Chapter 1: Scarlet
Tony Stark had been in captivity for about a month now. At least that's what he estimated considering he hadn't seen the sun since he had arrived. At this point he had a difficult time simply remembering what the sun has looked like. All he saw now was the dark, damp cave that served as his home. Well, his and Yinsen's home to be exact. They were both well along in the construction of the suit he was planning to use to escape. However, it would still be some time before he could feel fresh air again.
In the time he had spent in his gloomy prison, Stark had developed a simple routine. He would work on the suit with Yinsen for most of what he considered to be the day. Of course, this was assuming the sleeping patterns of his captors were any indication of time. During the evenings, they would take a break and have some dinner. Then there was, of course, the regular visit from Raza. Not one of Tony's favourite parts of the schedule. However, when all of this wasn't happening Tony just lost himself in memories of his old life; now so far away it seemed almost ironic that he had actually lived in such splendour. And so he had spent his days in this incessant routine. That is, until the arrival of a very peculiar third prisoner.
It happened while he and Yinsen were having dinner. He was looking over some notes he had been working on concerning the flight stabilizers he would install in the suit when the all too familiar voice of one of the guards reverberated throughout the cave. He and Yinsen stood up slowly and placed their hands on their head as they always did and waited. The door was then unlocked and several guards entered. However, something was different today, for between them they held a struggling, screaming girl.
To Tony's surprise however, she wasn't screaming from fear or horror, but from pure, unsheathed anger. She flung her legs out at anyone who got too close and called down a hailstorm of curses and threats as they dragged her into the room. It was difficult to resist the slight smile that spread across Tony's face when the girl's foot came in contact with the jaw of one of the guards, breaking it easily with a satisfyingly loud smack.
As the guard scurried out of reach clutching his jaw, the other guards moved to try to restrain the girl. Several were severely (and hilariously) injured in the process. Raza followed the melee with a cruel, yet calm scowl on his face. He watched as his soldiers tried in vain to detain their captive. After a moment, he slowly moved towards her, dodged her vicious attack and grabbed her by the throat. She stared furiously into the eyes of her captor, not a single trace of fear crossing her features. Raza smirked then and held up a grizzly looking knife to the side of her face, yet she never broke eye contact.
"If you make one more sound, I will cut out your tongue and make you eat it," he muttered venomously.
Still the girl kept her angry eyes focused on her captor, but she did not say another word. At this, he smirked, lowered the knife and released her. The guards were all too willing to follow his lead and they shoved her into the cave. She turned to face them as they walked out and shut the door, all the while never saying a word.
However, as soon as the lock had once again clicked into place, she was banging her fists on the door and screaming at the top of her lungs before either Yinsen or Tony could lower their arms. Yinsen was the first to try to calm her.
"Please stop," he said with his hands outstretched in order to grab her thrashing arms. "You'll injure yours…"
From where he stood, Tony could not see what Yinsen now saw that had made him stop in his tracks, and this was that when the girl had turned around to face him, she had met his gaze with a pair of flaming red eyes.