his boot repulsors to take to the air He flew up and saw the man in white cringing in fear from the giant hand which was about to grab him I don’t know what that hand is connected to Iron Man thought but I’d rather not stick around and find out In an instant he was next to the man in white He grabbed him by his jumpsuit just before the giant hand could swat him away Another burst of repulsor fire gave Iron Man a little room to maneuver He jumped off the platform with the man in white just as his repulsors kicked on Flying away from the burning rig Iron Man headed toward one of the Coast Guard ships with the man in his arms I’m gonna bet there’s a pretty interesting story behind all of this he said to the man How about I drop you off and you tell me all about it after I put that fire out Hovering over one of the ships Tony dropped the man onto the deck The man was caught by a couple other people wearing similar white jumpsuits 6
That’s when Tony noticed something else Something strange jumpsuits The Coast Guard boats didn’t seem to have any Coast Guard personnel on them The only people he could see on the ship were the men in white An explosion from the oil rig drew Iron Man’s attention leaving him no time to ponder this weird development He double-timed it back to the oil rig and flew once more into the chaos of growing black smoke and flames He steeled himself for an attack as he prepped his armor to fight the fire To Iron Man’s great surprise there was no sign of the giant thing that had attacked him It was like it never existed thought How could something so big simply disappear he As Iron Man tried to wrap his brain around his circumstances he activated his gauntlets Thin streams of an oxygen-depriving chemical sprayed outward Iron Man worked his way from the tower 7
down to the oil rig proper aiming for the source of the fire Slowly the flames began to die out Worst Day Ever Iron Man said He tried to reach the Coast Guard boats on his communications system There was no response It was like they never existed From aboard one of the Coast Guard boats a man clad in a white jumpsuit watched the events on the oil rig via holographic monitor He watched Iron Man slowly methodically put out the flames on the rig our little test go Well said a voice over the computer How did The man in white shifted in his seat Iron Man didn’t know what hit him he said He thought this was a real oil rig He didn’t expect to find a monster waiting for him Brilliant said the voice We’re almost ready to unleash it on the world Is it safe Arrangements have been made replied the man 8
in white It is safe We’re en route to you and will deliver it in a matter of days Good said the voice All goes to plan Under the veil of night you notice things you didn’t in the harsh light of day Isn’t that odd Like sounds for instance Perhaps precisely because we can’t see as well in the dark our other senses compensate We rely more on our hearing Every little sound becomes a symphony to our ears The forest overflows with sounds at night Crickets Animals Wind whipping through trees And anyone who found themselves walking through this particular forest on this particular night would hear them all But they would be surprised to hear other sounds sounds that weren’t so familiar Like the horrible cracking sounds of a pair of hundred-year-old trees being uprooted from the ground Towering giants that had overlooked the forest were now tossed aside like a child’s toys 9
