At the farm on the outskirts of New York, Gawain stood with his sword lowered at his side.
Tony flew over and landed in front of him.
“Whoa, Gawain. You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Gawain answered calmly, but his brow remained tightly furrowed.
Seeing his expression, Tony assumed he’d been injured and immediately had J.A.R.V.I.S. scan his body.
Since Gawain wasn’t actually hurt, the scan came back completely normal.
Gawain stared at Tony in confusion.
Tony, meanwhile, let out a sigh of relief when he heard the results.
If Gawain had been injured and another monster on Blackheart’s level appeared, they would be in an extremely vulnerable position.
“Buddy, your eyebrows were about two seconds away from crushing a fly. I thought you’d gotten hurt.”
“I’m frowning because that demon clearly wasn’t from the Nether Abyss. Which means there are other demons with their eyes on this world.”
[Emotion Points from Tony Stark +106]
[Emotion Points from Natasha Romanoff +90]
[Emotion Points from Nick Fury +90]
[…]
With Blackheart destroyed, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had begun gathering around them as well, and several happened to overhear Gawain’s words.
Tony stared at him in disbelief.
“Wait. You’re saying there’s more than one kind of demon?”
“Of course. As I’ve told you before, the dimension inhabited by the Nether Abyss Demons is fundamentally different from our world. But there are many other dimensions similar to the Nether Abyss.”
“You’re saying that demon came from one of those other dimensions?”
“Exactly. Those demonic dimensions harbor immense hostility toward this world. The reason they haven’t launched an open invasion is because of the Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One.”
“Oh, come on. What the hell is a Sorcerer Supreme now?” Tony threw up his hands.
“I’m starting to feel like I wasted the entire first half of my life.”
Ever since the Molten-Blood Demon incident, Tony felt as though the world in front of him had become something completely different from the one he’d always known.
Gawain looked at him with a trace of sympathy.
That person really did have quite the wicked sense of humor.
Tony wasn’t the only one stunned, of course.
The surrounding S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and the people listening in from behind the scenes, contributed another wave of Emotion Points.
Seeing their shocked expressions, Gawain continued.
“You don’t need to worry too much. When something as serious as a dimensional invasion happens, there are powerful people responsible for dealing with it. We don’t need to burden ourselves with matters beyond us. We only need to handle what lies in front of us.”
His words didn’t exactly reassure the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
But reassuring them hadn’t been Gawain’s goal in the first place.
Their job was simply to clean up the mess at the farm.
Sure enough, as soon as Gawain finished speaking, Coulson began assigning agents to deal with the aftermath.
Confidentiality agreements were brought out where necessary, while anyone who needed a stern warning received one.
The latter half of the battle between Blackheart and Gawain had been far too spectacular to conceal easily.
Even people within New York City had seen the enormous golden sword of light and the black clouds of demonic mist in the distance. The source of this chapter is g.com.
That meant S.H.I.E.L.D. now had an enormous amount of work on its hands.
Coulson stared at a television news helicopter slowly approaching in the distance.
He spat onto the ground.
Then, without another word, he called Nick Fury for reinforcements.
Gawain and Tony, meanwhile, left the scene aboard the Iron Man Armor.
S.H.I.E.L.D. could handle the mess they left behind.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
After returning to Stark Tower, Tony hurried out again almost immediately.
Gawain stayed behind, sitting quietly on the sofa as he wiped down the blade of Excalibur Galatine.
Tony’s destination was obvious.
He was going to the prison to see Ivan Vanko.
He had plenty of questions for him.
Ivan, however, proved completely uncooperative.
Their conversation quickly ended on bad terms.
What Ivan didn’t notice was that Tony secretly launched a miniature tracker into his hair before leaving.
After what had happened with Obadiah, Tony had no intention of being careless with criminals who posed a direct threat to him.
Besides, Tony believed Ivan Vanko was far more valuable than Obadiah.
Whatever else could be said about Ivan, Tony genuinely respected his brilliance.
Tony walked out of the prison with a troubled expression.
He hadn’t stopped thinking about the threats Gawain had described.
Putting his own life, and the lives of his family, in someone else’s hands had never been Tony Stark’s style.
If Ivan Vanko could somehow help him eliminate the Nether Abyss Demons first, that wouldn’t be a bad way to take some pressure off.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Several days after Tony’s visit, Ivan Vanko was broken out of prison by Justin Hammer, just as he had been in the original story.
Justin might have had loftier ambitions now, but both he and Obadiah had witnessed the recent battle between Gawain and Blackheart.
Neither believed they could defeat Gawain.
That meant they needed more ways to deal with Tony.
And the reckless lunatic who had stormed Stark Tower looking for revenge was clearly the perfect knife to point in Tony’s direction.
Shortly after Ivan disappeared, Tony received word from the prison.
He glanced at the tracker moving steadily across his display, then listened to the prison’s official claim that Ivan Vanko had died in an explosion.
Tony gave a disdainful smirk.
“Sure he did.”
Before long, Ivan was transported to one of Hammer Industries’ production facilities.
Back at Stark Tower, Tony chuckled and instructed J.A.R.V.I.S.
Tony sipped a glass of wine as he watched Ivan Vanko meet with Justin Hammer.
Then someone unexpected entered the picture.
Obadiah Stane.
The man had vanished completely after escaping custody, yet there he was on Hammer Industries’ security footage.
Tony’s expression immediately changed.
Combined with the Nether Abyss Demons that had been appearing continuously over the past several months, Obadiah’s presence gave him a very unpleasant theory.
Tony’s mind began racing through possibilities.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Inside the Hammer Industries facility, meanwhile, the atmosphere had become somewhat awkward.
Ivan Vanko’s barely functional English had already caused a misunderstanding, forcing Justin Hammer to bring in an interpreter before they could finally communicate properly.
“So why did you bring me here?” Ivan asked first.
“You want my technology?”
He’d always known that organizations hostile to Tony Stark would covet what he knew, so being rescued hadn’t particularly surprised him.
“Exactly,” Justin said.
“You see, we have a problem with Tony, and you have a problem with Tony. So I think the three of us can have a… uh… beautiful partnership.”
Justin carefully chose his words.
What he needed was Ivan’s hatred.
Point that hatred at Tony and let this lunatic cause as much trouble as possible.
If Ivan actually managed to kill Tony, even better.
And if he failed, the attempt would still create plenty of chaos.
Most importantly, none of Justin’s own people would have to risk their lives.
“Ivan Vanko, right?” Obadiah wiped his mouth and finally spoke.
“I knew your father, Anton Vanko. We were friends once, actually. Unfortunately, what happened afterward…”
There were advantages to being old enough to have been around back then.
As one of Howard Stark’s allies, Obadiah really had known Anton Vanko.
The instant Ivan heard him, his composure shattered.
“What happened back then?!” Ivan roared at Obadiah.
“Did that bastard Howard Stark use some dirty trick against my father?!”
Obadiah was secretly delighted.
This was exactly the reaction he wanted.
Outwardly, however, his expression became one of profound regret.
“Howard told me your father had stolen his research. By the time I realized something was wrong and tried to help Anton, he’d already been deported. After that, he simply disappeared.”
Obadiah paused, allowing the words to sink in.
Then he continued.
“Iron Man should have been yours, kid. The glory Tony enjoys today should have belonged to you.” His voice grew heavier.
“When I finally learned the truth about what happened all those years ago, I tried to kill Tony.”
Obadiah lowered his head.
“But I failed.” He even managed to squeeze a few tears from his eyes.
Ivan Vanko had never dealt with someone capable of putting on a performance like this.
Within moments, Obadiah had him completely taken in.