The storm broke not with an explosion, but with a stack of papers and the echo of General Ross's voice across the world stage. He stood before the United Nations, flanked by military brass, his words hard and uncompromising. The Sokovia incident had left scars too deep to ignore. The Avengers had faced Ultron, but cities had burned, people had died, and fear had settled in the hearts of governments everywhere. Ross proposed the Sokovia Accords, a framework that would place Earth's mightiest heroes under the oversight of global authority. No more independent action, no more unchecked power.
The room erupted. Steve Rogers sat with his arms folded, his jaw tense as Ross spoke. He could already feel the chains forming, binding his ability to act when lives were in danger. Across from him, Tony Stark looked far less sure than in another time and another world. He had seen the damage Ultron had done, but he had also seen Alex Price stand firm against governments, corporations, and even empires that sought to monopolize the future. Stark's mind ticked rapidly, weighing costs and possibilities.
Alex, however, did not flinch. Clad in a sharp suit that barely hid the aura of Mechanicus authority beneath, he stepped forward. His voice was calm, his words measured, but every syllable carried weight like a hammer on steel. He did not argue about freedom or oversight. Instead, he presented data.
Servo-skulls floated into the chamber, projecting streams of evidence onto the walls. Names, transactions, intercepted communications, mission logs. Hydra's corruption laid bare for all to see. The faces of senators, diplomats, generals, and S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives flashed across the holograms, branded with the sigil of the serpent. Gasps filled the chamber. Whispers turned into shouts.
Alex did not let the chaos overwhelm the message. He laid out the truth with clinical precision. Hydra had infiltrated the very organizations that now sought to bind the Avengers. Hydra had funded political pushes for the Accords, manipulated public opinion, and orchestrated crises. Every argument for oversight, every push to cage the heroes who had bled for humanity, traced back to Hydra's shadow.
The hammer fell.
Governments that had been on the edge of demanding compliance with Ross's vision suddenly recoiled. Instead of turning their gaze on the Avengers, they turned it inward. Emergency sessions were called. Investigations launched. Arrests followed.
It was not clean. Hydra fought back in the shadows, desperate to maintain its grip. Yet Alex was relentless. Gear sifted through terabytes of encrypted data, peeling back Hydra's networks layer by layer. With Tony's assistance, they cut Hydra out of the global infrastructure like a surgeon removing a tumor. Stark and Vision helped rewrite the code that kept Hydra's sleeper agents hidden. The rot was exposed, dragged into the light.
When the hammer finally came down, S.H.I.E.L.D. itself shook. Helicarriers, long symbols of shadowy power, were seized and stripped of Hydra's control. Rogers and Stark stood together this time as governments debated whether to destroy them. Alex intervened once more, his tone firm. Destruction was wasteful. Repurposing was efficient. With his guidance, the helicarriers were refitted, reprogrammed, and sanctified with Mechanicus oversight. They would not serve Hydra again. Instead, they would become instruments of humanity's defense, guardians against threats from within and without.
Ross protested, but his words no longer carried the same fire. His vision of government oversight had collapsed under the weight of Alex's revelations. The Sokovia Accords failed to pass. The world shifted. Instead of splintering, the Avengers stood united. Their debates were sharp, their disagreements real, but Hydra's shadow had given them a common enemy once more.
The media erupted with headlines. Governments celebrated the exposure of Hydra, but also shuddered at how close the serpent had come to strangling them. Citizens demanded accountability, and one by one, the names of traitors appeared in courtrooms.
In the orbital station, Alex stood with Stark, watching the news streams flow across dozens of holo-screens. Stark's smirk carried both relief and curiosity. "You know, Price, you just pulled off what nobody else could. You saved the Avengers from tearing themselves apart and gutted Hydra in one stroke. Almost makes me wonder whose side you're really on."
Alex's gaze stayed fixed on the helicarriers, now stripped and under repair. "I am on the side of humanity's survival. Governments play games. Hydra seeks control. Something is coming. There is no time for division."
Stark was silent for a moment before shaking his head with a laugh. "You're terrifying, you know that? But I like it. Just don't forget, sometimes survival isn't enough. Sometimes people need more."
Alex did not answer. Instead, he pressed his hand to the viewport, watching Earth's reflection ripple in the glass. The shadows had been driven back for now. But he knew others were coming.