Earth-717: Iron Maiden Vol 1
Chapter 10: Alone Against AIM
Brandt smiled with satisfaction as the roof of the tower opened. Standing on a small scaffolding that surrounded the large arc reactor, she watched as two dozen AIM agents began walking around the reactor, preparing it for retrieval. One of the shuttles was parked on the solid section of the roof, while another was patrolling the air above the now open section. She then turned around to see Chen walking into the room alongside another agent.
"I want an update on the status of the arc reactor," said Chen.
"We have agents analyzing its power levels as we speak, doctor," replied Brandt. "We'll have it ready for shipment within ten minutes.
"You had better make it faster. We don't know if . . . ."
Chen quickly turned around after hearing a loud crashing noise. Tasha burst into the room, and flew straight for him. He put up his hands and fired his radiation beams at her, blasting her out of the air and causing her to smash into the ground. Skidding along the concrete past him, she rolled into an agent and boosted up, punching him in the face. She then turned around and armed her repulsors. As she did so, all of the AIM agents aimed their weapons at her. Chen laughed and began to slowly clap.
"Quite impressive, Ms. Stark. I don't know where you got the idea for a suit like that. I'd love to analyze it."
Tasha furrowed her brow.
"I'll be sure to give you an extra close inspection."
"You would have made a valuable member of AIM, Tasha," said Chen. "Your technological expertise is nearly unparalleled. We didn't want it to be this way."
Chen smirked.
"You forced our hands."
"What do you even want the arc reactor for?"
"A special project we are developing behind closed doors. You might have been able to be part of it, but unfortunately . . . . here we are. I only tell you this as a courtesy; after all, you won't be leaving this building alive, so there's no harm in you knowing."
Inside the helmet, Tasha watched the HUD. She changed the communication channel to interior.
"Janice, give me a targeting solution," whispered Tasha.
"Certainly, ma'am."
Tasha watched for a few seconds as the HUD lit up the various AIM agents. She then swapped the communication channel back to exterior.
"Funny, since 'no harm' isn't exactly what I would say is appropriate for this situation."
Tasha activated a wrist rocket, which she fired directly at one of the support beams for the arc reactor. The AIM agents scrambled to run away from it as one was torn apart by the blast. The destabilized arc reactor core shuffled slightly down, pulling the scaffolding with it. Brandt lost her footing and fell to the floor. Tasha boosted forward as the stunned AIM agents tried to shoot her.
Punching one agent in the face, Tasha twisted her body to avoid the shots of another. Blasting him with a repulsor shot, she flew into the sky as the other agents regained their footing.
"Janice, launch mini-rockets!"
"Yes ma'am."
Tasha's shoulder panels opened, revealing a twin set of miniature rocket launchers. Firing a set of rockets, they began blasting apart the floor, blowing away two more agents. Staring at her, Chen threw up his arms and fired beams of radiation. Using her shoulder jets, Tasha boosted laterally to avoid the beams as she fired more repulsors into the crowd of agents, knocking down two more. Brandt stood up and fired her rifle at Tasha, who shielded her face with her arms to deflect them.
"Agents!" yelled Brandt. "Move back! Deploy electric munitions!"
Boosting down, Tasha aimed for Chen with her repulsors, as he charged his hands again. Before she could reach him, she was blasted in the side by a strike of blue electricity. Tasha shrieked as her HUD scrambled and she careened into the nearby wall. Blinking as she grunted, she saw that two of the AIM agents were wielding rifles that were glowing with blue energy. They both fired their rifles at her, blasting her with more electricity. Tasha shrieked again as she fell to her knees.
"Energy levels peaking," said Janice. "System overload in progress."
"Remember our . . . . secret weapon?"
"Yes, ma'am. Converting excess energy to chest RT."
Tasha's breastplate began to glow brighter with energy from her arc reactor. Pushing herself up, the centre of her chest fired a large beam of focused energy, destroying the agents holding the electric rifles. Chen fired two more beams of radiation, which Tasha avoided by rolling forward and boosting towards him. Kicking him in the chest, Tasha spun around to strike him in the face with the back of her other foot.
"Ugh!"
Chen quickly recovered by charging his right hand with his radiation, chopping at Tasha's abdomen. Tasha cringed as the hand chop scarred the suit. Chen then punched her in the breastplate, knocking her back down to the floor. Rolling backwards with the punch, she fired two repulsor blasts at him, which he deflected by throwing up a misty shield of radiation.
Stuffing a glowing blue energy grenade into the launcher on the underbelly of her rifle, Brandt took aim at Tasha as she boosted to dodge more bullets from the other agents. Firing the arc grenade, it exploded in mid-air near Tasha, unleashing a miniature storm of electric energy. Lashing at her limbs, the electricity crippled Tasha's movement. Chen then fired a single radiation blast, blowing her away and through a nearby wall into the next room. He then turned to look at Brandt.
"Take a group down there and finish her off! I'll get the arc reactor out of here!"
Brandt nodded in response before jumping over the railing of the scaffolding and beckoning at the agents.
"Squads one and two, with me! The rest of you, help Radioactive Man with the arc reactor! Shuttle one, fly to the other side of the building and cut off her escape route . . . . we can't let her interfere with the extraction!"
Tasha, who was pulling herself off the floor in the empty rooftop hangar, looked behind her to see another AIM shuttle flying to that side of the building. As it aimed its green targeting lasers at her, she boosted backwards to avoid the stream of bullets. Landing and then kicking off the ground, Tasha flipped backwards and hit the shuttle's front end with a downward punch, knocking it away from the tower.
Taking the time of reprieve, she boosted back into the building to see a dozen AIM agents rush into the room. They were followed by Brandt, who fired another arc grenade from her rifle's launcher. Tasha threw up her energy shield just in time, deflecting the arc grenade so that it landed at the feet of three agents, who were electrocuted by the grenade's energy field. Scowling, Brandt began firing bullets at Tasha, along with the other agents.
Boosting between the columns, Tasha landed on the ground next to an agent. Elbowing her in the face, she turned and blasted a second agent with a repulsor shot. A third agent tried to shoot her, but she dodged, and the bullets hit the first agent in the chest, gunning her down. A fourth agent hit Tasha in the back of the head with her rifle, as the third agent shot her in the chest. Tasha fell to one knee.
"Ma'am, the suit has sustained heavy damage," said Janice. "We're still using the prototype arc reactor, and the suit is hemorrhaging energy . . . ."
"I know!"
Tasha kicked out with her foot, knocking the female agent behind her to the floor. She then punched the rifle out of the third agent's hand and shot him in the face with a repulsor blast, causing him to collapse against a pile of crates. Firing another repulsor blast at a wall near two agents, Tasha rolled with the explosion as it jettisoned her into the air. Spinning around, she blasted a column with her boots, boosting her even further up onto a beam between two columns. She then fired two more repulsor blasts down at the agents, knocking them both out.
Tasha then shrieked again as more bullets struck her back. Looking at her shoulders, she saw that scrapes on the armour were starting to form. Jumping down from the beam, she saw Brandt standing there, with two more agents behind her. As the agents began to fire again, Tasha armed another wrist rocket and fired it. Brandt leaped out of the way, but the explosion consumed the other two agents. Brandt looked back at their crumpled bodies with widened eyes.
"Anya!" Brandt shouted.
Looking back at Tasha with a furrowed brow, Brandt reached down her leg and pulled out a serrated, blue energy blade. Jumping forward, she slashed down at Tasha, who boosted back to avoid the attack. Firing her repulsors forward, Brandt deflected them with the blade. Slicing horizontally, Brandt gashed deep into the armour, damaging the arc reactor in the process.
"Ugh!"
Tasha stumbled under the force of the blow as Brandt slashed at her arm. Tasha moved quickly to punch Brandt's hand, causing her to drop her energy blade. She then spun around and back-handed the rear side of Brandt's neck, knocking her out. As Brandt collapsed, Tasha boosted upwards, and crashed through the roof. Landing on the closed section in a three-point pose, she looked over to the open section to see one of the AIM shuttles hooked onto the arc reactor and flying upwards. Chen and the remaining AIM agents were standing around it.
"So . . . . Radioactive Man," said Tasha.
Chen turned around and gasped.
"Got any more mooks for me to lay waste to?"
"Ma'am, I would not consider egging your opponents on to be the most viable strategy, considering that the armour is on the verge of falling apart."
"Brandt," said Chen. "Lieutenant Brandt! Come in!"
After waiting for a few seconds, Chen sneered. He then pointed at Tasha.
"Shuttle one! Destroy her!"
Tasha looked behind her to see the AIM shuttle she had punched before rising over the roof. Her eyes widened as she watched it fly towards her.
"Ma'am!" shouted Janice. "The shuttle is deploying a carpet bomb!"
The shuttle flew forward, as the bottom hatch opened. A large, black, metallic bomb dropped out of it and began splitting into smaller explosives. Tasha ran forward and boosted off the ground, flying barely out of reach of the series of explosions which rocked the closed section of the roof. She flew towards Chen, who charged a radiation blast and fired it directly at Tasha, knocking her away. She landed on her back as the explosions subsided.
Tasha groaned as she stared upwards. Chen walked up to her, and placed his left foot on her arc reactor. She shouted as the pain reverberated through her entire body.
"Such a shame," said Chen. "To waste such a beautiful mind."
Chen aimed his arm at Tasha and began charging a radiation blast.
"Farewell, Stark."
"You really didn't think this one through, did you?" asked Tasha.
Chen narrowed his eyes as he noticed the arc reactor on her chest beginning to glow brighter. His eyes then widened as the unibeam fired, blasting him into the air. Before the AIM agents could react, Tasha boosted upwards, grabbed Chen by the foot, and threw him into the flying AIM shuttle, causing it to crash into the roof and explode.
Turning around, Tasha equipped her arm blade and flew forward, slicing the wires connecting the other AIM shuttle to the arc reactor. The AIM agents scrambled as the arc reactor fell back onto the scaffolding, collapsing it. The shock wave knocked out the remaining agents. The shuttle, destabilized by the weight drop, crashed into the side of the tower. Tasha floated in place for a few seconds before her rocket boots gave out.
"We're now running on emergency backup power, ma'am," said Janice.
Tasha collapsed on the edge of the open section of the roof. Looking over the edge, she saw the arc reactor, with cracks in the glass, as well as the bodies of several AIM agents. Sighing and breathing in deeply, she opened the face mask of the suit as she spent a few moments on her back, staring at the sky. As she slowly breathed, she felt the tension in her muscles fade away.
"Stark!"
Turning her head to the left, she saw Chen slowly walk out of the blazing wreckage of the AIM shuttle. His hazmat suit was charred in several places. Walking with a limp, he began to head towards Tasha. As he spoke, each breath was incredibly laboured.
"You . . . . are . . . . dead . . . ."
Tasha tried to push herself off the ground, but found that her leg was caught under a piece of metallic debris. Chen continued to walk closer.
"You think . . . . you're . . . . some . . . . kind of . . . . hero?"
Tasha gulped and began breathing faster.
"You're . . . . nothing . . . . but a . . . . whore . . . . in a tin can."
Chen reached down and grabbed Tasha by the hair. Holding her up in the air, he sneered at her. He plunged his fist into the arc reactor, tearing a large section of it out of her chest as she screamed in agony.
"Die, bitch."
Pulling his hand back, Chen began charging a radiation blast. Tasha furrowed her brow before reaching forward with her arms. Throwing her right arm around Chen's head, she grasped one of the valves on his back. Twisting and crushing it with her palm, she pulled it off as Chen yelled. Letting her go, he staggered before Tasha grabbed him by the head with both hands and threw him behind her. He fell directly into the arc reactor, smashing the glass and becoming consumed by the blue energy. Tasha looked down into the reactor as it fired a massive pulse, tossing her into the air. She then crashed through the closed section of the roof and collapsed.