Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue Pepper Potts donned her Rescue armour on a mission to get DNA samples from Tony Stark's biological parents, to be used in creating a new body for Tony (or maybe repairing his old 1). Last issue she got hair from Amanda Armstrong. Now she's got the more difficult task - Tony's father, the Hydra Agent we know only as Jude.
In Hydra base Omicron very junior Agent Robbie Fleckman has been sent to get some coffees, returns with the wrong order (unless another smirking Agent deliberately misled him) and then drops them all. A pretty redheaded female in a business suit helps him clean up. She claims to be here for an interview for a job as Mr Johnson's assistant. She already had some trouble getting past security because the computer system's down. Robbie's never heard of Mr Johnson but has to admit he's fairly new here himself. He joined straight from High School because he wanted to feel part of something important.
The female is of course Pepper who contacts Bethany Cabe for/with an update. They presumably caused the computer glitch, unless it's just part of the AI Revolution, but they won't have forever to complete the task. Beth directs her to Records Hall on the 4th Floor where they hope to find details on Agent Jude in the physical backup files. Pepper expects to use the invisibility afforded by men to a woman in a 'sensible' suit to get her there without incident.
In a lift a Hydra high-up makes a disparaging remark about female employees. Pepper suppresses a retort but her armour's AI (in her large handbag) interpret's it as a threat response and starts to armour her arm. She forces it to disengage and then tells the man she's the new assistant to the Head Of Robotics. But that makes him assume she'll be heading with him to the Robotics meeting on Floor 3, and she has to follow.
Dr M is presenting his answer to the AI problem. Bethany tells Pepper she can't waste time here, but by a lucky coincidence Ms Potts spots her target in this very room. As she makes her way across the crowded room towards Jude, Dr M introduces his new artificially intelligent robot - the Hydra-Bot, a giant metal skull on metal tentacles. He extols its many capabilities, including its fine precision, and gets it to pick up Robbie Fleckman for a demonstration. It will cut a lobe off 1 ear and then cauterise the wound.
Pepper is torn between her mission and staying to help Robbie, but she heads after Jude who has just exited the room. Unfortunately she finds the door locked. And then the Hydra-Bot goes rogue. And these 2 facts make her choice for her.
Hydra-Bot turns on Dr M and slices *his* hand off, the hand that holds the controls. It intends to follow Hydra's goal of a New World Order of superior beings. But those beings won't be humans. As the Bot attacks Hydra Agents Pepper suits up and rescues Robbie, who realises that she's the woman he met. She's willing to leave the other Agents to their fate and blasts the door lock. But beyond she finds several mini-Hydra-Bots. She makes short work of *them*, I think by deflecting their blasts back to them.
Then she gets her AI HAPPY to run a search-and-rescue scan which picks up only 1 heartbeat, so she enters the room containing Agent Jude. He recognises who she is inside that armour and assumes Tony's sent her to kill him. He pulls a gun which Pepper knows won't hurt her, but he says it will alert the robots outside. Pepper suggests that the robots will now consider him an enemy as well as her. And as if on cue the door opens on a scene of Bots fighting Agents.
Robbie runs in to warn them, and Jude threatens to shoot *him* unless Rescue lets him leave. But Rescue grabs the gun with a forcefield and fires it up into the air to attract the attention of the big Hydra-Bot. The H-B grabs Jude. Heroic young Robbie throws his penknife at the Bot's eye ... and accidentally slices 1 of Jude's fingertips off. Rescue attracts Hydra-Bot's attention and it thinks she's another robot ... and then realises her tech is superior to his. Then his overriding command to eliminate all inferior beings makes him initiate his own self-destruct sequence.
Rescue advises Robbie to run. (Jude escapes too.) She picks up the fingertip and Robbie at last realises she's Pepper Potts. And she heads home with mission accomplished.