Encased in the distinctive red and gold armor of Iron Man, Tony Stark sliced a path through the sky over the Korean peninsula. Though the technology he wore made him one of the most physically powerful people on the planet, he found that it could do nothing to ease the turmoil in his heart.

It's starting again, he thought.

But that was paranoid talk. He didn't know anything for sure. Not yet, anyway.

He would find out, though. There wasn't a doubt in his mind.

Unbidden, memories of the last eight hours clawed their way up into his consciousness....

"Friends," the aged Korean man said from the stage, "We were given an opportunity to make our homeland a power in the global market once again, while furthering the goals of research science beyond our humble biosphere, and we seized it! At this time, the Ju Che Satellite is an unparalleled success, having separated from its rocket and activated its sensory systems. We owe this success to many people, not the least of which is our esteemed president for personally sponsoring the grants that made the process possible."

Two tables down from where Tony Stark sat with his friend Johnny Ko, the president of South Korea stood briefly to accept his applause.

"Second of all, we must thank Mr. Tony Stark, of Stark Solutions, for aiding us with the rocket design and radiation shielding."

Tony stood and accepted his own applause. Next to him, Johnny Ko and his sister Meiko sent up a couple of cheers as well. He smiled for the audience and resumed his seat.

"And last, but most importantly, my son, Ko Jon-Ni, who came to me eighteen months ago with the initial designs for the revolutionary sensory equipment sent up with the satellite; the equipment that will aid him in his efforts to plumb the secrets of the stars! Johnny."

Johnny Ko stood up, and the crowd went wild. Tony smiled at his friend's popularity. Johnny Ko was kind of a Korean amalgam of Prince William and Stephen Hawking, painfully brilliant and stunningly handsome. Several years younger than Tony himself, Johnny was the son of Ko Yung-Kil, the man on the stage and behind the podium, and heir apparent to the fortunes of Morning Calm, Inc.

Johnny mounted the stage and began his short speech. Tony had sat through a few of the oration's practice runs earlier that afternoon, so he tuned his young friend out and looked around the ballroom. There were actors, politicians, and heads of state present at this celebratory dinner. The Ju Che project had been a coup for the economically ailing South Korea. He was happy to have had a hand in it... even without the hefty fee he'd charged for his services.

"We're not boring you, are we Mr. Stark?"

Tony glanced at the woman sitting next to him and offered her a reassuring smile. "Not at all, Meiko. Just looking around."

Meiko Ko, Johnny's sister, hmphed playfully. "I was hoping you would have all you needed to see right here."

"--hope you all will accept my undying thanks, and that you will stay for the festivities that follow. Thank you." Johnny stepped down from the podium to be embraced by his father. The elder Ko was shorter than his son, but radiated power and authority despite his advanced years. Tony rose and joined the throng giving the father/son duo a standing ovation.

"Come on," Meiko was saying, tugging at Tony's sleeve. "Let's go meet them at the foot of the stage."

"Just a moment," Tony replied, and leaned over to grab Johnny's coat from the back of his friend's chair. He folded the jacket over his arm, admiring the tailoring. Tony Stark knew the trappings of the rich very well, and he could appreciate a well-tailored suit when he saw one.

Tony's eyes froze on the sleeve of the jacket over his arm. The cufflinks of Johnny Ko's coat were a distinctive, eye-catching red. On closer inspection, one could make out a black design in the center that at first appeared to be a stylized silhouette of an octopus. But Tony Stark knew better.

That wasn't an octopus. It was a hydra.

"Mr. Stark," Meiko said at his side, "are you okay? My father is waiting."

"Yes, yes." Tony replied, dropping the sleeve back over his friend's coat and following the beautiful Korean woman through the crowd. "Mustn't keep father waiting."

Alarms went off inside his helmet, drawing his attention back to the present. He called up the cause of the alarm and found he'd been locked by unfriendly radar. With a sigh of frustration at his own absent-mindedness, he called up a GPS display and saw that he had wandered across the border into North Korea, the reclusive Communist state that had separated from it's democratic southern counterpart at the end of World War II.

It didn't take the North Koreans long to attack once they had him in their crosshairs. A stream of anti-aircraft artillery flashed into the sky in his path, tracer rounds painting orange lines against the featureless night. Tony avoided them easily, then circled around and fired himself back the way he'd come. The gunfire followed him for a while, then tapered off as it became clear he was leaving. The North Koreans were extremely jealous of their borders, and he should have been more careful about wandering into their airspace.

He sighed. He would read about this in the paper in the morning. Hopefully his carelessness hadn't caused an international incident. He needed to take care of this matter, for his own sake and for the sake of those who depended on him both as Iron Man and as Tony Stark. He didn't want to think Johnny Ko was involved with an international terrorist group like Hydra-that had been their insignia on his cufflinks-but all of the evidence pointed to that as the only possibility, especially in light of what Meiko Ko had told Tony on the way home from the banquet earlier that evening.

"Is it something I said?"

Tony glanced around in surprise at his passenger. She was pressed back against the opposite seat of the Mercedes while outside her window, Tony could see the nightlife on the streets of Seoul whisking by.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You've been very quiet most of the night, Mr. Stark," Meiko Ko observed. "I might be obliged to think you were shy if I didn't know of your reputation."

Tony chuckled and returned his attention to the street he was driving on. "Sorry. Sometimes I find it hard to leave work back at the lab."

"But your work here is done. You can rest now."

"True, my work here is done, but I have lots of other work waiting on my desk back in Seattle." He was quiet for a moment, then said, "Tell me a little about you and Johnny. What was it like growing up with him?"

"Johnny? Well, he's always been smart, and he's always been loved. We were very close as children after our mother died."

"Did he ever... run with a bad crowd?"

Tony kept his eyes on the road outside his windshield, but he could sense Meiko's brow furrowing. "Yes. Yes, in... high school he began neglecting his studies, staying out to all hours of the night. He was even kicked out of a private school for beating another boy up at one point, but father's money bought him back into the school and had the incident erased from his records. I... I was worried about him for some time, tried to make him see what he was doing with his life, wasting all that potential. He said I was father's parrot and that he never wanted to see me again. It was... a bad time. I'm glad it's over now."

Tony glanced across the seat at the woman beside him again. Since he had met her the day prior, she had come across as a lively, unabashed harridan, who always spoke her mind and had nothing but sexual innuendo for her new acquaintance, Mr. Tony Stark. Now she was just a loving sister recounting a painful bit of family history. For a moment, he was ashamed for having brought the subject up, then he thought about what would happen if (or, in this case, when) some of his technology fell into Hydra's hands, and his heart hardened again.

"Well, here we are." Tony pulled up beside Meiko's apartment building and parked on the street. He climbed out and hurried around to the passenger side to let her out.

"Thank you for the ride home," Meiko said. She gave him a long, meaningful look, then continued with, "Would you like to come up for a drink?"

For possibly the first time in his life, it was not hard for Tony Stark to turn down the advances of a beautiful woman. "I'm sorry, no. I have some business to take care of early tomorrow, then I'm on a plane tomorrow afternoon."

"I see..." the woman replied. She shuffled her feet and cleared her throat. It was obvious she wasn't used to being turned down. "Well, thank you again, Mr. Stark."

"Thank you... Ms. Ko."

Without another word, she turned and strode up the steps and into her building. Tony watched her go until the door had closed behind her, then he turned and got back into his car.

Now, hours later, Iron Man landed on the roof of Morning Calm, Inc., seventy stories above the streets of Seoul. With a thought, the Iron Man armor peeled back off of him and folded in on itself impossibly until it formed a hovering module, two feet by three feet, resembling nothing so much as a giant's electric razor.

Still wearing the slightly rumpled pants and shirt of the tux he'd worn to the banquet that evening, Tony Stark left the module there and took the stairs down two floors, soon finding himself in the spacious office of Johnny Ko. Johnny was sitting at his desk when Tony walked in, and he looked up at the intrusion with surprise.

"Tony! What are you doing here? The night watchman didn't say you were on your way up."

"I remembered you said you were going to run by the office after the banquet to finish some paperwork up."

"And you thought you'd come share in my misery?" Johnny laughed. He got up and crossed to the small bar near the window looking out over the night-shadowed Seoul skyline. "Would you like a drink?"

"No. I won't be here long."

Johnny poured himself a drink and returned to his desk, peering thoughtfully at Tony over the top of his glass as he sipped from it. "Tony, is something wrong? Is it something to do with Meiko? I know you were taking her home...."

"How long have you been a terrorist, Johnny?"

Johnny Ko blinked and set his glass down. "Excuse me?"

"How long have you been an agent of Hydra? Since high school maybe? Was I brought on to this project just so they could have some of my inventions?"

"Tony," Johnny smiled uncertainly, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I will not let that happen, Johnny. I've already been down that road, and a good man died in the Iron Man armor trying to prevent evil men from using my technology.* I'm giving you this chance to be truthful with me. Tell me everything or I swear by God I'll bring Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers down on you and this company until I get the truth. I'll give Nick Fury a call and let him know who to call to get intel on a far eastern Hydra nest. Tell me what you know Johnny. I'm not going to promise any kind of immunity, but it will be a lot easier on you this way."

(* Or so it seemed at the end of the classic "Armor Wars" storyline - Russ)

"I swear to you, Tony, I have no idea what you're talking about," Johnny insisted.

Tony glared at him a while longer, his rage palpable. Johnny sat down and raised a hand toward the chair in front of his desk. "Tony, if you'll just sit down and explain why you think this of me, I'm sure there's a logical explanation. Please."

"I'm not going to play that game, Johnny. I'm not going to play the diplomat. You've made your choice. Now I'm going to make a few phone calls." He turned back toward the door.

"And what should I do in the meantime?" Johnny asked.

"You can go to hell." Tony replied, and slammed the door behind him.

Johnny Ko sat alone at his desk, his appetite for the drink he'd just poured gone. He briefly considered chasing after his friend, but he had felt Tony's anger as a physical blow from halfway across the room. He was sure any further provocation on his part would result in their argument dissolving into a fistfight.

After a while he grabbed his glass and downed the contents in two gulps. He got up, poured himself another, and was returning to his seat with every intention of treating this new drink the same way he'd treated the last, when the phone rang.

He set the glass down and picked the receiver up, expecting it to be the police, or Colonel Nick Fury of SHIELD, or maybe even Iron Man's partner in the American Avengers, Captain America. Instead, the caller's voice was a familiar one.

"Johnny," it said without preamble, "I think it's time we talked."

Next Issue: "Morning Calm" Part 3