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#1
JUL 09 |
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“Foreshadow”
(*Note: This story takes place before Marvel Anthology’s Iron Man #1 - Iron Mike)
“I’d like to thank you all for meeting me at such short notice,” Tony Stark’s face smiled as his image was broadcast on a holographic display in the center of the Stark Enterprises Boardroom in California. The company Board of Directors, many of them joining the meeting remotely themselves, all stopped their individual conversations and shifted their focus to the display of the CEO and majority shareholder.
“Tony,” said Sir Richard Branson from his telepresence connection in Europe, “you call, we all listen, that goes without saying. But...I’ve heard some rumors of late. I wonder if this impromptu meeting isn’t going to address those rumors.” The video feed of Branson frowned slightly.
“I’ve heard the same rumors,” said former US President Bill Clinton, sitting in the Boardroom in person. “But I think we owe it to Tony to listen to him before we railroad the purpose of this meeting.” Many of the other Board members nodded and agreed with the former world leader.
“Thanks, Bill,” said Tony. “The reason for this meeting is to announce several things. First off, yes, the rumors are true. As of midnight last night, an employment contract was accepted by our new Executive Vice President of Operations for Stark Enterprises.” Stark paused. “Janine Hammer.”
The room was full of murmurs. Clinton and Branson nodded to confirm what they had heard.
“The niece of Justin Hammer is not something the Board can take lightly, Tony,” said David Martin, son of Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada and owner of a vast shipping empire. “Any connection to Hammer Industries casts a shadow on Stark Enterprises.”
“Be that as it may,” said Tony, “I’ve made my decision. Please trust me when I say I have done my homework on this. Janine can be trusted. In this case, the apple has not only fallen very far from the tree, but it has landed several orchards down the road.”
“What is the other reason for this meeting?” asked Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs. “I assume hiring announcements, while dramatic, are not the main reason for this call.”
“Yes,” said Ken Kutaragi, former CEO of Sony Entertainment, “Please continue.”
“The main reason for this meeting,” said Tony, “is to announce that I will be working on a new technology sharing agreement with the Government of Wakanda.” He paused to let everyone consider this. “His Highness, King T’Challa, and I will be meeting in a few days at the ‘Leaping Forward’ Technology Symposium to hammer out the details, but we have a gentleman’s handshake agreement on it. Stark Enterprises will be the sole beneficiary of proprietary Wakandan technology that until now has been exclusively for the use of the Wakandan Government. I could have left this until next week’s scheduled Board Meeting...but I couldn’t wait.” Tony smiled and winked. “Expect your stock to triple in value by the end of the month. Just a heads up.”
Tony’s face turned away from the camera view as if he were looking at a distant object. “You’ll have to excuse me now, ladies and gentlemen. I have another appointment I am just arriving for. Good day.” The connection ended and Tony’s face disappeared.
Pepper Potts, Stark’s Executive Assistant, stepped into the Boardroom. “Everyone, for those who can stay, we have refreshments in the adjoining room.”
“What’s Tony up to, Pepper?” asked Branson on the line.
“Shareholder value, Richard,” smiled Pepper. “Shareholder value.”
The line disconnected, Tony now turned his attention to his landing. He had flown the Iron Man armor from California to Virginia direct for this next meeting. Normally a Board Meeting was not something he wanted to handle long distance like he just had, but when the people he was about to meet with called, you listened.
“This is Iron Man requesting permission to land, Avengers Priority Clearance ST01,” said Tony over the airwaves. An instant later he had a response.
“This is Pentagon Command. Iron Man, you are cleared for landing. Please proceed to the north entrance where an escort will be waiting for you.”
“Confirmed, Pentagon Command. Iron Man out.” He circled over the five-sided building, the largest in America, and landed as instructed. Almost as soon as he touched down he was met my military men adorned in medals.
“Mr. Stark,” said the oldest and presumably one in charge, “I am General Markson. Thank you for coming so quickly.”
Iron Man’s faceplate flipped up, revealing his neatly trimmed goatee. He reached out and shook the General’s hand. “Not a problem, sir. Anything I can do to help.”
“Follow me, then,” said Markson. They walked into the Pentagon and after several minutes entered a secure elevator. The only sound was the soft clanging of Tony’s armor on the tile floor. The elevator activated from a swipe card held by the General and the car began dropping.
After several more minutes, Tony turned to the General. “When my company made munitions, I don’t think I ever went this far down in here.”
“Few people have, Mr. Stark,” said Markson. “You’ll see why shortly.”
The elevator opened and Stark and the others stepped out. He was shocked when he saw a familiar face waiting for him. “Bethany? Bethany Cabe!”
“Hello Tony,” said Stark’s friend and former lover. She smiled, which brought back many memories for Stark from years gone by. “It’s good to see you.”
“Ms. Cabe is here in an advisory capacity,” said Markson. “Ultimately it was her suggestion to bring you directly in on this.”
“What is ‘this’?” asked Tony. He looked at his friend. “Beth? What’s going on? What happened?”
“It’s best to show you, Tony,” said Bethany. “May I, General?”
“Please,” said Markson. “Lead the way.”
They walked into a large room with a curtain drawn back to cover something from sight. Tony looked back and forth from Bethany and Markson.
“Three days ago,” said Bethany, “a United States Deep Sea Sub was running maneuvers in the Marianas Trench, near Guam. They detected something...odd...in the waters there during those maneuvers.”
“Odd?” asked Tony. “What did they find?”
“That’s just it,” said Bethany. “They didn’t find a what...we think we found a ‘who’.” She pulled the curtain back to reveal what she meant.
“What in the hell...” Tony was speechless for several moments. Before him, suspended in midair within a magnetic harness, was a humanoid clad in advanced armor. The design was very reminiscent of Tony’s Iron Man design...enough that he could see why he had been called here.
“Look familiar?” asked Bethany.
“It does,” said Tony, “but it’s nothing I’ve designed. It looks...very advanced.”
He flipped his faceplate down in place. Diagnostic menu options were beamed directly into his retinas. “Scans are weird...Magnetic resonance, thermal imaging, spectrographic...this is like nothing I’ve ever encountered before. It almost seems made of pure energy and not any metallic material?” A display in Tony’s helmet view gave off a positive reading. “I am getting one answer, though.” He turned to the others. “My chronal scans are showing a high tachyon particle proliferation.”
“Chronal...this thing traveled through time?” asked Bethany.
“Either that or it was very close to something that did,” said Tony. “But not recently. The scans are miniscule and show degradation. Whenever this arrived from its native time period, it was some time ago.”
“The coral formations around it were verified as several hundred years old,” said Markson. “They were covering it.”
“If anyone is inside it, they’d be long dead,” said Bethany.
“Not necessarily,” said Tony. He walked up to the floating armor suit. “I can’t detect any human signs in the suit, but since it defies most of my scans, there could be someone there...possibly in a form of hypersleep. Or dead, maybe.” He reached out and touched the suit. “Amazi--”
The armor came to life, energy crackling around it as it moved. The head turned to face Tony and tilted its face as if in puzzlement. “ZZZZZZwenty oneZZZZZZeraZZZZogersZZZZZZZZZstop hiZZZZZZZZZZ”
“It’s not making any sense,” said Bethany.
The armor looked up and activated its propulsion systems. An instant later, it was rocketing through the subbasements of the Pentagon.
“Tony!” said Bethany.
“Stark!” said Markson.
“I’m on it,” said Tony as he flipped his faceplate down and flew up, following the strange armor’s path. He flew up floor after floor, structures built to withstand amazing stresses punched through by the mysterious armor. In seconds, Tony was out of the Pentagon and soaring over Arlington. He scanned the area, visualizing the area with his dataspine technology linking with his brain. In seconds he found a trail he could follow.
The trail was a detectable stream of ionic energy. “What the hell are you made of?” asked Tony as he took off after his quarry.
He kicked in the afterburners to accelerate, breaking the sound barrier as he did so. His speed was as fast as he had ever done in Earth’s atmosphere and he could now see a sign of the escaped armor. His scans confirmed what the trail had told him: its propulsion was ionic, but there was also a reading of unknown energies at work as well. If this armor was from the future, there was so much he could learn from it but, most importantly, he needed to know how it got here and why.
He began closing in on the armor. It turned to look back and instantly stopped. Tony shot past it and course corrected, heading back. The armor hadn’t moved, but simply floated in the spot where it had stopped. He slowed as he came closer, not wanting to appear threatening. He kept his scans passive.
“Can you understand me? Where did you come from? Who are you?” asked Tony.
“ZZZZZZZwenty oneZZZZZZZeraZZZZZZZZogersZZZZZstop hiZZZZZZZ” said the armor.
“You said that before,” said Tony as his display compared a recording of the first time the armor had spoke to just now. “You’re breaking up. I can’t understand you.”
The armor looked away, as if it was thinking, trying to decide something.
“This era....” said the armor, “is in jeopardy.” The transmission came through clear as a bell.
“How?” asked Stark. “What has brought you here? How can we stop it? Your armor design leads me to believe we can trust you...but I need more. Please.” He cycled his pulse bolt generators as a precaution.
A small hologram logo faded in and out several inches above the right shoulder of the new armor. Perhaps it was a sign of the armor repairing itself after being underwater for such a long period of time. Stark looked at the logo, his armor capturing the image between flickers. It was a different style but the name was one Stark knew well.
STARK-FUJIKAWA.
When Tony had disappeared after the Onslaught incident, his company had been bought out by the Japanese conglomerate Fujikawa. When Tony returned after his absence, rather than fight to regain his company he started a new one. He had even been involved with the daughter of the Fujikawa CEO before she was killed. If this armor had traveled through time, it seemed obvious Stark-Fujikawa was experimenting with some dangerous technology...as well as his Iron Man armor designs. He had been certain Stark-Fujikawa’s access to any of his armor secrets had been prevented; Jim Rhodes had seen to that. Yet, here was a sign that the opposite had happened...but with time travel involved, who knew what it truly meant.
The armor then opened its chest cavity and flashed a burst of static that pierced Stark’s ears. His own armor systems then shut down and he plummeted like a rock.
“Come on, dammit, reboot! Reboot!” yelled Stark. He was amazed and surprised at the severe impairment of his entire systems array. Before now he would have bet his fortune that was impossible. His descent halted suddenly but his armor had still not restarted. Hovering in front of him, holding him by the shoulders, was the strange Stark-Fujikawa armor.
“I may have said too much,” said the electronically filtered voice from the armor, “but I had to save you. My grandfather would have wanted me to.”
“Who is your grandfather?” asked Stark. His deactivated armor made any sound he uttered muffled, but his savior had no problem hearing.
“A friend of yours,” said the armor. “Not a friend of mine.” The armor faceplate seemed to pixelate as it revealed the face of its occupant.
“You look like--” said Stark. Suddenly he was dropping again, released by the armor. As he fell, his armor systems rebooted and everything came alive again. He activated his bootjets and scanned the area but it was too late
It had saved his life. Of course, whatever that signal burst it released was made of had also been the cause of his predicament. Now however, the strange armor was gone. No signs were evident, not even the ionic energy trail it had emitted before. If the suit had a cloak, it was an extremely effective one.
“Whatever this is about,” said Stark, “I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”
“What the hell do you mean it disappeared?!”
General Markson had a vein trembling on his right temple. Tony wished his faceplate was lowered so he could give a grin to the military man without raising his ire even more.
“Its systems performance improved dramatically the more time that passed,” said Tony. “My guess is that the suit’s self repair systems were working overtime after it reactivated.”
“You touched it,” said Bethany, “Then it came back online.”
“Not sure why,” said Tony, “unless it was programmed to restart when it sensed my own armor…its hard to say why it did that. We’ll never know what happened until we find him again.”
“Him?” asked General Markson. “You saw who was in the suit?”
“No,” said Tony. “It just seemed like a him to me.” He reached up and ejected a small memory card from his helmet. “This is a recording of the entire encounter. You’ll see and hear everything I did.”
Markson took the card. “We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions.”
“You know where to find me, sir,” said Tony. He turned to Bethany. “Nice seeing you again, Beth.”
“You, too, Tony,” said Bethany.
Stark flipped his faceplate down and left the room, making his way to the front entrance of the Pentagon. Seconds later, he rocketed away heading back to California.
General Markson looked at the memory card in his hand. “He’s holding back. He knows more than he’s saying.”
“We should watch the footage,” said Bethany. “See what happened first.”
“Hm,” said Markson. “Let’s see what happened then.”
Hours later, Tony Stark was back in his Malibu home. Stark reviewed the footage of his contact with the armor, a version that was untouched, unlike the footage given to Markson. When he had seen the face beneath the mysterious armored man, he knew there was much more going on than met the eye. He didn’t know what, but he was determined to find out.
He just hoped it wasn’t too late when he did.
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To Be Continued...
Next: In Solo Avengers #2: Black Panther!
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