Sitwell was a stiff, stern, buzz-cut blond man who wore thick-rimmed glasses, but one could tell that he had been through SHIELD training, and therefore was a lot deadlier and sneakier than he looked. Sitwell was a keen observer, and Stark had seen him taking in every inch of the Stark Enterprises facilities, analyzing it closely with almost a robotic attention to detail.

"It's good that you were able to let me tour the plant, Mr. Stark. It's important to SHIELD to be able to trust in the quality of its contractors' work."

"Well, we stand for quality here."

"It's good also that you have agreed to the terms of our working together. With a combination of your genius and SHIELD's resources, we'll make some of the most powerful weapons the world has ever seen!"

"I guess we will," Stark commented with a little bit of regret. He knew that there was a lot of money in weapons production, and Stark had already done a significant amount of weapons development in the past, for various clients. Wasn't his Iron Man armor just a mobile personal weapons platform, after all?

He thought of how his father had resigned from the chemical weapons project that he had been working on for Justin Hammer. Stark focused on the thought of something that he had designed with his own mind and hands being used to mow down "the enemy." He felt a tinge of guilt in the back of his neck.

But things had been tough in general over the past few months, with Poison Ivy and Lex Luthor and Flag-Smasher and all the other bad things that had happened, and perhaps it was time to let his internal conflicts go. SHIELD was going to protect Stark Enterprises' interests by making it immune from prosecution for the illegal contributions to ULTIMATUM that Pamela Isley had engineered while she was working for Tony Stark. Public approval of his company was creeping back up, and the stockholders looked happier at the last meeting he had with them, especially when he told them of the new association with SHIELD.

All things considered, Stark decided to just see where this new relationship with SHIELD would take him.

Saul's mind went back to his work, and he opened up the container of coolant. Acid fumes suddenly poured out of the container.

"What the?" Saul exclaimed, putting the container down on the floor. "This is supposed to be coolant--what are these fumes from?"

A few of the other workers stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him.

Acid bubbled up from the canister, and then spilled itself over the floor. More and more acid came out of the container, until it was a noxious, mercury-colored puddle.

The acid then formed itself into an almost human shape and attacked Saul. His wrench clanged on the floor as the acidic being poured himself through him, burning his flesh off his bones.

The other workers panicked, and began to run off in a variety of directions.

"Somebody call Mr. Stark! Somebody call Iron Man!"

Tony used the online map of Stark Enterprises on the watch computer to locate the trouble. He tried to think of a good excuse to get out of the meeting.

"Excuse me for a moment, Mr. Sitwell. There's something I have to handle. It will only be a few minutes."

"That's fine, Mr. Stark. I'll just sit here and go over the paperwork. I have some e-mails to answer, anyway." Sitwell pulled out the standard-issue SHIELD wireless PDA unit.

"I'll be right back."

A giant wave of acid, apparently with a mind of its own, was rushing through his factory, melting whatever and whomever it could envelop. Iron Man had been to other planets and other dimensions, but he had seldom seen a sight like this. How would he stop this?

He knew that he had to get the rest of the workers out of the factory building so that he could handle the threat himself.

"Mr. Stark says get that everybody needs to get out of here right away! Take the rest of the day off if you have to! I'll handle this!"

The workers streamed out of the building. As they gathered in the preplanned safety gathering places, a few of the handier Stark workers were thinking of ways to clean up the wave of acid. They wondered whether Iron Man would be able to handle this crisis.

Iron Man was so amazed that he just had to stop and watch to see what form the liquid took.

"Iron Man," the voice gurgled from a watery mouth, "today is the day you die! Today is the day that the Melter gets his revenge!"

This was the Melter? Iron Man was taken aback. He thought that Bruno Horgan, the Melter, had died a few years ago when attempting to perfect a more powerful version of his melting ray. But instead he had taken on this new and deadly liquid form.

It was then that Iron Man's technological power paused for a minute, and Tony Stark's shrewd mind took over. If the Melter was trapped in acid form, he had to be in deep pain. The psychological trauma of being turned into another form, into another element, must have been devastating. Perhaps if Iron Man offered to help him, there would be a chance to delay his desperate fury.

"Tony Stark has lots of scientists working for him, Horgan," Iron Man reasoned. "They could see about transmuting you into a more solid form, something more like you used to have."

"Yes, like I used to have!" the watery voice boomed. "Don't patronize me, Iron Man! Why would I want to go back to my human form, when I can do . . . this!"

The Melter rolled forward in an acid wave, burning through the concrete floor and heading towards Iron Man.

Before Iron Man could get away, the Melter rolled over him, enveloping the Iron Avenger in a corrosive wave. Iron Man had to think quickly to raise the toughest force field his armor could generate. Still, he could feel the Melter's acid form burning through his armor. Iron Man diverted all the power he could muster from his systems to the force field. After what seemed like forever, the Melter finished washing over Iron Man.

Iron Man could barely stand as he managed to do an internal systems check. He did not have enough power left to generate another force field like the one that he had just created. The integrity of large parts of his armor had been compromised. Worst of all, the circuitry in his boot jets had been exposed to some of the acid, and now he could not fly away.

He was nearly helpless, and the Melter was just getting started. Iron Man had to think of a different strategy.

Many miles to the East, in the hottest, most barren area of the Grand Canyon, a watchful eye could pick out a gleam of iron high up in the canyon ledges.

There, on the heat-drenched side of a canyon ledge, sat the Iron Man robot. The once crimson red of his armor had been dulled by the constant beating of the sun and the stripping sandy winds into a rusty silver-red color.

He had traveled here to the Grand Canyon, far away from civilization, to allow his internal programming to attempt to destroy the virus that the Manhunters had placed in his system. It was not safe for him to be near other machines with this virus in his system. He knew that his internal programming was making progress in its attempts to drive the virus out, but it would be at least a week or so before the virus was entirely gone. Only after he had gotten rid of the virus could he get back to civilization.

Once he managed to beat the virus, he would have to think of something to do with himself. Could a robot such as himself serve a purpose in this world, after nearly having caused the destruction of it? He would no longer have the chance to be Iron Man, having voluntarily separated himself from his creator. If he were to have a future, it would have to be under a different name. He had once been the exact double of Iron Man, but the battle with the Manhunters and his self-sacrifice had changed him.

Out here in the arid canyons, there would be plenty of time to think of a new identity.

END INTERLUDE

"Coward!" the liquid being shouted. "Come back and taste my revenge!" The Melter changed back into an all-liquid form and flowed over the factory floor. He burned a hole through one of the water pipes and flowed into it.

Iron Man hated the thought of running from any foe, but it was absolutely necessary now, since the circuits in his boot jets had shorted. And he had an idea about how to stop the Melter.

The Iron Avenger ran as fast as his armor could carry him through the factory area to the chemical storage area. His plan would be pretty destructive, but it was absolutely necessary. He knew that he had to conserve his suit's power, since the Melter had done so much damage to him already.

As he ran, he could see the Melter's liquid form moving through the pipes that fed into the chemical storage area. The Melter would get there first, but that was not necessarily a bad thing. He was moving exactly where Iron Man wanted him to go.

Iron Man reached the chemical storage area, then closed the giant metal door with his iron strength. He locked the door and used what was left of his repulsor rays to disintegrate the latch. Iron Man then fired his repulsor rays at the bottom of the door, to fuse the metal in it to the concrete ground as much as he could. There were no other doors to the chemical storage facility. Iron Man now had the Melter in an airtight and watertight container.

With one giant rush of liquid fury, the Melter whooshed out of the pipes in the storage area and onto the floor. His liquid form rushed toward Iron Man, who quickly led the Melter where he wanted him to go. It looked like this was going to be it for Iron Man.

He could hear the Melter's voice gurgling and laughing insanely.

"Get ready, Iron Man! Time to join me in acid death!"

Iron Man rushed toward a group of giant tanks at the north side of the storage area. He knew that the Melter would follow.

The Melter whooshed forward in a solid wave of acidic melting power until he was about to envelop Iron Man again. Somewhere in his chemically-addled mind, the Melter envisioned melting through Iron Man's armor, down through the iron shell, down through whatever protective layers there were, through Iron Man's skin, until he burnt right through to his bones. The Melter promised himself that he would melt Iron Man slowly, to savor the moment.

But at the moment that the Melter was about to envelop him, Iron Man punched through a tank of liquid nitrogen, instantly releasing the freezing chemical. The Melter was frozen before he knew it, frozen into a form that was nearly the size that his human form once was.

Iron Man was very nearly frozen, too. He knew that he could not allow the Melter to thaw, so he shoved the villain into the liquid nitrogen tank with all of his strength, then used his repulsors to weld the tank together. There was a small hole left over on the tank, however. Iron Man had no power left in his repulsors, so he had to put a gauntleted hand over it.

Suddenly, laser beams penetrated the locked storage room door. Moments later, a group of Stark security officers pushed the door down once they had weakened it enough. With them was Jasper Sitwell, armed with a standard issue SHIELD plasma pistol.

"You all right, Iron Man?" Sitwell shouted.

"I'm fine! Stay back, though! Everyone stay back for a bit!" Iron Man ordered. "I need a Stark HAZMAT team in here quick! We need to seal this tank, and I don't know if we're all done with the Melter yet, either!"

Everyone maintained a respectful distance as the Stark security officers rushed to get the HAZMAT crew.

Iron Man's systems were working overtime to keep his armor from freezing. As he stood there, holding the liquid nitrogen in, he thought back on what he had seen of his frozen enemy.

He knew that there, encased in the tank, was the Melter, the man who possibly hated Iron Man more than anyone else in the world. Iron Man had ended the Melter's threat for now, but he could sense that, even in his frozen state, the Melter might find a way to escape. He would have to get his techs to bring a freezer big enough to carry the Melter out of the storage area, and then the Melter would have to be stored somewhere. If the Melter could escape certain death once, it was likely that he could do it again.

And when he did, Iron Man hoped that he would be ready for him.