A heavily armed helicopter flew through rugged mountains, with Trevor sitting inside, his hands bound and a hood over his head.
As the helicopter crossed a mountain peak, a vast complex of buildings in traditional Chinese architectural style came into view nestled between four mountains. The helicopter descended into the courtyard of this complex.
Members of the Ten Rings escorted Trevor out of the helicopter and towards a side room. Soon, Trevor found himself kneeling before the leader of the Ten Rings.
Xu Wenwu looked at Trevor, who was being held down, and gave a signal to his men.
Trevor's hood was removed.
Staring at Trevor, Xu Wenwu spoke, "So, you call yourself the Mandarin?"
With the hood off, Trevor blinked his eyes open and cautiously took in his surroundings. Looking up at the man who had just spoken, he carefully said, "My name is Trevor Slattery."
Xu Wenwu said calmly, "Names are sacred. They connect us not only to ourselves but also to our ancestors. I have had many names in my lifetime: Warrior King, Master Khan, the most dangerous man on Earth. But never did I imagine that someone would impersonate me with such a name."
"Mandarin, a name for a chicken dish... Ha!"
"You borrowed the name of the Ten Rings without knowing my name, and you chose such a ridiculous name. It did its job, making America believe in the existence of a demon. But I do not like such behavior."
Having said this, Xu Wenwu signaled his men to take Trevor away for punishment.
At that moment, Trevor suddenly stood up, pounding his chest, and began reciting lines from a play in a theatrical voice:
"Rouse Duncan with thy knocking!"
"Oh, I can do that."
"What I've done best not be known."
He then clutched his head, crying out in apparent pain, "Whence is that knocking? How is it with me when every noise appalls me?"
Amused by Trevor's eccentric performance, Xu Wenwu laughed and motioned to his men, saying, "Ha, ha, ha! He is quite the clown. I will keep him to entertain our young men. Take him to the dungeon first, so he can learn the rules here."
The Ten Rings soldiers nodded, "Yes, master!"
Trevor was then led to the dungeon, while Xu Wenwu returned to his study, looking through materials for a way to resurrect his wife. Her death had weighed heavily on him for many years.
…
Elsewhere-
Atop a mountain peak under the cover of night, Shino Aburame stood on a dense tree, overlooking the Ten Rings' base below.
His parasitic insects had been stationary at this location for a day, indicating this was likely the Ten Rings' headquarters.
Using his wrist device to locate the position via satellite, Shino contacted Red Queen back at the base to confirm the coordinates.
With his task complete, he remembered Charles's instructions and refrained from exploring further into the base.
Instead of investigating further, Shino Aburame took out a Hiraishin Kunai and buried it underground.
After finishing this, Shino sent a message to Kiba through his wrist device, asking him to summon his ninja dog to bring him back later. He then used Reverse Summoning Jutsu to enter the Summoning Realm.
Using the Summoning Realm as a springboard, Shino directly returned to Charles's base. Upon arriving, he said to Kiba, "Thanks, Kiba. I'm going to write my mission report now."
"No problem. We're teammates, after all," Kiba replied with a smile.
The next day, after Charles woke up and finished his morning routine, he heard the voice of the Red Queen.
"Master, Shino Aburame has submitted the mission log."
Knowing this, Charles realized that the Ten Rings' headquarters had been located.
He knew that the Ten Rings was a global organization, but their headquarters housed only a small portion of their members. The real threat to Tony was Xu Wenwu, who wielded the Ten Rings.
With the coordinates in hand, Charles called Tony.
"Hey, Tony. I've found the Ten Rings' headquarters. I'm sending you the coordinates now. When do you plan to depart?" Charles asked.
Tony looked at the coordinates and responded, "The sooner, the better. I'll prepare and head out in a bit. I want to take care of this before nightfall."
Charles nodded, "Good luck."
After hanging up, Tony asked, "Jarvis, how many suits of armor do we have ready?"
"Sir, there are currently 12 Mark 42 suits fully equipped with weapons. Three more are in production and should be finished by the afternoon. Additionally, Dr. Banner is scheduled to arrive in three days," Jarvis replied.
Tony nodded and said, "Deploy the twelve Mark 42 suits. They'll accompany me to the target location."
Tony then walked to the terrace of Stark Tower. With a wave of his hand, the Mark 42 suit from his room flew to him and assembled around his body. Suiting up, Tony took off towards the target location.
As Tony departed, a warehouse door in Stark Tower opened, and the Mark 42 suits emerged, flying in formation behind him.
At the same time, Pepper Potts, who was at the office handling paperwork, noticed the suits flying out of the building. Sensing something was wrong, she quickly called Tony.
During his flight, Tony received a notification from Jarvis.
"Sir, Pepper Potts is calling."
Seeing the incoming call from Pepper on his virtual screen, Tony hesitated for a moment before answering, "Hey, Pepper."
Sounding concerned, Pepper asked, "What's going on?"
Tony replied, "Nothing's wrong. I didn't get any notifications."
Pepper said, "But I saw all the Mark 42 suits deploying. These are the ones you've recently built."
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