Fear Monger
By: FatalNightmare
My version of the movie with a little twist. I'm bad at summaries, but the story's worth the time... At least, I hope so. Movieverse.
Disclaimer: Ugh, my first one of these. I sigh. I do not own Iron Man, nor the novel (which I credit for the little part about how Pepper got her job, the type of missile he was dismantling, and other little tidbits.) Period. I do, however, own my character, Lynn.
Prologue: In All Honesty
To be perfectly honest, Tony Stark didn't think his life could hit any speed bumps this large. This particular speed bump, he jested to himself as he pulled out the guts of a S-76 Category missile and laid it on the metalworking table, had all but sent him flying into Uranus's orbit, with no hopes of returning to Earth with his head attached properly. With his luck so far, it might as well be sticking out of his ass.
He thought it odd that his insurgent captors somehow knew of his presence in Afghanistan, since the military brass kept it under reps as a security measure, but that's probably because they had surveillance photos of the missiles he was presenting-- the Jericho. Either that or there was some spy of some sort. Either way, how they acquired the information didn't matter now, for he was in the present, and it was damn well treating him pretty shitty.
This lead Tony to think about his life so far. All of his life, he has known nothing but the influence of his father, Howard Stark, whom he didn't even get to say "good-bye" to as he parted this world. Stark Industries was a heavy weight to bear. What with the company holding the prestigious title of the military's leading "supplier" for their drug: Weapons. He knew he was a prodigy-- that had been established long ago --but to Tony, this title was like his last gift from his father. He knew that he should take the company seriously, and take it to a whole new level of advanced weaponry using Repulsor technology, take it to something his father never even dreamed of, something that'd make his old man proud.
That being said...
He had no idea that this "breakthrough" was going to screw him over so... vigorously. Currently, Tony Stark is, as mentioned before, being held captive by a group of insurgents known as the "Ten Rings". The price for his freedom? One, bona-fide, straight off the production line Jericho missile. The catch? He was not allowed to leave the cave in which he was imprisoned. Somehow, some way, these crazy people had been collecting his weapons, or had them mass-ordered or something. However, there were weapons that his father designed in that pile as well. Obsolete, and obviously have had their explosive components removed, the missiles were really only good for using the parts as spares.
And for spares they were used. But not to build the Jericho. Tony Stark wasn't crazy enough to build something as dangerous as the Jericho for a bunch of terrorists. If they think the, "Kidnap him and ask him nicely, he'll be more than happy to make a very destructive weapon for people who wouldn't even know how to set it off" ploy was going to work, then these desert people had spent too much time in the sun. Not only that, do you seriously think he'd build a weapon for them when they just about killed him? No way in hell! Which brings us to our next topic.
Tony Stark has had his share of debts-- He owed his life to his driver, Hogan, whom he promised a permanent job with good money as acting as his personal chaperon. But this debt, even though it was indeed on the same terms as Hogan's, was much more important. In both cases, Hogan's and the current situation, he was saved from death, but this time around, there was just a tad bit more than a few scars. Tony Stark was hooked up to a car battery when he awoke from an apparent, albeit improvised, surgery.
There was a round electromagnet inserted into his chest. Of course, anyone in this particular position would be scared shitless, but Stark had some help from the enigmatic doctor, Yinsen. He was a nice, honorable man. Spoke plain English, as well as many other languages. Tony first tried to create a way to use the electromagnet without lugging around the car battery, which was due to run out in about a week. Using the Arc Reactor Technology by removing the palladium strips in certain missiles and smoldering them into a large ring to go around the new device he was constructing, Tony managed to create a device that will pump his heart for, as Yinsen pointed out, fifty lifetimes. Provided, of course, he keeps it up and running, charging it when needed. It glows magnificently, a steel blue color, showing as a symbol of rebirth, time to make his own choices.
But first, he had to get out of here.
And that is why he is dismantling the missiles he was brought in order to make Jericho. Sure, the explosive parts were taken out, but he didn't mind; that wasn't what he was after. He needed the iron coating of the missile as well as several other things that were inside the missile. He and the good doctor, Yinsen, were making a suit impervious to firepower. It was how Tony was going to get the hell out of there, taking Yinsen to his family once they could flee and taking Tony home. So here they sat, for the better part of three months, creating the suit. All he needed now was the helmet, which he was pounding out on the makeshift anvil.
"So... Stark, you said before that you don't have a family... but do you have anyone... special?" The question from Yinsen had been simple—Tony was a well-known playboy. Never belonging to any woman, at least, that was how it went. But this question he had to give thought to. "Well... My assistant... Pepper Potts. I... uh... like her a lot. I honestly wouldn't be able to do anything without her. She's been like a very close relative, but I'm not so sure..." Yinsen had become something of a brother figure to him, perhaps even, if more thought was given and poetical reasoning was involved, a father. He did, in fact, give Tony a new reason to live. "Her first name is Pepper?" Yinsen asked, being accustomed to recognizing the word 'pepper' as a spice.
"Well, it's actually Virgina, but we nicknamed her Pepper because when she came into my office for the first time because she spotted a crunching problem with my company's stock numbers, the guards tried to grab her and she shouted that she had pepper spray. Keep in mind, she is the worst liar in the history of liars, so I thought it was hilarious as hell. She got the job because her boss fired her for coming straight to me to present the problem. She was the fourth person to review those papers, and she was the only one who caught that I accidentally switched two numbers. Someone like that had talent, and I couldn't let that talent go and be fired because of the negligence of my previous assistant, her boss. Plus, she's cute." Tony explained, earning a few chuckles from Yinsen. For the past three months, they have been talking on and off about their lives and their homes, as well as their jobs and other things like that. The camera watching them in the cave had no sound, so they couldn't tell what they were talking about. He considered them lucky for that. It'd be boring if all they could talk about was the missile.
Yinsen had a wife, Sakria, and a son, Tibul. He spoke well of them, honorably about his son, loyally about his wife. His job as a doctor supported them as they lived peacefully in the village of Gulmira... At least, that was until the village was attacked by The Ten Rings. He knew though, he said to Tony, that his wife and son were safe. Yinsen knew that he'd see then again once he got out of there. However, Tony knew the Ten Rings wouldn't release them that easily. He had said, "They are going to kill us before we get two steps out that door, Yinsen. I don't think we'll be leaving." And Yinsen just smiled at him and said, "Think optimistically, Stark."
Thinking on it now, Tony had to wonder how he missed the obvious hint. As he sat in his Rolls Royce, turning his piping hot cheeseburger in his hands as Hogan escorted him to the press conference he had ordered Pepper to call together, Tony recalled the death of the good doctor, bleeding out from excessive shots. He looked like swiss cheese, which made Tony all the more pissed off at the Ten Rings. The doctor had been his best friend in that damned cave, and because of his efforts and his care, Tony Stark was alive... but Yinsen wasn't. There had to be a way... any way... to live up to the expectations of his second father.
Yinsen said not to waste his second life. Of course he wouldn't. Yinsen has paid with his life to keep Tony alive, and he was going to make use of it. He had witnessed people being killed by the very inventions he endeavored to make more destructive and more dangerous. Even American soldiers, whom the weapons were made to protect, weren't safe from the destructive capacities of his weapons now that those goons had them. Whatever the case, Tony Stark knew he had to do something. Fast.
(A/N: Well, how do you like it? It's my first story, so I'm a little nervous when it comes to flames, so please refrain from vulger insults about how crappy my story is. If you did not like it, then the smartest thing to do would have been to click the back button on the corner of your screen once you got tired of it.
I endeavor to do my best and if there is something you'd like to add, constructive criticism and whatnot, please do so in a review or something of that nature. I will continue once I'm sure that this story isn't just a pile of scrap. )