"Not bad, not bad," Tony nodded approvingly at Yinsen.
Yinsen picked up the nut from Tony side and placed it on his own, smiling as he said, "Twin."
The two were happily playing dice, and without Raiden participation, the game seemed much more enjoyable.
''I haven't asked you yet, where did you get this from?" Tony lifted the lid of the nearby kettle.
"'From a small town called Gulmira. It's a nice place.'" Yinsen smiled and shook his head, but beneath the surface of his smile lay a deep sorrow.
"'Do you have family?'" Tony asked.
"Yes" Yinsen answered as he rolled the dice. "Maybe I'll see them again when I leave this place… What about you, Stark?"
"No" Tony face twitched slightly as he calmly replied.
"No… So you're someone who has everything, yet nothing at all" Yinsen looked up at Tony hesitantly.
A hint of sadness flickered across Tony face.
"Hey, Raiden, what about you?" Tony turned to ask Raiden.
"Me? Heh, I had, maybe I had, perhaps they only appeared in my dreams,'" Raiden laughed. Family—such a distant word.
As Bjorn, he had no memory of parents or family; he was an orphan who grew up alone. And after becoming Raiden, family? He didn't even have memories from before he was a prisoner!
"It seems we have a lot in common. Let's get back to work," Tony walked over and patted Yinsen on the shoulder.
"Alright, let's see what we should do next." Yinsen put away the dice, stood up, and clapped his hands.
..........
"Shhh."
The fat man gestured to the Ten Rings members behind him, signaling them to be quiet, then tiptoed over
'Buddy, you're so big and burly! Why bother with such futile concealment?'
Anyway, the fat man tried his best to move quietly to the cell door, pushed open a small window on the iron door, and peered inside.
Tony and Yinsen seemed to be sitting there obediently, working. And the other guy? That bearded idiot? Oh, he's asleep. Everything seems normal.
The fat man nodded to the Ten Rings members behind him and led them away.
"Boss, what are they doing?"
"Working obediently."
...........
On the cluttered worktable, various parts and tools were scattered haphazardly. Beneath a pile of blueprints and useless items, a metal chestplate-like component was partially exposed.
The core parts and movable joints were almost complete. Tony and Yinsen had already started crafting the armor outer shell.
At the welding station, Tony, wearing goggles, was meticulously working on the armor shell, while Yinsen used parts dismantled from missiles to make bombs.
Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion. They were on the verge of success!
...........
"What they're making doesn't look anything like the photos!" In front of the display screen, the fat man and a few subordinates were comparing.
"Maybe he made some improvements?" one of the subordinates suggested.
"But the tail section doesn't look right either. This doesn't resemble a missile at all."
"Oh no! Quick, report this to the Boss!"
..........
The terrorist boss stood in front of the display screen, his left hand fiddling with the ring on his right finger, his attention fully focused on Tony and Yinsen movements on the screen.
Tony was testing a movable mechanical device he had attached to his leg, while Yinsen stood nearby, recording data on a computer.
The bald man expression grew increasingly grave, his deep-set eyes filled with anger and death.
...........
Inside the cave, Tony was welding something.
Suddenly, the cell door was roughly pushed open, and a group of Ten Rings members rushed in with guns, forming two lines on either side.
The fat man led two teams in, his face serious and suspicious. He stepped aside, and the people behind him scattered.
A bald man slowly walked through the crowd, carefully observing everything in the cave—the placement of every component, the expression on every face.
Tony and Yinsen stood with their hands on their heads, and this time, Raiden wisely followed suit they were finally about to get out they couldn't afford to cause trouble.
"Relax," the bald man said softly to Tony as he looked around at the three of them.
Tony and Yinsen hesitantly lowered their hands, and Raiden followed their lead. After all, not causing trouble was his task.
The bald man walked up to Tony, pulled down his collar, and looked at the reactor on Tony chest.
"The bow and arrow were once the pinnacle of weapon technology in this world. The great Genghis Khan used them to rule from the Pacific to Ukraine."
He picked up a part of the "Jericho missile" that Tony and the others had made from the table and continued,
"That was an empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman Empire."
As he spoke, the bald man walked over to Tony and picked up the stack of blueprints on the table.
"But today, whoever possesses Tony Stark latest weapon will be king!"
Tony tensed up as the bald man picked up the blueprints, and Yinsen quickly gestured for him to stay calm.
"Pfffffttt."
At that moment, Raiden suddenly burst out laughing.
The bald man put down the blueprints and walked over to Raiden. "Soon, that person will be me. But why did you betray me?"
At that moment, spit flew everywhere, landing on Raiden face.
"Why are you spitting on me?"
The bald man grabbed Raiden by the hair and slammed him hard into the corner of the table, then kicked him for good measure. He turned to Tony and roared,
"Why did you betray me?"
Blood spilled from Raiden head, staining the ground.
Yinsen looked at the blood on the ground and said nervously, "We're working on it, we're doing our best!"
The bald man turned and stared at Yinsen, stepping closer. "I spared your life, and this is how you repay me?"
Tony looked at Raiden bleeding on the ground, then at the bald man slowly approaching Yinsen. He was scared.
"This thing is complicated, we're doing our best," Yinsen said, trying to sound calm, but his voice trembled, and his back was soaked with sweat.
"Kneel!"
the bald man said calmly, but his tone left no room for defiance. Two henchmen stepped forward and forced Yinsen to his knees in front of the bald man.
The bald man picked up a pair of tongs and began rummaging through the furnace. With his back turned to the group, he shook his head and said,
"Do you take me for a fool? Tell me the truth."
Tony and Yinsen exchanged glances. Tony was panicking, feeling utterly powerless about what might happen next. He didn't know what to do, and what about Raiden? Surely Raiden wouldn't die so easily, right?
Yinsen signaled with his eyes for Tony to stay calm.
Even though Yinsen himself was filled with fear, he knew he couldn't afford to panic now. Even if he were to die—a painful death—the end result would still just be death.
"We've been doing our best," Yinsen said calmly, already anticipating what might come next.
At this moment, Yinsen had resigned himself to death. But even in death, he wouldn't betray Tony's plan… because Tony and Yinsen needed to escape alive.
The bald man chuckled softly. Using the tongs, he picked up a scorching hot stone and turned to Yinsen with a cruel smile.
"Open your mouth."
"What is he trying to do?" Tony asked Yinsen.
'Do you think I'm stupid?!" the bald man pressed Yinsen head against the anvil and coldly demanded,
"What are you two really up to?!"
Tony watched all of this, feeling his own weakness and helplessness. In this moment, he wasn't the great Tony Stark—he was just a weakling, someone powerless to change anything.
But in this moment, a desire also ignited within him—a desire to change everything.
"Tell me the truth! What are you really doing?!" The bald man brought the hot stone closer to Yinsen with the tongs. Yinsen could feel the searing heat radiating from it, capable of melting any part of his body in an instant.
"We're making the Jericho missile," Yinsen said calmly.
"Tell me the truth."
"We're building the Jericho missile!"
''Tell me the truth!"
As the hot stone inched closer to Yinsen, Tony impulsively stepped forward and shouted,
"What do you want?! A delivery date?!"
The guards immediately pointed their guns at Tony, stopping him in his tracks.
The bald man glared coldly at Tony. Tony took a deep breath and said,
"I need him. He's a good assistant."
The bald man glanced at Yinsen, then turned back to Tony and said,
"But I don't need him."
The hot stone moved toward Yinsen mouth under Tony horrified gaze.
"Bam!"
The tongs were knocked away, and the hot stone fell to the ground with a sizzling sound.
A man covered in blood stood in front of the bald man. With one hand gripping the bald man collar and the other wrapped around his neck, he forced the bald man to meet his gaze.
Through the thick hair, a faint blue light flickered in those deep eyes, like ghostly flames in the human soul.
"I need him," the man said in a hoarse, low voice.
"...."
"Finish assembling my missile by tomorrow," the bald man said as he left with his men.
A strange feeling… The bald man didn't know why he had made such a decision. He didn't understand why he had let Yinsen go—it wasn't like him… Yet, amidst the contradiction, it all seemed so reasonable. This was his thought, his will!
But none of that mattered anymore, because in that moment, there was something he desired more than the Jericho missile.