Battle Strategies | Tony Stark [1]

12

Athena couldn't feel a single limb as she laid limp across Tony's lap, who she could tell wasn't doing so well. Sweat drenched the light colored sweater Tony adorned, feeling the effects of the lack of arc reactor in his chest. His breathes came out in short harsh gasps, unable to move an inch. He knew the effects only lasted about 15 minutes, but even he knew that he might not make it that long with the rate he was going. The thought had only crossed his mind when he slowly felt his limbs again. Had it already been 15 minutes?

He didn't question it, feeling grateful that he had a chance now. With no regrets but with great difficulty he pushed the paralyzed Athena from his lap, not sparing her a wince as she fell ungracefully onto the floor with a rather loud thump. His only thoughts were purely survival, and the only way he was going to survive this was getting his ass down to the workshop. Shakily he stood up and stumbled clumsily to the lift, desperately clawing at the wall before he finally managed to press the button to call the elevator. His hands gripped the wall in attempt to keep himself upright as he impatiently waited for the elevator, practically falling in as the doors opened. The trip down seemed to be the longest seconds of his life before the doors slid across and he once again stumbled out.

Gripping anything he could to balance himself he threw himself through the door into the workshop, immediately looking for the older version of the arc reactor he made before he upgraded it. Tony once again felt awe for Athena, as she once again saw into the future and predicted that he would need the antique. However, the awe disappeared and was replaced with pain as he collapsed to the ground. He didn't let this hinder him and he continued to army crawl across the floor, his only goal was to make it to the arc reactor. He used various items to hoist himself across the floor, until he finally made it to the table the arc reactor was perched upon. He desperately reached up, his fingers only pushing the reactor further onto the table leaving his fingers only millimeters from the reactor.

Tony's strength left him, having used so much energy just to make it this far. He was losing hope, with every pained gasp of breathe he took he couldn't find any motivation to move, accepting his fate reluctantly. Just as all hope was lost, the familiar sound of his favorite robot whizzed through the room. Tony looked at Dummy with slight disbelief as the robot, who normally couldn't do anything right for it's life, handed him the arc reactor. Slowly, with nearly no strength or energy left, Tony took the reactor and looked at the enthusiastic robot with pure relief.

"Good boy." He breathed out to the robot, genuine thanks plastered across his face before with the remaining strength he had left, he smashed the glass surrounding around the arc reactor against the floor.

Upstairs, Athena lay uncomfortably on the floor in front of the couch were Tony had pushed her as she heard someone enter the house. At this point, Athena could confidently move her hands, that was about it but she knew it was only a matter of minutes before she was back to normal.

"Tony?" Rhodey called out as he barged in, worry and concern evident in his single word, before he spotted Athena's sprawled figure on the floor. "Athena?"

Athena felt the strength to move her head at her name, before she gestured to him to go downstairs with her shaky hand, her eyes telling him she was alright but she wasn't sure if Tony was.

Taking the hint, Rhodey clambered down the stairs to the workshop, calling out Tony's name frantically. Rhodey entered the workshop through the shattered glass panes and glanced around the shop before spotting Tony sprawled across the floor, glass scattered to his right. Fearing the worst, Rhodey ran over to him and turned him on his side to find Tony awake. "Tony! You okay?"