A strange message had been sent to him, encrypted in a code that only his most trusted employees, and Jim Rhodes, knew. It had told him to wait at this place out in the foothills for a visit by someone he knew very well.

Enough weird stuff had been going on in Tony's life lately that he knew better than to come alone. The manager of his private limousine fleet, Happy Hogan, had done him the courtesy of driving him out to the foothills. Happy was an ex-boxer, so Stark felt that he had at least some protection, without having to resort to changing into Iron Man.

"So yer gonna just go to that place and wait, Mr. Stark?"

"Yes, Happy. Just keep an eye on me. If I signal to you, pull the car around."

Hogan patted the glove compartment. "I was the one who came up with the idea of all your limo drivers keeping a weapon in the glove compartment, remember?"

"Yes, I do. Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Happy stopped the car and Stark opened the door. As he stepped out, his eyes scanned the area for signs of the person he was going to meet.

He did not expect to hear the roar of boot jets over the canyon, nor to see the face he saw now.

"Hey! It's you!"

The figure came to a rather sputtering landing. He looked like a dented, rusty, sand-encrusted version of the last model of Iron Man armor that Tony had worn.

"I didn't expect to see you again, at least not so soon."

"Yes, Mr. Stark. I have been away, fighting the Manhunter virus. I have it mostly cleaned from my systems, but there is an area upon which I am not able to operate myself."

"You haven't been in contact with any other computers since you went away, have you?"

The robot shook its head. "Not a one. The virus the Manhunters implanted into me would have eventually taken down the entire Internet . . . power grids possibly . . . who knows what kind of disasters could have arisen."

The robot sat down on a rock very slowly. It was clear that something was still very wrong with its internal systems.

"The last . . . remnants of the virus have made their way into my most vital circuitry. If you do not help me . . . then there is no hope."

"Don't talk like that," Stark replied. "Well . . . I probably should not bring you back to S.E.," Stark mused.

"Yes, that would not be a good idea."

"But I can bring someone to you. I hired a tech right when the big viruses started popping up to safeguard our systems. One got through, a little while ago, and she managed to get rid of it without it doing much damage. She also knows about armor and cybernetics . . . she can work on you.

"You are too kind, Mr. Stark."

"Okay, you guys know the plan. We get in there, we get the blueprints for the Stark Solaris, and we get out."

"Yeah, we're gonna get paid big for stealing the plans to that car. You think Iron Man's going to be there?"

"There's three of us, and one of him, stupid!" the largest of them said, tapping the other roughly on the shoulder. "I almost hope we get to meet him. I'll give him a taste of these shatter guns!!"

"Enough talking. We gotta go so we can stay on schedule. Okay, Raiders, stealth systems on!!"

"Stealth systems go!!!" the others replied.

The three figures soared off into the early evening sky.

"So, have you thought of another way that we can get Stark, Mr. Hammer?"

"Only you would I allow to speak to me so impertinently, Arclight," Hammer replied. "I do have another idea for stopping Stark." He sipped his tea. "I was a fool to think that my frail physiology could stand a chance of stopping him in personal battle.*"

*(see Iron Man #2-3 for Hammer's appearance as the Iron Master.)

"When I next take on Stark, he'll never know what hit him. Who knows, after all I'm going to put him through, maybe I'll offer him a job . . . as my groundskeeper!"

Hammer's bitter old laughter echoed throughout the halls of his mansion.

"Well, I have to say that I've never done this kind of work out in the field before."

"Do you think you can save him?"

"Oh, yes. He's done a pretty good job of fighting the virus so far, mostly by staying away until he could get it locked down. All I have to do is take away this one section . . . "

"That's his main memory bank."

"I know," she replied, more snootily than she had intended. "I isolated the virus to a particular section of his memory bank. But if I kill the virus, I'm going to have to wipe out that section."

"Will he still function, Karen?"

Karen frowned a little.

"He'll function just fine. But he will lose a good portion of the experiential storage he has. He won't remember very much at all about the last year or maybe even longer. He may not even remember you."

"He made significant sacrifices during the Manhunter crisis. I think he deserves our help. He deserves to have this virus removed."

"I'll go ahead, then."

The lead Raider spoke through his radio to the others. "Our agent on the inside told us exactly where those plans are. Once we get in there, just follow me."

They continued on toward Stark Enterprises.

"I want to see if I can do some work on him back at my workshop."

In a few minutes, the robot was totally repaired. Karen powered him on.

"Hello? Where am I? Who are you?"

"You're with friends," Tony responded. "Come with me, and I can explain while we fix you up a little bit more."

A little while later, Stark was working on the robot to his private workshop. He had changed out of his normal business casual clothes into an oil-covered T-shirt and jeans.

"I'm going to fix up your armor. Make it into something new, something that represents that you are making a new beginning."

Stark had to talk a little bit louder over the sound of the acetylene torch he was using.

"Due to the damage that the virus did, we can't restore you to the same power levels as before. Fortunately, your repulsor array was not damaged very much. I'm going to refocus your armor's powers toward force-field generation. You'll even be able to take Iron Man down with the force field power I'm going to give you!"

In little more than an hour, Stark had done a lot of work on the Force armor. There were just a few details left to take care of.

All of a sudden, the security alarms began ringing.

"Intruders again!" Stark yelled. "Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't just fire everyone on my security staff and get some SHIELD contractors or something, the way people keep attacking this facility."

Tony was certainly worked up - he had been attacked too many times, either as Iron Man, or as himself, in the past few months. "Just wait here. I'll be back . . . I may have to be Iron Man myself tonight."

Stark ran out of the workshop, forgetting that he had left the trusty briefcase that contained his armor under one of the tables in the workshop.

One of the Raiders fired bullets, acid blasts, and lasers at the security guards. A number of security guards went down under the barrage.

They fired back with their laser rifles, but the Raiders were too fast to hit.

Stark arrived and realized that he had forgotten to bring his armor. He would have to take charge of the situation and see whether his security forces could stop the villains.

"They stole some plans from one of the workshops. We were lucky one of them tripped the alarm, or they would have gotten away."

They were interrupted by another one of the Raiders, who pummeled the wall near where they were standing with his shatter guns. Blocks of cement fell onto Stark, burying him and knocking him out.

"They got the boss!" one of the security guard said. "We've got to stop them!"

From the workshop emerged a powerful-looking, gleaming green figure. His golden eyes gleamed in the moonlight. He strode out and then ignited his boot jets and lifted off, flying toward the area of Stark Enterprises where the battle was taking place.

He was no longer just a copy of Iron Man. He was Force, and it was time to prove the extent of his new powers.

"What th'??" the second one said.

"It's a sneak attack!! It's gotta be Iron Man!"

"Not this time," a metallic voice replied. Force flew up from behind them, his gauntlets gleaming with energy.

He sent out a wave of concussive force that smashed another one of the Raiders to the ground. The Raider's armor was damaged by the impact, so all he could do was lie there, stunned.

Now there was only one Raider left.

"You think you can stop me before I get away, buddy?"

"The question is moot. Of course I will stop you."

Force fired a directed force blast at the Raider, which smashed a hole in his rocket pack. Fuel began to leak from the hole, and the Raider began to spiral toward the ground He attempted to get his rocket pack to fire as Force zoomed toward him. When Force reached him, he tore the helmet from the Raider's head, grabbed him by the throat, and held his fist in front of him threateningly.

"Okay! Okay, I give up! Here, take the blueprints back!!"

Force held the plans for the Stark Solaris car in his hands. His first mission under his new identity had succeeded.

The Stark security forces took the captured Raiders to holding cells, from which they would be transferred over to the local police.

He and Force stood on the balcony of one of the Stark corporate buildings, watching the sun come up.

"How do you . . . feel, Force? That's the name you've chosen?"

"Yes. It implies power, which I have. And it implies my mission, which is to serve as a force for good. But it is as if all was new with the world, Mr. 'Stark.' I am almost sorry that I will never remember the time before today, but if the virus has been taken from my systems, I suppose everything will be all right."

Tony pulled a tiny gadget from his desk.

"One of my crack technicians developed this a while ago. I don't share this technology with too many people." Stark held a small box in his hands. "I gave one to a Professor Charles Xavier a long time ago. He paid pretty handsomely for it, and he seemed like a trustworthy enough man."

"What does the box do?" Force asked.

"It's an image inducer. As long as someone does not have touch contact with you, you will appear human, although, I guess, a bit bulky at least. It will do for when you have to pass in normal society."

Tony held his hand out for Force to shake.

"Take care of yourself, Force. I'll be contacting you via your system's computers sometime soon. I've got a lead on a nighttime warehouse job that will give you something to do," Stark said. "I'll send some money your way for a few months until you can take care of yourself."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark," Force said. "Goodbye, then!"

Force ignited his boot jets, lifted off into the air and flew off down South to San Diego, to begin his new life.

"Oh yes!" Stark replied, waking himself up a bit and suddenly remembering his upcoming world tour. "This is an interesting idea you have, with Iron Man traveling all over the world as an ambassador for my company. "

"Will you be accompanying him?"

Stark had to remember to respond correctly. "Oh yes, yes. I'll be along for the ride. Just in case one of my contacts overseas wants to sign a contract or something. I'll see you in about a month, Betty." Tony smiled bigger than he had in a while; he was truly pleased with how Betty was helping Stark Enterprises regain the public confidence.

Betty was not untouched by Stark's natural charm. She blushed a little.

"My pleasure, Mr. Stark."

"Finally, I can say that this place will be in good hands when I'm gone." Stark went into the closet that was in his office and packed away some clothes into his traveling bags.

Stark's new receptionist, Charlie, called into the office. "Your private plane will be ready to leave in a few minutes, Mr. Stark. And thanks again for giving me another chance."

"It's off to Kenya for me! See you in a month or so!"

Stark left the office, and walked to his private airport where his plane was waiting. He boarded, and the plane soon taxied down the runway and took off.

Tony Stark was unaware of the wonders and the terrors he would behold while he was on his world tour.