The Invincible Iron Man #4

[fan4]

The Invincible Iron Man #4
Mandarin, Part Two

Written by Timothy Eklund
Edited by Aaron Martel

Previously, in The Invincible Iron Man #3…

Tony Stark traveled to China as Iron Man to investigate the destruction of planes carrying Stark Industries merchandise (i.e. weapons and technology). The plane landed at an abandoned airport; shortly after, the plane exploded and Iron Man was forced to confront a gigantic robot. He defeated the robot, but passed out afterwards. He awoke to find himself mostly stripped of his armor, in chains, and in the clutches of the evil Mandarin!

[fan4]

“Your armor is quite… remarkable,” said the Mandarin, smiling evilly at Tony Stark.

Tony Stark struggled slightly against his chains, but they held fast. His armor was mostly gone, but the breastplate remained. The sharp pain in his heart told him that it was de-powered. He realized he would have to recharge it fast, or succumb to his damaged heart and die.

“I must thank you for your company’s valuable inventions… They have served me well… I owe my current power to your… wonderful machines.” The Mandarin bowed slightly. He was very tall and regal, with long black hair and an evil-looking sneer. He was dressed regally in a jade robe with golden silk dragons dancing across it. The ten rings on his fingers gleamed brightly.

Tony Stark looked around at his environment. He appeared to be in an underground basement. He was chained by his hands and feet to a gray stone wall surrounded by boxes and crates. An elevator was at the other end of the room, but it was guarded by men in black commando uniforms carrying rifles. Tony started to speak.

“Who… Who are you?” he asked, feebly.

“Me?” The Mandarin laughed. “I am the Mandarin!”

Tony Stark stood in shock as the Mandarin walked away from him and entered the elevator, revealing a luxurious interior. The guards entered as well, and the elevator doors closed. Tony Stark knew the name of Mandarin. Tony had been to Asia many times and he had heard of the Mandarin. The Mandarin was the most powerful crime-lord of all Asia. He had amassed such a large following that his power rivaled that of a king! If his followers were caught, they babbled to the police about supernatural powers, then disappeared before they could be put to trial or interrogated. Tony shuddered at the thought of being imprisoned by the Mandarin.

He gathered his thoughts and began to try to escape. He strained at the chains wrapping around his hands, but they held fast. He turned his head at an irregular angle to try and get a look at the chains. When he did, he recognized them as a prototype for a chain created by Stark Industries. During tests he distinctly remembered the chains breaking at high levels of tension. He leaned forward, pulling his arms as far in front of him as they would go. The rough metal of the chains dug into his raw wrists and he winced. Finally, the chains gave and snapped. He fell over on the ground and untied the chains from his feet. He was free.

I have to find the suit, he thought as he moved quickly to a stack of crates. He looked at the crates closely, but they were dusty, and he could tell they hadn’t been opened in some time. He looked past the crates and saw a hallway. At the end of the hallway he saw the familiar glint of his gray iron suit. He started to go towards it, but he saw, standing beside it, a guard in a black commando uniform carrying a rifle in his hands. Tony hid back behind the crates as quickly as he could. Luckily, the guard had neither seen nor heard him. He continued to search the basement room, looking for some form of weapon or stealth device. In a corner he found a crowbar, and used it to pry the lids off of the crates. In each crate he found Stark Industries products that he remembered fondly. In one he found a prototype he had been working on. It was a small handheld prototype for an image inducer. He picked up the lean gray case and began to press the gray buttons frantically.

He spent some time coding an appearance that the image inducer would produce for him, and finally, he was done. He pressed the large button labeled “finalize” and walked down the hall towards the guard and his suit. The image inducer made him appear in an identical uniform as the Mandarin’s guards, and it worked perfectly.

He walked over to the guard and said, “Hey, your shift’s over, I’m going to guard the prisoner and his suit for a while. Mandarin’s orders.”

The guard looked puzzled. “I didn’t hear the elevator-“

Tony then punched him in the jaw hard, knocking him out. Tony grimaced and held his knuckles in pain before swiftly putting on the rest of his armor. Then he searched the basement walls for a wall-socket, and having found one, plugged his suit into the wall. Soon, he felt the power return, and the pain in his heart began to subside. Suddenly, he heard the elevator open, and he hid behind some crates. Out of the elevator emerged a guard. The guard noticed the broken chains and called out on his walkie-talkie.

“The prisoner has escaped! I repeat, the prisoner has escaped!”

Tony burst out from his hiding place. The startled guard fired his rifle, but the spray of bullets ricocheted wildly off of the gray iron suit.

“Give me that!” said Tony, grabbing the rifle and tying the muzzle into a knot. The scared guard began to run away, but the Tony picked him up and threw him across the room, scattering crates everywhere.

It’s good to have my armor back, thought Tony. He entered the elevator and realized he was inside the fifth sub-basement of the building. He pressed the button for the ground floor, but then he realized how much publicity Stark Industries would gain if Iron Man caught the dreaded Mandarin. He liked that idea, and pressed the button for the highest level of the building. The elevator started climbing smoothly, and soft music played from a speaker in the ceiling. Suddenly, water began pouring out of the ceiling and walls, soon submerging Tony up to his waist! The music faded, and the Mandarin’s voice came on instead.

“Let’s see you escape this, Iron Man!” the voice cackled.

Soon, Iron Man was completely submerged in the cold water, and began pounding on the walls and ceilings of the elevator. After several tries, when Tony was almost out of breath, the ceiling gave, and he climbed out of the elevator and into the shaft.

I really should put an air supply in this thing, he thought. Then, suddenly, with no warning, bullets began flying towards him from higher up the shaft. The guards and minions of the Mandarin were shooting at him from higher levels. The bullets bounced harmlessly off of his armor, and Tony began to fly up the elevator shaft, towards the gunfire. He reached the level with the guards and dispatched them with ease and strong punches. Outside the shaft was a luxurious hallway with red and gold carpeting and expensive paintings hanging on the walls. The Mandarin himself stood in the hallway.

“You are proving a nuisance!” the villain yelled. “Now you must be disposed of!”

The Mandarin fired a beam of electricity from his hands, and it bolted across the room and struck Iron Man square in the chest. His armor temporarily short-circuited and Tony fell backwards, down the elevator shaft. He fell down several stories and eventually through the hole in the roof of the elevator and landed in the pool of water. The water had mostly broken his fall, but it was still a hard landing, and he coughed up a little blood that clogged his iron mask. He hardly had gotten any rest when the elevator stopped and the door opened, draining the water and revealing an empty office hallway, lined with cubicles and doors to offices. Inside the hallway stood eight or ten guards, all carrying a machine guns, except for one, who carried a bazooka. The lead guard spoke on a loud-speaker.

“Surrender, Iron Man, and you might live to be ransomed.”

Tony Stark got to his feet shakily and brandished his fists.

“You have ‘til the count of three.”

Tony gathered his strength.

“One.” The guards aimed.

“Two.” The guard with the bazooka loaded it and aimed it straight at Tony.

“Three!” All the guards fired as Tony began gliding towards them. There were maybe eight of them altogether, and Tony rushed towards them, bullets ricocheting off of him as soon as they hit him. The guard with the bazooka launched it, and it missed Iron Man by a fraction, exploding behind him and knocking him forwards. The walls and elevators proved durable, however, and were barely damaged. Iron Man recovered quickly and fired his repulsor beams at the guards, knocking half of them unconscious. Before the guard with the bazooka could reload, Iron Man grabbed it, twirled it around and smacked the guard across the hallway. The guard landed, unconscious, against the far wall. The remaining guards fled, and Tony let them go. He stood there, alone, catching his breath, for a few minutes before looking back at the battered elevator. He could ride down and return to the states. He could flee the Mandarin. He wasn’t sure if he could defeat the Mandarin, and PR wasn’t that important… But he realized that stopping the Mandarin was. He entered the elevator, and pressed the button for the top floor decisively. The elevator began to climb shakily…

The Mandarin must be stopped, thought Iron Man as the elevator rose. No matter what…

Next: The conclusion