It's been awhile, I know! You've already heard my big long story about how busy I've been recently, but I've good news! I'm no longer in speech! (Couldn't make it to sub-sections due to drivers ed, so had to drop) and it's SPRING BREAK! Which, my school tried to take days from because of the snow! They failed because they suck...actually more than 20 teachers and staff planned out of state trips before hand and not enough substitutes...ANYWAYS!
Disclaimer: IMAA belongs to Nicktoons or Marvel or whatever, NOT ME!
"Y-you know how to get out?" Pepper questioned from where she stood. Instantly, she made her way next to him again. She was like a puppy who was patiently—or impatiently—waiting for a treat, its tail wagging wildly behind it.
The teen next to her waited until his breathing gradually calmed down. He cleared his throat before elaborating his previous words. "In one of the locked rooms."
"In the mansion?" Rhodey asked, him too looking excited.
Elliot stepped out of the room, with a courteous nod of her head. Nobody had questioned why she left, but they nodded politely back to her as she left. Howard and Rhodey had taken to sitting down on the second bed and the chair that was hauled from under the desk in the corner.
Tony shook his head. "Not in the mansion."
Pepper bit her lip. The first thing that came to her mind when he said that, was the room she woke up in only days ago. It wasn't that old of a memory. Though, she could only recall bits and pieces of it, because her mind had been so much of a garbled mess. Tony had been there whispering something to her before he was nothing more than a limp body. Rhodey had been there as well, most likely had something to do with the unconscious scientists laying everywhere. He had single-handedly carried Tony and led her back to here.
Though, what made her anxious was the memory of the pure whiteness that was where she'd spent days in. The place she spent days and days laying powerless to move, speak, or even think. If she had it straight in her head, if she was there much longer, she might have ended up some brainwashed slave for Simon had he not been captured already at the time.
"Then where?" Rhodey spoke before she could. "That lab?"
Tony coughed, but only slightly. "I-I think so."
Howard nodded towards his son. "It's worth a shot. I'll go check it out."
"Wait." Tony sat up. "I'm coming with you."
"No!" Pepper snapped. "You're staying where you are. Rhodey will go with him, or me."
"Not you," Tony immediately said. "But I have to…"
Pepper opened her mouth to say something, but Howard raised a hand to calm her down. "Let him."
"But—"
"I'll watch him and make sure he's alright," Howard assured her.
Pepper hesitantly nodded, "If you say so."
She wasn't comfortable with the idea of Tony walking around. She didn't even want him to stand, let alone walk down many stairs to get to that lab. Honestly, she didn't believe that he was up for the task at all.
She stood up as Howard helped his son stand. "But I'm coming too."
"No," Tony said before she had even finished, "you are staying here."
Pepper looked at him incredulously. "What? Why?"
Tony coughed once he was fully standing, but stopped quickly. "I don't want you getting—"
"Hurt?" Pepper finished. "If anyone's getting hurt, it will be you!"
"Pepper," Rhodey started, placing a hand on her shoulder, "let's not fight with him right now."
She shrugged her shoulder away from his hand. "Leave me alone, Rhodey."
"Please, Pepper." Tony whispered, fatigued from using his voice.
"No, I'm coming with whether you want me to or not!" Pepper responded to his plea. "Now let's go."
She began walking in the direction of the door, but Tony's hand on hers stopped her. She looked at him, expecting him to be furious with her for not listening, but she couldn't tell what he was feeling. Before she could look further into it, he'd drawn her into a hug close to himself. One of his hands was still holding hers, while his other was resting between her shoulder blades.
Her first instinct was to gasp and widen her eyes, but she quickly recovered and hugged him back. It was as if every muscle in her body relaxed. "Tony?"
"Promise me that you'll be careful?" He whispered as his face was pressed in her hair.
Still shocked from the sudden contact, she nodded. "Uh-huh."
"Promise?"
"I promise," she said.
As she stated her promise, he stepped back, but kept his hand in hers. Happy that he was no longer wishing that she stayed behind, she kept holding his hand. On the plus side, she'd be right there if he had any sort of accident and he collapses.
Rhodey gestured to the door, choosing not to question what just happened. "We going or what?"
The walk to the lab hadn't been as long and laborious as expected. Instead, it went with little to no incidents. Each one of them expected Tony to start coughing up blood or pass out from exhaustion, but he seemed just fine compared to how he was just moments before Tony figured out how to get out. That didn't mean that nothing happened, but it went with nothing so bad that they had to leave.
So far, every door they checked had been unlocked. Meaning the door Tony had mentioned had either had either been unlocked since then, or not there. Though, there was still some doors to check on before they could give up on the lead.
"Is that door locked?" Tony asked pointed to a door a few feet ahead of his dad.
His dad checked said door, only to find that it was unlocked and led to another room full of papers. "Do any of these rooms look familiar, Tony?"
Tony shook his head and ran his free hand through his dark hair. His other hand was still in Pepper's. "No, none of them do…"
Pepper smiled encouragingly at Tony. "I'm sure we'll find it! We just haven't looked hard enough."
Tony nodded. "Yeah."
They kept moving along the long corridor they had found behind one of the unlocked doors checking every door as they passed. Occasionally they found someone working on something in one of the rooms, but so far it seemed that most of the lab had been abandoned since they last came there.
"Tony, you feeling okay?" Pepper asked when she suddenly felt his hand flex a little harder than what was comforting.
He didn't look at her, "What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine."
She looked at him skeptically, "Are you sure?"
As she said that there was a loud noise that emanated from the door Rhodey was about to open. The loud noise must have startled Tony, because he flinched just in time for the door to burst open before Rhodey could open it. One of the scientists sped out of the room, only to stop in his tracks at the sight of the four of them.
"Y-you!" He pointed a hand at Tony, his voice cracking. "You aren't s-supposed to be here!"
Tony stepped away from the finger jabbing in his direction. "What?"
"Get out!" The scientist screamed. "Get out now!"
Tony shook his head, "No!"
As angry as the scientist was starting to look, he still looked as if he feared for his life. "Why not? You have to! B-before he…"
He suddenly cut himself off as he made a run back into the room, but Howard grabbed the scientist by the arm. "Stop!"
"You have to leave! He'll come back!" The scientist struggled against Howard's grasp. "Let me go!"
With a strong pull, the man escaped Howard's grip. Only when he did he was flung into Rhodey who fell back against one of the small tables in the hallway hitting a vase. As the scientist ran away down the hallway, Rhodey noticed that the vase didn't even wobble or crash to a million pieces on the floor, instead it leaned perfectly still diagonally on the surface of the desk.
Seconds later, there was a rumbling sound as a part of the wall pulled away to reveal a door that was locked with a code just above the knob.
"Real original." Pepper commented.
Tony's hand tightened once more and she realized why he had last time. He recognized this place.
"Is this the door?" Pepper asked him. "You know this door don't you?"
Tony nodded slowly, but then began shaking his head free of images. It didn't work very well and suddenly he was starting to feel hot. Burning hot, actually. Burning hot heat wrapped around his neck and shoulders and even his legs.
Flames were everywhere. Everywhere he looked there was flames and smoke. He could hear Pepper screaming nearby, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get to her.
"Pepper!"
She must have not heard him because he received no response. He jumped out of the way of falling debris, but was too slow as most of it landed on his shoulder, knocking him down. The burning debris settle on his neck and shoulders. He screamed as he felt the flames burn his skin.
"Tony!"
She was calling him, but he couldn't bring himself to respond. He was too focused on pushed the burning wood from his neck and shoulders. Just as he freed himself, his legs were soon buried as well.
"PEPPER!"
He had to let her know that he was right there, he was coming. He freed his legs and stood up. The smoke was getting stronger and he could feel it. He shouted for her again, this time falling into a round of coughing and choking as the smoke overwhelmed him.
"Pepper!"
He heard her shout for him again, but he started coughing and brought his burnt shirt up to his mouth to help filter the smoke. He started to wonder where Rhodey was, but his mind got sidetracked when more of the ceiling came crashing down next to him.
"Tony!"
He forced himself off the floor and went to go to her. "PEP—!"
A blinding light interrupted him and suddenly there was someone in front of him. Smiling at him. His vision was soon clouded out by smoke and there was a set of arms around him. Once more there was a blinding light and he was gone.
"Tony!"
He blinked. Looking around, he saw Rhodey, Pepper and his dad surrounding him. He was no longer in the fire, he was no longer with Simon, and he was no longer in pain. But he didn't fail to notice that he was still coughing into his hand, which was splattered with blood.
"Tony, are you alright?"
She knew the answer, but it comforted her to be able to ask. She was rubbing his back as he was on his knees looking around as if he forgot where he was.
"Pepper?"
"I'm here," she assured him, "are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine, I guess," Tony replied. "I just remembered…"
His sentence trailed off, as he looked around. As he did, he stood up with partially unnecessary help from Pepper. Instinctively, he rubbed his hand across his neck and shoulders. For a few moments, he could still feel the flames burning his skin. He could still hear Pepper's screams and calls.
"Remembered what?" Rhodey asked.
Instead of answering, Tony looked at his hand. "Um…is there something I can wipe my hand on?"
The three in front of him looked around them and into the rooms next to them. Rhodey walked into the door straight across from the door they just discovered and soon returned with what looked like disinfectant wipes.
He handed them to Tony.
"Thanks." Tony said and began wiping up the blood from his hand.
"So," Rhodey started, "what did you remember?"
"A fire…" Tony said looking Pepper who was now looking at her feet. "At our…school?"
"Right, the fire." Rhodey said.
It was suddenly very quiet between the three and even Howard didn't dare to break the silence. Though, moments later Rhodey sighed unconsciously rubbing his head as he walked over to the door they discovered.
"You don't happen to know the code, do you?" He asked pointing to the number pad.
Tony joined him, "Sorry, I only remember passing this door. Sim—Simon told me that door among two others was off limits…"
Pepper glared at the mention of the man, but shook her head as she too took her spot next to Tony. "Don't worry about it, you can break the code, can't you?"
Tony just stared at her. "You think I can?"
"They don't call you a genius for no reason!" She gave him a thumbs up, to cheer him on.
He opened his mouth to respond, but Howard spoke first, "I can give it a shot. Unless, you want to."
Tony shook his head, "No, go ahead."
The next twenty minutes passed slowly and quietly. Tony was still in a small daze from the memory and Pepper at the mention of the fire. Howard concentrated hard on the code, but after those twenty minutes passed, he stood up stood up from his bent position and tested the password.
It beeped and the light glowed green.
"You did it!" Rhodey said.
"Open it!" Pepper demanded.
She wanted to know if this was the door. If this was where they would go when they were ready to go home. She was curious if this would all turn out, or if they were stuck there forever. She certainly hoped not.
Howard opened the door with Rhodey following close behind as they entered the dark room. Tony and Pepper, holding hands once more, walked in behind the two. Automatic lights turned on, revealing some mysterious things.
Just by looking around the room, it was obvious it was yet another testing room. Expect the whole room was serving one purpose and one purpose only. Large computers filled one half of the room, desks and cabinets filled the other half. And in the center of it all, was a pedestal-like device that looked as if it was one of those teleporting platforms in the movies.
"That has to be it!" Pepper said, rushing to it. She looked to Tony. "Is this it?"
Tony shrugged. "I don't know, but it's got to be."
The three teens looked to the only adult. He raised his eyebrows at them, but shrugged. "I'll check the computers, but yeah that's probably it."
They looked at it, and suddenly going home didn't seem so far away anymore. Home was only a few steps away.
You can feel the end coming can't you? I'm actually really relieved about it too, Baby Genius is coming so close to the end and Is This Goodbye? is also nearing its end. A couple others may be as well. And I'm SO excited to start new stories! XD Maybe that will inspire me to write faster!
Fun Fact: Snickers are my new favorite candy! Yummy!
My timing couldn't have been better or worse for getting sick! better because I won't miss school, worse because I'M WASTING SPRING BREAK! On the bright side, i was able to go from level 24 to level 29 in Skyrim in two days, finish 15 episodes (the rest of) Toradora in one day, watch half of Ouran High school host club, and even watch Phineas and Ferb and even Dexter s Labratory for some reason...oh and watch Frozen!
That's what being stuck in bed for three days will do to ya, literally I didn't leave my bed except for the five bathroom breaks and making a sandwich for my little bro. I had survived off of Reeses, starburst, and a pizza...Not healthy...
Hugs and Love, SilverPedals! :3
(No replies this time, still really sick, but next time!) ~But special thanks to It'sAlwaysStark-Potts who reminded me that I had already finished half of this already and just needed to finish it. :D THANK YOU!