Justin Hammer had always thought himself clever. He had survived disgrace, clawed his way back into relevance, and fed off scraps left behind by Stark's brilliance. But when Mechanicus Tech appeared overnight, his rage boiled. Alex Price had stolen the spotlight, stolen the contracts, stolen the future that Hammer had promised himself. No, Hammer would not lose again. He called in a favor, pulling a hacker team from Eastern Europe, men and women who boasted they could break into any system on Earth.
At midnight, they went to work. Secure tunnels, backdoors, worms, lines of malicious code like daggers meant to stab into Mechanicus Tech's heart. But they did not know what waited for them. For Alex had long since turned his AI companion Gear into the soul of his empire.
Gear saw their intrusion before it even began. With surgical precision, he traced their packets, dismantled their worms, and sent false data into their feeds. The hackers' screens filled with blueprints of weapons that didn't exist, code loops that went nowhere, and finally, a silent surge of nanite-written countercode that fried their systems. Their rigs smoked, their power supplies burned, and their bank accounts vanished in digital fire. Hammer screamed when he received the report. Mechanicus Tech was a fortress. And Gear, invisible and merciless, was its guardian.
Alex, meanwhile, expanded. The building beside the Avengers Compound was no longer just a shell of labs and forges; it was alive with workers. Engineers, designers, accountants, quality inspectors all vetted by Gear and given their roles with precision. Yet while humans performed the daily tasks, Gear remained the hidden overseer, running numbers, flagging inefficiencies, and ensuring every weapon rolled off the line perfect. Profits soared.
The U.S. military received shipment after shipment of laser rifles and mech prototypes. Their soldiers trained with the new toys like children handed holy relics, grinning as the weapons sang in their hands. But soon, whispers spread beyond American borders. Other nations reached out, wary of imbalance. Alex allowed them access at a cost. Select contracts were approved. Germany purchased fighter craft, Japan acquired bolt weaponry, and even discreet channels from Saudi Arabia and South America were opened. The world was buying into Mechanicus Tech, and Alex controlled the flow.
Tony Stark couldn't ignore it. Late nights in the Avengers Compound were spent in front of screens, FRIDAY digging into Alex's history. The file was maddeningly clean. Alex Price, a genius of obscure background, his education records sparse, his patents suddenly flooding in over the past few years. His technology wasn't derivative of Stark's, nor Hammer's, nor any Earth-born line of thought. It was as if the man had pulled knowledge from another age, another world. Tony leaned back in his chair, sipping whiskey, muttering to himself. "You're good, Alex. Too good."
Pepper entered quietly, her heels clicking against the marble. Tony showed her the file, his brow furrowed. "Keep an eye on him. He's not just another Hammer or Vanko. He's something else. I don't like it." Pepper nodded, filing the name away. Mechanicus Tech had become too big to ignore.
But as Mechanicus rose, the Avengers fell into turmoil. News broke of Sokovia. The world demanded accountability. The Sokovia Accords were drafted, legislation to place superheroes under United Nations oversight. Pressure mounted. Meetings turned into shouting matches. Tony, burdened by guilt over Ultron, believed oversight was necessary. Steve Rogers, ever the soldier of freedom, refused to put his shield under political chains.
Alex watched the debate from the outside, unmoved but amused. The fracture lines spread. Rhodey stood with Tony. Natasha wavered. Vision spoke of logic and control. Wanda recoiled from the thought of being caged. And Steve gathered his allies in defiance. The Avengers began to break, the family tearing at its seams.
Then came the revelation that shattered what was left. Tony learned the truth: his parents had been murdered not by accident, but by the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, under Hydra's control. The knowledge hit like a blade through the heart. In Siberia, fists and shields and repulsors clashed, and the Avengers broke apart for good.
Through it all, Mechanicus Tech thrived. While heroes bled and friendships shattered, Alex's empire only grew stronger. The world's governments sought his weapons. Armies trained with his mechs. Skies filled with his jets. His fortress beside the Avengers Compound loomed as a reminder that while Earth's protectors fractured under the weight of politics and past sins, Mechanicus Tech stood united under the hand of one man and the unseen will of Gear.
The Machine God whispered to Alex through circuits and steel. The world of men was fragile, divided, blind. But he, the Priest of the Forge, would endure. Let the heroes fight their wars of ego and grief. The future belonged to the Mechanicus.