Iron Man #½

Iron Man takes on the Sons of Yinsen in Japan!

This story takes place after the present volume’s #25 and before #26…

It’s a fine day in Kyoto, Japan. Rumiko Fujikawa stands alone upon a small bridge. Suddenly, she is startled to see Tony Stark behind her. Tony asks her to accompany him around town. She hesitates, but then agrees. Tony tries to talk to her but she’s upset that he wasn’t around when she needed him. She suddenly remarks that Tony might be Iron Man, but then adds that Tony is more cowardly than him. Tony suddenly kisses her deeply. Rumiko is startled, but drops her emotional barricade.

Later, they go to a new plant named Askew-Tronics. Rumiko rides the motorcycle like mad, and Tony feels sure that he will fall off. They come to Askew-Tronics. Rumiko introduces him to prof. Jennifer Smith, who is the head of the S.K.I.N. department of the plant. When Tony asks why he is here, Jennifer explains the S.K.I.N. concept in brief and adds that the plant would do better if Tony joined the department as a consultant. When Tony hesitates, she adds that the S.K.I.N. might also have some use for Tony’s friend, Iron Man. Tony agrees upon hearing this.

But suddenly, a huge sound rocks the building and the walls literally rip apart. Tony saves Rumiko and Jennifer. Jennifer leads them to an escape duct, but Tony remains behind. He does not get far very fast. A huge amount of debris falls upon him and partially buries him. Tony manages to call his armor via his watch signal and then hangs onto life. The armor comes soon enough and expands on him. Tony becomes Iron Man, but still feels dizzy. He goes out to sees what has caused this damage.

As Tony comes out, he sees a huge dragon shaped ship hovering in the air above the buildings. What’s more startling is that there are hundreds of prototype Iron Man armors flying about. He recognizes them as the ones he used to escape Wong Chu. The ship suddenly made a broadcast. It introduces itself as The Sons of Yinsen said that if the Kyoto govt. released the Yokozuna from custody, the barrage would stop immediately.

Tony scans the armor to find that they are unmanned. He then commences his attack. His superior armor and repulsors blast the armors to pieces. Yet Tony has a hard time holding his own against so many armors. That’s when the mothership suddenly takes a shot at Iron Man. It hits him with an energetic ray blast. Tony feels the full force of the impact and everything goes black in his eyes. The armors seize this chance to crowd upon him and block him from all sides. Tony tries a maneuver, remembering the improper shielding of his prototype armor. He shoots out an e.m.p. wave but that fails to do any damage. Tony kicks about anf frees one of his legs. He diverts all power to that boot-jet and soars high above the atmosphere, taking the prototypes with him. Eventually, the air becomes too thin, and the armors burst due to improper designing. Tony frees himself and flies back to Kyoto.

Coming back, Tony finds that the mothership has disappeared. He scans the city to find that only the Askew-Tronics building received heavy damage. Suddenly he sees Rumiko. She asks him to go after Tony, saying that he is still trapped under the debris. Tony plans out his next move. He disappears among the debris, comes out of his armor after setting it on auto-pilot and makes his exit out of the debris, sitting on the armor’s arms. He instructs the armor to fly him to the nearest hospital.

Later, back in his lab, Tony talks to Jocasta about Rumiko. He says that Rumiko is a wonderful lady, and Jocasta agrees with him. She adds that Tony’s choice of virtual clothes for her virtual body is really first class. But suddenly, she says time up and signs out.