In the offices of Stane Limited, Obadiah Stane sat in his office with Arno Stark, the Iron Man of 2020. A meeting in progress on how to destroy Tony Stark, the current Iron Man. One of Stane's assistants have created a time machine and traveled to the time of 2020, extracting Arno Stark, asking him to help him duplicate Arno's armour, giving it to career criminals, and using it to kill Iron Man.

Iron Man of 2020 took off his helmet, revealing the face of Arno Stark. "Tony Stark has been a thorn in my side for a long time. I believe that I shall be the only Iron Man in existence, whatever time I exist in. So it will be my pleasure to destroy that infidel once and for all. But I cannot do it alone. I will need help. That is why I have enlisted a couple familiar faces to assist me in my endeavour."

"Good, good," Stane said, as he clasped his hands together. He had a pleased look upon his face. "That shall please me beyond measure. What Iron Man does not know is that I am also from an alternate time line like yourself, where mine is of a time when I killed Iron Man and I, like you, want to kill all the Iron Men in existence. But who shall these familiar faces be? Someone in Stark's employ, I hope."

"That is exactly who I am talking about," Stark said. "Some of Tony's best friends who I shall make sure will betray him. Let me introduce you to the three of them.' Arno snapped his fingers and a door opened. In walked three figures. "The first is Jim Rhodes, whom Tony calls Rhodey, but whom the world knew as War Machine, until he retired from that gig. He is incredibly smart, strong, and versatile in any wide variety of weaponry. Next is Harold 'Happy' Hogan. MODOK had brainwashed him to don an Iron Man suit of armour in an effort to destroy Iron Man. That effort failed but ours will succeed where theirs failed. And finally, Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, Stark's secretary."

"Do they know they are being hypnotized?"

"No, they do not. I have placed a disc on the back of their necks. As long as the discs remain where I have placed them, they will stay hypnotized."

"Good. Can I command them to do their bidding?"

"Of course."

Stane stood up and approached the three Stark employees. "Don your armours and go to Stark Solutions."

Stane and Arno Stark watched them change into their Other Iron Men suits. They eyed one another, seeing the proud look on each other's faces as they flew out the window.

Tony Stark, in the guise of Iron Man, flew over the Manhattan, right over the offices of Stark Solutions. Even though he loved being a super hero, he felt the need to do his business-minded side of his personality. He landed on the roofline of S.S. and took off his helmet. He had been Iron Man for a long time and had been in any number of adventures. Recently, he told Captain America that the both of them weren't the original heroes, that they were in fact figments of Franklin Richards' imagination and mental powers after the original heroes died at the hands of Onslaught.

Soon, he was in his office and he changed from Iron Man to Tony Stark. He left his armour, folded, in his briefcase. He exited his office to greet his fellow employees. The problem was that they weren't there. They seemed to be among the missing.

"Pep, Hap, Rhodey?" He called over and over again. "Where are you guys? You do know that you are paid to show up on time."

Suddenly, there was an explosion. Shards of glass, plexiglass, and brick hurled into the helpless form of Tony Stark.

"What the hell?!" Tony said, as he raced back to his office. What was going on? Was this an attack by Al-Quaeda? Blowing up the World Trade Center was serious indeed but this was personal.

Then, he saw the object of the explosion. It was War Machine. But that can't be. The new War Machine was a hero, just like when Rhodey wore the armor. He may be a jerk but this was serious business, blowing up Stark Solutions.

War Machine pointed his machine gun arm at Tony and fired. Tony took out a service revolver and fired back at War Machine, the bullets zinging off his armour, ricocheting onto the large office area.

There were more footsteps and three Iron Men appeared; Gray Iron Man, Yellow Iron Man, and a female Golden and Crimson Iron Woman. He had to get his own armor in the office because he was out of bullets.

Tony closed the door and seconds later, he reappeared, in full armor regalia. "I don't know what you people have done with my staff, but it ends here and now!"

As one being, they fired their repulsor rays at Iron Man but Tony reflected it with a force blast.

"This should do the trick," Tony said, as he threw a armor dampening grenade at the four Iron Men. It exploded right in the center, sending electricity coursing through their armors. They collapsed on the ground. Tony went about the task of umasking them.

And got a big surprise.

"No! Pep? Hap? Rhodey?" he said in shock. "And one person I don't know." He saw hypno discs on their necks and he removed them.

Stane Limited

Obadiah Stane was looking at Arno Stark, disappointed at their combined failure. "You may be from an alternate reality like myself, Arno, but you failed just like my previous one has failed over and over again to kill Iron Man."

"Who knew that Stark would have a service revolver in his jacket pocket? That was surely unexpected." Arno Stark said.

Stane eyed him. "True. But who would expect that Stark would have a device to deactivate the armors that you carefully created?"

"I wish I had thought of that. So where does that leave us?"

"That leaves you with a tremendous sense of failure. And that leaves me with trying to come up with another way to kill Iron Man. I have contacted the Scarecrow, y'know, Ebenezer Laughton. He was recently resurrected. He is a free man for the time being, and could be used for our purposes."

"That sounds good. As long as Iron Man doesn't find out that either of us is responsible for his downfall, that would fit our purposes perfectly."

"And then, we will have Iron Man, and he shall perish by my hand, alone."

Stark Solutions

"So, can any of you three tell me what that was all about?" Tony asked.

Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, and Jim Rhodes were all in a meeting room at Stark Solutions. The fourth member of the Iron Men was carted off to the Vault. Tony had placed the armors that they wore to kill him in a safe in the sub-basement for later study.

'Honestly, I don't remember," Rhodey remarked. "I just that those hypno discs whoever placed on our necks wiped out our memories, too."

Pepper and Happy both nodded, as they agreed to Rhodey's sentiments.

"Well, I'm just glad that the three of you are all right, safe and sound," Tony said. "If you were seriously hurt, that would severely damage our company."

"But what kind of psycho would want to dress us up in Iron Man suits of armor?" Pepper asked curiously.

"That is the question," Tony said. "Any number of my enemies could be the key, but which one?"

"Maybe the same person who was controlling Spymaster when he robbed you of that laser device a couple weeks ago," Happy Hogan said.

"Anyway, I want the three of you to take a couple days off to recoup yourselves. It's the weekend so I could close the factory down. I'll find some temps to fill in your positions in the meantime."