Chapter Text
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA December 2014 11:34 pm--
TARGET INFORMATION CARD
Name: Chu Samuel
Age: 52 yesrs old
Place of Origin: Daegu, South Korea
Position: CEO of Woojin Entertainment
Marriage Status: Single
Wanted For: Child Sex Trafficking
“Give me the scope Jarvis. How many are we looking at, first floor?” The man murmured into his mouthpiece.
“There are twelve guards sir. Three at the security desk, two by the North entrance, four by the elevators, one in the men’s bathroom, and two right around the corner from you.”
“Turn on heat-seeking vision.” He mentally called the Endo-Sym armor to cover his underarmor suit. The symbiotes retracted themselves from his helmet and coated his body in the liquid material which solidified once he was completely covered.
“Okay, let’s have some fun.”
Tony used a blast furnace reactor from the suit to melt the lock on the South entrance doors. The right gauntlet shaped into a blade as he quietly glided into the corporate office building. He shot the guard on the left with his repulsor gun, making sure the silencer mode was on, and snuck behind the one on the right before plunging the blade into the side of his neck. As the blade retracted back into his armor, blood squelched out onto the guard’s collarbone, red blooming through the fabric of his uniform. There was light, classical music emitting through the building’s speakers.
“Let’s change the music up. Jarvis, play ‘Jingle Bell Rock’”.
“Not going for subtle this time, are you Sir?”
“Nope. I’m in the mood to spread the holiday spirit.”
Tony crouched behind a plant potted in a marble base and watched as the guards looked around frantically once the music changed. They pointed their guns around, fingers on the triggers, ready to shoot any unfamiliar stranger. He threw two smoke bombs out into the center of the lobby, his helmet already blocking any fumes from entering into his airways. Once the room was covered in a thick fog, he slid out from behind the marble fixture. He shot a repulsor blast at both guards near the North entrance. The symbiote armor formed a small blade, the liquid metal detached itself from the armor and pierced through the air, perforating the throat of a guard at the security desk. He did the same to the two other guards at the security desk, who were hacking by way of the smoke before the blades punctured one of their lungs, and the other blade was lodged in the second guard’s trachea. Tony ran through the smoke and pressed his back against the nearest wall, left of the hallway where the elevators were. He watched, simultaneously, as the door on the opposite wall began to creep open, then the barrel of a rifle peeked around the corner, an inch away from his face. He quickly snatched the nose of the gun before ramming the end of it into the guard’s sternum. He heard the delicious, sharp cracking of bone before the guard fell to the floor. He then took the gun and shot it, three times, at the other guard who was coming out of the bathroom. The men who were still alive, started firing their weapons into the smoke filled lobby, blindly shooting into the air.
“Alright, I’m wasting time.”
He aimed a few repulsor blasts at the space between the elevator doors and waited until he heard the three guards fall to the ground with loud thumps. He peeked his head around the corner, confirming that all the guards were down and unconscious...or dead. He couldn’t care less either way.
“Sir, there are a group of men coming down on elevator three. There are approximately seven of them and they are heavily armed.”
“Thanks J.”
Tony used the thrusters on the heels of his armor to jet towards the third elevator. He placed both hands in the slit of the elevator doors and forced them open. A one foot, heat-seeking missile was ejected from the shoulder compartment of the suit and tracked down the elevator shaft. He jumped back and waited as the missile exploded the entire shaft, the ground he rested on momentarily shook and he had to cover his face plate from the reflection of the bright orange flames. He waited for the flames to dissipate and the smoke was nearly cleared before he lurched forward and jetted up the space where the shaft once was. Tony flew to the top floor, where he knew his target was waiting, when Jarvis spoke up.
“Sir, I’m getting an incoming call from Ms. Potts. Should I answer the call for you?”
Shit. He thought loudly.
“Yeah. Put her through J.”
“Tony, I’ve sent you five emails and texted you a million times. Why have you not responded to any of my messages?” Pepper sounded exasperated.
“Sorry doll. I’ve been...a bit preoccupied.”
Tony once again, used his armored fingers to pry open the elevator doors. There were more armed guards standing on the other side of the doors he just forced open. They all opened fire upon seeing Tony. He ducked into the corner space of the elevator shaft to evade the bullets, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to pierce through armor, but too many hits would indefinitely cause some damage.
“Doing what exactly; because I know for a fact you are not done working on the Laser Drones that the board is expecting you to present the schematics for and a proto-type of, at tomorrow’s meeting. If you were, you’d have sent me the schematics earlier this afternoon like you promised. And really Tony, you were supposed to send it to me last week but I know how busy you get with your side projects, so I gave you some leeway and I feel like you’re just taking advantage of my kind-”
She was rambling, and Pepper hardly ever rambled. That was his thing. So he knew she was very upset with him. As she should be since he didn't keep his promise, which was a reoccurring incident. He was never good at committing to stuff and that was another one of the billion reasons why she broke up with him.
“Okay Pep. I’m sorry, you’re completely right. Three hours, I’ll have Jarvis email you the schematics in three hours. If you don’t have them by then, feel free to-”
One of the men threw a sticky bomb next to the wall Tony had been leaning against. Tony took two seconds to assess the object that landed next to him before realizing what it was. He quickly pulled the bomb off the wall and flew out of the elevator shaft and into the swarm of bullets. The bomb was then dropped into the circle of guards, who were huddled together, right before it exploded.
“Tony, what on earth was that sound?”
“I, uh-Dummy blew something up. Gotta go clean up his mess. Love you Pep.”
Tony ended the call using the suit’s psionic link.
He used his repulsor blasts to shoot any other guards that were still moving, then flew down the corridor, searching for his next kill, Samuel Chu. He lightly landed on the floor as he approached the last door at the very end of the hallway.
There was a very large man standing in front of the wooden, double doors. His muscles strained through the cheap suit he sported and he wore a scowl on his face. He didn’t appear to have any weapons on him.
“You take another step, and I’m going to break your neck with my bare hands.”
“Oh, you say that with such confidence. Let’s see you put your words into action.” Then Tony stepped out of the suit. The symbiotes rolled off his body like water spilling off skin in the shower. It went into a compartment on top of his helmet that housed the symbiotes. Tony removed his helmet and gently placed it on the floor, beside his feet. He moved his limbs to get into his fighting stance.
“Hey, you look familiar. Do I know you?”
Tony shrugged nonchalantly.
“Unless we slept together in the past, then no, you don’t know me. And I highly doubt I’d sleep with a guy that has your face. Even shit-faced drunk, it wouldn’t happen big guy.”
The large man charged at Tony, bellowing as he went. Tony stood his ground, planting his feet firmly where they rested. He waited until the bigger man stepped into his space, ducking when the man tried to grab him, and then used his left foot to kick at the man’s right ankle. He quickly punched his opponent’s throat, then flipped back while placing both palms flat on the ground to hold himself up. Lastly, he swung his foot up in the air and landed a rear horse-kick at the center of his chest. Tony’s opponent hit the floor with an echoing thump.
He casually walked up to the still body on the ground, and ensured he was unconscious.
“Well, that was disappointing.”
Tony startled when he heard a crash come from the wooden doors ahead of him. He placed his helmet back on and called the armor to cover him before stalking towards the double doors where Samuel Chu was hiding. He raised his right hand and fired a repulsor blast at the door. He ignored the wood chips that flew around him as he walked over the debris. An older Asian man stood on the ledge of a window pane, gripping the black frames that had surrounded the glass.
“That’s a long way down Chu! You won’t survive that fall.”
“I think I’ll take my chances, I won’t die by your hands.”
Tony chuckled with a dark edge to it. “Who said I was going to kill you? I just have some questions I need answered.”
“You’re Iron Man, I know what you do to your victims, I’m no fool. I won’t be tortured by the likes of you.”
Tony grimaced at the sound of his cliché speech. “Is it me or do you watch too many karate films?”
The man released his grip from the window frame and allowed his body to fall forward. He clumsily fell from the ledge.
“Dammit! Jarvis, activate the booster jets.”
Rocket fuel blasted from the heels of the armor’s boots, sending Tony soaring out the window and down the face of the skyline. He quickly caught up to the man and gripped him by his ankle before slowing down the booster jets. He allowed inertia to steady them before jetting back up the skyline and dumping the successful CEO on top of his own desk.
The man scrambled to grab the edge of his desk as Iron Man landed next to the desk chair and stalked towards the man.
“Alright you slippery prick. You better tell me each and every location where you are hiding your underage sex workers.”
“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Tony’s hands shot out and seized the man by the lapels of his sports jacket.
“I don’t have time for your games, tell me now and I’ll make this less painful for you.”
“I promise, you’re making a mistake. I don’t know what you mean.”
“Fine, we can do this the hard way.”
Tony used a heat laser and directed it at Chu’s temple, holding the man in place by the nape of his neck. He activated the laser, the hot beam scorching layers of flesh. The man in his hold screamed out in pain as he tried to pull himself away from Tony.
Tony continued his assault on his prey. “Come on Chu! Give me something!”
“Ok-kay! I’ll t-t-tell you please, stop!”
Tony let up on his assault and slowly removed the gauntlet away from his victim’s face.
“Alright, go on.” He drawled casually.
“I-there are three warehouses where the children work. I a-also pay them to make merchandise for my company.”
“So not only are you soliciting children for sex, you’re also using them for child labor. Good to know.”
“I pay those kids good money!! If it wasn’t for me, they’d be orphans, homeless, or dead on the streets!”
“Listen, I’m not going to sit here and try to convince you the importance of consent and freedom of choice, I have another job to do. And I’ve got an angry ex-girlfriend who will castrate me if I don’t get it done on time. Just give me the location of the warehouses and I’ll be on my way.”
“Okay. Can I write it down?”
Tony nodded once and the CEO sat down in the desk chair and opened the middle drawer of the large oak desk. Then he scribbled three addresses onto a piece of paper he grabbed from the drawer.
Afterwards, he lifted the paper and held it out in front of him, his hand trembling while the limb stood stagnant in the air. Tony snatched the paper from his hand.
“Jarvis, pull up the electric bill for those warehouses and tell me the name and bank info that they’re registered under.”
“They are registered under a Emaseul Fuentez under a Bank located in Peru.”
“Very amateur scrambling your name up like that. J, trace any links to see if that bank is connected to Chu’s main bank.”
“There has been numerous cash withdrawals from Mr. Chu’s KB Financial Group bank account that matches the cash deposits to his bank in Peru.”
“Thanks Jarvis.” Tony then directed a deadly glare at the man next to him. “Just had to make sure you were telling the truth.”
Tony’s glare turned into a smirk when he saw the rich CEO’s face twist into horror at the realization of what was to come. Typically, the billionaire vigilante liked to toy with his victims a bit before executing them, but he was on a short schedule and the flight back to New York wouldn’t be a quick one.
The terrified man’s feet scrambled on the pristine carpet which was now sprinkled with glass. His chair wheeled away from his desk inch by inch, the wheels getting caught on the small shards of glass every so often. Tony slowly stalked towards him until the back of the chair hit the wall.
“Nice doing business with you, Chu.”
The symbiotes formed an 11-inch blade out of his right gauntlet. He grabbed his victim by the small, black tufts of hair on his head.
“Please, please, please. Don’t do this! I’ll do whatever you want me to, I can pay you as much money as you want!”
“Good thing is, I’m richer than you. And I don’t do this for the money.”
Tony pulled back his arm and swung the blade cleanly across the man’s neck, cutting skin, sinews, and bone like butter. He looked at the detached head in his hand for a moment with apathy before tossing it in a corner of the large office.
Then he quickly unlocked Chu’s computer by hacking into it and sent an email to Director Fury and local authorities, using the dead man’s account. The email contained the location of the three warehouses and what they would likely find in them.
He signed the email with ‘Yours Truly, Iron Man’, then flew out the window and down a floor. He burst through the door where he knew the security surveillance room was. Then he destroyed all the computers, recording devices as well as the storage devices with a few repulsor blasts from his other gauntlet.
The small fires blazed about. He looked at his work and nodded satisfactorily to himself. “Alright J, time to go home.”
“A job well done Sir.”
“Thanks buddy. I’d high-five you if I could.”
“The sentiment is reached, nonetheless.”
Tony smirked playfully before jetting out of the window he crashed through before and headed for Stark Tower.