Arc Twelve. Chapter Three-Hundred Forty-Five. Come Together
Peter decided to walk home. He needed some time to clear his head, to get a read on the mood of the city, and to decide if he had made the right choice.
Peter walked past a protest, a hundred or so people, waving placards with 'X doesn't mark the spot' slogans, and he saw a few with a blue patch on their shoulders. A more militant faction, aptly named the Reavers, was out in force.
New York was divided. Those who suffered under the brutal ARCA will still feel it, and several new groups, following the success of Humanity First, were finding a foothold amongst those who were victims of the Sentinels but had no X-Gene. Mass rumour and misinformation was being spread, that only the freaks and mutants had the special gene and the government was using it as an excuse to round up normal unpowered but dangerous citizens. JJ's arrest and imprisonment, but subsequent release, was proof of that. They wanted to silence dissidents and used the Sentinels to pass new laws that allowed them to do that.
He shook his head, Malik might be in jail, but his didn't plan worked. The streets are full of morons protesting things that dont even affect them, but the Sentinal attacks, followed by the phoney trials, restricting Gwen's work to the military and security forces only seemed well-timed with the push of the Asgardians to accept Earth into the Asgardian or Xandarian Star Empire.
Anyone with powers was slowly being strangled into submission, and with Charles and the others evicted from Avalon, through a very blatant show of force, it was apparent that something else was going on. Peter just didn't know what.
As the warehouse came into view he sighed, That stupid sign of Tony's was still there, Liv had managed to get him to shut it off most days, and it was only on when he was visiting, but as he looked around the neighbourhood her was taken in by the changes.
It was hard to think that he and Tony had such an effect, but once Tony Stark bought a property there, and with Peter and AIM becoming household names as well due to the CLS and Gwen, the neighbourhood exploded in a flurry of gentrification. Sure, if you checked the hookers still smoked outside the seven eleven, but there were fewer trucks, and more foot traffic. Trash cans were replaced by benches and trees, and the whole place was now suburban rather than industrial. At least Tony had a good influence somewhere.
The door to the warehouse swung open and Liv, Gwen and Felicia, were sat at the breakfast table.
"You walked?" Liv asked as he slid off a jacket and hung it, the disruptor highlighted that while none of them needed to wear clothing, it was easy to get caught without them, and they had all gotten back into the habit.
"It was a nice day, and you have it?"
Liv tutted, "of course, I've had one for years. I just needed to reprogram it."
A gene scanner, capable of detecting the X-Gene was not new technology, and Liv had taken it upon herself to make several different ones. Not just the X-Gene but the Klyntar as well, and one for Enhanced and Gamma enhanced. Not just that but with Scott trialling the system in his contacts, a very small and very discreet dampener, that would fool any intrusive scan looking for Augments.
Originally it was a way to neutralise the more villainous Enhanced, but with the ARCA, and its main tenant that any Enhanced, Augmented or powered individual must report for registration and tracking,
Liv had sat down one day, with a pile of research notes, a scanner that picked up the energy given off by the x-gene and built something that simply shut it off, and then as the device shrank in size but grew in complexity, one that allowed a powered individual to mask the energy.
The device, small enough Scott could wear in a pair of contacts, masked the energy given off by the x-gene, and with a few modifications, the genetic code of the Klyntar as well.
While Scott had trialled the device, everyone now had one, small discreet and injected into the fatty covered muscle of their left ass cheek.
If Peter and the rest wished to be hidden, they would be, but the past had proven that even if they didn't look for trouble, it still looked for them, and she lifted the black device, a simple box, with a handle and slot in the top to accept a blood sample, he nodded,
"You added in fake lights?"
Liv frowned, "Please. The lights work perfectly well, and the machine sends the results to us, and we can then forward them to Phil. If you think that's wise."
Peter nodded, "only the Kree ones. Whatever the others are, we keep that to ourselves.
"Still think they're hiding something?"
"Hell yeah, you dont build a hanger on the moon to be friendly, especially as they never said. Training facility and launchpad are two different things."
Felicia leaned back in her chair, holding a cup between her hands, "Selene isn't happy either Pete. The Hellfire Club is pulling out of New York, the Augments are going to ground on Genosha, and rightly so."
Peter slid a hand over his face "so they pissed them off anyway, great. I'll warn Phil, and see what I can squeeze out of them."
"Have fun, I guess you won't need us?"
Peter shook his head, "this is only because of," and he made finger quotes "diplomatic concessions" As he grabbed other devices. "They want Wakanda, and this smooths that over. Pepper should have contacted Shuri, and I'll be back in a few, actually, I dont know. Maybe a few hours, how much staff can they have to test?"
Which proved to be entirely wrong.
The Asgardian troops around the embassy were around one hundred, but the Xandarians had at least three times that, stationed around the globe.
Several waystations had been set up, and that wasn't even counting the troops they had on the cruisers that patrolled the solar system. What was going to be an easy task soon turned into a logistical nightmare, hindered by two people. Thor and the commander of the Xandarian forces, Bereet.
Thor laughed as he pointed the device at a guard, let it beep and then shook his head as he looked at it, "this is great and so simple."
Peter was watching him, and shaking his head, "uh, that's 'cause you're using it wrong. Taking one of the spares, he asked the guard for his hand, clipped at the top of their finger and smeared the blood over the scanner, feeding it into the machine. As it beeped, the green light glowing he nodded, patted the guard on the shoulder and moved to the next.
It was slow, not because there were roughly a hundred guards, but because Thor was treating it as a game.
"Come on, admit your a Kree, let me punch you a few times, and then we'll let you go." he would joke with the pale-faced guards before Peter would test their blood.
"What, another one? Are you sure there are actually Kree spies, and this isn't just I dunno?" and he shook the device, "broken, or just stupid." but Peter took the machine, smeared a little of his own blood, and the light turned amber.
"See, human. They just aren't Kree," he explained,
"Then this is boring." Thor said as he stomped to the next guard, "give me your hand" he said huffily and as he stared, the detector flashed green, signifying that once more, the guard was Asgardian. Thor roared in annoyance, "these stupid machines."
He tossed the detector to Peter, "Prince Thor hereby grants Peter Parker the authority to continue the task of seeking out Kree spies on his behalf. There. You all heard that right? Good. I'm going to get a drink." and Thor brushed past him and the group all turned and watched as he stormed away.
"Uh, right, one at a time, and then you can go." After Thor's little tantrum, the process was much easier.
Once the Asgardians were dealt with, the Xandarians threw a massive roadblock in the plan.
Sitting in Coulson's office once more, Peter stared at the pink-skinned woman, in her blue and gold uniform,
"And I don't care, Director," she said as she sipped her water, "Xandarian citizens have a right to privacy. And that scanner breaks that. I cannot allow any of my forces to be scanned without written permission. And as their commanding officer. I refuse."
"Even though the Kree are breathing down your necks?" Coulson asked.
She raised an eyebrow. "Didn't your people just have a massive war concerning this very right?" and Coulson could only rub a hand over his eyes. "That's what I thought. If a soldier submits themselves to a scan, then I will permit it. Otherwise, no." She stood and brushed down her uniform, "if that is all I will send out a missive to all regional commanders, if they wish to contact you, they will do so." and she gave the Nova Crop salute, a fist placed over the heart, and then left.
Peter shrugged, "She isn't wrong, it still sucks, but we can't really argue."
Coulson sighed, "It still leaves us with a huge problem." Peter couldn't say anything to that, as she was right. Coulson flipped open a folder on his desk and smiled. "But as we can't do anything about it, at least there is some good news. We have you to thank for Wakanda, but the amount is too low."
"Well, a hundred tonnes a day isn't reasonable Phil, and unless you want to damage the planet, the Asgardians know that," Peter explained, once again.
The Wakandan had sent environmental projections of what would happen if the asteroid was strip-mined, and what it would take to repair the damage. There were already calls for Wakanda to allow the Asgardians to take part in the mining, and the majority of them were of those with contracts, money always talked, but Shuri held a much larger pile of both weapons and money, and so far had said no.
"And she won't budge?" he asked,
Peter frowned, "Phil you and I are going to fall out, no, and the next Xandarian ship that 'accidentally' violated Wakandan airspace will be shot down, the pilot detained, and the craft seized. Shuri, and yeah me too, are getting sick of this 'oh we didn't mean it' crap. You already pissed off the Augments, dont piss off Wakanda as well."
Phil nodded, "we tried to apologise for that, and we have moved the training facility onto another section of the moon. If the Augments want to reclaim their home, we'll let them." Phil said,
Peter snorted, "let them? And that's the problem right there. Earth has no jurisdiction over the moon, and it was at gunpoint they were made to leave. Now you graciously give them their own home back?"
Phil raised a hand "okay, I worded that wrong. The Xandarians, the Asgardians and the governments of Earth, well, almost all of them, agree that the Augment community should have sovereign rights over their territory, Genosha is a hard no, but Avalon was theirs."
Peter sank back in his chair, "I can contact Charles, see if they even want it back. Plus, you need to pay AIM first before I lift another finger to help you."
Coulson frowned "pay?"
Peter laughed, "I'm a contractor Phil. The scanner, my time, the negotiations with Wakanda and the negotiations you want with Charles and the Augments. We billed you, and you didn't pay"
"Billing is done at the end of the month. I'm hurt Peter, that you wouldn't trust us." Phil said with a small grin.
"Yeah, because so far Shield has been so great to me. I was an Agent Phil, I know how it works.
Phil laughed, "You didn't get your GED. All that got lost when Malik wiped the servers. Technically you didn't qualify to work for Shield."