Chapter 188: Reparation. 2012 CE

[Hell's Kitchen, New York]

Grodd had just walked off the podium for press purposes. He was calm, but tired at the same time. The Simians in the military camp were busy dropping off supplies from the Thopters, and a squad of Simians just got out of the camp to find survivors beneath the rubbles.

Another Simian, who was Grodd's assistant, fully geared with white combat armour but was still wearing his glasses, walked towards Grodd.

"My King, isn't this too much? I mean… 50 billion dollars?" said the Assistant.

"Winston, you realise that the tension with Humans and Simian is at an all time high, right?" said Grodd. "We just showed our capability to appear anywhere on earth in an instant, you think they wouldn't be scared?"

"But it's 50 billion dollars, my king!" Winston protested. "That's a month's budget of the Science division!"

"It's just a month, Winston, nothing too serious." continued Grodd. "If it could build bridges between their kind and ours, it's only a small sacrifice."

The two then continued to walk through the base, they saw the humans lining up to get some Zimeran traditional food, which was basically banana dishes. Another Simian then suddenly approached Grodd.

"My king, a Human general, requested to talk to you," said the soldier.

"Name?"

"General Thaddeus Ross.."

Grodd frowned. "Bring him to my tent."

The soldier thumped his chest, and walked away from Grodd.

"Are you sure that is a good idea, my king?" Winston frowned. "Our intel suggests that he's a madman, not caring about the lives of his human experimentation, Bruce Banner is one of them."

"I know Winston, I was the one who found that…" Grodd murmured. 'But let's see what he has to say."

"Then I'll leave you to it, my king."

Grodd nodded, and Winston left him. Grodd then entered his tent, and sat on his chair, before a man requested to enter his room.

"Come in." said Grodd, and the man entered the place.

It was General Ross. "Thank you for agreeing on meeting with me, your majesty."

"Sit down General Ross." continued Grodd, and Ross sat in front of him. "Now, what do you want for me?"

"I will be straightforward with you, Your majesty. The Federal government wants to cooperate with your nation."

Grodd raised his brow. "What kind of cooperation?"

"We want your cooperation to issue a manhunt on the hooded criminals. Or the Unseen Ones as SHIELD called them."

Grodd frowned. "Why not just use SHIELD?"

Ross shook his head. "Nick Fury has refused to cooperate. They said that they are under the protection of the Avengers initiative."

"Then why are you here, general?"

"I'm here on behalf of the military, not SHIELD," said Ross. "The fact is, the Unseen Ones have caused more destruction than good, while the casualties were minimised because of their involvement in the battle, that does not mean that they got away with destroying many public and private properties in Manhattan."

"And the Avengers?" Grodd questioned.

"Tony Stark agreed to donate his money for the reparation, plus some other things…"

"Plus some other things?" Grodd frowned. "Don't joke with me, General."

"I am certainly not joking with you, your majesty," said Ross seriously. "We are offering good will towards Zimera, cooperation. The Unseen Ones are criminals."

"Okay… who issued the order, General Ross?"

"The Secretary of Defence itself ordered the hunt, your majesty," said Ross. "You might know him from the council. Alexander Pierce."

Grodd raised his brow. He tapped his fingers to the desk for a little while, before smiling widely. He stood up, and offered Ross his hand. "Then may we have a successful cooperation, General Ross."

Ross smiled happily because the negotiation was quite easy, Ross also stood up and shook Grodd's hand. "May god strengthen our alliance."

—

While all of that was happening, Steve was sitting in front of Fury, tapping his feet rapidly, a sign of anxiousness. He was reading a file concerning a man he thought he had met, turns out, he wasn't even close on guessing who he truly was.

He thought he was like himself, a war veteran, volunteered to be a super soldier like him to fight in a war like him.

He was dead wrong.

"Well now you know," said Nick Fury calmly in front of him. "I myself was shocked when I saw it, but I am a spy, I have done many things that may seem cruel to you, so it is not right for me to judge our own government, even though I myself had done something similar."

Steve just shook his head, almost in denial. "Why lie? Why say that it was a Tetanus shot? And why target african-americans specifically? I mean if the government told them the truth, I bet a lot of people would volunteer to support their country."

"Human experimentation leaves a bad taste in the mouth, Captain." said Fury. "As for why it was only African-Americans? I myself don't even know that. But I suppose it's 'representation'."

"Representation?" Steve frowned.

"If there's a second captain america, and he's black, I bet a lot of black people would go and enlist in the military." explained Fury. "But that's just my assumption. Could also be more sinister reasons for it…"

Steve clenched the file hardly. "And now he's a criminal?"

"SHIELD has refused to cooperate on the manhunt." Fury said calmly. "But I doubt the federal government will stop."

Rogers dropped the file to the desk and stood up, and that made Fury also standing up. "Thank you for this Director."

"No problem." said Fury casually, his hands on his back. "Just don't do something stupid Captain, while the public loves you, there are factions in the government."

Steve frowned. "Factions?"

Fury looked outside the window. "Trust no one."

Rogers just nodded. He grabbed a necklace that comes with the file, it was more of a tag than a necklace, and he got out of the room, putting the tag in his pocket.

—

In a dark office, a man was sitting calmly as the only thing that lit up the room was the TV, playing the news rather extensively in front of the man.

The TV was displaying the Smith Enterprises building at the edge of Manhattan, a lot of press were in front of it, and a podium was standing in front of the front door of the building.

Soon enough, a man with rather formal clothing came out of the building. It was Pluto, attracting everyone's attention on how young he looked, and how haunting his peculiar violet eyes are.

Pluto then spoke about how he and his company will donate a lot of money to the rebuilding of Manhattan. It was brief and short, just like Pluto like it.

Meanwhile, the man that was watching TV suddenly glowed orange, the place surrounding him started to smoke, and the temperature rose.

But then, his 'episode' was interrupted when the phone rang. He picked up the phone, and a voice came out of the other side.

"What's our next target boss?"

"Smith building, bring Hansen to me," said the man. He tapped his desk for a little while, before saying. "Also, find out where Smith's kid is going to school too, strike that, bring the kid."

The man behind the phone was perplexed. "We're hitting a school?"

"Just do it." the man insisted.

"R-Right away boss…"

The man then hung up, and it was back to his lonesome again, staring at the news in front of him. He didn't continue his episode however, he just smiled as his hands glowed a bit, heating up the room around him.

---

A/N: chitauri arc done, now comes the fun part, for me at least anyway, idk about you, which is the break lol, but I guess I'm still doubting myself if I can pull off a political thriller like Winter Soldier, cause it would be vastly different from that movie.