Perfect Stealth

Operating an armored vehicle was not all that difficult. If all you wanted was to get it moving, one hand was enough. But if you wanted it to fire ammunition on command and deal damage, then you really did need specialized knowledge.

Yuri drove west.

Tony had been kidnapped by the Fake Ten Rings Gang. Their emblem was a large circle made up of ten smaller circles connected together—the very emblem the Captain had rubbed off.

On the off chance it might help, he read the memories of an armed man the Captain had beaten half to death. Sure enough, he learned that the gang's leader had recently captured some big shot and taken him to a more secluded base.

Unfortunately, the man hadn't had much schooling. He only knew they'd been heading west, and had no idea how far.

"Hey, kid!"

The Captain, who had just gotten used to having such an unreliable driver, tapped his personal computer. "Are you sure you still want to go west? Our search area's already on the edge of the map... Any farther west, and we'll be in the middle of nowhere."

"The middle of nowhere?"

Yuri forced the armored vehicle up a hill with a slope of over fifty degrees. Once he'd parked, he pointed to a thin wisp of smoke two thousand meters away. "There wouldn't be smoke in the middle of nowhere—unless some clever monkeys learned to cook behind our backs."

The Captain squinted at it. In the setting sun, the wisp of smoke was so faint it looked as if it might disappear at any moment.

He raised his binoculars and took a closer look. It was easy to make out a flag fluttering in the wind, bearing the exact same emblem he'd wiped off the vehicle's door.

"Oh! My God!"

He gave Yuri a hard punch in the chest. "Whether or not our target is hiding there, we'll come out ahead if we report these coordinates to the US Military."

Yuri grabbed some canned food and beer from the vehicle. While there was still light, he lit the portable gas stove and heated up their food.

He glanced at the Captain, who was hesitating over his personal computer, then turned off the stove and beckoned him over to eat. "It'll be dark soon. How about we take a gamble?"

The Captain popped open a can, then drained his beer with a long glug-glug-glug. After a satisfied "Nice!" he opened another bottle and clinked it hard against Yuri's. "Then let's take a gamble!"

"Two machine guns, three gunners. No watchtower, no searchlights. The patrol changes shifts every three hours, and they're incredibly lax..."

The two of them hid in a small hollow about five hundred meters from the Fake Ten Rings Gang's base, pressing their heads together as they compared their observations.

The Captain pulled two sections of suppressor from behind his waist. They each fitted one to the muzzle of their gun.

After carefully checking their gear once more, the Captain repeated the plan. "We sneak in! Our goal is to go unnoticed. I go first, you follow. I take the left, you take the right. If we're spotted, I'll draw their fire while you get away as fast as you can."

"I've already sent the coordinates to the US Military. We've got half an hour! Ready, young summer intern?"

Yuri: "Yes, sir!"

"Move out!"

Yuri watched the Captain hunch over and crawl forward for two hundred meters before casually strolling out from behind the hollow.

To regain his human form, he had killed four Eternals and absorbed their abilities: Ajak's healing, Phastos's scientific and creative talents, Druig's mind control, and Makkari's Super Speed.

After he absorbed them, these abilities had become much weaker, nowhere near the level of the Eternals in his memories. But controlling the minds of one or two people was still easy enough.

The two Ten Rings Gang members manning the machine guns acted like idiots. They deliberately struck a pose that ensured no one would notice they were dead, then watched Yuri fire a muffled round at each of them before promptly kicking the bucket.

He was about to move on when he suddenly felt reluctant to leave the guns behind. So Yuri crouched down and got to work, removing the machine gun's tripod and detaching the gun itself.

After wrapping himself in ammunition belts, he nodded in satisfaction and continued toward the next checkpoint.

He used the same trick to kill the machine gunner there. He removed the tripod, slung the M14 over his back, and hefted a machine gun weighing over a hundred pounds. With ammunition belts wrapped over both shoulders, he headed toward the base along the shadows beside the wall.

Sneaking in?

The perfect sneak was to kill every enemy who saw you!

"Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat...!"

A fierce firefight suddenly erupted inside the base. Yuri looked up. That no-good Captain had been spotted, and he was locked in a brutal skirmish with the enemy!

As the base quickly lit up, Yuri activated Super Speed and raced toward the battle, sneakily taking up position behind the Ten Rings Gang members ganging up on the Captain.

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat...!"

A hail of bullets, as dense as a once-in-a-century downpour, ripped in from behind. The powerful recoil traveled through the gun and into its wielder. But the Mutants' great strength let him not only withstand the force but also aim with ease and sweep the gun in deliberate bursts...

A hundred meters away, the Captain crouched behind cover and pulled out a small mirror to see where the heavy fire was coming from. When he spotted Yuri holding a machine gun, looking like the Terminator brought to life, he couldn't stop himself from swearing.

"What the fuck!?"

Deep in a winding cave, behind a heavy, airtight iron door, Tony Stark was hammering a sheet of steel when he suddenly frowned. He cocked his head and asked Yinsen, who was striking the same pose beside him, "Did you hear that, Mr. Yinsen?"

"Yes, sir!"

A look of relief crossed Yinsen's weathered face. He set down his work and patted his cellmate lightly on the shoulder. "Congratulations, Mr. Stark. You're getting out early!"

A smile appeared on Tony's face, gloomy for so many days. He excitedly wrapped his arms around his friend and pounded him on the back. "Not me. Us! You and I are finally getting out of this hellhole!"

Yinsen smiled without a word, but an inexplicable light flickered in his eyes. He pulled a bulletproof vest from beneath the mattress and handed it to Tony. "Put this on quickly. Victory's just ahead. You wouldn't want all our efforts to go to waste, would you?"

Tony hurriedly struggled into the vest, then noticed that Yinsen wasn't making a move to do the same. He asked in confusion, "What about yours, Yinsen? Don't worry, I can help you put it on."

Yinsen smiled and shook his head. He looked at Tony and said calmly, "I'm sorry, Mr. Stark. I lied to you earlier."

"No! Yinsen, we said we'd get out together!"

"Mr. Stark, my family died in the war. The weapons that killed them were made by Stark Industries."

"I'm sorry, Yinsen. I'm so sorry... But you saved me?"

"Then cherish it. Don't waste your life."

"BANG!"

The armed men outside shoved the iron door open. Without even looking at the charging thugs, Yinsen pulled a homemade repeating rifle from behind the workbench. With a joking smile, he said to Tony, "See? Just like they didn't notice you secretly making weapons, you didn't notice me, either, Mr. Stark."

As soon as he finished speaking, his smile vanished. He pulled the bolt, turned around, and fired. The bullet shot out like a venomous snake and sank its fangs into a thug who was rushing to shoot back.

"Don't worry about me, Mr. Stark! I'm just going to see my fa...mi...ly."

"No! Yinsen!"