In the dust-choked mountains, before the door to a laboratory hidden in the valley, several superheroes had formed up. The smell of gunsmoke had yet to disperse, and the atmosphere grew even more tense.
Then a blue-and-white figure slowly descended above the battlefield. Stark's nanotech suit had been through several iterations, and no longer looked anything like a heavy iron shell. Instead, it was lighter and more formfitting, and he had long since phased out the faceplate, replacing it with a data-stream holographic projection that covered his face, while the rest of the helmet was semi-wrapped in silver metal. He looked vastly different from other Iron Men.
So when he descended onto the battlefield, the Iron Man of this universe actually failed to recognize him for a moment. The various factions watching the situation through surveillance equipment also had no idea who he was—until he withdrew the data-stream mask and revealed Tony Stark's face.
Everyone's expression turned ugly.
The appearance of a second Iron Man on Earth had already been unbelievable enough, and now here came another one. One Iron Man was enough to give them a headache; now there were three. Every faction wished this world were one giant match-three game so they could hurry up and clear out these three unlucky bastards.
The good news was that the three Iron Men did not seem to acknowledge one another. They had not joined forces, but were each fighting on their own. The first two even each had an Avengers team with them. The last one appeared isolated, but he seemed to possess technology more powerful than theirs.
Very soon, every faction discovered that the technological level of this blue-and-white Iron Man who had arrived last was probably far beyond the first two. Because he basically did nothing at all,