WHAT IF... THE NEW WARRIORS DEFEATED NITRO?

Epilogue

The Washington night was always punctuated by the gap tooth lightings of governmental buildings. It was where politicians and beaurocrats went to burn their midnight oil, the snarl of country politics demanding more than nine to five.

Tony Stark was among those workers, his paperwork constantly demanding his attention. Tonight, he looked over The Superhero Registration Act. In a way, it was his best creation, the start of an entire superhero structure that would revolutionize his alter ego's profession, even the world.

He tossed the paper aside in disgust. What was on his mind was the pedestrian pace of its inception, and all that he tried to do that went wrong.

His thoughts were broken up when he fet a gust from his door.

An armoured man in black and red approached him.

"Night Thrasher?" Tony Stark greeted cautiously, "You know how much trouble you will be in once security finds you?"

Night Thrasher moved silently in the room, the streetlights outside illuminating his armour until it sheened like onyx. He spoke in warning tones, could see that Tony Stark was not as moved as he would like. "No need, Mr. Stark. We need to talk. It's about Damage Control. It's about Stamford. It's about you."

Dwayne Taylor wanted to impress the effect that he knew everything about Tony Stark, and was willing to use it against him. So far it wasn't working. Night Thrasher's bluff held more posture than effect, and Stark knew it."

"Unrelated events." Tony went back to shuffling his papers. "Get out."

Night Thrasher did not move. "I would have thought so too, but the former CEO Anne Marie Hoag of Damage Control mentioned your name. My thoughts were that Declun knew about you too."

Tony Stark reposted, "I owned stake in Damage Control once. Not anymore. I have no involvement with that corporation. I heard their involvement with Stamford was exposed by Nitro's confession. You have your justice. Damage Control is out of business and everyone is caught. Why do you have to try and find more conspirators? You have found them all."

"I would have thought so to." Night Thrasher replied, "And your link to Damage Control might have been coincidence. But then I remember what Green Goblin said to me. He spat in my face and told me that was my answer. He couldn't say who ordered The Thunderbolts after us, but he did leave a hint. He bit his tongue... and some of his blood got on my costume. Therefore, I analyzed the blood and found something interesting."

He produced a manilla envelope from his trenchcoat. It showed a robotic device that looked like a small microchip. "Nanites. Cell sized robots. Stark Industry nanites. I assume they were used to control and subdue The Thunderbolts?"

Stark replied, "That looks like our technology. Its the Nanochain. It is used to control supercriminals."

"Yes, and with some samples of Green Goblin's blood, I could analyze the nanoprobes. It took weeks to figure it out, and friends that knew their way around that nightmarish encryption code it used. We could find the basic programming these nanoprobes were under. Can you guess what I found?"

"And what would that be?" Stark asked, his tone amused, humouring the vigilante.

"I found it quite a coincidence." Night Thrasher answered, "On some times, off at others, when it was consistently on during his incarceration, but flickering off at times, including for a few hours on the day of the fight at Damage Control. This is what the nanites tell me. They are flawless, they never fail en masse, but somehow for a few days they deprogrammed during clean intervals, enough for him to slip the leash. I don't see how this can fail so conveniently. Captured supervillains can't just escape so easily these days. Even The Vault escape was convenient. That tells me there is something more going on."

"And that tells me you are grasping at straws. Last warning. Get out." Stark said unflinchingly.

"It tells me that someone messed with the programming. Someone with access. Someone who wanted something to happen. Someone like you Stark."

"That's it. I'm calling security. Your paranoia has gone far enough!" Stark reached for the phone, "It is just like you to act so recklessly. You have the nerve to break into my office in the middle of the night and accuse me your wild eyed conspiracy? You have no link on me. Now stop this libel and leave before I get security."

Thrasher only smiled behind the mask. He was winning the fight, Tony could only back away or make threats. It left him feeling empowered. "Then you should watch your stocks. Stark Industry was going to make a profit on a certain day, but instead it went down. I noticed a sudden sale of your company's stocks during a certain date, and they wouldn't have sold if you hadn't preplanned it. Was something going to happen that day?"

"GET OUT!" Stark snapped.

"You know what is going on! You know why someone tried to kill my New Warriors! I just want to know what you know! TELL ME!"

"That's exactly what I fight for!" Stark threw the Superhero Registration Act at Night Thrasher. Thrash picked up the papers, looked curiously at the contents, and Tony spoke like thunder, "Decadence! Greed! Unchecked arrogance and a lack of accountability! You've just proven it by breaking into a government building and accusing me of some crimes I have no connection to. Haven't you thought how bad that makes you look? Going where you please, doing whatever you feel like, and turning your exploits into a circus! We're heroes, dammit!"

"Eh?" Night Thrasher would have raised an eyebrow if not for his mask, "You're a hero? You're still Iron Man?"

The revelation didn't trip up Stark in the slightest. He carried on, "We are heroes, and we do not answer to the public. We are just allowed to do as we please, and the authorities turn a blind eye to us. It has gone to our heads. We almost think that we can do whatever we want, and your group is the epitome of this problem. A reality TV show? How seriously do you take this job and the lives of those you protect when you exploit it on national tv?"

"We have to do what we can. It was that or bankruptcy for my organization." Night Thrasher explained, "The Taylor Foundation would have gone down otherwise. Had to do what we can. We still save lives though. What is wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with it..." Tony Stark held his hands in his head, "Is that we are still not accountable when things go wrong. When it does... the backlash will be unimaginable. People will lose trust in their heroes, and only remember how they saw themselves as untouchable. All it will take is an innocent life lost at the right time... and people would lose trust in their heroes."

Night Thrasher's eyes widened, "So that was what Stamford was about?"

"No..." Stark replied, "I didn't see that event happening, but I saw what would happen if something like that did. An inexperienced team like The New Warriors would trip a firestorm. You would have been reviled. I would have been trying to put trust in the public for our superheroes again."

Stark pointed to the Superhero Registration Act, "Read it."

Night Thrasher took the next hour to read the paper, under Tony Stark's guidance. His final assessment, "Are you nuts? Enemy combatants? Mandatory identity registration? The Initiative? This is not accountability. It is facism! Is that why we almost died? To get THIS passed through?"

"It is the only way we can marshal our resources and prepare ourselves for the next big event." Stark explained, "Can't you see that this is necessary? We don't have much time."

Night Thrasher handed the paper over to Stark. "That's the problem." Thrash argued, "The solutions you bring up take time to solve. There is no quick fix for anything, try as we might. What you're asking for to do in a year would kill our our freedoms. Our accountability will cost us the ability to work incognito. You would be putting us in danger, more danger than we already deal with. So here is what I propose we do."

Night Thrasher produced a pen out of his pocket, and procured a stack of papers from Tony Stark's desk.

"I propose we talk it over, you and I, about this registration act. I like your idea of The Initiative, but this act would make every superbeing that doesn't join you a criminal. I can't live with that. So we're going to spend all night if we have to trying to make this idea work in a way that sets my conscious right. Are you willing to give it a try, Stark?"

"Night Thrasher could never find conclusive evidence that Tony Stark tried to personally set up the Stamford Incident. The only link, Walter Declun, died in the attack, and all the evidence pointing to Stark Industries was circumstantial. Nonetheless, it was enough to delay Stark's Initiative for decades. Even when the Superhero Registration Act was voted in and The Initiative was started, the efforts of The Taylor Foundation's advocation prevented the conscription of all superhumans and mandatory registration of all superbeings."

"The Initiative was volunteer only, and while Vigilantism was pursued with vigor by the authorities, the heroes that did register were made accountable for their actions and trained professionally. None ever had to be forcefully registered or conscripted."

"We have seen what the world can become when one decision or action, one tiny variable, can change the events in a world. A world with The New Warriors became a safer one, through the trials of youth. The New Warriors helped set events where freedom and safety could be balanced, and the world was better for it."

"I am Uatu, known as The Watcher. What you have seen is just another variable... a what if..."