Earth-717: Iron Maiden Vol 1
Chapter 8: Mark Two
Rolling her chair over to the central desk in her lab, Tasha opened up the hard-light hologram display.
"Welcome back to the office, ma'am," said Janice.
"Thanks Jan," replied Tasha. "Miss me?"
"I felt utterly useless during your vacation, so I would say so."
Tasha looked up with a scowl.
"Vacation?!" she shouted. "I was a prisoner of war!"
"It's always nice to get time to yourself."
Tasha sighed. Reaching out with her hands, she expanded the hologram to show all of the Stark Enterprises projects. She saw the files for the Project Pegasus arc reactor, the Vindicator missiles, the Mark One Sentinels, and several other files. At the far left was a blue plus sign. Tapping at it, the canvas cleared as a new project file was opened.
"Starting a new project, ma'am?"
"Yessir."
"I am not a sir, ma'am."
Tasha raised an eyebrow.
"No, I wasn't calling you a sir, I just . . . . I said yes, and sir, as sort of one word . . . . forget about it."
"I forget nothing, ma'am," replied Janice. "That is a human fault. My memory is perfect."
"If only you could forget your snarky attitude."
"As I recall, you programmed me, ma'am."
"Shut it, Janice."
"Shut what, ma'am?" asked Janice. "I have no physical form to speak of."
"I hate you."
"I know."
Tasha began moving her hands through the hologram, manipulating the construct so that it began to shape itself into a suit.
"Playing god, are we, ma'am?"
"No. Building the future."
After a few minutes of manipulation, Tasha eventually saw the construct take the form of the suit she used to escape captivity.
"I want this to go on file as Mark One," said Tasha.
"Very well, ma'am. Might I ask what it is the Mark One of?"
"My suit. Mark One . . . . designation . . . . Escapee."
"Data saved."
"Alright, new page, same file, this one named Mark Two."
"Seems like a logical progression."
"Designation . . . ."
Tasha placed her hand on her chin as she exhaled. After a second, she smirked.
"Designation . . . . Marilyn."
Spinning the hologram model of the suit around, Tasha began manipulating the vectors of the suit to more properly fit the contours of her own body. As the suit took shape, she smiled as brightly as the glow of her arc reactor.
Pressing her tool against the edge of the boot, Tasha connected one of the wires running along the ankle to a socket latched onto a piece of sheet metal. As she was doing this, Pepper opened the door and entered the lab. She was holding a plate of nachos, with melted cheese liberally spread across them. The aroma of the plate of food caused Tasha to turn her head.
"Oh, sweet baby Cheesus," said Tasha.
Pepper placed the nachos on the table behind Tasha. Turning her chair around, she rolled up to the plate of nachos, her eyes wide with anticipation. After staring at the plate for a few seconds, she looked up at Pepper.
"I love you."
"I know," replied Pepper. "Considering that I'm willing to prepare this at one in the morning, you'd better."
Tasha stuffed her left hand into the plate, grasping several nachos at once. As she stuffed them into her mouth, she stared at Pepper. After a few seconds, the two women laughed together, as Tasha struggled to chew her food. She then waved her hand, beckoning Pepper to sit down. She took the nearby stool and sat on it. Tasha swallowed her food and smiled at her.
"No, really. Thank you. Not just for this . . . . well, obviously mostly for this, because, you know . . . . nachos."
Pepper chuckled.
"But for everything else too . . . . I just wanted to say . . . . you know . . . ."
Pepper smiled.
"You're welcome."
Tasha returned Pepper's smile. For a few moments, the two women just looked into each other's eyes. Tasha then reached forward and grabbed Pepper's shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. Tasha placed her face against Pepper's shoulder, who put her hand on Tasha's head and patted it gently as she closed her eyes.
After their embrace was over, Tasha took a smaller handful of nachos and continued to eat. Pepper looked over at the mechanical boot on the table.
"Are you building rocket boots?"
"That's one way of putting it."
As Tasha licked her fingertips, she then jumped up slightly.
"Oh, I wanted to show you something," said Tasha.
Pepper looked over at Tasha and raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"This."
Tasha grabbed an arc reactor off the table, which was similar to the one in her chest. In the centre of it was a triangular piece of glowing metal.
"What is that?" asked Pepper. "Another arc reactor?"
"Yes . . . . but with a significant upgrade," explained Tasha. "I removed the vibranium core that Project Pegasus made for the large scale model and placed it in a miniaturized one to see what would happen, added the extra vibranium they had . . . . after the tech is done charging, this new arc reactor will be better than ever, and should be able to properly power my latest creation."
"The rocket boots?"
Tasha looked at Pepper and smirked.
"It's not just boots, love . . . ."
Stuffing her arm into the metal gauntlet, Tasha lifted it and aimed her palm as the repulsor glowed. Aiming it forward, Tasha narrowed her field of vision as she looked at the three targets she had prepared on the wall. Twisting her screwdriver into one of the bolts on the hand section, she then looked at the metal hand as she put the screwdriver down. Flexing her fingers and flipping her hand back and forth, the shiny, silver metallic glove felt like a natural extension of her body. The centre of the palm, which held the repulsor, glowed with vibrant white light.
Slowing her breathing, she pointed her hand forward at the first target. She focused intently on it for a few seconds before activating the repulsor. Her entire arm flew back, and she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. The blast of the repulsor blew off a large chunk of the concrete wall to the left of the target. Winded for a second, Tasha recovered her breath as she looked forward at the target with the frown.
"Perhaps we'll require some accuracy training, ma'am?"
"Activate assembly protocol."
"Might I remind you that you've been working straight for nearly eighteen hours?"
"My memory isn't that bad," said Tasha. "Also . . . . why are you arguing with me? Just do it."
"As you wish, ma'am."
Standing still with her arms outstretched, Tasha felt the mechanical limbs around her begin to assemble the pieces of the armour. Up first were metal panels which strapped around her feet. The open plates latched around her ankles, perfectly forming the metallic boots. The legs and arms were then lined with a series of metal panels which wrapped around her appendages, with the gloves forming around her palms.
The pelvis plate punched against her body, and Tasha cringed as it did so. Two mechanical arms then lowered the breastplate, which had a circular hole in it to accommodate the arc reactor. Fitting itself around her breasts, Tasha squirmed slightly to ensure that they felt comfortable in their new metal environment. Lowering from the breastplate were several more panels which covered her stomach and back, as well as two shoulder plates with expandable panels for the stabilizer jets.
The last piece was the helmet, which fit itself around her face. Latching around her chin, Tasha exhaled as the face mask lowered itself. Fully encased in the armour, she was in total darkness for a second before the heads-up display activated.
"Janice. You there?"
"At your service, ma'am."
Tasha's eyes lit up as she watched all the information feeds begin activating.
"Heads-up display . . . . online," said Janice. "Life support systems . . . . online. Targeting systems . . . . online. Connection to Stark Enterprises database . . . . online. All systems functional and operating at serviceable capacity, ma'am. Of course, once the vibranium arc reactor core is online, I would recommend immediately swapping it in, for the suit will not be able to operate at peak capacity without it."
"Got it," replied Tasha.
"Would you like to try the firing test again?"
Tasha turned to the right and faced the three targets. She scoffed as she looked at the hole in the concrete, and then raised her arm as she stared at the first target. The heads-up display lined up the shot for her. Smirking, she fired the first shot, obliterating the target. Twisting her body around and crouching, she threw up her other hand and fired both repulsors at once, destroying the other two targets at the same time. Standing up straight, Tasha chuckled.
"Yeah, I got this."
"It would likely be more impressive without the targeting systems . . . ."
"Don't steal my moment, you saucy Brit."
Tasha then looked forward at the ramp leading out of the lab.
"Very well then, ma'am," said Janice. "Starting to tabulate raw data . . . ."
"I'm taking her out."
"Ma'am, that is very ill advised . . . ."
"Trust me Jan," said Tasha. "I'm a genius."
Tasha activated the boots, and began hovering in the air.
"Even geniuses can have bad ideas . . . ."
Aiming herself forward, Tasha began flying out of the ramp and then, aiming herself upward, into the night sky.
"Whoa!"
Flying out of Stark Tower, Tasha felt a large, open smile form on her face. Looking down at the buildings of Los Angeles, Tasha adjusted her hands, which turned her body towards the skyline. Blasting herself forward, Tasha looked around as she felt the movement of the suit carry her through the sky.
"This . . . . is . . . . amazing!"
"Is that your official report, ma'am?"
"Woohoo!"
Tasha aimed herself even further downward, as she flew between the skyscrapers. Lining herself several metres above the cars on the street, Tasha flew side to side as she headed towards the highway. As she looked at it, she noticed a bus that was swerving back and forth.
"Janice!" shouted Tasha. "What's going on over there?"
"It appears that the bus driver has just had a seizure," replied Janice. "Ma'am, there are over thirty people on that bus!"
Narrowing her eyes, Tasha boosted forward, rocketing towards the highway. As she flew towards it, she could see the civilians on the bus, who were screaming in fear. The driver collapsed and fell out of his chair as the bus careened into oncoming traffic. Several cars weaved to try and avoid the renegade bus.
"The bus is about to go over the edge of the highway, ma'am!"
Tasha tensed her facial muscles as she flew forward. As the bus crashed into the edge of the highway, it smashed the concrete railing and began falling off. Tasha boosted under the bus and put up her hands. The crushing weight of the bus was mostly absorbed by the armour, although Tasha still felt the strain of her muscles as she lifted it up into the air. Looking down, she could see dozens of civilians on street level staring up at her in awe. Lifting the bus off her shoulders, she smiled.
"Hey there," said Tasha.
Tasha then began slowly lowering to the ground. Landing her feet on the pavement, she then placed the bus next to her. As the wheels collided with the road, the surrounding civilians erupted into cheering and applause. Looking into the windows of the bus, she could see all of the passengers smiling, clapping and hugging each other. Tasha smiled inside her helmet as she looked around at the several dozen people who were cheering for her.
"And you thought a test flight was a bad idea," said Tasha.
"Touché."
As the passengers of the bus began filing out and helping the driver regain consciousness, a young woman ran up to Tasha. Grabbing her hand with both of hers, the woman smiled at Tasha with wide eyes.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"You're quite welcome," replied Tasha.
"Who are you?"
Tasha took a moment before responding.
"Me?"
After thinking for a few more seconds, Tasha smirked.
"I'm Iron Maiden."
"Iron Maiden," repeated the woman.
"Now if you'll excuse me," said Tasha.
Tasha let go of the woman's hands and blasted off into the sky. Hovering in place a few metres off the ground as the crowd cheered, Tasha then flew upwards and off into the skyline.
"Hey, Janice."
"Yes, ma'am?"
"When we get back . . . . I want you to paint her."
"Do you have a particular colour scheme in mind?"
"Let's go with red and gold."
Killian rested his head back on his pillows as Brandt's naked body bounced on top of him. After a few minutes, she finished and collapsed onto the bed to his left. Smiling at her, he reached over and kissed her on the forehead as his phone on the bedroom desk table rang. Picking it up, he activated it to see a video feed of Chen.
"Killian."
"Doctor."
"Preparations are complete. Tell Ms. Brandt to get ready. We leave in thirty minutes."
"She'll be there."
The video feed cut out. Brandt sighed as she began to put her clothes back on. Killian placed his hands behind his head, smirking as he watched her get dressed.