Steve Rogers (616). (supposedtobe) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-07-04 17:44:00 |
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(Backdated to late last night, after the Mandarin Broadcast.]
At the beginning of the American Revolution, the great American hero Thomas Paine said, "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated."
While Thomas wrote these words to inspire the American people to demand their independence, the principles he espoused are universal. Freedom is seldom attained -- and tyranny seldom surrenders -- without a struggle. In a sometimes-cruel world, we have been blessed with freedoms that far too many have been denied. Most of us are not native to this Earth, and yet we enjoy the freedom to speak our minds, protest our nation's wrongs, worship any God (or no God) that we choose, and seek justice for the ills committed against us. Though these rights were not established on this holiday, they were born out of a key phrase penned in the Declaration of Independence. 237 years ago, the Founding Fathers wrote that they held certain truths to be held self-evident: that all men were created equal, and that they were endowed with certain unalienable Rights. Chief among them were "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." There are those who would deny us those rights -- terrorists and tyrants and villains who will use any means necessary to try to demoralize our people. There are those who would breed distrust and twist the truth in an effort to destroy the fabric of our world.
We have not, and will not, let them.
Make no mistake about The Mandarin's beliefs or goals. He speaks of honor and teaching, but he indiscriminately slaughters innocents and children. He claims to wish to expose America's crimes, only to bring death and destruction to those who bear no responsibility for them. The only lesson to be learned from his tyranny is that he will stop at nothing to cause chaos and destabilize the ground beneath our feet. That he will feign any ideal, exploit any weakness, and use any rhetoric that he thinks will achieve his ends. He is not a man of principle: he is an opportunist who would set the fire to the Earth if only he had the satisfaction of knowing that he lit the match.
But The Mandarin, like so many dictators and tyrants and bullies before him, underestimates the strength of the human spirit. Over seventy years ago, Benito Mussolini made the same mistake. When the tide turned against him, he attempted to flee like a coward and was executed by his own people for his troubles. Three days later, Adolf Hitler burned in a bunker when the world fought back against oppression. In the decades since, many such men have faced the same penalty for their crimes, while others have rotted in prisons deprived of so much as a glimmer of daylight. The Mandarin would do well to pay close attention to the fates of such men, because he will fare no better.
In his quest to defeat us, he has arrogantly overlooked the most important history lesson of all: that, like those who came before him, his day of reckoning is coming.
[Filtered to the 616 Avengers/people on this post.]
For the past few weeks, Tony has been compiling a file on The Mandarin of our world. Initially, he intended to give it to Pepper for safe-keeping in the event of an emergency. Unfortunately, that emergency happened much sooner than anticipated. As a result, Tony went directly to his alternate self to not only provide him with the file, but to extend an offer to have the Avengers of our world check out some of his known hideouts, should he provide us with the resources. He came through.
Most of you have been around the block once or twice, so it probably goes without saying that this is by no means a sure thing. There's no telling if The Mandarin of this world has the same history of ours. There's no telling if he frequents the same locales, or connives from the same safe havens. It's conceivable that we may find nothing, but even if that's the case, I would in no way characterize that as "coming up empty." Eliminating possible locations narrows the field and adjusts the focus of this manhunt. One more place that he isn't means one less place for others to waste their time looking. More broadly, it provides an opportunity to contribute to hunting this bastard down. I, for one, would find it very difficult to live with myself if we didn't take the time to check these places out, and it turned out that we could have saved a lot of lives if we had. Let's not put ourselves in the position to have those kind of regrets.
Team Alpha: Jan, Jennifer, and Wanda, you're going to Hong Kong. The Mandarin of our world has a long, influential history in this area, where he went by the alias Zhang Tong. As Tony, he controlled a number of government officials and local industry leaders, while simultaneously attempting to undermine Stark Enterprises. I'd like you to investigate whether The Mandarin of this world has used that alias there. All necessary covers and documentation will be provided. I won't be there to assess the situation, so please use your own judgment to formulate a gameplan. This will be something of a social call, so I suggest that you try to blend in. Much of the population and nearly everyone in the business world speaks English, so you should have no trouble communicating.
Team Delta: Pietro, Julie, and Humberto, you're going to Chelyabinsk, Russia. As you may recall, this is where The Mandarin of our world built the flying fortress known as The Dragon of Heaven in his quest for world domination. I've assigned you to this location because you either have the benefit of a good vantage point (via some degree off flight), or the ability to cover a lot of terrain in an abbreviated amount of time (via speed). While I expect that such a fortress would be hidden in plain sight, there's a possibility that it could be hidden in a bunker. For that reason, I suggest that you also interview locals to see if they've witnessed any suspicious activity as of late. Pietro speaks Russian, but Tony has outfitted a tablet with state-of-the-art speech-to-speech translation software for the rest of you.
Team Zeta: Peter and T'Challa, you'll be coming with Tony and me to Omaha, Nebraska. This is where The Mandarin headed up a bio-engineered weapon corporation called Prometheus. More details will be provided on-site. Peter, I know that you have pressing weekend business, so why don't you join us after you're through? Tony's just a short flight away.
Kate, you'll be on backup. Logan, since you've recently endured a long flight, take your pick. Omaha is closer than Hong Kong or Russia, but it'll probably be less interesting.
Carol is on assignment, but we've enlisted the services of a daring pilot. To those of you who work for SHIELD, but are not currently on assignment, there are contingencies in place if you're called back. Tony and I have taken that possibility in account in formulating these assignments. If you have to return, you will have enough allies stationed in your location to pick up the slack.
You ship out tomorrow, at 7pm sharp. I'll meet you in Stark's private hanger with all of the necessary credentials and documentation. After dropping you off, the jet will be stationed roughly halfway between Hong Kong and Chelyabinsk in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. I expect regular updates on your progress.
Take care, and Godspeed to you all.
(Okay, so obviously they aren't going to find The Mandarin, but there have been a ton of issues of just looking for enemies in the comics over the years. We thought this would be a good opportunity to get the 616 Avengers actively involved in the hunt, even if they aren't ultimately the ones who track him down. Have fun with it! Track down possible leads, encounter false alarms, uncover shady business dealings, come up with some creative cover identities, and/or get into some non-lethal skirmishes with criminals along the way. At the end of the day, they'll be able to say they investigated to the best of their knowledge/ability, and no one died because they didn't check a location that they could have. If you have any OOC questions, please drop me a note here, and I'll get back to you ASAP. <3)