Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Rescue (Pepper Potts) (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Bethany Cabe
- H.A.P.P.Y. (Hosted Analogue Program Pre-Y2K) (First appearance) (Voice only)
- Amanda Armstrong
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Tony Stark (Only in flashback)
- Stark Resilient (Named only)
- Jude (Mentioned)
- Happy Hogan (Only in recap)
- S.H.I.E.L.D. (Mentioned)
- Keys (First appearance)
- Tuney (First appearance)
- Zeb (First appearance)
- Pepper's adopted son (Mentioned)
- Pepper's adopted daughter (Mentioned)
- Frankenstein (Mentioned)
- Hammer Industries (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
- London Fire Brigade
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
- New York (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Only in flashback)
- Queens (Only in flashback)
- Flushing (Only in flashback)
- Stark Industries (Only in flashback)
- Flushing (Only in flashback)
- Queens (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Only in flashback)
- Washington
- New York (Only in flashback)
- Atlantic Ocean
- United Kingdom
- England
- London
- Camden Town
- North Star Studios (Name revealed)
- Camden Town
- London
- England
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
Items:
- Rescue Armor Model 5 (First appearance)
Synopsis for 1st story
Bethany Cabe approaches Pepper Potts at her office at Stark Resilient to go over a plan to acquire DNA samples of Tony Stark's parents to rebuild his body and return him to life. Cabe also introduces her to a new Rescue Armor and its operating system, Hosted Analogue Program Pre-Y2K, or H.A.P.P.Y., modeled after Pepper's late husband Happy Hogan.
Pepper starts in London to find Tony's mother, Amanda Armstrong, but finds that her house in Camden Town has been abandoned for days. A neighbor points her to Amanda's workplace, North Star Studios. When Rescue arrives, she saves Amanda and her staff from the studio's automated equipment, which had rebelled after the robot revolution started and had kept them hostage to learn how to make music from them. Pepper breaks out the news to Amanda that Tony has died, but she points out that Tony was already dead, since the man she had met was grown artificially and it wasn't really her son. Pepper still asks Amanda for a clipping of her, but she refuses. She invites Pepper to her home to talk about it.
At her home, Amanda tries to convince Pepper to let go of Tony, believing her plan to be heinous. The house is suddenly attacked by laser-equipped drones piloted by Hydra, who intend to keep Tony Stark dead. Rescue and Amanda fend them off, and leave to the studio, fearing for the safety of Amanda's employees. They are confronted by a swarm of drones. Having made up with their former captors, the staff of North Star Studios assist Rescue, using the studio's sentient equipment to emit a ultrahigh frequency blast that neutralizes the drone swarm. Amanda is shot in the shoulder by a stray laser from a drone, but Pepper attends to her and stabilizes her wound. As she is taken away in an ambulance, Amanda reveals that she had noticed that Pepper glanced at a hairbrush in her home, but was waiting until she was ready to willingly give Pepper her hair. Amanda hands over a lock of her hair to Pepper and tells her that even if she doesn't know if what she is doing is right, she believes in her.
Solicit Synopsis
Pepper Potts moved on from Tony Stark. She’s getting her life together, finding her place in the world.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly when Tony Stark decides it’s time for a full-tilt, full-blown meltdown. And if Pepper can’t suit up and save the day, Tony is toast.