The night sky above Stark Industries was ripped open by the roar of metal. Iron Monger—Obadiah Stane, encased in his massive, weaponized suit—crashed through the rooftop, hunting Tony Stark. Tony, battered and running low on power, darted between the shadows, his red-and-gold armor dented and sparking.
Stane's voice boomed through his suit's speakers. "You really think you can stop me with that toy, Tony?" He fired a barrage of missiles. Tony's HUD(Heads-up Display) flickered—his suit was running on emergency reserves.
Tony gritted his teeth and fired his repulsors, weaving between Iron Monger's attacks. "Sometimes the best weapon is the one you never see coming," he muttered, dodging a massive metal fist that cratered the concrete.
Iron Monger grabbed a car and hurled it at Tony. Spotting people inside, Tony boosted forward and caught the car mid-air, straining against the weight. With a powerful push from his thrusters, he gently set it down to the side, out of harm's way. He turned back to face Stane, trying to retaliate with his own weapon systems—but his suit's power was almost gone. His repulsor blasts were weak, barely denting Stane's armor.
Stane advanced relentlessly, using his superior strength to pin Tony. "You built this in a cave! And now I'm going to bury you in it!" he snarled, squeezing Tony's suit, servos whining under the pressure.
Desperate, Tony activated his flares, blinding Stane for a moment and slipping free. He staggered toward the edge of the rooftop, calling into his comms: "Pepper, overload the arc reactor! Blow the roof!"
"Me? How am I supposed to do that?"
"Go to the central console and open up all the circuits. When I get clear of the roof, I'll let you know."
Inside the building, Pepper Potts hesitated, then began opening all the circuits and turning the knobs on the controls. The massive arc reactor deep below began to overload, energy surging through the facility.
On the rooftop, Iron Monger lunged at Tony, who was hanging from the edge. "You lose, Stark!" Stane shouted, raising his other fist for a killing blow—but missed due to a broken targeting system.
"Pepper! Time to hit the button!" Tony yelled.
"But you'll die!"
"Push it!"
Hearing Tony, Pepper pressed the emergency bypass button. Energy surged through the massive reactor, and the rooftop exploded in a blinding column of blue-white light reaching into the sky, engulfing both suits.
Iron Monger's armor short-circuited, the energy frying his systems. He screamed as his suit collapsed, crashing through the shattered glass and into the reactor's core below.
Tony was blasted backward, tumbling across the ruined rooftop. His suit sparked and smoked, the power completely drained. He tried to rise, but his strength failed him. The HUD faded to black.
Breathing heavily, Tony collapsed—battered and unmoving—as dawn began to break over the devastated Stark Industries building.
On the top of a building
Inside the duffle bag, nestled among layers of black velvet, something glittered with a cold, sharp brilliance. Evan's eyes widened as the city's distant lights caught the contents, scattering reflections across his mask. Diamonds. Dozens-maybe hundreds-of them, each one cut to perfection, each one worth a fortune.
He stared, almost unable to process it. For a moment, the world seemed to narrow to the icy gleam of the stones. The bag was heavy with wealth, the kind that could change a life-or destroy one. But as he stared at the diamonds, they felt meaningless. Just rocks.
Then, suddenly, the night was torn open by a blinding flash.
A pillar of blue-white light erupted from the heart of the city, piercing the darkness and reaching into the clouds. For a second, it was as if day had come early-a silent, electric dawn that painted the skyline in ghostly hues. Evan's breath caught. He rose to his feet, the diamonds momentarily forgotten, and stared as the beam pulsed, then faded, leaving an afterimage burned into his vision.
"What in the…?" he whispered, heart pounding. The light had come from the direction of Stark Industries. The system's quest echoed in his mind: Infiltrate Stark Industries. Retrieve the Arc Reactor. Was this connected? Had something gone wrong-or was this his only chance?
Driven by a mix of fear and hope, Evan leapt from the rooftop, moving faster than ever. The city below was alive with sirens and shouts, but he barely noticed. He raced toward the source of the explosion, every muscle tense, every sense sharpened by adrenaline and desperation.
Evan landed silently atop a nearby building, his eyes wide with disbelief. The rooftop was scorched, debris scattered everywhere.
In the center of the chaos, he spotted the battered remains of Iron Monger's suit, half-melted and sparking, lying motionless in the wreckage. Not far away, the unmistakable red-and-gold armor of Iron Man lay crumpled, Tony Stark unmoving inside, his suit dark and lifeless.
A strange emotion twisted in Evan's chest-shock, awe, and, unexpectedly, hope. The system's warning still pulsed at the edge of his vision, but now, for the first time, he felt a spark of possibility.
The arc reactor-the very thing he needed to stabilize his mutation-had been at the center of this catastrophe. With Iron Man down, security would be in chaos. If he moved quickly, he might have a chance.
His heart pounded. The most direct path was clear: Tony Stark was unconscious and helpless. If Evan moved quickly, he could pry the arc reactor from Tony's chest or steal the backup reactor from the lab before anyone noticed.
The thought made his hands tremble. He imagined himself crouched over Stark, tearing away the very thing that kept the hero alive. He pictured the headlines, the inevitable manhunt. He wouldn't just be a thief-he'd be the enemy of Iron Man, and by extension, every Avenger and hero in the Marvel universe.
One act of desperation would turn the world's greatest champions against him.
Evan hesitated, a cold sweat breaking out along his spine. Was his own survival worth becoming the villain in someone else's story? A relentless countdown to oblivion, but his conscience screamed just as loudly.
Then, in a flash, a memory surfaced-Iron Monger. Obadiah Stane. During the chaos, Stane had stolen the Second generation arc reactor from Tony by temporarily paralysing him. Stane had used it to power the massive Iron Monger suit. Evan's eyes widened. That reactor wasn't in Tony's hands-it was somewhere in the rubble, discarded after the final battle. It was the same technology, the same limitless energy. And it didn't belong to Tony anymore.
A surge of hope cut through Evan's anxiety. He didn't have to betray a hero or make himself a target for every Avenger. If he could find the arc reactor-the one Stane had ripped from Stark's lab-he might be able to complete his quest and stabilize his mutation without crossing a line he could never uncross.
Determination hardened his features. He scanned the ruins, searching for any sign of the Iron Monger's shattered armor.
Somewhere nearby, amid the twisted metal and broken glass, the arc reactor waited. And this time, Evan would take it-not as a thief, but as someone fighting for his own survival, without dooming himself to be hunted by the world's greatest heroes.
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