Chapter 1 – Origins: The Invincible Iron Man

Republic City, Earth

Three weeks have passed since the Galactus Event, and the beginning of the Heroic Age in the world. The new team of defenders of the Earth is the Avengers; they had joined forces in an effort in stopping The World Devourer. Now the man behind the suit of Iron Man, Kurogane Shinzou, CEO of Shinzou Enterprises, had funded the Avengers and given them a central headquarters in the heart of Republic City.

In the gates of a massive mansion owned by Shinzou, was waiting Fahou Braner-Xing, otherwise known as the Incredible Hulk. He was waiting patiently, and then he was joined by Thor and Korra.

"Hey Fahuo, you got the call from Tin Head too?" Korra said.

"Good morning, Avatar. Well, not really, he just told me to come early yesterday, since I don't really own a phone." Fahuo said.

"Oh…forgot." Korra tried to apologize

"A simple mistake, don't worry Korra." Fahuo said.

"Where art the others?" Thor asked.

"I don't know, they should be here by now." Fahuo responded.

They waited together for about two minutes until they were joined by another fellow Avenger.

"Hail, my friends!" A joyful Hercules yelled as he crossed the street to the Mansion's gates. He had the biggest smile in his face.

"Hercules how was your day?" Thor asked his best friend as they clapped hands.

"Ah, it was one worthy of gods. There is not one lady in the world that can't resist my charms." Hercules boldly said.

"No one, except me, Ha!" Korra said.

"That is because you are with one who is mightier than the Prince of Power himself." Herc said. "Say, did you two have your fun?"

Korra was about to say yes, much to Thor's displeasure, when suddenly the sound of mini rocket engines sounded; it was Iron Man landing next to them.

"Sorry for being so late, I was at a board meeting…which I arrive late to also. Okay, let's start." Kuro said as he began opening the gate's doors.

"Aren't we going to wait for the Silver One?" Thor asked Iron Man.

"He won't be joining us." Kuro answered. "The Silver One wants to be alone, to think about he has done."

Kuro then opened the gates of the enormous mansion, it did not rival the Sato Manor, but it was huge nonetheless.

"Come on in, guys and gal. The Avengers Mansion is opened for business." Kuro said as he took off his Iron Man helmet and knocked on the door of the mansion. A strange man opened the door; he looked to be at his mid-60s.

"Team, meet Botora, he is my personal butler." Kuro said.

"Hello gentlemen and madam, I will aid all of you here in the mansion." Botora said.

"Wow, butler and everything." Fahuo said as they entered the huge mansion.

"I'll show the rest of the mansion." Kuro said as he led them across all the rooms of the Avengers Mansion.

"This is great and all…but how is this going to work as our headquarters?" Hercules asked Kuro.

"I was working with one of my colleagues, Dr. Mayi Ren, I called him Ant-Man for his fascination with…ants, on something bellow the grounds. I made sound silly but I always wanted a big basement." Kuro said as he led them to the enormous living room.

"What do you mean big basement?" Korra asked him. Kuro looked at her then at the rest and smiled. He walked towards the grandfather clock next to the chimney, and pulled on one of the gold bells. Then the wall next to it suddenly moved, revealing a secret entry way.

"Oh…" Korra said as she looked at the secret pathway.

"Down there it's our real headquarters." Kuro said as he once again took charge and led them down the steel stairway.

When they reached the end of the stairway, they entered a gigantic basement, easily as spacious as the mansion above. It had everything from a Conference Room all the way to a…pool?

"Are those the new televisions they are talking about?" Korra said as she pointed towards a huge screen in the center of various radios and electronic devices.

"Yeah, it's a monitor, that way we can hear the news on the little channels are available at the moment." Kuro said. "This is the future."

"Do you trust these machines more than yourself, Man of Iron?" Thor asked.

"Technology, Thor, is the way the world is heading towards." Kuro said. "You Gods might not understand it, but we humans have done very well despite the absence of magic and all that spiritual nonsense."

"I wouldn't say that if I were you." Korra said.

"Why not?" Kuro asked.

"Well, you have in front of you a god who wields a magic and divine based hammer and the Avatar, who is the bridge between both the physical and spiritual world." Korra said.

"Eh, I rather take my chances with my tech. It has saved me my life." Kuro said.

"That brings the question, by are you wearing that armor?" Fahuo asked.

"I could ask the same thing to you about your big green friend, Fahuo. But very well." Kuro said. "Let's go to the Conference Room."

They all entered the room and took their seats, each seat had their name inscribed on them, and for Thor there was a place to put Mjolnir, how thoughtful.

"It all started a year ago; I was in Fire Nation doing some demonstrations of my new invention, powder explosives inside hand cannons." Kuro began saying. "It was all going fine, until I was on my ride back to my airship and…"

The Fire Nation, One Year Ago

"…Could you go any faster? I have a meeting in about four hours and the ride back in airship takes three, hurry up." Kuro said as he looked at his watch.

"Sorry Mr. Shinzou, but I am going as fast the satomobile is allowing me to go." The chuffer said.

"Just hurry." Kuro said dismissively.

Then lightning bolts hit the satomobile's sides, making the driver lose control of it and crash into a wall. The driver had been killed in the accident, but Kuro managed to get out of the vehicle, wounded in the leg.

"Ugh….agh…" Kuro said as he came out of the satomobile, then he fell on the ground. He looked up once he noticed three shadows.

"Kurogane Shinzou, you are coming with us." One of the men said.

"Wha...?" Kuro weakly said. Then he was knocked out unconscious. Hours later he regained consciousness inside a dark cave. He was still dazed, and then he was thrown cold water, now he wasn't dazed.

"Gah! What's going on!?" Kuro screamed as the sudden cold feeling he got.

"Silence, capitalist scum, you are under our control." A man said.

"Where am I?" Kuro said, still feeling weak.

"Somewhere where no one can save you, Shinzou, we have momentarily disabled your firebending with some chi-blocking. We hate to use it, but it is necessary." The man said.

"What do you want from me?!" Kuro asked angrily.

"Weapons, we want your technology and use it to bring back what once was the mighty Fire Nation!" Another man said.

"Indeed, you will do so or…" The man looked at a satomobile car battery on a desk; Kuro looked and saw that it was connected to his chest.

"What…what did you do to me?!" Kuro asked worryingly.

"We saved your life, for the moment anyways. There is a magnet in there that keeps the shrapnel of the crash from entering your heart, and since none of us are metalbenders…" The man kept saying. "And besides, if any doctor or metalbender touched that, it would rip through to your lungs and among other arteries in there."

"Here are some tools that we stole from the royal military grounds, use them to build us weapons if not…you die." The third man said.

Then Kuro was left alone in the cavern that was to be his workshop. He could hardly move, and he had no choice, he had to make weapons for these radicals. He stood up from the makeshift bed and carried the battery with him to the tables that he was going to use to make the 'weapons'. He was that there was a nearby furnace, possibly placed there so he could forge the metal. Then Kuro got an idea, but it would be risky. He looked at the pieces of metal; they were the new found metal…platinum. He could do something…

After six hours of being left alone his captors returned to check on his progress.

"Open the gate; we got to check on this fool." The first man said.

"Yeah, and his battery is running out of power too." The second man said. "Only has two more hours left."

"He better have those hand cannons ready." The third man said as the first one opened the gate, it was all dark.

"The furnace has been extinguished!" The second man said.

"Where is he?!" The third man yelled, they hadn't noticed but a gigantic figure hid on the shadows.

"Here." A metallic voice said from the shadows, and then a blast of superheated air was sent to the second man, burning him completely.

"What the!?" The first man said, as they both looked at the grey towering thing step out of the shadows, it looked more machine than human.

"I am outta here!" The second man said as he ran away.

"Wait!" His comrade yelled, and then he looked at the behemoth once more.

"Such friend leaving you all alone here let me show mine." Said the grey machine man as he bended his arm and punched the man on the face with his armored fist.

The third man had run outside the cavern, looking for the rest of the group, who were having camp outside.

"Ahhh..." said the man agitated.

"What's going on?" another man said as he stood up alarmed when he saw his friend coming out of the cavern running.

"The…Shinzou…big grey m…" he didn't finish the sentence because a lightning bolt electrocuted him and he fell to the rocky ground. Out of the shadows of the cavern came out the Invincible Iron Man, cladded in thick platinum armor, and parts of the hands had some devices that amplified Kuro's firebending.

"Hello boys." Said the metallic behemoth.

"Kill it!" yelled a man, then all of those who were out in the camp shot fireballs and lightning bolts at him, but they did nothing.

"Insulated mesh below armor…yep." Said the metallic beast, as he raised his right arm, aiming at the group. "Since you guys don't have armor…and I would like to test my hand cannon's ammunitions on something fleshy."

The Iron Man fired at the group with his ammunitions ripping through them like flies, the rounds sounding like thunder. Then the machine man raised his left arm and fired huge blue fireballs, hotter than any other.

He still was shot by lightning from all sides, but the attacks only partially dented his platinum armor. He fired the last of his hand cannon's ammo on the rest of the radical cretins. Then he took flight by concentrating his firebending on his feet, activating the amplifiers there, but they were not as prepared as the ones in his hands. He blasted into the early morning sky, going through several islands.

"Okay…maybe I shouldn't have done that!" Kudo screamed as he began to fall as his amplifiers failed, he felled on a grassy field, his armor taking the blunt of the crash.

"Augh…that hurts..a lot." Iron Man said as he threw his ruined helmet away, he then looked at his chest. He had managed to convert the battery into a smaller device from the parts around. But he only had an hour left.

"Snail Barnecles…" Kudo cursed with a low voice, and then he looked around.

"Might as well use my time wisely…" He said as he stood up and walked towards any close by village.

Avengers Mansion, Current Day

"And then you died!" Hercules said, obviously trying to be funny.

"Shut up, Hercules." Said Kudo. "Then I found a fire nation village and asked one of the villagers to recharge the battery."

"Later I contacted my company and asked for an airship." He finished saying.

"What a story, what made you be Iron Man?" Korra asked.

"Well at first it was for survival, but then I realized that I was making weapons and bombs to hurt people…I could only realize that after I was told to do more for the simple reason of conquering and to conquer." Kudo answered. "After being retrieved from the Fire Nation, I began work on a new version of the suit and power core…or battery you may call."

"Man of Iron, you have earned Thor's respect." Thor said.

"Mines too, never though that a pampered baby like you would be so mature." Fahuo said.

"Thanks for the complement green man." Iron Man said. "Why don't you tell us your story since we all already know who is the Avatar and The God of Thunder."

"Uhh…I think Herc is next." Fahuo said trying to get out of the conversation.

"Me?! Yes! My story is both of courage and honor!" Hercules said as he raised his fist in the air heroically.

"No…we want to hear from you, Hulky." Korra said.

"See." Iron Man added.

"Okay then…." Fahuo began. "It all started like this…"