Good Boy
The next shot briefly showed a street somewhere in Malibu, and then Rhodey driving with a cell phone to his ear. "What do you mean, he paid to have Tony killed?" he asked. "Pepper, slow down. Why would Obadi - okay, where is Tony now?"
“Oh just dying. So the usual.” Tony replied sarcastically. Rhodey glared at him in a how can you joke about this? way.
"I don't know, he's not answering his phone," said Pepper worriedly. She was walking out of a SHIELD building flanked by about half a dozen agents, Coulson at their head. "Please go over there and make sure everything's okay. Thank you, Rhodey."
“The sooner you get there the better.” Vision murmured worriedly.
She touched her earpiece and addressed Coulson. "I know a shortcut," she said.
Rhodey swerved sharply and drove off for Tony's house.
“It must have been horrible to just find him almost dead on the seat.” Mantis commented sympathetically. Rhodey flicked his eyes toward Tony.
“I didn’t” He answered simply. Everyone was looking very confused.
The scene changed and Tony, obviously clinging to life, flung himself into an elevator.
“Are you kidding me?” gaped Scott. “How the hell are you still moving?”
“You have a remarkable resistance to pain.” Stephen noted, his tone still maintaining the calmness he always seemed to hold.
“Thanks?” Tony said. “I guess it’s just something I’m used to.”
“That definitely isn’t a worrying thing to say.” Bruce sighed, wincing slightly.
“Honestly Brucie. Don’t overreact. I was kidnapped a lot as a kid as well as… other things, and I had to build up some walls.” Tony reassured him.
“Right.” Rhodey rolled his eyes. “Some.”
Tony slid slowly down the wall of the elevator as it carried him down. When the door opened, he steadied himself against edge as he hauled himself over the threshold, every move clearly a terrible effort.
“Honestly though how can you do that?” Scott interrupted again curiously.
“Why is everything we are talking about now related to my pain?” Tony crossed his arms looking irritated.
“Because we care, Tony.” Natasha pointed out.
“Of course I had forgotten among all the betrayal that you guys cared. You didn’t exactly notice when I went on missions injured, so it doesn’t matter now.” After Tony stopped speaking the room was filled with an increasingly awkward silence. The Guardian’s looked at one another confused about, pretty much, everything.
Tony pushed himself forward, and his hand just managed to push open the door to the garage. There it sat on his desk: Pepper's gift to him, the old Arc Reactor. It was painfully far away, but it was there.
“Thank goodness for Lady Pepper.” Thor smiled, completely ignoring the tension still clouding his friends.
Onscreen Tony fell to the floor and began to crawl. Bit by bit, he made his way to the table on which sat the Arc Reactor.
“Come on man.” murmured Quill softly.
Tony pulled himself up on a plastic bin and stretched up his arm as far as he could. His hand came just short of reaching the glass case before he fell back down to the floor.
“Dammit.” groaned Brunnhilde, reaching down to the bottles littered by her chair to find one that wasn’t drained. The room’s awkward tension quickly changed to worry for Tony.
And then came the sound of a peculiar little whine, and down came a robotic arm with the Arc Reactor in its claw. Tony reached up for the case and looked up at Dum-E, who gave a little-concerned click.
Vision and Tony smiled at the robot on screen.
"Good boy," said Tony, and he dashed the case against the floor.
“Extremely good boy.”
Obadiah Stane sat before a Suit which did not seem to be the Mk I, the Arc Reactor in his hand as he gazed up at the towering Suit. After a few seconds, he got up, and went up to his Suit (of which very little could actually be seen), and there connected the cable to the centre socket and pushed the unit inside. It went in with a click, and there was a mighty rumbling in answer from the Suit.
“That looks rather big.” gulped Sam. Tony grimaced, partially from thinking about the Iron Monger and partially from seeing Stane’s face.
“It was.”
Obadiah gazed up at the Suit once more, and he smiled.
Rhodey burst into the lounge. "Tony?" he called. "Tony? Tony!"
“About time you arrived.” Tony teased, poking Rhodey’s shoulder. Rhodey swatted him away smiling slightly.
Onscreen Rhodey tore down the stairs and into the workshop, and there lay Tony on the floor, doubled over next to the shattered glass.
"Tony!" cried Rhodey in alarm, rushing over to him and turning him gently over. "Tony, you okay?"
“Never.” Tony declared confidently. Rhodey rolled his eyes at him, trying not to think about how true that statement was.
Onscreen Tony's colour was already better (though not yet good) and the Arc Reactor gleamed in its socket as he gripped Rhodey's arm. "Where's Pepper?" he rasped.
"She's fine," said Rhodey. "She's with five agents, they're about to arrest Obadiah."
“Why couldn’t it have been just the five agents?” questioned Wong suddenly.
“She had to show them where Section 16 was.” sighed Tony.
"That's not going to be enough," said Tony grimly.