"What?" Carol Danvers cried, emerging from her bathroom with a robe wrapped around her torso and a towel in her hair. "What was that? Repeat, damnit! Ah hell, why doesn't network TV come with a rewind button?"

It didn't bother her that she was talking to a soulless machine - her 27-inch Sony, to be precise - or that, even if she could have replayed what she'd just heard, she had lost the remote nearly a month ago. She stood in front of the TV, hands on her hips, and watched the pretty young thing with the microphone relinquishing the viewing audience to a middle-aged anchorman 'back at the studio'.

Carol toweled her hair quickly, then tossed the towel on the couch. Something was going on at the opening for some youth center downtown. She vaguely remembered Tony Stark talking about the center at the pool party he'd thrown at his estate last week*, but she had no idea where the center was.

(* See issue #5 for the pool party - 80-proof Russ)

For a moment, she was torn. She didn't want to make a habit of running off to save Tony whenever he got into trouble - Carol Danvers was many things, but Iron Man's sidekick was not one of them - but Seattle was her town. If there was trouble, Warbird should be involved.

At a thought, her robe disappeared in a flash of power, replaced with her "working clothes" - the skintight suit and domino mask of Warbird. She would try flying high enough over the city to see the commotion that was sure to be surrounding the center. If that didn't work, she could always find a cop to point her in the right direction.

On her way to the balcony, she almost bumped into the glass sphere perched on one of her endtables. She began to pass it by, then did a double-take. Where had that come from?

She returned to it and looked inside. There were several delicate looking blossoms within, royal purple, floating in water. The roots were twisted all about each other, and the glass sphere, though transparent, seemed to be giving off some kind of subtle radiance that only complemented the flowers.

"They are called Ikthae Marsahl," a voice said behind her. "Literally: the Flowers of Virtue."

Carol turned and found herself facing a familiar figure. Namor the Sub-Mariner was propped up in the open doorway leading to her apartment's balcony. He gave her a pleasant smile and stood to approach her. "They are very rare, and only capable of surviving at the extreme temperatures and pressures at the bottom of the Indian Ocean... that globe duplicates those conditions."

"Are these... for me?" Carol asked, stunned.

"Yes," Namor replied, drawing up in front of her. "I wished to thank you for your help during that unpleasant business with Iron Man.* I had hoped to spirit you away for several hours tonight, and, from what I understand, surface dwellers are in the habit of bringing flowers to beautiful women." He cupped her chin in one hand, tilted her face up to his.

(* Namor is referring to events during the "Sea Monsters" arc in issues #5-6 and the 2000 Annual - Fishhead Russ)

Warbird smiled, obviously enchanted. "So the King of Atlantis is asking me on a date?"

Namor nodded. "Aye. What say you?"

To Namor's credit, he was far too distracted by the color of Warbird's eyes to see the blow coming. The next thing the Sub-Mariner knew, he was hurtling back out through the open doorway, across the balcony of Carol's apartment, and into the sky twenty floors above the streets of Seattle.

"Gods, woman!" Namor cried, hovering in front of her balcony under his own power and rubbing his jaw. "What was that for?"

"Let me tell you something else about us 'surface dwellers', Mr. High-and-Mighty King!" Carol roared, appearing at her door. "We don't like it when strange men break into our homes when we're in the shower! Next time you want to try out some new pick-up lines, you damn well come to my front door and knock! Got it?"

Namor nodded, still rubbing his jaw. "Yes. I 'got it'."

"Good. Now be here at 8 o'clock Friday... and wear a suit. The bikini briefs are sexy, but I doubt we'll get into many nice restaurants with you wearing them."

With that, Carol turned, locked her balcony door, and rocketed off past Namor. The Sub-Mariner watched her go, a slow smile spreading across his normally dour features.

"You were going to tell us what you want," Janet Van Dyne - aka the Wasp - prompted.

"Ah yes." The man in the golden armor, currently hovering above the new gym floor of the Seattle Youth Recreation & Services Center, cleared his throat and straightened as power began to radiate from his gauntlets. "Mr. Stark, if you wish to leave here alive, and you care for the safety of our guests and your teammate Ms Van Dyne"-absurdly, the golden man touched his helmeted forehead and nodded at Jan, as if tipping his hat to her-"you will immediately produce Iron Man. Today will be his final hurrah... the day he falls prey to the power of... ARMADA!"

Tony Stark, standing next to Jan, looked at her in confusion, both of them speaking at the same time:

"Who??"

"Armada," the golden man prompted. His jawline was visible beneath his helmet, and he scowled in impatience. "The greatest techno-thief and industrial saboteur money can buy. I fought Spider-Man...* Is any of this ringing a bell?"

(* In Marvel's Sensational Spider-Man #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #413 - Spidey-phile Russ)

Jan shook her head and Tony shrugged. "Sorry, never heard of you."

"Unimportant!" Armada cried. "Bring me Iron Man!" Around him, the small pod-like devices that acted as his entourage and helpers began to zip around more restlessly. None of them were bigger than a human fist, and all were different shapes. Armada had given them all names - female names, to be exact - and treated them as living, thinking beings.

Tony was depressed by the fact that none of this seemed overly strange to him.

"Extraction," he said softly, the microphone at his lapel picking up the nearly subaudible sound of his voice. "Make a mess. Configuration 000."

A man-sized object, colored crimson and gold and shaped like an electric razor, slammed through the ceiling above them. Repulsor rays fired from its leading edge, scattering Armada's 'pets' and putting the man himself on guard.

"Marcia! Stacy! Take cover!"

Once it had sown confusion, the pod flashed downward and flew past Tony, who reached up and snagged a handle that had appeared on the pod's underside. Once he had a firm grip, the pod blasted another hole in the side of the building and carried him out.

While Armada was still recovering from this shock, the Wasp shrank down until she was almost invisible to the naked eye, shucking off the jacket Tony had loaned her when her own clothes had been ruined by Armada's initial attack. Delicate, insect-like wings sprouted from her back as she shrank, and she used them to zip across the gym floor to where the other attendees of the center's grand opening were cowering against the doors.

"Go!" she shouted, blasting the locks with her bioelectric stings. The people couldn't see her, but they knew what to do when the doors started flying open. As one they began to rush out into the Seattle night.

"What the hell was that??" Armada screamed. "Since when does Iron Man look like a... like a Norelco??"

"That wasn't Iron Man, dummy," the Wasp said, zipping over to his side and letting him have it with a low-level sting to the midsection. "It was the... er... the Iron Wing. What, you think that Bat-guy in the comics is the only one with expensive toys?"

"'Iron Wing? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"Listened to yourself talk lately?" a new voice said from above. The Wasp and Armada looked up as Iron Man rocketed into the gym through the hole in the ceiling. Not pausing to exchange any more quips, Iron Man rammed the other armored man. Armada soared across the room and slammed into the folded bleachers lining one wall.

"Wasp, are you alright?" Iron Man asked.

"Sure am, handsome. Thanks for the save. That new suit of yours has some neat tricks."

"It's better than keeping it in a suitcase anyway," Iron Man agreed. Inside the armor, Tony Stark ran a quick systems check. After the armor - in its pod form - had gotten him out of the building, he'd immediately ordered it to encase him and get him back inside. "Did this bozo spill what he wants yet?"

"Fool!" Armada cried from across the gym floor. He'd completely smashed through the folded bleachers, and all the two Avengers could see of him were his legs dangling out of the hole he'd made. He grasped the edges of the cavity and tried to pull himself up into a sitting position, then lost his grip and flopped back into it. "You've given me just what I want!" he cackled, waving a fist triumphantly in the air.

"Iron Man, watch it!" The Wasp fired off a sting at an approaching pod - one of Armada's robotic 'pets'. The machine spun wildly and crashed into the gymnasium floor.

But she couldn't get all of them, and Iron Man couldn't react in time to save himself as they all converged on his armored form. There had to be nearly a dozen of the things, and they smacked into him from as many different directions, attaching themselves to his armor. He struggled with them, managed to rip one of them away - just before the armor made a loud, electric POP and fell out of the air, hitting the floor with a thud.

"Iron Man?" the Wasp asked uncertainly.

"So Rhodes Recoveries is no more, huh?" Pepper Potts asked.

Jim Rhodes shook his head. "No. After what happened with the Washington Carver,* I don't want to captain a ship again. The insurance money was more than enough to outfit myself with a new boat, but I'm gonna look into some other possibilities for now."

(* Rhodey is referring to the sinking of his salvage craft, the Washington Carver, and the deaths of most of his crew in issue #5 - Russ)

"Oh," Pepper replied, swirling the rum runner she'd been nursing for the last half hour and feeling like a complete chowderhead for broaching the subject. She stole a peek across the table at Jim. He was gazing across the jazz club at the stage, where the band was getting ready to start their next set.

"Do you want to come back to work for Tony, then?" she asked with a sly grin.

"Oh god no!" Rhodey laughed. "I'd like to think I'm beyond being Tony Stark's pilot."

"Well, just something to think about," she replied, knowing that Jim Rhodes would never seriously entertain the notion. He and Tony were currently on speaking terms, but Pepper suspected it would be a good long while before Rhodey let himself completely trust Tony Stark again.

"Thanks again for bringing me out tonight."

Rhodey waved that off. "Thanks for coming with. Woulda been pretty sad to walk into this place alone. I just can't believe I was lucky enough to find a pretty girl who wasn't doing anything at the last minute on a Friday night."

Pepper smiled at the compliment. She tried not to think too much about how she'd begged off going to the youth center opening tonight with her ex-husband - blaming a heavy workload - but had agreed to go out with Jim practically without hesitation. She hadn't dated in a long while, not since Tony had hired her on as one-third of Stark Solutions, anyway. It was nice to be away from that for a while, and she wasn't going to let thoughts of Harold Hogan get in the way.

The band whipped into a peppy little number to kick off their set. The audience applauded and cheered in approval, including Jim, and before Pepper had fully digested that the music was going again, he was standing beside her and pulling her to her feet.

"C'mon," he was saying, "we gotta dance to this one."

"B-but I don't know how to dance... to this music," Pepper replied weakly.

"I'll show you," Rhodey grinned. "Don't make me look like a fool dancing out there by myself, Pepper, damn it. Come on."

Sighing in surrender, Pepper Potts allowed herself to be pulled out onto the dance floor.

"That... wasn't supposed to happen."

Armada, having finally managed to extricate himself from the crushed bleachers, stood over Iron Man's helpless form. The Avenger was lying frozen on his side on the gym floor, Armada's 'pets' still attached to his armor.

"Sophie, Lauren, Grace, all of you... let him go. Let's figure out what happened here." At his command, the pods all disengaged from the armor and floated up to hover at Armada's shoulder level. "And don't even think about zapping me while my attention's diverted, Ms. Van Dyne," he said, directing this warning at the Wasp. "Stacy has got you locked. Make a move to fire and she'll blast your Tinkerbell butt out of the air."

"Jerk," the Wasp fumed. At least he hadn't demanded that she grow to her full height again. Janet Van Dyne was not a shy woman, but after Armada's pets had destroyed the new clothes she'd worn to this event, she was being forced to fly around in her underwear. Her current diminutive size allowed her to maintain at least a little dignity.

"All but your most basic systems appear to be frozen, Iron Man," Armada said, squatting down next to the Avenger's collapsed form. "The girls attached themselves to you in an effort to hack into as many internal systems as they could, not to actually cause any damage. That tells me you did this to yourself. With a highly-localized electromagnetic pulse, no less. Why?"

"Failsafe," Iron Man growled back, obviously frustrated. "Crashes neural net if someone succeeds in penetrating the armor's system. Mr. Stark won't allow the Iron Man technology to be stolen ever again.*. I don't know what you were trying to learn here, but you're not going to get anything from this suit of armor."

(*As it was many times over before Iron Man unloaded a can of whoop-ass all over the guys who'd stolen it, during the classic "Armor Wars" storyline - Old Man Russ)

Armada frowned. "That's not very sporting. I mean, what am I going to tell my employer?"

"That you messed up the job."

Armada sighed and rose to his feet. "That was a rhetorical question, you dork." He put a foot on Iron Man's side and rolled the Avenger roughly onto his back.

"I guess I'll just have to take you back to the rendezvous. Maybe it won't be as neat a package as a simple disk would have been, but I'd be willing to bet my employer will scarf up a bit more money for the real deal. Girls... pick up the garbage, please. And one of you, go help Elizabeth and Virginia. I suspect Ms Van Dyne's stings did them no small amount of injury."

Armada gave Jan a disapproving look. She stuck her tongue out at him, hoping she was big enough for the gesture to be visible.

Meanwhile, the pods that weren't seeing to their comrades or guarding the Wasp - about ten of them in all - took position over the Iron Man armor. There was the hum of electricity through machinery and Armada stood off to one side patiently, expectantly.

Nothing happened.

"What is going on here?" he cried in frustration. "I've got electromagnets hooked to the girls' underbellies! Why can't they pull you off the floor?"

"I've fought Magneto," Iron Man replied, and the Wasp suspected she heard just a bit of amusement creeping into his voice now. "You think Mr. Stark wouldn't shield this armor from magnetism?"

Suddenly, Iron Man's arm swung awkwardly into the air, his fist closing around one of Armada's pets. The other pods scattered momentarily at the movement, probably preparing to regroup and mount an attack. Before the group could converge, the armored Avenger had crunched the pod in his grip and hurled it clumsily toward the Wasp.

Clumsy or not, it was a perfect throw. The damaged pod bounced off of 'Stacy' - the robot guarding Jan - and the Wasp used that split-second of impact, that moment when the robot's crosshairs were knocked away from her, to blast it out of the sky. 'Stacy' spun to the floor like a falling top.

"No!" Armada cried in anguish. "What are you doing to my girls? Stop it! Stop hurting-"

The Wasp suddenly appeared in front of him, snapping back to her full height and using the momentum of her growth to drive the heel of her hand into Armada's exposed jawline. The villain crumpled to the floor, leaving his 'pets' to hover motionless, without orders or the will of their maker.

"Doesn't make much sense to wear armor if you're just going to leave your face nice and naked like that... jerk." Jan dusted her hands together and turned towards Iron Man. "How are you doing, Shellhead?"

"Better by the second," Iron Man grunted, slowly and awkwardly getting to his feet. "The EM pulse disrupts the armor's neural net, but I can still access most of the manual controls. It's even slower and clunkier than my original armor, but the primary systems should be done rebooting in the next couple minutes." He finished getting to his feet, then looked around the room to be sure the hovering robots were remaining docile. They all were. "Does Hank* know you stole his 'grow-real-fast-and-sock-the-bad-guy' move?"

(* Hank Pym, aka Giant Man, creator of the Pym Particles that allow the Wasp to shrink, and her former husband [not to mention another founding Avenger] - Divorce lawyer Russ)

"Hank loves me," Jan grinned. "He won't mind."

Iron Man looked around the room - the servos in his neck buzzing lightly as they worked on low power - and sighed. "We beat the bad guy, but now the Center's going to need another two or three weeks of repairs before we can open."

"Hey, that's what Damage Control's for," Jan said. She had retrieved Tony's jacket from the floor where she'd dropped it, and draped it over her bare shoulders again. "Look on the bright side: when it's finished, you have a wonderful excuse for another party. Think you can handle our friend there?"

Iron Man grabbed Armada by the edge of his golden chestplate and tossed the villain over his shoulder. Janet took his arm as the two of them headed for the doors and the flashing police lights outside. "So... are you up for some dinner after this? Punching out villains makes me ravenous, and I know this lovely place downtown..."

Once the two heroes were gone, one of Armada's robotic pods hovered into view at the podium.* Elizabeth, as her creator had named her, was slightly wobbly in her flight, but made her way across the floor to where her sisters hovered. She paused next to one of the other pods - one of those that had been attached to Iron Man earlier - and an arc of electricity passed briefly between the two machines... almost as if they were communicating.

(*This is the pod the Wasp damaged in Armada's opening salvo last issue - Short-Term memory Russ)

That done, Elizabeth turned and zipped away at full speed, flashing through the hole Iron Man had punched in the ceiling, and disappearing into the night sky.

THINGS TO COME

Epilogue 1 - Seattle

"I had a great time," Pepper said, standing at the door to her apartment building. "I haven't danced that much since college."

"Well, you sure haven't lost it," Rhodey replied.

Pepper paused. Was this where she invited him up for a drink, she wondered. It had been so long since she'd actually dated... and dating etiquette aside, did she really want to invite him up? Was she ready for that?

Jim seemed to sense her uneasiness and smiled. Leaning forward, he gave her a chaste peck on the cheek and started down the steps from the building stoop. "I hope we can do it again sometime, Pepper."

"Me too," she replied, relieved and disappointed all at once. "You know where to find me when you're in town again."

"I do," he laughed, and got into his rental car. A moment later, he was starting the engine and Pepper was letting herself into the building.

If Pepper Potts had glanced down the street, she might have seen a familiar car parked on the opposite curb, several buildings down. But she didn't, which also saved her from seeing Harold "Happy" Hogan - her ex-husband - sitting behind the wheel with a look of hurt confusion pasted across his broad face. After the debacle at the youth center, Happy had called Tony's house to tell Pepper about it. When she hadn't answered the phone, he'd come here.

And found her returning from a night on the town with Jim Rhodes.

Happy waited a few minutes, until Pepper was inside her building and Rhodes had pulled away, then he started his own car up and drove toward home.

Epilogue 2 - Norway

"Magnificent," the beautiful blond woman said, leaning out the hotel window and marveling at the ocean below. The bellboy standing behind her in a pool of his own hormonal sweat tried not to stare too obviously at her well-shaped backside.

"Thank you so much for your help," the woman purred, gliding across the floor to the boy and pressing a generous tip into his hand. As she ushered him out of the room, she tossed him a flirtatious wink that would haunt the boy's dreams until he was well out of puberty.

Once alone, she returned to the window and regarded the sea and the land's end that met it. "So easy to gain the worship of one mortal," Amora the Enchantress mused. "Soon, though - sooner even than the Allfather could guess - it shall all be ours again."

Epilogue 3 - Seoul, South Korea

The woman stood on the city street, gazing up at the mighty skyscraper that stretched further into the heavens than any other building in downtown Seoul. The corporate headquarters of Morning Calm, Inc. had not changed at all while she'd been... recuperating. The board of directors had found another CEO promptly enough after Johnny's death. The creation outlived the creator, as was often the case.

<"Hey pretty lady,"> a young man said, materializing at her elbow. <"Pretty lady shouldn't be in this part of town all by herself, this time of night.">*

(*Translated from Korean - Linguistic Russ)

The woman regarded him with disinterest, tinged with just a little bit of weary scorn. He was probably not yet 25 years old, hair slicked back, wearing a well-kept but old sports jacket. Behind him, at a discrete distance, were a small group of similarly dressed young Korean men, watching the exchange with avid interest. This boy's buddies, probably... watching him put the moves to a lone aggashi.

The woman tilted her head. The long black hair that fell down over the right side of her face fell away for a moment, giving the boy a glimpse of the wreckage there that marred her otherwise beautiful Oriental features. <"And do you propose to protect me, sir?"> she asked demurely.

The man stepped back in alarm. <"N-no,"> he replied. <"No, lady. Just warning is all."> He turned without saying goodbye and marched quickly back to his friends, trying to hold on to some of his dignity, and failing when he tripped over his own feet in his rush. He fell to the ground, rumpling his jacket, then scrambled to his feet and hurried away.

Meiko Ko allowed herself a moment's amusement, then turned back toward the skyscraper. It had been good to come back here and say goodbye to the family business one last time. Some things needed to be done, no matter how unpleasant the past had been. And it was important to achieve some sense of closure on some things.

She turned and strode toward a nearby subway entrance. On her way down the steps, descending into the earth, she pulled a ceramic wafer from the pocket of her long coat and used her thumbnail to depress the thin button on its side.

Behind her, the corporate headquarters of Morning Calm, Inc. erupted in a pillar of fire, decimating the buildings on either side of it and blowing the windows out of structures for a block in all directions.

Tony Stark, she thought, as panic erupted around her and everyone except she began running for the surface. Soon Stark - and his lackey, Iron Man - would both die screaming. She would see to it personally.

Next Issue: Iron Man, beaten and humiliated, finds himself as the unwilling lab rat of the Dark Beast. That's right, folks, it's an Apocalypse: Ageless Fury crossover. Drop by and see how Iron Man handles one of the X-Men's most dangerous enemies.

IRON FILINGS

I got a letter! This review was posted to the Heroes board by Brian Campo:

What's the deal?
This is an Iron Man series set in present day continuity. Billionaire genius Tony Stark dons a suit of electronic armor to battle the enemies of earth, both foreign and domestic.

The Good:
All I have to say about this series is good. These are just great stories. I've never been much of an Iron Man fan but I gave this series a try and I was glad that I did. Russ tells a well constructed tale and knows how to keep you in suspense. The action sequences are nicely laid out and none of them are found wanting. There's no bad grammar or spelling for you to stumble over and the dialogue is all realistic and true to character. Most of the fan fiction groups have at least one series that stands out as being really good and this is the one at M2K. Give it a look see, it's a hoot.

First of all, I'd just like to compliment Brian on his exquisite taste and exceptional intelligence. Truly, this guy's gonna go far. :-)

Seriously, though, I was ecstatic when I got this review. Any feedback is welcome, of course, and Brian's very positive review was even moreso. I'm glad you're digging it so far, Brian (hell, I'm mostly just glad somebody's reading it) and if you like IM, I hope you give my 2-part Captain America story in Marvel Fanfare a try as well. Should be out any day now. Thanks again!