25
From the watchtower space station, the heads of the Justice League were having an emergency meeting. They were all currently sitting in a conference room listening to a recording that Batman had acquired approximately an hour ago.
Recording: "...the universe can be far crueler than you can imagine"
After the Recording ended Batman waited for their responses before giving them his opinion.
Wonder Woman: He is a very noble warrior... to sacrifice so much for a world that he barely understands his honor and resolve are without question
Aqua man (Contested king of Atlantis): I agree it is one thing to risk your life it is another to risk your afterlife I believe that many of us here would falter at such a sacrifice
Green Arrow: There is no proof that what he said is true! How do we know that he isn't just bullshiting us?
Flash: Oh come on Oli, Bruce just told us that the recording came from a Shield device, and his home was protected by a super AI so he wouldn't have thought we would hear him. I'm not saying I am a fan that guy is brutal.
Martian Manhunter: If he is as he claims we should recruit him
Green Arrow: He is a killer!
Wonder Woman: He is a warrior!
Superman: If he can be convinced to leave behind his murderous ways we can talk about recruiting although I wouldn't be entirely comfortable with the idea. Batman has convinced others to amend their ways so it might be possible but I think we should focus on what he said about possible invasion.
Green Lantern: It's too broad to tell who exactly is he referring to there are plenty of civilizations that he could be referring to and that was before our realities were merged. Were not even certain that the threat he was talking about even exists here in our dimension.
Batman: Exactly for now I will observe him to get a better handle on him
Black Canary: Are you certain that is a good idea considering the animosity between you two from your last interaction?
Batman: I will only observe him if I think he's league material I'll have another hero approach him.
...
Fury for the first time in a long time didn't know what to make of this situation on one hand Julian recruited amazing assets but on the other, they represented the unknown. The major problem was that he was leaving Shield with them to set up his base of operations and work as an independent company. Normally Fury wouldn't allow this but Shield had leaks Julian revealed that Hydra had infiltrated Shield. This is why he gave his stamp of approval reluctantly so that he could hunt down the double agents while keeping the new technology out of enemy hands.
...
I know that most people in my situation would like to hide this and build their forces in secret but realistically it would have been difficult to do. Firstly as an unknown, I'm under constant surveillance by Shield and most likely by the Justice League not to mention the various other factions. Secondly, I needed a reason to begin to pull away from Shield which is why I revealed Hydra infiltration. I have proven to Fury that my priority is humanity so while I might act it will always be for the good of mankind as a whole. At least that is what I lead them to believe.
The company that I was creating would be called Black Technology and would be based in Gotham with a secondary base in New York. At the moment the second location is only on paper as I currently lack staff to even operate the first location. Tony being a personal friend would be assisting as we get the company off the ground and act as a consultant. The best part about this company was that he declared that Shield was prohibited from directly taking action against me with sufficient evidence which must be approved by an Avenger.
What this did was tie the hands of Hydra agents working in Shield and if they directly targeted me it would reveal them. Even after the whole thing was approved there was still a lot of pushback from angry senators which was ultimately ignored despite their grievances. As of now, I have a similar status to Tony Stark being a hero as well as a private industry owner.