Maximoff is a Mistake
“You want to add her to the initiative? The girl who set the Hulk loose on Johannesburg,” Tony asked, completely gob-smacked.
“She helped us beat Ultron. Without her, we would have lost. She’s a hero, Tony,” Steve said with a serious expression—so, it wasn’t a joke then.
“OK. Let’s review first. She helped us beat Ultron, but only after she first tried to hinder that by stopping the work Bruce and I were doing with Jarvis’s code to create Vision as a countermeasure.”
“You’d already created one murder bot, Stark,” Clint interrupted.
“Na, let’s be honest here. Steve and Thor both gave me permission to study the scepter with the mind stone in it, and it activated through an AI that was being programmed in a separate part of my system, overwhelmed that, and came online as a result of the Infinity Stone—you know, the alien Infinity Stone that gave the Hydra Volunteer superhuman powers to actively work as a terrorist. Since none of my AI’s have ever acted out—and let’s count them, I’ve got five already up and online, I’m not taking the blame for this Hawkeye.”
“Fine, but you killed her parents,” Steve hissed.
“No, a missile dropped on her home where she was living in an active war zone—either her parents were unwilling to leave because they felt the danger wasn’t real, endangering their children, or the two parties actively engaged in conflict in a civilian area killed her parents,” Tony said, rolling his eyes. “I’m not taking the blame just because she misdirected her anger to the point of a psychotic break, Steve.”
“That doesn’t discount the fact that you were given a second chance, and this is hers,” Nat of the Red Ledger added helpfully.
“Um, no. I actively worked to rectify my mistakes and had actually not done anything illegal. She can do the time that her crimes warrant, and then work to be a hero AFTER she’s shown a little remorse for her actions. Helping us defeat Ultron was arguably completely self-serving.”
“Tony,” Nat began, but Tony stopped her before she could pick up steam.
“No. I’m not voting for her acceptance to the Avengers Initiative. She attacked each of us with extreme prejudice and a healthy dose of enjoyment—we have footage Steve, shut-up. She set Bruce, who already feels guilty for any damage he causes as the Hulk, on a civilian population where he could do maximum damage because she wanted to! She stood by while two of Cho’s co-workers were murdered in front of her. Clint had to talk her into helping before she was actually willing to get out there and help, and it’s likely that it was more revenge for her brother than any desire to make up for her mistakes. We’ve seen no evidence of this emotional turn around that Steve assures us is real. And Nat, you and Clint both know that you aren’t an agent for anyone without training. How did she train those powers while working for Hydra after she volunteered? We’d be covering up more than just her crimes during this incident if we help her. I’m not doing it. Can you pull this off without my connections and tech—because I’m not funding or facilitating this nightmare in any way.”
“Tony, come on. This is the right thing!”
“Steve, I just listed a number of reasons why this is absolutely NOT the right thing to do. Furthermore, she still visibly hates me. And you want me to house her in my property, take complete financial care of her, and magically make all of her hard-earned consequences go away so she can become an Avenger with all of the perks that position entails. Absolutely not, Rogers!”
Tony got up and walked away from the table while the others sat looking chagrined.
“I don’t understand this. He should be completely cowed after the Ultron debacle. He shouldn’t have the emotional strength to stand up to us this way,” Nat said while Steve squinted at her and Sam gaped a little.
“That’s not cool, Nat!”
“Sam, you’re a PTSD counselor. You were totally fine with inviting Maximoff in despite the trauma she caused all of us and her active hate of Tony. Are you judging me right now? Because you are either just as guilty, or too bad at your job for me to care,” she sniped.
** Wanda Maximoff was given a life sentence for crimes against humanity for her time as a Hydra agent and collaborating with the alien AI Ultron.