Tony Stark Endangers Children
“So, are we gonna talk about the kid now,” Rhodey asked nonchalantly.
“What’s to talk about,” Tony responded without looking up, still fiddling with one of Rhodey’s braces.
“Tony, you took a 15-year-old into a fight with the Avengers,” Rhodey said incredulously.
Tony took a moment, and then looked up at Rhodey. He looked clearly angry for a moment, but decided against snapping. Instead he grabbed his phone and posted the same video that he had shown Peter to demonstrate that he knew who he was.
“See that? That’s been up on YouTube for about 7 months now. If we do the math, you might note that Peter had been superheroing in sweatpants and a hoodie for five months before I approached him to help in Berlin. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
“Ok,” Rhodey conceded. “So, Peter wasn’t going to stop this,” and Rhodey gestured to the hologram “whether you asked him to or not. But you kind of brought him into the big leagues, Tones. He could have gotten seriously hurt!”
“Let’s talk about safety and why I approached the Spiderman, because let’s be honest, I think Peter’s great, but I was reaching out to the hero. First, I would have provided Spiderman with a suit regardless because he clearly needs it. If he is doing this, which he is, then I’m going to do all that I can to help him. Taking away the suit with the Vulture fiasco was enough to convince me that pulling the suit isn’t enough to make a difference for that kid. He will do what needs doing anyways.”
Rhodey nodded and gestured for Tony to go on. He’d known Peter long enough to know that his powers made him more than a typical teen, and he wasn’t going to stop being Spiderman just because some adults said he wasn’t old enough.
“Now for the issue of the Avengers. Do you know why I sought out Spiderman in particular? Not Peter, but Spiderman?”
“No. But do tell.”
“Since Spiderman has come on the scene, he’s captured upwards of 500 criminals Rhodey—all of those captures were non-lethal. Spiderman may be a new hero, but his methods have already earned him a reputation. I went looking for Peter precisely because of what I was expecting in Berlin. I asked Ross to let me bring Steve in because I didn’t want something like this,” and Tony gestured to the braces “to happen to my friends and family. Steve and his crew were willing to go through us, but I wanted non-lethal captures so that I could work this out in the system. I didn’t know that Steve would go that far. Nat pulled punches. Hell, you and I pulled punches. I only fired at projectiles like Clint’s arrows, not my teammates.”
“Unlike Steve’s gang who thought dropping cars on our heads was totally fine. I get that. You didn’t expect that Steve would escalate it to the level he did.”
“And you might have heard me tell Spiderman to hang back and just web them up. No, he didn’t listen. I can’t believe he fought the Winter Soldier and the Falcon hand-to-hand,” Tony muttered.
“You’re really pushing this whole Spiderman thing,” Rhodey smirked.
“Look Rhodey. You can joke, but I’m a little offended that my closest friends keep jumping on me for this like I’m some kind of child endangering monster. Happy and Pepper both didn’t agree with my choice, but Peter exists in a gray area because of his special circumstances. The reason I let Peter know that I knew who he was is because I was approaching Spiderman about that job and not some random teenager. First, I had to establish who I was talking to though. He lives in a different world. It’s not fair and it’s not ideal, but it is reality. Steve’s problem has always been that he will put a positive spin on things to the point of delusion. I’m not willing to do that.”
“Fair enough, but Spiderman just ate your last piece of pizza,” Rhodey smirked, pointing to the security screen where Peter was sneaking into the kitchen and grabbing Tony’s leftovers.