Dismissive
“I have a theory,” Vision said slowly.
“Oh, here we go,” Falcon said dismissively with a roll of his eyes.
Before Vision could go on, Tony sat up abruptly.
“Excuse you,” he said aggressively with a stormy look back at Falcon, whose pose shifted abruptly from angry and dismissive to confused.
“Is there a problem,” he said in surprise.
“Where do you get off disrespecting him like that!”
“I wasn’t,” Falcon began.
“No,” Tony said, standing quickly and moving to stand just in front of Falcon. “Let me explain things to you. Maybe Vision is ‘young’, but his knowledge and reasoning powers are the most advanced by light years in comparison to anyone in this room—especially compared to someone that follows around Captain America despite any military training that might suggest stealing from the Air Force and going a National Security problem alone because ‘Captain America said so’ might be a bad idea.”
“Tony, we made the right choice,” Steve said, shooting out of his own chair. “We had to stop Hydra!”
“Well let’s just look at how well you did that, Captain America-The Best Hands are Our Own,” Tony sneered back, done taking their dismissive crap like they weren’t sitting in a room with a genius who had been forced into the political arena at a very young age, a literal rocket scientist that had made his way up the military ladder far beyond either Rogers or Falcon, and Vision (need he say more—Thor’s hammer certainly found him worthy).
Rhodey scoffed and sat back to enjoy the show.
“You burned down an entire secret, military organization and got thousands of undercover agents AND their families killed when you released ALL of that data onto the web—including highly volatile national security data that we still haven’t recovered from as a nation and that has almost started wars and has severely hampered our ability as a country to seek any diplomatic solutions to major ongoing issues—and dropped three helicarriers on the Potomac resulting in millions of dollars in damage as well as the death of hundreds of civilians WHEN YOU COULD HAVE CALLED ME TO STOP THE WHOLE THING WITH THE PRIVATE COMMAND CODE THAT I BUILD INTO ALL MAJOR TECHNOLOGY IN CASE SOMETHING GOES WRONG. Widow knows that I’ve implemented override codes in everything because of how my weapons were mishandled. Oh, and as for stopping Hydra, didn’t we spend the next year going on missions WITH EX-SHIELD AGENTS that I had to rescue and employ just so we could continue FIGHTING HYDRA WHICH YOU NEVER REALLY STOPPED--TWICE! That’s false advertising, Cap,” Tony sneered.
“We did all that we could,” Steve said angrily.
“No,” Rhodey said. “He just explained that you could have shared information and avoided all of that catastrophe, but you thought the best hands were your own because of paranoia. You needed someone to put on the brakes because you didn’t have the knowledge or skills to best handle the issue or understand the repercussions of your actions in that situation. And you surrounded yourself with a woman whose motives and methods have always been questionable at best and a new Yes-Man.”
“Rhodes, I knew what had to be done,” Widow said in a soft voice that really just served to make Tony angry.
“You mean you knew what had to be done to serve you the best, as that Senate hearing demonstrated.”
“I seem to recall another Senate hearing where you behaved similarly,” she sneered back.
“No, I strategically behaved like a jack ass in that situation to get away with the antics that I needed to use to illustrate a point—stealing the use of their screens was my best option to illustrate why my technology needed to be treated differently. Because it WAS different. You, on the other hand, made the absolute worst decisions a spy could possibly make—because let’s get real, most spies at least have some allegiance to someone like the country employing them, but you never have—and then proceeded to tell them that they had no choice but to let you get away with a CRIME (treason as well as multiple counts of man slaughter) THAT YOU KNEW YOU HAD COMMITTED because they didn’t have anyone else to fix it. Well, let’s be honest. Spies are a dime a dozen. They can get any number of replacements for you. I may have ego out to wazoo, but I have the cred to back it up. You need SHIELD, or me, or someone else to give you any real value—don’t you Widow. Otherwise your just some sad little honeypot slash assassin looking for her next mark to get by.”
“Alright,” Tony added. “I’m done with this. I have supported you guys time and again because we were a team, but you have never shown me any type of loyalty in return. Steve and Nat constantly disregard my contributions like I haven’t been funding this entire shit show since the EXTRAORDINARY MESS they made out of SHIELD. Then they brought in the ex-Hydra agent that wanted to kill me and set me off to make Ultron, which I had scrapped until her little mind-whammy, none of which anybody ever acknowledged as wrong. Instead I was attacked by a teammate at the word of a known Hydra agent when we had been fighting them just hours previously. This has clearly never been a team that included me.”
“Amen! Best hands, my ass,” Rhodey muttered. “She’d already be up for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and terrorism if it was me. Not living in a state-of-the-art compound with all expenses paid,” he added.
“So, here’s the deal. Wanda can fix her own Visa and PR issues or deal with the international terrorism laws that she violated with the help of the Avengers that actually wanted her on the team. I don’t like how she’s clearly been playing on Vision’s emotions. Vision, I’m sorry, but I know manipulation when I see it. Your logic is outstanding, but you are a baby when it comes to emotions—and she is not interested in an equal relationship. I see it every time something goes wrong, and she looks to you and the others for protection instead of stepping up and facing whatever music is coming her way.”
“Like you’re any different,” she hissed, her face and ugly with hatred and spite, her mask of innocence lifting the moment she was faced with Tony’s criticism.
“I stood up in front of the world and admitted what I had done wrong and promised to do something about it. And I did. That’s what Iron Man was all about. So, you can save it sweetheart. Despite what Captain Ass-Hat thinks, my image was never my concern, or I would be much less of a dick to people that aren’t in my immediate circle of friends. The whole world already knew I was a jackass—and I didn’t care. I did care about fixing the LEGAL DECISIONS that I made that actually ended up hurting people, though. And I lost a lot of connections and money as a result. You, on the other hand, have had your slate wiped clean time and again with zero repercussions. Guess it’s time to face the music, sweetheart.”
“What about us,” Widow said, cocking her head as if looking at an interesting experiment. “Are you going to betray us just like Wanda,” she added, crossing her arms and legs (calling attention to both).
“Nope, I’m going to leave you alone. I’m not funding this shit-show anymore because I can see which way the wind is blowing,” Tony added with a gesture towards Steve and Falcon. “None of you have ever respected me or mine, as SGT Wilson just demonstrated with his completely dismissive remark towards Vision—one of mine. So, go it on your own. No more money, no more state-of-the-art compound, and weapons. I expect everything I’ve made for you back (that includes the Wings and Red Wing, Falcon)—or I’ll activate the self-destruct command codes whether or not you’re wearing them at the time. I’m signing the Accords. You can too if you want to keep heroing, but you won’t be doing anything on my dime anymore. I’ll expect you out by the end of the month.”
Tony walked serenely out of the room.
“Well,” Rhodey said, breaking the silence with a loud, jovial clap of his hands. “I suspect that Rogers hasn’t been treating this debate with the seriousness it deserved because he thought there were three options instead of an ultimatum. Door number one: sign the Accords; door number two: retire; or door number three: keep taking advantage of Tony because he’ll never tell me no. Captain, it’s time to make a REAL choice, because saving the world costs money. And Real military men know when it’s time to follow orders. Good luck with the move,” he added, and followed Tony with a smile.