Tony Stark woke up to find a piece of metal bolted to his chest.
Being a genius mechanical engineer, it only took him one look to understand what it was — an electromagnet. Crude, heavy, wired to a car battery sitting in the sand beside his stretcher. The engineering was ugly but the purpose was obvious.
"Don't move around too much." A young man's voice, somewhere to his left. "You took several pieces of shrapnel to the chest. Without that magnet, they'd be in your heart right now."
Tony turned his head. A young guy — mid-twenties, maybe — crouched near the remains of a campfire, doing something with a pile of salvaged supplies. He didn't recognize the face at all. Not from the convoy, not from the briefing, not from anywhere.
The only thing Tony remembered clearly was arriving in this godforsaken desert, the ambush, the flash of an RPG — and then nothing.
"Did you save me?" Tony asked.
"No. That was the doctor over there." The young man jerked his thumb toward Yinsen, who was tending to wounded captives near the cave mouth. No hesitation. No attempt to claim credit that wasn't his.
"Either way — thanks." Tony's eyes swept the scene. Dead terrorists. Burned-out vehicles. Terrified captives huddled together, barely holding it together.
Only one person in the whole camp looked calm.
Tony Stark wasn't just a genius in the lab. As a successful businessman, reading people was a survival skill. One glance was enough. Dead terrorists, shell-shocked prisoners, and one guy sitting in the middle of it all without a scratch of panic on his face.
"You're the one who killed them," Tony said. Not a question.
"The Ten Rings were just the appetizer," Kade said, ignoring the observation entirely. "Bigger trouble's coming."
Tony frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Haven't you thought about how those terrorists knew your itinerary? You think your kidnapping was just bad luck?"
The words landed hard. Tony went still.
"You're saying someone leaked my route."
"I'm saying someone knew exactly where you'd be and when you'd be there."
Tony fell quiet. The list of people who knew his travel schedule was short — and every name on it belonged to someone important in his life. If any one of them had done this...
"Now's not the time to figure out who," Kade said, cutting through the spiral before it could take hold. "Some of those terrorists got away. When they come back, they'll bring more men and heavier weapons. We need to move."
"And do what?" Tony gestured at the cave, the captives, the desert stretching to the horizon. "There's a handful of us against God knows how many of them."
"Two things. First — contact the US military. This is a terrorist outpost. There'll be communications equipment somewhere. And if there isn't, I'm pretty sure you can build something."
"I'll reach Rhodey," Tony said immediately. "Colonel James Rhodes. Air Force. Best friend. If I can get a signal out, he'll come."
"Good. Second —" Kade pointed at the wrecked SUV sitting lopsided in the sand, two tires blown, body panels shredded. "I need you to fix that car."
Tony stared at him. Then at the wreck. Then back at him.
"Why? There are three perfectly good vehicles right over there." He pointed at the intact SUVs the terrorists had driven in. "Enough to get all of us out. Why would I waste time repairing a wreck when —"
Kade didn't explain. He just snapped his fingers.
The SUV's headlight flicked on. Its engine roared to life — impossibly, given the visible damage — and the vehicle drove itself across the sand to park at Kade's side.
Tony's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.
"Blitz," Kade said. "Come meet Tony Stark. Your surgeon."
The SUV transformed.
Metal shrieked and folded. Plates split along invisible seams, rotating and telescoping upward. In five seconds, the wrecked vehicle had become a five-meter silver-gray robot — right arm hanging limp from the RPG damage, blue optical sensors looking down at Tony from above.
"Hello, Mr. Stark!" Blitz launched into it immediately. "I'm Blitz — a newly born Cybertronian combat unit. It's a genuine pleasure to meet you. Where do I even begin? Well, first of all, I was activated approximately two hours ago from a state of complete non-existence, which was a fascinating experience in itself, and I have to say that consciousness is really quite something once you get used to —"
"Shut up, Blitz," Kade said.
"Yes, Commander, sir!" Blitz snapped to attention and saluted.
Tony was still staring. His brain — a brain that could design missile guidance systems in his sleep — was trying to process a five-meter sentient robot that had just been a car.
"What..." He swallowed. "What is that?"
"An intelligent combat robot," Kade said. "Now's not the time for explanations. I need you to repair him. He's our best chance of surviving what's coming next."
Kade would've preferred to keep Blitz hidden. But half the captives had already seen the transformation during the fight, and he needed Tony's engineering skills more than he needed secrecy. No point being coy about it now.
It took Tony a solid minute to compose himself. Then the shock burned away and something else took over — the look of a man who'd just been handed the most interesting puzzle of his life.
He started walking toward Blitz with his hands already reaching out, eyes roaming over every joint and plate.
Blitz took a step back. "Mr. Stark, what are you doing? Please control your emotions."
"Relax." Tony grinned. "I'll be gentle."
Whether Tony would end up taking Blitz completely apart was something Kade didn't particularly worry about. If anyone could disassemble a Cybertronian and put it back together, it was the man who'd one day build the Iron Man suit out of scraps. He left them to it.
There were more pressing concerns. In a desert with no idea how long they'd be waiting, every resource was precious — water, food, ammunition, medical supplies. Kade couldn't run on gasoline and motor oil like Blitz could.
He started searching the dead.
It was routine work — checking pockets, pouches, canteens. Then his hand brushed a holster on one of the bodies, and information flooded his mind.
[Detected: Firearm — Browning Hi-Power pistol. Caliber: 9x19mm Parabellum. Magazine capacity: 13 rounds...]
A full technical breakdown of the weapon appeared in his head, every specification laid out in precise detail. And at the bottom:
[Structural integrity: 99%. Meets Secondary Modification requirements. Cost: 500 AllSpark energy to convert to Pulse Pistol.]
Secondary Modification?
Kade's understanding of the AllSpark was still mostly based on the movies — the cosmic artifact that created Transformers. Blitz had told him this version was far more powerful, but until now that had been an abstract claim. He hadn't known what "more powerful" actually meant.
Now he was starting to find out.
He closed his eyes and turned his attention inward, focusing on his hands the way he had when he'd activated Blitz. Information surged up — enough to give him a headache.
[AllSpark Energy (Stage 1): 1000/1000. Recovery rate: 1/sec.]
[Available Skills:][1. Intelligent Sequence Activation][2. Secondary Modification Tech]
[Advisory: Increase AllSpark energy capacity to unlock additional functions.]
Intelligent Sequence Activation — that was the ability he'd already used. Pouring AllSpark energy into a machine to create sentient Cybertronian life. That's how Blitz was born.
But Secondary Modification was something new entirely. Kade opened the details, and found the contents were more extensive than he'd expected.
PLZ THROW POWERSTONS.