Kidnapped

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Tony dropped his head to his chest, feeling his body going numb as he lost huge amounts of blood thanks to the deep cuts the man was making on his arms and face. He could tell he'd been cut to the bone in more than one of the incisions, and taking the phrase "like pouring salt on the wound" literally, the man had poured salt and sprayed windex in his deepest cuts.

What's the point anymore in resisting? Tony wondered, his eyes fluttering weakly as he felt the blade of the knife begin its attack on a new part of his arm. Then he remembered; Pepper. Before he hadn't cared what happened to him as long as his family and loved ones weren't hurt, but now that they had Pepper...if he gave up, they'd kill her. No remorse, no guilt, just the cold-blooded murder of a girl who had done nothing more than get caught up in her friend's troubles.

Tony raised his head to weakly glare at his captor. No way would he let them hurt her.

Everything was so...fuzzy. He couldn't see hardly anything, but he could feel and hear everything. He could feel the cold knife slicing so easily through his skin, he could hear Pepper sobbing in the corner...

He barely even noticed when the knife stopped hacking at his skin because of the lingering pain, but he noticed when one of the man's thugs approached, holding a long grey object. Tony blinked rapidly, bringing his eyes into focus, and he realized it was a crow bar. His captor threw aside the knife, and Tony heard it clatter to the ground a few feet away as the man accepted the crow bar. The same thug stepped forward and unlocked and unclasped the inventor's manacles. Having nothing to hold him up, the teen collapsed limply in a heap, shaking horribly as he tried to force himself up with his arms in a push-up motion.

The first strike of the crow bar slamming into his ribs crushed the little air left from his lungs, and he collapsed once more, wheezing and coughing as he clutched at his shattered ribs. And still the blow was followed by another, and another.

Tony squeezed his eyes shut, feeling his breathing completely stop at intervals as his lungs rejected the emptiness and lack of air in them. Was this how he would die, weak and beaten, at the hands of a man who considered death art?

He braced himself for the blow, the last crushing blow of the crow bar that he knew would finish him off, but then he heard a cry of pain. His insides turned to ice until he realized it was his captor who had cried out, and not Pepper. With the little strength left in his body, he looked up.

Pepper was trembling as she held up a knife-the same one that had been used to cut Tony-and their captor swore under his breath and clutched his left shoulder, a dark red substance leaking between his fingers. Tony barely had time to call out to her as the black-haired man shot out his arm and closed his steely fingers around Pepper's throat, slamming her head against the wall with a crack. Pepper spluttered, dropping the knife and clawing at the hand around her throat, terror evident in her eyes.

"No," Tony wheezed, electric blue eyes clouded in horror as his mouth gaped. "No, please, no!"

That's when he realized it-his wrists were unchained. Nothing was restraining him, and no one was paying him any mind.

He was free.

IMAAIMAAIMAAIMAAIMAAIMAAIMAA

Rhodey groaned as he regained consciousness, rubbing his tender head. Ow...major headache...

He jerked his head up and opened his eyes so quickly the room around him was thrown into waves in his vision, and he grimaced, holding his head.

"Hey, Garret, the kid's awake!"

Rhodey jerked his head in the direction of the voice, eyes narrowing in distrust until he saw it was only one of the blood drive workers. "Where is Pepper?" he asked, his voice sounding unnaturally loud in his ears and making his head pound.

"Pepper?" The man, maybe nineteen or twenty, shook his head in confusion, running a hand through his blond hair. "I don't know what-"

"Pepper, the redhead who was with me!" Rhodey yelled, jumping off of the cot he had been laid on and jumping in the man's face. The man put his hands up defensively, taking a step back to distance himself from the teen.

"Look, man, you've been out for a while. There was a freak electrical shortage in the gym and you probably knocked yourself out in the darkness. Maybe you hit your head harder than we originally thought-"

"No no, NO!" Rhodey placed his hands on either side of his head, turning and giving a chair such a kick that it slammed into the wall and clattered back to the ground. "They took her... I let them take her..."

"What are you talking about?" the man asked. Then he just shook his head, realizing he wasn't going to receive a straight answer. "Look, man, you hit your head pretty hard. I think you just need to rest and you'll find this freak out was just all in your head." He started to walk off, but then turned back to Rhodey. "By the way, some guy was nice enough to return this to you while you were out. He said it was yours." He handed him a watch, then began to walk away, calling over his shoulder, "That's a pretty nice watch, wish I had one like that. Looks like an original."

Rhodey stared numbly at the walk in his hands, running a hand over the smooth metal. He would recognize his best friend's watch anywhere; it hadn't left his wrist in the last year or so, especially since the crash, since it was needed to tell when the inventor needed to recharge his heart. Rhodey stared at it for another second before turning it over in the palm of his hand, looking for a clue. Finally he found the edge of a small, folded slip of paper sticking out between the chinks of metal. He pulled it out and unfolded it, solemnly reading it.

With your pain comes one last luxury, I allow you the use of your armory.

So, now he had the armory back. It was hard to be excited, though, when he knew it was probably only a trap. He was the only person left who knew about the kidnapping; if something happened to him, they were done for. For a second Rhodey pondered running and telling as many people as he could about the kidnappings, but Tony and Pepper would certainly be killed if he did.

His friends' lives depended on him.

Rhodey took a deep breath, feeling utterly alone as he shoved the note in his pocket and started for the huge double-doors that led outside, trying to figure out what he would do when he got to the armory. That's when the watch in his hands let out a loud, mechanized beep. Rhodey stared down at it in horror, realizing what the alarm meant.

Tony had to charge his heart in less than an hour, or esle it wouldn't be murder that would end him.