Project 43: Healing

What are you thinking?

"Tony," Natasha said getting the billionaire to look up at her. Tony was almost lying in his chair, completely done with the conversation.

"You are being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal," Natasha pointed out.

"He already knows what he's going to do," Elias said after snickering a bit at Natasha's choice of words. He was trying to figure out what it all meant for him while listening to what everyone else was saying.

"Observational," Stark said, slowly getting up from his chair while rubbing his head.

Maybe if Elias just ran away.

"But actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache," Tony said as he walked over to the kitchen looking for painkillers. Everyone followed the man with their eyes, knowing that he was going to do or say something worth their attention.

"That's it. Just pain. It's discomfort," Tony said grabbing a cup and going to fill it up in the sink.

"Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?" Tony asked before grabbing something from his pocket and slapping it onto the table.

It plastered a holographic image into the air. A picture of a smiling young boy. He looked happy and someone Elias had never seen or heard of before.

"That's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid," Tony said pointing at the screen with a sigh. Elias had seen the guilt-tripping technique before. Even tho there was no use for him to learn to break people, he knew how it worked.

"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," Tony started painting the picture, throwing a painkiller into his mouth as he spoke. Everyone listened, waiting for Stark to get to his point.

"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," Tony continued, the pain so evident in his voice it was almost hard to listen to. Everyone's gaze turned to the floor, everyone's but Elias'.

Elias looked at Wanda even if it was hard. He felt so bad for the young woman. She was still recovering from what had happened in Lagos, wallowing in self-pity. Then the destruction of her home country was thrown in her face, she was being blamed for it. It wasn't fair and even Elias found it repulsing.

"He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. We won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass," Tony ended painting the picture but Elias just rolled his eye, tired of it all already.

"There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check!" Tony declared but Elias had had enough.

"Who's this we, we're talking about?" Elias interrupted what would have been a long declaration on why the Avengers needed to be monitored. Tony turned to look at the soldier, waiting for him to speak.

"You made Ultron. You don't have the right to blame everyone here for fixing your mistake. I understand why you did what you did and I don't hold it against you anymore but that is only if you don't act like a little shit about it," Elias explained coldly. He didn't care what Tony thought since the man clearly didn't care about everyone else's feelings, the least of all Wanda's who was trying her all to move on and be a better person. Even Elias who didn't like her at all could see that.

Most jaws were dropped to the floor, only Natasha seemed unaffected. Tony looked like someone had thrown a brick at his face.

"I think it's smart to have some control over what you people do. It's not okay to have an organization that can operate however they want with no consequences. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad. Still, I'm not gonna sit here and listen to this bullshit," Elias ended crossing his arms.