"Someone as smart as him wouldn't only notice something off about Yinsen now," Zod said. "You guys were too idle, and he saw through the cracks."
After all, those beast-soldiers' main job was to keep an eye on Tony Stark. Hundreds of them, just to watch one man. And the cover story they'd used on Tony was that they were terrorists, but terrorists did not need to go looting everywhere.
Terrorists did not need to go pick fights with other people either.
On top of that, the beast-soldiers treated guns like they were optional. Sometimes they even shoved an empty magazine into a rifle and acted like it was loaded. Tony Stark would have to be blind not to notice details like that.
Yinsen had even more holes.
That "second Yinsen" thought switching languages would solve everything, figuring Tony Stark would not learn a new language that fast. Who would have guessed Tony could get serious and learn at a frightening speed? Even if Yinsen did not talk much, a few accidental slip-ups were enough for Tony to piece together the truth.
"Forget it. Him escaping is fine. We were going to let him go anyway," Zod said after thinking it through.
The beast-soldier on the other end had only just relaxed when Zod continued.
"But while you can be spared death, you won't be spared punishment. All of you, go to Africa and find an Antarctic bear. If you can't find it, then don't ever come back for the rest of your lives!!!"
Zod hung up.
"Boss is angry?" one beast-soldier asked, sounding simple-minded.
"Damn it, after you turned into an insect fusion, did your brain get simpler too?" another beast-soldier snapped, furious at his stupidity. "Boss is obviously angry!"
"Then are we seriously going to Africa to find an Antarctic bear?"
The beast-soldiers exchanged looks.
Forget Africa. Nobody had even heard of an "Antarctic bear," okay? Were they supposed to catch a polar bear from the Arctic, raise it in Antarctica for a while, then bring it to Africa?
With no choice, they headed for Africa anyway. Zod had them under thought-wave control, so betrayal was not even an option.
Zod was not actually angry. He was not the type to lose his temper casually. Sending the beast-soldiers to Africa was just an excuse. What he really wanted was to draw out Wakanda's Black Panther God.
At the very least, he was not going to let Wakanda keep playing dumb for another ten-plus years.
Either way, it was just a batch of beast-soldiers, old products that were about to be phased out.
Recently, a clear rank system had formed inside World Serpent.
At the top was Zod, the boss. Below him were the Four Emperors: Black Queen, White Queen, Black Emperor, and White Emperor.
Below that were the fixed core ranks: the Three Great Generals, the Seven High Generals, and sixteen Lieutenant Generals.
Then came Major General, Brigadier General, Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, Major, and finally ordinary World Serpent soldiers.
For a group made up mostly of military types, this hierarchy was easy to accept.
The only one shocked was Blonsky. He could not believe he was only a Lieutenant General, but since it was Zod's personal order, he had no way to protest.
…
Meanwhile, after Tony Stark escaped, he relied on the Iron Man suit and the physical conditioning he'd forged to fight his way out of Afghanistan and reach a U.S. military base. The base commander was completely dumbstruck when he saw him.
Wasn't Tony Stark missing for more than a year, even confirmed dead?
"Get me Colonel Rhodes…" Tony Stark said, then blacked out.
When he woke up, he was lying in a major hospital.
"Tony!"
At his bedside was his lifelong friend, Air Force Colonel James Rhodes, also one of the military's War Machine pilots.
"You were missing for over a year. Where did you go?" Rhodes asked, worry all over his face.
"Rhodey…" Tony sighed. A year and change without seeing him felt like a lifetime.
He'd grown up. He was different now.
While talking with Rhodes, Tony learned that Stark Industries had become Obadiah's company. Tony did not think much of it. To him, Obadiah was still his good uncle.
But when Obadiah heard Tony was back, his expression darkened. Still, he quickly smoothed it over and had his secretary prepare the car so he could visit Tony in the hospital.
"Tony!"
Obadiah pushed open the hospital room door. The tearful, emotional expression he'd been working up for so long froze solid.
Because Tony Stark did not look weak and half-dead at all. On the contrary, he looked healthy, rosy-cheeked. With his upper body exposed, his chest, abs, biceps, every muscle group was sharply defined. If you told someone Tony Stark had been kidnapped for more than a year, nobody would believe it.
That was because Zod had specially prepared a "fitness prison" for Tony. Every day meant forging and hammering steel. Meals were three vegetarian, one meat, and every two days there was a "hard fiber feast." Extremely healthy.
To prevent caffeine and alcohol dependency, Tony did not get coffee or booze. He only got fruit juice and vegetable juice, detox and skincare, to the point his skin actually improved.
With plenty of sleep and no nightlife, Tony Stark looked energetic, eyes bright and alert.
"Obadiah!"
Tony saw family and got so excited he flipped off the hospital bed, moving so fast that even Rhodes froze.
Rhodes knew Tony was healthy now, but nobody said he'd be this agile.
Not surprising. Twelve hours of manual labor a day, then the beast-soldiers would not even feed him. He had to go to the cafeteria and fight to grab food. One second too slow and those animals would clean it out.
Zod told them it was training. Missing one meal would not kill Tony. Just make sure he ate breakfast, so he would not get gallstones.
Under those conditions, Tony Stark trained himself into a master at vaulting obstacles and slipping through crowds, all to make sure he got fed.
Since Obadiah was in a wheelchair, Tony could only give him a careful half-hug.
"Good. You're back. You're back," Obadiah said, patting Tony's back, only to feel pain shoot through his palm. Tony was way too solid.
"Oh, right, Tony. When you were gone, the police said you might already be dead. To keep Stark Industries from collapsing, I…" Obadiah hurried to explain, afraid Tony would misunderstand. A man like him naturally assumed Tony would value Stark Industries just as much.
"No need," Tony said, completely unconcerned. "Who Stark Industries belongs to doesn't matter. Anyway, I want a cheeseburger. Where's Happy?"
"Uh… after you were missing for more than a year, Happy resigned," Obadiah said awkwardly.
"Then what about Potts?" Tony froze for a moment, but he did not feel surprised.
/-\
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters!
~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily)
https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally)