"Oh my god, I stole Captain America's shield! Mister Stark, did you see? I stole his shield!" Peter exclaimed, bouncing with excitement and doing a flip on the wing of the plane.
"Yes, you did," Tony said, nodding patiently. "Good job, kid."
"Really? We're encouraging theft now?" Barton scoffed. "I thought you were better than that, Stark."
"Stand down, Tony. We need to do what's right," Steve cut in before the archer could start grumbling again. He'd been very upset when he'd needed to kidnap Wanda from the tower, and no amount of reasoning would convince him it wasn't Tony's fault - not even Wanda herself stating that, while Tony had suggested it, Vision had been the one to consider the suggestion an order.
"So only your ideas matter now? Just so we're clear," Tony snapped back. He itched to just fire a repulsor blast at the other man (Steve could take it, with the serum, Tony was certain), but Bruce had taught him better anger management than that.
"But Mister Stark-"
"Quiet, kid. Backup only. Remember?"
"But Mister Stark, Karen found something important!" Peter insisted.
Tony paused, his grim face still on the rouge Avengers opposite him. He was aware of all of them, even the ones who weren't officially Avengers, though almost half of the other side he hadn't met. "Who's Karin?" he finally asked.
"The lady in the suit," Peter said softly.
"You named my AI? I knew I liked you for a reason," Tony felt himself swelling with pride, though it wasn't enough to curb his annoyance and frustration with the team on the other side of the airport.
Peter beamed anyways. "Well, I asked her what all the fuss was about, and she told me about the Accords. So I asked to read them and she sent me your version. And I was just wondering how Captain America - hi, sir! - could disagree with it because it was totally legit. I mean, it made complete sense, right? So I asked her to look at his version. 'Cause he's, like, an old man and probably marked it up with pen and paper - no offense, Mister America, sir - and she found the original but no sign of his marked up version-"
"To the point, underoos," Tony said when he saw Barton getting antsy with his bow.
"Captain America's version was different. So she scanned all of them, and everyone had a different document. They look the same at first - same number of pages, same number of articles, same word count even! - but they say really different things."
The airport was quiet, abandoned by everyone but the former heroes as the group digested this information.
"That's important, right Mister Stark?" Peter asked cautiously.
Barnes, in the back, shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, it is," Tony said, eying the assassin. "Black leather in heat looks hot, snowflake, and I mean that literally. Shall we take this someplace shadier?"
"We need to do the right thing. I'm not letting them arrest and murder my best friend," Steven insisted.
"I wasn't going to suggest it," Tony said with an eye roll. "If the spider-kid is right then we've been set up. And he probably is, since it was my AI that did the research. My version of the Accords has him evaluated as a prisoner of war - detained long enough for a debrief and evaluation, and medical assistance if needed. And that arm probably needs it. What is that thing, HammerTech?"
"You tried to detain me," Wanda commented softly. "Or Vision did, at least. A pretty prison is still a prison."
"I suggested it was better to stay inside," Tony countered. "You agreed, and you were still free to leave when you wanted. And as much as he looks like an adult, Vision is still a child. He hasn't had a body very long, and even counting his time as an AI he'd be less than ten years old."
"Why did we need to break her out," Barton snapped, but this time he was looking at Vision instead of Tony.
"Why assume you needed to?" Vision asked. "By breaking in and preventing access to her, you presented to both FRIDAY and myself as a kidnapper. We responded accordingly."
"And before anyone says anything, let's remember that FRIDAY is less than two years old. She hasn't had the chance to learn human nuance yet."
"Mister Stark, I have a question?" Peter cut in, sounding hesitant.
"Better than 'why did I keep this from Mister Stark until we were literally on the battlefield'? Gotta say, I thought we were past that."
"Um, I think so. To both. And sorry."
Tony sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, his armor retreating so the flesh of his hand was exposed. "What is it?"
"So it looks like it was all a big set up to break the Avengers apart - but why would someone want to do that? You guys are awesome!"
"The why is easy, son," Steve said, shifting his weight back on his heels and dropping his shoulders into a more relaxed stance. "You should be asking who."
It took some sneaking around an old HYDRA base, but they eventually figured it out. Peter had never doubted them, of course. They were the Avengers; they could do anything.