White | B. BARNES

Chapter 24

📍 Avengers Compound, New York | June 2016

The Avengers with Sapphire gathered at HQ.

Steve was sitting down, studying the Accords, while Rhodey and Sam arguing behind him.

"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor, which is one more than you have," Rhodey argued.

"So let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?" Sam said.

Tony was lying down with his hand on his face while Sapphire rolled her eyes, leaning to the railings beside a seated Wanda.

"A 117 countries want to sign this. 117, Sam, and you're just like, 'No, that's cool. We got it.'"

"How long are you going to play both sides?" Sam asked him.

"I have an equation," Vision spoke, breaking their argument.

"Oh, this will clear it up," Sam said, both of them turning to him.

"In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate," Vision started.

"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve asked.

"I'm saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict... breeds catastrophe. Oversight... oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

"Boom," Rhodey said, looking at Sam.

Natasha spoke to Tony, "You are being uncharacteristically non-hyper-verbal."

"It's because he's already made up his mind," Sapphire told them.

Tony looked at her, "I don't know you, but you know me so well." He got up and winced, rubbing the back of his head. "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache."

He walked to the kitchen and grabbed a mug, "That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort. Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?"

Tony placed his phone in a basket and tapped it. The phone projected an image of a smiling young man. He looked down, then back up, and pretended to notice the picture for the first time, "Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA. Had a floor-level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where Sokovia."

Glancing around, Sapphire saw how the others look affected by that.

"He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. I mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass," He said before taking a pill with some coffee, then faced the others.

"There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys," he finished.

"Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up," Steve said.

"Who said we're giving up?"

"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blames," Steve answered him.

"I'm sorry. Steve. That - that is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not HYDRA."

"Trust me, it doesn't make them any different," Sapphire butted in. 

Sam looked at her before nodding at Tony with sass, "Mhm. You heard her."

"No, but it's run by people with agendas, and agendas change," Steve explained.

"That's good. That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stop manufacturing, Tony said.

"Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own," Steve defended.

"If we don't do this now, it's gonna be done to us later. That's the fact. That won't be pretty," Tony told him.

Wanda spoke, "You're saying they'll come for me."

"We would protect you," Vision replied.

"Maybe Tony's right," Natasha spoke up, which cause Sapphire to snap her head in her direction.

Tony looked at Natasha, surprised.

She explained while Steve looks at her intently, "If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off..."

"Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?" Sam asked, reminding her.

"I'm just... I'm reading the terrain. We have made... some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."

Tony placed his hand down on a chair, "Focus up. I'm sorry, did I just mishear you, or did you agree with me?"

"Oh, I want to take it back now."

"No, no, no. You can't retract it. Thank you. Unprecedented. Okay, the case closed. I win," Tony said while Steve pulls out his phone.

"Well, that's stupid," Sapphire commented as Tony and Natasha glared at her. "As long as there is someone who controls and a man who has a single part of him attached to a string is still a puppet."

Sam gave a smug, knowing expression, "No doubt." 

"What?" Tony scoffed at him. "Are you some kind of her commentator?" 

"I have to go," Steve said, interrupting both men ans getting up sharply before dropping the Accords on the coffee table and went downstairs.

"I'm done here," Sapphire spoke, pushing off the railing.

"Hey, Monkey! Where are you going?" Sam asked her as she starts to leave.

"She's a monkey?" Vision tilted his head to the side in confusion. "My intelligence says she's a human."

"I have a flight to catch," She shrugged, turning to walk away again.

"And the accords?" Rhodey asked her.

She turned around with a more serious expression which creeped him out, "Tell the secretary: respectfully, he can shove it up in his ass."

Sam smirked and chuckled, nodding his head, "Will do."

Sapphire nodded at him with a smirk, finally leaving the compound.

"We are not going to say that to him, are we?" Rhodey asked everyone who was left in reassurance.