As Coulson introduced them and his SHIELD organization, they walked a few more miles before Tony complained.
"Hey, how much longer until you people arrive? I'm freezing out here," Tony said with a joking tone, rubbing his hands together to stay warm.
"I sent the location — they should be on the way," Clint replied.
"Here, take this blanket," Natasha said, pulling one from her bag and handing it over.
"Thanks, beautiful lady," he replied, taking it.
"I wanted to ask from the start, Mr. Stark — what's that light glowing on your chest through the cloth?" she asked casually.
"Here I was thinking you guys were blind, or just too professional to ask," he said sarcastically, wrapping the blanket around himself.
He slid his shirt aside and showed the glowing small reactor on his chest. Except for Jack and Yinsen, who already knew about it, the others seeing it for the first time were visibly shocked.
"This is insane," Natasha said.
As Tony was proudly talking about his invention, they heard the sound of a helicopter approaching.
"I can finally go home now," Tony said with a smile.
Later, as Tony was getting first aid treatment at the SHIELD facility, Jack slipped away to continue his hero work.
This country had more areas in chaos and violence, and destroying terrorist groups and saving people here gave him easy heroic points.
Meanwhile, back at the facility —
"TONY!"
A Black man in a military uniform came rushing in, and seeing Tony, his face broke into a wide smile. He went straight in for a hug.
"Tony, I knew you wouldn't die easily, man. It's good to see you back," the man said, clearly relieved.
"Haha — Rhodey, my buddy. It's good to see you too, man," Tony replied, genuinely happy to see James Rhodes.
"And this is?" Rhodes looked at Yinsen, who was standing nearby.
"This is Yinsen — my friend who saved my life in there. We escaped together," Tony said, introducing him. The two shook hands and talked for a bit.
"When Coulson said they found you first, I didn't believe him," Rhodey said with a tired shake of his head. "I came out here thinking maybe I could still bring you home myself." He let out a quiet breath, guilt flashing across his face. "Sorry, Tony… feels like I failed you as a friend."
"Don't beat yourself up, Rhodey," Tony said, giving him a reassuring look. "I know you were trying to get to me."
Then Coulson walked over.
"Mr. Stark, the flight is ready. We can leave for New York whenever you'd like."
"Good. Yinsen, come with me — we'll leave together." Tony turned back to Coulson. "Did you find anything on Yinsen's family? I promised him he could be with his family in America."
Hearing that, Coulson glanced at Yinsen. He had already quietly looked into Yinsen's background the moment they arrived and knew the truth.
Seeing Coulson's expression, Yinsen understood what it meant. He spoke first.
"Tony… I lied to you before. I don't have any family. They all died in the war."
Tony went quiet.
"At the time, I was prepared to die in there and finally meet them again — but it seems God had other plans for me." Yinsen paused. "I can't leave my homeland, Tony. I want to do something for my people."
Tony listened quietly, the weight behind Yinsen's words settling heavily in his chest. After everything they had survived together, he understood this wasn't something that could be changed with persuasion or money. Yinsen had already made his choice long ago.
For once, Tony didn't argue.
He reached over to the small table beside the medical cot, grabbed a pen, and quickly wrote down a private contact number before handing it over.
"If you need anything — medicine, supplies, money — call me," Tony said seriously. "I'll make sure help reaches this place."
Yinsen looked down at the paper for a moment before carefully folding it and slipping it into his pocket.
The two men exchanged a quiet look, no more words needed between them.
On the plane —
"Where's Mr. Omnix? Isn't he coming with us?" Tony asked Coulson, who was with Natasha and Clint.
"Mr. Omnix told us to go ahead. He said he'd come later after finishing his work here," Coulson replied.
"Alright then."
"Who's this Omnix guy?" Rhodey asked from the seat nearby, raising an eyebrow.
"He's a mystery. I'll tell you the whole story later," Tony replied. "Can I get a glass of wine, please?" he called out to the stewardess.
"Yes, sir."
And with that, Tony was on his way back to New York.
On the other side, at the same time, Jack was still working through the villages in Afghanistan.
"Kill that monster!" A group of men, fully covered and clearly part of a terrorist group, were shooting at Four Arms from all directions.
Jack ran at full speed toward them. Each punch landed hard — heavy enough that every man hit wouldn't be walking away from this normally. In this place, injuries like that were basically a death sentence.
Hearing the sudden quiet, a few women and children looked out cautiously — but seeing Four Arms, they were afraid too, and quickly shut their doors again.
Jack didn't mind. He looked at the terrorists lying there in very serious condition.
He had genuinely thought about finishing them completely after seeing what these people had been doing to innocent civilians. He held back. Breaking them this severely meant daily life itself would become suffering — practically a slow death.
[+50 Heroic Points — terrorist organization destroyed]
Add that to the 150 points I got for saving Tony.
[600 total heroic points]
Jack looked at the number.
It's a lot less than I expected for saving Yinsen. Though thinking about it — Tony was going to escape on his own within a week or so anyway, and saving Yinsen still gave less than saving Uncle Ben. Seems like not every rescue weighs the same.
"But getting something is better than nothing," Jack muttered, then gave instructions to Red Queen.
"Red Queen, using the future information I gave you, put together the best market plan you can — maximize the profit without drawing any attention or affecting the market noticeably."
"Yes, Master. I've been tracking the market news, and with your future predictions I've already run multiple simulations. We can get a significantly larger profit this time."
"Good. I just hope Tony decides to shut down the weapons department even without Yinsen dying — otherwise I'm going to lose money," Jack added, half joking.
He left the scene with the terrorists still in bad shape. Seeing Four Arms leave, a few of the women noticed the terrorists' condition — some picked up nearby guns, eyes full of hatred toward them, while others fled the village out of fear.
Jack didn't have much time to think about what would happen after this. Right now, he only had one real plan — make his way from Afghanistan back to New York step by step, using different alien forms whenever needed.
But honestly… a part of him was actually looking forward to it.
In both his past life and this one, he had barely ever left his own country. Even coming to Afghanistan had been his first time truly seeing another part of the world. Now that he finally had the chance, he didn't want to rush straight back home without experiencing any of it.
Jack glanced toward the distant horizon and smirked. "Yeah… I've got a feeling this journey's going to be interesting."
A/N:🚨 Power Stone Goals! 🚨
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