p • r • e • s • s • u • r • e

i m p a c t

Tony held his breath, and Tony pressed down, and Tony learned why roly-polys do that thing they do. The constant hum of the electrical current faltered just a touch, the sound reached a high-pitched whine as the device crushed him from the inside.

It was a delayed reaction, but more pain than there had been in the beginning racked his body and clenched his jaw shut to hold a scream that hammered at the backs of his teeth. Four minutes ticked by before the shaking stopped, though his fingers twitched traitorously. His body melted, exhausted from the pain. 

Better take advantage of the moment, he thought. After all, it wasn't every day he got to 'indulge' like this. 

His chest was hot and it throbbed and he swore he heard something rattle as he placed both hands over the blue light, muscles tensing tight. 

"JARVIS buddy, Imma need you to hit the lights."

"Sir, I-"

"Please," he muttered, his voice plaintive and dry. There was a very long pause before the AI announced reluctant surrender. 

"Very well."

The lights dimmed quickly until they were dead, and Tony thought the air conditioning was somehow louder now.

He braced himself, laughed, and brought pressure down on the metal plate, quick and hard. He gasped, gulping down great greedy breaths like his lungs were collapsing and maybe they were. Maybe everything was. Maybe space was coming to swallow him whole. He wiped his damp brow and cursed his cold, clammy hands.

"Mister Stark?"

God, I hate sweating.

His eyes began to water, there was a pounding in his head.

"Sir!"

Every muscle in his abdomen clenched and burned. His toes curled. 

"Sir, if you don't answer in six seconds I shall have to notify emergency services as per protocol Theta-71."

"I'm all right, I'm okay," he croaked.  "Please, do not do that, it'll be messy for the both of us."

Tony sighed, clenching his hands into fists and letting the waves slowly ebb away, his feeble heart beating a rhythm it definitely wasn't supposed to know. 

"Would you like to discuss your current difficulties?"

"There is nothing to discuss."

"Respectfully sir, I beg to differ."

"I bet you do." He softened. "How-" he tried to sit up and winced as his core spasmed, promptly flopped back down. "Ahem. How are we for damages? Anything serious?"

Not that it mattered much, but slowly dying (again) was just one more thing for him to worry about. And then Pepper will want him to remove it. And then he'll have to explain why he wants to keep it. Again. Which was tough, because he wasn't quite sure himself.

Silence hung in the air like so many nooses.  

"If you continue applying pressure to the arc reactor, it will eventually cause permanent damage to what remains of your sternum as well as surrounding ribs, not to mention the risk of crushing your trachea and severing any one of the major blood vessels in the area. Continued trauma to the artificial connective tissue bumper may cause further damage to the bone and cause microfractures and create bone shavings, which could then-"

"Yes, yes I get it."

JARVIS sighed.

Can he do that? How can he do that? I'm the one with a diaphragm in this relationship-sighing, is mine.