Chapter 4

Sat in Mystique’s office, Fury and I eyed her carefully. She looked calm, assured. And very very blue. She knew we had made her, but was confident she could find a way to get out of it. Impressive composure. Then again, a professional liar had to stay calm at all times. And this was one of the best in the world.

“If you aren’t here to arrest me, then I hesitate to ask why you have arrived,” Mystique said with a small smile.

“Other than faking your credentials to become a principal?” Fury asked.

“Oh, my credentials are entirely real. I’m a qualified educator of children,” she said.

“I shed tears for the state of our educational programs,” I quipped.

“You should, but that’s another story,” Mystique said.

“And even then, your credentials are under an assumed identity. Not a great defense, there,” Fury then frowned. “We’ve met, haven’t we?” He looked surprised but was still certain of his words.

“Oh, I doubt that,” Mystique said.

“We have,” Fury glared at her. “I’ve known shapeshifters. Damn good ones. I don’t remember who you were pretending to be, but something about you is damn familiar.”

“I do have one of those faces,” she said smugly.

Fury and I glared at her for different reasons before Fury continued. “Ms. Darkhölme, Mystique, whatever you call yourself. I doubt we need to explain who we are. And the reason we are here is that we know who you are. And what you can do.”

She quirked an amused eyebrow upwards. “I’m still wondering why you’re here. If not to arrest me, then maybe the X-Men? They have been at the epicenter of quite a few instances of property damage.”

“If we were going to arrest them for that, your boys would be on the block as well,” Fury waved a hand dismissively. “Ms. Darkholme-”

“Mystique is fine.”

“Mystique. BRIDGE is not SHIELD. We are not Hydra, and we are not any of the dozens of organizations that want to turn powered folk into weapons, soldiers, or victims. We’re trying for a better approach. That’s why we’re here with an olive branch.”

“I’m sure that’s comforting for those on your, what was it called? The Index?” Mystique said pointedly, looking over at me. “Has he told you about that? That SHIELD puts powered people on a list to be watched. Possibly, what’s the word?” she dramatically drew a blue finger through the air. “Crossed off.”

I winced. “Yeah. He did.”

“I have a friend. He was put on a similar list. Same with his family. His friends. His neighbors. I have to ask, will you be tattooing us next?”

Fury didn’t seem the least bit surprised. “You want to spit out facts without context more? Ignoring that the Index is no longer a thing for us, we stayed within ethical boundaries. We’ve made mistakes. Hydra was likely behind some of our worst ones.”

“How charming, that you can simply blame Hydra for any of your wrongdoings.”

“Nah, we’ve had a few of our idiots to cull as well. But we’re putting in the work. BRIDGE is not and never will be abusive towards others. We stop criminals. Rehabilitate people. Help those with powers that can hurt themselves and others. And mutants are part of that. We’re reaching out, helping folk. Like Cyclops or Rogue.”

Mystique’s face became stone. She looked as though we’d threatened her children. “What about Rogue!?”

“The teenager with powers that hurt people she might get close to? Nothing but help her,” I said. “You are coming at this the wrong way. We came here to offer peace.”

“Well, and to lay down a line in the sand,” Fury added. “We won’t come after you and yours. But if we get wind that anyone has been hurt, by anyone at all, we’ll come down on them like hellfire.”

Mystique flashed a set of fangs. “Is that so… then I suppose I’ll have to keep my hands clean, won’t I?”

“Should be easy for you,” Fury said idly. “As for your friend… make one thing clear to him. A few of us were around to see the worse levels of racism. Of World War 2 even. I imagine he knows a couple of us from when they saved him,” her eyes widened at the implication. That we knew who her ‘friend’ was. “BRIDGE is not the same organization as SHIELD. We protect everyone's rights. Everyone. Human, mutant, alien, god, and everything in between.”

Her fangs flashed again. “That remains to be seen. I’ve known government agencies. Worked within them on every level. The only difference, Mr. Fury and Dial, is that you are looking at my true face while you make these claims of wanting a better world.”

Neither of us responded to her. Fury simply rose, his single eye glimmering just a bit. I stepped aside to let him leave. Mystique and I eyed each other for another moment. Then I turned my back on her.

Fury said one last thing. “If you or your friends want to talk, let us know. Until then, keep your noses clean.”

“Or else I show up,” I added. Mystique’s flashed to the Omnitrix. Not much else needed to be said there.

There wasn’t much more we could do. Just let her know that we would keep an eye on things. With the mutant secret still in effect, BRIDGE would be able to prepare a whole lot of PR to counter the various anti-mutant and anti-human shit that would follow the reveal.

But the best way to fight back against already built-in prejudice was just to do good. To show that we were on the up and up, and would only take down those who deserved it. If Mystique, and more importantly, Magneto, were anything like their other counterparts, they could be swayed to join the good guys.

If not. Well. What was one more powerful enemy on the pile?

Fury and I left the school side by side. “What do you think?”

He huffed a bit at my question. “I think that woman is more paranoid than I am.”

“That bad huh?”

“Not like I can blame her. If she’s survived for as long as you claim, she’s probably seen the worst of humanity. She’s like a less intense Agatha.”

The thought made me want to laugh. I let it go. “Think we’ll need to be careful of… you know.”

Metal. I didn’t need to say it, but Fury knew what I was thinking.

“No more than usual. Keep an eye out just in case Tony doesn’t have a counter ready to go.”

“I’d be surprised if he didn’t already have one half-done.”

“He does tend to be proactive like that.”

“What next other than that?”

Fury and I reached his car, though I didn’t move to enter it. He looked back at me. “Next, we keep at it. You work on that space shit. I’ll keep building the underground.”

“You think we’ll need it?”

“I’m guessing Maria didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“...The Registration Act. We got a draft of it.”

“...Oh.”

Fuck.

Director Maria Hill of BRIDGE

Maria was in her office, holding onto a bunch of papers as thick as a textbook. She flipped through them, ignoring the various ‘UN’ emblems on the pages. On a notepad next to her was a series of notes.

The notepad was scratched up by now, full of anger. She’d calmed down now. But barely.

When Dial had warned her and the Avengers about the possibility of a Registration Act, she’d been ready for many things. But this was beyond what she’d planned for. So many parts of it were a direct attack on members of the Avengers, right down to a ban on changing forms without sending a request in.

In other words, Dial wouldn’t be allowed to change into any alien without asking, then getting signed permission. For a single change.

The fact members of the US Senate were pushing for this mess of unconstitutional affronts made her want to scream.

She took the time to send a copy of it out to a certain law firm in New York City, then to BRIDGE’s lawyers. Probably Tony’s folk as well as Jen’s firm. As a UN organization, they’d be required to uphold it. Which meant it was time for her to prepare some contingencies. If the people of Earth were willing to destroy themselves, it was up to her to protect them from their stupidity. No matter the cost.

And so, a set of orders was sent out.

Frank Castle/The Punisher

Frank looked over the holographic screen in front of him. New orders. More suggestions.

“What’s up, Frank?” Jamal, one of the BRIDGE STRIKE members and a part of Frank’s team, walked up to join him.

The two men were in the New York City Strike barracks, set aside for them in a secret location. Frank stepped aside to let the much larger man join him.

Jamal was a super-soldier. Well, now he was. Before he’d been part of a large group of disenfranchised folk tricked by Hydra to accept a ‘vaccine’ that turned out to be a version of the super-soldier serum. He and his grandson were among a small group that hadn’t died. Just mutated.

Until Dial showed up at the Graveyard he had been imprisoned in and used the Omnitrix to heal them.

Now Jamal joined Strike as one of their superhuman fighters. However, that might end up changing.

“Registration,” Jamal sighed sadly, rubbing his eyes. “Goddamn it.”

“The Director isn’t going to kick you out of BRIDGE just because the UN says so,” Frank said.

“I know she won’t. But a lot of the Graveyard survivors are just getting back to a normal life. This registration shit is going to mess with it even if it doesn’t get pushed through,” Jamal looked further down the list. “Wait, our power armor is going to get restricted?”

It was true. The use of technology to bestow individuals with innate superhuman capabilities is strictly regulated and was on the list of proposed rules. Frank scoffed.

“Fucking stupid. That armor saves lives. Same with our guns. They’re going to ask us to drop our capabilities while still arresting superhumans and monsters?”

“They’re scared, Frank,” Jamal said softly. “Siberia was a shitshow. The world saw Hydra summon enough superhumans and aliens to invade a country. And even with Hydra dead… well, Dial turned into Godzilla. Footage of that Russian god-eating people is on the web. Thor and Hulk turned a portion of the battlefield to glass. Hell, even footage of you ripping a Hydra-Hulk’s chest open showed up.”

“They just don’t stay down,” Frank grumbled.

“Fear makes people do strange things.”

“At the worst times. Fucking aliens know we’re a threat now. We should be prepping for random bullshit. Not downgrading our weapons to make damn politicians happy.”

“It’s not just politicians,” Jamal tapped the screen before them, speaking towards it. “Jarvis, can you show us the Watchdogs?”

“Right away, Jamal.”

News articles, forum pages, Facebook, Twitter, and more began to pop up. “These guys showed up recently. Militant types, but way more organized than the norm for some reason.”

A few messages stood out. Cries by anti-government folks screaming about secrets BRIDGE was hiding, how Siberia proved superhumans were hiding among the public, that people in the streets were willing to destroy cities on a whim with their powers. Nothing like direct attacks or anything, but a nasty level of rhetoric that was building and building.

“Jung Moon, a friend of mine with Creel-type powers? She was worried she was getting followed. Found a rumour on a Watchdog site that she was a powered human.”

“She okay?”

“She’s staying with family. Director is having the Korean branch watch out for her.”

“Wait, these guys are worldwide?”

“And growing,” Jamal sighed. “They’re more than just a loose group of internet political nerds though. They’ve started connecting in more ways than just shouting online. Now, with all this stuff going on… if the act really does out people with powers, the Watchdogs might end up getting their hands on it. Then we’ve all got a target on our backs.”

Frank stared at the screen. Maybe he was strange. He didn’t feel fear at the thought of people with powers. Never really had. Not more than the normal fear a soldier needed to keep their edge. People were assholes. Didn’t matter if they had powers, guns, knives, or stones. As long as there were two people in the world, someone would want someone dead.

“We’ll deal with it,” Frank said grimly.

“I don’t know if that’s entirely true, Frank.”

More news popped up. A face of some Senator, an Indian woman. Senator Ellen Nadeer was the caption. She looked pissed off and was facing a crowd of other politician types.

United Nations

“This isn’t just Hydra now,” Nadeer said into her microphone. “It’s not just the Avengers, or BRIDGE, it’s people on the streets. We can’t trust our friends, or family, we can’t trust anyone if they could end up getting powers.”

“That’s fear-mongering and you know it, Senator,” Boris, the handler for the Winter Guard, barked out angrily. By now, things had become less formal, and those within were simply speaking their mind rather than the more polite methods usually used for these meetings.

“By that definition, anyone with access to a knife or gun cannot be trusted, I didn’t see anything about restricting those did I? Powers can be dangerous, but the people who gain them are simply that. People! And the proposed rules you have in place go against everything the UN stands for.”

“But they will be necessary,” the Austrian representative barked. He slapped his hand on the table. “We aren’t dealing with simple terrorists! We live in a world where people can turn into skyscraper-sized monsters, or send armies of aliens and robotic monkeys to kill us.”

A French-accented voice chimed in. “I will remind you that the skyscraper-sized monster was on our side, and we have dozens more who helped, including two French heroes. This Act, as you’ve set it out, is nothing less than page after page of human rights violations. Not to mention, the sanctions you’ve proposed on those nations that refuse to sign it are nothing less than outright bullying.”

“They’re necessary,” this time, the representative from Canada spoke, a serious-looking man with dark red hair. “It would be nice if we could be one-hundred percent sure that everyone with powers was good, kind, and innocent. But for the past few years, we’ve seen different flavors of monsters instead. We need to adapt. To regulate. Make sure those with powers don’t use them for anything but the benefit of others.”

“And what of those who don’t want their powers,” King T’Chaka of Wakanda said grimly. “Or those who simply wish to live normal lives.”

“They’ll have to be restricted from using their powers then. Otherwise, the economy will be full of those who use their powers for profit.”

T’Chaka raised an eyebrow. “And I imagine many of us would be less unwilling to restrict them if they used their powers to instead profit their governments? Or defend them. I noticed the United States, Russia, and China all had technology or superhumans that would be affected by this list.”

“That’s not what we want,” Senator Nadeer scowled. “But the fact is, these people are dangerous. We need to stop them, before more of our people die.”

“What about those we can’t ‘regulate’,” T’Chaka pointed at the ceiling. An unsettling silence came over everyone. “Strucker revealed us to the universe. And even if we were willing to use nuclear weapons, we have no guarantees it would work. BRIDGE has already begun working on defending us from the stars, but how can we do that with these limitations you’ve created? Among the many rules, limitations on Catom technology, Iron Man’s suits, even NASA will be affected by these rules.”

The King of Wakanda looked about the room, his presence dominating. “This Registration Act isn’t just limiting. It’s dangerous. I recommend we take it, and rework it into our current laws. Make sure it does not make our people into slaves simply for being able to do the abnormal.”

“It’s not that simple,” Nadeer snapped. “We need radical change! We need to step up! Otherwise, we don’t need to wait for hypothetical aliens. We’ll be killed by the ones in our midst. Once we know Earth is safe, then we can look up. Because if Dial decides to turn us, to rule over us, who can stop him? Worse, SHIELD was a puppet of Hydra. Who is to say BRIDGE isn’t under the control of those with powers? How can they be trusted?”

Another storm took over the room. Loud shouting. One woman asking if they would go after people with robotic prosthetics next, another arguing about the dangers of a telepath stealing nuclear codes.

T’Chaka leaned back in his seat, briefly meeting eyes with Boris and the French representative. The look was a simple message.

This wouldn’t end quickly.