Dispute

"Why should we go along with a bill like this? We protected their safety and took down so many evil enemies!"

Scott stood in the conference room, muttering without pause.

Ever since Li Nian had invited him to join the Avengers a year ago, his social standing had gone from being that thief to being that Avengers thief. Life had become far more comfortable. The company he had started with his best friend had received investment support, and his ex-wife had agreed to let him see their child. He had been living quite well.

Until yesterday, when Ross gathered them together and informed them of the Superhuman Act.

"I won't sign it. Those people are no different from Tony Stark. They're all a bunch of bloodsuckers!" Pietro stood with his arms crossed, glaring furiously at Rhodey nearby. Tony Stark was absent, but those two were on the same side.

Wanda stared blankly at Li Nian across from her, a trace of resentment and bitterness filling her eyes. She seemed to resent the fact that this man had left without saying a word—and stayed gone for over a year.

Li Nian felt uneasy under Wanda's gaze. He secretly glanced at the girl, then immediately looked away, as though afraid of being caught.

This is killing me! This is killing me!

Li Nian roared inwardly. They had only just reunited with the Avengers, yet the atmosphere was already this strange.

Steve sat at the head of the table without a word, his face full of worry. Natasha wore a grave expression as she observed the shifts in everyone's thoughts, her gaze lingering on Li Nian in particular. Scott and Sam kept chattering away with complaints, their words filled with resentment toward the government. Pietro looked as though he wanted to tear Li Nian apart...

Wanda stared at Li Nian with complicated emotions in her eyes. In her brief twenty years of life, he was the first man outside her family to make her feel dependent on him.

Although Wanda knew very well that the person sitting across from her was an artificial intelligence, incapable of interacting like a normal person, she still wanted to be close to him. Whenever she approached Li Nian, she felt a warm sensation, like a spring breeze. It was completely different from the feeling she had when she was with her brother.

"Ahem. I believe everyone already knows why I called you here. It's about the Sokovia Accords and the Superhuman Registration Act."

Steve coughed lightly a few times, quieting the noisy room.

"I'll state my decision first." Steve rose to his feet with a solemn expression. After sweeping his gaze over everyone, he said in a deep voice.

"I oppose signing the Sokovia Accords!"

Without question, no one doubted the captain. Everyone had more or less reached their own conclusion, and they all knew one another well enough to understand whatever choice the others made.

"Captain, you can't let emotions guide you," Rhodey tried to advise him, only to be cut off directly by Pietro.

"Government lapdogs should keep quiet. What's the point of signing an agreement? The wars that are going to break out will still break out, while the wars that shouldn't happen are stirred up by you people. Dare you say there weren't orders from above behind the fighting in the Middle East?!"

Pietro shouted indignantly at Rhodey. As an orphan who had survived war, Pietro despised government hounds like Rhodey. In his eyes, all those bureaucrats were the same. They only cared about their own interests and never gave a damn whether civilians lived or died.

But if you wanted to squeeze even a cent out of them, they would play dumb and stall endlessly, refusing to give up a single benefit. They clearly wanted the advantages without spending any money—the typical way of capitalists.

"They don't care about civilian safety. It's all just an excuse. Wanda and I wandered outside for so many years. Do you think we never sought help from welfare organizations?"

Pietro's venomous accusations left Rhodey in a foul mood, but he had no way to refute them. Rhodey knew that most of what Pietro said was true. Those politicians really did not care about civilian lives. You could see it from the Battle of New York: rather than send troops, they had directly fired a nuclear missile at New York. Those people truly did not regard other lives as lives.

"Do you want to know something? In the eight years since Tony publicly announced that he was Iron Man, superhuman-related crimes have outnumbered the total from the previous fifty years. Several of them even threatened the survival of Earth itself. Do you still think this act is unnecessary?"

Natasha pressed the remote in her hand and played footage of the destruction caused over the years for everyone to see.

Ruins, war, refugees, blood...

Like the final veil of shame being torn away, it laid reality bare before them in all its bloody horror. Frantic screams and smoke, severed limbs and terror—all of it struck against their hearts bit by bit.

Wanda no longer dared to look at the screen. Covering her mouth, she silently turned away. With a thought from Li Nian, the video shut off.

"Enough. There's no need to keep watching. Those things have already happened. All this will do is make them feel a little guilty. It serves no other purpose!"

Li Nian spoke in a deep voice. In the movies, Vision had been among those who insisted on signing the agreement. But now Li Nian was in this world, so naturally he would not follow the same path.

"I won't sign this agreement. It only exploits our sympathy to obtain a team they can command as they please."

"Your disappearance was one of the reasons this agreement came about." Natasha immediately retorted, confronting Li Nian head-on without yielding an inch.

"Do you know how much panic the disappearance of an intelligent lifeform with independent consciousness would cause? It's even more frightening than the Sokovia Incident."

"Tony did everything he could to suppress news of your disappearance, while Ross kept making an issue out of it in the meeting. Do you really think none of this has anything to do with you? Do you think you can just wash your hands of it?"

Li Nian laughed in anger. "First, my disappearance was involuntary and completely beyond my control. Your accusations are pointless."

"Second, you never truly saw me as a comrade. You were merely afraid that a weapon capable of disrupting the world order had gone missing."

"Finally, Natasha, find your green friend before you start talking. Most of the damage shown just now seemed to have been caused by Hulk. It had little to do with the other Avengers."

Li Nian walked toward Natasha step by step, staring directly into her eyes without fear as he spoke pointedly. "When your own backyard is on fire, put it out. No one is forcing you not to have children. Clean up your own mess first, lest you end up turning against your own people."

"Vision!" Steve hurriedly stopped Li Nian from saying anything further. His words had already become a personal attack against Natasha. Everyone knew that her time in the Red Room had been the most painful and unforgettable period of her life.

At Li Nian's words, Natasha's face turned pale. She seemed to recall that unbearable past. Her fists clenched tightly, and her eyes trembled violently, as though from fear.

Li Nian no longer paid attention to the woman. Though she had been a good comrade in the movies who cherished her family and companions, her unreasonable aggressiveness and moral coercion now infuriated him.

If emotion could resolve war, the world would have long since been ruled by a group of netizens. They could not abandon their original duty and allow themselves to be controlled by others just because of some losses.

"With great power comes great responsibility." Li Nian softly spoke that timeless truth of the Marvel Universe.

"And Captain, I'm no longer called Vision."

"My name is Li Nian."