AVENGERS EVOLUTION

in

"The Chessboard Is Set - Avengers Assemble Part One"

Note: All characters and locations mentioned here are property of Marvel Comics Inc, I claim no ownership to them whatsoever.

PART TEN

Stark Enterprises Reception Area

April 2005

"Stark Enterprises, please hold .. Stark Enterprises, please hold ..."

Things were just way out of control in the offices of Stark Enterprises, the phone boards were overwhelmed by phone calls frompeople wanting to meet up with the billionaire playboy Anthony Stark. Mrs. Arbogast, a personal assistant for Howard Stark who was the late president of Stark Enterprises, had another duty at the moment – and that was monitoring the phone board.

When it seemed to be hopeless, she was greeeted by a familiar face, James Rhodes. Rhodes was many things, he was security chief at Stark Ent., Tony Stark's personal pilot, and his legal guardian.

"Hey there, Mrs. A." Rhodes smiled. "Trying your hand at another profession?"

She looked at the short haired young man with a look of disdain. "Where is Tony?" She exclaimed.

The african-american Rhodes was taken aback by the sudden lashing of fury in his direction. "Easy there! Don't take all your frustrations out on me!"

The elderly woman sighed. "I'm sorry, Mr. Rhodes," she apologized. "But with the receptionist on personal leave, everyone has taken this opportunity to request meetings with Mr. Stark – and he's nowhere to be found!"

"Don't worry, Mrs. Arbogast. I'll find Tony soon enough." He turned and started to walk into one of the offices, but stopped when Mrs. Arbogast spoke up.

"Oh, Mr. Rhodes," she piped up. "We received a call from some unknown party in search for Iron Man. But when I asked for the caller's identity – they hung up."

Rhodes didn't think much of it. "Probably some sort of prank call, I wouldn't let it worry you. Meanwhile I'll track down sweet little Tony." And with that, he entered the main office – with the door sliding shut behind him.

Main Office

James Rhodes stepped into the office, with the door sliding shut behind him. He turned and pressed a few keys on the keypad next to the door, the door locked shut – guaranteeing him complete privacy.

"Tony, Tony, Tony," he wondered to himself. "Where the heck are you?"

"Am I correct in assuming you are looking for master Tony Stark?" asked a voice.

Rhodes turned around to face a silvery humanoid figure, it was a holographic projection -Tony's supercomputernamed H.O.M.E.R. Rhodes wasn't sure if he named it that after the Greek philosopher or after Homer Simpson.

"Sorry to wake you, Homer." He said. "I was just thinking aloud."

"Might I remind you," replied H.O.M.E.R, "that I am a powerful super computer created by Mr. Stark himself – I do not require sleep of any kind."

Rhodes gave a little chuckle. "I was only being sarcastic."

H.O.M.E.R paused as he began to compute what Rhodes had just said. Finally it replied, "Sarcasm; noun. A harsh or bitter derision or irony. I do not believe that I have been programmed with that yet." Rhodes sighed and took a seat at the desk at the end of the room. "So tell me, Homer. Where is Tony right now?"

"Searching ...It began its computations, giving little beeps and squeegles. Finally all the noises came to a halt when it replied, "Tony Stark is currently at the mansion. Shall I contact him for you?"

Rhodes shook his head. "No, I can take care of it on my own."

"Might I inquire how, Mr. Rhodes?"

"By use of the telephone." He picked up the receiver and began pressing some buttons.

H.O.M.E.R changed his voice to sound like Scotty from Star Trek. "Ahhh .. A telephone .. How quaint!"

"Homer, we really need to get you off those Star Trek references." Rhodes smirked, and then turned his full attention to the call.

Stark Mansion

890 Fifth Ave.

All was quiet at the Stark Mansion, located in the heart of New York City. Between 70th and 71st street, it was built under the watchful eye of the late Howard Stark. Now it was home to Tony Stark, and the Stark family butler, a man who swore his loyalty to Howard Stark himself, Jervis.

Jarvis was busy dusting the place, when the phone on the nearby table began to ring. Casually placing his duster down, he walks with purpose, picks up the ringer, and places the receiver to his ear.

"Stark Residence," he said with a professional air in his voice. " ... ah yes, Mr. Rhodes ... Mawster Stark, sir? ... No sir, I have not seen Mawster Stark at all."

Stark Enterprises

"Well, if you see or hear from him, will you have him call me at work?"

"Very well sir," replied Jarvis, just as he hung up.

"Well," Rhodes said aloud. "Tony is not there."

The silver coated hologram shook its head. "Incorrect." It replied. "Tony Stark is at the mansion - do you wish me to ...?"

But Rhodes shook his head, and had a smile on his face. "No, that wont be necessary Homer. I know Tony is there, Jarvis wouldnt lie unless he was told to." He got up to his feet and approached the bookcase against the wall. Pulling a book out caused the row of shelves, revealing a large blank monitor. "Display the security camera closest to Tony."

H.O.M.E.R gave a blank look as it did its thing. "Processing ..."

The monitor came to life, revealing a black and white image of a young man wearing a bating helmet, carrying a baseball bat, standing in front of an oversized computer screen.

"And now, up to bat for the New York Yankees, the youngest person to play professional baseball - Anthony Stark! YAY!"

Young Tony Stark stood on the spot which represented home plate, there on the large monitor he stood in front of the viewpoint of the batter, there on the pitcher's mound stood Curt Schilling - pitcher for the 2004 World series champions Boston Red Sox. The bat was built specially, the technology took readings of every swing - so if swung at the right moment then the bat would make contact with the ball and the results would be recorded accordingly.

"The bases are loaded," he said to himself. "The Yankees are only behind by three runs, if Tony Stark can manage to hit a home run - they'll win this year's World Series."

He tapped his bat on his imaginary cleats, actually he was wearing runners. He held up the bat, and gripped it tightly as he stood ready to take the pitch-Curt Schilling made his wind up and fired the pitch right at Tony.

"I'm sorry to disturb, Mawster Stark ..." spoke Jarvis's voice from the intercom.

Tony swung furiously, and hit nothing but air. "STRIKE ONE!" The umpire yelled.

The ball was passed back to Schilling.

"Pause program." Tony ordered, as he placed the bat down. The word PAUSED appeared on the center of the screen, as Tony approached the intercom."What is it, Jarvis? I thought I told you I didn't want to be disturbed."

"Mawster Stark, I do not feel comfortable with being .. deceptive .."

"Jarvis, no one must know that I am here - absolutely no one."

"But Mawster Rhodes..."

"No one is supposed to know - not even 'Mawster Rhodes'."

"Understood. My apologies." The intercom shut off, and Tony took his place back at the plate, picking up the bat.

"The count is now oh and one," he said to himself as he took his stance. "Stark is familiar with the importance to all of this ..." He cleared his throat. "Resume program."

The PAUSED sign disappeared, and Curt Schilling began his movements on the mound again, and then wound up to throw the next pitch.

"TONY!" shouted a voice.

Tony swung, obviously hitting nothing but air. "STRIKE TWO!" The umpire yelled.

"PAUSE PROGRAM!" Tony shouted, and then rushed over to the intercom. "NO INTERRUPTIONS, JARVIS!"

"Tony - over here!" the voice said again, it wasn't coming from the intercom - but a nearby monitor. He turned to recognize the face.

"Roadie," he laughed, "what a pleasant surprise."

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" Rhodes asked. "Why are you at the mansion, and not at Stark Enterprises?"

Tony sighed. "I needed to let off some steam - and work was just bumming me out."

"Tony, you are the head of Stark Enterprises - you have responsibilities. There was a reason why your father ..."

This angered Tony. "Don't you dare talk about my father!"

"Look, I didn't anything by it." Rhodes sighed. "Look Mrs. Arbogast is running reception right now, and she's probably likely to collapse at any moment."

Finally Tony decided to let Rhodes win. "Okay, you win - I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Good. Should I send a car to pick you up?"

Tony shook his head,. "Naw, no need to send loyal Bascombe."

Rhodes gave him a confused look. "Huh?"

"Never mind, Roadie. I'll just take the Iron Man armor and fly over there - I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Ok, but be careful."

"Don't worry, you can have H.O.M.E.R. track my movements. I'll be as quick as I can."

"Just don't be too quick ... and don't call me ..." Tony quickly shut the monitor off before he could finish the sentence, he took his place back into the batter's box and took his stance - with bat in hand.

"Resume program," he replied, tightening his grip. Curt Schilling looked at him with evil eyes, as he squinted at him. He wound up, and fired a high-heat fastball, Tony swung - and then...

The umpire called out, "STRIKE THREE - YER OUT!"

As the other players rushed up to congratulate Curt Schilling, the words GAME OVER appeared on the center of the screen.

Tony dropped the bat and walked away. "I didn't like baseball anyways." He said to himself. Pressing a hidden button along the wall, a panel opened up - revealing the armor of Iron Man.

Outside the mansion, a panel opened up on the rooftop and a red-and-yellow object shot up into the sky and flew away - unaware that he was being followed by two attack helicopters. No one seemed to notice them since they were cloaked and out of view from the public, they were given explicit orders - get Iron Man at all costs.

"Iron Man, Iron Man, friendly neighborhood Iron Man," sung Iron Man, as he flew through the air. "Tony Stark is a friend of mine .. I cant think of another line .. LOOK OUT! Here comes the Iron Man!"

A voice piped up from Iron Man's helmet, it was H.O.M.E.R. "Apologies, but I must point out that the song you have just sung belongs to Spider-Man."

"Relax Homer," said Iron Man. "It's not like he has the song copywrighted or anything."

Suddenly an alarm went off. "Missle approaching," replied H.O.M.E.R. "Suggest evasive action!"

"Huh? Where!" Iron Man looked around to see a missle coming right up his tail, he managed to dodge it in time - zooming past at breakneck speed and slamming into a nearby water tower, reducing it to flying water and kindling.

"Where did that come from, Homer?"

"Unknown. sensors are not registering anything."

He looked around, finding no sign of any aircraft of any kind. "Let's take a different look." A pair of special lenses slid down the eye slots as he looked towards where the missle came from, he noticed a multicolored object through the red-lenses.

"It would appear that there is a cloaked craft." replied H.O.M.E.R.

"Thank you for being blatantly obvious, Homer."

The craft released a pair of missles at Iron Man, realizing he was too close to a populated area, he hit the afterburners and headed towards the bay - with the missles hot on his heels.

He managed to reach the bay, Iron Man turned to face the two missles screaming for him. "Let's see how these missles react to some ol' fashioned repulsors."

But H.O.M.E.R. had to interject. "The armor repulsors are state of the art," it stated. "They are by no means ..."

"Now is NOT the time, Homer!" He held his palms open as he faced the oncoming missles, firing both repulsors - ripping both missles to pieces. H.O.M.E.R. seemed to notice something.

"Sensors indi ... ZZZT no explosives ... BZZT ... missles," replied H.O.M.E.R. through static.

"You're breaking up, Homer. Homer?"

But he got nothing more than audible static, until it was replaced by the familair sound of the armor's AI. "Communications are currently offline." replied a female voice.

"Just great," moaned Tony. "Guess I'm on my own for now."

Back at Stark Enterprises ...

"I have lost the signal." replied HOMER.

Rhodes quickly looked at the video screen, the blip that represented Tony had vanished without a trace. He quickly hit the button to engage radio contact.

"Iron Man!" He shouted. "Respond!"

Suddenly the screen changed, on it was now the face of a man wearing an eyepatch. Jim Rhodes recognized the man as being Nick Fury.

"Sorry to have to do this," he said. "But SHIELD is in need of Iron Man - by order of the president."

Iron Man tried his best to restablish communications with HOMER, but with no success. Suddenly an aircraft materialized right in front of the armored superhero.

"So, you guys wanna surrender." spoke Iron Man.

A voice piped up from his communicator. "My name is Nick Fury, high commander of SHIELD. We're in desperate need for you."

"What was with the missles? And what does SHIELD want with me?"

"The missles were never armed, they were just meant to get your attention." Suddenly a hatch opened up at the side of the craft. "Just enter the craft and everything will be explained."

Tony knew of SHIELD, he knew that his father dealt with them and Nick Fury in the past - Fury and SHIELD were well known by all. But what would they need Iron Man?

He flew over and entered the open hatch of the craft. "Ok, I'm in - this better be good!"

Suddenly the hatch quickly closed shut, before he could react something was attached to his back - sending a massive voltage through the armor and knocking him unconscious; ultimately shutting the armor down.

The craft turned round, with Iron Man inside, and shot upwards to the heavens - melting back into the blue sky like a ghostly apparition.

Things can only get better - who'll be next? Stay tuned...