Iron and Frost (2025 series) #2

Last issue Emma Frost, Iron Man and War Machine rescued a young mutant girl Eris Vale from the clutches of Revelation's Seraphim near the start of his reign. But Emma was shot in the heart, had to turn diamond (losing her telepathy) to save her life, and got buried alive. She dug herself out and wandered the US for 6 years before returning to New York and the Hellfire Club mansion where she met teen Eris now operating as Landslide, and Tony Stark turned into metal as its Iron King.

We now learn that Tony's state is due to the X-virus that's spreading all over the US. But also that he's *merged* with his armour and its AI, and now sounds more like the AI than human Stark. But the reunion is interrupted by the arrival of War Machine, who surprisingly Eris calls dad. He's being chased by Phaser whose mutation has escalated in the intervening 6 years and he's even more powerful. Iron King refuses to leave his post guarding the Club to help, but Landslide rides an eruption of rock to his side. However she can't stop Phaser blasting WM so that he drops to the ground with his armour breached, leaving him at the mercy of the virus. IK decides that eliminating Phaser is the best way to protect 'Sanctuary' so he goes on the attack.

Eris and Emma get James Rhodes inside the building as White Queen asks what Sanctuary means. Inside she sees an operating theatre/workshop, and she recalls the rumours of Tony Stark helping the infected. And there are some 'patients' hooked up in glass cubicles. They put Rhodey on the operating bed as he gasps out that he's got what Tony wanted. Eris contacts Stark to say they can't get James out of his armour, so Iron King orders it to release the 'patient'. James falls out of it but the mutation is literally burning him up. IK and Phaser are now grappling until Stark crushes his foe's head.

Eris pulls out a syringe of what she calls Retrogen and injects it into her 'father'. She checks readouts which tell her it's not working so she plans to give him another shot. But Iron King orders her to put the patient in isolation for the good of the 'Program'. Eris refuses and IK prepares to put down this insubordination, except Rhodey rises up and blasts him with energy from his own body. The shock wakens the man inside the armour and in a now-human voice he expresses surprise that Emma is still alive. Eris tries to give James another dose but the em-pulses he's emitting are keeping her away and interfering with the lab equipment. He tells Tony that he found the 'neuro key' and it's in his armour. But the AI regains control in order to say this information is classified. Rhodey's emissions are threatening to release the 'test subjects' in the cubicles, so the AI intends to 'sterilise' the place. Diamond-bodied Frost takes the hypodermic from Eris and succeeds in getting close enough to Rhodey to inject him ...

... and his body stops emitting, the virus recedes in him, and the lab is no longer in danger so Iron King calls off his sterilisation plan. Then it's explanation time. Tony's invented a new version of the Extremis virus (which allowed him to become directly integrated into his armour in the 2001 Iron Man series). This new version is intended to halt and possibly reverse the X-virus. But Tony 'broke' when he thought his ex-wife Emma had died, and then the X-virus took him and he's lost inside the Iron King. We also learn that Rhodey adopted Eris after her mom died (at the beginning of last issue). But now Eris sees hope because telepath Emma can bring Tony back. However she reminds them that in her diamond form she isn't telepathic, and if she switches out of diamond she'll die because she has no heart. The reason she came here was to ask Tony to give her a replacement.

Hearing this Tony resurfaces again to say yes, but he's immediately submerged again by the Iron King AI saying it would be a waste of his precious time. Rhodey's Retrogen dose starts to fail again, but he says at least they've got the neuro-key Tony sent him to find. But IK denies authorising such a mission. Eris reminds him of the other missions he sent War Machine on and IK goes into robot-with-conflicting-data mode. Rhodey goes into painful viral meltdown. Stark and his AI continue to battle for control until the Iron King blasts the patient with his chest-beam.