I am Iron Man

by Colin Cook

  turning my head over to them while speaking before I suddenly walked straight into one of the ceiling/floor supports spaced around the table!

  "Yeah, because that fills us with so much confidence," Alec said sarcastically as I shook my head to clear the pain of the impact.

  "Aside from that part, everything is going to be fine. I'll be back soon, so while I'm gone just stay here, lie low, and keep the ship in one piece," I said with an embarrassed

  chuckle as I continued into the tight corridor that connected the forward cockpit to the conference area.

  "Take care Axel, if true it is what you have told us about Viraden, graver dangers than C-Sec there are now roaming across this station," Yoda called over to me as I

  pressed my palm against the airlock's opening mechanism.

  "Believe me Yoda, that's a forefront in my mind," I answered back solemnly as the door slid open.

  "May the Force be with you," Yoda and Alec said at the same time, causing them both to look at each other with an amused smirk. I couldn't help but chuckle and nod

  back at them.

  "You too. Now kids, try not to burn down the house while I'm gone," I joked with a farewell salute before stepping into the airlock and sealing the door behind me.

  As Axel disappeared from view, Alec turned back to Yoda with a dramatic frown of confusion on his face.

  "I'm getting a weird sense of deja-vu here, have we split up like this before?" Alec asked to the little green man standing on the table beside him with a barely contained

  chuckle. Yoda could only chuckle also and shrug. With a wide grin, Alec clasped his hands together and turned to the horde of Replicators surrounding them.

  "Well gents, since we're going to be waiting on this rust-bucket for a while, why don't we go and see if there's anything here that needs…improvement," the Guardian

  stated with a slyly cocked eyebrow, eliciting an eager hiss from the hundreds of machines.

  Outside the Corsica, I moved swiftly down the docking corridor once the outer airlock doors had opened. There already wasn't much time before Shepard would be

  summoned to present Tali's evidence to the Council, which meant I had to find a way to get to the Citadel Tower before him, and with the Iron Man suit now defunct I

  needed a new way to do it fast. Up ahead, the two bumbling Alliance soldiers that had been left to guard the ship were still arguing with each other over some new topic

  that I didn't care to listen to. I played with the idea of activating the suit's cloaking device then and there, but since Yoda's Mind Trick had been powerful enough for them

  to forget and ignore us the last time, I figured it would be powerful enough to still convince them into not noticing me now.

  "Great job on the guarding boys, keep at it," I complimented as I walked through unseen in-between them, casually clapping them both on the backs as I did.

  The two screamed in un-naturally high voices as they felt the sensation, whipping out their guns and shouting at each other, spinning around in circles looking for whatever

  had just touched them. It took all my energy to keep from bursting out into a fit of laughter as I made my way down the pier away from the oblivious duo, pressing the

  button on my gauntlet and disappearing into thin air with a pixeled flash.

  For the next fifteen minutes I stealthily ran down the Docks, carefully avoiding patrols of Turian and Human soldiers that were still searching around the area for Alec and I.

  Eventually I found an unguarded elevator lift which I entered and took up to the top level of the Docks, which luckily led and opened onto one of the farthest sections of

  the Embassy District.

  "It doesn't look like there are too many people around. If I keep a low profile no one should notice my face," I stated quietly to Haxon as I deactivated my cloaking device

  and reappeared, having ducked into cover behind a large metal wall partition only a few feet away from the elevator I had stepped out of. Just beyond my position was

  the usual sun-lit, wide open, lush green, and cool watery scenery of the Embassy District, along with several connecting pathways and bridges that extended out to the

  other side of the area. Spanning horizontally in front of me was a white tile pathway with a single steel railing going across, one that only a handful of people from different

  races were leaning on or standing beside throughout the immediate area, each of the deep in conversation with each other. Connected to this railing in plain sight was a

  single glowing Fast Transit terminal.

  "Without the Iron Man suit, how are you planning on getting to the Council Chambers in time?" Haxon inquired as I carefully looked across the area, summing up each of

  the few individuals within walking distance of the terminal.

  "The same way most other people get there, I'm gonna take a taxi," I answered with a small smile, taking one last glance around for any nearby cameras or C-Sec

  agents that might have been running their beat at the moment. Thankfully there weren't any.

  "What if the taxi driver recognizes you?" Haxon suddenly asked as I stepped out from my cover and began quickly making my way over toward the terminal.

  "C-Sec only broadcasted my face throughout the Market District, so hopefully not that many people actually know what I look like. But if the driver does recognize me…I

  may need to get creative," I said under my breath as I subtly laid a hand on the butt of my Phalanx. For the few seconds that it took to cross the distance between

  myself and the terminal, I kept my head bowed and avoided eye contact with the few people nearby. I also made sure to keep my left hand covering over my right so as

  to prevent the ring from lighting up and possibly causing a repeat of the incident in the Market Corridor, the very one in which I nearly gotten arrested. I felt a small feeling

  of relief wash over me as I came to a stop in front of the glowing terminal, reaching out my hand and tapping the bright orange call button that would summon a hover

  taxi from the Fast Transit Lanes that flashed back and forth overhead.

  But immediately that feeling was replaced by one of apprehension as a shadow came across the terminal, followed by the feeling of someone deliberately jabbing their

  elbow into my left side as a Human politician dressed in a dark blue and red business suit came up and tried pushing me out of the way.

  "Excuse me sir," the politician uttered without really meaning it as he made to press his hand against the call button. Up overhead the screech of a nearing hover car could

  be heard as the taxi I had flagged came dropping out of the Travel Lanes down toward our terminal. I scowled as I quickly used the flat of my hand to slap the politician's

  away from the device, locking eyes with him as he jerked to face me in astonishment.

  "Excuse me sir, I got here first. This is my taxi," I retorted with a jab of my thumb over my shoulder as the taxi gently touched down on the tiled pathway beside me.

  "Do you know who I am?" the politician hissed at me, as if he were insulted that I would dare to make him wait for the next one.

  "Don't know, don't care, I'm in a bit of a hurry. You got a problem with that?" I shot back at him with a maliciously cocked eyebrow. The politician's astonishment

  increased ten-fold at that statement, causing him to stutter over his next words with barely contained fury.

  "Didn't think so, have a nice day," I finished with a curt nod before turning around and making my way into the back seat of the vehicle as its roof and doors flung wide

  open to allow me entrance. As I sat down and became comfortable, the taxi sealed back up and hum/screeched back into the sky, leaving the politician to watch us fly

  away shaking with rage.

  "Are you sure that was wise? What if he had recognized you?" Haxon asked quietly to keep the taxi driver up front from hearing.

  "Come on, that guy was just som
e smug smart-ass politician, I wasn't just going to stand by and let him take our only means of getting to the Tower on time. Besides,

  what are the chances of him even bothering to listen to the news issues that don't interfere with his special luncheons with the Citadel Counselors?" I asked reassuringly

  back under my breath.

  "Impudent, no good, stupid…" the politician began muttering to himself as he watched the taxi with the man that had just challenged him fly up and mix with the usual flow

  of air traffic. Smacking the call button on the terminal to signal the next taxi, the politician began sourly thinking on that man's face and his appearance, hoping to burn

  that image into his own mind so that he would remember that person if they ever crossed paths again. But then suddenly the politician's eyes widened, and his look of

  anger dropped into one of horrified recognition.

  "Wait a minute. That was the terrorist who started the park riot!" he suddenly exclaimed as he looked back up toward the sky. Immediately he brought up his arm and

  activated his omni-tool, keying in the proper sequence to contact C-Sec Academy!

  "So man, where ya headed?" the taxi driver asked back to me in a friendly voice once he had merged our car within the lanes of flying vehicles. I snapped my head up to

  look at the back of our chauffer; something in his voice and the way he was speaking catching my attention. Simply from looking at him I could tell that he was an odd

  contradiction to the normalness of the dark blue hover taxi he was driving.

  He was a young man of about my age who had wavy shoulder length blonde hair, with a trim but scruffy beard of the same colour that connected with his sideburns and

  covered all of his chin and jaw. On his slightly crooked nose that looked like it had been broken at one time in his life, he wore a pair of sleek glasses that appeared to

  have dark purple lenses instead of transparent ones. On his body he wore a plain un-tucked white dress shirt that didn't look like it had been ironed in a while, wearing it

  with his sleeves rolled up just underneath his elbows and with his collar left open by a few buttons. He also wore rumpled black trousers that looked like they had been

  purchased at a second-hand store.

  As I took all of this in, there was one thing that really caught my eye. Wrapped around the driver's right wrist were several bracelets, some of them made out of straps

  while others were sets of wooden beads placed on a string. But one of them appeared to be a charm bracelet, with several tiny metal symbols spaced out along it. The

  biggest and shiniest one was what had caught my attention, being in the shape of a circle with an upside down Y and a small third branch sticking out from the bottom.

  It was the classic Hippy symbol for peace.

  "Oh no. In another universe, nearly two hundred years in the future, and I still run into these people," I muttered quietly as I rubbed my forehead tiredly, wincing as more

  pain shot up from the bridge of my nose. While living in the colder woods of Northern Ontario, I had run into a lot of hippies or former hippies in my life. Many of them had

  been really nice people, while unfortunately a lot of others had simply been drug/sex addicts or thieves, more than willing to slit someone's throat if it meant they'd get

  what they needed for their next fix. I'd always made it a point to stay clear of them whenever I could, simply out of caution.

  "What do you mean?" Haxon whispered as I thought about this.

  "Take me to the Council Chambers please," I told our hippy driver politely, ignoring Haxon's question. I noticed the driver frown in confusion and cast a glance up at me

  through the taxi's rear-view mirror after my request.

  "That's gonna be expensive dude, most taxi traffic that goes in there's usually supposed to be packing those high and mighty politicians or their lackeys," he explained,

  kind of bitterly, while still casting occasional glances up at the mirror.

  "I'm willing to pay, I've got urgent business there. In fact, I'll be willing to pay a little extra if you can get me there as fast as possible," I suggested with a nod to the wide

  windshield showing the scenery of the Embassy District flash by underneath us. Up ahead, the mighty form of the Citadel Tower rose up slightly off to the left side, slowly

  coming closer and closer as the car continued flying. It actually felt quiet nice to be going across this terrain for a second time without the weight of the Iron Man suit

  pressing in on me, or having an angry Asari liaison blasting away in a gunship.

  "Oh sure thing then man, if I crunch the numbers it should total out to…" the driver began as he took one more look at me through the mirror. But then suddenly his jaw

  dropped and his eyes widened as he focused all his attention on my face.

  "Hey, wait a minute! You're that guy…" he began excitedly with a jab of his finger up at the mirror before semi-spinning around in his seat to look back at me.

  Only his voice cut off abruptly as the tip of his nose ran into the barrel of my activated Phalanx!

  Pointing the pistol that I'd subtly unclipped from my belt straight in his face, I kept my expression neutral and my breathing steady as I leaned forward in my seat closer to

  him.

  "Turn around, keep your eyes ahead of you, and take me to the Council Chambers please," I requested again evenly, but this time in a cold tone as I pressed the barrel

  harder against the ball of his nose. The driver's eyes went crossed as they tried looking down at the gun, while he slowly raised his hands in surrender.

  "Dude, chill, chill we're cool man," he said with a nod as he obediently flipped around back to the car's controls. Still keeping the Phalanx on him, I leaned closer until my

  head and gun were nearly sticking out in between the taxi's two front seats.

  "What's your name?" I asked the driver calmly as I looked out the windshield.

  "Uhh Darren, Darren Aagaard sir. If you don't mind me asking man, you are Axel right?" Darren asked with a small grin of excitement on his face as he occasionally turned

  his head back to me, keeping most of his attention on flying while still trying to talk. I rolled my eyes as I slightly nodded my head in defeat.

  "Yes I'm Axel, and no I'm not a terrorist. That was a badly used ruse made by my partner to get the crowd in the park to riot," I answered in an irritated tone as I thought

  back on how that stupid label had started. But Darren only laughed and shook his head.

  "Man even if you were a terrorist, you don't need the gun. I'm on your side dude, power to people, stickin' it to the system!" the driver announced enthusiastically while

  shaking his fist in a show of victory as he indicated my Phalanx. I was frowning in extreme bewilderment, enough so that I lowered my pistol and looked directly at my

  thought to be hostage.

  "What are you talking about? Why would you want to side with a terrorist?" I asked him. Darren only shot his widened eyes over to me with another grin on his face.

  "DUDE! Do you have any idea how much the Council picked our pockets to build that stupid SKYLIFT system! That thing cost the people close to half a billion credits, and it

  barely works any better than a simple hover car. Me and probably a couple thousand others were chanting your name when we heard that you were the one who'd blown

  up one of its cabins!" The hippy driver sharply jabbed his finger up to the peak of the Tower as he explained this.

  I was truly stunned now, my face scrunching up even more as I thought about this new notion for a few seconds.

  "Man to a lot of people on this station, you and your buddies are fucking heroes! Especially to me!" Darren continued as he slapped a hand over his heart.

  "Seriously?!" I asked, still as astonished as I could ever be.

  "Straight up man!"

  I blew out an amused scoff as I deactivated
and clipped my pistol back on to my belt.

  "Well, in that case, Darren Aagaard, Axel Sorenson," I said with a relieved smile as I extended my right hand out to him.

  "Sorenson, nice to meet you. What is that, Swedish?" Darren asked after fervently shaking my hand while at the same time manipulating the car's controls with his other.

  "Danish actually," I corrected with a nod.

  "Danish, Fuckin'-A! My family's from Norway, so I guess that pretty much makes us neighbours," he remarked with a brief clap on my shoulder. I arched my mouth in

  agreement and nodded at that too.

  "Yeah, I guess it could."

  "So where ya from Axel," Darren asked as he made the taxi dodge around a slow moving cargo transport.

  "Uhh…I was born near Ottawa," I answered after a moment of thought, not really knowing if Thunder Bay, the place I had been mostly raised in, would still be around in

  the year 2183. But Darren's eyes only lit up as I said this.

  "Man, I was born in Vancouver!"

  "No shit?" I exclaimed with a start, a wide grin of surprise forming on my face at this news. With an even wider grin that would have impressed Alec, Darren clenched and

  raised his fist, extending it out before me.

  "Dude, pound that shit. Canadians are drawn to each other man! Small galaxy eh?!"

  "Dude," I agreed with a series of nods in that same cool laid back tone that Darren was speaking in as I raised my own fist.

  "Dude!" Darren answered back with his own nods as we fist-bumped each other.

  "DUDE!" we both said again at the same time before bursting out into a fit of laughter.

  "Alright Darren, you want to do something that can help me get off this station?" I asked after we both finally calmed down, reaching down to one of the pouches on my

  belt and unbuckling it.

  "Just name it Axel, I've got your back." Reaching in, I pulled out the small credit chit that Steve Irwin had given to me after winning our shooting contest against the

  Xenomorphs back in his store.

  "I want you to get me to the Council Chambers as fast as you can without C-Sec detecting us, this fifty thousand credits should be able to shoo away even the most