Heroic Histrionics

When Tony was a little boy, one thing that he could always count on was that his father would tell him stories about the second world war, his time in it, and what it meant to be part of such a wonderful thing.

Then he would turn around and tell him that he helped create something that obliterated millions of lives in a breath and seem just as proud of that too.

This was the first inkling of the idea that maybe HYDRA hadn’t been entirely wrong, they just hadn’t been thinking smart enough.

Howard Stark, being the kind of man he was, encouraged Tony’s interest in the second world war as he grew up, and seemed gratified that even in his worst moods that Tony would sit still if he told him just one more story about his adventures. WWII became Tony’s obsession, both the public records and the private ones that his father thought he’d hidden well enough.

He examined the tactics that had been used, as well as why people chose one faction or the other. He admired and despaired of the politics in both instances, and shook his head over the stupidity of launching anything from the Nazi platform.

The propaganda had been good, and HYDRA had the right idea. They had the wrong execution, and Tony especially didn’t like the idea of hurting someone, even for science, against their will. He was on the mind that they should have picked up volunteers, like Rogers, for their side. They had the numbers, they hadn’t needed prisoners to rise up and bite them in the ass because they made them better while ‘practicing’.

The worst of the lot was Red Skull. The man had the wrong everything. He should have been a smokescreen, something to throw out there and distract while someone else did the real work, but he wasn’t. He was the frontline fighter and the asshole gave Mr. Perfect, his dad’s opinion was not lost on him, motivation to fight and destroy everything he’d been trying to build.

So, while he overall didn’t much care for how it had been created or even the shit that they’d done to people, Tony could see through it and understand a reason why. Of course, this meant that he’d be able to pick apart the mess with some care and patience and figure out what to do about it. Did he want to sort out their goal? Did he want to see what was left behind of their work to salvage in some way?

He didn’t know, and was a good boy who grew up in the house where his father only liked him when he was telling him about his favorite, and went obediently off to school when the man was tired of doing even that. He got his degrees and built his weapons, and when his father died, he saw it as an opportunity.

He was young yet, then, and while genuinely grieving his mother, was relieved that his father was gone. He promptly donated everything to do with Captain America to a museum, and sold off any duplicates his father had hoarded. He picked over the Howling Commandos information and fanservice, then did the same with that, keeping a couple of his favorite pictures of the group. They would serve as reminders.

He went through his father’s papers, his videos, everything he could find, unlock, and locate was uncoded, recoded, and destroyed as he crossed it. He watched the videos, made sure to remember anything relevant they might have on them, and then made sure that no one else would ever get their hands on what was in them. It was time-consuming, and it was months before he emerged, shaken by the kinds of things his father had looked into, while also resolved to make sure that only he ever had that information.

It firmed his resolve that he wasn’t going to do as his father did and trust blind faith in anyone, ever.

He turned his eyes on Obadiah at that, on the person who had custody of his company until his majority, and he watched. He watched closely, but carefully, leaving space for the man to make or not mistakes without feeling scrutinized.

And he learned a lot.

He learned that Obadiah wasn’t trustworthy. He learned how to interact with and contact the underground. He learned how to deal with a problem once he turned twenty-one and had a chance to.

That had taken a bit more careful planning, so the timing wasn’t suspicious, and he was nearly twenty-two before the bastard who got his parents killed was taken care of, jumped when going to meet one of his shadier contacts. Tony met them instead, and from there started to pick his way through the organization, always careful, always carefully ‘unaware’.

He was pretty sure he’d found HYDRA.

It was hard to say though, and it took time, with Tony carefully weeding things out and consolidating his power. He never let any of the people who came under his steadily growing umbrella be mistreated. He wanted loyal, uncoerced people on his side because those were the ones that would be smart about their actions. Because of that, some people called him soft, at first, though that stopped quickly when the people who started such rumors vanished almost as soon as they were spoken.

Just because he didn’t abide mistreatment, that didn’t mean he allowed people to be fucking assholes about him either. He couldn’t afford to. If he wasn’t going to be cruel, he had to be efficient, and he could do that. And after a while, his people didn’t need his direct intervention to act on situations that needed it.

By the time he hit thirty, he had a faction, and someone from HYDRA approached him in a more official fashion.

Once he heard them out, listening intently to every word they had to say and committing it to memory… well. He shot them. He left his people to deal with the mess, then went back to work, refining the weapon he’d been creating before he’d called out of his house.

The next representative, a year later and more careful than the last, was respectful. They offered him an incentive. They certainly managed to incense him at the very least, though he hid it behind a charming smile, and told them there would be a negotiation. Of course, this negotiation, when it happened, turned into something of a coup, his people overrunning the faction, taking out anyone who fought and sorting out the remains. Anyone who enjoyed being cruel for the sake of it didn’t get to pass go, didn’t get a second chance, and was left to be one of those painting the facility red.

Those two were how he found out about the fate of one James Buchanan Barnes, and it took four more years to actually track him down and get into position to take charge of him. When he found out how they’d gone about sublimating him… he was both impressed and furious. He’d found the Russian’s work first. They’d done it better, more carefully, and more effectively than their HYDRA descendants had. THEY had just been using him as a point and shoot and not treating him like a valuable and well-trained human being.

Sure, no one had been treating him like a human being, but there was a difference in degree. So he hadn’t been pleased. He’d examined the merits of mindlessness against the merits of intelligence, and like it always did, intelligence won. He’d have the man loyal or not at all, and nobody could force loyalty out of a person who had no choices.

So he’d destroyed the equipment, everything but the cryostasis the soldier was in, at least, and had dismantled everything while going through everything, one by one, and finding the files about him, pulling them from circulation, from accessibility, and in general setting up the process of making total sure that no one would be able to steal the man back from him. Only then did he wake him up and start the process of integrating him with his people.

The negotiations to make that happen had been… special, but as more time went on, and he proved that he wasn’t about to wipe him, freeze him, or otherwise abuse him, just like he’d said he would be the case, he relaxed. And got protective.

It was very possible the man remembered things from his life before, after a time, but he never asked.

Not everyone was pleased about the loss of such an Asset to an unknown faction, or rather, the extended and destructive hunt to find him, and while out chasing a lead just months before he would have finally made contact, he got grabbed.

He was not impressed with the accommodations. He was even less impressed when everything went to hell and he got screwed over worse before the kidnappers lost him to some other group entirely who from what he could tell, had literally nothing to do with Hydra.

Oh, and the chest full of shrapnel, he could have lived without that for a thousand lifetimes, thanks. But, there was an upside to the whole thing. He came away with a nifty new pair of inventions along with some new trauma, Rhodey had flipped his shit over the sojourn, and he landed himself an easy-in to SHIELD.

One that had nothing to do with his father OR with HYDRA. Plus, flashy new superhero status. It was pretty fabulous, actually, and he played it to the hilt, much to the despair of his lieutenants and Pepper, but he worked with it, and found his Soldier in the aftermath.

It was safer. Just like his Soldier-boy promptly hid in the shadows, so Tony hid in the spotlight. There was nothing about him that was secret that anyone would ever see, his faction was protected and kept away from SHIELD’s eyes, and James was neatly tucked away in the kind of work that made him happy, which hilariously seemed to be guard detail if nobody needed dealing with.

It worked. The palladium issue was solved quickly, given his blitz on his father’s files so long ago, and SHIELD never had cause to think him unstable.

It really was a win-win by the time that whole Avengers thing came along. It even had the added bonus of him being fully equipped with a way to get Steve Rogers onside when he popped up. Which he intended to use, because he was practical.

And maybe, once he was done making his way through and dealing with the main body of HYDRA, he’d make the god damned logo an actual hydra.

Tony refuses to allow the normal HYDRA logo to be put on anything to do with his faction. This is not because of paranoia, though there’s certainly some of that, but mostly because it offends him.

It pisses him off that they’re using a kracken to represent HYDRA when it’s a dragon, not a god damn octopus. In fact, Natasha helped sort out this intense logo frustration and suggested an alternative approach. He might have started sneaking this pattern onto things here and there as a test spin.

So far nobody has figured it out beyond his faction.

He gets EXTREMELY offended anytime someone tries to Hail HYDRA! him, because they’re not Nazis, they can have taste and decorum and not be complete morons with a warcry.

Now, he has nothing against warcries, but he’s a fan of not getting shot in the face, and pulling that noise will get you shot.

See? Simple cause and effect.

Tony has been increasingly disappointed in HYDRA with every installation he… appropriates. The death tally is starting to lean further and further toward total annihilation since anyone who puts being a sadist above the concept of clear thought and usefulness pisses him right the hell off. If it’s a commander, he’ll shoot them in the face because they’re probably ruining perfectly good recruits, and making them not only not as effective as they could be, but probably useless should a peaceful world actually be achieved.

Not that he doesn’t give the underlings the chance, all the chances even, but sometimes he wonders what the fuck happened that made these people even think that what they were doing was ever going to lead to awesomeness.

So, lots of shooting in the face.

Tony really doesn’t feel all that bad at all about killing people who fuck with him in HYDRA. They have all the warning in the world to not make him mad, but people still keep trying to poach his people, which is pretty much a death sentence. Once someone is part of Tony’s faction, they’re part of his god damn faction.

If someone is a spy, he’ll leave them be right up until they feed back information once, if they’re from another HYDRA faction. Then they’ll be informed of their choices. Should such a thing happen a second time, they die, because obviously, their loyalty is to the other side.

By this token, Tony’s spying is… unorthodox, and he’s put extra effort into getting JARVIS as deep into the world systems as humanly possible.

Tony still makes weapons. He never stopped, though he did slow down dramatically to focus on his other projects, using the situation that led to his getting the reactor as an excuse. There was no Obadiah to fight him, so he could do what he pleased mostly unhindered. This led the public to making the mistake of assuming it was no longer a thing, though the military is better informed.

Tony periodically goes out and trashes labs of other factions and steals all their stuff.

This has included people who were experimented on.

Tony only takes people into his faction who can willingly agree to be there. If they’re not willing but terrified, he’ll give them a chance to go. If they try to fuck him over once they’re free, they die.

No one has ever tried to take his arc reactor.

Tony likes helping SHIELD and cockblocking that HYDRA faction because it pisses Pierce off.

Tony only gave Rhodey an armor after sweet talking him into his faction. Rhodey still has no idea what it’s a faction of but he’s been convinced to stick with Tony.

Pepper has never been informed officially either, though she knows about several of Tony’s lieutenants and aids, including the Winter Soldier. She hasn’t spread the information around. She also doesn’t run the company, so that probably makes sense. Tony’s not quite so trusting on that front.

The only reason Tony hasn’t gone after Strucker is because the asshole actually has an idea what the word ‘volunteer’ means.

Tony got Natasha on his hunt to find the Winter Soldier. He also made sure she still went to SHIELD.

Winter yelling at Tony for nearly dying in New York is an excellent way to get Steve on his side. Apparently.

Tony’s faction likes to call themselves ‘The Vanguard’, or when they’re feeling particularly vindictive toward HYDRA, ‘The Vanguard in HYDRA’. Nobody’s bothered to inform Tony of this, and the fact that they have a name is something he’s vaguely aware of, but he thinks it’s little v, not big V and nobody has bothered to tell him there’s a difference. The name pre-dates their joining with HYDRA due to Tony in early 2003.

He hasn’t caught on to that either. They figure that as long as he keeps doing what he’s doing and doesn’t fall in with the HYDRA party line that it’s fine.

It should be noted that most people only catch the absolutely backward irony of Tony’s philosophies against what HYDRA itself stands for when he’s not in front of them to realize he really should find it funny. His people think he’s noticed.