"Where are we exactly?" Rumiko Fujikawa asked.
Jim Rhodes paused as he felt along a wall in the small room that served as their prison. The reflective stainless steel surface was smooth and void of contact points, but he was determined to continue searching every inch of the room for a way to get out. Reaching the corner, he turned to answer Rumiko before continuing onto the next wall.
"Testing area," Rhodes muttered, apparently not wanting to break his concentration. He loosened his neck tie and started feeling along another smooth wall. "We're in the subbasement, level three I think. This is basically just a multipurpose room that the lab techs use before moving to a more appropriate facility."
Rumiko rubbed the sides of her arms. She wasn't used to being taken hostage, especially not by a crazed lunatic called the Wizard. She and Rhodes had awoken in the sealed room shortly after the supervillain's arrival, unsure of what exactly what was going on. She remembered Rhodes briefly trying to take the Wizard down himself on the roof, and then the Wizard had thrown some kind of disc at them, knocking them out. All they knew was that they were in trouble. Big trouble.
"And I assume it's safe to say that we're stuck in here," Rumiko added.
"Looks that way. For now, anyway. Don't count us out of this thing just yet."
Accepting her position in the company after her father had taken it over seemed like an excellent way to gain favor in his eyes, but now Rumiko was beginning to wish things had unfolded differently. She remembered back to the first time she met Tony Stark, wondering how she had changed from that sporadic young girl into a staunch business woman.
She watched Rhodes desperately, but carefully, search every section of the chamber and for the first time realized why Stark had been so trusting of him.
MARVEL REBORN PRESENTS
The House That Stark Built
Part Two of Three
Written by D. Golightly
The Constrictor's coils held tightly around Iron Man, keeping him from squirming free. Trapster giggled slightly at the sight of the captured hero, at least when his eyes weren't undressing the already scantily clad Titania. The one who led them, and nearly every incarnation of the Frightful Four, the Wizard, stood in the center of the room with his powered glove aimed at the newly dubbed Iron Man.
Abe Jenkins didn't panic…he reacted.
Throwing his weight back, Iron Man kicked out both of his feet and ignited his boot jets. The sudden burst of heat made the Wizard stumble back, while Iron Man was propelled backward, slamming into Constrictor. The villain's coils loosened on instinct as he fell to the ground, dazed. Iron Man shimmied free just in time to see Titania coming at him.
"Big mistake, pal," she said as she charged. "You would have been better off being fried. Now you're in for a whole world of hurt!"
"Yeah, right," Iron Man replied. "Fifty bucks says you can't touch me now that I'm not being held in place like a punching bag."
Scarlet rage flashed in front of Titania's eyes as she lashed out wildly with a series of punches that would have crushed an armored tank. Beneath his already dented helmet, Iron Man paid careful attention to his targeting computers. Titania's fists, while attached to a tall and luscious goddess of a woman, could still be treated as weapons from his system's perspective. Scrolling through his HUD, he flagged her arms with the targeting computer and dodged each strike according to the proximity alarms.
Right, left, right left… Iron Man backpedaled several steps before clutching her wrist at just the right moment, yanking back hard to tip her off balance. The strong woman fell right into the back of Iron Man's other fist, which caught her just under the jaw. She flipped over in the air, landing square on her back.
"You…you hit me!" Titania exclaimed.
"Never claimed to be a gentleman," Iron Man replied. He opened both of his fists and unleashed a torrent of repulsor rays at the villainess that shoved her skidding across the floor until her head slammed into the wall.
"Quit playing around!" Trapster yelled at his two fallen comrades. "This joker isn't even the real Iron Man, for crying out loud!"
The contraption strapped to Trapster's back pumped a glob of his special concoction through the hose and out the nozzle of his gun. The thick plasmatic substance caught Iron Man's leg, adhering him to the floor of the office. The servos in the armored hero's knee joints whined, but were unable to break him away from the glue.
"If only he were," the Wizard said as he palmed something from beneath his padded body armor. "What a joy it would be to kill an original. Instead we are left with whatever fate has deemed this cretin to be."
Iron Man struggled to pull his leg free. He thought that the glue was beginning to crack under the pressure he was exerting, but he needed to buy more time. "You're one to talk about fate, Wiz. What's the matter? Couldn't get any decent recruits so you hired these monkeys?"
"On the contrary," the Wizard answered. "These fine specimens of debauchery are allies through thick and thin. Their allegiance is greater than anything a simpleton like you would understand."
Iron Man continued to struggle with the hardened glue holding him down. "I'd put emphasis on the thin part of that."
"Let us see if that same arrogance is present when you're languishing in the upper atmosphere. Good bye, imposter."
The Wizard gently tossed the device he had grabbed from his armaments, a small disc, at the restrained Iron Man. The round, small object paused in midair for a split second before magnetically attaching itself to Iron Man's chest plate. He tried to wedge his fingers under it but found that it was strongly held in place. Abe blinked, wondering what exactly was supposed to happen.
A green display lit up on the disc a moment before Iron Man was ripped free of the floor and catapulted through the ceiling. Facing down, he felt the following ceiling crumble above him as his back slammed into it. He struggled to breathe as he was pushed through another ceiling, and another, and another. It felt like an entire planet was being shoved against his chest, forcing him to fly straight up.
Abe's mind raced for a solution before the Wizard's famous anti-gravity disc broke him out of the top of Stark Tower and sent him spiraling out of control into space. Which floor had he come in on? How tall was Stark Tower? How much time did he have?
Iron Man fumbled with the disc, straining himself to pry it loose. It was securely clutching his chest plate, a few inches below the pentagon shape of his uni-beam. He decided to gamble, hoping that if something went wrong that he wouldn't be dooming himself to a burial in the outer atmosphere.
Channeling all main power to the energy emitter on his chest, Iron Man activated his uni-beam. A fiery yellow streak of hot energy fired out of the pentagon, singing the anti-gravity disc. He continued to punch through floor after floor, but he didn't need to aim the weapon as he was just hoping the output would be adequate. Realizing that it just wasn't enough power, he began to channel his reserves into the beam, praying it would be enough to dislodge the device and save him.
The edges of the disc went from silver to charred black as the powerful uni-beam continued to sear its casing. Finally, Abe saw a small crack develop on the side of the disc and continue to grow. He cut off power to the uni-beam and ripped the anti-gravity disc off of his chest, allowing him to smack into the next ceiling that he would have burst through. He bounced down to the floor, narrowly avoiding the hole he had just created.
He rolled onto his back, tired from the pounding he had taken. His reserve power was critically low and a preliminary damage report scrolling across his HUD told him that the armor had taken a beating, too. He could still fly, which right then was all he wanted to do. Fly home and let someone else take care of this mess. He could use a nice hot bath while someone else saved the world.
"Aren't these freaks the Fantastic Four's problem anyway?" he said aloud.
"We would be," he heard a familiar voice say, "except that they're all dead."
He looked over at the hole in the floor to see one of the Constrictor's coils reach up and plant itself in the carpeting. The other coil quickly followed suit and within a moment the costumed villain was pulling himself up through the floor by way of his extended appendages.
The Constrictor fixed him with a cold stare and a sinister smile as he whipped one of his coils back into the hole, pulling up Titania beside him. She had a similar look on her face as she eyed up the battered Iron Man and cracked her knuckles.
"Well that's just prime," Abe muttered under his breath.
He rolled onto his feet and managed to catch the first coil being whipped at his head. The second, however, easily slipped itself around his throat and lower face and started to contract. Beneath the armor he would normally be safe and content with the air supplied to him via internal oxygen tank, but his low power level had forced the armor to automatically switch to opening vents, which were mostly found around his mouth. The coil cut off the vents and his access to any precious fresh air.
"I'll tear that tin suit right off of you, little man!" Titania roared as she covered the distance between them. No sooner had she gotten within arms reach than she started to lay into Iron Man, landing brutal punch after punch into his abdomen.
When each fist landed a little more air was forced out of Abe's lungs. The edges of his vision were starting to go dark. He didn't have much longer to get away. The killer instinct he felt coming off of his opponents told him that his life depended on it.
His head was firmly held in place but the rest of his body was free to move. He swung his lower body to one side, causing Titania's fist to only graze him. Lifting up his legs, Iron Man locked his feet behind the strong woman's head and twisted his hips. Caught by surprise Titania fell over and rolled to one side. She would be back up in a matter of seconds which meant that he had to free himself quickly.
The Constrictor's other coil was still gripped tightly in his hand. He yanked back hard on it, hoping to at least pull the Constrictor off balance. He felt the coil around his face loosen and release when he saw the villain fall flat on his face and slide back through the hole he had pulled himself up through.
"Ah, shit!" the Constrictor yelled as he dangled, held aloft only by the coil that Iron Man held in his gauntlet.
"It's a long way down, snake-face," Iron Man mocked. "Send me a postcard from prison, k?"
The themed villain fell several stories once the armored hero let go of his coil. Constrictor's screams turned into expelled huffs as he twisted in midair and hit his back off of the edge of a hole. He finally angled his body enough to land with a crash ten floors down. His coils instinctively wound themselves back into his forearms as he groaned.
"Not bad," Iron Man stated. "I could get used to—"
"Get used to this!"
Titania sucker-punched him in the back of the head, tipping him head over heels through the hole himself. Abe scolded himself for so carelessly forgetting that the fight wasn't over as he tried to right himself using his gyroscopes. As soon as he tried to activate the balancing equipment housed within his armor his HUD flashed to life with system overload warnings.
Apparently he had taken more damage than he originally thought. The armor started to shut down, and there was no chance that he was going to be able to fly now.
He felt something strike his lower back and felt a tinge of pain through the armor. "Hope you got airbags in that thing," he heard Titania say from where she had jumped onto his back, feet first. "Because you're about to have one hell of a wreck."
Her added wait only increased his velocity and the oncoming floor twenty-three stories below them was only getting larger. He clenched his eyes shut, realizing that this was going to hurt.
A lot.
"And where is the charlatan now?" a darkened face in the hologram projection asked.
The Wizard regarded the bent light of the hologram communication device he had invented, noticing that even though his contact was shrouded he could still detect basic facial expressions. The basic facial features were rendered, but it was only a shell of what the man actually looked like. The small sphere was a work of his brilliance that he doubted anyone else could duplicate. It was the only device capable of penetrating the dampening force field he had erected around Stark Tower, giving him access to the outside world. Genius such as his would never be appreciated.
"My comrades in arms have succeeded in capturing him," the Wizard replied. "I've ordered him stashed away until our business is concluded."
With his feet propped up on Rumiko Fujikawa's exquisite imported desk, the Wizard suppressed an irritated sigh. He hated having to report his actions to a man he had never met. At least, as far as he knew he had never met his current benefactor.
"Very well," the shrouded figure said. "This new Iron Man's interference was anticipated. I see I chose wisely when I hired you. Have you searched their database yet?"
"I've gone through Fujikawa's files personally. Twice. There is no record of an existing prototype armor, based off of Stark tech or otherwise."
"Impossible!" the hologram scolded. "My money isn't paying for excuses. The armored buffoon you captured isn't wearing something he got off the back of a Cracker Jack box! He acquired that armor from someplace and since Anthony Stark is dead that means his company must be behind it."
The Wizard squinted his eyes, barely holding his rage back. "As I've already informed you," the villain said calmly, "the database is clean. However, there is one item that may be of interest to you."
He saw the brow on the shaded hologram's head rise in curiosity, prompting him to continue. "Ms. Fujikawa appears to have been at the center of several investigations conducted by SHIELD. While I failed to find anything proving an attempt to duplicate the late Tony Stark's work, I have found evidence of a project that she would like to keep hidden from our friendly international police force. There are several instances of deleted sectors of memory that I found and restored, all of which had a key word attached: rebel."
"Rebel?" the hologram repeated. "I'm unfamiliar with what it's referencing. Any indication of what it might have been?"
"Most of the data was unrecoverable, but there are segments that I've been able to reconstruct. Mostly the sectors contain memos from her to the Stark/Fujikawa R&D department, asking for updates on the project. The last record alludes to operations being shut down."
"That's all?" the hologram asked. "You found me a stack of old memos? For what I'm paying—"
"I said the majority of the sectors consisted of correspondence," the Wizard interjected as his eyes rolled. "There's more. One record I recovered looked like a weapons schematic, some type of sonic device."
The hologram slowly formed a smile. "Excellent," he said. "Send me everything you have. Everything."
"And what of the hostages?" the Wizard asked. "I had Ms. Fujikawa and her associate separated from the other people in the building in case delicate persuasion was needed to discover what we needed."
"Extract whatever you can about this rebel project, but I suspect that they are no longer of any consequence. Do what you want."
"And the so-called Iron Man?"
"For that," the mysterious shrouded man answered, "you may use your imagination."
"Why were we separated from the others?"
Rhodes regarded Rumiko for a second before trying to reply. He hadn't thought of it himself, having been so concerned with trying to escape from their confinement. "Good question," he finally answered after a long pause. "Maybe they know something we don't."
Rumiko shifted her stance for the third time in as many minutes. It had been a few hours since they had both awoken and still no one had come to look in on them. The feeling of inadequacy was starting to creep in as she realized that there was absolutely nothing she could do to help them.
"There had to have been at least a hundred people left in the building when the attack happened," Rumiko said. She was only saying aloud what she had repeated in her mind a dozen times already, but she wanted to keep occupied. "It was just happenstance that we were both on the roof when the Wizard attacked. What makes us so special that we deserve our own hospitality room?"
"You so sure about it being happenstance?"
Rumiko rose as eyebrow at the comment. "Meaning?"
"Meaning in a world where a scantily clad god with a giant hammer that just has to be compensating for something is considered normal, there isn't much left that can be called happenstance."
The smooth walls had yet to yield any secrets to James Rhodes but he continued his search anyway. He refused to believe that they were just stuck there with no way of retaliation. His time spent as one of the world's heroes had taught him one thing: there's always a chance.
Unfortunately, he had also learned that luck always played a large part in providing that chance. As of late his luck was looking rather bleak. Doubts about Abe's abilities were beginning to form, and with those thoughts came a distinct feeling of regret.
A pair of knocks on the door, the only exit from the enclosed room, startled both of them. Rhodes shot Rumiko a look before standing up straight, forgetting his search of the walls.
"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," a voice said as the deadbolts sealing the door shut were undone. The door slid back, revealing a man of average height that was dressed in a somewhat gaudy costume. He held a unique weapon in his hand, which he pointed at the pair of prisoners. The Trapster smiled, sending a shiver up Rumiko's spine. "I'd hate to be a third wheel."
"What do you want?" Rhodes demanded. He instinctively placed himself between the villain and Rumiko, making sure not to break eye contact.
"The same thing everyone wants," the Trapster answered. "All the money in the world and enough power to squash whoever I want. But if you mean what do I want right now…" He slid back a chamber on his weapon, which elicited a soft gurgling noise from inside the barrel. "Well, let's just say you're both about to become permanent fixtures here."
"Where's the Wizard?" Rhodes blurted out. "You one of his lapdogs or something?"
"Hardly. I was told to extract whatever I could about the rebel project from the both of you but I think maybe I'll just kill one and make the other watch. Nothing gets a person talking like the face of death. So…who's it gonna be, kids?"
"What's he talking about?" Rhodes whispered over his shoulder to Rumiko. "What rebel project?"
The usually forceful Asian woman placed a hand on James' back while she stared at the gun leveled at them. Her fingers quivered slightly at the sight. "I…I have no idea," she replied. "Jim. He's going to kill us if we don't do something."
"So nothing to say about the project, huh?" Trapster said, nearly yelling. "Fine by me. I've been looking for an excuse to test my new polymer anyway."
He raised his gun to eye level, his smile becoming that much more sinister. Rhodes quickly ran through a handful of scenarios in his head, but each one played out with either him or Rumiko dead by the time he crossed the room to where the Trapster was. He mashed his teeth together as he stared the villain down, clutching Rumiko's hand behind his back. He squeezed her fingers tightly in an effort to give her just a little bit of encouragement.
An arm suddenly reached around the doorway and wrapped itself around the Trapster's neck. He let out a muffled exclamation of surprise before being yanked back into the outer hallway. His gun went off, spraying the ceiling with a stream of his patented glue. The mystery arm pulled him entirely around the corner, and the moment he was completed out of sight both the prisoners heard a hollow thud followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor.
Rhodes looked curiously over his shoulder to see Rumiko equally puzzled by what had just happened. Cautiously, Rhodes stepped along the edges of the wall until he had angled himself to look out into the hallway. He saw the Trapster lying on the floor with his eyes rolled into the back of his head. His gun was lying beside him, expelled and useless.
"What the hell…" Rhodes muttered.
"Don't worry," a hard, feminine voice said, "he's alive. My orders don't include assassination. At least, not today they don't."
Rhodes regarded the strong woman standing before him, who was also their apparent savior. Standing nearly as tall as him, she had blonde hair pulled tightly back and was wearing a dark blue uniform that had a white shoulder holster, complete with handgun. He noticed her lean, athletic look and realized that she was a professional at what she did, which seemed to include tactical combat.
"Mr. Rhodes; Ms. Fujikawa," the woman continued as she nodded at each of them. She slipped the handgun out of her shoulder holster and cupped it in both her hands with a precise grip. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances, but the situation calls for a more immediate course of action. We need to get you both to safety."
"Who are you?" Rumiko asked as she stepped out from behind Rhodes. "And what are you doing here?"
"I'm Agent 13," she responded as she looked up and down the hall to make sure it was clear. "I'm with SHIELD. Iron Man has been captured and it looks like the Frightful Four are ready to pull out, seeing as how one of them just tried to kill you."
"Fury sent you?" Rumiko exclaimed. "The hell! That egotistical—"
"If you don't mind," Agent 13 said, cutting her off, "you can complain all you want after we get out of here. The first thing we need to do is secure this floor and then find a way out." The blonde woman turned away from them and started off down the hall, the tip of her drawn gun leading the way. She paused a few steps down and looked back at the pair, who were both still standing dumbstruck. "The Wizard is bound to coming looking for the Trapster soon. Are you coming or did I just waste my time?"
They exchanged a final glance before briskly moving down the hall to catch up, hopping over the knocked out Trapster. Rhodes knew that Rumiko wouldn't trust anything that Nick Fury did, but right now they were short on options. If the rest of the Frightful Four was in the building like Agent 13 had said then he just hoped they could survive long enough to find a way to escape.
NEXT ISSUE: Abe is down, but is he out for the count? Who's behind the Frightful Four, and what the heck is that darn rebel thing everyone is talking about? "The House That Stark Built" concludes next issue, but don't be surprised if a few more questions pop up along the way!