"GRROOAAHHHH!"
Before anyone could react, Bruce had already disappeared and in his place stood Hulk. With a savage roar he charged at Rhodes, raising his fist.
"KRAAANG!"
The impact never reached its target, the blow clashed against the shield Steve held firmly.
Behind Hulk, Wanda appeared floating in the air. She stretched her hands toward the giant's temples and whispered softly,
"Sleep."
Hulk's eyes turned white and, immediately, his massive body collapsed. Little by little his skin lost its green tone until it returned to the figure of Bruce Banner.
Banner got up furious, trying to transform again, but without success.
"Do you know what you did?! You gave Ross the means to create monsters and use them as weapons! Is that what you wanted?"
Rhodes, calm, replied,
"You were able to control Hulk, what makes you think others couldn't? With an army, military capability would skyrocket several levels."
"Is that all?" Rhodes's calmness enraged him even more. "You're betting on a slim chance of controlling him? Do you know how many lives you're risking for that 'chance'?"
"Alright, both of you calm down," Clint intervened, trying to mediate. He knew these discussions rarely ended with punches, and that sometimes an outside voice was enough to cool tempers. But this time it wasn't.
"Of course, naturally you would agree with betraying the team, right?" Tony shot, looking directly at Clint.
Barton's expression changed instantly, he knew what Tony meant.
"Tony, why do you keep throwing fuel on the fire?" Steve stopped him with seriousness.
"It's not my fault. If we let this continue, the team is going to explode sooner or later. It's better to settle it before it escalates." Then he looked straight at Clint. "I'm giving you the chance to explain yourself."
Clint sighed in resignation and spoke.
"So you had a family…"
"And it never occurred to you to tell us?" Tony asked.
"The situation didn't seem that important." And he wasn't lying. As a spy, he had faced blackmail and dirty games countless times, and they had never gone too far. In his mind, this was just another obstacle he could handle without compromising the team, especially since it happened during the conflict with the Hand, a problem already solved.
Choosing to say nothing was precisely because of what was happening now, exposing it would only put his family at risk and divide the group.
Tony understood, but he didn't accept it.
"You're not a lone agent anymore, Barton. We're a team. Why is that so hard for some to understand?"
Steve caught the jab.
"So now you're going to bring that up in every argument?"
"This argument isn't leading us to any solution," Vision remarked, observing the tension.
"True," Tony admitted. Then he turned to Rhodes. "I know you, and I don't understand why you would do something so stupid."
Rhodes smiled with a certain bitterness. "We've been friends for years, Tony, you know that. But first of all, I'm a soldier."
"No. You may be a soldier, but you know when something is above that. You… you wouldn't act like this. What's going on? Betrayal? That word doesn't even exist in your vocabulary."
Rhodes calmly shook his head. "It's not betrayal. From the beginning I joined the Avengers under orders from the army. In other words, I was never truly on your side."
A heavy silence spread. Tony was the first to break it,
"Then you're not an Avenger. If that's the case… what are you doing here?"
No one misinterpreted his words. Rhodes simply turned around and left without saying goodbye. There were no emotional ties binding him to that place.
Tony dropped onto a sofa, struck by the coldness of the outcome. He had expected reasons, something that could keep them together, not the cutting void that had just been left.
"Fine," he finally sighed. "What about you?" he said, looking at Clint.
Steve stepped forward.
"His case is different. Clint is an Avenger, and that won't change."
"And you get to decide that on your own again?" Tony shot back.
"No." Steve turned to the others. "Who agrees?"
"I'm with them," Bucky said. "Clint acted as an agent, and no one got hurt."
Sam nodded silently, also supporting Barton.
Wanda, however, crossed her arms. "Just because nothing happened this time doesn't mean it won't in the future. His way of acting contradicts what the Avengers stand for." Pietro backed her up.
"In the situation he faced, his decision was logical," Vision commented. "I don't think he should be judged for that."
Banner, still furious, aligned with Tony. His mind couldn't move past the danger Hulk's blood represented, and he tolerated even less that someone decided alone on something that could affect them all.
Gwen watched everything in silence. The team that once seemed so solid was now clearly divided. They were only opposing perspectives, but deep down it was more than that, it was two irreconcilable ideologies, Tony's and Steve's. Sooner or later, that would split the Avengers into factions.
"I agree we should forgive Clint. He was basically forced, and still avoided harming others." she said, only to add at the end, "But if he keeps acting like this, the team will end up broken. Even if you can solve something on your own, if it affects everyone, you have to say it."
The vote ended 5 to 6. Clint would be punished, although the exact decision would come later.
"We have three main problems, Wakanda, the Skrulls and Hulk's blood. Any ideas?" Tony asked, exhausted.
No one was in the mood. They left the discussion for the next day.
But time didn't bring calm. Almost a month later, something finally lit the spark.
Leonardo was judged publicly.
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80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)