Pain.
It was the first thing Tony Stark became aware of—a deep, radiating throb that started in his chest and pulsed outwards with every shallow breath. He was conscious, but barely. Everything was darkness and noise, like he was underwater, the edges of his senses blurred and muffled. Then light hit him. Harsh, bare, surgical.
He squinted, eyes unfocused.
Ragged ceiling. Rock. Some kind of cave?
His arms wouldn't move. His mouth was dry as bone. He tried to sit up but collapsed with a metallic clank. Something tugged at his chest.
And that's when he saw it.
A crude battery. Wires. Leads running into a car battery. Connected to a glowing circle embedded in the center of his chest.
His body spasmed. "What the hell—"
A voice came. Gentle, calm.
"You're alive. Don't move too much."
Tony turned his head and blinked at the man across the cave. Middle-aged. Kind eyes. Tired. Dressed in worn clothes that might have once been white. The man approached with a small bowl of water, kneeling beside him.
"Where—where am I?" Tony rasped.
"A cave. Somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan. You were taken by a group called the Ten Rings."
Tony stared at him. "Who… who are you?"
"Yinsen. Doctor. Like you. Only less famous."
Tony tried to chuckle but winced instead. "That's not a high bar."
Yinsen gave a small smile and gently helped him drink.
"What's in my chest?" Tony asked between sips.
"You had shrapnel—lots of it—heading for your heart. I did the best I could, but it was too deep. So I improvised."
Tony looked again at the device. The faint glow. "This… this is a magnet."
"An electromagnet," Yinsen nodded. "Powered by that car battery. It's the only thing keeping the shrapnel from reaching your heart. You're lucky to be alive."
"Define lucky," Tony muttered.
For hours, he drifted in and out of consciousness. His body burned. His mind swam. But slowly, his thoughts began to focus. He remembered the convoy. The presentation. The bomb. His bomb.
A cold wave of guilt slid down his spine.
The next few days passed in a fog of pain and whispered conversations. The cave was a prison, guarded heavily, with only the thin veil of Yinsen's voice to keep him anchored to reality. Tony learned quickly that escape was impossible. The Ten Rings had guns, surveillance, and the knowledge that they were holding one of the most valuable men on Earth.
When the guards came, they didn't shout. They pointed. They gave orders.
They showed him the crate of Jericho missile parts.
"We want this," one of them said through a translator. "You will build it."
Tony stared at the logo. His logo.
He didn't reply.
They beat Yinsen the next day.
That got the message across.
Afterwards, Yinsen said nothing about it, just helped Tony limp back to the workbench.
Tony's hands trembled. Not from fear. From fury.
He sat in front of the crate, staring at his own weapons, wondering how many people had died because of his genius.
"They expect a missile," Yinsen said quietly. "Can you give them something else?"
Tony didn't respond right away. He just stared at the parts—powerful, modular, dense—and his mind started ticking.
"They gave me materials," he murmured, more to himself than anyone else. "They gave me tools."
"You're planning something," Yinsen said.
Tony looked at him. "I'm going to build us a way out."
------
Back to Glenn POV
Glenn hang up the earpiece connected to Skye after talking to her about the plans. He plan to sit this event out but he didn't expect to receive a call from Pepper Potts herself.
"Now that's interesting." Glenn muttered as he was lost in thoughts with amusement.
"What's that? A new mission?" Illyanna asked after taking a scoop of icecream.
"Yeah, kinda didn't expect that call to be honest." Glenn replied.
Glenn opened up his system interface and checked the quests. Sure enough, the mission triggered a system quest tailored for him.
•Rescue Tony Stark•
Tony Stark, a playboy billionaire has been abducted in Afghanistan to create missiles for the Ten Rings.
Escort Tony Stark back safely.
Condition: Alive
Reward: 20,000 points, Basic Conqueror's Haki, Military prestige +100
'Damn, I've been waiting for this reward.' Glenn exclaimed inwardly but his excitement was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"When are we going to leave? Ughh!" Illyana asked flinching with the brain freeze she had.
"Not until we settle your identity and codename so you better get along with the 'Tailor'." Glenn said while he took his laptop inside his room.
After a few minutes, he already set it up in a secured line and made a video call.
Not long after, the screen flickered and Skye's image appeared on the screen wearing a tank top. She looked like she just got out of shower.
"What is it this time? Didn't I already sent you the cooridinates? Please tell me you're not wasting my time for this call." Skye said, clearly annoyed.
Glenn didn't beat around the bush, going straight towards the topic.
"We got a new team member. We need to set up her code name, a calling card for her and a line connected to both of us. I'll give her my spare intercom."
Skye's eye widened in surprise and asked excitedly.
"Who? Finally, another new face! I'm getting tired of your sarcasm and jokes, I swear I'm thinking of cutting ties with you."
"You are just like an asian girl I knew. Tch! You are both savage. That hurts my feelings you know!"
Skye just rolled her eyes on him.
"So, who's the newbie?"
Glenn didn't reply. Instead he looked at his left and nodded.
Seconds later, Illyana appeared on the screen.
"Hello, Skye! It's been a while!"
"Holy shit! Are you kidding me?! You are just going to let her join our work? You are risking her life!"
Illyana upon hearing that wasn't angry. Instead, she showed her power by summoning her soul sword out of thin air.
Skye was dumbfounded at what she witnessed.
"Or not. Damn! I knew you were a mutant but I never knew your ability leans for combat."
"Surprised!" Illyana said with smug.
"Sigh! Fine! Give a second. Let me set it up for you."
Skye stood up, running around her room. On the camera, she can be seen connecting bunch of wires on something behind the camera.
"Okay, what's her number?"
Glenn answered for Illyana.
"865-86*-****"
"Code name?"
Glenn thought for a moment, before answering.
"Sweeper."
"Huh? Why?"
"Her role is exactly that, clean up the trash." Glenn smirked.
"It's lame but somehow... I like it." Illyana muttered.
"Whatever! The cards will be sent to you in five business days like yours before. And Sweeper, welcome to the team. I'll call your number later so you can directly call me when you were assigned to a mission."
"That won't be anytime soon. She's on probation."
"Overprotective." Skye scoffed.
"I call it, a good mentor."
"Mentor my ass."
After ending the call with Skye, Glenn picked up his keys and said.
"Let's go."
"Where to?"
"Mall." Glenn grinned. "We're gonna buy some summer outfits. Sunglasses, sunscreen and lots of cheeseburgers."
"I want those with bacon and egg. Oh! Don't forget the chips and ice cold soda."
"Never knew you're more of a protein lady?"
"That's a side effect when you stay long enough in Limbo."
"Fair enough."
---
Over the next several days, Tony changed. The pain was still there, but the helplessness was replaced with fire. The cave became his lab. The parts—his weapons—became pieces of something else entirely. He spent long hours sketching in the dirt with scrap metal, building a miniature arc reactor first.
Yinsen watched him work. "That's very advanced."
"It's a scaled-down fusion reactor," Tony explained. "Clean energy. Self-sustaining."
"You built one in a cave?"
"Yeah. With a box of scraps," he grinned wryly. "You ever hear the term 'necessity is the mother of invention'?"
"That's an understatement."
Tony attached the new arc reactor to the harness in his chest. It clicked. Hummed. The glow pulsed steady and strong.
"Much better," he muttered.
Yinsen nodded. "What next?"
Tony stood, testing his legs. "Armor."
"Armor?"
He began sketching something on the cave wall—a bulky humanoid shape with reinforced joints and flamethrower nozzles. "I'm not building a missile. I'm building us a suit. Something to help us walk out of here."
Yinsen's eyes widened. "Walk out?"
"Crash the gate. Burn everything in sight. Leave no one standing."
Yinsen stared for a moment, then began nodding slowly. "I'll help."
It became a rhythm. Mornings were for salvaging parts from the crates under the watchful eye of the guards. Afternoons were for hammering metal, welding joints, assembling servos. Evenings were for whispers in the dark.
"Do you have family?" Tony asked once, holding a spanner in his oil-streaked hands.
"A wife," Yinsen said. "And a daughter."
"Where are they now?"
Yinsen's eyes softened. "Gone. Taliban. Years ago."
Tony looked down. "I'm sorry."
"You asked earlier if I thought you were lucky," Yinsen said. "You are. You have a second chance. Most don't."
Tony nodded. "Then I'm going to earn it."
The suit took shape slowly. Heavy, uneven, but resilient. The armor was crude but layered. Tony's technical knowledge turned scrap into strength—reconfiguring thrusters, wiring together a rudimentary control system, and improvising weapon systems. It became less of a prototype and more of a symbol.
A machine of defiance.
"We'll need a distraction," Tony said.
"I'll handle it," Yinsen replied.
Tony stopped working. "No. You're getting out too."
Yinsen looked at him kindly. "That's not how this ends for me, Stark."
Tony opened his mouth to argue, but the other man just smiled and handed him a circuit.
The night before the escape, Tony couldn't sleep. He sat beside the suit, lit only by the soft blue glow of the arc reactor. It reminded him of something sacred—like a heartbeat.
Yinsen sat across from him.
"You are not the same man who came here," the doctor said.
"No. I'm worse."
"No. You're aware. That's the difference. You're awake now."
Tony looked up at him. "Do you really think this will work?"
Yinsen grinned. "It doesn't have to work forever. Just long enough."
The next day came fast.
They moved with purpose, donning their roles like masks. Tony slipped into the Mark I suit with Yinsen's help, the armor clamping shut with a hiss. Inside, it was hot. Heavy. Claustrophobic.
"Remember the plan," Yinsen whispered.
"I punch. You run."
Yinsen nodded. "See you on the other side."
Alarms blared.
The guards saw sparks and smoke pouring from the far end of the cave. They rushed forward, shouting orders, guns raised.
That's when the flamethrower fired.
A river of fire scorched the corridor, and Tony stepped forward—slow, deliberate, unstoppable. Bullets pinged off the suit like hail on steel.
He raised his arms.
Launched.
Explosions rocked the mountain.
Somewhere in the chaos, Tony saw Yinsen fall—clutching his side, blood soaking his robes.
"YINSEN!"
He charged, swatting guards aside, but it was too late.
Yinsen looked up at him, face pale. "This was always the plan."
"No. You were supposed to get out."
"My journey ends here. Yours doesn't."
Tony clenched his fists, rage and sorrow warring in his chest.
"Don't waste it," Yinsen whispered.
Then he was gone.
Tony didn't have time to mourn. More guards poured in.
However, he was skeptical when he saw one of them suddenly fell and the others were like escaping from something.
Someone was helping him.
Since the opportunity presented itself, he unleashed everything the suit had—missiles, fire, brute strength. Then destroyed crates of weapons created by his own company. The cave collapsed behind him in a thunder of dust and stone.
The—BOOM!
A massive ball of fire sprung out of the scene and a rising figure can be seen flying out of it.
He emerged from the fire like a demon—battered, blazing, but alive.
The suit gave out halfway through the desert and he fell uncontrollably unto the sand with thud. Though in pain and the reactor still hummed. Tony manage to push the armor out of his body and lay in the sand, blinking at the sky tired and panting.
But peace was cut short when he saw two heads looking down at him.
"That him?" Illyana asked unsure.
"Damn, Tony Stark. You look like shit. Does the cave have a dialysis center or something? Cause you look like a patient undergoing chemotherapy. Honestly."
"Who—who are you?"
"Oh my bad, we forgot to introduce ourselves. I'm Handyman and she's my uh... Intern?"
"And we're here to fetch you out of that shithole."
"Uhuh! See, we've made it in time!" Glenn said munching on a cheeseburger he just took from his backpack.
"You don't look like an extraction team." Tony said with suspicion.
"Meh—small details. Are you kidding me? You seriously want me to put on a suit with this kind of weather? Nahh. This Hawaiian shirt looks cool. Besides, bullets dodge me."
Tony retort his bragging. He just slowly stood up, whisking the sand away from his body.
"To be honest, we're not an extraction team from military." Glenn suddenly said after taking a big bite.
Tony stopped and asked.
"Who sent you?"
"We were hired by someone who cares enough about your well being. Blond hair. Standard secretary outfit. Ring any bells?Yep! Mercenaries. FYI! We're top tier! Like top of the top."
"Curious, what's the price?" Tony asked.
"You'll gonna find out soon." Glenn smirked.
"Wait, do you still have any of those? I'll trade anything for a cheeseburger." Tony said in envy.
"Consider it done! One cheeseburger coming right up!" Glenn grinned in satisfaction while fetching another cheeseburger from his backpack.
"Thanks! Huh? Why do I feel like, I've signed a devils contract?" Tony muttered.