To prove everybody wrong to change what everybody had assumed about their beloved heroes they set out to take out the Vanguard and expose their true nature. As nothing more than hired guns of the government.
To show the people that they would do anything if the government so much as asked and that was not a hero.
Tony said out to find the manipulators who started this conspiracy as the rest went to attack the Vanguard so as to make them not be able to get in the way of Tony.
-
A towering man of misty smoke and stone Graham approached Hulk with uncanny calm. He flickered intangible, stepping through a mailbox and re-forming on the other side. Hulk bared his teeth and charged. Graham suddenly solidified, body hardening into diamond. Hulk's fist slammed home, only to find himself bouncing backward, the ground quaking beneath their clash. Graham shifted density on the fly now wispy fog, now impenetrable iron each blow from Hulk's fists sending shockwaves through the pavement. But Hulk's rage only grew; with a roar, he gathered momentum and swung a backhand that shattered Graham's stony form into swirling mist smoke and stone fragments dancing away as Hulk advanced.
-
Arden spun his hands in perfect silence, time thickening around him. Across from him, Michael grinned, then snapped his fingers four clones materialized, each wreathed in elemental power. A fire-wreathed Michael launched searing blasts; Arden slowed time, slipping between them like a ghost. A water clone surged forward; Arden took a sidestep, leaving a wave to crash against empty air. Earth and air Michael clones pressed their attack in turn Arden twisted time and space to deflect, forcing them to collide with one another. He exhaled sharply, then opened his palms. Time snapped back, the four clones landed in a tangled heap. Arden stepped over them, eyes glowing.
-
Mercy's bone armor crafted from the remain creaked as she advanced. Natasha circled her, Widow's Bite ready; Snow (Antonio) hovered nearby, ice crystals sparking with frost. Mercy swung a bone-rifle arm; Natasha ducked under and jammed a pulse dart into the armor's joints. Mercy howled, ripping a jagged femur-blade free and whirling it at Snow. He blasted a shield of swirling ice that shattered on impact, shards dancing harmlessly aside. Natasha fired stun rounds; Mercy's rib-cage shield absorbed them while a clavicle spear lunged at Natasha's midsection. Snow unleashed a gasp of freezing air Mercy's bone weapon cracked under the cold, fragments scattering. Natasha landed a roundhouse kick that sent Mercy sprawling. Antonio stamped frost into the ground, sealing her in an ice-cage. "Yield," Natasha whispered. Mercy's armor crumbled as she nodded, breath heavy.
-
Violet closed her eyes and traced an ethereal sketch in the air. A sweeping brushstroke formed the outline of a towering warrior; with a pulse of her power, the canvas figure came alive a knight of gleaming marble. Cap charged the statue; immediately two more works a Renaissance musketeer and a Picasso-style bull sprang from her fingertips to flank him. Bucky leaped in, metal arm gleaming. He caught the bull-statue's horn, ripped it free, and jammed it into the musketeer's shoulder. Cap shattered the knight's sword with a crack of shield against blade. Violet sketched frantically: a Van Gogh sunflower whip; a Disney-style mouse bomber. The heroes moved as one Cap and Bucky weaving blocks and strikes until Violet's constructs flickered and dissipated, leaving her trembling in Defenders' nets. Cap extended a hand. "We're not your enemy," he said sincerely.
-
Renin stood alone, eyes gleaming as he absorbed the properties of a broken police cruiser. Thor advanced, thunder rolling in his wake. Renin's form shifted again now he bore the resilience of locomotive steel rails. Thor swung Mjolnir; Renin caught the edge of the hammer handle in his reinforced grip. Sparks flew. Renin twisted, drawing Thor forward, then slipped away, emerging coated in molten slag from a fire hydrant's burst now heatproof. Thor summoned lightning; Renin absorbed the surge into himself, flaring bright. With a roar, Thor slammed Mjolnir on the street, sending a crack of seismic force that shattered Renin's slag shell. Renin staggered, and Thor followed with a thunderous uppercut that sent him crashing. The impact buckled the asphalt.
On the last embers of consciousness. Renin now with the properties of mjolnir was practically invincible. But as they continue their fight Thor began to realize he felt a familiar energy coming off of this man. And so he did what came natural to him he stuck out his hand as Renin was pulled by his neck straight to Thor's grasp quickly being subdued.
-
Tony peered through the shattered skylight of the empty safe house, eyes narrowed beneath the glow of his helmet's HUD. The rest of the team had done their part Hulk's roar still echoed down the street as he collapsed onto one knee, breathing steam; Arden stood over Michael's entangled clones, the four forms dissolving into motes of displaced time; Natasha and Snow moved Mercy's broken bone-plates into containment pods; Cap and Bucky led Violet away under careful escort; Thor hefted Renin's inert shell.
"Vanguard is down," Natasha reported, voice steady despite the adrenaline thrum. "They're more weapon than hero."
Tony cut the comm line and stood. "Good. Now we hit them where it hurts." He cracked his neck, repulsors humming. "I'm going after the ones who set this all up."
Arden dipped his head. "Leader and Lineage."
Tony's jaw set. "Exactly."
Midnight, a concealed data node deep beneath the East River
A pair of security scans flickered out as Tony's holographic I.D. forged its way past auto-locks. He ducked into the command chamber, heart racing in his ears. Banks of monitors glowed with live feeds news tickers, classified channels, encrypted comms. At the room's center, two figures hunched over a console: one slim, dark-haired, eyes hidden behind thin glasses; the other broad-shouldered, silver hair slicked back, skin stretched improbably across a bulbous skull.
Lineage's whisper resonated in Tony's ears: "Data streams from corners you haven't dreamed."
The Leader tapped at the screen, lips curling. "Within days, our collaborators in Ross's circle will call for more power until every hero is a fugitive."
Tony gritted his teeth. Time to end it.
He raised his gauntlets; the chamber's lights dimmed in warning. Lineage spun around, eyes widening at the display of repulsor flames. The Leader straightened, green-tinged veins rippling across his scalp.
"Stark," the Leader rasped. "I wondered when you'd show."
"No more hiding in bunkers," Tony replied. He fired a repulsor salvo at the console, screens fracturing into sparks. "I'm here to shut you down."
Lineage darted forward, spectral projections of ancestral warriors materializing to block Tony's blasts. Tony shunted power into his boots and launched upward, dodging the phalanx of ghostly knights. The Leader unleashed a gamma-charged pulse, sending Tony skidding backward into a server rack but Tony's armor held.
Tony pivoted, repulsors flaring, and detonated a concussive blast that shattered Lineage's ancestral summons. Lineage staggered, memories flickering in his eyes. The Leader advanced, fist crackling with gamma energy. Tony met him blow for blow, sparks flying as iron met irradiated bone.
A final repulsor beam seared through the Leader's shoulder implant, sending him crashing to one knee. Lineage's forms snapped away like broken circuits.
No matter how smart or how well planned these geniuses had worked to create this mistrust among the public. They were merely ordinary people with immense intelligence and tricks up their sleeve.
-
Tony stood over the two villains as red emergency lights spun the chamber scarlet. He deactivated his armor's weapons. "It's over," he said quietly.
Lineage sank against the console. "You… cannot stop the tide of fear you've helped inflame."
Tony shook his head. "Maybe not alone. But we'll earn back trust one truth at a time." He tapped his comm badge. "General Ross, you have two high-value captives."
-
Dawn, Times Square Press Confrontation
A phalanx of cameras and journalists crowded the makeshift stage. Ross stepped forward, face drawn. Behind him, the battered Vanguard, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and the Avengers formed a silent guard. In the center, two prisoners in S.H.I.E.L.D. jumpsuits Lineage's silver hair still streaked with purple, the Leader's green-veined skull bruised.
Ross swallowed. "Today we reveal the truth." He gestured, and a live feed flickered to the casino's commandeered screens: the safe house footage of Tony's raid, the lab data, the media manipulation logs.
A stunned silence fell across the square.
Ross continued, voice trembling with contrition: "These men Lineage and the Leader used us. They twisted our fears. They engineered GEIRA and the Vanguard to supplant true heroes."
Natasha stepped forward. "They lied to you. They sold you false champions while painting real heroes as criminals."
Steve raised his shield. "We protect this world because we believe in its people. Not because we're asked to."
Tony's helmet retracted, revealing tired eyes. "Trust isn't given once. It's earned. Again and again."
-
In the stunned calm that followed, the public began to murmur. Phones captured Ross's apology, streamed Stark's challenge, and the Avengers' pledge to serve under transparency. The Leader and Lineage were led away in armored transports, their conspiracy laid bare.
Above, the morning sun broke through clouds, casting long shadows across Times Square. And as the world watched, the true heroes flawed, accountable, unmasked stood together, ready to rebuild the trust they'd never taken for granted.