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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:16:04 GMT -5
The Invincible Iron Man #2
Iron Truths, Part 1 Written by Timothy Eklund Edited by Aaron Martel Tony Stark sat at his desk in his private office, the lights dimly lit and the drapes closed. He was very disheveled with the beginnings of a beard appearing on his face. A cord was trailing from his torso to a wall socket, and a faint humming noise came from his chest. He took a swig of the bottle of whiskey in his hand, pulled out a pen and began to write. I can’t hold this burden any longer. Many of my good friends died in Vietnam, and I can’t hold it in any longer. I hope that writing it down will help. So this is the true story of how I, Tony Stark, became Iron Man… |
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:16:55 GMT -5
We (two other executives and I) were taking a business trip to Vietnam to provide the Vietnamese government with a gift of weapons to both increase relations with the US and Vietnam, and so they could better defeat the rebels that had started to spring up. Accompanying us was bodyguard Andrew Freeman. He was a very nice young man. He was not Iron Man as I have led the public to believe. I am sorry, Andrew, may you rest in peace. We were all aboard a Stark Enterprises jet, when suddenly we were losing elevation. It seems the rebels had found us and wanted to stop us. We all buckled in except Andrew, who went to check with the pilot. I heard him yell from the cockpit that the pilot was dead just before we crashed. We all survived except him. In retrospect I should have brought more bodyguards.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:17:42 GMT -5
The executives and I climbed out of the wreckage to find ourselves in a vast jungle. We began to walk in the direction that seemed the safest. We walked a very long time until we came to a clearing with a small pond in the middle. The others rushed to the water, but I stayed behind, as I was very tired. Suddenly, I heard a very loud noise that rang in my ears and felt a sudden heat and a sharp pain in my heart. I then passed out.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:18:50 GMT -5
I awoke to find myself chained to a chair in a dark room. The only light was a desk lamp pointed directly at my face. There was a small wooden table in front of me, and there was someone on the other end that I could not make out.
“Ah, I see you are awake. Finally,” the man in front of me said with a grin. He had a thick Vietnamese accent and he was chewing on a piece of gum. I twisted my neck around and saw that I was in a very small room that was packed with ammunition and food. A couple of guards with machine guns stood by the door. “My men shot down you plane and killed your friends. Soon you will be dead too.” The man kept grinning and leaned forward.
“Is that a threat?” I spat at him. The pain in my heart returned again.
“Oh, no. It is no threat. It is simple truth.” My interrogator leaned back again and laughed. “The same mine that killed your friends wounded you too. In less than a week you will die from a piece of shrapnel imbedded in your heart. What a pity.” The interrogator laughed some more and spat the gum at my face. “If you give me what I want as soon as I ask, then I will transport you to America as soon as I can. Maybe even fast enough for you to receive proper medical attention.”
“I’d sooner die,” I snapped back.
“Oh yes, you probably would. But that’s not all! I also have in custody the Vietnam government’s top arms scientist. If you don’t do what I say, I could easily kill him and pin the blame on America, starting another war! You wouldn’t want that now, would you?” The interrogator smiled gleefully and continued. “And of course, even if it doesn’t start a war, you would have caused the death of an innocent person, and you don’t want that.”
I dropped my head in shame and stared intently at the table.
“Fine,” I muttered, sullenly.
“Good! All I ask of you is to build some weapons for me…”
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:19:44 GMT -5
The armed guards escorted me out of the interrogation/storage room and through the rebel base. I noticed that it was a very small underground base in the middle of the jungle. We came to a small room with two beds and a toilet and they shoved me in. I fell to the ground and felt a sharp stab around my heart. The pulled me up and undid my chains before closing and locking the iron door. The room was mainly under ground and there were no windows, just plain concrete walls. Suddenly I realized there was somebody else in the room behind me and I whirled around and saw a small, balding Vietnamese man with slightly broken glasses.
“Hello,” he said in a thick Vietnamese accent. I realized that this was the arms scientist I had been told about.
“Hello,” I replied and we began to talk. We exchanged the stories of how we had gotten there (it seems he had been kidnapped while he slept). After we had talked a while, some guards opened the door and hauled in the weapons from the plane. Most of them were broken, but the parts would be useful. We lied about the state of the weapons and had the guards believe that they were all broken and useless. They left us alone to begin our work, and we started to formulate a plan.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:20:35 GMT -5
The guards soon came back to bring us tools, and we began to work feverishly; we had to finish it soon, before they discovered we weren’t making the expected weapons.
While they were gone, we began to think of ways to escape without giving them what they wanted. We came up with many ideas, but only one seemed exceptionably doable. The scientist (who I found out was named Yin Sen) informed me of his early plans for a super-suit. The suit would be completely bulletproof and provide super-strength and energy beams. He showed me a rough sketch and plan, and by the time the guards came back, we were sure of how we were going to do it…
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:21:18 GMT -5
As we worked, I told him about the pains in my heart and what the interrogator had said.
“Ah, well,” he said. “I thought about putting in a wound-recovery system into the breastplate of the suit but I didn’t put it into the plans. I am fairly certain that we could keep your heart beating with a machine inside the suit.” Yin Sen smiled, and so did I.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:22:14 GMT -5
We continued working on the suit all through the day and night. The guards regularly came in with food and we hid the suit when they did. After working feverishly night and day, a rough prototype of the suit was done. As we worked we thought of a way to surprise the guards and escape. I put on the suit and hid behind the door. Yin Sen stood in the middle of the room and waited for the guards to bring food. The plan was that Yin Sen would distract them while I would sneak up behind them and beat them up with the aid of the suit, but it did not work out that way…
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:23:01 GMT -5
The guards came as planned; however, they did not come bearing food, but they did come bearing blazing machine guns. They opened the door as usual, but when it was open they stormed in and started firing bullets into Yin Sen. As Yin Sen fell, the Interrogator stepped into the room. I was too shocked at the death of my friend to move.
“Stark!” The interrogator barked sternly. “I know you are here and I know that you have not been doing what I told you. What did you expect to gain from this? Now, come out from behind the door and die.”
I scrounged up all my power and hate and ran out towards the interrogator. The guards started firing, but the suit worked perfectly and the bullets all deflected off it. I reached the interrogator quickly and started punching him with my solid iron fists. When he fell bleeding, I turned and attacked the two guards. I could not use the suit’s super-powers as I had not found an outlet to power it up yet so I could only beat them with my fists. Soon they were all on the ground bleeding. I sincerely hope that I did not kill them, but I think I might have. I ran out of the room, smashing through any soldiers I passed. I soon made my way out onto the surface in the jungle and I realized a battle was going on. The Vietnamese were attacking the rebels. I used the suit to help in the fight and the rebels were soon vanquished.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:24:36 GMT -5
As the Vietnamese army stormed in I raised my arms to show I meant no harm, and I told them my tale (leaving out my name) and about the death of Yin Sen. They believed me and agreed to transport me back to America. I soon boarded a plane and was secretly flown to the U.S. There I found an outlet, powered up my suit, and made my way to Stark Tower by the suit’s flight.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:25:23 GMT -5
So that is the tale of how I became Iron Man. It is also the tale of how two exceptionally good men died. This is both my story and a tribute to Andrew Freeman and Yin Sen. May they rest in peace forever. May whoever reads this take it to heart and live after their example.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:26:04 GMT -5
Tony Stark, having finished his writing, got up, tore up the papers, opened up a wall safe, and placed the shreds inside. He then closed the safe, unplugged and concealed his breastplate, and sat at his desk. He then took one last swig of whiskey and passed out.
The end.
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