Chapter 10: Stane's Slow Burn
"Obadiah Stane. The man is a walking, talking cliché of corporate villainy. He's got the evil goatee, the shady deals, the tendency to monologue. Frankly, it's almost too easy to annoy him. Almost. But this isn't just about annoyance anymore. This is about making him paranoid. About making him doubt his sanity. About turning his perfectly ordered, corrupt little world into a feathered, clucking nightmare. Because nothing unravels a bad guy faster than convincing him he's losing his mind. Trust me, I speak from experience. My own, usually."
The "Poultry Phantom" campaign escalated with delightful precision. Alex wasn't just leaving rubber chickens anymore. He was using his "Media Manipulation (Minor)" skill to plant ludicrous "sightings" of a "chicken-themed vigilante" online. Anonymous posts on obscure forums, a grainy, doctored photo of a shadowy figure in a chicken mask lurking near Stark Industries, even a fake eyewitness account from a "confused security guard" talking about unexplained clucking noises in the ventilation system. The stories were silly, outlandish, but just persistent enough to gain a tiny, absurd traction. The media, ever hungry for clickbait, ran with the more bizarre angles, albeit with a healthy dose of skepticism.
"Alright, Stane, let's see you explain this one to your board. 'Yes, gentlemen, our stock is down, and our security is compromised, but it's not terrorists. It's… a chicken. A really, really determined chicken.' Priceless. Absolutely priceless."
Meanwhile, Alex was busy with the more tangible side of his mischief. His apartment became a makeshift command center, filled with the soft glow of multiple monitors. His "Basic Hacking Intuition" was improving rapidly, like a muscle being vigorously exercised. He wasn't breaking into top-tier firewalls yet, but he was exploiting overlooked vulnerabilities, using social engineering on unsuspecting employees, and harvesting low-level data. He learned that a lot of corporate security was built on complacency and the assumption that no one would bother with the mundane. He bothered. Oh, how he bothered.
He started by looking into Stane's personal accounts, not for money, but for patterns, for habits. He found his favorite coffee shop, his preferred car service, the times he usually worked late. Then, the truly annoying stuff began.
One morning, Stane's high-tech car, programmed to play his preferred classical music, suddenly started blaring nothing but loud, obnoxious chicken clucking sounds from the moment he started the engine until he shut it off. It was a simple hack, exploiting a minor flaw in the car's Bluetooth system, but the effect was glorious. Stane, from what Alex observed through news reports and a carefully placed, anonymously sourced "leak," was seen yelling at his driver, demanding to know what was wrong with the car.
Later that week, Stane found a single, real, perfectly cooked (and now cold) rotisserie chicken placed delicately on his desk, right on top of a confidential report. There were no cameras in that specific corner of his office, and the security logs showed no unauthorized entry. It was an impossible act. Alex had managed it by sending an anonymous "delivery" to an unsuspecting junior assistant, claiming it was for a "special internal event," and then using his "Situational Awareness" and "Scavenger's Ingenuity" to navigate the building and place it himself during a momentary distraction.
Stane's reactions became increasingly unhinged. He started snapping at his assistants, accusing his trusted security chief of incompetence, even bringing in a "psychic consultant" (who Alex had actually found online and anonymously recommended to Stane's secretary, purely for the extra chaos points). The news outlets, picking up on the absurd rumors, started running headlines like "Stark Industries Boss Battling Phantom Fowl?" and "Is Obadiah Stane Losing His Cluck?" His stock began to waver, just slightly, fueled by the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.
"Oh, the beautiful, beautiful paranoia. It's a symphony of chaos, and I'm the maestro. Look at him, pacing his office, probably wondering if the chickens are secretly ninjas. This is what I live for. This is my purpose. Turning the mundane into the utterly baffling, and watching the powerful squirm."
Alex wasn't just causing annoyance; he was strategically unraveling Stane's composure, making him impulsive, distracting him. The more paranoid Stane became, the more mistakes he would make, and the more opportunities Alex would have to truly dig into his illicit activities. The network infiltration continued, slowly, carefully, building a comprehensive picture of Stane's shady dealings. He wasn't after the Arc Reactor schematics yet, but he was finding enough evidence of corporate malfeasance to make Stane sweat.
As the sun set over Los Angeles, casting the city in long, golden shadows, Alex sat in his dingy apartment, a satisfied smirk on his face. He pulled up a news report: "Obadiah Stane demands full audit of Stark Industries 'poultry problem.'" The headline was glorious.
[Mischief Target: Obadiah Stane | Annoyance Level: Volcanic - Escalating Paranoia, Public Embarrassment, Questioning Sanity.]
[Mischief Target: Stark Industries Security | Annoyance Level: Critical - Internal Chaos and Disarray.]
[Calculating Rewards...]
[Reward Acquired: 90 Mischief Points]
[Skill Upgrade: D-Rank - "Media Manipulation (Minor)" merged with "Basic Hacking Intuition" to become C-Rank - "Digital Disruption (Subtle)"]
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked: "The Original Poultry Phantom"]
[New Plot Alert: The Iron Man Awakens. Opportunity for high-level technological mischief and direct intervention.]