Chapter 218: Matthew: You Actually Think I'm a Pushover?
As Magneto's furious voice rang out, the conference room settled into an entirely different kind of atmosphere.
At that moment, every piece of metal inside and outside the room had started shaking violently, as if it had all suddenly come alive.
Thor, an Asgardian warrior, looked at the document in front of him, his expression no better than it had been a moment ago.
He looked at Anka, his tone dead serious. "The warriors of Asgard will protect Earth, but we will never sign a document this degrading to our dignity."
And it wasn't just the two of them.
Even Dr. Banner, normally the most even-tempered person in the room, seemed to think the contents of this document were nothing short of an unequal treaty, and his expression had clearly soured since a moment ago.
The so-called SHIELD Accords ran long, but what they were really trying to say could be boiled down to a handful of points.
[Point One: Any individual designated a "superpowered person" (including anyone possessing abnormal abilities due to biology, technology, or special training, such as Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Tony Stark) must register with the United Nations and publicly disclose their identity.
They must also provide biometric data, DNA samples, and disclose any technology in their possession.]
[Point Two: The Avengers, the X-Men, and all similar superhero organizations will no longer be considered private organizations.
They will be subject to the oversight and management of a dedicated United Nations panel.
All of their actions must receive prior approval from that panel; they will have no authority to independently decide when or where to act.]
[Point Three: Superpowered individuals are prohibited from taking action in any country other than their own without approval from that country's government or the UN panel.
Governments are likewise prohibited from deploying superpowered individuals abroad without prior approval.]
[Point Four: Registered superpowered individuals must wear a tracking bracelet at all times.]
[Point Five: Individuals born with innate superpowers must undergo a power assessment to determine their threat level...]
There were plenty more clauses and stipulations beyond that, but these five points formed the core of it.
And the consequence for refusing to sign was that any superpowered individual who declined would face criminal prosecution, indefinite detention without trial, or forced "retirement."
Matthew looked at the SHIELD Accords lying on the table.
The document reminded him of the Sokovia Accords from the original storyline he remembered.
Compared to the current SHIELD Accords, that version had only one additional clause, a ban on developing artificial intelligence, meant to prevent the emergence of something like Ultron.
His eyes swept over the document in front of him.
Even though he was, in a roundabout way, the reason this document had been drafted in the first place, Matthew didn't rush to say anything.
Instead, he turned his attention to the rest of the room.
Faced with Magneto's and Thor's fury and outright refusal, Anka, chairing the meeting, broke into a cold sweat.
"Mr. Erik... Mr. Thor, please, there's no need for everyone to get this worked up!"
"I'm only chairing this meeting. I don't have any decision-making authority over the accords themselves."
Anka kept trying to smooth things over, one person after another.
Not far off, seeing the tension in the room continuing to build, Professor X gave a light cough and spoke up. "I don't think there's any need for the atmosphere in here to get quite this heated."
With that, he rose slowly, poured himself a cup of black tea, and turned his attention to Anka. "Ms. Anka... I'd like to ask, do you actually have decision-making authority over this meeting's outcome, or the ability to relay our concerns upward?"
The question caught Anka off guard, and after a moment she shook her head.
"...So you're telling us you have neither decision-making authority nor the ability to escalate anything. You're just here to run the meeting?" Tony raised an eyebrow.
Anka nodded.
"In that case, I think you should call in someone who actually does have those two things."
"Otherwise, I don't see much point in this meeting continuing." Matthew spoke up suddenly.
Anka, her mind momentarily blank at the question, seemed to remember something the instant Matthew spoke and said immediately, "Bryan has that authority!"
"Bryan? Who's that..." Logan, who'd lit a cigar for himself and propped his feet up on the table, asked with total indifference.
Anka answered quickly. "Bryan is the man who said his stomach hurt and left earlier."
"He's the one with decision-making authority and the ability to report upward."
"And what about you? If you were able to tag along-" Natasha's question trailed off as Anka cut straight to the point herself. "Honestly, I'm just a note-taker."
"...!"
Tony found the whole thing almost funny at this point. "So we've been sitting here going back and forth this whole time, talking to a note-taker?"
At the same time, Steve, who'd been quiet for a while, cut in. "...This 'Bryan' of yours sounds pretty unfit for the job."
"Ducking out on his responsibilities right when it counts... how is that any different from a deserter?"
Criticisms of Bryan's incompetence started piling up from every direction.
The room dissolved into chaos for a moment.
No one could say how much time passed.
Then Natasha suddenly stood up and turned to the room. "All right, we've said plenty. So... can somebody actually go get him back here?"
After a brief silence, Magneto spoke, slow and even. "Why don't I be the one to bring him back."
The words had barely left his mouth when a powerful magnetic field surged out as he raised his hand!
The next instant!
Bryan, who'd fled to the restroom specifically to dodge the meeting, came sailing back into the conference room, still perched on the metal toilet beneath him.
Bryan: "..."
Still frozen in the classic thinker's pose, Bryan stared at the scene in front of him, blinking rapidly behind his gold-rimmed glasses, before finally closing his eyes in sheer embarrassment.
Watching this unfold, everyone's expressions turned distinctly strange.
Professor X, an old friend of Magneto's, pulled a resigned face and shot Magneto a look that carried a fair bit of reproach.
"Er... Erik, I think you should send him back out and let him finish his business first."
"Otherwise, this conference room is absolutely going to start smelling terrible," Peter Parker added helpfully.
"Agreed." Dr. Banner nodded along.
Everyone else nodded too, thoroughly uninterested in watching Bryan continue his impromptu flight in front of an audience.
"Bryan, how much longer do you need?" Magneto looked over at Bryan.
"Five... no... three minutes." Bryan, eyes still shut, held up three fingers.
"Fine. I'll give you three minutes."
"I'll bring you back in three minutes."
With that, a flash of silver light passed over the metal toilet, and it shot back the way it came, Bryan still aboard.
Two and a half minutes later.
Bryan, composure fully restored, pushed the door open and walked back in first, ahead of the toilet's return.
Clearly, he had no interest in repeating that low-altitude flight a second time.
Once inside the conference room, Bryan acted as if nothing at all had happened a moment ago, greeting the room with a broad smile. "Is there something you all needed from me?"
"There certainly is." Magneto spoke first.
"As we understand it, Ms. Anka here is only a note-taker, with no decision-making authority and no ability to report upward."
"Doesn't it seem a little careless to have her chairing a meeting like this?"
"Er..." Bryan choked slightly on Magneto's words but quickly composed himself. "Mr. Erik makes a fair point. That was an oversight on my part, and I apologize to everyone here."
"So, is there something specific I can help with right now? I'm happy to hear it."
"I'll make sure it gets relayed upward."
Listening to Bryan's thoroughly rehearsed, formulaic response, no one bothered arguing further, and instead everyone let loose with every grievance they'd been sitting on.
Magneto looked at Bryan, both hands planted on the table, his eyes full of displeasure. "Bryan, before you brought the SHIELD Accords in here, did you actually read through the contents yourself?"
"Do these tyrannical clauses, this treatment that reads like managing prisoners, look to you like they're treating us as people at all?"
"...That's..." Bryan wiped away the sweat beading on his forehead, forcing a bit of a smile.
"As for the SHIELD Accords, I did go over them briefly before coming here..."
Before he could finish, Logan cut in. "Then you should be well aware how heavily discriminatory and oppressive this thing is toward so-called 'superhumans.'"
"As far as I know, not one person in this room has ever done anything illegal or out of line. Some of us have even saved the world."
"And in the end, this is how you all plan to treat us?"
His tone carried no anger, just a flat, pointed challenge.
Faced with Logan's question, Bryan answered with a smile. "This is all simply for the sake of maintaining a functional society."
"I understand! Every one of you has made enormous contributions to this world!"
"But a functional society doesn't run on contributions alone."
With that, he slowly pulled a USB drive from his pocket and set it on the table.
"Would someone mind helping me play what's on this?"
"I've got it." Tony picked up the drive and plugged it into Ultron.
A moment later, a video began playing in the conference room.
The footage showed the Battle of New York.
But instead of showing the superheroes fighting off the Chitauri, it methodically documented every bit of damage caused during the battle.
After that came the destruction Thor's fight against the Destroyer had left in its wake; footage of A-Train, from the Seven, running a civilian into a bloody mist; the aftermath of Peter Parker's battle with Doctor Octopus; the city being torn apart during the Apocalypse conflict.
There was even footage of Matthew's recent destruction of the helicarriers, and the resulting oil spill that had quietly polluted the water.
"I understand how all of you feel, but please understand as well that some level of oversight is necessary."
"Without oversight, heroism just becomes a one-man show."
As he said it, Bryan let his gaze drift, deliberately or not, toward Matthew.
He clearly didn't dare say it outright, but it was obvious enough: this entire meeting existed because of Matthew.
Bryan's little speech had come across as righteous enough that it left more than a few people in the room deep in thought.
But it didn't take long before someone pushed back.
"Bryan, you're right about one thing... a certain level of oversight is necessary." Steve spoke up suddenly, then shifted gears. "But the oversight laid out in your document isn't 'a certain level.'"
"And another thing, don't you think that by the time something happens and word makes it all the way up your chain of command, you'll have already lost most of the window to actually help anyone?"
"Because I've heard plenty about how slow and bloated your process tends to be."
"On top of that-"
"I believe everyone here still remembers, quite vividly, that SHIELD was infiltrated by HYDRA."
"So who exactly can guarantee that this oversight body of yours won't become HYDRA's next target, or end up as some politician's personal tool?"
There was nothing subtle about the distrust in Steve's words.
That only made things more uncomfortable for Bryan.
"So, is Mr. Rogers saying..." Bryan looked at Steve.
He'd genuinely expected that America's own hero, Captain America, would be the accords' staunchest supporter. He hadn't expected Steve to turn out to be the biggest holdout of all.
"I won't be signing this document." Steve laid it out flatly.
"To be honest, I don't trust your oversight, not one bit."
"Because no one can say for certain whether that 'oversight' of yours comes with strings attached."
With that, Steve rose sharply from his seat, picked up the document from the table, and walked up to Bryan. "Please relay my words to your superiors, word for word. I, Steve Rogers, will not be signing your 'accord.'"
"And I will absolutely never be turned into some politician's hired gun."
With that, Steve pressed the accord into Bryan's hands and walked straight out of the conference room without a backward glance.
Steve's footsteps were still echoing down the hallway when Tony rose from the sofa.
He pulled off his sunglasses, spun the document between his fingers a couple of times, and then tossed it aside.
The folder arced smoothly through the air and landed with a soft slap right on top of the stack already in Bryan's arms.
"There are exactly three things I can't stand." Tony held up two fingers. "One, people touching my stuff. Two, people telling me how to use my stuff."
"And three."
"Handing my stuff over to somebody else." He gave Bryan a picture-perfect Stark smirk.
"Sorry to say, your little accord manages to hit all three."
With that, he tucked both hands into his pockets and walked toward the door without looking back.
Peter Parker went next.
He looked at Bryan, then at the document in his hands, and finally drew a slow breath and set the folder gently back down on the table.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Bryan." His voice wasn't loud, but it was firm.
"My Uncle Ben used to say, with great power comes great responsibility."
"But that responsibility was never supposed to be a leash someone else holds."
With that, Peter gave Bryan a small bow and turned to follow after Tony.
Magneto followed close behind.
"Bryan, is it..." Magneto's sharp gaze settled on him, and he reached out and clapped him on the shoulder. "Do me a favor and pass this along to whoever's above you..."
"Mutants spent their entire lives being controlled by others. Now that we've finally got an organization of our own, we won't be needing their help."
With that, Magneto shoved the accord back into Bryan's arms and walked out.
Everyone else did the same.
Time slipped by quickly.
The door opened, and closed. Opened again, and closed again.
The footsteps gradually thinned out, until there were none left at all.
By the time the last figure had disappeared behind the door, Bryan finally, belatedly, lifted his head.
The conference room was empty.
No, not quite. There was still one person sitting there.
Matthew Lawrence.
He hadn't gotten up once, hadn't said a single word, hadn't so much as glanced at the accord the entire time.
He simply sat there, hands folded on the table in front of him, an unreadable smile at the corner of his mouth.
"...Um... Mr. Lawrence, what's your position on this?" Bryan forced out a smile.
Hearing his own name, Matthew slowly rose to his feet.
"Bryan... I believe the accord says that any superpowered individual who refuses to sign will face criminal prosecution, indefinite detention, or forced 'retirement.' Is that right?"
"That's... that's right." Bryan nodded, then quickly added, "But that clause is really only there to make sure that those who..."
"No need to explain." Matthew raised a hand, cutting him off.
"Honestly, if all of you had come at this with a slightly better attitude, I might have actually considered it."
"But since detention is apparently on the table, I'd genuinely love to see..."
"Exactly how you all plan to 'detain' me." Matthew walked up in front of Bryan and set the accord back on top of the stack.
Looking at Bryan, now trembling like a leaf, Matthew's smile widened.
"Oh, and Bryan. Do me a favor and pass this along to them as well."
"Matthew Lawrence isn't the kind of pushover just anyone gets to shove around."
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