OH MY GOD IS THIS A NEW CHAPTER FOR POISON?
Yes. Yes it is. A regular Christmas miracle. Instead of studying for my test that I have in 12 hours, I spent the day working on this chapter just for you guys. I consider it a productive day still. Also, this chapter was supposed to be the last, but then I started writing...and then I kept writing...and then I realized I was going to need at least one more chapter to finish off this story. WHICH I've already started writing (not that means anything with me). Anyway, I hope that this makes you all happy! One day I'll finish one of the many oneshots I have prepared for Geniuses and Mischief.
On a totally different note, did everyone see the new Thor movie? OMG Tom Hiddlestone. You are amazing.
As always, read, review, and enjoy!
Despite his newfound strength, and by newfound he really meant new because he accidentally broke one of the doors down he was supposed to be checking behind, a lot of their escape was a blur to Tony. The team learned quickly that he struggled with control.
"Tony!" Natasha voice snapped at him and Tony blinked programming away from his vision to see her desperately and sloppily slam into a guard that was standing directly in front of him. "You have to focus!"
"Plus the whole black eyed thing is really creeping me out," Clint added in as he fired an arrow at another guard.
"What black eyed thing?" Tony asked.
"Whenever you connect with this technology, your eyes turn black. It is…strange," Thor said diplomatically. Tony added it to the list. After that, Natasha stuck by his side and he tried to focus on ignoring technology without actually turning it off. Once, he almost killed Clint because he accidently turned the lights off while Clint was jumping down on someone. Five seconds later, he saved the archer's life when said person flipped to night vision and lined up a shot right when Tony flipped the lights back on.
All the fighting paused as the floor above them shook.
"Sounds like Bruce is here," Clint said with a blood thirsty grin.
"He always comes to save our asses," Tony said.
"Tony, can you get in contact with Coulson? We need a plan," Natasha cut in.
"When did I become our personal communications system?" Tony complained. His head was absolutely pounding. He needed to be somewhere without any technology for about a year, but that wasn't likely to happen, so he'd settle for some good painkillers and 8 hours of sleep in his own bed.
Natasha just raised an eyebrow and Tony, grumbling to hold up the front, dove back into the hum he recognized as Jarvis.
Coulson? he intoned through the com placed in the agent's ear. He can actually feel as the com was shifted, moved closer to his ear drum.
"Yes?" he voice is far too at ease with this whole fact, and Tony wondered how weirded out Coulson really is.
Where exactly are we escaping to?
"Do you have layouts of the building?" Even as he asks it, Jarvis is helping Tony pull up several different maps located deep within A.I.M's system.
Yeah.
"We're on the third floor, working out way down. What floor are you stationed on?"
Tony takes a second to consult the blueprints and security cameras to match up where they are. It looks like the tenth floor. We have a lot of bodies between us and you.
"Not for long. Hulk, down," Coulson orders calmly and as Tony feels the floor shake, he realizes that he should probably add Coulson to the list of people who can actively manage the Hulk.
Tony pulls away when he feels a warm hand on his shoulder and blinks away code to focus on Natasha's face. "They're coming to us," he says. "We just have to-"
"I'm impressed Mr. Stark," Bracker said, stepping over the bodies of his dead men. More armed men spread through the room, flowing out of doorways Tony is positive they checked, in front and in back of them. "I didn't think you would survive, let alone recover so quickly. Truly, you've done wonderful things with the program. Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten wiped. Again."
"You have a really hard time holding onto things, don't you?" Clint says, filling in for Tony's sarcasm. Bracker sends a glare at Clint before focusing back on Tony.
"This is what is going to happen now. We're going to kill one of your team members—I'll even let you pick which one—and then you're going to go back into that room and reload the program. For every hour you refuse us, we kill one of your teammates. If you happen to survive their deaths, we will be forced to take extreme measures. In the end, you will all die and I will have my program."
"That sounds really fun, but listen. This whole human weapon thing?" Tony said. "Not really a great thing to put into the hands of anybody, me included. I will tear your whole organization apart, completely with my mind."
"You still don't seem to understand Mr. Stark. We predicted the results of the program. We knew what would happen, should anyone survive. The EMP device we used on you in earlier meetings was not designed to stop you. It was designed to stop someone using the Extremis program."
Tony heard the whine of the machine starting up, tried to force the machine to shut down, and thought again about how he was going to kill whoever created it before the pulse flashed out. Instantly everything shut down.
Wait. That couldn't be true. There had definitely been at least 20 armed men, plus Bracker, plus the Avengers in the hallway with them. Just because he was down for the count didn't mean everybody would stand absolutely still, not making any noise at all.
And the machines? The machines were quiet too. Tony desperately felt for his connection with Jarvis, with any technology, but his mind felt sluggish, like it understood that a command had been given, but it just didn't have the willpower to carry out the command. Tony tried to move his arm, only to find out that he couldn't. His breathing sped up. He was paralyzed and cut off from everything and everyone.
A hand rested on his arm that would've startled him, had he still had the ability to move. As it was, his heartbeat hit an almost painful peak rate. A second later, the finger started to tap on his arm. At least he could still feel, even if he couldn't see, hear, or-
Was that Morse code? Tony focused on the finger's tapping. He would've smiled if his facial muscles were still working.
Getting out of here, the fingers tapped. Hulk will carry you.
Suddenly, Tony was very glad that he had learned Morse code when he was two. He felt hands, too big to be human, lift him up and push him gently against a chest. There was wind against his face as he assumed Hulk began to jump levels, taking them out of the god damn place. When he felt the heat of sunshine on his skin, Tony was actually happy that he couldn't move—his team wouldn't see him collapse in relief. The heat disappeared, replaced by a cool metal bench. Hulk's hands pulled back, but he felt his head lifted up and set on someone's lap. A hand grabbed his and squeezed it before the clever fingers started tapping a new message against his wrist.
Relax. We're going home.
-o.O.o-
It took fifteen minutes before the effects of the EMP began to wear off. Bracker had meant it when he said it had been designed for someone with Extremis—even low-level technology, easily effected by EMP's, came back online after ten minutes. The first thing Tony gained back was hearing.
"I don't even know how it changed his body," Bruce was saying. Tony wished he could see who Bruce was talking to. "Or his mind for that matter. The idea that he can operate as a machine, well-"
"But he's still human, right?" Steve asked.
"It depends on what you're classifying as a human," Bruce said. To anyone else, it would've sounded harsh, but Tony had used that exact reasoning to defend Bruce to himself before. "He still needs oxygen to breathe, still needs a heartbeat to pump blood, still needs food and sleep to keep his body running."
"But?" Clint asked.
"But if my understanding of this coding is right, his metabolism is on par with Steve's, if not better. If I were to stab him right now, it would hurt him, yes, and he would bleed, but once the knife was removed? He could heal the wound up in seconds, maybe almost instantly."
Sight came back slowly. His eyelids blinked, his eyes struggling to make out the blurry forms that were his team.
"What about this EMP? Do you know what it did to him?" Steve asked and Tony felt the vibrations of Steve's voice through the man's legs, where his head was resting comfortably.
Tony still couldn't move his head, so he could only see Bruce's if he strained. The doctor must have been sitting on the floor by Tony's legs, back resting against the bench. Natasha's red hair he could catch out of the corner of his eye. Clint, Thor and Coulson were out of sight.
"Tony?" Steve's voice asked before Bruce could comment. Tony looked up at him as the super soldier shifted under him, bringing his face closer to Tony's. "Can you see us?"
Tony blinked his eyes, hoping they would understand that meant yes. "Can you hear us?" Natasha followed up, tapping the Morse code translation on his wrist at the same time. Tony blinked again
"Thank god," Clint said. His voice moved closer as he spoke until he could see the archer's face. "The black eyes were back man. It's bad enough when you do it for a couple minutes, but for fifteen minutes you just sat there without moving with those black eyes, not even blinking."
"Can you move?" Bruce asked. Tony felt his wrist get taken from Natasha's grip as Bruce took a pulse. Tony blinked twice. "I'm guessing talking's out too?" Tony blinked twice again. Bruce leaned over to flash a light in his eyes. Tony would've flinched back if he could've, but as it was, his eyelids went crazy trying to protect his eyes as they adjusted to the light. "Well, you're eyes are responding to stimuli normally. Is your sight normal? No blurry shapes or colors that seem strange?" Tony blinked twice before he realized that he could feel himself swallowing. Experimentally, he opened his mouth.
"Good Tony. Try speaking now. Maybe the paralysis has worn off enough," Bruce instructed. If anyone else had given him the same instructions, he would have flipped them off. You know, assuming he could move.
"Wh-what happened?" Tony asked, his throat dry. Thor appeared beside Clint, a water bottle in hand that he dutifully handed off to Bruce.
"Can you swallow?" Bruce asked. Tony only had to give a half smirk to get Clint to snort with laughter and Bruce and Steve to roll their eyes. "I'll take that as a yes."
Bruce poured the water slowly into Tony's mouth, doing small mouthfuls that Tony could easily swallow without feeling like he was in Afghanistan again.
"As to your question," Natasha said as Bruce worked. "Hell broke out as soon as you dropped. Steve, Clint, Thor, and I fought as Bruce forced his way down with Coulson in tow. The second the Hulk dropped from the ceiling, everybody scattered."
"We got out of there way easier than we got out. It was pretty anti-climactic actually," Clint said, a slight disappointment in his tone.
"Speak for yourself," Tony managed to get out in mouthfuls.
"Whatever device they had, it knocked you out completely. My best guess is that it was set to a specific frequency to mess with the nanobots in your body. I'm also guessing it was programmed with a specific command. That's how a mechanical device could affect your physical body. Can you communicate with technology now?"
"No. It's…quiet." He said it with a mix of relief and uncomfortableness. His head wasn't pounding and strange voices made up of binary codes weren't trying to get his attention. At the same time the quietness was disorienting, like he was still missing another sense. Bruce grimaced at his words.
"Not for long I bet. Movement is already starting to come back. I'm guessing that will come back last."
Tony's muscles stiffened at his words and then, without warning, all feeling came back. He had been expecting pins and needles, a slow recovery like his eyesight. Suddenly, feeling flooded his body and all of his muscles went slack. Tony's head rolled and his arm flopped over the side.
"And there's the movement," Clint observed astutely. Now Tony did actually have the muscle capacity to flick Clint off. The man's only response was to give him a shit-eating grin.
"Do you want to sit up?" Steve asked, already moving to help Tony up.
"No," Bruce said, and everybody turned to look at him like he had suddenly sprouted a third arm. "When Extremis starts working again, it's going to hit him like it did the first time. He'll need to adjust first."
"He's right," Tony said. "If it comes back like my movement just did, I might not be able to control it." Tony looked at Bruce, wondering if he would catch his meaning. From the worry in his eyes, he did.
"Are you sure?" Bruce asked. Tony nodded. "Give me a second."
"Are you sure about what?" Steve asked.
"If Extremis comes back online and I can't control it, well, there's a lot of technology around us. Think about how I woke up the first time."
"You turned everything off," Natasha said. "You're asking Bruce to knock you out before it comes back online."
Steve seemed ready to protest, then turned to look at the pilot's booth where Tony assumed Coulson was hiding. "It's going to have to be strong. If your metabolism is as strong as Dr. Banner thinks, it only takes me minutes to run through a normal sedative."
"Per Fury's request and Tony and I's idea, we designed a sedative that will actually work on you Steve. Hopefully Tony's body will react to it the same way yours should."
"Why didn't you guys tell me about that?" Steve asked with a frown.
"Just finished it not too long ago," Tony said, displaying the inside of his elbow as Bruce prepared the syringe. "We were going to test it on you this week."
"We were going to ask to test it on you," Bruce hurried to specify.
"Speak for yourself Bruce. I was gonna slip it into the Cap's coffee."
Bruce rolled his eyes. "Are you ready Tony?"
"Stop acting like I'm going to die. I'll see you guys when I wake up," Tony said. Bruce plunged the needle into his arm. Within seconds Tony felt the drugs take effect.
"-be there when you wake up," Steve was saying. Tony hmmed in answer before he felt his body shut down again. When Tony opened his eyes, it wasn't with a physical body. Instead, he stared out at what could only be the World Wide Web.
"Well. That wasn't supposed to happen," Tony said.