His head was pounding. He thought he might have a concussion, which was surprising, seeing as how he was encapsulated within a three million dollar suit of armor that could take a pounding from the Hulk.
He groaned, and as soon as he did, he wished he hadn’t. The pounding in his head only worsened with the effort of trying to speak. The blood rushed to his head and when he opened his eyes to see where he was, there was only blackness. His heads-up-display was down, which either meant his armor had lost all power or someone had tampered with it. Without the systems running he was completely blind to the outside world, entrapped and encased inside the Iron Man defensive armor.
Abner Jenkins mentally swore. If he hadn’t been so gung-ho about busting in to Stark Tower then he might not be in this situation. The Frightful Four were no one’s fools, even given the general disrespect some of their members held within the supervillain community. Individually they were weak, but together they were fierce, even deadly.
“So,” Abe heard the Wizard say. He couldn’t pinpoint his exact location since he was locked inside his own armor, but he knew he was close. “I’m sure you noticed that I’ve switched off your armor’s internal systems. I’ve been instructed to remove you from the mortal coil. It seems a bit archaic, but I thought I would try to remove you from that precious armor first. Archaic in the sense that it’s been the motivation of so many others, but I consider myself one of the great innovators of our time.”
Abe listened intently as he heard some type of device switch on with a thrumming power. He grew nervous as the Wizard stepped closer. Abe was trapped, completely helpless against the sick machinations of the Wizard, a villain that had killed more than once on occasion.
“My employer merely wishes your death for your interference earlier,” the Wizard said. “But I want something he apparently no longer does: your secrets.”
Abe felt something clutch both sides of his helmet. The shell of his armor began to vibrate with the hum of whatever was powering the device the Wizard was using on him. Slowly, the pounding headache grew into a stabbing pain all over his body, and he screamed. His cries were muffled by his own helmet, but the Wizard could surely still hear Abe’s discontent.
“I’ll turn your insides to mush and simply pour you out of the armor, keeping it all for myself.”
MARVEL REBORN PRESENTS
The House That Stark Built
Part Three of Three
Written by D. Golightly
“Where exactly do you think you’re taking us?” Rumiko Fujikawa, the president of Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. demanded to know. “We know this building better than you. We should be finding an exit!”
Agent 13, a blonde bombshell with an athletic build hidden underneath a blue SHIELD uniform, paused as she led them down the dark and silent corridor. “I was provided with blue prints of this entire facility, which I memorized,” she replied. “I know the air conditioning system better than you know the parking lot. Now keep quiet or I’ll lock you back in a room until my mission is completed.”
James Rhodes, who followed up their trio in the rear, smirked at the ballsy comment but made no verbal reply of his own. He reaffirmed his grip on the glue gun he had taken from the Trapster’s unconscious form, testing its weight in his hand. It was a bulky apparatus with a hose connecting the arm cannon to a backpack, where Rhodes assumed the polymer concoction was stored. In his time spent as War Machine he had never crossed the Trapster, but the villain’s reputation had preceded him. Even if Agent 13 hadn’t kung fu chopped the back of his neck and taken him down, Rhodes doubted that the Trapster would have provided much of an obstacle.
The trio quietly stalked down the corridor: Agent 13 on point, Rhodes in the rear, and Rumiko kept protectively between them. After being freed from the secondary testing room that was usually used by the company’s lab techs *, the pair of executives were led by the SHIELD agent deeper into the sublevels of the building. Rhodes wasn’t quite sure of what her agenda was, but the agent seemed to have their best interests at heart.
* (Check out the end of last issue – D)
“What does Fury think he’s doing by sending you in here?” Rumiko demanded, eliciting a soft sigh from Rhodes.
“When a known group of terrorist supervillains takes over one of the world’s largest weapon designers’ headquarters,” Agent 13 replied, “it’s just common sense for SHIELD to get involved. I would think that a little gratitude would be in order.”
“I don’t believe that rescue mission baloney,” the dark-haired Asian woman shot back. She hugged the wall, mimicking the agent’s movements, but still retained an aggressive manner. “A spy is a spy is a spy. I’ve got my eye on you.”
“Ease up, Rumiko,” Rhodes said. “Let’s just concentrate on one thing at a time. Agent, what’s our next move?”
“I accessed the building through the silicone recycling pump—”
“That explains the smell,” Rumiko murmured to herself.
“—and hacked into the building’s network mainframe. The Wizard, the Constrictor, and Titania are somewhere on the upper floors, doing God knows what to your inventory. Stark Industries, or Solutions, or Enterprises, or whatever it used to be called was the target of multiple parties looking for technology storehouses, as I’m sure you’re both well aware.”
“But all of our R&D progress has been made public since the merge,” Rumiko said defensively. “We’re openly traded on the stock market around the world. There’s no need for our records or equipment to be seized.”
“All of it?” Agent 13 said without taking her attention away from the corridor. “The Stark defensive armor has been sought after for years, and not just by these guys. You’re telling me that this company no longer has secrets to protect?”
Before either of the executives could reply, three floating security androids rounded a corner and locked their attention on the trio. Agent 13 paused, holding a hand back so the others would stop. She raised her weapon in her other hand, aiming for the head of one of the golden androids. Twin coils lay on either side of the androids like lifeless arms, while their legless bodies gently bobbed up and down in the hallway. A red octagon, mirroring the design of Iron Man himself, silently glowed in the center of their torsos.
“Wait,” Rumiko said as she placed a hand on the blonde woman’s shoulder. “Those are property of Stark/Fujikawa, Incorporated.”
“Are they going to shoot?” Agent 13 asked without breaking her aim.
“Not if you get out of the way.”
“Rumiko—” Rhodes began to say, but the President of their company had already swung out into the center of the hallway.
“Voice recognition: Rumiko Fujikawa,” she called out to the androids. “Stand down and await further instruction.”
The red sigil on the androids’ torsos grew from a soft glow to a burning fire. The coils, which had been resting lifelessly, sprung up like wild snakes with jaws snapping. Rumiko took a step back in surprise, and Rhodes grabbed her shoulders and quickly yanked her back against the wall behind Agent 13. A blast from the middle android, pulsating out of the red sigil in its chest, charred the floor where Rumiko had been standing a moment earlier.
“Looks like the Wizard got into your systems and reprogrammed these things,” the SHIELD agent said over her shoulder. She opened fire on the first android, empting her entire clip into its golden casing.
“Oh my God…” Rumiko blurted out.
“Just stay behind us!” Rhodes screamed as he stepped in front of his boss. He pulled back the lever on the top of the glue gun, hoping that was all he needed to do to arm the device. He knelt down a few feet behind Agent 13 and angled his body to the side, making sure to not interrupt her line of fire as he created his own.
He pulled the trigger and a thick polymer oozed out of the nozzle, plopping uselessly on the floor. It sizzled as it dripped onto the flat surface, bringing a heavy, plastic smell with it.
“Dammit,” Rhodes muttered. He quickly flipped a few more switches on the strange weapon, hoping he could figure it out in time to be of use. He chanced a glance at the androids as he worked furiously, and was horrified to see that not only was Agent 13’s weapon just as ineffective as his own, but that the security robots were advancing.
“Of all the stupid-ass weapons, I have to end up with the Trapster’s.”
His throat was raw from screaming.
“What does it feel like to have your brain liquefied?” the Wizard asked.
Abe breathed heavily from exhaustion once the Wizard finally let up on the sound wave torture. His sensors were still knocked out, and if it wasn’t for the padding in his helmet he would have been deaf long ago. As it was the Wizard found he was having a difficult time breaking the new Iron Man.
He had undergone four rounds of the sonic bombardment, barely surviving each one. Since he couldn’t see he had no way of being sure, but judging from his own experience in creating sonic weapons he guessed that the Wizard was having a slight problem in keeping the vibration going lest he shock his own systems. The only proof Abe had of that theory was that he was still alive.
The deathly noise being pumped into his helmet stopped again, giving Abe a chance to relax and regain his bearings. The vibrations were upsetting his equilibrium, but if he could hold out for just one more assault, he had an idea that might be able to get him out of this mess.
“Wizard,” he heard someone say as they entered the room. They treaded heavily on the floor, dragging their feet. “Are you done playing around with this tin man yet? Titania and I want a crack at him. I owe him.”
“It was your own carelessness that caused your defeat, Constrictor,” the Wizard replied. Abe smirked beneath his helmet, remembering the way he had dropped the snake-themed villain approximately twenty floors through the inside of the building *. “Did you and Titania recover the databanks I told you to?”
* (Last issue – D)
“One of them was busted,” Abe heard Constrictor reply. “Ends up the tin man here smashed through the computer server room when he was careening out of control. This place does a ton of business and all of their systems are periodically backed up on their databanks, but out of the three you wanted only two of them were salvageable.”
“Damned cretin,” the Wizard swore. “I promised Hammer all the information available on the ‘rebel’ project I uncovered. This is most displeasing.”
Abe’s ears perked inside his helmet. Hammer? Abner Jenkins knew that name all too well. Justin Hammer, assuming it was the same person that the Wizard was referring to, had to be one of the most diabolical men the world had ever known. He was the kind of guy that would sell his own mother if he knew it would benefit his business, which was largely defrauding companies and the general public alike.
Justin Hammer had been Tony Stark’s biggest business rival and was often suspected of industrial sabotage. Their feud had been reflected in the stock market, with each company taking dives every time their rivalry topped the headlines. Rhodes had told Abe all about some of the worst cases in Iron Man’s career and how they mostly could be linked to Hammer. Rhodes had also mentioned how Hammer had tried to take over Stark’s company before the Fujikawa family had outbid him.
And now Hammer’s name was being tossed around by some intruding supervillains. Coincidence? Abe seriously doubted it.
“Well,” Constrictor continued, “Titania is trying to locate Trapster. The idiot wondered off while we were checking out the databanks. You ask me that guy has been smelling his own wares for too long. Once they get back we’ll be ready to move.”
“Excellent.” Abe listened intently as the Wizard reset his powered gloves, preparing to bombard him with another unhealthy dose of ambient sound waves. “Once I recycle the wasted technology from our iron friend here we’ll be off to the rendezvous point. Regardless of the state of the databanks we will be paid.”
The Wizard placed both his hands on opposing sides of Iron Man’s helmet again, ready to unleash another volley of excruciating pain. Abe held his breath, hoping that the gamble he was about to make would pay off. If it did he still ran the risk of frying himself from the inside out, but if it didn’t he was no worse off. At least, that was how he justified it enough to take the risk.
“Goodbye, imposter.”
At the last second, Abe thumbed back a slot inside his left gauntlet and pressed the revealed button. Tony Stark, as arrogant as he usually seemed, was nothing short of a genius that anticipated nearly every situation. Having been locked inside the Iron Man armor many times himself, Stark had devised multiple ways to channel power back into the suit’s batteries in case of emergencies. There were solar adapters, electro-chemical gel solutions, and even vibranium converters.
As soon as Abe pressed the switch, the Wizard activated his sonic attack, which at first caused Iron Man’s helmet to violently shake within the villain’s grasp like it had every other time. A painful moment later, Abe’s HUD sprung back to life and he heard the soft whine of his gyroscopes coming back online.
The vibranium converter, built out of a rare metal only found in the nation of Wakanda, began changing the ambient vibrations into power for the suit, effectively rebooting Iron Man’s systems. The metal’s unique properties, coupled with Tony Stark’s intellect, made for an effective, if not unusual, method of restoring power to the armor. It was barely functional, but it was still working. Abe let out of his held breath in relief as he kicked a foot out and knocked the Wizard back across the room.
“What the hell?” Constrictor exclaimed as Iron Man stood up.
With his minimal systems back online, Iron Man could finally see again through his visor. The Constrictor was standing on the far side of the room, which was a conference room of some sort, next to where the Wizard had crashed into the pasty white drywall. Coils began to unspool from inside Constrictor’s forearms in a grotesque display of his trademark.
Iron Man took a step forward and nearly fell over. The armor was running on emergency back-up power, supplied by the Wizard’s attack. It was barely enough to keep the suit operational, meaning the servos and strength enhancers were offline. Doing something as simple as lifting his arm took a lot out of him. The weight of the bulky armor, which had once seemed streamlined and easy to operate, was now working against him.
“Running for round two, eh?” Constrictor said as he swung one of his coils overhead. “Fine by me, tin man. I can slag you sitting down or standing up, whatever your poison.”
Abe wanted to throw a witty comeback at the villain, but chose to concentrate on staying alive instead. The Constrictor whipped one of his elongated coils at Iron Man, slicing through the air with deadly and practiced precision. Iron Man managed to raise an arm in defense just in time, catching the coil around his forearm. The worming tendril wrapped around Iron Man’s arm, tightening and pulling the hero off balance.
Constrictor unraveled his other coil, preparing to lash out once more. “Just lie down and die, will ya?”
Abe quickly weighed his options, which were much more limited than he would have preferred. The Wizard was up and moving beside the Constrictor, creating another immediate threat that he had to deal with. According to his HUD report, the anti-grav engine in his suit was operational. The window in the conference room would break easily enough if he dove through it, but he could also still see the pink force field that been erected around the perimeter of the building to cut it off from the outside world. It had nearly crippled him the last time he had punched through the barrier and he doubted he would survive another attempt, especially in his current condition.
If it boiled down to fight or flight, there was no way he could run away. Not only was it virtually impossible at this point, but there were undoubtedly still a hundred hostages somewhere inside the building, and there was no telling what the Frightful Four would do if left to their own devices.
“Slice him to ribbons,” the Wizard ordered. The purple and black clad villain slipped out one of his patented discs that Abe was now all too familiar with, preparing to lob it in his direction. “I’ll pick up the pieces when we’re done.”
Iron Man had enough juice stolen from the Wizard to fire one single repulsor blast. It was hardly enough to guarantee a victory, but he wasn’t ready to give up just yet. The wrapped coil around his arm pulled him toward the two awaiting villains. He fought against its pull, barely keeping himself upright. He had one shot at saving himself and it was now or never.
With his other gauntlet, Iron Man charged the repuslor in his palm. He angled his other wrist to catch the tip of the Constrictor’s coil, and once he held it between his fingers, stabbed it into the open iris of his repulsor. There was a bright flash, beginning in Iron Man’s palm and then following the Constrictor’s coil across the room.
The energy backlash trailed around the coil, following the fastest route to ground, which happened go through the Constrictor. His coils had been surgically mapped into his central nervous system, allowing him mental control over the extremities. The energy flowed freely and uninterrupted straight up his arm, dispersing inside his body. The bite of the repulsor beam trailing along his coil was enough to shock Constrictor, seizing all of his muscles at once. The villain screamed as he fell to the floor, with wisps of soft smoke wafting off of his burned body.
“Imbecile!” the Wizard screamed as he watch Constrictor fall. The leader of the Frightful Four heard the stomping of Iron Man’s boots across the conference room, and looked up just in time to see a red fist fly at his head.
For as fast as Abe was inside the mostly depowered armor, its sheer weight still hindered him. The Wizard easily ducked under the brunt blow, slipping around behind Iron Man gracefully. The much more slender form of the Wizard easily avoided the haymakers Iron Man threw, left and right. Abe swore to himself, wishing he had more power to operate the servos in the armor. It was like wearing a tank.
“Stand still, damn it!” Abe hollered as his frustration grew.
“Again you display none of the elegance or fortitude of the original,” the Wizard replied as he backpedaled. He held twin discs in his hands, removed from the sides of his costume. “Your ingenuity is to be applauded, but I have yet to actually be impressed. You do seem to be more trouble than your worth, and as important as some believe that armor you wear to be, I have the data to build my own if I truly desire. That makes you even more expendable, along with that dented suit.”
Iron Man spied a pair of three foot high metallic towers in the doorway to the conference room. “And how expendable is your precious data?”
The Wizard slapped the air in front of him, launching one of his anti-grav discs at Iron Man. The relatively new hero barely dodged the projectile by throwing himself to the side, his bulky and unresponsive armor making it easy for him to fall. He tucked into a roll, something he never would have been able to accomplish in his old armor, and sprung back up to his feet in front of the two computer towers. He was impressed with how versatile Stark had made his armor, allowing him a greater range of movement than he would have expected.
Iron Man placed an open palm above the first databank, pausing as he looked at the Wizard, who stood frozen in place. “Is your employer willing to lose this so you can finish off a pissing match with me?” Iron Man said. “Take one more step and I vape the things.” He was bluffing since his repuslors were completely drained, but he was hoping that the Wizard wouldn’t figure that out. As bluffs went, it was a shallow one, and Abe was running out of ideas.
“You would willingly place your own company’s property at stake?” the Wizard asked. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly in anticipation. “The data in those systems is worth billions. In my hands, possibly even more. What would your own employer think about using it as a bargaining chip?”
“That doesn’t matter to me,” Iron Man retorted. “I don’t work for Stark/Fujikawa. I’m just a solo hero trying to do the right thing, and right now that means keeping you from getting your hands on this.”
A low-key hum that had been in the background the entire time suddenly died off. They both shot a glance out of a window in the conference room to see the pink force field the Wizard had erected around Stark Tower, effectively cutting it off from the world, fade away.
“Looks like you’re about out of tricks, Wiz.”
The Wizard took half a step forward, but stopped himself short. The villain lowered his hand with the disc in it slightly, hesitating and unsure of how to proceed. He didn’t want to risk the destruction of his own objective. “An interesting development,” the villain said. “A stalemate it would seem. You have something I want, and you seem to have the means to guard it. I ask – do you see this as a wager, a gamble, or perhaps an opportunity?”
“What do you mean?”
“As I said, the information you’re so eager to destroy could be worth a fortune. If you have no real allegiance to this company, why not abandon them altogether and join me? You’ve proven yourself a worthy adversary, and unless I miss my guess you do have a certain level of intelligence that I might find…entertaining.”
“Let me get this straight. You not only want me to hand this over, but you want me to join you, too?”
The Wizard risked a smile. “I assure you that I’m a better partner than I am an enemy.”
Before Abe could tally a response, a third voice joined the conversation. “And you’re an even better inmate,” it said.
Abe cocked his head to see who had spoken, when the Wizard sprung into action. Taken by surprise, the villain haphazardly tossed his anti-grav disc around his waist in the general direction of the voice, taking advantage of the moment. The disc shattered in midair as a gun shot sounded; it was blasted out of the air like skeet. Iron Man ran forward, hoping to trap the Wizard between himself and the newcomer and force a resolution to the stalemate.
Abe pulled up short in his own approach when he witnessed a thick strand of glue encase the Wizard’s feet, trapping him to the conference room floor. He couldn’t help but chuckle when he saw the Wizard struggle against the sticky substance, the chosen tool of his own ally. Iron Man turned to see his uncalled help; a pair of people in the doorway to the room, one standing tall with a smoking gun and the other bent down on one knee with an oozing arm cannon.
“You look like crap, shellhead,” James Rhodes said as he stood. The woman behind him, who dramatically blew the smoke off of her SHIELD issue handgun, wore a blue uniform that matched the company she obviously worked for. Rhodes balanced the arm cannon on his hip and added, “Looks like we got here in the nick of time.”
Rumiko Fujikawa pushed her way ahead of them both and into the conference room. A lone golden android floated in with her, its red sigil gently glowing. “Thanks to me activating the emergency protocols in the security grid,” she said with a huff. “If you hadn’t destroyed the other two we would have been here sooner.”
“Release me!” the Wizard demanded. “If you wish to face the full fury of my wrat—mm! Mmm, mm m mmm mmmm!”
Hot glue dripped down over the Wizard’s goatee as the polymer begun to solidify in place. Rhodes walked over to the leader of the Frightful Four, making sure that his nostrils were still clear. “Fury my ass,” Rhodes commented.
Iron Man finally relaxed, thankful that the cavalry had arrived. Sitting behind the group that had come to his rescue he saw the last member of the Frightful Four, Titania, bound up in the same sticky glue and unconscious. He regarded Rhodes, the man who was working behind Rumiko’s back to make sure that Abe could fill the boots of his predecessor, and made a mental note to commend the ex-hero. The thought that a few moments earlier, if they hadn’t interrupted the Wizard’s offer, Abe wasn’t sure if he would have been able to turn down the proposition.
After Rumiko inspected the Wizard, she marched straight over to him with her index finger extended in his face. “Hold it right there!” she exclaimed. “Agent 13! Arrest this intruder.”
The blonde with the smoking gun stepped out from behind Rhodes, a look of determination on her face. “Oh, come on!” Rhodes said. “Whoever he is, Iron Man obviously came here to help. Agent, wait. As vice president of Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. I refuse to press charges.”
“That’s not up to you, Mr. Rhodes,” Agent 13 said. She holstered her sidearm and moved toward Iron Man, stepping around the floating robotic security android. “SHIELD has an open warrant for whoever is under that iron mask. He’s wanted for questioning.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Iron Man said as he raised his hands defensively. “No offense, sweetheart, but I’m not going anywhere but out of here. The last place I want to be is on a SHIELD helicarrier.”
“It’s not up to you either. Disengage your armor and surrender peacefully.”
“Or what? I’ll be a fugitive? Sorry, babe. Been there; done that.”
Iron Man made a beeline for the window and dove through it, splashing bits of glass out into the air along with his armored body. Rhodes and Rumiko ran to the window to see Iron Man fall ten stories before slowing to a halt in midair.
Abe, with barely enough power to keep himself aloft, reset his gyroscopes and swiveled in place to look back up at the two people looking down at him. The anti-grav engine in his armor would only be able to function long enough to get him to the Hudson, but that was as far as he needed to go to escape pursuit anyway. He mock-saluted the two executives and flew off into the sky, heading straight for the clouds.
“Damn,” Rhodes said half-heartedly.
“Nice going, agent,” Rumiko added. “As useless as I found your organization before, it has now doubled. Of all the incompetence—”
Rumiko had turned back to look in the conference room only to see that the only person that could hear her was a mumbling Wizard. Agent 13 had disappeared, and so had the two computer towers.
“Unbelievable,” she muttered.
Rhodes slid the Trapster’s rig off of his back and rubbed his shoulders. He looked over the Constrictor’s unconscious form and smiled. “Should have seen that coming,” he added. “Least the Four are down for the count and all the employees are safe.”
“But at what cost? Who knows what information that arrogant bitch just made off with?”
Rhodes let out a sigh, finally able to relax a bit. “We’ll find out soon enough, and if I know Fury at all, he’ll use whatever he can to worm his way into our affairs again.”
NEXT ISSUE: Our hero deserves a breather, but he won’t be getting one if Rhodes has anything to say about it. Abe gets sent undercover to the last place he wants to be: Hammer Industries! And what’s up with Mainframe?