7 CHAPTER 07

Like expected, the outrage the Avengers faced after the event of the Battle of Sokovia was nothing like anyone had ever seen. It was surprising how they could continue being heroes despite how much the public seem to hate, mostly the citizens of Sokovia.

Sokovia was practically a 'No Avengers Allowed' zone at this point. Would have been a 'Kill on sight' if they had the power. 

There were a lot of negative comments from the international space about the unsupervised movement of the Avengers and talks were already being put into order to see what could be done about it, but fortunately, or unfortunately, it wasn't an easy decision to come to. 

Whether they liked it or not, the Avengers were the strongest known fighting unit the planet had, and putting them under any single country's banner would be akin to giving them extra ammunition in both the international market and military places. No country would agree to that. 

Luckily for the Avengers, this was their much needed smokescreen, not that most of them were privy to it. 

°°°°°

[Vision POV] 

Sleeping in an android's body was very weird. All I felt was just as if my senses became slow before they rebooted again. 

One thing for sure was that it was nowhere as comfortable as a human's sleep. The fact that I couldn't get tired due to my mechanical body rendered sleep completely useless. 

'What a tragedy.' My cold heartstrings tugged as I lamented. 

[Good morning, Vision. I am Friday] 

A female's mechanical voice was the first thing that resounded in my head as I opened my eyes. 

"Stark's AI assistant?"

[You are correct. Boss said to notify you when you were done with your beauty sleep]

"I'll be down there in a few minutes." The presence of Stark's AI receded from my room before I let out a sigh. "Well, no use moping over what I've already come to terms with."

I materialized a shirt over my body, a little trick that was quite easy seeing as how it was just a little modification of my Vibranium exterior to the texture I wanted and a touch of coloring. 

I walked towards the door and directly phased through it before I paused. It seems like logical reasoning was not always the right thing to do. 

As a human, opening the door was the norm while a computer with the option of phasing through it will choose the latter since it's more time efficient and requires less effort. 

"It's always the little things."

Friday pointed out the direction to me and I followed it and came to a lounge with all the members of the Avengers there, even Thor who still hasn't left yet. 

"Hey."

"Greetings." Some looked a bit awkward to see me here, not that I could blame them, but it wasn't anything severe. Just most likely another bizarre experience in their resume. 

"I wasn't informed of a meeting taking place." Pietro and Wanda were absent, most likely still asleep, meaning I was the only new insert here. 

"It's not. This," Stark said, pointing at everybody, "is what we call coincidence."

"Yes, I am quite familiar with the term… and also the unlikely probability of it happening right now."

"He got you there, Stark." Barton said with a smirk. 

"We need to know something." Steve started. "Now that Ultron is gone, what do you want to do?" He asked. 

"That's quite a leap. Are you sure it's wise to give such autonomy of expression to something alien?" I asked back. 

"I believe that will be up to us for assessment." Came his immediate reply. "But I have to say that regardless of your choice, you'll be under our supervision, at least for a probationary period."

I nodded at his words. It would be foolish of them to let such advanced weaponry capable of self-thought and radical decision making to wander around unsupervised. It is something I know I will have to deal with, at least for the time being. 

"Well, we can just say he one of-" 

"He's not one of yours, Tony." Steve immediately cut him off. 

Stark raised his hands in defeat and just took a drink from the table and quietly sipped. 

"And what about the two of them? I take it that such treatment is also applicable to them?"

He nodded. "They are young. Naïve and driven by revenge. I don't believe it's fair to saddle them with mistakes that were ours in the first place, regardless of their participation. It's too much a burden to bear on one so young."

I have to say, it's hard to hate someone like Steve. His charisma and righteous character made him easily trustable, especially when you knew how genuine he was. 

"Well, you can say I'm still on a path of self-discovery. Having allies around me, I believe, is the wiser choice. Thank you." I didn't lose anything by acquiescing to the suggestion they put forth, instead I had everything to gain. 

"Since that's already sorted out, Fury wanted me to let you guys know that the news isn't exactly loving you guys." Natasha said, tapping on a tablet and bringing up a hologram of various news channels speaking of the atrocities suffered since the advent of the Avengers and also the rise in crime rate and progressive inefficiency of the police. 

"They are not wrong. We'll have to lay low for a bit and let Fury work his part. Tony is already in on it, the last thing we need is giving them a target to reignite their grief." Steve said. 

"Then I guess it's a good thing that I've been working on something. Call it plan C if you will." Stark said with a smile as he stood up. "Anyone coming for the grand reveal?"

"Not me. I have to get back to Laura. Kitchen's not going to refurbish itself." Barton declined the invitation for going home while the rest accepted. 

A few minutes flying and we came to a place that looked like a stupidly well-funded military base with a gigantic 'A' inscribed on the side of the buildings . 

"Welcome to boot camp."