Sacramento, Mexifornia

An Iron soldier is pestering a woman trying to get in her car, "Come on, man I'm gonna be late for work."

The soldier chuckled to his buddy, "That sound like a disrespectful tone to you? Y'know lady disrespecting an officer is illegal."

She looked nervous, "I'm sorry, but I really need to get to work."

The soldier shakes his head as he mockingly asked his fellow soldier, "Now what's that sound like to you?"

A voice comes from behind, " It sounds like a tin plated bully is over compensating for his short comings by bullying a lady who's just trying to get to work."

The soldiers turn as the bully speaks, "Ahh, we got a comedian. All right funny man, how about we see an I-Dent."

The man in a hooded jacket shrugged, "Don't have one."

The soldier chuckled,"You're under arrest."

The man grinned as the soldier grabbed his arm, "Is that so?"

His hand glowed with energy as he grabbed the armored wrist of the soldier and shattered it. He then shattered his helmet with a punch and turned driving a foot into the chest of his partner as he ran up. He dropped as the chest plate exploded.

He then stepped over the fallen soldier as the nervous woman got in her car.

***

A woman named Tiffany Cage stood as her brother walked past her into the abandoned warehouse the were squatting in, "Are you out of your mind, Curtis? We didn't come here to play Avengers. We're here to find the Prince and bring him back to K'un-Lun, that's all."

Curtis Cage gave her an annoyed look, "They had it coming."

He then sat down a bag of groceries as she continued, "How you became the Iron Fist....."

He stopped listening to his sister as he dropped down on the beat up couch with a bag of chips as he flips on the TV he fished out of a dumpster. He watched as the news droned on about some battle in Turkey before falling asleep as his sister complained at him.

***

Sacramento Iron Hall

A Colonel stood in front of the two soldiers Curtis had fought, "So let me get this straight, you two morons got your asses kicked by some bum and want this Iron Hall to foot the bill for your wrecked armor?"

The men looked afraid to answer as Col. Tom Marcum sighed and rubbed his temple with two fingers, "Head to the armory, I'll be taking it out of your pay for the next year."

One spoke up, "But, Sir..."

Marcum cut him off, "One more word and I'll charge you interest."

He dropped into the chair behind his desk as the General in charge of the hall walked in wearing her new armor, "Hey Marcum, does this make me look fat?"

He gave the General a wary look as she chuckled at him, "Oh, come on Tommy, I was just screwing with you."

He hated when she called him Tommy but he let it slide as he changed the subject, "So, do you go out of your way to request idiots or do we just have stark luck when they hand out new guys?"

General Leslie Balain sat in the chair across from Marcum, "Times are rough and Sacramento is not what they consider a priority."

She turned her head and saw the video of Curtis smashing her soldiers,"Mutant?"

He shook his head, "Scanners would have picked that up, not a mutate either. We aren't quite sure what the power source is."

She nodded as she pulled up a holographic key board and typed as a video from over two hundred years ago popped up showing a man with a glowing fist smashing an old fashioned Shield helicarrier. Marcum's eyes went wide when she pulled up the video from earlier in the day, "Same type of energy, I believe they called it chi."

Marcum rolled his eyes, "Magic?"

Balain shrugged, "I never understood you magic deniers, in this world is something like that really so far fetched? Just this morning we brought in a guy who can merge with animals. If we can believe in a spontaneous Squirrel Man we can give chi the benefit of the doubt."

Marcum got up and looked at the name on the old video, "So we have a new Iron Fist?"

"Why not? They have a new Spider-Man in New York"

Marcum shrugged, "I'll put out a bolo."

***

The next morning Tiffany woke Curtis by kicking his legs off the make shift coffee table he had propped his feet on when he fell asleep, "Well you screwed us."

He stretched his arms as she pointed at the TV, "They're looking for a guy called Iron Fist."

He shrugged, "Let them look. Is there breakfast?"

She sighed, "We got milk and cereal."

(To be continued)