American comic book: Absolute Spider-Man

Pepper, it's me.

I know I owe you many apologies, but time is limited now.

So... first of all, I'm sorry for putting you in danger.

That would be completely selfish and foolish, and I promise it won't happen.

Also, I might not be able to get home on time because I have to dig that guy out…”

After leaving a message for Pepper in the phone booth, Tony, wearing a cloak he stole from a wooden Indian statue outside a small shop, dragged his power-depleted Mk42 into a house's warehouse.

He encountered Harry, the child of the owner of the inventory, a fan of Iron Man.

With Harry's help, Tony repaired his armor while beginning his investigation.

During their investigation, they also encountered an attack by bio-modified humans with high-temperature and powerful limb repair abilities, but ultimately escaped unharmed.

Unbeknownst to Tony, Pepper, who was with Maya, and Colonel Rhodes, the war machine sent by the president to carry out counter-terrorism operations against the Mandarins, were both captured by the mastermind behind it all.

The real mastermind behind this crisis was never the Mandarin who bared his teeth and made terrifying pronouncements in front of the camera.

That down-on-his-luck actor named Trevor Slattery was nothing more than a carefully chosen front by Aldridge Killian, a front to distract the world.

Killian, the pioneering technologist at AIM, worked with botanist Maya Hansen to develop the Extremis virus.

He is the real culprit who has been hiding in the shadows and controlling everything all along.

It all started 13 years ago with a New Year's Eve party that Tony Stark had forgotten.

At that time, Killian was just a researcher with the idea of ​​an extremist virus.

He earnestly sought advice from Tony, who, in order to quickly get rid of Killian's entanglement, casually made up an agreement: to have Killian wait on the rooftop for 5 minutes, saying that he would be there shortly afterward to discuss the cooperation in detail.

This was blatant deception and humiliation—Tony never intended to keep the appointment from the beginning, and simply used a false promise to send Killian away.

Killian believed it to be true and waited expectantly on the rooftop, from New Year's Eve until dawn, standing in the cold wind all night long.

Tony, on the other hand, spent the entire night with Maya Hansen, completely forgetting about Killian's existence, without even offering an explanation or apology.

The humiliation of being trampled underfoot by top geniuses is like a poisonous thorn, deeply embedded in Killian's heart, and has never faded over the years.

He vowed to take revenge on Tony Stark.

But his revenge was never about simple destruction, but about transcendence—he wanted to prove that he was the one who could change the world.

The goal is to completely destroy and ruin Tony Stark.

He wanted to make those who once looked down on him eventually submit to him.

This resentment drove him step by step toward madness.

The Extremis virus, which he and Maya Hansen painstakingly developed, was never just a simple weapon, but rather the prototype of his vision of a "next-generation human evolution platform."

He wants to use this technology to achieve the self-regeneration of the human body and the instantaneous strengthening of muscle fibers, so that humans can have extreme high temperature tolerance, impact resistance and superhuman physical abilities. He also wants to make this technology controllable and mass-producible, and ultimately arm the entire army to build his own super soldier system.

Kidnapping War Machine Rhodes and seizing the Iron Patriot armor was a key step in his plan.

He imprisoned Rhodes, who was wearing his battle suit, in AIM's secret base, planning to expel him from that turtle shell.

Then they sent their own people, disguised as Iron Patriots, to kidnap the US president and execute him in front of the whole world.

This move aims to completely destroy public trust in the national security system, put the military on the defensive, and force the government to proactively seek help from AIM.

This allowed them to make the Extremis virus a core piece of equipment for the military, and to successfully place their own people in the core of power.

As for Pepper Potts, Killian's goal was never simply kidnapping.

As a co-developer of the Extremis virus, Maya Hansen originally participated in the research with the intention of changing the fate of disabled people, but she was swayed by Killian's ambition.

As a key decision-maker at Stark Industries, Pepper is the person Tony Stark cares about most, and Killian's key bargaining chip in controlling Tony.

He intends to use Pepper as a test subject for the Extremis virus, modifying her body with the virus to force Tony to submit, hand over Stark Industries' core technologies, and cooperate with him to develop the Extremis virus, ultimately bringing Stark Industries completely under his control.

He wants to replace Tony Stark, replace Stark Industries, and become the sole leader of the US defense and super-soldier program, control the international counterterrorism landscape, establish his own global military technology hegemony, complete the ultimate revenge against Tony, and realize his ambition to control the world.

……

"Phew..." Tony exhaled.

He just teamed up with Harry and went through a lot of trouble to defeat a cyborg.

Just as Tony was sitting on the ground, using an iron bar to pry up the metal frame pressing down on his legs and free them, Peter's voice suddenly rang out.

"Tony, you look a bit disheveled."

Tony looked in the direction of the sound and saw Peter and Ned walking towards him.

Peter held out his hand to Tony: "Need any help?"

Tony grabbed Peter's hand and struggled to his feet. "While I'm touched that someone thought of me when I was down on my luck, I still want to ask, how did you find me, Peter?"

"Magic, I can predict the future with magic." Peter attributed his knowledge of the plot directly to magic.

"Then what should I call you, Mr. Sorcerer?" Since Thor was in the Avengers' team, Tony knew a little about magic.

He never expected that this child, whom he had only met once, would be able to find him and even claim to have magic.

Tony then pointed to Ned: "This one..."

"Ned Liz, a sorcerer." Ned excitedly extended his hand to Iron Man.

Tony shook hands with Ned: "Could you demonstrate some magic for me, Ned the Mage?"

Ned looked at Peter, who nodded at him: "It's time to go back."

Although he was reluctant to leave, Ned knew that it was better to return to his own battlefield than to stay here and hold the team back.

To Tony's astonishment, Ned opened the portal.

Gwen, carrying a backpack on her back and another in her hand, walked through the portal and patted Ned on the shoulder.

Ned gave the group a thumbs-up, then turned and walked into the portal.

Tony pointed to the closing portal: "Magic?"

"Yes, magic."

Tony smoothed his slightly disheveled hair and said smugly, "Looks like my charisma is still very strong. When I was down on my luck, two sorcerers and a Spider-Woman specifically lent me a helping hand."

Peter took out his smartphone, opened a news article, and handed it to Tony: "I hope you can still laugh when you see this."

"What?" Tony took the phone and saw the news headline on the screen:

Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts kidnapped by unidentified gunmen

Tony's face instantly turned extremely grim: "I'm going to kill this sour radish and not eat it."