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Iron Maiden, Issue #002

July 9, 2013 in Iron Maiden Tags:

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Issue #002 – – – – – controlled by Junius Stone – – – – – Credits 6

The woman who may or may not be called Amy considered her options.  (Actually, she was pretty sure that her name was not Amy at all, but Mandy.  But one thing at a time.)  The door looked strong, sure, but she was confident that a bit of the old Iron Maiden treatment would remove that particular obstacle.

Iron Maiden.

Yes.  That name sounded exactly right.  It was her name. Or rather, her other name.  Her superhero name.  Memories began flashing back.  Deep space.  Giant golden robots.  Some huge surprise and then … nothing.  What the hell?  How had she gone from space battle to lab rabbit without remembering the transition?  Probably she should be concerned about it, but Iron Maiden wasn’t big on worry.  Instead she grinned cockily, her silvery lips parting revealing silvery teeth beneath.  The grin was both mirthful and predatory at once and had caused many a villain to blanch.  “You think you can make me a victim?” She asked the world around her.  “We’ll just see about that.”

The woman came through the lab door like a sledge hammer through a china plate.  The metal simply exploded outwards as the silver-skinned woman strode through and into the corridor beyond.  It made a lot of noise.  Iron Maiden didn’t care.  Let them come.  She was going to take a look around and introduce herself to the locals.  She didn’t plan to do it gently.

Truth was, she knew she should probably just escape.  The set up in this place didn’t say “two bit c-list villain” to her, but rather “powerful wealthy evil mastermind.”  Nonetheless, she was intensely curious.  What did they want with her?  How did she get here?  What was all this about?  And curiosity had always been one of Iron Maiden’s weaknesses.  Just one of them.  There were others.

Iron Maiden strode through the corridors, smashing things that got in her way.  When nothing got in her way she casually trailed her fingers along the walls digging deep rents in the pristine metal plating there.  Twice, a team of armed guards came at her.  The first time she laughed as their bullets bounced off her skin before she knocked them senseless without breaking a sweat.  The second time, the team carried some huge electro-weapon.  The enormous device took three men to wield and hummed with enormous power.  She took a shot in the chest.  It stung.  So she took the toy from them and wrapped it tightly around the ranking officer’s chest.  She intended to use the other men as boxing practice, but they fled in terror.

At the end of one corridor she found a fire exit and considered leaving.  But something drew her to another door on the far side of the corridor.  She pushed it open and peered within.  A laboratory, of sorts.  Or it had been.  The room was trashed, glass and broken furniture everywhere.  Against the wall opposite the door in which she was standing several steel plates had been screwed into place against the brick like some hasty patchwork repair.  “Strange,” Iron Maiden muttered.
“Hello Amy,” Came a voice from behind her.   Spinning on the spot she saw the geek girl from earlier, standing beside a very scary looking robot.  Like her, the creature was metal skinned, but where she was all shiny attractive metal this thing was bulky and dull, with heavy bolts driven through its arms and legs.
“Ran out of money in the security budget?”  Iron Maiden asked.  “Couldn’t afford to make it look good?”
“This robot may not look impressive,” the geek told her.  “But it is powered by a Cobalt Seven Fuel Core and it’s brain is a C-Calc Omnibus 1000x Processor.   It can process information one trillion times faster than any human brain and it is many times stronger than you are.”
“What do you know?” Iron Maiden growled at her.  “You didn’t think I could break my bonds.”
The doctor blanched: “How did you do that?  Did somebody help you?”
“No, missy.”  Iron Maiden laughed.  “You just aren’t as clever as you think you are.”

Iron Maiden watched the robot move towards her.  She could feel the sheer power in the construct by the way the ground shook as it took steps her way.  She could see that immensely powerful C-Calc Omnibus 1000X Processor assessing her, judging her movements, calculating the possibly variations of action she may take so that it could counter her.  It was very effective.  When she went to punch it straight in the face the Cobalt Seven Fuel Core powered up and granted the creature the sheer might to block her attack.  Sadly for the robot, she punched through its defence and knocked its head off.  The geek woman’s jaw dropped as her devastating war machine was casually decapitated and its iron head bounced along the corridor floor making head thud, thud noises as it did so.

“Where were we?” Iron Maiden asked.
“I.  Uh.  I mean.  Um.  Can we talk about this?”
“Are you able to tell me anything about why I am here and what is going on?” Iron Maiden asked her.
The woman shook her head: “That’s classified. You’ll get nothing out of me.”
“Are you sure?”
The doctor tried to look brave, but her courage was failing.  Still she did manage: “I don’t know anything.  I’m just a junior here.  I’m just doing what I’m told.”
“Just what you are told?” Iron Maiden snarled.  “That’s all is it?  The protest of every nasty sidekick throughout history.”
“Really, I don’t know anything.”
“Then,” Iron Maiden grinned wickedly, “I think this conversation is over.”

It wasn’t that Iron Maiden minded being naked.  After all, when you have metal skin its really not the same as normal people’s naked. Also, she looked fantastic and she knew it.  But while being a shiny metallic naked female was kinda fun, there was a time and a place.  So she took the lab coat from the doctor, who lay unconscious at her feet with a really nasty pair of black eyes already beginning to blossom.  “That’s gonna hurt,” Iron Maiden declared.  “But girl, you brought it entirely on yourself.”
It was time to get out.  Though she wanted to know more, she already had a feeling that she’d stretched her luck thin.  A few corporate guards and an old robot could not possibly be the entirety of the defences in this place.  As much as she wanted to smash the place up some more, get some answers to her questions, she knew she shouldn’t hang around until they managed to wheel something or someone out that could give her a fight.  Brave and sometimes a little foolhardy she may be, but stupid she was not.

She came out the fire door of the building into bright sunlight that caused her to squint in pain.  It felt like she hadn’t seen the sun in years.  Perhaps she hadn’t.  Iron Maiden did not know what had happened or what to expect, but she was reasonably sure she would be able to fill in the gaps once she found some friendly faces.  After all, she may have been a prisoner but she still had friends, right?  She could go to the police, or the FBI or another superhero.  Whatever had occurred she could resolve once she got her bearings.

Moving quickly, she trotted through some light trees and skirted a small man-made lake.  Little more than a giant water feature, really.  On the far side she headed up the hill, recognising the area.  She was fairly sure she was up in the hills overlooking Madden Heights.  As she reached the peak of the hill which looked out over the sprawl of the city and the bay beyond her jaw dropped in surprise.  Everything was different.  The buildings were different.  The lay of the land was different.  The metropolis was different.  This was, clearly, Helix city. And yet it was not.  In that moment she realised that things weren’t as simple as she’d hoped.  By loud buzz of several approaching helicopters, they were about to get significantly less so.


3 Responses to “Iron Maiden, Issue #002”

  1. Keith Nixon Says:

    I assume that was the Institute?

  2. False Bill Says:

    Seems a safe bet, still nice to see the fancy robot get smashed.

  3. Fraser Machin Says:

    Maiden smash puny robot!!

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