Ch 83: Miss Oscar Mode!

Tony turned to Steve, "Darth Vader's planning something nasty, I just know it. Jarvis just analyzed everything that happened in this nation since that little girl became the military general of this nation, and they are all too systematic."

With a sigh, Tony turned to Steve, "A way to boost her image."

A wave of serious and righteous anger filled Steve, he was familiar with this kind of politics — Hitler was the same. "It's a long-term gaslighting campaign via news and media."

"To take over a nation using the public as a shield." Natasha, who was listening, added as she glanced towards the Sokovian public happily cheering for Wanda.

Tony sighed, "Chances are that they are the ones that somehow instigated the invasion. It wasn't this controlled last time, it can never be this controlled. And no military can be 'this' prepared for an invasion."

A backwater, under developed nation that was struggling with extreme civil wars and financial crisis managed to invest in military strength even greater than America's or Russia? That was a little too far fetched. Even an ordinary person would feel something off about this almost perfect situation...

Tony turned to everyone, "I bet tomorrow we'll hear that it was the politicians who did this for personal goals and their 'hero' Wanda Maximoff 'HAD' to kill the president for peace, and the blind Sokovian public will cheer that too. The next day, she'll become a freaking dictator, and unreachable, untouchable."

Tony was considering this more than usual. The alien invasion 2 years ago had traumatized him, even if he didn't know.

A slight mention of it would give him panic attacks a few months ago.

And now that he was faced with an enemy who he thought triggered an invasion just for mere political reasons, he was a bit afraid at the corner of his mind. What if they had the means to trigger it again? Or worse, a way to control those creatures?

"A nation should be free," Steve supported Tony's words, "I fought Hydra for the same goal. If what you said is true, Tony, then this is nothing but a rise of a new Hitler and Hydra."

Tony thought for a bit, the whole Sokovian public already hated Americans and by extension hated the Avengers and X-Men.

Whatever they say to the Sokovian citizens wouldn't work against this guy but if he could expose or at least make the public aware that this guy or the person he serves ain't as good as they're trying to proclaim then it's possible to open the public's eyes if not turn totally turn them against Wanda Maximoff and her partners.

And there was one surefire way to do so.

After J.A.R.V.I.S. analyzed all the public information about Wanda Maximoff and this Eirikyr Anderson guy, the AI butler told its billionaire master that his targets were hiding the fact that they were supers.

That's the fucking reason this telekinetic guy was using jetpacks in front of the people.

Tony turned back to Steve. "Wanda Maximoff and even this guy are hiding their supernatural abilities, even during the invasion they didn't use their powers. If we can reveal that... it might change things."

Steve frowned steeling himself, knowing what Tony was planning.

He closed his eyes for a bit... What they were going to do would make them villains in the eyes of the people of Sokovia, if it doesn't work then perhaps the whole world.

But was his image really that important that he would sacrifice people's freedom for such a thing?

Not at all.

It was true that right now there was no proof that these people were causing riots and protests across all of Sokovia or that they were the ones who somehow triggered this controlled alien invasion... all of this was mere speculation...

But one thing was for sure, Stark wasn't entirely wrong on this one. These people are hiding their powers from the people they had sworn to protect, and for some reason, they didn't even use them during such a catastrophic time.

Why use jetpacks and guns when they could use telekinesis and other super power blasts? Wouldn't that have saved more people than faking and hiding powers? 

The reason was simple, if they used their powers then it would the 'super heroes' who saved the country, but they want the credit to taken by that girl, Wanda Maximoff!!

It was definitely suspicious... And worth questioning.

"Mr. Stark, Captain Rogers," Charles called out, his voice containing more graveness than usual, "You do know that doing this would make you a villain in the eyes of the Sokovian public, right? Chances are that even if we succeed in exposing Eirikyr's powers the Sokovian populace would still choose him over us 'Americans' and 'mutants'..."

Steve removed the shield from his back and attached it to his forearm, "Professor, we don't fight to be hailed as a hero, we fight for what's right. We fight for free will. And 'that is not it." Steve pointed to the public chanting the name of Wanda as if she were a god, "Those people are whitewashed, at the very least they need to be aware of who they trust."

Avengers were in agreement to attack Eirikyr to expose his powers to the world while X-Men were not very sure.

"All hail, Wanda Maximoff!" The cheers of Sokovians still hadn't died down.

Well, these past two months, ever since Wanda Maximoff was given more authority by the government, the citizens of Sokovia have seen more peaceful days than ever. They could sleep peacefully and more so, with filled stomachs... it was certainly better than before. 

And today as they saw her in the frontlines, their trust and respect for her was more than ever.

However, there was something especially 'off' with this particular crowd... they seemed a bit... lifeless.

"All hail, Wanda Maximoff!" Erik continued to holler at the crowd which enthusiastically cheered back.

Just then, a reddish blur swooped Erik up into the sky, stopping his triumphant hollers mid-sentence.

The crowd gasped, looking up to see Iron Man holding Erik by his neck, his thrusters glowing bright against the darkened sky.

"Hey, Peter Pettigrew!" Tony smirked under his suit. "Let's show these fine people who you really are."

The goal of Tony Stark was simple, force this guy to use his powers. Show the public what he's hiding!

Erik tried to free his neck from Iron Man's grasp, this was mostly just acting to show it on the camera, 'Avengers really shouldn't have done this...'

"Do you really think you can force me to do what 'you' want?" Erik taunted with a smirk of his own. "You should be aware that your attack on me is on live broadcast, Tony. The whole world will be against you people..."

Tony scoffed, "Yeah, yeah, yada yada, words of a typical, overconfident 3rd rate villain..."

Erik's visor covered his face the next moment, a smirk on his face, 'Predictable.'

Grabbing Iron Man's arm, he kicked him away creating some distance between them.

"What's the meaning of this Tony Stark?" Erik descended a little so that the people could hear his voice but still stay safe, his jetpack supporting his weight in the air, "Don't you know the meaning of attacking a foreign military authority?"

Tony rolled his eyes, "What a fine actor you are, I kinda liked you more when you were more brazen... when you attacked me in Expo, remember?"

The next attack was from behind, an arrow from Hawkeye, Erik grabbed it knowing full well that it'd explode the next instant.

Boom

Erik fell freely, his jet pack flickering with exhausted fumes.

And on the ground, the few soldiers he had brought with him were already done in by Captain America and Black Widow.

Clint smirked, putting his bow down.

"Ugh, we're on LIVE, Clint, and that guy has gone full Miss Oscar Mode! Your firecrackers won't even scratch him when my Flares didn't even make him flinch." Tony's words wiped out the smirk from Hawkeye's face who thought that he had dealt some damage.

"Tony, don't let him near the public, he'll use them as shields," Steve said from the earpiece as threw his shield towards Erik. Tony too shot multiple auto-aim missiles toward the freely falling Erik.

The next instant his jet pack came to life and he flew off, chaotically dodging the missiles and then gunning them down with laser guns one by one.

Even if Erik didn't use his offensive powers 'yet', his Spider-Senses and Wolverin's Instincts were enough to play this game forever, i.e., until Banner didn't turn green and X-Men didn't interfere.

Nimble airborne enemies like Erik were a bad match for the Avengers. Steve and Natasha couldn't fly and while the Hulk couldn't fly as well, he could jump very high. However, Bruce wasn't allowed to turn green for now.

Right now, only Iron Man and Hawkeye could offer a challenge, the rest of them could only watch from the ground.

Steve could throw his Shield, sure...

But to succeed, they needed to barrage Erik with full-powered attacks, aim for the kill, and force him to use his powers.

They needed X-Men to cooperate!

================

A/n: Even though I tried to explain this intentional bad move by Avengers within the chapter. I'll write it again in simple words:

1. Erik, Wanda and Pietro had attacked tony in the past, he clearly remembers wanda's face and doesn't have a good image of the them in his mind.

2. He thinks that they are the one who instigated the invasion for just a publicity stunt.

3. Jarvis analysed that the public was systematically whitewashed for months.

4. The situation is clearly urgent. They clearly can't hope to win public's favor they know it. But they just want to open the public's eye. The only way to do so, is expose his power and show the public that the people they trust aren't exactly trustworthy at all.

5. Why would exposing Erik's powers would work? because even though erik possess powers, he didn't use them to protect the people from the invasion. this would certainly harm the image of erik and wanda for sure.

Thanks for reading!

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