Ironwoman 2

• Commissioned by Yeran

“Ah… so you’re the one who wanted to see the master of this establishment?” I asked, my demeanor calm as always. “And just who, pray tell, is asking…?”

“That is none of your concern.” she stoically replied. Certainly not good manners, that. “You’re the topic of interest here. Tell me, are you a Mr. Cavanaugh?”

“I am Dr. Aiden Cavanaugh, yes.” I curtly replied. “And if you wish to be mysterious, I suppose that’s fine, but I certainly hope you didn’t call for me just to have a little bit of idle chatter… I’m not sure if you can tell, but a lot of work goes on in here, I’m a very busy man.”

As I spoke, I was on the balcony of my specially designed supermansion. Easily one of the largest buildings in a relatively suburban area, it was also wholly reinforced. It’s every door and wall impenetrable by anything short of… well, one of my own weapons. Keheheheh…

Ah, I should explain. I’m a scientist by trade, a genius inventor... though I do hate to brag. I’ve been getting into some, how you say, less favorable exploits in the name of furthering my research… what I do for a living requires quite a bit of funding, after all. But I assure you, the ends justify the means. After all, everything I build is for the benefit of the common man… that common man, of course, being me. It’s all in the name of getting even more wealthy!

I get guests on occasion, and usually they’re dealt with long before I get the chance to even see them. Unless you’ve a trustchip implanted in you, so much as being within a certain radius of the door causes my security measures to activate. But I suppose my neurotoxin emitters must have been malfunctioning, because this woman standing casually on my doorstep was perfectly fine when I came out to check.

At first, I wasn’t complaining… the view down her rather loose shirt was quite nice. She had quite the womanly chest I don’t mind telling you… and eventually I came to see that she was truly beautiful as well. She was a petite woman in her twenties… dirty blonde hair that went a ways past her shoulders. Her black skinny jeans did well to hug her curvaceous legs and the deep green tank top she wore did little to conceal her supple bosoms… so yes, the view was nice, but it still didn’t excuse the intrusion. I quite like my privacy…

She responded. “Yes… I know exactly what kind of work you do in here. You’re an inventor, unlicensed to make anything, let alone the mechanical nightmares you dream up. Selling off weapons of mass destruction to the highest bidder without even so much as a background check. Illegal arms for illegal purposes… hell, you don’t even legally own all of the property that this bigass place was built on. 

I smiled as I glanced over towards my ‘neighbors’... the mansion was always expanding, and eventually it found it’s way into the yard of one of the nearby houses. In fact my building was just about touching that one by then… apparently the building cast a huge shadow on that quaint little home at certain times of day. But that was hardly a concern of mine… I had my ways of, convincing local authorities that going after me wasn’t a good idea. Threats, bribery, blackmail, hypnotic suggestion… or just outright obliteration. Whatever fit the scenario. Everyone in that podunk little town knew of me, in truth… but I was simply too powerful for them to even dare oppose me.

“...So what?” I asked, unable to contain my superior smile.

“So you’re a criminal, Cavanaugh.” she plainly replied, as if I was genuinely unaware. “And it’s time you were brought to justice.”

“Ohhhh, that’s adorable...” I chortled. “Keheheheh… AHHHHAHAHAHAAHAHAA! You foolish little welp! You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, do you?! You must be new here in town…”

“Open up, Cavanaugh.” she answered, as though I’d said absolutely nothing. “Let me in here so I can confirm all the reports...”

“Ah, by all means… show me a warrant and I’ll happily let you investigate to your heart’s content!” I smirked, knowing full well she’d never have such a thing. The police had long since learned their place… atleast, those in charge had. But every now and again I would find a rookie cop who clearly didn’t understand the situation trying to go rogue and go after me. I figured she must’ve been much the same…

“Open up… final warning.” she growled.

“Keheheh… I do hope you don’t think you can intimidate me.” I answered, shaking my head at her impudence. “You truly have no idea who you’re up against...”

From that distance, it was a little hard to tell, but in that moment, I could’ve sworn I heard her faintly mutter, “I could say the same thing...”

This woman proceeded to look at the huge double door made of a metric ton of reinforced steel… and with a simple flick of her leg, casually kicked it down. I was utterly agog as she stepped inside my abode. I couldn’t believe it… there was no way she was that powerful, no way that anyone was that powerful! It desperately needed explanation… but I knew I couldn’t afford to stand there and ponder it. 

Swiftly I rushed back inside, to the huge protective orb made of my specially designed take on metallic glass, the most impervious kind ever developed… I ramped it up even further, and managed to install my computer systems within it’s confines as well. The door slid open automatically when it read my presence and closed tightly enough to not even show a crack as I stepped inside, sitting down at the chair that rested at the center. I reached my hands forward, and the LED system appeared before me.

Pushing the button nearest where my fingers naturally drifted, I turned on the intercom and began to shout, “Emergency! Emergency! An intruder has breached through the front door! All hands to the foyer at once! Execute her without hesitation!”

I pulled down my goggles to give myself a camera view, watching as she casually walked to the center of the room. To my confusion, she stopped, just standing there as though she were waiting. My men swiftly filled the room and went after her.

That was when the severity of this nightmare began to dawn on me…

I had all sorts of guards, many differing levels of elite, many types of specialists, all armed with weapons of my own design. The roughnecks came in first and came in swinging, effectively wearing gloves of stone, like a hypereffective form of brass knuckle. The first let out a mighty yell as she punched her square in the face with an echoing thud… and then he howled in agony as he fell to his knees, the stone shattering across his bleeding knuckle.

Others did the same, with much the same result, until they began to back away, realizing that martial force wasn’t the answer. And so a different troop tried their hand. A specialized unit threw orbs of steel, inspired by the olympic shot put events. They were designed to be extremely light in one’s hand, and perfect for throwing at ludicrously high speeds, yet upon gaining momentum they increased in density, colliding with fatal blunt force to whatever they came into contact with. 

Their aim was true, as they bashed right into her forehead; and somehow bounced right off of her, repelling into the poor unfortunate who threw it, hitting him with so very much force that it sent him careening several yards through the air and blasting into a wall. The others who attempted this were more careful to move afterwards, but each one came to hit her with a resounding crack only to repel off of her body. This resilience was unheard of, everything I’d ever tested this with had either fallen upon contact with the orb, or saw the orb sink deep into it, creating a massive dent if not tearing right through.

They had no idea what to do when these weapons failed them, and Irene didn’t even bother to acknowledge them. She didn’t so much as glance at them, instead just slowly walking towards the staircase. As she did this, another troop came down, these wielding high powered shotguns of my own design, built to be far more powerful than anything that would ever be legal to operate. The first aimed square at her womanly chest and let fire, the shot ringing out like a megaton bomb… but it didn’t so much as leave a scratch.

These things were specifically designed to tear through flak jackets and kevlar vests - both current and the next three prospective generations worth - and still be 100% fatal to the user in one blow. And yet, her bare skin somehow repelled it…? My men tried again, this time six of them at once aimed at her and let loose like a firing squad. It looked and sounded like a cacophony of fireworks… surely this would leave ANYONE reduced to an unrecognizable corpse.  But when the smoke cleared, she remained unharmed!

The gunners were so disheartened that they dropped their weapons, doing nothing to stop her as she trekked up the stairs. And I’d love to blame them for their incompetence, but I was too busy being utterly stunned that my weapons, which I know for a fact had the government absolutely terrified, were thus far failing to kill a lone woman. 

She was halfway up the steps when she met a henchman I lovingly termed Psychocutter. The bald, raving man proudly brandished a prototype weapon of mine that effectively created a buzzsaw out of pure kinetic energy. It could tear through anything, full stop. Atleast, that’s what I thought…

The madman loved that saw, bless him. And he was eager to cut her in half with it, swinging it sideways so as to bring it her bared side, looking to chop through her supple flesh. But… not only did it stop on contact with her side, but the swirling energy seemed to stop in it’s track when it whirled around to her body. That intense energy normally dissolved even the hardest of diamonds, and yet… nothing. She didn’t even register a hint of pain, let alone get torn in half like he’d hoped.

Gruning and groaning, he reared the saw back and tried again, this time going for a more sensitive area… he shoved the kinetic saw right into her groin, tearing through her jeans and slashing away at her exposed delicates… he was driving it upward, looking for the classic crotch-to-breastbone slice, but all it earned was an uncanny moan from her.

“Oooh yeah, right there...” she cooed. “Now we’re talking… nngh...”

I’m not sure if she was kidding or not, which just makes it all the more terrifying, especially considering the saw eventually gave way. The energy was thrown off from not being expelled properly, and poor Psychocutter’s favorite toy gave out as a result. 

He glumly dropped the weapon as she passed him by… anger filled him as he turned and jumped onto her, riding piggyback as he pounded against her body with all his might. But the pain in his fists and the utter lack of response from her disheartened her quickly, and he found himself meekly sliding down her body, his face grazing her backside as he laid out on the stairs, depressed and emasculated.

She finally made it to the top of the stairs, scanning around at the peculiar layout of the place. All around the enormous room, there were, all in all, two dozen doors, all laid out evenly and without a single marking to indicate where any of them went. This was a trap, essentially a puzzle designed to confound - and/or kill - anyone who somehow managed to make it past my defenses. 

“Hmph… so which one of these is-” she began, only to be interrupted as the door in front of her opened and three elite guards flew out. These were my last line of defense as far as henchmen were concerned, cybernetically enhanced assassins in state of the art, prototypical power armor. They flew from the room with their jetboots and landed in formation, a triangle around the mystery woman. They each held their hands out, and from their armors protruded their weapons. These were cybernetic swords, wickedly sharp blades that were glowing with kinetic energy, like a hybrid of regular katanas and… well, lightsabers. 

To this sight, she just stood there and smirked. “Nice outfits.” she commented. That… was it. 

One of them swiftly rushed in and performed a deft stroke, attacking with blinding speed and emerging on the other side of her as though he were in a samurai movie. They were trained for flashy attacks like this… marketing is an important part of my job, after all. He knelt there, waiting for her to fall…

Unfortunately, from her side, all that fell was the bottom half of her top, as it fell wholly to the floor, revealing the underside of her black brassiere. As for the guard however… he found his blade slowly falling off the hilt, burning a hole through the floor as it landed. My jaw dropped even further than his did at the sight… I’d hit those with blades with just about everything to ensure their unbreakability, and she does it with simply her body…? It was unthinkable… this whole thing was unthinkable!

The other two were undoubtedly shocked as well, but they were professionals, and they acted regardless. They unleashed a synchronised attack, one stabbing the saber directly into her abdomen whilst the other went for a sideswipe to her neck. But both blades shattered on the spot, coming undone in a wild display of electricity and sparks. 

"Heh... seems symbolic, somehow." she teased.

Two of them fell back immediately whilst a third put a finger to his ear, contacting me. “...Sir. You’re watching this, yes?”

“Of course I am!” I barked, not in the best of moods at that point. “What is happening?! What is this woman?!”

“I haven’t a clue.” he admitted. “I believe I should retreat, but only for now… I’ll be back...”

With that promise he faded into the shadows with his suit’s stealth capabilities. And the woman turned back to the doors.

“...As I was saying… which of these is the one that takes me to you, Cavanaugh?” she spoke up, as if nothing had happened.

“Take a damn guess!” I barked over the intercom.

She shrugged and looked around, settling on a random door. The woman opened it up and stepped into one of many similar rooms, a sterile white tile environment. But while they looked the same, none were remotely alike.

As she stepped further in, some panels on the upper walls moved and out mechanical cannons, automated and aiming right at her. There were around ten of them, and they immediately began to blast her with intense, high powered, burning plasma beams. These things would fry through steel in milliseconds, and they pelted all across her lithe body. I was confident that she’d fall to this, no matter what bizarre modifications had clearly been made to her…

But somehow, she stood, composed even as the beams attempted to eradicate her existence. To a regular human being this would turn them to ash, destroying flesh and bone alike, but she just stood there… and spread her arms out as if she were enjoying it… laughing as though it amused her! She stood there and took it for several minutes!

The cannons had never fired for that long, and eventually overheated… all of them exploding and falling to the wayside one by one until all the plasma beams had ceased. There was plenty of sizzling, but only from what the beams had done to her clothes… though the lights bouncing off the impact zones were all-encompassing, they were precise enough that they only obliterated certain bits of her clothing. She was wearing a burned mess that was pretty revealing at that point, exposing one of her luscious thighs and her right breast in particular, but she didn’t care in the slightest. Those parts of her clothes had disappeared, but the flesh beneath them was uncannily perfect...

“Ahhh… nice little massage.” she sighed. “I should get back to business, though...”

And with that she left the room, scanning around and looking for another door to try. I tried not to sound like I was panicking as I took up the intercom again and shouted, “Pick any door you like… th-they’ll all just lead to pain! One of them will assuredly be where you meet your end, cretin!”

She just nodded and walked over to a door at random, ignoring the scraps of clothing that continued to flake off with her movements. Opening it up, she found herself in another room that looked entirely barren until she came to the center. Suddenly it became swelteringly hot in that room… and then, far, far beyond sweltering… the walls and floor became red from the sheer heat as it reached unfounded levels of manmade heat, only to continue escalating in temperature.

“Keheheheh… the heat from those lasers was a gentle breeze compared to THIS!” I boasted. “This room heats up to 5000 degrees kalvin, nigh on as hot as the sun itself!”

Alright, that might have been a slight exaggeration for dramatic effect, but it genuinely did get as hot as some stars in there, more than enough to literally make someone’s blood boil, their entire body cooking as though they’d been forced into a giant oven.

It was enough to burn right through the bottoms of her leather combat boots, searing through to her bare feet, as well as causing what remained of her clothing to evaporate into the ether. But rather than scream in anguish like a good little intruder, she just stepped outside of her ruined shoes, letting the rest of them burn into nothingness against the floor as she stretched her nude body… and actually laid down on the scorching surface.

“Ahh… what a nice little sauna this is.” she cooed. “Wonder if it also functions as a tanning bed...? I do tend to tan easily...”

“What the fuck is this woman…?” I muttered to myself. This was simply unreasonable. Heat seemed to truly have no effect on her whatsoever… she wasn’t even sweating in there, let alone burning alive! Every little hair on her skin should’ve been ignited into a ball of flame within moments, yet she laid there for a good thirty seconds before raising up and yawning.

“Yeah… this one gets old quick.” she lamented. “No offense, but I think I’m gonna see what the next one’s like.”

She made her leave, like nothing was amiss and walked entirely naked out into the main hall, to get to another door. Stepping inside, this one’s theme was immediately apparent.

Like a perfect counter to the last, this one was permanently in deep cold, hundreds of degrees below zero, far beyond what any arctic could manage. And here she was, without even a shred of clothing as she had to face this impossible chill! As if that wasn’t enough for immediate permafrost for any living creature, cannons similar to the ones firing plasma emerged as well… and these fired at once upon her with my patented freeze ray!

The chill was multiplied as her entire body found itself encased in a block of ice! Uncouth as it was, I found myself actively fist pumping as I saw something finally have a noticeable effect on her! Regardless of how strong her body was, it didn’t matter if she couldn’t move a muscle! She was frozen solid and hypothermia was sure to set in at any time!

I chuckled as I gazed at her form… her nipples had of course stiffened the moment she walked in, making a lovely appearance. Now that the terror had began to slowly subside, I was able to… appreciate her body more. And, well, I was far away from any prying eyes, so I opted to drop my pants and pleasure myself to the visage…

Just as I got started however, an enormous jolt of fear ruined my arousal as I saw her eyes moving. She was still active in there… and her fist clenched, as she pulled her arms and legs, one-by-one out of the ice! Her smile shone through as she twisted her torso, crackling the ice around her sides… and using her stiff nipples like chisels to break the ice around her chest! She had emerged unharmed yet again, and the freeze rays needed to recharge to fire again.

“Cool room.” she blankly stated before turning and walking away. The pun did little to brighten my mood as I miserably pulled my pants back up. What a terrifying and at-once humbling experience this was… I never thought anyone could survive a single one of my inventions, let alone each of them in succession like this.

I still felt pretty good about my odds with the next door she chose though. She stepped inside and this one activated immediately… as the ceiling fell right on top of her. Actually, it was much more than that… the ceiling was spring-loaded with an ultra high-powered hydraulic press which pushed down with about a hundred times the force of the trash compactors used to flatten cars. Honestly I can’t even explain what this one was meant for exactly, but it was one hell of a unique weapon and should’ve easily crushed her to the size of an amoeba.

But… it stopped as it collided with the crown of her head. As she stood there, a puzzled look on her face, the press struggled and strained, crackling with mechanical whirring as it tried and failed to flatten her. The whole room shook from the forced being exerted on her, to absolutely no visible effect. I was speechless at the sight… it should’ve turned her into a little puddle of gore, and yet… she just stood there, straight as could be, acting as if it didn’t even hurt in the slightest. 

“Man… now this one is impressive.” she remarked. “A few more hours of this and I might get a headache...”

She stood with her hands on her hips as the thousands of pounds of machinery pushed the ceiling onto her head with around 100,000 kilonewtons of force… for reference, you’d supposedly need around 2,500 newtons to crush someone’s skull. This should’ve been extremely overkill, but it had absolutely no effect whatsoever.

Eventually, the strain actually became too much for the mechanics, and it honest to God broke down attempting to destroy her, coming to a screeching halt. 

“Oh.” she spoke up, monotone. “Guess it won’t be able to manage that headache after all… little disappointing.”

I was so stunned that I couldn’t even comprehend her strength as she pushed the hydraulic press off of her enroute to escaping the room without a hint of effort. 

She made her way back to the main room, in time to see, to my surprise, a helicopter whirring in the air. The henchman who had earlier promised to return wasn’t kidding, was now manning one of my military assault choppers. I admired his loyalty when the others had seemingly wholesale given up, but at that point, I had little faith in anything stopping her.

Nonetheless, I watched as he pelted her with artillery fire… which of course all bounced off of her naked body. And he followed up with launching a series of missiles, designed to take out the sturdiest of tanks and even sink the most high end of battleships. He fired six of them and each hit dead on the money as she made no attempt at avoiding them. But of course once the smoke cleared, there was no sign of damage, or even a hint that it happened, aside from her large breasts still jiggling from the impact.

“Wh-what the fuck…?” he hissed to himself. I felt his pain. “Dammit… I’ll take you out! Mark my words!”

With that he fired his last two missiles. The first hit her dead on, the second flying into the resulting smoke cloud… but there wasn’t a second explosion. This time, when the smoke dissipated, we saw that she was in fact clutching the rocket in her hand. The missile wasn’t even shaking, her grip was steady as she held it aloft, even with the jet in the back of still fully aflame. That thing should’ve been sailing at a solid 9,000 mph, and yet… she was holding it perfectly still.

Casually, slowly, as if wanting us to drink this next motion in, she spun it around and launched it javelin-style towards the chopper. It actually flew faster than usual, and he had absolutely no time to react as it careened into the bottom of the helicopter. He was spiraling down in seconds… in his last act before parachuting away, he ensured that the chopper crash landed onto the mysterious woman. It exploded into a pile of metal and debris.

A few moments passed as he watched on… only to shriek as she stood up through the wreckage, still without a scratch. He again faded off into the shadows and this time made no assertion of ever returning to try again… I couldn’t blame him. This was a truly surreal, horrifying experience.

“...So listen, this is fun and all, but I really don’t have all day.” she declared. “I mean, I do, but… it’s starting to get kinda dull around here. Can you just tell me what the right door is? ‘Cause I feel like the point’s been made here and all I’m doing is destroying evidence.”

I sank into my seat, lost in thought as to what my options even were at that point. What was my best weapon, my best shot…? I sighed, regretful, as I did indeed know the answer, though it was a power even I was frightened of having to use. But I needed some time to prepare it… I needed to delay her for just a little bit more. So I spoke…

“Okay… fine. You’re right, I concede. I’ve lost.” I answered in my most defeated voice, which frankly was barely even put-on. “The room you want is the fourth one from the far left… that one shall take you to me. I accept whatever punishment you wish to give me.”

She shrugged and walked over to it. I had a feeling she didn’t buy it and was knowingly waltzing into a trap without any real concern. But as long as she went in there I knew I could atleast delay her. And she showed no hesitation at all as she stepped into that room.

There was no second step. Immediately the entire floor opened up like a giant trapdoor and she plummeted… and plummeted and plummeted, as every floor beneath her that she would’ve slammed into opened up as well to add to the descent. As this happened I stood and scrambled over to one of my many artillery hangers and commenced the process to unlock access to my very strongest weapon. Meanwhile, she continued to fall…

The underground portion of my facility was absolutely massive and quite deep. She had fallen, picking up an incredible velocity as she went about ten miles below the surface before finally slamming with the force of a small meteorite onto the solid steel floor. I actually felt a tremor from the impact… her body had to be much denser than the norm as she fell at an accelerated speed and hit much harder than usual.

But of course… still, she stood up, amidst a twisted metal crater. “Hooh… that was a fun little ride. But… this is annoying.” she sighed as she looked up at the huge gap she’d gone into. “I usually like the slow chase but to get back up there very quickly I’ll need to actually put some effort into this job… oh well.”

As I put in the various access codes required to enter my ultimate creation, I was astonished to see her leaping up and thusting her fists and feet into the steel wall, and use this method to climb up the wall at a shocking pace. It took her a little bit to get going but before long she was heading up there at a far quicker speed than most people could run such a distance. She truly looked like some kind of feral beast the way she scaled it… a naked, perfectly proportioned feminine feral beast. 

She’d be back to surface level in mere minutes… I needed to hurry up. And hurry I did.

By the time she popped up back to the room where she’d fallen and burst through the door, rolling into the main hall, I was there, in the center… piloting my infamous M-400 Byson, the giant mech that served as my true magnum opus.

“This is it...” I declared, trying to summon up all my courage. “This is what will finally destroy you, you little menace… I don’t know who or what the hell you are, but this thing is capable of erasing anything I wish from existence. You’re on borrowed time now.”

“Ohhh, so you’re finally trying now, huh?” she asked, with a smirk. “Sure took you long enough...”

“Silence! It’s time for you to meet your end!” I shouted, trying to keep my voice from cracking as I desperately hoped I was speaking the truth.

I raised the clawed hand of the enormous metallic exoskeleton I was piloting, and said hand opened up to reveal a titanic cannon. As I charged up a blast of kinetic energy, the woman merely stood there and spread her arms, accepting the oncoming blast head-on. 

“This suit was commissioned by a megalomaniacal madman that desperately wanted to carve his name onto the moon large enough to be visible from our planet every single night, everywhere in the world.” I announced. “And it’s specced out to be able to do so from here… this beam can travel all the way through space quick enough to be able to wield it like a writing implement, and even after that distance, hit with enough force to cause craters far deeper than any that would ever form naturally.”

“Interesting...” she nodded, with a smile.

“But it’s stayed in the beta stage for quite some time...” I explained, stalling as the beam continued to charge. “Because currently, it’s too strong. Before he could finish, the cumulative damage would cause the moon to break apart and spurn a meteor shower that would end our race forever.”

“Ohhhh, now it’s promising!” she chuckled, wickedly eager to experience such a thing… what a mad woman.

Finally, I had it fully charged. So I made my last declaration, “Do us all a favor and try to take all of this… because if it misses, I can’t even predict the damage it could do to this Earth!”

With that, I fired it and it hit her head on, her whole body enveloped in the energy wave. It slid her body backwards, atleast giving enough force to finally move her as it sent her through the wall… and the next and the next, as she blasted all the way through to the back of the building… I couldn’t see her anymore and still I blasted.

The supports for the mansion fell, and the top half of it sank inward, crashing down upon us. If not for being in my mech that would’ve killed me easily, as my giant, beloved home turned to rubble and cascaded upon me, as though it’d just been hit with a hundred wrecking balls. But I didn’t care about that as long as she died in the process.

Finally the first charge died down and I breathed a sigh of relief as I genuinely was concerned that I might’ve been about to cause catastrophic disaster for the world. But my relief turned to horror as I saw the figure there, off in the distance at the very end of what was once the supermansion… and then, as a trail of smoke covered up from my vision for a split second, suddenly she blinked into existence before me, standing there as the dust settled, a huge grin on her face. There was no doubt in my mind that she was the scariest person to have ever lived.

“...That the best you got?” she asked, her arms folded.

Surprisingly, I had a rebuttal. “...No.”

I glanced over towards a short bit of the building that was actually still standing and explained. “You see this suit is powered by something so very remarkable and so very rare, that it seemed a waste to ONLY use it for a purpose like this… so I’ve actually been testing something else. Something… wonderful...”

With the other mechanical hand, I fired open a portal below her feet and another on the ceiling. She fell through one portal and came through the other, landing gracefully on her feet from the lengthy drop. “Ooh, fun...” she casually remarked as her breasts bounced madly.

“Indeed.” I grimaced, as I again fired two portals, this time catching her in a loop. She was falling perpetually through the both of them. “...This trick, I learned much by accident in testing. It happened to one of my followers and it was… quite nasty. These portals are far beyond elements and energy… they’re on a whole other plane of existence, you could say. They warp space itself. There IS no being too strong for them. If you exist, you’re susceptible. Which means this… absolutely can and will slice you in half, just as it did him.”

At just the right time, I closed the portals, just as she was again going through them. It was perfectly executed to be done just as she was halfway through, her top half sticking out from the ground as, from the waist down she was hanging from the ceiling. This incomplete transferell of her matter could only end one way, with her demise. Anything else was a scientific impossibility.

That’s why… it truly broke me to see what happened. To my amazement… the portals simply refused to close. They shrunk like normal but when they came to her flesh, they… stopped. She was caught there, in that position… still whole, still smiling.

“...Sorry, what was supposed to happen here?” she asked.

My mind was broken. Completely shattered. She should’ve… been ripped in half. Sheer resilience and strength didn’t matter at that point, there is NOTHING that could’ve possibly saved her from being killed by that maneuver, simple laws of physics, time and space itself demanded it. And yet… she still lived.

To this, I had the mech fall to it’s knees, so that I could open the pod and step out, my shoulders slumped. “...Who… are you?” I repeated, but with all the previous pride drained from my voice and replaced with out-and-out shock. “...What… are you…?”

As if to truly signal the end, this time, she answered. “I’m Irene. And you’re about to turn yourself in.” 

“...Yes.” I replied. What more could I say? I was well and truly speechless, even that affirmation had to be forced out. But I couldn’t show even the slightest hint of resistance at that point. I’d been struck with a fear deeper than I ever knew possible. 

She simply left, turning and disappearing with the next bit of smoke that trailed in front of her. She was content that even if she were miles away, I wouldn’t dare cross her and go back on that agreement. And indeed, I did exactly what she said. Because of my history with the police force it took them some time to come to grips with the fact that I truly wanted to go to jail, that I really wasn’t tricking them in any way. I even helped sabotage my surviving henchman, leading to their subsequent arrests as well. I gave up everything in the wake of meeting Irene. It was worth it just to know I’d never have to deal with her might again.

I had assumed at varying points during that day that she must’ve had some sort’ve cybernetic enhancements, or been mutated in some way. It even occurred to me that she might’ve been an actual extraterrestrial, for how purely inhuman her strength was. But by the end, even that seemed like too lacking an explanation. For hers was a might that simply made no sense in the mortal coil.

As a man of science, it was cripplingly difficult for me to come to terms with the only explanation I could possibly land on. But there was simply nothing else that made sense anymore. No other way to describe her.

On that day… I had run across a God.