The first rays of morning sunlight pierced Manhattan's steel forest and fell on a newsstand at a street corner.
The New York Times, the Daily Bugle, The Washington Post... every major newspaper's front page was dominated by the same set of photographs.
The photos showed Harlem's 125th Street reduced to rubble. Shattered walls and burning cars filled the background. In the foreground, more than a hundred dirt-covered New Yorkers stood arm in arm, forming a human wall against fully armed U.S. Army special forces.
The headlines were shocking:
[Military-created monster massacres civilians? Mysterious heroes save New York!]
[Who is protecting us? Street justice when the law fails.]
[Outrage on Capitol Hill! Lawmakers demand a full investigation into the Harlem incident!]
Public outrage erupted across America like a powder keg set ablaze.
In Washington, D.C., tens of thousands of protesters gathered on the lawn outside the White House. They held signs demanding severe punishment for those responsible.
Online, discussions about the man in the black coat, Spider-Man, and Daredevil eclipsed even Tony Stark, who had only recently revealed his identity.
At the Pentagon, in a classified conference room four floors underground.
The air was so stifling that even breathing felt difficult.
General Thaddeus Ross stood ramrod straight before the long table. The medals on his chest still gleamed, but his usually stern face was now clouded with exhaustion and gloom.
Across the table sat three senior military officers with general's stars on their shoulders, along with two special investigators from the Department of Defense.
"A six-hundred-page disaster assessment." The four-star general seated in the middle tossed a thick document onto the table. The scrape of paper sounded painfully sharp in the silent conference room.
"Thirty-one blocks destroyed. Direct economic losses exceeding two billion dollars. Seventy-four civilian casualties, and a full-strength special