Samuel Sterns/The Leader

  "This is possibly the best result we could have asked for," The Leader said, chuckling as he watched the news.

  "All this shit?" Klaue was staring at the screen declaring the Superhuman Registration Act with some trepidation. "Gonna make business a lot harder. The cheapo serum is a tough sell as it is, and Madripoor is gonna raise prices on letting us smuggle that through them."

  The other members of the Intelligencia, Red Ghost and Sinister, were sat around the same table, watching the screen. Red Ghost was scratching the top of his gorilla's head idly, while Sinister played idly with a portion of his cape.

  "In some ways, you're right. Our projects will require new shipping lines, new contracts, more smuggling. But we won't be the only ones. The so-called 'heroes' will be just as busy breaking the law to protect their fellow superhumans. The governments will be hunting innocent men and women. And other criminal enterprises will work to take advantage of the chaos."

  "Then I move that my own project takes some precedence," Sinister said, finally lowering his cape. "I have provided my technology and resources. In return, I want what you promised me."

  "What is your obsession with those two?" Klaue asked, sounding genuinely befuddled.

  "The Summer and Grey bloodlines are the key to a level of power that few of us can even imagine," Sinister said softly. "Sterns, you've seen my calculations. I don't believe I need to say more to convince you otherwise."

  The Leader stroked his mustache slowly. Despite Sinister's absolute obsession with the families in question, the Leader had seen the genetic data Sinister had collected. The strength of a child made from those bloodlines would be a powerhouse in any kind of combination…

  "I will help. But in return, I would like a clone for myself," The Leader said with a soft smile.

  "Done," Sinister said without hesitation.

  A Summers/Grey child… what sort of power would they have with gamma radiation in the equation? The Leader set that future project aside to look at Red Ghost.

  "And for you, my friend?"

  "Only the glory of Mother Russia is my goal," The Red Ghost sounded almost bored. "Beyond that, my research into cosmic rays is going well. The Red Ghost will continue as he has."

  "Making monkey robots," Klaue teased. "And I thought I had weird hobbies."

  "Ah yes, Klaue, how goes the recruitment drive?"

  Klaue grinned. "Oh, it's going great. Found this crazy American with a line of vibranium. He's a bit of an eager beaver. As long as we keep Wakanda away, we'll be sitting quite pretty."

  "Wakanda… that nation will be a problem," Sinister said. "Savages though they are, they've always been powerful, and will be more so once they begin harboring superhumans."

  "I thought they would only take in fellow Wakandans?" Red Ghost asked.

  "Previously. yes, but the King is pushing his people to be more… lenient," The Leader chuckled. "I'm torn. I approve of them discarding their ridiculous nationalism, but they could have picked a better time. Still, we can ignore them for now."

  "At least the Avengers won't be around as much," Klaue grumbled.

  "...The Hulk is apparently heading up a group to hunt me down," The Leader said.

  "What?" Sinister leaned forward, bewildered. "The Hulk? Not Bruce Banner?"

  "Both, in a sense," The Leader smiled. "I believe that while the Avengers as a team are disassembled, so to speak, the individual members are spreading out to continue in different ways."

  "So they will continue to be a problem… Hopefully the governments working against them will slow them down," Red Ghost said, his gorilla letting out a small growl.

  "Our best bet is depending on government competence?" Klaue pointed out.

  The four men began to chuckle in unison, The Leader waving a hand dismissively. "No, no, I have plans in place. For now, when it comes to personal projects, I will place importance on Sinister's wish for Scott Summer and Jean Grey's DNA. Following that, Gammatown for myself-"

  "One moment, mate," Klaue interrupted. "What about me?"

  "You?" The Leader blinked, surprised. "I didn't realize you had something in mind."

  "I do," Klaue grinned savagely. "Oh, I do."

  The Leader chuckled. The Superhuman Registration Act was idiotic, but like most stupid things they could work and take advantage of it. Oh yes, things would be going swimmingly.

  Now, for the awkward part.

  "In other news, we have been approached by someone hoping to join the Intelligencia," the Leader announced.

  "...Approached?" Sinister asked. The man once known as Nathaniel Essex leaned forward. "I was led to believe you had spent a considerable amount of time preventing our presence from being known?"

  "Is this because of that baby shark?" Red Ghost snarled. "We should have killed it in its crib! If you had given the Nemetrix to one of my apes-"

  "I will be making a more advanced model for exactly that purpose," The Leader said, cutting off the Red Ghost, who stared in surprise. The Leader took a moment to enjoy how fun it was to surprise the megalomaniac simply by extending a hand in kindness. Then he continued, "And the shark, who apparently has been adopted by the Avengers, did not lead anyone to us. Someone found us by other means. A mind as intelligent as our own."

  He flicked a hand out, and a hologram floated over the table. It showed a simple and professional email. It was written almost like a resume, with some brief explanations of how the sender could aid in the Intelligencia's goals.

  "Intriguing," Sinister hummed, his head resting on steepled fingers. "How do we know this isn't some sort of trick?"

  "We do not. But the work this man has promised us is enough for me to at least approach you all with the suggestion that we allow them a… hmm. What would the word for it be, Klaue?"

  Klaue, ever the business minded one, chuckled. "Provisional membership, I guess." He scratched his chin with his robotic arm. "Dr. Salazar of AIM… Those blokes really can't stay down, eh?"

  The Leader brought up one of the images that had been sent in the email. It was the haunting image of Tonic, the army asset that had acted as a medic during the Hydra War.

  "Freaks and monsters," Red Ghost mumbled. "I approve."

  'EVOs… What an interesting concept.'

  Matt Murdock/Daredevil

  When Dial had asked Matt, Foggy, and Jen to meet him at 890 Fifth Avenue, Matt had been a bit curious. In the aftermath of the Superhuman Registration Act, Matt had wondered about what to do. He still went out every night, fighting to protect people. Sometimes others joined him. Dial and Jen were the most common ones. He ran into Creel a couple of times, Luke and Jessica on other occasions. Some folks he wasn't familiar with were doing the same job.

  New York City was the city of superheroes. So far, the folks in charge of it had been fighting tooth and nail against the SRA. But soon it would be the law, and Matt was going to have to fight it outside of his role as a lawyer. Human trafficking was practically non-existent in NYC since the Avengers started patrolling it in earnest, but he foresaw the problem exploding once superhumans started either trying to escape or got captured to become experimented on.

  Matt wasn't worried for himself, Daredevil's identity wasn't on any BRIDGE server, but he worried for the future.

  With those heavy thoughts, it was nice to have Foggy and Jen with him.

  "So you aren't going to tell us a thing?" Foggy asked Jen.

  "Nope," the Jade Giantess grinned down at him. "Attorney-Client privilege."

  "Your client is also your boyfriend! Ethically, you should tell us everything to balance out the karmic scales," Foggy pointed out.

  "I think the karmic scales aren't a real thing," Matt said with a little smile.

  "I disagree. Karma is the only reason a guy as ugly as you gets so many hot women, it's the universe making up for your blindness."

  Matt burst out a little laugh, while Jen slapped Foggy in the back of the head, getting an overdramatic yelp of pain from him.

  "That's horrible Foggy! Also, Matt isn't ugly."

  "Hey, he doesn't know that! He's got a big enough head as it is!" Foggy then stopped, Matt and Jen standing on either side of him. "Wow… that's a big house."

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  It was. Matt could feel the air flowing around the building, giving him a rough impression of it. It was also old, older than the ones next to it. He could tell from the smell of the brick and mortar. It was well maintained, the smell of new construction and taste of chemicals used to take care of it hung in the air.

  More importantly, there was an actual large strip of lawn and trees around it. In New York City. Which was insane.

  "Holy crap," Foggy walked through the gates, looking around the place. "This is swanky!"

  "And it's ours," Jen said proudly.

  "Ours?" Matt asked, befuddled.

  Rather than answer, Jen opened the front door and walked in. Matt smelled several people immediately, two of them familiar. One had just come from a barbershop, a woman who had the strong scent of alcohol on her breath, Dial's familiar hodgepodge of various alien scents… and a man who smelled of blood.

  There were more scents, but the blood surprised him.

  They walked into the living room. There, Dial's clothes shifted as he looked over at them. Daredevil hid a smile when he heard Dial's heartbeat speed up at the sight of Jen, who's own superhuman heart did the same. It was cute how in tune they were without knowing it.

  "Awesome, you guys are right on time," Dial said with a smile. "Matt, Foggy, this is Luke, Jessica, Logan, and you've probably heard of Wanda."

  The last was the scent Matt had been distracted from, the smell of old books, paper and glue, mixed with… something else? Candles? No, that was normal. She smelled… purple? No, like flowers. Like being cheated on. Like his first kiss. It kept changing. Why didn't her scent make sense?

  Oh right, Wanda was the Scarlet Witch. Chaos magic, they'd called it.

  Luke was the man from Harlem he sometimes met on patrols, who he had first met when they helped defend the Avengers Tower during the Hydra War. He felt 'dense', like his body weighed more than it should have. Jessica was similar, but she reeked of old and new whiskey smells.

  Funny that he recognized them from the Avengers Tower, but they didn't recognize him. Shame of a secret identity.

  The one Matt didn't recognize was Logan. As he'd noted earlier, the man smelled of blood. There was more, smells Matt connected to people who worked around teenagers, forests, the crisp scent of snow. But blood was stuck to his hands, even under the gloves he wore. And something else. Some kind of metal?

  "Who the fuck are they?" Jessica asked.

  "Your lawyers," Dial said with a grin. "Matt, meet the Defenders."

  That immediately explained things. Foggy blinked, then gasped. "OH! This is a superhero team up! You guys are superheroes!"

  "You told him?" Dial asked Matt.

  Matt subtly nodded, but also waved his cane in a pattern Dial would recognize. The Arabian superhuman flickered a smile.

  "So, Matt and Foggy are normal lawyers helping you guys to operate legally," Dial explained. Foggy, to his credit, read the subtle hint that Matt's identity was still secret, simply sitting down next to Matt on one of the very comfortable leather seats. "Tony Stark sold me this place to use, and now I'm giving it to you, the Defender's Mansion."

  "The fuck are the Defenders?" Logan asked, pulling out a bottle of whiskey from a nearby cabinet. He tossed another bottle to Jessica, then a blade flicked out from his knuckle with a 'snikt' sound, the smell of fresh blood filling the air before he cut the top off the bottle off.

  "Technically, the Avengers are now illegal," Jen explained, sitting down on Dial's lap. It was funny, sensing the giant of a woman sitting atop the relatively normal in size Dial. To his credit, he didn't seem troubled by it. Jen continued speaking. "So we needed to file you guys under a different name. If you guys want to keep operating with your powers, that's part of the gig."

  "You want us to be a superhero team?" Jessica said, sounding a bit disbelieving.

  "I want you guys to keep doing what you're doing, but with support, so that you don't get kidnapped and torn apart," Dial sighed. "Wanda knows what I'm talking about."

  They all looked at her (Except for Matt, for obvious reasons). Wanda was typing on a smartphone, giggling to herself.

  "Wanda?"

  "Hmm?" She looked up. Then she flinched. "Oh. Uh, sorry, I uh… Was texting someone."

  "Ooooo," Jennifer cooed, leaning over to give Wanda a teasing smile. "Is it that guy? The doctor?"

  Wanda blushed, based on how Matt could feel the air near her face warm up, the sound of blood flowing into her face. Before she could answer, Jessica clapped her hands. "Hey! Can we focus!?"

  Still blushing, Wanda put the phone away. "Um, yes. I was requested to join you all as a magical consultant. I will act to defend us from any magical threat and help you understand any arcane issues we encounter."

  "Magic. Seriously?" Jessica asked sarcastically.

  In answer, Wanda raised a hand. A wave of something that smelled like both a warm campfire and a burning human filled the air, before Matt's senses went haywire. When it was over, some sort of creature stood in the center of the room. It was shaped like a miniature dragon, based on how sound bounced off of it. But it also felt like so much more.

  "Yes. Magic," Wanda said with a smug smile.

  "Fuck me," Jessica mumbled.

  "Wanda is just the start though," Dial said. "This place is fully set-up. First floor has a medical bay and fully stocked kitchen, second floor has a technology lab and library able to connect to BRIDGE and Avengers databases, while the third floor has an armory and a gym that can work for superhumans. The basement has a few vehicles for any purpose short of flying as well as a panic room and jail made of a poly-tectic adaptive material."

  "Fancy digs," Foggy mumbled.

  "You want us to live here?" Logan asked, the hairy man pulling out another bottle of whiskey. Jessica blinked, then looked at her own half drunk bottle.

  "If you want. But I wanted you guys to have a place that could hold off an army if need be. We don't know what sort of threats might drop onto your heads."

  "So the plan is to give us a place where we can keep doing what we've been doing?" Luke asked. The large man frowned. "I was kind of expecting us to have to lay low."

  "That's why you have us," Matt spoke, finally. "I don't know why Jen was trying to surprise us with this-"

  "Cause the look on Foggy's face when he saw the mansion was hilarious," Jen said with a grin, getting a shrug and a smile from Foggy.

  "-But Dial approached us some time ago about creating a group unaffiliated with the Avengers to defend New York City. Legally, the Superhuman Registration Act has a few loopholes that we can use to justify this group. So we can work in the background. keeping you guys free to operate."

  "And why us?" Logan asked. "I know Xavier asked me to be here. What do the rest of these guys bring to the table?"

  "All of you, like Matt said, aren't Avengers. Jen and Wanda are more connected to BRIDGE than the Avengers. Luke, Jessica, and Daredevil are all vigilantes at best. Logan, you're a teacher."

  Jessica spat out a sip of whiskey, started. "Someone lets this hairy asshole around children?"

  "What do you even teach?" Luke asked, just as surprised.

  "Art," Logan said. For a moment, Matt thought he was being sarcastic before Logan continued. "I have a Bachelor's Degree in Japanese Art. Next week I'll be teaching calligraphy."

  "Wow… Talk about books and covers, huh?"

  Logan growled, Foggy swallowing nervously in response.

  "So what, are we actually doing this?" Jessica asked, shaking her head.

  "If you want to keep being a PI without people calling BRIDGE to complain about the superhuman woman following them around, yes," Dial said sarcastically. He stood up, Jen joining him. "Luke… I want you to lead them."

  Luke looked up, startled. "Me?"

  "Yep. You're the best man for the job." Dial looked around. "Besides, no one else wants to do it."

  "All right, twist my leg, why don't you," Foggy joked. "I'll be team leader, and I will rule with generosity and fear."

  Luke snorted, giving Foggy a grin, before turning back to Dial with a more serious look. Then he glanced at Jessica. She sighed.

  "This place better have more booze."

  "There's a bar that gets restocked by a personal fund I set up. You'll never run out of booze."

  "Awesome," Jessica, Foggy, Logan, Matt, and Luke said in unison.

  "...Did I join a team of alcoholics?" Wanda whispered to Jen.

  "Don't worry, they'll be fine," Jen whispered back.

  Matt grinned. This would be fun… outside of having to deal with politicians. Every silver lining had a cloud.