Echoes

Just because it doesn't have hi-tech computer chips doesn't mean it isn't dangerous.

"Why, exactly, are you people in my limousine?" said Tony Stark.

"I invited them," said Pepper Potts.

"I wanted to see more of New York," said Steve Rogers.

"Part of my brief is to ensure that you do not make more of a public spectacle of yourself than usual," said Agent Coulson.

"I was bored," said Natasha Romanova. "And part of my brief is to annoy you as much as possible. So here I am."

"Huh," said Stark. "And you do it so well, über-bimbo. Pepper, how much are we paying this woman?"

"Nothing," said Pepper. "She doesn't work for us."

"Really? Well, hire her at once. Then give her a raise. Then fire her."

"You couldn't afford me," said Natasha. "And if you could, you couldn't fire me."

"Where are we going?" said Rogers.

"We're here," said Pepper. The limousine purred to a halt, and the five of them got out. They were confronted by a large, slightly rundown building. A faded mansion.

"This looks … familiar," said Stark. "Was it in a movie? A TV series? Cartoon?"

"No," said Pepper, as she produced a set of keys and unlocked the gate. The five of them walked up the long driveway. "You own it. Or, more specifically, Stark Industries owns it."

"Oh," said Stark. "And why do I own it, exactly?"

"It was owned by your father," said Pepper. "One of many places that he had for some reason or another. I found it when I was going through the property portfolio while I was watching television."

"As one does," said Natasha.

"So if it looks familiar to you, perhaps you were here when you were a kid," said Rogers.

"I was never really a kid," said Stark. "Or never really grew up, I can't remember which."

They went up to the imposing front door. Pepper opened it and they went in. The place was dusty but otherwise in surprisingly good condition. The lights were still working.

"This is nice, but I'm still not sure why we're here," said Natasha.

"I've been thinking about what Cap and Phil were saying to me," said Pepper. "About Nick Fury wanting to get people – people with unusual abilities – into SHIELD. I don't really like the sound of that. But if you're going to be together in some sort of team, you're going to need a place that isn't the heli-carrier. Maybe this is a possibility."

"The team thing isn't going to happen," said Stark. "I don't play well with others. Probably more correct to say that they don't play well with me. And how come everyone is always talking behind my back?"

"That would be because no-one likes you," said Natasha.

Rogers was looking around the large hall. "Hey, what's this?" he said, pointing at something on the wall.

"That, my elderly friend, is a button," said Stark. "You may not have had them in your day. You push them."

Rogers pushed it. Metal doors slid open.

"And that," said Stark, "is an elevator. Probably also new to you."

"May I shoot him?" said Natasha to Agent Coulson. "I have a gun right here. Two."

"Not yet," said Agent Coulson. "Let's see where the elevator goes first."

"I'm guessing either up or down," said Stark.

"Funny, it's not on the plans," said Pepper, examining the blueprints she carried.

They got into the elevator, which was strangely large. It began to descend. The doors opened and they stepped out. Lights, apparently activated by their presence, flickered on, revealing a large room of machinery, tools, and gizmos.

"Well well," said Stark. "A secret lab. My dad had so many he probably lost track of them all. The old boy was full of tricks. Not very good ones, but tricks nevertheless."

"Believe me, some of his tricks were very good indeed," said Rogers. "And he attracted a lot of good people to work with him."

"I think all this is very cool," said Natasha. "Gotta love a secret lab."

They looked around. It looked as if no-one had been here for decades. Rogers picked up a document from a desk. It was dated 1942.

There was a heavy metal door at the end of the lab. Next to the door was a large red button.

"I wonder what this does," said Pepper. She pushed it.

"Don't!" Stark cried out. Too late.

"If I wasn't supposed to push it, it wouldn't be a button," said Pepper.

"If you were supposed to push it, it wouldn't be red," said Stark.

From below the mansion, there was the noise of a generator powering to life.

"In this case, and unfortunately," said Natasha, "I think I have to agree with the moron." She drew her Black Widow pistols.

From the chamber on the other side of the door, there was a rumbling, mechanical sound.

Rogers was still reading the document. "Oh no," he muttered. "Arsenal."

The door opened. Something very heavy lumbered slowly out of the chamber. It was like a small tank on squat legs. On the top, it had two heavy machine guns. On one side, there was a set of missiles. On the other, a flamethrower. There were two large mechanical arms.

There was a single glowing red light, with a camera lens below it. The lens swivelled towards them. Then the machine made a sound. It was a single word: "Identify."

"Is it talking to us?" said Stark.

"I don't think I should have pushed the button," said Pepper.

"Out!" shouted Rogers. "Everybody! Now! This is Arsenal!"

"Wrong answer," said the machine. It swung its guns towards the group.

"Oh, they're so old they won't shoot anything but cobwebs," said Stark.

And then Agent Coulson dived at him, knocking him down. A volley of bullets cut through the air where Stark had been standing a moment before.

Natasha fired. But the bullets bounced off the armour. The machine turned towards her. The flamethrower sparked.

"Uh oh," she said.

And then Rogers, holding a heavy metal table before him as a shield, jumped in front of her. The gout of flame smashed into the table. Rogers was driven back but kept his feet.

"Back!" he shouted. "To the elevator! This is getting hot!"

Natasha, Pepper, Stark and Agent Coulson made it to the elevator. Rogers backed up, using the table against the flames. Finally, he was in, and they began to ascend.

"You know," said Stark to Agent Coulson, "that's the second time you've knocked me down like that."

"Or you could think of it as the second time I've saved your life like that," said Agent Coulson.

Stark considered. "I could," he said. "But I won't."

Agent Coulson turned to Rogers. "Captain," he said. "Just what is Arsenal?"

"Arsenal," said Rogers, "was one of the last-resort weapons. You see, at some stages in World War Two there was a real fear that this country would be invaded. The Arsenal project was meant to be a weapon to fight occupying soldiers. I didn't know that Howard Stark was involved with it, but I guess he was. I remember reading a file on it. It never really worked very well. It was a big, tough machine, but the problem was that it couldn't distinguish enemies from friendlies. It could recognise only a few types of identification, and it tended to shoot on sight. So the project was wound up. But not before a prototype was built, apparently."

The elevator doors opened, and they found themselves back in the main hall of the house.

"We should be going," said Agent Coulson.

"This place was just starting to grow on me, aside from the killer robot in the basement," said Stark, as they went through the front door.

"At least it won't be able to get out of there," said Pepper. "Unless it knows how to use an elevator."

They reached the limousine.

And then Arsenal came smashing through the front door of the mansion. Its weapons were up and ready.

"Well," said Pepper. "I guess elevators aren't that hard."

Stark opened the trunk of the limousine and took out something that looked like a large briefcase. He put it on the ground and opened it. It was a portable Iron Man armour unit.

"Thirty seconds, and we'll be ready to turn this museum piece into … whatever museum pieces get turned into," he said. He stepped into the places in the case unit. "Agent Coulson, would you be so good as to keep Ms Potts out of the line of fire."

"We might not have thirty seconds," said Natasha. She reloaded her guns.

"Let's buy him some time, then," said Rogers to her. "You go left, I'll go right." Then he was running. She went the other way, firing as she ran.

But Arsenal was ready for the move. One of its machine guns turned right and the other turned left, tracking Rogers and Natasha.

"Dad, you were always a tricky bastard," muttered Stark, watching, as the armour began to encase him.

Natasha dived and rolled for cover, as bullets zipped past her.

Rogers, faster than Arsenal expected, made a dodging run and then leaped onto the top of the machine, looking for a vulnerable part. Now, the guns could not reach him. But the mechanical arms could. One swung, and whacked into him. He was thrown down. The flamethrower sparked.

ARMOUR INTEGRATION COMPLETE, said the case unit.

And then Iron Man was in the air, sweeping towards Arsenal. Stark fired one of his repulsor beams. It slammed into Arsenal, driving it back several feet. But that was all.

"Huh," said Stark to himself, inside the suit. "Guess they knew how to build 'em, back in the day."

The rack of missiles turned to track Iron Man. Arsenal fired.

The missiles hit him all at once. With a metallic crash, Iron Man fell to the ground.

Pepper ran to him. "Tony!" she cried. "Say something!"

"Ouch," he said. "That was a bit more of a punch than I expected." He struggled to his feet.

Arsenal swung its machine guns around again. A new rack of missiles slid into place. The flamethrower turned towards Rogers.

Agent Coulson was walking steadily towards Arsenal. He was holding something in front of him: not a gun, something else. Something not very big.

"Arsenal, stand down," said Agent Coulson.

Arsenal's camera turned to him. "Identify," said the machine.

"Here is my identification," said Agent Coulson. He held it in front of the camera.

"What's he got?" said Pepper to Stark. "It can't be his SHIELD badge. Arsenal wouldn't know what that is."

"Stand down, soldier," said Coulson.

Arsenal appeared to be considering the order. Then, slowly, it seemed to relax. The guns lowered, and the flamethrower spark vanished. The red light dimmed to darkness.

The others went over to Coulson.

"So what's the secret weapon?" said Rogers.

Agent Coulson handed it to him. Rogers looked at it.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense," said Pepper.

"This," said Rogers, "is the badge of a New York City police officer. The badge of an officer named John Coulson."

"John Coulson?" said Natasha.

Agent Coulson nodded. "My father," he said. "He was killed in the line of duty when I was eleven. I've carried his badge with me ever since. I've always felt that it protected me. I guess it does."

"Still, you couldn't have been sure that Arsenal would recognise it," said Stark, pulling up the mask of his suit.

"No," said Agent Coulson. "Not sure."

"In my day, we used to say that things liked that required a set of church bells," said Rogers.

"We still say things like that," said Natasha.

"Just part of the job," said Agent Coulson. "Nothing more."

Stark was looking at the mansion. "You know," he said. "I think that this place would fix up pretty well. Lick of paint, couple of new light globes, give the lab a wipe down. Repair the door, obviously. Might turn out to be a real home away from home. I think my dad would have liked that." He looked at Agent Coulson. "And maybe yours would have, too."

"Yes," said Agent Coulson. "I think he would have."

END