1st story:
A business man and his assistant, Devon, enter an office building. He protests about not knowing anything about this meeting. Been on the private calendar for two weeks, Devon assures him. Is this gonna be like Syria? he protests in the elevator. Are there gonna be big blue guys with AK-47s sitting around a boardroom table in the Chrysler Building? ‘Cause if so, he votes teleconference.
He’s kidding, Devon tells another man in the elevator. She assures her boss it will not be like Syria. This guy has better hair than she does. He’s a terrorist! he protests. Ten minutes, she reminds him. He’s gonna want to hear what he has to say. What a terrorist has to say, he stubbornly points out. She tells him, would he please let her make him some money? She knows it’s been a while, but she promises it’s like riding a bike. A terrorist bike, he mutters as they enter the office.
Their host greets them warmly. Philip Hanstead, Devon announces, meet Pietro Lensherr. The chief executive of Worldwide Solutions, Pietro, dressed in a smart business suit, announces and tells Mr Hanstead how pleased he is, before kissing Devon’s cheek, telling her how exquisite she looks.
Pietro ushers them to a conference room. He was just looking over their third quarter report, he begins and offers some tea. Hanstead replies restructuring has been a challenge. These are trying times, Pietro agrees smoothly, for all of them.
Their company fascinates him greatly. Such scope, energy technology… just so many facets. Does he know what the most invaluable good this country ever imported is? Oil? Hanstead guesses. Slaves, Pietro replies. Adjusted for inflation, this nation’s slave trade contributed conservatively even around twenty trillion dollars to the national economy. And as they know money doesn’t just disappear. It’s put back into the economy again and again. It has paid for industrialization. The military build-up that made the USA into a superpower. Their roads, their homes, their universities. All that suffering paid for their way of life!
Nervously, Hanstead interrupts he doesn’t know where this is going. Pietro tells him not to bother. Looking out of the window, he remarks about the miserable weather. “Welcome to New York,” he is told.
Quicksilver recalls once knowing a mutant girl who could look at those clouds and force them to part just through the power of her mind. Where is she, when they need her, right? Hanstead jokes. Being lobotomized, Pietro answers. Hanstead apologizes. No need, Pietro tells him. They weren’t exactly friends. Just another foot soldier in an unnecessary war between two very angry old men.
Charles Xavier and his father, Hanstead guesses. Pietro agrees. And how greatly they have all suffered in their names. He wants to be direct with him. He knows his name carries a certain baggage despite his heroic service in the Ultimates. He is subject to the same rash laws as any other mutant since his father’s attack. His legal status here is virtually non-existent. He’s forced to hide from the authorities. He’s even been asked to relinquish his family’s properties in Massachusetts.
Now, outside funds and connections afford him a limited degree of autonomy, thankfully, but even that is tenuous. This is due to his refusal to submit to involuntary imprisonment at the hand of the US government. Hanstead could kill him right now and face no legal reprisal.
Hanstead defensively remarks he voted for the other guy. He doesn’t even doubt for a second that he’d oppose these draconian measures, Pietro interrupts him. He is a man of vision. One of the last giants of industry. He knows the future when he’s face to face with it. But, if Pietro could show him some of the things he’s seen – mutants with breathtaking abilities that could fundamentally alter the way society functions. Just imagine what the girl able to change weather could do for the farming industry. What a teleporter could do for shipping. What a mind reader would mean for market research. It must be so frustrating for a man like him to see all this potential wasted, to see mankind give in to prejudice and fear when so much opportunity lies before them.
Hanstead remarks that they all see the opportunity, but also the risk. They just dug Manhattan out of the water! Pietro agrees that, without proper tutelage and training, mutants can do terrible things. Nobody knows that better than him, sadly. Which is why those such as himself have a responsibility to help the gifted who come after them. He feels it is his duty, his destiny even, to unite the persecuted mutants of this nation. Bring them under his personal protection and inspire them to take the next steps in this planet’s evolution and progress. And he is willing to risk something of his own to do this. His life.
Hanstead applauds his resolve. They all gotta have their causes and he wishes him the best of luck. As a card-carrying Homo sapiens, he is looking forward to his own insolvency. But for now they’d better get going, seeing as how what they’ve already heard makes them accessories to a war crime.
Pietro tells him he misunderstands and asks him to hear him out. He doesn’t intend to fight any war. No, he is going to gather these mutants, unite them under his cause and then he is going to sell them to Hanstead…
2nd story:
A helicopter reaches the New York Triskelion. Nick Fury exits, telling himself that, if you act cool, no one notices when you sweat.
Inside, he asks Clint Barton aka Hawkeye for sitrep. Sketchy, he is told. How does he want them? He’d prefer them one at a time, he replies. But he’s crunched for time, so give him the top three, first to worst.
Clint calls up images of EUSS, Uruguay and the SEAR.
First up is the latest regarding the Asgard situation. He knows Fury has personally spoken to Thor and he assured him there is nothing to fear, but the European Union is so spooked that they reconstituted their super soldier program. And they just found out that Jamie Braddock is leading the team.
Second is the semi-controlled skirmishes of the Uruguay-Argentina conflict have escalated to the point where it appears a full scale invasion is likely. The US ambassador to the UN is already promising Ultimates support if the Security Council chooses to act. Surveillance suggests this to be a very real possibility.
And here’s the one that bothers him the most: they’ve been hearing rumblings from third party intelligence sources inside the SEAR about a cosmic biological / metahuman weapon system. Yet to date, all they have to show for it are three dead spies and zero additional intel. Something is going on here…
What happened to the old Captain Britain, Brian? Fury asks. Diagnosed with cancer four days ago. And what does he want to do about SEAR? He wants him on a plane tonight, Fury orders Hawkeye. Hold together, baby! he prays, regarding the world.
He announces he has a meeting and orders to send him that roster when it’s done. Hawkeye jokes that the look on Fury’s face suggests he is off to meet his ex wife. He’s guessing she wants alimony. Much worse, Fury sighs. Suits up from Washington.
He is told that the man he is meeting with is waiting in Fury’s office. Inside, he sees a bureaucrat looking at Fury’s revolver. Fury suggests he be careful before he shoots his eye out.
The man introduces himself as Jasper Sitwell. Fury interrupts him. He knows who he is and he’s here with news regarding next year’s projected operating budget. So let’s have it.
Sitwell announces they are going to cut his budget by 30 percent. Fury is flabbergasted. He just finished telling him to expand by the same amount, Fury points out. He turns on the screens. Not counting the Triskelion here or the one in Iran, they recently completed four more around the world. They are retasking the entire Heli-carrier fleet. They are secretly building two orbital weapon platforms. All of this was done in response to their needing to undertake broader missions!
And they still expect him to do that, he is told. He is going to have to find a way. They are effectively cutting his budget in half, Fury states. The president sends his regrets, Sitwell announces, getting ready to leave.
Fury calmly points out they understand people will die because of this. Sitwell apologizes, there is nothing he can do.
Fury is left alone, thinking. They are stretched too thin, he announces.
1st story continued:
In Pietro’s penthouse, he sweeps Devon off her feet. She still can’t believe he went for it, she admits. He happens to be a very persuasive man, Pietro reminds her in bed. That’s how he got the appointment in the first place. No, it isn’t, she tells him and they kiss.
Suddenly, he believes he is holding the Scarlet Witch in his arms, not Devon. “Hello, brother”, she greets him. Is it really her? he asks. He has missed her so! Did he? she asks. Like she told him to. Five are fallen, and one is. Soon. Good, she tells him, gently holding his head and assures him she is proud of him. Their father is proud of him.
Is she pleased? he asks in a small voice. He’s been trying, but it’s been so hard. She knows, Wanda coos, she knows how lonely he is, and she has heard his cries. But his sins have been so great. The path to his soul’s salvation will not be an easy one. That is why he must go to Egypt…
“What?” he asks. Wanda is gone, a confused Devon in her place. Is he okay? she asks. He orders her to get out. Angrily, she does.
