Chapter 1
The Thanagarian sun glinted off the sleek metallic surfaces of the science facility, a hub of advanced research poised on the brink of discovery. Inside, a team of the brightest Thanagarian scientists stood around a curious slab of gleaming Nth Metal, their planet's rarest and most powerful resource. They had long known of its extraordinary properties—enhancing strength, allowing flight, and even manipulating electromagnetic fields. But today, they sought to unlock a new capability: dimensional travel.
Dr. Kalmoran, the lead scientist, adjusted the settings on the elaborate machinery surrounding the metal. "This should create a stable vortex," he asserted, his voice carrying a blend of excitement and trepidation. "If successful, we could traverse the multiverse itself."
As he said this, he turned on the Dimensional Harnesser, a device made to open a portal. All looked good.
“We did it,” a scientist said. However, as they said this, the energy levels rose, an unforeseen variable skewed the experiment—a miscalculation, if you would call it that. The Nth Metal began to resonate at a frequency that escaped their calculations, and with a blinding flash and a deafening boom, half of it disappeared into the ether of space-time. Unknown to them, it had left this universe along with a drive that contained all the data the laboratory had. The laboratory was thrown into chaos as alarms blared and scientists scrambled to assess the situation.
“Quick, track it down,” Dr. Kalmoran yelled, knowing he was screwed if it was never recovered.
Across the multiverse, in a dimension outside their own, on a private island owned by Tony Stark, also known as the superhero Iron Man, the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist reclined in solitude. The events of Sokovia had taken a toll on his psyche, and it had created a divide within the Avengers, only deepening the toll on his mind. The team's decision to add Wanda Maximoff, despite her raw, uncontrollable power and the fact that she had indirectly caused the creation of Ultron, left Tony feeling isolated, even from Vision, whom he had once considered a friend. He knew it was unfair to expect Vision to be like Jarvis, but who could blame him? He was human.
Tony hated that there was nothing he could do to stop Wanda and that the only thing keeping him safe from the Hydra witch was her claim of seeking redemption. Tony didn’t believe her; after all, she was supported by Steve Rogers, who had ties to Howard Stark, and everyone with ties to Howard had tried to kill him or had him in situations near death. Obadiah Stane tried to kill him for his Arc Reactor and company, Vanko tried to kill him to get revenge on Howard Stark. The first mission he did as an Avenger had him near death because SHIELD, an organization his father founded, thought it would be funny to play with the Tesseract and make weapons, and finally, Captain America had tried to kill him, believing the words of a terrorist. Tony saved New York from a nuclear bomb not because he wanted to, but because he felt guilty he couldn’t save his best friend like Steve Rogers did. He had no one in New York; he had Pepper and Happy evacuated, and Rhodey was stationed in the Middle East.
The island was his sanctuary away from the Avengers, the media, and, most of all, Wanda Maximoff, lush with vegetation. As Tony mulled over his thoughts, a cool sea breeze caressed his face as he sipped his drink, the sun setting on the horizon. It was then, with the sudden ferocity of a storm, that the sky lit up, a portal opened up, and a meteor, ablaze with cosmic energy, hurtled down from the heavens and crashed into the heart of his island. Tony’s suit formed around him as he flew up, narrowly missing the shockwaves the meteor created when landing as the kinetic energy of the meteor hit the ground.
The ground trembled under the impact, and Tony flew to the center of the landing, peering to find not a smoldering rock, but a mass of metal, which he did not know was Nth Metal, its otherworldly properties already at work. The land around the crater had transformed; rocks, soil, even the foundation of the island itself now pulsed with the alien metal's energy.
"What in the name of...?" Tony muttered to himself, his engineer's curiosity piqued despite the absurdity of the situation. This was no mere meteorite; it was something far beyond his world's understanding.
"Friday, analysis," Tony barked into the air, the AI system immediately coming online.
"Scanning, boss. The entire island's non-organic matter has been transmuted. I'm picking up energy signatures unlike anything on record. This metal... it's not from our world, Earth."
Tony's mind raced as he contemplated the implications. This metal could change everything—technology, warfare, the balance of power. It could revolutionize or it could destroy. He knew he had to act quickly.
Tony’s gaze locked on the mysterious metal. "But I have a feeling my vacation just got cut short."
“You're right about that, Boss,” Friday replied, a hint of curiosity in her voice. “Boss, there's some sort of advanced computer there,” Friday said.
Tony looked at the computer. "Friday, let's try and see what's on it," Tony said as he stepped up to the computer, only to find it unlocked, displaying data on the metal.
"Nth Metal, that's its name," Tony read out. "Friday, make notes on this."
"Of course, boss," Friday said.
"Properties:
- Gravity Negation: Grants the ability to modulate gravimetric fields and adjacent effects for various purposes, such as allowing the wearer to carry objects 20-70 times heavier than they normally could.
- Flight: Its anti-gravity properties also enable its user to fly unaided.
- Heat Generation: The metal generates a heat aura sufficient to keep a man alive under Arctic conditions.
- Self-Sustenance: The Nth Metal used by the Hawks enables them to survive in all but truly inhospitable environs, from the near-limitless cold of the sunless side of a planetoid to the lifeless recess of deep space.
- Symbiosis: The metal bonds to and vastly augments the physical dexterity of the host wearer, even restoring lost physical attributes which recede over time.
- Metamorphosis: Pure Nth Metal bonded to a host can shape and form into weapons or armor with adaptive features at their command. It will even move to protect the wearer from oncoming assaults against their person.
- Regeneration: Its restorative powers are such that Nth Metal allows its user to regrow missing body parts.
- Reincarnation: Another unique property of Nth Metal is its ability to habitually revive its prominent wielders across the ages repeatedly. The user also remembers everything from their past lives up to the point of their rebirth.
- Resurrection: The metal can also restore the host after total biophysical desiccation, restoring life to a dead body, or even physically reintegrate its user at a biomolecular level.
- Recall: Weapons forged through Nth Metal have the capacity to function without the need of physical handling.
- Magic Negation: In recent continuity,
users can physically interact with as well as disrupt the presence of ghostly entities, magic creatures, and even break enchantments.
- Energy Transference: Nth metal has the power to absorb and store vast quantities of energy for later redistribution.
- Energy Construct Creation: Thanagarians could use their Nth Metal wings to project hawk-like energy projections for protection and other such effects.
- Molecular Reconstruction: Thanagarians used the energies of their past lives to reshape their old bludgeon into a flaming sword emanating with primeval energies to slay a meta-adaptive dragon.
- Power Augmentation: The metal has the effect of greatly enhancing a user's powers, Thanagarians having used it to augment their already considerable physical and mental capabilities beyond the norm.
- Emotion Control: Nth Metal has the capacity to affect psionic influence on those who venture near it; the Nth Metal user is able to affect empathic effects upon those around him in order to manipulate their actions and decisions.
- Adaptation: The symbiotic metal has the capacity to adjust and augment itself to better aid its wearer with new abilities.
- Healing Nullification: Can weaken the recovery abilities of its user's foes, allowing the user to deliver killing blows.
- Dimensional Travel: Dark/Nth metal can be used to breach inter-dimensional barriers to traverse across the multiverse and beyond.
- Portal Creation: The metal can also trigger portals to and from other dimensions across the multiverse and the world forge.
- Chronokinesis: It is discovered that a Thanagarian dubbed Hawkman discovered that there are cross-temporal properties to Nth Metal, as it was through the metal he and his lover Kendra gained the power to be reborn across time and space.
- Time Travel: Throughout his journey of self-discovery, it is noted the Thanagarians dubbed Hawkman realized the Nth Metal in his possession could also be used for the purpose of traveling back and forth through history.
- Summoning: Thanagarians managed to call forth an army of numerous of their past selves from his former lives across time and space in order to aid him in battle.
- Transformation: Due to the metaphysical nature of the material in their wings, Thanagarians learned they could use the Nth Metal in their wings to disperse into a flock of raptors manifest from the souls of all their past incarnations."
Tony was amazed at what was being displayed. "Boss, I've noted this down," Friday said.
"Good," Tony said. "Let's have a closer look at the metal."
Tony's suit flew over and scanned the Nth Metal. "I wonder, Friday, how powerful could a suit made of this truly be? With it, I could match Wanda, Thor, and anyone. I could have a chance," Tony thought out loud.
"Well, let's get this back to the lab and study it," Tony said.
The island's facilities were destroyed due to the meteor's impact, so Tony had to wait. He had Friday contact Pepper to send resources and dispatch the Iron Legion to the island to rebuild the facilities. He was going to make a suit from this metal; he would never be weak again. He would show all—those who doubted him, those who wanted to hurt him—that he was not weak, he was strong.