Early the next morning, Sherlock dragged John back up to the ridge overlooking the valley.
After concealing their position, Sherlock planted the Holy Lance of Longinus into the ground, closed his eyes, and began grinning like a man watching something he had absolutely no business enjoying.
John had assumed they were going to infiltrate the compound, locate Tony, and extract him directly.
He had even prepared himself for the possibility of getting injured.
Instead, Sherlock brought him to the top of a mountain and simply…
sat there.
Several times throughout the morning, John urged him to begin the operation, but Sherlock rejected every attempt with the same answer.
“Not yet.” Unable to understand what Sherlock was waiting for, John eventually stopped asking.
He settled into position beside him and kept watch over the valley instead.
Sherlock, meanwhile, had discovered yet another use for alchemy.
Watching movies.
For the entire morning, he used material analysis to connect his senses to the earth beneath them.
The experience was almost like watching an immersive film as Tony and Yinsen gradually assembled the Mark I inside the cave.
In fact, Sherlock found it even more entertaining than a theater.
He could sense not only Tony’s movements, but also those of every terrorist running through the tunnel network.
He clearly observed the guard assigned to monitor Tony and Yinsen chatting idly with another man while the pair began assembling the armor.
By the time the Mark I was nearly complete, the guard finally glanced at the surveillance feed.
He searched through the images for almost a full minute before realizing something was wrong and calling several others to investigate.
Unfortunately for them, Yinsen ambushed the first two men who entered and knocked them unconscious.
The commotion immediately drew attention.
As armed men throughout the valley began converging on the cave, Sherlock knew the moment had finally arrived.
After enjoying his private screening all morning, he opened his eyes and turned toward John.
“Johnny, ready for a fight?” John no longer had the patience to complain about the nickname.
He gave Sherlock a look usually reserved for complete idiots and opened his mouth to respond.
Then the ground vanished beneath his feet.
Sherlock had recognized that expression and decided he did not want to hear whatever insult was coming.
With a quick transmutation, he converted the earth beneath them into water.
Gravity did the rest.
Both men plunged downward.
The sudden weightlessness, followed immediately by the suffocating rush of water, left John in no condition to express his opinion.
He tried anyway, but all Sherlock heard was a furious stream of muffled bubbles.
…
Elsewhere, Tony was growing increasingly desperate.
Yinsen had taken a rifle, said what sounded far too much like a final goodbye, and rushed out of the workshop alone.
The Mark I still refused to activate because its processor and operating system had not finished booting.
All Tony could do was keep shouting Yinsen’s name.
Yinsen had clearly made up his mind and did not answer.
Just as despair began closing around Tony, a perfectly circular opening appeared in the cave wall before him.
Before he could understand what was happening, a massive torrent of water erupted from the hole.
The pressure struck Tony hard enough to send him swaying in the metal support frame while he waited helplessly for the armor to start.
“What the hell is happening?!” Tony swore at the top of his lungs.
Encased in the unfinished armor, he could barely move his arms.
At that moment, he was little more than a very expensive piece of immobile scrap metal.
Then a man’s furious shout echoed through the cave.
“SHERLOCK FLAMEL!” Tony immediately calmed down.
He knew that name.
John emerged from the torrent, wiped the water from his face, and immediately started searching for Sherlock so he could beat an explanation out of him.
Sherlock surfaced nearby wearing a delighted smile, but after taking his first breath inside the cave, the expression froze.
“Ugh—Jesus Christ!
Does this place connect to a sewer?” He clamped a hand over his nose as his stomach lurched.
“John, hurry!
A doctor just ran out there.
Go back him up!” John was furious about being dropped through a mountain without warning, but he understood that this was not the time to settle the score.
He pulled a pistol from inside his coat, gave Sherlock one last murderous glare, and charged toward the entrance.
Sherlock, meanwhile, strolled through the cave with the Holy Lance in hand, casually inspecting the place where Tony had spent the past month.
When he finally reached the workshop and found Tony trapped inside the support frame, he smiled with open amusement.
“Hello, Tony Stark.” The torrent had already ruined Tony’s startup sequence.
He could only stare at the young man standing in front of him, though the armor covering his face made his expression impossible to read.
Sherlock did not particularly care what Tony was thinking.
When no answer came, he lightly tapped the Mark I with the tip of the lance.
Alchemical energy immediately spread through the entire suit.
Tony was just about to demand an explanation when Sherlock turned and headed back toward the tunnel.
“I’ll see you outside.
I have something else to take care of first.” Only after Sherlock left did Tony realize that the armor had somehow activated.
He immediately pressed the diagnostic control built into the gauntlet and began running a full systems check.
At the same time, he prepared himself to fight his way out alongside Sherlock and the man named John Wick.
That was assuming, of course, that this Sherlock was the same Sherlock he remembered.
As the diagnostics continued, Tony silently prayed that Yinsen was still alive.
Gunfire thundered throughout the tunnels, followed by the sharp cracks of bullets striking stone.
Trapped inside the armored shell until the systems finished checking themselves, Tony could do nothing but wait and hope that John Wick was capable of protecting the man who had saved his life.