Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This issue reruns last issue but tells us what else was going on.
While Tony Stark is at the Cortex Textile launch party with Cora Birch he is simultaneously using his hi-tech sunglasses to control an Iron Man suit. He is with Eli Warren in another flying armour, heading to Cortex Lunar HQ to break in. While Stark is accosting C Anderson Sixty of Cortex about the dangers of his brain-interfacing Textile device, Warren gets them through the simple 1st level of Cortex security. Then Eli sends the 'raiders' to interrupt the party, and Tony gets Anderson to send for his security goons, drawing their attention away from what Stark and Warren are going to do.
The dynamic duo reach the door to the data vault. Eli uses a tool Tony gave him to hack the vault lock, while Tony concentrates on 'fighting' the raiders. Unfortunately while all the human security may be rushing to the party, inside the vault they find sort-of mechanical jellyfish with crab claws guarding the data. Stark is now fighting simultaneously on 2 fronts, and not faring too well on either. Warren rescues him from a jellyfish, but 1 of them breaches Eli's armour and wounds him slightly. Some of Eli's blood escapes before his suit reseals.
Even after they've dealt with all the jellyfish, they realise that they'll now be on security footage. At the party Stark asks to see those recordings. Meanwhile Warren uses a prepared program to wipe out all data about Textile, as Stark wanted, and copy all other data for use by his New Modernist Army.
As Tony leaves the party and heads for Eli's HQ, Iron Man and Warren are leaving Cortex. Earlier Eli had been goading Tony about what Sheriff Stark's public would think of him being a burglar and thief. Now he apologises for the unexpected security which meant they've been caught on camera. Warren and his people will escape to their orbital station, but Stark will have to face the music.
We now realise that Tony's speech in a cab last issue was actually him talking to Eli, as he likens their escapade to a heist movie - especially how things may not actually have happened how they seem. As Eli says it's poetic justice Stark being found out as a baddie, because in Warren's view he always was - trying to keep Extremis to himself rather than releasing it for the good of humanity.
Dr Warren's people start to download the Cortex data he acquired. But they discover instead video footage of Warren breaking into Cortex alone, plus DNA evidence. And this data is infesting their whole computer system, erasing their own data.
Eli realises he's been had, and Tony offers to explain how he did it. But Warren just decides to take revenge, and sicks his Extremis-enhanced Army on Stark. However not only does Stark unleash the mini-tech he used against the raiders last issue, but he's also still running the Iron Man armour.