Capítulo 1731: 7
A Brief History of Stark Industries' Legal department.
Notes:
What it says on the tin. Still consolidating the power base, so here, have some more legal drama. [This is happening the same time as last chapter, plot-wise.]
No warnings apply here, beyond the usual. Some...minor miscommunication regarding world domination, but really, anyone would've made that mistake. [Honest.]
Also, author's attempt at corporate and legal jargon, hopefully nothing got butchered too badly.
Only edit for now: title changed because this is an interlude.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The Stark Industries' Legal department worked with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine. They, like the rest of the company, only ever strove for excellence, and at present had a budding rivalry with R&D for which department was the most feared in the industry. [And another one with Accounting, but then again the latter division held the record for most alcohol consumed in one sitting. Though with recent events, who knows anymore?]
Their experience was not to be underestimated; even prior to Afghanistan, Tony Stark's actions and innovations had always meant they'd been working, dealing with futile lawsuits trying to besmirch the company's name and laughing at how blatantly desperate they'd been in trying to challenge 'the Da Vinci of our time' at his game. The man'd built a circuit board at age four, did anyone really think he'd stolen those designs? Pepper Potts was a miracle worker, and less than three months into her employ had a fan club forming, as well as the makings of a small cult because if she wasn't a saint, then nobody was sure what she was. [Tony Stark included.]
After Afghanistan, it was a new ballgame, sure, but nothing the Legal department couldn't handle.
The then-CEO and his PA were legendary at that point in the industry, so it was no surprise they'd come up with and implemented a viable plan in the span of a week, for all the man had thrown everyone for a loop at the press conference. [Several of the new hires cried, when they'd watched it; it took the older guard, the ones who'd been on the payroll for years, to calm them down, and teach them about the Actual Goddess Pepper Potts.] The Iron Man reveal, so soon after Afghanistan, meant everyone merely took a shot, rolled up their sleeves, and set to work. It was tough, sure, but manageable.
And when the phrases 'privatized world peace' and 'peace in our day' started getting thrown around, the entire Stark Industries' Legal department took to smugly leaning back and watching the media handle it. Those contracts had been a work of art, if they could say so themselves. The international community, meanwhile, was starting to get a feel for them, and word of their competence and versatility gradually started to get out. [Good, they needed to catch up to R&D somehow.]
And from then on, the only way the department really went was up.
SI Legal was already infamous in regards to patent law, and the corporate industry, but thanks to Stark's constant innovations and his most recent project, now their names were being put in textbooks and required readings for having revolutionized the political atmosphere. The time he'd casually called up to inquire about creating a new element wasn't something to be overlooked, either. And the department had made a new drinking game after Stark's Congressional hearing, because the man had made an art of bullshitting and did nobody else really notice him blithely hacking multiple governments' servers?
Years passed, and with Potts at the helm, sometimes it felt like they'd nearly reached optimal efficiency. So, of course, Murphy's Law struck with a vengeance.
The New York invasion was accompanied by a mad scramble and multiple small crises of faith and half the department trying to redefine the legal definition of 'act of god' for the insurance claims, while the other half got on board with keeping the then-General Ross away from one of the heroes of the hour. Overall, they collectively bullshitted like [almost] never before in their quest to have everyone remotely affiliated with the Stark name coming out smelling like roses.
The December "is Tony Stark alive or dead?" scare didn't reach Stark Industries in general; most of the company had been desensitized by the time the New York invasion was over, and those who remembered Afghanistan had already made a drinking game of it. [Sure, there was some concern, but unless they had a body with DNA evidence proving it was him, Legal refused to give a crap anymore, not after having seen him fly a nuke into outer space, live on TV.]
Though everyone would readily admit that they'd been thrown for a loop when his involvement with the rescue of the President, AIM was the more immediate concern. Specifically, the fact that they existed, after what had been done to Pepper Potts, CEO. [Everyone's favorite, the role model for just about everyone with her hyper competence and status as an uncofirmed living saint, who had been tortured for kicks. Heads would roll.] SI Legal would be the first to admit that maybe they didn't need to be so vindictive, not when Tony 'shot by my own guns' Stark was on the case, but really, anyone who hurt a hair on her head clearly deserved to die.
So while Ms. Potts was recovering from the mess, they set to work, and Stark reminded everyone in the department that even when at his lowest, there was a reason he'd once been referred to as the Merchant of Death. And that, for all his philanthropy and heroism nowadays, he was still very much capable of wrath and hellfire should anyone he care about come to harm. [Really, between the two of them, AIM didn't stand a chance.]
By the time the London invasion had occurred, SI Legal merely rolled their eyes while everyone else scrambled like headless chickens. Using the precedents from last time, and Stark's newest pet project [which had merited several concerned glances when they'd first heard of it], they made for a very effective team when cleanup rolled around. The addition of a new department in Stark Industries sounded like barely an afterthought, then.
…Even if the proposed "Security" division was mostly for Stark's budding robot army. Because, for all the man looked so earnest and his ideas had merit, there was absolutely no way the business-savvy genius wasn't aware of the implications of his little plan. He was amassing a robot army, and he was going to pull it off.
Well…if the boss wanted one, not their division. [Kinda weird, but then again Stark regularly flew around in a marvel of engineering, so whatever.] And so they set to work, getting the contracts ready, gearing up for negotiations, and making jokes about world domination whenever they were waiting for the coffeemaker to finish. [Well— more jokes than the usual, since some had always been flying around ever since the man's pet AI had been installed into the building.]
SHIELD's fall, however, marked yet another change. And at this rate, it was rivaled only by Afghanistan, and was shaping up to overshadow it soon.
SI's Legal department had been alerted about the intel breach by Stark's AI [who they suspected was a lot more advanced than he let on, but if Stark wanted to pretend JARVIS was merely a souped-up version of Siri, not their division], as well as his efforts to save those caught up in the mess, and the likelihood of the mess affecting Stark Industries because of Howard.
They had plenty of practice with international law at this point, sure, but this was something else. The existence of a Nazi organization in this day and age sounded like something ripped directly from a pulp novel, for one. The sheer ignorance displayed in the uploading the entirety of an intelligence agency's servers to the internet meant there were multiple screams of frustration heard in Legal, while Stark's budding robot army was apparently at work rescuing the burned agents, and the man himself was working on data integrity at the moment.
Well then.
Good thing SI Legal had practice with AIM's train wreck of an organization, and that Stark had started to make some contingency plans [for all that a robot army could be considered one, anyway], because this seemed to be shaping up to a disaster of the highest order. And they were kept updated on the situation, with the growing list of agents in hiding and the families' being apparently safeguarded by both digital and physical means [nobody asked who was doing the guarding, Stark's robots could be a menace]. The workload only got bigger over time, too. [Great.]
The stress of the situation only made the realization hilarious—that Legal's jokes of world domination were nowhere near as off the mark as they'd thought. All right then, they could do that too: if they could pull off the bureaucracy behind 'peace in our day', then they could do it for whenever Stark decided to take over the world. At this point, it'd probably be easier than not, especially with everything else they've managed to pull off.
It was still more than a bit surprising, though, when they did it, the 'defend an entire division from the entirety of the United States' legal system' thing.
Intellectually, the entire Legal department knew what they were capable of, knew they were some of the best in their field and surrounded by more of the same, but still. Oh, sure, they weren't remotely near done yet, but they knew the way the wind was blowing, and between that, and the combined might of Potts and Stark both near the top of their game, and really, Legal could see the writing on the wall.
…Now if only the idiots who'd instigated the mess could claim even a fraction of that. As it stood, the entirety of Stark Industries now had a grudge against Captain America, and there was still bad blood when it came to the case of Natasha Romanov. SI as a whole did not appreciate corporate espionage, and what she did was close enough; Legal was the first to get a grudge going, quickly followed by HR because of the paperwork, and the list was still growing.
Rogers and Romanov had caused enough trouble, and the former wasn't even present for his case while the latter had all the arrogance of pre-Afghanistan Stark but the inability to back it up. Wilson's case was a walk in the park, in comparison to the dynamic duo. [At least he didn't have to worry about charges of espionage.] SI Legal still stepped in when necessary to prevent Stark from being implicated by their foolhardiness because Howard's legacy was a bitch to contend with like that, of course, but the lawyers' enthusiasm varied. The volunteer for Rogers' case regretted it within the hour, and nobody did anything but the bare minimum for the former spy for as long as they could get away with it. Former PJ Wilson, however, got to see what happened when a seasoned Stark Industries lawyer had even a ghost of an argument. [Hint: the opposition didn't win.]
Maria Hill was a very impressed by Stark Industries, and its owner. She'd respected the man for years, and had seen firsthand just how he could get when the going got tough [thermonuclear astrophysics overnight, impressive], but these past few months had showcased just how much of a force of nature he was. Well— Stark, his CEO, and his Legal department, at any rate. Though the rest of his company wasn't much different, if the towering piles of paperwork in HR she'd glimpsed were any indicator.
She'd been recruited within 36 hours of SHIELD's fall, and Maria's unique situation in regards to job history meant she'd been helping coordinate several parts of the changeover, and helping out Ms. Potts contend with international law on a scale she'd never encountered before [and hoped to never do again].
While Stark was apparently making history in his handling of the national fallout of the intel breach, she helped coordinate the multi-step extractions and deal with embassies as they sorted it out. From what she could overhear of Legal, they were nursing a grudge against the Avengers at the moment, and the whispers she could pick up about the Security division raised more questions than it answered, though she was very grateful that Stark had managed to do as much as he had.
And as time passed and the dust settled, Maria found that, for all of SHIELD's threat analyses and prevarication, they'd really underestimated Tony Stark. She wasn't sure if it was just this unusual situation, or what, but the efficiency and level of coordination shown in his rescue operation was on another level. And that his AI was probably closer to passing the Turing Test than anyone expected, if her dealings with it when coordinating extractions was any indicator.
Well, no matter— Stark was firmly an ally, a good man, and doing his best to make the world a better, safer place. And really, that's what SHIELD had been intended to do, right? So when she signed the contracts for her continual employment as a Stark Industries employee, it was without regret and without hesitation.
The caseload of the fall of SHIELD was finally receding, and Legal was very proud of it and the reputation they were now cultivating in the eyes of both the national and international communities. [One-upping R&D was always a bonus.]
And then.
Stark's pet AI alerted Legal about the whispers of some accords of some sort, and something about the international community and their anxiety concerning the newly-untethered Avengers. That alone got their attention— after all, Iron Man was an icon, and these possible accords might infringe on his contracts, the ones about 'peace in our day'. And, as they looked over the debrief, saw the mentions of concerns about responsibility, and noticed the notes about 'planetary protection', everyone in the office looked at each other, and smiled.
Well.
This was new. World domination suddenly didn't seem that far off, anymore. At this point, they might even consider it a challenge. And if it ticked off that Ross guy sniffing around, all the better. Yes, this would do nicely.
Notes:
The gradual escalation of situations their boss gets into means that SI Legal's been leveling up alongside him, which has and will come in handy. However, it also means their perception of what is normal isn't exactly the...sanest, and really, after having dealt with multiple alien invasions, the prospect of world domination doesn't seem that very far a stretch.
The minor miscommunication you've seen here will gradually spread out throughout the company, and since everyone's diehard loyal and they've got the resources for it, and, well...oops? [An accidental perfect storm of sorts, if you will.] They had too much faith in their boss— Tony's so fixated on stepping up the planet's game, he forgot some of the implications his actions have, and the Iron Legion's just one of them. [It's a 'glass half empty/glass half full' situation, except with a robot army, really.]
The Accords, here, were conceptualized after the world saw four people singlehandedly take down an entire intelligence organization and, for the most part, get away with it. [Tony didn't really deny it, because the alternative would've had people asking uncomfortable questions about JARVIS.] So, everyone's a bit nervous, because even though HYDRA's a good excuse for part of it, the fact that they actually burned an entire organization has repercussions, and Tony's endeavor to protect his people means he inadvertently made the whole thing look a lot better than it actually was, as if Steve and Natasha had an actual plan beyond 'dump everything online and hope for the best'.
....and the Age of Ultron arc's fighting me, tooth and nail. On the plus side, it's gone shamelessly AU and I have most of the major plot points of the movie mapped out, it's just that there's one hell of a timeskip, and apparently the Avengers were very, very busy during said timeskip. So, to try to compensate for it, I'm gradually easing into the arc to keep things from being too rushed.
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