Earth-717: One Shot

Power Incarnate

Arthur walked out of the containment wing, shutting off the light as he did so. After closing the

door behind him, he began walking down the hallway towards the lobby area. His eyes were blue and

his hair was brown. He was wearing a collared shirt, a grey vest, a red bow tie, and dress pants. An

earphone was in his left ear, and the cable stretched down to the MP3 player in his pocket. He was

holding a mug in his hands, and took a sip from it as he entered the lobby.

Arthur nodded to the electronic music he was listening to as he walked to the front desk. An

elderly woman with glasses and business attire was sitting there. The large, golden sign on the wall

behind her read 'Stark Enterprises'. She smiled at Arthur as he walked up to the desk. The woman

looked at the mug.

“For me?” asked the woman.

Arthur laughed.

“Sorry, Bambi, no coffee for you. You know I'm not allowed to bring you any more caffeine.”

Bambi scowled.

“Says who?”

“Says . . . . you.”

Bambi groaned and then let out a soft laugh. Arthur took another sip before speaking again.

“Do you know where Tasha is? She said she was going to come down and check out my project

today. Wanted to make sure she didn't forget.”

“I'll ring her for you.”

“Thanks a ton.”

Bambi tapped a number into her phone. Arthur put his mug on the desk, before snapping his

fingers, tapping his hands against the counter and clicking his ankles together. Bambi placed the

receiver against her ear as the line opened.

“Hey . . . . yeah, it's Bambi . . . . yeah, thanks . . . . good, good . . . . I've got Arthur Parks down

here, says he needs to . . . . uh huh . . . . yeah, sure . . . . good, thanks.”

Bambi put the receiver back on her phone.

“Ms. Potts is going to go get her now," said Bambi, with a smile.

Arthur snapped both of his fingers and pointed at Bambi.

“You're the best, Bam! I'll be back in my lab.”

Bambi waved at Arthur as he jogged out of the lobby. Bambi then smirked, noticing that he had

left his mug.

* * * *

Pepper walked up to the door to Tasha's suite and stopped in front of it. Holding her notebook in

her right hand, she took a moment to run her left hand through the hair around her ears before knocking

on the door. She narrowed her eyes as she heard music coming from the other side.

After a minute, the door opened. Tasha was standing on the other side, with one hand on the

doorknob and her other fist on her hip. She was wearing panties and an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt.

“Pep, girl, what's up?”

Pepper gulped and then looked over Tasha's shoulder. She saw two tall, black men on the couch,

watching the television. They were wearing nothing but sailor's caps.

“Do you have two sailors in there?”

Tasha laughed.

“No . . . . I have two guys wearing sailor costumes . . . . well, they were wearing them, anyway.”

Tasha ran her eyes up and down Pepper's figure. She then mischievously smirked.

“Do you want one?”

Pepper's eyes widened.

“Uh, what . . . .? No, I mean . . . . eh, heh, yeah, no.”

Pepper blushed, her cheeks turning as red as her hair. Tasha shrugged.

“Alright, fine. More for me.”

“Tasha!”

“No really, what do you need, baby? You know that Saturdays are my only days off. I'm having

a get together here.”

“I got a call from Bambi,” explained Pepper. “She said that an Arthur Parks needed to see you

about a project?”

Tasha's eyes widened.

“Oh shit, yeah! I forgot. Shit . . . . Just give me, uh, I'll be right there. One sec. Let me get

dressed.”

“Yeah.”

One of the men on the couch called out.

“Get dressed? We just got you out of those clothes!”

Tasha started stepping into her jeans.

“Sorry boys, I promised to meet someone today. Just stay up here. Janice? Take care of them for

me while I'm gone, okay? I shouldn't be more than a half hour.”

“Understood, ma'am,” replied Janice.

* * * *

“So, the entire photon array will be centralized on this one point in the middle of the laser field,

which will be, hopefully, be capable of transmutating matter.”

Tasha stroked her chin as she looked at the device in front of her. Several laser prisms were

affixed to two radial daises attached to the top and bottom of the apparatus. Narrowing her eyes, she

scanned her eyes across the whole device, going through mathematical formulas in her head.

Arthur looked at her, twiddling his thumbs together.

“The laser field crosses over itself at several points,” said Tasha, “exponentially increasing

energy output without adding to the size of the field, which would destabilize it.”

Arthur grinned and nodded as he held a small control device in his hand, with a single large

button. Pressing the button with his thumb, the photon array turned on, firing pink lasers from each of

the points, converging in the centre of the energy field. After a few seconds, the lasers disappeared.

Arthur then looked back at Tasha.

“I based the design of the array on the vibranium core of your arc reactor. I got the idea after

you let me look at it a few months back. What do you think?”

Tasha folded her arms and nodded.

“I think . . . . it's brilliant. In terms of mechanical design anyway. But what's this business about

transmutating matter?”

“Well, you see, what my new photon array generators should, theoretically, be able to do, is take

a piece of material, say, a small piece of solid iridium, and temporarily put it in a temporal stasis field,

created by the laser array, which will render it non-corporeal.”

Tasha's eyes widened as she looked over at Arthur.

“Non-corporeal?”

“Yes. I think I may have a way of phasing objects in and out of existence, by temporarily

turning them into light.”

Tasha's jaw dropped as she looked back at the device.

“But . . . .”

“As you've probably figured out, the issue is how exactly to hold the material in place in the

centre of the laser field. Magnets would be the easy solution, but that wouldn't work for non-metals,

obviously. I was thinking of calling my sister at Project Pegasus to see if they had any breakthroughs in

their gravity tech development, but then they had that fiasco last week and the whole place is in

shambles. She, uh, lost her fiance in the incident.”

Tasha frowned.

“I'm sorry.”

“Yeah, he was, uh, a good guy. I liked him a lot.”

Both Tasha and Arthur were silent for a few seconds.

“Well, as for your project here, I would say that it's excellent as a theoretical thing, but I don't

know how we're going to be able to get the damn thing to hold objects in the air long enough to get it

done.”

“Could you perhaps pop by more? I was thinking of setting up a project schedule . . . .”

Tasha laughed and rubbed the back of her head.

“Sorry love, but the company is swamped with people who want projects looked at right now. I

mean, between trying to stave off both Trask and Hammer, my work as Iron Maiden, and the constant

energy tech contracts, there's not a lot of room for new research and development projects. Like, I

could probably scrounge up a team for you, but you're the best laser engineer in the country. It's why I

hired you.”

“Tasha, I don't need a team. I need you.”

Tasha sighed and exhaled. She then put her hand on Arthur's shoulder.

“Arthur, you're my main man. You know that right?”

“Yeah.”

“Give me three weeks. I'll try and clear out some of the garbage in the schedule; maybe shuffle

some folks around. Once we're over this month's hump, you and I can tackle this thing. Okay?”

Arthur nodded.

“Okay.”

“Keep cracking at it though.”

“I will.”

“Good man. Take the rest of the day off, alright? With pay. My treat.”

Arthur weakly smiled.

“Thanks.”

Tasha nodded at him and then left the room. Arthur watched her from behind as she closed the

door behind her. Grinding his teeth together behind his stern, closed mouth, Arthur then exhaled and

and walked over to the photon array.

“Not enough time she says, give me three weeks, she says.”

Arthur placed the control mechanism on a box next to the photon array, near the edge. Walking

into the middle of the apparatus, he pulled out a small wrench and began tightening one of the bolts,

which he noticed was slightly loose.

“Meanwhile she's off having those parties of hers, and flying around for the newsreels . . . .

pah.”

Arthur groaned as he tried to pull the wrench off the bolt.

“Come on, you little . . . .”

The wrench snapped off the bolt, and Arthur fell back against the prism arm behind him.

Dropping the wrench in surprise, he then saw that his body's impact jostled the entire apparatus,

knocking the control mechanism off the nearby box. His eyes widened as he saw the control

mechanism land upside down on the floor, pressing the activation button. Arthur screamed as the laser

field turned on, firing all of its lasers at his body. He looked down at himself as he was transformed into

a light construct.

“GRAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGHHHH!”

Arthur exploded into a cloud of pink mist, which quickly dissipated. The force of the explosion

incinerated pieces of the apparatus, scattering mechanical debris all over the room. An alarm sounded,

and a minute later, Tasha and several security guards ran into the room. Her eyes widened as she looked

at the smouldering remains of Arthur's machine.

Pepper entered the room behind her.

“What happened?”

Tasha looked down at the ground, seeing a half-torn identification card. She picked it up, seeing

that it read 'Arthur Parks'.

“It was Arthur . . . . he's . . . .”

Pepper sighed.

“Oh no . . . . should I, uh, call his next of kin?”

Tasha shook her head.

“No . . . . no, uh, I-I'll do it.”

Tasha held her head down as she walked out of the room.

* * * *

Three Days Later

In the containment hall, a custodian locked a door behind her before walking over to her cart.

Grabbing the broom off of it, she began sweeping the tiled floor of the hall. As she walked past the

door which led to Arthur's lab, a tiny amount of pink light emanated from under it. The custodian

looked at it, but barely got a glimpse before it disappeared. Shaking her head, she then continued to

sweep.

A few seconds later, the light reappeared, and she watched it for half a minute before it

disappeared again. Narrowing her eyes, she pulled out her keys. She looked at the 'Do Not Enter' sign

on the door, but went ahead and unlocked the door anyway. As it opened, more of the pink light filled

up her field of vision.

She gasped upon seeing what was behind the door.

“Gruhhhh . . . . gyahahahahhahgh . . . .”

It was a humanoid construct of pink light. What appeared to be white electricity currents flowed

through the body section, with the rest glowing bright pink. The custodian shook in place as the figure

turned towards her, and she saw the face.

It had a solid, purple construct over the head section. The face was a slightly lighter shade,

looking like a skull plate. Two rectangular holes simulated eyes. The eyes flared up with pink mist as it

looked directly at her. The custodian felt like her lungs were bursting when she screamed.

The figure gyrated in response.

“Gyrrrrrrraaaaaaaaghhhhhh . . . . gyyyybrrraaaaaaaaaallllltur!”

The figure then formed itself into a laser, half a metre in diameter. Blasting forward, it knocked

the custodian over, before bouncing off the walls several times. Each time it bounced off a wall, it made

a zinging noise, and left a small trail of pink mist which slowly dissipated.

Bouncing down the hall, the laser then stopped in the lobby, reverting to its humanoid form

over the front desk. Bambi, who was sitting there, shouted and held her hand over her heart.

“Beeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmbi . . . . huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrgghhhhhhhh

meeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhh . . . .”

Bambi shouted again before pounding her fist on the emergency button under her desk. The

construct stayed in the air, continuing to try and vocalize.

“Baaaaammmmmmmmbi . . . . Baaaaaammmmbi . . . .”

Bambi narrowed her eyes and tilted her eyes as she listened to it.

“Bambi . . . . help me . . . .”

The construct was interrupted in its speech by Tasha, in her Iron Maiden suit, flying from above.

She tackled the construct, but fell right through it, crashing onto the ground. The construct turned to

looked at her, seemingly unfazed. Tasha recovered from her crash landing by turning around and firing

two repulsor shots at it, which also went through it without effect.

Tasha stood up and aimed her repulsors at the construct, but did not fire.

“Alright, pinkette, come down from there and . . . .”

“Taaaaaaaaashaaaaagh.”

Tasha's eyes widened.

“What?”

“Taaaarrrshaaa . . . . It's meee . . . . Arrrrrghthuuuurr.”

“Arthur?!”

Tasha lowered her repulsors and pulled up her face plate. She looked into Arthur's eyes as he

gently landed on the floor.

“Arthur . . . . is that you?”

“Yesss . . . . hellllrrp me . . . .”

“Oh my . . . . the apparatus! It activated on you, didn't it?”

Arthur took a wobbly step forward, holding his hands close to his face. His speech began to

form properly, but had a synthesized tone to it.

“I think so . . . . one second I was talking to you, and then the next . . . . I was here, and the

pain . . . . don't know why . . . .”

Tasha slowed down her breathing.

“Listen to my voice, Arthur. Try and focus on me. I don't know exactly what happened to you,

but we're going to figure it out, together, okay?”

“Together . . . .”

The electric arcs inside of Arthur's light form began to spin faster.

“Now you want to work together?!”

Arthur threw his arms forward, and they fired two lasers, which collided with Tasha's chest

piece. She fell backwards, crashing into the wall behind her.

“Ugh!”

“You should have worked with me when I asked you to!”

Closing her face plate, Tasha looked up at Arthur, who walked towards her, glowing even more

brightly. He then roared as his energy surged all around him.

“NOW LOOK AT ME!”

Arthur's body fired off multiple lasers from random locations, which then bounced off anything

they came in contact with. Bambi shrieked and hid under her desk. Tasha pushed herself off the ground.

“Janice, give me something!”

“Scanning Arthur's energy frequency now, ma'am. If you match your suit's frequency to his,

then your energy weapons will be able to, well, connect, so to speak.

“Do it!”

“Modifying Mark Two energy frequency now.”

Tasha aimed her left hand forward, and fired a repulsor blast at Arthur, which knocked him on

to his back. He then started writhing back and forth on the floor.

“Arthur . . . . can you hear me?”

“Stop it . . . . stop it! I can't control . . . . so much . . . don't want to hurt . . . . no, yes, no,

erghhhhh . . . . can't contain . . . .”

“Arthur, try to focus for me, okay? I think that your mind has been spread across your entire

laser form. How you're still alive, I don't know, but I'm going to try and keep you that way, alright?

Arthur? Arthur!”

Arthur's body vibrated as he screamed. He then fired upwards, into the array of window panes

on the front of the building. The glass panes glowed pink as they all showed the same image of Arthur's

face.

“NO ARTHUR HERE!”

Arthur blasted out of the glass panes, shattering them all. He then fired up into the night sky

outside of the building. Tasha activated her jets, and flew off after him, flying through one of the now

empty window panes. Quivering, Bambi looked up over the top of her desk, watching as Tasha flew

over the Los Angeles skyline.

* * * *

Arthur boosted through the air, over multiple buildings, leaving behind his laser trail for Tasha

to follow. Pedestrians on the streets screamed and pointed as they watched the chase happening in the

skies.

After following him for a minute, Tasha watched as Arthur blasted himself into a neon sign. The

tubes of the sign took on Arthur's pink colour, before the entire building became covered in his energy.

A full body image of himself the size of the building appeared on its windows. Tasha hovered in place,

looking at it.

“Do you see my power now, Iron Maiden? I grow in strength, in control . . . . soon I will be in

complete command of my abilities . . . . I will be power incarnate!”

“Arthur, this isn't you! I know you!”

Arthur's image held up its right hand, and shook its index finger.

“No you don't . . . . Arthur Parks is dead, Iron Maiden . . . . there is only . . . . the Living . . . .

Laser!”

Tasha's eyes widened as she felt her heart racing.

“And you will be the witness . . . . to my ascension!”

Arthur shot out of the building, bouncing across multiple structures. Tasha engaged her

thrusters, boosting after him. She followed the laser trail until it led her to the top of the Two California

Plaza building. Arthur was already there, levitating above the edge of the structure, looking out at the

city. Tasha landed on the ground behind him.

“Arthur!”

Arthur's head shook violently, as if in pain.

“I'm not Arthur!”

“Yes you are!” shouted Tasha. “Your name is Arthur Parks. You worked at Stark Enterprises.

You're a laser engineer, and you're my friend.”

Arthur turned towards Tasha, grabbing his head with both hands. His head was still vibrating.

“No! No! I'm not . . . . not . . . . the pain . . . .”

“Fight it, Arthur! I know you're in there!”

“No . . . . I was a nobody . . . . I don't want to be a nobody . . . .”

“You weren't a nobody! You were somebody! You were my main man!”

Arthur looked at Tasha, withdrawing his arms.

“Tasha?”

“You have people that care about you! Bambi, me, and . . . . your sister.”

“Judy?”

“Yes. Arthur . . . . I had to call her. I had to tell her that you were dead. She lost her fiance and

you in the same week. Can you even imagine how happy she would be to hear that you're still alive?”

Arthur moaned and began shaking again.

“No . . . . No! Judy! I can't . . . . can't let her see me like this . . . .”

Tasha took a step forward.

“She won't, Arthur. Not if you let me help you. We can end this, you and I. All we have to do is

find a way to contain your light form . . . .”

“Contain?! No! Never! I won't be contained!”

“Arthur!”

“GYYYYYYYYYRRRRAAAAAAAUGH!”

Arthur shouted and fired two more lasers at Tasha, which she dodged by rolling backwards. The

lasers bounced off the ground and headed upwards, striking Tasha in the face as she recovered from her

roll. She tried to stay standing, but Arthur boosted forward, striking her in the chest. He then bounced

around the items on the roof, striking her again. His third strike sent her spinning in the air, until she

landed on her back.

Arthur then landed on top of her. Tasha weakly chuckled.

“I don't suppose I could convince you to just come back on staff as an electrician?”

“GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGHHHH!”

Arthur roared, firing three lasers from his face: one from each eye and another from his mouth.

They gashed Tasha's face plate, and surged the entire suit with electrical energy. Tasha shook and

sputtered as she turned her palms towards Arthur. She then blasted him with two repulsor shots,

knocking him off. Recovering, Tasha then boosted upwards, and began flying around the edge of the

building.

Arthur fired a laser with his left arm, which Tasha flew over. Growling, he followed her and

fired another laser with his right arm, which she dodged by performing a barrel roll. She then launched

a set of cluster missiles from her shoulder, which hovered behind her and exploded simultaneously,

creating a wall of small explosions, hampering Arthur's movement momentarily.

Boosting back around, she fired another repulsor blast at Arthur, which stunned him. He quickly

turned around and fired two lasers, which she absorbed with her energy shield. Keeping her shield

active, she then boosted straight into him, crashing against him and sending him careening away. He

recovered and spun around, firing a swath of miniature lasers, which Tasha also dodged.

“You're fast . . . . but even you can't move at the speed of light!” shouted Arthur.

“By the looks of it, you can't either!”

Arthur shook both of his fists and growled. Tasha raised an eyebrow.

“But that's it, isn't it? You can't move that fast because you can't use your full abilities . . . .

because you won't let yourself.”

“What are you . . . . why, don't . . . . stop . . . . never!”

“You're still in there, aren't you, Arthur?” asked Tasha. “You're trying to stop yourself from

hurting me . . . . you're trying to piece together your fractured mind, which was scatter shot all over

your non-corporeal form.”

“Get away . . . . don't want to . . . . hurt them . . . . but yes . . . . my, no, yes, want to use . . . . my

power!”

Tasha's eyes then widened.

“Non-corporeal . . . . Janice! Reverse polarity of unibeam!”

Arthur shook back and forth, firing lasers randomly, but not at Tasha. He grabbed at his head

and screamed, seemingly in great agony.

“Ready to fire.”

Arthur looked at Tasha and leaped forward.

“GYRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAGHHHHH!”

“Fire now!”

Tasha held her chest open, and the arc reactor glowed. A vortex then generated around the

vibranium core, pulling Arthur towards it. He tried to move away, but found himself being dragged in.

“What's happening?!”

“I've got an energy firing device in my chest,” explained Tasha. “I should have realized earlier

that I can also use it as a syphon. I just created a vortex that's attuned to energy, and you're made of

nothing but energy.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Arthur shrieked as his entire light construct form was absorbed into the arc reactor, causing the

vortex to dissipate. Tasha then fell onto one knee as the vibranium core of her arc reactor glowed pink.

“Ma'am, the internal systems are taking damage. What is he doing?”

“He's trying to induce a goddamn heart attack. The core's absorbed him, but I need to get back

to Stark Tower and contain him.”

“Converting all power to thrusters now.”

“And Janice?”

“Yes?”

“Call Pepper.”

* * * *

Struggling to stay on her feet, Tasha walked into the containment room. As she reached a

containment cube, she pulled the arc reactor from her chest and stuffed it inside. Sealing the

containment cube, she watched as the pink electrical surges went back and forth inside of the core.

Tasha then collapsed and fell on her back, opening her face plate.

“Ma'am!”

Pepper burst into the room, holding another arc reactor in her hands. She ran forward and

plugged it into Tasha's empty chest slot. As she locked it in place, Tasha gasped for air and coughed

several times. Pepper weakly laughed.

“This is becoming a habit with us,” said Pepper.

“What, this? Eh. I can think of worse things that you could be doing with my chest.”

Pepper sighed and rolled her eyes. She then looked at the containment cube. Tasha stood up.

“What happened to him?”

“His body was turned into a construct of pure light energy. Somehow his consciousness was

maintained, but it was fractured. The core of that arc reactor is acting like a prism, endlessly refracting

him around it. It will contain him for now, until I figure out what to do with him.”

“Poor guy,” said Pepper. “Are you going to call his sister? Tell her what happened?”

“No. I think it would only cause her more pain.”

Pepper walked out of the room. Tasha watched the arc reactor for a few minutes, with a frown

on her face.

“I've lost you in this room twice now, Arthur. I'm sorry.”

She then turned away and walked to the door. She turned off the lights and closed the door

behind her. The room ended up in utter darkness, aside from the glowing pink light coming from the

core of the arc reactor.

THE END