NOVEL WEB Chapter 9: Echoes of Iron
Alex Kane sat at the edge of his desk, the early morning sun casting long shadows across his office. A light knock came at the door.
Henderson stepped in, his expression unusually grim. "You'll want to see this."
He handed over a printed intelligence report. Alex skimmed the first lines, his brow furrowing.
TOP SECRET
U.S. MILITARY INTEL / PACIFIC COMMAND
INCIDENT REPORT: GULMIRA/ F-22 CRASH
Alex looked up. "What happened?"
"About five hours ago. Two F-22s were dispatched over Gulmira__intel said terrorists had taken over the village. Locals were being executed. But something wiped the entire cell out."
Alex's eyes narrowed. "Wiped out by who?"
"That's the thing__no one knows. Three terrorists we captured claimed a red-and-gold demon flew in from the sky, raining fire. The local survivors didn't say much either."
Alex stood, an understanding look in his eyes. "And the planes?"
"One crashed. The plane was injured during some kind of evasive maneuver. But it was reported as an accident in the training exercise. "
Alex turned to the window, silent. 'So... he's finally ready.'
Alex lightly smiled, "Looks like the world just got a glimpse of Iron Man, all right." He muttered.
Inside his mind, the System stirred.
[Host, the reality is shifting. The timeline anchor moves, and the stage deepens. It is time you act.]
[Mission Board recalibrating... New paths unfold. Conflict breeds influence. Heroes inspire opposition. Every action ripples.]
Alex crossed his arms. 'So what's new?'
[Now, the Board opens to dual paths: System Missions and Personal Missions.]
'Explain.'
[System Missions respond to timeline events and anchors. Rewards: advanced skills, rare technology, influence modules, and unique evolution perks. Personal Missions are driven by you. They reward only Supremacy Points.]
Alex glanced at the glowing number hovering in his interface: 2760 Supremacy Points. Untouched.
'Nothing in the store's usable right now. No point wasting it on these useless.'
[Correction: Nothing worthy of your ambition, host.]
Alex gave a dry smirk. His gut told him to wait. Better items would come... Tier-3 tech, higher-tier mutant powers, true weapons of war.
He'd wait. Bide his time. Strike when it mattered.
He noticed the System's evolution. The tone has become more... alive.
[System Mission Issued: Assist Anthony Stark in the downfall of Obadiah Stane.]
[Caution: You are already under observation by a higher presence. Do not take initiative. Intervene only when it matters.]
'Intervention only, got it.'
He glanced toward Henderson. "Triple the surveillance on Obadiah Stane. Every movement. Every shadow."
Henderson hesitated. "Sir? He might notice us if we did that."
"Let him notice," Alex replied coolly. "It won't matter soon."
Henderson was still confused but nodded and left
---
Obadiah Stane sat in his new office at Hammer Industries in New York, whiskey glass in hand.
His final consignment to the Ten Rings had slipped through hidden channels flawlessly, and the profit was enough to buy his way into Hammer Industries. He'd also stolen critical techs from Stark Industries, a leverage to secure his position and gain Hammer's cooperation.
A separate feed showed a secure server: the Arc Reactor schematics. Stolen. Now under Hammer Tech's analysis. Justin Hammer had promised results. Obadiah didn't trust him, but he needed progress.
Then his burner phone buzzed.
"Talk," he answered.
"We found something you will find very interesting," came the rough, accented voice. "The suit Stark used to escape. We recovered it... mostly intact."
Obadiah stiffened. "Go on."
"The sand preserved the fragments. Enough to replicate. We want a new deal. One that brings us an army."
Obadiah stared at the glowing reactor schematic on the screen.
Tony's ghost haunted him__but it wasn't just a ghost. It was fire. And that fire had flown into the skies over Gulmira.
"You'll get your deal," Obadiah said quietly. "And I'll get mine."
He ended the call, knuckles white around the glass.
He had upheld the legacy when Howard Stark was gone, held it together through shadows and silence. But it was never truly his. That truth hit him when everything nearly slipped from his grasp.
Now it was his turn to reclaim control.
"Let's build something better. One that answers to me."
---
15 days more passed since Stane eliminated Raza and acquired armour. Hammer Industries' Advanced Weapons Lab was a clamor of sparks and steel. Technicians swarmed around a hulking frame suspended from magnetic clamps, welding armor plates into place. Engineers shouted over schematics, trying to make sense of overlapping designs.
Obadiah Stane stood on the upper balcony, watching the chaos. His face was hard.
Justin Hammer strolled beside him in a cream-white suit, grinning like a showman.
"Look at it, Obie. Sixteen feet of pure intimidation. We're calling it Project: Titanfall. Has a ring to it, don't you think?"
"It's a glorified forklift, Justin," Stane growled, pointing to the critical void in the chest cavity. "Where is the power core? The schematics I provided__"
Hammer chuckled, undeterred. "Obie, Obie... Stark's little glowing trinket? Fairy dust. My best minds say it's decades ahead of us." He leaned in, lowering his voice. "But look at what we do have."
He tapped a tablet, bringing up schematics of the suit's massive backpack unit. "Observe! We integrate six of our new HammerTech Fusion-Core IV batteries, each packing the punch of a main battle tank engine! They slot right here," he indicated the reinforced dorsal housing, "feeding dedicated power lines to the primary weapons and locomotion systems. It can walk through buildings and shrug off artillery. Pure, unadulterated power!"
Down below, the final fusion core locked in place with a hydraulic clang. The armor's eyes flickered with a red light, unlike Stark's cool blue.
Somewhere in Malibu, Tony Stark was racing toward his reckoning.
A monster of his own design, fueled by envy, built with stolen genius, was almost ready.
And in the shadows, Alex Kane prepared for the next move.