When a small group of soldiers made it to the entrance of the cell, they saw the two dead guards. The pointed their guns and slowly made their way through the cell. It was dark, and they almost couldn't see anything. The lights were flickering so they couldn't see the large metal man almost directly in from of them. One man stood in front of the computer that Yinsen used to program Tony's suit. He was looking at it curiously when a light turned on behind him. When the young man turned around he saw a large tall robot. The robot then pounced on the man and punched him with so much power the small soldier flew across the room. When the mans fellow soldiers saw this they started shooting at random things in the room, hoping to hit something. Then they stopped and waiting in anticipation. One of the men in front turned to his friend in the back and said something but before he could finish his sentence the large robot popped out and punched another soldier away. The soldier in the back tried to shoot him, but the metal was to strong. It barely made any dents. The robot got closer and closer until it was towering over the short soldier and punched him back, knocking him out.
When Tony finished off with them he started to make is way forward to the exit of the cave. The soldiers ahead of him continued to try and puncture his armor but they couldn't. It barley did anything to Tony as he punched and shoved them all away. He turned to the oncoming soldiers expecting them to fire, but instead the ran away. Hoping to find his way out, he followed them.
Tony followed them all they way to a door, about four of the soldier made it passed the door and shut it but one was left behind. He was shouting at them to open the door but it remained closed. Tony pushed the man away and started punching the metal door, trying to knock it off its hinges. When it was weak he kicked the door open and then men waiting behind it ran away. but he took a short cut and made it in front of them. When Tony punched one of them his metal arm crashed into a rock structure and got stuck. As he was tugging on it a man came up behind him and pointed a pistol at his metal head, when he fired, the bullet ricocheted of the helmet and killed the soldier. Tony turned his head towards the dead man below him, he almost laughed at his stupidity. He was then able to finally get his arm out of the wall and continued through the tunnels.
As Tony was walking, he came across Yinsen, except Yinsen was hurt. He was shot and now covered in blood. He was leaning against the rock wall for support.
"Yinsen!" Tony yelled out in shock and worry.
"Watch out!" His warning was weak, but Tony heard it, and just as a small bomb was fired towards him, he dodged it. In retaliation he fired his own bomb towards the enemy, who was the apparent leader of the terrorist group. The man yelled as he shielded himself from the blast, but the shielding wasn't enough, the man was either dead or just knocked out but Tony couldn't care to check. He was to worried for Yinsen. As he stood over his friend, Yinsen weakly called out.
"Stark." He smiled a small, sad smile in relief. Tony lifted the face plate off his helmet.
"Come on. We got to go." his voice was wavering a bit. "Move for me, come on. We got a plan. We're gonna stick to it."
"This was always the plan, Stark."
"Come on, you're gonna go see your family. Get up."
"My family is dead. I'm going to see them now, Stark." His voice got quieter, and he took a breath. "It's okay, don't worry about me. Get out of here. See that little girl of yours." Tony blinked as tears clouded his vision. "I want this. I want this." Yinsen didn't know who he was trying to convince. Stark, or himself. Tony sighed.
"Thank you for saving me."
"Don't waste it. Don't waste your life." Yinsen chocked a bit before taking multiple deep breaths. Then he stopped. He was gone. And that made Tony mad. He turned around and made his way up out of the cave system.
As he made it to the entrance of the cave he was greeted with a lot of soldiers, with a lot of guns. A man shouted something out, and they began to fire. Although the bullets didn't hurt Tony himself, the force was enough to give him a hard time standing straight. But other than that the bullets did nothing. The soldiers stopped firing once realizing this. Tony stood straight again. "My turn."
As Tony said this his suit released a large amount of fire. The arms were made into homemade flamethrowers. The fire pushed back many of the soldiers while it consumed the ones closest. Once the soldiers were dealt with he decided to burn his weapons. He didn't want them in the wrong hands so he just got rid of them. He lit up the whole town. The shacks and everything in them would eventually be gone. Then out of nowhere a round of bullets came firing down on Tony. It caught him off guard a made him vulnerable to other soldiers. He was being pounded by bullets, so many bullets that it sent him to the ground. In order to save himself he caused a large explosion by setting something else on fire. When the soldiers were running away, he flipped a switch on his suit that gave him blasters. Just as the camp exploded, Tony and his suit flew away.
Sadly the blasters did last very long, and he was sent pummeling from the sky and crash landing in the middle of a desert. Luckily for himself the suit took most of the damage.
"Not bad."
After the crash Tony was wondering through the desert for what felt like days, hoping that a helicopter or something came across him. And just when he was about to give up hope, a helicopter flew in from behind him. He started to wave it down, and laughed in pure joy. He fell to the ground on his knees and a crew of American soldiers came up to him. Including Colonel Rhodes.
"How was the 'fun-vee'" He joked. Tony laughed and smiled up to one of his best friends. "Next time, you ride with me, okay?" Rhodes placed his hand on Tony's shoulder and brought him into a hug. They both let out a sigh of relief.
________________
When Stephanie was told that Tony was found and being brought home, she might not have showed it but she was overjoyed. Her, Pepper, and Happy were all standing on a tarmac waiting to see Tony for the first time in months.
Stephanie stood next to Pepper while Happy stood behind them. Her small hand was being clutched by Pepper so tightly that she thought she would loose feeling, but she didn't care. While Peppers face was red from crying, Stephanie's was blank. She looked bored but in reality she was nervous. What if he was hurt, or sick. But before she could cause any more anxiousness, she saw Tony being walked out of the plane they brought him in. She looked up at Pepper, and Pepper looked down at her giving Stephanie a reassuring squeeze before looking back up. Stephanie's brows were furrowed as she tried to block out the sun from her sensitive blue eyes.
She cracked the tiniest smile as she saw Tony wave away a stretcher. Typical.
Tony stopped in front of Pepper first. "Hmm. Your eyes are red. A few tears for your long lost boss?"
"Tears of joy. I hate job hunting."
"Yeah, vacations over." Tony took a deep breath before turning to Stephanie. He knelt down to her tiny height. "Hey kid. You miss me?" He smiled a bit, but when Stephanie didn't reply, he went to stand up.
"Pepper did cry." Tony stopped and knelt back down in front of her. He smirked.
"Oh, I know she did." He took his finger and poked her chest, "but did you. Did you cry for me." He joked, and let out a soft chuckle. He didn't really expect a reply but he most certainly did not expect what she did instead. Stephanie smiled. She smiled. He had just realized that he had never seen Stephanie smile. It was adorable too. It was a cute closed smile, her big blue eyes seemed to light up too. Then what she did left him speechless. She let go of Peppers hand and hugged him. She held him tight and nudged her tiny head into the crook of his neck. He was tense for a bit but he relaxed and soon wrapped his arm, since his other was injured, around her tiny form. The two fit together like a puzzle. The perfect father daughter duo.
"Don't do that again." Stephanie tiny voice cracked a bit, but he could feel her smile still present. He smiled too and hugged her even tighter.
"I won't." They had to leave but for some reason Tony didn't want to let go, so when he stood up he took her with him. He placed Stephanie on his hip, her skinny arms still wrapped around his neck and walked over to his car.
_______________
When they got in the car, Stephanie sat between Tony and Pepper in the back, while happy drove up front.
"Where to, sir?" Happy looked back at the trio with a smile.
"To the hospital please Happ-" Pepper tried to say.
"No." Tony interrupted.
"No? Tony, you have to go to the hospital."
"No, is a complete answer." The two continued to quietly argue as Stephanie looked back and forth at them. They were acting like an old married couple, the thought made Stephanie giggle. She giggled. Ew. "What are you laughing at, shortcake." Tony whispered and looked at her completely ignoring Pepper. Stephanie shook her head and leaned passed Tony to look out the window. Pepper continued to press issue. "I have been in complete captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger, and the other..."
"That's enough of that."
"...is not what you think. I want you to call for a press conference now."
"Call for a press conference?" Pepper looked at Tony like he had three heads.
"Yeah. Hogan, drive. Cheeseburger first." Happy nodded and started the car. Stephanie tapped Tony's shoulder.
"Can I have a cheeseburger?" She looked up at Tony shyly, playing with his fingers.
"Shortcake, you can get as many cheeseburgers as you want." Stephanie smiled and turned forward again, swinging her feet back and forth over her seat. Tony smiled at the 8 year old and looked at the intertwined hands.
And they were off.
___________________
Hiiiii!
Wowza, two chapter in one day. Holy moly. I'm trying to update this book at least once a day, and since I missed yesterday I had to make up for it. Also can I just say how CUTE Stephanie is. I love her so much and I have so many plans for her in the future.
One more thing, that was the first time Stephanie truly smiled🤧I can't omg. Anyhow, I'm thinking that after I finish the movies plot, I may add some one shots of Irondad and Stephanie because they are just adorable. Would you guys like that?? Let me know, you can also recommend stuff as well. Just DM me and all that jazz.
Okay that's all. Now you know the deal, remember to eat, drink, and stay healthy my friends. Have an amazing night.
-Peyty