[New York - Stark Tower]
A month had passed since the Manhattan Incident.
However, in the thirty days since Tony Stark returned from the pulverized streets of Hell's Kitchen, he had locked himself in his private engineering basement. If it weren't for the fact that the meals left outside his door were consistently eaten clean, Pepper Potts would have assumed he had vanished to Monaco to fool around with swimsuit models.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., open the laboratory doors. I'm going in."
The security camera above the reinforced glass doors swiveled, focusing on Pepper.
"Ms. Potts, Sir has explicitly requested not to be disturbed under any circumstances," the AI's crisp voice emanated from the intercom.
"He's been in there for a month, J.A.R.V.I.S.!" Pepper's irritated voice echoed in the hallway. She pounded her fist against the heavy glass. "A whole month! Do you have any idea how much paperwork is piling up?"
"Tony, I know you're in there!" she shouted, her patience entirely exhausted. "Come out this instant! You can't just drop everything and care only about your armor!"
Inside the lab, Tony was hyper-focused on a rotating, three-dimensional holographic projection of a new suit chassis. The ambient noise-canceling of the lab blocked out Pepper's shouting entirely. It wasn't until J.A.R.V.I.S. overrode the primary displays with a flashing priority alert that Tony reluctantly swiped the projection away.
With a heavy sigh, he walked toward the door and hit the release.
"Do you know how many documents at Stark Industries have needed your signature during this time?!" Pepper immediately bombarded him the second the doors parted.
Tony stood there, his hair a greasy, chaotic mess, dark circles bruised under his bloodshot eyes. He looked completely hollowed out.
"I thought I made you CEO so I didn't have to sign things," Tony muttered, offering a weary, perfunctory response.
His dismissive attitude only threw fuel on the fire. Tony walked past her, heading straight for the penthouse liquor cabinet. He poured himself three fingers of scotch, flopped down heavily onto the plush sofa, and closed his eyes.
Pepper marched over to the sofa, her posture rigid, her expression deadly serious.
"I'm quitting."
Those two words snapped Tony wide awake.
He opened his eyes. The beautiful face looking down at him was entirely devoid of its usual warmth. Pepper wasn't bluffing. She was at her breaking point.
Only then did the fog of his obsession lift enough for Tony to realize how much of a burden he had placed on her over the past month. He set the glass down, stood up, and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace.
"I'm sorry," Tony whispered into her hair, his voice trembling slightly. "Pepper, I just... I'm just so worried."
During the Manhattan Incident, Tony had watched the climax of the battle via satellite. He had watched an ancient dragon wipe out an entire armored division by simply breathing a vacuum into existence. He had watched an 'angel' pierce that same dragon's heart with a lance that defied the laws of physics.
Compared to the apocalyptic power those entities possessed, his cutting-edge armor was no different from a tin can.
'If someone like Hebe Shikai appears next time, and threatens her...' Tony thought, his heart hammering against his arc reactor. 'What do I do?'
A suffocating sense of urgency kept pushing him to build. He had to upgrade. He had to put a suit of armor around the world. At the very least, he refused to ever again be a mere spectator, lacking even the qualification to step onto the battlefield.
Sensing the genuine vulnerability and terror radiating from him, Pepper's rigid posture softened. She had always known that behind the billionaire playboy persona, Tony was fragile.
Pepper returned the hug, resting her cheek against his shoulder.
"You know... you're not alone in this," Pepper murmured softly. "No matter what it is, you can talk to me. If you keep bottling it up and locking yourself in the dark, you'll go crazy."
The two shared a quiet moment of tenderness. The adrenaline finally crashing, the exhausted Tony leaned back onto the sofa and fell into a deep, immediate sleep.
Pepper looked down at him. Even in his sleep, his brow was deeply furrowed with anxiety.
She gently draped a blanket over him. The immediate crisis of their relationship was resolved, but her day was far from over. As the CEO of Stark Industries, the corporate machine never slept.
Pepper took the private elevator down to the lobby.
"Happy," Pepper said, spotting the Head of Security waiting near the front doors. "You can head home for the night. I probably won't be leaving the building today."
"You sure, Boss?" Happy Hogan asked, frowning.
"I'm sure. Get some rest."
Pepper headed straight for the executive office suites. The security guards on night shift offered her polite, sympathetic nods. Her relentless work ethic had become common knowledge; she was always the first to arrive and the last to leave.
She sat at her massive desk, turned on a single desk lamp, and began working through the towering stacks of contracts.
Night firmly shrouded New York City.
A very ordinary-looking, dark SUV drove down the ramp into the subterranean parking garage of Stark Tower. The automated security gate scanned the vehicle's tags and lifted smoothly.
"Welcome, Colonel James Rhodes," the automated J.A.R.V.I.S. sub-routine announced through the garage speakers.
The vehicle belonged to Tony Stark's oldest friend. Rhodes was a frequent visitor, so his plates had top-tier security clearance. The SUV glided silently through the dim, concrete pillars and parked in a secluded corner of the VIP section.
The driver's side door opened.
The man who stepped out wore Rhodes's clothes, but his face was a nightmare. A striking, jagged, smile-shaped scar was violently carved into his cheeks.
"Tony, my old friend!" the man whispered, a manic, unhinged grin stretching the scar tissue on his face. "I've come to find you..."
The imposter, still wearing his grotesque smile, began wandering aimlessly through the quiet garage.
Up in the surveillance room, a security guard noticed the erratic behavior on the monitors. Since the vehicle's entry hadn't triggered any hostile alarms, the guard assumed the Colonel might be intoxicated or lost. Deciding to avoid calling it in and causing a scene for Stark's friend, the guard grabbed his flashlight and took the elevator down to the garage.
Down in the VIP section, the grinning man couldn't find Tony's conspicuous Audi R8. Instead, his manic eyes locked onto Pepper's sleek executive car.
"Hey! Anyone there?"
The security guard's voice echoed off the concrete walls, the beam of his flashlight cutting through the shadows. "Colonel? What are you looking for down here?"
The imposter slowly turned his head to look at the approaching guard. In the empty, silent garage, the corners of his scarred mouth began to curl up even higher.
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