“The power of an entire universe in the palm of my hand.”
Abe Jenkins cupped the small cube in his right hand, bathing in its radiance. An entire galaxy of stars circled within the otherwise translucent cube and a nearly silent hum of power encapsulated him. This object was a very rare item that few men had ever held steadily in their grasp. Warlords had sought to control it, conquerors had been driven mad by it, and servants had been granted power by it.
How Justin Hammer had come into possession of a cosmic cube, Abe didn’t know. What he did know was that Hammer had entrusted him with learning the cube’s secrets. Building off the research of Ivan Kragoff, the traitorous Red Ghost, Abe was nearly ready to test several of his theories at once.
In one of the sublevels of Hammer Industries, the room formally occupied by the Red Ghost and his brazen simians, was now a retrofitted lab designed by Abe. Any piece of equipment he desired, no matter its rarity, was his for the asking. Having worked for Hammer before, he was sure of the methods used to acquire some of the treasures.
Holding the cosmic cube and loosing himself in its void, Abe found himself imagining what it would be like to take the power of the cube for himself. It hadn’t been that long ago that he was known as the Beetle, a villain that had taken down the likes of the Avengers. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to finish his project using Hammer’s resources and then simply walk away, a god amongst men.
But that had been Kragoff’s mistake. He had assumed that Hammer wasn’t watching closely and that he was free to double-cross the ruthless businessman at his leisure. Abe’s position in the company, at the behest of James Rhodes and Mainframe, was already a fraud. Every second longer that Hammer allowed him to breathe was another second he was thankful for. Abe knew what Hammer did with turncoats and spies. He had no idea if Hammer was holding a wild card over him, but he wouldn’t surprised.
Until Abe could discern just what information Hammer had stolen from Stark/Fujikawa, Inc., and what the billionaire’s connection was to a project codenamed “rebel,” he was stuck. There was also the question of the gauntlet that Abe had stumbled across on the twentieth floor two weeks ago while he was searching for Pepper Potts. The more he tried to established links the less sense it all made.
On one hand, Abe’s new life as Iron Man had been a turning point. On the other hand, literally, was the power to change his life all over again.
Abe sighed and slipped the cosmic cube into a converter box he had finished building earlier that morning. With a little luck, he would be able to accurately measure how much power he could siphon directly from the cube without risking a meltdown of his equipment. Hammer had set deadlines for his research and he was determined to meet them.
Wishful thinking aside, he never thought he would see the day when he actually wanted to be in the warehouse with a jabbering artificial intelligence based on Tony Stark’s brain patterns instead of where he was.
MARVEL REBORN PRESENTS...
Iron Man
#11
by D. Golightly
“Unacceptable!”
The accented English of the aged, bald man sitting behind Rhode’s desk added a certain punch to the word. Kenjiro Fujikawa, Rumiko’s father and current CEO of their company, had only arrived a few hours ago and already he was disgusted with what he had seen. After a brief tour of Stark Tower and a rundown of operations, Kenjiro had taken over Rhodes’ office and continued to berate them.
“Father,” Rumiko said humbly with a slight bow. “It is not my wish to upset you. Please, the cancer-”
“I am no weaker than I was in my youth,” Kenjiro quickly said. “I was not satisfied by the reports you faxed me on my yacht, and I am not satisfied with the report you give me now. This company is falling apart under your care! And you, James Rhodes, have shown me no reason not to fire you immediately.”
A few feet behind Rumiko was where Rhodes had chosen to stand. It was irritating enough that the old man’s bodyguards had frisked him much longer than any other, a slight to Kenjiro’s mistrust, but now he was being scolded in his own office. It was infuriating, but his temper was in check.
“Forgive me, Mr. Fujikawa,” Rhodes replied, “but I’m not following what’s happening here. The company has shown an increase in profits over the last year and the expansion project in Madripoor is already showing results beyond our projections. What’s unacceptable here is your attitude.”
“Insolence does not become you. The acquisition of Stark’s company and the subsequent merger was intended to bolster our operations in Japan. It has not. I hold you and my daughter directly responsible for this failure.”
“Failure?” Rumiko blurted out with astonishment. “Sitting halfway across the world does not give you the right to-”
With a wave of his hand Kenjiro silenced his daughter. The tension between them was thick enough for Rhodes to feel and he doubted there was anything he could say to alleviate it. A man like Kenjiro was stubborn, too stubborn to make any headway in a situation like this. He had already made up his mind about being angry and nothing Rhodes could say would change that.
However, if not for the promise he made to himself about securing Tony Stark’s legacy through the company, Rhodes would have quit a long time ago. He had fought his way into the vice president seat and he wasn’t going to let Kenjiro Fujikawa take that away from him.
An eternity of silence passed and Rumiko finally swallowed her rage and bowed to her father. She curtly left the office, and even though she walked like a woman in charge, Rhodes knew that Kenjiro had broken her. To save face Rumiko had maintained her air of authority, but it was only a mask.
After she left, Kenjiro set his stare on Rhodes once more. “I will be sending you to Madripoor as soon as I deem affairs here in order. You will finish the expansion project there immediately and then I will decide your fate with this company.”
“I’m better suited here in New York,” Rhodes said. “My connections are here, I’m intimate with the daily operations, the staff…everything.”
“This branch may no longer be a viable option for Stark/Fujikawa.”
Rhodes couldn’t help himself; his mouth dropped open.
“Stark Tower is too much of a target,” Kenjiro continued. “Both from the media and superpowered terrorists, not to mention SHIELD. This new Iron Man that my daughter has been unable to unmask is a loose cannon. The exposure for the company is becoming too big of a risk and losses may need to be cut. For now this is not your concern. The judgment rests solely on my shoulders. You are dismissed.”
Sent away from his own office, Rhodes was too stunned to come up with a reply.
====================
“How did this morning’s tests go?” Justin Hammer inquired.
Abe slipped a plain manila folder across the billionaire’s desk. “Very promising,” he answered. “It seems that Kragoff was on the right track. Once I incorporated better interface algorithms it was just a matter of gauging how much power I could get out of the damn thing.”
“And Kragoff’s method of boosting that power will ensure that there is no limit put on the energy. Very good, Abner. This pleases me.”
Abe’s stomach nearly flopped over from the sheer acidity of Hammer’s words. He sounded more like a lizard than a human being, a lizard that would eat its own family.
“It seems time to put our little toy to the test,” Hammer said. “That will be all, Abner.”
Abe cleared his throat. “Excuse me, sir. But since I’ve been such a big help with this project I’d say I earned a peak at what’s going on.”
“Is that right?” a new voice said from behind Abe.
Abe had been so focused on Hammer that he hadn’t heard the door to the office open. A slender woman stepped in wearing a bright red blazer and matching skirt. Her dark hair was splashed across her shoulders like the wind had put it there on purpose; a trendy style that most Hollywood actresses paid thousands for.
“What’s the matter, Abe?” she said. “Beetle got your tongue?”
The woman’s name was Leila Davis, but Abe knew her better as Hardshell. The wife of former criminal Anthony Davis, known as The Ringer, Leila blamed Abe for Anthony’s death. It was a twisted series of events that Abe couldn’t exactly call his shining moment in life.
Since her husband’s death Leila had wanted Abe’s head on a platter. With her in Hammer’s company, no matter the capacity, it did not spell out something beneficial to Abe.
“Leila,” Abe said as he nodded.
“No heartfelt greetings and salutations? I’m hurt, Abe.”
Leila stepped behind the large desk and wrapped an arm around Hammer’s shoulders. She placed one hand on his lapel and the other on his head, moving her fingers through his thinning hair.
“Ms. Davis has taken up my offer as of yesterday,” Hammer said. “I enticed her with your presence. I hope you don’t mind, Abner.”
And yet again, Abe’s stomach flipped over. Hammer was not one to get his hands dirty directly. If he was getting ready to push Abe to the side he would have someone else do it. Abe expected that, of course, but he assumed that the hired thug Blacklash would be the one sent after him. He never dreamed that Hammer would actually go looking for someone with a grudge against him.
“Not at all,” Abe said. Alarms were going off in his brain telling him to get out, but he couldn’t. Not yet. “It’s just a shame that her husband couldn’t be here to lend a hand.”
Leila’s spiteful expression turned to fury in an instant. She pulled away from Hammer and flashed her teeth at Abe like an animal that was about to hunt.
Hammer placed his hand on her shoulder, saying, “Leila, take Abner’s report and input the data. Initiate the boot up sequence and prepare for the first phase. Have Blacklash at his mark immediately. No mistakes.”
Leila scowled but did as she was told. She snatched the folder with Abe’s collected data and stormed back out of the office. Abe watched her leave, making sure to never show his back to her.
“I wonder if that was wise, Abner,” Hammer said after the door closed. “She obviously still holds you responsible for the death of her husband at the hands of Scourge. I would tread carefully if I were you.”
“What the hell is she doing here?”
Hammer smiled. “You say you want a peak at what I’m up to? Very well.”
After tapping a few keys on the desk, a screen popped up and displayed an image that looked vaguely familiar to Abe. Schematics for armor very similar to his own ran through the screen, although they had some very specific differentials from the armor that Abe wore as Iron Man. It were based on Stark technology but had very obviously been altered somehow.
“I don’t understand,” Abe said.
“I had some of my men reverse engineer this from a partial schematic I received recently. Originally I had only the design specifications for a sonic weapon, hidden here, in the right gauntlet. By piecing together what I know of Iron Man technology, I was able to have a full suit constructed.”
The gauntlet that Abe remembered seeing matched what he saw now on the screen. Hammer had finally succeeded in creating his own knock-off Iron Man armor.
“Amazing,” Abe said sincerely.
“Apparently Rumiko Fujikawa was heading up a secret project known as ‘rebel’ that was along the same lines. I assume she called it that because of the purpose of the armor.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”
“Tony Stark, with his usual limited vision, only designed the Iron Man armor as a defensive measure. His beloved repulsor rays and various gadgets were rarely lethal. This design is the exact opposite.”
“It’s offensive? You mean it’s meant specifically to kill.”
“Precisely,” Hammer said. “I heard rumors that the War Machine configuration that Stark made was fairly lethal, but nothing like this. The sonic disrupter alone could wipe out an entire building. And I plan on doing exactly that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Leila is on her way to use your data to incorporate my cosmic cube into the armor. Once the cosmic cube is in place as a power source, I’ll use the armor to destroy Stark Tower.”
Abe faked a smile. “Can’t kill Stark so you kill his people, huh? Not bad, Hammer.”
“Oh, it’s so much more than that, Abner. With luck, this will reveal all my enemies. Which reminds me, I want you to return to your lab and monitor the cube from there. You’ll find your sensors have been adjusted. I would have told you…but, well, I doubted that I could trust you.”
“And you can now?”
“That is why Ms. Davis is with us.”
====================
“Mainframe? Mainframe! Come online, you worthless-”
“Yes, Abner, there is no need for name calling.”
The floating head that was the digital representation of Mainframe, an artificial intelligence that was based on Tony Stark, appeared on the computer screen at Abe’s main work desk in his lab. Modeled after the unique look of an Iron Man helmet, Mainframe had taken on many of the personality traits of the man he was based on.
Abe sighed once he saw the image. “Finally! Look, I need you to operate the monitoring equipment so it looks like I’m still in the lab. Hammer has his own armor and it’s heading for Stark Tower. Find it’s operating system; I’m sure Hammer has it jacked in. I have to armor up and get out of here.”
“Hacking the Hammer Industries neural network is simple enough. If I download a counter-virus to-”
“No time. Just do it.”
“Abner, what I am telling you is that my resources will be taken up mostly to hide from detection and scour the neural network for this armor’s operating system. I will not be able to help you as per usual if I do this.”
“I’ll risk it. Stark Tower is going to be turned to mush along with everyone inside unless I get moving.”
Without waiting for a response, Abe exited the lab. He stormed down through the hallway, which was empty except for the cameras that Hammer was sure to have stationed around every corner. He wasn’t worried about being seen, though. Mainframe’s processor was fast enough to ensure that Hammer’s cameras would see nothing but empty hallways.
Running up to the next floor, Abe slipped out of the side exit and made sure no one was outside. He came out by the dumpster that he had smashed into not long ago in order to throw off suspicion of his being Iron Man. He had purposely broken his arm that day, an act he hoped he wouldn’t have to duplicate in order to save his neck from Hammer.
He trotted down the alley and to the busy street to the back of Hammer’s business. A loud noise came from overhead and he looked up to see twin streams of smoke trail out from the roof, at the forefront of which was a gleaming metal man. Hammer’s armor, heading straight for Stark Tower in order to kill everyone there.
Abe crossed the busy street, barely making it through the traffic without getting hit. A cabbie blared his horn and extended the typical New York City greeting. Ignoring the gesture, Abe ducked into an alley and ran the length of it as fast as he could. He pressed a button on his watch and signaled a specially designed hatch to open that was disguised as another dumpster.
The sides swung open to reveal a gleaming set of red and gold armor with its back to him. He stepped into the now open and mostly hollow dumpster and tossed his sports coat on the ground. He carefully stepped into the armor, allowing its pieces to slide over him. Within a few moments he had become the reborn hero Iron Man.
Rhodes had originally suggested placing the armor nearby in case he needed to get to it while he worked for Hammer. It was risky, leaving it out in the open like this, but the fake dumpster had proven an effective hiding place. With a station charger inside the dumpster the armor was always at full power and ready to go.
Iron Man stepped back out of the shallow cage and looked skyward. After adjusting his gyroscopes to his position, Iron Man kicked off the ground and ignited his boot jets. The anti-gravity generator that Mainframe had “lost” within Stark/Fujikawa shipping manifests switched on and helped propel Iron Man into the air.
His HUD displayed a guiding trail where Hammer’s armor had taken off. He extended his arms and followed it, heading straight toward Stark Tower.
“I better get a ‘good job’ for this one,” Abe muttered from within the helmet.
A red and silver figure popped up in Iron Man’s display. By augmenting the image in his visor, Iron Man zoomed in to get a closer look at the armor. It was very similar to something that Stark would have designed, but the center uni-beam lens was missing. A few stray wires hung off of the left shoulder and the boots looked like they had been slapped together by hand instead of by automation.
He charged his repulsors and took aim. Stark Tower was only a few blocks away. As his systems locked on to his target, the ‘rebel armor’ came up short in his flight and turned to face Iron Man. Shocked at the sudden detection, Iron Man duplicated the maneuver but kept his repulsors trained.
“So who did Hammer con into putting that tin suit on?” Iron Man said.
The pilot inside the armor did not respond. It simply floated in place, staring at Iron Man. The targeting computer did not waver within Iron Man’s visor, but he held his attack back. He needed more information before he blew the thing up. So far he was stalling it from attacking innocent people at Stark Tower, which was the only goal he had thought of so far.
“If I had to guess, I’d-”
“Be wrong!”
The voice came from his left, as did the armored body that crashed into him, performing a tackle in midair. Iron Man went spinning head over heels with the new mystery person, although a quick elbow to the lower back of his opponent dislodged them.
Iron Man swung out and away from whoever had attacked him. The hovering rebel armor sat waiting and watching. Iron Man swung his gaze to see the red and black armored form of Hardshell charging the energy disrupters in her gauntlets.
“Oh, this is just perfect,” he said as he dodged the oncoming attack.
“Hammer never misses a trick,” Hardshell said over the barrage of fire she was laying down. “He said you’d show up and here you are. Hell, we didn’t even make it halfway across the city.”
“I smelled the setup,” Iron Man replied, “but I didn’t expect stink like this.”
Hardshell chased him below the oddly dormant rebel armor to only a few dozen yards above street level. Iron Man had become accustomed to the smooth descents of the armor, and he was sure that Hardshell would have no trouble following him. Leila Davis had spent a lot of time practicing for revenge and knew her armor as well as Abe knew his own. He wouldn’t be able to out fly her.
He scraped by the edge of a building and rounded the turn. He flipped over and flew backwards, unleashing a volley of repulsor rays at Hardshell as she followed. One struck her in the shoulder but she dived out of the way of the others.
She returned fire but missed Iron Man with a few wide shots. Her attacks were random and unfocused, and he doubted that she was bothering to use her targeting systems. He had never known Leila to be especially patient enough to use a tool like that. She was much more upfront and her irrational behavior in battle had gotten the best of her before.
Iron Man rounded the other edge of the building, circling the structure. Hardshell followed, only this time she maintained her depth to his altitude. He couldn’t fire downward like that without risking damage to bystanders. She had no problem about firing up at him, however. Bolt after bolt wildly flung by him, forcing him to climb.
When he reached the skyline he caught a glimpse of Blacklash’s purple cape before the villain’s signature whip wrapped around his ankle. Blacklash, who had been hiding in position on the rooftop, sent stabs of electricity down through the whip coil and into Iron Man.
Several alarms began to scream at him, pointing out that his navigation unit had just gone offline. He thanked a higher power that it wasn’t something more dire and was glad that the insulation under the armor plating had just saved his life.
“How’s it going, Iron Jerk,” Blacklash said as he pulled out a second whip from behind his back. “Took me a second to get in place. Good thing you let Hardshell there push you around like that.”
Iron Man struggled to wiggle his foot free, but it was no use. Blacklash threw the end of his other whip into the air and yanked down hard, slashing it across the front of Iron Man’s body. The whip cut into his armor slightly, but still no serious damage was done. That didn’t mean that a few more lashes wouldn’t do the trick, though.
“This is going to hurt,” Iron Man said.
He blasted his own foot with a repulsor ray and cried out from the pain. His ankle felt like it had just been sprained from the concussive force, but the whip dislodged and fell away.
White light enveloped him and then knocked him down onto the roof. Hardshell flew over his head, saying, “Thanks for the assist, Blacklash.”
“If anyone is doing the assisting here, it’s you,” the caped villain shot back.
Smoke smoldered off of Iron Man as he picked himself up off the rooftop. Balcklash was swinging his whips rhythmically, ready to strike like a serpent. Hardshell hovered down behind him, her gauntlets charged and ready to fire. He weighed his options. They weren’t good.
A piercing scream erupted from the rebel armor, which was still floating over the city. It quickly died away, but all three costumed supers were transfixed by it.
“Got him!” Hardshell said.
“Him?” Had Iron Man not been wearing a faceplate, the confusion would have been shown.
“Your little partner that’s been hacking Hammer’s network,” Blacklash responded. “You didn’t think this was all about you, did you?”
The rebel armor moved its arms in front of its face as if seeing them for the first time. Its head tilted to look over its body and then its gaze fell onto Iron Man.
“What is happening?” it said.
Abe recognized the voice. It belonged to the artificial intelligence that had been fundamental in his missions. Unless he was misreading the situation, things had just done from bad to insanely worse.
Mainframe had just been forced to download into the rebel armor, although for what reason Iron Man couldn’t determine.
“What’s happening is you just joined our side,” Blacklash said. “Say bye-bye to your friend.”
The rebel armor, housing the core consciousness of Mainframe, bucked again and screeched. As before, the piercing noise only lasted a second and then ceased, leaving a deafening silence.
“What did you do to him?” Iron Man demanded.
“Hammer just rewrote his programming, and guess what his primary function is?” Hardshell answered.
“I am Daedalus,” the voice coming from the rebel armor said. “Activating sonic disrupter. Targeting.”
Another alarm flashed onto Iron Man’s display, informing him that he had just been targeted by the rogue armor. If what Hammer had told him about that weapon was true, then not only would his insides be liquefied, but the entire top half of the building would be blown away.
Iron Man swore, and then the sky exploded.
==========================
NEXT ISSUE: How can Iron Man possibly survive? We’re not sure, so IRON MAN #12 might be the final issue!