Chapter 155: Dick Fury, I Agree to Join the Avengers.
Fury went quiet.
He looked down at the file in his hand, then back at Soldier Boy on the bed.
"Let me confirm something first. You're Soldier Boy?"
Soldier Boy didn't answer. He raised his voice toward the imaginary owner of the apartment. "Hey! Did you not hear me? Why is this still in here?!"
"Hey!"
"Hey!!"
"Nobody else is here. Just me." Fury answered, and dropped the file on the bed.
"According to this, Soldier Boy is a man who treats people with respect and carries himself like an exemplary soldier."
Soldier Boy looked at him for the first time. "You're right. I am an exemplary soldier who treats people with respect."
He paused. "But you don't fall under 'people' as I understand the category. So that standard doesn't apply."
"And while you're here, go get me a cold beer."
"Sorry?" Fury genuinely hadn't caught that.
"Cold. Beer. I can write it down if you don't speak the language." Then something occurred to him. "Actually, someone like you probably can't read anyway."
He raised the empty can he'd already finished and dropped it at Fury's feet.
"Just find me one of those. Cold though."
"And get me a cigarette while you're at it. No filter. Filters are for people without a spine."
Fury stood in silence as the stream of words continued.
Was this actually the man in the file?
They should have named him Bigot Boy.
"I need to stop you there." He kept his voice steady. "Please watch your language. It's 2011. We operate on the basis that all people are equal."
"Also, this is a no-smoking space."
Soldier Boy leaned back slightly, reached to the nightstand for another can, and opened it.
He studied Fury for about ten seconds with the look of someone arriving at a conclusion.
Then a knowing smile settled at the corner of his mouth.
"You're making all of this up, aren't you."
Fury stared at him.
How was someone capable of saying that with this level of confidence?
He controlled the entirely reasonable anger he was feeling and tried again. "Everything I said is true. Look it up online if you don't believe me."
"Online? What's online?"
"The internet?"
"Oh, sure. Still making things up."
"For the love of—" Fury had exhausted his approach.
Since Soldier Boy was clearly not going to take his word for anything, he turned and called into the corridor. "Peggy. Come in and explain this to him."
A blonde woman with green eyes stepped into the room.
She had heard everything from outside. She had a very clear picture of who she was dealing with.
She didn't attempt a lengthy explanation. She pulled out her phone and brought up a series of things.
"As you can see: it is actually 2011. Equality is actually the framework people operate under now. The people you seem to have a problem with have in fact held the presidency. Twice."
"As for smoking. This really is a no-smoking space."
Soldier Boy listened to all of this and said what he was thinking without any particular attempt to soften it. "That's disgusting. Did the Nazis win while I was asleep?"
That said, Peggy's evidence had given him something to work with. He updated his picture of where he was.
In practical terms: the person he'd been dismissing as a piece of furniture had been reclassified.
"Dick Fury, right?"
"Nick Fury." Fury's expression, already dark, darkened further.
"Whatever, Dick Fury." Soldier Boy shrugged. "So. Why am I here? You need me to kill someone?"
"No. We're a government organization, not organized crime."
"The reason we brought you in is that we'd like you to be part of protecting the world. I have a proposal here, something called the Avengers Initiative, and if you're open to it—"
He stopped himself mid-sentence.
He looked at Soldier Boy.
Was this actually the right decision?
He thought of the conversation with his superiors. The one where the suggestion of shutting down the Avengers Initiative entirely had been in the air. If he couldn't produce results, the Seven would replace it, and that would be that.
He took a breath and finished the sentence.
"I have a proposal called the Avengers Initiative, and I'd like to ask you to join."
He produced the document from inside his jacket.
Soldier Boy took it, gave it a single glance, and put it aside.
"Honestly, I'm not interested in your plan."
"I don't like alliances. I don't like organizations. Whatever needs doing, I do it myself."
He said it with a specific quality in his expression that wasn't the bluster from earlier.
Since the superhero team he'd led, Payback, had betrayed him, he hadn't considered joining anything. And what he wanted to do right now wasn't protect world peace. What he wanted was to find the members of Payback and make them answer for what they did.
"Soldier Boy." Fury kept his voice level. "With your capabilities, if you remain outside any recognized organization, the government is eventually going to classify you as an uncontrolled threat and bring you in. That's just how it works."
"If you don't mind being locked up again, you don't have to join."
Soldier Boy went quiet.
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a fact. Believe it or don't."
Soldier Boy picked the document back up and read it properly.
About thirty seconds.
"I'll join your... what was it. Debtors?"
"Avengers."
"Right." He put the document down. "Dick Fury. I'll join your Avengers, but you hold up your side of it."
"I'm not going to be put back in a cryogenic chamber. And I'm not going to be betrayed by my teammates again."
"That's not going to happen." Fury nodded.
For the purposes of the Avengers Initiative, Fury was prepared to look past whatever he'd just witnessed in this room. As long as the Initiative survived and kept its mandate, he still had a path to building the team he actually wanted.
Soldier Boy's present behavior was a problem he would deal with later.
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