2

Pulses of pain pulled Tony back into consciousness. When he opened his eyes, though, he considered just going back to sleep.

He was sprawled out on the elevator floor, with the door pinning him to the ground. Pulses of pain throbbed through his right leg and shoulder, telling him exactly where the metal had him pinned. Dust hung in the air like smoke.

Tony heaved a cough out of his bruised lungs and grimaced silently. It hurt to breathe out and it hurt even more to breathe in. Looking up, squinting through the haze of rubbly dust, he could see the softly glowing blue palm of the gauntlet. It felt like it was staring at him.

Tony clenched his jaw. Keeping his eyes trained on the light, he reached around on the floor for something to grab onto.

His hand brushed over a piece of rough rebar, and to his surprise, the metal rod rolled a little under his touch. Flicking a glance down at it, he saw one jagged tip was glowing hot orange, and the other end was free. It had been broken away from the concrete by the blasts, forming a fairly versatile, two-foot-long weapon. Tony slowly curled his fingers around it.

The hovering wrist blaster made another small whirring sound, and he saw the blue light start to intensify.

Before the blaster could fire its final shot, Tony brought the piece of rebar over his chest and swung.

It was a direct hit – the rebar connected with the hand piece with a metallic crack. Releasing a high-pitched squeal, the small piece of armor went flying, and it smashed heavily into the wall of the elevator.

Panting, Tony let his weapon fall from his hands.

"Sir," came JARVIS' voice, "I must shut down all power immediately."

"No," Tony wheezed, trying to pick himself up from the floor. "No, no, I still need you, buddy."

"They have breached nearly all security, sir. The longer I remain online, the hackers have access to any system in the Tower."

Tony shook his head, trying to tune it out. He had to move. With his one free arm, he tried pushing the door straight up, off of his right shoulder, but he realized quickly there was no way he could move it on his own. Not only was the metal door pinning him to the floor, there was also concrete wedged on all sides of him like walls.

Leverage. He needed some kind of leverage.

"I am programmed to serve and protect you, and as I have violated those objectives I am now only endangering you. Initiating system shutdown."

Panting desperately, Tony stopped his efforts at trying to move. "J, wait –!"

The lights snapped off, plunging everything into blackness. Tony's head jerked up.

It wasn't just the elevator – all of Avengers Tower was dark.

The elevator felt like a prison cell.

And JARVIS was gone.

Unexpectedly, the metal door shifted, and weight pressed heavily onto Tony's upper arm. He shouted in pain, grabbing uselessly at his shoulder with his one free arm. In the silence, he tried to catch his breath and think.

"Okay. Okay." He cautiously reached his free hand out into the darkness and groped around until his fingers closed on something cold and smooth – the wrist blaster that had just been trying to kill him. The gauntlet gave a slight twitch, as if it were alive, but made no other move.

Prying off a panel on the back of the wrist, Tony uncovered a set of softly glowing switches. All of them were switched off except one that read 'Automatic'. He switched it off, and the armor fell totally limp in his hand. He instead flicked the switch labeled 'Manual'.

The hand piece perked up again. A distinct whirring sound came from its core as it opened up like a hinged box. Tony fitted it to his wrist, and the armor immediately clicked over his hand, giving a positive whirring sound.

"Okay." Tony flexed his fingers, charged up the blaster, and aimed his hand at the rubble pinning him to the floor. "Time to go."


Tony ascended the stairs as quietly as he could, though he was pretty sure silence didn't matter at this point. The wrist armor was still on his left hand, but he held a gun in his right – courtesy of a 'safe box' hidden inside a bookshelf on floor 39.

Ironically, it was a good thing the security floor was at the middle point of the Tower. Tony's elevator had stopped at floor 35, and security was only six levels up.

Tony walked with a limp – the concrete pinning his right side to the floor had done more damage than he originally thought. He wasn't sure if his ankle was merely twisted, or if some muscle had actually snapped.

Regardless, every step was painful. Tony grit his teeth as he lurched himself up another step, feeling faint pulses of pain from his ankle.

Thank God somebody had had the oversight to store painkillers in that safe box as well.

The number 41 painted on the wall greeted Tony as he reached the top of the staircase. "Hello, security floor," Tony muttered to the door. He raised his eyebrows. "For the record, you are absolutely terrible at your job."

Because floor 41 was the security floor, its door had a coded lock in place of a handle. Tony tapped a five-digit code into the keypad, and the door unlatched with a heavy clicking sound.

"Tally ho." Tony swung the door open.

Floor 41 didn't have any windows – there was a circular hallway of windows that acted as a façade for the outside, but for security reasons the floor's main area of operations was set inside an inner core of concrete walls.

So with the blackout, it should have been pitch-black.

Should have been.

There was one bright light slicing through the darkness. Setting his jaw, Tony walked toward it.

As he got closer, he realized the light was coming from a computer monitor. And there was a silhouette of a head in front of it.

The head moved. "Mister Anthony Edward Stark," drawled an unfamiliar voice. "So good to meet again."


A/N: Wow, thank you all so much for the favorites, follows, and reviews! You guys are awesome! :D