The interior of the cave was a frantic workspace. The air was thick with the metallic scent of sweat, fear, and molten iron. Tony Stark, shirtless and gaunt, was struggling to secure the cumbersome plating of the Mark I armor onto his body.
Yinsen, his hands a blur of movement, focused on locking the crucial joints and wiring the power source. Every clang of metal was a drumbeat counting down to certain death.
"Hurry, Ethan," Stark muttered, his voice strained. "The clock's run out. If we're not ready when they return, they'll turn this into a bonfire."
Just as Yinsen reached for the final shoulder plate, a presence materialized out of the shadows.
Su Yi had successfully teleported. The transition was immediate and jarring—one moment, the clean air of his New York apartment, the next, the suffocating heat and dust of an Afghan cave. His black Symbiote Suit, currently retracted into a bracelet, was his only shield.
Yinsen, focused on the life-saving circuitry, missed the subtle shift in the air. But Stark, his perception heightened by weeks of paranoia and invention, saw the dark, defined figure suddenly exist in their workspace.
"Watch out, Ethan!" Stark roared, his body instantly tensing, adrenaline spiking.
Yinsen spun around, his heart leaping into his throat. A person—dressed in a strange, form-fitting black uniform—stood less than ten feet away.
Su Yi didn't waste time. The Symbiote Suit surged instantly, manifesting a thin, powerful tendril that whipped out. It wasn't organic silk, but a hardened projection of the Symbiote that shattered the crude surveillance camera mounted in the corner.
Then, the suit retracted, pooling around Su Yi's neck before receding entirely into the bracelet. He stood before them, a tall, powerfully built young man, breathing the dusty air.
"Relax, gentlemen," Su Yi announced, his voice carrying the authority of his Level 4 Confidence. "I'm not the devil, and I'm certainly not here to kill you. I'm here for an extraction. Your time is up; we need to accelerate the escape plan."
Yinsen, a man of profound faith, visibly sagged in relief but didn't stop working. "He speaks of escape, Mr. Stark. We must trust him for now."
Stark, however, was already in full interrogation mode, his eyes—deeply sunken but burning with genius—assessing every angle of this impossible arrival. "Who are you? Which organization sent you? And don't insult my intelligence by saying you walked in. How did you suddenly appear?"
Su Yi, recognizing the need to distract the hyper-genius, adopted his chosen persona. "My name is Su Yi. You can call me Spider Bully, or perhaps, Spider Super Bully if you like the alliteration." He gave a sharp, confident smile.
"As for the how, I came here only to take you away and, yes, make a considerable amount of money off of your future endeavors. I have a rare superpower. I call it Teleportation."
"Teleportation," Stark scoffed, but the scoff was forced. The evidence was irrefutable. He squinted at the Symbiote's remnant on Su Yi's wrist. "You're not on file. Are you a mutant? Or some kind of genetic experiment?"
"I guess 'evolved' is the right term," Su Yi conceded, waving a hand dismissively. "But listen, Tony. Time is not on our side. You were going to use that walking tin can to fight your way out. I'm telling you now, don't abandon the armor. This armor is the most crucial step in your entire destiny. You cannot back out now."
Stark hesitated, stunned by the mention of his 'destiny' and the term 'Iron Man'—a phrase that hadn't even fully formed in his own mind yet.
"Wait, Iron Man? You know what I'm building?"
"I know exactly what you're building," Su Yi confirmed. "And I know what's coming next. You must complete the suit. I'll provide the distraction you need, but you have to finish this first."
Before Stark could launch another series of questions, a deafening sound erupted from the passage outside: the sound of boots and frantic shouts. The crude camera explosion had been noticed.
"The camera! They've seen!" Yinsen cried out, his face pale with dread.
Su Yi acted instantly. He pulled a small, densely packed aluminum container from his pocket. "Yinsen, I made this food myself. It's high-calorie and nutrient-dense. Trust me, you'll need it later." He tossed the package to Yinsen.
Then, the Symbiote surged. The matte-black suit covered Su Yi in less than a heartbeat, complete with the wicked, stylized spider logo.
"Keep working," Su Yi ordered, his voice now slightly distorted by the suit's helmet. "I'll draw the fire."
He vaulted over a crate of scrap metal and shot down the main passage. He didn't use his full Mach 1 speed, as the uneven, narrow cave system would turn supersonic velocity into a suicide mission. He settled for a blurring, near-impossible speed that turned the rough tunnel into a fluid obstacle course.
Two armed terrorists peered through the blast-damaged door, their rifles aimed. The instant they saw the black shape, they opened fire.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
But Su Yi was already through them. He moved like an accelerating ghost. The bullets glanced off the Symbiote Suit's Level 4 Durability with dull, impacting thuds. The impacts registered, but the bullets did not penetrate.
Su Yi was no hero trying to incapacitate; he was a surgeon performing a clean excision.
A powerful right cross, backed by Level 4 Strength (100 Tons), hit the first bandit's chest—a precise, controlled blow that stopped the heart without leaving a mark on the suit. The man crumpled.
The second bandit was grabbed by the wrist. With a simple twist and a tug, Su Yi ripped the rifle from the man's hand, slammed the barrel into his temple, and threw him into the adjacent wall.
The entire encounter was silent, savage, and over in less than four seconds. Su Yi had zero guilt. These were terrorists, murderers, and enslavers. They deserved nothing less.
He continued his terrifying, silent rampage through the outer cave systems, clearing the path toward the main entrance. Gunfire eventually erupted as larger groups finally reacted.
Inside, Stark and Yinsen flinched at the sudden, sporadic gunshots.
"Did you hear that?" Yinsen whispered, his eyes wide. "The firing has stopped! And then… it started again, but softer, further away!"
Stark, gritting his teeth as he manually connected a critical wire, theorized rapidly. "He's not just fast, he's bulletproof. That suit... it's beyond simple armor. Nanotechnology? Or something else entirely? A very effective one-man army."
The final activation sequence began to hum. The crude arc reactor was ready.
Su Yi reached the cavern mouth, where the main force of the Ten Rings was positioned. He peered out, his enhanced vision cutting through the gloom. The number was closer to two dozen, heavily armed, and led by the terrified bald commander.
The instant he exposed himself, the world exploded into noise.
RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT! A dense hail of machine gun fire rained down, impacting the Symbiote Suit like aggressive hail. Su Yi felt the concussion but stayed upright.
"The firepower is intense. Too many direct hits will still rattle me."
Then he saw the threat that instantly changed his tactical plan. The bald commander and two other high-ranking terrorists were shouldering Rocket-Propelled Grenade Launchers.
"CRAP! RPGs! Even Level 4 Endurance won't tank a direct hit from that!"
The countdown to the Mark I's activation was too long. Su Yi couldn't wait. He needed to eliminate the heavy weapons immediately.
As the commander shouted the order, "Fire! Kill the spider demon!" Su Yi launched himself out of the cave entrance.
He moved faster than the eye could follow, a black streak cutting across the barren, mountainous terrain. The Symbiote Suit instantly solidified sections of its mass into a temporary, concave shield, deflecting the closest small-arms fire.
In less than two seconds, before the rockets could even acquire a lock, Su Yi was among them, a whirlwind of calculated violence.
He targeted the RPG operators first. A lightning-fast elbow strike crushed the larynx of the first man, followed by a vicious spinning kick that snapped the spine of the second.
He pivoted, his eyes locking onto the bald commander who was struggling to aim his rocket launcher.
The bald man, seeing his most powerful weapons neutralized in the blink of an eye, completely lost control. He stumbled backward, screaming in primal terror.
"Fire everything! KILL HIM! Use all the weapons! We must kill this spider demon!"
Su Yi advanced, his powerful frame covered in the inky black of the Symbiote, the helmet displaying a cruel, terrifying smile.
"Demon? No," Su Yi scoffed, dodging a wild flurry of pistol fire and closing the distance. "You are the devils, the ones who deserve the slow, painful burn of hell. I'm just a Spider Bully—and I'm here to make sure you get there fast."
He grabbed the commander, his Level 4 grip crushing the man's wrist and forcing him to drop the RPG. The commander stared into the black, emotionless lens of the helmet, realizing he was facing a fate worse than any he had inflicted. The Spider Bully was here, and the price of disrespect was about to be paid in full.