Ho Yinsen

Inside the cave, the lights cast the rock walls in a sickly white.

The terrorist leader, Raza, stood before Tony, with two armed guards behind him. Raza's face was hidden in shadow, but the impatience in his voice scraped through the air like sandpaper.

"Before dawn tomorrow," Raza said in heavily accented English, "I want to see the completed Jericho Missile. Otherwise—"

He glanced at Yinsen.

"Otherwise, you'll both die."

Tony crouched before the workbench, a wrench in his hand and no expression on his face. He neither nodded nor argued. He merely kept his head lowered, like a stone statue.

Raza left with the guards. Their footsteps gradually faded, and the cave returned to silence.

Yinsen tremblingly set down the wrench. "He can't wait any longer," he said quietly.

Tony raised his head. A spark flickered in his eyes. "Then we get out today."

Three kilometers away, Chen Xiao sat cross-legged on a rock ledge, wrapped in a dark blue mage's cloak. It was Kamar-Taj's standard issue: thick, windproof, and with the hood pulled up, it showed only half his face—far more suitable for the desert's nighttime temperature swings than floral shorts. Of course, he was still wearing those floral shorts beneath the cloak. Mages needed to be comfortable too.

His eyes were closed, his Observation Haki fully unleashed like an invisible net covering the entire cave area. Ever since sensing that the terrorists had ordered Tony to deliver the missile by the next day, Chen Xiao had been keeping watch here.

"Tony, Tony," he muttered to himself, "you'll never repay what you owe me. Never."

The wind swept sand through the air, making his cloak flap loudly.

Chen Xiao tightened his hood, chewed on potato chips, and "watched" the live performance through his senses.

There was no day or night inside the cave, only dim lights.

Yinsen worked nervously. The two of them crouched by the cell door, with a pile of parts spread out before them—explosives, fuses, detonators stripped from the Jericho Missile, and several wires pulled from discarded circuit boards.

Tony moved with practiced ease, as if he had dismantled the thing a thousand times. In fact, he had—only before, he had dismantled his own company's products in a laboratory. Now, he was dismantling his own company's products in a cave to blow up someone else.

Yinsen passed him tools from the side, occasionally helping wrap a few turns of tape.

"Is this enough?" Yinsen asked softly.

Tony stuffed the explosives into an empty ammunition crate, closed the lid, connected the fuse with wires, then secured the crate behind the iron-barred door with several loops of wire. He stepped back and checked the trigger mechanism—the moment the door was pushed open, the switch would close and complete the circuit.

"Enough to blow open a door," Tony said. "Enough to kill one or two people too."

Yinsen fell silent for a moment.

"Then they'll draw more people here."

The two exchanged a look. There were no unnecessary goodbyes.

Tony checked the explosives strapped to the door one last time, dusted off his hands, and said, "Remember, stick to the plan."

"Stick to the plan," Yinsen repeated.

In the surveillance room, Raza stared at the screen, his frown growing deeper. The workbench in the footage was empty, missile parts scattered everywhere, but the man who was supposed to be crouched there dismantling the missile was gone.

"Where is he?" Raza asked in the local language.

The guards exchanged looks.

"Go check the cell," Raza ordered.

Two guards raised their rifles and headed toward the cave where Tony and Yinsen were being held.

Meanwhile, Tony had already put on the Mark One. His entire body looked like a slab of pork hung from iron hooks, unable to move.

Thick steel plates covered his entire body, while the energy ring in his chest gave off a faint blue glow. He crouched in the deepest corner of the cave, Yinsen beside him. The armor's hydraulic system hummed—the startup sequence was already running.

Tony's helmet had not yet closed. His face was drenched in sweat as he calmly directed Yinsen at the computer.

"They're coming," Yinsen said in a low voice.

Tony looked toward the entrance, then at the data panel.

"We'll make it."

The two guards reached the cell door and shouted questions in the local language.

Through the small window in the iron door, the room appeared empty. One of them raised his rifle and jerked his head toward the other. Understanding, the second guard pulled out a key and opened the door.

Boom—

The instant the door was pushed open, the trigger switch inside the ammunition crate closed.

The explosion erupted through the cave like a muffled thunderclap. The iron door was blasted away and smashed into the opposite rock wall, sending stone fragments flying. The shockwave threw both guards to the ground. One stopped moving on the spot, while the other, covered in blood, struggled twice before collapsing as well.

Smoke and dust filled the entire corridor.

"More of them will come soon," Tony said.

Yinsen's hands were shaking—not from fear, but from tension. He stared at the data panel on Tony's gauntlet. The progress bar had only reached forty percent.

"Too slow..." Yinsen muttered.

Tony looked at him. Yinsen's face was pale and his forehead covered in sweat, but there was no retreat in his eyes.

"Yinsen," Tony said, "listen to me. Stick to the plan."

Yinsen looked at him.

"And then?"

"Then stand behind me, back-to-back," Tony said. "I'll block the bullets."

Yinsen's lips twitched, but he did not smile.

Noisy shouts came from the far end of the cave. They were in the local language—urgent, furious, overlapping. The footsteps drew closer and closer.

Tony stared at the data panel. Fifty percent... fifty-five percent...

"They're here." Yinsen straightened up from the computer.

"You need time." Yinsen's voice was so calm that it did not sound like he was saying, "I'm going to die." He glanced at the data panel. "You need time. I'll buy it for you."

"Listen, Yinsen, stick to the plan—"

"Yinsen! Yinsen!"

Tony's voice changed, tinged with panic, as he watched Yinsen pick up a gun and rush out.

As Yinsen charged out of the cave entrance, he fired several shots at the ceiling. The gunfire echoed back and forth off the rock walls, frightening the terrorists into turning around and running.

Three kilometers away, Chen Xiao's Observation Haki clearly "saw" the scene.

Watching Yinsen heroically drive the enemies all over the place, only to turn a corner and face dozens of gun barrels, Chen Xiao burst out laughing.

He did not move. He did not need to.

With a flick of his right index finger, dozens of tiny portals opened against Yinsen's skin, helping him avoid several fatal wounds. Electric currents sent through the portals knocked him unconscious, making it look as though he had died.

"Uncle Yinsen, you can take your final bow now."

Chen Xiao withdrew his finger, tightened his hood, and continued crunching away on his potato chips.

Deep inside the cave, the progress bar on the data panel finally jumped to one hundred percent.

The Mark One's hydraulic system let out a piercing roar. Tony suddenly stood, completely encased in heavy metal armor. He strode outside, each step making the ground tremble faintly.

After the battle, the corridor was a complete mess. Rubble, smoke, and fallen guards lay everywhere.

Tony rounded the corner and saw Yinsen lying off to the side, covered in blood. Most of Yinsen's face was smeared with sand and blood.

Tony rushed over, dropped to one knee, opened his faceplate, and shook Yinsen. The shaken-awake Yinsen looked at the giant metal shell holding him, and his pupils brightened slightly.

"I knew... you could do it..." His voice was so weak it was almost inaudible.

"We have to go," Tony said urgently. "Come on, come with me. We have a plan. We have to stick to it."

Yinsen shook his head, his voice weak but calm. "This was part of the plan, Stark..."

"Pull yourself together," Tony gritted out. "You'll see your family soon. Get up."

Yinsen's eyes reddened, but the faint smile remained on his lips.

"My family is already dead, Stark..." he said. "I'm going to see them now. It's okay. This is what I wanted... my plan."

Something seemed to clog Tony's throat.

"Thank you for saving me," he said quietly.

Yinsen's fingers rose with difficulty and rested on Tony's chest armor, patting it lightly—where the energy ring was, where Tony's heart was.

"Don't waste it..." he said with the last of his strength. "Don't waste your life, Stark."

"Yinsen..." Tony called softly.

More than ten minutes later.

With a boom, Chen Xiao stood with his hands on his hips, his right hand shading his brow as he watched the big metal can charge out through the flames, carve a perfect arc through the air, and crash heavily into a sand dune. The armor fell apart, steel plates scattering everywhere.

"Not bad."

He watched Stark, who had escaped alive and lay sprawled in the sand, muttering, "Not bad," while clenching his fist and pounding the ground.

"Not bad."

Chen Xiao stretched lazily, tossed the mummy-wrapped Yinsen into a portal, then transformed into a bolt of lightning and vanished soundlessly into the heat-shimmering air.