Captive
A series of images flash past the screen. Tony bleeding and covered with bandages. A tables full of medical supplies. Tony’s open heart being treated. A man performing the surgery. Tony screaming. Something being placed in his chest.
Bruce pointed at the screen. “Did you just have open heart surgery whilst being conscious?”
Tony bit his lip and nodded. “…yeah.”
“Jesus Tony.” Pepper breathed whilst clutching his hand.
“It’s not easy.” Nebula said from the back to Tony. “I respect you Stark.”
Tony gave her a quizzical look, taking in her many robotic features. He nodded back.
Bucky winced at the screen; the blood, screams and surgical equipment being all too familiar. Shuri patted his arm in comfort.
Cut to Tony lying asleep on a cot with a bandage across his chest and a tube going through his nose.
He jerks awake and looks around, panicky.
Tony grabs the tube in his nose and pulls it out. He groans when it keeps on going, until he just rips the whole thing out.
“Oh god…” Scott almost puked. Hope rolled her eyes at him.
He turns to his right and sees a glass of water on the table beside him. He flexes his hand and reaches for it, but ends up knocking it over instead.
Tony looks around and sees a man with glasses humming whilst shaving on the other side of the room.
Tony gasped.
“Who is that?” Thor asked.
“Yinsen.” Is all Tony said.
The others thought there’d be an explanation coming up so they didn’t press the questions.
Tony tries to reach for the other glass of water, but is stopped suddenly by a machine that is connected to him by a wire.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The mysterious man says.
Tony turns to see the battery and starts to panic as he follows the wire to his chest. He feels something metal and unnatural on his chest and frantically rips the bandages off to reveal a crudely made machine embedded into his body.
“Oh my God.” Someone breathed.
“This is like straight out of a horror movie.” Sam muttered.
“That does not look safe.” Bruce commented.
“It was a crude job.” Tony shruged. “Yinsen was under a lot of pressure.”
Cut to Tony examining the machine with a shard of mirror. There’s a lot of scaring and burn marks around the irritated flesh connecting to the device.
“Sheesh! I could have totally done something better.” Rocket said. “At least something a lot cooler and maybe a bit less gross looking.”
“You fixed it right?” Shuri asked.
“Of course.” Tony rolled his eyes. “I fixed it.”
“What the hell did you do to me?” He rasps out.
“What I did?” Yinsen chuckles. “What I did is to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there’s a lot left and it’s headed into your atrial septum.
“How are you still alive?” Bruce demanded.
“What’s the atrial septum?” Quill asked.
“The heart.” Vision answered.
“Damn.” Quill shuddered.
“Here, want to see?” He holds up a vile with the shrapnel inside. “I have a souvenir. Take a look.”
He tosses Tony the vile, who catches it and looks at it.
“I’ve seen many wounds like that in my village.” Yinsen continues. “We call them the walking dead because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs.”
“That sounds terrifying.” Mantis said, eyes wide with awe.
“What is this?”
“That is an electromagnet, hooked up to a car battery and it’s keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart.
Tony zips up his hoody and notices a camera in the corner of the room.
Yinsen follows his gaze. “That’s right. Smile.” He looks back down.
Tony asks. “Where are we?”
They are interrupted by a clang coming from the large metal door that locks them in. They hear threatening voices speaking Arabic.
Pepper nervously grabbed Tony’s hand.
Yinsen panics. “Come on, stand up. Stand up!” He grabs Tony by his arms and leads him to his feet. “Just do as I do. Come on, put your hands up.”
The doors open and three men walk in.
“Those are my guns.” Tony mutters. “How did they get my guns?”
“You really have no idea?” Hope asked.
Tony shook his head. “No.”
The man in the lead, Abu Bakaar, opens his arms wide and speaks in Arabic, whist indicating for Yinsen to translate.
“Welcome’s, Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America.”
“See? Even they think it.” Wanda bit out.
“It wasn’t his fault, dear.” Vision placated her.
“He is honoured.” Yinsen translates. “He wants you to build a missile. The Jericho missile that you demonstrated.”
Bakaar them a picture of the missile.
Strange rolled his eyes. “Not even a day in public and it’s already becoming a problem.”
“I know that now.” Tony sighed. “The missile was a mistake, okay?”
Tony glances round and then says. “I refuse.”
Gamora huffed. “Brave, but stupid.”
“Don’t act so surprised.” Tony said. “I may be an arrogant asshole, but I’m not just about to give in to some terrorists with my guns.”
“That was honourable, Tony.” Steve said.
Cut to Tony’s head being dunked in a vat of water.
Suddenly an image flashes across the screen of the electromagnet and some kind of ring.
“What was that?” T’Challa asked.
“I remember this.” Tony said. “That was the moment I got the idea for the miniaturised arc reactor.”
“Well, you know what they say.” Bruce said. “You get the best ideas whilst under stress.”
Tony’s head is forced in a sack as he his dragged outside The sack is ripped off his head and he is forced to look at the multitude of his weapons that the terrorists have gathered.
“You see? This is your legacy, Tony.” Wanda said.
Bakaar asks what Tony thinks.
“I think you’ve got a lot of my weapons.” Tony responds.
“No shit.” Scott scoffed.
Bakaar gestures around him and says that they have everything Tony needs to build the Jericho missile and that he should start to make a list of materials. He says that once he’s done he will be set free.
Bakaar holds out a hand to Tony, who hesitates then shakes.
“No, he won’t.” Tony says.
Yinsen agrees.
“You’re smarter than you look.” Gamora said.
Cut to inside the cave, where Yinsen and Tony sit by a fire, where Tony looks dejected.
“I’m sure they’re looking for you, Stark. But they will never find you in these mountains. Look, what you just saw, that is your legacy, Stark. Your life’s work, in the hands of those murderers.”
“Exactly.” Wanda muttered.
“Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?”
“Why should I do anything?” Tony interrupts. “They going to kill me, you, either way. And if they don’t I’ll probably be dead in a week.”
Pepper rubbed his arm sadly, trying to offer some comfort.
Steve winced. It was hard seeing Tony look so defeated.
“Well then, this is a very important week for you, isn’t it?”
“That is a good way of putting it.” T’Challa said.
Cut to men working and lifting materials for Tony, whilst Tony issues out instructions whilst Yinsen translates.
“That’s more like the Tony we know.” Rhodey said, pleased to see Tony get back some of his motivation.
Tony starts work by dissecting a missile.
“How many languages do you speak?”
“A lot, but apparently not enough for this place. They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian.”
“Who are these people?”
“They are your loyal customers, sir. They call themselves the Ten Rings.”
“He said they speak Russian.” Clint pointed out. “Could they have some connection to Hydra?”
Natasha pondered this. “Not that I was aware of in the Red Room. Ever come across the Ten Rings, James?”
Bucky frowned. “I remember hearing about them, but I don’t think they had any association with Hydra. In fact I think they were considered rivals of some sort. Though, they're not to be taken lightly. They’re just as powerful in their own right.”
Men of the Ten Rings continue to watch on camera as Tony begins dissecting another missile.
“You know, we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process.” Yinsen says.
“Uh-huh.” Tony dismisses.
“Not like anyone can get Tony to tell them what’s going on.” Happy chuckled.
“Yeah. We all know what Tony can do when he keeps his plans to himself.” Steve said icily.
Tony pulls out the inner workings and plucks something out from them.
“Okay, we don’t need this.” He tosses the rest of the machine over his shoulder, leaving him to hold up the tiny piece of metal.
“Ha!” Quill laughed. “Reminds me kinda of you Rocket.”
“What is that?”
“That’s palladium, 0.15 grams. We need at least 1.6, so why don’t you go break down the other 11?” He says casually.
Shuri rolled her eyes. “You make it sound so simple, Stark.”
Tony makes a mould whilst Yinsen heats something over the fire.
“Careful. Careful, we only got one shot at this.” Tony anxiously says over his shoulder.
“Relax. I have steady hands.” Yinsen says. “Why do you think you’re still alive?”
Yinsen pours the molten palladium into the mould.
“What do I call you?” Tony asks.
“Now is the time you ask?” Steve scolded.
Tony didn’t have an answer for that and just shrugged.
“My name is Yinsen.”
“Yinsen. Nice to meet you.”
Yinsen smirks. “Nice to meet you too.”
Tony smiled sadly to himself.
Tony lifts the solid ring of palladium out of the mould and places it into a dish. Tony starts soldering wires and casing onto the ring. He hooks it up to a battery and it turns on with that famous blue glow.
“Wow. Is that the arc reactor.” Perter asked, marvelled.
“I gotta say, Stark, that’s impressive.” Shuri approved. “Especially as it was built in such conditions.” And without vibranium. But she didn’t mention that.
Yinsen examines it. “That doesn’t look like a Jerico missile.”
“That’s because it’s a miniaturised arc reactor.” Tony says. “I got a big one powering my factory at home. It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart.”
“You say that as if miniaturising a massive experimental form of technology is simple.” Bruce said.
“Well, he did have a helpful drowning-induced vision to get him started.” Natasha joked.
“But what could it generate?”
“If my math is right, and it always is, three gigajoules per second.”
Rocket turned to Quill. “How much is that is regular terms?”
“About the size of three mega-jets.” Quill said.
Rocket laughed his mad-scientist laugh. “Imagine all the weapons I could power with that!”
“It wasn’t built to power any weapons like that.” Tony scolded.
“Oh come on! You get to use it in your super suit and I don’t get to use it in my rocket launder?”
“The suit is built to protect people.”
“So’s my guns!”
“I said no!”
“But my bombs!”
“No!”
Rocket pouted and sat back. “Oh, I’ll get that core.” He muttered under his breath.
“That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes.”
“Yeah. Or something big for 15 minutes.”
“Is this going where I think this is going?” Peter asked with building anticipation.
Tony places numerous sheets on top of the table and alignes them together.
“This is our ticket out of here.”
“What is it?”
“Flatten them out and look.”
They come together to show the mark one Iron Man suit.
“That’s so cool!” Peter exclaimed.
“Clever.” Natasha nodded in approval.
“Oh wow. Impressive.” Yinsen whispers.
“Ha!” Fury chuckled. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.