After his accidental heroics at Stark Industries, Alex found himself in a weird limbo. Tony Stark had given him a badge that said "Special Consultant: Do Not Question," which basically meant he could wander the tower freely without anyone batting an eye. Alex thought it was a free pass to the executive snack bar. He had no idea that in the Marvel Universe, things were heating up—whispers of super-soldiers, gamma accidents, and shadowy organizations were bubbling under the surface. But Alex? He was just trying to figure out why the vending machine kept eating his quarters.
One crisp autumn morning, Alex decided to "explore" the lower levels of Stark Tower. He had no plan; he was actually looking for the bathroom again after chugging a supersized soda. Swiping his badge haphazardly, he ended up in a sub-basement lab marked "Quantum Research: Restricted." The door whooshed open because, unbeknownst to him, his greasy fingerprint from a previous pizza run had short-circuited the biometric scanner just enough to bypass protocols. "Cool, secret bathroom," Alex mumbled, stepping inside.
The lab was a mad scientist's dream: glowing consoles, humming particle accelerators, and a massive device that looked like a giant blender hooked up to a disco ball. This was Hank Pym's old collaboration space with Stark, left over from some forgotten Ant-Man tech experiments. A rogue scientist, secretly working for A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics), had sneaked in to steal quantum entanglement tech that could revolutionize teleportation—or, in villain hands, create unstoppable weapons. The scientist was mid-heist, downloading data to a drive, when Alex bumped into a control panel while trying to adjust his shoelace.
Sparks flew. The panel lit up, and the quantum device activated with a low hum. "Whoa, is this a microwave?" Alex said, peering inside the chamber. He tossed in his half-eaten granola bar wrapper, thinking it was a trash compactor. The machine whirred louder, entangling the wrapper's molecules with the thief's data drive in a freak quantum loop. The drive overheated, erasing all the stolen files and sending a feedback surge that locked the lab's doors, trapping the A.I.M. agent inside.
Alarms blared softly—subtle ones, since this was classified. SHIELD agents, who had been monitoring Stark Tower for anomalies (Nick Fury's paranoia at work), picked up the signal. But before they could mobilize, Alex, panicking at the noise, started pressing buttons randomly. "Stop, stop, bad machine!" He hit a sequence that accidentally initiated a self-destruct protocol for compromised tech, vaporizing the quantum core in a contained implosion. The A.I.M. agent, caught in the blast radius, was knocked out cold, his yellow bee-keeper helmet cracking comically.
Just then, Pepper Potts burst in (she had override access), flanked by security. "What happened here?" she demanded, surveying the smoking ruins. Alex, covered in soot but unharmed, shrugged. "I think the vending machine exploded? But hey, I found this guy napping." He pointed to the unconscious villain. Pepper's eyes widened as she recognized the A.I.M. insignia. "You... you just stopped an espionage attempt. How?"
Alex blinked. "Espio-what? I was just hungry." The security team hauled the agent away, and Pepper, ever efficient, called Tony. "Stark, your 'luck charm' just saved proprietary tech. Again."
Tony arrived in a flashy suit, smirking. "Kid, you're like a walking glitch in the matrix. Pym's gonna owe me for this—his antsy tech almost got swiped." Alex nodded blankly. "Ants? Like picnic ants?" Tony laughed, slapping a bonus check into his hand. "Keep it up, Dumbfort. Next time, aim for the bathroom on the right floor."
Unbeknownst to Alex, this mishap rippled through the Marvel web. SHIELD took note, filing him under "Anomalous Civilian Asset." The A.I.M. theft foiled meant their plans for quantum weapons were set back years, indirectly preventing a minor skirmish that could've escalated before Tony's big reveal. Alex, meanwhile, used his bonus to buy a new scooter, which he promptly crashed into a hydrant—flooding a street just in time to douse a small electrical fire starting in a nearby lab. Success, as always, by sheer accident.
As the days ticked closer to Tony's Jericho trip, Alex's blunders kept stacking up, turning potential disasters into dumb luck triumphs. In a universe of calculated heroes, Alex remained the ultimate wildcard: no clue, no plan, all wins.