….
The cave reeked of scorched metal and oil, every surface marked by nights of hammering and welding. Bit by bit, the suit was finally starting to resemble more than a pile of scrap.
But the Ten Rings weren't idiots.
The heavy clang of the door broke the rhythm, voices barking orders as armed men poured inside.
Rifles aimed.
"Hands up!" one of them shouted.
Raza entered last, his sharp eyes sweeping the workshop - the scattered tools, the wires snaking across the floor, the incomplete hulk of metal.
"What are you building, Stark?" His voice was smooth.
Jin-Ho and Yinsen exchanged quick glances before taking turns translating, their tones careful.
Tony barely looked up, jaw tight. "You wanted a missile. I am building you a missile."
Raza's gaze drifted to the stacked armor plates. "Then why the armor?"
"It doesn't look anything like the picture." One guard observed, comparing Tony's work to the missile schematic.
"Maybe it's been modified." another suggested.
"The tail is wrong."
"It's just backwards." Tony replied quickly, but the seeds of suspicion had been planted.
The terrorist leader's patience was wearing thin.
The silence that followed was long enough to taste.
Yinsen broke it first, arms raised in exaggerated surrender. "Repairs - just repairs!" His Pashto was steady, his expression harmless. "Metal needs bracing, nothing more."
Tony gave a careless shrug, adding. "Yeah, what he said. Now, if you don't mind, we are kind of in the middle of something."
Raza wasn't amused. His eyes lingered on Jin-Ho for several beats, assessing, before his voice dipped. "Finish your work. But know this - if you try anything, nothing will save you."
Jin-Ho met his stare evenly, his face calm as stone. Then, in flawless English, deadpan: "I wonder which one of you I will strangle first."
The guards didn't react - they didn't understand a word. Yinsen blinked, halfway between confusion and alarm, while Tony pressed a hand to his mouth to keep from laughing.
"Oh, that's good." Tony muttered under his breath, smirking. "You can take anyone you want - but that guy?" He nodded toward Raza. "That one's mine."
Jin-Ho looked reluctant, like a kid being told to share candy, his lips twitched. "Fine. But only if you promise not to waste him."
"Please. I am Stark." Tony whispered back. "If I kill him, it will be with style."
Jin-Ho almost smiled, but when Raza turned, his face hardened into stone.
"What are you saying?"
"You are picking our cue on how to screw you over.
Jin-Ho said in English, then immediately shifted into Pashto–
"I am just saying we are lucky to be alive - best do as we are told."
Raza's sharp eyes lingered on Jin-Ho for a long moment. Then he swept his men back with a slow gesture.
The heavy cave door slammed shut.
As the footsteps faded, Tony exhaled sharply. "Well. That was subtle."
Jin-Ho groaned. "They were suspicious anyway."
Tony grabbed a wrench and flicked it toward him. Jin-Ho caught it easily, his expression unreadable.
"Back to work." Tony said. "We are running out of time."
They worked through the night, pushing themselves past exhaustion. Every rivet, every joint, every circuit had to be perfect. There was no room for failure.
….
A few more days later.
The final spark of the welder died down, and Tony lowered his mask.
Beads of sweat clung to his forehead, streaked black with soot, he tapped the thick chestplate with the back of his knuckle and let out a long breath. "That's it, the last piece."
The sound of hammering that had been echoing had finally ceased.
For days, the cavern had echoed with the sharp clang of metal, sparks flying as Tony and Yinsen worked tirelessly, piece by piece.
Now, in the dim light of the cave, the model stood upright against the wall, a hulking silhouette of iron, patched together from scraps, rough and unrefined, yet towering with presence.
The Mark I.
Tony wiped the sweat and grime from his brow, his chest heaving as he took a step back to look at what they had built.
It wasn't elegant or sleek.
But it was strong.
Strong enough to break them out of this hell.
Jin-Ho stepped back for a better look at their completed handiwork.
He had seen Mark I on screen once upon a time, just a moving image, a memory from a world that wasn't this one.
But standing here now, smelling the heat radiating from the metal, seeing Tony, the - Tony Stark, building it with his own hands, that's on a whole different level.
Jin-Ho said softly, almost to himself. "Tony, I think you have just created a monster."
Tony smirked faintly.
"Perefect then, monsters scare people." He stepped back and admired the armor with tired, but proud eyes. "And right now, scaring them is the only thing that's gonna get us out of here alive."
Jin-Ho crouched near the suit, tracing his eyes along the welded seams. "It's heavier than it looks, isn't it?"
"Try walking in it and you will know." Tony muttered, stripping off his gloves, his tone was light, but his hands trembled.
He wasn't blind to the risk.
The suit wasn't a guarantee - it was a gamble. But for once, it was a gamble that wasn't measured in billions of dollars or market shares.
And all three of them knew that in just a few more minutes, the men outside would realize something was wrong.
Silence stretched for a moment before Tony broke it again. "You have been holding up well, Jin-Ho."
He was really surprised looking at the young kid so calm in a situation like this.
Jin-Ho shrugged. "Oh, believe me, I would love nothing more than to just… curl up and crap myself." His mouth curved into a half-smile. "But admitting it doesn't make the fear disappear. Doesn't change a thing."
Honestly, there are times Jin-Ho himself gets surprised by his calmness occasionally. It was the same even back when he raided his first dungeon with Jin-Woo.
Tony, on the other hand, glanced at him, curious but he was too tired to chase mysteries, and right now, trust was all they had.
"Ready?" Yinsen asked quietly.
Tony didn't answer at first, still lost in the enormity of the moment.
Finally, he nodded once. "Yeah."
Jin-Ho gave a faint, wry smile. "Then let's light a fire they will never forget."
Then it started - the game of survival.
They worked quickly, strapping Tony into the suit.
Jin-Ho guided pieces of the armor into place, securing plates with a clank of metal on metal.
Yinsen worked nearby, calibrating the primitive systems, connecting power conduits and ensuring the rudimentary hydraulics would function under strain.
The suit began to close around Tony with precision.
His breaths grew heavier as steel plates locked into place.
Wires clicked into their sockets. Hydraulics hissed and groaned as they sprang to function.
Tony lowered his head into the helmet, the cold steel pressing against his skin.
"I am almost done with my part, Yinsen - just the faceplate left." Jin-Ho informed, tightening the last bolts.
The armor was coming online.
Tony could feel it - the power coursing through the mechanical systems, transforming him from a prisoner into something capable of fighting back.
"Okay." Yinsen reported, focused as his fingers moved over the keyboard. "My side is ready too. Tony, it's down to you."
The final startup sequence blinked onto the monitor.
"Initialize the power sequence." Tony instructed.
"Function 11. Tell me when you see a progress bar."
"It should be up right now."
"Yes, I have it."
"Press Control 'I.' 'I,' then 'Enter.' Again - 'I' and 'Enter.'"
The tiny screen flickered, stuttered - then numbers began to climb.
Ten percent.
Fifteen.
Thirty.
Sixty.
Tony's breath echoed hard against the steel walls of the helmet. His heart was pounding faster than the numbers.
Ninety-two percent.
Ninety-three.
"Come on." Tony hissed inside the suit, his voice muffled by the echo of the metal encasing him.
Yinsen's eyes darted between the sluggish progress bar and the cave entrance.
"Man…" Jin-Ho muttered under his breath, arms crossed. "This is worse than watching a video buffer on dial-up."
As if on cue, a crackle came from the security monitor mounted on the wall - the grainy CCTV feed showing armed men gathering, shouting at each other, their expressions sharp with suspicion.
One pointed at the screen, barking orders.
Thud-! Thud-! Thud-!
Footsteps echoed faintly outside the cave, as the guards' shouts carried through the stone, harsh and careless.
!??Tony's body stiffened.
"They are on us." Yinsen whispered, his hand hovered over the keyboard, but his face hardened with resolve.
All the eyes are on the laptop, the bars creeping ever so slowly.
Inside the suit, Tony twisted against the restraints, urgency cutting through his tone. "Just a little longer. Get to your cover. Remember the checkpoints and make sure each one is clear before you follow me out."
However, contrary to his commands, Yinsen stood up.
Tony added. "Don't move yet. Stick to the plan."
The bar inched forward.
Ninety-five.
But Yinsen had already made his choice.
He reached under his robes, pulling out the rifle he had hidden away days earlier.
His jaw was set, the kind of resignation Tony had seen in soldiers who had already written their last words.
"There will be no plan if they reach us now." Yinsen said. His voice was calm, final. He turned toward the cave mouth, ready to run.
"Yinsen!" Tony shouted, metal plates rattling as he struggled. "Stick to the plan! That wasn't it!"
"I will buy you time!" Yinsen barked back.
"Wait." Jin-Ho's voice cut sharp.
Both men looked at him.
"You are not dying here, old man." His tone was flat, almost casual, as he stepped forward and pulled the rifle from Yinsen's grip before the doctor could react.
Yinsen frowned, startled. "You are a child. I won't send you out—"
Jin-Ho didn't even turn his head. "I have my way's."
Before anyone could respond, the tools - hammers, welding rigs, scrap plates, lifted into the air as if called by some unseen force.
They spun slowly, then faster, forming a metallic storm.
Tony stared, blinking in disbelief. "What the hell—"
Yinsen's breath caught. "You… you are a mutant?"
"Something like that…." Jin-Ho didn't know how to explain that he wasn't born with these powers like a mutant. "But don't worry - I won't claim to be God."
The metal whirled faster around him, sharp edges glinting in the dim light.
Tony exhaled sharply, almost a laugh, though his chest was tight. "Goddamn… I know it had something to do with you when I couldn't open my mouth. You have been sitting on this the whole time?"
Jin-Ho glanced at him, deadpan. "Was waiting for the right moment. Don't get jealous."
Tony shook his head inside the suit, muttering. "Great… I have got myself a wizard cavemate now. Fantastic."
The footsteps outside drew closer, the shouting got louder.
"Anyway." He added, voice suddenly sharp. "You two stay here. I will handle the welcome party. Just… hurry the hell up. If not, by the time you are ready, I might have finished things myself - and don't you dare whine about stealing your kill."
"No. It is me–" Yinsen was still adamant on sending Jin-Ho alone but he moved before either could answer, surging toward the tunnel as the storm of steel followed.
Tony muttered under his breath, equal parts worry and irritation. "Just stay alive, brat… until I come save your ass."
Inside the Mark I, Tony gritted his teeth, helpless, watching the progress bar crawl toward completion.
"Ninety-seven…"
"Ninety-eight…"
Gunfire cracked through the tunnels as Jin-Ho unleashed his storm, bullets ricocheting off stone, steel shrieking through the air as it carved into the first wave of terrorists.
The plan hadn't just changed - it had detonated.
….
.
[To be continued…]
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