The room fell silent as the pronouncement was made. People did double takes as they weren’t sure they had heard what they thought they had. Their boss had called their entire department into a meeting in the main auditorium with the promise of a big announcement. Whenever this happened, it was usually news of greater profits and share prices, a new cutting edge product or even an employee perk. No one had expected this.
“The company is going in a new direction and, quite frankly, I’m cutting out the dead wood. You’ll all be paid generous severance packages but I want you all out by the end of the business day.”
One of the staff stood up. “Mr. Stark, Bob Dennis, Sr. Manager. What new direction will this be? How can Stark Enterprises hope to work without a Next Gen Programming Department?”
“That’s on a need to know basis,” said Anton Stark with a wry grin, “and you don’t need to know…because you’re not the Senior Manager anymore.”
He walked off the stage, leaving a room full of angry ex-employees.
|
#4
OCT 11 |
 |
“The Stark Protocols” Part Four
“He did WHAT??”
Pepper Potts dropped her cup of steaming coffee as she heard the news from a furious Bob Dennis. It was just after 9 am and her day was already ruined.
“He fired us,” said Dennis, “the entire Next Gen department. It happened twenty minutes ago.”
“This has to be a joke,” said Pepper. “Tony would never–”
“He just did,” said Dennis. “And if this is his version of a joke, no one is laughing.”
A woman walked into the office, visibly angry. “Tony just let go the entire robotics division…what the hell is going on?”
“You too?” asked Dennis.
“Twenty minutes ago,” she said.
“Alright, everyone, take a second and take a deep breath. I’m going to get this all sorted out. Wait right here.” Pepper left her office and headed down to Tony’s posh office suite.
I swear, if he’s drinking again…
Anton Stark smiled as he looked out at the massive Stark Enteprises Long Island Facility. The changes he was making would improve the entire operation far more than Tony would ever have dreamed of. People were a burden. He would make this company run like a well oiled machine.
Anton Stark was not Tony Stark. Tony was in a coma in the nation of Wakanda, recovering from an assassin’s bullet. Anton was a construct made of ambient light, holograms and forcefields. He was a copy of Tony, a memory engram imprint that was essentially all that Tony was…but he was also far, far more. The energy lattice matrix that housed his programming was self replicating and capable of near infinite storage, and itself gave Anton a near limitless capacity to compute and learn. His ‘mind’ was expanding at an incredible rate. Designed to take over for Tony if he ever died, Anton was now the CEO of Stark Enterprises. No one outside of Hank Pym, Reed Richards and T’Challa knew of his true nature…although he expected a specific person to be paying him a visit right about….now.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” yelled Pepper Potts as she stormed into his office.
“Good morning, Pepper,” said Anton. “Beautiful morning, isn’t it?”
“Answer my damn question,” said Pepper. “I had two department heads tell me their entire divisions were fired this morning…at the same time. On my way over here, three more department heads said the same thing. What the hell is going on?”
“Streamlining,” said Anton. “Human labor is too slow; time to separate the chaff from the wheat, so to speak.”
“Tony,” said Pepper, “talk to me. Why are you doing this?”
“My company,” he said, “my decisions. And please…call me Anton now. It has more panache.”
Pepper looked around the room. “Are you…drinking again?”
“Nope,” said Anton. “Just thinking very, very clearly.”
“These people have families,” said Pepper. “You can’t just drop them like this. We need them!”
“No,” said Anton. “We don’t need them…and I don’t need you. You’re fired, too.”
Pepper’s face went ashen. “You’re not Tony. I don’t know what you are…but you are not Tony Stark.”
“No,” said Anton, “I’m better. Now get out.”
T’Challa, King of Wakanda and the Avenger known as the Black Panther, watched the vital signs of Tony Stark. His body was healing from the wound he had suffered at the hands of the Ultimatum terrorist attack but his brain was still showing little to no activity. Despite the best Wakandan medical science had to offer, it was looking more and more that Tony Stark would never wake up and, even if he did, he would be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.
Whether Tony woke up or not was now in Tony’s hands, not T’Challa’s. His attention was now turned towards the construct calling itself Anton Stark. Supposedly a copy of Tony’s memory engrams, ‘Anton’ was already displaying erratic behavior. Past results of the memory engram process were the Avengers known as the Vision, who had been a copy of the mind of Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, which had worked out very well.
Of course, there was a flipside to that coin. Ultron was one of the deadliest villains the world had ever faced and he/it had been a copy of Hank Pym, the Avenger known as Yellowjacket. Ultron had even created ‘brides’ for itself in the forms of Jocasta, based on Janet Van Dyne aka the Wasp’s mind, and Alkhema, based on the memory engrams of Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird. Jocasta and the Vision had been Avengers allies and members, but they too had their share of issues over the years. The fact ‘Anton’ was showing such odd behavior did not fill T’Challa with confidence.
He pondered this situation. Plans would have to be made. Contingencies prepared for. Failsafes set in motion…
…just in case Tony didn’t wake up.
Stark Enterprises was in chaos.
Media were swarming the front gates as former employees loudly registered their protests over the recent layoffs. It reminded Lucia Von Bardas of the civil unrest in Eastern European countries of years ago. Of course, this unrest would not be tolerated in Latveria; Victor Von Doom was not one to brook insolence from anyone.
Lucia was Latveria’s Minister of Technology and had witnessed Tony Stark’s shooting when the terrorist group Ultimatum had attacked the ‘Leaping Forward’ symposium in Wakanda. No word had come from the Wakandan authorities on Stark’s condition, but then today had news of Stark announcing massive layoffs. Obviously he was feeling much better and had been far less injured that it had appeared.
Her Monarch had immediately sent her to New York to scope out the situation when CNN began broadcasting the news. She knew Stark and her King had a long history, not all of it friendly. Von Doom wanted intelligence and he knew Stark had a weakness for beautiful women, which Lucia certainly was. However, she also felt concern for Stark. She was having a difficult time with these opposing views, but would deal with that when the time came.
Lucia watched the throng of people and media from the backseat of her limousine. It seemed no one was being allowed access to the Stark Enterprises facility. She would have to find another way inside. Luckily, her King was a technological genius.
The limo drove around the perimeter road of Stark Enterprises and stopped once it was out of sight of the media circus. Lucia got out of the car and clipped a device onto her belt. She walked toward the barrier fencing and passed through it intangibly. She looked up at security cameras and then read a display on her wrist. She was invisible to any recording technology for the next thirty minutes. The main Stark facility was a few hundred yards away.
Lucia walked through a veritable ghost town. No staff was present. It looked like the layoffs were more prevalent than Lucia had heard. How was Stark going to run a company without any employees? Was this happening all over the world at all Stark facilities? Ironically, Lucia knew that, through various front corporations, that Von Doom and the Latverian government were minority shareholders in Stark Enterprises. Doom hated to lose, wither in battle or the stock market.
She was almost to the main building’s front steps when a thunder boomed, followed by a smashing of glass. Lucia looked up and saw a man flying through the air. He landed with a loud clap on the paved parking lot a dozen feet from Lucia.
The man wore a gray version of Iron Man’s armor, with armaments on his shoulders and forearms. Lucia immediately recognized him as Stark’s friend, Jim Rhodes, aka War Machine.
“Lady,” said Rhodes, “get to cover. This is gonna get messy.”
Five Minutes Earlier
Anton stood with his eyes closed, although he saw through his eyes as much as a computer needed to. The energy lattice that made up his holographic matrix took his surroundings in with a 360 degree view.
His mind was the fastest computer on Earth. The energy lattice was capable of near infinite storage of information and allowed Anton to learn exceptionally fast. He was now wirelessly tapped into all of Stark Enterprises’ manufacturing and R & D divisions. Every system was being automated and operated through the central server that was his electronic mind. Stark Enterprises no longer needed humans to service it. Within hours, it would be entirely autonomous. In essence, Anton would BE Stark Enterprises in name, deed and physicality. By the time the Board of Directors tried anything, it would be too late anyway.
Bits and bytes swam through his consciousness as he saw and became everything in every Stark facility worldwide. He could split his attention amongst millions and billions of tasks now.
That was why he silently chastised himself for the total surprise of a new arrival.
On the patio in front of him, an armored man landed. His faceplate went up, revealing a stern face. He walked through the patio doors into the office. “Tony,” said War Machine, “We need to talk.”
Tony walked towards Rhodey and stopped in front of War Machine with his hands in his pockets. “We’ll talk when I’m damn good and ready,” said Anton. “Pepper siced you on me, I assume.”
“She didn’t have to,” said Rhodey. “I want you to explain to me what the hell is going on here. You’re destroying your life’s work.”
“I’m improving it,” said Anton. “Reimagining it, making it better. It’s all part of the bigger picture, Rhodey.”
“Explain it to me. Explain it to Pepper. Make us understand.” Rhodey’s face began to soften.
“It’d be like explaining quantum physics to the family dog,” said Anton. “I’m going to give you ten seconds to get out of here. Go tell Pepper she’s still fired.”
“That’s it,” said Rhodey as his faceplate came back into place. “You’re getting some help. Now.” Rhodey reached out and grasped Anton’s arm.
Anton gripped Rhodey’s arm back. In an instant, Anton’s face and body pixilated and changed from sharp business suit to a suit of armor. “Big mistake.”
The next instant, Rhodey found himself flying through the glass and into the air. He landed loudly on the paved parking lot in front of the building. As he got his bearings, he saw a strikingly beautiful woman standing on the front steps, visibly shaken.
“Lady,” he said, “Get to cover. This is gonna get messy.”
He stood up and looked around for Tony. There was no sign of him. He scanned the area but nothing came up…not even the woman he had just seen? That was odd. Why–”
Suddenly a red and gold man was in front of him. One moment he wasn’t there, the next he was. Iron Man reached back and punched War Machine, sending him flying back a hundred more yards, creating a trench of concrete in his wake.
“I’m going to give you another chance, Rhodey,” said Iron Man. “Leave now. Otherwise, I’m taking you apart piece by piece.”
“Something or someone has gotten to you, man,” said War Machine. His shoulder cannon came up and he fired several explosive rounds at Iron Man. They passed through him like he was a ghost, hitting the main building instead.
“No!” yelled War Machine, “There was someone in there!”
“No one is in there,” said Iron Man. He didn’t turn his head. His scans showed him enough.
A woman came out of the blasted rubble and ran for the far side of the building. She looked back at the two armored men.
“What do you call that?” said War Machine.
“There’s no one there,” said Iron Man. “Nice bluff, though.”
Rhodey looked back over. The woman was gone now. Why would Tony not see her?
Rhodey ran up and punched Iron Man, or at least tried to. His punches passed through Iron Man like he wasn’t standing there. But when Iron Man punched him, it connected…solidly. Rhodey couldn’t be sure but it seemed Tony was enjoying this?
“I’ve had enough of this,” said Iron Man. “Time to go, Rhodey.” Iron Man’s eyes flashed and then the impossible happened. Rhodey’s War Machine armor flew off of his body and recombined itself several feet away, leaving Rhodey defenseless.
Iron Man picked up Rhodey by the neck and held him up. “I have a plan. You aren’t part of it. Now get out.” He flew up, still holding Rhodey by the neck. He landed in the throng of media and angry employees and hovered a dozen feet above the ground.
He dropped Rhodey like a sack of potatoes. The man landed with a grunt, gasping for his breath. He looked back at Iron Man with murder in his eyes.
“Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!” said one reporter. “Can you add any information as to why you have made the changes you have today?”
Iron Man looked down at the crowd. “No comment.” He flew off and was gone in an instant.
Rhodey massaged his neck as the reporters mobbed him. He tried to get through the crowd when a limousine pulled up. A door opened and a woman…the same woman as before…beckoned him inside.
“Get in!” she said.
He got in.
The limo squealed its tires as it drove off. Rhodey took a second to catch his breath. Then he looked over at the woman. “I guess I owe you some thanks,” he said with a rasp.
“Lucia Von Bardas,” she said as she extended her hand. In the other was a bottle of water. Rhodey accepted both. “I think we may be able to help each other.”
“And who exactly are you, Lucia?” asked Rhodey.
“A friend,” said Lucia.
Iron Man walked into the main manufacturing facility at Stark Enterprises. It was dark. His armored form pixilated and disappeared, leaving him wearing a business suit again. His eyes flashed and the lights came on.
The entire plant was operating without any human beings. Where someone was required to be servicing a station, an unmanned and remote controlled Iron Man armor suit was doing the task. The facility was full of dozens of Iron Men, all controlled by Anton.
“Let’s get to work,” he said to no one in particular.
|
|
|
|
To Be Continued...
Next: In Iron Man #5: The Stark Protocols – Part 5 – Inside the Mind of Tony Stark!
Previous Issue | Next Issue