Escape in Progress

"Yinsen, you're only flesh and blood. Trust the great Tony Stark—he and his armor can get you and the Dragon Country boy out of here!" Tony kept his voice as low as possible, but his passion and arrogance were impossible to hide.

Yinsen adjusted his glasses, concern still written across his face. "Tony, I believe in both you and your armor, but it's too dangerous."

As he spoke, he pointed at the first-generation reactor in Tony's chest. "That's what I'm worried about."

Tony lowered his head to look at it, frowning slightly. "Don't worry. This little thing embodies the work of my entire life."

Yinsen was not reassured by Tony's words, but Tony felt that Yinsen was worrying too much.

"If they discover us before the armor starts up, we might all die."

Yinsen voiced another of his concerns.

Tony fell silent. The armor's startup sequence was indeed a major problem. Chen Tian, the Dragon Country boy, had handled those procedures lately, and after the three of them had discussed it, they all felt the program was perfect.

But there had been too little time to build the armor. None of them had tested it. To keep those terrorists from discovering their true intentions, every component had been made separately, and even the program had never been tested.

Listening to their conversation, Chen Tian finally realized something.

There had been no such scene in the movie's plot, but this was the real world now. Perhaps in the original world, the two of them had discussed this very issue as well.

And Yinsen's sacrifice had happened because the armor's startup sequence was too slow. He had rushed out to buy time for Tony's armor to activate.

Chen Tian walked over to the two of them and slapped Yinsen on the shoulder.

Yinsen looked at Chen Tian in confusion.

Chen Tian grinned. "Yinsen, even if you don't trust me, you should trust yourself and Tony. You and he both verified the startup sequence."

Then he turned to Tony. "I trust that genius Tony Stark wouldn't make such a rookie mistake, right?"

Tony raised an eyebrow, a signature narcissistic smile curling across his lips. "Dragon Country boy, you finally said something insightful."

He turned toward the workbench and dramatically spread out the crumpled blueprint. "Look at this. How could the creation of the greatest genius in history, Tony Stark, possibly contain such a rookie mistake?"

Chen Tian fought back the urge to roll his eyes. "Yes, yes. Tony Stark never makes mistakes."

"Hey!" Tony suddenly turned around, one finger nearly poking Chen Tian in the nose. "Don't use that tone you'd use to coax a child, Dragon Country boy."

"Tch. Aren't you the one who keeps calling me 'Dragon Country boy'? By the way, can you even remember our names?" Chen Tian curled his lip.

Yinsen adjusted his glasses, amusement flashing in his eyes behind the lenses. "All right, you two, we don't have time—"

Tony was about to say something when Chen Tian quietly cut him off.

"Gentlemen, have you ever heard of openly repairing the plank road while secretly taking the path through Chencang?"

Tony and Yinsen exchanged looks. Neither understood what it meant, but Tony crossed his arms with a haughty expression, as if he knew everything.

"What does that mean?" Yinsen looked at Tony and knew that he had no idea either, but would never ask. So Yinsen spoke for them both.

Chen Tian said with a grin, "It's an old saying from Dragon Country. What we're doing right now is exactly what it means."

"On the surface, we're building missiles for those damned bastards, but in reality, we're preparing our escape plan."

Tony and Yinsen nodded, but neither understood why Chen Tian had brought it up. What was the point? Still, neither spoke, because they could tell Chen Tian had more to say.

"Although our plan is nearly complete, we need to make sure it goes perfectly. So..." Chen Tian looked at Tony.

"Tony, we need you to work a little harder."

Tony's lips curled upward. "Go ahead, Dragon Country boy. What do you need me to do?"

Chen Tian sighed helplessly. "Stop calling me Dragon Country boy." As he spoke, Chen Tian stood and walked toward the workbench. Yinsen followed him over.

Chen Tian looked over the cluttered components on the workbench. "Tony, can you use this stuff to make a few more bombs?"

Tony narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the scattered parts, his fingers unconsciously tapping the metal table. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. "Ha! This pile of scrap is enough for three Stark Special Welcome Bombs." He grabbed a discarded car battery. "This can be turned into a trigger..."

Yinsen adjusted his glasses worriedly. "Tony, if they explode in an enclosed space, won't that..."

"Relax, my doctor." Tony was already swiftly dismantling the parts. "I'll set them for directional blasts and make sure the shockwaves all go toward the entrance—" He suddenly stopped and turned to stare at Chen Tian. "Wait, Dragon Country boy, what do you need bombs for? We already have an escape plan."

A sly glint flashed through Chen Tian's eyes as he lowered his voice. "We need to create a chain trap. The first bomb goes on the door. When the guards break in—" He made an explosion gesture. "Boom! That'll buy us at least a thirty-second window."

Chen Tian gave a wicked smile. "Then, amid the chaos, we bury the other two bombs outside our door! Thirty seconds later, those two ambush bombs can delay them a little longer."

Chen Tian pointed at the armor. "I believe three bombs will be enough to make them wary of whether we have more. That'll let us start the armor perfectly. If only two explode, we can dig out the last one after the armor moves out and throw it like a grenade."

As Tony listened to Chen Tian's plan, his eyes gradually lit up. He rubbed the stubble on his chin, a playful smile appearing on his lips. "Dragon Country boy, I'm starting to suspect you served in special forces." He turned and began rummaging through the pile of parts. "A chain-explosion trap... I like that idea!"

Yinsen's eyes gleamed with surprise and admiration behind his lenses. "This plan is indeed more reliable than depending on the armor alone. The threat of three bombs will make the enemy misjudge the situation and think we have more traps waiting."

"Not only that," Tony said as he deftly dismantled the car battery, "we can make a fake detonator too." He picked up an old radio. "We can modify this into a remote receiver and make them think we can blow up the entire cave at any time!"

Chen Tian nodded. "Right, that's psychological warfare. Since we have Tony, a genius weapons expert, they'll be afraid. They won't know how many bombs Tony has made."

Yinsen poured cold water on their excitement. "But... they have heavy weapons. What if they go all out and simply blow up the cave?"

Tony and Chen Tian looked at each other and laughed. Tony crossed his arms again and jerked his chin toward Chen Tian, signaling him to explain.

Chen Tian shrugged. "Yinsen, did you forget? Everything we're doing is to make sure Tony's armor starts successfully. Our plan hasn't changed. We're just adding a little extra insurance to the armor's escape plan."

Only then did Yinsen realize that he had fallen into the same mental trap again. He slapped his forehead and laughed. "Right, right. My mind has been rather slow lately."

Chen Tian looked around and continued in a lowered voice. "Baldy gave us until the day after tomorrow, but they'll never expect us to act early."

He picked up an iron rod and quietly pointed it at the small window in the massive iron door holding the three of them captive. "We don't know what time it is, but based on their patrol intervals, we can determine when it's day and when it's night."

"We can assemble the armor during their longest gap between patrols."

Tony suddenly snapped his fingers. "Brilliant! Those idiots will definitely think we're working overtime to build bombs for them."

He rubbed his hands excitedly. "Then, while they're asleep, we'll give them one hell of a surprise!"

The three of them further refined the plan, then bent over to begin inspecting the armor. Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion. Whether they succeeded or failed would depend on tomorrow night.

On the sixth day, only the soft clinking of metal remained in the cave.

Using the sparks from his welding torch, Chen Tian glanced at the small window in the iron door—the guards had not come by for two hours.

"Now." Tony lowered his voice, though his hands moved astonishingly fast. As if performing a magic trick, he pulled the armor's core components from a pile of missile parts. "Yinsen, help me secure the chest plate."

Yinsen's hands trembled slightly, but his movements remained precise. He carefully connected the reactor to the armor's power system, and its blue light stood out sharply in the dim cave.

"Checking the startup program." Chen Tian crouched in front of the computer, his fingers flying across the keyboard. Lines of code flashed across the screen, and his frown deepened. "Tony, there's a problem with the hydraulic control in the left leg joint."

Tony cursed and tore off the armor plate he had just installed. "Damn it, this bearing is the wrong size!" He grabbed a file and began modifying the part, metal shavings scattering through the firelight.

Yinsen suddenly raised a finger. "Shh—" Footsteps came from the distance. The three froze instantly. Chen Tian quickly switched the computer screen, Tony pretended to weld a missile casing, and Yinsen picked up a notebook and feigned recording data.

The guard yawned as he pushed open the small window in the door, his flashlight beam sweeping over the workbench. "Still not done?"

"Almost." Tony did not look up, deliberately making the welding torch emit a blinding blue glare. "Keep interrupting a genius at work, and don't blame me if the missile blows up in the barrel tomorrow."

The guard withdrew resentfully. Once the footsteps faded away, Tony immediately dropped the act. "How much time do we have left?"

Chen Tian looked at the homemade water clock. "At most four hours until dawn." He turned back to the computer. "The program is fixed, but it needs recalibration."

"Then hurry up!" Sweat covered Tony's forehead, and the glow of the reactor in his chest flickered irregularly.

Yinsen gave him a worried look but said nothing, silently handing him another tool.

The three worked together like a precision machine. Tony assembled the main frame, Yinsen handled the circuitry, and Chen Tian continuously adjusted the control program.

Second by second, time slipped away. The temperature in the cave seemed to rise with the tension.

"The final step." Tony panted as he lifted the armor's helmet. "Dragon Country boy, is the program ready?"

"Call me Chen Tian!" Chen Tian corrected through gritted teeth, though his hands never stopped moving. "Just one last section of code... done!" He wiped away sweat. "In theory, it can complete a cold start in twelve seconds."

Yinsen suddenly grabbed Tony's arm. "Wait!" He pointed at the armor's ankle. "This hydraulic line is connected backward!"

Tony sucked in a sharp breath and hurriedly took it apart to reinstall it. Chen Tian watched the water level in the clock steadily drop, his heart pounding as if it would burst from his chest.

"Done!" Tony finally straightened up. The armor gleamed with a cold metallic sheen in the firelight. He looked at his two companions, a rare serious expression on his face. "Ready, gentlemen?"

Chen Tian checked the detonators one more time, while Yinsen tied the medical kit around his waist. The three exchanged smiles and high-fived beneath the dim light.

Tony climbed into the armor. As Chen Tian helped secure the final bolt, noisy shouts and the sound of guns being cocked suddenly came from outside.

"We've been discovered!" Yinsen's face went pale.

Before Yinsen's words had even faded, violent pounding and furious shouting erupted outside the door.

Chen Tian decisively pressed the detonator. A deafening explosion thundered from the door, and the entire cave shook. Rocks fell from the ceiling as a piercing alarm began to blare.

"Startup sequence! Now!" Chen Tian shouted as he hit the switch. Then he grabbed the two remaining bombs and handed them to Yinsen, and the two rushed out through the door.

They did not go far. Right outside the door, they quickly buried the bombs, then hurried back behind it.

Not long after the two hid on either side of the doorway, two explosions rang out from outside. It seemed the approaching terrorists had stepped on the bombs they had buried.

At the same time, the armor activated. Yinsen and Chen Tian hurriedly removed the chains securing it.

Tony's confident voice came from inside the armor. "Ha, gentlemen! Follow me! Let the hero Tony lead you back into the daylight!"

Tony's armor let out a dull metallic clank as he strode steadily out of the stone chamber.

Chen Tian and Yinsen followed closely behind. To their surprise, they discovered that the entire cave passage was empty.

"Strange..." Tony's voice echoed through the armor with a metallic timbre. "Where did all those lunatics go?"

Chen Tian warily scanned their surroundings. The torches on the cave walls were still burning. After such a huge commotion, there was no way the terrorists could have failed to react.

Chen Tian lowered his voice. "Tony, watch out for an ambush."

The three advanced carefully down the main passage. Tony's armor looked especially cumbersome in the narrow cave, its metal shell scraping the rock walls from time to time with a piercing sound.

"Knock, knock, knock..."

Several impacts against the cave wall suddenly rang out.

"Get down!" Tony's voice came from inside the armor as he quickly turned and shielded Chen Tian and Yinsen with it.

Several grenades exploded in the narrow passage, the shockwaves making all three of their eardrums ache.

Rubble and dust flew everywhere, while shrapnel carved several scars into Tony's armor.

"Damn it!" Tony's voice came from behind the faceplate. "They're lying in wait at the entrance!"

Tony's words were immediately proven true. Taking advantage of the confusion caused by the grenades, more than a dozen terrorists charged out from around the corner, spraying the three of them with AK fire.

Tony's armor rang with harsh metallic impacts beneath the hail of bullets. The rounds battered the crude armor like heavy rain, spraying sparks everywhere. He quickly turned, using the armor on his back to form a steel barrier for Yinsen and Chen Tian.

"Stay behind me!" Tony's voice boomed through the armor with a distinctive metallic hum.

He raised his right arm, and a small Rocket popped out from the arm guard. Because of the Mark I's crude design, the Rocket could only be aimed by eye.

But amid the endless bullets, Tony could not see clearly at all. He could only fire the Rocket based on instinct.

Boom!

His luck was good. The Rocket exploded among the crowd, blasting more than a dozen terrorists away and abruptly silencing the gunfire.

"Ha, lucky! A genius's luck is never bad!" Tony laughed excitedly at the success of his Rocket.

"Tony! Move!" Chen Tian suddenly shouted, and Tony hurriedly twisted to the side.

An RPG Rocket grazed his armor and exploded at the far end of the cave passage.

"Fuck! You dare sneak-attack a hero?!" Tony raged, cold sweat running down his forehead. Without Chen Tian's warning, this crude armor might not have been able to withstand a Rocket hit.

Tony angrily marched toward the terrorist who had fired the RPG at him. The terrorist hurriedly threw down the launcher and ran around the corner.

Tony chased after him without hesitation, then abruptly stopped at the corner, the soles of his metal boots screeching against the rock.

At the cave entrance, more than a dozen terrorists had set up heavy machine guns on the ground, while several others aimed RPGs directly at him.

"Wow..." Tony's voice turned dry inside the armor. "This is not good."