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Tony Stark held a press conference the day after his return.
The footage was everywhere—the haggard billionaire sitting on the floor of the briefing room, cheeseburger in hand, making an announcement that sent shockwaves through the global economy.
"I'm shutting down Stark Industries' weapons manufacturing division. Effective immediately."
The stock price didn't just drop. It cratered.
Decades of military contracts, government partnerships, and defense industry dominance—all of it suddenly worthless in the eyes of the market. Investors fled. The only people still holding Stark Industries stock were the true believers, the ones who trusted Tony's genius to pull something out of thin air.
Luke was buying everything he could get his hands on.
His aggressive purchasing didn't stop the bleeding—nothing could, not when the company's entire business model had just been torched by its own CEO. But every share that hit the market, Luke swallowed. Minor shareholders panicking about their retirement funds? Luke bought them out. Small institutional investors cutting their losses? Luke was there with cash in hand.
Stark Industries wasn't just any company. It was a titan.
Founded during World War II, built by two generations of genius inventors, it had grown into one of the most valuable corporations on the planet. In the high-tech defense sector, only a handful of competitors could claim to be in the same league: Oscorp, Hammer Industries, Yashida Industries in Japan.
And honestly? Stark was the clear leader.
A company that size had complicated ownership.
Tony Stark himself held roughly twenty-three percent—the largest single stake. More importantly, he owned the patents. Decades of inventions, both his and his father's, all legally tied to Tony personally. That made his position unassailable. Even the government wouldn't let Stark Industries collapse entirely.
Obadiah Stane was the second-largest shareholder at about eleven percent. The old family friend who'd helped Howard Stark build the empire, now running day-to-day operations while Tony played in his workshop.
After his buying spree, Luke held ten percent—originally six-point-seven before the crash, now increased through aggressive acquisition. That made him the third-largest individual shareholder.
The remaining shares were scattered: Wall Street investment firms held about seven percent collectively. The military—Air Force and Army combined—held ten percent. Oscorp and Yashida held four and five percent respectively through standard cross-holding agreements.
Twenty-eight percent was distributed among two dozen smaller companies and family trusts. Another five percent was scattered among retail investors.
Stark Industries' bylaws required at least one percent ownership to attend shareholder meetings. That kept the decision-making body to maybe six or seven people.
Luke was now one of them.
He hadn't expected such fragmented ownership. Despite throwing money at the problem, he could only scoop up about one percent from retail investors and another few percent from minor institutional holders. Still, ten percent total wasn't bad.
Umbrella Corporation couldn't participate in the usual corporate games—stock swaps, strategic partnerships, mutual holdings. Without products or public trading, those doors were closed. Luke had no intention of taking Umbrella public anyway. He didn't need outside capital.
The investors who'd sold their shares were still congratulating themselves on cutting losses when Tony dropped his second bombshell.
The Arc Reactor.
Clean energy. Unlimited power. A device the size of a hockey puck that could run a small city.
The stock price didn't just recover—it rocketed past previous highs. Everyone suddenly realized Stark Industries wasn't just a weapons company anymore. It was the future of energy.
"Wait." Luke stared at the news coverage, confused. "He announced the Arc Reactor already?"
In the movie timeline, that came later—after Tony defeated Obadiah, after the Iron Monger incident. This was happening too early.
Something had changed. The timeline was shifting.
The practical result was a windfall. Luke's investment had multiplied several times over. Some of the investors who'd panic-sold reportedly committed suicide when they realized how much they'd lost.
What Luke didn't know was Tony's original plan.
The weapons shutdown hadn't been pure idealism. Tony suspected someone inside Stark Industries was selling weapons to terrorists—he'd seen his own products in enemy hands during captivity. The stock crash was supposed to let him buy back shares cheaply, consolidating control while he investigated.
Then Luke had appeared, swallowing every share that hit the market with apparently unlimited capital. Tony's buyback strategy collapsed before it could begin.
Faced with an unknown whale threatening to acquire real voting power, Tony had pivoted. The Arc Reactor announcement was damage control—proof that Stark Industries had a future beyond weapons, that the stock was actually undervalued.
It worked. The mystery buyer stopped accumulating.
Tony had no idea who'd nearly derailed his plans. But he'd be finding out soon enough.
Emil Garrett received a call.
"Sir?"
"Stark Industries just shut down their weapons division. That means a lot of talented people are suddenly unemployed." Luke's voice was businesslike. "Recruit them. As many as you can."
"Understood, sir."
Emil immediately grasped the strategy. Stark's weapons engineers were among the best in the world. Absorbing that talent would accelerate Umbrella's development by years.
The execution proved difficult.
Stark's former employees were on the market, but so were offers from every major defense contractor on the planet. Hammer Industries. Oscorp. Yashida. General Electric. All of them had name recognition and proven track records.
Against that competition, Umbrella Corporation was a nobody. Sixty billion in capital, but no track record, no reputation, no visible products.
Given a choice between a known quantity and an unknown startup, talented engineers chose the known quantity every time.
"Recruitment efforts have been unsuccessful, sir." Emil hated delivering bad news.
Luke sighed after hanging up.
"If only I could drop some technical geniuses from games," he muttered. "Someone like Mayer from Arknights..."
Hell, he'd settle for dropping his max-level Mechanist operators. Surely Heavenly-realm technology would be valuable.
The drop system was powerful, but it couldn't be directed. He got what he got, and right now, he needed scientists and engineers more than soldiers.
Maybe next time.
The grind continued.