While Tony was orchestrating his dramatic "divorce" from the military in the bright, public eye of a press conference, a more secretive and dangerous firestorm was brewing within the intelligence community. The explosion that had vaporized the Ten Rings base had been a signature of power that defied every known satellite algorithm and physical law.
At the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, a behemoth of steel and secrets hovering invisibly over the Atlantic, Director Nick Fury stood before a massive holographic display of the Afghan canyon. Beside him, Agent Phil Coulson monitored the thermal playback.
"Talk to me, Phil," Fury growled, his one good eye fixed on the crater where Raza's headquarters used to be.
"Satellite surveillance shows a massive thermal spike, consistent with a fuel air bomb, followed by a localized electromagnetic pulse," Coulson reported, his fingers swiping through streams of data. "But here's the problem, Sir. The military's early warning radar in the sector? It saw nothing. No incoming missiles, no aircraft. One minute the base is there, the next, it's a funeral pyre."
Coulson zoomed in on the wreckage of the Stark crates. "Forensics is a mess. The munitions were crushed and melted simultaneously. It's almost as if the metallic density of the crates was turned against itself."
Fury leaned in, his expression darkening. "So we have a ghost with a vendetta against Stark tech. The question is, is it the billionaire himself, or is someone else playing with the King's toys?"
In a secure vault deep within the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were reviewing the same footage. For them, the logic was terrifying. If an unknown entity could bypass their multi trillion dollar radar network and wipe out a fortified enemy position in minutes, then the United States Military's global air superiority was officially dead.
The "UAP" Classification, The Pentagon officially labeled the event an "Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon." They feared it was a rival foreign power, testing a new cloaking technology combined with a devastating kinetic weapon. Because the "Iron Man" had exclusively targeted Stark weapons, the military brass began to suspect that Tony Stark had a "Plan B" he wasn't sharing. They wanted to raid his servers and seize his labs.
Colonel Rhodes was the only one who got a "boots on the ground" report from the scouts sent to the ruins. When he saw the photos of the melted blast doors, doors that had been ripped outward as if by a giant and invisible magnet, he felt a cold shiver run down his spine. "The explosion was a message," he'd reported to his superiors. "Whoever did this, they used the very physics of the metal itself. If Tony is behind this, he has rewritten the laws of war."
S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Military both reached the same conclusion. The source of the "Ghost" was inextricably tied to the Stark fallout. While the DoD focused on the "Weapon Leakage" scandal as a way to bankrupt and control Tony, Nick Fury began a different kind of investigation.
"Coulson," Fury said, turning away from the screen, a plan already forming in his mind. "Get to New York. If Stark is hiding a guardian angel in his basement, I want to know if that angel is on our side or if we need to clip its wings."
The aftermath of Tony's press conference was the beginning of a hurricane. While the public was still reeling from the shocking shutdown of the weapons division, the shadows beneath the surface were crawling with activity.
Director Nick Fury wasn't satisfied with a single set of eyes on Tony Stark. While Agent Phil Coulson was tasked with the diplomatic approach, approaching through official channels to discuss "national security concerns," Fury deployed a second asset.
Natasha Romanoff slipped into Stark Industries' legal department under the alias "Natalie Rushman." Her mission was simple. Penetrate Tony's inner circle, get close and find the source of the "Ghost" technology that had leveled the Afghan base. With Tony's new Eye Boy vision, he sensed the shift in the company's electromagnetic atmosphere the moment she stepped onto the property. He could see the coded transmissions from the S.H.I.E.L.D. tech hidden in her purse, but he played his part, pretending to be the arrogant genius and intrigued only by her looks.
Tony didn't wait for the government's bureaucratic audit to find the truth. Late that night, sitting in his workshop with the Mark III gleaming behind him, he gave JARVIS a cold command.
"JARVIS, the Ten Rings data we pulled from the cave... merge it with the Pentagon procurement leaks we harvested from the DoD servers. Match the signatures, the wire transfers and the decrypted voice logs between Stane and his contacts in the Joint Chiefs."
"The evidence is damning, Sir," JARVIS replied a few seconds later. "It connects Mr. Stane directly to the illegal sale of the Jericho prototypes and identifies three high ranking Pentagon officials as his primary facilitators."
"Good," Tony said, a cold smile touching his lips. "Send it to everyone. Every major newspaper, every 24 hour news cycle, every blog from New York to Tokyo. Let's see how Obadiah likes being the headline."
The next morning, the world woke up to a digital execution. The front page of every major newspaper featured a split screen photo, Obadiah Stane on one side, smiling at a charity gala and General Thaddeus Ross's inner circle and other Pentagon procurement officers on the other. Below them were the smoking guns, bank records from the Cayman Islands and transcribed audio files of Stane negotiating the "disposal" of Tony Stark in Afghanistan.
The headlines were a cacophony of global outrage,
"THE MERCHANT OF DEATH'S SECRET PARTNER, STANE EXPOSED"
"THE MAN BEHIND THE TERRORIST ARMS PIPELINE"
"PENTAGON CORRUPTION, WHO SOLD OUT THE MILITARY?"
The reaction was instantaneous. By 9:00 AM, the FBI had surrounded Stark Industries.
Tony watched from his penthouse office as federal agents swarmed Stane's floor. Through his Eye Boy vision, he could see the heat rising in Stane's face as the man realized his life's work was over. He watched as Stane looked up toward Tony's balcony, his expression a mask of murderous hatred. He knew who had done this, even if he couldn't prove it.
Tony leaned back, his eyes tracking the red lit thermal signatures of the FBI teams moving through the lower levels of the building. "He saw the Mark III in the desert," he murmured to JARVIS. "And a man like Obie doesn't fear that… he covets it."
"You believe he will use the footage of you as leverage, Sir?"
"Exactly. He's going to play the 'National Security' card. He'll go to his remaining cronies in the military and tell them there's an 'unidentified armored threat' out there. He'll offer to build them a counter measure using the Stark R&D data he's been skimming for years. He'll position himself as the only one who can protect the country from the very 'ghost' he saw on that video call. He thinks that suit is his get out of jail free card."
Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, the three officers named in the leak were being escorted out in handcuffs. The "Freeze" on Stark contracts had backfired spectacularly. The public now saw the government's investigation as a desperate attempt to cover up their own corruption.
Tony stood in his workshop later that day, watching the news feed on a dozen holographic screens.
Pepper walked in, her face pale but her eyes burning with the grim satisfaction of a mission accomplished.
"I've finished cross referencing the files I pulled from Obadiah's private server," Pepper said, her voice steady. "The logistics reports, the kickbacks to the Pentagon, the plans to have you removed... it's all here. He's been selling the company's soul for a decade."
Tony nodded, "I knew he was greedy, but I didn't think he'd be sloppy enough to keep the logs. Now, it's time to pull the rug out from under him completely."
Tony turned to her, a sharp glint in his eyes. "There's one more thing, Pepper. Something my father left in the fine print. When Howard brought Obie into the fold, he gave him 10% of the company as a 'gift,' a sign of trust. But Howard was a paranoid genius. He included a Character and Loyalty Clause in that gift contract."
Pepper's eyes widened.
"If the recipient betrays the company or the Stark family, the gift is rendered null and void," Tony explained. "With the evidence you found, his 10% reverts back to the estate immediately. Between his scandal and the 'Weapons Division' shutdown, our stocks are in the gutter. And that's exactly where I want them."
"You're going to buy them back," Pepper realized, her voice a whisper of awe.
"Exactly. We use my private capital to buy back every floating share at pennies on the dollar. We consolidate the power, kick Obie out with nothing but a mountain of legal bills and rebuild Stark Industries from the ground up."