He showered, shaved, and dressed himself in the best navy blue suit that his meager funds could afford.

He went to the kitchen and sat down to a pancake breakfast that his new wife, Marion, had made for him.

"I'm so proud of you, Jake."

After breakfast, Jake stood up from the breakfast table and got the small briefcase that he had bought from the local thrift store. Even though it cost only ten dollars, it looked presentable enough to bring to an interview. It held the resumé that Marion had typed up for him, plus the name of Jake's parole officer. Marion had hoped that her work would help win Jake a new job.

"Good luck to you on your interview, honey!" Marion said as she kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks, sweetie."

But as Jake walked down the hallway, he remembered that he was not really going on an interview today. The suit and tie were needed for what he was going to do today, but he wasn't going to be applying for a job. He was going to be exacting final revenge on an old enemy.

"Thank you for having me here. I'm holding this meeting so that we can go over Stark Enterprises' diversity of holdings and projects, so that I can show you how we are going to keep going strong, even if the economy does encounter a downturn."

A middle-aged man in a dark blue suit gave Stark a sarcastic smirk. "I'm sorry to contradict you, Mr. Stark, but that's nonsense! Have you seen the heights that the Dow has been at lately?"

Tony smiled. "Of course I have, Wayne, we all have. But we all know that this tech stock dreamworld can't last forever. Some of the Web companies that are around that haven't been turning a profit are a good indication."

There were a few knowing grimaces around the table.

"Let's hear what Mr. Stark has to say, Wayne," an older woman with grey-blonde hair and horn-rimmed glasses retorted. "He's always been right all of the other times he's told us about an economic or technological trend. Let's listen to him now."

There were general nods of agreement and assent around the table.

"As I was saying . . . "

Anyone who had been looking out the window to the conference room would have seen a human-sized tornado zoom up past the glass walls of the conference room. With one great blast of air, the tornado ripped through the glass door.

As shards of glass flew into the room, the terrified stockholders stood all on one side of the conference table.

The human tornado stopped, and revealed its source.

It was a muscular man in a silver and green armored outfit. "Hello, you loyal Stark employees," the green-helmeted man said. "I've come to do a little kidnapping, if you don't mind. Stay out of the way, and I won't have to kill you."

Tony recognized the villain from the Avengers League case files.

"Whirlwind!" Tony Stark exclaimed. "How did you get back out on the streets again?"

"Doesn't matter, Stark!" Whirlwind zoomed up to where Stark was standing. "What matters is that I'm taking you with me now. Nobody interferes, or I'll zoom up to you and cut your throat so fast that you won't know what hit you!" Whirlwind brandished his wrist blade in front of the terrified group.

"How desperate for money are you exactly, Whirlwind?" Stark replied, as cocky as ever. "What if I wrote you a check, so you don't have to go through the effort? Then you can walk out of here without anyone being hurt."

Whirlwind really was that desperate for money. Tony could see the villain's stern blue eyes considering the offer. He used the delay Stark to reach under the desk and signal his plainclothes guards to come in; they were heavily armed and able to deal with low-level superhuman threats.

Whirlwind had made up his mind. "No! You can't fool me, Stark! You come with me, now, or I start killing these people, one by one! There's nothing you can do to stop me! I'll get a lot more money by taking you hostage now!"

Tony was thinking of his options. There was clearly not much time to do so.

For most of his life, when Jake had been among the general public, he had been looking for an easy mark, or an easy pocket to pick. Now, with him dressed up as he was, he felt almost accepted by the other people going to work in downtown Albany.

It was a shame that it was all going to change back, after what he was going to do in a matter of minutes.

Stark's guards rushed through the hole in the glass wall.

Whirlwind was taken aback by the guards' attack. He turned, and started spinning. Whirlwind concentrated his attack on the guards, which was exactly what Tony had planned. Whirlwind was a tough guy, but he was no master strategist.

"Laser bolts!" Whirlwind laughed. "No projectile can hit me when I'm spinning!"

Tony used the distraction to sneak the delegates out the back door. He shushed them as they walked, and let another group of guards lead them off the floor and out of the building. Tony ducked into a spare closet with his briefcase.

He knew the plan from start to finish. Jake would get past the security guard at the front by saying that he had an appointment with Human Resources. He would go into the main reception area for the HR department, and quietly fill out an application for employment.

At the stroke of noon, Jake would then walk up to one of the electrical outlets and send a spark through it that would short out all the lights and every appliance and computer that was plugged in across the entire building. Jake had studied the blueprints for most of the public buildings in town, and he knew just where to strike with his electrical powers.

Jake would march straight to the top floor of Stark Enterprises and find Stark. And then he would fry Tony Stark alive.

The plan was flawless. Nobody would be able to stop him.

Jake readied himself. His jacket was without a wrinkle; his tie was straight. Jake got ready to walk into the Stark Enterprises offices when he thought he saw Marion walking by.

"Jake?" she yelled. "Is that you?"

Jake stopped, wondering if he should rush into the building to face his destiny, or answer his wife. It was a fateful decision either way.

"Thought you would show up eventually, Iron Man! I'll stop you, and take your boss away, too!"

Whirlwind started to spin again. Iron Man's sensors could pick up that Whirlwind had started his wrist-blades spinning at maximum power. Whirlwind was moving toward Iron Man at breakneck speed.

He was almost unstoppable. But Iron Man's keen technical mind gave him an idea.

Iron Man fired a small electromagnetic pulse in Whirlwind's general direction.

"Looks like your repulsors don't work, Iron Man! Do you need an upgrade or something?" Whirlwind came closer, his wrist blades and body spinning in tandem. "Are you going to just stand there, Iron Man?" Whirlwind taunted. "I'll cut through you like butter . . . "

"No, you won't."

At that moment, Whirlwind's wrist razors stopped spinning, shorted out by the small electromagnetic pulse. Since Whirlwind had been spinning at great speed, the sudden stop of the razor blades disrupted his equilibrium and sent him crashing through the wall. He was so disoriented that he actually forgot to spin.

Where he forgot to spin was in mid-air, outside the Stark Enterprises building.

Iron Man took advantage of the surprise to blast Whirlwind with a repulsor ray. Whirlwind started to fall to earth. He was so unused to not spinning through the air that he had forgotten what to do when he was falling.

The Armored Avenger flew out the hole in the wall and saw that he had only seconds to catch the villain before he impacted.

There were other people below, and Iron Man could tell that debris from the concrete wall was going to fall on them, if not Whirlwind himself.

With one quick swoop, Iron Man quickly caught Whirlwind and placed him back inside the building, then soared down to clear the pedestrians out of the way. But pieces of debris from the building were still falling to the street below.

"Marion! I'm sorry! I have to do this. Go home!"

"What are you going to do, Jake?"

Right at that moment, a piece of falling concrete impacted on Jake Simmons' head, crushing his skull and dashing his brains out.

Marion Simmons screamed and raced toward him. She could see a final look of love for her frozen on her husband's dead face.

Moments later, Iron Man flew down from up above. Police cars had arrived in a squall of sirens, and police and rescue workers were moving bystanders away from the building. Iron Man then walked over to the distraught Mrs. Simmons.

"Ma'am! You shouldn't be standing here. Part of the building could fall on you!"

"It already did fall, Iron Man. Not on me, but on my husband! I bet it had something to do with you." Marion Simmons spat anger through her tears. "You and that Tony Stark have caused Jake nothing but pain. And now you have caused his death! I don't care what I have to do . . . you will pay for this!"

Marion Simmons crumpled into almost a ball and sobbed as the EMTs dragged Jake's body away on a stretcher. As they covered Jake's bloody face with a blanket, Iron Man recognized the fallen man.

It took a moment, but he remembered the fight that he had had with Jake Simmons so many years ago. What had Jake been doing here, anyway?

Inside the ambulance where she was being taken to the hospital to be checked out, Marion Simmons made a vow to herself that Jake Simmons would be revenged. She did not know how yet, but the revenge would be sweet . . . and final.