Imagine: The List
Fic posted by members of Vo's Imaginings YahooGroup


 

"Ummm boss?" One of the guards taps on the door.

 

"Is he alive?" the governor asks with a sigh.

 

"Yeah."

 

"He need medical attention?"

 

"Probably should." He can hear the man wailing out in the hallway.

 

"Call for an ambulance and make him somebody else's problem."

 

The deputy mayor looks through the hydroponics building a couple weeks later and smiles as he looks over at Tony. "Thank you for opening this building Mr. Stark, the fresh fruit and vegetables will be welcomed during the winter."

 

"Too bad your boss doesn't feel the same way."

 

"He's a fucking fool who is still whining about how he narrowly escaped death when he tripped the guard and the gun went off."

 

"Of course he is. . .it was the fucking fool's fault but he can't possibly be anything but the victim."

 

Tony comes back to the tower, Pepper handing him a stack of papers. He hands it back. "Give me an overview."

 

"Receipts for the latest orders. Receipts for the stuff we'll need to make rooms into tesseracts for more supplies." She starts sorting out the papers. "Receipts for medical supplies, one of the tesseracted rooms will be for supplies beyond medicine. The progress on the replicators, one for medicine, one for other supplies."

 

She points to another few pages. "One of the others realized we'd need to be able to make our own clothes and stuff like quilts so one of the employees purchased machines, patterns, books, and fabric." More papers. "Orders for sheets, towels, blankets. . ." He nods. "Threats from the government to sue if we don't stop ordering stuff they don't think we need and our rebuttals. They're going whining to the state supreme court. Threats to sue because we're not buying from them. Again, they're going to go to the state Supreme Court. Complaints about the hydroponics section, they claim it will take money from them even though they're not involved in food. Final paperwork on the farms we're buying. Plans for tearing down empty buildings when we take over the city that the city refuses to tear down for some reason. And finally a list of factories that will produce stuff we will not be able to make ourselves."

 

"Anything on the weapons?"

 

"Yep, first batch of ammunition was just delivered through SHIELD, Phil, Natasha, and Clint are going through it now. The weapons, including various knives and extra bows and arrowss for Clint are due next week."

 

"Do we have room for whatever we can salvage from the buildings let alone what we need to throw out?"

 

"Yes, we have a construction replicator as it were. It can turn debris into energy and put raw materials still good into crystals for future use."

 

"Has anybody talked to the mercenaries in the city?" Coulson asks from the doorway.

 

"Logan did after Xavier got back to the mansion. They're either getting in supplies and plan to help us out by dealing with security or already have left."

 

"Gangs?"

 

"Going to be dealt with one way or the other. The mayor's twiddling his thumbs up his ass because if he does anything he'll supposedly hurt part of his constituents."

 

"I doubt any of them voted." Pepper snorts. "Or pay taxes."

 

"Yep, and he's looking like the fool he is by not dealing with crime like he said he would."

 

"Of course not, he only said that to get elected . .. like his asshat in chief."

 

Coulson looks at Stark. "Have you seriously thought about having to take over the city and other areas?"

 

He goes into his office and tosses him a thumb drive. "Read that."

 

Coulson sits down and reads for nearly an hour, finally looking up at Stark. "This will do."

 

"I don't want to have to take over the city but somebody's got to do it."

 

"Has Clint put up the protections on his farm?" Pepper asks.

 

"Yes. Has Parker protected his house?"

 

"What he could since he doesn't own it and his aunt doesn't know what's going on."

 

"The others off-duty apartments?"

 

"Guarded. Peter, his aunt, and Clint's family are the ones who really need the protection. The others could easily move into their rooms here permanently."

 

"Sam?"

 

"Has a room here along with Bucky and Pepper found him a condo in the city. Bucky has a number of hidey-holes but no 'real' place. Not yet."

 

Coulson nods. "Dr. McCabe and his team?"

 

"Due to arrive in a few days, we were able to get them homes or apartments."

 

"Mr. Lang?"

 

"Working with the other electrical engineers making plans on rebuilding the power grid. Despite the whining of the moron in chief that it's not needed. And shaking his head over mine and Richards power sources."

 

"Are they going to be able to meet all our needs?" Coulson asks.

 

"Yes, they're alien based and used for entire planets that are a lot more technologically advanced then ours."

 

Peter walks into the office. "My aunt reminded me of something. Soap?"

 

Pepper sighs and nods. "We'll need to be able to make it after we run out of what we have stored." She writes that down. "We'll need a variety. . .same with laundry products. Diapers."

 

"A supply of cloth would be best, they can be washed and used again."

 

"Diaper creams, baby supplies, the plastic covers. . . " Pepper starts writing stuff down. "Thank you Peter, it's good to think of stuff like this before we run out and can't make more."

 

Peter smiles as he walks to the door.

 

"Washing machines and dryers."

 

"Yes, we'll need to put up commercial laundries as well as regular ones and washers and dryers." Tony adds that to the list.

 

"The shields?"

 

"Set up here, Malibu, around the X-mansion, and a couple other places. Ready to turn on at a moment's notice."

 

"Other places?"

 

"I'm expanding the hydroponics business to Las Vegas, the city council came out with their hats in their hands. Supplying all the restaurants and hotels as well as customers walking in will make it three times larger than the one here."

 

"And since they can't grow much in the desert you're not taking money from commercial farms." Coulson says dryly.

 

"Exactly."

 

"No local outfits wanted to bring hydroponics to the area?"

 

"Too much money to start out and they don't know if it will be a success."

 

"While you're already showing it will work."

 

"Malibu?"

 

"We've already had commercial farms in the area under us. And we're looking at farms in Florida."

 

The next few months pass as work goes on in various buildings.

 

Peter looks at the Daily Bugle obituary page before he signs in at Stark's.

 

"Anything on the deaths not in the paper?" Clint asks in the elevator. He's just back in town after three weeks on the farm.

 

"Not anything official." He says slowly. "Rumor is the morgues are getting full. Bodies aren't being claimed by their families for funerals and burial fast enough. They're going to have to start digging another mass grave in Potter's field. The mayor is blustering that it can't possibly be an epidemic. . .we have to be lying about how many people have died over the last few months. Then got green and threw up when he went to the morgue and saw all the bodies stacked up like cordwood."

 

"The schools that are sitting empty because a good half of their students are out sick."

 

"He went to the hospitals next and found all the rooms full with patients they have to keep at the hospital in hallways. He supposed they really needed the extra money for supplies and they're coming in. What they can get because other areas are starting to have deaths now."

 

"Meaning some things will be delayed until they can replace workers."

 

"And I'm sure asswipe in chief will whine about contracts not being fulfilled."

 

"Of course he will, why should a little something like death stop production of what he wants." Tony snorts as the doors open. "Settle around tvs today boys. All the precogs say that today the shit should hit the presidential seal as they find out what he did."

 

"But I didn't want it to hurt people who voted for me." The asshole in chief wails on twitter as the news breaks of what he'd done. "Only the people who didn't."

 

"Oh, please tell me he did not just tweet that." His chief of staff moans, his face in his hands.

 

"Of course he did. . .after all if he gets in trouble all he has to do is pardon himself." Somebody says as they walk past.

 

"What's the death total?" Coulson asks later that night at another meeting of the group.

 

"Hovering over 30 percent here in New York. But the hospitals are full and the police are finding bodies daily as people complain of smells or not having seen somebody in a couple days. We're a little better off than some of the other areas we think he targeted, they're seeing a fifty percent death rate."

 

"And the rest of the world?"

 

"Ten percent and climbing. At least with the news that this is an epidemic, they're trying to get extra supplies to the hospitals."

 

"Oh Jesus." Pepper moans as she turns up the television.

 

"Dumbass put his foot in it again?" Clint asks.

 

"Now he's claiming this is a good thing, all the deaths have cut the unemployment rate down to two percent. Soon there will be no unemployment. We'll be able to cut all the aid programs he didn't like and he got rid of the homelessness problem. Something none of the others had been able to do."

 

"Oh Christ."

 

"Yep, I'm sure he'll whine about how mean we are to his stupidness because we don't automatically fall to our feet to worship him."

 

True to Tony's sarcasm, the next few days tweets are full of his whining about how unpatriotic people are for not falling all over themselves to forgive him. He tries to put the blame squarely on the shoulders of his pet mad scientists but nobody believes his bullshit anymore.

 

"Stark, it's Logan." Tony gets a call a few days later. "Time to put your plan into action, Mystique just called and said Destiny saw your mayor running off with his tail between his legs because he's all alone."

 

"That sounds familiar. I'll call Coulson. It will be better for SHIELD to take over than it would be me stepping in."

 

"Agent?"

 

"Stark?" Coulson turns his attention away from the paperwork in front of him.

 

"A precog says that the mayor took off with his tail between his legs because his butt buddies are gone. Want to try to set up a meeting with him to see if it's true?"

 

"I can do that. I needed to talk to the moron anyway."

 

Coulson pushes past the few employees who try to stand in his way and throws open the doors of the mayor's office. "And where is your mayor?" He asks, shaking off the chief of staff who'd been trying to stop him and is currently making apologies. . .that trail off when he sees his boss isn't there. He starts cussing.

 

"I see why your boss can't be bothered now, he couldn't be bothered to be here. Did he come in today at all?"

 

"I thought he had."

 

"Aren't you supposed to know if the mayor is in the building?"

 

"He might have had. . . " the chief of staff goes over to the mayor's schedule. "No, there's no mention of any meetings he was to attend."

 

"Find him. NOW! The little bastard is trying to tell me how to run the branch of SHIELD here in New York and I'm going to have a little talk with the fool." Coulson sits down in a chair and pulls out a computer to contact SHIELD headquarters. "I'll wait."

 

"Sir, you can't . . ."

 

"The hell I can't, your little bastard of a boss tried shutting down SHIELD and accused me of embezzling money from the city. My lawyer will be here in twenty minutes to go over the lawsuit I'm going to be slapping the moron upside the head with unless I get an apology."

 

The Chief of staff starts making calls when he realizes Coulson isn't going to go away, silently and not so silently cussing his fool of a boss for opening his mouth again.

 

"If your boss is not here in one hour I will be taking control of the city under martial law." Coulson says three days later.

 

"You can't." the chief of staff bleats.

 

"Yes I can, our beloved president gave SHIELD that authority. I've already brought in accountants and others to go over everything here. You have two choices, step away from everything until we're finished with the audit or find yourself in a cell."

 

"Can they do that?" The chief of staff bleats to the city attorney.

 

"Yes, and the asshole was trying to take SHIELD over as his own private police force. Because the governor called him a fool."

 

"Christ."

 

A couple weeks later Coulson drops into a seat at Stark Tower, looking out the window and almost swearing he can see the shield Richards and Stark had put up shimmering in the distance.

 

"How bad is it?"

 

"Bastard's been skimming money for years and took off with it when he realized he without his butt buddies protecting his ass he'd have to do the work himself. We've got federal charges against him and all his accounts frozen. I'm sure the bastard will come whining back about how it's not fair his money's gone sooner or later and we'll throw the bastard in prison to get back the rest of the money."

 

"Are supplies still coming into the city?"

 

"Yes, nobody seems to realize SHIELD has taken over the city yet. The governor is overjoyed to deal with people with a damn clue who are willing to help out. We're trading experts to help take over essential services outside the city because so many people have died."

 

"And there's some jobs you can't replace with people off the street." Pepper says. "I've got a list of positions we're cross-training for."

 

"Send it to me and I'll see if we have people in SHIELD to handle them."

 

"Already looked and they're morons." Tony snorts as Pepper sends him the list. "Stark . .." Coulson starts to chide. . ."Never mind, you're right. They are morons. They were too stupid to be Hydra and couldn't handle a real job where they might have to show results to keep their jobs. I've put them in jobs of sorting recycling at SHIELD and ignored their whining they're too good for that work."

 

"Too many of them are until they realize their cushy jobs are gone and they have to work for what they want now." Pepper snorts. "Tony, the cleaning project for New York Harbor?"

 

"Started yesterday, we're bringing up tons of stuff people are sorting. Some of it will be turned back into raw materials with the rest being turned into energy."

 

"Garbage dumps?"

 

"Being cleared out, again with anything recyclable being turned into raw materials."

 

"Complaints about the mandatory recycling?"

 

"Yes, but they were told to get the fuck over themselves. Too many years in the old boy network and they're miserable at having to do some real work. That's why morons in Vegas tried suing because the hydroponics in Vegas looks like it's going to make major money. The judges slapped them stupider when they had to admit they'd been given the option of doing it but they didn't want to."

 

"And now that it looks like somebody else will make money off it they're whining that it should have gone to them." Peter snorts from the doorway. "Sorry to interrupt but I just got word that the guy who owned my house died."

 

"Relatives?"

 

"Not that I know. . ." Peter hands Pepper the paperwork. "The city is too busy actually doing work than trying to track down any relatives for the houses that are sitting empty."

 

Tony nods. "We've got a lot of private companies looking for relatives. If they're not owned by a holding corporation. We'll deal with it Peter, if there are relatives we'll give them fair market value for the house, if not you'll own it free and clear."

 

Peter repeats this to his aunt when he returns from work, the older woman sobbing as she realizes they won't be tossed out on the street. Peter looks out the door after dark, with all the deaths crime took a dramatic downward swing and there's no need for him to patrol as Spider-Man. There's only one other house with lights on their block and he nods as Dr. McCabe's teammate Frank brings out the garbage.

 

"Peter, what are you doing tomorrow?" She asks when he shuts the door.

 

"Picking up extra work helping to clear out homes and apartments of people that. . .died. I don't like having to paw through their lives . . . " He says quietly. Aunt May pats his shoulder.

 

"It's a sad job but somebody has to do it." He nods. "How is the daycares going?"

 

"Good." Aunt May had started working part-time at one of the many day-cares that had popped up since the schools were closed. This way parents had a place to take their children rather than having to leave them home alone. The teachers that weren't sick or had died in the epidemics had put their lesson plans online so students could keep learning. Hopefully the schools would be reopening soon but if not there would be the state exams they could take to try to keep on schedule. They weren't the only ones affected, schools all over the country were closed and there were rumors the asshat in chief would order the rest of them closed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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