Even if others managed to get their hands on the prototype, at best they could only reproduce the outer shell. The core systems—and the Ark Reactor energy core—were completely beyond them.
Obadiah was furious to the point of exploding. He immediately started pulling strings everywhere, desperately trying to find out where Tony Stark had disappeared to.
Originally, if Zod had handed Tony Stark over to the Ten Rings, there was a chance they might have released him. After all, the Ten Rings had no idea that Tony Stark had already built something like the Iron Man armor and was secretly selling it. But Zod had anticipated that possibility. That was precisely why he had his own Beast-Enhanced soldiers pose as terrorists instead.
Every day, without fail, they would bring Tony Stark out for some fresh air—while also forcing him to witness the miserable state of ordinary civilians being oppressed by terrorists armed with Stark Industries weapons.
Tony Stark's emotional state shifted again and again. From anger, to urgency, to anxiety and agitation—and now, guilt, regret, and pain.
He had always believed that his weapons existed to fight terrorism. Yet now, those same weapons were being used by terrorists to slaughter innocent people.
This was what fundamentally set Tony Stark apart from other arms dealers. He still possessed something rare and precious—naivety.
His path to becoming a hero was never accidental. All the conditions had already been in place; what he lacked was merely a trigger. Zod had initially worried that pulling the trigger several years early might be premature, that Tony wouldn't yet be able to truly feel it.
But now, seeing Tony Stark's reactions, Zod knew he had worried for nothing.
Tony Stark becoming Iron Man was inevitable.
"Still, he needs more tempering," Zod snorted inwardly. "Let him suffer a bit longer."
Tony Stark's disappearance had ripple effects. Zod Heaths himself was summoned for questioning, as he was the prime suspect. However, Zod Heaths argued that Blade Technology Industries was merely a standard tech conglomerate with neither the capability nor motive for terrorism or kidnapping. On top of that, he spared no expense, hiring an entire army of elite, big-name lawyers.
The result was decisive—Blade Technology Industries won the case outright.
Over at S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury kept a close watch on Zod Heaths' every move and monitored his communications. What he didn't realize was that all the signals he intercepted were deliberately fabricated decoys by the Black Queen. Instead, S.H.I.E.L.D. itself had been quietly backtracked and monitored in return.
Days passed with no trace of Tony Stark—no rescue, no ransom demands, nothing. Gradually, most people began to assume the worst: Tony Stark was likely dead.
After all, kidnappers who didn't even ask for money usually weren't planning to keep their hostages alive.
Stark Industries' stock price began to slide.
At the same time, in the public eye, the years-long legal war everyone expected between Blade Technology Industries and Stark Industries ended abruptly and overwhelmingly in Blade's favor. Stark Industries, having failed to demonstrate the ability to produce Iron Man armor, was abandoned by the military.
Blade Technology Industries was awarded eight hundred million dollars in compensation.
Stark Industries appeared to concede defeat, choosing not to appeal in courts elsewhere. Otherwise, with the varying laws across different states, there might still have been a slim chance of overturning the verdict.
In reality, Obadiah had smashed everything in his office that could be smashed. Every morning, the first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was Stark Industries' falling stock price. The constant stress nearly drove him into a stroke—he was getting old, and his heart couldn't take this kind of shock.
Eight hundred million dollars meant little to Stark Industries in absolute terms. What truly enraged Obadiah was the military's sudden shift in attitude. With one change in tone, Stark Industries was left alone to face Blade Technology Industries' wrath.
Urd was furious over Stark Industries' blatant copying of Blade's flagship product. The legal teams clashed repeatedly, slashing the compensation up from an initial fifty million to the final eight hundred million.
Zod himself knew it was unrealistic to truly cripple Stark Industries, so he didn't dwell on it. If he obsessed over every little thing, he'd have no time left for his own plans.
However, Blade Technology Industries soon leaked news of its intention to establish a branch over on the Rabbit's side.
That alone made the United States extremely uneasy.
Even if it was "just a branch," what if Zod Heaths decided to relocate entirely?
Of course, Zod had no intention of going there. Over on the Rabbit's side, there was the Divine Spear Bureau, an organization that kept every superpowered individual—heroes and villains alike—firmly under control. Even Iron Man's future nemesis, the Mandarin, had been forced out precisely because he couldn't survive there.
The Rabbit, on the other hand, was more than welcoming. They even offered Blade Technology Industries free choice among cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, promising to allocate land for a branch headquarters.
The United States secretly seethed at the Rabbit's shamelessness. They quickly countered by offering Blade Technology Industries a plot of land in New York at half price, along with a bundle of cutting-edge equipment thrown in.
When Zod heard the proposal, his expression turned strange.
New York land?
No way. That place had terrible feng shui—constant disasters, insurers going bankrupt left and right. A cursed city.
Wasn't it obvious? Even after Blade Technology Industries expanded thousands of times over, its headquarters still remained in Washington, D.C.
Urd hadn't expected their boss's casual move to trigger such a chain reaction. One country after another jumped in, offering Blade Technology Industries free land, with ownership terms ranging from seventy years to "as long as Blade Technology Industries exists." Some even offered to handle construction themselves.
This put the United States in an awkward position.
Fortunately, Zod Heaths showed no intention of accepting any of it. Even with the Rabbit, he only sent Urd over to negotiate. He knew full well that leaving the United States through normal channels would be nearly impossible—customs alone would block him outright.
Amid this delicate balance—where Blade Technology Industries had effectively replaced Stark Industries as the most important industrial group in the United States—Zod received a meeting request from A.I.M.
A.I.M., short for Advanced Idea Mechanics, translated as Pioneer Technology.
For those who didn't know: A.I.M. was the organization that developed the Extremis virus in Iron Man 3. That was the movie version, of course. In the comics, A.I.M.'s leader was M.O.D.O.K., not Aldrich Killian.
"Wants to cooperate on improving a DNA project?"
Zod looked at the meeting request left by Aldrich Killian. Killian claimed to have a project capable of enhancing human DNA and wanted to collaborate.
Extremis, huh?
This was eight years earlier. At this point, Aldrich Killian should still be experimenting with Extremis—only to realize that his own abilities were insufficient to complete it. That was when he met Maya Hansen, the woman who had once had a one-night encounter with Tony Stark years ago. From her, Killian obtained the equation Tony had casually scribbled down back then, allowing Extremis to advance further.
And that, in turn, meant that no matter how deeply Aldrich Killian hated Tony Stark for that humiliation, he still had no choice but to seek his help.
Perhaps that was the most helpless thing in life.
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