When Tony Stark was jolted awake by the shrill ring of his phone, he groggily glanced at the time: 2:00 a.m.
Tony couldn't be bothered to answer the unknown number. He swiped to reject the call, but, barely two seconds later, the phone rang again.
This time Tony got up, opened the window, and chucked the phone off the cliff, buying himself five minutes of peace.
Five minutes later—BAM!
The bedroom door was kicked open. Agent Hill, dressed in her blue-black combat uniform, burst in.
She opened her mouth to speak, only to see the massive bed beneath Tony suddenly collapse inward, forming a deep crater. Tony's figure vanished into the pit.
A rapid series of sharp metallic clanks echoed from the hole. Agent Hill caught a glimpse of cold white light flashing inside.
The next second, Tony Stark in full armor hovered low in the room. He glared down at Agent Hill, his tone anything but friendly.
"You'd better have a damn good explanation."
Agent Hill kept her hands at her sides, tilting her head slightly to meet the eyes of the man in the Mark III suit.
"Director Fury said he'd arrange a plane to pick you up today and take you out to sea."
"But we only just found out that Mr. Stark's mysterious bodyguard is… himself in the suit."
The secret Tony Stark had worked so hard to protect was now laid bare before S.H.I.E.L.D. He nearly lost it. With a heavy thud he landed on the bedroom floor, cracking the tiles in a spiderweb pattern.
"Does everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. get their jollies breaking into people's houses in the middle of the night?! Do you have any idea what time it is?!"
Agent Hill raised her wrist and checked the watch strapped over her pulse.
"It's two o'clock in the morning—which means it's already the 'today' Director Fury mentioned."
Tony flipped up the metal faceplate and stared at Hill's expressionless face.
"So you people won't even let me get a decent night's sleep? Let me give you a recommendation—"
He was about to suggest sending Peter Parker their way instead, let S.H.I.E.L.D. see what his friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was capable of, and maybe they'd bother the kid instead of him from now on.
But Agent Hill cut him off without mercy.
"Director Fury said that no matter what excuse you come up with, I'm bringing you back."
Tony swallowed the rest of his sentence. He shut his mouth, stared at her for a beat, then forced out through gritted teeth, "Fine. We leave now."
Hill nodded as if she'd expected nothing less. She turned and headed out of the bedroom. Just before stepping through the door, she added over her shoulder,
"Oh, right, Mr. Stark—there's no seat reserved for you on the helicopter. So I'm afraid you'll have to fly yourself."
Tony's mouth twisted. He let out a sarcastic huff through his nose. "So you already knew my secret identity before you even showed up?"
Hill neither confirmed nor denied it. Fury hadn't told her how to answer that question, so she chose silence.
Without another word, she strode out of the villa and slipped into the helicopter waiting in the garden by the cliffside mansion.
Tony Stark stood there yawning, in no rush to follow. Instead he spoke to the empty air.
"Jarvis?"
"Apologies, sir. My servers were jammed earlier. I was unable to relay the intrusion alert in time," the AI replied.
"Huh?" Tony blinked in surprise.
Ever since the last time Nick Fury had slipped into this cliffside villa without a sound, Tony had ordered Jarvis to blanket the entire place with surveillance.
Yet against S.H.I.E.L.D.'s second break-in, Jarvis had still been useless.
Worse, Tony Stark had ended up exposing the fact that he was Iron Man.
"Looks like S.H.I.E.L.D. has some pretty unique tech of their own," Tony muttered. He snapped the faceplate shut with a metallic clack. "Alright then—let's see who ends up learning more: you from me, or me from inside your precious S.H.I.E.L.D."
WHOOSH!
The Mark III's leg thrusters roared to life, launching Tony out the window. He pulled alongside the already-spinning rotors of the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter.
"Mind leading the way, runway model?"
Hill glanced at him. Her face didn't so much as twitch at the jab. She simply slipped on her aviation headset.
She thought the headset would block out Tony's voice.
The next second, the helicopter's comm channel was hijacked—blaring, heart-pounding drum and bass exploded in her ears.
Hill whipped her head toward the red-and-gold suit flying beside her, only to see Tony ignoring her completely this time. He shot ahead and rocketed into the sky before the helicopter even lifted off.
Two hours later, somewhere over an undisclosed stretch of ocean, Tony arrived at the Helicarrier well ahead of the chopper.
Spotting the giant S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle emblem on the deck, the mouth beneath Tony's mask split into a wicked grin. He immediately started probing the Helicarrier's internal systems.
Inside the command deck, Nick Fury frowned as every screen flashed red—someone was attempting to breach their network.
"Tony Stark's own firewall is stopping… Tony Stark??" Fury's brow furrowed so hard the wrinkles looked ready to fuse together. "Wait… the firewall isn't his?"
Fury had fully expected that once Stark arrived, the Helicarrier's systems would be torn apart like wet tissue. He never believed the playboy would leave himself without a back door.
But now it seemed… someone else had built this wall.
Who?
"This mission is primarily to rescue a scientist named Norman Osborn—"
Inside the Batwing, Batman briefed his Venom-bonded Robin about the operation.
Venom was plastered to the cockpit window, staring curiously at the scenery outside, clearly only half-listening—if that—to Batman's words.
Batman didn't mind. He needed Venom's cooperation for this op, but he didn't need the symbiote acting independently. Every step of the plan Batman would personally oversee.
Rather than explaining the mission to Venom, he was really running through the plan one more time himself, checking for any oversights.
He didn't know much about the gamma bomb research facility in New Mexico.
Even though he'd hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. and obtained detailed blueprints of the base, he had no intel on Norman Osborn's current condition, General Ross's progress on the gamma bomb, or the super-soldier serum.
He couldn't just ask Bruce Banner directly—even subtle probing would tip the doctor off, and the brilliant scientist would instantly demand to join the mission once he suspected something was wrong with the gamma site.
That New Mexico facility was the origin of Banner's lifelong trauma, the place he became a monster. The moment he set foot inside again, saw the old sights, felt that familiar gamma radiation—there was nearly a 100% chance Hulk would emerge.
Batman always made sure to give Hulk enough emotional validation and affirmation whenever they met, but he still considered the green goliath outside his complete control.
He didn't like variables he couldn't fully master. And unlike Superman, who was obedient and synchronized perfectly with Batman's plans, Hulk was neither.
Batman even wondered whether, under extremely high gamma radiation, Banner's will could truly suppress Hulk—or whether Hulk might actually enjoy that environment and refuse to let Banner resurface.
All these thoughts vanished the moment the Batwing's canopy slid open.
Batman leaped into the night sky. Thousands of meters up, he spread his cape and glided toward the ground below.
The New Mexico gamma bomb research facility lay less than fifty kilometers away.
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