Alternate Iron #300: The Legion of Iron Men

by Matthew Malek

Chapter Two: All Dressed Up With Somewhere to Go

1:34 AM

Intruding on his reflections, War Machine's helmet radio buzzed. It was the SE intercom and Mrs. Arbogast was paging him.

"Jim?" she said, "They're here. As per your request, I sent them down to vault one. They should arrive in a minute or two."

"Thanks, Mrs. A. Time to get down to business." Rhodey responded. With that reply, he signed off and returned to the other vault to greet his guests. En route, he let Abe know that they were not to be disturbed for a few minutes. With the waiting time finished, Rhodey felt himself tensing up again. Playtime was over.

The "they" that Rhodey waited for was a rather eclectic group of people. It included Happy Hogan, an ex-boxer, ex-chauffeur, and ex-trainer who was one of Tony's oldest friends. Long ago Happy had been the second person to ever learn that Tony Stark was the "Armored Avenger" (Tony's then-fiancee being the first). There was also Eddie March, another boxer (and one far more skilled than Happy) who Tony had once hired to be Iron Man; and Michael O'Brien, an ex-policeman who was once convinced that Tony Stark had murdered his brother Kevin. Joining them was Carl Walker, formerly Clay Wilson and formerly the armored villain known as Force. Finally, Rhodey had also called upon Bethany Cabe, a bodyguard, a private investigator, and an all-around amazingly talented woman who had once been Tony's closest lover. In fact, Rhodey used to be certain that wedding bells would chime for Tony and Bethany; little had he known that Bethany was already married!

"Come on in" said War Machine to the five "guests" as they headed down the labyrinth of SE corridors towards storage vault one. "Happy Hogan. Eddie March. Bethany Cabe. Mike O'Brien. Carl Walker. Glad you could make it." War Machine ushered them into vault one and reached up to remove the helmet from his armor.

Carl Walker was clearly surprised by this revelation. As Force, he had fought alongside Iron Man and an unarmored James Rhodes. When Iron Man had been away on a special mission, Rhodey had asked Carl to be a substitute Iron Man, instead of doing the job himself. Thus, Rhodey was one of the last people he would have thought to be War Machine. Mike O'Brien and Eddie March looked startled, but less so. They didn't know Rhodey as well, and they hadn't really considered who the man in the black and white armor could be. Truth to be told, they were more amazed that Rhodey had cast off the "secret identity" convention. Didn't most superheroes, with rare exceptions like the Fantastic Four, guard their true identity zealously? In contrast, Happy Hogan didn't seem to regard this news as remarkable. Happy had been Tony's best friend for years. In those days, Happy had worn the Iron Man armor more often than anyone except for Tony Stark, himself. It seemed reasonable to presume that Tony's new best friend also would have been sucked into the world of armor-clad heroes. Similarly, Bethany showed no reaction. When she and Tony had been a couple, she had deduced his dual identity. Likewise, she had easily concluded that War Machine must really be James Rhodes.

After giving his guests a few seconds to process this unmasking, Rhodey continued. "Okay, then. You recognize me and you recognize the suit. Swell. Now we're all one big happy family." He knew most of these people fairly well and he did trust them, but it still made him uncomfortable to reveal that he was War Machine. Nevertheless, he was not Tony Stark. He knew how to operate as part of a team and to trust your allies instead of jerking them around. Given what he was about to ask of his new arrivals, Rhodey figured that he could at least grant them the courtesy of letting them know who they were talking to. He proceeded, "I expect that by now you also know Stark's down and Iron Man's history." Not all of them knew Tony Stark was Iron Man. In fact, only Happy Hogan and Bethany Cabe were aware of this. Rhodey decided to keep Stark's secret.

As one of the few who knew Tony's dual-identity, Bethany was made uneasy by this news. She wasn't certain that it was accurate. After all, Iron Man had seemed slain in battle many times during his long career and Tony himself had been pronounced dead to the world six months earlier. Nevertheless, a part of her feared that Rhodey was correct and she dearly hoped that he was not.

"I think I can tell where this is going" murmured Happy Hogan under his breath.

"What I've got in mind is dangerous, maybe outright crazy. Anyone who wants to walk away, nobody will hold it against you," said Rhodey, oblivious to Happy's comment.

There was a general rumbling as everyone confirmed that they had no intention of leaving yet, so Rhodey went on. "You've all got something in common. Well, all of you except for Bethany. But I know from personal experience that she knows how to handle herself. You've got a special kind of combat experience that comes from wearing one of these here suits." He gestured at the wall of antique armors with the back of his hand.

"We're going to put on old Iron Man armor and go fight Ultimo?" asked Carl.

"Heck, no," answered Rhodey. "Well, okay. You're half right. Ultimo is still loose out there and I'm not stupid enough to think that I can go toe-to-toe with something that ripped Iron Man to scrap metal in minutes. But fighting Ultimo in these ancient suits would just get us all killed. As soon as Abe's cracked the lock on vault number three, you're going to put on spares of the most advanced armor Tony's ever built and then we're going to go take Ultimo down! You with me?"

"We're with you!" cheered Happy and Eddie, almost in unison. Bethany nodded her agreement solemnly.

"What about Iron Man?" asked Mike. "You said he's not in good shape. What happened?"

Rhodey was getting impatient. "Iron Man wanted to go out there alone. If his grandstanding got him killed, so be it." The others shifted uncomfortably at Rhodey's clear disregard for Iron Man's life. "Iron Man apparently has, or had, a problem when it comes to working nice and playing nice with others. But I am not Iron Man. We are not Iron Man. Together, we are more than Iron Man! We are a..."

"A legion of Iron Men?" interrupted Happy. Bethany coughed softly, and Happy blushed. "Sorry," he said, "A legion of Iron Men and Maidens?" He turned redder and tried again, "A legion of Iron Men and Iron Women?"

Bethany smiled. She remembered Tony reminiscing about what a loyal old lug Happy was. He was a good man with a good heart, but his tongue seemed to trip him up fairly often. "A legion of Iron Men works fine for now. It's okay."

Rhodey continued as if the digression had never taken place, "We are a team."

Rhodey donned the War Machine helmet once more. Together, the six of them exited the vault. While they were talking, Abe's engineers had finished cracking the final lock. "There you go, War Machine. Hope this is what you were looking for. For all our sakes, really."

Rhodey hoped so, too. He peered into the last room and saw all ten niches occupied by the sleek red and gold armor built in the aftermath of the Silver Centurion's destruction. This was exactly what he had been looking for. "Aces," was his only answer to Abe, before disappearing inside. The five newcomers followed him in, shutting the door behind them.

Rhodey headed to a table in the center of the room and pressed five buttons. Correspondingly, five stasis fields dropped, exposing five armors.

"I think you know what to do from here, right," said War Machine. It was not a question. Rather than answer verbally, the five began snapping chestplates, boots, and gauntlets into place. Once the basic armor components had been donned, a mental command to cybernetic circuits were all that was needed to apply magnetic polarization. The magnets extended the arms and legs from their housings in the boots and gauntlets; it also hardened the suits from pliable metal fabric into rock solid armor. Eddie March smiled at the feel of being back in armor once again. Happy was nervously excited. Mike and Carl were calm. And Bethany, the most inexperienced of them all when it came to powered armor, exuded pure confidence.

"I do believe we're in business!" exclaimed Rhodey, looking at the new Iron Legion.

"Hold on one second" interrupted Mike. "We're all going to fly off looking the same, except for you?"

"Yeah, so?" was War Machine's reply. "Now isn't exactly the time to find spiffy new names and costumes for everyone."

"That's not what I mean," responded Mike, who was ignoring War Machine's growing abrasiveness. "How are we going to coordinate who's who in the battle?"

"Oh. Right." Rhodey hadn't considered this point and silently chided himself for overlooking it.

Bethany strode to a corner table and grabbed some old cloths which were lying there. They were rags only meant for shining the armors, but they were different colors and could be used for differentiating armors in the heat of battle. "Here, wear these" she suggested. "It's not ideal, but Mike does have a point and we don't have much time to waste solving it." She handed out the towels to everyone except Rhodey, who was clearly distinguishable in the black and white War Machine armor.

Bethany tied a blue towel around her upper arm. Mike followed her lead and secured a yellow towel as his own armband. Eddie preferred to tie his red rag onto his waist and Carl made a green headband for himself. Then Happy put on his helmet and tied a purple towel around his neck, making it into a purple cape. The five of them actually looked formidable, but funny, with these rags hanging off of state-of-the-art armor.

"Ready now?" asked Rhodey, eager to get his newfound team into the air.

"Ready!" replied Happy with just a little too much enthusiasm. "Ultimo's facing the Iron Legion now! Ready or not, here we come!"

Under her helmet, Bethany smiled. "You've got to appreciate that raw enthusiasm," she thought. At the same time, Mike was thinking "He tries, he really does. And keeping morale high is a good thing. We're certainly going to need it."

"Legionnaires Unite!" cried Carl, getting caught up in Happy's spirit.

And with that, the Iron Legion strode out of the vault, past the amazed stares from the engineering crew, and made its way out of the building.