Invincible Iron Man (2023 series) #13

Orchis have driven most of the mutant nation of Krakoa off Earth with the help of Sentinels made from Stark tech. Tony Stark has teamed up with his 'wife' Hazel Kendal (Emma Frost in disguise) to use the mutants' super-metal mysterium with which to create a new Iron Man armour and an armada to oppose the Sentinels. But they have to go off-Earth to get it.

Now Tony has brought 'Hazel' to the Catskills for a rendezvous with a spaceship which disgorges 2 mercenary Skrulls V'Chun and N'dak who have been hired by an intermediary to impersonate them while they're off in space. Which they do, and leave (presumably in Tony's car). Then the intermediary and pilot Starfox/Eros invites them into the spaceship. He can't help flirting with Emma as they leave the planet.

Meanwhile someone else leaves Earth too. Ironheart has been given the job of overseeing the creation of the armada. To that end she sneaks into Orchis' orbiting base past the guardian Sentinels, cloaked by Mandarin's Rings. She then uses them to cause an explosion as a distraction while she steals a shuttle and heads out into space.

Eros flies Stark and Frost to Gameworld. He's going to provide a distraction while they too 'steal' the Krakoans' own mysterium from the casino where they'd deposited it for safekeeping. When the duo are near the target Tony dons his Mark Nil stealth armour and they wait for Starfox' signal. But it turns out some space pirates are staging their own heist and are currently in a standoff with a force of armed guards. And then it turns ugly.

The guards have psi-blockers so White Queen mentally attacks the pirates while Iron Man fires tranquilliser darts at the guards. Emma then abandons her psi power to turn diamond for safety. And IM bounces stun blasts off her body to hit more foes as she also causes their own fire to rebound on them. When it's all over Starfox arrives as the distraction, disguised as a pregnant woman about to give birth. So he just helps them load up the loot. The duo will take some of it to Earth to make Stark's new Mark 72 armour while Eros delivers the bulk to Ironheart and the dwarven smiths for the armada. He teleports the pair back to Earth and sets off.

They return to the Hellfire Club and release the Skrulls from their deception duties. Before *they* teleport away they hand over a newspaper as evidence of their activities. The Daily Bugle shows them having a romantic Xmas ice-skate at Rockefeller Plaza. And they decide to do the same thing.

Riri Williams is flying the Orchis shuttle to an agreed rendezvous with Eros and the mysterium. But she crosses paths with another small self-built craft piloted by Forge of the X-Men who almost shoots her down because of her ship's ensignia. The meeting of the 2 engineers is a bit prickly until Forge reveals that he used to be the boyfriend of Riri's heroine Storm.

But their incipient friendship is interrupted by a Makluan space-dragon who is angry because the Mandarin's Rings contain the souls of brother aliens. Its 1st move is to rip the shuttle apart.