Marvel: I Am The Lord of the Shadow Dimension

Inside the heavily guarded intensive care unit of a Monaco hospital, Tony stood beside the bed, looking down at Ivan Vanko, who was currently missing his right arm and left leg. 

"Your little tech project isn't entirely terrible, though the cycle rate is a bit slow," Tony remarked, analyzing the man who had tried to whip him in half just hours earlier. 

Luke walked into the room right behind him, glaring down at Vanko and seriously considering just finishing the job. However, noting the sheer number of security cameras completely covering the room, Luke silently abandoned the idea. 

"If you increased the RPM and forced the repulsor energy through an ionized plasma channel, it would be much more effective. But as it stands, your efficiency is practically garbage," Tony continued. 

It was Tony's classic psychological tactic: immediately assert absolute dominance in the other person's field of expertise before actually speaking to them. 

"I don't understand. With just a few minor tweaks to the cycle rate, you could have easily sold the patent and made millions. Why this?" 

Ivan let out a weak, mocking laugh. "You come from a family of thieves and butchers. You desperately try to rewrite your history, pretending you aren't a criminal, but you conveniently forget every single person murdered by Stark Industries weapons." 

"You're calling me a thief? Where exactly did you steal your tech from?" Tony asked coldly, trying to extract information. 

"My father, Anton Vanko." 

"Sorry, never heard of him." 

Tony's dismissive tone hit a nerve. Ivan's eyes flashed with anger. 

"The only reason you aren't dead right now isn't just because of your freakish friend! It's because of my father!" 

"The only reason I'm not dead is because I actually have friends," Tony shot back. 

Ivan's anger suddenly gave way to a chilling, bloodstained grin. 

"Tony Stark... Do you know what happens when a god bleeds? People stop believing in him. You confidently declared on national television that no one could replicate your technology for twenty years... but today, the world saw the false god bleed." 

Tony's expression darkened. The moment he had seen the crude Arc Reactor on Ivan's chest, he knew the political fallout was going to be an absolute nightmare. 

"When there's blood in the water, the sharks will come. And not even your little friend here can save you from the entire world," Ivan rasped, glancing at Luke. "And I? I just have to sit here and watch it happen." 

"Where exactly are you going to watch?" Tony asked coldly. "From a maximum-security prison cell?" 

With that, Tony turned around and signaled Luke to follow him out. 

"Tony Stark! Your time is running out! Dying from palladium poisoning is a terrible way to go!" Ivan yelled after them. 

Tony paused, glancing over his shoulder with a smirk. "Looks like you really don't have any friends." 

Walking out of the hospital, Luke glanced back at Vanko's room. He subtly deployed several Shadow Ninjas into the dark corners of the hospital, instructing them to find a blind spot in the camera coverage and assassinate Vanko later. 

Tony got into the back seat of his waiting car in complete silence. Luke slid in next to him, noticing Natasha was currently in the driver's seat. 

The atmosphere in the car was incredibly heavy. Rhodey had already called several times. 

The US Military and the Senate were currently circling Tony like a swarm of angry hornets, desperate to completely devour his armor technology. Rhodey was burning through all of his political capital just to hold them off. 

After taking another call from Rhodey and giving a noncommittal answer, Tony sank into deep thought. 

Meanwhile, back in the hospital. Now officially out of critical condition, Ivan was wheeled back into his heavily guarded room. Later that night, however, several crates containing highly advanced, experimental cybernetic limbs were quietly smuggled into the hospital... 

Early the next morning, Luke was eating breakfast and watching the morning news. Unsurprisingly, every single major network was obsessively covering the ambush in Monaco. 

It wasn't hard to guess who was aggressively pushing the narrative. Disgusted, Luke flipped through the channels until he found some classic Tom and Jerry cartoons to watch while he ate his eggs. 

A few minutes later, Tony walked into the living room, listening to the classical music playing softly from the kitchen. 

Looking at Tony's massive, dark bags under his eyes, Luke easily deduced the billionaire had pulled another all-nighter in his lab. 

"Is it bad out there?" Tony asked, gesturing to the TV. 

"Every single news channel is running the footage on a loop. This is the only channel showing something actually worth watching," Luke sighed, pointing at Jerry slamming a frying pan into Tom's face. 1

"Vultures. All of them," Tony muttered, rubbing his eyes. 

"Tony?" a soft voice called out from the entryway. It was Pepper, who hadn't set foot in the mansion in days. 

Luke immediately took his breakfast plate and practically sprinted out to the balcony, leaving the living room entirely to the awkward couple. 

After enjoying an incredibly slow, hour-long breakfast on the balcony, Luke peeked inside. He smiled when he saw Pepper and Tony sitting closely together on the sofa, leaning on each other. 

'Looks like I really need to find my own place soon. But New York is definitely off the list,' Luke thought to himself. 

Even though he was officially a billionaire now thanks to the smartphone company, he refused to buy a house in New York—a city mathematically guaranteed to be destroyed by aliens in a few years. 

"JARVIS, pull up some high-end real estate listings in Los Angeles..." 

Inside a classified Hammer Industries facility. 

Ivan Vanko, whose severed limbs had been surgically replaced with highly advanced, albeit bulky, cybernetic prosthetics, sat across a lavish dining table. 

"I hope you find the prosthetics to your liking. They are highly experimental and cost an absolute fortune," Justin Hammer smiled thinly, though his smile made Ivan's skin crawl. 

Ivan looked down at his new cybernetic arm. The Stark Industries logo hadn't been fully sanded off before a Hammer Industries logo had been clumsily painted over it. Ivan looked back up at the idiot sitting across from him. 

"I don't know if you speak English. Do you need me to bring in a translator?" Hammer asked slowly, enunciating his words like he was talking to a toddler. 

'This man is an absolute moron,' Ivan thought silently. 'But he is a useful moron.' 

While Ivan remained silent, Hammer continued repeating the words "resources" and "money" over and over, as if doing so would magically teach the Russian English. 

"I think we can do business," Ivan finally spoke in heavily accented, but perfect English. 

Hammer laughed in delight. 

"Excellent! That is exactly what I was hoping to hear! I will give you whatever you need—unlimited funding, unrestricted access to my labs, anything! But in return, you must build me an army of Iron Man suits." 

Ivan stared blankly at the foolish man. "Very well. But I want my bird... and I want the combat footage of the 'Lord of Shadows'." 

"Yes, General. I assure you, I will convince Stark to formally hand over the armor technology. But I strongly advise you not to send tanks to seize it by force. Knowing Tony, he is incredibly arrogant and fiercely protective. If you try to take it by force, he will absolutely initiate a self-destruct protocol and wipe the servers clean. You'll get nothing." 

Sitting in his car outside the Malibu mansion, Rhodey sighed heavily. He had finally managed to talk his superiors out of physically raiding Tony's home with armored battalions. 

Following the Monaco incident, public opinion was rapidly turning against Tony, and the military was getting impatient. They didn't want an erratic superhero who only worked when he felt like it; they wanted a fully controllable, militarized squadron of Iron Men. 

Looking at the quiet mansion, Rhodey frowned. Why hadn't Tony thrown his usual massive, obnoxious birthday party today? 

As soon as he walked through the front door, Rhodey spotted Tony sitting in the living room. He opened his mouth to call out, but suddenly, a hand clamped over his mouth from the shadows. 

Rhodey panicked, his hand dropping to his sidearm, but quickly relaxed when he saw it was Luke. 

Rhodey raised an eyebrow in question. Luke simply pointed a finger toward the living room. 

Looking closer, Rhodey was shocked to see Tony and Pepper cuddled up on the sofa, deeply engrossed in a cheesy romantic comedy—a genre Tony historically despised. 

"What the hell?" Rhodey whispered in disbelief. When did those two move so fast?! 

Luke gestured for him to follow, and the two quietly snuck down into the underground lab. 

While Rhodey felt bad about interrupting Tony, the intense pressure from the military was giving him a migraine. He quickly explained the situation to Luke. 

"So, if the military doesn't get an Iron Man suit immediately, they're going to roll tanks up to the front door?" Luke asked, nodding in understanding. 

"Basically, yes," Rhodey sighed, rubbing his temples. 

"Well, why don't you just take one right now? What about the Mark II?" Luke pointed at the unpainted, silver suit standing in a display case. "It's basically just a flight prototype. It doesn't have any heavy weapons installed. The military can just slap their own guns on it." 

Rhodey stared at the silver armor. "Are you serious? Is that even allowed?" 

Despite his frustration, Rhodey was a man of principle. He didn't want to literally steal his best friend's armor. 

"Tony is already on the Mark V and actively developing the Mark VI. The Mark II is literally just an obsolete decoration to him now. It's collecting dust," Luke lied smoothly. He walked over, tapped the console to open the display case, and effortlessly lifted the nearly one-ton armor out, setting it directly in front of Rhodey. 

"Why don't you try it on?" Luke encouraged. "I borrow this one all the time when I'm bored." 

Rhodey hesitated, but the temptation was too strong. While he knew Luke had actual magical powers, Tony's cutting-edge tech had always fascinated him as a pilot. 

"Can I really try it?" 

While his mouth protested, his body had already stepped onto the assembly platform. JARVIS automatically initiated the equip sequence, seamlessly locking the heavy armor plates onto Rhodey's body. 

Watching the newly minted War Machine fully assemble, Luke quietly pulled out his camera and snapped a photo. 

'I'm definitely framing this one,' Luke grinned. 

Rhodey took a few wobbly steps around the lab, adjusting to the weight, before hovering a few feet in the air and landing heavily. 

"Hey! What are you two doing?!" 

Tony, who had supposedly been watching a movie upstairs, suddenly walked into the lab, looking annoyed. 

He marched straight to his primary terminal and started typing frantically. "Damn it! I was literally just writing a new biometric security patch for that suit! I wiped the authorized user database to recalibrate it, and you just stepped into it! Now the system has hard-locked you as the primary user!" 

"Wait, what does that mean?" Rhodey asked, completely bewildered, glancing at Luke. 

"It means I originally coded the suits so anyone could theoretically wear them," Tony lied flawlessly, frowning at the screen. "But recently, I realized how dangerous that was, so I rewrote the core OS to strictly bind to a single biometric signature. And since I wiped the slate clean ten minutes ago, the suit just permanently bonded to you." 

"Looks like I can't even delete you from the registry now. The encryption is hard-coded," Tony sighed dramatically, rubbing his face in 'frustration.' 

Rhodey panicked slightly. He looked at Luke, shooting him a look that clearly said, 'You told me this was fine!' 

Luke just shrugged innocently. 

"Well, if you can't undo it, why don't you just let Rhodey keep it?" Luke suggested casually. "Besides, didn't you say no one could replicate your tech for twenty years anyway?" 

Tony looked up, scoffing. "Saying twenty years was me being generous. Did you see the footage from the hearings? Hammer's prototype suits couldn't even walk without twisting the pilot's spine 180 degrees." 

Tony walked over and gave the Mark II a quick, 'frustrated' inspection, pretending to be at a complete loss. 

"By the way, where's Pepper?" Luke asked, seemingly changing the subject. 

"Damn it! I told her I was just going to the bathroom!" Tony cursed loudly. "If I take any longer, she's going to think I have severe bowel issues!" 

Tony turned back to Rhodey. "Look, fine! Just take the damn suit! I have to get back upstairs before she gets mad at me!" 

Tony pointed urgently at the hangar bay doors, instructing JARVIS to open them. 

"Fly out through there! And watch your speed! The aerodynamic stabilizers on the Mark II are a bit finicky!" 

With that, Tony turned around and practically sprinted back up the stairs. 

Rhodey stood frozen in the silver armor, staring blankly at the open hangar doors, then back at Luke. 

Luke simply threw his hands up. "Well, I'm not going to third-wheel them. I think I'll go check into a hotel tonight." 

Luke casually drew a Sling Ring portal and stepped through it, vanishing entirely, leaving Rhodey completely alone in the lab. 

Rhodey frowned. Suddenly, the suit's internal HUD flared to life, automatically plotting a highly optimized, completely secure flight path directly to Edwards Air Force Base. 

"Those two absolute idiots..." Rhodey muttered, finally connecting the dots. 

He let out a long, fond sigh. His best friend had intentionally set up a convoluted play just to give him the armor without technically 'giving' it to the military, protecting both Rhodey's career and Tony's pride. 

The faceplate slammed down. Rhodey engaged the thrusters and flew out of the hangar. 

"Careful... careful..." Rhodey muttered, flying at a snail's pace as he navigated the exit. He noticed a massive dent in the ceiling near the door and instantly knew that was the 'aerodynamic issue' Tony had warned him about. 

Following the perfectly pre-programmed route on his HUD, Rhodey blasted off into the night sky, bringing the military exactly what they wanted.

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