Earth-717: Iron Maiden Vol 3
Chapter 10: Zero Protocol
Tasha groaned in pain as she struggled to push against the concrete that had collapsed around her. She was trapped inside of the containment room, boxed in by pieces of the ceiling that had caved in. She didn't have her armour, and had spent several minutes trying desperately to find an escape route. Just as she slumped to the floor, she heard Janice speak into her mind via the sensor link.
"Get back, ma'am!"
Tasha scrambled backwards as she heard the sound of the armour's cutting laser. A piece of concrete was sliced apart at just the right angle to open a hole in the wall without destabilizing the rest of the debris. The Mark Five armour, being remotely controlled by Janice, stepped through the newly formed hole.
Tasha stood up and held out her arms as the Mark Five armour latched around her body. Once it was around her, she fell to one knee and placed her right fist against the ground. Her HUD lit up, and Janice's voice filtered into the suit.
"Ma'am, are you alright?"
"Where's Whitney?"
"Her and the Crimson Dynamo appear to have already left. Ma'am, your heart rate and blood pressure are far too high. Your physiological state is consistent with an anxiety attack. Please, let's just focus on breathing at the moment."
Knowing Janice was right, Tasha took a few seconds just to breathe. Once her heart rate returned to normal range, she stood up and hovered out of the room. Scanning the shattered remains of the hallway, she found multiple dead bodies, and one still showing vital signs. Looking down, she saw Garrett, with a piece of debris over his body.
Reaching down, Tasha used both hands to lift the debris off of him. Garrett sighed with relief.
"Come on," she said. "I'm getting you out of here."
Garrett grabbed Tasha's forearm.
"Zero Protocol," he said.
"What?"
"That's the name of their plan. It was AIM the whole time. Sunset was working with the Prime Minister. He must have known. You have to hurry. Stop them!"
"I'm not leaving you here."
Tasha picked up Garrett and held him with both arms. She then flew him out of the building and to the outside road, where emergency responders were already arriving. She handed Garrett off to a couple of paramedics before walking away and taking a few more deep breaths. Tasha placed a hand on her chest and stood off to the side of the road.
"I've re-established contact with Agent Romanova," said Janice. "And ma'am . . . . there's something else."
Tasha looked up as hundreds of people on the streets pointed into the sky. In the far distance outside the city, a hovercraft that was even larger than the SHIELD helicarrier was rising upwards. Tasha felt her heart sink as she watched it rise further and further. She then narrowed her eyes when she saw a familiar, hexagonal logo emblazoned on the side.
The logo for Advanced Idea Mechanics.
"Sunset."
"Hey! Made it on time this time!"
Rae LaCoste smiled and clapped as Rhodes walked into the living area with a bag of Chinese food and a two litre bottle of Coke. He smirked and shook his head as he sat down next to her on the couch and placed the food on the table. Rae paused the movie she was watching on Netflix while Rhodes started pulling the food out of the bag.
The two of them were in Tasha's house. When Tasha left to track down AIM, she had given Rhodes permission to live in her house in the interim. Given that he had been dating Rae since the Skrull invasion, she had been spending more and more time at the house, and by this point, the two had grown rather comfortable together.
"Consider yourself lucky," said Rhodes. "I had to go back cause they screwed it up the first time. You and your special orders."
Rae kissed Rhodes' shoulder.
"My hero."
"Yeah, yeah. You better actually eat your damn food, lady."
Rhodes smiled as Rae laughed. They were then interrupted by Janice's voice coming in through the home's speaker system.
"Colonel Rhodes."
Rae grumbled.
"Awh, come on, Robo!" she shouted. "It's date night!"
"I am sorry, Miss LaCoste, but Colonel Rhodes is required."
Rhodes sighed.
"What's the situation?"
"It's Miss Stark, Colonel. She's in grave danger, and needs your help. Immediately."
Rhodes instantly stood up and marched out of the room, not needing to hear anything else. Janice flew the War Machine armour to the ground right outside the front door. Rae followed after Rhodes and watched as he exited the house and stepped into the armour. He looked back at her just before the face plate locked in.
"Stay safe," said Rae.
"I'll be back."
Rhodes then blasted off into the air. Rae watched him leave with saddened eyes.
Sunset held her hands behind her back as the Dreadnought continued to ascend. From her command centre, she could look out at the world that she knew would soon be hers. Although the Dreadnought's construction had been ongoing for months, its actual activation hinged on the vote from the heads of state for the European Union.
But they had signed off on Zero Protocol, and using the Dreadnought was now perfectly legal. Of course, they were pushed into that decision because of their fear of the Syndicate, a criminal enterprise turned terrorist organization that Sunset had been running by proxy through her manipulation of Whitney Frost, but she hadn't told them that.
She had told everyone exactly what they needed to hear to put her plans in motion, and by the time they learned the truth, it was going to be too late for them to do anything about it. Ellen walked up to Sunset's side and tapped her on the shoulder. Sunset turned around to see Lance stepping into the command centre. He walked past Whitney, who was leaning against the wall with her arms folded.
Lance narrowed his eyes as he glanced at Whitney. Sunset smirked at him.
"Agent Hunter. So good of you to . . . ."
Lance interrupted Sunset with a backhanded slap across the face. He didn't flinch when all of the Risk Control troopers on the bridge immediately aimed their weapons at him. Even Ellen pulled out her pistol. Whitney watched the altercation with curiosity. Before anything happened, Sunset held up her hand as she massaged her jaw.
"Don't," she said. "Let him be."
The Risk Control troopers lowered their weapons. Ellen sulked as she put her pistol away. Sunset chuckled at Lance.
"I probably deserved that."
"Where is she?" asked Lance.
Sunset waved her finger.
"Ah, ah, ah," she said, before holding out her palm. "Your present."
Lance held out the SHIELD microchip, but didn't hand it over.
"Show her to me. Or I crush this thing right here."
"I think you're starting to forget your place, Agent Hunter."
"Show her to me. Non-negotiable."
Sunset and Lance stared each other down for several seconds. Realizing that he had more resolve than she expected, Sunset chuckled and nodded.
"Alright, then. Let's go see her, shall we?"
Sunset sauntered over to the command chair. Rhona Burchill was sitting there, operating the Dreadnought's main functions. Multiple data screens were situated around her semi-circle shaped command console. Rhona glanced at Sunset, Lance, Whitney and Ellen as they walked up to her.
"Rhona, dear," said Sunset. "Might we pop in to quickly check on the little one?"
Rhona nodded and switched on a security camera display. The camera showed a room with a seven year old girl sitting on a metal chair. Yelena Belova was standing behind her, with her sword held out in her right hand. Lance gasped when he saw the girl. She looked terrified.
"Give us audio," said Sunset.
Rhona tapped a button, activating the audio channel. Sunset looked at Lance and gestured towards the screen. Lance gulped before he spoke. Whitney frowned as she watched the display.
"Jasmine?"
Jasmine looked at the camera upon hearing Lance's voice.
"Daddy?"
Lance felt his eyes start to water.
"Jasmine, you can hear me, yes?"
"Yeah, yeah! Where are you, Daddy?! I can't see you! I'm scared!"
"I know you are, Princess. I'm coming for you, don't . . . ."
Sunset snapped her fingers. Yelena grabbed Jasmine by the shoulder and placed her sword against her neck. Jasmine screamed as Yelena held her tightly.
"JASMINE!"
"Agent Hunter?"
Sunset held out her palm. Lance scowled at her.
"Your present, if you please," said Sunset, with a villainous grin. "Unless you want to watch your little Princess get her throat slashed."
Lance held out the microchip again.
"What you did to get this. What you made me do. You're a monster."
"Flattery, Agent Hunter? Is that how you charmed the bodysuit off of the Black Widow?"
"Keep talking, and I'll kill you."
Sunset chuckled as Lance placed the microchip in her palm. She snapped her fingers again, and Yelena lowered her sword. Lance sighed with relief. Sunset gave Lance a playful punch in the shoulder.
"You're a good daddy, Lance," she said. "Keep that up, and she'll keep breathing. Besides, there's no point being upset. I was going to get what I wanted one way or another."
Sunset looked at Whitney and grinned.
"Isn't that right, sweetheart?"
Whitney shivered, but said nothing in return. Sunset then turned around and looked up. The second level of the command deck was a large office with glass windows that was placed on a raised platform. Obadiah was sitting behind the desk, with Debbie at his side. Sunset eagerly waved at him and held up the microchip.
"Obadiah! Look what I got! Time to put your good work to work."
Obadiah sighed and sat back in his chair. Debbie placed a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't turn to look at her. After Sunset plugged the microchip into the command console, Obadiah's computer screens lit up with data from it. The chip contained a special communication frequency that allowed it to contact the SHIELD helicarrier, and, by extension, locate it.
The SHIELD helicarrier's location materialized on a global map. Numerous other dots were placed across it, as per the tracking and information network that AIM had developed in conjunction with the British government. Having conspired with David Cameron in secret for months, Sunset had been given access to enough raw data to tabulate a list of every threat to her enterprise.
-Zero Protocol Priority Targets-
FRANKLIN HALL
NICHOLAS FURY
TASHA STARK
VICTOR VON DOOM
MATTHEW ELLIS
JAMES RHODES
CHARLES XAVIER
STEVE ROGERS
BRUCE BANNER
CAROL DANVERS
REED RICHARDS
NATALIA ROMANOVA
OPHELIA SARKISSIAN
PATRICIA POTTS
BOLIVAR TRASK
NORMAN OSBORN
DARREN CROSS
JUSTIN HAMMER
KING T'CHAKA
STEPHEN STRANGE
Profiles and images of all of the Priority Targets appeared above the map screen. Lance looked at the image of Natalia and frowned. Sunset smiled as she looked over all of the profiles. Ellen scratched the side of her head.
"Hey, Sunset."
"Yes?"
"Been meaning to ask. This is all good, but what are we gonna do if Thor comes back?"
Sunset held up a finger as if she was going to answer Ellen's question, but then lowered it after a moment. She folded her arms and took thirty seconds to think about it. After tapping her index fingers together and shifting her mouth to the side, she shrugged.
"I'm still working on that one, to be honest," said Sunset.
Ellen gave Sunset a blank, unimpressed stare. Sunset weakly laughed in response.
"Anyway, moving on . . . ."
Sunset turned back to the window as the Dreadnought reached its intended altitude.
"It's time for the show."
As Sunset stepped to the front of the command centre, Obadiah nervously rubbed his hands together. He knew what was going to come next. He knew how his design work on the Dreadnought had been crucial to her success. He knew that, on a certain level, he was directly responsible for everything that was about to happen.
Debbie saw his gesture, and squeezed on his shoulder. He looked up at her.
"No backing out now," she said.
"Yeah."
Sunset brushed a hand down the front of her outfit. Rhona typed in another command string, activating the broadcast system. Sunset smiled as a camera bot started recording her.
"Hello, world. If you know who I am, then you already know you should be paying attention. If you don't know who I am, you'll find out very soon. Some people call me a terrorist. Others consider me a hero. Depends on perspective, I suppose. But I'm here, now, to tell you that I am neither of those things. I prefer to think of myself as a visionary."
Obadiah glanced at the data streaming information, which showed that numerous world news outlets and internet sites had already picked up Sunset's broadcast.
"Now, I know that sounds rather egotistical of me," said Sunset, waving a hand down. "But to be honest, I can't help it. There are so many people out there who quite simply don't have the resolution to get what they want out of life. As for me, I've never had that problem. And that's because of one very specific thing."
Sunset turned to the side and snapped her fingers. Two Risk Control troopers walked onto the bridge, carrying a hostage with them. The hostage had a bag over his head, and both his hands and feet were bound. The troopers placed the hostage next to Sunset, who took out a pistol. She then pulled the bag off, to reveal the face of David Cameron.
Cameron was gagged, but screamed the best he could. Sunset smiled at the camera.
"I don't give a damn about the consequences."
Sunset aimed the pistol at Cameron's forehead and pulled the trigger, blowing his brains out in front of millions. Lance gasped in horror. Sunset chuckled as she blew steam off the pistol's barrel.
"Now, I'm sure that just mobilized everyone's military against me, and that, of course, was completely expected. But, I'm afraid to tell the hysterical masses that it's also utterly pointless. My Dreadnought is a flying fortress that can target anywhere on the planet. Anyone I consider a threat, and you know who you are, will be eliminated without mercy. This is Zero Protocol."
Sunset made finger quotes.
"So, I give the so-called 'leaders' of this world an ultimatum. And because I'm such a nice person, I'm gonna put it in layman's terms for you. If you want to live, you immediately relinquish all your sovereign power and recognize me as your undisputed ruler. But, I'm sure you want to know what happens if you were to say no."
Sunset tapped a button on her wrist device.
"Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battle station."
Sunset smiled at the camera for a couple seconds. She then broke out into a fit of laughter and wiped a tear from her eye.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I've just always wanted to say that. It's a classic. But it also happens to be completely appropriate."
With Sunset's command key activated from her wrist device, Rhona could in turn use the Dreadnought's main targeting system. She placed the cursor on the notification for Franklin Hall. The targeting system identified that he was currently in Vienna.
"Let me show you exactly what I'm talking about," said Sunset. "The Dreadnought's primary accelerator cannon doesn't launch missiles. I'm a little bit more forward thinking. There's no residual radiation or anything like that. Let's call them ecologically friendly weapons of mass destruction. I just shoot metal cylinders into the air. But, what goes up must come down, so . . . ."
Sunset snapped her fingers. Rhona pushed the button for the accelerator cannon. The cannon, which was built into the top of the Dreadnought, lit up and fired a metal cylinder into the sky.
"If you're in Vienna right now, I would suggest running."
The metal cylinder spun in the air as it reached the apex of its climb. It then turned downwards and started plummeting back to Earth. People all around the world were watching Sunset's broadcast, but the people in and around Vienna could actually see the cylinder fall out of the sky with their own eyes. They could only scream in horror as it came down towards them.
The cylinder struck the city's Project Pegasus facility, but the effect went far beyond that.
The collision instantly annihilated everything within a radius of a hundred kilometres. The residual shockwave blew apart much of the remaining infrastructure, and the massive crack in the ground created earthquakes that destroyed everything else. Within the span of ten seconds, Vienna was wiped off the face of the Earth.
Sunset put a hand on her chest and made a fake gasp.
"Oooh," said Sunset, with a sardonic smirk. "That's gotta hurt. Probably won't get much resale value in that market."
Obadiah, Lance and Whitney all watched the footage of Vienna's destruction with looks of terror in their eyes. The profile for Franklin Hall on the global map turned red.
"But mark my words," said Sunset. "In ten minutes, my accelerator cannon will be fully charged and ready for another shot. So if you want to avoid literally being bombed back to the Stone Age, you'll do exactly what I want. Clock's ticking. And if you're thinking of sending everything you have to try and stop me, I have only one thing to say."
Sunset glared at the screen as she placed her hands together.
"My name is Sunset Bain, and this is my world now. Do your worst."
Janice put up a timer for the accelerator cannon on the armour's HUD. Tasha narrowed her eyes as she flew forward, with a fleet of Royal Air Force fighters right behind her. Natalia was also flying her Quinjet alongside Tasha. Given the situation, Tasha had Janice link up with the Royal Air Force's command centre, allowing her to speak to all of the military forces at once.
"Nine minutes until the accelerator cannon is ready to fire," said Janice.
"Alright, everyone," said the lead pilot. "You heard the lady. Time's tickin', so let's take down that giant banana boat."
Tasha glanced at Natalia through the glass of her cockpit.
"Hey, Natalia," said Tasha. "I know you're pissed about Lance. I've been there. But we gotta stay on target, okay?"
Natalia scoffed.
"Like you're not trying to save Frost and Stane," she said, scowling. "How about this? You go save your friends, and I'll do my own thing."
"You are one of my friends."
Natalia blinked.
"Yeah, I wanna save them," said Tasha. "But I don't wanna lose you either."
The lines on Natalia's face started to soften.
"Coming within range," said Janice.
As the fleet got closer to the Dreadnought, the monstrous ship unveiled its defenses. Hundreds of defensive turrets and cannons emerged from the sides and the underbelly, with all of them turning to aim at the incoming fighters.
"Nothing's ever easy," said Natalia.
"Holy tits," said Tasha.
"Engage!" shouted the lead pilot.
The fighters launched missiles at the Dreadnought. The turrets returned fire with laser beams and cannon blasts. The fleet broke off into evasive manuevers, while a magnetic field generated by the Dreadnought sent the missiles flying off course, with most of them harmlessly exploding in the air.
"What just happened?!" asked Natalia.
"Scanning," said Janice. "The Dreadnought is protected by a magnetic defensive shield. It throws missile attacks off-target. If you want to hit it, you'll have to move within the field."
"And right up close to those cannons," said another pilot.
"Well, I was heading inside anyway, wasn't I?" said Tasha. "Ya with me, Nat?"
Natalia nodded in response. As the aerial battle raged around them, Tasha and Natalia rocketed straight for the Dreadnought. They were forced to dodge and weave to avoid cannon blasts, but managed to make it to a side hangar unscathed. They went inside and were met with multiple squads of Risk Control troops, which they made short work of.
Natalia used the Quinjet's weapons to destroy several AIM shuttles there were parked inside of the hangar. She then landed her jet and leaped out of the cockpit. Tasha blasted away the last Risk Control trooper, only to see two familiar enemies march into the hangar. Anya spun her rotating hand cannons, while Scarlotti activated his energy whips.
Natalia stood at Tasha's side and equipped her stun batons. Tasha held up her repulsors.
"Six minutes until the accelerator cannon is ready to fire," said Janice.
"Let's do this," said Natalia.
Tasha flew towards Anya, while Natalia ran towards Scarlotti. Anya unleashed the power of her rotating hand cannons, but Tasha formed her energy shield by holding her arms crossed out in front of her. She imploded the shield by thrusting her arms out sideways, striking Anya's armour with the residual energy displacement.
Natalia dived into a barrel roll to avoid Scarlotti's vertical whip attack. Immediately bouncing back to her feet, she used her momentum to launch herself into an aerial roundhouse kick, striking him in the side of the head. Although he was stunned by this move, he still managed to perform a horizontal sweep with his other whip, which Natalia leaped over.
Anya slammed her left fist against the floor, which Tasha dodged using her mobility thrusters. Anya shook her head in confusion, having never seen Tasha move that fast before. Tasha was immediately behind the villain's head, bashing her in the back with a double leg kick. Anya swung her arm around, but Tasha flew out of the way and rapid-fired her repulsors.
Natalia struck Scarlotti twice with her batons, but the electric strikes were weakened by his armour. She was then forced to cartwheel backwards to avoid a slash attack from one of his whips. Before she could move in for another attack, Scarlotti wrapped his left whip around her right stun baton and yanked it out of her hand, throwing her off-balance.
Seeing that Natalia was about to be hit by one of Scarlotti's attacks, Tasha boosted over to him and grabbed the end of his right whip. Scarlotti gasped as Tasha swung his entire body around before throwing him at Anya. One villain slammed into another, toppling them both over. Scarlotti was instantly knocked out. Tasha delivered a powered punch to Anya's dome carapace to do the same to her.
"Four minutes until the accelerator cannon is ready to fire," said Janice.
"Can you gimme a map of this place?!" asked Tasha.
"I've already been working on it, ma'am. Three-dimensional map data is on the HUD now. Destroying the power core is the only way to render the cannon non-functional in time to prevent any further destruction."
Tasha quickly looked over the map.
"Power core and the bridge aren't in the same place. Okay."
Tasha turned to Natalia.
"I'm heading for the core. We'll need firepower to deal with it. You go for the bridge. See if you can take down Sunset . . . . and find anyone else you can."
Natalia nodded.
"If I find them, I'll get them out."
"Thank you."
Tasha flew out of the hangar and into the hallway network. Natalia ran down a different hallway, with Janice directing her to the bridge by speaking into her earpiece.
Sunset narrowed her eyes as she watched the aerial battle from the command centre. Another Royal Air Force fighter was shot out of the sky by her defensive cannons, but even though the fleet was being thinned out, she knew that more reinforcements were on the way. However, the damage to the Dreadnought up to that point had been negligible, because of the magnetic shield.
That is, until a group of fighters got close enough to hit some of the larger cannons with missile blasts. The fighters were all destroyed in the attack, but the subsequent explosion rocked the entire bridge. Nearly everyone was jostled, with some people falling to the floor. Seeing his opportunity, Lance wrapped his arm around Ellen's neck and pulled her out of the room without anyone noticing.
He grabbed her pistol off her belt and pointed it at her temple.
"You're coming with me," he said. "And you're taking me to my daughter."
Lance slipped away, taking Ellen with him. Whitney held her chest and breathed in and out several times as she got back to her feet. Rhona gulped when she saw Tasha battling Risk Control troopers in the hallways on her security monitors.
"Sunset!"
Sunset turned around.
"Stark's on board," said Rhona. "She's headed for the core."
Whitney gasped. Sunset grumbled and clenched her fists. She then looked at Obadiah's office.
"I think we both know what time it is, Mister Stane," said Sunset.
Obadiah didn't need to say anything. He already knew what she was referring to. Debbie looked at Obadiah with a worried glance, but he didn't have anything to say to her either. He knew this moment would come, and it was far too late to do anything about it. He walked to the back of the office and placed his hand against a fingerprint panel.
Once his prints were verified, a door opened to reveal a body table. He placed himself into it, and metal straps latched around his arms and legs. Debbie frowned and gently held Obadiah's hand with hers.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"I know."
Debbie stood back as the door closed. Obadiah let out a deep breath as the body table moved downwards, to another level of the ship. It was lowered into a circular metal room, and Obadiah closed his eyes as assembly arms started to fit pieces of armour around his body. The armour was similar to Iron Maiden's, but taller, stronger, and with silver plating.
The face plate locked in. On the red HUD, he could see the armour's designation.
Iron Monger.