Three months passed.
Due to the sudden and prolonged disappearance of the "Merchant of Death," Stark Industries' stock had violently plummeted. Luke briefly considered buying up a massive chunk of shares, but he knew now wasn't the optimal time to strike.
When Tony finally returned, the stock price would slightly recover on the good news. But shortly after, when Tony held his impromptu press conference and shockingly announced the complete closure of Stark Industries' weapons manufacturing division, the already battered stock would crash an additional 56.3%. That was the perfect moment to buy the dip.
Currently, Luke was in the middle of an intense gaming session, coordinating a flawless five-man team with four of his Shadow Ninjas. Suddenly, his government-issued phone rang.
He glanced at the caller ID and picked up. "Coulson. What's up?"
He listened for a moment before sighing helplessly. "I've already deployed over four hundred ninjas to sweep the region for Stark. But you understand how massive that desert is, right? It's literally a needle in a haystack. I can't magically find him overnight."
After exchanging a few more words, Luke hung up the phone. He handed his controller to a standby ninja, drew a glowing circle with his Sling Ring, and stepped through the portal, arriving in a desolate, rocky mountain range in Afghanistan.
Three months ago, after using his ninjas to locate Tony's exact cave and unlocking the fast-travel point, he had snapped a few pictures of Tony walking around with a car battery strapped to his chest before quietly returning to New York. Since then, S.H.I.E.L.D. had been calling him relentlessly, begging him for intel.
Tony's disappearance had thrown the entire global intelligence community into absolute chaos.
Howard Stark, Tony's father, was literally one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now that the founder's son—who happened to be the world's most brilliant weapons contractor—was missing in action, the agency was operating in full panic mode.
From what Luke gathered, Coulson had even been pulled off his assignment supervising the Helicarrier's construction to personally lead the search for Tony in the Middle East.
However, just as Luke had told Coulson, the region was incredibly vast, rugged, and entirely controlled by hostile terrorist cells. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s search grid was moving painfully slow.
Shadow-stepping deep into the heavily guarded cave system, Luke arrived at the makeshift workshop.
Tony was currently hammering away at a crude, heavy iron mask.
'He's finally finishing it,' Luke sighed in relief, leaning against the cold stone wall in the shadows.
Watching Tony proudly hold the crude iron mask up for Ho Yinsen to see, Luke couldn't resist. His fingers twitched, and he pulled out his camera, snapping a quick picture.
For the past three months, he hadn't been able to post anything but boring landscape photos on his blog. The few followers he had managed to trick into subscribing were starting to leave. Now, he finally had some premium, exclusive content!
"Who's there?!" Tony suddenly whipped his head toward the corner. He swore he had just seen something flash in the darkness, but when he looked closer, there was nothing but shadows.
Yinsen paused his work and looked at Tony in confusion. "What's wrong? There's no one else here."
Tony rubbed his eyes, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Maybe I'm just too stressed. I could've sworn I saw that annoying paparazzi kid from Vegas. Never mind. Let's get ready to suit up."
Tony genuinely thought he was losing his mind. If he was going to hallucinate someone in this hellhole, it should have been Pepper, not some annoying kid with a camera! He made a mental note to get a full psychological evaluation the second he got back to Malibu.
Hidden in the shadow realm, Luke let out a quiet breath. 'Wow, his situational awareness has definitely improved.'
Still, looking at the digital screen on his camera, he smirked. Getting caught was worth it. The angle was perfect, capturing both Tony's exhausted face and the iconic Mark I helmet. It was a legendary piece of history.
Though, Tony would probably suffer a total mental breakdown if he knew someone was watching. He had spent three agonizing months pouring his absolute genius into building a desperate escape suit, only to find out a kid from New York could have just teleported him out on day one.
Luke chuckled darkly to himself.
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Meanwhile, in the monitoring room, the bald leader of the Ten Rings cell was staring intently at the grainy security feed. As the only bald man in the immediate vicinity, he was naturally the smartest and most ruthless leader of the group.
Yesterday, he had finally realized that Tony wasn't actually building the Jericho missile they had demanded. He had stormed into the cave to threaten them, nearly forcing Yinsen to swallow a piece of glowing hot coal.
Now, looking at the monitors, he saw Yinsen hiding behind a makeshift curtain doing something suspicious, and Tony Stark was completely out of frame.
His brow furrowed. Realizing something was horribly wrong, he ordered two of his guards to go check on the prisoners immediately.
The two guards rushed down the tunnel and pounded on the heavy metal door, shouting angrily through the small viewing slit.
Behind the curtain, Tony and Yinsen were frantically strapping the heavy armor plates onto Tony's body. Hearing the guards yelling, Tony panicked. He was completely immobilized while the suit powered up.
"Yinsen, stall them! Talk to them!" Tony urged.
"They're speaking Hungarian! I don't speak Hungarian!" Yinsen replied, his hands shaking as he adjusted the leather straps.
"Then speak something! Just stall them!" Tony was sweating bullets. The final sequence—booting up the suit's archaic operating system—was going to take time.
Yinsen desperately yelled something back in a different language, but the guards weren't idiots. Realizing they were being stalled, they unlocked the door and threw it open.
BOOM!
The crude explosive trap rigged to the door detonated instantly, blowing the two guards backward into the tunnel.
"How does it look?!" Tony asked frantically, unable to see past the heavy iron helmet locking him into the suit frame.
"Looks like it worked!" Yinsen replied, rushing over to the computer terminal.
"That's what I do," Tony breathed a small sigh of relief. "Now initialize the power sequence!"
Yinsen typed furiously, initiating the boot sequence. He stared at the painfully slow progress bar inching across the screen. Hearing more angry shouting echoing down the tunnel, Yinsen gritted his teeth and grabbed a wrench, tightening the final bolts on Tony's armor.
"We need more time!" Yinsen said, turning away from the terminal.
"Yinsen! Stick to the plan!" Tony yelled, a pit of dread forming in his stomach.
For the first time in three months, Yinsen ignored him. He grabbed a fallen rifle from one of the dead guards, let out a desperate battle cry, and charged blindly into the tunnel, firing wildly.
"Damn it!" Tony cursed helplessly. Bound in the heavy iron suit, unable to move, all he could do was stare at the agonizingly slow progress bar on the cracked monitor.
Seeing the plot unfold exactly as it was supposed to, Luke exhaled. He ordered two hidden Shadow Ninjas to stay behind and ensure Tony survived the breakout, then completely dissolved into the shadows and shot down the tunnel after Yinsen.
'Yinsen is a good man. He doesn't deserve to die here.'
Yinsen charged down the dark tunnel, firing the rifle indiscriminately. The sudden, chaotic assault actually managed to startle the approaching terrorists, forcing them to retreat down the corridor.
Fueled by pure adrenaline, Yinsen chased them all the way out of the tunnel and into the open cave entrance—only to freeze in terror.
Dozens of heavily armed Ten Rings terrorists were waiting for him, their rifles raised and aimed squarely at his chest.
"Well... this is it," Yinsen muttered, dropping his weapon in defeat.
Back in the workshop, the progress bar finally hit 100%. The mechanical whir of the Mark I powering up echoed through the cave. With a surge of hydraulic power, Tony ripped himself free from the mounting frame and began his slow, terrifying march out of the cave.
"Yinsen! Where are you?!" Tony called out, his synthesized voice booming through the iron mask.
He mercilessly crushed a few terrified stragglers who tried to stop him, ignoring their frantic screams in languages he couldn't understand.
Lumbering into the main cavern entrance, Tony stopped. The area was littered with bodies. Looking at the sheer volume of bullet holes riddling the dead terrorists, Tony was genuinely shocked. 'Did Yinsen really do all this? Was he secretly a black-ops agent this whole time?!'
"Stark..." a weak voice called out.
Tony turned his heavy iron head. Yinsen was slumped against a pile of sandbags near the entrance, his clothes completely soaked in blood.
"Yinsen!" Tony marched over quickly, his heart sinking at the sight of the blood.
"Come on, Yinsen. We're getting out of here." Tony used the suit's massive strength to effortlessly toss the heavy sandbags aside, reaching down for the unmoving doctor.
"Come on, get up. We have to stick to the plan."
Yinsen weakly shook his head. "This was always my plan, Stark."
Tony took a shaky breath, his eyes wide behind the iron mask. "But your family... they're waiting for you."
Yinsen managed a faint, peaceful smile. "My family is dead, Tony. I'm going to see them now."
Tony froze, the words hitting him harder than any bullet. He stood in silence for a long moment. "...Thank you for saving me."
Yinsen slowly closed his eyes, his breathing stopping as his strength finally gave out. "Don't waste it... don't waste your life, Tony."
With those final words, Yinsen fell completely still.
Overwhelmed with grief and a sudden, blinding rage, Tony slammed the iron faceplate shut. With a mechanical roar, he turned and marched out into the blinding desert sun, ready to burn everything to the ground.
...
Once the heavy, thudding footsteps completely faded, Yinsen cautiously cracked one eye open. Seeing that Tony was gone, he let out a massive gasp of air.
"Good lord, if he had stayed any longer, I would have suffocated trying to hold my breath!"
A young man suddenly stepped out from the shadows next to him. "Great acting, Yinsen."
Yinsen groaned and slowly stood up, grimacing in disgust as he pulled at the sticky, blood-soaked shirt. "This is repulsive. Why did we have to lie to him?"
"Because it was the final, necessary step for his transformation," Luke explained calmly. He patted the digital camera slung around his neck. "Though, I must say, you were incredibly photogenic during your death scene."
Yinsen smiled helplessly. He had almost ruined the entire emotional moment. Just as he was delivering his final, heart-wrenching line, he had spotted Luke standing in the shadows directly behind Tony, aggressively snapping photos of his "death."
It took every ounce of his willpower not to burst out laughing, which was exactly why he had decided to close his eyes and "die" so quickly.