The Times Have Changed

"He betrayed me." Ellis's voice was filled with lingering fear and fury. "My vice president... fuck, he was involved too! He wanted me publicly executed! Then he wanted to take my seat!"

"Yes, he did." Azu turned around, no emotion visible in his azure eyes. "And he almost succeeded."

"And that useless S.H.I.E.L.D.!" Ellis slammed a hand onto the table. "I fucking funded Nick Fury! The Security Council gave him hundreds of billions in budget! Air Force One was hijacked! I was hung from an oil tanker! Where were his people?! Where was he?!"

Azu wore a perfectly timed expression of mockery. "Director Fury may have been assessing the threat level and analyzing intelligence. Perhaps in another two hours, he'll send a team to... collect your body."

Ellis's breathing grew heavy.

"What about Stark?!" he roared again. "That Avengers team! Fuck, what did he bring? A pile of remote-controlled toys that could only fly around!!"

President Ellis recalled that "battle."

More than a dozen suits of armor had been wiped out within twenty minutes.

Tony Stark, that billionaire, had been pinned beneath Killian's foot like a cockroach, unable to move.

"He..." Ellis lowered his voice. "He was pretty pathetic, wasn't he?"

"Arrogance is in his nature, Matthew," Azu corrected. "He thought he could handle everything. But he forgot that he was only human, a man hiding inside an iron can."

"And Killian... he was no longer human."

Azu paced slowly, delivering his lines with all the skill of a master actor, his voice laden with pressure.

"Matthew, you need to recognize one fact."

"The times have changed, Mr. President."

"The Battle of New York opened Pandora's box. Aliens... super-soldiers... crazed men who can grow gigantic... This world is no longer something politicians in suits can control."

Azu stopped before Ellis and leaned down slightly.

"Your NCPD is still using Glock pistols. But what about the black market?"

"Chitauri energy guns cost fifty thousand dollars apiece, and gangs are fighting to get them. SWAT storms a building, only to be blasted into scraps by a particle cannon. What do you do?"

"Just like Killian tonight. Twenty or thirty Extremis Soldiers—sending in conventional troops would be a massacre. S.H.I.E.L.D. is too weak, and the Avengers are too slow."

Cold sweat beaded on President Ellis's forehead.

He realized that every word from this blond man struck straight at his heart.

"You... what exactly are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that you need a... new team."

Azu straightened and gave him a smile worth a fortune.

"A professional, efficient 'fire brigade.'"

"A team... led by me."

"Mr. President," Azu said as he turned away, finally revealing his dagger, "Vought, my company, is prepared to... sell security to all of America."

"Sell it?"

"A business model." Azu's tone became lighthearted. "If the mayor of Los Angeles wants to solve the increasingly rampant Chitauri weapons crime, he can hire us. If Chicago experiences another outbreak of the Extremis Virus, they can hire us too."

"Of course, Washington, D.C. is free." Azu winked at him.

"This... this is protection money?" Ellis frowned.

"No, Mr. President." Azu burst out laughing. "This is capitalization. It's what Americans do best."

"Americans have capitalized healthcare, capitalized education, capitalized prisons... so why can't they capitalize 'superheroes' too?"

"What I provide is a premium service, Mr. President. Premium services naturally require... a certain fee. That's perfectly reasonable, isn't it?"

President Ellis fell silent.

He was a politician, and he instantly understood the logic behind it.

Turn superheroes into a "product," rather than merely a spiritual symbol.

Products... could be "regulated" and "cooperated with."

He looked at Wu Yanzu. "Go on, Anthony. Have you chosen the members of your team?"

"Of course." Wu Yanzu resumed his sunny, upright persona.

"I," he said, pointing at the eagle emblem on his chest, "will be this team's captain and leader."

"And," he added with a mysterious smile, "I have already recruited our second member. A... very powerful woman. She was once lost in darkness, but now, under my guidance, she will embrace the light."

"Fuck!" Far away in New York's Starr Tower, Jessica Jones, who was being forced to undergo "smile training," sneezed violently.

"As for the others..." Wu Yanzu's gaze drifted toward the window. "This world never lacks capable people. They merely lack an... agent like me."

President Ellis remained silent, his politician's mind racing at full speed.

This plan... was insane. But... fuck, it was tempting.

Outsource the mess of superhumans to a controllable private company.

"You..." Ellis began to waver. "What can you do?"

"We can do what the Avengers cannot."

Azu walked back to the desk and braced both hands against it, his handsome face once more drawing close to Ellis.

"Steve Rogers, that old popsicle, will argue with you about freedom and morality."

"Tony Stark will show off his new toys, then leave you hanging."

"Nick Fury will use ten lies to conceal one truth."

"And I, Matthew..."

Azu's smile became incomparably sincere.

"...am your friend."

"You need to improve the government's image? No problem. Vought can have my superhero team conduct joint exercises with your Secret Service. The photos will make the cover of Time magazine, and I've already thought of the headline—Guardians of a New Era."

"You need a fire brigade when disasters strike? Of course. Hurricanes, earthquakes, terrorist attacks... while your FEMA is still in meetings, we'll already have rescued the people. And you only need to stand amid the ruins, face the cameras, and declare victory."

Ellis's breathing quickened.

Azu saw the ambition in his eyes.

"Matthew," Wu Yanzu lowered his voice further, filling it with temptation, "you're about to run for reelection, aren't you?"

"...Your popularity has hit rock bottom because of tonight's attack. People will say you're incompetent, that your government can't even protect its own president."

"But..."

"What if... the hero who saved you, the Homelander beloved by all of America, publicly endorsed you?"

"What if I became your... presidential guardian?"

"Your approval ratings," Azu said with a snap of his fingers, "will shoot into the stratosphere."

"You..." President Ellis's voice trembled with excitement. "What do you want?"

"What I want, Mr. President, is merely a permit."

"An official permit. Authorization for Vought International's superheroes to enforce the law throughout the Federation."

"That would mean... bypassing S.H.I.E.L.D.!" Ellis blurted out.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Azu scoffed. "Matthew, haven't you seen it yet? S.H.I.E.L.D. can't protect you. Its insides... have been rotten for a long time."

"And I," Azu said, pointing to himself, "am the one... who can help you clean house."

President Ellis sank into a long silence.

This deal... was too tempting.

One permit in exchange for his political life, a chance at reelection, and... an invincible "bodyguard."

As for how Nick Fury felt? Fuck him.

Tonight, Homelander had saved him.

"How can I trust you?" Ellis asked his final question.

"You don't need to trust me, Matthew." Azu stood straight, resuming that saintly appearance.

"You only need to trust... the people."

"The people love me. And you... need the people's love."

President Ellis smiled.

"You really are a... natural-born bastard, Mr. Starr."

"Likewise, Mr. President."