CHAPTER ONE - I don't own Avengers
He woke to darkness and it took him a moment to realise that a burlap sack was obscuring his vision. Head swimming, he tried to move, only to find that he was tied to a chair. Before he could start hyperventilating, the sack was ripped off his face, and Tony found that he was surrounded by masked men with a camera in front of him.
Ransom, Tony's mind produced sluggishly as one man spoke a prepared speech to the camera. I've been kidnapped.
The leader then gave a few sharp commands and Tony found himself being dragged inside. He was thrown on a table, and it was only when the restraints were tied that he realised what was happening. "No!"
He thrashed wildly, much to his captive's displeasure. One holding a scalpel barked orders at another. "No! Please, no!"
A cloth covered hand was stuffed under his nose and in his mouth, forcing him to breathe whatever drug they'd put on it.
"I'm sorry Mr Stark," he heard as his consciousness slipped away a second time, a mumbled, "Please," leaving his lips.
...
The next time he woke, he had a car battery attached to his heart, but that was the least of Tony's problems (not that he knew that yet). In the corner of his eye, similar to the holograms he created, was an info box proclaiming he'd regained half of his HP and SP. He dismissed it without a thought, before being distracted by afore mentioned battery. Horrified, he immediately attempted to pull said battery out, but a sharp jolt in his chest when he jostled the connected wires made him gasp in pain.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a familiar voice warned, and Tony glanced up to see a bald man shaving his chin. The very man who had cut him open.
"What the hell did you do to me?" he meant to ask, but his voice was stuck in his throat as he saw Ho Yinsen - Lvl ? written above the man's head in glowing blue letters. He stared, before deciding that he was hallucinating and proceeded to croak out his planned question.
"What I did?" the man repeated, pulling Tony from his thoughts. "What I did was save your life." He pulled out a jar, throwing it to Tony, who miraculously caught it. Inside were bloody pieces of metal the size of shark teeth. "I took out all the shrapnel I could, but I couldn't get it all. You've got a week until it reaches your atrial septum. That electric magnet you've got there, the one being charged by the car battery, that's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart." Then he gave a nervous smile. "I also gave you a little edge that you might need to get out of here alive."
The sound of a harsh voices outside the door stopped Tony from asking what that meant, and then he was distracted by the sudden amount of information flooding his vision as the terrorists stormed in.
The man with Abu Bakar - Lvl 8 floating above his head spoke, and the other captive played translator. "He says, 'Welcome Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America. He is honoured.'"
Tony swallowed dryly at the words, unable to protest as he recognised the weapons they were using as his own.
"He wants you to build this missile, the Jericho," the captive continued, pressing a picture into Tony's hand of said weapon.
Tony refused, of course.
...
Water and air weren't meant to mix, Tony found out, and neither were water and electricity. It was double the torture as he was drowned and electrocuted at the same time.
After what seemed like hours but was likely only minutes, Tony found himself dragged outside and surrounded by weapons. His weapons.
"He wants to know what you think," the other captive told him after the spokesman had gestured around them.
"I think you've got a lot of my weapons," Tony quipped hoarsely.
"They have everything you need to build the Jericho, they just need you to create the list," the man translated as the terrorist held out his hand to shake.
"After you have completed the Jericho, they will set you free," his fellow prisoner finished.
Tony smiled brittlely and shook the hand. "No he won't."
"No he won't," the other captive agreed after a moment's pause.
...
Tony inconspicuously glanced at the glowing letters above his fellow captive's head before rubbing his palms into his eyes. This was not a good time to go crazy. No time was really, but now, when his life hanging in the balance and he needed to be on his game, he could not afford to be going insane.
"What you just saw, that was your legacy, Mr Stark," the man said, bringing Tony out of his thoughts. "Your life's work, in the hands of those murderers."
Tony clutched the car battery tighter at the reminder. "Who are they?"
"They are your loyal customers," the man said, lips quirking a little in wry amusement. "They call themselves the Ten Rings."
He'd never heard of them. How did they get his weapons? "Who are you?" Tony asked instead.
The prisoner hummed. "We've met once, you know, at a technical conference in Bern."
"I don't remember," Tony admitted.
"If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to walk, let alone give a lecture on integrated circuits," the captive said dryly. "I'm Ho Yinsen."
Immediately Tony's gaze flickered up to the blue letters, which proclaimed the same.
Yinsen smiled, looking relieved. "I see it worked."
"What worked?" the genius questioned, voice becoming dark. "What did you do to me?"
Instead of answering, Yinsen picked up his razor and handed it to Tony. "Do me a favour, and say 'observe', while looking at this," the man said, watching him closely.
Eyeing the captive warily, Tony did so. "Observe."
Shaving Razor
DMG: 2
[Observe] skill created!
It's elementary, my dear Watson! The ability to analyse what you see is highly underrated.
[Observe] has increased to lvl 1.
Tony dropped the razor in surprise as the three blue info boxes appeared in his vision. "What the hell?" He rubbed his eyes again, wishing the boxes to go away. Surprisingly, they did. "Okay, what did you give me?"
"I did not give you anything in the sense you are thinking," Yinsen said as he sat onto the bed Tony had woken up in. He smiled. "Perhaps it would be easier if you say, 'Profile' and get the information you sorely want?"
"Profile," Tony said immediately, and another blue info box appeared in his vision. This one was much larger than the others.
Name: Tony Stark
Class: Gamer
Level: 1
HP 5/40
SP 100/140
AC 10/10
Stats:
STR 4 (-1)
DEX 3 (-1)
CON 5 (-1)
STA 5 (+9)
INT 30 (+249)
WIS 15 (-11)
CHA 8 (-1)
Trait(s):
Arrogant Asshole (-30 WIS, -40 CHA)
Materialistic (-20 WIS, -50 INT)
Unhealthy (-1 STR, -1 DEX, -1 CON, -1 STA, -1 INT, -1 WIS, -1 CHA )
Title(s):
CEO of Stark Industries (+60 STA, +50 CHA, +40 WIS)
Stark Genius (+200 INT, +50 WIS, +50 CHA)
Merchant of Death (-50 CHA, -50 WIS, +100 INT)
Equipped:
Car Battery (+10 AC, -50 STA -15 HP, -40 SP)
Rags (-10 CHA)
Skill(s):
[Observe] - lvl 1
Tony's mind raced with the information it had just been given. A part of him wanted to deny, deny, deny, but unless this was some sort of elaborate dream and he was currently in a coma, he didn't see how to protest this reality.
The genius muttered one, obtuse swear before he sighed. "I never did like video games."