The Statue of Liberty, commissioned in 1876 and then presented to the United States ten years later, served as a welcomed sight to the immigrants seeking refuge in America. It was a sign to many of rebirth or of new beginnings. Appropriate, then, that a newly reborn god was climbing it from the base up using nothing but his hands.
"Aye, lovely lady," Hercules said as he grasped another hold on the face of the statue. "Worry not. I'll not bruise your metal flesh. I merely seek a high point to issue my challenge."
The copper sheeting that covered the skeleton of the statue would be relatively easy for Hercules to bend, given his incalculable strength. Therefore he gracefully pulled himself and his weapons up the side, drawing more than a little attraction from the watching crowd on Liberty Island.
A news helicopter circled nearby with one of its passengers aiming a bulky camera out of the side hatch. The spectacle Hercules had been a major part of just thirteen months ago had put him in a bit of a limelight with the media. When he had been spotted climbing the towering statue, the news crews had scrambled to get their first shots of the hero. This chopper was undoubtedly only the first in what would be a plethora of news crews covering the scene.
Hercules adjusted the thick bowstring strapped across his chest as he grasped another hold. His mace hung at his side and the arrows resting on his back beside his carved wooden bow bounced minutely as he climbed.
He swung his foot up onto the right shoulder of the statue, admiring the large torch it held over its head as he stepped out onto the arm, taking his first break from climbing. "A wondrous sight for the Prince of Power to behold," Hercules remarked as he dusted off his hands. "Aye, this shall be a fine place to present my gift."
He turned around and looked up to the face of the statue. He bent at the knees slightly and with a minimal amount of effort, jumped into the air and catapulted himself up between the spikes of the crown. He landed delicately atop the statue's head, touching down as if he had just hopped a few feet in the air as opposed to the height he had reached. He secured his mace at his hip and slipped his bow off of his back, placing its bottom on the head and testing the tightness of the bowstring. With a few flicks he nodded in satisfaction and then looked to the sky.
"Fair weather," he stated with another nod. "Zeus has provided me with a fine day."
He walked to the edge of the crown and motioned to the news helicopter to come closer. At first the pilot was hesitant, as too often the media had gotten too close to heroes and been caught in something worth staying away from. But at the insistence of Hercules, the chopper finally came close enough for Hercules to be heard over the roar of the blades. The microphone attached to the camera had difficulty picking him up, but the strong lungs of the son of Zeus did much to carry the god's words over the noise of the chopper.
"Hear me, Iron Man!" Hercules hollered. "I, mighty Hercules, bid you a challenge! Face me in battle and prove your mettle lest I rip your chosen mantle away by force!"
IRON MAN
Issue #10 written by D. Golightly
& C.W. Russette
"Clash of the Titans"
"Well…this sure is a crappy way to start out my day."
Jim Rhodes smirked and let out a single breath of a laugh at Abe's comment, but he didn't pull his attention away from the twin screens on the console in front on him. The screen on the left was showing live footage of Hercules standing on top of the Stature of Liberty issuing his challenge, and the screen on the right displayed the floating head of Mainframe, an artificial intelligence based on the late Tony Stark.
"I am sure that Hercules means you no harm," the digital voice of Mainframe said. "It was never in his nature to pick a fight without good cause. Whatever his reasoning, I doubt he believes he is in the wrong."
"Are we watching the same feed?" Abe Jenkins, the latest to don the armor of Iron Man, replied. "He's outright threatening me!"
"Sounds more like an invitation to me," Rhodes added. "You better suit up."
"What? You can't seriously expect me to go out there!"
Abe waved his hands over his head slightly in agitation. The warehouse they were in was unoccupied aside from them, leaving Abe enough privacy to house his retrofitted Iron Man defensive armor. Ever since the demise of the heroes at the hands of Onslaught, the world was in desperate need of good men to fill the void. Abe, for reasons all his own, had eventually left his criminal ways behind and stepped up to fill that void, even just a little bit. He had quickly learned since becoming Iron Man, however, that being a hero wasn't always easy.
"You're going," Rhodes stated.
"Let's take a moment and review, okay?" Abe stuck out his hand and stuck up his index finger. "First, he's a god. Second, I'm a recovering crime-oholic. Third, he's a god. Fourth, Justin Hammer ordered me to report in today. Oh, and fourth…he's a god! He'll kill me!"
"You'll be there and back in time to meet Hammer. Armor up."
Abe pushed out what sounded like an exhausted sign of irritability. He shook his head and placed his hands on his hips, striking a defiant pose. "No way. I didn't sign up for this. No one said anything about one of the freakin' Avengers calling me out."
Rhodes rubbed the bridge of his nose as he said, "Abe, do you remember when you issued your first statement to the media? You said that Iron Man was back and that you would do the right thing, because that's what heroes do. Well, this is just like that. You need to be held accountable by the other heroes just like you do the general public. You said it yourself back then: this is the court of public opinion. If you don't show up people might start thinking you have something to hide."
"But I do have something to hide! What do you think that Ahnold impersonator is going to do if he finds out I used to be the Beetle?"
"What do you think he will do if you do not show up?" Mainframe inquired. "Hercules is many things, but he is not a quitter. He will find you if you do not answer his call."
Rhodes arched an eyebrow and maintained his stare. Abe, flustered, let his arms fall off his hips and turned to walk to where his armor was kept. Outnumbered, and possibly outsmarted, Abe Jenkins mentally prepared himself for what was sure to be an interesting encounter.
"So how would Tony Stark have gone about handling this?" Iron Man said into his helmet's comlink.
"I can only guess," Mainframe replied through the ear piece. "I am only a basic imprint of Tony Stark's personality. I have memories of working with Hercules through the Avengers and given those I can safely say one thing."
"What's that?"
"Do not make any sudden movements."
The Statue of Liberty wasn't very far from the warehouse Abe resided in, only just across the Hudson and a few miles up. He wished that he could live a more public life, but with someone like Justin Hammer as your new employer, it probably wasn't safe to rent an apartment under his own name. Or any name, to be honest. To make things more difficult, both Rumiko Fujikawa and Nick Fury were eager to ask him a few questions, too.
And now Hercules.
Becoming one of the very heroes he used to fight with on a regular basis had already taken a bit of a mental toll on Abe. As the Beetle, things were easy and decisions came fast. Whether it was ripping off an electronics company for himself or someone else, being a villain seemed infinitely easier than wearing the good guy clothes. Now that he was Iron Man, he had assumed that things would work out even easier. After all, who would give a hero a hard time? But that hadn't been the case. Not at all. It seemed like now that he had switched sides he was more sought after than before.
As Iron Man approached, his used the options on his HUD to zoom in on the Statue of Liberty's crown. A pale green covered the statue's copper skin, but at the top the man he was coming to chat with stood out remarkably well. He doubted he would have to augment the visor's zoom very far, seeing as how a strapping archetype couldn't hope to hide against such a background.
"No sudden movements, huh?"
"Keep in mind that we are not sure of his exact reasoning yet," Mainframe said. "He may be here on friendly terms, but given what I know about Hercules, I doubt this is an entirely innocent encounter."
Iron Man neared the top of the statue and made eye contact with the muscular Hercules. His hair was shorter than the last time he had seen him. His scanners automatically locked onto the mace hanging at his side and the arrows strapped to his back, marking them in red circles that indicated potential weapons. Abe swung around and circled the statue a few times, using his boot jets to smoothly form the flight pattern. Hercules subtly stepped around in the same spot, keeping his eyes locked onto Iron Man.
Finally, after three revolutions, Iron Man kicked his legs out in front of him and touched down onto the tip of one of the crown's points. He wasn't ready to be close to Hercules yet. Being here was enough to make him apprehensive. He would keep his distance for the moment.
"It would seem you are unsure of something," Hercules remarked. Even though his deep voice issued the words in a casual manner, there was a certain hardness to them, as if he was being weary himself. "If thou art a true hero as claimed, you have no need to fear me."
"Forgive me if I seem a little standoffish," Abe replied, his voice synthesized through the helmet.
"Remember," Mainframe chirped into his ear, "stay calm and you will be fine."
"Aye, I can appreciate your role," Hercules commented with a slight nod. "Who better than Hercules to sympathize with a warrior in skin not his own? For years I wandered as a man unlike myself, caught between worlds that I had an attachment to. Now, the fence I straddled has been reset, much as you seem to have been."
"Reset?"
"Aye. Born again. This world is in dire need of heroes. For this I have called you out, Iron Man."
"I'm not sure I really understand."
Hercules smirked. "I present you with my gift, and if you are noble, then I permit you to bare the mantle you have taken up."
"Abner—"
"Gift?" Iron Man asked, ignoring Mainframe momentarily.
"Aye," was all Hercules said before launching himself at Iron Man.
The pseudo-god of strength was faster than Iron Man would have given him credit for. Before his targeting computers could react Hercules had closed the distance between them with his hop and latched a clutched hand onto his shoulder. His left hand holding Abe in place for but a second, Hercules right hand then balled into a fist and smashed into Iron Man's facemask.
Alarms sounded instantly inside the helmet, startling Abe even more than the punch. The armor was bent not only from where it had been struck, but grooves had been formed around Hercules closed left hand also. The armor plating invented and refined by the late Tony Stark had been molded, shaped, hammered, pelted, cooled, and then repeated nearly a hundred times. With each fold of the composite metal, it's durability increased by threefold. That, along with the special compounds incorporated into the armor and the secret treatments it was given to strengthen it, made it some of the most durable matter on the planet.
But that was science, and science meant little to a man like Hercules.
Iron Man reacted by stepping back off the tip of the crown's spire he had perched on, igniting his boot jets to shoot away and get some distance from his onset attacker. But Hercules didn't release his grip. He instead pulled Abe back in, tossing him with one hand like a rag doll across the crown's surface. Iron Man's boot jets weren't synched with his anti-gravity engine and so instead of flying off once thrown, he crashed into the lip of the crown.
"What the hell!" Iron Man swore.
"I tried to warn you," Mainframe chirped. "Hercules always referred to his fighting prowess as a gift. His gift. Meaning that to him fighting is almost a form of communication."
"Perfect. So what do I do?"
Before Mainframe could answer, a sharp thwang! sounded and something struck Abe in the chest. It hit him hard. Real hard. He had already gotten up on one knee, but whatever had collided with him, which even through the armor felt like another godly punch, knocked him back over onto his side.
A schematic of his chest plate popped up on his HUD, showing in red where something had punctured the outer layer of his armor. He sat up, looked down, and was shocked. There was an arrow sticking nearly a centimeter into his chest plate. It was one of the arrows that only seconds ago had been firmly resting in the quiver on Hercules back.
Even if the arrowhead had been made of pure adamantium, Abe knew that general physics would have kept it from puncturing his armor, even as little as it just had. The amount of force necessary to actually drive something to pierce his armor would be almost astronomical, mathematically speaking.
He yanked the arrow out, let it drop, and fixed Hercules with a glare. The cold and dented helmet presented a rather menacing look, which caused Hercules to smile.
"I have your attention," Hercules stated and grinned as he readied another arrow, balancing the end of it on the bowstring. Even from across the top of the statue's crown Abe could hear the string stretch and fight against Hercules' pull. Whatever that bow was, it wasn't natural.
"I'll give you a lot more than that, you jerk."
Iron Man kicked his boot jets on, thrusting up the throttle as high as it would go. He pushed off the inner lip of the crown and stretched out his arms over his head just before he crashed into Hercules. The force of using his own body as a missile took Hercules off guard, sending him flying out into the open air. The god grunted when struck, although Abe didn't get the sense that it was from a sense of pain; more surprise than anything else.
The anti-gravity engine that had been a secret project of Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. nearly two years ago halted Iron Man's own momentum. It was because of that specific device that he was able to exert a limited amount of control over his trajectory, but the armor still hadn't been able to zip around a corner with the precision of his Beetle armor. Still, it was what he had to work with.
As Hercules fell a dozen feet down in the open air, his limbs flayed out from the strike, Iron Man used his targeting computer to lock on to him. "Maybe you could quit while you are ahead," Mainframe suggested as the blinking red icon slipped over top of Hercules' image.
The iris of Iron Man's central, chest-mounted uni-beam opened up and unleashed a single stream of raw energy, which struck Hercules in midair. The blast slammed into the falling god and even though it only lasted a split second, it was enough to hasten his fall to the ground from imminent to immediate.
"He started it," Iron Man muttered defensively.
Hercules impacted into the concrete base of Liberty Island, punching a human-sized crater into the foundation. People had already begun to scatter once Hercules had issued his challenge, leaving only a few brave observers nearby that were well out of harm's way. Aside from three news helicopters, Iron Man and Hercules had the monument to themselves.
A breeze washed over the island, blowing off of the surrounding water. It shifted Iron Man slightly where he hovered, but he maintained his gaze at the crater. He didn't want to risk taking his eyes off of it. To his amazement, Hercules sat up inside the crater and stood as easily as if he had been shoved over on the playground.
"Whoa. What does it take to shake this guy?"
"For someone who has subdued the Hulk," Mainframe said, "probably more than that. You should try and talk your way out of this."
Iron Man slowly descended, leaving his targeting computer locked onto Hercules brooding form. He lowered himself to a few dozen feet directly overtop of the muscular hero and said, "Are you satisfied yet?"
"Satisfaction is discovered, not given, and mine has yet to be found."
Hercules bent at his knees for a split second before he launched himself straight up, sailing straight for Iron Man. He struck Abe just below the jaw with an uppercut that brought an entire galaxy of stars in front of his eyes. Once his jump had overtaken Iron Man, Hercules then kicked down hard into Abe's back, sending him now flailing into the same crater he had just been evacuated.
Proximity alarms sounded but there was nothing Abe could do. He smashed head first into the crumpled ground, wishing that he had stayed in bed that morning and ignored Rhodes entirely.
He wheezed and groaned, but managed to open his eyes. His HUD was on the blink, showing bits of information in clumps instead of scrolling it. His general sensors were offline but motor function remained. His targeting computer was done for. Anything he did from here on out was going to be his skill alone.
He reached up and placed a hand out of the crater, pushing down on the flat concrete to help stand up. A second later he felt a foot stomp down on that same hand, making him wince.
"Oh, c'mon! You can't even let a guy stand up, for crying out loud!"
"Human, you are unworthy to even grovel at my feet."
Behind his helmet, Abe blinked. That voice definitely did not belong to Hercules. He felt a hand clasp onto the top of his chest plate behind his beck and yank him out of the crater. He found himself looking directly into the smooth, silvery, metal face of a monster more deadly than just about any other villain he had encountered in his long career.
Ultron.
Abe squirmed, his eyes latched onto the oversized mouth that took up the majority of Ultron's face. "Where the hell did you come from?"
"I am everywhere," Ultron responded as energy bubbled up inside his mouth. "I will appropriate your technology into my own. Assimilation is imminent!"
"Abner, you must get away, now!" Mainframe urged.
Iron Man placed his open gauntlets on either side of Ultron's rounded head and let loose with his repulsors. The energy shook Ultron's entire body, forcing the deadly robot to lose his grip.
Slipping away and hovering up above Ultron, Iron Man readied another volley of repulsor blasts when he heard Hercules shout a battle cry.
"Metal one! Zeus has blessed me with this chance for retribution!"
Hercules plowed into the side of Ultron, tackling the robot around the waist. The clean, smooth metal hide of Ultron withstood his embrace, and the robot jabbed its elbows down into the small of Hercules' back, causing the mighty hero to stumble. Hercules released the robot and sent it flying into the base of the statue with a right haymaker that would have decapitated anyone else.
"Help him!" Mainframe said.
"Are you crazy?" Abe replied. "You want me to help the same guy that's trying to put my ass in a sling? Forget it!"
"Ultron is worse, trust me. Ultron needs to be shut down, dismantled, and melted now."
As much as Abe wanted to disagree with the program, he couldn't. Ultron had taken down the Avengers several times, only to barely be defeated time and again. Now that the Avengers were gone, there was no unified force to actually stand up to the crazed robot.
Ultron was the creation of Henry Pym, a sentient machine turned evil. It wanted death and destruction of the human race, and it would settle for nothing less. Hercules seemed to be keeping his ground against it, trading blows back and forth with the robot, but that wasn't a solution. Abe had no idea why Ultron was here, but it didn't really matter. Not now that he had a responsibility as Iron Man.
With an irritated grunt, Iron Man plunged back down into the fray with both repulsors blasting. Without his targeting computer he was shooting practically blind, but most of his shots found their intended mark.
Hercules looked up and acknowledged Iron Man with a nod, choosing to hold back for another moment while he made his strafing approach. Abe hadn't thought about it before, but that made sense. Hercules was an Avenger and despite his obvious desire to engage in battle that rivaled any bloodlust, he knew that Ultron was a threat bigger than even his own ego. That small nod was Hercules' way of accepting help.
The repulsor blasts kept Ultron from advancing but they weren't doing any actual damage. Iron Man knew that this wasn't a real solution; he was only buying time to try and figure a way to put the robot down for good. One of the problems with an Ultron body was that it was usually composed of vibranium, or worse, adamantium. That made shutting him down fairly difficult.
Although given that Ultron was still mechanical…
Pink energy flared up inside Ultron's mouth and similar energy suddenly spilled out of his arms, engulfing Abe. His mind suddenly went blank and he lost his train of thought. He couldn't coordinate the armor's functions and he stopped his barrage of repulsors. He began to waver in his flight path, lowering a few feet in the air.
"Organics are weak in comparison to a perfect example such as Ultron," the robot stated. "When this conflict is over I will crack open your armor and pour the useless organic matter to the ground."
"You will not find this one weak, inhuman monster!" Hercules called out.
The mighty god charged Ultron again, this time swinging with his mace. Already distracted from the assault on Iron Man, Ultron was unprepared for the swift strike that Hercules laid out, which in turn cut off the strange pink ray that was confusing Abe.
Once the pink beam shut off, Iron Man regained his composure and realized what had happened: he remembered that one of Ultron's chief weapons against the humans he despised so much was something called an Encephalo-Ray. He remembered Baron Zemo mentioned something about trying to reverse engineer it, since its ability to render human brain functions inert would be useful for his plans. However, he had never mastered the technology.
It was horrifying to feel the effects of the Encephalo-Ray in such a way. He had lost control of most of his faculties. Prolonged exposure could mean any number of things, including mind control. Ultron was more dangerous than he realized.
As he watched Hercules smash his mace into the plated armor of Ultron, he saw something amazing happen: a crack, just below the neck, in the plating. He remembered the last thought he had before being blasted with the pink ray, and dove to the ground to help Hercules.
"Herc!" he called out, but he wasn't sure if the brute heard him over the noise of the clanging metal.
Hercules raised back his mace once more, ready to strike, but Ultron delivered a fast punch that knocked the god up into the air. Unable to control his trajectory, Hercules was heading like a missile for one of the nearby news choppers. The helicopter wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time and would likely go up in a blazing fire ball once the hero smashed into it.
Abe punched his throttle and pushed his gyroscopes to their limits in order to get the angle right, but managed to get between Hercules and the chopper, catching the god with open arms. "Got you!" he yelled with an oof!
"My thanks," Hercules said as he wrapped a bulky arm around Iron Man's to help support his own weight. "It would seem you are noble, which you will enjoy knowing pleases Hercules."
"Uh, right. Listen, I think I figured something out. We might have a shot at taking that thing down."
"Then pray tell, Iron Man. The son of Zeus would like nothing more than to see that wretched fiend fall for good."
"I saw you managed to crack his armor. Think you can widen that up some more?"
"Aye, with ease."
And with that Hercules slipped his arm out from under Abe's and dropped back down to Liberty Island, breaking into a full run toward Ultron once he landed. His mace in hand again, Hercules began to dodge and weave within Ultron's reach, pounding away as he could. Now that he had a particular spot to aim at, the heroic god of legend seemed to have a fire ignited within him.
Iron Man checked his systems and made sure that he hadn't been too damaged to make his plan work. So far, so good. The one device he needed was still operating at peak capacity.
"Your efforts are futile!" Ultron hissed just before being struck for the fourth time by Hercules' mace.
"We'll see about that," Abe muttered. "Herc! Hold him!"
Hercules complied, swinging under Ultron's reach and locking him in a full-nelson hold. Abe could hear the metal straining as Hercules applied more pressure than was really needed. Iron Man landed in front of the pair, standing eye to eye with Ultron. He saw that the small crack below Ultron's neck had now been widened into a puncture, which would hopefully be wide enough for what he was about to do.
Cycling through the options on his HUD, which was still blinking passages of information at him, Abe selected the one weapon in his arsenal that had a shot at deactivating Ultron: an electromagnetic pulse.
He activated the EMP, which unleashed the energy in a single wave that encircled their position. It was close range, meaning it would only be effective up to a few yards. The pulse reacted to the electronic circuitry it came across, namely, Ultron's inner workings. Now that Ultron's plating was open, the EMP had a way inside his otherwise impregnable body. Ultron shuddered and then slumped down into Hercules' arms, the bubbling energy in his wide mouth slowly dying off.
"Amazing!" Hercules said happily as he let the defeated robot fall to the ground. "He fell easily against our combined might. Again, I am pleased!"
"Yeah, right." Iron Man stumbled when Hercules slapped him on the back, but he managed to not fall over. "I think we—"
"The day is ours!" Hercules shouted over him. "Hold thy tongue and let those we have saved glory in our..." Hercules stopped. "Nay, that way lies vanity, hubris is a dangerous thing, Iron Man."
Abe watched the ancient hero stare at a point in the distance and sensed waiting was the best option.
"I have done my duty. I tested thee and you did not want for courage or a stout heart. You accepted the gift with honor and should be proud. Our work here is finished. There are those that would ask us of today's events and we must answer. Come, my friend."
Abe wished he had that on tape to play back for Rhodes.
Hercules clasped Iron Man around the shoulders and walked him away from the now slag of metal that was Ultron. Abe wanted to push away, examine the body, but he supposed that could wait for the moment. One of the news helicopters touched down onto Liberty Island and Abe thought about how different an experience it would be to actually want to be put in front of a news camera.
EPILOGUE
"Truly, thou have Heimdall's eyes to have so cleverly discovered the Achilles heel of our adversary!"
Hercules clapped Iron Man on the back again, this time holding back his brute strength. They stood back atop the Statue of Liberty, this time without the threat of combat. The media had since moved away and the Ultron body had been removed from the site, taken into the care of Code: Blue, the city's police superhuman task force. SHIELD would confiscate the body eventually, Abe was sure. But that didn't matter. He already had time to inspect it before it had been taken away, confirming his suspicions.
"When I saw that you had cracked it," Abe replied, "I figured it couldn't have been made of adamantium. You're strong, Herc, but I don't think you could have cracked adamantium so easily. No offense."
"None, taken. In truth it is not easy for me to crack mortal adamantium." Hercules waited for Iron Man to take the bait offered but Abe wasn't interested in placating the god's ego.
"Listen, Herc. I think there's more to what happened today than just a random attack. Ultron said he wanted to assimilate my tech. That means he was planning something and he showed up here with a purpose."
"Aye," Hercules said, nodding.
"And since his body wasn't made of a stronger metal, I'm beginning to wonder if that was even Ultron at all."
"I have bested that monstrosity before. It appeared to bear a striking resemblance to Ultron and even shared his desires."
"I think it was working with Ultron, but I don't it was Ultron. It might have been a drone. Or not. I don't know. I may never know."
Hercules folded his massive arms over his chest as he turned to stare off at the horizon, admiring its beauty against the backdrop of the city. "It would not be the first time that Ultron posed a threat on several fronts. Fear not; I will give this matter attention when the time comes. When that occurs, it would be my honor to have thee at my side again in battle. Until then, I have other things to be weary of."
"Such as?"
"There is another that, like yourself, has taken up the mantle of one of my former comrades in arms. The thunder god Thor was like a brother to me, and I have heard whisperings of his possible return. Dost thou know of this man that has raised up my fallen brother's hammer?"
Iron Man nodded. "I saw something on the news. I haven't run across him myself."
"The son of Zeus will ensure that our paths cross. I will present him with the gift and see what kind of man would dare impersonate a god."
Iron Man checked his systems one last time and prepared to leave, grateful that the test put before him by Hercules was finally over with. If there was a new incarnation of Thor out there somewhere, he didn't envy him.
NEXT ISSUE: A person from Abe's past catches up with him, although he isn't entirely thrilled to see who it is. Plus, Justin Hammer sets into motion his most recent plans, and guess who's at the center of them? Probably not who you think… "Shell Game" begins next!