The door shut behind him.
Levi stood alone in the office.
SHIELD's top operative had delivered excellent work.
Justin Hammer.
Ivan Vanko.
Right now, the two of them were likely preparing a grand revenge spectacle aimed squarely at Tony Stark.
A drone army.
A hijacked War Machine.
A finale at the Stark Expo.
According to the original script, Tony would save the day at the last second. Hero triumphs. Villain arrested.
Standard structure.
But Levi wasn't an audience member.
He was the second-largest shareholder of Stark Industries.
A terrorist attack at the company's own Expo—no matter the outcome—would crater stock prices.
He had just dragged Tony back from self-destruction.
He had no intention of watching his assets shrink because of a preventable circus.
Levi didn't clean up fires.
He prevented them.
Or redirected them.
A thought crystallized.
He entered the private lounge and locked the door.
Standing before the mirror, he closed his eyes.
Justin Hammer's oily, anxious face surfaced in his mind.
[Morph Adaptation]
A subtle cracking sensation rippled through his body.
Bones compressed.
Muscle mass shifted.
Posture dipped into habitual insecurity.
His face reshaped under invisible pressure.
Seconds later, he opened his eyes.
Justin Hammer stared back.
Receding hairline.
Trimmed goatee.
Self-important, slightly desperate gaze.
Levi curled his lips into Hammer's signature smirk.
"Perfect."
Even his voice carried the nasal arrogance.
He changed into a tailored Armani suit and slipped on thin gold-rimmed glasses—lenses embedded with real-time data overlay.
If you act, act completely.
---
Queens – Abandoned Cannery
Graffiti-covered walls. Rust. Stray cats.
A black Cadillac rolled to a stop.
"Justin Hammer" stepped out, tugging irritably at his tie.
"Boss?" the guard stammered. "We weren't expecting—"
"Spare me," Hammer snapped. "Where's my genius? Asking for more money again?"
They led him inside.
Behind reinforced blast doors lay controlled chaos.
Wires tangled everywhere.
Industrial lighting buzzed overhead.
Rows of gray military drones stood like lifeless soldiers.
At the far end—
Ivan Vanko worked shirtless, tattooed skin glistening under sparks.
Beside him stood the dismantled Mark II armor, cables snaking from its exposed frame.
Hammer dismissed the guards and approached alone.
"My brilliant friend! Progress?"
Vanko didn't look up.
"These?" he muttered. "Without me—scrap metal."
Hammer flinched theatrically. "Don't touch my property like that."
Vanko finally turned, smirking.
Hammer leaned closer to the console, pretending to examine the code.
It looked incomprehensible.
The moment his hand landed on Vanko's shoulder—
[Target: Ivan Vanko]
[Ability detected: S-Class – Mechanical Engineering & Weapon Systems (Whiplash Variant)]
[Copying…]
No overwhelming flood.
Just clarity.
The code reorganized itself in Levi's perception.
Tony's designs were elegant.
Vanko's were brutal.
No excess.
No aesthetic indulgence.
Pure function—optimized for destruction.
Levi understood the plasma confinement principles.
The alternate arc reactor configuration.
The invasive OS rewrite embedded in the armor.
He even saw the blueprint for Vanko's final Whiplash exo-frame.
Everything.
Crystal clear.
"However…" Hammer withdrew his hand, expression shifting into paranoid businessman mode. "How do I know these toys answer to me?"
"You pay," Vanko replied coldly. "That is enough."
Hammer paced anxiously.
"No, no. I need insurance."
He pointed at a remote-control protocol block in the code.
"Insert a backdoor. Highest authority. Emergency override."
Vanko frowned.
"In case," Hammer continued rapidly, "the military idiots redirect my drones somewhere that hurts my stock portfolio—I want a master kill switch."
Classic Hammer paranoia.
Vanko considered.
It didn't interfere with his revenge.
Fine.
"What trigger phrase?"
Hammer tapped his chin theatrically.
Then snapped his fingers.
"Ex-Wife."
A callback. A future key.
Vanko snorted and typed rapidly.
The backdoor was embedded—barely concealed.
He didn't bother encrypting heavily.
In his mind, Hammer wouldn't understand a single line anyway.
"Done."
Hammer clapped excitedly.
"Beautiful! Keep building. After the Expo, I'll buy you an island. With birds."
He exited humming.
The car door shut.
The smile vanished instantly.
Levi's eyes turned calm again.
Objective complete.
He had acquired Vanko's core engineering genius—
And planted the decisive trigger inside the revenge spectacle.
Now?
He would wait.
Tony Stark would step onto that stage willingly.
And Levi would watch from the highest seat in the house—
Not as a spectator.
But as the one who controlled when the curtain fell.
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