The lights were dimmed low in the conference room on the top floor of Avengers Tower.
Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, New York's nightscape spread across the city. From above, the neon lights and traffic looked like a slowly flowing circuit board. Inside, however, the light was cold. Virtual screens lit up one after another, making every face around the table look grimmer than usual.
Tony Stark stood beside the conference table, a barely touched cup of coffee at hand.
Steve sat opposite him, his back straight and his hands folded on the table.
Natasha sat on the left, her posture relaxed, though her eyes kept moving between the screens.
Clint leaned back in his chair, looking ready to say, "I'm just here to listen," at any moment, like an employee who wanted to clock out halfway through a meeting and go home to his wife and kids.
Dr. Banner sat a little farther away, with a glass of water and several data reports in front of him.
Rhodey appeared on one of the virtual screens, a military office behind him. His shoulders were squared, and even his silence carried the flavor of a military review report.
Nick Fury and Maria Hill were on the largest screen.
Thor was not taking part in this meeting.
Today's business was being left to the people of Earth to handle themselves for now.
When Fury spoke, he skipped even the pleasantries.
"We can't keep putting off the problem of superhero activity getting out of control."
Tony raised his eyes slightly.
"Finally admitting you can't control everyone? Nice opening. More polite than the last time you tried to snatch a kid."
Fury did not respond to his sarcasm.
Hill put a document up on the shared screen.
The document opened, rows of data spreading across