(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 19 – A Meeting of Tension and Annoyance

Chapter 19 – A Meeting of Tension and Annoyance

Tony and most of the team were already in the conference room, sitting and waiting for the rest of the team and "the assistants" to arrive.

Tony had spent the previous night helping his fiancée calm down after she had to give the Rogues a tour as one of the team leaders. Of course, not before he cashed in on Carol’s end of her lost bet—she made one heck of a spaghetti.

But now it was time to focus on the matter at hand. Knowing who was about to be part of this meeting and what they had done to Tony in the past, the new team had no intention of allowing them any access to him.

Unfortunately, as part of the deal, for the duration of team meetings like this, the restriction orders he had against the Rogues (Rhodey’s and Carol’s idea) were being temporarily lifted.

The massive table in the conference room could easily seat at least 30 people. One side of the table was rounded so it wouldn’t have a head, while the other end had a sharp edge with space for two seats.

Right now, at the head of the table sat Rhodey, and on his right was Carol. At a ninety-degree angle from Carol, Tony was seated. Next to him, with her feet on the table, sat Jessica Jones, followed by the rest of the Defenders and the Guardians in the chair lines.

Across from him and on Rhodey’s left sat Yelena Belova, with Scott Lang right next to her. After those two sat Hope Van Dyne and Doctor Strange, with Vision on either side of them. Then came Daisy, Sharon, and T’Challa.

But if that wasn’t enough, around the room closer to the walls were other people. Some were there to hear what was about to be said, some because they believed they had something to contribute to the discussion, and some had their own reasons for being there.

Behind Scott and Hope sat Hank Pym, his face in its permanent frown, which reminded Tony that today was finally the day he, Hank, and Hope were finishing "Project Dimensional Fishing."

Behind Rhodey and Carol sat three people: Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, and Rosalind Price.

Finally, there was a large group sitting behind Tony, whispering among themselves—the Young Avengers. Spider-Man, Iron Legacy, Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop, America Chavez, and finally, Shuri. All of those with masks and secret identities were wearing them, not wishing to expose their secrets to the criminals joining them.

The group of kids shouldn’t actually be here, but they insisted on staying for a few reasons. The first reason Tony could agree with—they pointed out there was a chance they would have to fight too, and it would be smart to make sure they had all the facts if it came to that.

The second reason Tony tried to discourage but was massively outvoted by the rest of the team (and when he said outvoted, he meant ignored by everyone else). The Young Avengers wanted to make sure their favorite mentor (their words, not his) wasn’t attacked by the criminals.

Tony was slightly worried about the children’s reaction if Rogers was stupid enough to try to force his way to him. He knew Peter wanted a chance to punch the former American idol with all his strength, which would probably kill the old soldier. Kate wanted to take Barton down for destroying the admiration she once had for him. And that was just the grudges among the kids—he didn’t want to open the can of Jess’s issues with Maximoff.

All in all, the seating arrangement was intentional to keep the Rogues away from Tony, Yelena, and Scott because, as they were seated now, from the only available places for the criminals, they would have to bend their necks in an awkward position to look straight at the three of them and would have to walk past some scary, powerful individuals to lay a hand on them.

Still, it didn’t stop the anxiety from trying to overwhelm Tony. The last time he was in the same room as Romanoff was after Rhodey’s injury. She had blamed the entire thing on him, and Tony was stupid enough to allow her time to escape after that.

But even that was nothing compared to the last time he was in the same room as Rogers and Barnes. He was still dealing with the fact Barnes was the one who killed his parents. Yes, he knew the man didn’t have any control during that time, and Tony didn’t exactly blame him anymore, but he was still uncomfortable with him. After all, it was still the same face that killed his mom, brainwashed or not.

And Rogers—the righteous man of God and paragon of truth—had lied to him. When Tony found out about the lie and became pissed, Rogers tried to kill him.

Tony was using the fingers on his left hand to drum a random rhythm on the table while his right hand did the same on the arc reactor in his chest.

A Russian-accented voice filled the silence. “Where are the blond thunder, horned magic, green doctor, and Val?”

Tony smirked at Yelena’s nicknames; he was proud to say she learned that habit from him. Getting over it, he replied to her, “They had an emergency in New Asgard to deal with. Reindeer Games was very disappointed he might miss the chance to see their faces when they find out he is an Avenger now and they aren’t.”

Scott broke out in laughter while Strange mumbled something about a "chaos thriller."

Tony decided to fan the flames a bit. “Don’t worry, I made sure Friday is focusing most of the cameras on where they are going to sit, so if it comes out, we will have multiple angles documenting the moment and their faces. I will send a link to all of you as well.”

Tony was shocked to hear the barely suppressed snort from Hank, and Hope looked just as surprised as Tony himself.

A moment later, silence returned to the room, and now that there was no conversation to distract him, so did his anxiety, causing his fingers to start drumming again.

Suddenly, a soft hand grabbed the hand on the table, giving him a comforting warmth. Tony glanced down to see the hand that held his had a golden ring with a circled blue diamond on top of it on its finger.

“You don’t have to worry, Tony. It’s not you against them anymore. It’s them against all of us—especially me.” Carol pointed this out to him with warmth and confidence in her voice.

Tony gave her his usual smirk, but before he could say anything, the doors of the conference room opened, and in walked the last six people Tony wanted to see.

Rogers looked around the room with approval. Tony could guess what was going through his head right now: “Wow, this will be great for when I am the leader again.”

Then the tall blond looked at the people sitting. When his gaze found Tony in the farthest corner from where he and his team were sitting, a look of disappointment flashed across his face. Of course, a moment later, he adopted a firm look and said in a commanding tone, “Tony, come join the team.”

There was a moment of tense silence. The rest of the Rogues who were already sitting had different reactions.

Romanoff just didn’t seem to care. Maximoff looked disgusted with the idea. Barton had a menacing sneer on his face. Wilson and Barnes both looked at their leader like he was crazy.

Tony took a small, deep breath to calm himself while waving his hand dismissively toward the man.

Rogers’s eyes narrowed, and he used an even firmer tone, “Tony…”

But the man was cut off by Carol. “Mr. Rogers, Tony gave you his answer. Now sit yourself down.”

Then Vision opened his mouth. When he spoke, it was like he was asking no one in particular, but it was obvious where his words were directed: “As far as I am aware, Mr. Rogers and his team have a restriction order from Father, so his demand is quite illegal.”

“Vision…” Maximoff whispered before her eyes narrowed and she demanded, “Since when do you call Stark like that, Viz?”

Vision looked a little uncomfortable, but ever the polite one, answered calmly, “Since I have gone to therapy in order to better understand human life and came to the obvious realization that Tony is my equivalent to a father.”

Maximoff didn’t seem to like that answer. But before she could say anything, Rogers spoke again, “Tony is part of my team, and he should sit with us.”

Tony wasn’t the only one to snort at that comment. Romanoff seemed surprised at one man who did and asked, “Sir?”

Nick raised his eyebrow at the redhead and asked in a flat tone, “Yes, Romanoff?”

The widow tilted her head slightly and asked innocently, “Don’t you agree with Steve? He was, after all, your choice for a leader.”

Nick began to laugh deeply, confusing the former spy. A moment later, he calmed down and spoke, “My choice for a decoy, you mean.”

Both Rogers and Romanoff looked shocked at the statement. The great Black Widow could only choke out, “Decoy? Why?”

“It was obvious the World Security Council had an unhealthy obsession with the Avengers team, even though they acted against the idea. I had a feeling it had something to do with the red flags I kept noticing within SHIELD. I knew the leader would be put on close watch, and I needed Tony to be as free as possible from that so he could keep looking into it for me,” Nick informed her like it was obvious.

Barton seemed to be the first to catch on to the implication in that statement and asked, “Are you saying that you knew about Hydra?”

Both Nick and Tony scoffed at the same time. Nick spoke first, “Knew? No. Suspected for a long time? Very much so. As most of you know, I joined SHIELD from the army at the request of Director Carter herself. When she began talking about retirement, she said she chose me to succeed her as Director and taught me many of SHIELD’s secrets and methods. But a couple of months before her retirement, I was sent on a mission for a few years, and Pierce was named Director by Congress in the meantime. When I returned, everyone knew of Carter’s wishes for her old position, so Pierce had no choice but to hand the job to me while he was promoted. But I immediately noticed some changes, and some of the things Carter taught me were completely disregarded. It was my first red flag, and things kept getting worse from there, so I had to adjust.”

“There’s a reason I called him ‘The Spy.’ He was a spy inside a spy organization infested by spies,” Tony commented absentmindedly.

Romanoff then spoke in a restrained voice, “But Sir, why does Stark know all of that? Don’t you remember my report—Tony Stark not recommended?”

There was a moment of silence before both Nick and Phil burst out laughing. Romanoff looked offended and was about to say something, but Nick cut her off. “You really believed that?! Your ego really went out of check. No, that report was fake to make sure both the WSC and the spies I suspected within SHIELD would dismiss Tony and allow him to work without constant eyes around him. I enlisted Coulson and Tony early on when I found hard evidence to support my suspicions. I first took that evidence to Director Carter, and she immediately involved her godson, claiming I couldn’t hope for a better man to help me. And she was right.”

Price cleared her throat and pointed out, “I will ask you to clarify those details another time. I’m on a schedule, and we have business to attend to, so please let us proceed.”

Rhodey gave her a short nod and said, “Of course, Madam Secretary. I apologize for the sidetrack.”

Carol then sat up higher in her chair and spoke, “We are here to make sure all of us know what we are facing and the role we have in it.”

Rhodey pushed a button on his chair, and a screen appeared in front of each of the seats, showing the video of the New York invasion. Then the Colonel spoke, “Five years ago, the Chitauri invaded Earth under the orders of a space overlord that wanted to get his hands on the Tesseract.”

“What are you talking about?!” Barton shouted in anger. “It was Loki, and he just wanted to be the king of the world. What does that have to do with whatever the fuck we need to deal with?”

Rhodey shook his head and responded, “Loki was brainwashed by the true culprit behind the entire thing. They didn’t want control, but they did want death—and the Tesseract.”

Wilson looked afraid. “Are you saying the man behind New York is still out there and coming here again? But why?”

Carol was the one to answer and said, “The first answer is yes, and the second is the Infinity Stones.”