Trouble
Tony couldn’t help but cringe a little as he and Sherlock rode side by side down the road, the robot was making a horrible scraping noise as it dragged along the road behind his horse. Why did Watson’s house have to be so far away? The sound was getting unbearable; he was about to comment on it when it suddenly stopped, and the rope that was dragging the robot went slack. Tony and Sherlock both turned around in their saddles to see the robot slowly rising to its feet. It reached up slowly and pulled the long spike out of its head.
“Oh shit…” Tony breathed. That was really not good.
“Was it supposed to get back up?” Sherlock asked, Tony didn’t answer, they needed a plan.
“Give me one of those coils of rope,” Tony ordered, and Sherlock pulled a thing of thick rope out of his saddle bag, and handed it to him.
“What's the plan here?” Sherlock asked.
“Ever heard of being drawn and quartered?”
“And here I was hoping we could just ride away again.”
“Me too, but the horses are too tired. I think my plan will work tho. I am going to rope it around the neck, and yank it off balance,” Tony explained hurriedly, “Then you rope its foot, and we ride in opposite directions.”
“What if I can’t get the foot?” Sherlock asked.
“Rope it around the neck,” Tony answered, turned his horse around and charged at the robot. Decapitation should work.
The robot swung at Tony with the long sharp spike. He leaned backward in the saddle, and the spike passed barely an inch above his face. As soon as it had swiped past him, Tony sat back up, and tossed the rope over the robots head. He wrapped the other end of the rope around the saddle horn. The robot took a step back, and the rope yanked taught. Tony had been hoping the rope would make the robot loose it’s footing, sadly that was not the case. The robot moved to lunge at Tony, but was yanked back slightly be another rope tightening around its neck. Sherlock nodded at they turned the horses in opposite directions. Tony dug his heels in. The hose snorted loudly; He could feel the horse straining to pull the rope. There was a snapping sound, and the horse stumbled forward barely catching itself. The rope fell loosely down. Tony turned his horse around just in time to see the robot cut the rope tying it to Sherlock’s saddle. The robot turned its back to Tony; it was going for Sherlock. Good its attention was Holmes. Tony charged his horse at the robot. He slipped his feet out of the sturopes and when they were about two feet away he jumped off it’s back and clumsily onto the robot’s back. He wrapped his legs around it and grabbed the rope around its neck. He yanked back as hard he could. The robot barely reacted. Tony scooted himself a little higher up, maybe he could do something if he could get leverage under its chin. The robot suddenly slammed its head backward full force. Hard metal slammed Tony in the face with a crack. He felt his nose break, and make a sickening pop. Stuned Tony lost his grip and fell to the cold ground. His vision went blurry from the sudden pain in his face; warm blood trickled down the side of his nose. Before he could completely clear his vision the robot grabbed him around the neck and slowly began choking him. He kicked helplessly at the robot. He had to get free. Suddenly the robot opened its hand and dropped Tony, who fell on the ground coughing. He blinked a few times to clear his vision, and looked up to see Sherlock perched on top the robot’s shoulders pounding it’s head with a large stick. Tony was impressed with how well he managed to keep his balance. His admiration melted away when the robot reached up grabbed Holmes by the head and hurled him at Tony. Sherlock flew into Tony and they both hit the ground hard.
“This isn’t working…” Sherlock coughed.
“No shit Sherlock,” Tony had to laugh silently to himself a little. That had to be the number one best time that saying was used. His amusement was short lived as the robot grabbed him around the neck again. He felt the air slowly leaving him. He yanked desperately at its clamp like grip. Then the robot grabbed the sword like spike that it had stuck in the ground. Not again! Please no! He yanked at its hand harder. He had to get free. Suddenly it wasn't the robot hold him, it was Thanos. Tony stared wide in horror up at the purple giant as he thrust the sword forward, right as the sword met his skin Tony snapped back to reality. He gasped helplessly. Not here. If he got impaled here he would die. He had barely survived with modern medical help. Here that same injury would have killed him.
The robot drew the spike back. This was it. It was over. Tony closed his eyes preparing himself for his fate.
Donk! Tony opened one of his eyes. Sherlock had hucked a rock at the robots head. It just turned it’s head and looked at Holmes who looked like he felt useless.
“Its okay. I didn’t expect this to work,” Tony choked. A rock to the head wasn’t going to stop this thing, “You should get out of here.”
Sherlock frowned.
“Go, If you stay it will kill both of us,” Tony pleaded. Sherlock didn’t budge, he just picked up another rock and threw it at the robot’s head. Tony wasn’t going to admit this out loud but he was happy Sherlock stayed. The robot turned its attention back to Tony and drew the spike back. Sherlock suddenly leapt forward, just as the robot thrust the spike forward. Holmes hit the back of the robot’s legs with a full force body slam. The robot lost its grip on Tony and fell forward. Tony hit the ground and fell back; the spike caught the edge of his shirt, and sank into the ground. Tony stared at it in shock. He had been less than a fraction of a centimeter away from being impaled. He only had a fraction of second to appreciate this before the robot pulled the spike out of the ground and rose it up to strike again. It brought the spike down, and Tony barely had time to roll out of the way.
“Stark! We need a plan!” Sherlock shouted from behind the robot. He had a small cut above his eyebrow. Tony found it comforting that he was not the only one getting beat to a pulp.
“Working on it!” Tony shouted and somersaulted out of the way of the robot trying to stab him again. “Got any explosives?”
“Why would I have explosives?” Sherlock exclaimed angrily, “If either of us were going to carry around explosives it would be you! Your the one with a battery in your chest!”
This gave Tony an idea. A very bad one at that.
“I got it! I use my arc reactor to put too much power into it, and explode it!”
“That is a stupid idea! The goal here is both of us surviving, and you’ll die without that thing,” Sherlock exclaimed. Tony frowned.
“I guess our best option is decapitating it.”
“Alright. One thing at a time. Get it’s weapon.”
“When give the signal, jump up and yank back on the ropes around its neck as hard as you can,” Tony said, “Hey shit head!”
Tony stepped so he was directly in front of the robot. He spread his arms wide.
“Come and get me!” The robot lunged forward driving the spike toward Tony’s heart. He stepped to the side at the last second, and closed his arm around the robot’s wrist in a firm hold.
“Now!”
Sherlock leapt up, grabbed the ropes, and pulled down as hard as he could. The robot’s head jerked back, and it fell awkwardly to one knee. As it did this Tony drove his knee upward and slammed it into the robot’s elbow. It dropped the spike. Tony released it’s arm and grabbed the spike.
“Out of the way!” Tony shouted. Holmes rolled away from it. Tony lept into the air, and drove the spike through the robot’s neck. He used his weight, and drove it all the way down to the ground. The robot jerked a little, and then stayed still. There was now only a very small amount of metal holding its head on. He pulled the pike out and used it to fully sever the robot’s head. Tony slumped down sitting down on the decapitated robot corpse. A dull throbbing pain slowly made itself known. He gingerly touched the bridge of his nose, and then winced. He could feel dry crusty blood caked around it. Sherlock rose to his feet walked over and plopped himself down next to Tony. Tony coughed slightly. His neck hurt.
“So we walking back to Watson’s?” Tony asked after a long silence.
Sherlock looked up at the darkening sky.
“Probably should,” He said and hauled himself to his feet. Tony tried to follow but made it about half way up before giving up and sitting back down.
“Maybe I’ll just stay sitting for a bit,” He mumbled. His whole head was throbbing now.
“No. Come on,” Sherlock said and held out his hand. Tony frowned at it for a second before taking it. Sherlock pulled Tony to his feet, “We’ll hide the robot, and come back and get it tomorrow.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Tony mubbled. A shiver ran up his fine reminding him how cold it was. They slowly hauled the robot off the road, and hid it behind some bushes.
“Shall we head home?” Sherlock asked once they were finished.
“Definitely,” Tony confirmed, and the two of them made their way slowly down the road half leaning on each other and headed toward Watson’s home in the quickly fading light.