32 | Think About Why They're Here

                                    

                                          
All surrounding the television in Tony's living room, the group watched the viral video circulating the internet. It had been reshared, liked and commented on hundreds of thousands of times already; and it had only been up for a few hours.
                          
SHIELD were doing their best to track where the video was uploaded from but the villains who planned this had executed their plan flawlessly; with high security by highly trained experts.
                          
Happy was sitting in a large leather armchair, a bag of M&M's cradled in the nook of his elbow and watching with a look of confusion plastered on his face. He didn't really understand what was going on, he was the type of person to ask questions during a movie that nobody else had seen and expect an answer.
                          
Pepper was leant forward on the couch, her elbows resting on her knees and her chin in her hands. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her eyes wide as she watched the video in fear, trying to decipher the meaning behind it.
                          
Tony was next to her, his hand on Peppers thigh out of an attempt to comfort her although he wasn't entirely convinced this video was of legitimate concern yet. His eyes were squinted, scowling at the masked man on the screen.
                          
Next to Tony and Pepper on the adjacent lounge were Y/N and Peter. Both of them intrigued by the broadcasted video but mostly telling Happy to stop talking over it and pausing the video whenever he asked another blatantly dumb question.
                          
"We don't know who this guy is Happy. Nobody does," Peter sighed, restarting the video as he had already asked multiple questions in the first twenty seconds.
                          
"This time nobody speaks until it's finished okay?" Y/N sighed, directing her request at the three older adults in the room.
                          
The video started with a masked man, sitting in front of a large wall of screens; a neon nightmare. Cables and wires hung down from the roof and plugged into an overwhelming amount of screens and power sockets. There were people walking around and working behind him, all masked similarly to himself. The masks looked metallic, as if they were technologically equipped, and once he began talking with a distorted voice it proved that the mask had more purpose than solely cloaking the wearers face.
                          
"Before you all realise, this video will be shared around the world faster than anyone can take it down. More people will see this than any local news broadcast and we will spread our word on the largest scale possible. We are The Underground. We are in your community. We are in your work places. We are in your schools. In your coffee shops, your libraries, your places of worship. The Underground is everywhere and there's nothing you can do to stop us. We are every day people. We are your neighbours. Your friends. Your family. We do not wish any harm. We do not wish burden. We only wish to highlight the truth behind the worldwide obsession with superheroes. They are nothing more than a marketing ploy to give people a false sense of hope," the masked man begun before Happy scoffed and exclaimed that this was 'fucking bullshit'.
                          
All four of the others shushed him in unison.
                          
"Whilst your precious Avengers are saving your cities from lowly bank robbers, our governments are working alongside them to hide the real evils of the world. They are not like us. They are not safe. And before you all turn this off and comment about how this is 'political propaganda' watch this and reconsider," He continued, his video cutting to footage from the Brooklyn Bridge siege Peter had stopped.
                          
"This is what you don't see on your perfectly planned news coverage. You all think Spider-Man saved the innocent people from death and rescued them safely to their families. But what about those he neglected to save? What about the innocent lives he failed to rescue?" The masked man taunted, showing footage of multiple cars falling into the East River below. The video cut to the screaming civilians who were saved by Peter, only to show their forgotten loved ones being crushed by the falling bridge or burnt alive from the explosions fire. This of course was footage before Peter had even gotten to the scene.
                          
"We only see the small positive wins that our worlds heroes protect us from. What about all the death and destruction they cause in doing so? What about the immense damage we are left with as a community to deal with once their job is done? What about the damage we can't fix? The lives that are lost. The mothers and fathers, our children and our friends that are taken from us without a second look. This is all shrouded in a dark cloud of lies that we as a society have the right to know. These are not heroes. These are human weapons created to keep society from knowing the truth," he spoke.
                          
"We deserve the right to stand up for ourselves. We deserve the right to say no to heroes. We did perfectly fine without them for centuries. Why is it only when heroes are created, that we suddenly have 'world threatening villains' in our midst? Think about it... Think about The Revolution," he finished, the video ending with a black screen.
                          
Tony clapped his hands together and tutted his tongue against his mouth as he mulled over hundred of thoughts running through his head; he was a very loud thinker.
                          
"Well, looks like we have a bunch of guys killing people  on purpose to make it seem like we're not saving people... Awesome, this is really great guys, super excited about these guys," Tony sighed, his sarcasm always more evident when he was stressed.
                          
"Agent Coulson said they're doing their best to skim the video for any leads or signs of identifying the people in the video. It looked like that man was in some sort of lair or warehouse type base... There's definitely a group of them," Pepper said nervously.
                          
"And this video is basically like their recruitment video... Don't get me wrong I hated superheroes for majority of my life but I never wanted them to disappear... I just though they were stuck up," Y/N said in defence before apologising to both Tony and Peter and saying her views had obviously changed.
                          
"I don't know about you guys but I don't think this is going to be an easy fix... The more people they recruit, the more risk we have of killing civilians..." Tony groaned, getting up off the lounge and audibly voicing to the group that he needed a drink.
                          
And he did just that, he poured himself a large glass of whiskey on ice and tried to control his racing mind.