Cave Prison – Pre-Dawn
The rhythmic clang of hammer on metal echoed through the cave. Tony Stark worked with desperate focus, sweat dripping from his face despite the cool air. Each strike shaped crude steel into something extraordinary, a walking tank built from scraps.
Eighteen hours.
The chest plate was complete. The leg servos functioned. The arm hydraulics needed final calibration, but they'd work. Maybe. Probably.
Tony raised the hammer for another strike,
BOOM!
The explosion reverberated through the cave system, distant but unmistakable. Tony froze mid-swing, hammer suspended in air. His eyes met Yinsen's across the workspace.
"Was that, " Tony started.
Another explosion. Closer this time. Then automatic weapons fire, sustained bursts, multiple guns.
Yinsen moved to the iron door, pressing his ear against the metal. "Enemy attack. I hear machine gun fire. Multiple positions engaging."
Tony's pulse quickened. Hope surged in his chest. "The military? Did they finally find this place?"
Outside the Cave Complex – Moments Earlier
Smith Doyle hovered two hundred feet above the Ten Rings stronghold, surveying the target through his Scouter. The display painted the scene in tactical overlays, defensive positions, ammunition stores, patrol routes, power level readings.
Forty-three combatants. Standard small arms. Two heavy machine gun emplacements. Rockets stored in the third bunker. And somewhere inside that cave system, two captives, one with an arc reactor signature.
This was definitely the right location. The sheer volume of Stark Industries weaponry confirmed it, Jericho missiles, pallets of munitions, vehicle-mounted systems. The previous Ten Rings outposts hadn't been this well-equipped.
But a frontal assault carried risks. Stray gunfire, cave-ins, hostage situations, too many variables that could get Tony killed before Smith reached him.
Need insurance.
Smith reached into his system inventory and withdrew a Partner Summon card. "Puar, I need you."
Light coalesced beside him. A small blue cat materialized, floating in midair with the casual defiance of physics that characterized shape-shifters.
Puar blinked large eyes at him. "Yes, Master Smith?"
"See that cave below?" Smith pointed. "Two prisoners inside, Americans, one with a glowing device on his chest. His name is Tony Stark. I need you to use your transformation ability to infiltrate and protect him. If anyone tries to harm him during the fighting, stop them. Don't let him die."
Puar nodded seriously. "Understood. I'll keep him safe."
The shape-shifter floated downward, form blurring and compacting. By the time Puar reached ground level, a small gecko skittered across the rocks, completely unnoticed by the guards.
Smith tracked Puar's progress through his Scouter. The life sign moved through the cave entrance, navigating corridors with perfect confidence.
Good. Once Puar reaches Tony, I can go loud.
The gecko-shaped companion disappeared into the deepest section of the cave complex. Smith's Scouter registered arrival at the prisoners' location.
Time to work.
Smith cupped his hands at his waist, gathering ki. Blue-white energy coalesced between his palms, compressed and volatile.
"Kamehameha."
He hurled the ki blast downward at reduced power, enough to destroy the defensive position, not enough to collapse the mountain.
The energy sphere screamed toward the camp.
Contact.
BOOM!
The explosion vaporized the sandbag fortifications and sent three guards flying. Dust and smoke billowed outward in a perfect sphere.
Alarms shrieked to life. Men poured from tents, weapons in hand, shouting in Pashto and Arabic.
"Enemy attack! Defensive positions!"
Inside the largest tent, Raza jolted awake, snatching his rifle. He burst into the pre-dawn darkness, scanning for threats.
The smoke cleared.
A figure stood in the crater where their defensive line had been. Not military. Not CIA. Just... a man. Young, calm, completely unharmed by his own explosive arrival.
"Open fire!" Raza roared.
Forty assault rifles opened up simultaneously. The sound was deafening, a sustained roar of automatic fire that should have shredded any human target.
Smith stood motionless as bullets impacted his body. Sparks flew where rounds struck. Some ricocheted off at odd angles. Others fell to the ground, flattened against his enhanced physiology.
Saiyan durability. Gotta love it.
The Ten Rings fighters stopped shooting, staring in disbelief at the unmarked figure standing in their kill zone.
Smith smiled. "My turn."
He raised his right hand. Small ki balls materialized around his palm, dozens of them, each one precisely calibrated.
"Here's a little something I learned from watching too much anime."
The balls launched. They arced through the air like miniature comets, tracking toward clusters of combatants with unerring accuracy. Smith had carefully plotted their trajectories to avoid the ammunition storage, a chain reaction explosion would collapse the caves.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The detonations walked across the camp in rapid succession. Men flew through the air, weapons scattered, defensive positions disintegrated. Within seconds, half the Ten Rings fighters were down, dead, wounded, or too stunned to fight.
Smith didn't wait. He closed the distance in a blur of motion, his Saiyan speed making him nearly invisible. A palm strike crushed a sternum. A spinning kick sent three men flying. His tail whipped out, catching a fighter across the face with bone-breaking force.
This is almost too easy. None of them even register on the Scouter above 10. I could do this all day.
Inside the Cave Prison
Tony's hammer clattered to the floor. His hands moved to the armor components instinctively, so close to finished, but still hours from operational.
Yinsen backed away from the door, eyes wide. "That wasn't a missile strike. Something's happening out there."
Movement in Tony's peripheral vision. He spun toward it.
A gecko crawled through a gap in the iron door. Small, unremarkable, the kind you'd see anywhere in Afghanistan.
Then it stopped moving like a gecko.
The reptile's form blurred, expanded, shifted. Within seconds, a small blue cat floated in the air where the gecko had been, hovering, defying gravity, very definitely not a gecko.
Tony stumbled backward. "What the hell are you?!"
Even someone as experienced with advanced technology as Tony Stark had never seen anything like this. A floating, talking, blue cat that had just been a gecko.
Yinsen pressed against the wall, stammering. "Is that... an alien?"
Puar ignored Yinsen entirely, focusing on Tony with large, intelligent eyes. "Tony Stark, I'm Puar. Master Smith sent me to protect you."
Tony's mind raced. Master Smith? Who the hell is that? And why is a magic shape-shifting cat calling someone 'master'?
"Are you with the military?" Tony asked, grasping for any familiar framework. "Is the fighting outside... are they rescuing me?"
Puar shook their head, a strangely human gesture on a feline face. "We're not military. But the fighting is definitely because of us. Master Smith is dealing with the Ten Rings members."
Outside, explosions continued. Shouting. Weapons fire that cut off abruptly.
Tony glanced at Yinsen, then back at Puar. "Okay, setting aside the fact that you're a flying cat, how exactly are you supposed to protect us from armed militants? You're the size of a house cat."
Before Puar could respond, boots pounded in the corridor outside. Three sets, moving fast.
"Someone's coming," Puar said urgently. "Hide. Now."
Tony and Yinsen moved on instinct, diving behind workbenches and grabbing armor components as makeshift shields. Puar floated upward, pressing against the cave ceiling where shadows concealed their small form.
Keys rattled in the lock. The iron door swung open.
Three Ten Rings fighters burst in, weapons raised. They swept the cave, searching for,
"Where is it?" one demanded in Arabic.
"The blue thing, I saw it on the monitor, "
Puar dropped from the ceiling like a stone. Mid-fall, its form expanded and shifted. By the time it hit the first man, Puar had become a 300-pound boulder.
The impact drove the man into the floor with a sickening crunch. His rifle clattered away.
The second man spun, trying to track the shape-shifter. Puar became a boa constrictor in midair, wrapping around the man's neck and squeezing. He clawed at the coils, choking, then collapsed.
The third got his weapon up, finger on the trigger,
Puar became a cloud of vapor, dissipating into mist. The bullets passed through harmlessly. Then the mist reformed as a massive fist, striking the fighter in the temple. He dropped unconscious.
Silence.
Tony and Yinsen stared at the three unconscious men, then at the small blue cat now floating serenely near the ceiling.
"Still think I'm too small?" Puar asked innocently.
Tony's mouth worked, but no sound came out. His entire understanding of reality had just taken a significant hit.