Tony Stark looked across his desk. "Tom, we just had our six-month meeting three weeks ago. You're not the type to waste my time, so give me the short version: is this really good news, or really bad news?"

Tom shrugged. "It's kinda bad news, but not major. Just the kind of thing you ought to know about immediately." He paused. "We got hacked."

Tony perked up. "Hacked? Someone got into our servers for Stark Super Solutions?"

"Yup. And they went straight for the personnel records. Grabbed everything we had."

"So what did they get?"

Tom grinned viciously. "A bunch of videos. Wilson Fisk in the sauna. Wade Wilson trying on various X-Women's costumes. The Wendigo at dinner time. And Wyatt Wingfoot's colonoscopy."

Tony smiled back. "So, they hit the fake server on 'W' week. But Wyatt Wingfoot? How'd you get his colonoscopy video? And why?"

Tom looked down bashfully. "Truth to tell, it's just some random colonoscopy video. We assigned it to Wingfoot to fill out the 'W' quota. No one was brave enough to use anything from Wolverine in case he found out, everyone likes the Wasp too much to get her mixed up in this, and Wizard and Wonder Man would be boring."

Tony shook his head. "I really, ,really don't want to know how you came up with 26 different sets of nightmare fuel videos to distract any would-be hackers. I have a hunch if I did find out, I'd have no choice but to fire you and turn you over to the authorities. And that doesn't even begin to cover how you would have got those videos..."

Tom shrugged. "What you don't know, you don't have to explain under oath, boss."

"Still, this isn't something we can let go unanswered, Tom. Who was it?"

"Well, we kept them on line as long as we could. Those videos are padded and encrypted, and we have sniffers on the lines that kick in immediately, but there's no way of absolutely knowing who was at the other end. It could have been any number of groups, using any number of layers of false flags, coming in through..."

"Tom."

Tom gave up. "AIM. I can't prove it, but I know it. I'm 99% confident in that."

Tony nodded. "Standard procedure, then."

"Already done. Every scrap pulled together, absolutely critical info about us redacted, and the rest passed on to SHIELD. As per our deal with them, we'll get a summary of what they do about it within a week or so."

"Good. Keep me posted. Anything else?"

Tom winced. "Maybe. I'm getting vibes that Dave might be getting a little hero itch."

Tony's smile vanished. "That's not good. What's he done?"

"Nothing big... yet. We have plausible deniability, but there was a high-speed police chase that happened to end up near him when he was working a job. The cops are curious why the fleeing bad guy's car just stopped for no apparent reason right near where Dave was, but aren't looking in the gift horse's mouth too closely. Also, he wasn't in uniform, so there's little reason for anyone to suspect anything."

"You think it's gonna be a problem in the future?"

Tom shrugged. "Again, there's no way to be certain. It could be a little more residual guilt from his hitman-wannabe phase, but my gut says that Dave's got too good a head on his shoulders. This was a fluke, and while he might have reacted on instinct, his instincts were good enough to do it with enough subtlety and avoid any attention. I think if I give him the standard 'you done good, but you were lucky this time – make sure you're just as lucky the next time you break the rules or else' talk, he'll take it to heart."

"Good. I don't want to give the 'so you wanna be a hero, great – go be a hero somewhere else' talk. Although I think he'd be a good match for the X-Men. Just think what he'd do with their 'Fastball Special' maneuver."

Tom whistled. "That'd be something to see. He wouldn't even have to touch Wolverine." Tom glared at his boss. "Thanks a heap, boss. Now I'm going to have that thought stuck in my head – and no way of ever seeing it happen."

Tony laughed. "Rank has its privileges, Tom." He then turned serious again. "Sounds like you have things well in hand, and you kept me informed just like you're supposed to. Good job. Now get back to work."

Tom stood and headed for the door. "I'll pass along what I get from SHIELD on the hackers. Wanna put a bet on it being AIM or someone else?"

"No chance. I know about your 'hunches.' That's how you got three of your last raises, as I recall."

"Four, actually, but who's counting?"

"Get out of here, you con artist."