Tony Stark imagines himself as a miniature figure trapped in a glass tube by a huge menacing Iron Man. Snapping out of his daydream, he agonizes over the fact that he cannot remove the bulk of his armor since he needs its extra power to keep the chestplate charged—the chestplate which keeps his damaged heart beating. He lashes out, smashing equipment with his powered gauntlets, frustrated that he is a prisoner of Iron Man, his own creation….
Meanwhile, a worried Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan are unable to locate the "missing" Tony Stark and Pepper accuses Tony’s "bodyguard" Iron Man of dereliction of duty. Unable to devise an explanation that couldn’t be checked, Iron Man claims he doesn’t know where Tony Stark is, leading to the industrialist’s two faithful employees suspecting Iron Man of covering up some foul play. Tony is touched by their loyalty but is still unable to say anything. Later, he decides to put a note in his safe, "explaining" his absence but just as he is removing money from the safe, the police enter, accompanied by Happy and Pepper. Thinking quickly, Iron Man tells them that he has been entrusted with the combination to the safe and produces the note which he "found" inside. In it, Tony explains that he is on a top-secret mission for the government, and that Iron Man is in charge. The police examine the note and discover that the writing is shaky and there are no fingerprints on it (the result of Tony’s having written it without removing his gauntlets). When confronted with this anomaly, the frustrated Iron Man crashes through a window and flies off. He finds a solitary place to think and contacts the Avengers to say he can’t make the meeting and to assure Thor that he had nothing to do with Stark’s disappearance….
Elsewhere, the Black Widow decides to take advantage of the chaos surrounding Stark and Iron Man to seduce the reluctant Hawkeye into raiding the Stark factory to steal the latest weapon plans. That night, the masked archer enters the Stark premises by stealth but is caught by the guards; he barricades himself inside Tony’s office where he takes Pepper prisoner. Hawkeye learns from the secretary that Stark keeps all his plans and designs in his head—there is nothing to steal. The Avengers hear about the hostage situation on the police radio and contact Iron Man who asks to be allowed to handle matters his own way. The Armored Avenger crashes into the factory and dodges Hawkeye’s arrows while throwing a steel wall to create a barrier between Pepper and the villain. The hero pursues him into a lab where the archer fires a blast arrow which drops a massive new rocket on Iron Man, who has to use all his strength and dexterity to bring the craft down without damaging it. Realizing that Iron Man is too powerful for him, Hawkeye fires a flash arrow, blinding the hero and he makes his getaway. Outside, he fires a suction arrow and hitches a ride on a passing jet—which, unbeknownst to him, is carrying the Black Widow, who has been captured by Soviet agents for delivery to the Kremlin….
When Iron Man returns to the Stark plant, police prepare to fire an armor-piercing weapon at him, but Pepper stops them, reminding them that the hero has not been charged with a crime. Iron Man thanks her but must leave since Tony can’t look her in the eye; Pepper meanwhile, doesn’t know why but she feels she can trust the armored mystery man. When last we see him, Tony Stark is in his lab, searching for a way to remove his armor safely….