Being a hero had its perks for John but there was nothing he liked more than taking off the armor as Steel and applying his knowledge and gifts to the real world as Dr John Henry Irons, the engineer, the scientist. So for the past few nights, John was down in the S.T.A.R. Labs server room, lending a hand in the update of the facilities deep space satellite telemetry program. Combing through endless lines of codes was a bit tiresome but if he could back up the Watchtowers mainframe in a night then this was child’s place. John stood in front of the server, typing on his laptop and interfacing with the server’s touchscreen panel. As he worked, an S.T.A.R. Labs employee entered the room. A woman, medium build with jet black hair that she kept in a bun and wore red framed glasses. She carried a tablet in one hand and a black thermos filled with coffee in the other, ”Working hard I see, Dr. Irons. I hope not too hard that you can refuel. You’ve been going at this code rewriting for the past four hours straight.” John chuckled as he took the thermos, ”Thanks Dr. Mason. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in what I’m doing, time seems to fly.” John took a sip of coffee then gave a nod, ”Black with three sugars? You sure know how to motivate a worker.” he said with a slight laugh. Dr. Mason gave a sly grin and replied, ”A well caffeinated worker is a productive one. Besides, it’s the least I could do. Without your help, we would never get the deep space satellite operational in time to catalog the spacial phenomenon in the Epsilon quadrant.” John placed the thermos down and began typing on the laptop, ”It’s no problem at all. After all, S.T.A.R. Labs has supported me through a lot of my endeavors in the past. So I figure, one could act of kinds deserves another.” Dr. Mason moved closer and leaned against the server close to John, ”Handsome, intelligent and charitable, your wife’s a lucky woman.” John laughed, ”I’ll be sure to remind her of that when I get reprimanded for forgetting to move my work boots back into the closet.” As at two shared a laugh huge rumble followed by a loud explosion echoed from the floor above them. The entire server room shook, to the point that Dr. Mason nearly fell to the floor. But before she could hit the ground, John grabbed her and brought her to her feet. John braced him and the doctor against the terminal as the quake peaked then subsided. Dr. Mason adjusted her glasses then looked at John, who’s gaze peered upward, ”I don’t know what that was, but it can’t be any good.” Dr. Mason gathered herself and began tapping and swiping on her tablet. She quickly pulled up the security feed for the lab and her eyes began to widen as she stared at the screen then looked at John, ”You don’t know the half of it…look here.” She turned the screen to John and John’s expression grew more serious as he saw a large group of heavily armed men entered in the lab from a large smoldering hole in the wall the leads to the outside. ”Thugs with futuristic tech…Intergang, no doubt about that,” John looked at Dr. Mason, “”Is there any way to gain access to the roof top from here? Dr. Mason quickly turned and pointed to a large metal door at the opposite end of the room, ”That’s the service elevator. It can get you to the roof.”[/b John turned and moved towards it, as he began taping on his wrist watch, ”Okay. Lock down the server room, you should be safe down here. I’ll deal with these punks.” John entered the elevator and rode it to the top. As the doors opened to the rooftop, John rushed out, frantically looking upward to the night sky, ”Where are you….come on….come on…” As John finished his sentence, he spotted a bright flash of light and fire, from what appeared to be a rocket. And as the object closed in and landed in front of John, you could tell it wasn’t any rocket, but John’s Steel Armor. The armored shined and dazzled from the reflection of the city lights in the distance. John approached the armor and the eyes on his helmet lit up and scanned him, then a robotic voiced said, “Steel Armor Mk IV: Recognize, John Irons.” Metal plates and panels quickly opened up. John stepped and donned his armor. He pushed his red cape to the side as he drew his hammer from his belt, the handle extending to its full length. Steel leaped into the air and quickly flew down to the hole the villains entered. Landing with a loud, metallic thud, the members of Intergang turned to see Steel, staring back at them, ”I’m going to give you one chance and one chance only…..lay down your weapons….now!!!” The gang members looked at each other, grinned deviously then proceeded to open fire upon the hero. Steel stood there, taking in the myriad of bullets as they ricochet off his armor. He sighed, “”Fine then, guess it’s the hard way!” Steel clenched his hammer and flew towards the gang, prepared to engage them and stop them from stealing from S.T.A.R. Labs. Little known to Steel, a few blocks away on a roof top, a man stood gazing through a pair high powered binoculars at S.T.A.R. Labs. After watching Steel enter and engage the men, he placed his hands to ear and said, ”We have an issue. Prepare to send the care package on my mark. ASAP.”