In a damp cave filled with clutter, a single incandescent light struggled to emit a dim glow, pushing back the darkness.
Tony Stark lay on his back on a small bed, his hands clasped behind his head. He occasionally glanced at a small corner of the cave ceiling.
There, a monitoring device was hidden in the shadows.
Shhh… shhh… shhh… shhh…
The sound of shoes scraping against dirt and gravel caught Tony Stark's attention. He sat up, placing his left foot on the ground, his right foot about half a meter away on the edge of the bed, his right hand resting on his right knee, and his left hand supporting him on the bed. He turned his head toward the entrance…
A familiar face entered his field of vision a few seconds later.
"Ethan, it took you nearly an hour to go to the bathroom. I was starting to think you fell into a latrine."
Seeing that it was Ethan, Tony Stark breathed a deep sigh of relief, God only knew how much pressure he had been under before.
He had already imagined that Ethan hadn't returned for a long time because the Raiders had discovered his and Ethan's sham arrangement. Ethan was either being tortured or had already been killed.
Under immense pressure, he even wanted to put on the unfinished Iron Armor and rush out to fight those Raiders, thinking that killing one was enough, and killing two was a profit.
Fortunately, his imagination didn't come true, and Ethan returned unharmed.
"Where did you run off to for a whole hour?" The weight on Tony Stark's heart was gone, and he curiously asked about Ethan's whereabouts.
Ethan tilted his head, staring at Tony Stark, "Tony, I have a way to escape."
"You're not kidding?!" Tony Stark sprang to his feet, also staring at Ethan.
"Could it be..." Tony Stark's eyes darted around, thinking of a possibility. He clapped his hands and exclaimed, "You found a Natural Cave?!"
"Possibly, possibly..." Stark excitedly paced back and forth by the bed, muttering to himself, "Nature's craftsmanship is amazing; it's not surprising for a mountain to have a Natural Cave that goes through both sides... So, you disappeared for nearly an hour to check if that cave leads to the outside?"
Tony Stark suddenly stopped, turning his head to look at Ethan expectantly.
Ethan walked in front of Tony Stark, placing his hands on Tony's shoulders, and said softly, "Tony, calm down. I didn't find a cave leading directly outside. The escape method I mentioned is something else..."
As soon as the first half of the sentence came out, the light in Tony's eyes dimmed. When the second half came out, Tony immediately looked at Ethan with confusion.
"I have an Iron Armor that is many times stronger than the one you're making. I can pilot it and take you out with me..."
Looking at the exhilarated Ethan, a sorrowful color gradually appeared in Tony Stark's eyes.
His friend had gone mad!
So...what about me?
Confusion appeared in Tony's eyes. He was playing along under the noses of the increasingly impatient Bandits, terrified while manufacturing the Iron Armor. He didn't know if he would be driven mad by the high pressure first, or be killed by the Bandits whose patience had run out.
As for successfully building the Iron Armor and escaping with Ethan...to be honest, he wasn't confident.
"Hey? Hey! ...Tony! Are you listening to me?!"
"Huh? Huh! What did you say?" Shaken a few times by Ethan, Tony Stark snapped out of his reverie and responded casually, "Oh, oh, I heard you, I was just too surprised and spaced out."
"Well, I was quite surprised at the time too, I even thought I was dreaming." Ethan reached into his pocket with his right hand and took out a Gray Card, "But the reality is...I wasn't dreaming, it was all real!"
Stop!!!
Ethan, what are you talking about? What did I miss while I was spacing out?!
Stark looked at the determined Ethan and felt he had missed something quite important.
"Wait, Ethan..." Feeling something wasn't quite right, Tony decided to ask Ethan.
However, Ethan misunderstood the meaning.
"Wait?"
"No, we can't wait. We need to catch them off guard while they're unprepared."
"I'll go and ambush them now, catch them off guard, and destroy their weapons. While they're in chaos, I'll take you and we'll escape together."
"Tony, while I'm causing trouble, quickly put on your half-finished Iron Armor. Although it doesn't have much combat power, at least the defense is good. Wearing it, you won't have to worry about stray bullets."
Ethan said as he walked towards the outside.
"Wait, Ethan—Huh? ↘↗↗!!!"
Tony was shocked when he heard Ethan's words. He reached out his hand as if to stop Ethan, he didn't want to see his friend die in front of him. However, he widened his eyes and the second half of his sentence went out of tune, turning into a surprised exclamation.
And the reason why Tony Stark was so flustered was...
Ethan flicked the Gray Card forward with two fingers in a very cool manner. Accompanied by Ethan's slightly excited shout of 'Unseal', the Gray Card that had just flown out immediately dissipated into a pile of gray light spots, enveloping Ethan.
A few seconds later, a gray Iron Suit appeared before Tony Stark. The scarred body, the majestic and imposing posture, and the aura of a veteran warrior all struck a chord within Tony Stark.
"This is what the Iron Armor should look like, right?" Tony murmured, then added with a hint of disdain, "It's just that the gun on the shoulder and the color scheme are dragging down the aesthetic..."
The words had barely left his mouth when Tony snapped back to reality, taken aback. "Wait! The way that Iron Suit just appeared is clearly unscientific! Am I... dreaming?"
Ethan ignored Stark's self-talk, and after suiting up, he strode out of the cave. Intense sounds of battle erupted outside shortly after.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Clang! Clang! Clang!, Tat-tat-tat...
The cave gently shook with the explosions. A clod of earth fell from the ceiling and landed on Tony's head, causing him to cry out in pain.
"Well, it seems I'm not dreaming."
Tony didn't bother pondering the science of it all. Being the clever man he was, he immediately realized his chance of escape had arrived. He hurried to put on his Iron Armor, grumbling as he did so, "Everything is relative. You don't know until you compare, and when you do... wow. Compared to Ethan's, this is just a pile of junk."
After struggling to get the junk armor on, Tony Stark took clumsy steps, wobbling towards the cave exit. His movement speed was barely faster than an elderly person's walk, a far cry from Ethan's. This only made Stark despise the Iron Armor even more.