Chapter 183: A Public Execution? Apologies, This One's Not Happening
A pale blue shape cut through the cloud layer at a speed that left a visible scar in the air behind it.
The velocity and the wake it generated were enough to physically tear a gap through the dense cumulus cover at altitude.
Back at Umbrella, Ada had finally gotten clear of the irritating phone call and moved on to formally arranging the Magneto family's roles.
Magneto first. The reason Matthew had prioritized recruiting him wasn't sentimental. It was the organization standing behind him.
Years ago, he'd built the Brotherhood of Mutants from nothing, purely on personal charisma and conviction. He was older now, but the foundation hadn't gone anywhere. With the right push, it could be reconstituted as something new.
Matthew's instruction to him had been specific: find a way to relaunch the Brotherhood.
Two reasons. First, a reactivated organization would give Umbrella a far more effective channel for managing the broader mutant population. Second, once the civil rights legislation reached the voting stage, someone was going to need to drive turnout and public support for it.
In a country that prided itself on its commitment to freedom, voting was, after all, a tradition not to be skipped.
With Magneto's assignment settled, Ada turned to the others.
She took a sip of the iced coffee on the table and looked across at Polaris. "Mr. Lawrence specifically asked me to make sure everyone's preferences are respected when we're assigning roles."
"So, Miss Dane. Do you have any thoughts on what you'd want to do? Or a general direction you're leaning toward?"
Polaris, now in her new suit with her hair pinned back, looking considerably more put-together than she had an hour ago, took a moment before answering. "...Administrative work?"
"I'd prefer that over combat. I'd actually like to use what I studied for something real."
Something flickered across Ada's expression. Genuine surprise.
She hadn't expected to find an actual academic in this group.
"Lorna, when you say administrative, what specifically are we talking about? What was your field at school?"
The question caught Polaris off guard. She realized she'd jumped straight to her preference without mentioning the actual relevant detail.
"Sorry, sorry. I got ahead of myself and skipped over what I actually studied."
She cleared her throat and straightened. "I majored in business administration. I already have my master's in it. I'm currently working on a physics degree as well."
Pietro, unable to resist, jumped in before she finished. "Lorna's the smartest one in the family, by a wide margin. Neither I nor Wanda come close to her academically."
"Right, Wanda?" He nudged Wanda with his elbow.
Wanda had, once again, just had her academic standing publicly compared and found wanting by her own brother. It happened to be accurate.
"...Yes. That's true," she confirmed.
Ada's attention shifted back to Polaris. "Business administration, with a completed master's?"
"That's correct," Polaris confirmed.
"In that case." Ada considered her, eyes moving over her with new interest. "I actually have exactly the right position for you."
The look made Polaris briefly self-conscious, checking whether there was something on her clothes.
"Is something wrong, Miss Wong?"
"No." Ada shook her head.
"I was just thinking about whether you'd be willing to take on the role of Mr. Lawrence's personal assistant."
"Honestly, the company's expanded so much in the last six months that our workload has scaled right along with it, and we are consistently understaffed."
"Given your background, you'd be an excellent fit for this."
"It solves an urgent staffing problem for us and matches exactly what you're looking for in terms of administrative work."
"The one thing you'd want to think carefully about is whether you can handle the pace, and the fact that you'd be working closely with the Boss on a daily basis."
Polaris, hearing that this was the concern, answered immediately. "That's not a problem. Anything work-related, I can handle."
Then she lowered her voice slightly.
"By the way, Miss Wong... Mr. Lawrence doesn't have a habit of, you know, expecting things from his assistants. Right?"
Ada didn't answer immediately. She gave Polaris a sideways glance. "Miss Dane, Umbrella has an explicit written policy prohibiting romantic relationships between employees, particularly across reporting lines."
"As for what you're describing, that's not something that happens inside this company. At all. Unless someone has decided they no longer want their job."
"That said, you're an attractive woman, and I understand the concern from one woman to another."
"But I'll personally vouch for this: Mr. Lawrence is not that kind of person. You have nothing to worry about."
"Good. That's a relief to hear."
With Polaris settled, Ada turned to Pietro.
Before she could say anything, Pietro got there first, hand already up. "Miss Wong. Can I join the Avengers?"
Ada went quiet again.
A few seconds passed. She touched the earpiece in her ear and answered. "The Boss says he can ask whether the Avengers have any openings."
"If they're not actively recruiting right now, there's not much he can do."
"The Avengers operate under a government agency. That's not something the company can decide unilaterally."
Pietro nodded along automatically, then froze as something occurred to him.
"Miss Wong. Wait. Are you saying Mr. Lawrence could hear everything we just said?"
Ada nodded. "It helps with assigning everyone to the right role."
"...So the thing I just asked," Polaris said, her expression sliding into open discomfort, "he heard that too?"
She'd assumed that comment was a private aside. It turned out she'd just asked her new employer, in earshot of the man himself, whether he expected sexual favors from his assistants.
This was, in fact, exactly as mortifying as it sounded.
"That's correct." Ada's mouth curved into a small smile. She nodded again.
On the sofa, Wanda glanced at her sister, who was visibly trying to disappear into the carpet through sheer force of will, and took a quiet sip of her tea, privately relieved she hadn't said anything similarly compromising.
While Pietro was still processing all of this, Ada looked up again, apparently receiving a new update. "Mr. Maximoff. I have good news for you."
"Mr. Lawrence just reached out to the Avengers' point of contact. As it turns out, they are looking to bring someone new on."
"With the Boss's recommendation behind you, assuming there's nothing concerning in your background, your spot is essentially confirmed."
Ada turned to Wanda. "Miss Maximoff, you-"
A sonic boom split the air outside before she could finish.
A figure in blue, wrapped in a star-spangled cape, was hovering outside the building, suspended in open air at full height.
"Hey! Pietro! Mind if I join the conversation?"
The voice came through the floor-to-ceiling window beside them, one designed for ventilation and the view rather than entry.
Homelander smiled at Pietro with the easy warmth of a man entirely unrelated to the one who'd just been terrorizing Emily. The version standing here looked exactly like the one in every press photo.
Pietro blinked, caught off guard at being addressed directly.
Before he could respond, Ada cut in. "Mr. Homelander. Eavesdropping is considered rude."
There was a flicker of wariness behind her eyes as she looked at him. He hadn't made any aggressive move. But just standing there, his presence alone had set off her spider-sense at a frequency that read as a continuous warning siren.
It was telling her, without ambiguity, that whatever was floating outside that window was a confirmed threat, and that it could end all of them in the next second without any visible buildup at all.
Homelander absorbed the open accusation in Ada's tone and locked his attention on her, his gaze also sweeping across every visible and concealed security camera in the lounge.
Having confirmed this room alone had at least a few dozen lenses pointed at it, he kept his gentlemanly composure intact and offered the room a small smile. "My apologies. I wasn't intending to listen in."
"The reason for the intrusion is that I have a somewhat urgent personal matter to discuss with Pietro. But again, I apologize for the imposition."
He moved his attention off Ada and back to Pietro. "Pietro. Could we speak privately?"
"Uh... sure." Pietro shrugged.
"Although, do we actually know each other?"
"I mean, obviously I know who you are. You're Homelander. America's hero, the embodiment of justice. But how do you know who I am? I'm nobody."
Homelander waved this off with practiced humility. "No, no. You're not nobody."
"Quite the opposite. My friend... you're the real hero here."
"I just happen to be the one out front. People like you do the work quietly, without the recognition, and this society wouldn't function without it."
The compliment landed exactly where Pietro intended it to, but he couldn't let any of that show externally. A real hero doesn't get visibly thrilled by public praise. The correct response was understated. "Ahem. Just doing what anyone should do."
"As for how I know about you..."
He let out a theatrical sigh. "It starts with a mistake Vought made."
"You probably know the Seven took heavy losses during the alien invasion."
"To make the Seven great again, and to keep the world from falling into the wrong hands, we have to rebuild the team properly."
"By rights, you should have been brought straight into the Seven in the first round. Your actual value should have been obvious immediately."
"Instead, our third-party screening vendor dropped the ball, and you ended up missing your slot through no fault of your own. You walked away discouraged and signed with Umbrella, where your real potential is going to waste."
"It's a genuine tragedy. A waste of real talent." Homelander delivered this with a heavy sigh and an expression of such profound regret that anyone watching might have assumed he was about to issue a formal apology to the nation.
Pietro, watching this display of guilt, found himself momentarily speechless, and what he felt looking at Homelander had shifted unmistakably toward sympathy.
He hadn't expected Homelander to feel this strongly about something this small, let alone come in person to make it right.
More than that: this man had apparently seen something genuinely valuable in him.
As the old saying goes: good horses are common, but a man who can recognize one is rare.
Right now, Pietro was looking at Homelander the way a great horse looks at the trainer who finally sees it for what it is. Two pieces clicking into place.
And that was before factoring in the carefully constructed perfect-hero filter Vought had spent years building around him.
It felt, in the moment, like Superman showing up out of nowhere and telling him, with total sincerity: working security here is a waste of what you could be doing. Come with me. Let's protect the world together.
It was overwhelming in a way Pietro, a man who'd been moonlighting as an occasional street-level hero at best up to this point, had no real defense against. Homelander had him completely.
After all, joining the Seven had been Pietro's original plan from the start.
Having Homelander show up to personally make the case wasn't doing much for his resolve.
Wanda, watching her brother visibly start to waver, used her power to give the lining of his jacket a discreet tug, then leaned in and dropped her voice.
"Pietro. We just signed a contract."
"And Mr. Lawrence has already made calls to the Avengers on your behalf. If you walk now..."
She didn't finish the thought out loud. She didn't need to. Anyone with functioning judgment could fill in the rest.
Walking away now wasn't just an insult to Umbrella. It was an insult to their father and to Matthew Lawrence personally.
Pietro registered all of that and went quiet.
In the silence, the elevator doors opened.
Matthew came through them at a fast, purposeful pace, dressed in a dark brown knit coat, a document in one hand and his phone in the other, still finishing a conversation with whoever was on the line.
He didn't end the call until he'd reached the group. Then he hung up and handed the document directly to Pietro.
"Pietro Django Maximoff. Take this."
"Tomorrow morning, nine thirty, bring this to SHIELD. Someone will be there to receive you personally."
"As long as your name's spelled right on the form, you're officially Avengers by tomorrow."
Pietro looked at the document, opened his mouth to say something, and was immediately cut off by Matthew's raised hand.
"I know you've got a lot to say. Save it."
"That conversation," he said, his gaze shifting to the figure hanging outside the window, "happens after I finish with Mr. Homelander."
"Mr. Homelander. I'm currently speaking to you in my capacity as a special advisor to SHIELD. I have a question for you."
"Are you aware that Vought has been conducting unauthorized human experimentation on mutants?"
The question stopped Homelander's train of thought cold. For a moment he genuinely didn't have a response ready.
Just as the words "are you sure you've got the right information" were about to come out of him on instinct, Matthew spoke again.
"Mr. Homelander. If I'm asking this question, it's because I already have solid evidence. And access to internal information most people don't have."
"So." Matthew said it slowly, each word landing with deliberate weight. "Think carefully before you answer."
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