Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 144 - 143: The Iron Monger’s Shadow, a Hulk’s Fury, and a Spider’s First Thread

The year 2008 erupted onto Elias Thorne's carefully managed global chessboard with a series of chaotic, game-changing events that signaled the true, overt dawning of the "Age of Marvels." While the Kree Purifier Fleet's approach remained his ultimate long-term concern, terrestrial superhuman activity suddenly, violently, escalated.

The Afghanistan Crucible & The Birth of Iron Man:

Tony Stark, as Elias's System had predicted, embarked on his fateful weapons demonstration tour in Afghanistan. Anya Petrova's embedded Blackwood assets within Stark Industries had subtly tried to dissuade him, highlighting the increasing instability in the region and the unreliability of certain military liaisons (particularly those with ties to the remnants of Senator Brandt's shadowy network, who Elias suspected were still active and seeking to acquire advanced weaponry). But Stark, in his arrogant prime, was deaf to such cautious counsel.

The Ten Rings terrorist cell, armed with Stark Industries weaponry (a bitter irony Stark would soon confront) and secretly manipulated by a disgruntled, power-hungry Obadiah Stane (Stark's business partner and surrogate father figure, whose jealousy and ambition Anya had been quietly monitoring for years), ambushed Stark's convoy. The attack was brutal, efficient. Stark was critically wounded, captured, and forced to confront the horrifying consequences of his own creations.

Elias watched these events unfold with a detached, analytical interest. He could have intervened. A single True Legionnaire could have vaporized the Ten Rings cell and extracted Stark with ease. But he chose not to. Stark's [Technological Prime Conduit] potential was still latent. He needed a crucible, a profound, transformative trauma, to ignite his true genius, to force him beyond designing mere weapons of war and towards something... more. This "kidnapping," Elias calculated, was precisely that catalyst. O'Malley, however, under Elias's orders, subtly jammed any long-range communication attempts from the Ten Rings' desert stronghold, preventing them from easily broadcasting their prize or making demands that might attract unwanted international intervention before Stark's "gestation" was complete.

And so, in a dusty Afghan cave, with a box of scraps and the brilliant Dr. Ho Yinsen by his side, Tony Stark forged not just a means of survival, but his first crude suit of powered armor, the Mark I. His escape was a chaotic, fiery testament to his desperate ingenuity.

The System pinged: [STARK, ANTHONY ("TONY") – PRIME CONDUIT ACTIVATION (TECHNOLOGICAL – MARK I PROTO-SUIT). POWER LEVEL: TIER 1 (LOW) – RAPID EVOLUTION EXPECTED. TRAJECTORY: SELF-MADE HERO/WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION (UNPREDICTABLE). IMMEDIATE THREAT TO HOST INTERESTS: LOW. OPPORTUNITY FOR FUTURE INFLUENCE/TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION: SIGNIFICANT.]

Stark returned to America a changed man, haunted, driven, no longer content to be just a merchant of death. He shut down Stark Industries' weapons division, a move that sent shockwaves through the military-industrial complex and enraged Obadiah Stane. Elias knew Iron Man was about to be born, and the world would never be the same. He instructed Anya to intensify surveillance on Stane, anticipating his inevitable betrayal.

The Gamma Genesis & The Abomination's Rampage:

Simultaneously, another piece of dangerous pre-System hubris Elias had been monitoring came to a horrifying head. General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, obsessed with recreating a Super-Soldier Serum variant, had secretly revived a WWII-era bio-enhancement program involving gamma radiation, using a brilliant but emotionally unstable scientist named Dr. Bruce Banner as his lead researcher (and unwitting test subject).

The inevitable accident occurred at Culver University. Banner, exposed to a massive dose of gamma radiation during a failed experiment, transformed into a green-skinned goliath of unimaginable strength and mindless rage – the Hulk.

[BANNER, BRUCE ("HULK") – PRIME CONDUIT ACTIVATION (GAMMA MUTATE – UNSTABLE/DUAL FORM). POWER LEVEL: TIER OMEGA (POTENTIAL – RAGE-DEPENDENT/UNCONTROLLED). TRAJECTORY: DESTRUCTIVE FORCE OF NATURE/HUNTED FUGITIVE. IMMEDIATE THREAT TO GLOBAL STABILITY: HIGH. OPPORTUNITY: EXTREME (Potential for weaponization if controlled; invaluable data on gamma radiation/biological transmutation; unique Prime Essence signature if neutralized – HIGH RISK).]

The Hulk's rampage across the university campus and the subsequent pursuit by Ross's newly formed "Hulkbuster" military unit (equipped with experimental Stark Industries weaponry, ironically) was a catastrophe. Elias, through Finch's long-range necrotic sensors (which could detect spikes in extreme emotional/vital energy), monitored the event with grim fascination. This was raw, uncontrolled power, a force that could shatter cities.

Then, Ross, in his desperation to capture or kill Banner, made a fateful decision. He authorized Emil Blonsky, a British Royal Marine commando on loan to his unit, a man known for his ruthlessness and insatiable hunger for power, to undergo a series of experimental treatments – a corrupted Super-Soldier Serum derivative (likely one of Brandt's salvaged, unstable formulas, now in Ross's possession) and a subsequent, controlled dose of gamma radiation. Blonsky transformed into the Abomination, a monstrous creature rivaling the Hulk in strength but retaining his cunning, malevolent intellect.

The ensuing battle between the Hulk and the Abomination in Harlem, New York City, was an apocalyptic street brawl that Elias's closest Legionnaire Cohort (Alpha Squad, discreetly positioned in a Blackwood high-rise under the guise of "corporate security") observed with chilling professional detachment, relaying tactical data to Elias.

Elias had no interest in overtly intervening in this particular mess, not yet. Let the American military grapple with the consequences of their own reckless ambition. However, he tasked O'Malley and Finch with an urgent directive: analyze all available data on gamma radiation, its mutagenic properties, and potential countermeasures. If beings like Hulk and Abomination were now a reality, he needed to understand them, to defend against them, and perhaps, eventually, to control or replicate their power, if the System deemed it viable. The Shard potential was immense, but so was the risk of global annihilation.

The First Thread of a Spider – A Queens Anomaly:

Amidst these world-shaking events, a smaller, almost insignificant anomaly pinged on Elias's deep-System sensors, a subtle ripple in the bio-energetic fabric of New York City, unrelated to the Hulk's rampage. It was a faint, unique mutagenic signature, localized in Queens, near an Oscorp Industries research facility (another corporation Elias had a minor, discreet intelligence interest in, given Norman Osborn's ambitious, often ethically dubious, work in genetic engineering and performance enhancers).

[ANOMALOUS MUTAGENIC EVENT (QUEENS, NYC – OSCORP PROXIMITY). SIGNATURE: UNKNOWN ARACHNID/HUMAN GENETIC HYBRIDIZATION (MINOR BUT DISTINCT). POWER LEVEL: TIER 0 (NASCENT) – POTENTIAL FOR RAPID EVOLUTION. IDENTITY: UNCONFIRMED (LIKELY ADOLESCENT MALE – BASED ON PSYCHIC ECHOES OF CONFUSION/ADOLESCENT ANGST). THREAT: NEGLIGIBLE. OPPORTUNITY: UNKNOWN (POTENTIAL FUTURE ASSET/RESEARCH SUBJECT IF POWERS STABILIZE/MANIFEST SIGNIFICANTLY).]

A spider-hybrid? A teenager? It was a blip compared to Iron Man, Hulk, or the cosmic threats he faced. Elias made a note to assign a low-level Blackwood surveillance team (non-empowered human agents) to discreetly monitor Oscorp and any unusual activity in that Queens sector. He couldn't investigate every minor superhuman emergence personally. But the System's interest, however faint, was a thread he wouldn't ignore. Sometimes, the smallest spiders wove the most intricate, and most dangerous, webs.

The year 2008 was rapidly becoming a global inflection point. Iron Man was taking his first armored flights. The Hulk's roars echoed across continents. A young man in Queens was likely just discovering that with great power came... very strange side effects. S.H.I.E.L.D. was struggling to keep a lid on the chaos. Hydra and Soviet remnants watched from the shadows, undoubtedly looking for ways to exploit these new, powerful players.

Elias Thorne, from his unseen throne, observed it all. His Adamantium Guard was ready. Logan and Wraith were his scalpels. Namor was his oceanic leviathan. His True Legionnaires, led by the Klyntar-bonded Nox and Vex, were his cosmic chess pieces. He had the technology, the resources, the System-derived power to intervene, to control, to dominate this new age of marvels.

The Kree Purifier Fleet was still out there, regrouping, undoubtedly planning Earth's final reckoning. But Elias now had a new, far more immediate set of variables to manage on his terrestrial chessboard. The emergence of these independent, powerful "heroes" and "monsters" could either be a catastrophic disruption to his New World Order Protocol, or... a golden opportunity to acquire new, potent assets and technologies, and to further solidify his role as the ultimate, unseen arbiter of Earth's superhuman destiny. The game was becoming more complex, more dangerous, and infinitely more exhilarating. Elias felt his own ancient, System-fused power stir in anticipation. This was merely the overture. The true symphony of the Age of Marvels was about to begin, and he intended to be its conductor.