Bork Lazer

Username Origins

The name doesn't originate from Brock Lesnar, ironically. It's actually the name of a Snorlax that TeamFourStar caught during their Pokemon LeafGreen Nuzlocke playthrough.

Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay [CLOSED]

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE IRON MAN

_{arc 1: furnace
issue 1.2.2.2 - next degree}

virtual_artificial_iter7.8965_developmentlog.mp3

PLAY/PAUSE?

[00:34:57] A crowded office desk pans into frame, surrounded by mountains of stained ceramic mugs and scrunched up note paper. The mousy face of Tony Stark pans into view, a sweat beaded face with red rimmed eyes. His beard is roughly chopped.

[00:36:50] “ This is Day 4 of testing the General Adaptive Responsive Virtual Intelligence System Alpha Build. I’m scrapping the original language and building from the ground up. Turns out PymLan burns up more RAM than my servers are capable of handling. It’s going to be another month of headaches but, hey, I don’t want my own personal HAL-1000 to get a seizure, right. Training data needs another month to be optimized but we should begin construction of primary neural algorithms in a week or so. Testing today consisted of enabling heuristic baselines to social conversations through conversation. Topics included: Stacey Langford vomiting all over my bed, my bender in Vegas, my startling lack of father figures, musical tastes - remind me to input bias factors for punk next time - and…and…”

“ Fuck, maybe, Rhodey was right about me.”

“ Being more comfortable with talking to a machine of all things…”

---

The first time she steps into Tony Stark’s minivan makes her wonder whether she hedged her bets right. The floor is a hoarder’s dream, a heap of unorganized blueprint manuals and manic trash strewn all over the floor. Looking at it reminds her of an upended garbage bin. She almosts expect to see a raccoon scurrying her way out of the pile.

“ Can’t you work faster?,” she snipes at the most wanted man on the eastern seaboard. Stark is currently typing away frenetically, lines of code running down the monitor like a waterfall. His expression doesn’t waver as he replies back in a sarcastic monotone.

“ I would if you’d stop pointing a gun at my head.”

“ And stop giving you incentive?,” she purrs sarcastically, tapping the gun against the side of his temple. “ I heard the best artists work under pressure.”

“ Ah, nothing more like the threat of death to get the juices flowing.”

The next couple of minutes is a flurry of keyboard keys and brief sips of some off-brand caffeinated sports drink from a convenience store. Stark’s bloodshot eyes boredly stare at the computer, only flinching every once in a while in sheer annoyance. Those moments are rare like a koi fish swimming to the surface of a pond.

“ Why the suit?,” the question tumbles out of her mouth.

“ Hm?”

“ Why…all this.” She says with irritation. “ You’re Tony Stark.”

“ And?,” Stark replies in a tone that she only expects is the closest vocal expression to shrugging your shoulders.

“ You’ve got enough fucking money that every stock broker in Wall Street puckers up their ass whenever you go on one of your binges. You earn two to three Nobel prizes a year. You’re the heir to a multi-billion dollar company and you’re telling me the best way to deal with all your issues right now is to dress up in a powered suit of armor?”

Not even a blink. Nothing to communicate any anger. Stark still wore the same despondent look on his face as though he was an insomniac late-night shift worker.

“ Yup.”

“ And here I thought you were the smartest man alive.”

“ Oh, is that disappointment I hear?” The taps on the keyboard become louder. “ Feel free to walk to the back of the line because you’re not the only one.”

“ I thought you’d be….”

“ What? No, no, no, let me guess.” Stark jeered at her sarcastically. “ Like Reed Richards? Hank Pym? Abraham Erskine? Some quiet, eccentric visionary toiling away in their labs, producing technological miracles for the good of the world? A prim and proper little scientist staying in their lane whilst everyone causes chaos around them?Did the world change for the better when the Pym Particle was discovered? Did the world change for the better when Erskine made the Super Soldier Serum? Did the world turn upside down when Reed Richards began making another public tech demo in an impoverished third world country. I didn’t think so. I am not your fucking Gandhi. I am not your Einstein. I am a man with a drinking problem. I can’t solve the world’s problems.” Stark stopped talking and then, shook his head sadly. “ That’s what caused all this stupid shit in the first place anyway.”

“ I thought you’d be different.”

“ Well, - “ His voice caught on a cough before continuing “ - you thought wrong.” The monitor suddenly flickered and a black window emerged. She thought it looked like a sheet of graph paper, stretched out across the back of the porcupine. The spines oscillated, flickering up and down randomly. Whatever Stark had been doing to crack the device open was successful as he leaned over, a mad glint in his eyes. “ And bingo. Come on, come on, don’t fail on me now, buddy…..”
The graph paper contorts, shrinking into a line as thin as yarn. The yarn begins snapping and threading back together in a simplistic imitation of the human mouth. The cheesy 90s british accented tone from the speakers forces to put two and two together to realize it was him.

“ Hello, sir. I’ve had a terribly long nap and -,” There was a brief skip in the A.I’s speech. A half-second or so. To anyone else, it would have seemed like a minor glitch but to her, it was the electronic equivalent of human shock.

“ Sir, why are we currently 154 miles away from our home address?”

“ Hello, JARVIS.” Stark sheepishly scratched his head. “ I’ve got some explaining to do.”

Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay [CLOSED]

Am currently working on it. Had to scrap the post I had planned because I was unsatisfied with it.

Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay [CLOSED]

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE IRON MAN

_{arc 1: furnace
issue 1.2.2.1 - first degree and a half}

---

“ Oh?,” Obidiah said, a dangerous playful lilt to his voice. “ And pray tell, what do I earn from this wager?”

“ What do you earn?” Justin scoffed, looking at Obidiah like his head had grown three times in size. “ What do you earn? You earn our shares, you salvage Stark’s Industries reputation in the market, your investors will gain confidence to burn their expenses and you won’t cause a riot when you have to layoff your workforce by the time next quarter. Hell, I’m throwing you a lifeboat on a platter with a cherry on top, Stane.”

Justin’s arm swung from the arm rest like a pendulum. Behind his golden shades laid eyes that glimmered inside with a dozen different barbs, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. He’d practiced well in advance for what he thought the old man would say and consulted with his legal team on the ways the old man could slither out of this.

Carrots ready to lure and sticks to bat away tongues.

However, Justin couldn’t have predicted what Obidiah said next.

“ I appreciate it, Justin, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to say no.”

It was matter of fact, conservational. His offer was treated more like some gossip on a weekend brunch rather than the mother of all financial gift horses given to a failing company. There was no treble in Stane’s voice. His eyes didn’t blink. No bead of sweat on that shiny bald head of his. As far as Justin could tell, Obidiah Stane was completely sane.

Then, why the hell had he slapped away his offer?

“ I thought’d you learn by now that you can’t afford pride in this business, Stane,” Justin ground out, stifling his rage. Obidiah swirled around, head tilted down at Justin’s relaxed poise like a vulture.

“ Business?” Obidiah shook his head slowly. “ Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. You see, that’s the difference between you and me, Justin. This game can afford pride. What it can’t afford are small minds such as yours.”

Justin was now feeling smaller and smaller under Obidiah’s hawkish look. He chuckled with false bravado, taking another draught of his smouldering cigar.

“ Whatever, Stane.” Justin flicked the cigar away on the floor and stood up, brushing his coat. “ As soon as you tank the NASDAQ, you’ll be wishing you took my offer. See you when you’re ready to sign the papers.”

He turned around, leaving one last leering sneer towards Stane, before walking away.

“ By the way, Justin…” Obidiah’s I heard about your new project of yours that you’ve been dangling in front of Washington. You’re planning to do a field test with state police to target a certain little…friend of mine.”

Hammer’s hand froze just inches away from the doorknob.

“ How the hell did you - “

“ Call it insider trading. Say, how much have you burnt in RnD trying to perfect that exoskeleton tech? What’s your backup plan if it fails the demo, Justin?”

“ I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Justin replied stiffly.

“ Anyway, rest assured, if all goes well, Justin, I’ll be there to sign those papers you talked about at 24th Worchester Street, Odega.” Obidiah paused and snorted in faux embarassment. “ Oh, I’m sorry. I must have confused your address with your son’s address. Tell me, how is he doing these days?”

The door closed with a bang. Obidiah smirked, looking at the crumpled leather seat which Justin had just occupied. Justin’s cologne still hung around in the air like a thick musk. He’d have to ask Potts to get the cleaners in here. His eyes wandered over towards Justin’s dropped cigar and picked it up between the crook of his middle and index finger. He twirled it around from the burnt ashen end to the gnawed end where Justin’s molars rended it down to mulch.

A twist of his fingers crumbled it to dust.

Checkmate.

Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes

Nui Awa was a wet, sticky urban hellhole that made Aroxy’s skin crawl asMerry Go Round trudged through the concrete maze, its tracks squishing asphalt and concrete into a smooth expanse. The spastic, metallic groans of the Von Luckner’s The new treads that had been fitted on in the repair bay were a patch job, salvaged from the remnants of wrecked Marsdens and Manticores. Expecting factory-fresh material out in hostile enemy planetary territory was a foolish wish at best. In spite of Takka’s arguments, the reality was that Merry Go Round would only receive a proper repair once the Green Knights pissed away from this system.

Aroxy inhaled the draughts of his ashen cigar before stubbing the end against the chassis. He hammered the hull loudly with his fist two times and the tank slowed to a crawl under the shadow of the hydroelectric dam. It was a block of harsh contours and cast concrete that upholded function over style. The turret axle swindled over to the back end of the tank towards the back of the column. The APCs crowded around the bulk of the Von Luckner, hugging close to it like ducklings whilst the two humanoid mechs towered above them. Aroxy took the radio off his shoulder and switched to his own personal channel for crew comms.

“ Keep calm and hands off the trigger. Last thing we need is a bunch of high-strung gunners, - “ Aroxy paused for a half second before emphasising the next word with venom. “ Takka.”

Aroxy flicked back to platoon comms and barked into the radio. “ This is Steel Rain. We’re keeping weapons cold for now. Advising any infantry units to shack up behind us lest they want to go on medical leave for 3 months.”

Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay [CLOSED]

I finished reading through this a bit and I'm also quite interested in playing around with this setting! Expect a lil something from me as well ^^

Edit: As a Sidenote, has anyone done anything involving Ultron? I didn't notice him being brought up at all in the character sheets but I wanted to check.

@KaiserElectric

No as far as I'm aware. There hasn't been an official submission for Ant Man. I was thinking of somewhat playing with Ultron but I've tossed that into the bin as far as I'm concerned.

For that matter, currently working on an IM post for the next arc but CNY got me deadlocked alongside several other uni things. It's just sitting there waiting for my ass to get on it.

Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay [CLOSED]

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE IRON MAN

_{arc 1: furnace
issue 1.2.2.1 - first degree}

---

“ Potts, be a dear and go deliver these documents to Mr Ratzenski. Tell him it concerns our acquisitions in Tehran.”

“ Yes, Mr Stane,” Obidiah watches from his mahogany desk as his secretary promptly exited the office swiftly, hands parted out like a bird ready to take flight. It had been six months since Pepper had been reassigned under him from Tony. The bubbly enthusiasm that had been present when Tony was still around had been replaced by a withdrawn coldness. Obidiah considers for a moment whether she suspects foul play and then dismisses the thought. He likes Pepper.

If he were to kill her, who would bring his cappuccino in on time?

He sorts through his morning copy of the Daily Bugle, his brows furrowed at the various pictures of costumed figures that adorned the headlines. More and more of their ilk were popping up now. It irked him. Such uncontrolled power was merely used for fighting burglars and saving kittens from trees. The ubiquity of the phenomenon had even reached Stark’s RnD. The Vision Project had gone public to massive reception and already, his divisions were hammered with calls from military contractors on potentially outsourcing the tech to the Sokovia Conflict. He ignored the sports section and flipped through the politics section about a certain rare earth issue in South Africa that Stark Industries was briefly mentioned in.

The intercom then buzzed with static.

“ Mr Obidiah, Mr Hammer is here now.”

Obidiah flipped the papers closed and replied back.

“ Send him in now.”

Obidiah soon regretted his words as it only took a few seconds for Justin Hammer to arrive noislily into his room. The business magnate of Hammer Industries pushed open the door. Odious amounts of concealer and hair gel lathered his face until he looked like a wax doll. His fashion style was counterintuitive to what most people would have of a CEO of one of the largest companies in the world. Compared to Obidiah’s power suit, Justin wore a thick collared fleece turtleneck and a set of blue chinos that made Obidiah’s eyes water in horror. Obidiah wondered if the CEO purposely dressed himself like that to annoy him.

“ Obi. Obi. Obi, my man. Thought you’d keel over by now with everything that's happening in Stark,” Justin swaggered in, feet noisly slapping his carpeted floor. He laid back on the chair and saddled his two feet onto Obidiah’s desk. Taking out two cigars, he waved one to Obidiah invitingly. “ Need something to cool your nerves?”

“ Not one to indulge in smoking, I’m afraid,”

“ So, are we still up for that round of golfing on - “

“ Justin, I know you didn’t come all the way from Palo Alto just to have small-talk.” Obidiah leaned forward. “So, talk.”

“ Fine.” Justin crushed the butt of his cigar into an ashtray, taking his feet down from the table and removing his shades. His eyes were the color of grimy copper. “ Stark Industries fell 52 points ever since these terrorist attacks. You’re the anchor on the NASDAQ. Your contracts have been dried up since this Iron Man fella appeared on the streets. Everyone’s betting on you to lose. Like, I hate to point out the obvious but you think you’re going to survive beyond the 2nd quarter?”

Justin still wore the same grin but his eyes glinted coldly. Obidiah merely didn’t respond, processing Justin’s words, before standing up and walking to see the view outside his office, his back to Justin.

“ What exactly are you proposing, Justin? A buyout?”

“ I’m proposing a life buoy for your sinking ship. Make the merger with Hammer and do what Tony never had the guts to do.”

Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes

As they awaited further orders from Colonel Wayne, the crew of the Merry Go Round mired in their own musings, along with the rest of the camp who were waiting to see what the outcome of the deliberations would be. Allying themselves to a powerful ally like the Aqua Vitae Corporation was bound to have consequences down the line, but they weren’t exactly in a position to be fickle. They were desperate, low on morale and hungry for some inch of victory.

Aroxy only hoped that this wouldn’t mean the downfall of the Green Knights.

When Colonel Wayne called them for assembly, Takka merely yawned, lounging back, as the rest of the crew began dusting themselves off from their weary naps to go be briefed. Aroxy gave the evil eye at Takka, silently demanding an explanation for his lax behavior.

“ Well, you heard what the man said,” Takka began counting on his fingers. “ Infantry. Mechwarriors. Techs. We’re heavy material so - GAH!”

Helma began tugging on his cheek with her index finger, pulling the crew driver. “ Keep complaining, Takka, and I’ll beat your ass until it’s black and blue.”

The briefing ensued and Aroxy couldn’t help but shudder at the task they were assigned. It wasn’t a usual heavy slug fest in open fields where a Von Luckner thrived. It was guerilla warfare in closed, urban locales with hostiles that engaged in tactics that Aroxy despised. All was fair in war, but disguising yourselves as civilians was the worst sort of sin. He’d seen too many soldiers during the Free Worlds Civil War who went to hug a seemingly innocent child only to be turned into red mist a moment later.

“ Shit, why even bring Merry Go Round to this?,” Takka murmured to the rest of the crew. “ Ain’t a shooting gallery. All our turret will be doing is saluting half mast to these limp dick extremists…”

“ Shut up, Takka.” Aroxy whispered before addressing the colonel. “ Colonel, are you sure it’s wise to post Steel Rain to Mission Alpha? Such an urban locale isn’t good tank country and we’re liable to lose valuable war material in the process.”

Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay [CLOSED]

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE IRON MAN

_{arc 1: furnace
issue 1.2.1.2 - dead and alive?}

---

STARK INDUSTRIES FILE NO 5.A.4578 - 98

PROJECT FILE: SLIVER CENTURION

CURRENT STATUS: CANCELLED
PROJECT ABSTRACT: Project Sliver Centurion is currently infeasible due to a lack of infrastructure dedicated to miniaturization of current Stark Industries proprietary technologies. Prototype models developed cannot be feasibly scaled down for production purposes and rely on materials that are inadequate for mass manufacture. Currrent power sources cannot reliably sustain operation times for duration required by military and law enforcement personnel.

PROJECT AIMS: To develop personnel exoskeletons that fulfill three primary criteria for broad usage across civilian law enforcement and military applications whilst also satisfying broad roles across each field.

Modularity
Mobility
Mass Production

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE PRODUCTION MODEL: N/A

ADDENDUM 18.7.95: Can someone please make this file higher clearance? All of the intern techies keep bombarding me with questions about why we’re stalling development on this and I’m real sick of it. Every greenhorn these days think they’re the next Tony Stark…..

---

The steady sound of fans that had filled Tony’s ears for so long halted. Then, the inside of the server farm filled with an eerie red glow as klaxons started blaring.

“ INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. ALL SECURITY PERSONNEL REPORT TO SECTION 27-A - “

“Fuck, fuck, fuck - ,” Tony hurriedly drops the palm repulsor, unlatching it from his hand. It bounces off the tiled floor. He can see the inside of the lens smoking away like the spout of a kettle. He stifles his inventor’s instincts, brief musings on using higher-quality silicates to reduce heat issues. There’s no time for that. He has to get out of here before Stark security swarms the area. He looks to where the woman is lying -

Well, where she should have been still lying unconscious. Instead, there was a smashed server rack in place of where her body was. Tony looks around wildly, trying to figure where she went to when the heel in his stomach answers it for him. He tumbles to the ground, gasping for breath. The bottom half of his body is paralyzed in pain. It feels like a cannonball has struck him in the belly.

“ You got lucky, Hogan,” Through the pain, Tony felt a hand roughly grab him by the chin and pull him up. “ But you blew your chance. Should have killed me when you - “

The masked woman paused in the middle of her sentence suddenly. Tony watches her entire body seize up like a deer in headlights. She looks….shocked? The pressure on his chin relaxes and before he can ask her why, laser dots prick across his forehead and her hair. At the other end of the server hall, a quartet of Stark security guards

“ Put your hands up. Both of you right - “

The masked woman tossed something on the ground and grey smoke immediately filled the entire room. In the thick haze, Tony could hear sounds of coughing and wheezing. Lights flickered on and scythed through the fog frantically. Then, the yells started and stopped as soon as they began. The sounds of screams were silenced one by one. The smoke dissipated and Tony saw the masked woman, fist hung by her side and splattered with flecks of blood. The Stark security guards were a comatose pile of limbs and legs, all incoherently groaning in pain.

The masked woman’s head twitched and inclined to the right towards him. Tony gulped as she turned around slowly, her movements ragged with fatigue. She took her silenced pistol out of her holster and aimed it at his face.

“ Come with me or I’ll kill you right now,” The masked woman spoke matter of factly.

Tony gulped. “Any other incentive you can offer?”

He didn’t even know why he asked when he knew the answer already.

---

Being kidnapped by a psychotic masked assassin surprisingly wasn’t the worst moment of Tony Stark’s life, all things considered. The first was waking up from a night in Vegas only to discover himself in a taqueria in New Mexico. The second moment was under a permanent seal of confession between him and Pepper that would never leave the light of day. Sure, none of the prior experiences involved the risk of death but at least it approached some semblance of normalcy.

For the next hour or so, Tony and the masked woman carefully sneaked through a labyrinth of tight air vents and under patrols of guards in the halls of the Houston server farm. The masked woman was liteful beyond compare, dancing through shadows and under laser grids, whilst Tony felt like a kid riding a bicycle for the first time. The masked woman would stop him whenever he would take a step in the wrong direction and proceed to guide him slowly. Tony didn’t even know why the merc was willing to tolerate this much ineptitude from him. Hell, when he nearly set off the laser tripwire in the cafeteria, she looked as though she was tempted to put a bullet into his lap.

When they finally made it half a mile away from the data farm, past the blockade of police cars and SWAT vehicles, Tony collapsed on the ground wheezing. They had both sheltered away behind the alley way of a Waffle House.

“ Why didn’t you kill me back there?”

“ I saw an opportunity…” The masked woman replied carefully “....and one just landed in front of me..”

“ Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just a data entry intern - “ The masked woman interrupted Tony, crossing her arms in disbelief.

“ Who masquerades as Tony Stark? What are you doing here in Houston?”

“ Oh, you know.” Tony said lackadaisical. “ Had a mid-life crisis. Thought I’d pivot my career.”

“ By hacking into Stark Industries largest data farm?”

“ A big pivot,” Tony shrugged before answering back. “ So, here we are still talking. Let’s cut to the chase. You want something from me, don’t you?”

“ It’s not what I want from you, Tony,” The masked woman leaned down, staring at him inquisitively. “ It’s who you’ve been pretending to be….Iron Man.”

Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay [CLOSED]

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE IRON MAN

_{arc 1: furnace
issue 1.2.1.2 - dead or alive?}

---

“ Look. I’m just asking you to have an ounce of introspection - “

“ And I do. I’m an introspecting individual, or in the process of it - “

“ Do you seriously not believe you have responsibility for the deaths your weapons cause?”
“ First of all, the technical term isn’t weapons. Obi calls them “ applied military technology” and before you give me that look, I put the legwork in the RnD and give the scraps to the design group. They’re the ones who point it at - “

“ Is that seriously your defense?”

“ Look, all I’m saying is that I make the tools. A hammer doesn’t kill people.”

“ But a hammer wasn’t originally designed to kill people.”

“Look, how do you think we get funding for our other sectors? Military contracts. Look at our biotech divisions, telecommunications, software, that’s only possible with the money we make from - “

“ Killing people to save people. Does that equation balance it all out? ”

“ It’s our history. My father’s history - “

“ The futurist who's also a stickler for tradition. That’s a joke if I ever saw one.”

“ Can’t beat that tongue of yours.”

“ Oh, you can beat me in other ways…..”

---

During the fifth day of his entry level position in the Stark Industries Nevada Server Farm Facility, Tony had finally figured out how to hack into clearance. Sure, it took a little bribery, 24 hours of bypassing his own outdated encryption firmware he made in his twenties and elbow grease but the location was still the same. If he had access to his now-destroyed supercomputer with terabytes of processing power.

He could have bulldozed through the facility with the Model 1 like a bull in a china shop. But hardware was hardware and servers were especially delicate hardware. With all of that in mind, the firmware and server banks required to house and contain an V.I was a glass chandelier. As far as he could tell, JARVIS’s primary neural matrix was in cold storage. JARVIS wasn’t a true A.I. He had over-ride functions, commands built within him to prevent him from becoming a crappy 90s cliche. However, one of those commands was to stay locked within deep storage in the eventuality of his death.

Tony breathed out fog in the depths of the cold facility, liquid nitrogen running through the walls to cool down all the immense heat produced by dozens of server banks working non-stop 24/7. A Stark technician was meant to come down here in a HEPA-registered custom built isothermal suit that kept them from dying of hypothermia. All Tony had was ten layers of T-shirts, a wool parka he got from a 5 dollar thrift shop and cooking mitts to keep his hands warm. His testicles felt like two ice cubes as he shivered, trying to locate the exact server port for him to access.

“ 25-A, 6-B, ah, there we go!,” Tony unscrewed the plastic seal of the server rack, gently setting it down so that he wouldn’t make any noise. Decoupling a connection cable, he plugged it into his computer and begin uploading his script to break past the hardwalls. The script would send a trail of crumbs for the 22 engineers on standby to prod at curiously whilst he could root around in their orchards like a raccoon in a garbage bin. His eyes flickered through multiple server logs and server pings that were being set off by his relatively messy manner of hacking. The sound of hissing cooling pumps and the electronic hums of server frames kept him company.

So much so that he didn’t even feel the gun barrel pressed against his head.

“ You have 10 seconds to explain what you’re doing in this secure location before I shoot you in the head …..” A woman’s voice spoke softly, cutting through the cold like a thin razor. A glove hand appeared to the left of Tony’s vision and tugged the lanyard out from the front of his chest to behind him. “ ….Mr Hogan.”

“ Lady, I’m just doing maintenance - ,” Tony couldn’t finish his words as a hand forcibly slammed his head against the plexiglass cover of the server.

“ Like I said, what are you doing here?”

“ Sorry.” Tony said groggily, trying to process her words through the pain on his head. “ Still trying to get over that concussion you gave me.”

“ Does this help jog your memory?,” Tony felt something thin against his ankle and before h react, it jabbed him at an angle that made him squeal and flop to the floor like a cut puppet. He was gasping at the agonising pain and watched as a figure floated into view, looking down at him upside down. A curtain of black hair floated down around a gold mask. Cold blue gimlets peered out down at him. “ I’ll ask one more time. What are you doing here?”

“ Well, a little. Is this supposed to be an interrogation or foreplay?”

The masked woman grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up as though he weighed no less than a cat. She then shoved his back roughly against the server frame, making it creak. She then placed the barrel right between his eyes.

“ You say one more quip out of that insufferable mouth of yours and I’ll shoot you in the lap first.”

“ So I'm not a fan of this type of roleplay. Maybe, start with a little bit of teasing -,” Tony croaked out desperately as she loudly cocked the receiver, thumbing the trigger warningly. He raised both of his hands in the air in surrender. “ Alright. Alright! I’ll give you what you want.”

The pressure relented against his eyebrows and Tony sighed in relief. He set his arms down beside his side, shaking them to relieve the tension. He took one slow breath in before speaking.

“ Boo.”

“ That’s it?” The masked woman’s chin tilted up in amusement. “Boo?”

“ That’s right,” Tony smirked as he motioned for her to look down. The eyes underneath the mask widened. Pressed against her belly was his palm. His ring finger twitched and dozens of metal scales began to unfurl out from under the sleeve of his coat. A scalloped glove formed with a large white lens on his palm. There was a low whine of power as energy channeled through a hidden wire conduit between his chest RT and the palm repulsor. The masked woman pulled her arms up to shield her face but it was too late. All the factors were there. Point blank. Element of surprise.
The repulsor discharged and a white lance of pure energy slammed into the masked woman’s gut. Her scream of pain was deafened by the pure heat of the energy emission, air rushing in to fill the vacuum the repulsor left in its burning trail. She was sent flying heads over heels, smashing into the opposite server farm and the one behind it. Shards of silicon and plexiglass littered the floor as she laid twitching, her skin-tight suit burnt to a crisp at the torso.

“ Boo.”