Avengers: Unbreakable
The Avengers and all related characters and settings are the property of Marvel Inc. and their respective affiliates. All rights reserved (by them, not me).
Episode 1: Confluence
Chapter 25
Previous relevant chapter: 21
Stark Industries Global Headquarters, Queens, New York
Tony Stark stood in his private lab, adjacent to his office, wearing what looked like a breastplate from the middle ages. Only it was made of an alloy of metals so complex no medieval blacksmith could have comprehended it - it had taken Stark's fastest computer three days to work out the components and proportions. It had a round hole in the center of the chest where Stark envisioned mounting a weapon.
But for now, he was fiddling with a complicated thruster assembly small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. The thruster was already embedded into an armored glove. But it was connected to a ceiling-high bank of batteries.
Stark had developed a reputation as the greatest miniaturizer of weapons, power sources and other technology in the world, but even he was having trouble with this one. He (too) had cameras recording his every move and word as he worked, and he spoke into the void for their documentation.
"I don't know how I'm going to get a power source portable enough for this thing," he said. "Might have to miniaturize the arc reactor." He looked down at the hole in the breastplate. "But that would mean mounting it here, instead of putting weaponry here." He looked at some specs on a table.
"Oh well. The miniaturized repulsor appears to work well."
He pointed the armored glove toward a target on the far side of the room and pressed a lever embedded in a recess in the glove. A high-pitched power-up sound, as if someone had packed an entire jet engine into a soup can, rose in the room. Then a pulse of energy blasted from the thruster in the glove. The recoil was modest; Stark easily held the glove in place. But on the other side of the room, the target exploded.
He looked with satisfaction at the shards of the destroyed target, some of them embedded in the ceiling, some in walls. Just then, his phone beeped. Stark answered merely by speaking into the air.
"Tony Stark."
"Tony, it's Tim. I think I've got this joint done, but Good Lord, do you know how many pieces there are to it?"
"Uh, should be about two hundred and eighteen if I designed it right," Stark said.
"I guess I should have known better than to ask you a question like that. Want me to send it to your private lab like the others?"
"Yeah, send it on up Tim."
"You mind if I ask what you're building up there?"
"That's top secret," Stark answered.
"You know, just based on the parts I've already built, I can make a pretty good guess."
"Then that would make you top secret, my boy, so how about I throw an extra 50K onto your bonus this year, and you promise to keep it just between us."
The voice on the other end laughed. "Tony, you know I'd keep it secret anyway. But I'll take the 50K."
"Well you got it my friend. So you'll bring the joint up?"
"Yeah, on my way."
"Good. I'll try to be dressed. Bye."
At the voice prompt "bye," the intercom switched off. Stark was just about to put the glove down and turn to an elbow assembly lying on the table next to him, when it happened.
He never did remember hearing the explosion. All he remembered was that the room seemed to ripple and warp briefly, like the whole thing were liquefying and turning on its end, and then he was suddenly flying through the air - still standing in the same position, only flying across the room – then a concussion like a wall of compressed air hit his eardrums, and he was slammed to the floor.
After that, his body wouldn't seem to work right. Still, though his head throbbed with pain, he managed to look up, and he saw that most of the exterior wall of his lab had been blown out.
Then he saw what was coming through it.