𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄 | 𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐧

𝟎𝟎. 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

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𝐊𝐔𝐍𝐀𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄,
𝐀𝐅𝐆𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍

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𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐘-𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐕𝐄𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐄 through the country's desert sands, the rear blasting AC/DC's 'Back in Black', by popular request of Stark Industries CEO, Tony Stark. Inside, the famed weapons manufacturer sat amongst three U.S. soldiers. Whilst he sat there on the bumpy ride, two soldiers turned their heads in the direction of the man on clockwork, as if they were a broken record, staring at him. As the action repeated, Tony caught the soldier closest to him. In response, he swirled his drink around in the glass

"I feel like you're driving me to a court-martial." Tony paused. "This is crazy. What did I do?" His eyes darted from the staring soldier to whoever was sat in front of him, then back again. The soldier suppressed the smile forming on his face as he was looked at. "I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me." Tony paused again. No answer. Frustration grew as everyone ignored him. "What, you're not allowed to talk?" Still no response. "Hey, Forrest!"

"We can talk, sir." One soldier replied to ease Stark's evident annoyance.

"Oh, I see. So it's personal?" Tony fired back.

"No, you intimidate them." The driver answered, matter-of-factly. A look of surprise crossed Stark's face.

"Good God, you're a woman. I honestly... I couldn't have called that." Tony paused for a moment. "I mean, I'd apologise, but isn't that what we're going for here?" The other soldiers had to stifle their laughter at Tony's remarks. "I thought of you as a soldier first."

"I'm an airman." She corrected him.

"Well you have, actually, excellent bone structure, there. I'm kind of having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?" Tony asked. An array of laughter ensued. "Come on, it's okay, laugh." He reassured them.

"Sir, I have a question to ask." A soldier turned his head to look at the CEO.

"Yes, please."

"Is it true you went 12 for 12 with last year's Maxim cover models?" He asked, curiosity laced his voice.

Tony removed the sunglasses perched on the bridge of his nose. "That is an excellent question. Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins. Anything else?"

The previously staring soldier raised his hand. "You're kidding me with the hand up, right?" Tony looked amused, but nodded his head to signal he could ask.

"Is it cool if I take a picture with you?"

"Yes." Tony nodded again, slowly this time. "It's very cool." A camera was pulled out and handed to the passenger in front. The soldier raised his index and middle fingers, creating a peace sign "I don't want to see this on your MySpace page. Please, no gang signs." Tony said, noticing the soldier's hand. He immediately lowered the hand after what Tony had said. "No, throw it up. I'm kidding." And the hand went back up again. "Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of the job with peace."

"Come on. Hurry up." The soldier grew impatient. "Don't change any settings. Just click it."

As if by the click of the camera button, the vehicle driving in front of Tony's was blown up, the sound of shots being fired followed. Every soldier within the vehicle switched into battle mode, but a now panicking Tony held onto the arm of the soldier next to him

"What's going on?" Tony asked, the panic and confusion clear in his tone.

"Contact left!" The driver shouted.

"What have we got?" Tony raised his voice.

The driver ignored Stark's question. She pushed her door open, gun ready, but it was no use. She was gunned down immediately.

"Jimmy, stay with Stark!" The soldier in front ordered before he left the vehicle as well.

"Stay down!" Jimmy shouted, pushing Tony down to the floor of the vehicle. More gunshots sounded and the soldier who had just left safety had been killed. "Son of a bitch!" He yelled, readying his own weapon, preparing to exit.

"Wait, wait, wait! Give me a gun!" Tony shouted, panic seeping more through his words. The request was ignored and Jimmy left the vehicle.

"Stay here!" He moved forwards to fight the unknown, but was dead before he knew it. Multiple shots were fired at the vehicle in the aftermath of the soldier's death. Tony frantically looked around his surroundings, before exiting the vehicle himself.

He ran from the danger, narrowly avoiding bullets that either ricocheted on the surrounding ground, or shots fired directly towards his general area. The running was no use though, he thought. Whoever was shooting would catch up to him eventually, and he'd find his deathbed. Hiding was his only option if he wanted to survive any longer.

Tony ducked behind a rock close to him for cover. He pulled his phone out with the idea of contacting someone, that was until a missile landed right next to him in the sand. His eyes widened as he saw the name 'Stark Industries' brandishing the weapon. His own creation, sitting there waiting for the kill. However stupid it might have been, Tony tried to get up and run again, but it was too late. The missile exploded and Tony was sent flying. He hit the ground. Hard. Black was all he saw for minutes, which felt like hours. It wasn't death though. Tony could still feel the beating of his heart in his chest.

As Stark slowly came back to his senses,  a deep rooted pain in his chest was felt more clearly than it had before. He glanced downwards to the general area of the pain, blood seeped through the white of his shirt. A fate worse than immediate death. He unbuttoned a few of the buttons of his shirt, more blood pooling around his fresh wounds. Definitely a fate worse than immediate death.

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𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆

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𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬| finally have my baby out! this "little" (it's not so little) project of mine has been 2 or so years in the making, with some many changes, but i feel like i'm finally happy with where the idea is at and i get to share it with all of you! this is book one of my infinity saga rewrite, however it is not in chronological order timeline wise, i will be creating the timeline at some point and it will be added to a book that contains all of my drafts and story ideas. please be patient when it comes to updates though, i do have to balance my writing with working and studying as well as just trying to have a social life (social life is currently nonexistent so will not be causing any issues). anyways, enough of that, i hope you enjoy the rest of this book!