Synopsis
Iron Man is fighting Madame Masque in her hotel room in Montreal - and Masque has some seriously upgraded powers that are wrecking his armour's systems. The AI Friday judges that remaining in the armour will kill Tony Stark, so she explodes it away from him. A device on 1 wrist transports him out of a newly-created hole in the wall and away from the battle. But the AI can also reassemble enough bits of the armour to continue to attack Whitney Frost.
We now skip ahead in time and space to the MIT office of Amara Perera. Tony uses his tech to bypass security and is waiting in the room when Amara enters from her lab - much to her shock. His brush with death has made him want to tell her how he feels about her. But 1st he dances around the subject.
She wonders why he doesn't go talk to another superhero who would understand. But he says that half of them would have been in an even worse or weirder situation. His intellectual equals tend to be somewhat insane. And most heroes are acquaintances rather than friends, because his money tends to get in the way. (This is all his version of things.)
Amara asks what actually happened. Tony tells her, and we see a continuation of the fight. Stark is on a nearby rooftop remotely controlling the Iron Man suit, and holding a conversation with Frost via it. His needling causes her to smash the armour again. By the time it reassembles she's teleported away - another ability she didn't used to have.
Stark recalls the armour to him, and then puts in a call to Dr Strange - not answered yet.
Back now with Amara, Tony explains that Masque has been stealing powerful magic items, and she now has new powers he doesn't understand (I would think B is related to A). And on top of that Dr Doom is handsome and helpful, and Tony can't figure out what's going on.
But now he finally gets to the point. He admits that Amara is morally and intellectually better than him, as well as being good-looking. And he figures trying to become the man she deserves can only be good for him. And they have the kiss that was interrupted by a crisis in #1. But now Friday interrupts to say Dr Strange has returned his call.
As a final quip before leaving, Tony says "Hail Hydra." When Amara looks blank he says "Just checking."
Iron Man arrives in Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum in New York. Tony tells Stephen about his chat with Victor Von Doom last issue, a Von Doom without armour and claiming to now be on the side of good. Stark has brought the Wand of Watoomb that Masque failed to steal from Doom. Victor said it wasn't the 1 DrS has - it's a duplicate that came here from another dimension. And Masque is seeking other such dimensional flotsam.
Strange detects Masque in Marina Del Rey, California using a magic object to draw power from another dimension. But she's lost control and created a mystical mini black hole which she's now trying to deal with.
Stephen has to stay here to handle stuff, so Tony is going to go there alone. DrS urges him to hurry, but Stark wants to leave with a high-5. Strange doesn't want to do it (again), but he finally gives in. And Tony calls them the 'awesome facial hair bros'.
Iron Man arrives in California to find a deserted warehouse and an old-fashioned cassette player. Whitney Frost's message is a crazy mixture of flirting and dire warnings of what she'll do if he follows her. But also another warning that others are after her, and they'll probably arrive soon and kill him to preserve their anonymity.
Sure enough at that point a group of shadowy figures with light sabres drops in.