1

THURSDAY

"Happy, I'm not kidding," Tony said into the iPad, raising both eyebrows. "Take the night. I'll be fine, and you need it."

The man on Tony's screen looked unconvinced. "It's not my night I'm worried about, Tony. What I don't like is the idea of you, alone in that tower, surrounded by zero security –"

"Happy." With one hand, Tony took his sunglasses off and gave the iPad a strong stare. "For the first time in eight years, I have the Tower completely, utterly, all to myself. I'm going to celebrate."

Happy let out a long breath, but finally nodded, resigning. From the wall and couch behind him, it appeared the man was sitting in a living room, though he still wore a suit and tie.

Dressed slightly more casually in a shiny graphic tee and suit jacket, Tony was in the backseat of a sleek white car, going back to the Tower from a science meet in the city. Happy had been trying to call the whole night, and on the drive back Tony had finally accepted the call just to put his head of security's mind at rest.

"I have contacts near you," Happy was saying. "They're all in the city tonight. If you just want someone to be at the front door, make sure nothing gets in or out, I can call and they can be there. . . ."

Tony glanced out the car window, tuning out. The car had turned, and the yellowish light from streetlights outside had transitioned to a cool LED-blue as they pulled around the Tower and into its internal garage.

Damn. Happy's call had lasted the whole drive.

"Go play pool," Tony instructed, folding his sunglasses and tucking them into the breast pocket of his jacket, "take off that tie, knock back a few. Party hard. Sleep well. See you next week, all right?"

"I don't – I don't play pool –" Happy started to say, but Tony talked over him, louder, "Wednesday, okay? Wednesday. Good." He disconnected the call and turned off the iPad.

Opening the car door, Tony let himself out into the garage. Before closing the door, he stuck his head back inside the car and flashed a bright, false smile at the driver's seat. "Hi – if it's all the same to you, I would prefer if that information stayed quiet. Avengers Tower –" He shrugged one shoulder. "Kinda prefer that nobody knows it's unoccupied."

There was no one in the driver's seat. A smiley-face had been taped onto the steering wheel, but that was it.

Tony gave a short smile. "Our little secret. Great." He slammed the car door shut.

"Self-driving vehicle test. . . check," he muttered to no one in particular, striding toward the door that led into the Tower. Pepper would be happy about the successful run – she had been bothering him for weeks to test one of Audi's self-driving car line, after they had donated a significant sum toward the company's automated vehicles.

Of course, she wouldn't be happy to know that he conducted the practice run by himself. From the backseat. While on the phone.

Didn't matter. All Pepper had to know was that the car didn't crash and that it ended up where it was supposed to be.

There was a set of automatic doors at one end of the garage, leading directly into the Tower, and Tony took in a deep breath as they swept open.

Enough business. With the tower empty, it was time for some fun.

The Tower was dark when he stepped inside, but sensory triggers began turning on lights the more he walked into rooms.

A kitchenette-hallway area lit up as he strode in. Grabbing some grapes from a decorative bowl sitting on the counter, Tony popped them in his mouth and reached for a pen holder perched on the edge of a counter. He took a pen, clicked it on, and immediately drew a quick sketch in the palm of his hand, ignoring the pad of paper sitting next to the cup. Staring at the smudgy ink, he sniffed thoughtfully and leaned back.

This new idea might actually work.

Tony strode over to the elevator and thumbed the button for the top floor. The doors immediately dinged and shuddered open, and he stepped inside.

"Hey, JARVIS," Tony said as the doors slid closed, staring intently at the smudged pen on his hand. "Run specs on Cap's shield. The new prototype we're working on. I want the ratios of flexibility to strength."

The elevator started purring up to the top floor. Tony waited, but there was no response. Frowning, he lowered his hand and looked up. "J?" he said into the empty elevator. "Hey. You with me, buddy?"

After a moment of silence, the AI spoke.

"Good morning, sir," JARVIS gently chimed.

Tony frowned and swiveled a watch on his wrist. "You in Australia, JARVIS? It's eleven at night."

"Terrrr–" The voice trailed off in a deep, throaty rumble, then slowly brightened back to JARVIS' normal pitch. "Terribly sorry, sir. My programming must be faul– faulty – +tTtm:{voice:}/command/ERROR –" JARVIS' voice suddenly blurred and squealed into a digital static.

"Augh!" Tony winced at the sound, bringing both hands up to his ears.

The elevator juddered slightly in its track and stopped completely. Tony swayed on his feet, grabbing the wall for balance. The light at the top flickered.

"Time – time+1000110+errr/{day}morning–" the AI was stuttering. The high-pitched electrical whine continued to screech in the background.

"Hey. Hey!" Tony yelled, keeping both hands clamped over his ears. "JARVIS, what's going on?"

"Sssksss-sorry, sir," JARVIS said, his voice seeming to come through thick static. The AI sounded pained. "I have located a virus within my system."

Tony shook his head, trying to clear it of the high-pitched electronic whine. "So zap it. Firecracker Protocol, let's go. I didn't give you the best anti-viral systems for nothing, J."

"I would, sir, but I have already tried that. All anti-virus systems are online, but nothing appears to be working."

Tony frowned. "I coded those programs myself. An outside hacker shouldn't be able to get so far as the Wi-Fi password."

"Indeed, not an outside hacker, but this was a manual plug-in virus."

Tony's spine stiffened with alarm. "Someone's here?"

"They were able to bypass all my security, sir. They are on Floor 41."

"That's great. You know what, that's actually great, because that's the security floor," Tony said in frustration. Turning to the touch screen in the wall below the elevator buttons, he woke up the display and tapped in an entry code. When the computer allowed him in, he immediately started typing, skimming through the safety protocols.

"Sir?" JARVIS spoke up. "All my readings of the internal workings of the tower are being scrambled. Did you just summon a Mark 45 wrist blaster?"

"No, that one's still in testing." Tony suddenly frowned and spoke slowly. "Why –?"

The elevator doors exploded inwards. Tony cried out and slammed himself sideways into the wall, both hands reaching up to protect his head.

Something shattered behind him. Tony turned his head around just in time to see a wrist blaster open its fingers and fire a blast from its palm.

The bolt of energy hit the elevator control panel, mere inches away from his head. The console of buttons exploded, throwing sparks and loose wires.

"Augh!" Tony ducked out of the way.

Spinning around, he flattened himself to the other wall of the elevator to face his attacker. The wrist blaster was hovering midair, thanks to some additional rockets built into the underside of the wrist. Tony had added them as a convenience measure more than anything else, so that when he summoned the multiple-piece suit, the wrist blasters wouldn't have to snap so forcefully onto his arm and bruise it.

So much for convenience now. Tony eyed it carefully. Obviously it was being controlled by someone else, hiding in some other place of the tower.

"J," he spoke slowly, softly, "can you send me anything? Mark, uh. . . ." He closed his eyes briefly and shook his head, trying to think. "Mark 52."

"I'm afraid I do not have access, sir."

"Yeah, of course not," Tony muttered, keeping his eyes on the hovering blaster.

He darted forward and tried to grab the blaster, but it swerved out of the way and fired another blast. Tony didn't even really have to duck to avoid it, and he heard the energy smash into what remained of the elevator doors behind him.

A quick glance behind Tony told him that the blast had only hit the upper corner of the elevator door – way off target. He turned to the wrist blaster with an indignant look on his face. "Come on!" he snapped, more annoyed than anything else. "Your aiming system is better than that."

JARVIS's voice interrupted him. "Sir, the structural integrity of that door has been compromised –"

Behind him, Tony heard something groan. He whirled around just in time to see the remaining half of the elevator door coming down on him.

The wall of metal hit him like an oncoming train, and Tony's world went black.