Chapter 223: You Don't Get to Say "For the People"
His brow furrowed.
The representative who'd proposed the idea let his gaze sweep across the room.
Everywhere that gaze landed, the room went still.
Thaddeus Ross, the U.S. Secretary of State, frowned the instant he heard the proposal.
He looked up toward the representative who'd raised the idea of negotiations.
The representative seemed to notice Ross's gaze landing on him.
As if picking up on some unspoken signal, he gave Ross an almost imperceptible nod, then slammed a hand on the table and rose abruptly to his feet. "Negotiate?!"
"Is this some kind of joke?" The representative braced both hands on the table, his gaze sweeping across the faces of everyone who'd voiced support for negotiation, open contempt in his eyes.
"So what you're saying is... we should sit down and negotiate with a group of superpowered individuals who refuse to sign an international security accord, openly resist arrest, and have even used private military force to threaten federal law enforcement officers?"
With that, he jabbed a finger hard against the SHIELD Accords lying on the table.
"How many years has the United Nations existed, and now we're supposed to sink to negotiating with a single individual, and a single private company?!"
"Everyone, this is a matter of sovereignty. This is a matter of national dignity!"
"If we sit here today and tell a non-governmental armed organization, one with its own private military, one that refuses any form of international oversight, one that had the nerve to announce, live on a global broadcast, that it was taking over Earth's security, 'let's talk this over'..."
"Then tomorrow, every ambitious actor on this planet will know exactly what the United Nations really is: a flea market where anything can be haggled over."
"Show enough of a threat, and we'll fold every single time."
At that, Thaddeus Ross, who'd been seated until then, slowly rose from his chair as well.
"Ahem." Ross gave a light cough, drawing every eye in the room toward him.
Once he had everyone's attention, he began. "I fully agree with what's just been said."
"Everyone, I think we all need to confront one basic fact..."
"Matthew Lawrence and Umbrella Corporation are no longer just an ordinary security and pharmaceutical company."
"They possess a military force independent of any nation on Earth. They control an energy and medical network spanning the entire globe. They command an army of genetically modified super soldiers."
"If they remain outside UN oversight, unbound by any nation's laws, capable of doing exactly what we watched on that broadcast, crippling and absorbing an entire small nation's government within a matter of hours..."
He paused for a moment, his gaze sharpening further.
"The mere existence of an organization like this is already the single greatest threat to global security."
"If we choose to back down today out of fear of his power, what happens tomorrow?"
"What happens when he makes an even more outrageous demand the day after that?"
"And the day after that? And the day after that?!"
"Backing down will only make him bolder!!"
"We have to resolve this problem now, with the strongest measures available, before he becomes an even bigger threat!"
The words settled, and the handful of national representatives who'd spent years falling in lockstep behind the United States nodded, almost in unison.
Japan's representative pushed his glasses up and was the first to voice agreement. "Exactly right!"
"An unregulated, superpowered armed faction represents an unacceptable risk to global security!"
"Agreed," Britain chimed in as well.
Listening to them, the remaining representatives hesitated for a moment, but after catching Ross's gaze, slowly raised their hands in agreement too.
One after another.
Their statements piled up in quick succession.
Inside the assembly hall, the tension that had briefly eased moments ago now thickened again under the weight of everyone's pro-war rhetoric.
That was when the representative who'd originally proposed negotiations pushed his microphone stand aside and slowly rose from his seat.
"Mr. Thaddeus Ross just said some very 'pleasant-sounding' things."
"National dignity, global security, that sort of thing..."
"I'll admit, it all sounds beautiful on the surface."
"But everyone here... I'd like to remind you all of one issue that seems to have been deliberately overlooked."
With that, he picked up the copy of the SHIELD Accords from the table.
"I don't think I need to explain to anyone in this room what this document, the one we're demanding Matthew Lawrence and every other superhero sign, actually says."
"So let me put it plainly."
"If the positions here were reversed, would any of you actually sign this?"
With that, the representative crumpled the accord in his hand furiously and hurled it straight at Ross.
Smack!
The paper ball struck Ross squarely in the chest.
There wasn't much force behind it, but the insult behind it was unmistakable.
Before Ross could respond, the man kept going. "If we'd actually shown genuine good faith from the start, and put forward a framework both sides could actually accept, things would never have escalated to where we are today."
"And beyond that..."
"I believe Mr. Thaddeus Ross, who was responsible for drafting this document... or rather, the United States itself, bears full responsibility for what's happened here."
He lifted his head, looking directly across the room at Ross.
"My government wishes to formally state, for the record, that over the past several years, Umbrella Corporation has provided our country with clean energy infrastructure, medical assistance, and extensive support with civilian technology, and has helped us resolve numerous security concerns."
"Our relationship with Umbrella Corporation is one of deep cooperation, not hostility."
"Regardless of whatever decision this assembly ultimately reaches, my country will not participate in any military action against Umbrella Corporation."
His voice wasn't loud, but every word landed clearly.
After a brief silence, a second voice rose to join him.
South Africa's representative spoke up in agreement. "We too have been beneficiaries of Umbrella Corporation's medical assistance programs over these past years."
"Before Umbrella's free vaccine program reached us, tens of thousands of our children died every year from preventable infectious disease."
"Matthew Lawrence's arrival solved that problem. The United Nations never did."
"So we will not be participating in this war either."
With that, the other nations that had had no real appetite for war in the first place rose from their own seats one after another.
The content of their individual statements varied, but the direction of every one of them was identical.
In short: no participation, no support, no taking sides.
On the other side, the war hawks continued to insist that Umbrella represented the single greatest cancer threatening social stability, and that failing to remove it now would only make the problem harder to solve later.
And so, by the end of it, the United Nations assembly failed to reach any consensus at all.
The room had split cleanly into two factions.
And at the same time, a world-scale, targeted war had already begun...
Thaddeus Ross, a man who'd once treated the Hulk as a personal thorn in his side, now looked at Matthew and the assembled heroes' defiant stance toward government and policy and marked every one of them as targets that had to be eliminated.
Whatever remarkable contributions they'd once made to global security, right now, their continued existence was, to him, nothing more than a direct provocation against the state and its authority.
Once the UN assembly dispersed...
Inside the Secretary of State's office.
"If they refuse to accept oversight... then let's go to war."
"The world got along fine without superheroes before, and it'll be just fine without them again. Better off, even," Ross muttered to himself inside the office.
He then turned to a group of men in camouflage uniforms standing nearby. "You all know what needs to happen here."
"The President, as we all know, has always favored a diplomatic resolution to this. And if this document doesn't get signed, none of our plans to eliminate them can move forward."
"So-"
"Your assignment is simple. Get the President to sign this document."
"Complete this task, and I guarantee every one of you a bright future ahead."
Elsewhere.
"War?! Are you out of your mind?!" The sitting President shot up out of his chair.
"Do you people actually think war is some kind of game?"
"People die in wars!"
"Why aren't we negotiating?! Didn't I specifically direct the Secretary of State to push for peace talks? How did it come to this?!"
"Are you telling me... the Secretary of State never once actually advocated for negotiation at that meeting, and has been pushing his own hawkish rhetoric the entire time instead?!"
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!!"
President Ellis's face twisted with fury as he cursed Thaddeus Ross's unilateral overreach, slamming both fists down on his desk over and over.
But before Ellis's anger had a chance to fade, the office door was suddenly thrown open!
No announcement. No knock. None of the basic courtesies that should have come with it.
The door slammed against the wall with a heavy, dull crash, swallowing whatever curse had been about to leave Ellis's throat.
Ellis looked up.
A group of men in camouflage uniforms filed into the room.
Seeing this, Ellis froze for roughly two seconds.
For a moment, he genuinely couldn't work out what these men were here for.
"You... is there something you need?"
"..." None of them answered.
Seeing their silence, his gaze landed on the document in one officer's hands.
A few seconds later, he drew a slow breath, as if he'd just understood everything.
Ellis slowly braced both hands against his desk, his knuckles going faintly white from the pressure, his expression turning grim.
"Is this what you'd call..."
"A coup?"
At that, the office fell silent again.
The officer leading the group didn't look away from Ellis's stare.
He stood ramrod straight, hands clasped behind his back, his face carrying no expression at all.
He didn't answer Ellis's question either, instead speaking on his own. "Mr. President, we're fully aware of your position on this war."
"But the situation has now developed to a point where compromise is no longer an option."
"The mere existence of Umbrella Corporation already represents an unacceptable threat to international order."
"So, this war has to happen."
"For the national interests of the United States of America. For the integrity of the global security framework."
"...And also... for the people."
"..." Hearing the phrase "for the people," Ellis lifted his head.
He suddenly laughed.
"For the country? For the world? For the people?"
"Sounds like you've thought of every angle, except the one where any of this is about you, doesn't it."
He murmured it, half to himself. "The people? The people?!"
Bang!
Ellis slammed a fist down on the desk and jerked his head up. "You bastards, who only know how to make war, what right do you have to talk to me about 'the people'?!"
"Fifty-one states. Three hundred and forty-nine million people. I'm the one carrying that weight on my shoulders!"
"'For the people.' Those three words. It's not your turn to say them!"
Ellis's roar echoed through the office.
The officer, unable to hold his head up under that verbal assault, clenched both fists, but in the end still signaled to the man beside him to hand the document forward.
"We're sorry, Mr. President."
"But please, sign this document."
Ellis looked at the folder now being held out in front of him and made no move to take it.
"Ha! And if I refuse?" he said, flatly.
The lead officer's expression didn't change at all.
Neither did the expressions of the men standing beside him... as if they'd already known this question was coming.
Or, more precisely, as if they'd already prepared an answer for it before they'd even walked in.
"Mr. President." The officer's voice stayed even. "I think you already understand that this isn't a decision that's yours alone to make anymore."
With that, he set the folder down on the desk and slid it toward Ellis.
Ellis looked down at the document.
After a long moment, he asked, calm and even, "Did Thaddeus Ross put you up to this?"
The men said nothing.
They didn't confirm it. They didn't deny it either.
"And if this was Thaddeus Ross's idea, then I'd imagine the war hawks over at the Pentagon feel exactly the same way, don't they?" he continued.
There was something in his voice that could have been mockery, or exhaustion, or both.
"How long have they been waiting for a day like this?"
"Since the Hulk? Since Iron Man? Or since Apocalypse showed up..."
Still, silence.
Ellis pulled his gaze away and reached for the heavy pen sitting on his desk.
He opened the folder.
Beneath the cover page sat the blank line still waiting for his signature.
Above that empty line, page after page already carried the signatures of officer after officer.
Looking at the document in front of him, the President's hand trembled, faintly, despite himself.
Not out of fear. Not out of anger. But because he understood, better than anyone in this room, exactly how many people were going to die the moment his name landed on this paper.
So could he simply choose not to sign?
Of course he could.
Except someone else would just sign in his place.
The same way that if he wasn't willing to keep up appearances himself, someone else would gladly do it for him.
"...You people are out of your minds."
"Do you actually believe you can win this?"
The pen tip touched the paper, ink blooming slightly under the force of his own fury.
In the end, Ellis signed his name.
The moment Ellis's signature landed on the page, the nations backing the war issued their declarations to the world.
They announced the closure of all logistics and shipping routes to Umbrella Corporation, the freezing of every asset the company held, the seizure of all its cargo, the detention of its local researchers, and the reclassification of every one of Umbrella's patents and biological samples as "the common property of humanity," to be released publicly across the globe, effective immediately.
The move was, without question, absolutely ruthless.
And before the United States had even formally declared war, several other nations had already beaten them to it.
The first to speak up was Japan, that perpetually comfortable little nation.
Ever the loyal lapdog of American politics, Japan issued its own declaration before the U.S. government had even released its official statement.
And almost immediately after, the Astartes patrolling the skies over Japan came under a sudden, unprovoked attack...
***
tsk tsk og author couldn't hide his true colours, lol, I kept it as is, since it's kinda "true"