Cold I.R.O.N. (MCTF) (Patreon)

Hey folks! How's it going out there?

That break I took seems to have done wonders - I'm writing pretty strongly again! Honestly, one of the biggest things I've learned as a writer over the years is that occasionally you need to take a bit of time off to read other works, absorb the world around you, and take in proper inspiration so that you can write more. I need to get better at that! (Would be nice if Patreon let me take time off in less than month-long gaps, too...)

But enough about me - let's get to the story! Today, we have part 1 of 2, as the forces of I.R.O.N. fight against a mysterious otherworldly threat! Who is I.R.O.N.? Read to find out! I hope you enjoy!

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“This is Senator Mallory Pearl.” The screen that took up most of the wall lit up with a photograph showing a smiling woman in her early forties, with long blonde hair and a crisp red suit, standing at a podium talking to a small gaggle of reporters. “She’s known for her stance on the importance of strict business regulation, proper finance law, and controlling a powerful vote on the American anti-corruption committee.”

“Sounds like a real blast at parties.” Amanda snorted, leaning back in her chair. She was a blue eyed blonde, and would have looked every bit the Californian beach babe were it not for the military fatigues she was wearing.

“Nerd alert, right? Why do we care about some bitchy politician?” Kelly nodded at her side, looking equally as bored. She was wearing the same military style uniform, though her hair was dark and straight (aside from a few pink braids), and her skin had a more dusky tone.

“Guys, knock it off,” Rachel whispered. The darkest skinned of the three women watching the presentation, she had black curly hair down to her shoulders, and her sharp green eyes seemed to be the only pair paying attention. “We’re on duty.”

At the front of the room, Commander Green, an older woman who’s dark skin was marred by firm wrinkles, and who’s darker hair was rimed by white, rolled her eyes. “You care, ladies, because approximately nine hours ago, Senator Pearl failed to arrive for a scheduled meeting. Attempts by her secretary to contact her achieved nothing, and after a quick investigation, it was determined that the Senator had been kidnapped from her home in the early hours of this morning.”

She clicked the button in her hand, and the screen changed to show what looked like a snapshot from a frat house party. Incredibly busty blondes were dancing around in very little clothing, if any at all, screaming, cheering, kissing, and generally clearly having a very good time.

“Unfortunately,” Green continued, without so much as the slightest inflection that would indicate this was a joke, “the regular police were called before we were. You can see how that worked out for yourselves.”

Kelly whistled. “Wow. An entire SWAT of bimbos. Send ‘em round to my room before you fix ‘em and I’ll handle this next mission for free.”

The commander sighed. “In point of fact, we’re not sure these gentlemen – or ladies, now, I suppose - can be ‘fixed’. R&D is having some difficulty working out the magic that was used to transform these former officers into what they have become. So, we’re clearly dealing with a powerful entity – one that will require expertise to take care of.” Her eyes levelled to stare at the three of them. “In theory, that would be you three.”

“It is us three!” Amanda puffed up her chest. “We’re the girls you send in to deal with this mess. It’s why you hired us in the first place.”

Green looked unimpressed. “More specifically, it’s why we trained you in the first place. And now we get to see if you were worth that investment, or if we should switch you out for a team that’s actually capable of a basic level of discipline.”

“Psh.” The brunette just shrugged, oblivious to the fact that she was proving the woman’s point. “Our attitude is how you know we’re just flat out better than the rest!”

The commander looked unconvinced, but she moved on. Click. “This is the Becker mansion.” The screen showed one of those ugly rich people traps, the five story sprawling house that had been built up all over America with no sense of uniqueness or style, because the developers knew that the people buying them had neither. White stone walls, red tile rooftops, dime a dozen stuff. “It used to belong to the Becker family until they had a run of bad luck, culminating in them having to sell the place to an anonymous buyer last year. As of yet, we’ve been able to find absolutely no other information about that buyer at all, so we expect other world influence.”

The trio say in front of her nodded. That much was a given. Why else would they call the three of them in?

“Traffic camera surveillance says the car that grabbed the Senator drove straight here – and no one’s come out of the place ever since, save for the girls in the last photo.” With one last click, the slideshow came to an end. “This is the time to prove your worth, I.R.O.N. Get in there, retrieve the Senator, and put an end to whatever magical threat has emerged. You are clear to use whatever methods you deem necessary in the field. Any questions?”

Everyone glanced at each other. There were, of course, plenty of questions that could be asked about this scenario, but if the commander had answers, she would have said so already. If they wanted to work out what was going on, they’d have to do so on site.

Green nodded after a moment of silence. “Very well then. You have your orders. Go.”

The trio rose – Rachel saluting, the other two giving more relaxed waves as they headed for the door.

“We find any more blondes in there, dibs.”

-

Since the days before human civilization had spread across the far reaches of the world, the others had always been present. The shadows moving in the corner of your eye, the ripples on the still lake when the wind didn’t blow. The ones hidden just beyond the bounds of mortal sight, visible only to the chosen few.

Some called them fairies. Others called them demons. Oni, mogwai, sidhe, the names were endless. Every culture had a term for the creatures that lay waiting in the boundary between realms, every society had stories to warn their children of their malice.

As time wore on, and humanity grew in both development and number, these warnings became myths, silly, sometimes even whimsical tales used to entertain, as encounters with that side of reality grew few and far between. But it was a mistake to think they’d stopped entirely. The creatures on the other side of the veil had simply remained the same, both in number and in power. They simply had so many victims to choose from now that no one could really notice them. Who cared if some old man vanished in their home, or a teen wandered too deeply into the woods, after all?

This was still a world of magic and monsters. A world that normal humans believed to be sane and logical was anything but. And though the number of others was small, they were still an incredible threat.

What was needed in response, then, was an incredible counter force. A threat of humanity’s own, to push back the other world whenever it started causing too many problems…

That was I.R.O.N. – the Immediate Response: Operation Normality Task Force. They were a strange group, assembled from across the world, descendants of those chosen few who had guarded their people against the dark. The clans of protectors who had united together to safeguard humanity, to arm themselves and empower themselves alike, fighting in secret for the good of all.

Now, the newest generation had been called up to defend the earth, and to prove themselves worthy of their heritage.

Team 17 – Amanda Richards, Kelly Koizumi, and Rachel Bell – were one such group, guardians entrusted with an area under their protection. With their combined powers, there should be no other worldly force that could stand against them!

As long as their combined egos didn’t get in the way, at least. Or that was how it felt to Rachel sometimes. A witch only a few years out of her apprenticeship, she was still stunned at how confident her teammates were.

Case in point, as soon as their car rolled up to the gates of Becker Mansion, Amanda burst out of the passenger door and strolled right up to the entrance, not seeming to care about how much of a target that made her. She’d slung some body armour over her fatigues on the way out of HQ, and now had her wooden staff strapped to her back, but she was still practically defenceless, at least to Rachel’s eye.

“Any of you guys ever think our name is stupid?” Amanda asked as she examined the gate, which had been left swinging open, presumably by the SWAT team. “I mean, ‘Immediate Response Operation Normality’ – that’s just nonsense, right? They just wanted the acronym.”

“Names do have power.” Kelly wasn’t far behind her. She, at least, looked adequately protected – one of her paper seals was circling through the air around her, a protective Shinto ward. That might explain how casual she was acting. “It makes sense that high command would want to tap into Iron’s strength against our enemy.”

“Maybe.” The blonde shrugged, clapping her hands together and closing her eyes. “Still sounds dumb though. And oh yeah. The leylines of this place are twisted to fuck. Whatever’s here has been here a long time.”

Ego or not, her assessment was one that Rachel trusted. Amanda was a Druid, trained in the arts of the natural land. It flowed through her like it was her blood, empowering her body and mind, enhancing her senses to see things no one else could. Maybe that explained her unflinching resolve.

“Any idea what it is?” The witch asked, moving up with the others, hand resting on her spellbook at her hip.

The blonde shook her head. “No. It’s messy – whoever did this isn’t from this area originally, I don’t think, they work against its natural flow too much – but not distinctive.” She sighed, reaching back over her shoulder to unsling her staff and slamming the base of it into the ground. “Guess we’ll just have to head in and see for ourselves!”

There didn’t seem to be any alternative. That was fine, everyone knew that was likely from the very start. You didn’t send in I.R.O.N. and expect a simple fix.

The trio entered through the gates, doing one last check of the sprawling grass grounds, before they began their trek up to the mansion. The three moved quickly and stealthily, aware they were in enemy territory now, but nothing jumped out to attack them – which was kind of a shame. It would have sped this whole job up significantly. But alas, it was a quiet trip, all the way up until they were breaching in through the front door.

And inside, they found only quiet stillness. There was no sign of life in the great entrance hall that they’d found themselves in – a large room centred around an open spiral staircase up to the upper floors. And the décor was… cheap, in a word. Sleazy, in another. White stone busts of naked ladies lined the walls, portraits of reclining women hung on every corner, also lacking in depictions of clothing. Even the chandelier was a bunch of crystal women dangling around a light fixture.

“Well, we found the winner of this year’s America’s Most Tacky contest,” Amanda grumbled, “but I’m not seeing our other world threat. Where the hell is it?”

“Like you said, it’s been here for years,” Kelly said, frowning as she looked around. “It’s patient, and likes to remain hidden. Even now that we’ve found it, we’re going to have to persuade it to come out into the light.”

“So.” Rachel flicked open her spell book, dreading what was coming. “We’re going to have to hunt it down.”

Amanda and Kelly grinned, while the witch tried not to sigh. All three of them were from different monster hunting traditions or clans, and while this could make for a strong team that covered one another’s weaknesses, it did also invite a certain kind of rivalry. One which her teammates were all too happy to indulge in.

“Alright.” The blonde nodded at the other two. “Standard rules?”

“First person to confirm they’ve found the target wins, losers have to pay their bar tab for a week,” Kelly agreed. With a flick of her hand, she offered the others a pair of paper seals marked with calligraphic ink. “Summoning seals for when you want to call us in. Just tear them in half to use them – they’ll work even if the radios don’t.”

That was a risk in these kinds of situations, after all, and all three of them knew it well. Creatures from the other realms could interfere with all kinds of signals. These things were practical preparations, even if they dressed it up as a stupid contest.

“Alright,” Rachel nodded, taking one. “Let me put up a warning spell for us, just in case…”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “C’mon, as if we need one.” But all the same, she didn’t move away as the witch began her chant.

“The fight’s upon us, and danger be,So by night’s blessing, protect us three.”

There was a flash of light, and all three felt the presence of magic settle over them. It was a subtle spell, but one that would activate if of danger was present. If any of them felt it go off, they could probably expect a sneak attack any second.

“There, satisfied?” The blonde flicked her hair back, before turning towards the doors just past the stairs. “I’m going to search down here. I bet our creep is a ground floor type of critter.”

“Second floor for me then,” Kelle nodded, heading for the stairs themselves. “Middle floor, central location. If it’s smart, it’ll be hiding in there.”

“And I’ll take third floor,” Rachel nodded, going for the stairs as well. “Meet back here in 30 if we don’t find anything.”

“Don’t worry – I’ll have ‘em caught in 10.”

The race was on.

-

Amanda Richards, despite what some may have thought, was not a fool. She was loud, self-assured, and perhaps, if she was being honest, more than a little arrogant. But it was an arrogance well deserved, as far as she was concerned. She’d worked hard to become as powerful as she was, and what was the point of earned power if you couldn’t enjoy the fact?

The strength of the earth filled her. Her skin was as hard as surest stone, her blood pumped with the power of ocean and flame. The winds guided her movements, and the stars lit her path. She was a nexus of nature, able to call up the power of the elements to fill whatever need arose.

There was a reason she wasn’t afraid of an interloper from beyond the veil. They had far more reason to fear her. Something she was going to prove once she found this elusive trickster.

So the blonde strolled through the halls of the mansion like she owned the place, because with her connection to the world beneath her feet, she may as well have. Though, if she did, quite frankly she would have redecorated by now. Seriously, who had taste like this? Playboy posters on the walls, novelty nudist rugs (a thing she had not known existed until today), even some of the hedges outside were shaped like naked women.

The place had a theme, that was all she was saying. Sleezy as hell. And creepy too, with all the statues and busts they had sitting around.

When she opened a door and found herself walking into an old storage room full of the damn things, she was just about ready to storm out of the mansion entirely and have the earth swallow it up, problem solved! … But something stopped her. A prickling in the back of her neck.

Ah. Rachel’s spell was going off. Danger? Well this would be the room for it. There were all kinds of figures standing around, most of them covered by old dust sheets. Anyone or anything could hide itself in here.

She raised her guard, waiting for the inevitable attack… But it didn’t come. The room was silent and still, the only movement the slight drifting of dust sheets on the breeze from the door. Hm.

She needed an actual confirmed sighting to win the race. Just the spell going off wouldn’t do it – a danger of tripping could do that. If she wanted free drinks – and, more importantly, the ability to gloat – then she’d need to find the stupid thing.

… Fine, she wouldn’t just destroy the building. She probably would have gotten in trouble for not finding the Senator anyway.

Snorting with annoyance, the blonde moved in, staff in hand. Kelly’s seal was poking out of her left pocket, ready to be torn away at a moment’s notice once victory was hers. (Or if she had trouble, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen.) Her senses sharpened, the vibrations of the earth thrumming through her feet, the settling of dust echoing in her ears.

Steadily, she stepped forwards, honing in on one sheet covered figure in particular. The tingle of Rachel’s spell grew stronger. This was the one. Their hiding place was right here! Grinning, she grabbed the sheet and threw it back to find-!

… herself face to blank face with a mannequin.

“Ugh.” She flinched backwards, surprised and more than a little disgusted at the plastic and very obviously female figure that had been hidden away here. Seriously, what was with the creep that owned this place? “Fucking statues…”

Okay, that wasn’t the threat. Embarrassing. It wasn’t like her to make that kind of mistake… But no matter. Rachel’s spell was still going off. The creature was still in here somewhere.

Amanda took a deep breath and focused. Cut out the distractions of the modern day, the hum of air conditioning, the buzz of electricity, the distant echoes of traffic… All she let in was the here and now. Find the threat. Reveal it. Control it. She had to-

“Aha!”

The blonde spun around, moving like lighting, ripping away the sheet from a figure behind her!

… And found another faceless mannequin, posed with a hand on its cheek like it was in deep thought.

“Oh god damnit.” There was nothing here, was there? “Stupid spell. I bet Rach set it to distract me so she’d win the race… The hell are you looking at, bitch?”

The mannequin hadn’t moved, but its blank face stared at her, white plastic ‘skin’ glistening in the dim light of the store room. Honestly, its very existence felt offensive to her – just some objectified image of a woman, existing to be posed and looked at by the sicko collector that had brought it here. Ew.

It didn’t help that the stupid thing had bigger tits than she did.

Whatever. She was done here. The blonde turned on her heel and went to storm out, but paused.

Rachel’s spell was tingling again.

“There’s nothing here, you stupid cantrip!” She tore the sheet off another mannequin to demonstrate. “Quit bothering me, before I- Huh?”

The smiling fox woman who had been standing underneath the sheet waved at her with her free hand – just as the other slammed the blank white mask it had been carrying over Amanda’s face.

“Hmn! Hmmn!!!” The blonde yelled in shock and outrage, but her voice was muffled instantly, grunts and moans the only things that could be heard. Her hands shot up to try and pull the mask off, but it was stuck on tight refusing to budge no matte how hard she pulled.

“Oh, don’t you like your present, dear?” The redheaded ‘woman’, human in proportion and look, save for the sheen of orange fur that covered her skin – and, of course, the two pointed ears on the top of her head. Dressed in white furs that did little to hide a voluptuous figure, she practically twirled around the struggling I.R.O.N operative as they clawed at their face. “Just give it a moment, I’m sure it will capture your attention if you give it a chance~”

The blonde druid had no intention of giving the creature or her ‘gift’ anything. Unfortunately, she wasn’t being given a choice. She could feel the mask pulling on tighter to her face, sealing itself on. But even as it locked on, she could still feel it pulling even more…

… Or, was it sucking?

Slowly, the energy started to drain out of her. Not because she couldn’t breathe – if she’d been thinking clearly, she would have been surprised to realise the mask wasn’t blocking her airways at all, somehow. But in the dizzy haze that suddenly swept through her mind, Amanda didn’t realise what was really happening until it was far too late.

The sucking sensation had grown stronger, had grown deeper. She felt a tickling sensation in the back of her mind for a moment, easy to dismiss with everything else going on. When it left, she didn’t even notice – nor did she notice the childhood memory it left with. There were much more important things happening to focus on, or so she thought.

At least, she did until said thought was sucked straight out of her brain, along with the number 12, and what she was doing in this mansion. A moment later, and the memory of the mansion vanished too, leaving her stumbling around helplessly in an unknown darkness. The faces of her teammates went next, soon followed by the concept of I.R.O.N in general, leaving her completely alone in her struggle.

The mask began to glow, a dull green light seeping into its white finish.

“There we go. Getting into it now, aren’t you?” The fox woman purred, stroking the blonde’s head.

“Mmn… hmmn… nnnnn…” The druid groaned, her voice weakening as her struggles slowed. Bigger concepts were leaving her mind now, tumbling out and vacuumed away by a relentless force. Her pride in her druid magic managed to hang in there just long enough to witness all of her spells and rituals vanishing from her brain, sucked out one by one, before the core of her self confidence drained out too.

The idea of fighting dissolved. Resistance lost meaning. Her history was erased. Memories broke into fragments, started and ended in confusing nothingness, before being reduced to nothing as well. The foundations of her identity, of her entire sense of self, were undermined and broken apart.

W-who… Who was she again? It was so hard to remember. A- Amanda R… Ama…. A… A…

Another word, now meaningless, disappeared into the mask, leaving the nameless creature wearing it swaying uncertainly on its feet.

It felt weak. It felt empty. It felt…

… Hollow.

The former Amanda’s arms dropped limp to her sides as the mask’s glow intensified, now a shining bright green that lit the room. Her body straightened, stiffening, skin starting to pale beneath her fatigues.

“That’s the spirit,” the fox woman giggled, bending down, three tails flicking out behind her as she scooped up the discarded dust sheet from the ground. “Hup!”

With a flick of her foxy wrist, the creature swirled the sheet around her victim, spinning it like it was a magician’s act. The druid was concealed from sight for a moment, lost in the flowing folds. Then, when it fell away…

Stood there, hands proudly on her hips was Amanda Richards – now plastic from head to toe. Her blonde hair had become a blonde wig, and her skin had a fake shine, now white as chalk. Her chest did seem to have grown a bit bigger in her transition to inanimate object, but by far the biggest difference was her head, which, beneath the wig, had become round and smooth – just like every other mannequin in the store room.

The only difference between her and them, in fact, was the fact that she was still dressed in her combat fatigues – and the mask which she still wore. The mask had changed too, though. Now, instead of a blank white shape, it had turned a dark rich green, the colour of a fresh left – and its shape had morphed into a copy of Amanda’s face. It was smiling blankly, its eyes empty space for the wearer to look through – revealing the featurelessness of the mannequin behind it.

“So glad you liked my gift,” the fox said with a grin, reaching up to stroke the edge of the mask, as if tickling the woman it was made from under the chin. “Do be careful with it though, or else- whoops!”

The mask fell to the floor with a thunk. As it did, the clothing and wig on the mannequin vanished in a shower of green sparks, leaving it utterly naked – and utterly identical to every other mannequin in the room.

“Oh dear.” The fox woman put her hand to her mouth in mock concern. “Sorry about that. Got to be careful with this thing – if it broke, why, that’s your entire identity, gone forever! Ah, but no matter. I mean, it’s not like you’ll be using it any more, will you dear?”

She tapped a knuckle against the mannequin’s head, and grinned at the hollow knocking sound she got in return. “That’s what I thought. And if you won’t be needing it, then I think I might borrow it. You don’t mind at all, do you?”

Not needing an answer, she bent down again, this time fishing up the green mask and examining it. “Lovely craftsmanship. I can see you really gave it your all!” Her smile grew wider with every mocking jab. “Let me see how you fit…”

She raised the mask to her face, gently pressing it on – and then vanished in a shower of green sparks. In her place stood a smirking Amanda Richards, dressed in full combat fatigues, wooden staff in hand.

“So that’s how your cute little druid magic works,” she laughed, and she did so with Amanda’s voice. “How adorable. Silly, but adorable.” She patted the mannequin on the head, before grabbing the sheet. “Don’t worry, I can feel how much pride you had. I won’t tell anyone how easy you were to beat. No one will ever find out what happened to you~”

And with that, she threw the sheet over the mannequin’s head, shuffling it back in amongst the anonymous hordes – just another faceless, thoughtless, lifeless member of the masses. Then, dusting her hands, Amanda Richards turned her back on the lot, looking towards the door.

“Now then, I.R.O.N., was it? Let’s see if her friends provide a little more of a challenge,” she muttered, striding out of the room, switching the lights off behind her as she went.

Amanda Richards, despite what some may have thought, was not Amanda Richards anymore…