He looked out the window of his Pantera-Series MK 15 as it descended from the clear skies of Zoryan Prime's stratosphere into brown grey hues of Vandross's city scape. He stared at the piles of steel and chrome, the scores upon scores of towering holo-ads ascending from the lowest levels of Vandross like weeds. He felt pleasure spike between his legs and smiled, satisfied as Amy stood up from her knees and sat on the opposing couch in the lux hover-carrier, wiping her lips and gulping as she swallowed.
She smirked at him. From calling me the next successor of Terracorp tyranny on V62, to swallowing my load with a smile. He took a drag from his cigar, puffing out a stream of the finest tobacco from their agrarian colonies in the arm. Amy zipped through her holophone and raised it up, put up a peace sign and a duck face to take a selfie as Anthony took another drag. "For your mans?" he asked.
"You're my man," she said coyly. She rested her chin on her hand, smiling at him. "The pic is for my husband."
He took another drag and sighed a stream of smoke. His body hissed and steamed as he sat back and sighed. "What's the matter, Mr. Irons?" asked his little reporter slut. "Need another go to get your mind off things?"
Smoke streamed from his lips as he laughed. "Oh I'd enjoy that well enough, but that's not it." He looked back out the window, they were close now to the landing pad of the main AU office, a towering black spire which scratched the grey-brown clouds. The Allstar United logo, a great twelve pointed star surrounded by lesser twelve pointed stars brightly glowing at its crest in red neon. "Sometimes it feels like running this thing is a never ending struggle to rip out weeds as they pop up and try to strangle you. Every day, some new admin, some new challenger on the board tries and fucks me and I gotta fuckkem back harder. That or I have to deal with the most competent fools eating up our revenues for no returns, today I'm dealing with the latter."
Amy seemed as interested in that as Irons would have expected. "Sounds tiring," she said absently. "Well, you're richer than most people have ever been in all of human history, I don't see why you even bother. You could buy a planet for yourself, make it however you like, live there as long as you desire in whichever way you wish." She smiled coyly and took the cigar out of his hand and took a drag for herself. "You could take me with you, make me your fuck doll for all time, sounds fun, doesn't it?"
Irons smiled, taking back his cigar. "A perfect life," he said. "I agree. I'd be content, very content, and bored. Perhaps for other people it would be nice, but perfection isn't always a solution, it's simply the death of ambition." He took another drag. "I am an ambitious man," he said, looking into her eyes. "The death of my ambition, would be just the same as the death of me."
"Well, that's too bad. I suppose you are who you are. I guess you wouldn't be here if you were any other sort of man, would you?"
"And you?" Irons asked. "What's your story then? Where do you come from?"
Amy rested her face in the palm of her hand as she leaned forward. "Originally? Korea," she said. "The Kim family used to rule part of it before the USA gobbled it up and expanded out into the stars. Whilst we fell from our political power, our family remained relevant and wealthy. We established ourselves here, made a new beginning when the colony was only years old. The rest is history. Now I'm little more than a doll, meant to be wed off to further advance my family's position. Some cultural norms don't die a quick enough death, but I suppose that's just human nature."
Irons took another drag as they finally landed on the pad. "If you'd like you can wait at my penthouse, otherwise you can coordinate whatever location you want to land on the planet. Keep in touch if you wish, or don't." The vertical doors slid open and beyond waited a pair of Allstar security units in black armor dashed in lines of glowing red. "It doesn't matter, ultimately. I have enjoyed our, talk, Mrs. Kim. Perhaps I have convinced you to speak more amicably about us in your future reports, hm?"
Amy grinned, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her knees without a word as Irons stepped out onto the landing pad. "Mr. Irons." The two guards came down to a knee and Anthony gestured them to rise. Behind him the hover carrier shut its door and ascended anew into the heavens. "The board has been notified of your arrival," one of the guards said as he stood up. "They are asking if they wish for you to convene them?"
"I would first like to meet with the staff of our cyber security." Irons ducked down as he passed through a door a bit too short for him. "We had a significant breach last night. I want to get to the bottom of it, and I want those responsible for the breach terminated." Though I have an idea already as to who it is…
"Yes, sir," they said as they followed him. "We should also notify you that there have been riots across Vandross since the breach. We have summoned more security regiments, but the commander of our security forces has asked permission that we call in marines in case this becomes a larger issue."
"No, calling in the regulars would be the same as admitting weakness," Anthony replied as he pressed into a hall where lines of Allstar security units stood at attention, their gaze following him as he passed "I am here, that is security enough."
"Yes, sir."
Anthony's every footstep weighed heavily on the tiles, echoing through the main lobby which led out to the landing pad. "These riots," Irons asked. "What do we know?"
"An email circulating the local network calling all the so-called workers of the world to arms against corporate tyranny," said one of the guards following his footsteps. "The address was sent via an encrypted line, but the perpetrator is clear, sir."
"The Night Wolf." Of course he's behind this. He shook his head. No doubt he was the one who launched that data heist. "Were there any manifestos released with this email?"
"None, sir, however, judging as we have dealt with the Night Wolf before, we have prepared the tower for any attacks that might coincide with these riots."
The Night Wolf had been a thorn in Irons' side for years now. A talented spider who'd caused local net crashes in various districts across the entire ecumenopolis. This was bigger though, and Irons had a feeling this attack was far removed from the others. Big enough to warrant him being recalled from his estates in the south. The audacity such actions implied made him smirk in spite. If he thinks he can face me, I will gladly meet him in battle. I fucked Terracorp, I can just as easily rail a determined commie.
The cyber security chambers were lined with lanes upon lanes of megaboards, servers which networked the data for the entirety of Vandross District. Here, several spiders were woken from their icy slumbers, and were shocked to see the red eyed master of Allstar loom overhead. "Good morning," Anthony said softly. Behind him his guards stood at the ready, bolt rifles in hand, eyes zeroed and lasers zeroed. "I pay you a million credits a month to run my net-security. Explain yourself. This breach has my shareholders on edge. If I have to face another bear hug I will have you all suffer worse fates than death."
It was a lanky black man, his eyes cybernetic, his body lined in wire and metals. "Sir, I was not expecting this, I, the Night Wolf, he was faster than any spider I've ever faced, I—"
Irons sighed and grabbed the man by the crown of his head. He began to pant as Iron pulled him out of the tub and squeezed. The circuitry of his brain sparked the more pressure he put, his guards behind him silent as statues in the dark, the man screamed, a pop. Silence.
"Wake up the others," he said. "Interrogate them, find the weakest spiders amongst them and terminate them in view of the rest."
The guards behind him inclined their heads as he stood, towering over them. "Yes, sir."
He double tapped on his temple, his ocular HUD displaying his contacts as he left the chamber. He called up his secretary, the girl immediately answered. "Patty, the board's about, yeah?"
"Yes, Mr. Irons," Patty answered over the holophone. "You want to convene them at once? They are on standby."
"I want them at their seats by the time I'm there," he said. "I don't need another surprise shareholder meeting thrown on me. Notify every lawyer on call that I want them here before nightfall, shore up our defenses in case there are any attempts for hostile takeovers."
"It's done Mr. Irons."
He tapped his temple twice more, dismissing the call as he went for the elevator. A hundred thoughts streamed through him at once, his mood was cool, composed, but a part of that was the inhuman cybernetic side of Anthony Irons. All which had remained living flesh within him bore that weak instinct of fear. It was that same fear he bore the night before the bearhug he threw on Terracorp two centuries before.
But I was young, then, he thought. He clenched his hands into fists, the elevator opened and ahead he went down another black and red corridor lined in Allstar security units. They stood at attention where he went, and at the end of the chamber two guards opened the doors and a long black marble table stood in a room which overlooked the grim skyline of Vandross. At each chair stood his entourage of puppets, men and women who had groveled, sucked his cock and kissed the ring. They had their hands held before them, some prettier than others, some more competent, one or two having risen by merit.
Ahead of them all, they were observing a holoscreen displaying V62 reporting on the riot outside the building. Canisters were thrown in, molotov cocktails were tossed in turn, scores, hundreds, thousands all stood before the black steps leading to the entrance of the tower. Death to Corpo Fascism, he read, scoffing. How original. He went to his seat at the far end of the table, walking past each and every one of the board members, taller than every single one by a foot at the least.
He placed his hands on the table and shut off the news broadcast. "The data breach," he said. "I've observed the net-space side of things. How are we going to deal with the economic and political fallout? What has transpired since last night?"
The board members were silent for a moment, but at last, the CFO spoke up. A ratty looking man with a talent for numbers, one of those few he'd risen on merit, but also weak and pliable enough not to turn on Irons. "I can sugar coat this, but it doesn't change the situation. We have been eyed for acquisition. Zoryan Prime's planetary senate has been making moves since dawn, several insider traders have been tipped off that Octagon Systems is looking to offer our shareholders an attractive package in exchange for their sale. The attack has made our stock price dip five percent just hours after the first reports came out. Now, with the riots, rumors of Night Wolf being the perpetrator, the release of their manifesto… our price will nosedive in the Galactic Stock Exchange if we do not resolve this."
"Absurd, the fact that our price would waver over some hacker schizo antics," said one of the others, this was one of those board members who had kissed ass for his rise. "Why hasn't this spider been apprehended already, I should wonder. We should have our net-spiders fried if they aren't good enough to catch a lone vigilante."
"I already sent that message," said Irons. "Night Wolf isn't some common data thief, if he was, he wouldn't have been such a thorn in my side these past years. Every attack he has been responsible for has left no trace or footprint which allows up to pinpoint his location or identity. Whatever the case may be, a communist rat is my last worry. Andrew, you command the Allstar Armada, how soon can it be mobilized?"
Andrew Irons, one of his many sons, stood closer to him. All in black and red armor, his eyes were replaced with glowing red orbs. One might be remiss in imagining that such a man as Irons felt little love for his kin, but for a man who had lived for so long familial connection did not bear the same weight as it did for mortal men.
"I had the Armada at the ready when I first learned of the attack," his son said. "Thirty eight cruisers and twelve of our mega-carriers are in the orbit of the system's star. I have kept them there so as to not alarm any elements on the ecumenopolis. Octagon Systems has also mobilized a fleet but they are still in transit with the hyperlane connecting to New Maurya's system. They will arrive in less than a week, so we have a short window to use our fleet, but we must make that decision soon, if we must."
Irons sighed. "The President of Zoryan Prime will throw a fit if I try something too brazen," he said. "If Octagon's attempted bearhug turns hostile, then I'll go on the offensive. For now, we'll see how our prices fair once we quell this rabble outside the tower."
"And what of Night Wolf's threat?" said another board member. "He promised to attack the tower personally, to come after us."
Irons grinned. "Whoever they are, whatever they are. I'll wait and see if their manifesto has any bite to it. In my experience, revolutionaries often stay dreamers, and rarely act to see those dreams come true. Now then, first we'll deal with the planetary senate, get the senators on our side as quickly as possible. Make the president is nice and buttered up, send him a gift with a message ensuring that continued participation with Allstar United is a far more attractive prospect than jumping ship to a mediocre Net-Security firm like Octagon."
"We will do that immediately, Mr. Irons," said one of the board members. "If I may, sir. I would like to discuss—" the man was cut off suddenly. His eyes widened, he looked to Irons who was now perplexed as he began to convulse, grabbing the back of his neck. His eyes rolled back, glowing bright as he screamed in agony, his head exploding in a mix of sparks, brain and blood.
A few of the board screamed, his son immediately pulled out a pistol, others hid under the table, Irons remained still and silent, his eyes firm as he glared into the dark of the corridor beyond. The din of combat echoed beyond, screams, the squelch of flesh and the popping of gunfire. The human flesh which remained to him was prickled with fear, but as for the rest, it was cold, calm metal. He smiled when the doors burst open and he saw red eyes in shadow.
The Night Wolf was there at last across from him, his son fired, but no shots touched his flesh. He leapt into the air, his hands clawed with bloodied blades. No one saw him, he thought. No one reported him… So he is something else. His heart pounded in his chest. I feel like I did that night, this feeling, this terror of uncertainty.
It was this which he'd thought lost, and recalled that little conversation with his little reporter cumslut. The end of ambition, the end of struggle, the end of war, it would be the end of him.
A clash, the blades of the wolf against the metal forearms of Man of Iron.