Prospect Park, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, 12:30 PM December 27th, 1963
Well, better late than never, I guess.
Me, and pretty much the entire team for that matter, had spent most of yesterday all but dead to the world as we tried to recover from our little unplanned Santo Marco vacation, and let me tell you, it's been a good long time since I was too tired to even get out of bed by mid-day. And while I can't speak for the others, I had completely forgotten about any previous engagements we might have planned.
I really shouldn't have been surprised that Steve Rogers was never one to forget about a charity event.
He'd been trying to put this together in the days leading up to Christmas, with the intention that we'd hold the event in the evening of Christmas Day, but with the whole Brotherhood thing, any such plans had to be postponed while we dealt with Magneto's bullshit, and none of us had been in any shape to meet the public afterwards, it took most of the next day just to recover from it. But, there's only so long you can put this kind of thing off when Captain America is running it.
Which is the reason why I'm standing in a snow-covered park in Brooklyn, bundled up in a coat, and watching as The Avengers try to deal with the attention of several dozen overexcited children and their nervous-looking parents, while also trying to keep any of the crowd from noticing me. Megalomaniac supervillains I can handle, but kids? Not my thing.
The event had turned into a somewhat improvised meet-and-greet over by an ice rink, currently occupied by a handful of skaters trying desperatly to look like they're not gawking at the gathered team, with most of the parks visitors clustered around us. It's a nice day, with a blue sky above us, a stark contrast to the steel grey clouds and constant snow flurries of the past few days. From what Tony told me, Prospect Park had seen better days, like a lot of public spaces in this part of New York, but with the snow covering everything, it's quite nice out here. Most of the kids are too focused on the team to do anything else, but a few of them have already wandered away and started up an impromptu snowball fight on the other side of the lake.
Steve is taking a break from his adoring fans to greet a group of men dressed in army unfiforms, shaking hands with each of them as they talk solemnly. Some of them look old enough to have been in the same war as Steve, but a few of them look to be in their 30's at most. Korea veterans maybe? It's one of the wars I know virtually nothing about, as far as history lessons go they basically just jumped from World War 2 to Vietnam. No idea if Steve knows any more than I do, considering he slept through it. Tony is next to him, decked out in full Iron Man armor, with the ridiculous addition of a Santa hat on top of his helmet, which he must have glued on considering it didn't fall off even though he flew the whole way here. A large sack is clutched in one gauntlet, filled with small gifts wrapped up in gold paper, which he's handing out to the children clustered around him.
Thor is showing off Mjolnir to the kids, making sure to keep the weapon well out of reach from small hands. Unsurprisingly, he's taking to this whole event like a very loud, very muscular duck to water, and judging by the gestures he's making, he's re-enacting some long-ago battle he took part in back in Asgard for his captive audience. I really hope he remembers to censor himself a bit, because if the stories he's been telling me are any indication, this one isn't appropriate for anyone under 18.
As the only woman on the team, Janet has a cluster of girls around her, talking excitedly and marvelling at her wings, which almost seems to glitter in the sun reflecting off the snow. While her original costume didn't include a mask, she'd added a black and red latex cowl that matches the rest of the outfit, with a space at the top letting her hair out. Back when she spent nearly all her hero time Wasp-sized, hiding her face hadn't been an issue, but with the increased public attention, and considering she spends most of it normal size, she'd added the mask as a safety precaution. Hank is nearby, showing off his growth ability to an amazed crowd, growing tall enough to reach the roof of the lodge standing by the edge of the lake, a massive hand placed over the snow-covered tiles.
In comparison, there's a rather sparse group of nervous parents looking over at me, their hands placed on their childrens shoulders, trying to keep them from just rushing over. I'm not taking it personally, because I very much doubt their fear has anything to do with me. Rather, it's aimed at the person I'm standing next to.
Next to me, The Hulk huffs in annoyance, sitting crosslegged on the snowy grass, not that the cold bothers him one bit "TINY PEOPLE SCARED..."
I pat him on his bare shoulder "That's why we're out here today, Hulk. To give these folks a chance to see you up close instead of just on TV smashing the shit out of everything. They need to see that you're just another person. A very large, very green person, but still! It's all about normalizing you to the public!"
And hadn't THAT been a fun conversation....
...
A Few Hours Earlier
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND?!"
"What, like in general?"
Bruce just stares at me like I've grown an extra head, before turning around, stomping over to his work station and reaching for the notebook he'd been writing in. "I'm not having this conversation."
"Oh yes you are, dear doctor. Come on, it's for charity! You don't want to make all those orphans disappointed, do you?"
He sighs, closing the cover of the notebook "Are you serious?"
I shrug "I mean, I don't actually know if there'll be any orphans there, Cap and Tony are the ones organizing this whole thing, but maybe? I'm sure there'll be a mix of inspirationally disadvantaged kids there in general, knowing them."
"That's now what I-" he groans, rubbing his forehead "Why? Why are you like this?"
"From what I understand it's a combination of genetics and reading too many comic books as a kid. Now, are you done with your ridiculous freakout, or do we keep going?"
"It's not ridiculous!" Bruce looks like he's halfway about to try and bolt out of the room in a huff, but finally, his shoulders slump in defeat "Do you honestly not see what a bad idea this is? The Hulk is... unpredictable, even at the best of times, and you want to take him to some sort of... publicity event?! It'd be a disaster!"
"Alright, fair enough, and four months ago, would you have thought it possible that The Hulk could live in the middle of New York City without trashing the place within the first hour?" Bruce glares at me in annoyance, but there's not really a good answer for that "No, you'd never have even considered it! But look now, both of you have lived here for months now, and New York is just fine. I mean, maybe fine is stretching it, but it's not any more of a shithole than it was before you moved here!"
He sighs "You're not going to let this go, are you?"
"No, I'm not, Bruce. This is important, the public needs to get used to you, they need to see that The Hulk isn't some destructive force, he's a person, even if he looks scary. People have to be exposed to those that are different, even if it's difficult, otherwise, nothing will ever change."
"...are we still talking about The Hulk?"
"There's multiple layers to this, yes."
...
Needless to say, Bruce wasn't thrilled with the idea, and neither was Hulk once I explained the event to him, but both finally agreed to come along, if under protest, and here we are, with the Hulk sitting down in the snow so he won't look quite as intimidating as normal. The people brave enough to wander over to meet him still aren't exactly lining up around the block, but there's the occasional- ah, speak of the devil!
A dark-skinned girl, black curly hair in pigtails peeking out from under her oversized wool hat, dressed in a worn overcoat and a pair of rubber boots, is tugging at the hand of the man I'm assuming is her father, tall and stocky, with a green and red scarf wrapped around his neck, his face nervous as he lets himself be pulled over towards the seated behemoth.
"You're big" The girl says once she reaches us, staring wideyed up at the Hulk, who looks down on her with a curious expression.
"SMALL" He huffs matter-of-factly. The girl giggles.
"Is-er, is he... you know...safe?" The man mutters next to me, still keeping an eye on the girl who's busy poking at the Hulk's oversized arm, fascinated by the emerald green of his skin.
"As safe as any of the rest of us" I say with a shrug "But if you're asking if he's going to flip his shit and trash the park in a rampage, I'd say the odds of that are pretty low."
He winces "Sorry, it's just... well, you hear these things about him on the news, and..." He trails off, not quite knowing how to finish that sentence. The girls actions seem to have dispelled atleast some of the fear from the crowd, and a few other children come wandering over, their parents following closely behind. A small boy, hispanic judging by his tanned skin and black hair, squeals with laughter as the Hulk lifts him a foot or so off the ground in his massive palm, the other kids chattering as they watch.
"How strong are you?" One of the older boys asks, as the kid in Hulks hand is deposited safely back on the ground. "I saw you on TV. You could lift a whole ramp!"
"He beat that guy in the rhino costume too!" A voice comes from the back "They said so on the radio!"
"HULK STRONG! STRONGEST THERE IS!"
"No way!" The boy who first asked the question says "Are you as strong as Thor?"
"Thor's not that strong!" One of the girls says, hands on her hips "He always has that hammer, I bet that's where all the power is!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Could you beat up Captain America?"
"HULK NOT FIGHT STARMAN! STARMAN FRIEND!"
Apparently, schoolyard debates of the old "who would win in a fight" type just become more enticing when the heroes in question are actual real people, and not just fictional. I turn back towards the man next to me. "Yeah, I doubt I have to tell you this, but the news is mostly bullshit. The Hulk is very unlikely to start smashing anyone unless they start shit, which for some reason, a lot of people seems to think it's a good idea to do. But this..?" I motion over to the cluster of children surrounding Hulk, a few of which who have started to act out the superhero fights they'd seen on the news "...I'd say this is probably the safest spot in the city right now."
Some of the other adults have recognized me as well now that they're not terrified to take their eyes off their kids for a second, and are walking over. Most of them still seems pretty wary, and I notice a few of them are giving some disapproving looks at my long hair and my flag mask. Hippies won't be a thing for a few years yet, but my appearance alone singles me out quite a bit, though not nearly as much as it does in the richer parts of the city.
A short, pale woman with long, brown hair tied in a ponytail, a coat with a tattered fake fur trim around the neck hanging to her knees, looks at the flag mask tied tightly around my face. "You're.... Mr. Sunshine, yes?" She asks in a vaguely slavic accent "The... mutant?" She says the word not with dislike, but with unfamilairity, like the word itself is strange to her rather than the concept.
"I'm A mutant, yes. I wouldn't call myself THE mutant."
The joke falls flat, to no big surprise. While never exactly a secret, mutants have been obscure, bordering on the unknown, for decades, but thanks to Magneto's need to flap his dick around, it's all out in the open now. While the news have mostly been focusing on the whole "attempted coup" thing, there's been quite a few questions about mutants as a whole over the past two days, and though there's been surprisingly few attempts at fearmongering even from the most conservative circles, which I'm guessing owes a lot to the fact that both the X-Men and myself helped to stop Magneto's plans, I wouldn't count on that lasting for very long. There are going to be a lot of questions, and I might as well start answering some of them here.
"Okay, people, I'm going to be here for a few hours, so have at it. What's on your minds?"
...
Alright, Christmas is finally over for the Avengers, and they're moving towards the New Year, and the end of a very tumultuous 1963. If you enjoyed this chapter, please consider joining my Patreon, where Part 2 of Meet The Public is already posted for Fanboy Patreons and above.