Midtown High. Lunch Break.
Gwen Stacy sat on the bleachers, nibbling on a sandwich while reading the latest diary entry.
"Mr. Lucas talks about 'Chaotic Times' starting," she whispered. "And now he says Tony Stark has the armor."
She tapped the invisible screen that only she could see. The diary was stored in a pocket dimension, accessible only by her thought. It was magic.
"But why does he keep talking about sunbathing?" Gwen wondered.
June 10: Sunbathing all day.
June 12: Raining. Can't sunbathe. Sad.
June 14: Found a spot above the clouds. Sunbathing achieved.
"Is he trying to get a tan?" Gwen looked at her own pale skin. "Is that his type? Should I get a spray tan?"
She blushed at the thought. Lucas liked "curvy" and "dangerous" women (like Black Widow and Scarlet Witch). But maybe... maybe he liked "Sun-Kissed" too?
Then, the new entry appeared.
[This timeline is broken. I almost thought I was in the Tom Cruise Iron Man universe.]
[Why is Obadiah Stane so quiet? In the original timeline, he tries to kill Tony. He hires the Ten Rings. He becomes the Iron Monger.]
[Did he suddenly decide to be a good guy? Did he have a change of heart?]
[It doesn't make sense. As the main villain of the first movie, Stane has to make a move. Unless... the butterfly effect silenced him.]
[Or maybe he's waiting. Plotting. Be careful, Tony. Don't trust the bald guy with the beard.]
Gwen gasped. "Obadiah Stane? Tony's partner?"
She knew the name. Everyone knew Stane. He was the face of Stark Industries business operations. The "Uncle" figure.
"He tries to kill Tony?" Gwen whispered. "That's... that's horrible."
Stark Mansion. The Lab.
Tony Stark stood frozen, staring at the holographic text.
"Impossible," Tony muttered. "Impossible. Impossible."
He repeated it three times, trying to force the word to be true.
Obadiah Stane. Obie.
The man who picked him up from boarding school when his parents died. The man who guided him through the boardroom politics. The man who ran the company while Tony played in the lab.
"Obie is family," Tony said, his voice cracking. "He's not a villain. He's... he's Obie."
He thought about the "Ten Rings" connection. The weapons in Afghanistan.
"I suspected a leak," Tony admitted to himself. "I suspected someone in the board. But Obie?"
"He's rich. He's respected. Why would he kill me?"
"Because," Jarvis interjected softly, "if you die, Sir... he becomes the CEO. He controls everything."
"And," Jarvis added, displaying a financial report, "Mr. Stane has been filing 'Lock-Out' motions against you for months. Trying to declare you incompetent."
Tony looked at the data. The "Lock-Out" motions were buried in legal jargon, but they were there. Stane was trying to push him out.
"And he pushed for the Afghanistan trip," Tony realized. "He insisted I go personally. To 'boost morale.' To 'show the flag.'"
"It was a setup," Tony whispered. "He was sending me to the slaughterhouse."
The realization hit him like a physical blow. The betrayal was deeper than any shrapnel.
"Iron Monger," Tony read the name from the diary. "That implies he builds a suit too."
"He has access to my designs," Tony said, his eyes narrowing. "He has access to the Arc Reactor prototypes."
"Jarvis," Tony's voice turned cold. "Hack Stane's private server. The one in Sector 16. The one he thinks is offline."
"Sir, that requires bypassing Grade-A encryption. It will alert him."
"Do it," Tony ordered. "If he's innocent, I'll apologize. If he's guilty..."
The screen flashed. Data streamed.
And then, a video file opened.
It was grainy footage from a cave in Afghanistan. A group of terrorists stood around a captive.
But the captive wasn't Tony. It was a message.
"You did not tell us the target was Stark. The price has gone up."
The message was sent to: O. Stane.
Tony stared at the screen. The room felt airless.
"He put a hit on me," Tony said, his voice devoid of emotion. "My uncle put a hit on me."
He walked over to the Mark 3 armor.
"Jarvis," Tony said. "Is the suit ready?"
"Systems are green, Sir. But the 'Anti-Freak' modifications are not installed."
"Doesn't matter," Tony stepped onto the platform. "We're not fighting a Freak today. We're fighting a Monger."
"And Jarvis?"
"Yes, Sir?"
"Send the video to Nick Fury. Tell him... he was right."
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