Finding Stark

Location: Pakistan

Date: April 30 2008

It took me some time to get to Stark. I had a general idea of where to look for Stark, but it was still not easy. The mountain area was vast, and I needed a lead to narrow my search area. 

I also was followed — I saw Clint on my trail since Prague. As soon as I landed in Pakistan, I shook him off. At first, I thought to partner up with him and pull him into saving Stark, but it would raise too many questions and knowing how SHIELD works from inside, I would screw everything up by revealing myself. It was better to leave him be and keep SHIELD in the dark as long as possible.

After that, it was an agonising ride in an old jeep that I bought for cash. I needed to be mobile and go to a no-man's land.

I had to spend some time getting my hands on some weapons, explosives and supplies. It was the easy part — I knew the black market dealing very well, and Pakistan was a country where you can find a lot of stuff that goes kaboom, as long as you have cash or are ready to crack some bones. I was both.

The hardest part was to find out who to beat up, break bones and plain torture to get information about the Ten Rings camp location.

When I finally found it, five days later - after I landed back in time, I had to discard the idea of alerting US forces to get him out. It was not viable — it would take far too long, and there is no guarantee that someone is not going to fuck it all up, leaving dead Stark behind.

Sabotage and stealthy retrieval instead, I decided then.

But before I proceeded forward - shooting, screaming, and explosions started. I saw a metal armoured figure was putting everything on flame.

Stark.

He was like a raging metal monster, lashing out at anyone shooting him and putting everything to ashes and on flame.

I did not have time to react or even approach - I was too far away, trying to scout camp from a vantage point.

Then Stark shot up in the air and flew away. I marked the direction he left and went back to my car — I needed to get to him first before anyone followed him.

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It took me two hours to reach his crashing site, but of course, he had already left. I looked at the armour scattered over a sand dune, thinking that it would be better not to leave it here. Unfortunately, it was too heavy to pick it up.

Blowing it up then.

I took out C4 charges that I picked up from an old white-bearded man with no teeth and shaky hands. Then, I stuffed them inside what looked like a chest section and dropped whatever other big pieces I saw around on top of that.

It was a spectacular explosion, scattering pieces over half a mile around. Good luck putting it back together.

It took me another fifteen minutes to catch up with Stark. He was smart enough to hide after he had noticed a car following his steps, I assumed.

I stopped the car and looked around, trying to see if I could spot him. I was in the space between dunes with some random rocks scattered around — not many places to hide. He was around here, and I was sure of it.

We don't have time to waste on hide and seek, and we need to get out of here ASAP. I pulled out the phone and called Jarvis.

"Hello Jarvis, I am putting you on speaker phone," I said a bit too loud. Then, I dialled up the speaker phone at maximum volume, hoping that Stark was within hearing distance.

"Miss Romanova. Where is Mister Stark?" British voice was carried around.

"Somewhere here, Jarvis. He just escaped his captors. He probably thinks I am with them or something."

"Sir, verification code CW 201 - McFly."

I looked around, hoping to see Stark getting out of his hiding spot.

My danger senses flared, and I quickly spun around, finding Stark a few steps away. He immediately jumped on me, and we fell to the ground. I would easily subdue him, but it would be counterproductive, so I relaxed and said:

"I found him, Jarvis." I was still holding the phone in my hand while being pinned down by Stark.

Stark moved his eyes to the phone and back to me. Still holding one hand up, ready to punch me, with another on my neck.

"J, buddy, is it really you?" He said with a dry voice.

"Affirmative Sir."

"Who is redhead, buddy?" He asked then, still on guard.

"By protocol, McFly, Miss Natalia Romanova is your contiguous plan in case of kidnapping. She has worked for you for the last two years since that incident in Las Vegas. She did not provide the authorisation code. I suggest to proceed with caution, Sir"

"Time travel, huh?" Stark looked at me with a bit of surprise.

"Tell me something to prove it," Stark said, focusing on me again and applying a bit more pressure to my neck.

"You built an ARC reactor and put it in your chess to keep shrapnel from killing you," I replied calmly.

"Not good enough. Try again, Annie."

I rolled my eyes and said:

"When you return to the US, you plan to close weapon production. Also, you plan to make new armour and hunt down any Stark weapon sold under the table."

"That's better, I guess." He grabbed the phone from my hand and stood up. I let it go and got up myself.

"We need to move," Is all I said, moving to the driver's seat.

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