Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The nascent Serpent Society have Tony Stark trapped in a shack in a junkyard, or so they think. Sidewinder stops Puff Adder from blowing venom in there because the wind might blow it back on them. He proposes they all go in and kill him in person. But no-one seems to want to accompany him so SW goes it alone. And the shack explodes knocking them all down.
Stark emerges sheathed in a forcefield he's knocked together. He tells the just-about-conscious Sidewinder that he's read a SHIELD file on him and his Serpent Society, where he learned that Seth Voelker's teleportation cloak uses an Nth Generator. Tony designed his kinetic field to work on the same principle, and Voelker kindly powered it up for him.
Stark believes that the Serpents have been sent after him by Obadiah Stane who stole his company and bankrupted him. he tells Sidewinder to advise the bald man who hired him to leave him alone or he'll destroy his business.
Tough Anaconda weathered the blast better than the others, and she attacks Stark with her coiling arms. But a shock from his chestplate blasts her away.
The junkyard owner runs up to complain. Tony had given him $100 for anything he could carry away. But that won't cover the damage. Stark questions whether you can 'damage' junk. But the tech from the villains' costumes should see him right.
The Pride meet in full session at the Wilder estate. They somehow know all the details of what just occurred. They take Stark's "baldy" remark to mean their leader Geoffrey Wilder, and his threat to be against their criminal empire in Los Angeles. They've obviously heard about Stark's downfall, but now think that it's just a cover for Stark to infiltrate their territory. They think Stane and Stark are in it together.
They need to deal with Stark before the Rite of the Gibborim is due. Geoffrey suggests they abandon force and use more subtle methods to stymie their foe.
In the Robinson home Tamara comes to see what all the shouts of joy are about. Tony and her brother Tyree have got their prototype working. They're finally willing to show her what it is. It's an automated pillbox that will keep track of when you're supposed to take each type of pill, and tell you what to take when. It was inspired by the myriad of meds Tyree has to take to keep his sanity in check.
It's not world-beating, but Tony says it's the kind of cheap and simple device on which fortunes are made.
Homeless bum and recovering alcoholic Stark cleans himself up and goes seeking venture capital to back the idea. But all his local connections don't want to talk to him. We see that Dale Yorkes of The Pride is behind this, backed up by the threat of his pet dinosaur.
Tony drowns his frustration by having a closer look at the abandoned factory he wants to manufacture the pill dispenser. Tamara finds him there and tells him how the Imperio neighbourhood has been turned into a den of vice. Including a long string of missing girls. This area has run out of hope.
Later Geoffrey Wilder complains to wife Catherine about the neighbourhood meeting that Stark has called. (Financed like the prototype by Tamara's dwindling resources.) Tony gets a full turnout (mainly because his flyers promised loadsa money).
Stark proposes to set up a company Imperio Techworks owned by them all in the derelict factory which will give them all jobs. He says he's already got a large order from Japan (which is a lie that he expects (hopes) to be able to turn into truth). All he needs is $700,000 dollars to get things going, which is $20 from each of them.
Someone asks why they should trust a man who's lost his own company. Tony says that experience is a great teacher. A few people decide it's worth the gamble, and they start to persuade others.
That's when The Pride's gunmen try to break up the meeting. And that's when Iron Man shows up to stop them.
And says he wants to talk to Stark.