The cave was silent, save for the hum of the arc reactor and the rhythmic rasp of a file against metal.
Ren was in the corner. He had ceased all movement.
To Tony and Yinsen, it looked like he was resting. But inside Ren's body, a biological storm was raging.
He was currently holding a plank position. He had been holding it for four hours. His muscles were vibrating—not from fatigue, but from the sheer density of the fibers compacting against each other. The stress on his core was immense, enough to tear the abdominal wall of a normal athlete.
But Ren wasn't normal. He was an anomaly.
99.8%...
99.9%...
He focused inward. He visualized his cellular structure. He didn't see biology; he saw engineering. He saw weak iron turning into tempered steel. He felt the mitochondria in his cells flaring up, fueled by his Unlimited Energy Source, pumping raw power into the transformation.
Snap.
It wasn't a bone breaking this time. It was the sound of a barrier shattering deep within his chest.
Suddenly, the air in the cave felt thin.
[ALERT: CRITICAL THRESHOLD REACHED]
[INITIATING EVOLUTION: TIER 0 >> TIER 1]
The sensation hit him like a physical blow.
BOOM.
His heart stopped for a single beat, then restarted with a force that shook his ribcage. THUMP. It was a heavy, slow, hydraulic sound.
Heat.
Pure, agonizing, beautiful heat. It started in his marrow and flooded outward. It felt like he was being dipped in boiling gold. His skin tightened, his pores sealed, and his muscles coiled around his bones like wet leather drying in the sun.
He didn't scream. He didn't even gasp. He just exhaled a long, hot breath that looked like steam in the cold cave air.
Haaaaaah.
Ren opened his eyes.
The world had changed.
The dim lightbulb hanging from the ceiling wasn't just flickering; he could see the tungsten filament vibrating. He could hear the electricity buzzing through the wires inside the wall. He could smell the ozone from Tony's welding torch, distinct from the smell of the rust and the sweat.
He stood up.
He felt… light.
Gravity seemed to have lost half its hold on him. He took a step, and his foot hit the ground with a solidity that felt permanent. He looked at his hand. The veins were less visible now, buried under a layer of skin that looked polished, almost marble-like. He squeezed his fist.
CRACK.
The air pressure inside his palm popped.
[STATUS UPDATE]
> TIER 1: SUPER SOLDIER (COMPLETE)
> ATTRIBUTES UPDATED:
Strength: 2 Tons (Lift)
Speed: 40 mph (Burst)
Durability: Small Arms Resistant (9mm/Caliber .45)
Reflexes: 0.05s
Ren adjusted his collar. He felt perfect. He felt like a weapon that had finally been loaded.
"Ren?"
Yinsen's voice broke the silence. The older man was looking at him with concern. "You look... different."
"I am fine," Ren said. His voice was deeper, resonating in his chest. "Is the suit ready?"
Tony Stark tightened the final bolt on the chaotic pile of iron that was the Mark 1 armor. He looked haggard, his eyes sunken, desperate.
"It's ready," Tony whispered. "We just need to initialize the power sequence. It takes time. We need time."
BOOM!
A massive explosion shook the heavy iron door. Dust rained down from the ceiling. Voices shouted in angry Arabic outside.
"They know," Ren said calmly. He picked up a jagged piece of scrap metal from the floor—a heavy iron rod, about two feet long, rusted and sharp. He weighed it in his hand. It felt as light as a plastic straw. "Start the sequence, Stark."
"We can't!" Tony panicked, fumbling with the laptop. "If they come in now, I'm a sitting duck! I can't move until the software loads!"
Yinsen grabbed a rifle from the table. His hands were shaking, but his eyes were resolved. "I will buy you time."
"Stick to the plan!" Tony yelled. "Yinsen, don't!"
Yinsen ignored him. He looked at Ren. For a second, the two men locked eyes. Yinsen saw something in Ren—a calmness that terrified him. He realized that while he was preparing to die, Ren was preparing to work.
"Watch over him," Yinsen whispered to Ren.
Then, Yinsen turned and ran toward the tunnel, firing the rifle into the air.
"YINSEN!" Tony screamed.
Ren watched Yinsen run.
[LOGIC ENGINE]
> Subject: Ho Yinsen.
> Destiny: Deceased.
> Consequence: Creation of Iron Man.
> Intervention: Negative.
Ren didn't move to stop him. He didn't save him. If Yinsen lived, Tony Stark might never learn the cost of war. The guilt was the engine that would drive the Avenger.
Ren turned his back on the tragedy unfolding in the hallway and looked at the heavy iron door.
The Ten Rings were coming. And they were bringing heavy weapons.
"Stay in the suit, Stark," Ren said, his voice cutting through Tony's panic. "Don't move until the bar hits 100%."
"Where are you going?" Tony shouted, strapped into the metal tomb.
"To clear the path."
Ren walked to the side of the door, pressing his back against the cold stone wall, hidden in the shadows.
Clang. Clang. BOOM.
The lock shattered. The door swung open.
Three terrorists rushed in, AK-47s raised, shouting commands. They saw the Iron Man suit standing in the middle of the room, immobile. They froze, confused by the metal monster.
They didn't see the shadow behind the door.
Ren moved.
WHOOSH.
It wasn't a step. It was a blur.
Ren closed the five-meter gap in 0.2 seconds. He didn't use martial arts. He didn't use technique. He used raw, overwhelming velocity.
His right hand, holding the iron rod, swung in a flat arc.
THWACK.
The sound was wet and sickening. The iron rod impacted the first man's neck. The force was so great that the man's body didn't just fall; it spun through the air, his cervical spine pulverized instantly.
The other two guards turned, their eyes wide with shock. They tried to raise their rifles.
Too slow.
Ren was already inside their guard. He dropped the rod and grabbed the barrels of their guns, one in each hand.
[MATERIAL ANALYSIS: STEEL ALLOY]
[STRENGTH APPLICATION: 10%]
Ren squeezed.
SCREEECH.
The metal barrels crumpled like wet cardboard. The guns jammed instantly.
The terrorists stared at their ruined weapons, then up at Ren. They saw a pair of eyes that looked like freezing water.
"Run," Ren whispered.
They didn't get the chance.
Ren slammed their heads together.
CRACK.
It sounded like two bowling balls colliding. They dropped to the floor, unconscious before they hit the stone.
Ren stepped over the bodies. He didn't look back at Stark. He walked into the tunnel.
The tunnel was chaos.
Yinsen lay slumped against a wall of grain sacks, bleeding out. Raza was standing over him, gloating.
Ren ignored them. He knew Yinsen's script. He knew Raza would survive this encounter to fight Iron Man.
Ren's goal was the Exit.
He moved through the shadows of the cave system, a ghost amidst the gunfire. He encountered patrol after patrol running toward Stark's cell.
They never reached it.
A group of four men rounded a corner, sprinting. Ren stepped out from the darkness.
"Who are y—"
Ren punched the lead man in the chest.
THUD.
The man flew backward ten feet, knocking down the two men behind him. His chest cavity was caved in, ribs shattered by the force of a battering ram.
The fourth man fired. RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.
Ren saw the muzzle flash.
[SKILL: BULLET TRAJECTORY CALCULATION]
> Velocity: 715 m/s.
> Vector: Chest level.
> Evasion: Minimal shift required.
Ren shifted his torso three inches to the left.
Zip. Zip. Zip.
The bullets tore through the air where his heart had been a millisecond ago. To the shooter, it looked like the bullets passed through him like he was smoke.
"Demon!" the man screamed, fumbling with his magazine.
Ren walked forward. He didn't run. He walked with terrifying purpose. He grabbed the man by the throat.
CRUNCH.
Ren dropped the body and kept walking.
He reached the mouth of the cave. The sunlight was blinding, cutting through the gloom. Outside, the Ten Rings camp was in a frenzy. A heavy .50 caliber machine gun turret was mounted on a truck, aimed directly at the cave entrance.
If Tony walked out now, that turret would chew through the primitive Mark 1 armor before he could fly.
"Problem identified," Ren muttered.
He scanned the terrain. It was a rocky valley. Exposed.
Ren crouched. He channeled energy into his legs. He felt the muscle fibers tighten, storing kinetic potential like a coil.
Jump.
He exploded upward. He cleared a twelve-foot rock face in a single bound, landing silently on a ridge overlooking the truck.
Below him, the gunner was shouting, swinging the heavy barrel toward the cave mouth.
Ren looked at the distance. Fifty feet.
He picked up a rock the size of a grapefruit. It was heavy, jagged granite.
[PROJECTILE CALCULATION]
> Mass: 1.2 kg.
> Target: Cranium.
> Required Force: 4000 Newtons.
Ren pulled his arm back. His muscles rippled, tearing the fabric of his sleeve. He threw.
FWIP.
The rock vanished. It broke the sound barrier for a fraction of a second.
SPLAT.
The gunner's head snapped back. He collapsed over the weapon. The rock had hit him with the force of a cannonball.
Ren jumped down from the ridge, landing on the hood of the truck. The metal dented under his weight. CLANG.
The driver looked up through the windshield, screaming.
Ren punched the windshield. His fist went through the glass, grabbed the driver by the vest, and threw him out of the truck like a ragdoll.
Ren stood on the roof of the truck. He looked back at the cave entrance.
A metallic groaning sound echoed from the depths. Then, heavy, clanking footsteps.
CLANK. CLANK. CLANK.
From the darkness, the Mark 1 emerged.
It was crude, ugly, and magnificent. Sparks flew from the joints. Tony Stark, encased in the first iteration of his legacy, stepped into the sunlight.
The remaining terrorists opened fire. Bullets pinged harmlessly off the thick iron plates.
Ren watched from the high ground, his arms crossed.
"Go on, Stark," Ren whispered. "Start the age of heroes."
Tony raised his flamethrower arms. A torrent of fire unleashed upon the camp, igniting the ammo caches and the tents. The valley turned into an inferno.
Ren didn't join the fight. He didn't need the XP from weaklings anymore. He had cleared the heavy weapons; the rest was Tony's tutorial.
He watched as Tony initiated the escape sequence. The thrusters on the Mark 1's boots flared. With a roar of unrefined power, the iron suit launched into the sky, trailing black smoke, arching over the mountains.
Tony was gone.
Ren was alone in the burning camp.
He looked around. There were still a dozen terrorists alive, confused, leaderless, running around the burning wreckage.
Ren hopped down from the truck. He cracked his knuckles.
[CURRENT STATUS]
> Energy: 100% (Sustainable)
> Body Condition: Peak
> Objective: Leave no loose ends.
It was time to test the limits of Tier 1.
He moved into the smoke.
Ten minutes later.
Ren walked out of the valley. He was covered in dust and soot, but there wasn't a drop of his own blood on him.
Behind him, the Ten Rings camp was silent. No one was following him. No one was alive to follow him.
He walked toward the main road, a dirt track that cut through the Kunar province.
He checked his interface.
[LOGIC ENGINE UPDATE]
> Canon Event: Mark 1 Escape.
> Status: SUCCESS.
> Deviation: 2% (Camp totally annihilated, no survivors left to report details).
Ren nodded. A 2% deviation was acceptable. SHIELD would find the bodies and assume Iron Man did it all. The legend of Tony Stark would grow larger, masking Ren's existence completely.
Just the way he liked it.
He adjusted his tattered suit jacket. He needed new clothes. He needed a shower. And most importantly, he needed money.
He accessed his memory.
[DATABASE SEARCH: MCU TIMELINE 2008]
> Location: Kunar Province.
> Nearby Assets: Ten Rings Forward Operating Base (30 miles South).
> Asset Value: Cash Reserves ($5 Million USD), Vehicles, Encrypted Comms.
Ren began to jog.
He wasn't running like a human anymore. He was maintaining a steady 35 miles per hour, his breath even, his legs pumping with machine-like efficiency. The desert blurred around him.
He had escaped the cave.
He had ascended to Super Soldier status.
The "Extra" was gone.
Now, the Anomaly was loose in the world.
[SCENE BREAK: 24 HOURS LATER]
Location: Ramstein Air Base, Germany
POV: Agent Phil Coulson
Phil Coulson stood in the command center, looking at the satellite imagery on the main screen. The mood in the room was electric. Tony Stark had been found alive.
"Status on the extraction site?" Coulson asked, sipping his bad coffee.
A junior analyst pulled up a high-resolution drone image of the valley where Stark had been held.
"Sir, it's... it's a mess," the analyst said, sounding disturbed. "Stark says he escaped using a suit of armor and flamethrowers. The burn patterns confirm that."
"But?" Coulson prompted.
"But... the forensics don't match up for the casualties, sir."
The analyst zoomed in on a cluster of bodies near the heavy machine gun turret.
"These men weren't burned. And they weren't shot."
Coulson leaned in, his eyes narrowing. "What happened to them?"
"Blunt force trauma, sir. Extreme blunt force. This guy here?" The analyst pointed to the gunner. "His skull was crushed by a rock thrown at supersonic speeds. And these three near the entrance? Their chests are caved in. It looks like they were hit by a truck, but there are no tire marks."
Coulson stared at the screen. "Stark said he was alone. Just him and Yinsen."
"Yes, sir. But Stark's suit was clunky. Slow. Whatever did this..." The analyst gestured to the carnage. "Moved fast. And it was brutal."
Coulson set his coffee down. He pulled out his secure phone.
"Sir?"
"Mark the site as Level 8 Classified," Coulson ordered, his voice serious. "Scrub the photos from the general database. I need a team on the ground within the hour."
"What are we looking for, sir? Another weapon?"
Coulson looked at the image of the man with the caved-in chest. He had seen injuries like that in the old files. The files from the 1940s. The files labeled Captain Rogers.
"No," Coulson said softly. "We're looking for a person."
End of Chapter 2