Tony's POV:
Been here for a few days. My chest's killing me. It's this constant grinding ache, like glass shards shifting around with every heartbeat. Sometimes it stabs, sharp and sudden — jolts of pain whenever a piece of shrapnel decides to cozy up to my heart. My shoulders, ribs, everything's bruised from all the dragging around. Low food. Crap sleep. Feels like I'm on the edge of collapsing every damn second.
The car battery and wires pulling on my skin don't make it better. Constant, sharp discomfort. Hurts like hell. Feels like someone's shoving a box of nails through my ribcage. Oh wait.
He breathes in.
They are.
Tony winces, jaw clenched, groaning when the pain spikes.
"Shitty cave healthcare," he mutters under his breath. A bad joke. A defense mechanism. Anything to keep himself from thinking about the real truth — he's terrified. Absolutely terrified of dying.
The one thing he's glad for? Yinsen.
Wasn't sure about him at first. Thought maybe he was working for these guys, maybe he'd sell me out. He's calm, philosophical, grounded… the exact opposite of me. At first, it rubbed me the wrong way. But I can't deny it — guy knows what he's doing. Saved my life by rigging the magnet together, even if I don't want to say it out loud. I respect him for it. Not that I'd admit it straight to his face.
Another day, same cave. Same disgusting smells, same dusty air choking my lungs.
"Huh?" Tony mutters, blinking awake. He squints. "...Is that a brain?"
Yinsen looks up from what he's doing. "What was that, Mr. Stark?"
Tony points. "Over there. Tell me I'm not losing it. You see that too, or am I hallucinating a brain in the corner?"
Yinsen slowly glances over. Calm as ever. Then he sees it. There is something there — round, lumpy, looks like a brain — but on closer look, it's… a fruit.
"I do," Yinsen says evenly. "Seems to be a fruit."
Tony stares for a beat, processing. "…Huh."
He steps closer, crouches, pokes it with a finger. "Well. Not the weirdest thing to happen to me. Random brain-fruit spawning in a cave." He tries to make a joke out of it, voice dry. What else is he gonna do?
"Hah. Very funny, Mr. Stark." Yinsen lets out a faint laugh, humoring him. Anything to keep the mood light.
"Well, hey — free food." Tony grabs it without hesitation, tears it in half, and hands Yinsen a piece. "Bon appétit," he says, biting into his own half.
"Wait, Mr. Stark—what if it's poisonous?" Yinsen warns, concerned.
"Who cares?" Tony says through a mouthful. And then he freezes. His face twists. He gags.
"Oh my god, this tastes like shit!" He coughs hard, choking on the chunk stuck in his throat. He's hacking, gagging, pounding his chest, desperate to spit it out.
"It tastes like absolute dog shit!" he croaks between coughs. "I've had better meals eating garbage from a dumpster, and I drank rocket fuel once on a dare! For god's sake—" He gags again, bending forward, wheezing.
"Calm down, Mr. Stark." Yinsen's at his side immediately, rubbing his back, steadying him. "You'll disturb the shrapnel near your heart!"
"I'm calm! I'm— cough— I'm calm," Tony wheezes, sucking in shaky breaths. Then—
Suddenly, everything shifts.
It's like his brain just upgraded from Windows XP straight to Windows 20 in an instant.
Images. Memories. Data. His entire life — every second of it — floods back in perfect detail. Every conversation, every meeting, every screw-up, every victory. Things he thought he'd forgotten, things he didn't even consciously notice at the time — all of it comes crashing back, crystal clear.
His chest is heaving, but not from the gagging anymore.
In that moment, he knows.
He knows how to escape this cave. He knows exactly how to build the armor he's been dreaming up in scraps of thought, and not just that — he knows how to improve it. And then improve that version.
He looks at Yinsen, breathing hard, a slow, sharp grin spreading across his face.
"Yinsen," Tony says quietly. There's something new in his voice — excitement. Determination.
"Yes, Mr. Stark?"
"We're getting out of here."
Gaia POV:
Well, well. Looks like Tony's getting ready to escape. Can't wait until he learns the side effects of eating that fruit. Sure, the boost in intelligence is nice and all, but… he's a man who prides himself on being handsome, after all. Can't wait to see him strut out there bragging about how good-looking he is — with a brain the size of a building.
Or would he even be able to stand that? Hmm. Maybe he'd accidentally die. I mean, Vegapunk's from One Piece, and everyone in One Piece is built like a damn superhuman. We'll… get to that when we get to that.
Now, let's see what everyone else is doing.
Captain America. Yep. Still flying. Still flying. Jesus, how is he still in the air? What the hell was in that serum? It's been days. Fine, whatever. I'll just… use a little bit of my power and— yep. There we go. Slowly tweaking his biology so he doesn't have to eat while he's up there soaking in sunlight. Gonna make him into a baby Superman. Basically a plant now.
…Captain Plantmerica.
…Nah, doesn't sound right.
Alright, what else? Let's check on the random guy I picked. David Ramirez.
Oh..
Huh. He's… at home. He hasn't left his room in days. Yikes. That's… not great. But, hey, not really my problem. You do you, David. You do you.
Hmm. Hmm. What now? What should I do next?
…You know what? I think I might make Godzilla.
Yeah. Yeah, I like that. I'm gonna make Godzilla. Earth's natural protector. That's what he is, right? If I remember correctly, he's basically a child of the Earth — evolved, adapted, made by the planet itself as a kind of self-defense mechanism.
And, well… I am the planet.
So yeah. I can make Godzilla.
Yeah… let's do that.
I know what I'm gonna do today hehe.
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Author Note - Right, I'm gonna be 100% honest - writing that Tony Stark POV was a lot harder than I thought it would be because I didn't just want to copy what happened at the start of Iron Man 1, so I just skipped over all that. And well he's now in the cave and ate the fruit. If you have any ideas that you would like me to add, or any original characters that you would like added, then just say so lol.