[HELLZONE] A House of Cards (Invite)

[webdevil]

He had a thousand solutions to this equation. City on fire? Put out the fire. People in danger? Minimize casualties. And what was Reed Richards doing? What was the great Mister Fantastic and his family of heroic do-gooders doing in a crisis where New York was under siege by gangs of criminals both powered or otherwise vying for territory like it was a game of Risk?

Nothing.

Not because he didn't want to - far from it - he could hear Ben mouth off about it every day. ("All th' boys in Yancy Street, Stretcho! C'mon!") But because he was ordered not to. These were low level superhumans. They did not involve the government - who already caused in incident sending in SHIELD agents who ran headfirst into their Black Ops operatives AND the unregistered community and caused major backlash. All out of fear of losing their vote in the midterms. Reed was many things, but the one thing he hated to be was a politician.

Yet here he was.

He snorted despite himself. Standing in the living room, he eyeballed the news - as unreliable as it was - trying to report a sanitized and heavily biased take on what was going on. True, the Baxter Building and its surrounding block was clean, still had power, and was a safe haven none of the gangs touched out of fear of Reed's defense mechanisms, but, he loathed the idea that it was his weapons that held them down. He felt like Tony. That alone made him feel uncomfortable. He looked down from the window. Beyond the square block surrounding the Baxter was a sea in all directions of soot, smoke, and fire, the sounds of gunfire reaching up even here.

But what could he do about it when he was forbidden to? Did he leave New York to the hope Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the others can do what he couldn't? What he and the Fantastic Four could clean up in an afternoon? Not stroking his ego, he realized and twitched his brow as he did, but a simple fact. Johnny could easily absorb the flames, Sue using her Force Fields to stabilize buildings alongside Ben while civilians got out, Reed pulling out the strays and handling civilian control while the Fantastibots provided first aid. Whatever he missed, he knew with certainty the Avengers could sweep up. This was foolish. Insanity.

Why...

[Rift]

"Why ain't we out there doin' what needs doin?" came Ben Grimm's voice from nearby.

He hadn't suddenly developed mind reading powers nor was the question directed at Reed. Instead the very loud and very angry Thing was speaking into his phone and making no effort to be subtle about the conversation.

"I ain't got an answer fer ya. I mean I do, but it ain't a good one. This whole SRA thing didn't sit right with me in the first place, something about having to wait fer some suit that ain't stepped foot outside his office without armed escort signing off on when we are allowed to help folk? Turns my stomach. May as well just hope the boys in blue learned how ta thumb wrestle Mole Man and pretend response times ain't bee getting longer and longer. And the way it has torn friends apart? Don't seem worth it ta me."

He walked into the room with Reed, still on his call, eyes meeting for just a moment as he took a seat.

"And now this? I can see the flames from my room. Can't bear to look at the news if I wanna keep my dinner down. Glad you are out of the state for all this. Hard enough knowing our old pals are doing the heavy lifting while we sit on our keisters and wait for a pencil pushing nerd to say it's okay to do what we've been doing just fine for years. If you were here though and out in dis? Not even the tin can wearing top cop would be able to stop me from clobbering everything 'tween here and you. Why I've half a mind to see it Stretch ain't got a holo-thingamajigger somewhere round this joint. Or maybe ole Johnny boy has some paint left over from one of the cars he wrecked."

There was a pause as he received a response and Ben, still looking towards Reed chuckled. "What, you don't think Iron Jerk and the gestapo would buy Blue Thing? With everyone changing the color of their pajammas every couple o'months who says their ain't another super handsome rock guy running around doing good? Cause the original orange variety sure ain't done much good lately."

Ben sighed, the sound somewhere between anger and genuine sadness. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But you know me Alicia. This sittin' here doing nothing is not my strong suit. I-I'll call ya later huh? I ain't good company these days, even half a country apart. Okay, yeah, you too."

The call ended and he braced himself for the inevitable lecture, the same calming words that a few weeks prior he'd almost bought into. That was before war had broken out in the streets, before his faith and belief in his friends, once unshakable, had started to waver. Before it could start though, something sounded nearby, and alert drawing attention to something approaching the Baxter Building's helipad.

"Gosh, Stretch I wonder who that could be?" he grumbled. "Think the Director is gonna turn us off leash or is he bringing a rolled up newspaper? Cause I've half a mind to crush his suit like a empty sody can if he's here to make sure we are being good little registered dolts. Or is he sending Hill 'cause the only old friends he has time for are the ones he's tossin' in the slammer?"

[webdevil]

Reed saw a Quinjet begin to dock on the Baxter Building's helipad adjacent to the dock that would carry it to a sub bay that housed the Fantasticar. Quinjets were only allowed out for authorized missions, Reed remembered from Stark's original memo, so what was he doing here, indeed? He turned from the window and scowled at Ben.

"You know perfectly well that Director Hill is overseeing all the helicarriers and preventing anybody still in Manhattan from getting off the island as well as preventing anybody from getting in," he said bitterly. After a pregnant pause, Reed sighed at his old friend.

"We better go see what he wants... I won't lie to you though, I do not like this any more than you do, Ben," said Reed, and with one backwards glance towards the burning cityscape, he made his way to the turbolift that would take him to the helipad.


The Helipad covered the length of the roof of the Baxter Building. Easily distinguished by its signature "4" logo, it had perhaps the quickest access to the main operations facilities the Fantastic Four used. Which came in handy as the turbolift snaked not just vertically but horizontally through the building to appear at closest proximity to wherever people landed. In the case of the Quinjet, the Northeast quadrant.

"The Great Glass Elevator," mused Reed quietly to himself, thinking of the stories he and Sue once read to Franklin and Valeria before their intellect outgrew it as toddlers, as it opened wide to reveal he and Ben staring up at the signature Avengers transport. He could not help but muse at the technological differences between Tony's work and his own. While quite brilliant in his own right, Tony's work was much more industrial in nature - a design element that came from his years of being within the military industrial complex - rather than a more surgical affair. Reed's designs seemed sterile and unassuming. "Alien" almost by comparison to the more mundane. Technologically speaking, he doubted there was all that much of a difference between the two works (though, perhaps, Reed's were a shade more further along, he noted), but he could not help but marvel at the design variances between he and his old friend and colleague.

That feeling of wonderment did not last however, and his face set into a grimace as the on ramp opened to reveal who was inside...

[Rift]

Tony Stark emerged from the Quinjet and down the ramp. He was not clad in his shining technological armor, nor in the designer suit and tie he was so frequently photographed in. Instead he was in full civilian garb, a wrinkled black t-shirt that looked as though he had slept in it. Dark rings underlined his eyes, his meticulously groom goatee had several days worth of growth, and his typical smile was set in a grimace that somehow made him look older than he was. It was clear to anyone who knew him that he was running on fumes.

In truth he had spent the entire flight over, short as it had been, wondering just what to say. He was tired of mind and body, the weight of everything that had happened with the event the media had dubbed a 'civil war' still pressing down on him even with it technically being over. Words, usually so easy to come by, were lost to him at the moment. What was happening in Hell's Kitchen was the exact kind of scenario detractors of the SHRA had warned about and it would only add fuel to the fire for those who had already refused to register. He'd been doing his best to keep the government out of their hair, but there was only so much he could do without seemingly undermining the very ideas he fought his friends over. Now, with his hands tied, it was up to those who viewed him as a traitor to do what he legally couldn't do. To say it was tearing him up was an understatement.

"Reed, glad you're home," he said in greeting, the double meaning obvious. "I take it you've been watching the news?"

Ben Grimm grumbled, his pale blue eyes narrowing as Stark approached.

The Thing had played ball, at least as much as he was willing to, but Stark knew he didn't agree with the SRHA and that it was not in his nature to stand by and do nothing when he could help. While he knew that the rest of the Fantastic Four would probably follow Reed's lead, there was no telling when Ben would just not be able to take the restraints and decide to involve himself regardless of what the law said. He expected the others to feel similarly and so before Ben's conscience got the better of him or any of his other friends, Tony wanted to try and smooth the situation over. After all, he wasn't any happier about it than they were.

"Ben, good to see you. You guys up for a little trip?"

The Thing snorted. "Before I answer, where are we headed? To help those who need it? Or is this another fancy press conference where you assure everyone the situation is under control, all is fine while we sit around like a bunch of jerks while the city burns?"

Tony frowned even harder as he pinched between his eyes. He'd known this was coming, but having the same argument over and over was grating no matter who it was he spoke to.

Focusing on Reed he continued, "Suits in DC don't think this is an Avengers level threat. They are writing it off as a superhuman involved incident, but it doesn't rise to the level they think is appropriate for us to launch a strike. I figure together we can convince them otherwise. Don't want the Avengers involved? Fine. Maybe the Four are the answer. It is your backyard after all. And if registered heroes are the ones to put this down it's a PR win too. Figure if anyone can convince them its the smartest man alive."

[webdevil]

Reed placed his hands on his hips.

"Put down the butter knife, Tony, I know the sales pitch," he said crisply, though his lip twitched very much like how he could hear Ben's teeth grinding at Tony's words. Not seen as an Avengers level threat?

"However, the Fantastic Four are more or less lumped into the same situation as the Avengers on this matter. Any attempt we make to restore order beyond our front doorstep will also have Hill come down on us in equal measure because Congresswoman Suarez or Senator Bradley have an agenda to push that we - or perhaps I should say "I" - have so far made difficult for them to progress with,"

Reed turned and took one more look out the window.

"Rumor is, though, Tony: Your people seem to be ignoring unlawful orders where this is concerned. Perhaps a political shield is the least I could do if Steve, Natasha, and Clint are down there acting as human ones alongside Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the rest," said Reed. He turned back to eye Ben and then Tony.

"Might need to check for bugs again," he said shrugging, as he visualized a chess board.

"Oh and Bishop to Rook E4, by the way," said Reed, letting Tony know that even in a serious situation, he had not forgotten their eternal chess match, both literal, and metaphorical.

[Rift]

Tony sighed. The man known as the Thing didn't just look like rock on the outside, his head was as hard as it too. Stark didn't like the situation any more than he did and he knew that this situation was the very kind of event that was used as an argument against registration, but it was better than the alternative. Had every single person with powers collectively set their foot down and said no, the way Cap and others had wanted, the government response would have been overwhelming. The public may have been divided as they were on most issues, but enough of them were scared of the very people they once looked to for protection, that there would have been no denying the will of the people. The big picture was what he had to look at even if people like Grimm couldn't see it.

"Ben, look I've been over this. I don't like sitting here while the city tears itself apart, but you have to admit under normal circumstances chances are the Avengers would have been half a world away if not on another planet altogether and this kind of situation would have been handled by the time we got back, likely by Spider-Man and others who are able to be out and on the streets instead of dealing with Victor von Doom every time he decides to invent a new superweapon or a Shi'ar warship entering the system. Doesn't make it right, but its the truth," he explained. "Besides, that's why we are going to try and plead our case. They are acting like this would be loosing weapons of mass destruction on a couple of gangbangers, but we all know it isn't that."

Turning to Reed he shrugged. "Not so much ignoring as...prioritizing. I mean can you imagine the uproar if we missed an attack by Mole Man because we were trying to arrest a folk hero like Luke Cage? Even Hill doesn't want that kind of press. So I'm taking the approach that as long as I and in turn the government don't have to have it thrown in our faces and splashed across the ticker on CNN that unregistered heroes are doing the dirty work then I don't have to crack the whip. We both know that what is brewing in the Kitchen is enough that sooner or later I can't ignore it, so I'd much rather get permission to go in and deal with the real bad guys before I have to explain to Jessica Jones why her husband has to spend time in the Raft."

Grimm meanwhile rolled his eyes. "Easy for you to say from your ivory tower. Between the mansion in California and giving Normie personal briefings on Lunatic Force One how often are you even in the city anymore?"

"Trust me Ben. I have eyes almost everywhere even if I can't be. There's only so much one man, even an Iron Man can do, doesn't mean I just close my eyes to the stuff I can't fix yet."

webdevil

[webdevil]

Reed frowned at Tony's remarks. It was a cold, pitying expression. On paper, of course, Tony's logic was entirely sound. This was not a simple matter of costumed heroes going in and cleaning up a mess; this was politics. A messier game. Reed - for all his own self-admitted brilliance and even agreeing with the accountability aspects the SRA afforded them all - hated politics. It was why he preferred to busy himself in scientific research and not military application which would have netted him more patents and profit just like Tony. And it was Ben's remarks that reinforced why. However, Reed had to play diplomat despite Ben more or less voicing the emotional side to his brain.

"It's alright, Ben. Tony wants to put on a show for Washington? Why don't we go give them one?" he said with that same stern expression on his malleable face. When he sensed Ben was not going to be mollified by this, he turned to the hulking mass or orange to his right.

"Think about it: You have a connection to the people that exceeds most of the Avengers, and, regrettably, the rest of us. You know how Johnny is, he wouldn't spend his time among the masses unless it was for a photo op. And Sue is almost as busy with her responsibilities as -" Reed paused to gather himself, "- as I am too busy up here with what you call my "science experiments," he finished somewhat lamely.

After a moment's pause to let what he sad sink in, he pushed on.

"They might listen to me and Tony babble all day and tune us out as quickly as anything despite our status and stature. But Ben Grimm? That might be a tougher sell even without the Thing backing it up,"

Provided Stark can get the media press coverage to not just tune us out in favor of their talking heads so nobody beyond citizen journalists are there to watch.. The one they called Mister Fantastic thought privately. He admired the internet's ability to circumvent mainstream news and get the word out to the common citizen, but the disdain with which the cocktail party crowd he so often interacted with (usually against his will) had for the common man made him envy the likes of Daredevil and Spider-Man.