Can anybody say: "Tone shift?"
So if you enjoyed the last chapter, I hope you'll also find this one to your liking.
I'll try to post a new chapter every weekend.
Chapter 2: critical error
She's dead.
Those were the only words in his mind. It was not new for Tony to see her form talking to him, regardless of whether it was real or not. He could not began to tell what was and what wasn't real at this point of grief, not helped by the fact that he hadn't even been present when the redhead's suit of armor had failed her, in some way. Though the doctors never told him the cause of death and the armor had sustained no heavy damage, he blamed himself for not being there.
Where was 'there'?
The inventor was momentarily taken aback by the realization that he had not remembered where the redhead had passed, before beginning to question everything he knew about the whole situation; in truth, he knew very little of it. He could not even remember what he had been doing the day of, before or during. All he could remember was seeing and holding the pale, lifeless body of the person he had been planning to confess his feelings for. The billionaire had chosen to spend the previous few days trying to help S.H.I.E.L.D. awaken a frozen super soldier instead of going out with Pepper; a decision he now painfully regretted making. His Extremis had started going a bit haywire ever since, which he had been pinning on his emotional state.
But what if...
A glimmer of hope popped into his mind when he considered the thought.
Someone could be hacking my Extremis right now...
Tony considered the possibility of someone planting a false sense of reality into his mind via his connection to computers, but ultimately registered it as false hope coming from his subconscious. He didn't even know if it WAS a possibility.
Extremis doesn't work like that, right?
[Beep! Beep!]
The alarm for the start of his daily Iron Man patrol kept him from running some diagnostics, so he left a note on his computer to remind him later.
xXxXx
Shouldn't have left the Armory.
[B-O-O-M!]
Definitely should have stayed at the Armory.
The heavy steel door to his left had been ripped off of it's hinges, and was flying towards him. The hero used his jets to dodge to the left, but before he could get back to a solid standing position, his right food had been grabbed out from underneath him. "Pardon moi, monsieur!"
Batroc the fucking leaper.
With the genius' foot still in a tight hold, the purple and gold clad frenchman performed a front flip with the intent of using the armour's weight to slam it into the ground. Before he could complete the move however, Tony fired the foot thruster into the thief's exposed face at low power, making the ridiculous man release his grasp to turn away. When the slightly burnt face had finished turning, an armoured fist had been waiting for him.
Leaving Batroc unconscious with a noticeable black eye and tipping off the police, the metal man had quickly found himself back at the Armory laying down wearing nothing but boxer shorts under the blankets of his bed.
xXxXx
Where's the note? The inventor had just woken up and put on clothes when he walked over to the workbench to find that the note he had left last night was gone.
Was my dad or Rhodey here?
He could not think of a single other person who would have visited his makeshift living quarters.
They don't visit me any more though... he considered with a frown.
"Computers: comb through the surveillance footage of the last 12 hours. Alert me of any presence aside from myself."
"Analyzing... cancelled."
"Cancelled?! Why was it cancelled?!
Sooner than the words had finished leaving his mouth, an image began forming on the screen before the inventor.
"Now that you've outlived your usefulness, I'd rather you find out from me personally, Tony," a familiar, calm voice replacing the mechanical one.
"I'd like to reintroduce you to: The Mainframe."
Surprise?
If you are wondering why he's only realizing this now, it is explained... in the next chapter.
Chapter 3: error 404 should be released next weekend or sometime shortly after. It'll conclude this part of the story arc :D