To counter

The first thing Tony does after he receives the email summoning him to appear in front of the Sokovia Accords Panel is to notify everyone already in the know.

Which really isn't all that long a list, all things considered, barely a handful of people in total.

Sure, certain people know certain things, some more so than others. But there are very few who actually know everything, who have the whole picture, who are aware of all the parts and pieces Tony has been moving into place to prepare for what's coming.

Not to even mention all those contingency plans and safety nets Tony has put into place at this point, all the fallbacks and the protections, all those 'anonymous' helpers halfway across the world and the layered security and everything else he could think of that they might possibly need somewhere between the world trying to figure out whether people with superpowers are to be considered human at all and protecting their planet from potentially imminent alien threats.

There isn't a single person aside from him and Friday who actually knows about all of it.

Which in itself is just another failsafe, if only to give everyone the benefit of plausible deniability in case Tony ever has to go the route of supervillain in order to protect the world.

'Cause, you just never know.

Point is, as soon as he receives the email he informs those few people who already know about the big picture plans. Which just amounts to a simple text message reading, 'It's showtime, people.'

There, done.

Now, on to bringing the other more important players up to speed.

Tony has used these past couple of months to contact pretty much every single even vaguely superpowered individual who has decided to use their powers to protect others. Anyone who could by any definition be considered a superhero.

But so far most of them only know about that very network he has been building, don't know about anything else he has been doing, simply because he just didn't know well enough for him to want to risk letting them in on everything.

But now - with the Accords about to become public record - Tony doesn't have to weigh the risks of letting people in on him already rallying forces, on him having been working on said Accords for months now, doesn't have to worry about someone blabbing to the press about what he is doing before he is ready.

The time for need-to-know is over.

He spends the few days until the hearing with the UN Accords panel preparing for the meeting, mainly by once more contacting all the superhumans he had previously gotten in contact with and bringing them up to speed.

Only this time around he gives them a far more detailed picture, tells them about the details of the Accords and his efforts to have his lawyers rework the documents to make them a little more palatable, tells them about his hope that by working out a version of the Accords within the superhuman community and then standing together to fight for it, their voice will have weight, that by making themselves into one entity they'll be a force to be reckoned with, impossible to be ignored by national and international politics.

Which really just means he spends endless amounts of time talking to people on the phone or - depending on who it is - in person. The fact that he also has to fit in all his other, truly not insignificant number of responsibilities, simply doesn't factor in to any of it.

Thank god for Friday, who keeps track of who he has or hasn't spoken to yet, calls ahead to ask people for callbacks, makes personal or conference-call appointments and so on. He wouldn't have been able to get through nearly as many people otherwise.

Thankfully, he also has people like Susan and Hope who have already been working with him on the Accords issue and who appear to have entirely embraced the idea of a superhero network, seem to actually have Tony on speed dial going by how often and reliably they contact him to coordinate missions.

Then there are a few superheroes who are leaders of their own version of the superhero communities in other countries and who take on the responsibility of mediating everything Tony tells them to their people. Which lightens his workloads significantly.

Well, he still thinks that absolute weirdo Wellenwunder from Germany to be the single-most strangest superhero he has ever met, and that's definitely saying something. But the guy having definite issues or no, he clearly also knows his stuff.

Because after listening to Tony and asking a veritable deluge of overly detailed questions, the guy had then turned right around and - in good, old, stereotypically hyper-organized German fashion - managed to inform pretty much the entirety of the European superhero community within a day or two. Which means an entire continent of supers, Tony doesn't have to worry about. So, Tony is absolutely willing to overlook the guy's other life choices.

To each their own, and all that.

Then there are some like Deadpool who is absolutely delighted to be invited to the party, but couldn't care less about the Accords, claiming he has no clue and no interest in how the legal system works - beyond how to work around it - and he'll just leave it to Tony to work something out.

But Tony can work with that.

There are those very few like Logan or Remy LeBeau, who not only give serious input on the Accords, but they also always seem to have some tidbit of information to offer to Tony whenever they talk, sometimes blackmail, sometimes rumors, sometimes a warning about threats to his agenda or his actual person, sometimes truly relevant political info, or sometimes even just the number of a new contact who might be able to help with this or that or would just be interested in talking to Tony about the Accords.

And then there are Charles and Erik who took it upon themselves to entirely cover the mutant side of things, contacting any mutants Charles so-very-easily picks out from the general population, and presenting themselves to everyone as adversaries in regards to the Accords as much as they also admit to having the same ultimate goal, namely protecting themselves and theirs. Even if their preferred approaches differ wildly.

But between Charles' optimistic, let's-try-to-make-the-best-of-it approach and Erik's rather dystopian, let's-expect-the-worst doomsday prepping for an active conflict, the two men truly seem to be able to cover everyone, neatly splitting the worldwide mutant population between their two factions.

Tony is of course fully on board with Charles' take on things but he is admittedly also more than glad for Erik. Not only because the man is gathering and thereby also mellowing any more extreme opponents by making them feel like they aren't alone in their concerns.

But also because Tony can absolutely admit that they are right to have those concerns, that there is a real danger of this entire thing going sideways.

As much as he is all for solving this via mountains of legislation and paperwork, there is no way of knowing whether everything might not still go south.

Because in case he and Charles fail entirely, it is reassuring to know that there is a faction of superpowered individuals who are willing to go to all-out war over their rights before they'll let themselves be turned into second-class citizens.

It will also make for a great unspoken threat during the negotiations in case the government proves more stubborn than Tony is honestly hoping.

Because with Erik gathering all opposing forces behind himself, it will make Tony and Charles seem like the reasonable faction, like they are the people the politicians would want to talk to in order to have at least a few superpowered individuals on their side.

Ultimately, the unspoken-but-ever-present threat of an all-out guerilla war the government might have on their hands in case they don't compromise, leaving them without any superhuman support might just turn out to be the most powerful card in their deck. Tony just hopes they never have to play it.

Of course, the fact that Tony and Charles are actually working closely together with Erik, that every move between them is coordinated and planned out, that nothing about Erik's handling of the more volatile elements of the mutant community is anywhere near as random as it seems, is known to a grand total of five people, namely Charles, Erik, Logan, Ororo and Tony himself.

And they intend to keep it that way.

Seriously, at this point, there are so many layers and sub-groups for different groups of superhumans on different continents in different countries and so on that even Tony sometimes needs a second to remind himself which individual knows about which aspects of his plans and which side of the field they are working on.

Point is, Tony spends the days before the actual meeting bringing in all the main players on all the main pieces of his main plans and lets them distribute the info as they see fit.

And he makes absolutely sure to keep all the layers, the fallbacks and safety nets and plans A through Z several times over, the numerous contingencies and everything else that might prove to be vital at some point, to himself.

At least these last few days prove that the line of communication between superhumans seems to be working out rather well.

Hooray, and all that.

Tony's meeting with the UN Sokovia Accords Panel passes quickly and goes down pretty civilly, all things considered.

Mainly because they don't actually get around to discussing anything of importance.

Tony shows up to the meeting flanked by Trenton and Murdock, the presence of two lawyers at his side in direct contrast to his usual appearances at the UN, letting anyone with half a brain know that Tony at the very least has a very good idea just what sort of thing is going to be discussed in this meeting.

Of course, Tony makes sure not to give any indication that he so much as heard of the Accords before, much less that he and his lawyers and various members in the superhuman community have been working on these documents for months now.

So, during the initial address by the panel's chairman, the entire room is rather tense, glances being thrown Tony's way, everyone figuratively holding their breath, waiting to see where on the spectrum from complete refusal to total acceptance of the Accords Tony might fall.

And he makes sure not to let any of his thoughts show on his face as he listens.

Let them sweat it out.

They most certainly deserve it for daring to spend months on several hundred pages of legalese about superhumans without so much as thinking to involve anyone who will be affected by the laws and regulations put in place by the Accords.

Then they put the full document in front of him.

He glances at it, raises an eyebrow, then lifts the first page. He scans the three-page summary on top while Trenton and Murdock do the same beside him with their own copy.

Once done, Tony puts his hand on top of the truly impressive stack of papers, leans back casually as he taps his fingers on the document, all the while wearing his best contemplative expression.

The tension around the room is only growing as everyone waits for any sort of reaction from him.

Instead of throwing them a bone, he leans over as if to confer with Trenton, asking with quietly, so as not to give away his humor at this situation, "How much longer, do you think?"

"Hm, maybe let them sweat for another five minutes?" Trenton replies, his best thoughtful lawyer face on for the benefit of the onlookers but Tony can easily pick out the rather mischievous amusement in his eyes.

"Make it ten," Murdock speaks up from his other side, also sounding entirely relaxed but clearly just as willing to repay this lot for trying to keep the Accords on the down-low for so long.

Tony makes himself suppress his cheerfully contented, vindictive sigh as he leans back in this seat once more, still not letting anything show on his face.

It's truly wonderful to be amongst like-minded people.

Tony lets his head fall back to lie back against the headrest, to stare up at the roof of his car.

The meeting with the UN Accords Panel just ended and the entire meeting was a waste of time, nothing really being resolved, because Tony had to pretend to have never seen or heard of the Accords before.

When Tony told the panel that he would generally be open to the idea of the Accords, the politicians had been so clearly relieved to hear that it had almost been a little humorous.

Well, he then promptly claimed he and his lawyers would need a little time to go through the entire document but it seems that the politicians are mainly just glad that Tony isnn't going to do anything stupid like simply refuse to accept the Accords in their entirety.

So, they gave him a one-week grace period.

It will have to do, and it at least bought everyone who really is only now learning of the Accords to make any concerns or complaints known, so Murdock and Nelson can try to work them into their numerous amendments to the documents.

Either way, Tony knows that all of this is just a preamble. That all the big players, everyone who actually knows how to play the game and how to gather power is only sharpening their blades, waiting.

Because the real fight is yet to come. The fight of public opinion, economic power, old and new politics, national and international alliances.

Thankfully, it doesn't actually matter whether it comes down to political, economical or any other sort of power. Because no matter which battle field they choose, Tony is right up there with all the biggest players around, more than able to hold his own.

There is a reason why he is the first one they called, the one they actually ask for an opinion.

The big players know that amongst all the superheroes out there, Tony is the one with the power to actually make a difference either way aside from his rather well-established collaboration with the UN on other issues.

Which, however, is another point.

It seems like one of Tony's what-if scenarios is about to become reality.

Because turns out, the politicians don't seem to necessarily intend approaching any other superhumans about the Accords aside from Tony. It's something he had expected but honestly hoped it wouldn't come to.

Sure, it's not like the UN or the US usually make a big deal out of any other sort of legislation unless the media turns it into an actual issue, so this sort of approach is pretty par for the course.

But.

In contrast to the everyday law-passing process, where the politicians and delegates from various countries are representatives of the people they make laws for, but they certainly do not seem to see themselves as representatives of superhumans at all. Meaning, there are laws being passed for people who have no representation whatsoever, no one to speak up on their behalf.

Tony doesn't like it.

Because as much as he has been trying to keep the superhero community up to date, even he cannot call every single vaguely superpowered individual out there and personally bring them up to speed.

That's the media's job.

Who, however, don't seem to have gotten wind of the Accords yet.

So, while the superhero community might be generally aware of what is currently looming on the horizon due to Tony spreading the word, the general public is still largely unaware, thereby also including any superpowered individuals who aren't out and about, superheroing their lives away, and thus haven't been on Tony's list of people to contact and personally inform of the Accords.

And now it seems like the governments of the world collectively decided not to actively make the public aware of the Accords until the documents have already been passed.

And, yeah, that simply will not do.

He decides to call Eddie Brock.

Eddie Brock who lives in San Francisco, who already has a reputation for being able to dig up some real dirt on truly powerful people, and who is so far removed from Tony's circle of influence that no one will even suspect he might have been the one to feed Brock any sort of information.

Tony had originally contacted the man for the same reason as he had contacted everyone else.

Because as unconventional as his situation may be, Brock certainly falls under the category of 'enhanced' if only due to the alien who seems to have set up camp inside his body.

An alien Brock apparently decided to literally feed with bad guys.

Which means regular crime-fighting sprees and that kind of makes him a superhero, doesn't it?

There aren't many cities like that. The ones with antiheroes - or goody-two-shoes villains or whatever you want to call them - the places where the heroes don't capture but kill, become villains by definition but only kill those who harm the innocent, and are thus by definition also heroes. Heroes who care little for laws but rather about justice and thus, heroes nonetheless.

Well, at least in some cases.

And weirdly enough, those cities tend to be far down on the crime numbers. Cities where the resident superpowered helpers don't just snatch up the bad guys and hand them over to the local law enforcement, but instead where being a criminal suddenly means that you aren't the biggest, baddest, scariest thing around, rather that you are the one looking over your shoulder, afraid someone might come for you.

So, moral dilemma or no, Tony can at least admit that the antiheroes are sure as fuck far more efficient than regular superheroes. If only because no supervillain will ever dare encroach on their turf.

And Venom is a prime example of that, having the rather disturbing habit of literally eating anyone his host doesn't approve of, who has decided to focus his passenger's eating habits on the dregs of society.

During their first phone call, Brock had just shrugged at Tony in a somewhat sheepish, well-what-can-you-do sort of way and said something along the lines of 'better them than the good guys'.

And Tony doesn't necessarily approve as such, but he had Friday check Venom's activities and she confirmed that he truly only goes after those who have done real harm.

So, at Brock's attempts to defend the alien parasite living within him, Tony had just shrugged, "Hey, if you're looking for moral absolution, then I'm definitely not the one to talk to. They used to call me the Merchant of Death for a reason. And it wasn't because I supported the motto of 'life above all'," he had grinned, more teeth than an actual smile. "Keep it to the truly fucked up individuals, and good riddance, I say."

And even despite the conversation only happening on a screen, Tony had still only barely been able to suppress his flinch at the sudden dark form coiling itself out of Brock's body, forming a sort-of face, rows of sharp teeth and milky white eyes set in inky blackness.

"Merchant of Death?" Venom had growled at him rather interestedly.

And Tony had shrugged, trying for casual despite the rather disturbing imagery in front of him. "Yeah. Believe me, no matter what you get up to in your city, you won't ever even come close to my numbers. So, I'm not judging."

Which had apparently led to Venom demanding an explanation of the title Merchant of Death from Brock, and then the alien had decided that Tony deserves to be lauded for his planet-cleansing efforts, and now Tony has a fanboy. Of the alien-parasite-living-in-another-body sort.

Tony sighs. Superhumans are just so fucking strange.

But there is also another reason why he had taken care to contact Brock and add him to his superhero network.

Because Venom is an alien. Which makes him a member of an incredibly short list of examples for Tony to cite in order to make his point in front of the UN that they desperately need to get some alien-specific clauses into the Accords.

Now that the UN has fully accepted the fact that there is in fact alien life in the universe somewhere, now that they are working on a planetary defense system, humanity should also consider getting around to fixing their laws to reflect that very fact, adjust for the increasingly frequent appearances of alien life forms on earth.

And what better time to do so than when they are already reworking their laws in the form of the Accords?

Because they have a couple of examples of fully sentient aliens visiting earth now.

There is Venom the man-eating alien parasite, part of a race that lives to devour other species but who personally made the seemingly rather random decision to just not with theirs.

Then there are Loki and Thor, the god-like aliens who have been coming to their planet for millenia but never bothered to actually help them with anything, one supposedly good but - to quote his platypus - with 'all the common sense of a golden retriever puppy', and the other supposedly evil but with a rather suspicious tendency to plan his invasions just so that the only ones actually suffering from it are the would-be invaders. Strange habit, that.

And then there are the Wakandans who are wholly human but have been succeeding above the rest of humanity for decades, centuries even, entirely based on the boons granted to them by aliens as well but also never bothered to help anyone else on earth.

Honestly, out of the lot of them, Venom is actually the one who is doing most for the people on earth, cannibalistic tendencies aside.

Although right now, he doesn't need Venom so much as he needs Brock himself.

Because the man is actually a reporter, does the sort of digging-through-the-mud reporting that takes true balls or an atrophied survival instinct. And it's also exactly what Tony needs in order to get word on the Accords out to the general public without implicating himself.

"Friday, my girl," he says. "Would you call Eddie Brock for me?"

"Already dialing, boss," she returns promptly.

Tony just smiles at one of her cameras even as he listens to the dial tone. She is getting more like her older brother every day, getting better and better at anticipating his every request.

He is so proud of his baby girl.

'Here at the UN Headquarters in New York, government officials from around the world have come together in order to formulate an agreement as to how superpowered individuals are to be considered within the scope of our laws.'

Tony is flicking through channels. Not that anyone is covering anything aside from the Accords. Every channel is showing the same thing, even if from various different angles.

He flicks to the next channel.

'-re you even saying? That's ridiculous! The Sokovia Accords are simply intended to establish a worldwide consensus regarding the classification of individuals with not quite normal abilities. In my opinion, it is long overd-'

Flick.

'- telling you, John, the privileges for those with superpowers included in these Accords are entirely unjustified and would make anyone without powers into a second class citizen!'

Flick.

'Sources say that the UN meeting regarding Sokovia Accords is little more than a front for the real reason the nations of the world have gathered here, namely the regulation of dangerous superhumans.'

Flick.

'-'ve said it and I will say it again, it's all a cover-up for the government's experiments and so they can let their army of dangerous supermutants lose on decent folk like us! They will come for y-'

Tony snorts.

Flick.

'-rding to an inside source, the Accords were originally introduced as a way to help establish international laws specifically for superheroes crossing into foreign countries.'

'Well, maybe other countries should consider securing their borders better if they don't want just anyone wandering in. Why should we let those countries decide what laws our superheroes have to follo-'

Tony rolls his eyes and switches off the TV.

Brock certainly works fast. Within forty-eight hours of Tony calling him the Accords have already become general, wide-spread knowledge.

One small piece written by Brock and every single news outlet seems to pretty much jumped on the story, everyone falling over themselves trying to establish their take on things as the main narrative.

Which means everyone, including anyone even vaguely superpowered, knows about the Accords now. And the camps, political and otherwise, are currently establishing themselves.

The UN missed their chance to get out in front of this and despite the documents being public - as they have to be as per UN charter - by the time they finally got around to making a public statement, the voices on this had already established themselves.

Of course, it's US media, so you can find whatever sort of news suits you best.

There is everything from the Accords being the government's attempt to subjugate a certain group of people – either with an 'how dare they' or an 'you'll be next' or even with an 'about time' sort of vibe – all the way to the Accords not being strict enough and just giving superhumans even more freedom who'll of course soon take over and rule the world and subjugate everyone without powers in turn.

Fear mongering on both sides, cherry-picking of facts, quotes being taken out of context, conspiracy theories running wild. The media using all tools at their disposal, everything from subtle manipulations to outright falsehoods.

It's madness.

It's also absolutely par for the course and Tony never expected this to go any other way.

Sure, he might have hoped, but well.

And then there is also the fact that depending on the country, the information is being peddled very differently.

In front of the UN headquarters, protestors from all around the world are gathering and depending on their origin they are concerned by very different aspect of the Accords.

The American press is currently debating one senator's rant about how there should be some sort of registry for anyone not normal as to 'keep an eye on them'. Which has of course gathered just as much support as it has people crying out about inhumane treatment.

Thankfully, that's only the US side of things.

Because when someone had the bright idea to bring up that particular suggestion in front of the UN Accords Panel – in the form of some sort of indicator in a person's passport – the Germans just about rioted right then and there, Austria not far behind, and quickly followed by all other European countries unequivocally, categorically refusing even considering a registry of any sort.

So far, the word 'holocaust' remains unspoken but it is very much the rather prominent elephant in the room.

Europe has also been joined by most African nations in this, even though large parts of Asia and America seem rather sympathetic to the idea itself.

Point is, people are rallying, entire nations are coming out in support or against certain parts of the Accords.

The politicians are lamenting the fallout and the struggles of how to make everyone happy, how to find compromises between nations and also sell the documents to their people, and the Accords have quickly become the main campaign topic for any elections that are going to be held in an even vaguely relevant timeframe.

He knows it won't take the press long to start badgering him for his opinion, seeing as he is one of the most easily accessible superheroes around. And his next meeting - the real meeting - with the Accords panel is in less than a week. Which is when the real fight will begin.

But for now, Tony just watches.

Because the thing all the politicians and the people and the news and everyone else deciding to add their two cents to the conversation seems to be forgetting, is the fact that they have yet to hear from the people who will actually be affected by this, that the people who fall under the UN's definition of - and let him paraphrase here because it took the UN almost three pages of legal jargon to come up with a definition at all - 'individuals with inborn or attained abilities beyond that which the human body should be capable of' have yet to speak on the issue.

So, Tony watches. And waits for the real fallout.

A/N: I am so sorry it took me so long to update! I'm not sure this chapter is up to my usual writing standard but I'm honestly still pretty stuck with this fic and this is my rather desperate attempt at trying to cure my annoyingly persistent writer's block. And if anyone has anything to suggest (whether it's an idea the plot or the characters or anything really, even if it is just a prompt or a random scene) that would be great! I just really want to get over this slump...

And I tried to find non-American Marvel heroes to work with but it got far too confusing (what with different iterations of the same superhero at different time points and them sometimes suddenly switching between good and evil or inconveniently enough dying). Hence, me coming up with a few of my own. But if anyone actually does know a superhero or two from a different country who might work in this fic, I'd love to use those instead!

Also, I have absolutely no clue how Venom ended up in this, but I hope you liked his appearance :D

And thank you all so so much for all your wonderful reviews (*^^*)