Within seconds the Iron Rose confirmed her suspicions. "This is a coolant 
system for a reactor. I'm not completely familiar with the design, but that 
seems to be its purpose."




***Okay... massive as this is, that's a big reactor.  Which leads one to 
hope that it's *Massively* redundant, or after what come later... there's 
not going to be much of China left... or a planet either.***





The other two were strangers.  One was a somewhat slender man who wore a 
full body costume. His boots were a light red, as was his trunks, gloves, 
and the middle of his outfit's torso. A deep purple, almost the color of 
black, covered the legs, arms, and lower and upper torso. A white 'M' and 
'W' crossed over one another in red section of the upper body. The only part 
of his flesh that showed was his nose and mouth. Red goggles were sewn into 
his headpiece, covering his eyes.



***Okay... I don't recognize the costume, but that WM sounds more Wonder 
Man...***




"Yeah, It's even dumber than that idiot Whizzer's  name," Hawkeye laughed.

"Hey! You can't call me that anymore!" the man in purple shouted.

Hawkeye looked at him in surprise. It took a moment to place the voice.
"You're the Whizzer?"

Daredevil snorted. "Of course he is. Couldn't you tell? He's standing right 
there."

"But he completely changed his costume. It doesn't look anything like his 
old one," Hawkeye pointed out.

"Oh. I hadn't noticed." Seeking to change the subject, Daredevil said to the 
speedster. "What's your name now?"

"Speed Demon," Mint preened proudly.

The heroes applauded.

Hawkeye said, "Good choice. Much better than that awful name and outfit you 
had before. If I didn't know you were such a moron, I'd probably be
intimidated a little bit."

"Thanks. I thought it was better, but hearing it from the competition makes 
me know I made the right choice," the newly dubbed Speed Demon said in 
sincere gratitude.



***Heh, of course Mousse wouldn't be able to see the changes in the costume. 
  Nice banter.  But I still say WM doesn't even come close to Speed 
Demon.***






Tarou rolled his eyes at his comrade's stupidity. He postured before the
quintet of heroes and boldly proclaimed, "Enough talk. I would ask you guys 
to make things easy by giving up, but somehow I doubt you'll see things my 
way. And to be honest, I'd kick the crap out of you anyway even if you did 
give up." He grinned evilly and cracked his knuckles.

Posturing just as definitely, Captain Japan said, "Buddy, the day I can't 
beat some pathetic loser with a pantyhose fetish, is the day I finally 
choose a fiancee."


***Okay, this should have at least caused Thor to blink.  She's the only one 
this would have made any sense to.  Akane's oblivious to a lot, but she's 
very touchy about the fiancee bit, and she already suspects Ranma's CJ ***



"Armored foe, turn from that jackrabbit and test a warrior that is worthy of
your mettle."

Iron Rose turned to see the Swordsman standing before her. He saluted her
once with his katana. "Though it pains to employ my talents against a woman,
I fear my erstwhile comrade in arms would fall before your might. So it
behooves me to relieve you of the burden of this fight. Fear not, for I
shall be as gentle with thee as the wind." He danced forward with his sword.

Underneath her armor, Iron Rose let her teeth gnash together. The way this
imbecile babbled reminded her of her brother. It would be her pleasure to
'relieve him of the burden of this fight.' As a sign of contempt, she
targeted his sword rather than the man himself. Without it, he would be as
useless as... well, as useless as her brother had always been.

The Iron Rose's repulsors were locked on to the blade when she froze. The
katana! Impossibly, she recognized it, having designed the weapon herself.
It was no mere blade of metal, but rather a KTK-1103B constructed of
adamantium alloy. It had been one of the last projects she worked on before
her accident. But there had been only the one prototype made, and that was
by herself personally. She had not had the chance to share the design with
anyone else, and it would have taken the experts at Kunou Enterprises months
to figure out how to reverse engineer it. She would have known if they tried
when she had returned. To the best of her knowledge, the sword should have
still been in the prototypes vault at Kunou Enterprises. How could it be in
the hands of this gaudily dressed buffoon halfway across a continent?

She was so surprised by the appearance of the weapon she neglected to fire.
The hesitation cost her as the tip of the blade shattered the circle that
made up the center of her chest weapon array. The Swordsman discharged a
power blast through the blade just as the tip breached the armor's exterior.
Past the insulation provided by her armor, the blast instantly overloaded
the majority of her systems. Only the surge protectors she had placed
throughout the suit kept it from being ruined forever, though the smell of
burning ozone indicated not all the systems had survived the blast. Iron
Rose herself received a nasty shock from the backlash through the armor from
the discharge.

Between the weight of the armor and the shock, Iron Rose was unable to stay
upright. She fell over, almost completely inert. Within the confines of her
bulky metal coffin, Kodachi felt as though her chest was on fire. "Not the
pacemaker," she thought to herself. That was the most heavily protected part
of the entire armor, the only thing that kept her alive. If it shut down,
she would  die. It was supposed to be on its own separate system, but the
shock she had personally received might have disrupted it, and unfortunately
its back-up system was linked to the armor, which was in the process of a
complete crash.

Praying it was nothing more than an errant heart palpitation and that
Swordsman didn't try to press an advantage, she prayed and rebooted her
armor.


*** Boy is she going to be pissed at Kuno when she finds out that not only 
did he get the best of her here, but he had the gall to do it with one of 
her *OWN WEAPONS!!!!***



<Snip>  *** Pretty good fight scenes.  Way to believably hand the not yet 
avengers their asses.

However... that reactor had better have really really really good redundant 
cooling systems...***







"Die now!" He raised his right hand up and employed his deadliest ring of
all: the disintegrator.

Thor ducked the beam as it arched in a short line right where her head had
been. The beam winked out, and she spun around to see the results of the
silent blast. There was a foot long trail the height of a nickel cutting a
groove clear through the wall. And the wall beyond it, and the wall beyond
that one as well. It was then she realized that the back of her neck felt
revealed. She placed her hand behind it, only to discover something was
missing.

"Thou didst destroy mine hair!" she raged.


*** Heh... of course... it's inevitable.  It really is...***


*** Good.  More.  NOW!!!!***   ;P

Looking forward to the next installment.

LSMcGill









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