POV Rio
Dingaling
I entered the home where Jessica was staying and heard her call out.
"I'm to your left," Jessica calls out.
I enter the office to the left and see Jessica reading a book.
"So what can I do... Oh, Question, I didn't know you were coming by today," Jessica says while sitting up straight and quickly cleaning up her desk.
"Relax, I'm just here to give you an invitation," I say while taking a seat across from her.
"An invitation?" Jessica asks.
"Wanna become a member of the Guardians of the Globe?" I ask bluntly.
"What? I mean what?" Jessica says with utter bafflement.
If she were a computer, she would have crashed and would now be rebooting.
"I... Wow, that's a big suggestion, but I can't really accept. I don't think I am good enough to become a member," Jessica says self-deprecatingly.
"Sure you are. You can fly, have super strength and durability, and most importantly, you have a good heart. Even with your past incident, you have been helping out at night every so often," I explain.
"Oh, you know about that?" Jessica says bashfully.
"Jessica, your powers are fairly distinct, and you aren't that great at hiding yourself. You're on several agencies' watchlists now as they either know or strongly believe you are a metahuman. The only thing keeping them from making a move is your unknown connection to Rio Pines. That alone makes them nervous of accidentally angering the creature behind him," I explain.
"Creature? You mean those old bedtime stories? The Lady of the Woods? Don't tell me you actually believe that?" Jessica says with a mocking smile.
That smile slowly fades when she starts to realize I wasn't joking.
"What? You believe that story? Really? You?" Jessica says with shock.
"I've met the Lady of the Woods herself. She's very real, and likely one of the strongest beings on the planet," I reply honestly.
And I wasn't exaggerating. Gaia Everfree was very strong. Strong enough that anyone short of the Sorcerer Supreme wouldn't be able to beat her. It was very fortunate for the world that she was a very peaceful creature. The other issue is that the more forested the world becomes them stronger she becomes. Which with Africa being a massive forest right now, you can imagine her power has increased quite a lot. Then you consider the fact that as long as the forest remains, you cannot kill her permanently. She would be reborn from the trees eventually.
You might think that just means you should destroy her source of power, the forests, and be done with it. Except that won't work either, as that would make her even stronger with the full rage of Mother Nature behind her. Sure, she couldn't revive anymore, but now you have an enraged nature spirit that became much stronger from anger. At that point, I'm not sure what could stop her, as I had no idea how strong she would become, and I hope that I never find out.
"She's real?" Jessica says with wide eyes.
"Very real. Why do you think the US Government has yet to even attempt to develop the forest? You really think that some notion of honoring some old treaty would stop them?" I ask.
"Uh, yeah, I guess that's kind of dumb," Jessica agrees.
"But we're getting off topic. Do you want to be a member?" I ask again.
"You really think I would fit in?" Jessica asks.
"Yes, your powers are being wasted here, where you can't train them properly. Without training, you could harm someone or something by accident. But with proper training, I dare say you would be far better than Captain America," I respond calmly.
Jessica mulls it over for a bit.
"Okay, but I don't want to leave New York," Jessica warns.
"That's fine, you can operate out of New York once you get a better hold of your powers. But no more midnight strolls until then. At least not until your trainer believes you can do so without risk to the public," I reply.
"Deal," Jessica says while shaking my hand.
I give her a card and explain to her how she will get her training. To start, I also give her a tour of the Watchtower. As for her trainer? That was none other than Captain America. I left her in his care and went to recruit the next member.
There were several people I wanted to reach out to. Spiderwoman and Spiderman were the first two, though in their case, I specifically offered them training in my Batman persona. I didn't have much intention of making them full members yet, as they had enough work to deal with. The third was Luke Cage. He was a bit harder to convince, but with some effort and promising him his civilian life and those of his neighborhood wouldn't be negatively affected, I got him to agree to join. It also likely helped that his neighborhood was doing quite well thanks to investment from Wayne Enterprises, which I revealed was a partner of the Guardians of the Globe.
The next member was one who was easy to convince, or rather, I didn't have to even try.
"It's about time you formally accepted me in!" Tony complains.
"Don't make me regret this, Tony," I warn.
"Oh, come on, I've turned a new leaf. And what would you do without my genius?" Tony jokes.
"You understand that you won't be the leader, right? And that you will have to follow orders sometimes, even some that you may not like, right?" I explain.
"Look, I know I can be a bit of an arrogant prick, and I have a large ego. But I've changed, I'm working on myself, and I promise I'll listen to you. That being said, I will be very vocal about my disagreement when it happens, but I trust you enough to know that you wouldn't tell me to do something without a damn good reason," Tony says while dropping all joking mannerisms.
"Good, cause I know you can do some really good things, but sometimes you can make bad calls, and you have a tendency to dislike listening to others," I reply calmly.
"Ouch, but fair. I know what you're building is a big deal, and I want to do good. I've done a lot of bad in my life, and I know I have a long way to go, but I'll be happy that I'm doing it alongside friends like you," Tony says with a warm smile.
"Thanks, Tony," I say, and we hug.
"So who are you recruiting next?" Tony asks as we break the hug.
"I was thinking of recruiting Antman, but after looking into it, I found that his tech doesn't work anymore. Apparently, Pym Particles require the Quantum Realm to work as the displaced mass has to go somewhere. And while he is smart, he is also now enjoying retirement with his newly reunited wife. That really only leaves two other people that might be options, but one I am still doing research on, and the other is... Complicated," I explain.
"Huh? Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. I never really looked too much into Pym Particles. They were interesting to read up on, but without much to go on, I decided against researching them. And... I don't mean to sound rude, but I've met Hank Pym once before. The guy is not pleasant to deal with, and while he is a genius, he is also a hyper-specialized scientist. Which isn't bad, I guess, but just making sure you are aware," Tony says with a conflicted tone.
"Really? You didn't like him? Why?" I ask.
"He's an abrasive person who has a bigger ego than even me. And I'm talking about old me, so yeah, the guy wasn't pleasant to talk with. Now, maybe he has changed a bit since then, but I don't think he would be a great fit for this new team," Tony explains.
"Fair enough, oh, and one more thing. No AI, do not attempt to make an autonomous drone army or anything. Jarvis is fine, but any other AI work needs to be overlooked by me," I warn dealy seriously.
"Whoa! Easy, I wasn't going to do that. Don't get me wrong, I considered it for a bit, but after some thought, I felt it wasn't needed. We're enough. I've seen your tech, and I feel that it will be enough to keep Earth safe. There were also some safety concerns that I thought up. So you don't have to worry," Tony says defensively.
"Okay, good. I only say this cause I really don't want to take down the entire internet to wipe out an AI. Zola was only easy to destroy because he was still running on old technology. If Hydra had spent lots of time and money on upgrading Zola, he could have become a crisis," I warn.
My words seem to surprise Tony.
"I... I never thought about it like that. Yeah, that could be really problematic. But the message received no AI. But back to the previous topic, who else are you considering recruiting?" Tony asks, but I can tell he was trying to get off the topic.
"A mutant and the current prince of a defunct kingdom. The mutant is a telepath that I've been keeping an eye on. I believe it is likely she is working with Sebastian Shaw, but I need more time to confirm her true stance on the matter. The prince, on the other hand, is T'Challa, the current Crown Prince of Wakanda. The issue is that his kingdom is destroyed, and that kingdom was extremely xenophobic and isolationist, with most of the people believing all non-Wakandans were savage barbarians that cannot be trusted and should be left to die outside their utopia. Now I can't fully ascertain what T'Challa believes as it stands, but I am cautious about recruiting someone with such vested interests that might conflict with the safety of the world," I explain with a frown.
"Wow, yeah, I can see how that can be an issue," Tony says simply.
"For now, I will observe them and then find a chance to reach out to them. If they can be recruited, then great, if not, then oh well," I answer simply.