Aspen, Colorado. Now.

The armor was a prison.

Tony felt warm sweat trickling down the base of his spine, but nothing he did seemed to make any difference. No matter how much he strained his muscles, the heavy suit of armor was a dead weight around him. The internal servomotors were burned shut and even the cybernetic communications system that kept him in link with Jocasta had failed.

A sudden hissing sound soured his mood even more. Normally the suit had an air filtration system that countered any airborne agents that Iron Man might encounter. It also allowed him to fly into the upper atmosphere or below the sea... but with it shorting out on him, it wouldn't take long for the air to grow stale inside the armor.

What the hell's going on? Tony wondered to himself. Horgan's equipment was never this powerful... whoever it is in the outfit must have given the weapons system a major upgrade.

The sound of footsteps crunching through the snow caught Tony's attention. He was unable to turn his head, but the Melter made it easy on him by kneeling beside him, leaning into his range of vision. "Still alive in there?" the man asked, rapping loudly on Tony's helmet. The Melter glanced around, noting that several skiers were watching in the distance. "I love Aspen. All the snowbunnies in their skintight suits. Makes me weak in the knees every time."

"Who do you work for?" Iron Man asked, his voice no longer electronically filtered, but still muffled enough by the helmet that he sounded quite different from Tony Stark.

The Melter stared down at the emotionless mask, seeming to debate with himself about how much to reveal. While he hesitated, Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath. There was one chance to get out of this, but it wouldn't be easy... or pleasant. When he looked at the Melter again, the villain had stood up, the laser device on his chest glowing with power. "What's the harm in telling you? You're about to die anyway... and I always did like showing off. You're about to die, courtesy of the Black Lama."

Those words sent a wave of confusion through Tony's mind. The Black Lama....? That name wasn't one he'd heard in quite a while. He'd been King Jerald of an alternate earth, one which bore odd similarities to the American political landscape of the 1970s. Jerald had masterminded a war of supervillains that had nearly killed Iron Man before his madness had passed. The last time Tony had seen the Lama, he was peacefully returned to his proper world.

"Goodbye, Iron Man."

Tony's reverie came to an abrupt end when he saw that the Melter was about to end his life. At this range, with his armor already damaged, there was no way that Iron Man could survive another blast.

Time for my last gasp effort, Tony thought.

Aspen, Colorado. Three Hours Before.

Rumiko stepped out of the shower, shivering as the cold air met her skin. She wrapped a towel about herself and brushed some of her dark hair away from her face. The sound of soft jazz playing in the other room brought a wicked smile to her face. "Tony?" she asked, raising her voice to be heard over the music.

Her lover appeared in the doorway a moment later, his eyes drinking her in. "You called, Madame?"

"Thank you for taking the time to be with me." She moved to him and wrapped her arms about his neck. "And thank you for sharing your secret with me."

Tony's handsome features displayed a mixture of emotions: desire, concern, love. That latter emotion wasn't one that he felt comfortable discussing -- not yet, anyway -- but the former were ones that he had plenty of experience with. "You might wish I hadn't. Everyone who gets close to me ends up being hurt--"

"Hush," she chided him. "Don't you dare think about leaving me for my own good or anything else that would be tragically noble. I'm not having it."

Tony chuckled, slipping his hands down and loosening her towel. It fell to the floor, the steam from her shower wafting over them both. "Well, then, what do you want to have?"

"You have to ask?"

They kissed passionately, with Tony steering her into the bedroom.

Aspen, Colorado. Ninety Minutes Before.

"I'm going to miss you, Jim. You know that." Tony sat before a holographic display, the image of James Rhodes staring back at him.

"Same here, boss. But this job at the Vault is something I can't pass up. And you know I'm always down for helping you out when you need it."

Tony nodded, a sudden warmth spreading through him. He was lucky to have friends like Jim...not to mention Happy and Pepper. Lord knows he'd put them all through enough hell over the years that he couldn't have blamed them for abandoning him. "If you need one hell of a recommendation, let me know."

Tony severed the connection before Rhodey could respond. He could sense the direction of the conversation and wanted to avoid it. He'd never been vocal in his feelings about others and he was too damned old to change now.

"Tony? What are these?"

Tony glanced over to see that Rumiko was dressed in a ski suit and cap, her heavy boots clunking against the wood floor as she entered the study. She had a few scientific papers in her hands, her eyes scanning the diagrams with mounting concern. "Oh. Nothing serious," Tony replied, standing up and taking the papers from her. "Just something I've been tinkering with."

"Looked like a formula for a nanite solution."

"It is," he admitted. "And before you launch into a tirade about it, I've already heard it from Jim and Pepper."

Rumiko looked hurt. "A tirade? I just think it looks dangerous. You haven't used it, have you?"

Tony sighed, reaching up to rub a spot between his eyes. "After what Stane and the Scarecrow did to me*, I didn't have any choice. The world's a lot more dangerous now than it used to be."

(*See issues 28-30, courtesy of Dino Pollard)

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning I've tested the formula again and again. It's safe." He kissed her on the forehead. "Have fun skiing, okay?"

Rumiko frowned but accepted the kiss. She knew how stubborn Tony could be... and there was simply no point in arguing about something that he'd made his mind up about.

After she was gone, Tony cast one more glance at the papers... before balling them up and tossing them into the trash.

Aspen, Colorado. Twenty Minutes Before.

<Tony?>

Tony sat up from the couch, his head throbbing. He'd been having a terrible dream, one that involved a masked figure torturing Rumiko. It wasn't unusual for him to dream about his loved ones being in danger... as a control freak by nature, having things happen beyond his ability to handle them was a common enough fear. He moved to the table, picking up a small disc-like communicator. "Jocasta? What do you need?"

<The private airfield that your plane landed at in Aspen. It was attacked.>

"When?" As he asked the question, he plucked up his briefcase from the floor. A hidden compartment inside contained his Iron Man armor, folded up to an astonishingly small size.

<Less than an hour ago. The pilot was killed.>

"Samuels?"

<Sanborne, actually. Samuels retired three years ago.>

"Damn. Any sign that it was related to me?"

<I believe so. Another worker at the airfield spotted someone leaving the scene and I've consulted the Avengers database for a match. It was a 98% match as being the Melter. You might have to consider that Sanborne might have told him where to find you.>

Tony had just snapped the helmet into place when Jocasta's warning proved prophetic. The front door to the cabin began to sizzle and melt, revealing the colorfully clad Melter. "You're on the mark as usual, J. I'll be in touch."

The Melter stepped through the burning wreckage, grinning. "Well, well. Figured you'd be out playing bodyguard with Mr. Stark and his lady love. That was them I saw heading down the slopes a moment ago, wasn't it?"

Probably Rumiko and an admirer, Tony thought. "This is a private residence. Get out."

"I don't think so." The Melter's laser device charged up, unleashing a powerful beam of heat. When Tony had fought Bruno Horgan -- whose life had been ended by the Scourge -- he'd grown accustomed to feeling a wave of heat surrounding him. But this... this was a wave of heat-based force. It slammed into him with the same impact as a runaway train and Iron Man was thrown backwards, slamming through the walls and out into the snowy air.

Iron Man winced in pain, noting that half his systems were shutting down for repair. He saw the Melter running to pursue him and he responded with a repulsor blast that caught the villain on the shoulder. The Melter fell back but gritted his teeth and fired another heat blast. Iron Man dodged the worst of it, but it was still enough to send him roughly to the snow. His armor was hot enough that it melted the snow around him, leaving him in a small pit.

As he started to rise, the Melter continued his barrage,  overwhelming everything the armor had in response. Tony cursed under his breath... he'd handled thugs like the Melter a hundred times over.... but then again, the Melter had never had this much firepower before.

The armor seized up and Tony fell to his back, realizing with a chill that he was locked in a metal tomb.

Aspen, Colorado. Now.

Tony braced himself for what he had to do....

All it took to start the process was a series of precise blinks of his eyelids and a mental "push." This started a chain reaction within his bloodstream, activating the nanites that lurked there. They were a failsafe, designed to aid Tony when everything was at its darkest. The nanites could sterilize any poisons or drugs in his bloodstream or they could as they were doing right now.... a far more involved process, but one that happened over the course of seconds.

The armor about him fused to his skin, the nanites projecting small tubes out into the metal surrounding him. From there, the nanites spread out into the damaged areas of the suit, repairing them as much as possible and speeding up the reaction time of the cybernetic interface immensely.

As the Melter launched his attack, Iron Man rolled to the side. The villain was surprised by the sudden action and backed away, while Tony whirled and jumped towards him. He delivered two powerful punches to the Melter's midsection. The first shattered the laser device and the second cracked two of his opponent's ribs.

As the Melter groaned, Iron Man rose off him. His head was pounding but he felt immensely powerful. He heard Jocasta's voice in the back of his head, asking him why she was receiving confusing readings from him.

"I'm fine, J. Just... a little woozy." Down, boys. At his mental command, the protrusions from his flesh retracted, having done their jobs. The armor was functional, though on minimal power. There were small wounds left from the protrusions but they were quickly healed as the nanites finished their work and returned to their dormant states.

Lifting the Melter from the snow, Iron Man hissed "You and I... we're going to talk."

The Melter coughed, a spray of blood touching his lips. "I don't blame you for being pissed. I did try to kill you, after all." He laughed and then groaned as the pain increased.

"Trying to kill me I can forgive." Iron Man glanced back to the ruined cabin. "But that was a damned fine house."

A small metal sphere hovered in the air some distance away, recording and transmitting Iron Man's battle. The data was collected in a small office in Dallas, Texas, where a man sat in darkness, observing everything that came through. He puffed away on a lit cigar, his eyes narrowing. "What have you done to yourself, Mr. Stark? We had you, dead to rights." The Black Lama blew out a long stream of smoke. "Next time, you won't be so lucky."

NEXT ISSUE: Iron Man interrogates the Melter, while concerns are raised about the nanites running loose in Tony Stark's bloodstream. Plus: a familiar face from Tony's past returns and he brings dire news with him. "It Falls Apart" continues.