fic: Villain [Avengers]
Title: Villain
Fandom: Avengers
Characters: Tony Stark, Steve Rodgers
A/N: written for a comment-fic prompt byradondoran whose awesome prompt helped me get over some writers block. "Any, any, realizing they're the bad guy."
And I'm feeling pretty accomplished: this was written on Notepad and not Word, since my new computer was shipped to me dysfunctional and thus I had to reboot my entire OS during a two-hour phone call with a very nice IT guy, which left me Wordless. Spellcheck, I never knew how much I took you for granted. Erm, back to the story.
Tony doesn't realize he's a villain for a long time - but when he finally figures it out, it hits him with the same breathtaking force of Captain America's full-body tackle. Against the physical take-down, Tony has the suit to shield himself; he has no mental equivalent against the mental take-down. That's the one that winds him.
But there's two hundred pounds of angry patriot currently grappling at his armor (and while Tony might have liked that grappling had there been less costumes on both sides of the equation, that's a thought for another time), and Tony has always been good at priorotizing. No matter what Pepper says. So he pushes the oh shit, when the fuck did this happen feeling to the back of his mind and fires a repulsor blast at Captain America.
While Tony hauls himself up (mental note: improve maneuverability of suit when clambering to feet) Captain America digs his way out of the small pile of rubble he'd landed in and strikes a heroic pose.
"Oh, here we go," Tony mutters to JARVIS.
"Indeed, sir."
"Iron Man," the Captain calls, "Stop this at once."
Tony wishes eye rolls could be conveyed through the mask. "Oh, well, since you asked nicely. Of course, Captain, I'll do that right away. In fact -" Tony holds up his arms, palms down, as if waiting for handcuffs "- while I'm feeling magnanimous why don't I just turn myself in peacefully?"
"Really."
For a moment, Tony wishes he could be indignant at the doubtful tone Captain America uses. Then he tilts his head sideways, considers what he said, and conceeds the point. "Nah."
He flips his wrists around so the palms face Captain America and hits the Captain with a double repulsor blast. And this time, Tony doesn't wait around for Captain America to recover; he blasts off before the Captain hits the ground (well, alright, maybe a moment or two after the Captain hits the ground, because Tony doesn't begrudge himself the odd moment of gloating when he knocks a national icon off his feet) and loses himself in cloud cover.
"JARVIS," he instructs, "Run the usual protocols."
"Of course, sir."
The HUD displays the various scans made for surveillance materials, and marks off each one as JARVIS finds no sign of them. Tony watches them check off. And then, oh yeah, now that he doesn't have to focus on defending himself he can have that mental breakdown now about SHIELD thinking he's a bad guy.
"They sent Captain America after me today."
"It would appear so, sir," JARVIS says in that way of his, where he sounds exactly like the unemotional robot Tony created but also like the tongue-in-cheek AI that decided to expand upon his databanks.
"Captain America. All for what - blowing up the headquarters known weapons smuggling ring? They were dealing my weapons, I had a right to deal with them. If I wanted those guys to have tactical missiles, I'd have sold them the damn things legally." Tony spirals until all he can focus on is the way his stomach feels like it's about to drop out of him.
"I mean," he begins again at the peak of a dizzying dive, "I'm technically not even committing a crime! That's stolen property they have. Well within my rights to take recompense!"
"Or blow up their facilities," JARVIS adds dryly.
"Yes! And I haven't had a single civilian casualty. Not one. Hardly even any casualties of the people I've fought. I haven't kicked puppies or stolen candy from babies or whatever it is supervillains do. In fact, I'm keeping weapons out of those maniacs' hands. I've saved lives! Captain America shouldn't be fighting me, he should be thanking me!"
"Upon analyzation of the encounter," JARVIS inputs, "it is likely he will continue to fight Iron Man should they encounter again."
Tony sighs. It feels good to rant, but all his anger won't change the facts. Instead, he must focus on how Iron Man will behave in their next encounter - and it will happen, Tony knows, because research shows the Captain is nothing if not a tenacious bastard.
Tony ponders his choices while he maxes out his flight speed; The GPS in Pepper's phone suggests she's on her way to visit Tony, and he'll have to push it to get home before she arrives. The last thing he wants her to see is him dressed as Iron Man - especially when he's apparently no longer a mysterious force for good but rather a threat serious enough to warrant sending in Captain America as a first-approach option.
Over the clattering of his teeth and the rattling of his suit (mental note: research materials better capable of standing up to supersonic flight) he finally comes to a decision. He pulls back on the speed and instead concentrates on hugging the cliffs near his house as closely as possible to avoid possible detection.
"Elected a course of action, sir?"
Tony would find JARVIS's query downright spooky if he hadn't invested a significant portion of his time making his AI just that attuned to Tony.
"I think I have, JARVIS." He flies down the secondary shaft to his workshop and lands with a solid thump (and thank God Pepper has worked with him long enough she doesn't even bother asking where the mysterious dents in his solid concrete floor came from because she knew she wouldn't like the answer.)
"The next time Captain America shows up looking for a fight, I'll just have to give it to him." Tony smiles cynically. "Give the people what they want, am I right, JARVIS?" That's what Obie had said, right before delivering the news that the board had voted him incompetent and overruled his decision to halt weapons manufacturing, which had lead to Tony donning the suit in the first place. (Well, second time he had donned the suit. But he doesn't like to think about the first.) Tony had learned from last time, however; while they're rolling around like pigs in shit, too occupied with their success of being - no, of feeling right - Tony can take matters into his own hands and fix things.
Iron Man may not have a quarrel with Captain America, but if the Captain starts the battle - well, Tony isn't going to shirk away from his responsibilities because a war relic gets in his way. If Captain America shows up, Iron Man will beat him soundly and remorselessly (because that's what bad guys do, remorseless, and it'll certainly expedite the battle) and get back to doing shit that actually helps people. And Captain America can feel good about being right about Iron Man.
Tony steps onto a platform that emerged from the floor and JARVIS deftly disassembles the armor before retracting all of it back out of sight. "Run a deep search for everything you can find on Captain America."