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Rated M for Mature
Appropriate for readers 18 and over. May contain extreme violence, sexual themes, nudity, or profanity.
Iron Woman, Part 22- Let’s Take That Half-Chinese B!tch Down
Peter Potts settled himself in the meeting room, watching a group of business people who sat in their chairs, waiting for Tara Stark to respond. Peter wasn’t sure how to take this because Tara wasn’t really here. Before the business people came to the meeting room, Peter was told to hide a hologram device somewhere underneath the table, so that Tara’s colleagues wouldn’t notice it. Peter didn’t want to do this kind of job, but he had to do it anyway, since Tara Stark went off to China.
The holographic version of Tara stepped up from the chair, walked towards a projector, which Peter secretly turned it on, by the use of the remote control. He learned that the holograms couldn’t touch physical objects and if she were to touch an object, the business people would certainly notice it. He was almost sweating to the point that he had to stand himself, making sure that the holographic Tara wouldn’t do anything stupid.
Tara motioned to the projector, which showed several images and graphs of the company, regarding the status of Stark Industries. So far, the projects weren’t declined and yet the employees managed to finish their work on time. It was considered an improvement that any businessman or woman would approve, including the same businesswoman who already attended Tara’s first meeting. Her name was Justina Hammer who was currently the C.E.O. of Hammer Industries. She used to be a rival of Tara Stark, always trying to be the best as she could be. However, that competition ended when Justina asked Tara to come and visit her company for the time being, enjoying the work environment and... other activities.
Peter switched the image to another one, and almost gazed back at the business crowd. He stared at Justina Hammer, who just realized that Tara wasn’t here. In the first meeting, he hadn’t met Justina at all. This was the first time, and it seemed that Tara forgot to mention this to Peter. Justina was the only person who found that Tara got replaced by a hologram.
Justina Hammer smiled at him. Peter thought she was flirting, even without saying anything. Not that Peter didn’t want to go out with another businesswoman, except for Tara Stark. He hoped that his boss was doing fine, doing whatever she did best, saving the world and fighting bad guys. She and Jamie could handle the life-saving job almost everyday. But the only problem was how long will Tara keep this up? He didn’t want to answer that question. He looked away from Justina and stared at the holographic Tara, who was still giving her the presentation of the company. Usually, every meeting involved different, rich people from around the world to meet Tara Stark on her behalf, and see what she could provide them with better presentations.
Tara Stark turned away from the projector, and asked the business crowd if they had any questions. They glanced each other, as if they had understood her presentation. However, Justina Hammer raised her hand, which Tara seemed to take notice.
“I have a question for you, Tara,” Justina said. “Are you really here?”
Peter gulped with a surprise. He never thought that Justina Hammer would give a wild guess on this kind of situation. How did she know that she isn’t Tara? Peter thought. The remaining crowd gave a startled look on the CEO of Hammer Industries. She smiled, got up from the chair, and touched through Tara’s unreal body. The crowd gasped, and nearly got up from their seats. They had no idea that Tara wasn’t here all along.
“Um...” Peter said. “Will you all excuse me for a moment, please? I have a call to make. Thank you.” He opened the door, and quickly went to Tara’s office. He took out his cell phone from his pocket, and dialed the number.
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Meanwhile in the Mandarina’s new hideout, Tara Stark and Jamie Rhodes had gone inside the temple. They all managed to defeat the guards with a single blow. Now, all they have to do was find the Mandarina.
“I hope we get her this time,” Jamie said.
“Yeah,” Tara agreed. She wondered what kind of power that Jamie had mentioned before. While they attacked the guards, Jamie talked about the Mandarina’s escape plan. She thought that the Mandarina somehow used her newfound power to escape from the Chinese prison. But that wasn’t true. She must have had a friend who helped her escape, and then find the power somewhere located in Tibet. That was how the Mandarina became so powerful that she had unleashed certain power from her magic rings. Nikola Fury told Jamie everything about it, even while flying to China.
Both the armored heroes arrived at some throne room, where every ancient detail, the pots, the ceramics, and other old stuff were kept neatly in place, yet it was still dusty. The throne room looked like a big hallway, and across in front of them, a chair was located. But nobody sat there.
“HA! HA! HA!" An evil laughter sprang throughout the room. Tara and Jamie knew it was the Mandarina’s laugh. They both stood there, waiting to attack the half-Chinese villain who was still nowhere to be seen. Then a phone call rang through Tara’s computer system. She answered it.
“Hello?” Tara said. She felt this wasn’t the time to speak with someone on the phone. But that someone turned out to be her assistant, Peter Potts.
“Tara?” Peter said through the line. “It’s me.”
“Peter?” Tara sounded surprised. “What’s up?”
Peter wasn’t sure how to say this. But he felt the need to tell her about the last meeting.
“What’s wrong, Pete?” Tara said. “Is everything okay?”
“Um...” Peter said. “Justina Hammer knew you were...”
“Wait!” Tara stopped him. “She came to my meeting?"
“I... I thought you knew she was coming there."
“I didn’t know,” Tara said, sounding speechless. “Look, I’ll call you back after I’m done. Okay?”
“Okay,” Peter said. “But you better hurry. The others are pissed off.” The line went dead.
“$h!t!” Tara said. She looked at Jamie, who seemed to be confused of what just happened.
“Tara...” Jamie said. “What happened? Who was that?”
Tara Stark didn’t respond to her best friend’s question. Out of all the people, she never expected that Justina Hammer was there in the meeting. Her plan failed. Anyways, she forgot that thought, and turned to focus on her current mission.
The Mandarina appeared out of nowhere, behind the two armored heroes. Tara and Jamie turned around, facing the villain. The Mandarina still looked the same, wearing the green robe with no bra and panties on. Yet, there was something different about her. The armored heroes had noticed it, and didn't know what to say. The half-Chinese villain had worn ten rings on her fingers.
The Mandarina wanted to say something boastful of how she got these rings from the ancient dragon called Fin Fing Foom. But she would only save it later after she was done, dealing with the armored heroes. She used one of the rings to unleash a fire blast on the Iron Woman. Tara swept like a bird, avoiding the fiery impact. But the Mandarina unleashed another blast and this time, it was ice. It hit Jamie’s armor. Therefore, the army soldier felt frozen, and couldn’t even move. Tara shot several repulsor blasts to remove the ice from Jamie’s armor. Then Jamie broke the ice free. She rushed forward, flying at the Mandarina. But the villain immediately unleashed electric sparks from the other ring, which went flying through the air, affecting Jamie’s armor.
“AHHHH!” Jamie screamed in pain. She tried to move further to beat the half-Chinese b!*ch, but couldn’t. Tara flew over, and took Jamie off. The electric sparks passed down to Tara, also affecting her computer systems. Both Tara and Jamie fell down on the floor.
“HA! HA! HA!” The Mandarina laughed again. “You see, Tara. I have the power at my hands, and no one can stop me.”
“Oh... yeah?” Tara said. “We’ll see about... that.” She stood up slowly, and released her small missiles from the back of her armored shoulders. The Mandarina unleashed a beam from the ring, which disintegrated the missiles completely. Tara was shocked to see how the Mandarina got so much power in an instant.
“You're a fool,” the Mandarina said. “I have been possessed by the Fin Fing Foom, the ancient dragon who gave me the ten rings, the power, the...”
“Oh, shut up,” Tara said, hearing enough of the Mandarina’s boastful speech. She flew up in the air, and stood for a while. Jamie looked at her, thinking of what she was going to do next. Then Tara unleashed a unibeam from the middle of her armored chest. It gradually hit the Mandarina’s chest in an instant.
"AHHH!" She couldn't believe it. After all these years that she had carefully planned to become one of the most powerful figures in the world, and now it was all gone, thanks to Iron Woman.
“No...” The Mandarina said. “NOOO!”
A wave of magical energy erupted from the Mandarina’s body. It was the spirit of the ancient dragon, the Fin Fing Foom. Tara and Jamie saw it with amazement, thinking this was some kind of a fairy tale, coming right from a children's book.
The spirit dragon stared at the two armored heroes for a while. Without the use of the host’s ten rings, the ancient dragon couldn’t defeat the Iron Woman and the War Machiness alone. So he decided to do one thing, escape. He vanished into thin air without any explanation of what just happened.
Tara came to Jamie’s aid. She watched her grey armor, which she invented before, slowly turning into crisp.
“Great!” Tara said. “I guess I need to give you another birthday present.”
Jamie smiled. She knew that Tara would always be her best friend, no matter what. Tara helped Jamie to get up from the floor. They looked at the dead Mandarina. She was powerful back then, but now she was completely dead.
“Wow!” Jamie said. “I never thought you could defeat her with all those magic rings on her fingers.”
“It’s a piece of cake,” Tara said. “Now, let’s go and have some drink. Shall we?” She had forgotten about what Peter said to her.
“On that note, why don’t I get that Hunks magazine first?” Jamie asked with a smile.
“Oh, whatever,” Tara said. She and Jamie left the throne room, leaving the dead Mandarina alone.
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Before Mandarina’s death, she was told by the ancient dragon, not to use too much of her ring powers. She almost forgotten that, and yet she thought she could handle it and defeat the Iron Woman. But she still failed.
To be continued in Iron Woman, Part 23- Out Of The Shadows.
Now that the Mandarina is dead, what will happen next? Find out in the next part of Iron Woman.
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