NicoleR85: thanks
Kaitlyn blinked several times when the bag was finally pulled off her head, exposing her eyes to the sunlight. Having been in a cave lit only by electric light, the sunlight was almost blinding. She and Tony didn't have much time to be accustomed to it when they were pushed forward, Kaitlyn grabbing her father's arm when he stumbled. She walked with him down the path, eyeing the massive amount of ordinates owned by Stark Industries.
Abu Bakar spoke, Yinsen not needing any urging to translate "He wants to know what you think".
"I think you got a lot of my weapons", Tony calmly replied.
The Arabic man spoke again "He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make the list of materials and you'll start working immediately. Once you're done he will set you and your daughter free", Yinsen translated verbatim.
Tony and Kaitlyn exchanged looks. They both knew the man was lying. He would never let them go even if he did comply. However, Tony shook Abu Bakar's hand in agreement, his mind already working on an escape plan.
He and Kaitlyn may not agree on a lot of things but he be damned if he was going to let his little girl die in these godforsaken mountains. To pull it off, he was going to need a lot more than a week so he was going to need a much better device than the one currently keeping him alive. Perhaps a mini arc reactor?
The next few days were a flurry of activity with men coming and going with tools, equipment materials…including a number of missiles. Tony directed them to where he wanted them to be, Yinsen doing his best to translate the American's orders. Kaitlyn did what she could to help, avoiding lifting the heavier objects as to not give away the fact that she was far stronger than she looks. And it had been coming back to her, slowly which delighted the ginger to no end. Once everything had been set up the way Tony wanted, he got to work with creating his mini arc reactor. Kaitlyn had a fair bit of input too, in fact she'd given him the answer to a little problem he was having through a small doodle on his design. Weapons she had an issue with but the Arc Reactor? She liked that as it was a potential way to produce energy in a much more cleaner and sustainable way. Kaitlyn had often wished that her dad delve into that aspect more and in a way he kinda was by making it smaller to replace the electromagnet in his chest.
One day after they had breakfast or as Kaitlyn liked to call it, a bowl of slop, they got to work on breaking down the missiles. Neither one of them had told Yinsen what they were doing in case he was interrogated over the work. They didn't want him to get into trouble for concealing anything from their captors.
"How many languages do you speak?" Tony asked watching Kaitlyn carefully unscrew the bolts one of the missiles.
"A lot", Yinsen replied "but not enough for this place. They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian".
"Get a few more people speaking other languages and they could do a bad guy's version of Its A Small World", Kaitlyn joked, undoing the last screw.
"I don't think it's a good idea to pitch it to them", Tony said, taking over by removing the cap "I don't think these people have any sense of humour" he pulled out the inner workings of the missile, setting it onto the table.
"Probably right dad", Kaitlyn agreed "who ARE our oh so lovely hosts then?" she asked Yinsen.
"They are your father's loyal customers", Yinsen answered "they call themselves the Ten Rings". Kaitlyn just about stopped herself from making a remark about the Christmas song.
"Kait start getting the palladium from the other missiles", Tony instructed. The ginger nodded and went over to the workbench, picking up an electric drill before going over to the nearest missile. Tony did the same, Yinsen following him.
"You know, we might be more productive if you and Kaitlyn were to include me in the planning process", the man commented.
"Uh huh", Tony said pulling off the cap from the missile and getting out the chip rack cylinder. He went over to one of the work table and carefully extracting the palladium from it.
"Is that palladium?" Yinsen asked, surmising that this was what Tony wanted his daughter to get from the other missiles.
"It is", Tony confirmed "this is about 0.15 grams and we need at least 1.6 so go help Kait break down the other 11". Yinsen nodded and got to work. While he and Kaitlyn were removing the palladium, Tony got to work on the rest of the mini arc reactor. Soon the 1.6 grams of metal was being melted down and carefully poured onto the thin metal ring. Kaitlyn and Yinsen watched Tony put together the mini arc reactor. The ginger held her breath as her father powered it up, fingers crossed that it was going to work. The science and the math was sound but that didn't mean that something couldn't go wrong with it.
"Yes", Kaitlyn breathed, utterly relieved that the device powered up and stayed on. Tony glanced at his daughter, seeing the look of relief on her face. He too was glad it worked. This meant he didn't have to rely on the car battery anymore. It also meant that he'd just bought them the time they needed to build the suit he was going to use to get them out of their prison.
Yinsen frowned at the mini arc reactor.
"That doesn't look like a Jericho missile", he stated.
"That's because it's not. It's a miniaturised arc reactor", Kaitlyn answered giving her father's shoulder a happy squeeze "there's a much large one powering the factory back home".
"And it should keep the shrapnel out of my heart", Tony added.
"What could it generate?" Yinsen questioned.
"Well, if my math is right, three gigajoules per second", Tony replied.
"That could warm your heart for 50 lifetimes", Yinsen stated.
"Or something big for 15 minutes", Tony countered. He then showed Yinsen and his teenaged daughter the plans he'd made. It was something that he'd began to consider 5 years ago after Kaitlyn had been taken by Magneto and he'd been helpless to do anything.
The ginger stared at the drawings. She hated to admit it, it was might impressive and if they were able to build it with the stuff they had, it would definitely be their ticket out of this hell hole.
Before they could get started on Tony's new project, there was the matter of replacing the electromagnet with the arc reactor. Kaitlyn sat by Tony, holding onto his hand to give him some assurance while Yinsen worked quickly to expertly remove the electromagnet and place the arc reactor in its place. The foreign man stepped back when he was done and the ginger helped her father sit up. "How do you feel?" she asked.
"Much better", Tony replied "Now let's get to work".
Meanwhile, Logan had made his way to Malibu where he learned from a very upset Pepper Potts the horrifying truth about what was making Kaitlyn so scared. She and Tony had been kidnapped! While they were in Kabul no less. He hadn't had the privilege to fight in a war over there but he was very aware that it wasn't the saftest place for an 18 year old girl to be. Especially his girl!
Tony's business partner, Obadiah Stane was also present while he'd been talking to Pepper. Even though the man had assured him that they were doing everything they could to find the missing Stark's and bring them safely home, Logan couldn't help get the feeling that he was hiding something. The guy sounded sincere but it wasn't quite genuine compared to Pepper's worry for her boss and his daughter.
Logan decided to let it slide for the moment as he was more concerned for his Mate. However, the moment she was home and safe, he was going to have a talk with Stane. If it turned out that he had something to do with Kaitlyn being taken…he was going to have an early grave.
~Kabul~
Days turned into weeks. Weeks became months. And every waking hour was spent working on Tony's suit. Kaitlyn helped with some of the metal work, discretely bending some of the tougher pieces into place but primarily she stuck to the more intricate work given that she had the smallest hands out of the three of them. She, Tony and Yinsen worked at a steady yet comfortable pace to get the suit done.
Then one day they were forced to work harder when Yinsen was threatened by Raza, the leader of the Ten Rings. He gave them a deadline of 24 hours before he left the room. So Tony, Kaitlyn and Yinsen worked through the night and into the early hours of the morning until the suit was finally ready.
While Tony got himself into it with Yinsen's help, Kaitlyn got busy rigging the door with explosives. "Kait come over here. I need you to initialise the start-up sequence", Tony said when his daughter had just finished setting the charges. The ginger went over to the screen.
"Ok, I'm ready", Kaitlyn said, fingers poised over the keyboard. Before Tony could tell her, the hatch in the door slid back. A man spoke but all Kaitlyn and Tony could understand was their names. "Yinsen say something", Kaitlyn hissed out of the corner of mouth as she face the door, casually leaning on the table.
"He's speaking Hungarian! I don't know Hungarian", Yinsen told her and Tony quietly, slightly flustered as he was trying to secure Tony into the suit.
"Just say something", Tony urged. Yinsen huffed but shouted something back to the man. It seemed whatever he had said, the man at the door didn't seem to buy as he proceeded to open the door only for it the explode outward.
"Holy shit", Kaitlyn cursed.
"I take it that it worked", Tony stated.
"You can say that again", Kaitlyn said "but now we've got even less time cos that's gonna bring even more people here" she turned back to the screen "how do we start it up?"
"Function 11" Kaitlyn hit the button and a progress bar appeared on the screen.
"Ok, we got a progress bar", she reported.
"Now press Control and I then hit enter", Tony instructed. Kaitlyn did as he said and saw the progress bar slowly filling up with green.
"It's started", she told her father. Kaitlyn turned to watch Yinsen drilling in the remaining bolts as quickly as he can. It wasn't long before they heard people shouting and running up the passage towards the room. "They're gonna be here before you're fully powered up", Kaitlyn warned eyeing the progress bar as it moved far too slowly for her liking.
"I'll buy you two some time", Yinsen said.
"Yinsen, no. We stick to the plan", Kaitlyn said quickly but the man just ignored her, hurrying over to the doorway and picking up one of the fallen insurgent's weapons.
"Yinsen!" Kaitlyn and Tony shouted together as he disappeared along the passage, firing the gun. The ginger wanted to go after him but she couldn't leave her father vulnerable. So she turned back to the screen, eyeing the bar nervously.
"Come on. Come on", she urged as it crawled along.
"What's it at?" Tony asked.
"60", Kaitlyn replied.
"Ok, come over here", Tony ordered. Kaitlyn did as he said, grasping his leather gloved hand "when the lights go out, stay close to me", he said and the teenager nodded. Father and daughter watched the progress bar creep closer and closer toward 100% until finally it got there. Tony gave Kaitlyn's hand a squeeze before he let go, the lights going out, plunging the pair into darkness save for the light being emitted from the mini arc reactor in Tony's chest. Kaitlyn wasn't too worried about the dark having heightened senses that allowed her to see with the lights out.
The ginger sank low to the ground, sticking close to the rig that held Tony's suit, as a few insurgents entered. She watched her father make short work of the three that had come into the room, creating a shield to protect herself from any of the stray bullets that got a little too close to her as they ricocheted off of Tony's metal suit and other objects in the room.
"Kait, let's go", Tony said and she darted out of her hiding place to join him at the doorway "stay behind me", he told her and she gave him a nod to say she understood. Though she had powers that she could use to protect herself, thanks to her angel heritage, she was by no means invincible. And Tony would never forgive himself if she got hurt so she decided to do as he said and stay behind him.
He walked swiftly forward, Kaitlyn sticking as close to him as possible, deflecting the bullets that would possibly hit her as he father took on more insurgents. Kaitlyn hung back while Tony bashed down two thick metal doors which it didn't take him long to do. He swung his arm, hitting knocking an insurgent to the ground. Unfortunately he got his arm stuck in the rock wall. As he was trying to free it, another insurgent took the opportunity to walk up to him and attempt to put a bullet in his head. And by attempt…well lets just say he didn't get very far as Kaitlyn intervened, shoving him backward, hard. He hit the rock wall and crumpled to the ground. She then freed Tony's metal arm from where it was stuck in the wall.
"Thanks Kait", Tony said and they continued on. As they neared the entrance of the caves, Raza was waiting for them with an RPG. When they came into view, he fired. Kaitlyn acting quickly, stepped out from behind her father and threw up a shield. The rocket exploded on impact, throwing Kaitlyn back into Tony who barely moved in his metal suit. He pushed her behind him and retaliated with a small missile of his own. The projectile hit the wall near Raza, some of the burning debris catching the man across the face. He cried out, falling to the floor.
"Yinsen!" Kaitlyn exclaimed having spotted their fellow prisoner, slumped over in a corner. He wasn't moving. She rushed over to him and felt for a pulse. Kaitlyn's eyes closed when she couldn't find one. He was dead. The teen looked up at her father, eyes shining with tears for their fallen friend. No words were necessary to convey what had happened.
"We gotta go", Tony told her, doing his best to remain calm even though he was furious.
Kaitlyn nodded "yeah", she sniffled, wiping away a few tears "you're in a better place now Yinsen", she murmured quietly, standing up. In an ideal world she would want to take his body back to wherever he came from so that he could be buried by his people. But they were in the middle of a hostile area so all she and her father could was leave him behind. However, Kaitlyn was going to make sure that Yinsen was not going to be forgotten, that his death wasn't going to be in vain.
Tony strode out of the cave, a single thought in his mind. Destroy his weapons and get his daughter out of this godforsaken place. Kaitlyn placed a hand on his back and stretched out her other, projecting a shield in front of her father as the insurgents opened fire. The bullets bounced off the barrier, leaving Tony and Kaitlyn unharmed.
"My turn", Tony said when they ran out of bullets in their guns. Kaitlyn dropped her shield allowing him to use his twin flamethrowers on any and all things in sight. Insurgents and his weapons went up in flames. "Hang on", Tony said to Kaitlyn who quickly grabbed onto the back of his suit tightly. He activated the jets that were attached to his legs and they took off into the sky. Kaitlyn glanced down, watching the entire cache of weapons go up in one big fireball. That's one bloody big explosion she thought nothing would survive that.
The pair soared higher into the sky before the jets suddenly sputtered several times before giving out. Kaitlyn and Tony free-fell through the sky, bits of Tony's suit flying everywhere, several pieces catching Kaitlyn's face and arms. Father and teenaged daughter landed on the sand with a thud.
Kaitlyn coughed and spluttered, spitting out sand that had gotten into her mouth as she struggled to her feet. She stumbled over to Tony and helped him out of the remnants of his suit. She then yanked him easily out of the sand and the two of them started to walk.
It soon became clear that they'd literally come out of the frying pan and into the fire as the sun beat relentlessly down on them as they walked. Exposed skin dotted with burns, heads swathed in their jackets, throats parched…begging for water and still they pushed on. Eventually they got to the point where Kaitlyn was all but holding her father upright, though she could feel her legs were about to go any second.
And then they heard a wonderful sound of a helicopter. Big, tired grins appeared on their faces as not one but two went overhead. They were safe at last! Tony and Kaitlyn collapsed onto the sand, leaning on one another as one of the helicopters touched down. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, rushed up to the pair, dropping down onto the sand in front of them. "Next time you both ride with me, ok?" he said. Tony and Kaitlyn didn't say anything, they were both too exhausted from the ordeal. Rhodey hugged his best friend and niece, overjoyed that they'd been found at last. "There's actually someone else with me", Rhodey said "showed up at the base out of the blue, very insistent that he join the search".
Kaitlyn peered over his shoulder and her eyes widened at what she saw. It was Logan! Feeling a sudden surge of energy, she manged to get to her feet and stumbled over to him. "I gotcha", the mutant said when she all but fell into his arms, passing out from exhaustion and dehydration "and I'm never letting you go again", he whispered, picking her up bridal style.