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"How dare you kill him!"
Tony was burning with pure rage.
Lately, he'd been all about being Iron Man, doing the whole "hero" thing.
He'd saved a lot of people.
The kind of people he used to never even notice. But after his own brush with death, he'd learned the value of a life.
And this... this thing had just murdered a man right in front of him!
"How dare you!" he roared.
"Why wouldn't I dare?" Ben shot back, his voice cold.
"You think he was a good man?" Ben sneered.
If Dennis Carradine had been a saint, his name wouldn't have been in the police files.
The truth was, Dennis was a career criminal. A gangbanger.
Robbery, theft...
He'd been arrested more times than anyone could count, and that was just for the stuff he got caught doing. He'd been in gang wars. His hands were far from clean.
But even if Dennis had been a Nobel prize winner, it wouldn't have mattered to Ben.
For Ben, family came first.
He knew what he was doing wasn't "justice."
He knew Uncle Ben and Aunt May would be horrified. But the thought of his "mercy" one day getting them killed... that was a risk he refused to take.
To protect his family, he'd get these hands dirty without a second thought.
"And what about you, Tony Stark?" Ben challenged. "You think you're any better?"
"What?"
"You think the blood on your hands is any less than mine?"
"The people I killed were terrorists!" Tony fired back.
"You know that's not what I'm talking about," Ben said, shaking his head. "Stark Industries' empire was built on selling weapons, wasn't it?"
"Or do you only think it counts as killing if you pull the trigger yourself?"
That shut Tony up.
Selling weapons was his greatest sin, and he knew it. He was trying to make up for it now.
Shutting down the weapons division. Taking down terrorists...
He was trying to pay his debt.
"I never meant for those weapons to go to terrorists. I didn't know "
"Didn't know? Or didn't care?" Ben's voice was sharp with contempt.
He had to admit, the Tony Stark of the future was a great hero. Ben had loved watching him on the big screen.
But he also had to admit, before becoming Iron Man, the man was a Grade A jerk.
Neglecting his own company, letting Obadiah run wild that wasn't an excuse.
And even if Obadiah hadn't sold to terrorists, Stark Industries worked directly with the government.
Since when were America's wars considered "just"?
What a joke.
Just think about the people dying in Gaza!
Did they really deserve it?
"When you built those weapons, did it never cross your mind they'd be used to invade other countries? To kill innocent children?" Ben pressed.
"You didn't not know. You just didn't care."
Ben's words hit their mark.
What else were weapons for but killing?
Tony knew exactly what his country was like playing world police, stirring up conflict everywhere. How many wars had they started?
He knew.
He just hadn't cared. Not until a missile with his name on it almost blew him to pieces.
Why would he care about some strangers dying on the other side of the world?
Did homeless children affect his champagne and supermodels?
No!
If anything, more war, more death, meant more profit for Stark Industries. It funded his lavish lifestyle.
Every dollar Stark ever made was paid for in blood!
"That's why I shut down the weapons manufacturing," Tony said, his voice low.
But sin wasn't a balance sheet.
Shutting it down wasn't atonement. It just meant he'd stop adding to the pile.
A bully stopping his abuse doesn't make him a saint.
It doesn't mean the people he hurt have to forgive him.
Since when does a good man need to suffer for lifetimes, while a villain just has to drop his knife?
Tony had no real rebuttal. He knew Ben was right.
It took nearly dying in a desert cave for him to understand the true horror of war and the weapons he'd created. He knew now that no amount of good deeds could ever truly balance the scales.
No matter how many people he saved, the living could never grant forgiveness on behalf of the dead.
Deep down, Tony was eaten up by guilt over his past willful ignorance. It was why, after being called out by Captain America for being selfish, he'd eventually sacrificed everything to snap his fingers.
But feeling guilty was one thing. Having some stranger rip you open and expose that guilt was another.
Especially when that stranger was a mysterious monster. No way was Tony going to let him go because of Stark Industries' dirty past.
"I'm only going to say this one more time. Put your hands up and surrender!"
Seeing Tony shake off the guilt didn't surprise Ben. A guy with an ego that big wasn't going to crumble from a few harsh words.
Ben did raise his hands, though.
He just held one palm forward. "Three minutes. That's all I need."
Then he moved.
He was so fast he didn't even leave an afterimage.
One instant he was there, the next he'd launched into the air, his foot connecting squarely with the arc reactor in Tony's chest.
Before Tony could even react, Ben used the armored suit as a springboard, twisted his body mid air with impossible agility, and his black tail snapped like a whip against the left side of Tony's helmet.
CLANG!
Tony Stark, suit and all, went flying backward, crashing straight through the factory wall!
While Fasttrack didn't have many special attacks, speed was power. A creature the size of a velociraptor hitting you at several hundred miles per hour would have shredded a lesser suit. The fact that the Iron Man armor held together was only because Ben was holding back!
And that was before the tail whip.
If Tony hadn't been in the suit, that blow would have popped his head like a watermelon.
Even through the armor, Tony's brain rang like a bell. His head was still spinning, ears ringing.
"Sir, you are experiencing minor concussion symptoms," J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him helpfully.
Tony ignored him.
"You asked for this, kid!"
He was absolutely furious.
The suit's thrusters flared to life at full power.
Tony blasted back through the hole in the wall. He'd fired his repulsors before he even finished speaking!
BOOM!
But Ben was ready.
"You're too slow, Tony," Ben taunted.
Honestly, the moment Tony started to raise his arm, he'd already missed his shot.
"Congratulations, Sir. Someone has finally commented on your lack of speed."
J.A.R.V.I.S. offered his sincere congratulations.
Tony: "..."
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