Chapter Text
“That was a waste of my resources.”
Tiberius Stone glared at the man across the dank concrete room. “That was hardly a waste, Glenn. True, Tony may have gotten away, but the Dreamvision was a success. I entered his mind, I had him completely at my mercy!”
“And then you lost him!” Glenn Talbot all but screamed. “The one man I could use to take down the Hulk, and you lost him. If it weren’t for your damnable ego, Stone, I would have had the key to destroying that menace. Instead, you made it look like one of the good guys! I should have left you in that cell to rot.”
Stone huffed and blew a few strands of hair out of his eyes. “I hardly needed your help,” he drawled. “I’ve more than enough money hidden away, even if daddy dearest has completely severed all ties from me. Grease the right palms and I’d have been long gone, with or without you.”
Talbot grunted. “Whatever. Now you’re a wanted criminal and the word at the Capitol is that I’m going up for treason. So what do we do now?”
“Well, I know what I’m doing,” Stone smirked and sank further into the easy chair he was sprawled across. “I’m either going to be on a private jet, heading for my private tropical island in international waters, or I’m going to go see if Advanced Idea Mechanics is looking for an engineer a cut above their usual brand. I’d offer to recommend you to them, but AIM doesn’t usually hire plebes like you.”
“As if I’d want to join those neo-Nazi bastards,” the former general spat. “Their leader is a giant talking head. How utterly ridiculous.”
“I’d say ‘your loss,’ but that implies you have something to lose.” The blond man levered himself off the chair and headed for the door. “I’d suggest you figure something out for yourself sooner rather than later. I know from experience that Howard Stark is a particularly stubborn man, and when he finds out you’ve targeted both his son and his best friend, you’re going to want to find a particularly dark hole to hide in. Because you won’t be able to outrun him.”
Pausing in the doorway, Stone spared his ex-partner in crime one last glance. “Good luck, General,” he said airily, “because you’re going to need it.”
The door scraped shut, taking any outside light with it.
- - -
Nick Fury, newly re-instated as the General of SHIELD, smiled pleasantly at his guests. “I’m glad you could join me, gentlemen,” he said honestly. “Captain, it’s an honour to properly meet you. Mr. Stark, I want to extend my thanks to you, your father, and Mrs. Rhodes for taking on Congress for me. I realize that SHIELD was incidental to your purposes, but without you, I can safely say I would not be here today.”
Steve Rogers and Tony Stark glanced at each other, obviously unsure of how to respond. “You’re welcome, General,” Tony eventually responded, “and I guess I should say thank you for trusting me. For trusting us.”
“And I believe I owe you some thanks as well, both for digging me up and for not letting Talbot and his cronies have me,” Steve added.
“Not at all, boys. Which actually brings me to what I wanted to talk to you both about.”
Tony’s face darkened. “We heard. Ty’s escaped and Talbot’s nowhere to be found,” he said, crossing his arms and subtly leaning towards his compatriot. Nick wondered if the young man knew how telling that was, or even that he was doing it at all. Probably not, on both counts.
“I apologize for that.” He grimaced slightly. “It’s taken some time to sort out just what Talbot got his dirty hands on. Between that and getting caught up on everything that SHIELD’s missed while were... indisposed, no one knew that Stone might try something or had the kind of tech to disable Extremis - even temporarily - before it was too late.”
“Understandable,” Rogers said, voice clipped and hard, “but we would appreciate it if this sort of thing didn’t happen again.”
Nick smirked behind steepled hands. “Noted, Captain. I don’t suppose you’re interested in joining our ranks, by the way?”
“Not at this time, sir,” and now the World War II soldier seemed to remember the rules of decorum, coming to a proper parade rest and offering Fury the deference his rank deserved. They both ignored Stark’s snickering. “Thank you for the offer, sir, and I’d like to keep my options open for the future. Right now, however, I think I’m going to enjoy my retirement.”
“Indeed.” He waited a beat before dropping the bomb neither Stark nor Rogers were expecting. “And does your retirement involve coming out to the media, both as Captain America and the significant other of the heir to the Stark fortune?”
As predicted, both men were visibly shocked by his statement. “Uh,” Rogers stuttered, “well, I... guess?”
“That’s something you’ll both want to think about in the coming days,” Fury gave them each a rather pointed look, before sitting back and saying, “but enough of that. Rogers, I believe I heard you mention that you’d like to see the view from the bridge? Agent Romanov will be happy to show you. I need to speak with Tony for a moment.”
Stark and Rogers looked at each other, silently communicating. The brunet shrugged, and apparently that was an agreement because Rogers smiled, pecked his boyfriend on the cheek and left with Natasha (who had been standing outside the door, eavesdropping). Even from his desk, Fury could see that the man’s ears were bright red.
Once they were alone, Nick fixed his eye on the young genius. “So I hear you may be interested in starting your own team,” he said nonchalantly, and enjoyed the way Stark jumped for a second time in two minutes. “What, mine just not good enough for you?”
“No, sir!” Tony yelped immediately, “I’ve just been thinking, what with Talbot and all-”
“Better to have a response team not under SHIELD’s purview, I know.” He smirked again. “A good tactician forms plans for every imaginable scenario, and then asks his peers to suggest some more. I anticipated that a superhero team might form outside government control; it’s part of why I suggested that you join my team when I did. You weren’t ready to be on a team, then, but it planted the seed of an idea in your mind. Whether you let that seed grow or wither, well, that I couldn’t anticipate.
“You’re a good man, Tony Stark, an intelligent, courageous man. You’re on your way to being very charismatic, and even without that people are attracted to you and your particular brand of insanity. If anyone is to form and lead a team of over-powered, damaged individuals - because we both know that superheroes tend to be intrinsically damaged - it’s you.”
Stark stared at him with disbelief. “Uh, thank you, sir. I think.”
“I wasn’t complimenting you, but you can take it that way if it makes you feel better.” The balance of snark restored, Fury handed over an eight-terabyte hardrive. “You may be interested in what’s on there,” he answered before the question was asked. “I trust you know that allowing that drive to fall into the wrong hands would be very, very dangerous?”
Tony nodded. “Yessir. Thank you, General Fury. Uh, anything else?”
Nick waved him off. “Go join your boyfriend, before he thinks I’m trying to draft you. And while you’re here-”
“Right engine maintenance, yeah, I can hear it.” Stark offered a sloppy salute and threw a “gotta go!” over his shoulder before bolting out of the room.
Leaning back into his seat, Nick Fury smiled. Another successfully executed plan, over and done with. Time to get to work.