Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Liz Ross visits her father, Chief of Staff "Thunderbolt" Ross, in the
hospital following his heart attack. Despite the fact he's hooked up to
an oxygen tank, he continues smoking cigars. Liz listens to her father
rant about the need to capture the Hulk and excuses herself, returning
to work.
Near his penthouse, Stark uses the Prometheum armor to
carve out an armory for any future devices he may need as Iron Man.
Pepper contacts him through the armor's comm-channel and tells him that
Jasper Sitwell has arrived. Stark returns and removes all armor
components excluding the chest piece; he covers that with a large robe
and meets with Sitwell at his indoor pool.
Sitwell tells Stark
that his request for information about Banner's gamma project has been
denied. That project is highly classified and he does not have required
clearance. Sitwell explains that many aspects of Stark International
are off-limits to him as the government has made a large investment in
his company to keep it afloat while he was "lost" after the death of
Rebel O'Reilly.
His next appointment is with Arthur Parks.
Stark's interest is to make amends to Parks for his behavior during
their business venture. Parks will hear none of this and tells him off.
He then demonstrates the results of his final project. He can now
channel light through his nervous system through implanted fiber optic
cables. Calling himself the Living Laser, he attacks Stark, forcing him
to dive into his swimming pool for protection.
Stark throws a
switch on his chest plate that magnetically pulls the remainder of the
armor to him. The armor is invisible to the human eye and is pulled
underwater. While the Living Laser attempts to boil Stark in the pool,
he puts on the armor and resurfaces. Parks apparently does not
correlate Stark's disappearance with Iron Man's sudden appearance.
Parks continues to fire his powerful lasers at Iron Man who shrugs it
off with a light refraction beam. Parks refuses to give up and pushes
harder, peeling away his skin until all that remains is a being of pure
energy. At this point, Parks gives up.
Elsewhere: Leonard Samson receives an unexpected phone call at his office from a very distraught Bruce Banner.
Elsewhere #2: Pepper Potts returns to her apartment and finds the assassin Whirlwind waiting for her.