Fic: Iron & Irony: Second Encounters, chapter 6/10
Title: Iron & Irony: Second Encounters
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Iron Man/House MD
Series: Sequel to Iron & Irony. (Has nothing whatsoever to do with Malt & Mockery.)
Spoilers: Late season 4 for House, but before the finale, so nothing big. Spoils all of Iron Man and Iron & Irony, of course.
Pairings: Tony/Pepper
Rating: PG-13
Beta: btsxbeta <3
Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing, except for a messed up mind that likes playing with other people's characters and universes.
Summary: "I never knew getting kidnapped would be this boring." -Gregory House
--- "You don't know anything about Tony! I would give my life for him if I had to - but I won't. He's going to get us out of here." -Pepper Potts
--- "Okay, this could be a problem." -Tony Stark
6. "At least this is a lot cooler than dying of old age"
In a matter of hours, Rhodey was sitting in the jet with Tony, on the way to his very first mission as an armored superhero. They spent the first hours of the flight trying to make plans. Unfortunately, the data S.H.I.E.L.D. had come up with gave them the possible entrances to the complex they were attacking and little more than that. They had no information about what they were up against: who, exactly, let alone how many men, or what sort of weaponry. At least they wouldn't need to worry about the nanovirus or other biological weapons as long as they were in the suits.
They would arrive at the outskirts of the mountain range around midnight local time. That was good, because that way, they could take advantage of the darkness. Rhodey was sure that had they arrived at daytime, Tony would've wanted to dash into action in bright daylight, which was exactly the sort of thing Fury wanted Rhodey to prevent. Now, he wouldn't need to worry about it.
The flight would take about fifteen hours. It was night back home, and Rhodey was well aware that one should be rested and alert when going into battle. It'd be a very good idea for them to spend some time sleeping. He tried to suggest this to Tony, but predictably enough, he wouldn't hear of it. Instead, he retreated into a room he'd set up as a makeshift workshop, to continue working on his suit. Rhodey shook his head, took off his shoes and lay down on a couch. Falling asleep in almost any circumstances was a skill he'd learned early during his career in the Air Force. At times like this, it definitely came in handy. He only wished he could somehow teach it to Tony.
When Rhodey woke up some six hours later, they were only a few hours away from landing. He was surprised to find Tony asleep on the next couch. Rhodey had expected he'd be nodding over his work, but apparently he had actually finished it.
Rhodey woke Tony up, and they went over the little data they had once more, over their morning - or night, or whatever - coffee. Then, finally, it was time. They helped each other into their suits, got into the cargo bay, and opened the hatch.
Rhodey stared at the dark night sky outside the plane. In the suit, he couldn't even feel the wind, although he could hear its roar. He had plenty of experience in parachuting, but this was a whole new thing altogether. He wasn't going to jump into free fall, he'd just get off of the plane and, with the help of the suit, catch his balance and keep flying. He knew his own reactions were far too slow for the fine, quick corrections, so he'd just have to let his suit's copy of Jarvis take care of it. He didn't exactly like that idea. As much as he trusted Tony's engineering skills, he wanted to be his own pilot, thank you very much.
Tony had done this before, of course, and he went first. He stepped forwards, and disappeared into the night, out of sight in a wink.
Rhodey wouldn't claim that he wasn't scared. He was. Still, he was used to doing scary stuff - and this was also incredibly cool. He didn't hesitate for longer than a few seconds. Then, he flung his silver-and-black-armored self out of the Stark Jet.
There was the slightest moment of the familiar sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach before the suit AI took over. It had the stabilizers fire a quick series of bursts, and in a matter of seconds, he was soaring through the air on his own. The jet was already far ahead of him, the distance between them growing rapidly.
Rhodey told Jarvis to let go of the controls, and tried them himself, taking the suit through a quick series of rolls and loops. Oh yeah. Tony had said that Rhodey's suit didn't steer quite as well as his, because it had more weaponry and was heavier and less agile, but if anyone asked Rhodey, this was more than enough. It was the closest thing to flying he'd ever tried - closer than the exhilarating floating sensation of free fall, and a lot closer than piloting a plane.
"War Machine, this is Iron Man, do you copy?" Tony's voice reverberated inside Rhodey's helmet.
"Ohh yeah, Iron Man. War Machine hears you loud and clear," Rhodey replied. "Man, I love this suit."
"Yeah, it's great, isn't it? But this isn't a pleasure trip," Tony said. He emerged in Rhodey's view, the bright lights in his suit's eyes and chest standing out clearly in the dark. "We're still half an hour away from target. There's no time to waste."
House definitely hadn't seen that one coming. He had reckoned that Liu would either give them the cure, or outright refuse to listen to them. Instead, they were taken back to their cell to wait for Stark's purported arrival. House didn't know what to think about that. Was Stark really on his way, or was Liu just playing some weird game with them? He couldn't figure out what Liu would gain from this. They'd already promised to cooperate, putting more pressure on them wouldn't lead to anything. Then again, maybe this had never been about the information, after all. Maybe it had been about getting Stark here all along, and the possibility of getting useful information from them had been nothing but an added bonus. Maybe Liu actually wanted them to die, just to get to Stark.
"At least it wasn't all bad news," Potts said once they'd settled on their bunks again. "Tony's on his way here."
"Yeah, it's nice to know there'll be a friendly soul around to hear our last words," House said sardonically.
"Do you..." Potts began in a shaky voice, and coughed. "You really think we're going to die?"
"I'm just being realistic. The odds are against us."
House tried to estimate how long they would last, but it was difficult. Liu had said they'd been infected soon after they'd been kidnapped, and assuming House had the times and dates figured out correctly, the first symptoms had emerged three days after that, as opposed to the four days of the strain Stark had had.
In Stark's case, it had taken over a day for the disease to progress into the cardiopulmonary phase, and over twelve hours from that to the point when they had had to intubate him. Then again, he had been on supplemental oxygen long before that, which was something House and Potts wouldn't have. So, even if this new version of the nanovirus progressed at the same pace as the old one, they'd be in trouble far earlier than Stark had been.
Even if Stark got here soon, they still wouldn't be out of the woods. The nanovirus-HPS wasn't exactly easy to treat. House didn't even know if this new strain was susceptible to EMPs like the old one had been. Most likely it was, and that was the cure that Liu was talking about.
Still, no matter which way he looked at it, the prognosis totally sucked.
"I don't think we're going to die," Potts said, though she sounded far from reassuring. "I trust Tony."
House sighed, exasperated. He couldn't understand how someone with as much common sense as Potts could be so deluded in this matter. It was like a religion. The church of the almighty Man of Iron, who could perform miracles and deny the laws of nature, with her as its head priestess.
"This isn't about trust, this is about scientific facts," he told her. "The nanovirus doesn't care how much you trust him. Your faith and love aren't going to stop it."
"I know that, but it still doesn't mean we can't survive. Besides, if believing that we'll be rescued makes me hopeful instead of miserable, what's so wrong with it?"
"It's pure fiction, that's what's wrong. It's got nothing to do with reality."
"I'll rather take the fiction that makes me happy than spend my last hours wallowing in self-pity."
"Have it your way. I'll be waiting for you by the self-pity pool once you decide to face the facts."
They fell into a heavy, oppressive silence.
If House had thought the previous days had been painful, tedious and boring, they had been child's play compared to this. They lay on their bunks, stared at the ceiling and waited. They were brought food, but neither of them had the energy or the appetite to eat more than a few spoonfuls.
As time plodded on, House began to feel the effects of the virus on his breathing - it was as if the air in the room was growing thinner, like there wasn't quite enough oxygen in it. He could hear Potts's breathing had grown clearly faster and louder than normal, too.
House had been face-to-face with death several times before, and he had no illusions about it: he knew it was the end, as simple as that. There was nothing more to it. His personality, his mind, his memories, it would all be gone forever, but he wouldn't be around to care about it. Whether anyone else would care wouldn't matter either, when he was nonexistent himself. Nevertheless, in some pathetically emotional corner of his mind, he found himself wishing someone were here with him. Someone like Stacy, or maybe Wilson. One of the few real friends he'd had during his life.
After House had stuck a knife into a wall socket, seeking a near-death experience, Wilson had blamed him for not caring whether he lived or died. That hadn't been very far from the truth. House wasn't afraid of dying, and there were days when he thought there was no point to it all. Unfortunately, today wasn't one of those days. On the contrary, even though he'd been suffering ever since they'd been kidnapped, this situation was the sort of stuff that made life worth living. He had been kidnapped by the evil enemies of a superhero - just how awesome was that?
"At least this is a lot cooler - than dying of old age - or liver failure, thanks to all the Vicodin," he said aloud, his speech already affected by the trouble he had catching his breath.
"We're not going to die," Potts declared, and lapsed into a long fit of coughing.
"Everyone dies, sooner or later."
"Oh, come on!"
When the lights went off, marking the beginning of their fourth night here, breathing was such a strain that House wondered whether he'd just pass out and suffocate if he stopped struggling. And there was still no sign of Stark.
Finally, they had reached their goal. The mountains were huge, dark things looming around them in the night, and without all the navigation and scanners in the suit Tony might have flown straight into one of them.
They slowed down as they approached the enemy base. They had decided to use one of the side entrances, and at least try to take their enemies by surprise, although it was almost certain they'd fail. There was still a lot of room for improvement in the suits' stealth abilities.
Sure enough, they were over a mile away from the base when Jarvis gave them a warning: they were being targeted. Several missiles shot out at them from three different sites in the mountains.
"Rhodey! Look out!" Tony shouted. "I'll take the launchers on the left, you take that one on the right."
They separated. Tony headed towards the nearest weapons platform, shooting at the approaching missiles as he went. He got them both, but two new ones were already headed for him. He hit the one that was in front of him before it could get too close. With one missile still following him, he accelerated, going straight at the rock wall ahead of him, and the rocket launcher set in it. At the last moment, he swerved to the side and then straight up. The missile wasn't able to follow, but hit the launcher, destroying it in a large explosion.
There was still the other launcher - Tony turned towards it, but quickly found out that it wasn't there anymore. Rhodey had already taken it down. Of course, he had more guns than Tony. He could rely on firepower alone, no need for tricks like the one Tony had used.
That had been almost too easy.
"Hey, Rustbucket, what took you so long?" Rhodey greeted him.
"Had to check out the local chicks on the way. Now, let's see... Jarvis, show me the S.H.I.E.L.D. data."
The entrances emerged on the HUD as clear red patches in the mountainside. There was the big door at ground-level, and a few smaller ones higher up, apparently accessible through narrow paths. Tony fired a few shots at the nearest one of those. The door was blasted apart, revealing a corridor opening into the depths of the mountain.
"After you," Rhodey said.
Tony was already on his way.
The corridor was full of thugs, but they had nothing but ordinary weapons on them, nothing that'd make Tony worry the least bit. He flew straight at them, not even bothering to return their shots. The smarter ones among them ducked or ran. A few unfortunate idiots got in the way, and were knocked out as he hit them head-first. That barely even slowed him down.
He landed on the floor, facing the remaining guards, who had all their guns pointed at him. Tony shook his metal-covered head at them. "You know that's not going to help you," he told them.
He heard a metallic clank behind him as Rhodey landed in the corridor, too. "I'd run if I were you," he added to Tony's comment.
The thugs eyed each other uncertainly - a few of them seemed to be trembling in fear, and some had bullet wounds from friendly fire or ricochets.
Tony raised his hands, pointing his repulsors at them. He could hear the gatling gun and the rocket launcher slide from their flight positions into their combat positions on Rhodey's suit next to him.
The thugs turned and fled.
"See, Iron Man? Teamwork isn't such a bad idea," Rhodey said.
"Yeah, except so far, there's been nothing I couldn't have handled on my own, and I think we should split up now."
"You would've been in trouble with the anti-aircraft artillery out there."
"No, I wouldn't."
"Would too. But I agree on the splitting up."
"I'll take that doorway on the right, you go on straight ahead."
This was probably going to be the most the most tedious part of the mission. They had no idea how big the base was, let alone where Pepper and House were. Tony almost hoped he'd meet some resistance, otherwise this would be damn boring.
Pepper was incredibly tired. The dark room was spinning around her even though she had been lying down for hours and hours, and no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't getting enough air. She could hear House struggling in exactly the same manner. It was like some macabre competition - which one would suffocate first?
She knew she shouldn't fall asleep, because if she did, she'd probably never wake up, and she was afraid. No matter how adamantly she'd defended her views to House, how she'd claimed that Tony was on his way and would save them, she wasn't sure she even believed it herself anymore. Maybe Liu had just given them the false hope to make them more miserable, and was now sitting behind his desk staring at them through the surveillance camera, enjoying the show.
When she heard a low boom from somewhere far away and felt the floor tremble slightly, she first thought she'd just drifted to sleep and imagined the whole thing.
"House?"
"Yeah." The tone of his voice told her more than the short word itself. It was the most optimistic thing he had said in days.
Something was happening. All of a sudden, she felt full of hope again, and more determined to take yet another breath, and another, to suck in as much oxygen as she could, because they wouldn't need to wait long now. They were going to get out of here. Tony was here. Everything would be all right.
She thought she heard more sounds, still muffled, maybe gunshots echoing in the corridors. She slid off the bed. She was so dizzy and weak that she didn't even bother to get up, but crawled on the floor to the door, and pressed her ear against it to hear better.
The sounds were getting closer. Footsteps, running, and then walking - heavy footsteps, and a familiar blasting sound she'd heard before - the repulsors in the suit's palms.
She banged on the door and shouted "Tony! Here!" as loud as her failing lungs allowed.
"Stand back!" came the answer. She crawled away from the door and behind her bunk.
There was a loud bang, and the door flew open, with a huge hole where the lock had been. Iron Man stood in the doorway, the light flowing in from the corridor gleaming on the familiar red and gold of his armor.
"That's - the most beautiful thing - I've ever seen," House panted.
Tony ignored him completely. "Pepper!" he said, his gaze fixed on her. It sounded funny to hear her name in that deep, metallic rumble.
He stepped closer and knelt, and she tried to hug him, but ended up just collapsing bonelessly into his gold-titanium-covered arms. He grasped her somewhat clumsily. The smooth, cool metal felt soothing against her skin.
"Tony... Thank God," she whispered.
"We've got the nanovirus," House rasped from his side of the room. "We're out of time - and air."
"Yeah, I know," Tony said, stood up and set Pepper gently on her bunk. "And I can do something about it. Rhodey, get out of here right now," he spoke the last sentence in a different tone, obviously to his suit's radio. "I've found them, and I'm going to hit the whole goddamn mountain with an EMP. You suit's not shielded. Get out of here and fast."
Rhodey was here, too, then? Pepper hadn't expected that, even though she knew Tony had been building him a suit. She had had no idea it was ready for action. Maybe it wasn't, not exactly, if Tony had to tell Rhodey to flee like that.
Tony didn't give Rhodey a whole lot of time to escape. Standing between their bunks, he brought his hands together showily. She heard something click into place as the gauntlets' palms met each other.
Suddenly, all the lights went out.
They were left in darkness that was complete except for the light of Tony's arc reactor. Even his suit's eyes weren't glowing anymore.
"Okay, that was cool," Tony said. Though his tone was nonchalant, his voice sounded strange - not deep and menacing, just muffled, with a tinny echo.
"What's wrong - with the suit?" Pepper asked.
"Uh, nothing you need to worry about. I knew this would happen. All my systems are offline, but they should come back online after a while."
He'd known this would happen, and he'd still done it? Right, she'd been here so long that she had already been starting to forget what a complete idiot he was.
"How soon?" House asked.
"I've no idea, never tried this before. Sometime between a minute and an hour. Not going to wait that long, though. I can still move."
Awkwardly, he turned around and made his way to the door, every slow footstep a heavy, metallic thud. She could only imagine the strength it required for him to move the suit on nothing but muscle power.
The loud noise of gunfire erupted the very second Tony had walked through the doorway. Of course, the bright light in his chest would make him instantly visible and an easy target.
He stepped back into the room. "Okay, this could be a problem. So, here's the plan: I'm going to distract them. You need to get out of here. Can you walk?"
"Stupid question," House groaned.
"You can follow the walls, lean on them. The exit's not that far. To the left from the door, all the way to the end of the corridor, then left again, the next turn right, and the last one left, and you'll see it from there. Rhodey should be waiting for you outside."
"Tony, no! We can't - leave you here alone!" Pepper exclaimed.
"Pepper, I've got my armor, I'm not in any danger. The systems will restart, and then I can blast my way out of here. Just wait until they've stopped firing in this direction, and then go."
Tony stepped out of the door, back into the unsettling sound of bullets flying in his direction, and disappeared from view. From the heavy clanks of his footsteps, she could guess he was walking right towards the bad guys.
Chapter 7.
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Iron Man/House MD
Series: Sequel to Iron & Irony. (Has nothing whatsoever to do with Malt & Mockery.)
Spoilers: Late season 4 for House, but before the finale, so nothing big. Spoils all of Iron Man and Iron & Irony, of course.
Pairings: Tony/Pepper
Rating: PG-13
Beta: btsxbeta <3
Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing, except for a messed up mind that likes playing with other people's characters and universes.
Summary: "I never knew getting kidnapped would be this boring." -Gregory House
--- "You don't know anything about Tony! I would give my life for him if I had to - but I won't. He's going to get us out of here." -Pepper Potts
--- "Okay, this could be a problem." -Tony Stark
6. "At least this is a lot cooler than dying of old age"
In a matter of hours, Rhodey was sitting in the jet with Tony, on the way to his very first mission as an armored superhero. They spent the first hours of the flight trying to make plans. Unfortunately, the data S.H.I.E.L.D. had come up with gave them the possible entrances to the complex they were attacking and little more than that. They had no information about what they were up against: who, exactly, let alone how many men, or what sort of weaponry. At least they wouldn't need to worry about the nanovirus or other biological weapons as long as they were in the suits.
They would arrive at the outskirts of the mountain range around midnight local time. That was good, because that way, they could take advantage of the darkness. Rhodey was sure that had they arrived at daytime, Tony would've wanted to dash into action in bright daylight, which was exactly the sort of thing Fury wanted Rhodey to prevent. Now, he wouldn't need to worry about it.
The flight would take about fifteen hours. It was night back home, and Rhodey was well aware that one should be rested and alert when going into battle. It'd be a very good idea for them to spend some time sleeping. He tried to suggest this to Tony, but predictably enough, he wouldn't hear of it. Instead, he retreated into a room he'd set up as a makeshift workshop, to continue working on his suit. Rhodey shook his head, took off his shoes and lay down on a couch. Falling asleep in almost any circumstances was a skill he'd learned early during his career in the Air Force. At times like this, it definitely came in handy. He only wished he could somehow teach it to Tony.
When Rhodey woke up some six hours later, they were only a few hours away from landing. He was surprised to find Tony asleep on the next couch. Rhodey had expected he'd be nodding over his work, but apparently he had actually finished it.
Rhodey woke Tony up, and they went over the little data they had once more, over their morning - or night, or whatever - coffee. Then, finally, it was time. They helped each other into their suits, got into the cargo bay, and opened the hatch.
Rhodey stared at the dark night sky outside the plane. In the suit, he couldn't even feel the wind, although he could hear its roar. He had plenty of experience in parachuting, but this was a whole new thing altogether. He wasn't going to jump into free fall, he'd just get off of the plane and, with the help of the suit, catch his balance and keep flying. He knew his own reactions were far too slow for the fine, quick corrections, so he'd just have to let his suit's copy of Jarvis take care of it. He didn't exactly like that idea. As much as he trusted Tony's engineering skills, he wanted to be his own pilot, thank you very much.
Tony had done this before, of course, and he went first. He stepped forwards, and disappeared into the night, out of sight in a wink.
Rhodey wouldn't claim that he wasn't scared. He was. Still, he was used to doing scary stuff - and this was also incredibly cool. He didn't hesitate for longer than a few seconds. Then, he flung his silver-and-black-armored self out of the Stark Jet.
There was the slightest moment of the familiar sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach before the suit AI took over. It had the stabilizers fire a quick series of bursts, and in a matter of seconds, he was soaring through the air on his own. The jet was already far ahead of him, the distance between them growing rapidly.
Rhodey told Jarvis to let go of the controls, and tried them himself, taking the suit through a quick series of rolls and loops. Oh yeah. Tony had said that Rhodey's suit didn't steer quite as well as his, because it had more weaponry and was heavier and less agile, but if anyone asked Rhodey, this was more than enough. It was the closest thing to flying he'd ever tried - closer than the exhilarating floating sensation of free fall, and a lot closer than piloting a plane.
"War Machine, this is Iron Man, do you copy?" Tony's voice reverberated inside Rhodey's helmet.
"Ohh yeah, Iron Man. War Machine hears you loud and clear," Rhodey replied. "Man, I love this suit."
"Yeah, it's great, isn't it? But this isn't a pleasure trip," Tony said. He emerged in Rhodey's view, the bright lights in his suit's eyes and chest standing out clearly in the dark. "We're still half an hour away from target. There's no time to waste."
House definitely hadn't seen that one coming. He had reckoned that Liu would either give them the cure, or outright refuse to listen to them. Instead, they were taken back to their cell to wait for Stark's purported arrival. House didn't know what to think about that. Was Stark really on his way, or was Liu just playing some weird game with them? He couldn't figure out what Liu would gain from this. They'd already promised to cooperate, putting more pressure on them wouldn't lead to anything. Then again, maybe this had never been about the information, after all. Maybe it had been about getting Stark here all along, and the possibility of getting useful information from them had been nothing but an added bonus. Maybe Liu actually wanted them to die, just to get to Stark.
"At least it wasn't all bad news," Potts said once they'd settled on their bunks again. "Tony's on his way here."
"Yeah, it's nice to know there'll be a friendly soul around to hear our last words," House said sardonically.
"Do you..." Potts began in a shaky voice, and coughed. "You really think we're going to die?"
"I'm just being realistic. The odds are against us."
House tried to estimate how long they would last, but it was difficult. Liu had said they'd been infected soon after they'd been kidnapped, and assuming House had the times and dates figured out correctly, the first symptoms had emerged three days after that, as opposed to the four days of the strain Stark had had.
In Stark's case, it had taken over a day for the disease to progress into the cardiopulmonary phase, and over twelve hours from that to the point when they had had to intubate him. Then again, he had been on supplemental oxygen long before that, which was something House and Potts wouldn't have. So, even if this new version of the nanovirus progressed at the same pace as the old one, they'd be in trouble far earlier than Stark had been.
Even if Stark got here soon, they still wouldn't be out of the woods. The nanovirus-HPS wasn't exactly easy to treat. House didn't even know if this new strain was susceptible to EMPs like the old one had been. Most likely it was, and that was the cure that Liu was talking about.
Still, no matter which way he looked at it, the prognosis totally sucked.
"I don't think we're going to die," Potts said, though she sounded far from reassuring. "I trust Tony."
House sighed, exasperated. He couldn't understand how someone with as much common sense as Potts could be so deluded in this matter. It was like a religion. The church of the almighty Man of Iron, who could perform miracles and deny the laws of nature, with her as its head priestess.
"This isn't about trust, this is about scientific facts," he told her. "The nanovirus doesn't care how much you trust him. Your faith and love aren't going to stop it."
"I know that, but it still doesn't mean we can't survive. Besides, if believing that we'll be rescued makes me hopeful instead of miserable, what's so wrong with it?"
"It's pure fiction, that's what's wrong. It's got nothing to do with reality."
"I'll rather take the fiction that makes me happy than spend my last hours wallowing in self-pity."
"Have it your way. I'll be waiting for you by the self-pity pool once you decide to face the facts."
They fell into a heavy, oppressive silence.
If House had thought the previous days had been painful, tedious and boring, they had been child's play compared to this. They lay on their bunks, stared at the ceiling and waited. They were brought food, but neither of them had the energy or the appetite to eat more than a few spoonfuls.
As time plodded on, House began to feel the effects of the virus on his breathing - it was as if the air in the room was growing thinner, like there wasn't quite enough oxygen in it. He could hear Potts's breathing had grown clearly faster and louder than normal, too.
House had been face-to-face with death several times before, and he had no illusions about it: he knew it was the end, as simple as that. There was nothing more to it. His personality, his mind, his memories, it would all be gone forever, but he wouldn't be around to care about it. Whether anyone else would care wouldn't matter either, when he was nonexistent himself. Nevertheless, in some pathetically emotional corner of his mind, he found himself wishing someone were here with him. Someone like Stacy, or maybe Wilson. One of the few real friends he'd had during his life.
After House had stuck a knife into a wall socket, seeking a near-death experience, Wilson had blamed him for not caring whether he lived or died. That hadn't been very far from the truth. House wasn't afraid of dying, and there were days when he thought there was no point to it all. Unfortunately, today wasn't one of those days. On the contrary, even though he'd been suffering ever since they'd been kidnapped, this situation was the sort of stuff that made life worth living. He had been kidnapped by the evil enemies of a superhero - just how awesome was that?
"At least this is a lot cooler - than dying of old age - or liver failure, thanks to all the Vicodin," he said aloud, his speech already affected by the trouble he had catching his breath.
"We're not going to die," Potts declared, and lapsed into a long fit of coughing.
"Everyone dies, sooner or later."
"Oh, come on!"
When the lights went off, marking the beginning of their fourth night here, breathing was such a strain that House wondered whether he'd just pass out and suffocate if he stopped struggling. And there was still no sign of Stark.
Finally, they had reached their goal. The mountains were huge, dark things looming around them in the night, and without all the navigation and scanners in the suit Tony might have flown straight into one of them.
They slowed down as they approached the enemy base. They had decided to use one of the side entrances, and at least try to take their enemies by surprise, although it was almost certain they'd fail. There was still a lot of room for improvement in the suits' stealth abilities.
Sure enough, they were over a mile away from the base when Jarvis gave them a warning: they were being targeted. Several missiles shot out at them from three different sites in the mountains.
"Rhodey! Look out!" Tony shouted. "I'll take the launchers on the left, you take that one on the right."
They separated. Tony headed towards the nearest weapons platform, shooting at the approaching missiles as he went. He got them both, but two new ones were already headed for him. He hit the one that was in front of him before it could get too close. With one missile still following him, he accelerated, going straight at the rock wall ahead of him, and the rocket launcher set in it. At the last moment, he swerved to the side and then straight up. The missile wasn't able to follow, but hit the launcher, destroying it in a large explosion.
There was still the other launcher - Tony turned towards it, but quickly found out that it wasn't there anymore. Rhodey had already taken it down. Of course, he had more guns than Tony. He could rely on firepower alone, no need for tricks like the one Tony had used.
That had been almost too easy.
"Hey, Rustbucket, what took you so long?" Rhodey greeted him.
"Had to check out the local chicks on the way. Now, let's see... Jarvis, show me the S.H.I.E.L.D. data."
The entrances emerged on the HUD as clear red patches in the mountainside. There was the big door at ground-level, and a few smaller ones higher up, apparently accessible through narrow paths. Tony fired a few shots at the nearest one of those. The door was blasted apart, revealing a corridor opening into the depths of the mountain.
"After you," Rhodey said.
Tony was already on his way.
The corridor was full of thugs, but they had nothing but ordinary weapons on them, nothing that'd make Tony worry the least bit. He flew straight at them, not even bothering to return their shots. The smarter ones among them ducked or ran. A few unfortunate idiots got in the way, and were knocked out as he hit them head-first. That barely even slowed him down.
He landed on the floor, facing the remaining guards, who had all their guns pointed at him. Tony shook his metal-covered head at them. "You know that's not going to help you," he told them.
He heard a metallic clank behind him as Rhodey landed in the corridor, too. "I'd run if I were you," he added to Tony's comment.
The thugs eyed each other uncertainly - a few of them seemed to be trembling in fear, and some had bullet wounds from friendly fire or ricochets.
Tony raised his hands, pointing his repulsors at them. He could hear the gatling gun and the rocket launcher slide from their flight positions into their combat positions on Rhodey's suit next to him.
The thugs turned and fled.
"See, Iron Man? Teamwork isn't such a bad idea," Rhodey said.
"Yeah, except so far, there's been nothing I couldn't have handled on my own, and I think we should split up now."
"You would've been in trouble with the anti-aircraft artillery out there."
"No, I wouldn't."
"Would too. But I agree on the splitting up."
"I'll take that doorway on the right, you go on straight ahead."
This was probably going to be the most the most tedious part of the mission. They had no idea how big the base was, let alone where Pepper and House were. Tony almost hoped he'd meet some resistance, otherwise this would be damn boring.
Pepper was incredibly tired. The dark room was spinning around her even though she had been lying down for hours and hours, and no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't getting enough air. She could hear House struggling in exactly the same manner. It was like some macabre competition - which one would suffocate first?
She knew she shouldn't fall asleep, because if she did, she'd probably never wake up, and she was afraid. No matter how adamantly she'd defended her views to House, how she'd claimed that Tony was on his way and would save them, she wasn't sure she even believed it herself anymore. Maybe Liu had just given them the false hope to make them more miserable, and was now sitting behind his desk staring at them through the surveillance camera, enjoying the show.
When she heard a low boom from somewhere far away and felt the floor tremble slightly, she first thought she'd just drifted to sleep and imagined the whole thing.
"House?"
"Yeah." The tone of his voice told her more than the short word itself. It was the most optimistic thing he had said in days.
Something was happening. All of a sudden, she felt full of hope again, and more determined to take yet another breath, and another, to suck in as much oxygen as she could, because they wouldn't need to wait long now. They were going to get out of here. Tony was here. Everything would be all right.
She thought she heard more sounds, still muffled, maybe gunshots echoing in the corridors. She slid off the bed. She was so dizzy and weak that she didn't even bother to get up, but crawled on the floor to the door, and pressed her ear against it to hear better.
The sounds were getting closer. Footsteps, running, and then walking - heavy footsteps, and a familiar blasting sound she'd heard before - the repulsors in the suit's palms.
She banged on the door and shouted "Tony! Here!" as loud as her failing lungs allowed.
"Stand back!" came the answer. She crawled away from the door and behind her bunk.
There was a loud bang, and the door flew open, with a huge hole where the lock had been. Iron Man stood in the doorway, the light flowing in from the corridor gleaming on the familiar red and gold of his armor.
"That's - the most beautiful thing - I've ever seen," House panted.
Tony ignored him completely. "Pepper!" he said, his gaze fixed on her. It sounded funny to hear her name in that deep, metallic rumble.
He stepped closer and knelt, and she tried to hug him, but ended up just collapsing bonelessly into his gold-titanium-covered arms. He grasped her somewhat clumsily. The smooth, cool metal felt soothing against her skin.
"Tony... Thank God," she whispered.
"We've got the nanovirus," House rasped from his side of the room. "We're out of time - and air."
"Yeah, I know," Tony said, stood up and set Pepper gently on her bunk. "And I can do something about it. Rhodey, get out of here right now," he spoke the last sentence in a different tone, obviously to his suit's radio. "I've found them, and I'm going to hit the whole goddamn mountain with an EMP. You suit's not shielded. Get out of here and fast."
Rhodey was here, too, then? Pepper hadn't expected that, even though she knew Tony had been building him a suit. She had had no idea it was ready for action. Maybe it wasn't, not exactly, if Tony had to tell Rhodey to flee like that.
Tony didn't give Rhodey a whole lot of time to escape. Standing between their bunks, he brought his hands together showily. She heard something click into place as the gauntlets' palms met each other.
Suddenly, all the lights went out.
They were left in darkness that was complete except for the light of Tony's arc reactor. Even his suit's eyes weren't glowing anymore.
"Okay, that was cool," Tony said. Though his tone was nonchalant, his voice sounded strange - not deep and menacing, just muffled, with a tinny echo.
"What's wrong - with the suit?" Pepper asked.
"Uh, nothing you need to worry about. I knew this would happen. All my systems are offline, but they should come back online after a while."
He'd known this would happen, and he'd still done it? Right, she'd been here so long that she had already been starting to forget what a complete idiot he was.
"How soon?" House asked.
"I've no idea, never tried this before. Sometime between a minute and an hour. Not going to wait that long, though. I can still move."
Awkwardly, he turned around and made his way to the door, every slow footstep a heavy, metallic thud. She could only imagine the strength it required for him to move the suit on nothing but muscle power.
The loud noise of gunfire erupted the very second Tony had walked through the doorway. Of course, the bright light in his chest would make him instantly visible and an easy target.
He stepped back into the room. "Okay, this could be a problem. So, here's the plan: I'm going to distract them. You need to get out of here. Can you walk?"
"Stupid question," House groaned.
"You can follow the walls, lean on them. The exit's not that far. To the left from the door, all the way to the end of the corridor, then left again, the next turn right, and the last one left, and you'll see it from there. Rhodey should be waiting for you outside."
"Tony, no! We can't - leave you here alone!" Pepper exclaimed.
"Pepper, I've got my armor, I'm not in any danger. The systems will restart, and then I can blast my way out of here. Just wait until they've stopped firing in this direction, and then go."
Tony stepped out of the door, back into the unsettling sound of bullets flying in his direction, and disappeared from view. From the heavy clanks of his footsteps, she could guess he was walking right towards the bad guys.
Chapter 7.