Inventor, businessman, ladies' man, and super hero. Gravely injured by an act of industrial sabotage, billionaire genius Tony Stark saved his own life by designing a life-sustaining shell - the hi-tech armor that transformed him into the invincible Iron Man! Today, the world thinks Iron Man is an employee - Tony Stark's personal bodyguard - and in this dual role, he faces corporate intrigue and super-powered menaces. He is a modern-day knight in armor, fighting injustice wherever it rears its head.
The Invincible Iron Man 2.0 "Deep Blue Part 2: Pyrric Victory!"
Note: Iron Man is the sole property of Marvel Entertainment. These stories are written for fun and not profit. Hope you enjoy them.
The X'yman ship…Iron Man checked his gauntlet's status display to see what damage, if any, did his armor acquire. The display showed the interior circuitry and all of working parts of the armor before highlighting what was wrong.
"Hm, the inter-connective power cell was damaged when my space exo-armor was destroyed. It looks like my suit has leaked almost all of my main power."
Iron Man looked around to get a sense of his surroundings to see if he could find some thing in the room, he was in that could be used to restore some of or all of his power. For the power, depletion monitor on his status display was barely above the red. The armored avenger ran his hands over what looked like a small generator, which was attached to some kind of turbine to see if it generated any power.
"It seems this device is creating a massive amount of electrical power in order to cool this turbine. If I'm correct, this turbine is the air recycler. Well, I only need a small charge and I am sure this device can give me enough and still supply plenty to the turbines."
Iron Man attached a power siphoner to the generator and messed around with the modulations so that he wouldn't burn out his armor's circuits. As he waited for his armor to recharge, his audio enhancer picked up some voices from directly above.
"No, let me go. Stop!"
"Let her go!"
"Shut up human!"
The sounds grew more distant as the crew of the Excelsior was led elsewhere. Iron Man checked his power readout and he was finally fully charged. He didn't expect to get charged up that quickly, but then this technology was different from anything he had seen so far. He removed the power siphoner device and attached it back to his armor before he started on his way to the direction of where he last heard the voices.
The thick misty and humid atmosphere of the ship's interior made it hard to differentiate all the different heat signatures that were layered through out the deck that Iron Man was on. So using his chin toggle and HUD display, Iron Man switched his scanners to a different setting in order to keep from being blinded by all the heat signatures.
He passed several hallways and two security locked doors, which he overridden with combination of his armor's systems and his own genius. After taking an elevator to the next deck, he paused as he heard the voices of the Excelsior crew again through his audio enhancers.
"Let me go!"
"Shut up human!"
-Smack-
The sound of a body hitting the floor caused Iron Man to quicken his pace through the hallway. Once he got to the door his audio enhancers picked up the sounds of muffled screams and they sounded like Sashay Bernard. Iron Man punched through the doors just in time to see the Sashay placed on a scaffold that had some kind of slicing device on it. The X'yamin's looked at the Avenger for a moment before looking at the woman and their guns. They licked their lips and made a break for it only to catch repulsors to their sides. The two X'yamin's were thrown across the room by the force of the repulsors, crashed into the wall, and slid down unconscious.
"Are you all right, Ms. Bernard?"
"Iron Man? What are you doing here?"
"Mister Stark sent to check up on you and your teammates."
Bernard got up and Stark noticed that she was clearly nude with no clothing. He was glad he wore this helmet, which hid his features and where he was looking. He looked around the room, found her jump suit, and handed it to her. She turned her back to him and slipped it on. Iron Man turned around catching a bare glimpse of her rear and waited for her to get ready.
"So are you a robot or is there a person inside of there?" Sashay asked.
"That's confidential Ms. Bernard."
"Oh well," Bernard said as she eyed him up and down.
"Where did they take the others?"
"Into another part of the deck. Something about procreation or something."
Iron Man stiffened at the sound of that. On his way up here, he had hacked through the security locks into the computer read out of the ship. He brought up a digital map on his wrist and followed to where he found two human life signs. Bernard followed closely behind chattering away to which Iron Man wasn't paying too much attention. He was more concerned with how they were going to get out of here and how he was going to explain the loss of the Excelsior.
It took twelve minutes to get to the room and another five minutes to hack the lock. Iron Man went in first with his repulsors at the ready for whatever could be awaiting them. As soon as he got into the room, he saw a sight that was disturbing and he turned away. The X'yman's turned around noticing Iron Man and they got off the two men and charged at Iron Man. The avenger threw them into the wall and nailed them both with low intensity repulsors.
"Are you all right Zane? Quinn?"
The two men looked horrified as their stomachs were largely distended. Iron Man walked over and analyzed them with his onboard sensors. What he found disgusted him in some ways, but fascinated him in others.
" They're some kind of parasites that reproduce by implanting their eggs into other species of the same sex to grow. It appears however; they're not harmful to you both until its time for them to hatch. I can't risk removing them without damaging your organs as they are entwined."
The two men squealed and Iron Man cut them free with the laser and set them up allowing them to get dressed.
"Hurry up," Iron Man said in his modulated voice.
"How did you find us?"
"A lucky break. Now stick behind me. We're going to make for the bridge. Once we get back to earth we'll see about getting you two some help."
"You're going to commandeer the ship?" Quinn asked.
"We can't exactly call a space taxi out here."
"You didn't bring a ship?" Zane ventured.
"Not exactly."
"Then what did you bring?" Bernard inquired.
"Me, myself, and I."
The three astronauts just looked at Iron Man and he shook his head before leading the way down the hall. His sensors brought up a readout of how many X'yman's were still conscious and were certifiable threats. He calculated in his mind variable possible scenarios of commandeering the bridge and taking over the ship with the minimal amount of manpower, he had with him. Of course, there was no question how much power he was going to deplete in this action. He unlatched one of his modules and handed it to Captain Quinn.
"What's this?" Quinn asked.
"It's a photon shield. You'll need if you're going to protect yourself."
Iron Man unlatched another module from his other side and handed to Bernard. She eyed it curiously.
"What's this some kind of weapon?"
"No, it's a portable code cracker. You and Zane go to the communications room with Quinn and try in get in contact with Earth. See if they can get Thor or some one up here."
Bernard nodded her head, "All right."
She motioned Zane and Quinn to follow her as they headed down the left path, only to stop and look back at Iron Man.
"Where is the communications room?"
"Keep going down that hallway to the south side. Then turn left at the big bulkhead. Right there is where the communications room is."
Bernard nodded her head and the three astronauts continued on their way, leaving Iron Man to take command of the bridge. He wasn't sure what to expect once he got up there, but he was sure it wasn't going to be easy. The X'yman probably knew of his entrance by now and were waiting for him. In fact, it got Stark wondering why they never sent soldiers to attack him while he was wondering the halls.
He knew the only way to get the answer was to go through the double doors onto the bridge and so he did. Waiting behind those doors were the bridge crew and as many X'yman soldiers they could fit on the bridge. They all had all their weapons aimed at him.
"Hello gentlemen. Nice day for a walk, eh?"
The X'yman eyed Iron Man and readied to fire their weapons. Unknown to them, Iron Man had armed his uni-beam's strobe light. In a split second, the strobe light blinded the X'yman on the exact frequency they saw and Iron Man used his amplified speed to knock all of them unconscious.
As the golden avenger went to work on steering the ship towards Earth, the crew of the Excelsior was busy trying to get a hold of any one from earth when suddenly the parasites in Quinn and Zane's stomach's burst and tore free prematurely. They landed on the ground and snarled at Bernard as she looked like a tasty snack. Bernard eased away from them as they closed in on and rolled over to Quinn's corpse where she grabbed the photon shield emitter and used it to keep them at bay. Immediately she started calling for help, as she wasn't sure how much longer the shield would hold.
Iron Man's head rose up as his audio amplifiers picked up Bernard's calls for help. He activated his boot jets and flew straight down the hall, veered to the left, past the bulkhead, and right into the room where he found two prematurely hatched X'yman parasites. Iron Man gave them both a blast of repulsors and the little critters exploded into chunks all over the place.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah…" Bernard looked at Quinn and Zane who were both dead.
Iron Man's head lowered. He offered Bernard his hand and led her to the bridge while he steered the X'yman ship back towards earth.
---
Stark Enterprises, three days later…
It had been a grim experience for all involved with the Excelsior project. Two of their top astronauts were dead and all was left was the helmsman. Even she was unsure if she would stay with the project much longer. To make matters worse the Excelsior was destroyed and this left a devastating blow for Stark Enterprises partner in this endeavor. Stark sat at his desk with a bottle of water in his hand reflecting on the then and now. He wondered if he could have done something differently. He didn't think the parasites would hatch prematurely. He had assumed they had time, but he was wrong which is why he wondered if he could wear the armor again knowing that he'll have to make such choices again and again. Yet, he knows that without his armor he lays vurnable to the weakness he feels at being average and mortal. As for the X'yman, SHIELD was taken care of them through the proper connections. What these connections were Stark didn't know or cared. He just sat in his chair thinking about the two deaths when slowly but surely, he started to nod off.
