"Rhodey?" Sam asked as he walked back into the room where the Avengers had discussed the accords, they had all left apart from Rhodey who was sat down and reading through the accords.
"H… Harry was right," Rhodey admitted in a pained voice, not looking up from the accords. "so was Gwen, some of these are just straight up violations of human rights." He sighed.
"You can expect to hear an 'I told you so'." Sam informed him as he sat down opposite him.
"I remember something, something important that Harry once told me." Rhodey said, looking Sam in the eye. "He told me that he understood, he understood how I had served and how it was my job to follow orders. He also told me how he used to do the same, but then he said that blindly following orders was not a good thing and that he had seen people suffering because of it. I… I'm starting to get what he meant, I hadn't even fully read the accords and I was supporting them because of Ross."
"And his shiny Congressional medal." Sam added with a small smirk.
"And… and that." Rhodey said with a small chuckle. "Do you think Harry will forgive me?" He asked.
"I… I do, I honestly do think he will." Sam replied.
"Really?"
"Oh, he'll turn you into a platypus or a mouse or toad or something first but he will forgive you." Sam said with a smirk.
.....
Secretary Ross was currently sat in his office, going through some paperwork, though what his mind was really focused on was the accords. If everything went to plan then soon he would have the Avengers all under his control. This wasn't simply a matter of 'wants', it was a matter of 'needs'. Ross knew he needed the Avengers under his control.
Back during his time as a general, Ross had done his best to try and keep his soldiers alive, to try and make sure that the army that he was a part of, was the best army in the world. During that time he had become a part of a research project, one that was trying to recreate the super soldier serum that was given to Rogers. Ross had hoped that eventually there would be an army of super soldiers at his command. The project was known as the 'Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project'. At the beginning of the scheme, the army used their captured terrorists to test out various serums. Unfortunately pictures from the project came out and the United States Congress terminated it.
At one point Ross had managed to come into an agreement with a scientist named Bruce Banner, a genius who was his daughter's boyfriend. He had Banner working on the project, though admittedly Banner didn't know the project was to help create super soldiers as Ross had told him that it was actually for radiation resistance. It was going quite well, at least it was until that one fateful day when Banner had experimented on himself.
Something had gone terribly wrong when Banner was struck by the gamma radiation, causing an explosion. Following the blast, Banner was transformed into Hulk, a giant and amazingly strong brute fuelled by rage who fled after injuring his daughter, leaving her in a coma as well as killing another of the scientists along with two soldiers of the United States Army and crushing Ross's arm during the ensuing fight. Ross could still remember lying there, on the floor, looking up into the green eyes of that massive, growling monster.
After that Ross had put all of his effort into catching the Hulk, if the monster could be used for the benefit of the army then great, if not then he would at least be contained. Ross could admit that his personal emotions had affected his decision, he just wouldn't admit it out loud. Unfortunately his attempts to catch Banner proved fruitless. The only thing he ever had to show for it was a whole lot of property damage, damaged army equipment and vehicles, damaged (and sometimes killed) soldiers and a whole lot of wasted money. The chase had forcibly been brought to an end the moment Banner had joined the so called 'Avengers'.
When Ross had heard that the Hulk was part of a team of enhanced individuals he didn't know what to think. He had wanted to send his men and capture Banner but that simply became impossible, partly because Banner had become a 'hero' by helping defend the Earth and because Shield had listed him as an asset.
Ross did genuinely believe that the Avengers were a danger that needed to be put in check, sure Fury claimed they were under control but what would happen once Fury was gone? No, it's better this way. The Avengers would serve the greater good of the people or they wouldn't serve at all. If they ended up benefiting the US army then even better. They needed to be kept under control and Ross couldn't think of anybody better to do it than himself.
Ross was hopeful that he could eventually get the Avengers to spill the secrets to their powers, eventually he would like to get Banner and Rogers and even Barnes and Stacy into testing, hopefully that would help crack the super soldier formula. Unlimited access to Stark's tech would also be very helpful, as would more knowledge on 'Asgard', including what weapons they had. Perhaps he could even get them to agree to giving them Asgardian weapons.
One thing that really interested Ross was Potter's 'magic'. Ross often wondered if Potter truly possessed magic or if he was just using highly advanced tech. If he was using tech then Ross wanted access to that, if he was using magic then Ross wanted to know how to use it, how to control it, if it was possible to be taught to others or at the very least how to counteract it.
Unfortunately for Ross he was not able to detect the invisible wizard in front of him, nor was he able to detect the mental probe from said wizard.
.....
"You're back." Natasha noted when Harry popped back into the apartment.
"I'm making tea." Sif called from the kitchen. "Do either of you want one?" She asked.
"No thanks." Harry said as he sat down next to Natasha.
"A British man who doesn't drink tea." Natasha shook her head and tutted her teeth. "Can't think of anything weirder." She said in a jokey tone.
"How about a woman who wears the tightest and sexiest clothes possible yet rolls her eyes when men look at her body?" Harry countered, raising an eyebrow.
"Nah, the tea things is much weirder." Natasha replied as she leaned back on the sofa. "So, how did it go?"
"Ross never detected me at all, I went in there and got every single one of his dirty little secrets." Harry told her.
"Every single one?" Sif asked, still in the kitchen.
"Well… not every single one." Harry admitted. "I actively avoided the parts of his mind that told me about his porn searches and fantasies, I just searched for important things. Apparently he does genuinely believe the accords are for the betterment of everyone, obviously the fact that the Avengers would be under his control would be a great part of why. Did you guys find a great lawyer?" Harry asked.
"We did." Natasha grinned before a ringing sound was heard from the kitchen.
"Phone is ringing." Sif said before the phone was tossed through the air, Padfoot leaped into the air and nudged it towards Harry with his head.
"Thanks." Harry said before he answered the phone.
"Hello," A female voice came from the other side of the phone. "I'm that lawyer you requested, Jennifer Walters."
.....
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