“So…how do you think it went?”
A man of medium build, yet excellent physical condition, sat before a row of enormous computer banks, his feet lazily perched on top of the console. His dark hair was barely visible against the dim lighting of the large warehouse and his features were chiseled, easily noticeable with his clean-shaven face. The vast computer array before him displayed streaming data of all sorts, ranging from weather conditions to seismic tremors. Fixed on the center screen was a floating head, stoic in its own features and placed against a black and green background.
“You are referring to yesterday’s inaugural debut?” the floating head asked the man.
“Yeah, what do you think? Did we make an impression? Turn any heads? I mean, we got everyone’s attention, right?”
“Undoubtedly.” The head represented an intricate computer matrix with it’s own artificial intelligence, however, for as complex as it was it rarely displayed emotion. “I have been monitoring media networks since the event. There do not seem to be any indications that the whereabouts of the Beetle or Iron Man are known.”
“Perfect.”
MARVEL REBORN PRESENTS
The Iron Mask
Part Two of Three
Written by D.
Golightly
“We’ve got questions of our own,” James Rhodes said casually to the head of SHIELD, Nick Fury. “In fact, you were on the top of my list of people to call.”
“Mine as well,” Rumiko Fujikawa stated harshly. “What are you doing here, Fury?”
The legendary war hero that was now in charge of the world’s foremost privately sponsored superteam straightened his tie and shut the door behind him. Rumiko’s office was simple, only housing things of function. The room was large and impressive, as the president of a major corporation is privy to, but Fury closed the gap between them with only a few strides. His jet-black hair had traces of gray streaked throughout but his real age was hard to guess from appearance alone. He looked only a few years older than Rhodes when in fact he could easily be his grandfather, thanks in no small part to the Infinity Formula.
“Looking for answers,” Fury replied sternly, his cigar mashed between his teeth. “Some fruitcake looking like Iron Man stops an assassination attempt on the governor yesterday and disappears without a trace. I’ve had my boys looking into things but I figured why not ask the devil’s advocate herself?”
Rumiko crossed her arms over her chest, obviously irritated at the war hero’s comments. They had clashed several times over the last few months, mostly on Fury’s authorization to access Stark/Fujikawa, Inc.’s secure network databases that housed their research and development. Even though Tony Stark was dead his company still flourished as one of the top weapons and electronics designers in the world.
“Cut the crap,” Rumiko blurted out. “More than likely you’re here to throw us off about your own involvement.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Fury replied defensively.
“Under your guidance,” Pepper Potts chimed in before Rumiko or Rhodes could respond, “SHIELD has been turned from a global police organization to little more than a pack of mercenaries. You’ve lied to the general public, lied to the White House, and lied to us. Don’t bother refuting it, Colonel, we’ve done our homework. The simple fact that you have someone dressed up as Thor on your payroll casts a watchful eye on you over the matter of an Iron Man impersonator.”
“I’d be careful of the accusations you’re throwing around like water balloons, young lady,” Fury advised. The starch demeanor he held in place since entering the office suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a tiny smirk, as if his entire personality had just shifted from a dictator to the high school football captain. “You’ve done your homework, have you?”
Pepper nodded. As the company’s head of public relations she made it her business to know about every outside force that had something remotely to do with Stark/Fujikawa. Once she had been a wallflower, even bashful at times…but since the Heroes all passed the world had changed dramatically. She couldn’t afford to let someone get the better of her anymore.
Fury cleared his throat and continued. “Then you’ll know that SHIELD has done theirs, too. In fact, you might call this little visit a pop quiz. Mister Rhodes…where were you yesterday when Iron Man showed up on the grid?”
“I…what?” was all Rhodes could say back.
“What are you implying, Fury?” Rumiko demanded. Her attitude at the Colonel’s involvement was going downhill fast.
Fury pulled the chewed cigar out of his mouth and rolled it around between his fingers, the smirk on his face enlarging. “Just that our friend Rhodey here isn’t exactly a novice when it comes to piloting one of your mechanical tuxedoes. So, where were you?”
“In my office, catching up on paperwork like everyone else around here. We run a business, Fury, not a personal attack force like you.”
“Can anyone verify that?”
“Does anyone need to?” Rumiko asked, her eyebrows raising slightly as she spoke. “Do you have any evidence that someone from this company was involved in what happened yesterday?”
“Just call me skeptical,” Fury answered. The war hero placed the cigar nub back in his mouth and turned to leave, apparently satisfied that he wouldn’t get any solid information out of the three Stark/Fujikawa employees. He opened the door and turned back to face them before leaving. “There’s a warrant out for the arrest of whoever was inside that tin can yesterday. I don’t need to tell you that harboring a wanted man is like signing a warrant for yourself.”
Fury exited the room and closed the door behind him, placing a barrier between the back of his head and Rumiko Fujikawa’s anger-filled eyes
“Things just aren’t adding up,” Pepper informed her husband, Harold Joseph “Happy” Hogan. “I mean, just take a look at this.”
Happy leaned over his wife’s shoulder to get a better look at the screen. After the meeting with Fury she had bumped into him in the hallway, a pleasant surprise that was a welcomed relief from the intensity of the morning. Happy had once worked for Tony Stark personally as his chauffer and assistant, but after Onslaught, Happy had refused to work for the Fujikawas. They argued periodically over Pepper’s role within the company but in his heart Happy knew his wife was only staying on to make sure Tony’s hard work wouldn’t be misused. The couple had gone through rough patches throughout the years, even citing a divorce, but eventually they always reconciled.
Happy wanted to take her out to lunch but given the current crisis concerning someone masquerading as a dead hero that had a deep history with the company, she had to decline. She hated to blow him off but there really were more important things to take are of. As soon as the meeting with Fury had ended she wanted to turn everything upside down and investigate under every rock, beginning with general documentation. Happy had waited patiently with her in her office while she typed away at the keyboard, just now apparently finding some useful information.
The screen showed various data in the form of streaming numbers, numbers that had very little meaning to Happy. “I’ll need a calculator to take a look at this. What exactly is it?” he asked.
“Strangely enough, shipping manifests,” Pepper replied. “Apparently over the last six months several shipments have been delayed going to and from this building.”
“So? Someone down on the dock must have fudged the reports to make up for something he did. It happens. All the shipments got to where they were going, right?”
“Yeah,” she answered, her voice dropping off as she pondered the situation. “But the problem is why were they delayed in the first place? The equipment that was being transported wasn’t staplers and paper clips, either. In every case the shipment in question contained sensitive and secret projects from our R&D department.”
“That’s a red flag if I ever saw one,” Happy responded. The muscular build he had as a former boxer still held strong, towering over Pepper sitting in front of him. “Any idea who was responsible?”
“Actually…yes. Jim.”
Happy raised an eyebrow at his wife. “Rhodey? C’mon, he knows better than to mess around. What reason would he have for messing with project shipments?”
“I know, I know. But each shipment manifest was accessed with the same security code, a code that only two people knew about: James Rhodes and Tony Stark. When Tony gave up being Iron Man years ago and passed the armor on to Jim he created the code in case of emergencies for whenever one of them needed access to something quickly. After Tony died we had his encrypted files cracked and that’s how I know about it.”
“But why would Rhodey keep everyone in the dark?” Happy asked, confusion showing in his voice and on his face. “I mean, that’s not like him at all.”
“The weird thing is Fury just accused him of having something to do with this impostor,” Pepper commented. She scrolled down through the numbers on the computer screen for the third time, shaking her head. “I’ll have to check these dates against some other things. I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure all these projects are ones that Jim signed off on. Like this one, the Mark IV Anti-Grav unit.”
“That would come in handy for making a new tin suit,” Happy replied. “You know, Pepper…what if it’s not Rhodey at all? What if it’s Tony?”
Pepper spun around in her chair, fixing her best stare on her husband. “What are you saying?”
“Well, this is a world where people coming back from the dead isn’t all that crazy. We’re both on a first name basis with guys that can crush a car with their bare hands. You said yourself that the only people who knew that code were Jim and Tony. If it wasn’t one then it could be the other, right?”
“Maybe,” Pepper admitted. “But it could just as easily be one of Tony’s enemies. He had quite a long list. It wouldn’t be the first time a bad guy went this far to grab at some weird concept of revenge.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the intercom in her desk suddenly buzzing to life. Rumiko’s voice squawked over the small speaker, a slight electronic tingle added to her words. “Pepper!” the intercom spat out. “Stop whatever you’re doing and flip on Channel Four. I can’t get a hold of Rhodes…he said something about locating some footage.”
“What’s going on?” Pepper asked the intercom.
“Our mystery Iron Man is giving a press conference!”
Flashbulbs flickered constantly, immortalizing the red and gold armored figure floating above Times Square. Several of the biggest media corporations in the city had received an anonymous call telling them that Iron Man would shortly be appearing over the famous town center to give an address. They had all hung up on whoever it was assuming it was a prank call. Apparently, it hadn’t been, which they all soon realized after getting reports of the armored avenger silently waiting.
News choppers circled overhead but so far Iron Man hadn’t done anything more than hover in one place. Reporters yelled up questions but he gave them no response. Slowly but surely the various news outlets in the city all gathered underneath, eagerly waiting for something to happen.
Finally, once Iron Man had accounted for every major news agency, he lowered himself to just a dozen feet over the street and switched on his voice amplifier. He wanted to make sure the entire world heard him.
“Good afternoon,” Iron Man said casually. “I’m sure you all have tons of questions that need answered and I promise I’ll get to those eventually. I realize that the altercation with the governor yesterday frightened a lot of people and even raised suspicions in others. Please believe me when I tell you that you have nothing to fear.”
The crowd remained silent, save for their quiet murmuring and camera clicking. They weren’t so much stunned as they were captivated. Iron Man remained hovering, almost as if he was hesitating while he gathered his thoughts.
“This city lost many of its protectors when the horrific monster Onslaught struck,” Iron Man continued. “But we moved on. Even though some of the world’s greatest heroes were stolen from us the spark of hope was still there. We pulled together and did what we needed to do. Well, I’m here to do that, too. I’m a lot like you: scarred and worried about the state of the world. However, I’m not going to let that hold me down.
“I know that there are skeptics who think I’m a fake, a fraud, a charlatan. I don’t blame them. You’ve all been deceived so many times by would-be conquerors and crackpot supervillains. Yesterday I saved lives by doing what a hero does: the right thing. Yesterday I wasn’t prepared to unveil myself but I did so anyway because there were lives at stake. I apologize for not sticking around afterwards and answering your questions then but I wasn’t ready to face you, the people. I’m sorry for any shock I may have caused but I am here now and I’m here to stay.
“Here, in this court of public opinion, I promise to stand where others have fallen. I promise to be a champion of the just and serve the public interest. I promise that you can depend on me. I promise that one of your Heroes has returned.”
Iron Man empathized the last sentence by stretching his left arm out over the crowd. The reporters and various bystanders that had run over to see the mystery hero slowly began to cheer. At first it was just a few stray clapping noises spread throughout the audience but soon it grew to an uproar of cheering applause. Inside the armor sweat had been building on his brow. He wasn’t sure how they would react but he was relieved to see that they had accepted him so far. He was asking a lot out of them. Trust was something most people had to earn, but the image of him, the guise he was under and the memories it brought out seemed to make up for everything.
The people wanted their Hero back and he was more than willing to make that happen.
Maybe their hope had been floundering and they found themselves desperate for a savior, or maybe they just wanted something tangible to believe in again. Maybe they wanted to feel like they used to every time they saw a man draping himself in the nation’s flag or another man raising a symbolic hammer. Maybe it was just a matter of timing.
Iron Man lowered his arm and began to rise back up into the air, slowly and deliberately. He didn’t want to leave them but he felt it unwise to remain any longer than necessary. He needed to stick to the plan that had been so carefully devised, otherwise…well, he wasn’t really sure what would happen. He just knew he had to follow his instructions.
The crowd collectively noticed that he was preparing to leave and they called out for him to stay. They had so many questions, so many inquiries. The news helicopters circling overhead came as close as they dared to get the best shot possible for their live feeds. The reporters and camera crews on the street swarmed under him.
Suddenly, one of the helicopters burst into flames, it’s back rotor separating completely in an explosion. Iron Man flinched in midair and shifted a few feet to one side, angling his head to get a better look.
“Mainframe?” Iron Man quietly asked aloud. “How…what’s going on?” The confidence he had moments before during his speech had all but disappeared.
Sensors flared to life on the inside of his helmet, information scrolling across his heads-up display almost faster than he could analyze it. In his right ear an electronic voice chirped to life to answer his question.
“The combustion of that aircraft was caused by an external source,” the voice, Mainframe, replied. “Sensors are tracking the trajectory of the attack based on—”
“Damn it,” Iron Man cut in, “I don’t care what it’s based on, just find it!”
Equations and graphs suddenly sprung to life on Iron Man’s display, directing his attention to a certain part of the open sky. While the onboard computer superimposed an outline of the apparent path the attack had come from, Iron Man ignited his boot jets and launched himself toward the falling helicopter.
Small chunks of flaming debris fell to the ground while Iron Man hit the chopper head on, grasping the bottom of the hull with his gauntlets. The armor provided him with the strength necessary to hold the enormous craft as he did he best to lower it down gently. The crowd underneath him cleared out as soon as they realized what was happening, giving him the space to set the craft down with a resounding, metallic thud.
“Now,” Iron Man whispered, “tell me where to find who the hell did that?”
“Target acquired.”
Iron Man tilted his head to bring his vision into place with where the display indicators told him to look for the source of trouble. Standing on top of the massive electronic billboard in the center of Times Square with his arms crossed over his chest was a robed man with a long, thin face and facial hair to match. His skin looked old but his features were young and his posture deemed him a man of fortitude. Even from the where Iron Man now stood on the ground he could make out the shimmering rings adorning his ten fingers.
“Shit.”
“It would seem the Mandarin would like a word with you.”
Iron Man charged his repulsors, spilling energy out from between his clenched fingers. “Did you do this? Did you set this up?”
“No, I am afraid not,” Mainframe replied, somehow conveying irritation even though it was just a computer program. “Be on your guard. The Mandarin is one of the—”
“I got it,” Iron Man blurted out. “Damn it. We wouldn’t have had to pull off yesterday if we knew this jerk was going to be in town.”
“It was probably yesterday’s events that brought him out.”
Iron Man ignored the program and activated his anti-gravity engine and boot jets, sending him rocketing into the air toward the Mandarin. The Chinese mongrel levitated in response, his face contorting with bottled rage. Iron Man raised his opened fists and fired off a volley of repulsor rays, blanketing the entire top of the billboard in concussive force. The Mandarin raised a hand and simply brushed the attack aside with the power of one of his rings.
“I thought I had lost my chance destroy you,” the Mandarin screamed. “Whoever you are, know this: I care not for your reasons or your identity. The one who wore that suit before you was destined to die by my hands and that right was taken from me by an obscenity of nature! You shall fulfill that requirement!”
Another ring began to glow with sudden life as the Mandarin pointed it at Iron Man. Alarms blared on his display as a powerful energy signature was registered emitting from the ring although he didn’t need a computer to tell him what was coming. The Mandarin’s powers were widely known, his ten rings of power well documented from his many public battles. The ring was situated on his right index finger – the disintegration beam.
“Can’t we talk about this?” Iron Man meekly asked as he spun to the left and somersaulted forward in the air. “Man to psycho?”
The Mandarin replied by unleashing the ring’s specific power, barely missing the armored avenger thanks to his evasive maneuvering. The beam struck a street lamp, instantly turning it from a solid steel post into a pile of dust. Iron Man cocked his right fist back and prepared to throw a haymaker at the Chinese villain, thankful that the most powerful of the Mandarin’s rings had to wait twenty minutes before firing again. The other nine rings, however, were more than ready to erupt with power.
As the armored avenger let his gloved fist fly the Mandarin angled his left pinkie finger, using the ring held there to create a wall of solid ice. The crunching impact was enough to rattle both of them as shards of ice began raining down on the street. While the ice shield had served to protect the Mandarin it also kept Iron Man from seeing what was coming next, namely an electrical blast from the warlord’s left middle finger. Arcing currents of blue, tingling electricity flowed through Iron Man’s armor, sending him into a quick spasm. Iron Man held back his scream, determined not to let the Mandarin have any taste of satisfaction.
“I had intended to draw you out myself,” the Mandarin explained as he continued to pump thousands of volts of electricity into his foe, “but how could I resist a prime opportunity like the one you gave me today? You’re a fool, whoever you are. Your arrogance is almost as aggravating as the man before you whose life was owed to me!”
“And your assumption that this armor isn’t insulated is shocking!” Iron Man yelled over the crackling electricity. The Mandarin gasped as Iron Man reached out and grabbed him by the throat, squeezing just enough to cut off his air supply.
A blast of gravitational force from the Mandarin’s right index finger separated the two, sending Iron Man head over heels. “You faked weakness in order to drift closer to me, bringing you within range to lash out,” the Mandarin said between choking breathes. “Very clever. I see I shall have to take you more seriously.”
“No points for the pun? I’m hurt.”
“Yes, you will hurt, you putrid waste!”
Air whooshed around them, kicking the Mandarin’s already wild hair up into his face. While at their height a normal updraft was common, this one was undoubtedly more powerful than anything mother nature could innately create.
“Sensors indicate incoming aircraft!” Mainframe yelled into Iron Man’s ears. “I would advise scrambling.”
Iron Man shifted his weight and ignited his boot jets, throwing himself to one side. The Mandarin, hesitating to follow suit, turned his attention to the oncoming threat. Recognizing the crafts heading directly for them, the villain swore loudly and used his ring’s mastery over levitation to rise high above the city.
“Who is it?” Iron Man asked anxiously, referring to the half dozen aircraft rocketing toward them. For someone like the Mandarin to leave the fight it had to be someone who was hardly a pushover. “I’ve seen those fighters before…”
“Markings imply that those aircraft belong to SHIELD,” Mainframe answered as information began scrolling across the display. “They will surely attempt to arrest you. I would advise—”
“Can the advice!” Iron Man scolded. “SHIELD didn’t come to help us. Chances are they’re after me just as much as they are the Mandarin, but he’ll tear them apart like tinfoil.”
“I take that to mean you will not be fleeing?”
“No can do, pal.” Iron Man reset his gyroscopes and angled his metallic body at the hovering tyrant who was preparing to unleash Hell on the SHIELD strike team. “If I leave, people die. Simple as that.”
“You are beginning to sound like your predecessor.”
Ignoring the computer program, Iron Man charged his repulsors and joined the battle that was about to light up the New York City skyline. He felt like it was against his better judgment but he had been making a lot of decisions like that recently. He had donned the armor and chosen to be a Hero.
This is what Heroes did.
NEXT ISSUE: The man behind the iron mask is revealed as the Mandarin and SHIELD do their best to take him down. It’s a three-way brawl to end all brawls! When the dust clears will a new champion be seen as a coming savior or a reckless fugitive?