Alternate Iron #300: The Legion of Iron Men

by Matthew Malek

Chapter Four: Davids and Goliath

2:07 AM

"So this is what flying is like. Impressive," Bethany Cabe had thought upon ascending into the air above the Stark Enterprises complex. Though she was the only member of the Iron Legion who had not flown before, she had shown no outwards signs of being a novice. No inwards symptoms had occurred, either, except for the rush of excitement that seemed to accompany all first timers to this singular experience.

That had been nearly twenty minutes earlier. Now, after traveling at nearly the speed of sound, they had made it to the outskirts of Futura. En route, Rhodey had briefed them on some of the weaponry in the latest red-and-gold armor. Even Rhodey had never worn that armor model, but he had seen Tony Stark use it often enough to know some of the tricks up its iron sleeves. He gave the Legion a crash course on how to activate the repulsors, the unibeam laser, the pulse bolts, and the energy shield in the left gauntlet. He didn't know how to operate the six-second force field, or even whether this armor still contained such a device. As they reached Futura, signs of Ultimo's passing were obvious from the widespread devastation. Locating Ultimo himself was equally trivial; it is difficult to avoid spotting a hundred foot tall monster in a sleepy little town like Futura.

The military had apparently ceased its direct assault on Ultimo when it had finally reached Futura; they were now concentrating their efforts wholly on the evacuation of citizens. Rhodey found himself wondering how many pilots had sacrificed their lives before the commanders had changed priorities. Tanks and National Guardsmen were everywhere, herding the people from buildings and transporting them out of the town. Futura was a terrible sight: abandoned cars lined the streets, buildings that had been in Ultimo's path had been crushed. Even if the Iron Legion succeeded in stopping Ultimo, extensive damage had already been sustained, and Futura would not recover for a very long time. None of the Iron Legion even wanted to think about how high the body count must be.

"Okay, people" Rhodey said when Ultimo was just barely within the outer range of their weapons, "He's heading the other way. Good. We've got the element of surprise. So, as we discussed on the way in, we do this by the numbers! On my mark, GO!"

All six members of the Iron Legion let fire a round of pulse bolts from both gauntlets. Pulse bolts were the ultimate long range weapon that Tony Stark had built into the Iron Man armor. At short range, they were not as powerful as repulsors; they accumulated static electricity from the atmosphere while traveling, which caused them to "pulse" with increasing energy. The further they traveled, the harder they hit. At their maximum range, which the Iron Legion had reached, they should be positively devastating.

Ultimo staggered and nearly tripped as twelve pulse bolts slammed into it from behind. "Now we've got its attention!" cried Eddie. Carl noted, however, that their "sucker punch" had done little more than get Ultimo's attention.

Ultimo turned and emitted a loud creaking noise. The monster had always been mute; this was the closest it could come to a scream. It was surprised, to be sure, but it was also outraged. In its primitive mind, Ultimo remembered the satisfaction of destroying the small not-soft one it hated so much. Discovering five more red and gold not-soft ones to oppose it provoked anger beyond description.

Ultimo wasn't the only one who noticed the Iron Legion now. Many of the people in Futura saw them as well. "Look, Mommy! Up in the sky!" exclaimed one child.

"Wow!", remarked another child, "It's Ironing Man! Many Ironing Mans!"

"That's Iron Man, kiddo." said his older sister.

Some of the adults began joining in the murmur, too. "Think they'll save our town? The last one didn't..."

"More robots. Feh, who needs them? Give me a good old-fashioned human super hero, like Captain America. None of these robots or mutants or what have you."

Up in the sky, the "robots" were preparing for the fight of their lives. Despite the danger, Carl Walker was feeling great excitement. He had once made a career out of committing criminal acts in high-tech armor. That part of his life had been partially motivated by the promise of quick wealth, but the sheer thrill of wielding such power was also compelling. Since retiring as Force, he had found himself occasionally missing the rapture of an armored battle. Only once had he been back in armor, filling in when Iron Man was unavailable. That time, though, he had used one of Iron Man's stealth armors, which was not terribly powerful; even his old Force armor was equipped with heavier weaponry. This full strength Iron Man suit, however, was beyond belief! It made every armor he had ever worn as Force look clumsy and outdated. Being one of the most experienced armor-wearing veterans in the Legion, Carl wanted to prove himself. He shouted, "The nice thing about something this big is that it makes an easy target!" and flew by the base of Ultimo's neck to shoot a repulsor blast at its face.

Meanwhile, Bethany employed techniques that she had learned from melee combat during her bodyguard training. She was gambling on the hope that whoever built Ultimo had given it some of the same weak spots that humans had. So she quickly went for body blows to pressure points, places like the solar plexus and the back of the knees. It seemed to be an effective strategy, and it helped keep Ultimo off balance, but it did not cause any noticeable damage to the alien tool.

Eddie, the prize boxer of the group, was relying on reach. He maintained a reasonable distance between himself and Ultimo. From that position, he used repeated pulse bolts as the equivalent of multi-ton punches. He did have to use caution in order to avoid striking the Legionnaires, but the targeting computers in the Iron Man armor seemed sophisticated enough to track the others and handle that.

Rhodey, in standard War Machine fashion, unleashed everything at Ultimo. Noting that his teammates were congregated in front of the behemoth, he got behind Ultimo and started emulating the Punisher. The plasma cannon on his shoulder was in overdrive, the gatling gun on his gauntlet was delivering round after round of adamantium-tipped shells, and his unibeam was glowing white hot. Under the pressure of such a unrelenting assault, scorches and nicks were beginning to show on Ultimo's back. With the others keeping Ultimo occupied, War Machine wondered if this attack on the rear could defeat the giant. In solo combat, Ultimo would have surely stopped this barrage by launching a mighty counterattack. Yet, with its attention diverted elsewhere, perhaps Rhodey could manage the impossible. "With no eyebeams and limited reach, Ultimo is most vulnerable from behind," War Machine thought.

Mike joined Carl in buzzing about Ultimo's face and firing repulsor blasts. He was hoping that the combined onslaught of energy weapons and physical blows would

topple the giant. However, the sight of two red-and-gold not-soft ones in front of its face focused Ultimo's anger. Its eyes began to glow red with their lethal beams. Rhodey had briefed them on the danger of these eyebeams, so they were not caught unawares. In response, Carl activated his armor's collision avoidance software and easily evaded the beams. Ultimo turned to take a shot at Mike, who employed a different defensive approach. Rather than avoid the eyebeams, Mike activated the energy shield in his left gauntlet and positioned it to block the blast. A blinding crackle of light flashed when eyebeam met energy shield. If the polarized lenses in Mike's Iron Man armor hadn't automatically dropped into place, such intense light surely would have cost him his vision. Sparks flew and the armor's sensors registered tremendous heat. When at last the eyebeams ceased, Mike found himself looking at his bare left hand. The energy shield had done its job, but it had burnt out the gauntlet's circuitry in the process. With no power left to maintain its integrity, the now-useless gauntlet had slipped off and fallen to the ground below.

"This thing has to have some weak spots!" declared Happy, and flew into the round disk of Ultimo's ear in an attempt to find something that could be blasted apart. Not being human, Ultimo didn't truly have ears; there was no orifice present by which to gain entrance to the robot. Frustrated, Happy Hogan fired double repulsors at maximum strength into Ultimo's skull and began flying back to rejoin his teammates. The blasts irritated Ultimo, who retaliated by venting his wrath upon Happy's Iron Man armor. While the eyebeams were cooling off they could not be used. So Ultimo returned to using its vast physical might and swatted the disgusting not-soft one with the palm of its hand. Happy went soaring out of control from the impact and collided hard with the ground at Ultimo's feet. Red lights began blinking in his helmet from the armor's various sensors. Happy had no idea what this meant, though. Stunned from the blast, Happy was unaware that Ultimo was preparing to stomp him into the ground.

"Move Happy! Now!!" cried Carl, who did not wait for Happy to respond. Instead, Carl swooped down and grabbed Happy, intending to carry him to safety. Ultimo's outrage mounted further, and its eyebeams were now ready for their next duty cycle. Carl cued up the collision avoidance software once again, but the added weight of the extra armor he was carrying threw it off balance just a little. Most of the blast missed him, but the heel of one boot jet was nicked by the eyebeam. Even a slight brush with such a powerful weapon was potentially deadly; the heat ignited the boot jet's fuel. With one jet out of commission, Carl could no longer stabilize his armor. He spun wildly out of control, dropping Happy in the process. Fortunately, Bethany and Eddie managed to catch their Iron comrades and prevent a rather painful landing.

Rhodey was becoming quite frustrated by this new sequence of events. The encounter had begun so well, but with the element of surprise gone, the tide was inexorably turning. This was what he had feared. Although most of the Iron Legion had been trained in fighting, they were not used to functioning as a team. There was still strength in numbers, but if they couldn't act as a team then the whole would not be greater than the sum of its parts. Two of the armors had already sustained damage. He certainly did not want to see any of the Legionaries killed!

War Machine flew to the spot where Bethany and Eddie had brought Happy and Carl to the ground. Mike joined them, aware that facing Ultimo alone was futile. The Iron Legion had but seconds before Ultimo was upon them again, though.

"Happy? Carl? Are you okay?" asked War Machine.

"I'm fine," replied Carl. "Really I am! The armor barely got nicked and that looked worse than it was. Structural integrity seems intact. The only problem is that with one jet gone, I am grounded. I can't fly properly nor maneuver with only one boot jet functional."

"Okay, you and Happy wait here. The rest of you, come with me."

"No, I can do this. I can still help." said Carl.

"We don't have time to debate!" exclaimed War Machine. His headache was returning; this was the worse possible time for that! "I've got a plan. Hold Ultimo off, I'm going to make Happy's idea work! Bethany, can you give him another one of those hits to the solar plexus?"

"Of course," she replied.

"Then let's go!"

With those words, War Machine flew to meet Ultimo, who had caught up to the Legion. Bethany was true to her word; she made herself into an armored cannonball and struck Ultimo in the gut hard. Ultimo's mouth bolted open in a reflex reaction. Anticipating this response, War Machine followed Happy's earlier example and sent himself flying down Ultimo's maw, to confront the enemy from within. Ultimo seemed stunned by this tactic, and clutched at its own throat. Being a machine, Ultimo did not need to breathe. Rather, it was attempting to assault the intruder and force him out, but to an observer, it did appear as if the giant was choking.

"Well then." remarked Bethany. "That was certainly unexpected. Our fearless leader has gone off and become lunch."

"What do we do now, then?" asked Happy, who had returned with the others. So had Carl, for that matter. Eddie was now carrying Carl and his flightless armor.

"I think it's time for a little teamwork," was Bethany's answer. "We were doing okay fighting him separately. Let's see if we can do better when we combine our efforts."

"You're the boss lady," said Carl. "What did you have in mind?"

"Carl, you're damaged, so stay back and fire pulse bolts at him. Eddie was doing that before and it seemed to work well. Mike, you're partly exposed and have no shield. So stay behind him. Knees seem to be a weak point, focus on one of them. Happy, you join him; take the other knee. Eddie, I'm going to need you to maintain a frontal assault on the chest, while I go for the head."

"Is that wise?" asked Mike. "I've seen what those eyebeams can do. Be careful."

"I will be. Come on, let's do it!"

Ultimo was no longer grasping at its neck. In fact, once the intruder was no longer stuck in its throat, it had become unaware that there was anybody inside of it. Possessing no more than a rudimentary consciousness, Ultimo quickly lost focus on things once they ceased to be of immediate concern. Seeing five of the not-soft ones charging at it caused it to completely forget about the not-soft one in its belly. To destroy the not-soft ones, Ultimo bent over and began scooping up cars, which it hurled at the Legionnaires. Dodging these clumsy projectiles was quite simple for the Iron Man armors' collision avoidance software. However, the free-falling cars crashed through buildings and burst into flame upon impact.

"He's setting the town on fire!" cried Eddie. "Let's blast those cars in mid-air!" Eddie engaged the targeting systems and began firing at the the airborne autos. Although his computer-guided aim was flawless, the cars continued to explode as repulsors ignited the fuel tanks. A rain of burning wreckage fell upon Futura.

"Time to modify the plan," replied Bethany. "Catch the cars, don't shoot them! Eddie? Happy? Are you up for it? Mike is one-handed and Carl can't fly... If you two can handle the cars, we will handle Ultimo."

"We're on it!"

"Okay, then. Carl, you stick to the original plan. Mike, you nail both knees from behind. I'll go for the upper body assault alone."

Ultimo was already somewhat unbalanced from bending over to gather the ammunition of automobiles. Carl unleashed a volley of pulse bolts at the back of Ultimo's left knee. Mike slammed his armor against the back of Ultimo's right knee. Ultimo dropped the cars it was collecting and tried to regain balance. Bethany wouldn't let it, though, and topped off the Legion's assault with a stunning blow that landed square in the center of Ultimo's chest. The combined might of these three accomplished the unthinkable: Ultimo staggered, and finally fell!

In the center of downtown Futura, Ultimo fell flat on its back. While falling, it ripped through power lines like they were non-existent. Upon landing, half a block of buildings were crushed beneath its weight.

"Go team!" cheered Happy. "You did it!"

"He's down, but he's not out," cautioned Mike. "What's our next step, Bethany?" When no reply came, Mike repeated the question, "Bethany?"

In this momentary respite from battle, Bethany was looking at Futura itself. The town had truly been decimated. There were dead bodies in the street, crushed in potholes the shape of giant footprints. Fires raged everywhere. Bethany felt a surge of emotions course through her: She could empathize with these people, who were losing their homes and their loved ones. She felt anger at the senselessness of Ultimo's rampage, and the mindless destruction it was causing. She realized, then, that battling Ultimo to a standstill was not the answer. Damage was still being done to Futura, and the civilians were still in danger. She resolved to end this struggle and to do it without letting any other people be hurt. The National Guard was working to evacuate citizens and control the damage, but it simply wasn't enough. They needed more help.

Speaking slowly, Bethany answered. "Plan A worked well. Ultimo's fallen, but he's about to get back up. Time for our next plan. We are here to protect Futura, so that is what we are going to do. We've been trusting the National Guard to handle the evacuation, while we take the fight to Ultimo. Truth is, we're outgunned here. We can knock him down, but he will get up again, and I'm beginning to doubt if we're going to be able keep him down. While we've been up here trying, people down there are dying. So here is what we do next: Carl, Happy, and Mike. You three go help with the evacuation. Keep your sensors on and scan for people trapped in collapsed buildings or by the fires. Go where the National Guard can't to get them out safely. Eddie, your armor and mine are in the best shape right now, so we're going to lead Ultimo out of town. Remember, the game has changed. We are not trying to defeat him, we want to make him chase us so that we can bring him away from populated areas. Once that is done, we can regroup and figure out what to do next. Maybe let the Avengers take over or something. Or, if we're lucky, War Machine will find some way to turn him off from the inside."

"If we're not lucky?" Happy asked.

"Don't think about that, Hap. We'll be lucky."