Now things are getting really serious :)
Heads up: Gene's continuing to go nuts, and it'll keep getting worse in the coming chapters.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Chapter 6: antivirus
The inventor's sleep that night was the best he had in years.
Pepper.
He smiled.
Finally.
The redhead loved him. His redhead loved him.
[Knock, knock, knock]
Tony sprang up from his workbench and skipped over to the large steel door of the Armory. Opening the locks with Extremis, the door slid apart; but the sight was something he had never wanted to see.
"T... To... T... Tony..." the girl was pale and limp. Her eyes - or what little he could see of them from under her barely opened eyelids - were dilated to the point that the hazel irises were no longer present.
"Pepper!" he reached his arms underneath her so that he could carry the limp body over to his bed, but by the time he laid her down, Pepper Potts had passed.
"NO!"
With the shout, he broke himself out of his nightmare.
xXxXx
Six times.
Tony had spent the last eight hours in his lab. He could not witness seeing another scene like this play out. His genius mind was crumbling more and more every time he woke up like this, and his body was failing him due to his lack of sleep.
The Extremis... it must be hacked... It can't be anything else...
The code for the antivirus was complete. Nobody could ever be allowed to hack into his mind again. In the meantime however, he had to keep his body locked in the prototype Mark 3 to block mental attacks.
"Download started..."
xXxXx
Pepper had started walking to the Armory. School had just ended and Tony had not been there at all, neglecting to tell them why he wouldn't be there. Not even telling her...
His girlfriend.
She ran the words through her head with glee.
His girlfriend!
Recalling the kiss they had shared less than 1 week ago, she smiled. Happy had taken the breakup really well, considering the fact that they were never 'really' dating in the first place. Regardless of all that, and even though they had finally confessed their feelings for each other, Tony had been somewhat distant since then, neglecting to respond to her or Rhodey's texts and phone calls - he hadn't even been going to school.
He's probably just working on a new armor. Maybe it's my suit!
Her thoughts continued to circle through her head as she continued to walk.
xXxXx
"Download complete."
"Tony..." a soft voice called out to him from the distance.
"Pep?"
"Not quite."
"Who...?"
"Remember, I found out the location of your base when you were in the Mainframe."
"Sandhurst..."
"Have you been having the visions, Anthony?"
"What... I don't..."
"I did warn you that you would rip your mind apart."
"But... y-you... hacked...?"
"The forceful separation - it's destroying your mind. You wouldn't survive long like this... so I took it upon myself to make it quick for you."
After saying his short piece, he snapped his fingers. Blasting through the doors of the base, a group of A.I.M. soldiers immediately started firing at the armored hero.
xXxXx
[B-O-O-M!]
The Armory.
She started to run.
Tony.
The doors had been ripped off of their hinges. Rubble and pieces of metal - including Iron Man suit pieces - were everywhere. Entering the collapsed base, she started looking for anything that was remotely similar to a human body.
That was when she saw the red liquid that had started leaking out from under a large pile of rubble.
xXxXx
The armor was sustaining a massive beating. He tried to put up a fight, but being a prototype, his Mark 3 didn't stand a chance - he was outmanned and outgunned.
He started to fly away. Staying and fighting would be suicide.
xXxXx
The redhead began tearing away at the debris as best as she could. The body laying under the rubble was an A.I.M. agent.
xXxXx
The exit chute was jammed, but a well placed repulser shot would blow it open. He fired his repulsers at the covering, making it crumble and fall on the A.I.M. agent standing below.
xXxXx
Looking from side to side, she noticed a crack in the wall to her right. A small shimmer of light reflected off of a purple and silver metal object hidden underneath.
Pulling apart the shattered wall had revealed an armor that Tony had been secretly working on.
xXxXx
The hero narrowly escaped through the exit pipe before an A.I.M. soldier sent the entire place up in flames.
xXxXx
"Our business partner will not be pleased with this turn of events," Basil stated to his small army of A.I.M. loyalists.
"You are correct about that, Basil."
The orb of light appeared swiftly before the new head of A.I.M. After a moment, the glowing ball disappeared to reveal a man covered in black armor akin to a samurai's.
The new appearance in the room was felt tremendously as every member of the organization kneeled before him. The man raised his right hand and pointed five of his nine rings at the frightened leader.
"You promised me Stark's lifeless body. I'm not seeing a corpse."
"Well, yes... but we can still-" the Controller's words were silenced by a poison cloud forming around his head. The gas quickly began filling his lungs, and within mere moments Basil Sandhurst's leadership had ceased.
The Controller would never be in control again.
"Take him as an example of what I will do to anyone who gets in my way," the villain pointed towards the decaying corpse laying on the floor beside him.
"Now kneel before the Mandarin."
Bye bye, Basil.
I hate streaming services sometimes. All a Canadian guy wants to do is watch Iron Man: Armored Adventures season 2, is that so much to ask?
The length should continue growing as we move along, so that should make it a little bit easier to wait every week :)
Chapter 7: archive - Coming Soon