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Tony stepped out of his car into a sea of microphones. Their shouted questions ran over one another as they all vied for his attention. “Mr. Stark!” “Mr. Stark!” “Have you been following Adrian Toomes’ trial?” “Do you have a response to his accusations?”
Christine Everhart’s voice caught his ear and he turned toward, “Really Brown? You’re asking that? And I thought you were smart. How slow of a News day is it?”
“Some of my viewers don’t think it’s a stupid question,” Christine replied. “So why don’t you explain: How is what he was doing any different than what you were doing before shutting down Stark Industries’ weapons division? Only you got rich and he’s going to jail.”
Tony sighed, “You know defending my former profession isn’t exactly high on my to-do list… But do any of you actually understand what I was doing wrong back then? What I was trying to fix by becoming Iron Man? Come on! I know it was a long time ago but more than a few of you were in the room when I told the world that I had seen SI weapons in the hands of terrorists, did you forget that?”
“Yes, Mr. Toomes also made weapons that have harmed the public.”
“Straight back from Afghanistan I didn’t know how my weapons ended up being used to kill US troops. You asked me once, Brown, how often I practiced SI’s party line justifying making weapons? Here’s a hint: I lied. It was a line, a way to work my bed into the conversation. Because you in my bed was all I was really interested in discussing. I never had to practice it. It was what I was raised to believe just like my mom tried to raise me to believe ‘For God so loved the world’ and all that. I never practiced that line. I never questioned whether or not it true. The truth is I never thought about it at all… Until I saw the very people I’d been raised to believe I was protecting die right in front of me, killed by weapons my company had made. It was a fucking crisis of faith. I didn’t know how my weapons ended up in the hands of people like Ten Rings. Mil-Aerospace is a regulated industry, there was supposed to be a system in place to keep things like that from happening. I thought the system had failed.
“I came back from Afghanistan believing that once I let a weapon out of my hands, that I had no control over what happened with it. I came back believing that the whole system put into place to keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists was hopelessly flawed. When I stood up here and talked about not wanting to be a part of a zero accountability system, that was what I was thinking. But it wouldn’t be long before I’d learn the problem was little closer to home for me.”
“Are you referring to subsequent investigation into Stark Industries business practices?” Christine asked. “The one where you were personally cleared of any wrongdoing?”
“Yeah. Like I said, making weapons is a regulated industry for the specific purpose of keeping weapons out of the hands of people like the Ten Rings. So it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that, after I publicly announced that my company’s weapons were being used by terrorists, the government opened an investigation of Stark Industries.
“Let me be clear. There was never a legal question around SI’s manufacturing of weapons. I, personally, had some ethical questions about it after getting a first person perspective on what my weapons do to a human body but no one ever questioned whether or not SI was a legal manufacturer of arms for the U.S. military. That I was the one to draw attention to my company’s weapons getting into the hands of terrorists was considered evidence that I hadn’t known about the deals upfront. However, it didn’t even begin to answer the question of whether or not I should have been held legally responsible for failing in my professional responsibility to maintain adequate control over the weapons I built.”
“So one might ask if coming forward was a ploy to keep yourself out of trouble?”
Tony rolled his eyes, “If that was my end game I never would have gotten out of the arms business. Much as we might want to believe justice is blind everyone knows influence exists. Whatever your personal opinion of me is, it’s simple fact that I’m damn good at what I do. Telling the military that, no matter what the outcome of the investigation into Stark Industries, they weren’t getting any more toys from me was basically the opposite of weighting things in my favor.
“The conclusion of the investigation, if anyone cares, was that my XO, Obadiah Stane was selling Stark Tech to the black market behind my back. Due to his roughly forty years of employment with Stark Industries, including several years as CEO immediately following my father’s death, not to mention his extensive personal history with my family, it was decided that I could not be held legally liable for trusting him. Didn't change how I felt personally. I felt like I should have figured out what kind of a man my godfather was without needing to have my eyes opened by him attempting to murder me.
“I also felt that it shouldn't have taken getting a chest full of shrapnel from one of my own weapons for it to really sink in that I spent my life making things that exist to kill people. I grew up accepting the whole best defense is a good offense thing but that way of thinking ignores that someone, usually lots of someones, die when my weapons are put into use. After Afghanistan it stopped being good enough to think it was them and not us who died. I, personally, wanted out of a business built on dealing death. It didn't put an end to war or military actions and I never thought it would, even I don’t have that big of an ego. It was just me deciding that SI wouldn't be a part of it anymore, that I wouldn't build things for the purpose of killing anymore.”
“But SI is still a military contractor.”
“Yeah, I build armor for people and vehicles, defensive measures that work by, you know, defending things.
“Now, let’s talk about Adrian Toomes. He is not, and has never been, a legal supplier of arms to any government. I left the field wide open for competitors to swoop in and grab market share, hell even Justin Hammer got a piece of the pie I put back on the table and his products are crap, but Adrian Toomes lacked the basic ability to become a legitimate military contractor.”
“From where I’m standing, seems he was pretty good at making weapons well beyond anything possessed by the police or military.”
“Ever since the U.S. military put Steve Rogers to work for the USO, then the SSR once they realized that they couldn’t prevent him from going into the field, it’s been the military’s policy not to put one-offs in critical positions within their structure. Even Rhodey was moved into supporting role in a separate command structure when I gave him War Machine-
“Iron Patriot,” someone in the audience corrected.
Tony wrinkled his nose and continued over them “-and he’s been theirs since he graduated high school and signed up for ROTC. No matter how powerful a one-off might be, the military wants weapons that can be mass produced and not tied to a specific individual who might go rogue. Phineas Mason is a great tinkerer, he draws a black box around a piece of Chitauri tech and figures out ins and outs, ‘If I do this, it does that’. He’s good, even great at that, but he doesn’t try to understand what’s inside that black box. His weapons are entirely dependent on components that he, and everyone else on Earth, are incapable of replicating. Which means he is very good at turning out weapons that no legal purchaser would want.
“I was investigated because my weapons ended up in the hands of terrorists. Adrian Toomes’ entire business model was based on creating one-off superweapons and selling them to criminals. Expert testimony from the NYCP says Toomes’ organization is responsible for arming nearly 85% of the Technologically Enhanced criminals apprehended in the last five years. If Obadiah Stane hadn’t died while trying to kill me he would have gone to jail, over a dozen of the key players in his operation of putting SI weapons on the black market are still in jail today.”
“It is Mr. Toomes contention that if SI’s subsidiary, Damage Control, hadn’t taken his business from him he wouldn’t have been forced into a life of crime to support his family.”
Tony rolled his eyes, “While Pepper disagrees with me, I am willing to allow that it’s my fault when someone goes full psychopath after I, personally, blow them off. But if every person who got out bid by SI on a business contract turned to crime… Excuse me, do we still live in a capitalist country?”
“And yet we also try to adhere to fair business practices.”
“So your problem is that I recommend that battle debris from the Chitauri Invasion, and other subsequent events, be handled as hazardous material on par with Nuclear materials? At least until a new classification could be devised because, frankly, we have a much better grasp of how to safely handle weaponized plutonium. And Toomes’ operation wasn’t capable of meeting those standards? Is that what you’re calling unfair?”
“Damage Control put him out of business.”
“So, you tell me: Did I make the wrong call? Kid sticks a Chitauri device in his backpack, the Washington Monument suffers severe damage. Criminals armed with Chitauri tech based weapons and we’ve got a ferry cut in half, buildings sliced through like butter. Was I wrong to say that the debris left behind by the Chitauri should be treated as highly dangerous?”
Tony waited several seconds. No one said anything. “No? I didn’t think so.”
“So, because we are talking about hazardous materials the government, oddly enough, likes to have certain assurances that these materials are being handled properly. Background checks. Even Toomes' original crew wouldn’t have all passed them. Not my policy, the government’s policy about who should be put in the position of being tempted to, say, pick up an alien weapon and walk off the job with it in their back pocket.
“My hat’s off to Phineas Mason. Sincerely. Years messing around with Chitauri leavings and he didn’t blow up either himself or the city, that is a genuine accomplishment. And I’m the last person who’s going to say you need schooling to be a genius. School was, um, boring. But what a degree, a license or a professional registration does offer is proof of minimum competence. Oddly popular in a wide range of circles. Proof, not that you’re great, but that you’re competent. That’s why we all do it, to get that fancy piece of paper that says we proved ourselves capable of meeting the minimum standards of our profession.
“Toomes’ crew was qualified to salvage buildings ready for demolition, decommissioned manufacturing facilities, etc. They did not have the proper qualifications to disarm bombs, handle radioactive waste or potential biological hazards. They did not have the necessary proof to show that they could do the job safely, so they lost the job to someone who could. Really? Am I supposed to be sorry for hiring people with the proper credentials rather than expecting them to learn on the job? What was Toomes defense about the murder of his own lacky, Jackson Brice? He didn’t know what the weapon he picked up did? He picked up a gun, shot a guy with it and didn’t expect him to die. When I set up Damage Control, I did have a number of advantages over Adrian Toomes. Namely nearly two decades of personal experience in military contracting and a company with seventy years of history in the industry. I know the regulations. I know how to screen the people I hire to meet them. I know the industry best practices. I know how to set up processes that will pass a government audit. Strangely that sort of knowledge is considered an asset in getting a job that requires that knowledge.
“Adrian Toomes says I put him and his crew out of business but let’s talk about all the people hired by Damage Control. People who could offer proof, up front, that they were qualified to do the job and do it safely. People who were every bit as local to New York as Toomes’ crew, just… Not his crew.”
“Well you hardly need the money.”
“My employees do. And Damage Control is not a salvage company. I do not make money by studying or selling the Enhanced objects recovered by Damage Control. Battle debris recovered by Damage Control is placed in containment facilities to remove it from circulation because the government decided that they did not want items like the one that exploded at the Washington Monument, nearly killed a half-dozen high school students, including Toomes’ own daughter, in circulation. Damage Control breaks even by providing the service of cleaning up battle sites and securing any hazardous materials. A salvage company, like Adrian Toomes’ business, turns a profit by reselling what they recover from a deconstruction site. Toomes lost his contract because his company’s business model, then and now, was to make a profit by putting what they recovered back into circulation. And no one in their right minds wanted Chitauri weapons back in circulation.
“At my worst, I believed that adherence to the law, with no examination of my impact on the world, was sufficient. So excuse me if I have a little trouble understanding this new morality were looking out for your own; your friends, your family; has been elevated to a cardinal virtue which justifies harming innocent bystanders who just happened to be in your way and places you above the law for all practical purposes.”