Inside the Avengers Compound, the atmosphere in the main office was suffocatingly heavy.
Tony sat slumped in his chair, aggressively chewing on dried blueberries, his eyes occasionally darting toward Steve, who was sitting silently on the sofa opposite him.
Neither man spoke a word.
The only sound in the room was the crunch of Tony’s frantic chewing.
With the fallout from the Lagos incident escalating by the day, the pressure from the government had reached a boiling point.
Holden’s advice to change the public narrative was solid, but right now, Tony had absolutely no idea where to even start.
Unless a miracle happened and the perfect opportunity presented itself, shifting the public’s perception of Wanda and the Avengers was completely impossible.
“Are you just going to sit there forever?” Tony finally snapped, slamming the bag of blueberries onto his desk and glaring at Steve, who was staring blankly at his phone.
“What else am I supposed to do?
The only way this ends is if Ross backs off!” Steve shot back, his expression ice-cold as he met Tony’s glare.
It was glaringly obvious that Ross’s ultimate goal was to put a leash on the Avengers, and the media circus was absolutely orchestrated by his people.
Without a coordinated push from the top, there was no way the media could have blown this out of proportion on such a massive scale.
“Well, going to talk to Wanda about it would be a hell of a lot better than just sitting there!” Tony walked around his desk, barely keeping his temper in check.
“In case you forgot, you were the one leading the operation in Lagos!” “I led the op, yes!
But are you saying you’ve never made a mistake?!” Steve retorted, grinding his teeth.
He fully acknowledged that Lagos was a tragic accident, but none of it was intentional.
He never imagined things would spiral this badly!
“Me?!
I’m the one spending every waking hour trying to clean up your mess!” Tony roared, his fists clenched tight.
“Do you have any idea how many news outlets I’ve had to call?!
I’m actually trying to fix this!” And what was the great Captain America doing?
Sitting on a couch, clinging to his stubborn ideals while completely paralyzed by indecision!
It infuriated Tony to no end.
Steve could have at least spent this time trying to comfort Wanda!
“Oh, really?
That’s rich coming from the guy who created Ultron in Sokovia,” Steve sneered, his chest heaving.
“Countless people died because of that!
No—they died because of you!” “You think I wanted that to—” Tony started to shout back.
Click.
The heavy office doors swung open, cutting their argument short.
Tony whipped his head around to see Natasha Romanoff standing in the doorway, staring at them in surprise.
“Looks like I came at a bad time,” Natasha quipped, shrugging her shoulders.
Her casual tone instantly cut through the suffocating tension in the room.
“What is it?” Tony muttered, picking up another handful of blueberries.
“I think you guys need to see this.” Natasha picked up the remote and flicked on the flat-screen TV.
The screen instantly displayed live news footage of Wanda extinguishing the inferno.
The camera panned to show a massive crowd of civilians cheering and chanting her name.
“At 1:41 PM today, the Scarlet Witch, a member of the Avengers, single-handedly stopped a massive fire from destroying a downtown block…” a reporter’s voice narrated over the footage.
Watching the broadcast, the dark storm clouds over Tony’s face began to clear.
“Did Wanda unlock a new power?” If he remembered correctly, Wanda could contain energy and suppress fires, but she had never been able to freeze anything before.
It was the only logical explanation for what they were seeing.
“I can’t believe we didn’t notice,” Steve murmured, equally stunned.
They were all basically living at the Compound.
If a team member awakened a completely new ability, they should have been the first to know.
Yet she had somehow mastered it in secret and used it to save hundreds of people.
“It must be brand new.
She still looks a bit strained using it,” Natasha observed thoughtfully, tapping the remote against her chin.
“But more importantly, the media’s narrative on Wanda is already starting to shift!” With thousands of eyewitnesses and dozens of amateur cameras capturing the event, the news networks couldn’t easily spin this into a hit piece.
This was the exact miracle they had been praying for.
If they played their cards right, they could completely neutralize the political fallout from Lagos.
“Leave it to me.
I’ll get my PR team on the networks right now.
We’re going to completely rebrand this narrative!” Tony tapped his earpiece.
“Call Pepper!” The moment the line connected, he cut straight to the chase.
“Pep, I need you to assemble the PR team right now, and then send a car to pick up Wanda!” Having navigated the cutthroat corporate world for decades, Tony was a master at media manipulation.
The key was to strike while the iron was hot.
“She looks really happy,” Natasha noted with a warm smile, watching the footage of Wanda beaming at the cheering crowd.
She hadn’t seen the younger girl smile like that in a very long time.
“How did she suddenly figure it all out?” Steve asked, sinking back into the sofa, utterly baffled.
Just a few days ago, Wanda was practically catatonic with depression.
Now, it was like looking at a completely different person.
She had even gotten significantly stronger.
“Maybe she finally just made peace with it,” Natasha suggested gently, the relief evident in her voice.
It finally felt like things were taking a turn for the better.
“We’ll find out when she gets back,” Tony said, a genuine smile returning to his face.
Meanwhile, in Queens.
[Ding!
You have helped Wanda overcome her inner demons and restored her public reputation!] [Reward received: Kabuto Zecter!] Holden was leaning against a nearby brick wall, watching Wanda give a brief interview to a reporter, when the system chime suddenly went off in his head.
[Kabuto Zecter: Using this Zecter allows you to transform into Kamen Rider Kabuto.
Must be acknowledged by the Zecter to use.] ‘The Kabuto Zecter?!’ Holden’s eyes lit up.
‘Wanda really is an absolute goldmine!
Every single drop from her is top-tier!’ He honestly hadn’t expected to trigger a reward just by helping her through her panic attack.
The Kabuto Zecter was the transformation device for Kamen Rider Kabuto.
Yes, the infamous, arrogant “man who walks the path of heaven and rules over all.” But let’s be honest—what guy wouldn’t want a Kamen Rider belt?
Holden had definitely spent plenty of his childhood daydreaming about having one.
“Mr.
Holden, since everything here is handled, I’m gonna swing out of here!
I hope we get to team up again someday.
Tell Wanda I said bye!” Gwen suddenly spoke up, noticing the growing swarm of news vans pulling up to the scene.
She really didn’t want to deal with a dozen annoying reporters shoving microphones in her face.
“See ya,” Holden waved, watching the white-and-black heroine swing away between the skyscrapers.
‘Looks like I’ll have to properly introduce myself another time,’ he thought.
Just then, a fleet of sleek black luxury cars with the Stark Industries logo pulled up to the intersection.
“Guess that’s my cue to leave, too.” Seeing Tony’s personal detail arrive, Holden knew exactly what was about to happen.
Tony was definitely going to capitalize on this miracle to salvage the Avengers’ public image and completely derail Secretary Ross’s registration agenda.
Before turning to leave, Holden reached out with his telepathy, projecting a single thought into Wanda’s mind.
[Holden]: ‘See you later.
Enjoy the glory today; you earned it.’ [Wanda]: ‘Thank you for today.’