. It seemed that Talia was right, they did need a little more patience.
"Sorry?" Michael tried, and the older X-Men just sighed. "We will talk more when we get back to Genosha." Hank told them.
"Yes, you all go get your things. We will finish up here." Kitty ordered. The kids wasted no time, and scurried out of there leaving the Avengers with the older X-Men. And for once the younger Avengers were a little quiet.
Looking at the older heroes...They looked like legends. Tony was a legend but he never really suited up anymore. Banner hadn't Hulked out since Ultron's defeat, and so they really hadn't been able to see some of the older heroes in their primes since they were little kids. And since things weren't as hostile as the first time, there really wasn't much to do but watch the X-Men in wonder, and the four heroes seemed to recognize that.
"Okay, okay enough with the staring. We aren't that special." Emma told the starstruck heroes, who shook themselves out of it.
"You know I'm mad at you all as well." Emma told them, but there was much less heat to it "I didn't think you would actually let them fight."
"They were pretty good." Francis told her with a shrug "They were well trained and promised to stay within the confines of the mission, and because we knew all the facts leading to this beforehand, it was an easy decision to let them join as long as you guys didn't show up before the mission."
"Well at least that's good to know." Kitty admitted "It was getting a little hard to gauge their skills when they fought the same things over and over again."
"Did you see Jane's interview?" James wondered, the girl had insisted the world would be seeing more of the X-Men, but James could only be sure of that if the older ones believed that as well.
"We did." Emma admitted with a nod "It was...good for her first time. I know the first time we met we were adamant about staying in Genosha but...after thinking a few things over. The X-Men have agreed that coming over here and figuring things out for the betterment of mankind might not be the worst thing in the world."
"Yes, and from the positive reactions the video is getting. It seems we made the right choice." Hank informed them.
"Like Jimmy said. The X-Men are here to stay." Laura assured the younger heroes.
"Well that's just great news!" James said ecstatic, could things get any better?
"Yes, yes, calm down Captain." Emma told him with a small smile "We still have a few things we need to settle. But we will keep in touch. Mr. Stark and I have already had a few extensive conversations. For now however, we must get back to Genosha."
"Well good to know. It was nice meeting you all again." Torunn told the four heroes. And after exchanging a couple more pleasantries, the four heroes left, guided by Tony and Banner who seemed happy talking to people their own age for once.
"I'm gonna go join the party with Riri and the rest." Francis told the group, and the rest began to follow suit.
Pym began to follow as well, despite the fact he looked out of everything, and James couldn't help but feel like a part of that was his fault, and he was obligated to do his best to fix that, so he pulled the young pixie to the side.
"I'm sorry Pym." James tells him immediately "I was an ass, telling you to shut up, when it was clear that the news about your parents was hurting you more than we knew or could understand. As your leader, and more importantly as a friend I should have done better."
"It's alright James, I forgave you a long time ago. I was being a baby about it."
"Even if you were, I shouldn't have dismissed you like that." James said with a sigh, apology was accepted but he still felt like he needed to cheer Pym up.
"I was like 3 years old, but I can still remember when I was dropped off at your Mom's apartment." James began to recall the story to Pym who immediately perked up.
"She was pregnant with you, and despite me being smarter than normal for that age, I couldn't quite understand why Aunt Janet had hidden a beach ball under her shirt."
"Your Mom had always been my Mom's go to when she needed some to babysit, Your mom was caring, strong, and brave, and one of the coolest people toddler me had ever met. To this day, I can remember all the things she used to let me do. Your father hadn't been around much, I guess I should have put two and two together that they had gotten a divorce, but it hadn't meant very much Pym. Your parents were almost always together afterwards despite whatever papers said otherwise."
"Yes, your parents were not perfect. Yes your father created Ultron, but nobody is perfect Pym. What I do know is that your parents adored you, and that they may have had their fair share of issues but that didn't stop your parents from loving each other. Or your Mother from naming you after your father, despite everything that happened before. I'm sure if the rest of us looked into our parents' pasts we might find stuff we were disappointed in. It shouldn't change our perspective of them Pym. Those people died so we can live. Their love for us, truly knows no bounds. So chin up alright?"
"R-right." Pym nodded, swiping at his eyes, "Thanks James."
"Anytime, now come on, There's pizza and drinks, and I'm more than ready to kick back and relax before we head back to Europe."
The two heroes headed to the next room in tandem. Pym was mostly content with what James told him, though it was still hard to keep what he saw out of his head. Because despite what James told him, he didn't know everything and he knew that there was even more stuff in those journals that made him question his sanity.
For James he felt a little bad because he remembered a lot more about his Aunt Janet and Uncle Hank then he led on. His father did come by quite a bit and in those early years it was not a fun time at all. His Aunt Janet was almost always cool. But James might not deny that Uncle Hank had a couple screws loose, and he knew that even then. But James supposed the two were happy with each other in the latter days, so it didn't matter. And they really did love Pym.
As the two entered the common room, they were surprised that it was so quiet. There was barely any talking except for Daisy's voice, and the tone she was using didn't exactly give confidence.
"Umm, what's up guys?" James asked the team.
"You might wanna sit down for this." Francis told James seriously. James looked at Pym who shrugged and took a seat by Torunn, so James did the same taking a seat by Francis and Azari.
"Daisy, what's going on? Is something wrong, are you in danger?" He couldn't stop himself from asking.
"Ah, not exactly." Daisy admitted, and with a few hand movements she brought up three profiles out of thin air. One on Marcus Johnson, another on Valerie Cooper, and a third on S.H.I.E.L.D.
"There's a plan to restart S.H.I.E.L.D. and they want me to be on it." Daisy said, looking directly at James.
And alright that was not what he was expecting. "Start explaining."