Wooow, not bad, eh? I finished it faster this time, what about trying that a whole lot more? Thank you guys for keeping me motivated, lots of kisses to all of youuuu!
Tony stood as straight as he could and stared at the figure with a look that could kill. He didn't want it to come any closer or to say another word, he just wanted to get away. He discretely tried to wrestle free from the chains once more, but it only caused pain which again caused him to whimper silently which then again caused the figure to laugh an evil laugh.
"Tony, you're stuck, you won't get away" The nice and explaining sound of the voice was incredibly irritating to Tony.
"Who are you and where am I?" Tony said aggressively with his teeth gritted, not until now did he feel how dry his throat was.
"Shall we play a little game?" The figure moved out of the shadows and into the dim light that was set on Tony, and he couldn't anything to it but getting a little bit panic when it came closer to him.
He swallowed hard with the little spit he had left in his mouth as he heard the words and saw that the figure was a she. He couldn't recognize her, not at all, neither could he recognize the other person in the room, a big man with a lot of muscles and tattoos. He couldn't help but thinking that the woman was quite pretty, but there was something that didn't exactly fit, something reminding him of someone.
"A few years back you had a little fight with this Russian guy…" She said and started walking back and forth in front of him. "He had a companion, remember? You got him into jail and all… That guy… my father" She said and pointed at herself.
"You're taking revenge?" Tony asked, rather surprised that someone would want to do such a thing for Justin Hammer.
"Oooh, no no no, you're misunderstanding. My father is an idiot, I'm going to finish what he started" She whispered threatening.
Tony watched her every move as she walked towards the pile of batteries. He didn't understand exactly what she was going to use them for, but it was definitely nothing good. She put her hand on one and gently stroke it over the others as she walked past them, it seemed like they were her little babies. And just when Tony thought of that, it hit him, she was going to finish what her father couldn't. Those were batteries for droids, no doubt, and she had asked for arc reactor technology… what the fuck was going to happen in here?
"I guess you've figured out what these are by now, I know you're a smart guy. This is just a temporary solution however, what I want is that technology you keep so tight into your chest. You're free to give it to me whenever you want" She was now standing in front of him again with her hand stretched out right in front of him, as if she was waiting for him to take out the arc reactor himself and give it to her.
"You're a fool, Justine Hammer, to think that I would just hand it over to you. You know… I do care about my legacy" He replied cockily.
"Well, I'm going to get it either ways. Eric!" She yelled after the man who now stood by the batteries.
Tony could see him switching on one of the batteries and then he could feel his heart being squeezed into a little lump, as if someone was smashing paper between their hands. He gasped for air as another coughing fit hit him and even more blood was spilled out on the floor. Oh how sweet it would be to be back to his youth when breaking your arm was the worst pain you could ever imagine. This was excruciating, and he didn't know if he was to survive it. The coughing didn't stop, it was rather the other way around, it grew worse and it felt like his whole inside was about to come out. Tony's eyes grew wide as he saw how much blood was coming out of his mouth, this was not good in any way, this was wounds he couldn't stitch together himself. His body started trembling terribly and he felt how hard it was to keep upright. When there was only small coughs and some spitting of blood left, his eyes finally landed on the arc reactor. His dark blue sweater was ripped up just around it so that it could be visible, but that wasn't the worst part… About two hundred different, small cables where attached to it, leading to all the batteries in the other end of the room. It didn't take long for him to understand what the point was, just as it didn't take long for him to completely panic. He was dragging in the chains, writhing and screaming, only to Justine's amusement. Tears started to gather in his eyes when he finally gave up and his head hung low.
"Now what do you think, can I get some sort of a users manual of putting together an arc reactor or something?" She sounded exactly like her father, calm and amused of him being uncomfortable.
"Never" Tony said under his breath.
Justine did one movement with her arm, and then Tony's body was filled with pain only seconds after. It was worse this time, it was as if someone fired one of these electroshock pistols at him, he got completely paralyzed. There was no possible way for Tony to suppress the enormous scream that escaped him, shortly after there was one more, and then a another one. He was damn near on starting to cry, he lost all of his senses, couldn't breathe, hear or see correctly and it was terrifying, knowing that he couldn't do anything except from giving in on Justine's wish. She hadn't asked him anything more, and he hadn't done anything wrong, but Tony could feel a twice as bad pain rip through his body with enormous power. He was so sure he wasn't going to survive this, no matter how much he wanted to.
"Tony, why won´t you just tell me? Do you really care so much about that legacy of yours that you want to go trough this much pain?" She grabbed his cheeks and forced his empty eyes to look into hers.
"Stop, j-just stop it" Tony couldn´t keep his eyes open anymore, but closing them obviously earned a punch right into his stomach. "It´s…" Tony didn´t get longer before a groan muted between clenched teeth interrupted him.
What on earth was he going to do? The excruciating pain wouldn´t stop by itself, but Tony´s subconscious suddenly remembered something. That movement Justine did… he tried on a movement he knew very well, and that he hoped so bad would work. It was hard to focus on anything right now, everything was just a blur of pain and hopelessness. If he wasn't so determined on holding on to life, he would've just given in on the pain and closed his eyes, but there was one thing other than himself on his mind.
"Wh- where are…" Tony let out a few, exhausted breathes before he continued. "The droids" He blinked fatigued.
"Right now they're at Hammer Industries, which I took over by the way, getting ready for combat in… oh where was it Eric?" She asked, trying to sound like an innocent blonde.
"I think it was Central Park if I recall correctly" He said in the same tone as her and smirked.
If Tony had panicked before he didn't know the word for what he was now. He was so damn close to start crying. The bad guys would always attack his weakest side, Pepper. This only reminded him why he decided to take out the damn contraption, because he was sick and tired of the imminent threat.
"Why so many?" He asked hoarsely.
"I said I wanted to finish my father's unfinished job, didn't I? I want to show the world that Hammer rages over Stark, and I can't do that with one droid, everyone loves it when it's too much" She gave him one, last long look before she suddenly stiffened.
What was that sound? It sounded like a rocket, but a rocket down here? Then Tony heard the sound of metal crashing with something hard and making an abundantly sound, and he quickly understood that this was his moment. He discretely opened up his hands and stood with his palms facing Justine and Eric. They noticed anyhow and changed confused looks. A piece of metal suddenly attached to Tony's hand and a light filled the whole place at the same moment. He waited for the rest of the metal pieces to fasten to him, but they never came and he started to get impatient, so he fired off the repulsor at the chain on the opposite hand and then the a metal piece fastened to his other hand too so that he could free himself completely. He was now standing on his own, something he quickly found out wasn't as easy as normal. Next to the batteries laid Justine, obviously unconscious, but she was still breathing. Eric, however, wasn't to be seen anywhere. Tony took a few steps, but then he grimaced in pain and fell to the ground, he couldn't recall the fact that he had been hit by a car, just like last time, only this time it was meant to hurt. How the hell was he going to get out of here when he couldn't walk? He threw away the two parts he had got from the suit and laid on his back to make the breathing part easier. Out of nothing there was suddenly a sharp pain running through the whole of his body, it was amplified by a thousand and it made him writhing and groaning on the ground. Finally he could see the other man standing right by the batteries and turning on each one of them. He saw as electricity started to run trough the wires attached to the arc reactor, and he understood that not even his dads´ invention was good enough to keep the droids alive and Tony´s heart. The pressure on the heart kept increasing as all the batteries were turned off, and dragging the wires out would be the best thing to do, but Tony couldn´t move, he just laid on the ground, curled in on himself and waiting for death. A figure was suddenly standing right next to him, it was big and it scared Tony so much he started to try and drag himself away from the place by his hands. Seconds later he found his upper body lifted a bit from the ground.
"Try and stop it" The figure said harshly.
A punch was landed right to the left of the arc reactor and Tony swore he could feel how his ribs cracked, if they weren´t cracked from before. Okay, now he was going to die.
"Hey! Stop it!" Harley was pushed away into the big, dark underground tunnel and he tried with all he had to walk back again, but he was only pushed further in. "You know there´s a reason why not even the adults dare to go down here" He pouted when he finally settled down with the fact that he would have to go in front of the two bullies all the way in.
Suddenly they all heard a noise and the two bullies exchanged terrified looks before they ran away as fast as possible. Harley looked around himself and found that he was all alone within seconds, and then he saw a dim, yellow light in front of him and found out that it was better walking towards that than walking back, afraid of the dark as he was. He tiptoed slowly towards it, following the wall and being terribly careful about being quiet. When he was just outside the reach of the light rays, he stopped as he heard a groan and a whimper. His head turned quickly around to the way the sound came from and he saw a bloodied, trembling figure on the dusty ground. The figure turned around so that his face faced Harley and he had to put a hand over his mouth not to scream. He ran carefully but fast over to the figure and crouched down. He shook his head in disbelief and reached out a hand to touch the man on the ground, but when he made a desperate struggling sound he yanked it back as if he got electro shock. The man turned over with his back against Harley again and he had to put his hand over his mouth this time too to not scream incase there were other people there. The blue sweater his friend was wearing was soaked in blood at this side and Harley carefully lifted it up to find that it was glued together with a seemingly big gash that was bleeding very little at the moment. Harley found it very weird, but he remembered something he had learned at school once, and he started parting the sweater from the body to his friends enormous frustration. The man on the ground started whimpering, and it scared the hell out of Harley, was it even supposed to hurt?
"I need you to lay still Tony, I´m just here to help you" He tried to say comfortingly.
What he said worked just the other way around, Tony panicked and tried to get away, when he found moving impossible he only panicked more and started screaming. Harley tried to make up a decision, but it was so hard, what was the right thing to do? What had he learned? He got panic himself of the screaming, but he decided to just rip off the sweater quickly and do as he had learned. His as grew wide when a quiet sob escaped Tony´s lips as the sweater loosened fully, this wasn´t right, not at all, Harley thought he had seen the weak side of Tony, the attacks, but what on earth was this? He opened his jacket with shaky hands and dragged off his scarf. He folded it nicely together and pushed it down on the gash to stop the bleeding. Tony´s trembling hands were at Harley´s at once, trying to push them away from his body to stop the pain. Struggling noises escaped his lips as he leaned his head back, gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut.
"Stooooop!" He screamed behind his gritted teeth and clenched to Harley´s arm.
Harley got scared, but he decided to continue with what he was doing in fright that his friend might bleed to death if he stopped. He still found it weird though, how soaked with blood the sweater was and how little the gash was bleeding. He took the scarf away and saw that there was almost no blood on it, and even though he didn´t as much as touch Tony anymore, it seemed like he was still in the same pain.
"Stop it" He sobbed silently.
Harley stood up and backed two steps away, not until now did he see all the wires attached to Tony´s chest. Hadn´t it been for the fact that Tony was in pain, he would´ve thought they were keeping him alive, but he was smart enough to understand that they were rather causing the pain. His small fingers were about to reach out for the wires when he heard something fall to the ground right behind of him and he quickly turned around to see what it was. He saw someone else, a woman, trying to stand up with the help of a table with some black boxes on it that she dragged down on the ground. Out of no where, a flying, circular thing in red, white and blue flew right past Harley´s face and knocked out the woman in the other end of the room in one second. When he turned around again to see who was with him, two people were already hanging over Tony, dragging out every wire and cable that obviously didn´t belong to the arc reactor. Harley didn´t know what to do, if he was going to trust them, but it definitely didn´t look like Tony trusted them. He tried his best to push them away, to get away, and to shield himself for whatever harm they would cause him.
"Tony? Tony, can you hear me?" The man who stood bent over him asked worried.
Tony squeezed his eyes shut as if to pretend he wasn´t hearing or seeing them, as if he was dead.
"Tony, come on!" He put his shoe on his hip and pushed gently, making Tony groan silently. "Okay, good… Right… I´m sorry to say it, but this is going to hurt big time"
I made it, I made it, I made it! I got Harley in, if you like it or not... well just let me know, I thought this was a good idea, but yeaaaah... NOW REVIEW, or I´m not sure if this will end that well!