Alexander Thorne spent two frenetic weeks after the Tony Stark news broke, locked in a subterranean OmniCorp R&D vault disguised as a temperature-controlled wine cellar.
He wasn't aging Merlot; he was designing a containment field.
"Okay, baby-Prime," Alex muttered, watching his own kinetic energy readings on a holographic screen. He looked like an 18-year-old Abercrombie model—6'1", built like a golden brick house thanks to years of accelerated training, and currently glowing with residual solar energy. "We're accelerating. Puberty is officially a cosmic power-up. I need something that can handle a ten-ton bench press and keep my identity a secret."
His latent Prime energy constantly demanded more control. He could now run fast enough to blur, leap small buildings in a single bound, and withstand direct fire from a high-caliber machine gun without even feeling a bruise. He was, terrifyingly, almost a fully realized Superman—minus the flight, advanced senses, and god-tier durability.
He needed armor that didn't just protect him, but managed the energy.
Using OmniCorp's proprietary Vibra-Mica alloys—a highly stable, energy-dampening material his father had developed for deep-sea pipelines—Alex constructed his solution: the Aegis Suit.
It wasn't bulky like the Mark I; it was sleek, armored, and skintight, designed to fit over his physique like a second skin. It was primarily deep metallic blue, highlighted with metallic gold trim tracing the energy pathways around the shoulders and chest. Crucially, the suit was laced with photovoltaic micro-cells designed to draw energy directly from the sun, funneling it directly into his body and acting as an external charging circuit.
The chest plate was a simple, inverted triangular design—no logo yet. He couldn't risk ripping off the 'S' shield. He called it the Golden Aegis—an ironic name for a weapon designed by a man who died because of a ceiling fan.
Infiltration and Waiting
Marcus Thorne, thoroughly convinced his son was a prodigy, happily financed Alex's "geopolitical materials survey" trip to the Middle East. Marcus, a man obsessed with control, didn't question Alex's motives because Alex had provided flawless data on the region's energy instability.
Alex dropped into a remote, secure OmniCorp field office less than fifty miles from the known Ten Rings activity zone. He knew the timeline down to the minute. Tony Stark had been captured for three months. The Mark I was finished. The breakout was imminent.
Alex suited up in the Aegis. The cowl covered his face, and the suit regulated his internal temperature. He felt a satisfying, cool thrum of power as the solar collectors began charging him.
"Alright, Tony, you egotistical genius. Time to make your exit. I'm here for the guy who always gets the raw deal."
He watched a blip on his integrated radar—a massive, unnatural heat signature erupting in the desert canyons. The Mark I was awake.
Alex pushed the throttle.
His speed increased instantly, the ground blurring beneath him. He wasn't flying yet, but his running speed was terrifyingly fast, kicking up twin sonic booms as he crossed the vast distance in less than five minutes. The Aegis suit absorbed the shock, allowing him to maintain perfect stability.
The Price of Freedom
Alex landed—not a smooth landing, but a controlled shockwave that cratered the sand—just outside the mouth of the cave. The air was thick with smoke, and the heavy footfalls of the Mark I were audible even over the chaos.
He saw Tony Stark, terrified, exhilarated, and covered in soot, lumbering out in the crude, bulky Mark I suit, using a flamethrower to hold back the Ten Rings forces.
And then Alex saw the figures running into the cave entrance—the soldiers meant to confirm the kill.
He ran towards the sound of desperate coughing inside.
Inside the rocky, makeshift lab, Dr. Yinsen lay on the ground, fatally wounded, buying time by engaging the last group of terrorists. He had a pistol, but his shots were weak.
A large militant raised an assault rifle to finish Yinsen.
WHUMP.
The terrorist didn't hear Alex. He only saw a sudden, impossibly fast blue-and-gold blur smash into him. The terrorist was flung fifty feet, hitting the cave wall with the sound of snapping concrete, instantly neutralized.
Alex knelt beside Yinsen, his high-tech armor contrasting sharply with the dusty cave.
"I am… I am too late," Yinsen whispered, his eyes wide with surprise.
"No, Doctor, you're not," Alex said, his voice modulated slightly by the suit's comms system, sounding deep and authoritative. "Your job is done. I'm taking you home."
Alex looked up. The Mark I was collapsing nearby, having been hit by a rocket just moments before. Tony was crawling out of the wreckage.
Suddenly, Raza, the leader of the Ten Rings, stood at the cave entrance, aiming an antique shotgun directly at the exhausted, unarmored Tony.
Alex didn't hesitate. He stood up, towering over the scene.
Raza looked at the impossible blue-and-gold figure, then at Tony. He squeezed the trigger.
The blast was immediate, point-blank, and aimed at Tony's head.
But Alex, moving with a speed that exceeded anything human, stood in the path of the shotgun pellets. The Aegis suit, designed for high-stress kinetic absorption, barely registered the impact. The pellets flattened against the chest plate like thrown pebbles.
Raza stared, dropping his weapon in disbelief. "What… what are you?"
Alex walked calmly toward the warlord, the sand crunching beneath his heavy boots. "Just a concerned citizen," he deadpanned. He delivered a measured, controlled punch—enough to knock Raza out, not enough to turn him into paste. Raza crumpled.
Alex turned back to Tony, who was staring, shell-shocked and filthy, at the man who had just taken a shotgun blast to the chest.
"Took you long enough," Alex said casually, then knelt, gently scooping up the mortally wounded Yinsen. "Don't worry, Tony. We've got him. Now let's get out of this dust bowl before the cavalry arrives."
Tony Stark, still staring at the faint golden outline of the shotgun impact on the Aegis suit, could only stammer one word:
"Who… the hell… are you?"
Alex didn't answer. He just pushed off the ground, executing a controlled, low-altitude jump that carried him and Yinsen over the canyon walls, vanishing into the desert sunrise like a streak of blue and gold light.
The Mark I lay broken. Tony Stark was alive. And for the first time, the timeline was officially diverted—Dr. Yinsen was saved.