Chapter 7: D
Gosh… It's been a long time! A LONG TIME. I'm hoping to update many of my stories over the weekend. I haven't had the chance, and now that I have settled down, I hope to update some stories!
HERE WE GO!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my story!
"You what?" Pepper hovered to a stop. She changed the armor's scan to an infrared along with Rhodey's. Sure enough, it had a trail of colors leading off into downtown Manhattan. The trail was fading away, making the duo to believe that it had been a while since Tony went that direction.
"It has to be Tony!" Rhodey said confirming his theory. He sent the War Machine towards the direction of the trail. It took them a while, but they eventually ended up by the beach.
War Machine and the Mark 1 armor came to land softly in the sand. "Rhodey… you're kidding. What reason would Tony have to come to the beach? Other than a swim, alone, and some sandy underwear?" Pepper scanned the beach and found another fading trail towards an empty space.
"Remember? Tony came home one day, wet? He had salt water on his cloths. My mom said so." Rhodey walked towards the other trail and instantly noticed a set of footprints on the wet sand. It was hard, but he kneeled on the ground and had the computer scan the print.
"What?" Pepper asked coming up next to Rhodey. She stood by him, hands on her waist. Rhodey stood and looked around the beach.
"The scanner says it's Tony's footprint. The print has been there for a couple of days. That means…" Rhodey put his hand out and sure enough, there was something there. "It's invisible. This is definitely Rhona's tech. She would know how to do this. But where's the entrance?" Rhodey spread his hands out across the surface in search for a door.
Instead, there was a boom. When Rhodey looked over, Pepper was standing with her hands out in front of her. She looked over to him with a shrug. "Thought I should make an entrance instead…"
Rhodey chuckled, but decided that Pepper had probably alerted the crew. With a crack of his mechanical knuckled he said, "Let's go get Tony back."
…
"Where are you, Rhona?" Tony flew throughout the dome. It was bigger than he had thought. There were winding hallways, and long corridors that seemed to go on forever. Every turn he took, he thought that he was exactly where he was before. It reminded him on the Labyrinth he had learned in history. It would morph and change to the point where the Greeks would become lost to the maze forever. And those who survived would become mentally insane.
And if Tony didn't find Rhona, he figured he would go insane either way.
He heard a distant boom, something that made him think that his captors had found out about his escape. He urged his suit to go faster until he figured that it wouldn't help to keep wasting his energy by flying everywhere.
Tony hovered to the ground and changed his visual settings to x-ray. "Computer, scan for human life signs through x-ray." The computer laid out a blueprint of the dome and pinpointed a human life form at the very back of the dome.
"Okay… Great… Computer, give me a route to that human life sign."
"Route in place…" The computer laid out a red line of a route to the life sign. It reminded Tony of a GPS.
Flying at top speed he reached the destination. But it was guarded by a large mahogany door. Tony landed in front of it. Starting up his repulsor, Tony blasted down the door and stepped in.
"RHONA! I know you're in here!" Tony yelled. He scanned the empty room, noticing the dark colors. Dark red torches illuminated some light in each corner of the room, making the whole theme look more like the medieval times.
He heard a small giggle that echoed across the room. He focused his sensors on the sound of the voice but his computer couldn't find anything. "Computer… What the-?" Tony suddenly realized there was a high frequency sound that entered his suit.
"AH!" It felt as though his eardrums were popping (and it had happened before). He fell to his knees struggling to keep himself conscious. But all he heard was the sound and his screams.
"Did you think—beat—me?" A voice came from outside his suit. Tony looked up, his vision blurring with red. His breathing got harder too.
"I will—I will beat you Rhona!" Tony yelled out. He noticed her scowl. And then suddenly, the pain subsided. He got to his feet. Only to realize that there was an entire army of Rhona's robots.
…
"Okay so now what?" Pepper asked. She looked down at her armor and sighed. "See? This is what I mean! If I had my own suit I could've done a lot more! Now I'm stuck in the chair maneuvering this suit! This isn't the easiest thing you know!" Pepper murmured. Rhodey rolled his eyes, thankful for the facemask.
"Let's find Tony first. I guess he'll make you a suit if you save him."
"You think?" Pepper smiled enthusiastically. But the smile disappeared when she heard a scream. "Oh no. Tony?" She turned to Rhodey ready to take orders. Rhodey looked at Pepper and with a nod they flew in that direction.
It took them a while to pinpoint the location, especially since the scream echoed across the hallways. "Do you have any idea where the scream is coming from?" Rhodey asked. The two ended up in a fork. There were two hallways leading opposite directions, and the scream was coming from both of them.
"You go one way, I go the other." Pepper said. "If we find him, we can send out a beacon and we can find each other. If you find Tony first send me the position. Good luck." Pepper started up the boot jets and flew towards the left, and Rhodey took the right.
Rhodey flew in one direction, he made sure to talk every right that was possible. Eventually he reached the end, a solid wall of concrete. And when he turned to head in Pepper's direction, the hallway changed. He was trapped in a box.
Pepper had some luck. She ended up finding out that her hallways were more carved and went all in one direction. She never had to debate which way to go, she had a straightforward direction, and it led her to a door. A large, wooden door.
When Pepper went closer to it, she noticed the door seemed to have scorched marks on its frame. Someone had patched up the door in order to hide something. And if that had happened, that means something was there that made it necessary to seal up the door.
Pepper instantly sent out a beacon for Rhodey. When it was sent, she balled her fists and pushed the door open.
And the last thing she wanted to see was what she saw. Tony was on the ground, face first, and blood was pouring out from under him.
YAY! This was bad, don't worry, I already know it. But, at least there was a cliffhanger right? Yay! Okay then… you know the drill! Please, please review!