Why would Tony even be allowed to go to Leipzig at all?
“Give me 48 hours.”
“36.” Thunderbolt was interrupted however.
“Not this time, Dr. Stark.” All three turned to the newcomer and everybody straightened out when President Ellis walked in surrounded by the Secret Service, Rhodes right behind them all.
Not even Natasha could help the stiffness in her spine, Sam’s words still very clear: she gave the U.S. the finger not so long ago.
“Mr. President, I was just…”
“We will discuss whatever is it that you thought you were doing here later, Mr. Ross.” And he turned to Tony and Natasha, “Not every day that another government has enough clout to force me into a jet and cross the Atlantic. I will not lecture those that don’t deserve it, but I will say this much: I don’t care if you people had to tackle him to the ground, Captain America tearing up Bucharest on live television really ruined my evening.”
“Sir, if I may?”
“Stand down, Rhodes. Despite my very impressive collection of Captain America memorabilia, I’m aware that when Rogers decided to do something no one under the sun would be able to stop him.”
“Mr. President, I assure you, I just got off the phone with the Romanian President and…”
“Dr. Stark, please don’t play that game with me. I will always be thankful for what you and Colonel Rhodes did for me with the Mandarin disaster, but I am no fool. I also talked to the Romanian President and I’m pretty sure I talked to him after you did. The offer is off the table, signature or no signature, there is no more clean slate, Romania is rightly pissed at the very thought of Americans and the only reason Germany is not on the war path is because I promised to personally take care of this mess.” Ellis’ expression didn’t exactly soften at the pale billionaire but he sighed and his voice was calmer, “I’m sorry, Tony. But nor you or Ms. Romanova will have anything to do with this anymore because Rogers is your friend, you are out too, Mr. Ross. It seems that you are way too close to this situation, no one would be given this much privilege if it wasn’t for your involvement, Dr. Stark and we won’t sent snipers after Captain America on foreign soil, Mr. Secretary.”
Balance is everything right now. Europe cares very little for Captain America and yet, if we shoot him in some kind of execution, U. S. will revolt. Enough is enough! Colonel Rhodes?”
“Yes, sir?”
“You will lead a team of snipers armed with rubber bullets and sedatives, Rogers and Barnes will be more difficult but I trust that Dr. Stark is happy enough with that plan to come up with a sedative that would work?”
Very clearly wanting to argue, Tony just nodded.
“Good, so we are all at an understanding. Dr. Stark and Ms. Romanova are off of this mission, Mr. Ross… you don’t have to answer to me on this matter, but the UN, Germany and Romania have been notified of the fact that not only you tried to sent Iron Man and Black Widow in an unsanctioned mission in foreign soil but also the fact that you were going to coordinate snipers inside the EU. Good luck.”
~*~
“Close to position.”
“Good, approach carefully, don’t engage in close quarters, choose a high ground. They are all armed but not long enough range, stay on the roofs and remember: sedatives and rubber bullets. This is not an execution and the report will include footage from the very public airport.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Alpha, ready?”
“Yes, sir, northwestern tower.”
“Bravo?”
“In position in the main building, sir.”
“Charlie?”
“Perimeter set, sir.”
“Delta?”
“Evacuation in process, three minutes maximum.”
“Good, because they noticed. Crap! I was hoping to avoid this. Scarlet Witch on the tarmac and it seems that Barton is completely out of retirement.”
“Sir?”
“Same mission parameters but Delta? Your team will back up Alpha, they are the most exposed.”
“Yes, sir. ETA six minutes.”
“Everybody aim!”
~*~
Tony sighed at the sight of the slumped forms.
“How come you weren’t “compromised”?”
Rhodey looked very unimpressed at the almost whine, “Despite our years of friendship, Tony, I was still willing and capable of criticizing you in my reports and take actions when I thought you went too far. I didn’t make to Colonel because I was unable to separate personal from professional, I was trained to do it in active missions. You can’t claim the same.”
His friend sighed, “So what now?”
“Hopefully another addendum in the Accords section. We manage to argue our involvement whenever Enhanced individual are present but in a case like this, well, the Council should be able to deny your involvement. Sorry for using you as an example.”
“No need to be sorry, I do understand how conflict of interest works.”
“I know you do but sometimes you do let friendship get in the way of getting the job done. What would you do if you were leading Leipzig?”
“Check some leads I have on another Enhanced in Queens and then try to talk them out of this mess or contain them.” Tony answered immediately.
“That’s a problem, not a big one, mind you, but still not the greatest plan.”
Tony rolled his eyes, “Warfare is not exactly my area.”
“But it is mine, see how the Accords are working already?”
“No need for so much smugness.”
“Hey! I always defer to you in a tech or business world but we are in my playground now.”
“Ok, fine. How was my plan a problem?”
“See that one?” Rhodey pointed to Scott Lang. “He has some tech that allowed him to be several stories tall and clearly… and vocally, expressed his lack of experience using his size or minimal planning skills. He threw a fuel trunk believing it to be a water trunk, destroyed several planes using them as bats or simply being clumsy and literally tripping over them, kicked a bus at us and even worse: the tech used is a prototype and the first and last time he used it, he passed out. Not even you were this reckless.”
“… I regret telling you about my Mark II flight test.”
“Don’t bother, I survived MIT with you. My point is, your stunt put your life and only your life in danger. The percentage of possible fricking death would be lower if you had just exercised some caution but at least you tested everything before going into combat. This moron decided to just wing it because apparently he is Captain America’s fan.”
“… yeah, ok my plan was horrible.” Tony rubbed his face, feeling very tired.
“And Lang was just a child playing with a gun. Maximoff was aiming for the kill and even berated the rest for pulling their punches. The Winter Soldier? Holding back because we are officials doing our jobs? That’s a laugh. And I think Rogers proved that there are no mountains he wouldn’t pummel if he believes Barnes to be in danger. Considering that Barton is an archer, there is not much on his name for the mess before the sedatives worked their magic but still. You wanted to take it easy and get them contained when they either never even thought about the fact that our bones can break or were purposefully going for the throat.”
“We don’t actually know if they would have reacted the same if there were more friendly faces trying to bring them in.”
“Don’t we? They didn’t even blink when Thor lifted you by your throat.”
Tony winced at the reminder, “Conflict of interest.”
“Conflict of interest,” Rhodey agreed, “Not our problem anymore in any case.”
The Colonel turned his back on the newly dubbed Rogues and obviously expected Tony to follow and leave the rest to the actual competent bodies processing their case.
The inventor sent one last look, knowing that he wasn’t a lawyer, that he wasn’t a politician and that his political capital was already dwindling after getting that deal for Bucharest. Tony followed Rhodey towards SI’s jet, looking forward for returning to U.S. soil.