Kidnapped

Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Pepper couched and spluttered, kicking and clawing wildly at her captor as the grip around her throat tightened, her vision now brimming with red. "T-Tony!" she cried out, panicking, "Tony!"

Immediately the pressure on her esophagus was removed, and she sank to her knees, coughing and wheezing, squinting to see what had happened. Tony had his arms around the man's neck, holding him to the ground to where he was out of reach of Pepper. As Tony was already weakened, the man easily threw him off, and Tony crumpled to the ground in a heap. The man lurched for the knife on the floor, but Pepper growled and kicked it across the floor to the other side of the room.

"You little..." He started for Pepper, who shrieked and starting kicking at him, but was stopped as Tony used his right leg, the left being broken, to kick him right in back of the knees, causing him to buckle. The inventor leapt forward, pinning the man down by his shoulders as he spat blood in his face.

"You do not touch her!" he growled through clenched teeth, pulling back a fist and punching him in the jaw. The man pushed him off of him and slammed him into the wall with an awful crack, and Tony's vision swam for a moment. Their captor was instantly back on his feet, and he grabbed Tony's arm and slammed him into the middle of the floor, kicking him into the face repeatedly until the metallic taste of blood invading his mouth nose was the only thing the inventor could taste and smell. He tried to push himself back up with his elbows, but collapsed back on the floor in agony.

Pepper jumped the black-haired man from behind, causing him to fall against the wall. He snarled and kicked her in the ribs, making her gasp and double over in pain.

That was his mistake.

Electric blue eyes blazing, Tony's bloodied hands closed around the crow bar, and he shakily climbed to his feet, hobbling on one leg as he shook. "A-hem."

The man turned and-clang! The crow bar hit him across the face, causing a river of blood to stream from his lip and nose. He yelled in agony, falling to his knees, and Tony hit him again across the back, causing him to sprawl across the floor.

"That-that is for-h-hurting Pep-and the last-few hours of my life," Tony hissed. Then he and Pepper looked up in alarm as they heard voices in the hall coming closer, and the man opened his mouth to shout for his companions. Tony quickly shoved a scrap of cloth in his mouth to silence him before motioning to the redhead to join him at the door. Pepper stood and ran over to him, helping him up and supporting him as he limped to the door, grabbing the crow bar as he went. They waited at the door, hearts pounding, backs pressed against the wall as they waited. The door started to slide open with a mechanized beep, and Tony hefted the crow bar, glancing at Pepper and mouthing the word 'run' at her.

The door opened, and Tony was upon the thugs with the crow bar before they had time to see their leader lying on the floor. Tony pushed Pepper ahead of him down the hall, throwing a glance back at the men who were getting back on their feet, finally recognizing the escape attempt. As he turned and stumbled down the hall, Tony figured they had maybe five seconds before they came to their senses and drew their guns.

He was wrong.

They barely had three.

The guns began firing as Tony caught up with the redhead, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pushed her head down, wincing as he heard the gunshots improving in accuracy as one whizzed by his shoulder, only missing its mark because the teen stumbled on his bad leg.

"We've got to get out of the corridor," Pepper heard Tony whisper in her ear as they ran down yet another hallway. She could tell he was quickly losing his strength now that the adrenaline rush had worn off, and his breathing was harsh and ragged. His broken leg slowed them down considerably as he had to lean against Pepper to keep from collapsing to the ground. Plus, they didn't have a chance of evading their enemies when the inventor was leaving behind a trail of fresh blood.

Then they saw it; one of the many doors in the pristine hallway was agape. They were oh so close to safety when Tony collapsed, unable to go any further. Pepper whirled around, dropping to her knees beside him.

"GO!" Tony yelled, trembling as he pushed himself to his knees, "just go! I'm fine!"

Yeah, right. Like she would just leave him there.

Pepper fastened her arms around Tony's chest and began pulling him to the room just as their pursuers rounded the corner, guns ready to fire. Pepper shrieked as Tony shoved her into the room, dragging himself in just as a bullet ripped a gash through his jeans. Still on his back, he kicked the door shut and pulled himself up along the wall, ripping the bottom out of the hand scanner and rewiring a few of the circuits. The scanner locked the door just as the thugs reached it and began pounding on it with their fists and shooting the knob with their guns, but to no avail as the door stayed sealed.

"Tony?" Pepper whispered as the inventor laid his back to the door and slid to the ground, leaving a smear of blood on the door as his face paled. He raised a shaking hand to his chest before collapsing on his side, a small pool of blood forming around his head. Pepper screamed, oblivious to the poundings at the door, and she practically flew over to Tony, pulling him away from the door and worriedly checking over him.

He's not breathing...ohnonono... Please wake up!

In a rush of panic, Pepper completely forgot what to do when someone wasn't breathing. She finally remembered, and she turned his head to the side, placing her hands between his ribs and using her upper body weight to press in on his chest. After doing that for a few minutes with no results, she turned his face towards her, she pressed the palm of her hand on his forehead and tilted his head back, finally pinching his nose and covered his mouth with her own, breathing two breaths into his lungs, making his chest rise and fall. Then she resumed chest compressions for a minute before trying mouth-to-mouth again.

"Please don't leave me, Tony," Pepper sobbed, hot tears trickling down her cheeks as the inventor remained unresponsive. Something was telling her that she was too late, that he was gone, but she refused to give up, even though she knew he should have begun breathing if he was going to again by now.

Suddenly he began coughing, and he jerked up to a sitting position, gulping in mouthfuls of oxygen and squeezing his eyes shut. Pepper cried out in joy and threw her arms around his shoulders, almost suffocating him again in a hug.

"I th-thought I lost you," she sobbed, shaking almost as bad as the inventor himself as she buried her face in his shoulder. She felt his hand run through her hair as his other stroked her back reassuringly.

"I wou-wouldn't think o-of leaving you here al-lone," Tony said between breaths. "That makes it twice you've saved my life here."

"You've lost so much blood," Pepper fretted, running her hands gently over his arms. His red shirt had hidden much of the severity of his chest wounds, being the same color as the blood that was escaping his body. Pepper began tending to his worst cuts and breaks, gingerly wrapping cuts in bits of cloth and cleaning away some of the blood from his face and arms and head.

"Pepper, there's something you should pr-probably know," Tony said, trying to sit up and failing miserably as he winced and collapsed once more, thumping onto his back.

"Is it bad news?" Pepper asked, stroking some of his hair away from his face and revealing his shockingly blue eyes.

"Yo-you could say that..."

"Then don't tell me," Pepper said, squeezing her eyes shut. "At this point, ignorance is probably better than knowing."

Tony's chest swelled as he breathed deeply, wincing as a pang ran through his broken ribs. "O-okay..." His eyes fluttered weakly as the overwhelming urge to rest overcame him, but he fought against it, not wanting to leave Pepper alone for a second.

"It's okay," Pepper said, pulling Tony's head onto her knees and running her fingertips along the sides of his face in a soothing manner, "go on, sleep, I'm fine."

Tony gazed up at her for a moment before closing his eyes and succumbing to sleep, the pain finally fading away into the corners of his subconscious.

Pepper looked up from the teen in surprise as she noticed the pounding on the door stop, and she heard whispers in the hall as the men came up with a plan to get to the teens.

"Rhodey, you'd better hurry," she whispered.