Earth-717: Iron Maiden Vol 2

Chapter 5: AIM's Plot

"Deploy."

The AIM shuttle hovered a few metres above the ground; over the sidewalk that surrounded Stark Tower. Six Risk Control troopers, including a squad leader, all jumped out of the open side door and then rushed towards the main entrance. The squad leader kicked the door open, and he and his team then breached the foyer.

Bambi, who was sitting behind the entrance desk, gasped upon seeing them enter.

"Security!"

One of the troopers immediately aimed his submachine gun at her and fired off a triple-burst shot, with the bullets piercing the bone between her eyes. The squad leader checked the data-stream that filtered in through the heads-up display on the inside of his face mask.

"Green asset's intel shows that the package is this way. You three, keep this foyer secure for our exit."

"Yes, sir!"

The group split into two fireteams, one for offense and the other for defense. In perfect unison, the offense squad moved through the hallways, gunning down two security personnel before they arrived at the containment chamber.

"Breaching!"

One of the troopers planted an explosive charge on the door. The squad then moved back behind a corner, and waited a few seconds for the device to explode. After it shattered the door, the squad moved in and found what they were looking for.

It was an arc reactor inside of a containment cube, glowing with surges of pink light.

"Package secured!"

One of the troopers holstered his gun and grabbed the containment cube, holding it with both hands. The fireteam retreated back to the foyer, to find the defense team engaging more of the security force.

"We're leaving!" shouted the squad leader. "Back to the shuttle! Now!"

The defense team provided covering fire for the rest of the troopers to escape. One of the troopers was shot down by a security guard as the rest sprinted out of the building towards the shuttle that was waiting to fly them to safety.


"Happy, do you read?"

"I'm here, Tash."

Tasha was flying at full speed towards the airport. She could see at least six AIM shuttles in the distance, having already arrived.

"AIM's here, and they're trying to hit San Fran Airport," explained Tasha. "I think they're after the President. The giant armour was a diversion. I need you to go back and retrieve the Proton Cannon, just in case."

"What if the robot's still there?!"

"My scans indicate that the Crimson Dynamo is no longer near the presentation area," interrupted Janice.

"Hear that? Grab it and then get Oby, Pep and yourself out of there."

"What if AIM sends more guys? I'm supposed to keep these two out of danger!"

"Tasha's right, Happy," said Stane. "We can't let the Proton Cannon fall into the wrong hands."

Happy was silent for a moment before he responded.

"Count on me, Tash."

"Always do."

Happy switched off the com channel.

"Ma'am, I have just received a security alert from Stark Tower. It was triggered by Miss Arbogast."

"Bambi? The hell is happening?!"

"Unknown at this time."

"Alright, keep monitoring that, but we need to focus on . . . ."


". . . . getting us the hell out of here!"

The secret service agent in the passenger seat of the limousine looked back at President Ellis, who was being covered by Rhodes and several other security personnel. Rhodes was peering through the rear window of the vehicle, and he saw one of the AIM shuttles flying low to the ground in pursuit. He could do nothing but watch as the shuttle armed its frontal cannons, and the familiar green targeting lasers started to zero in on their quarry.

Torrents of bullets shredded the street right behind the wheels of the limousine. Try as she might, the driver was unable to outrun her relentless stalker. As the one shuttle hounded the limousine from behind, another one flew unseen overhead, and opened its side door. Taking a moment to tune herself into her bio-mechanics, Yelena then hurled herself into the air.

She landed directly on the hood of the limousine in a crouched pose. The driver shrieked in surprise at her newfound passenger, and the agent next to her aimed his gun forward. Simpering at him, Yelena then drew her sword and slashed it through the windshield in a single, instantaneous motion, slicing off his weapon arm and carving a deep gash through his chest.

Smiling at the now hysterical driver, Yelena then thrust her sword into the vehicle's engine with the strength of both arms. The limousine skidded to a halt just outside of the airport, with everyone inside thrown forward by the inertia. The driver slammed her face against the steering wheel, leaving her unconscious.

"Stop that lunatic!" yelled Ellis.

Brandishing his Beretta M9 pistol, Rhodes dive rolled out of the stalled vehicle and took aim at Yelena, firing off four shots in quick succession. The AIM operative responded by twirling her sword in front of her, deflecting each of his bullets. She gave Rhodes a taunting grin, which gave him a moment of opportunity to fire again, this time aiming for her hilt.

"Ugh!"

The shot blew the sword out of her hand. Startled for a mere millisecond, Yelena then performed a backflip off of the hood of the limousine, sprinting for her fallen weapon. Rhodes pressed his advantage, firing off several more shots, but Yelena was far too fast. She swiped her sword back from pavement and then launched a grappling hook from her wrist, which carried her to the top of one of the airport's main buildings.

Rhodes could only watch as she performed a somersault kick to destroy a window and allow her access, before slinking into the building to set up a new ambush. Multiple police squad cars arrived as the secret service agents moved Ellis into the closest building, and the AIM shuttles descended upon the airport.

Rhodes then looked into the sky, seeing Tasha fly overhead.


"Wrist cannon, armed."

Tasha fired a rocket from her wrist launcher, which blasted towards the AIM shuttle in front of her. Colliding with the front end, the rocket caused an explosion that sent the shuttle spinning out of the air, smashing headfirst against one of the empty runways. Satisfied with the shuttle's destruction, Tasha turned around and boosted through one of the glass windows, arriving inside one of the large terminal buildings of the port.

The place was in utter chaos. Dozens of security guards and police officers were engaged in a ground war with just as many Risk Control troopers, of all varieties. The battle was further complicated by the hundreds upon hundreds of civilians desperately trying to stay alive amidst the downpour of bullets flying in all directions.

A voice was heard over the loudspeaker.

"Emergency evacuation procedures are underway. All civilians . . . ."

The voice was cut short by a gunshot. A new voice, this one slightly distorted by a technological filter, took over.

"Attention! We have seized control of this port. All civilians are to disperse themselves immediately. Do not interfere!"

Tasha blasted the closest trooper in the chest with a repulsor shot as she dived into the fray.

"Who the hell are these guys?" asked Tasha. "Don't look like the AIM goons from before."

"Unknown, ma'am, but apparently AIM has undergone some significant recruiting since your previous entanglement at Stark Tower."

"Yeah, sure," remarked Tasha, as she shot down another trooper. "Probably took out an ad in the Lonely Hearts Column. Wanted, evil minions, willing to battle society and superheroes for the glory of some wackos with second-grade tech. Rhodey, you seeing this?"

Rhodes' voice came in through the com channel.

"Seeing?! We're right in the thick of it! Just trying to keep the President alive long enough to get him to Air Force One, but this place is a goddamned war zone!"

Tasha's shoulder was grazed by a round from a sniper who was perched on one of the building's internal balconies.

"Yeah, I noticed!" yelled Tasha, as she returned fire with a precision repulsor shot, striking down the sniper.

Hovering above some of the members of the fleeing crowd, Tasha noticed a pregnant woman who had fallen to her hands and knees amidst all the commotion. One of the troopers approached her, holding his submachine gun close to her head. Yelling with righteous fury, Tasha boosted towards him and punched him across the face with full force, snapping his neck.

The woman looked up at Tasha, too stunned to react. Tasha placed both of her hands under the woman's armpits.

"Come on, lady! This ain't a place for on-the-way mommies."

Tasha flew the woman out of the warpath of the Risk Control troopers and outside the terminal building. After being placed on the ground, the woman turned to Tasha and thanked her in a language she did not understand. Tasha nodded in response as the woman rushed away from the airport with the rest of the crowd.

As Tasha flew back into the airport and continued to engage AIM's forces, she forgot about the trooper whose neck she had snapped. What she nor anyone else would ever know is that the face behind that mask was that of Aldrich Killian.


Rhodes was leading the team of agents moving Ellis through the halls of the airport, with six secret service members covering the President's body from all angles. Turning a corner, Rhodes was startled to see a Risk Control engineer deploying an automated turret. The metallic turret unfolded and immediately unleashed a hail of bullets down the hall.

Stepping back just in time to avoid being shredded, Rhodes took cover behind the corner.

"Turrets?! Come on!"

The engineer crouched behind his turret.

"Fireteams!" he said. "I have the target pinned down at my location. Box them in from the other side!"

Responding in near perfect unison, a squad of troopers appeared from behind Ellis' escort, all holding submachine guns. The secret service agents engaged the troopers, forcing both sides to try and take cover the best they could. One of the agents was shot twice in the chest just as one of the troopers was gunned down by multiple shots to the head.

Ellis was on all fours, covered by the escort agents. He looked up pleadingly at Rhodes.

"Get us out of here!"

"Stay down, sir!"

Rhodes tried to blindly fire a handful of bullets at the turret, but his shots either missed or were ineffective against the turret's armour. Looking behind him and knowing that the troopers would overtake the secret service escort at any moment, he tapped his earpiece.

"Tasha, we need you! Now!"

Just as he finished his sentence, a rocket struck the turret, blowing it apart. The explosion engulfed the engineer, who shrieked in agony as he was burned alive. Tasha then flew down into the hallway from above, humming the theme song for The Last of the Mohicans to herself as she fired multiple repulsor shots at the enemy troopers, before facing Rhodes.

"Look who it is! My favourite damsel in distress!"

"Very funny."

She then hovered next to the secret service escort, and gave Ellis a tiny salute.

"Sir," she said, before looking at the agents. "Now, you lot, get him out of here! I've got you covered!"

Rhodes led Ellis and the secret service escort down the hallway as Tasha boosted towards one of the troopers. She kneed him directly in the stomach, smashing him against a wall. Rhodes saw that Air Force One was just outside the terminal they were in, and that it hadn't been touched. He let out a tiny sigh of relief, not noticing the three Risk Control agents stalking him from the rafters. They were all Wraith-class troopers, female stealth operatives with swords.

As Tasha returned to the escort, the three Wraiths descended from their hiding spots. One of them struck her sword straight down, skewering one of the secret service agents through the sternum. Another swung her sword in an attempt to behead Rhodes, who was barely able to duck under the attack.

Tasha fired a repulsor blast at one of the Wraiths, who back-flipped out of the way.

"Ninjas?! Really?!"

Another Wraith tried to slice down on Tasha's arms, but was gunned down by Rhodes. Tasha boosted backwards before aiming and firing a precision repulsor shot, which exploded the cranium of the first Wraith. The final Wraith dodged several bullets from the escort agents, retreating down the hall.

"They're over there!"

Tasha turned her head to the right to see a dozen more Risk Control troopers approaching from the far side of the terminal. One of them was a sniper, who got down on one knee and quickly fired off a rifle round, which struck down another secret service agent with a shot to her throat.

"We got no cover!" yelled Rhodes.

"You do now!" responded Tasha.

Flying in front of the escort, she aimed both of her wrist cannons at the wave of incoming troopers. With both wrists armed, she fired twin sets of cluster grenades as the troopers desperately tried to backpedal out of range. The resulting chain of explosions decimated the troopers, bloodying the entire terminal.

Tasha looked over her shoulder at Rhodes.

"Get him to the plane! Go!"

Rhodes, Ellis and the three surviving secret service agents all rushed for the aerobridge that led to Air Force One. Tasha faced front again, looking over the carnage she had left behind.

"Any survivors?"

"None that I can see, ma'am."

As Janice finished her scan, Yelena leaped down from the rafters she had been waiting in. Holding onto the ceiling via her grappling hook, she swung down and kicked forward with both legs, landing a forceful attack on Tasha's chest.

"Agh!"

Tasha was whacked out of the air by the attack. Rolling backwards, she was barely able to dodge two shots fired from Yelena's customized handcannon pistol. Tasha cleared her throat as she got into a battle ready pose.

"How many supervillains do I have to fight this week?!"

Yelena smirked at Tasha before whipping her hair back.

"Miss Bain sends her regards," she said.

Tasha raised an eyebrow as Yelena then tore into a sprint towards the aerobridge. Tasha was about to take off after her when she was struck from behind by the third Wraith, who dug her sword into the armour's right shoulder blade. Tasha shouted in pain before throwing her right elbow behind her head, smacking the Wraith across the face.

Her enemy dazed, Tasha then turned around and grabbed the Wraith by both shoulders before flying up and tossing her towards one of the windows overlooking the runways. The Wraith screamed as she plunged through the window and towards the ground several metres below. Knowing how little time she had, Tasha boosted into the aerobridge.

Yelena had already gained on Rhodes and Ellis' escort. Firing three shots into the chest of the closest agent, she then leaped forward with her sword, cleaving another agent in half along his waistline. The last surviving agent aimed his gun at her, but before he could fire, Tasha tackled Yelena from behind, and they both crashed through the wall of the aerobridge to the runway below.

Breaking free of Tasha's grasp, Yelena rolled along the runway behind Air Force One. She landed in her battle pose, and held her military grade combat knife in front of her as Tasha readied her repulsors. Tasha then looked up in dismay as two AIM shuttles soared overhead.

"Shit."

Both Tasha and Yelena were then startled as a set of twin missiles annihilated one of the shuttles. A Quinjet flew into view, heading around for another pass to target the second shuttle.

The pilot of the shuttle spoke into Yelena's com link.

"We're retreating! Get on-board, now!"

Groaning, Yelena jumped up and fired her grappling hook into the underbelly of the shuttle. She was then airlifted away as the shuttle blasted off and out of view.

"Ma'am . . . ."

Tasha then turned around to see the SHIELD helicarrier hovering over the airport.

"Yeah," said Tasha. "I noticed."