Clint's story is repeated by Phil when he comes down. Bruce sighs. "It's over."

"Yes, he was the only holdout in the former president's orders to leave you alone. But the old fool didn't think orders applied to him. With all the problems in the government, nobody was blocking his arrest warrants."

"And everything he wanted to happen to other people would be happening to him." Clint snorts. "Good riddance to bad rubbish. I feel sorry for your Betty though, having to have him for a father."

Doc Samson comes out of the elevator at Stark Tower a few days later, finding Tony teasing Pepper. "How was DC?"

"Full of absolute idiots. But I brought up copies of everything I could get on GEDs and homeschooling for younger students." He says as he hands over receipts. "You can replicate it for the others later. I also arranged for shipments of DVDS, books, audiobooks, and music to come in every couple months."

"Thank you Leonard." Pepper says as she takes the receipts. "Leisure activities is always good to get your mind off stuff you can't control. . .especially in times like this." Leonard nods.

Tony looks over at Reed a couple hours later. "Have you heard anything from other countries?"

"Yes, some places are at eighty percent death rates, with government troops going in and finding nearly entire villages empty. And who knows how many people dead who live in the surrounding area." Tony nods.

"Police officers?"

"With SHIELD in control we're getting more officers from the police academies. Crime is down but we're still keeping the city patrolled." Reed nods in satisfaction. "More police officers, army, and national guard troops patroling was something his asshole in chief couldn't stop. Courts are getting tougher on crime and if they get in trouble it will be 'lock them up and throw away the key'.Jails are overcrowded and like prisons if you get sick there they leave you to either recover or. . .not." Reed sighs but nods.

"Supervillains?"

"We've lost some minor ones, the others . . .will be dealt with. Groups like HYDRA and AIM are no doubt losing people just like the rest of the world." Reed nods.

"Do we see the need for new construction?"

"Not for years. . .despite the whiners in the city that want multi-million dollar condos put up."

"We won't need more housing for years."

"No, Peter says except for Frank's family on the other end of the street on the other side his block is empty."

"Have you found out anything about his landlord?"

"We're doing a background check on him, so far nothing. The city says if we don't find anything. . .in thirty days we can turn the house over to him. The holding companies on a lot of the city's buildings are being investigated too, I'm surprised some of them haven't been heard from yet." Reed nods as they walk out of Tony's office, finding Peter and Pepper moving boxes.

"Is that the stuff Leonard had sent up?"

"Yes, we're copying everything for you, Xavier's, SHIELD, and a couple others right now. We've got everything on the servers so we can make new copies as needed."

"Do we have university level books?"

"Peter's being sent to an expo for them in a couple months."

Pepper hands Tony a slip of paper as she walks past. He looks at it and laughs. "Pepper just brought a paper factory that was going to be going out of business, we're getting all their shipments of paper towels, napkins, and toilet paper."

Phil sighs and makes a note. "We're going to have to start thinking of taking over factories to keep them in operation as deaths continue to rise."

The others nod and make notes.

A month later Peter is handed a couple thick envelopes along with his check. "The house is yours," She pats one envelope. "So are the houses on either side of you." She pats the same envelope. "Tony's plans for updates to the houses." The second envelope is patted. "Along with the most recent copies of the inspections." The second envelope is tapped again. "Tony is coming out with a couple other people tomorrow to see what's needed in the way of work on the houses."

Peter opens the first envelope and smiles, handing it to his Aunt May after he's deposited his check and got groceries. She looks at it, then him, back at the envelope, and at him again. "Is this what I think it is?"

"The deed to the house and the houses on either side of us." She stares at him and opens the envelope. "Tony's coming out with a team to see what work the houses need tomorrow."

May turns around, starting to look at the house through the eyes of a homeowner. "Paint, it's been needed for a while."

"Replacing the faucets in the bathroom. I'd like to pull the tub out completely."

"That's too much money Peter."

"Not really. Most of it is labor and with people helping out it will be done rather quickly. We need to have the roof inspected though. And have the hot water heater and furnace inspected. They're older than I am and hot water heaters are only supposed to last twenty years or so."

"You've been watching too many this old house episodes." His aunt chuckles. "But if we own all three houses you can expand your darkroom."

Tony drops a notebook on Pepper's desk the following Monday morning. "The work that needs to be done on Peter's houses. Most of it is cosmetic but there's some structural work that needs done on all three houses." Pepper starts leafing through the notebook, nodding at everything. Scanning them on the computer she sends them to the engineers. Several minutes later Scott comes out of the elevator. "Has anybody looked at his wiring?"

"No, we've got to check it though. A house that old will probably need major upgrades to the electrical system. We can put them up in a hotel for a few days while we adapt the house to the new power source."

"Okay, I ordered the major stuff we needed, it should be arriving at the houses over the next couple of weeks. The smaller stuff we can pick up at home improvement stores. Peter plans on hitting a photography expo after he goes for the textbooks, he can get everything he needs for his new darkroom then."

May looks at all the materials being delivered to the houses over the next couple weeks, that nice young man named Scott having come over to inspect the wiring on all the houses.

"Did anybody hear dumbfuck's latest rant?" Scott asks as he comes out of the elevator.

"What now?" Tony sighs.

"Solar power is an abomination. . .it's taking money from his dear friends at the electric companies. When I parked they were already calling in and basically saying 'he's a moron. . .please ignore him. We don't want to be associated with his stupidity."

"Don't some of the power from companies come from solar panels?" Phil says dryly.

"Yes, something I'm sure he's wailing about as people tell him to shut the fuck up. Damn fool moron."

"I'm sure he thought the people at the electric companies would flock to him since he was championing their cause. Rumor has it that he's losing support among his core group and he's hating it."

"Bastard's going to hate it even more when people start slapping the stupidity out of him." Scott snorts as he puts a notebook on Pepper's desk. "My notes on the houses, it will take a couple weeks to replace all the wiring, but we can install the lines that handle high-speed internet and cable at the same time." Pepper looks over everything and nods as Phil moans, making a note that they're going to have to start inspecting more buildings. They'll have to bring in more inspectors. Tony looks at him and nods.

"But I thought it would help the electric companies. . .people are stealing their money by having other power." The president wails like a two year old.

"Nobody is stealing from them, they've used solar power for years. Some people with solar panels actually send excess power back to the grid if they don't have batteries to store it. There are solar and wind farms sending power to companies."

"But I didn't know that."

"Then you should have kept your damn big fat mouth shut you damn fool. And keep your head down. Because somebody's going to take it off your shoulders if you keep yammering about stuff you don't know the first thing about."

"I know everything." He huffs.

"No, you think you know everything. You thought schools had tons of supplies just sitting around that you can use to make people do what you want, you thought that your pet mad scientists disease would only affect the people who didn't vote for you, you thought that the Supreme court would do whatever you wanted when you tried shutting down the CDC and NIH, and you thought that bellyaching about solar power would get the power companies in your back pocket."

"But they should have been glad I was taking their side. Once I had them in my pocket I could shut off power wherever I wanted until people do what I want. Once they voted me back into office again I'd turn the power back on."

Peter gets off the plane in St. Louis for the textbook expo, checking his notes as he gets on an airport shuttle to his hotel. In addition to the textbook expo he's visiting a few places for Stark and then will attend the photography expo at the same hotel.

A few weeks later he comes out of the elevator at Stark and drops three piles of receipts on Pepper's desk. "Receipts for the textbook expo and to ship everything. Receipts from the places I stopped at in St. Louis, the latest update on shipping says it should be arriving soon, and receipts from the photography expo. Both for us and SHIELD. Those supplies are due to arrive soon too." Pepper nods and starts filing everything, scanning the receipts for SHIELD and sending them to their headquarters while putting the originals away for Phil to pick up when he comes in next time.

"The boss back from that science expo?"

"He and Richards arrived back in the middle of the night, he's sleeping right now instead of blowing things up in his lab."

"Sleeping thanks to a sedative before you knock him out with something thick and heavy to the head?" Peter smirks.

"Exactly, he was babbling something about a nanovirus that can keep buildings and machinery constantly updated."

"That would probably help with upkeep of buildings."

"As long as it worked." Pepper snorts. "Have you been home yet?"

"Nope, I just grabbed the recipts out of my bags and gave everything to the housekeeping section."

"Grab a spare bed, there's plenty of pajamas available. Your aunt is at work right now. . .right?"

"If her schedule hasn't changed yet. . .yeah." Peter mumbles. Scott chuckles and leads him off for a shower, a meal, and a bed though not necessarily in that order. Pepper checks her list of phone numbers and dials.

"May!" A man says a few minutes later. May Parker looks over at him. "Your nephew is back in town, Ms. Potts just called to say she's making him get some sleep at Stark Tower before he heads home. And before he heads off she'll have Stark Food Services send dinner home with him."

"Thank you Matthew." May smiles.

"You live with your nephew?" One of the younger children asks her.

"Yes, my late husband and I raised Peter after his parents died when he was younger than you."

Peter yawns as he gets behind the wheel of his car, his laundry freshly washed and folded in his bags and containers of food are in the back seat. He gets home a little before his aunt, putting everything on the table and is sorting through his mail when May comes into the house. She hugs him and looks through her own mail.

"Are all the supplies for the work in?"

"Yes, and your boss says he's going to be putting us up in a hotel for at least a week while they're working. With all the deaths hotels are empty." Peter nods. "They're nearly as bad in other areas, when I was in St. Louis half the hotel was empty. And that was with the expo."

"Yes, the President was whining that he didn't know some areas of the economy would take a hit with so many deaths." May says sourly.

"Yep, hotels are nearly empty, half the flights have been cut so the airlines is up in arms since people aren't traveling for pleasure anymore. The companies that build the airplanes are having fits because the airlines aren't buying new planes. Travel agencies are shutting down since nobody's traveling. . .same with the cruise industry."

The next morning finds a crew from the housekeeping section of Stark helping Peter and his aunt pack up everything they want to take to the hotel with them as well as packing up stuff that might be damaged during the work. That goes in a POD and May looks at the house she's lived in for years for a few long minutes before following Peter out the door.

"Have they started releasing stuff yet?" Peter asks Clint the next morning.

"Yeah, they're letting social services have vouchers for stuff like furniture, clothes, appliances. . .not flat screen tvs or computers but stuff that's needed. The other stuff they're going to be opening a conference center and people can get numbers to come in and buy stuff."

"I almost miss the back to school sales you'd have been hearing on the news about now."

"Yes, I can't believe it's nearly September." Clint sighs.

"Your family?"

"Working on classes through Xavier's since they're too young for their GEDs. Hopefully when they're old enough there's still universities open for them to attend."

"Nope." Pepper sighs. "He just announced he was shutting those down. Or rather any school that accepts state or federal funds wouldn't be reopening because all the students are needed elsewhere. Not that he lowered himself to say where they were needed. . .just that they were needed."

"We were expecting this." Tony sighs. "He's going to turn the US into a third world country by taking away education opportunities."

"Yep." Pepper sighs. "I can see a lot of on the job training for areas where you don't need a degree."

"Are you fucking stupid?" the chief of staff sighs as he looks at his 'please god somebody get him the hell out of office soon' boss.

"But they can be working if the schools aren't open."

"Moron! Most of them are already working .. .and taking classes."

"But we don't need universities."

"Yes we do asswipe. Doctors and lawyers need degrees, they need universities for that."

"They've got their own schools." He blusters.

"God! You really are that fucking stupid. Med and law schools are part of universities." The chief of staff yells. "Students go for a four year bachelors before they attend the other schools."

"But. . .but can't they just go to hospitals or law offices and learn that way?"

"No, they can't. They need degrees and licenses." His chief of staff sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"But if they just learn from others. . .there's not those massive student loans. See. . .everybody will be happy." He crows. His chief of staff gives him a disgusted look as he dances off. He's whining a few hours later when instead of everybody bowing and kissing his feet he's getting yelled at on various social media sites.

"But I thought they'd be happy to have the schools shut down." he whines.

"Please tell me we have medical and law books." Peter says the next day at Stark.

"And textbooks for all the other jobs in the tower, we started a library when the precogs started saying he'd be shutting schools down. So did SHIELD, Xavier's, and Richards. I'm sure some of the others have their own research libraries."

"Yeah, I can't see AIM and HYDRA having to trek down to the local library when they need to look something up." Clint snorts. "Oh god, I just saw the stereotypical little old lady librarian making them shush in the library, take their weapons off at the door . .." He walks off muttering, Natasha nicely knocking him out with a trank dart when she hears what he's talking about. She even puts him on a couch to sleep it off instead of leaving him on the floor. Phil gives her a look but nods when she tells him what she heard, then he shakes his head to get that image out and she nicely puts him to sleep with a second dart, putting him on the couch across from Clint. Bruce snickers as he walks past.

The next day Tony tells Pepper he'd be gone for a while and flies to the Baxter building. He locks himself in a lab with Reed and they work on projects for several hours.

"What's the latest death rate?" Ben Grimm asks after Sue has dragged them out for a meal.

"Ninety percent in some of the other areas that were targeted. Especially in areas where it's winter." Tony says. "I expect to hit 50 percent here this winter. Areas that weren't directly hit are at twenty to twenty-five percent."

"Are the precogs seeing any. . .'repricussions' against the US for what happened from other countries?"

"No, they know he's an idiot. . .this just proved it." Tony snorts. "Everybody is being affected by this nonsense, not just their countries. They're too busy either trying to stay in power or handle their countries affairs to deal with him now." Reed says dryly.

"What he said." Tony pokes his fork in Reed's direction. "Now after the deaths have slowed down and things are getting back to normal I can see the world courts slapping him upside the head with war crimes if the Supreme court doesn't charge him first."

"Oh god. . .he'll whine like the big baby he is." Johnny snorts. "And scream that we can't do that."

"Rumor is people are talking impeachment. And not just the other political party either."

"About time they fucking started doing something about him." Sue mutters. "Shut the barn door after the horses have left."

"Do we have any seafood farms?"

"Something we'll have to look into." Reed makes a note on the computer as Tony sends Pepper an e-mail to look into it.

"Are we getting in extra supplies before winter?"

"Everything that won't go bad." Tony says, nodding. "Because we're seeing more and more factories being unable to fulfill their contracts. Stores in other areas have more and more empty spots on their shelves. The asshole in chief tried getting all the supplies of natural gas and propane under government control but was slapped stupider by the courts. He bleated it was for natural security. . .so they'd be safe but everybody knows he just wanted to hand them out to the people he wanted."

"I've heard rumors about medical supplies running low."

"Yep, he's bleating that hospitals don't need the supplies. . .shouldn't the epidemic be over now? The NIH dragged him through hospitals still full of patients and he wailed that it wasn't supposed to have been this way. People shouldn't still be getting sick and dying."

"Christ, when they were handing out stupid he got in line twice." Ben moans.

"More like two hundred times." Tony snorts. "Is there anything we desperately need that's on the short supply list?"

"Not that I can see."

"Supplies of propane and natural gas?"

"Will last the winter with so many buildings shut up now." Tony says quietly. Reed nods. "Our alternate power handles heat too but it will be a while before every building would be covered."

"How is the area outside the city?"

"Getting empty, Director Coulson is in talks with the governor to turn cleared land into commercial farms over the next couple years. Once we've made sure it's fertile." Sue gives him a disgusted look at the word fertile and Tony hides a smile. . .Johnny's openly grinning. Looks like Sue enjoyed her husband a bit too much. "If not we'll have to put up stuff that we need as we expand the dome."

"Vegas and Malibu?"

"Not domed yet since they're both low priority for dumbass and both have good governments running the cities. I can put domes up at a second's notice if needed."

"I thought we needed chips to be able to get in and out of the dome?" Ben asks.

"There's different levels of protection, right now we're on level one. . .free movement in or out. Needing a chip to get in and out is the next level. The third level would be no movement in or out except for certain areas even with the chip, that's the highest level and would be for something like a nuclear explosion or if we were a colony on a world like Mars where we needed to keep atmosphere inside. Or keep a poisonous atmosphere outside."

"So something like tear gas could get through the shield?"

"Yes, but they'd be exposed too since the shells would burst on the dome." Tony and Reed both look to grab PADDs but finish eating, they can work on something to filter the dome later. Ben chuckles, looks like Pepper managed to civilize Stark just like Sue wore away Reed's rough edges.

Peter looks at the houses in mid-november, it's turning cool already and the furnace has been coming on in the morning. The work on the houses is completed and now he's working on his darkroom that's going in the house on the right as they walk in the front door. He'd brought new shovels and a snowblower to clear the paths and driveway. The city had been talking about not clearing streets with only one home or building occupied to save money but realized they wouldn't save that much money and that change hadn't happened.

"Are we set for the winter?" May asks when he comes in.

"Bags of rock salt for the path, new shovels, and a snowblower. Frank's family is set too."

Scott taps on his ex's door a few days later. "More assignments for Cassie and the grades on everything she'd worked on before." He hands her a couple thick folders.

"Thank you Scott, and thank your friends for allowing her to continue her schooling. I can't believe the moron in chief shut down the schools."

"I can, like you said he's a moron and does this stuff in an attempt to make himself a hero to the people. Instea everybody knows he's a fool.

Scott looks up as he walks out to his car, smiling as he sees Clint leading a training exercise with Spider-man and the young Avengers. The female Hawkeye comes down next to him. "Is there any news on GEDS?"

"Principals and teachers from the shut down schools are going to be offering tests every other week for students over sixteen so they can get on with their lives."

"Yeah, thankfully businesses in the area are waiving the whole 'do you have a GED or high school diploma' question on their applications." One of the males says as the rest of the group joins them on the ground. The others turn to look at Spider-man.

"I'm in the other boat guys, I'd already graduated and was in college before he shut them down. Hopefully they'll eventually reopen and students can come back to finish their degrees."

"How old are you?" One of the other boys asks.

"Just turned eighteen, yes I skipped a couple years. Which wasn't easy since I was so much younger than the others at school. And scrawny. And a science nerd."

"Three strikes against you right there." Scott says, sighing.

"Add in poor and I was a three time loser. Then my uncle died and I was busy selling my photos to Jameson to pay the bills."

"Do you ever keep in contact with the kids from school?"

"Only a couple. Now they're realizing how it felt to have lost family, to have to work to pay the bills, and take care of their remaining family."