It was a normal day for Raza, just like every day since he had kidnapped Tony Stark, he sat in his tent, waiting for a report of the day's various proceedings.
He was especially excited to see the current progress of the weapons Tony Stark was creating.
It had been a while since he had last checked on Tony, but he did not need to pressure the genius everyday like he had done initially.
Under the threat of death, Tony was willing to cooperate and Raza himself understood how challenging it was to build a weapon from scrap. Especially since the weapon he wanted Tony to build were the latest missiles he had demonstrated.
With a supply of materials scavenged from old missiles, it would be impossible for Tony to build one quickly.
Tony did not have a hundred experts working day in and day out to complete the project.
Neither did he have any machinery to fabricate the necessary metal parts.
The rockets were all scavenged from smaller missiles.
The payload was something he can't even replicate as explosive elements used for the smaller missiles were different from the new missiles.
Of course, Raza was well aware of these limitations, he knew that Tony Stark would not be able to build a missile. But he didn't really want Tony to build him a missile.
This was nothing more than a ploy, Raza was going to make Tony work, endlessly, he would get the genius used to his situation. He did not need brainwashing or other manipulative acts.
All Raza had to do was prove to Tony that help will never come-
How long had he been locked up?
Months, that was a long time, and Tony, as smart as he was would understand-
Help was not coming-
It was never going to arrive…
This was his goal, to make Tony understand-
"The only path forward is servitude"
Raza muttered as he envisioned the day, when he could truly enslave Tony Stark, when such a day comes-
Not only Afghanistan, the whole middle east- no
The whole world would be his chess board!
He would not be a small leader of a tiny force anymore, he would be promoted, given access to resources and technology far more advanced than any the US military had. He would use these resources to build armies, to empower himself and his people.
And then-
*BOOM*
Raza snapped out of it, the earth quaked as he heard the powerful explosions echo from-
"TONY STARK!"
Meanwhile, at the cave entrance, Tony watched as the bullets and various projectiles that flew towards him were all blocked by a light blue barrier.
"Energy shields… now this is what you call high tech!"
Tony exclaimed as he tried to analyze the method by which the "force field" around him worked. But Tony wasn't the only one excited about the barrier, Merlin also had a complex expression as his eyes stared at the blue shield around Tony.
"A bounded field that makes use, not of mystery but natural laws- no… universal laws? You really outdid yourself this time James"
His mutterings did not escape Tony's ears though as the genius billionaire quickly snapped towards Merlin-
"Universal laws? So this follows the laws of physics?"
To Tony's query, Merlin simply smiled as he responded with a mysterious air about him-
"Laws of physics huh? Well that's science… Some may call it the "laws of order" some may even refer to it as the "laws of chaos", honestly, the way they are called differs from one plane to another. It's a matter of "texture" though… it's my first time seeing this… a general purpose spell formula… I thought it was a joke but seeing it work made me realize just how amazing this world is~"
Merlin's response caused Tony to freeze, the magus had said a LOT of terms that sound "normal" but in the context they were used in- Tony could easily see that the meaning he knew was not the same as what Merlin used.
The magus was using magical jargon, Tony can't understand any of it with his limited knowledge but he did understand one thing-
"You weren't sure if it would work?"
His tone had lowered, although he respected Merlin, the white haired magus was quite… quirky.
But this act of his was not simply "quirky", the old magus was playing with his life!
Anger, that's what Tony felt, after all, if the barrier didn't work then he would have had to absorb all the attacks with the armor-
'Those were armor piercing rounds! Tank Busters! I would have died!'
Tony complained internally but he didn't really find the strength to say his words out loud. Unfortunately for Tony, he had to suck up more of his frustration as Merlin was not the type of person to not answer a question-
"Oh don't sweat it~ twas a small test, nothing major~"
The white haired magus spoke in a teasing tone as he directed a bright smile towards the billionaire-
Although indignant, Tony couldn't really do anything else but act, after all, this was not the only thing they had to do today.
In fact, Merlin could have easily transported them away after the armor was completed.
Tony didn't really understand why the man called "James" wanted him to finish the armor before rescuing him but he could take a guess.
'Probably a test'
Was the conclusion Tony ended up making after looking over all the information he had.
But the purpose was not important now, what he needed to do was test the limits of the new armor. He had to figure out what works and what doesn't. He also needed to understand how much strain the suit's structure could withstand and how much power the suit consumes…
With that in mind, Tony nodded towards Merlin who also nodded back before waving his staff.
A wall of flowers enveloped Merlin and Yinsen, obscuring them from view as Tony charged towards the terrorists.
The men all tried to hide behind cover and fire at Tony, but the armor's barrier was just too powerful.
Missiles exploded inches from the armor yet neither heat nor force reached Tony, instead, all the energy was reflected back causing shockwaves and blasts of energy to explode from Tony.
Bullets ricocheted off the barrier, some flying to the sky, others embedding themselves on the ground while some flew all over the place, hitting enemy shooters and some even reaching the weapons causing secondary explosions.
Chaos ensured as Tony found himself unable to do anything else-
It was not like he wanted to act cool and walk through the chaos, in fact, he had the urge to pick up a soldier and toss them away but-
"NOOOOOO!!!"
"SAVE MEE!"
"MERCY!"
"I SURRENDER!"
Terrorists, the men who laughed as they watched Tony suffer, these men were now either running for the hills or begging for mercy.
If Tony was any less of a softie he would have murdered those that gave up but-
"Where's Raza?"
He asked, he didn't want to stoop down to the level of his enemies. He would not kill those without power, he would fight back but he wouldn't attack those that had laid their arms and bowed their heads in submission.
Ultimately, what ended up happening was Tony asking each and everyone of the men who gave up where Raza was but none of them could answer.
At the moment when Tony was about to give up, he heard a loud booming voice ahead of him-
"TONY STARK!"
There, Raza stood, the upper half of his body peeking out the turret of a tank. What was interesting was the model of the tank, it was a Stark made Tank, supplied only to the US Military yet, the terrorist cell that kidnapped him was now using it.
Not only that, it had its special cannon aimed directly at Tony, a cannon personally designed by Tony himself and it most likely carried the armor piercing ammunition that Tony created after a general requested it.
Seeing his own creation be used against him, Tony would have flared up, he would have gotten mad and went ballistic but-
'The missile was already enough, I already expected this but… for goods this size… Obadiah….'
Tony, despite his reluctance to manage the company, was well aware of its inner workings. He could understand some low level employee's, maybe some form middle-upper management making shady deals.
In fact! He even speculated action from the US military, after all, out of all the government agencies, the military was one of those that desired for the conflict in the Middle Eastern front to continue…
That said, the tank before him was not something that could be "smuggled".
He had designed the tank to be as "non-modular" as he could. Unlike other vehicles that could be disassembled for transport, the tank before him had to be transported whole. Stark Industries specialists were even sent to this country to train field engineers on maintenance.
The tank was not something Tony liked making, instead it was something he was forced to create. So he made the tank as much of an annoyance as he could.
Of course he made it top of the line but he also made it annoying to handle.
But, considering the type of product the tank was-
'The model is quite old, the wear and tear proves that it wasn't stored and instead used… even if it wasn't put through hell, it's systems would have needed tons of maintenance and spare parts…'
In a few seconds, Tony was able to quickly see through the problems involving the tank being in the hands of the terrorist…
Considering all the information he had, Tony couldn't really deny it- no, it was difficult to deny it at this point-
'Obadiah… you really'
Even in his own head, Tony had already dropped calling his uncle by the nickname "Obie", he could already tell a bit of what was going on. Only-
'Please… don't let it be that'
A lot of thoughts were flashing in Tony's mind but there was one that he wished did not come to fruition-
"GIVE UP STARK! YOUR ARMOR CAN'T BLOCK THIS! YOUR WEAPON THAT COULD PIERCE THROUGH ANYTHING!"
Raza, unaware of Tony's thoughts, saw his silence as panic and worry.
Coming to such a conclusion, Raza smiled as he gave Tony an ultimatum-
"GET OUT OF THAT TIN CAN, SURRENDER AND BECOME MY WEAPON MAKER AND I'LL LET YOU LIVE"
The feeling of power had consumed Raza's mind. Tony may have been able to show power before his unarmored soldiers but against a tank?
Raza took Tony's silence as a form of surrender as he considered this battle his victory but at that moment-
*shine*
Tony's head was raised, on the helm that held the iconic face of iron man, the two holes that were for the eyes shone with an intense blue light.
At this moment, Raza, quick on his feet knew-
Tony did not give up yet.
With such a thought, Raza did not consider anything anymore, he simply ordered the gunner in the tank-
"FIRE!"
*BOOM*
A loud explosion followed by a brilliant crimson flash, Raza's vision was obscured by smoke as if a smoke grenade had been detonated near him.
But this was not tear gas, it was the smell of burned propellant, a smell Raza was all too familiar with. After all, which big boss did not test out their biggest guns?
Normally, Raza would have started to mull over his actions at this point but he didn't.
Instead he raised his gun, he stared at the direction where Tony Stark was.
He didn't dare to make the tank move forward, after all, there was a weird sense of unease creeping up on Raza. He didn't know where it came from but he knew damn well that it was not a hallucination.
Given what he had seen in his life, Raza, despite not being superstitious knew when to trust his own guts.
He couldn't explain why but he felt that something was off-
As silence continued to hammer down, Raza's mind, after getting a chance to think suddenly flashed with realization-
'Explosion!'
The reason why Raza felt something was off was the explosion, specifically, the lack thereof.
Even when he was testing the various rounds, he was well aware of the type of sound each of the shells made upon release and after hitting its target.
What Raza shot at Tony was a special APFSDS that Tony himself had developed. It was a simple solid dart round that pierced through armor but Tony's shells had a secondary property.
The alloy used to create the dart rounds were not depleted uranium or other dense metals, instead, it was an alloy that had the capacity to explode upon impact.
What made the Stark APFSDS powerful was the fact that the shell could pierce through armor cleanly before exploding.
This meant that gunners did not need to target fuel tanks, ammunition or other "important" components of a target to destroy it. All it had to do was aim and shoot and destruction was bound to follow.
Now though, this powerful shell that could cause even the strongest encampments and tanks to explode, did not only lack the sound of impact, it even lacked the explosion that should have come from it hitting its target-
'Even if he dodged it, the shell would have hit the ground and epxloded'
Raza was well aware of the properties of his weapons, and he knew Tony was as well. Yet, there was a difference between Tony Stark reacting to his weapons properly and the weapons he made not worknig at all.
Could it be that Stark Industry weapons were "programmed" to not harm Tony?
But why did the missile work then?
A plethora of questions ran through Raza's mind but before he could even stabilize his thoughts the familiar voice of Tony was heard-
"You dropped something"
It was spoken in a playful tone but Raza felt fear as he heard those words. After all, the voice did not come from the front, back or sides instead they all came from-
Raza lifted his gaze up, there above him, Tony stood, flames escaping from his armor as he floated above the tank, above Raza-
Silently, without any disturbance.
But what made Raza truly freeze was the huge silver dart-
"Catch"
Before Raza could even think, the silver dart started to fall dropping towards him, he tried to escape but-
*Splurt*
*Boom!*
*BOOM!*
Tony gazed at the inferno below him with a complex expression on his face.
"First time?"
The familiar teasing voice sounded once more as Tony let out a sigh before giving a reply-
"Never thought I'd lose my virginity this way…"
"We all have to lose it at some point, better lose it now that find yourself hesitating when it really matters right?"
"..."
Tony closed his eyes, he was calming his mind, the realizations he had come to, the experiences he had… all of them were causing chaos in his already broken mind.
He had yet to fully heal, to relax, to find peace and now he was made to go through these things…
Originally, Tony was supposed to go through these realizations of betrayal slowly, the discoveries would have come in parts. He should have gotten some rest first as he tried to "fix" his mistakes.
He would not have healed fully but his mind would have been in a better state-
Now?
Tony really didn't know what to do, his mind was going through too much, too early and Merlin could see this struggle.
Although they had one more matter to handle, since the man related to the matter shook his head, Merlin could only give Tony a bit of peace.
Just a few more minutes to calm himself down.
Merlin did not rush him, after all, he had experience leading a true hero. Moreover, the companion had given their word, as such, Merlin did the best thing he could do and gave Tony a bit of silence to think.
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Powerstone Milestone
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