Within a cave a young man lay on a table with his chest wrapped up in white bandage.
His breathing was slow and somewhat weak and his brows furrowed as though he was having a bad dream.
Suddenly his eyes snapped open and his breathing quickened with it.
'Where am I?' he thought in confusion
"Urg..." He grunted in pain and he felt a headache that is close to a migraine.
'What in the world?'
'What kind of trippy dream was that? No, it wasn't a dream, it felt too real to be one. Are alternate realities a thing?'
'Wait, even if they were that world was too strange. But why do I feel weird?'
'Who am I?'
'Am I Anthony Stephens?'
'Or...'
'Am I Tony Stark?'
While the young man was facing an existential crisis, another man was humming a tune as he shaved his beard while facing a mirror.
The man looked through the mirror and discovered that his new roommate was finally awake but he wasn't reacting in a way that he expected.
'Well I guess he must be in shock,' thought the middle aged man.
He decided to finish his shaving before attending to the young man.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark or Anthony Stephens was still trying to comprehend what he had just experienced.
In his mind are the memories of two lifetimes. In one of them he was a young man living on planet Earth who was a diehard Marvel Comic Fans who had gladly received the title Toxic Marvel Fan on many comic debates online.
His last memory was finding a comic book in his apartment that he had never seen before, which was weird for him.
After all, he had read all official marvel comics. But this one was strange. He had never seen it before and he assumed it was fan made.
But if it was fan made why would it say on the cover, written by Stand Lee?
Moreover why does this comic have only one page? Which was that of Tony Stark waking up in the cave where he was kidnapped.
But just as he was pondering on it, he suddenly felt dizzy and then he began to see something out of the ordinary.
Like a movie he watched himself being born, becoming a genius son of the great Howard Stark, achieving feats none at his age ever did with the highest of them being graduating from MIT at the age of 15.
But who could have predicted that his loving mother and strict father would face their end in a 'car crash' after he turned 16?
This dealt a devastating blow to the young teenager as he mourned his parents while his father's close friend and associate, Obadiah Stane took over the job of C.E.O of stark industries on his behalf.
Four years ago, when he turned 21 he took over as the C.E.O of Stark Industries and brought the company to the newest of heights with his inventive advancements in technology and genius business iq.
It's been a few months since he turned 25 when he came to Afghanistan and then this happened. [A/N: See pic of Tony Stark here.]
As he felt the memories completely settle down he calmed down as well as he came to a conclusion.
'I am Tony Stark and Anthony Stephens.'
There's nothing special about Anthony Stephens except him being a lazy intelligent genius orphan who never had any interest in anything other than comics, anime, gaming, etc.
Now that he thought about it, he left that world without any good legacy to speak of.
'Nevermind, the past is past. Right now I am Tony Stark...the future Iron Man and possibly the saviour of the world?'
'Hmm, if I go by what has happened so far, is this an Alternate Reality of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?'
'After all the events so far don't quite match up with the MCU. So this is definitely AU. So my reality is fiction? Or is it only fiction in that world?'
A number of thoughts ran through his mind as he didn't pay attention to the fact that his thought process is a little too fast than what it was before his kidnapping.
Tony sighed and closed his eyes as he meditated on all the information about himself as a fictional character and all his feats and mapped out a rough sketch of his future development.
First thing to do is to get out of this place, before I can do anything else, and in order to do so, I will have to build the first Iron Man Armour, the Mark I Armour.
I will also have to be careful with my reactions, expression and words so as not to ever hint that I know more than I should to anyone.
After a few more minutes of mental planning with his eyes closed. Tony opened his eyes.
He looked at his chest, and turned to his right to see the car battery that was attached to him.
"What is this?" He asked out loud as he ripped the bandages off his chest and looked at the electro-magnet device that is keeping him alive and feigned confusion with his brows.
"I would be careful with that if I were you," The bespectacled Middle-aged man spoke as he finished his shaving and turned to stark who was now seated.
"What is this," stark touched the device on his chest.
"What did you do to me?" He asked again.
The man walked closer as he replied, "I simply saved your life." He then threw a bottle that contained shrapnel to Tony.
Tony caught it and knew what it was.
"Those are the souvenirs that I kept from the surgery. I took away all the shrapnel I could but there's a lot left."
"Hence the device on you chest," said Yinsen.
"I see. Thank you for saving my life then," Tony said with sincerity in his tone.
"Don't mention, I've been here for a while so it was high time I get a roommate," Yinsen laughed.
But just as Tony wanted to respond, a noise was heard a number people approached the cave.
"Stand up, fast."
"Do exactly as I do," Ho Yinsen spoke gravely with seriousness.
Although Tony knew what was about to happen, he complied as he prepared to act on his first step of the plan.
"Bang!"
The door slid open as a group of armed men walked in with the leader speaking a language Stark couldn't understand.