Oh My goodness...I"M BACK! so it's been 3 months, and i'm really sorry it's taken so long...so for those who are still reading, without further ado, enjoy :)
It was an important hour, Tony knew it was, he also knew he was terrified. Whatever he did, he didn't think it would be enough. At least with all the "planning" they were doing, Rhodey was off his back. He knew he couldn't handle him hovering and forcing him to do something when he knew there was nothing he could do.
'Romanov is on her way, we need her on the roof she'll know what to do.' Tony explained.
Rhodey nodded as he followed Tony around the work shop as he made and put the plans into motion, 'what can I do?'
Tony didn't stop to look at him, there was nothing he could do, instead he lied, 'I need you to monitor these for me, as soon as it gets below this line I'm out, I won't be able to stand much less fight.' He continued keying in commands.
'Why do you have to go out there?' Rhodey said finally, 'why can't we both go? Or wait for clearance from Romanov, or the avengers?'
Tony found himself leaning against the desk, he closed his eyes and sighed heavily, 'because no one is going to die because of me, I can take care of this, so I'm going to.' He turned and looked at Rhodey.
A silent nod was all the confirmation he needed that Rhodey understood.
'Romanov is going to help as much as she can, it's the most important part, whatever he's using is as powerful as the Teseract, if she can jam the signal, I can do the rest.' Tony returned to keying in the final commands.
Rhodey stayed quiet while Tony worked, he thought back to the days of MIT, most people couldn't even scratch the surface of how his mind worked, or how quickly he processed things.
He looked on in awe as he worked harder and faster all the while facing his mortality. He had known men in the field, trained men who didn't take to what Tony took to, so easily. Whether it was easy for him, well that was an entirely different question.
'We're set.' Tony said, breaking Rhodey out of his thoughts.
'Let's go.' Rhodey insisted.
Tony checked off some final notes, and proceded to let Karvis open the doors.
They braced themselves, before another thought could pass between them, three men barged in through the doors and opened fire, Rhodey took to his training to defend himself, he leaped behind a desk and pulled out his own weapon and started shooting.
'Take cover, stay down!' he yelled over the gun fire to Tony.
Tony had taken refuge behind the large, bullet-proof desk; he thanked himself for ordering months ago. Pepper had laughed at him, 'bullet proof desk, please.' He'd argued with her and finally convinced her it was a great idea, being Iron Man and all; it could come in handy one day.
'I'm fine, do your thing.' Tony yelled back.
The firing between the men and Rhodey continued as Tony glanced down at his watch, three, two, one, action. He flattened himself against the ground as a large explosion ripped through the workshop. Tony covered his ears and crawled on his elbows to look out at his handy work.
The gunfire had ceased and Rhodey stood by the doors, 'going to take a lot to get this looking good again.' He picked up a small, tattered piece of what once was a very nice car.
Tony got up slowly, 'needed a change anyway, it was getting old.' Tony said with his usual smile, 'you ok?'
Rhodey dusted the debris off his shirt and made his way to the middle of the room, 'they'll be coming down any minute.'
Tony looked at the doorway, 'if they're smart, they won't.'
'Natasha's in place, ready when you are.' Rhodey announced as his phone beeped to notify him.
Tony glanced down at his reactor; the glow had become faint, almost flickering now. He locked eyes with Rhodey, at this point; they both knew there was a very small chance he would be walking out of this.
'Tony.' Rhodey began.
Tony turned away from him before he could say any more; he was met with a sudden burst of electricity which spiked through the air. It ripped through the workshop in a wave of fury and with it blew all the furniture into the air and threw them both back.
Rhodey landed hard against a wall, blocked in by a desk which landed beside him, Tony was thrown against the stairs to the workshop, he raised himself up on his elbows as the ringing in his ears subsided.
He looked around in horror as the electricity charged almost everything in its way including him and his arc reactor. He felt the air get sucked out of him, as confusion ran through his mind he heard Rhodey yelling behind him, another wave of electricity shot through the room, he noticed the walls, his cars, the computers surrounded by a menacing blue hue. As the electricity pulsed though the room he felt the heat rising within his body, the reactor was burning him, he felt his skin burning.
He closed his eyes as the next breath ripped through his body. Pain shot through his chest as he dropped to his knees, a sharp hiss escaped his lips.
Noise, so much noise rang through his ears, he slowed his breathing down as much as he could, he pushed the voices out of his mind, 'get up Stark' he muttered to himself.
With as much force as he could muster he got to his feet and allowed himself to rest against the wall behind him. A look of sheer terror from Rhodey met his gaze, he tried to nod to him, to tell him that he was ok, but his body refused to listen, instead he gave him a solemn look before heading toward the stairs.
'Tony don't!' He heard Rhodey call out to him, 'don't do this, stick to the plan!' He was stuck between the wall and a desk which had flown across the room, all he could do was look on.
'This is the plan!' Tony yelled back, before he could change his mind he closed the workshop door behind him, 'don't open this door for anyone J, not even me, got it?' he breathed.
'Of course sir,' came the cool reply.
Tony smiled sadly to himself; he could have sworn he detected emotion in the A.I's voice.
A serene silence befell the Malibu house as he found himself walking to meet his fate. Rubble from the shoot-out Rhodey had managed to escape from was evident beneath every step he took, glass lay shattered beneath his feet as it crunched with agonising reminders of his mortality.
How Dragon had managed to infiltrate Jarvis, and his security systems was beyond him, he knew there were people who were good out there, he was arrogant to believe that he was the best, now he was going to pay for his arrogance.
'So the man of Iron has come out to play?' The voice which echoed through Tony's mind finally came to stand before him.
Tony smirked, false confidence radiating from within, 'so I have.'
'You know that you're not walking away from this.' Dragon said firmly, a curious smile forming on his face.
'Maybe, but neither are you.' Tony replied coolly.
Before Dragon made his move, Tony called on the gauntlets which assembled themselves around his arms. He knew he didn't have enough time, nor the strength to summon the rest of the armour, he knew this was his end and he was ok with that. He was content, Pepper was safe, Rhodey was safe and Happy would look after them both.
He was hit with repeated blows from Dragon's magic. Constant blows of energy met with his stomach, he lurched forward clutching at his chest and the short circuiting the reactor. A familiar metallic taste assaulted his lips. He sighed, mentally chastising himself for being weak. Suck it up, keep fighting! The electricity Dragon was somehow channelling was far more painful to deal with than the consistent blasts of energy which hit him.
'Have you had enough yet, Stark?' Dragon laughed as his opponent stumbled forwards.
Tony looked up at him, tears welled up in his eyes, he blinked them back before raising both hands and firing with everything he had within him, the ever growing pain in his chest increased exponentially, he bit back the yell which was threatening to escape.
'You can't beat me Stark.' Dragon yelled over the noise of repulsors and electric currents which raged throughout the house.
The repulsors were powerful, they didn't take Dragon down, but he wasn't as confident as he appeared before, and that was a start.
A satisfied smirk graced Tony's face, 'are you sure about that?'
Dragon hissed back at the quip, 'you're out of your depth, and I will destroy you.'
Tony knew he had caused enough damage to Dragon's façade that it gave him a boost of strength he needed to finish this. He planted his feet firmly on the ground and faced Dragon, he held his body as steadily as he could manage, Dragon swayed slightly in his spot.
Come on Romanov, hurry. Tony looked at him anticipating his next move.
Dragon moved forward and Tony held his stance, as much as he wanted to finish this right here, he couldn't, he didn't have nearly as much strength as he needed to take him down, whatever magic Dragon was using was powerful, almost on the same level as the Tesseract, he swallowed the lump in his throat, it made sense now, the same power from the same source.
Hope you know what you're doing Romanov. Tony tried to gather himself.
Dragon stumbled toward him; he held his hands up and blasted Tony, only this time the power was nowhere near as strong as it had been, he scowled at the lack of pain it caused to Tony, 'looks like we'll have to do this the old fashioned way.' He laughed as he loaded the gun in his hands.
Tony stepped back and raised his hands toward Dragon and powered up the repulsors, he could feel the energy draining from his body and from the reactor which kept him alive.
Dragon looked to be in the same predicament as Tony; whatever was stopping his power was also draining Tony's. Without hesitation he fired at him, the blast hit Dragon right in the chest. The force pushed him backwards; his men who were formally standing by, now made their way to Tony, guns drawn.
Tony turned his attention to them and with one move took them out and they all collapsed to the ground. He frowned at the power which he had to waste on them.
Dragon looked up at Tony, slight panic on his face this time.
'What's happening to me?' He asked as he looked down at his hands, the bright blue glow which normally adorned them, was gone. Instead he looked at Tony with confusion and anger
A smirk crossed Tony's face, he knew what was happening but he just needed to know for sure. He tuned into the radio signals which he reserved for S.H.I.E.L.D and Jarvis, a smile found his lips, Romanov, she had enough experience with the Tesseract in New York. She was blocking the signal the same way she did last time, with Loki's septor. Tony's mind raced looking for conclusions as to why he was losing power, he was sure she wouldn't use an EMP, it would kill him. Then the lonely thought dawned on him. Nothing was blocking his power. He was simply dying.
As the thoughts raced in his mind, Dragon had already regained his footing and stepped toward Tony with his gun drawn, as he fired the shot Tony finally released the power which he was building up, the Uni beam from the reactor hit Dragon and threw him backwards, the whole house was plunged into darkness.
'J, did I do it?' Tony whispered as his own world began to fade into darkness.
I hope someone at least enjoyed it :) New chapter is nearly done, I'm off to QLD tomorrow, so I may not post until Sunday! But Who saw the amazing IM3 trailer which came out today? OMG so excited !