Chapter 8

Laser

Things have changed with the events of the Dallas Tragedy, which the media is calling, or also giving the name of 7/15; a clear reference to 9/11 comparing the two events in the same proportion, clearly a move to attract more sympathizers to the side of the anti-mutant movement; Tony is leaning over his desk analyzing the satellite images taken by Veronica of the tragedy; trying to put together a manipulable image and especially to find what started it all; hoping to actually find something, because tensions have exploded and now the mutants are waiting for the attacks to begin; Tony is with his godfather Charles Xavier; both worried about the events and what would come in the future:

- How is everyone? – asked Tony:

- "Shocked by the events"! – replied Professor Xavier through his machine called Brain – "Afraid, waiting for retaliation"!

- "Activities as X-Men will have to be suspended or done in a discreet and secret manner"! – said Magneto:

- Understandable! – said Tony – But, will your enemies do the same?

- "No!" – Xavier replied – "Of course they won't!"

Tony continued to look at the footage of the events before the tragedy:

- Convenient that the tear gas smoke was used moments before the tragedy! – said Tony:

- "Very convenient!" said Erik Lehnsherr:

- Heat filter Jarvis! – Tony said. Jarvis changed the image by applying heat vision – Do the simulation!

Jarvis placed a manipulable image spreading throughout the workshop the situation moments before the Dallas Tragedy and began to run the simulation showing that the police had already advanced with their batons towards the crowd:

- They were aware that they were mutants protesting! – said Tony – The reaction would be with powers!

- "Indeed!" said Charles. "They could be obeying orders!"

- It doesn't justify what they did. - Tony said:

- "Don't rule out mental manipulation!" – said Lehnsherr:

- How do you prove mental manipulation? – asked Tony:

- "Physical signs"! – Professor Xavier replied – "Ironically, they do exist if you know what to look for and have a convincing lawyer when you present them to the jury"! "But there are also several forms of mind control whose signs are different and even there are no signs at all"!

- "Which makes things difficult!" – said Erik Lehnsherr.

Tony didn't say anything else, he just kept analyzing the image until two people in the middle of the confusion who were standing still, simply appeared out of nowhere and held hands and then the energy formed causing the huge explosion:

- What is this? – asked Tony:

- "It looks like Fenris"! – replied Magneto:

- What? – asked Tony:

- "Andrea and Andreas Von Strucker"! – replied Professor Xavier – "Separately they have relatively normal powers, but when they joined hands they surpassed even the strongest mutants of the time"! "They were part of the Hellfire Club and became terrorists"!

- Could the Hellfire Club be involved in this incident? – Tony asked:

- "Possible"! – Xavier replied – "But that means the club has been reformed"! "We can't do anything about this in the open"!

- "No!" – said Lehnsherr – "Let's do this in the shadows!"

Professor Xavier sighed:

- "We have support within the government, the tragedy did not take away that support, everyone knows that the police attacked when they were given the order to remain on the defense, but even so, our supporters are losing more and more power"! – said Xavier – "I fear that shelved anti-mutant bills will be brought to the surface once again"!

- We'll get through this! – said Tony:

- "It's good to see you optimistic, Tony!" – Xavier said, smiling – "Be careful if the Hellfire Club approaches you for a position. They approached your father and he was aware of the existence of mutants. He came to me before you were born and made me aware of the size of the club and offered to be an infiltrator. We worked together to destabilize it, which is why I ended up becoming your godfather!"

- I'll be careful! – said Tony:

- "Well, now, I have to discuss with the other X-Men what to do next"! – said Xavier:

- I'll call you if there's any news! – Tony said, ending the call.

It was another night in Hell's Kitchen, New York. Rosalyn Backus had come to this bar to drink. In fact, she didn't live in this neighborhood, but while walking around the city, she found him and liked him. Rosalyn would also admit that the bartender is also handsome, tall, muscular, with an easy smile, African descent, and well-mannered. Rosalyn's situation began a few years ago while she was working for the CIA developing body armor for agents, when her fiancé William Cross, now known as Crossfire, had faked his own death, stolen her work, and blamed her. But while she was rotting in a secret prison, a SHIELD agent had confronted Crossfire and cleared her. She was released and decided to leave the CIA. There was no more trust, and that's why Rosalyn ended up in New York, traveling without knowing what to do with her life now. She was taken out of her thoughts when the bartender replaced her beer:

- How did you know I wanted someone else? – Rosalyn asked:

- You were absorbed in your thoughts! – replied the bartender – I thought you needed another beer!

Rosalyn raised her beer in toast:

- Thank you Luke! – Rosalyn said thanking her and at that moment a man entered the bar, but this is of no interest to Rosalyn who is drinking her beer, it is of no interest when he sits next to her and it is of no interest when he orders a beer:

- Are you Rosalyn Backus? – asked the man next to him:

- Who wants to know? – asked Rosalyn:

- Happy Hogan! – Happy replied and Rosalyn almost choked on her beer and she looked at the man next to her and immediately recognized him, this is the man who has always been by Tony Stark's side; she spent a long time in prison, but even so, everyone inside knew about Iron Man's existence; his armor is any engineer's wet dream, she who dedicated herself to building body protection for secret agents, wanted to see what was under the plates:

- What does Tony Stark's Shadow want from me? - Rosalyn asked:

- My boss wants to hire you. - Happy replied:

- Because of my armor. - Rosalyn said - Your boss already has armor!

- An extremely expensive flying tank that has to be custom-made. - Happy explained - My boss has to exercise regularly to stay in shape; any change in weight or musculature, he has to redo the armor!

- This can be solved when he achieves nanotechnology. - Rosalyn said:

- That's what my boss said! - said Happy - He needs something that adapts to the user, is cheap to make and viable to sell to the military and security forces!

- You know who I am, your boss knows who I am, so you know what I've been through! – Rosalyn said:

- Traumas, lots of traumas! - said Happy - But, your work will save lives, that outweighs the harm that some people can do to it, my boss has to deal with this, but, you can refuse, forget that you had this conversation and move on with your life, but, I would give you a chance to think!

Happy left a card on the counter with the money for the drink:

- Think! – said Happy, standing up – If you don't get an answer after a month, I'll consider you refused!

Happy left the bar leaving Rosalyn with many thoughts:

- I would accept! – said Luke approaching – This is an opportunity you can't miss!

- My work was to save lives and out of patriotic duty, but it ended up being used as a weapon to kill innocent people! – said Rosalyn:

- This bar was a new beginning for me! – said Luke – Happy Hogan came on behalf of Tony Stark to offer you a new beginning, you know what people would do for that chance!

- I know, but I still need to think about it! – said Rosalyn, standing up and leaving money on the counter – Thank you Luke!

Rosalyn took the card and left the bar, three days later she called Stark Industries accepting the new job.

Tony was working on AIs; by switching servers, with his work on synthetic vibranium, he was able to develop better processors; he still couldn't achieve quantum processing, but in a few years, he could achieve that feat:

- How do you feel? – Tony asked Jarvis after he assimilated the new processors:

- I must say sir that I speak for everyone and we agreed to use the word "super"! – Jarvis replied. Tony smiled and went back to work; this would be a different year, his father due to the discovery of a new element would grant his father many posthumous awards that Tony would receive alongside his family. Now with these new processors, there would be no chance that his personal and company servers would be invaded; Jarvis and the others could deal with anything that came against them. Tony is enjoying the much needed time with his family; barbecue, time in the pool and bathing in the afternoon sun; everyone was present; friends and family, they could get together to enjoy the sunset.

Toni Ho was present, happy and joking; with everything that happened to her, Tony could see Toni's healing process and is happy that she made it; the healing process is still happening, her intelligence is showing and Tony is eager to see what Toni can do in the future. Tony had also invited Rhodes and his family, Glenda, Robert and Jasmine, as well as his niece, Lila Rhodes who had graduated from MIT with honors and was now working at Stark Industries and Tony was mentoring her to learn how to use the War Machine armor; Happy was also relaxing, for the first time in a long time he saw him relaxing on something other than watching TV series and he brought his girlfriend, Christine Everhart who was finally comfortable with everyone else, after all the initial relationship with them was totally professional, but now she was comfortable and Tony already imagined that there would be a marriage between her and Happy.

Tony had also invited Hope Van Dyne (Bug Girl), Sharon Rogers (Capys) and Sharon Carter (Shar-Bear) who were playing with the children or enjoying the sun. He wanted them in his life and to take advantage of being his children's aunts, in this case, Hope and Sharon; in the case of Rogers, Tony encouraged them to call her grandmother; seeing the indignation of being reminded that her age is priceless, he swears that Hope recorded this on her cell phone, if not, he made sure that Jarvis sent copies of the recording of the moment. Tony is working on his own projects, new designs for his armor, as well as weapons for it; he had time to dedicate himself to other of his experiments; he learned to manage his time waiting for it to start bearing fruit.

It didn't take long for this peace to catch up with them again; a large cache of their Ten Rings weapons, at least the last large cache, and Tony was in the Iron Man suit, with War Machine and Iron Woman; Tony had already made all the possible upgrades to the suits, only having to go to the next suit, he had improved the weapons and repulsors making the suit faster. The location of the base is north of Afghanistan, which Iron Man, War Machine and Iron Woman were given authorization to attack along with three SEALS teams that would come later; the job of the three was to eliminate the defenses and clear the way for the soldiers. On another note, Tony was watching the news while traveling when he saw that Doctor Steven Strange had suffered a car accident, the Hammer Industries pilot who had broken his back had no more hope, as for Strange he would still spend two years before going to train in Kamar-Taj.

The base was getting closer and closer:

- So, does everyone know the plan? – asks Rhodes:

- Of course we know, why do you ask? – asked Tony:

- In case you forgot Tony! – Rhodes replied in a funny way:

- You know I don't forget anything, Bicudo! – said Tony:

- I know, but you choose what you want to hear! – said Rhodes:

- Boys! – said Pepper – Focus!

- Your wife is right! – said Rhodes:

- I know! – said Tony – So, let's go over the plan!

Rhodes and Pepper sighed, already accustomed to Tony:

- The three of us will initially attack the perimeter by destroying the defense weapons, then I will sweep it, destroying what's left and closing the escape routes while you and Pepper enter different locations marked on the map and attack the terrorists! - Rhodes explained:

- It seems simple! – said Tony:

- Yeah! – Rhodes agreed – Let's clear the way for the SEALS!

- Terrorist base approaching! – said Jarvis:

- Showtime! – said Tony.

The three still in the air separated and then the missiles on their backs were fired hitting the defenses around the base, destroying them. War Machine quickly advanced, circling and destroying the machine gun nests; Iron Man and Iron Woman landed at different points of the terrorist base; both crossing the roof; Tony in his suit began to shoot at the terrorists, first with the right repulsor hitting the chest of the first terrorist; with the left repulsor hitting the second and then with the two repulsors hitting the third and continuing to hit all the terrorists; Tony was walking around the base shooting at all of them, taking them all down:

- Iron Man; Iron Woman! – Rhodes called – Report!

- Clearing the base and getting closer and closer to the weapons depot! – said Tony:

- All the terrorists on my side have been taken down! – said Pepper:

- Machine guns eliminated! – said Rhodes:

- No traps in the area detected! – said Jarvis:

- SEALS can come in! – said Rhodes:

- Arriving at the weapons and ammunition depot! – said Tony.

Tony was entering when the systems alerted him of something happening, but, Tony didn't see anything, but, he believes in the systems, but, unfortunately he can't react fast enough when a powerful punch hits him throwing him against the wall that sinks and Tony falls to the ground:

- Tony! – said Pepper – What happened?

- I don't know yet! – Tony replied – Stay on standby! Rhodes! Hold the SEALS, don't let them get close!

- Okay! – said Rhodes – Tony, I'll keep monitoring and I'll come in if things get bad!

Tony stood up and then saw a man in what looked like a completely purple armor with glowing eyes and light surrounding him, Tony could see the light surrounding the armor that was in front of him:

- Who are you? – asked Tony:

- The Living Laser! – replied the man:

- Okay! - Tony said, advancing towards the man, but when he threw a punch, the man simply disappeared and in the next instant he appeared at his side and with a punch threw him against the weapons and ammunition boxes and then, stunned by the blow, Tony saw him firing a blast of light that hit him causing a huge explosion demolishing part of the base; Tony was fine and whole, his life support was protecting him from the explosion and the heat, but his armor was truly burned; then Living Laser appeared and fired another blast throwing Tony back through the rubble and leaving the base area; Tony got up and Living Laser was in front of him:

- Without the villain monologue? – Tony asked, getting no response – Ok!

Tony fires the repulsor from his hands, but it has no effect, leaving Iron Man surprised:

- Your power has no effect against me! - said Living Laser and then he fires a burst of light photons hitting Tony with force that goes through the walls and through the surrounding terrain, falling to the ground and being dragged, opening a trench. Tony was knocked out for a while, but woke up with Jarvis' call:

- Sir! – said Jarvis, raising his voice:

- Status? – asked Tony:

- The armor withstood the impact, but the outer plates are seriously damaged! – Jarvis replied. Living Laser slowly approached, floating towards Tony:

- You see now Stark! – said Living Laser – I am more powerful than you by a large margin!

- What do you want? – asked Tony:

- Simple really! – replied Laser Vivo – Defeat him!

- Why? – asked Tony:

- You were the first, the precursor of armor users! – replied Living Laser – You took the first step in the creation of technological armor and I want to defeat you and thus I will become unstoppable and anyone who comes after me will be defeated too!

- Power? – asked Tony – It's a power game!

- Of course, it's always about power! – said Laser Vivo – Today, it was a warm-up, you'll know when the main show will happen!

In a blink of light, Living Laser disappeared, his instruments in the armor had not detected anything about his presence; he was truly gone and with that allowed Tony to relax a little while listening to Rhodes and Pepper's screams. Tony was fine, he was just sore and the external plates of his armor had to be removed, but in fact, he was fine, not so much with the threat of the Living Laser; Tony could only sigh and wonder when his life became this, facing someone who calls himself "Living Laser"; wondering if there is no imagination for a better name; Tony was back home; Rhodes was solving with the generals who didn't like the Living Laser's interference in the mission; Pepper was taking care of the company since the images leaked and the emergence of the Living Laser and he made news while Tony was thinking of ways to defeat him; which includes the construction of reflective panels:

- Sir, I have something you might be interested in watching! – Jarvis said, taking Tony out of his thoughts:

- Show me! – Tony said and Jarvis put on the screen, images of what he instantly recognized:

- "Hello people of New York, I think you know who I am; for those who live under rocks, I am the Living Laser"! – said the Living Laser – "The one who beat up Iron Man"!

- Where in New York? – asked Tony:

- Times Square! – Jarvis replied:

- "To Iron Man, I offer a rematch in front of the people of New York and the world"! – said Laser Vivo:

- Prepare my armor! – said Tony:

- Ready and waiting for you, sir! – said Jarvis:

- "If Iron Man doesn't show up, I'll destroy New York"! – said Laser Vivo ending the transmission:

- Call the police, tell them to clear the blocks around Times Square! – said Tony:

- Sending the warning! – said Jarvis.

Tony got into his armor and sped off towards New York:

- Tell Pepper and Rhodes! – said Tony – Having them around will help!

- Of course sir! – said Jarvis.

Tony directed almost all of his energy into his speed across the country and finally arriving in New York, and landing in the middle of an empty Times Square, no people, no cars, just Tony in his armor:

- I'm glad you came! – said Laser Vivo – The people of New York thank you!

- You threatened to destroy an entire city, you'll spend the rest of your life in prison! – said Tony:

- No prison can stop me, in the end, I will win and you will be dead! - said Laser Vivo:

- Well, you can try! – said Tony, raising his right arm and firing a missile, hitting Living Laser, who used his photon manipulation to raise a shield:

- Interesting, my turn! - said Laser Vivo firing a blast of light hitting Tony who was thrown back with force, skidding on the ground until he stopped:

- It looks like the new armor is holding up! – said Jarvis:

- Don't say it! - said Tony who stood up to receive a punch from the Living Laser being thrown through the wall of a building landing inside the store; Tony got up and raised his right arm defending himself from a punch from the Living Laser, applied a left punch to the chest and then a headbutt, grabbed him and flew up and then fell opening a crater in the ground using the Living Laser; Tony came out of the hole and fired another missile blowing up the hole, Living Laser manages to get out and hits Tony with a blast of light throwing him against a building and then appears where he landed and fires another blast making him cross several floors until he hits the ground making several debris fall on him:

- It's inevitable Iron Man! – said Laser Vivo – I'm superior to you in everything!

- I've heard that before! – said Tony, coming out of the rubble – It didn't end well for whoever said that!

Iron Man fired a blast from his repulsor with both hands, hitting Laser Vivo who was defending himself and was only dragged a few meters, but even so he suffered no damage:

- Are you crazy? – asked Laser Vivo – This doesn't work on me!

Iron Man stopped firing the repulsors:

- I know! – said Tony – But, what's behind you works!

- What? - asked Laser Vivo confused and then he looked back and saw a mine that exploded throwing him forward; Iron Man took advantage and picked up speed flying towards Laser Vivo and with his left arm hit Laser Vivo's chest throwing him hard backwards falling and rolling on the ground until he hit a wall breaking it and falling to the ground for good; Iron Man stopped skidding watching Laser Vivo get up and see his damaged armor:

- I may have come alone, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have help arriving later! - Tony said and then missiles hit the Living Laser throwing him to the side and falling to the ground; he got up and saw War Machine and Iron Woman gliding:

- Dude, you're in trouble! - said War Machine firing his machine gun at his right shoulder that Laser Vivo had to raise a photon shield to defend himself and that took his attention to Iron Woman who came from the side and punched him, throwing him to the side; Iron Man grabbed him and then headbutted him and threw him like a stone falling to the ground:

- Jarvis, adjust the repulsors, it's time to end this! – said Tony:

- Adjusting sir and the others are ready! – said Jarvis:

- Great, let's get started! – said Tony.

Tony fired the repulsor from his left hand, Living Laser raised the photon shield, but the repulsor shot went through the shield and hit his right shoulder, damaging that part of his armor:

- What? – asked Laser Vivo:

- Please, did you think you would never work to overcome his defense or find a way to hit him? - Tony asked; all of the Living Laser's attention was on killing Iron Man who didn't notice the repulsor shots hitting him; he turned around and saw that War Machine and Iron Woman had hit him too, damaging parts of his armor, showing that by denying the Living Laser's photon manipulation, he had an armor that could be considered fragile; Tony fired the left repulsor and then the right one more and finally the repulsors of both hands hitting the Living Laser in the chest and knocking him to the ground, his armor that shone in a very light purple darkened until it was dark purple, almost black and by the analysis it was deactivated:

- Tadashi, call the police to arrest the Living Laser! – said Rhodes:

- Warning! – said Tadashi.

Tony took off the Living Laser's visor and they could finally see his face and by scanning it, they could finally come up with an identification; the police that were on the perimeter had arrived; breaking the armor into pieces, they had taken out the man who was piloting it:

- Is he all your Officer….? – asked Rhodes:

- Sergeant Brett Mahoney! – said Sergeant Mahoney approaching and handcuffing the Living Laser – Thank you for stopping this terrorist!

- So he's going to be tried for terrorism? – asked Pepper, opening her visor:

- I'm not the prosecutor Mrs. Stark, but the threat you made to the city could warrant this level of prosecution! - replied Sergeant Mahoney while Laser Vivo woke up and was escorted to a police car and placed in it, immediately leaving for the police station's prison. At that moment, the sensors indicated an increase in heat and everyone saw the pieces of the armor glow and then catch fire, quickly consuming everything without leaving anything to be used:

- He'll stay alive! – said Rhodes – The government will want this technology!

Tony sighed, knowing what his friend said was true. In the end, Tony paid for the damages and on the same day the streets of Times Square were repaired, allowing traffic to flow normally. The damaged buildings would take longer to be analyzed and then repaired. After days of solving the problem with the New York authorities, Tony returned home, but not before identifying the Living Laser. Arthur Parks, a genius who went mad after being rejected by the woman he loves, socialite Lucy Barton. Crazy, he thought that with his power he could win Lucy back, and so he built his armor and named himself the Living Laser. He thought that if he defeated Iron Man, he would be indisputable. Tony sent all the data he had obtained to the police and simply went home. He would follow Parks' case from afar. Days later, Arthur Parks had said nothing. Every day a new interrogator would appear and stay in a room for hours until the investigator gave up. The only words he had said were:

- "No one will have access to my technology; you are beneath me!" Parks shouted.

Tony let the government beat Parks' head, he was now focused on a SHIELD report that Jarvis had found of something that happened recently; Black Widow was in New York to investigate a sale promise that consisted of making anyone indestructible; with that she infiltrated the negotiation and discovered and identified Damon Dran, a wealthy businessman who is taking on the name of Indestructible, showing potential buyers that in fact, he is indestructible, anything that could kill was being thrown at him and he didn't move or suffer at all; Natasha was supposed to work to eliminate the means by which Dran acquired his new powers while ensuring that everyone present was arrested; with a coordination with the attack team, they entered, when Natasha was close to Indestructible and with that they were able to chase him when the assault team entered and began making arrests; Black Widow fought him with all her strength and using all her techniques she managed to knock him out and ensured that he went to the Raft and to finish the mission Natasha blew up the laboratory where Indestructible got his powers.

Tony thought that Bruce Banner had left the country, his cousin Jennifer and Betty also thought so, but the work with the SMASH Group guaranteed a clean record before the government and also a clean record to the international governments that Bruce visited while on the run; in addition to an advantageous agreement so that Bruce would not sue the American government; now, Bruce is doing his trip to Asia the right way; it was then while he was preparing to go to the airport in San Diego that he became extremely bothered by a constant buzzing and to avoid transforming he decided to move away from the population center and find out where this buzzing was coming from that only the enhanced hearing he gained from the Hulk allowed him to hear; each time he got closer, the buzzing got more intense until he could not hold it and transformed into the Hulk that caught people's attention and the Hulk with his strength jumped in the direction he knew where the buzzing was coming from and landed in the middle of a situation that neither he nor Bruce were expecting, a man in purple armor with red legs and a golden bell-shaped head firing what seemed to be a sonic weapon at a rock band; The moment he saw the Hulk, the man fired his gun, which to his surprise threw the Hulk back; this simple hand-held weapon that produced sound waves was stronger than the sound cannons during the Culver University incident, but the Hulk managed to fight him and defeated him, destroying his weapon and armor. While he was arrested, he learned the name of his enemy, Dr. Bong; Hulk and Bruce laughed at this name. Later, while waiting for the flight, Bruce got a real name, Lester Green; a scientist and journalist who was writing a book about the decadence of the backstage of rock bands. During a performance, things went too far and Lester lost his hand and used his scientific knowledge to get revenge. However, he failed and ended up in jail. Bruce finally caught the flight to Asia.

Among Thor's adventures, this time it came from a warning from Heimdall that the Executioner's Axe had been found and that it had taken on a new wielder who called himself Bloodaxe; the Executioner's Axe is simply an ordinary axe that participated in a battle several millennia ago and that all the hatred, pain, despair, anger and bloodlust was placed inside the axe making it an evil object and whoever carried it a warrior thirsty for blood without remorse, compassion or pity, the first to take it was Skurge who became the Executioner, but Amora, the Enchantress managed to control the axe making Skurge her most faithful and dedicated servant, but, as time passed, Skurge completely assumed all the characteristics of the axe, so much so that when he left it he did not undergo any change to his previous state; Loki took charge of hiding the axe in Midgard in a deserted place, but, apparently, using Earth to hide dangerous things from Asgard is not a good idea in the present day, because someone had found the axe and was using it, causing chaos in the lands known today as Norway; Thor left with the help of Sif, Volstagg, Frandal and Hogun; Thor and the others were fully aware that at the time Skurge had the axe he was extremely powerful to the point that Odin was the only one capable of defeating him, becoming manageable after losing the Executioner's Axe, but now Thor and the others had to contain this threat, Odin was solving other problems under the Allfather's jurisdiction and therefore, everyone knew that this would be a long fight and that's what happened; Thor was thankful for being in a deserted area, because it was devastated due to the power of Bloodaxe, a mortal and human who was transformed into an Asgardian in strength, resistance and power; wearing black armor with a red skull mask and golden gauntlets; it was a fierce fight and in the end Thor used all his power to disarm Bloodaxe so that Sif could pierce his chest and kill him with a blow of her sword; when the fight was over and the armor had dissipated they realized that they had killed an innocent victim; Thor brought the builders and gold to pay Norway to restore the battlefield in addition to identifying the victim of the Executioner's Axe; Jackie Lukus, a mortal passionate about history who was traveling the world on an expedition to find new historical sites and ended up tripping over the axe; the axe was carefully placed in a magically sealed chest and taken back to Asgard and at Sif's request, a memorial was erected in honor of Jackie Lukus and the victims of Bloodaxe.

From the SHIELD reports that Tony accessed, one of the missions that Hawkeye carried out was the infiltration and dismantling of the Atlas Foundation, an organization that promotes the well-being of the world with its technology in favor of life and the environment; this is what the company shows to everyone, but it is commanded by the Yellow Claw; at first it was not possible to make the connection, but then months before, a new player entered the underworld, the Yellow Claw, Hawkeye was sent to investigate and discover the size of his domain, but he ended up going deeper and deeper and discovered his connection to the Atlas Foundation being the founder and that he maintained his longevity, thanks to a formula called the Blood Pool and that he is a descendant of Ghenghis Khan and plans to dominate the world as his ancestor had almost achieved and his real name is Plan Chu and due to modern times he found the name Yellow Claw insulting, so he changed it to Golden Claw; Hawkeye had reported what he had discovered and Fury's orders were to destroy the Atlas Foundation and if possible capture Plan Chu, but if he had no other choice he should kill him and reinforcements were on the way, with that Hawkeye faced the Golden Claw ninjas, there were many, he ran out of arrows and had to resort to a katana from one of the dead ninjas and had to recover from his memory the fencing lessons killing several ninjas and suffering many injuries until he arrived and managed to face Golden Claw; in the end he got help from reinforcements from SHIELD agents and Zelda DuBois, Princess Python; with that Hawkeye decapitated Golden Claw aware that his downfall was due to his pride in changing his name; injured and at death's door, Nick Fury administered an injection of the Infinity Formula that saved Clint Barton's life; while sending Hawkeye to rest he focuses on dismantling the Atlas Foundation and the entire Golden Claw structure.

Brian Falsworth, the Union Jack and his sister, Jacqueline Falsworth, the Spitfire had gotten into the routine of fighting bandits throughout England and were spreading to Scotland and Wales; they were getting into a routine when they managed to prevent a political assassination by a mutant with sharp claws, super speed and super reflexes that made the fight extremely difficult for them, but, they managed to fend off the assassin, healing from the injuries, they discovered that the mutant is called Richard Gill, American, mutant, professional killer of world caliber and staunch defender of mutant rights who goes by the name of Wildside; Project Excalibur assigned Linda McQuillan who received the Super Soldier Serum and which awakened her mutant powers that allow her to fly and generate a force field; She goes by the name of UK and with her help, they faced Wildside once again who was attacking a group of politicians and then they were confronted with Wildside's powers to generate hallucinations and solidify them, this became a problem since the fight took up a larger area, but, UK's force field generation allows her protection against the hallucinations and soon she proves herself to be an expert in hand-to-hand combat while Union Jack and Spitfire dealt with the solidified hallucinations, UK managed to defeat and knock out Wildside who ended up arrested; with that, Union Jack offered her a place on the team which she John Braddock, the Black Lion, Meggan Braddock, Gloriana and his wife, his sister Betsy Braddock, Psylocke were on a mission fighting terrorism on English soil, especially from radical mutants who have no problem sacrificing innocents for their rights; due to the tragedy that occurred a few months ago; July 15th; the Dallas Tragedy had repercussions around the world, governments around the world were talking about tougher laws against mutants, most were stopped before gaining strength, but in other parts it was gaining more and more strength and this is causing contrary reactions, in England it was no different; this time the three were receiving support from the newest agent of Project Excalibur; Kelsey Leigh; teacher, single mother of two children, unidentified father, expert in sports fencing, attacked and disfigured by two bandits, children murdered and she set out in revenge killing the two bandits and destroying the entire gang, mortally wounded, was saved by Peter Wisdom, trained and received the Super Soldier Serum earning the name Lionheart and was sent to them to act in the newest case, two mutant brothers, radicals, murderers and terrorists, Haruo and Ishiro Tsuburaya; brothers, the Kamikaze and the Samurai respectively, have the same powers, ability to fly and accelerate atomic friction between air molecules to cause an explosion; the four hunted the two brothers who were committing attacks across Great Britain; Lionheart was soon showing his violence in approaching the bandits; they didn't care, the hunt finally made the four confront Kamikaze and Samurai in a violent fight destroying some blocks, but in the end they managed to get them out of the city before they caused a suicide explosion that would certainly have destroyed half the city, all four narrowly escaped, but, badly injured, they received treatment from Project Excalibur and also received some time off, when they returned, Lionheart had joined the team.

When Tony saw the images that came from Tulsa, Texas, he immediately wanted to know more. A face with a head on fire showing only the skull riding a burning motorcycle certainly catches the eye and adds something out of what everyone considers common. Well, the confirmation of Norse gods could be the most extraordinary thing they have ever experienced, but this adds a new layer to the extraordinary. Tony does his research, especially when this biker had turned himself in to the police. He was identified as Johnaton "Johnny" Blaze, an extremely talented motorcycle acrobat. It was proven that it runs in the family since his father did the same. That's when reporter Roxanne Simpson gave the whole story. Johnny Blaze sold his soul to save his father from certain death due to incurable cancer. He sold it to the demon called Mephisto. He is an extra-dimensional demon that enslaves human souls and demons too. Mephisto likes to play with his victims since Barton Blaze died in an accident after being cured. Now. He had approached Johnny due to his son Blackheart having rebelled and was after the tortured souls of the San Venganza Massacre, since if he absorbed them he would be able to create his own hell on Earth; Johnny would receive his soul back if he stopped Blackheart and for that he made Johnny be possessed by the demon Zarathos to become the Ghost Rider making a note that Johnny Blaze was not the first and would not be the last to be possessed by Zarathos; in fact; the Ghost Rider used his Penance Stare so that Blackheart would suffer the pain of the victims of the massacre caused by his father and thus defeat Blackheart and get his soul back, but Johnny kept Zarathos to fight evil entities that threaten the Earth.

Tony, upon hearing about this, was inclined to believe it; he knew that this could go down further, when Jennifer Waters came to him asking to be a lawyer to defend Johnny Blaze, Tony accepted; Jennifer is the She Hulk, well-regarded and well-loved, she would gain visibility and set a precedent for defending heroes and vigilantes and in fact with a passionate defense she managed to exonerate Johnny of the murder of his friend Mack and set a precedent in court about demonic possession and the ability to prove that Jennifer does it without problems, in addition to Johnny claiming that Zarathos is in control of his body when he transforms, he remembers, but is not in control, and this makes Johnny pay a portion to repair the damages and with that he is free to continue as Ghost Rider and Tony makes an important connection with him through Jennifer.

Tony was now focused on his projects, he had a lot to do and develop before presenting them to the world; some things he was doing he was hiding from his friends, he would tell them when he had something concrete, but the world wouldn't know yet, it's not the time, but he would be ready when the time came; between his projects he had time for family and friends and he was very happy with that, happier than he had ever been in the other timeline and Tony was determined to have every good moment in his memory and one of those moments was when Tony in a moment of relaxation and rest and happiness with family and friends saw Happy ask Christine Everhart's hand in marriage after a year of dating and she said yes and to Tony's surprise he saw her cry with emotion as she answered and hugged Happy and everyone was celebrating and congratulating the new couple of husband and wife and Tony certainly had that happy moment saved in his memory.