The atmosphere in the boardroom of Stark Industries was thick with a palpable tension and the smell of expensive brewed espresso. Since the Department of Defense lawsuit and Tony's dramatic pivot away from weapons, the board had been teetering on the edge of a corporate civil war.
As the shareholders filed in, their faces grim, Tony Stark stood at the head of the long mahogany table, looking over the digital registry on a holographic display. He scrolled to the top of the list, his eyes widening slightly.
After his own 45% controlling interest, a single name held a staggering 28.2% of the company: Umbrella Corporation.
He hadn't even had time to process the name before the heavy boardroom doors swung open.
Aryan Spencer walked in, looking relaxed and utterly at ease, wearing a tailored charcoal suit that screamed quiet world wealth. Beside him was Wanda Maximoff, a poised executive secretary, her presence calm and authoritative.
Tony paused, his mouth slightly open, the digital tablet in his hand momentarily forgotten. He recognized them immediately.
But seeing them here, in the fluorescent lit reality of a Stark Industries boardroom, was a different kind of shock. It was one thing to discuss the fate of the world in a mystical dimension, it was another to realize that Aryan had been quietly devouring nearly a third of his corporate empire while he was busy fighting off the Ten Rings and the Pentagon.
He looked at the registry again. The man who sat at the head of their secret council, the man who called himself 'The World,' was now his most powerful business partner, standing in his boardroom with a calm expression. Beside him was Wanda, the girl he'd once seen as a victim, looking every bit the high powered executive.
Tony wanted to laugh at the beautiful audacity of the play, but with thirty of the world's wealthiest and most ruthless investors watching his every move, he maintained his composure. He forced a professional smirk and gave a slight nod… a silent acknowledgment between two men who shared secrets the rest of the room couldn't possibly dream of.
The meeting was intense, the air in the room thick with the unspoken fear of men who had built their fortunes on the machinery of death. Several old guard shareholders, their faces flushed with indignation, gripped the edge of the table as if it were a sinking ship.
"You're talking about dismantling decades of infrastructure, Tony!" one senior board member barked, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and panic. "Our military contracts are the backbone of this company. Without the missile programs and without the ballistics division, we are just a research lab with an obscenely high overhead. You're committing corporate suicide!"
Tony stood slowly. With a flick of his wrist, he projected a three dimensional hologram of the Arc Reactor in the center of the table. The cool blue light washed over the skeptical faces of the board, illuminating their greed and their hesitation.
"Weapons are the past," Tony declared, his voice ringing with a newfound conviction. "We are the architects of a new world. We are the world's new power grid."
He tapped the hologram and the display expanded to show a global map, with cities across every continent being illuminated by a clean energy source originating from Stark branded reactors.
"Every war you've profited from was fought over resources that are now obsolete," Tony continued, his eyes locking onto the dissenters. "I am making those resources irrelevant. Stark Industries is moving from the business of ending lives to the business of powering them. If you want to keep selling bullets in a world that's moving toward the sun, find another company. But on my watch, the only thing we're launching is a future that doesn't need to bleed to keep the lights on."
Aryan, who had been sitting in the second most prominent chair at the table, listened intently. Occasionally, he would lean over to Wanda, who would whisper data points about the European energy markets and the projected stability of the transition into his ear.
When it was his turn to speak as the second largest shareholder, he stood.
"Umbrella supports Mr. Stark's vision completely," Aryan stated, his voice calm but carrying an absolute authority that silenced the room. "The projected ROI on global energy independence far outweighs the messy margins of regional conflicts. My analysts have run the numbers, we are in for the long haul."
"Mr. Spencer," Tony said, an appreciative grin spreading across his face. "I see you've been quite busy. It's a rare thing to be surprised in my own boardroom, but Umbrella is a name I'm happy to see at the top of the list. Welcome to the table."
Aryan returned the nod, a friendly glint in his eyes that only Tony would understand. "I liked the direction you were taking, Tony. I figured it was time to put the full weight of Umbrella behind a vision that actually matters."
With Aryan's 28.2% share backing Tony's 45%, the motion to ratify the closure of the weapons division and pivot to clean energy passed instantly. The "Merchant of Death" was officially dead, the "Merchant of Energy" was born.
Once the room cleared, Tony signaled for Aryan and Wanda to follow him into his private office. The moment the soundproofed door hissed shut, he turned around, throwing his hands up in a gesture of mock surrender.
"28.2 percent, Aryan? Seriously?" Tony turned around, a genuine grin of shock and admiration on his face. "I knew you were fast, but using a sleepy old firm like Aethelgard as a smoke screen while you moved Umbrella into my house? That's a masterclass. Most people buy a watch when they're impressed, you bought a seat next to the pilot."
Aryan chuckled, a warm sound. "After our last 'club' meeting, I knew your pivot to energy would be a war. I didn't want you fighting for funding while the military industrial complex tried to starve you out."
Wanda stepped forward, her professional mask softening into a genuine smile of her own. "And we thought you could use a partner who understands that 'clean energy' is the foundation for the next century. We're here to make sure that foundation is solid."
"Speaking of foundations," Aryan said, shifting the topic smoothly as he handed Tony a silver foiled invitation. "Umbrella is launching a new flagship information platform soon. It's called Google. I'm hosting the official unveiling at the New York Plaza and I'd like you to be there as my guest of honor."
Tony took the invitation, flipping it over in his hands. He raised an eyebrow, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Google? What is that, a typo? Sounds like something a toddler would say after eating too much sugar. What happened to the era of intimidating company names like 'Stark' or 'Umbrella'?"
Aryan chuckled. "It's actually a play on the mathematical term 'Googol'… which is a 1 followed by a hundred zeros. It represents the infinite nature of information. The goal is to organize the world's knowledge and make it universally accessible and useful. We're moving past static libraries and clunky databases, Tony. I want to create a world where any person, anywhere, can find the answer to any question in half a second."
Tony's expression shifted from amusement to genuine intrigue. As a man who spent his life processing data at an inhuman speed, he understood the sheer scale of what Aryan was proposing.
"Organizing the world's knowledge," Tony mused, looking at the simple logo on the card. "That's an ambitious bite to take, even for you. But if it's coming from the man who bought a third of my company overnight, I'm guessing it's more than just a digital encyclopedia." He grinned. "I'll be there. It'll be nice to be at a party where I'm not the one under the microscope for once."
Aryan smiled warmly. "I think you'll find the atmosphere much more refreshing than a DOD hearing. Besides, in a world that's changing this fast, the people who hold the map are just as important as the people building the roads."