After a long flight, Tony finally arrived back in the Big Apple.
The cargo plane's ramp slowly lowered. Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan were waiting anxiously on the tarmac.
"Uh, thanks guys. Or should I be thanking your boss?" Tony quipped, waving at Pepper while flawlessly ignoring Happy standing right next to her.
Two Shadow Ninjas carried the hammock down the ramp, effortlessly transporting a lounging Tony out into the open air.
"Hey, Luke, can you let me down now?" Tony called out, finding it impossible to maneuver out of the suspended tarp on his own.
"Oh. Right." Luke had already hopped out of his own hammock and was just standing off to the side.
A third Shadow Ninja materialized from the ground and scooped Tony up into a bridal carry.
"Thanks, buddy. Hey, are you the same guy from last time? What is with the bridal carry?" Tony patted the ninja's shoulder as he was carried straight over to Pepper.
"Seriously, Luke, can you tell him to put me down?" Tony yelled, looking incredibly awkward.
Luke signaled the ninja to lower Tony to his feet, leaving him standing face-to-face with Pepper.
Taking a moment to adjust the mood, Tony looked at her softly. "Your eyes are red. Tears for your long-lost boss?"
"Tears of joy. I hate job hunting."
"Well, your vacation is over."
Tony and Pepper got into the back of the waiting car. Happy was already in the driver's seat, and Luke casually popped into the passenger seat.
"Mind if I hitch a ride?"
"Yes." "Of course not." Tony and Pepper answered at the exact same time.
"Hey, Tony, don't be like that. He saved you," Pepper scolded lightly.
"Uh, actually, I could have escaped on my own," Tony deflected. "Granted, I might have had to walk a bit before the chopper found me."
"Just ignore him, Luke. That's just how Tony is," Pepper said, offering an apologetic smile.
"Yeah, okay. You understand me best," Tony conceded.
"You're welcome."
Watching the bizarrely charged atmosphere brewing in the back seat, Luke glanced over at Happy. "Are they always like this?"
"Usually, yeah," Happy muttered.
"Alright, let's wrap this up," Tony announced, clapping his hands together. "Pepper, there is only one thing I want to do right now. Well, actually, getting two cheeseburgers would be even better—one just isn't enough."
"Tony, you just escaped captivity. You need to go to the hospital."
"No, I've been locked in a cave for three months. I've been doing a lot of thinking—"
"Absolutely not, Tony! You just got back!" Pepper turned her head away in exasperation, assuming he was propositioning her.
"I think he wants you to set up a press conference. He was talking about it on the plane," Luke chimed in, looking over his shoulder.
Pepper looked at Tony suspiciously.
"Exactly. That's what I wanted to say. Not whatever you were thinking," Tony smirked.
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Pepper shook her head, amazed at how much Tony had seemingly changed. She pulled out her phone and started making calls, arranging for an immediate press conference at Stark Industries and ordering Tony's requested cheeseburgers.
Happy put the car in drive and headed smoothly toward the company headquarters.
"By the way, Tony, do you think that prosthetic suit of yours survived the explosion?" Luke asked, suddenly remembering the plot and wondering if the Iron Monger would still make an appearance.
"I don't know, but it should be completely destroyed. Why?" Tony thought about it for a second. The metal he had scrounged together was relatively low-grade; it should have melted in the subsequent fires, assuming the explosion wasn't just a quick flash.
"Good to know," Luke replied nonchalantly.
'Tony has already completed his transformation,' Luke thought to himself. 'He just needs a little push to fully walk the path of a superhero. It doesn't matter if the Iron Monger exists or not.'
The car drove smoothly, soon arriving at Stark Industries.
Pepper opened her door first, followed by Tony. A massive crowd of company executives was waiting at the entrance to welcome him back, including Obadiah Stane.
Looking at the grand welcome party, a rather wicked thought crossed Luke's mind. 'If I dropped a bomb right here, Stark Industries—which somehow survived Tony's disappearance—would completely collapse.' Of course, it was just a passing thought; he had no intention of actually doing it.
Spotting the overjoyed look on Obadiah's face, Luke wondered how he was going to expose him to Tony. Even without the Iron Monger suit, as long as there was enough evidence, they could easily toss Obadiah into a federal prison to pick up the soap.
Tony grabbed his two cheeseburgers from an assistant and tossed one to Luke.
Luke caught it effortlessly.
"Alright, now we're even," Tony grinned.
Luke unwrapped it and took a bite of his million-dollar burger. "Not bad."
"Of course it's not bad. It's from my favorite spot," Tony replied.
After exchanging a few words with Luke, Tony turned and headed inside the building. This brief interaction had caught Obadiah's attention. His intelligence network was far superior to Pepper's, so he already knew this kid was the primary reason his beautiful assassination plan had failed.
But Obadiah didn't let a single ounce of hostility show on his face. He smiled warmly at Luke. "Thank you, Mr. Luke. You have no idea how worried I was about Tony. He is my best friend's son, after all!"
"Don't mention it, sir. Just doing my job," Luke replied. Having zero desire to continue the fake pleasantries, he brushed past Obadiah and walked into Stark Industries.
The first thing that caught his eye was the massive Arc Reactor dominating the lobby. The device provided clean energy for the Stark Industries facility, but it was astronomically expensive to build and had been written off by company executives as a mere publicity stunt with no commercial value.
But that was all about to change. In a dingy cave, Tony had successfully miniaturized the technology, vastly reducing its cost while simultaneously increasing its energy output.
After admiring what would soon become Stark Industries' flagship product, Luke made his way to the press conference room.
Coulson appeared right next to him. "You found him."
Luke nodded. "Yeah. That little mountain range was pretty tough to track down. Took me a while."
"Your phone signal was in New York the entire time. Then, it suddenly popped up in Afghanistan, and you instantly found Tony Stark," Coulson noted, pausing for effect. "Director Fury is expecting your report."
"Alright. Looks like it's finally time to meet the Bald Egg in person," Luke sighed helplessly.
Coulson nodded and headed over to speak with Pepper, likely to schedule an official debriefing. Meanwhile, Tony had taken the podium. After sitting on the floor in front of the podium and sharing a brief, nostalgic anecdote about his father, he dropped a bombshell on the press: Stark Industries was immediately shutting down its weapons manufacturing division.
The room erupted into absolute chaos. Reporters surged forward, shouting questions. Realizing the disaster unfolding, Obadiah rushed the stage to pull Tony away and desperately try to salvage the situation. Ignoring a mid-sentence Coulson, Pepper hurried over to escort Tony out of the media frenzy.
"Well, it looks like I'll have to wait a while before I can get a word in with them," Coulson said, walking back over to Luke.
Luke reviewed the photos on his camera and gave a satisfied nod.
"Looks like you're going to be waiting alone. I'm heading out." Giving Coulson a lazy wave, Luke found an empty restroom, opened a portal with his Sling Ring, and stepped straight back into his New York hotel suite.
Five Shadow Ninjas were still comfortably gaming in his living room. Luke checked the leaderboards—they had already hit rank one globally.
"This is literally just like an idle game," Luke chuckled. He pulled out his camera and uploaded his fresh batch of photos to his blog.
The previously quiet blog instantly exploded with traffic. The mainstream news hadn't even reported the press conference yet, so the general public had no idea Tony Stark was back on US soil.
'Tony really is the ultimate traffic magnet,' Luke nodded in appreciation. He traced another glowing circle in the air and stepped out just down the street from the Triskelion.
As he walked toward the massive S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Luke pondered how he was going to handle the paranoid Nick Fury. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance cameras immediately picked up his arrival, and an agent in a black SUV was quickly dispatched to pick him up