The scream of the Arc Core dying had been agonizing, but the sound that followed was deafening. It was a terrifying CRACK of pure, displaced air, a thunderclap inside the cellar that hit Alex like a physical wave. Thor hadn't slammed Mjolnir down; he'd brought it down next to the stone floor, the resulting shockwave a calculated, non-lethal strike meant only to disorient. The overwhelming force was too much for his unaugmented body, leaving him battered and bruised, and he blacked out immediately.
He woke up to the smell of dust, ozone, and pine. His entire body felt like broken glass, but the deepest, most acute ache came from his chest, where the EMP and the shockwave had left him with a blistering burn. He was no longer in the cellar. He was lying back in the white, silky sheets of his bedroom, the pain so sharp it stole his breath. He tried to sit up, stifling a moan.
Pepper Potts was sitting in the armchair, her face pale, strained, and marked by hours of cover-up. "Don't move," she ordered, her voice tight with professional exhaustion. "You've been out for almost nine hours. You have three cracked ribs, a severe concussion, and a serious burn from... whatever that thing was." Alex's eyes darted down. The Arc Core was gone. The only evidence was the raw, angry thermal mark on his sternum. The power is gone. The System's cold verification was a punch to the gut: [System Status: Arc Core (Prototype 1.0) LOST. All external components compromised.]
"The police were here," Pepper whispered, her words clipped. "A tactical cleanup crew, really. The basement is destroyed. Three dead bodies. We told them it was a highly volatile weapons prototype test, a classified Stark project that went wrong." Alex knew he couldn't tell her the truth. He had to be the troubled teenager. "A security project," Alex rasped, forcing his voice to sound weak and desperate. "I knew Obadiah was moving. I tried to build an alarm, something to scare them off, but it went... wrong." It was a lie built on a core of truth, and Pepper, emotionally drowning in Tony's disappearance, clutched at the plausible explanation. "And the large man? The bizarre entry in the police report—the giant with the hammer?" Alex closed his eyes. "Another part of the system. It failed. It all went wrong."
Pepper sighed, running a trembling hand through her hair. "Tony is gone. Missing. Obadiah is running Stark Industries and actively trying to bury this mess. And you..." She looked at his bruised, vulnerable face with a look that was more fear than pity. "You have proved yourself a spectacular liability." The message was clear. With Tony gone and Stane in charge, Alex was a threat to be managed. [Threat Status: High. Stane will use legal channels to neutralize the Host—institutionalizing him and stripping him of legal standing.] Stane wouldn't risk another messy murder; he would simply erase the "Alex Stark" identity.
"I need to leave," Alex whispered, his focus snapping back to survival. He had to fight for his existence. "Pepper, Tony left me some off-the-books funds. I need you to liquidate everything—everything that isn't traceable to the company—into a clean, foreign account. I need to disappear before Stane seals the doors." Pepper stared, seeing not a boy, but a wounded animal fighting for its life. "Where will you go?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly. "Somewhere Stane can't reach," Alex said. He needed a place to rebuild, a place with technical isolation and no jurisdiction from the U.S. legal system. His mind, still processing the raw data of the Arc Core Blueprint, settled on the only logical option. He had to become a ghost to complete the true First Upgrade.
"I'll be going... off the grid," Alex said, managing to force a flicker of his brother's famous arrogance. "But I'll be back. I need to rebuild what Stane tried to take from me." He had to build the Arc Core again, making it small, stable, and permanent. The true power source. [Extraction Plan Initiated. Destination: Eastern European Research Facility. Next Step: Acquire new identity and travel documents.] He looked out the window at the familiar, terrifying blue of the Malibu sky. He was abandoning his name, his home, and his fragile status.
The Unwanted Companion
Pepper returned an hour later with a battered, old-school leather briefcase and a crisp set of documents. "I managed to cash out the non-traceable accounts. This is cash and a new passport. You're now Alexei Rostova, a student traveling to Switzerland for an exclusive engineering program. Stane will be looking for a Stark; he won't look for a Rostova." The name tasted like ash in Alex's mouth, but he accepted the passport, the feeling of finality cold and absolute. "Thank you, Pepper. This buys me time."
He opened the briefcase to see the stacks of foreign currency, but his attention was instantly seized by a single, sleek device tucked into the side pocket: a Stark Industries PDA, the kind Tony used for remote diagnostics.
"Tony asked me to give you this months ago," Pepper said, her voice now barely a whisper, filled with a sudden, painful memory. "Before he left. He said if you ever really needed a clean start, this would give you a direct, unfiltered uplink to the old R&D server. The one that bypasses Obadiah's security entirely."
Alex picked up the PDA, his fingers tracing the smooth metal. Tony hadn't completely forgotten him. But the System immediately interrupted the emotional moment, violently hijacking the interface. The screen didn't open to the R&D server. Instead, a grainy, high-resolution photo flashed across the display, captured seconds after the EMP blast in the cellar.
It was a close-up image of the Arc Core lying on the stone floor. And standing over it was Thor, the golden-haired giant. He wasn't looking at the Arc Core with hostility; he was looking at it with deep, unmistakable recognition.
Then, the final, chilling twist: the System displayed a new, flashing message, overriding all other functions:
[Hidden File Unlocked: Howard Stark's Journal Excerpt: Project RUNE. Content: "The only energy core powerful enough to bind the cosmos... If the Bifrost can touch Midgard, this energy will guide its path."
Alex's breath hitched, the image of a godly recognition and his grandfather's cryptic words slamming together in his mind. His prototype wasn't just a powerful battery; it was a cosmic homing beacon. Thor hadn't stumbled onto the fight; he was drawn by the energy.
The System issued one final, desperate warning: [Host must stabilize the core to prevent further unwanted attention. The world now knows a new power source exists on Midgard.]
Alex clutched the PDA, the truth a heavy, terrifying weight in his heart. He was not just running from Stane; he was running from the entire cosmos. He needed his true power, and he needed it now.