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[color=#da1313][b]Location: [/b][/color] [i]Stark Tower, midtown Manhattan[/i]
[color=#da1313][b]Date: [/b][/color][i] July 6th, 3:37am[/i]

[color=#00acbe]"The perimeter of your Malibu property is now secure again, Sir. If I might make a suggestion, this might be an excellent time to install the new tempered glass that your company recently put into place here in Stark Tower." [/color]

[color=#da1313]"Yes, good call, JARVIS. Get on the phone with DeFranco from 'product development' and make the arrangements. I'm going to send Pepper down later today to oversee the fitting."[/color]

How? [i]HOW[/i] had his second home been broken into? Who had the balls to try and do such a thing knowing that the security would have been absolutely top-notch? Hell, he probably had better security than even the White House had. No, he was [i]sure[/i] he did because he had designed the system [i]himself[/i]. Whoever it was had tried to hack the alarm and failed, JARVIS then alerting Tony (woken up from a sound sleep), as well as the authorities, seconds after the attempt was made to bypass the system. Honestly, he was surprised the culprit hadn't aborted the attempt right there. Instead, whoever it was had resorted to shooting out the glass in the front windows to make their entrance. 

[i]Not terribly original. Minus points for lack of creativity, definitely.[/i]

Still, brute force (inelegant as it was) had ultimately worked, despite the glass being reinforced. The intruder managed to get down to his main garage/workshop before the secondary alert system kicked in and incapacitated him -- the audio debilitator was a real bitch and the person would have one hell of a headache for a few days. 

[i]Served them right.[/i]

From what Tony could see from the camera system, the intruder had been attempting to get into his workspace computer. More specifically, his private server. They could have gone after his expensive art collection, his many classic and very valuable cars, or even just the massive TV in his living room. No, they had bypassed all that usual stuff and gone for something only valuable to certain people... [i]Information.[/i]

[i]And made a damn mess in the process. Glass was everywhere.[/i] 

[color=#da1313]"Have [i]'Dummy'[/i] start sweeping up the debris in the workshop. Might as well do something useful, since he's clearly not built for thwarting espionage." [/color]

[color=#00acbe]"Of course, Sir."[/color]

His phone vibrated a moment later, Pepper on the other end sounding as if she had also been pulled out of a dead sleep by all the ruckus.

[color=#e27926]"Hey,"[/color] she said. [color=#e27926]"I assume you're already on top of the situation over in California?"[/color]

[color=#da1313]"Yeah," [/color] he said grumpily, pausing a moment before adding. [color=#da1313]"They went after the server, Pepper. My [i]private[/i] server." [/color]

[color=#e27926]"I assume the person is currently incapacitated by the secondary system, then?" [/color]

[color=#da1313]"The police have already put the cuffs on, not that they need them -- the asshole won't even be able to move pinky for at least twenty minutes or so." [/color]

[color=#e27926]"Of course," [/color] she said, stifling a small yawn through the phone. [color=#e27926]"I didn't get a notification that an invalid login attempt had been made. Did the guy actually manage to get into the server?" [/color]

[color=#da1313]"No,"[/color] Tony replied. [color=#da1313]"Looks like he had just clicked for a logon attempt when the secondary alarm went off."[/color]

[color=#e27926]"Broke the glass divider to get into the space?"[/color]

[color=#da1313]"Bingo."[/color]

[color=#e27926]"Well, this guy obviously doesn't know what he's doing if he didn't manage to disable the alarm systems. A smart thief would have had the codes in advance to get into everything and not alert anyone of his presence." [/color]

[color=#da1313]"Oh, he's definitely regretting his lack of planning now,"[/color] Tony quietly chuckled. [color=#da1313]"Though he did seem to know enough about the house to make his way down to my work area without much trouble."[/color]

[color=#e27926]"Maybe they pulled the blueprints from city records?"[/color]

[color=#da1313]"Probably," [/color] he replied. [color=#da1313]"Anyway, I want you to fly down later today and make sure cleanup goes smoothly. I'm going to have the glass replaced with the stuff we just put in here. Seems like the smart thing to do." [/color]

[color=#e27926]"I'll start packing,"[/color] Pepper said slowly, still trying to process the whole situation in her half-asleep fog. [color=#e27926]"I guess I'll call you when I'm on the plane?"[/color]

[color=#da1313]"Perfect. If any press happens to shows up, just brush them off by saying everything is under control and nothing was taken. If they want an official quote, they're out of luck."[/color]

[color=#e27926]"Will do."[/color]

Hanging up the call, Tony laid back in his bed, wearily rubbing his eyes. 

[i]This was not good. Not good at all.[/i] Granted, the thief had been stopped before he obtained anything worth-while, but the question was really [i]who [/i]was the person working [i]for[/i]? A run-of-the-mill burglar didn't trade in data. But whoever was behind this had sent a veritable imbecile to do the job and clearly not a professional. [i]Why waste the time and money?[/i] Was this backwards attempt supposed to be some kind of message? He figured that the idiot thief had made the attempt on his west coast home because Stark Tower was far too busy a place to slip in unnoticed -- without clearance the guy never would have even made it past the lobby, never mind up to his penthouse.

He hadn't even been to his Malibu property in at least six months. [i]Maybe that known fact was the reason for the attempted breech?[/i] 

[color=#da1313]"Sonofabitch," [/color] Tony muttered, his mind racing with the various possibilities. None of them seemed to make sense.

Whatever the reason for the events of the night were, he probably wouldn't know much more until Pepper went down and had a closer look at things. It didn't do any good to worry about things now.

[i]TV. Flip on the TV and zone out. NEWS. Perfect.[/i]

4:00am. America This Morning on good ol' ABC. He rarely watched it, unless he was jetlagged from travel and unable to sleep. It did have that brunette anchor that he thought was attractive, though. Diane [i]something.[/i] He'd never had the good fortune to run into her in person, but she was certainly a welcome sight in his bedroom, even if only on the TV at ungodly hours.

The two anchors on the screen chatted for a few minutes, exchanging pleasantries and other banter before shifting into the stories for the morning. 

[color=#e3a4ca]"More details regarding the incident in Metropolis were released by officials today," [/color] the pretty brunette segued, looking back into the camera. [color=#e3a4ca]"Onlookers were stunned yesterday as giant mechanical attackers literally dropped into Centennial Square, without any warning. Luckily for the citizens of Metropolis, however, the hero that everyone is calling 'Superman' was there to intervene. Here's Kendis with the story. Kendis?" [/color]

Footage rolled of the hero swooping through the air and landing several blows on the mechanized giants. His strength was certainly impressive, even if his attire looked a bit amateurish.

[color=#da1313]"Nice cape, buddy," [/color]Tony mumbled to himself, smirking slightly. The red was a nice touch... [i]A good, eye-catching color.[/i] He liked it, though he thought the cape was maybe a bit much design-wise. [i]Did the guy think it just looked cool or did he need it to help him fly? [/i] Because otherwise it seemed like a liability to Tony -- [i] one good yank and goodnight, Superman.[/i]

Though, from the beating the guy appeared to be withstanding on the news clip, it certainly looked like a single blow was not anywhere near enough to incapacitate the super being. [i]Was he a mutant of some kind?[/i] He certainly didn't look like he had any rockets that helped him soar through the air or even any visible stabilizers. No tech of any kind it seemed. How did someone that muscular-looking even gain enough thrust to get airborne? The physics literally made no sense.

[color=#e3a4ca]"... and reports that maybe Superman and the recently dubbed 'Wonder Woman' that has surfaced in California perhaps are somehow linked..." [/color]

[i]Wonder Woman.[/i] There was another one who was an interesting news development as of late.

It seemed more and more of these super strong metahumans were popping up on the radar. 

[i]At least Wonder Woman was easy on the eyes.[/i]

It all did make Tony wonder, though, how many other places these sorts of incidents were likely to happen. [i]Crazy metal monsters smashing things up, crashing airplanes caught at the last second...[/i] New York was usually a hub of activity -- was it only a matter of time before shit started hitting the fan here, too? And who else was silently preparing to surface in the event of such a happening? How many more 'heroes' were there laying in wait?

It was certainly a relevant question these days. Tony had his own reasons for wondering, of course, but he was sure he wasn't the only person laying awake and watching this broadcast to ask themselves the question.

[color=#da1313][i]Red... Hm.[/i][/color]