#fallingdrabbles9

Lucille wasn’t sure what to make of registration.

The crimes that she had committed and the crimes that had been committed against her were both outside the purview of this legislation. HYDRA itself was outside of the law; in fact, it wrote the law.

Sometimes, Lucille wondered how long it would be until the Avengers realized that all of Washington was rotten with HYDRA, not just the tiny corner that the Captain had helped flush a few years back.

It had been that connection that had stopped Lucille from coming up against proper charges for her role in the mutant flu crisis. In a just world, she would have been nailed for gross negligence, and she knew it.

As she waited in the hospital, watching for the doctor to come in with the test results to tell her what the holy hell she had, Lucille decided to sit back and watch on this one.

It wasn’t her fight, not in any sense of the word, and so she didn’t need to wade in and create another mess for herself. When she got done here, she’d draft up an email, probably authorizing her team to stand behind Stark Industries -- provided that Stark managed to keep his own head up in this mess.

As for the moment, though, she was tired, and Lucille had no energy to do anything more than watch the drama play out.

Peter sat at his desk, worrying the eraser of his pencil back and forth as he read the news.

Registration.

He couldn’t.

He saw what Tony and Steve were doing, and it scared him. He’d stumbled into his powers, but the choice to put on a mask had been a deliberate one, one that he’d made to protect his family and friends.

If this thing passed, if they started asking -- or making -- the heroes register, where did that leave him? Was he going to skate on through, or would Tony ask him to register on pain of turning him in?

Peter doubted the two men would ever hurt him, but at the same time, his identity was as secret as he could make it, and with good reason. The NYPD was still out for his blood, after all these years, and if they didn’t try to get him placed behind bars and forgotten, Jonah would make sure of it. Failing that, Peter knew he’d pissed off some powerful people, and if any of those people found out where Peter lived or worked, loads more innocent people would be in danger.

And beyond the potential for loss of life, Peter took care to respect property, but if he was going to get in trouble for not stopping every punch or every blast that his villains shot, he was going to be drowning in debt in two weeks. 

So where did that leave him?

The people of New York -- especially those in Manhattan -- seemed to like him, for the most part. There weren’t really any mobs calling for his neck or his identity (yet), and Peter hoped it would stay that way.

But if this law would put him on the wrong side of both Tony AND Steve, did he really have a chance? The disapproval of just one would be unbearable; having both be disappointed in him would shatter him. So would he hang up the suit?

No, he couldn’t. Even after all he lost, all he’d been through, Spider-Man meant too much for him to permanently walk away from. Even in the five months he took a break from the suit after Gwen’s death, he knew he would be coming back -- he just didn’t know when.

Peter clenched his fist, and accidentally snapped the wooden pencil. He sighed, brushed the splinters off, and then pulled on the suit and hopped out his window.

Oversight of superheroes was essential. That was the only thing Sharon Carter knew for sure.

As much as her idealism wanted her to believe that superheroes were all good as well as all powerful, she knew that there would come a time - potentially when the current Avengers handed over to their successors - that power would go to their heads, that their organisation would become corrupt in the same way S.H.I.E.L.D. had.

Call her a cynic, she didn’t care. She was beyond trusting anybody except for a select few, and those she did trust? They could make mistakes as well, and those mistakes could have dire consequences. Just a few years ago her entire world went crashing into the Potomac, and since then, Sharon has developed a much greater scepticism towards the world in general. If Aunt Peg could have missed that bright red beacon that meant Hydra had been fostering inside her agency for years, then how could anyone else be expected to prevent infiltration by enemy forces? If the Avengers had someone separate, someone removed, someone human, then surely they’d gain the approval of the masses and a lot of fears would disappear.

Yet, despite her overwhelming belief that there was something wrong with the current system, she didn’t trust the new one either. It left a bitter taste in her mouth when she heard her bosses talk about digitally branding mutants and other enhanced people and monitoring them carefully via satellite every minute of every day. It sounded a lot like Hydra to her, and there was nothing Sharon Carter hated more than Hydra. She had been inadvertently working for them for over ten years, and she was damned if she was letting them get control of things again, potentially hacking the CIA and finding out exactly where superheroes were and how they could catch them. She wasn’t even entirely sure she trusted the CIA, come to think of it.

Her recent conversations with Lily had opened her eyes too. Mutants had been discriminated against for years, and this Act would only exacerbate it. Young children, teenagers, would be forced to come out in front of their peers and declare their differences or face imprisonment, or worse. Sharon knew herself how terrible high school could be if you were even a little different; her heart went out to those less privileged than she was who could be in great danger if they came out or if they stayed hidden.

If she was telling the truth, Sharon didn’t know what she believed in, but she knew this; Registration was a good idea, as long as they discussed every angle. As long as they made sure it was safe for everyone involved, not just the politicians. As long as mutants wouldn’t be made into a public spectacle. If she could get her boss to realise how hard she was fighting for the Act to be passed, she might be in a position to help ensure those precautions were in place.