Chapter 8: Everyone is Iron Man.

Exoskeleton armour is not strictly new in Marvel, back in WWII, Hydra used the Tesseract as a power source to come up with exoskeleton armour, of course, that was not that powerful and looked like airtight sealed armour, in fact, there is still plenty of exoskeleton armour without power assistance, such as the kind from ODST in Halo, which comes with its own life support system and can support them in space for brief periods of combat.

And Tony Stark's Iron Battlesuit, by his own account that's a high-tech prosthetic, not really a weapon, so it's not really exoskeleton armour either.

The capitalists' noses are very sharp, and not even a week after the appearance of the unidentified Iron Man, almost all the arms companies have announced that they will develop similar equipment, with the subtext that governments will pay for it.

One of the fastest movers was also Altas Corporation.

Just a week after Ethan returned to the company, the marketing team of Altas Corporation posted a video.

"Sometimes we are always powerless in the face of danger" The footage begins with a weak man being beaten up by several other men with hoods on their heads, like Captain America decades ago, and as the fight goes on, time suddenly stops and a soldier resembling the man being beaten appears in the footage, wearing a skin-tight combat suit The most striking thing about this soldier was a piece of equipment that was fastened to the outside of each of his limbs by a strip of metal that ran down to his back, a device that was similar in shape to a posture corrector.

"But that's no reason to hold back!" After these words appeared on the screen, the screen time flowed again and then the soldier pulled the thug standing at the end of the line and with a mere fling, the thug flew several metres away.

The reactive thug immediately lets go of the beaten man and turns to attack the soldier, blades and sticks whistling at him with a brisk wind, but stopping short of landing on the soldier's body. The thugs had used their full strength, but they were still outmatched.

"Now, it's time to fight back!" After seizing the thug's weapon, the soldier swung back, and as he did so, a series of numbers appeared near his fist, marking the strength and speed of his punches and the rate of attack per second.

In the narrow alleyway, the soldier moves around like a nimble monkey, landing punches that don't even touch the thug's counter-attacks.

The thug is finally knocked to the ground, leaving the soldier and the beaten man staring at each other.

The video was only two minutes long, but it gained hundreds of thousands of followers in less than a day, and the comments went up to ten thousand.

Even Capitol Hill, which had never invested in any project, was considering whether to invest more money, after all, so many companies had said they wanted to do this, but only Altas Corporation had come up with a sample video in such a short time, although it was only two minutes long. Two minutes, but the information revealed in this is enough to make other arms groups collectively wood big.

Of course, the most self-absorbed of them all is some middle-aged man who thinks he's fifty years ahead of the world in the Stark industry, and at first, he's gloating over his Mark III battle armour, which has 12 shoulder-fired missiles and two wrist-fired missile launchers, plus a pulse cannon in the palm of his hand, so it's a piece of cake to fight those terrorists, and he's as happy as a cold soda in summer. As a result, he was crouching in the basement thinking about how to improve his Mark battle armour when a promotional video for the Altas Corporation was shown on the TV.

"I'm ..." Stark wondered he's not opening this the right way, is he? When Stark Industries was selling arms, other arms companies followed suit, and now that Stark has shut down its weapons R&D department, he has created a battle armour of his own, and other arms companies are following suit, really addicted to copying Stark Industries.

But Stark is just cursing, after all, he said he was going to change himself and stop being an arms dealer, and that's his choice.

And from a professional point of view, Stark could see that the exoskeleton armour developed by the Altas Corporation should only have the initial framework deconstruction, but the Altas Corporation BOSS Ethan Adams has been emphasizing the modularity of weapons over the years, so Stark concluded that Ethan should have finished the development and experimentation a long time ago, only to have saved it and not release it, and now he saw a tin guy flying around in the sky and now he was anxious.

If Ethan knew what Stark was thinking, he would have said, "You're overthinking it." The reason he released it was not only to make money, but also for political reasons, as some of the various technologies now in Ethan's possession had already been eaten up by Altas Corporations, and the mass driver which Ethan had previously thought of was one of them. He was thinking of building it in Iraq, which is now the largest base of operations for them outside of their home country, but because Washington gave him the slip for reasons of secrecy, he had to settle for the second-best option of building one on home soil.

On Ethan's side, after turning down a number of requests for investment, a lobbyist from France approached him and said they wanted to work with Altas Corporations on a deeper level, including cross-shareholdings, collaborating on research and development centres, and even merging groups.

Ethan was taken aback when he saw what the other party was about, there was no way around it, the name on the other side was just too prestigious - the McCarran Group, the sole designated military supplier to the European Union, and they are also the largest military industrial group in the European region, undertaking 70% of the arms orders of almost all European countries, and will even The newest executive, James McCullen, has invited Ethan to visit the McCullen Group in Europe, and he has sent him a special invitation in gold.

In fact, the McCarran Group has not given up on the American market and the development of the Asian market over the years, in a few years ago, the United States bid for the fifth generation of fighter jets, McCarran Group participated in the bidding, when they proposed a very sci-fi supersonic fighter concept plan, the U.S. military at the time was also very moved, only a pity that the Department of Defense finally chose the Stark Group's F22 fighter.

Don't ask why, the reason is to support the homemade, in fact, at that time Stark Industries bid failed. Why? Matter of factor, Tony Stark is completely related to the matter, the return of the rich second generation Tony Stark, the outside world only know that Tony Stark is a rising rookie, Stark Industries is bound to be under his leadership.

As a result, the internet was full of curses, what a bullshit Stark world. The United States of America is 500 years must be ahead of the world in technology.

This made Obadiah angry, he directly bagged all the beautiful women Stark hired and fired them, then Obadiah very seriously told Stark, if you still want to continue to enjoy life, then get this order done, so Stark didn't even wipe the powder off his face before making sweeping changes to Stark Industries' F22, improving performance while also reducing costs.

In the second round of bidding, the McCullen Group had to walk away in disgrace, even though the pie they had drawn up was so tempting, their planes could deform its wings, was equipped with pulse cannons, could cruise at supersonic speeds, plus had a range of 8,000 kilometres, and most importantly, the fighter, codenamed Nightlord, also supported head aimers and voice control. The man in charge of presenting its capabilities at the time also said that the Night Lords' systems could recognise dozens of languages and dialects.

But in the end, they failed, with the Ministry of Defence politely stating that your aircraft were very advanced, but that we would be fine with the Stark for now.

After running back to Europe, the McCarran Group had not yet figured out how to start all over again, but the United States began to market the F35 to the allies, which is also a product of Stark Industries, and the market was not grabbed but was suppressed by the other side, which was bad news for the McCarran Group, but the good thing is that old Europe did not forget the credit of McCarran and France and Germany purchased another batch of McCarran Group Rafale, which made the McCarran Group a redemption.

After one failure, the McCullen Group did not give up. The United States opened another development programme for a universal armoured carrier. The McCullen Group came across the ocean with the M8 mobile artillery system they had developed, only to be routed again, because in designing the M8 mobile artillery system, the McCullen Group's idea was to design the thing as a light M1 tank that could be airborne with gas turbines, a 105mm smoothbore gun, and a hunting and destruction fire control system, this thing would probably have been procured by the US Army at any other time, but nay, Ethan sent them straight home.

What Ethan brought out was a light wheeled infantry fighting vehicle from the Advanced Warfare realm, with a 75mm automatic gun, programmable smart shells, and a magical 75mm titanium-tungsten decapsulated tail stabilised armour-piercing round that could penetrate the frontal armour of an M1 tank, a laser suppression observation system and an active interceptor system, and a highly intelligent cockpit that even allowed the driver to fire while driving. The highly intelligent cockpit even allows the driver to drive and fire at the same time, just as easy as a computer game.

In the field tests, the M8's gun system continued to fail, with tracks coming off, the body getting stuck in the mud and even going off target in the live firing session due to the vibrations caused by the gun firing.

All in all, the winner was Altas Corporation, and the McCullen Group, perhaps overshadowed by this, has since concentrated on its own acreage in old Europe and has not offered to enter the American arms trade.

And now that the McCullen Group has offered to enter into deeper cooperation with the Altas Corporations. Ethan is tempted to ask who gave them the courage to do so?

But the man from across the ocean didn't pussy out at all, and in his exchange with Ethan said it would be an honour for the Altas Corporations to work with the McCarran Group.

"Do I need to throw this guy out the door?" Kate looked impatiently at Ethan.

"No, don't, treat this Baron What's-His-Name well, arrange it at the Hilton, the Presidential Suite, bring out that bottle of 82 Lafite I've been saving and treat him well, then set him up with a few tricks for the evening! Better be multi-ethnic, you know, we're not Europe, the United States of America is equal, all races are the same!" Ethan instructed Kate with a kind smile, and the special envoy of the McCarran Group, with the title of Baron de France, he thought he had impressed Ethan with his words, so he spoke even harder on stage.

By the end of the night, looking at the luxurious hotel and the beautiful women of all colours lying all over the indoor pool, the envoy felt as if he had arrived in paradise until, at three o'clock in the middle of the night, the Washington police knocked on the door of his presidential suite.

"Open up, Washington police!"

And as the envoy walked out of his room in a daze, he found not only the police standing outside the corridor but also a bunch of media tabloid reporters and cameramen.

What the hell was going on? Those were the last words that came to the envoy's mind before he passed out.

Firstly, Ethan's surname, Hunt, was part of the Boston consortium, so how could he possibly do such a thing to the detriment of his own people, and secondly, the cross-holding thing, not that Ethan looked down on McCullen, the whole Altas Corporation had tens of thousands of mobile combat troops ready to go, fighter jets, missiles, support aircraft and more. The Atlas Corporation has tens of thousands of mobile combat troops ready to go, fighter jets, missiles, support aircraft, altogether employing over 600,000 people, while the McCullen Group has only a few. So Ethan hadn't thought at first that the Altas Corporations would agree to the other side's terms.

"We've failed in our bargaining!"

In a darkened room, a suited James McCarron was whispering to the man in the corner and on the other end of the phone.

"Your plan is too thoughtful, Rex, don't think your inventions are the most impressive, if that's true, why have we lost bid after bid?" James McCarron said with a sulky, unhappy face.

"My technology is the natural state of the art, think of the guard you have around you Mr McCullen, the Cobra Guard is good enough to take on any kind of soldier in the world even Captain America is no match!" On the other end of the line came an angry male voice, only his voice was rather hoarse and there was something like the whirring of a fan.

"But the Altas Corporations don't even look us in the eye, and the representative I sent to negotiate was fairy-tipped by them, those damned guys!"

"You still have yourself to blame for that, why a Frenchman, you know, you French really pull a crotch as far as we Americans are concerned, the US won both world wars!" The voice on the other end of the line didn't hide the smugness in his tone.

"The United States won?" James McCarron looked like you were fucking kidding me.

"There are plenty of Americans who think that way my boss, the re-emergence of Europe since 1949 has been courtesy of the Americans and what you are doing now is trying to smash the American position, not to mention, Mr McCarron, did you really invite Ethan to Europe just to talk about cooperation?"

"No, I want to be good buddies with him so he'll behave and send me up to his company assets, he's just the first step, along with that Tony Stark!" McCarron said viciously.

"That's going to be quite a sight!"

"That's right, and thanks to your nanites!" McCullen was laughing with unbridled arrogance at the moment as if he was in control of the world.

"Well, good luck with that, Mr McCullen!"

......... ......... ...

"McCullen, the arrogant fool!"

James McCullen hadn't expected this comment from his most trusted chief scientific officer after his phone call with him.

And what he didn't expect even more was that after the communication with himself had ended, his most trusted science officer had called out another communication.

"Sir Pierce! I have a matter to report to you!"

"I thought I was told not to call this number if there was nothing to do, is the line secure?" The man called Pierce said in a nonchalant voice.

"Safe, this base is full of my men, McCullen knows nothing about what's going on here!"

"Good then, what's worth coming to me in such a hurry?"

"James McCullen wants to stage an international gathering of arms dealers and then wipe those guys out at the meeting and control them with nanites!"

"Uh, that plan, it's kind of interesting!" Pierce on the other end of the phone suddenly felt that Rex's words had brought up a little interest in him.

"So in your opinion, does this plan have any chance of success?"

"The ordinary arms dealers shouldn't have any problem, but those at the top level, it's hard, their security teams aren't cows!"

"Not even your Cobra commandos?"

"Cobra Commandos, with all due respect Sir Pierce, you'd be better off expecting the nanites to create a super-soldier like Captain America than expecting him to come alive and draw his blood for you, the nanites strengthen their bodies but not their spirits, not to mention, with the thick exoskeleton armour they're more like super cannon fodder! "

"Isn't there any way to improve it any further?"

"No, I still need more research, after all, this is a field that I'm only just getting out of the door!"

"Well, by the way, Rex, what do you think about the kind of exoskeleton armour they've come out with at Altas Corporation?"

"Low cost, low technology, but conducive to mass manufacturing!" Rex thought about what he once knew about Altas Corporation's production capacity, "If we were to arm the entire US military, Altas Corporation would only need eight months to complete the entire order!"

"So, we underestimated Altas Corporation before?"

"It can be said that Altas Corporation is currently on the verge of overtaking Stark Industries, after all, Stark Industries has now closed down its weapons development division, and that Boss of Altas Corporation is, as far as I know, so aggressive that his private army has been deployed to over twenty countries, with a total military strength that is even greater than some of the major European countries! "

"I understand, you keep working, we still need the tiger skin of James McCarron to give us cover, the organisation will not forget your credit!"

"I understand, Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra!"

Ethan himself never dreamed that because of an exoskeleton, he would be in the sights of the famous Hydra, the branch of the organization that was the most official in the United States of America, Alexander Pierce, the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and one of the top brass of the World Security Council, a big man who had done a lot for the United States of America, having fought in the Vietnam War in his early years and later being the director of the CIA. Well, Nick Fury was also the director of CIA, so I guess that counts as a rule within S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Hydra forces of Pierce's lineage, who are pretty much converted from the U.S. mainland forces, include a number of U.S. military generals and political congressmen and business tycoons, but usually, they don't get involved with the U.S. consortiums, and are now interested in Ethan's technology, mainly because of Tony Stark's Middle East show.

The only thing is that due to Ethan's status, Pierce does not dare to take the technology from him by force, so he can only find a way to bring Ethan into his camp.

But before pulling Ethan into the fold, Pierce felt he had to consider the strength of his opponent.

With that in mind, he immediately took out his satellite phone and dialled someone he didn't want to see at all.

Sokovia, a country the size of a palm, was the territory of Baron Strucker, another branch of Hydra, and the relationship between Strucker and Alexander Pierce was not exactly cordial, but for the sake of Hydra, they did cooperate. One of the main reasons Pierce called the other side was that Strucker still controlled half of Sokovia's government, and the armed factions within Sokovia were fighting so fiercely, without Strucker himself fanning the flames because after all, it was easier to find cannon fodder and experimental subjects when there was a lot of chaos.

Middle East

Obadiah looked in silence at the iron battlesuit that had been cobbled together in front of him by a gang of illiterate terrorists, his face full of disbelief.

It was only after a cigarette had been smoked that he asked the terrorist boss aside, "Did Tony Stark fucking build this by hand in a cave all by himself?"

Upon receiving the other man's affirmation, Obadiah Stan was speechless.

"There are so many of you, and didn't notice that the other guy was building not a missile, but a battlesuit? Are you guys blind?"

Obadiah Stan was fine without mentioning it, but the terrorist boss was also furious, it's not like we've read books, we can't tell the difference between a missile and a battlesuit there.

"If you guys had listened to me and just killed Tony Stark, there would be none of this shit! I'll take this battlesuit!" With a big wave of his hand, Obadiah Stan sent his men up to move the cargo, only for the Ten Rings terrorists to stop.

"We've lost so many people and now you're taking this, there's no such thing as a bargain, believe me, if you push me, I'll post this on the internet!" The Ten Rings gang leader said in a huff.

"How much do you want then?" Obadiah waved his hand, gesturing for his men to put down their weapons, before revealing an extremely bright smile and walking towards the Ten Rings gang boss.

"The arms from last time, I need five thousand of them, and that whatever missile, I want a hundred of them!"

"Oh, so, it's a bit expensive, how about we take our time and discuss it?" Obadiah pointed to a tent not far away, "How about we go in and talk slowly, and have a drink on the way!"

"We follow Islam, we don't drink!"

"I get it, I get it, cocktails don't count as alcohol!"

Five minutes later, a cold-faced Obadiah straightened his coat and walked out of the tent, not far from where the Ten Rings terrorists had been disarmed by the Stark Group security forces he had brought with him and were now being tied up and beaten together.

"Kill them all, then load that thing onto the plane and let's go!"

"Yes, boss!"

After a fierce burst of gunfire, the terrorist camp burst into flames, which lasted a whole day before going out, leaving a trail of ashes that made it impossible to tell who or what the dead were.

And Stark was dumbfounded when he learned the news, he hadn't even settled his score with these guys yet, how come they were gone, and now even the ashes were being raised by the gale, it wasn't right!

In fact, Stark is not blindly trusting others, it's just that before he had been addicted to enjoying himself and was too lazy to care, but now the extra battery in his chest has also made him a little less desperate to enjoy life and a little more considerate of the lives of those around him.

For Stark, the only person he trusts at the moment, apart from his secretary, Miss Pepper Potts, is his driver, Happy, who, of course, just acts as a mascot and it is still up to Potts to do the job.

Stark himself has been anxious after placing his suspicions on his closest uncle, Obadiah, who owes a debt to the Stark family and who has built the company up, so Stark himself does not want or want to admit that Obadiah himself did this to him, and even Potts does not believe it. After the issue of the confidential file did she was convinced that it was really Obadiah Stan who was trying to kill Tony.

But just as Pepper was about to inform Stark, she discovers that the other man has already left for Washington because of an invitation from Colonel Rhodes, so Pepper rushes to call him again but Stark has gone to a classified location, the call cannot be answered, so Pepper has to call Happy and the two of them drive to Washington.

Of course, in the car Pepper didn't forget to call Stark.

On the other hand, Rhodes invited Stark over with the intention of having Stark himself evaluate the EXO armour produced by Altas Corporation, because Rhodes himself was aware that the big guy flying in the sky was Stark, and he knew that there was no way Stark would sell this to the military, so he turned his attention to Altas Corporation.

To be honest, Ethan also does not expect that the first order of the Altas Corporation will be from the air force, but if we think about it is also right, after all, the U.S. air force is a first-class service, with sufficient funding to make them curious about all kinds of new equipment, including the exoskeleton, the military hopes to first purchase a number of exoskeleton armour assigned to the base security forces as well as ground personnel, after all, these ground personnel usually run around to refuel the aircraft and after the exoskeleton is equipped, one person can do the work of one unit and can do it faster, and several hundred pounds of bombs can be stuffed into the magazine by two people, not to mention how easy it is

The Air Force also hopes that the Altas Corporation can further improve the exoskeleton armour, preferably to accommodate the anti-load suit and the parachute function, which can be very helpful to the pilots.

"This thing is just a very simple power assist, if it were up to me I'm sure I could build a better-looking one out of it!" Stark danced around and gave his good friend a handful of comparisons of the shortcomings of the Altas Corporation exoskeleton, what with the lack of protection and the ugly appearance, in short, it was rubbish!

"Then why are you suggesting that the Air Force increase its procurement efforts?" Rhodes was curious.

"Because it's what's for the military, and mass fitting all soldiers is much better than extremely individual people wearing battlesuits!" Stark explained, "I can't sell my suit, and I couldn't have designed a more suitable exoskeleton for mass deployment in the military if you'd let me, they really do take into account all the aspects of the design that have not arrived yet. You see all these slots and prefabricated frames, I'm sure that the Altas Corporation will definitely have multi-functional modules that switch between various modes at any time, like a thick meat shield and a dexterous assassin for example!"

"Then I've hired you for the right reason!" Rhodes was happy, Tony is just so good, never screwed him over and came to vet the equipment for me, with Stark's endorsement, Rhodes already had a plan, he was going to go to the big leaders upstairs the next day to make a pitch to equip the Air Force with this stuff in full first, even looking at the military dogs on the base.

If the army and marines knew about Rhodes' plan, they would cry, especially the marines, because they are poor, so even if they have exoskeleton armour, they will only give priority to equipping front-line personnel, as for others, it will be a little later and for the likes of Air Force, they have one for each person, even for dogs.

"Happy, can't you go any faster?" Pepper slapped the leather seat in front of her anxiously, with such force that it took ages to pop up after the seat back had collapsed.

"I'm driving, look at that, the needle is almost 120, you know this is an interstate, there's a lot of cars!" Happy complained as he steered the Maybach sedan back and forth through the dense traffic, he was still busy packing his own bags for the house move when suddenly Pepper's call came in saying she had to see Stark, Happy knew Stark had gone to Washington and said she couldn't wait until Mr Stark returned.

"This is the one thing that is at stake for Tony's life!"

So the two of them drove non-stop to Washington, except that for the 300 miles or so, Pepper looked a little distracted and kept looking back the whole way.

"What are you looking at, is someone chasing us back there?" Happy still didn't know what was going on, and seeing Pepper constantly looking back, he too glanced in the rearview mirror every now and then.

"Get your head out of your ass and keep speeding, come on! This bloody Stark, are you going to answer the phone or not!" Pepper was already going crazy, God only knew if Obadiah had found out what she'd done, the barrage of evidence was enough to put Obadiah in jail for five hundred years. If she had been Obadiah, she would have done whatever it took to kill her.

Pepper was right in guessing that Obadiah had found out that his secret had been leaked just after she left, but because the building was crowded, Obadiah didn't do anything about it and was going to wait until Pepper got home, but he didn't expect the woman to run to Stark right out of the gate, catching Obadiah off guard.

But Obadiah, a man who had seen a lot of things, gave up on sending his men out and decided to pay for the murder instead.

He went back to his house and pulled out a dusty box from the basement, then took out of it a very old mobile phone, which was specially made so that only one number could be called.

"Hello, Continental Hotel at your service!" After dialling the number, a very seductive female voice came from the other end.

"I'm offering two million dollars for Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's secretary!"

"Please confirm, two million dollars, a bounty on Pepper Potts?" The female voice said uncertainly.

"I'm sure, and the sooner the better, preferably tonight! If you can, and Tony Stark, take them out together, I can raise the money!"

"I'm sorry, this gentleman, but Mr. Tony Stark needs at least ten million to start with!"

"Then we'll take out Pepper Potts first! I've already paid you the money!"

"Certainly, sir, have a nice day!"

The Continental Hotel, on the surface, is a very normal old hotel with first class facilities and excellent service, guests who have stayed here have said it is great and they will definitely come back next time. In a world that is not accessible to normal people, the Continental Hotel is also famous for nothing else, it is a gathering place for killers, in fact the Continental Hotel is a collective name, there are a total of 12 Continental Hotels around the world, these hotels are responsible for providing business to the local killers, and they take a commission from it, and also responsible for deploying the local killers to operate, and these Continental Hotels all have a common superior, they The only thing that can be confirmed is that they are all very wealthy and powerful, and the origins of the High Table are very old, as they have appeared in many important events throughout history.

Obadiah's commission soon passed through the operator and into the vast database of the Continental Hotel.

The female technician operating the big-ass computer was covered in gangster tattoos and had a Camel cigarette in her mouth. Although her tone was not as beautiful as it had been in her old age, her eyes were still sharp, and when she saw the reward message that had suddenly refreshed the computer, the female technician froze for a few seconds, then exhaled her cigarette and called to her supervisor.

"Is this message true?"

"Let's see!" The middle-aged, balding man on roller skates slid bared to her side and looked at the computer screen.

"Since it's a customer request, it should be fine, send it out!" The supervisor pondered for a moment and then said.

"Okay!" The female technician nodded, then shouted loudly into the space on the right side of the room, which was separated by a steel grate, "Pepper Potts, Executive Secretary of Stark Industries, two million dollars, effective immediately!"

Immediately the busy gangster lady on the other side stepped on her roller skates and wrote these figures in chalk on the blackboard on the wall.

The data was then transferred to another computer and finally sent to the mobile phones of the various killers located in New York.

At the same time, in New York, a number of people's phones vibrated at the same time, and these men, women and teens pulled them out in unison to check the messages they had just received, including John Wick, whom Ethan had met.

"Pepper Potts, current location Washington, two million?" John Wick looked at this price is very interested, but he has also heard of Stark Industries' big name, so he does not intend to act immediately, but first wait and see a wave, after all, as far as he knows, those big men of Stark Industries are not easy to deal with, the U.S. government is still very important for the safety of the rich, not to mention Pepper Potts is Stark's personal secretary.

But not all killers are as calm and analytical as John Wick with his brain, many people's eyes went straight after seeing the two million dollars, not to mention that the completion of the mission will also get them gold coins circulating within the Continental Hotel.

So with Pepper's exact location in hand, countless killers were on the move like sharks on the scent of blood, swooping down on Washington in all manner of vehicles.

And that's when Pepper Potts finally got through to Stark.

"Pepper, what's going on?" Stark, who had stepped out of the shielded area, also realised the seriousness of the problem.