Discimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don’t worry, I am pletely sober).

  1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, USA [May 2015]

  –Jack Sullivan–

  Well, what do you know, the President did have a braihought to himself as he was escorted into the White House through the front doors. He was of the opinion of taking a slight detour to tour the White House but he had a hunch that it might just make the poor Secret Service agents suffer a heart attack as they tried to herd him away from the private areas, something that would have been quite unsuccessful.

  So, instead of breag de, which was impolite and not expected of him, he allowed the Secret Service agents, who were clearly very nervous even if it was all but impossible to tell if he used his normal seo take him to the President.

  He was not really sure of the yout of the White House so it ossible that they were heading straight to the bunker but he was not really worried about that.

  “So, Secret Service, huh? I hear the job is quite stressful.” He tried to joke about the situation but it fell on deaf ears.

  “At Least it es with full bes, right?”

  “Please stop.” One of the agents, the middle aged one, said in resignation as they created what was essentially a human wall around him, to make sure that he did not leave the decided path for him.

  He shrugged a on walking. Ierest of fairness, he hadn’t even used his barriers to scout the entire pce all at once. After all, he was sure that pletely mapping the pce would involve breag quite a few walls and well, there were sensors for that sort of stuff and while his overwhelming powers would let him get away with a lot, like disobeying orders from the Military when they showed up, but it would certainly be troublesome to be charged with treason.

  Finally, after what felt like ages of turning around ers and walking in circles, they finally reached a dead end with multiple security guards standing guard, with rifles in hand.

  He was then ushered into the office where POTUS was normally signing files which his secretary promptly took from him and withdrew from the office she caught sight of him.

  The President, on his part, didn’t show much of a rea other than a slight quirking of his eyebrow as he stood up and circled the desk to shake his hand.

  Good Afternoon, Mr.Sullivan. I wish you’d called, I would have prepared a State Dinner for someone like you.”

  “Good Afternoon, Mr.President. I would have called but circumstances were unfiving. Five me, but I’d thought that you would be in a safe bunker by now.” He couldn’t help but say as he sat in the chair.

  Hmm, not as fortable as he hoped it to be. Not even as fortable as the chairs Tony had in his office, let alohe ohat Kamar Taj made, or Wakandans or even the Xandarians.

  “Ah, five the extreme measures. It is something they pnned over and ain, just in case, you uand. Anyways, what I do for you?” President Eilis asked him as he leaned onto the table, the man’s tenance ging from business casual to serious business.

  “Ah, Mr. President, I wao talk to you about the ret i io Rico of which you are no doubt aware of,”

  The President made an “Ah” sound in realisation as he opened his drawer and took out a small folder out of it. There couldn’t have been a repeed about the same this quick, could there?

  He looked at the tossed folder and at the President who rested his head on his hand aured at the folder. He twitched his finger as a small green barrier covered the folder and lifted the ehing towards him.

  “Jack Sullivan, the Green Guardian. Strengths, weaknesses, known aliases, known acquaintances, known allies…”

  ON and on the list went as he read what was basically all the military or the gover had on him. After going through the ehing, which was more doted than he had thought it would be, he finally reached the st page.

  “termeasures for the Green Guardian in case he ever gue..” He looked at the President, w what was going in the man’s head when the man just zily gestured at the folder once again, even as the man did nothing but stare at him as he read what was basically his own biography.

  “There have been three known instances of the Green Guardian being overwhelmed. Ability to replicate any one of them? None. ons capable of breag shields? None.

  Emotional es that be exploited? Minimal.

  Allies? Numerous and Powerful.”

  Basically, what the folder said was that it would be very hard to hurt him and even harder to put him dowe what the ret events might suggest to someog over his exploits.

  Replig the feats that led to him almost dying were only two, first was the Helicarrier which would not work anymore because he was much stronger now, and sed was the Hulk i whily happened because Wanda maniputed the very reality around Bruce, something that he would rather die tha happen again.

  “Is there any meaning to this?” He ended up asking, getting a tad bit irritated at the unnecessary bypy going on.

  “There is. There is Mr.Sullivan. After all, the report clearly states that should you gue, there is nothing that the state do to stop you, aside from begging the only people who may have the slightest ce of stopping you, and that, Mr.Sullivan is quite humiliating. A shameful state of affairs but it is the reality and we have to adapt to it. So, when I show this file to you, I tell you that the US gover is quite literally helpless before you. So, with that in mind, what I do for you?”

  The question was the same but the entire enviro in the office was different. Gone was the all business man, all that remained was a desperate husk who was all but daring him to go forward.

  It was quite…weird.

  He cleared his throat, “Ahem, anyway, I was just here to talk to you about that city io Rid what sort ement I was hoping to get doh the gover.” His barriers fred to life as it created a 3D model of the city’s exteriors and the interiors.

  The President’s shoulders rexed as he looked at the model in realisation, “Ah, yes, the Puerto Ri alien Kree city. Coulson should have e to me first instead of just waltzing in there. We could have–”

  “Dohing, sir. You wouldn’t have been able to do much because the city itself is quasi-se. It take trol of human minds that e, with ease and then empower them to the point that only a bullet to the head stop them in any meaningful way. I ripped apart all the limbs of a rogue agent ihe city and the agent was still able to use the powers to jump using just his chest muscles and lu me,”

  That was true, and it was quite creepy to experience.

  The President was left wide eyed at the quite graphiformation that was dumped on him. Time for more then.

  “Also, the city was an a alien temple used for rituals and activities that I am sure Coulson will tell you more about. By the way, about SHIELD, I thought the US gover had decred SHIELD as an official rogue entity and was actively hunting it down.”

  He was quite curious about that as well because some part of him khat there was no way that Coulson was running around, running multiple huge military bases with a freaking Aircraft Carrier in ste, all while being hunted by the rgest and most profit military on the p, save for Namor’s if he decides to use up the entire o’s worth of animals as part of his campaign against the surface world.

  “Ah, I see your fusion. SHIELD itself was decred rogue and its agents were being hunted down, its assets seized because, at the time, I had no way of identifying HYDRA from SHIELD, even after the various public trials and executions. But I have met Coulson and have my own men in the new SHIELD, which is vastly improved now. Now, SHIELD doesn’t meddle in other tries’ affairs and try to expand its power, it only interferes in its own jurisdi, which is.”

  “--Aliens.” He fi for the President and the expnation did make quite a lot of seually.

  “..Exactly. Coulson knows his limits and that is why, SHIELD is allowed to not just exist but operate using resources that the gover mostly turns a blio.”

  Well, not that that part is out of the way, he once again began steering the versation back to the topic at hand.

  “Mr.President, the city is quite advanced, even though it has been abandoned here for thousands of years. I would like to, once agaierate the sheer dao any human that steps into the city unprotected but at the same time, I know that Humanity ot afford to lose any ce of studying advaech to advaself. So, I propose this:”

  “I will allow a team of stists to study not just the alien city but also..a full FTL spaceship, but–but, only if the team of stists is truly global or at least, represent an anisation that isn’t beholden to one try.”

  “So what? You want SHIELD to be reinstated? Or SWORD to be made online because let me tell you, SWORD is still years away from full operatiohough we would love to get those carriers ba operation.”

  The news made him sigh internally. It was always the bureaucratise he knew how to ha.

  By using Good Old Human Greed.

  “Let me tell you something, Mr.President. The city could be the key to do mass enhas to humans, soldiers, and then turn the enhas off at the push of a buttoely.”

  The President's eyes widened minutely at the clear cut picture he ainting for him.

  It could be absolutely game ging in war sarios and even in urban warfare. See, the military could enhas soldiers en masse but then they couldn't just let the soldiers work in the army forever. They would have to let them go on mandatory holidays, take care of their mental health, retire them, let them mingle in the civilian popution.

  So on and so forth.

  The problem was that this highly enhanced popution, on the try as civilians, still held onto their abilities, representing a very severe public health hazard. Also, there could be ces of rebelliorayal, revolutioing, and so on.

  All of the ive possibilities of permaly enhang someone are gone, poof, at the push of a button, theoretically.

  But even that theoretically was more than enough because from the looks of it…

  “Give me one month, I will have SWORD up and running. I assume the spaceship along with all the other teology will only be shared with SWORD, on the dition that it be used for Humanity as a whole?”

  “Obviously.”

  “Very well.”

  “Also, I will have oher team, my own w alongside yours as well. Anyway, I will be ba a few days to finalise the ehing with the SWORD team which should be up and running by then, hopefully.”

  “--Wait, Mr.Sullivan, what do you mean by another—”

  “Bye,” He said and just jumped into the portal that opened up in front of him, snickering as he heard the sheer fusion in the President’s voice as he told him about his other team.

  He was, of course, talking about Wakanda as a whole. Now, he wahem to be open to the world but he khat it would be an uphill battle so no point iurely telling the Uates about Wakanda and its advaeology, and not to mention the sheer amount of VIbranium they had on hand.

  “Um, what are you doing in my house? Get out!” He looked up at Tony who was nursing a drink in one hand and was looking at him with a very irritated expression on his face.

  “Seriously?” He kony set because of the whole city being taken out of his hands but this was excessive.

  “What Tony means is that wele to Aveower. Tony is gd to see you. What will you have? Whiskey?” Pepper, ever the soft one of the duo that was the Stark couple, shooshed Tony and greeted him.

  “Uh, Water only. Underage person here.” He smiled at Pepper as she went back to the kit, uanding that he wao discuss stuff with Tony in private.

  “So, what do you want, Little Green?”

  He rolled his eyes at the petty insult.

  “Look, the city is really hazardous and I didn’t say that you wouldn’t get access, at all. I just came back from the White House and–”

  “Yeah, I saw. It was all over the news. I half expected them to call me to get Iron Man on the se, just so that the President be evacuated. What were you thinking anyway? Creating such a huge pani the middle of the city in the middle of the day.” Tony interrupted him while he nursed his drink.

  “As I was saying, I got firmation from the POTUS that SWORD will be up and w in about a month. After that, I will allow limited access to the city for research. YOu will, obviously, be part of that group. Happy?”

  “That is good, I guess. How is Bruce doing anyway? I haven’t heard from him in forever. He doesn’t even reply to emails even though Jarvis tells me that the at is being accessed regurly.” Tony asked him, probably missing his SCE! Bro but there was not much he could do about that.

  “About that, I was actually here to talk to you about Bruce’s situation. I was hoping that your tacts in the military could tell me about Ross’ situatiht now. Because I am takiy to meet Bruce because I don't see anything else helping his situatiht now.”

  Tony’s face turhoughtful at that.

  “Well, I don’t think the old man will be any problem but still, let me ask around. I’ll make sure that he doesn’t make any ruckus about that. If I remember correctly, the old general does maintain quite a solid grip on his daughter’s life if the rumour mill is to go by.”

  “Well, whatever it is, just make sure that it doesn't make muoise because Bruce’s mental dition is really fragile right now. I was hoping that he will also join you guys on Mars once he is somewhat stabilised.”

  “..That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

  Yes. Yes, it would be nice.

  Word t - 2574

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