"Really Cap? You couldn't have called?" snarked Tony as he walked into the safehouse in Berlin that Rogers currently called home.
"Tony." said Steve with a nod of greeting.
Tony leaned against the wall, hands crossed over his chest, and asked "What made you think open-sourcing Shields database was a good idea? Do you have any idea how much chaos you've caused, how many innocent people you've killed, how many threats to global stability you have just unleashed?"
"SHIELD was Hydra! They had to be stopped!" snapped Steve.
Tony gave a nod, "Agreed, SHIELD was compromised and Hydra needed to be removed; but that doesn't explain why you dumped the database."
"Hydra thrives in the shadows, exposing them to the world was the only way." justified Rogers.
"Oh? You didn't think about calling your fellow Avenger? The one who is the worlds richest man, the one who built the Insight carriers, the one who still supplies the vast majority of the US's national security technology? The one who owns the worlds largest company, employees a legion of public relations experts? The one with entire lobbying firms and politicians owned for decades? The one whose father founded Shield?" questioned a sarcastic Tony.
"I didn't know who to Trust, and it was Howard who allowed Hydra to infiltrate in the first place. And you did build the Insight carriers. Tell me Tony, what reason did I have to trust that you weren't Hydra?" shot back the Captain.
Tony raised a hand to his chest in mock hurt, "You wound me Cap, truly. Even being willing to die by your side isn't enough to earn your trust. Still, you could have used your brain; if I was Hydra then they would have had no need for Insight."
Steve shoot his head at the arrogance, "You sure think alot of yourself Stark. Still, what would you have done if I had contacted you?"
"For starters? I would have had you dump the SHIELD database to Jarvis, given a few hours he would have identified the critical issues and I would have been ready to move. The Iron Legion would have extracted the loyal Shield agents and carried out simultaneous raids on Hydra while coordinating with governments and law enforcement. I would have had President Ellis giving a press conference explaining the situation and it would have been spun with you, Natasha, and the Avengers as a whole doing the righteous thing and cleaning out the mess at the direct order of the President. You would have been given a Presidential commission to put together a team and start purging the US government of Hydra at every level." Tony explained, before sighing and continuing "As it was, Hydra fled their safehouses within minutes of the database being posted and over two thousand undercover Shield agents were killed thanks to their identities being compromised before I could extract them. My PR people were caught flatfooted and the politicians were already making statements condemning your actions before they had the facts, which meant it was all I could do to keep you and Nat from being declared traitors. Hydra took the opportunity to turn the government against Shield and now they are focused on hunting down all Shield assets, letting Hydra escape into the shadows once again."
Steve grunted, "Maybe, but we didn't have hours. Insight was launching then and needed to be stopped."
Tony laughed at that, "You really should have called. You think that I was going to trust Shield with my tech without safeguards? Those carriers were powered by my reactor technology, used my repulsor technology to fly, used my computer hardware to run, and used my software to function. The Insight satellites were also a Stark Industries product. Those carriers couldn't fire without my permission and the moment they tried, Jarvis would have caught it, analyzed the situation, and forcibly landed the lot of them before triggering the self destructs in all of my technology onboard.
"If you had bothered to call those carriers would have returned to dock and not ended up scattered across DC. Killing another few thousand innocents."
That last hit Steve like a punch to the gut, "You could have..." he wondered, trailing off.
Tony nodded, his face suddenly much more serious, "I could have indeed. As it is, I'm having to spend a great deal of effort and political capital keeping this situation from spiraling even further out of control."
-x-x-x-
A/N
Does anyone really think that Tony was going to trust Shield with his tech without safeguards to ensure it couldn't be used against him? I still think the biggest plothole of Winter Soldier was Steve, Nat, and Fury all being incapable of picking up a phone. No trust for Barton? No trust for Tony? Either could have been a great help, and in the case of Tony he was the individual best positioned to basically stop Hydra's antics cold and capitalize on the situation for the good guys. But then Steve was never willing to trust Tony.
"Tony." said Steve with a nod of greeting.
Tony leaned against the wall, hands crossed over his chest, and asked "What made you think open-sourcing Shields database was a good idea? Do you have any idea how much chaos you've caused, how many innocent people you've killed, how many threats to global stability you have just unleashed?"
"SHIELD was Hydra! They had to be stopped!" snapped Steve.
Tony gave a nod, "Agreed, SHIELD was compromised and Hydra needed to be removed; but that doesn't explain why you dumped the database."
"Hydra thrives in the shadows, exposing them to the world was the only way." justified Rogers.
"Oh? You didn't think about calling your fellow Avenger? The one who is the worlds richest man, the one who built the Insight carriers, the one who still supplies the vast majority of the US's national security technology? The one who owns the worlds largest company, employees a legion of public relations experts? The one with entire lobbying firms and politicians owned for decades? The one whose father founded Shield?" questioned a sarcastic Tony.
"I didn't know who to Trust, and it was Howard who allowed Hydra to infiltrate in the first place. And you did build the Insight carriers. Tell me Tony, what reason did I have to trust that you weren't Hydra?" shot back the Captain.
Tony raised a hand to his chest in mock hurt, "You wound me Cap, truly. Even being willing to die by your side isn't enough to earn your trust. Still, you could have used your brain; if I was Hydra then they would have had no need for Insight."
Steve shoot his head at the arrogance, "You sure think alot of yourself Stark. Still, what would you have done if I had contacted you?"
"For starters? I would have had you dump the SHIELD database to Jarvis, given a few hours he would have identified the critical issues and I would have been ready to move. The Iron Legion would have extracted the loyal Shield agents and carried out simultaneous raids on Hydra while coordinating with governments and law enforcement. I would have had President Ellis giving a press conference explaining the situation and it would have been spun with you, Natasha, and the Avengers as a whole doing the righteous thing and cleaning out the mess at the direct order of the President. You would have been given a Presidential commission to put together a team and start purging the US government of Hydra at every level." Tony explained, before sighing and continuing "As it was, Hydra fled their safehouses within minutes of the database being posted and over two thousand undercover Shield agents were killed thanks to their identities being compromised before I could extract them. My PR people were caught flatfooted and the politicians were already making statements condemning your actions before they had the facts, which meant it was all I could do to keep you and Nat from being declared traitors. Hydra took the opportunity to turn the government against Shield and now they are focused on hunting down all Shield assets, letting Hydra escape into the shadows once again."
Steve grunted, "Maybe, but we didn't have hours. Insight was launching then and needed to be stopped."
Tony laughed at that, "You really should have called. You think that I was going to trust Shield with my tech without safeguards? Those carriers were powered by my reactor technology, used my repulsor technology to fly, used my computer hardware to run, and used my software to function. The Insight satellites were also a Stark Industries product. Those carriers couldn't fire without my permission and the moment they tried, Jarvis would have caught it, analyzed the situation, and forcibly landed the lot of them before triggering the self destructs in all of my technology onboard.
"If you had bothered to call those carriers would have returned to dock and not ended up scattered across DC. Killing another few thousand innocents."
That last hit Steve like a punch to the gut, "You could have..." he wondered, trailing off.
Tony nodded, his face suddenly much more serious, "I could have indeed. As it is, I'm having to spend a great deal of effort and political capital keeping this situation from spiraling even further out of control."
-x-x-x-
A/N
Does anyone really think that Tony was going to trust Shield with his tech without safeguards to ensure it couldn't be used against him? I still think the biggest plothole of Winter Soldier was Steve, Nat, and Fury all being incapable of picking up a phone. No trust for Barton? No trust for Tony? Either could have been a great help, and in the case of Tony he was the individual best positioned to basically stop Hydra's antics cold and capitalize on the situation for the good guys. But then Steve was never willing to trust Tony.
