Ivan Vanko was beginning to wonder if this was really such a good idea. Oh, the basic premise itself remained sound, he felt. In his ongoing attempt to gain revenge for his father's death and Howard Stark's earlier appropriation of that Russian scientist's lifework by defeating Tony Stark in battle, Vanko noted the major weakness of the younger Stark. Mainly, the Iron Man armor had inside it nothing more than an ordinary human.
If Vanko could physically enhance his own body to superhuman levels by whatever means possible, putting this together with the advanced weapons he was developing powered by Anton Vanko's arc reactor would surely result in Iron Man's utter destruction. Vanko soon began searching through the secret KGB files he'd acquired regarding these specific types of clandestine projects developed by the Soviet Union in decades past.
One particular project contained in these files eventually caught Vanko's eye. A chemist named Kolya Moroshkin working on classified Olympic drugs to help Russian athletes cheat in those world competitions quickly achieved genuine success in his efforts. So much, that this chemist in due course defected to the United States, taking every bit of his research with him.
The KGB finally tracked Moroshkin down, finding out he'd gained a new identity under the name of Carl Marin at a California high school as that educational facility's swim team coach. Obviously continuing with his furtive research seeing how the high school team regularly won the state swimming championships, the KGB had been about to move against Marin until that man suddenly died from undisclosed causes which also destroyed all of the coach's drugs and papers, along with the entire swim team's complete disappearance. Any further information concerning this was lost with Sunnydale's mysterious future collapse into an immense sinkhole years later.
Disappointed at learning about the end of such a promising lead, Vanko still ran a computer cross-check search of any possible survivors of the Sunnydale swim team. His interest was promptly rekindled by discovering a single alternate member of that team who'd managed to stay alive throughout those events and even afterwards. Best of all, this former high school student was now working as the construction manager for a private girls' college in Cleveland, Ohio.
Making Vanko even more homicidally cheerful by the moment was that one Alexander LaVelle Harris judging by his credit card usage was currently on vacation, traveling by himself on a road trip driving around the American Midwest.
One week later, Vanko's mood was much more dubious, even with finally getting his hands on Gospodin Harris…who was not behaving as he rightfully should! Most people having been kidnapped and tranquilized from their Kansas motel and then waking up in the basement of an abandoned farm miles away from any other house presently occupied by himself and a menacing foreigner, along with finding themselves lying upon a wooden table with heavy leather straps attached to all four corners pulled tight around his wrist and ankles normally descended into instant terrified dread.
Particularly when the basement also contained on a wall-attached shelf behind Vanko a row of surgical instruments, laid out there in a tidy row all sharp and shiny, and no trace of any kind of anesthesia on hand…
To be fair, when Harris had regained consciousness and glanced over to confront a hulking man chewing on a toothpick and dispassionately contemplating in turn his trapped prisoner like he was a little bug about to have its wings pulled off, that younger American had been properly wary. It was only when Vanko had opened his mouth for the first time to gruffly tell Harris how much trouble he was in that things started going definitely peculiar.
At the very first accented words he'd heard, Harris looked as if he'd gotten the best present ever. He excitedly interrupted Vanko's murderous threats by gleefully declaring, "Oh, yeah! This is gonna be great!"
Vanko couldn't help but be taken aback by that quite bizarre reaction. He became even further confused by Harris then requesting from his captor a remarkably specific phrase of which Vanko couldn't make any sense about at all.
"Just why should I say that?" Vanko glowered down at Harris grinning back at him as if they were comrades about to share the finest jest in the world.
"Oh, trust me," Harris assured Vanko, "you'll find out. C'mon, please! Consider it a man's last request, all right?"
Vanko thought that over. Maybe it was simply Harris trying to put off for a few more moments longer the horrific butchery he was about to undergo in order for Vanko to find out if any trace of Gospodin Moroshkin's drug remained in this man's body after all these years. Even if that was true, he might as well as get it over with and next put on the rubber apron, gloves, and goggles…
Taking an irritated breath, Ivan Vanko nonetheless recited out loud word for word in his thick Russian accent which made him sound like he was saying, "I am eenweencible!"
Right after that, Harris guffawed at the top of his lungs, "Ha-ha-ha! I just can't believe I heard someone right out of nowhere else but Moscow announce they were invincible! GAHK!"
That last sound from Harris was due to Vanko angrily clamping a meaty hand onto the prisoner's face to shut him up and leaning forward to growl right into the single amused eye staring back at him, "Ho, ho, good joke, da? Enjoy it, you won't—"
Behind Vanko, someone cleared their throat.
Knowing instantly nobody else should be there, Vanko let go of Harris and whirled around with surprising speed for such a big man, his hand now dipping into a chest holster as he pulled out the gun from there. In the middle of this, Vanko's arm was seized so powerfully that he slammed to a halt, unable to pull himself free.
Vanko gaped down at who was easily holding him in place, a tiny blonde woman in casual jeans and blouse the age of Harris. She smirked upwards at him, a single dainty hand unable to meet around Vanko's thick forearm that next squeezed with overwhelming force which threatened to crush into powder the radius and ulna bones.
Uttering a pained yelp, Vanko let go of the gun, which clattered onto the basement concrete floor. Looking down at this, Vanko then caught sight of another pair of feet standing by the blonde woman's high-heel shoes. His gaze rose to stare at an exasperated-appearing woman with red hair next to the blonde.
That other woman sighed, "Let go, Buffy."
Pouting, this…Buffy did as she was told. Vanko could hardly believe his luck.
Lunging forward at the pair of women, arms spreading open to grab them both and snap their spines, Vanko was interrupted in this by the redhead waving a hand just before he could accomplish that act of absolute violence.
Instead, Vanko was lifted off entirely his feet by an invisible force which then threw him across the entire basement to stunningly slam with his back against the far wall. Just as impossibly, rather than crumpling forward, Vanko was held stuck onto the wall, feet dangling helplessly inches above the concrete. Eyes rolling upwards, Vanko passed out, his toothpick slipping loose from slack lips to flutter onto the floor.
Watching with immense satisfaction all this, Xander next looked over at where his friends were advancing towards him. He greeted them, "Hi, Wils, Buffster!" even though they didn't look very happy at the moment.
Indeed, Buffy Summers snarled at him when she and Willow stopped at the side of the table he was lying on, "Do you know how much money you've just cost us? We expected the safety words would be mentioned right away, maybe the second day of your road trip! Not for a whole week!"
"Yeah," Willow grumpily agreed with Buffy. The Red Witch glared at the huge, out-cold guy she'd sent magically hurtling where he was still pasted to the wall, defying gravity. "That isn't a demon girlfriend, either! It looks like Dawn's the big winner for the Council House's bets on your road trip!"
Xander only smirked at his annoyed best pals. "Hey, don't sweat it. I know for a fact you both picked the hundred-to-one square on the bet sheet. Guess what? It just paid off!"
The mouths of the pair of females in the basement dropped open in shock at this lucky news. Willow beat out Buffy in saying incredulously, "You actually got a Russian to say 'I am invincible' exactly like Boris Grishenko in the James Bond movie Goldeneye?"
In his smuggest tone, Xander responded, "It was even better than I thought it'd be! Guess you're sorry now about teasing me so much about it when you set up the emergency spell that'd bring you and Buffy to me when I got in trouble?"
In lieu of an actual apology, Buffy leaned over to bestow a smacking kiss of delight upon Xander's forehead. Moving aside for Willow to do the same on the man's cheek, Buffy dreamily smiled to herself about how many new shoes she was going to stuff her closet with, despite having to split the money with Willow.
Beaming in turn at his friends, Xander hinted while tugging upwards from the table straps with his fastened arms, "A little more help here, guys?"