StarFall Comics
A Division of Pullemouttayerhat Productions
A Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of StarFall Innovations
Proudly Presents:
Metal Fire
#1: Wrong Time, Wrong Place
cover: A feminine suit of armor crashing through the cover. The logo is one half metallic and one half flame-letters.
Our story begins in a seemingly ordinary house in suburban Southern California, outside Los Angeles.
In the basement of this house, a middle-aged man and his teenage daughter stood near an armored suit and a hole in the floor. The man was kneeling near the suit, while his daughter looked on, doubtful.
"Are you sure, dad?" she asked. "The government's not going to like this."
"Kim," the man stated, "one of the things you're going to learn is that no matter what governments say, they all pervert peaceful men and women into weapons." He stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You do realize that the Human-I-Form can be used as a weapon, don't you?"
Kim hung her head meekly. "Yes, Father."
"Good. Now help me hide this thing." He started disassembling the armor, placing each piece within the floor's hole.
I've never seen Dad like this, Kim thought to herself. He seems... scared. Does it have something to do with my knowledge of the Human-I-Form?
He father was also thinking about the armor. How can I tell Kim that the government wants to mass produce my life's work for the army. I've already destroyed the blueprints, but this prototype is all they need. And I'm determined to keep my Human-I-Form from them!
Across North America, about 3000 miles East and to the North (on any self-respecting map), stands the Pentagon, the headquarters of the largest military in the free world. We enter the office of Air Force Brigadier General Mussmoth. On this particular day, he had a civilian guest.
"So you see, Mr. Hamilton," the General stated, "as soon as we have the Human-I-Form, we can produce enough to equip your - militia, shall we say, heh heh."
"I sure hope you can provide, General Mussmoth," the one called Hamilton calmly stated. "Otherwise, your government will not receive the money I promised it."
"Don't worry, Edgar," Mussmoth reassured him. "You'll see that Brigadier General Victor Mussmoth always delivers."
"I hope so, General, for both your sake and your country's. I'm not a very forgiving man." With this, Edgar Hamilton left the room.
Mussmoth paged his secretary.
"Priscilla, send in Master Sergeant Jakobssen."
"Yessir!"
A grizzzled man in an Air Force uniform with 6 stripes strode in.
"Sit," ordered Mussmoth. Jakobssen did. "Sergeant Jakobssen, are you aware of an Air Force project known as Project: Human-I-Form."
"No," Jakobssen admitted. "It sounds interesting."
"So it is," Mussmoth told him. "That's why I sent for you. You're the best troubleshooter we have. The Project's encountered a slight setback...."
The next morning, Kim was in the kitchen preparing a pot of coffee as her father entered, still dressed in his sweats.
"Good morning, Dad. Sleep well?" She poured two cups, giving him one.
"As a matter of fact, Kim, no," he stated groggily. "I had a terrible dream last night." He flopped into a chair.
She sat beside him. "Care to tell me about it?"
"It was the Human-I-Form," he explained. "Somebody was controlling it from within. And it destroyed the house."
"But Dad, we hid the Human-I-Form yesterday. Remember? How can it possibly hurt us now?" she asked him. Without warnimg, before he could answer, the doorbell rang.
"Saved by the bell, Dad."
"Who could it be this early?" he asked.
"I'll get it." She got up and entered the living room, opening the front door a crack. Outside was Sergeant Jakobssen.
"Yes, Sergeant? How can I help you?"
"You Kimberly Roberts?" he asked, studying her.
"Yes." He handed her his military ID card.
"Master Sergeant Jakobssen, U. S. Air Force. I'm here for the Human-I-Form." Her father got up and walked over to Sergeant Jakobssen.
"It's not here," he told the Sergeant. "Procurement picked it up last night. What was left of it."
Dad? Lying? Kim thought, surprised. I don't believe this!
"You lie like a rug, mister," Jakobssen told him. "Tell me where you've hid the Human-I-Form, or else."
"Or else what?' Kim asked defiantly.
"Kim, don't," her dad pleaded.
"Does ten to twenty for withholding information from the military change your story?" Jakobssen asked.
"No," Mr. Roberts stated. "I won't have my life's work corrupted into a weapon."
This was getting nowhere fast, and Kim knew only one way to stop it. She rushed out of the room, down the stairs and into her father's basement workshop.
I've got to keep the Human-I-Form from Sergeant Jerkoid. And the only way to do that is to use it. But if I have to use it as a weapon, won't I be perverting it like Dad fears the government will? She opened up the secret panel in the floor.
No. I can't think about that now.
"Looks as if you're my only choice, Human-I-Form. No choice at all." She took the pieces, placed them on the floor, stripped down to her underwear, and started putting on the armor. "Chest is a little tight, but that can be altered." She held up her hair as she put on the helmet.
Very good. Now I'll power up to full strength....
The charging took only a few seconds.
"Now for some action." She blasted off through the ceiling.....
And into the living room, where Jakobssen and her father stood.
"What the-?!" Jakobssen swore.
"It's the Human-I-Form!" Roberts yelled, ducking behind a chair.
"WHAT?! Who's driving that thing?" Jakobssen asked, startled.
Kim pointed at the Sergeant. "Sergeant Jakobssen, I want you!"
"Kim?" her father asked, still not believing what he was seeing. Good God, she's at full power!
"Kimberly Roberts, you're a threat to the whole operation," Jakobssen told her.
Operation? the older Roberts asked himself. What operation?
"Give up the armor," Jakobssen ordered.
"Over my dead body," Kim repled.
"So be it.' Jakobssen pulled out his service pistol and fired it at her. The bullets simply ricoched off.
The armor withstood that, Mr Roberts thought. "Kim! Test the suit's muscle!"
Kim lunged forwards and grabbed the gun, crushing it. Then she raised an open palm to Jakobssen's ear.
"Who sent you?" she hissed.
"I won't tell."
"Tell me. I'm holding a lethal weapon to your ear. These plasma projectors are at full strength." Kim tried to put as much force behind her words as possible.
"G-G-General M-M-M-Mussmoth."
Kim threw him out the door. "Go and tell your boss he's not going to get the Human-I-Form without fighting it."
Kim took off the helmet, shaking her hair.
"I was afraid he was going to call my bluff," she told her father after he emerged from his hiding place.
"Were you bluffing?" he wanted to know.
Kim thought for a minute. "I can't honestly say. But I can say this: They won't stop until they have this armor."
"So what are you going to do, Kim?"
"Dad, I'm planning on using this armor to prevent them from having it." She looked him in the eye. "It's the only way."
"But by doing so," he told her gently, "you'll be perverting it just like they will."
"Maybe that's the way it was meant to be," she stated.
"No!" he yelled. "I forbid you from going on this fool's crusade!"
She looked at him incredulously. "You forbid me? Dad, somebody has to stop them. And with this armor, I'm one of the few who can."
"I hope you're right. I lost your mother this way. I don't want to lose you, too." He wiped a tear from his eye.
"I'll come back," she told him. "I promise. But I do have one question."
"What's that?"
"Can you help me relieve a little chest pressure?" she asked with a smile. "This suit ain't designed for my upper torso."
Inside the Pentagon, in General Mussmoth's office. The general's face is mere inches away from Jakobssen's.
"She did what?!" yelled the enraged Mussmoth.
"She confronted me in the Human-I-Form armor, General," Jakobssen explained. "That armor is too strong for my weaponry. I had to retreat."
"Without the armor." It was more of a statement than a question.
"She was wearing it. I couldn't defeat her. In all my years in the Air Force, I have seen nothing as powerful as that armor."
"I have the necessary clearance to get you all the weaponry you will ever need," Mussmoth told Jakobssen. "When you next go to get that armor, you shall be ready. It could be that the fate of this nation depends upon that Human-I-Form battlesuit. Dismissed."
Meanwhile, back in California, Kim and her father were in his workshop. Kim was wearing the modified armor that looked more suited to her figure.
"This feels great, Dad!" she exclaimed. "The inside feels as if it's molded to me."
"That's just extra padding and the cooler system," he told her. He paused to study her. "To be truthful, I never in my wildest fantasies dreamed that you would be the one to first wear the Human-I-Form."
"Look at it this way, Dad," she said. "At least it's not anyone in the military."
"You're right." He made one final adjustment and stood up. "Now try it."
Kim put on the helmet and powered up the armor. "Very nice," she muttered to herself.
"Where will you start?" he asked her.
"The Pentagon," she stated. She opened the basement doors and stepped outside. "Good-bye, plain old Kimberly Roberts. Hello METAL FIRE!"