20 | in the endgame








π’π“π€π‘πŠ πˆππƒπ”π’π“π‘πˆπ„π’ ππ€π’π„πŒπ„ππ“Β 


π‹πŽππ† πˆπ’π‹π€ππƒ, 𝐍𝐄𝐖 π˜πŽπ‘πŠ


ELEANOR


β–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒ






'Don't touch him!'


Elle's livid command rang through the tense air, as she trampled past the last few flights of stairs with a limp to her walk. Her outraged gait was brought to pause as she pushed past Ezekiel's armour with a cry, her knees giving up on her as neared Tony's unmoving body. Loud cries were muted by her palms as she keeled over, reducing to a ball and reaching a hand over the coldness of the Iron Man armour. She felt the deadness underneath her tips, squeezing her eyes shut as if willing to exit reality. There was no air about that was able to fan her pin-straight hair away from her tear-stricken face, her forehead leaning into the armour as if to channel her faith into him.


'Tsk, Eleanor,' Zeke breathed, clicking off his headgear with an absurd sigh. 'You waste your tears on a nobody. Shame.'


Elle paid no attention, her sobs dying down to sniffles as she palmed the metal of the Iron Man helmet and feeling the utter coldness. She didn't know how to take it off, she couldn't even see his face. All of a sudden, she felt something yank her back by the hair, warm lips settling at the base of her ears.


'Let's get what's left of him out of there, my love?' He hummed with suspense, his once repulsor hands wielding a long, pointed knife. She watched it with horror, struggling to grapple his hand away from Tony's armour.


'Please, no,' she pleaded, using her arms to pry him away. 'Leave him be, Zekeβ€”'


'But I want you to see his billion-dollar corpse,' he said with an angry whine in his voice, tightening his tensile grip over her hair. She cried out loud, tears wetting her cheeks as she looked away from the commotion. The tip neared his neck and she hissed as if she were in pain.Β 


'Please, don't do this,' she begged.Β 


'No, you have to look, my love. Look,' he grunted out, yanking on her hair harder and Elle was forced to merge her gaze where he wanted to expel the pain that split at her roots. 'There we go. We'll get right down to the guts, won't we?'


'Zeke, I'll do anything you say,' she continued to plead for him. When the first request left her lips, Zeke looked at her. The glowing knife from his suit pilfered away from the deadened suit, his dark eyes set on her.


'Anything I say?'


'Yes,' she gulped down a sob, ready to yield for Tony's sake. 'Anything. I promise. Just leave him aloneβ€”Zeke, no!'


She forced her eyes away in vain when his heated knife cut through the panelled neck region, melting the sturdiness of the metal away. All that was left behind was a crust of molten elements, an empty helmet detaching from the body and rolling away. Zeke's dark chuckles halted immediately.


He pushed Eleanor away, making her crash into the debris-filled ground with a short grunt. She shuffled aside, on arm and foot, relief sinking in as she saw the glowing blue-black inside of the helmet clearly. It was a puppet. A decoy: which left Zeke at a checkmate. Tony wasn't there. He wasn't there.


The knife in Zeke's arm went careening across the side pinning itself on a nearby cement bannister. He let out a monstrous groan of defeat. It was loud, roaring and Elle slumped into herself at the tumult.


'Gotcha, you little brat.'


It was like the gift of the gods, a saviour lowered from the sky with his army of angels. Except, in this case, it was Tony Stark in his newest Iron Man suit and his Iron Legionβ€”Bones, Silver Centurion, Bleeding Edge armours and countingβ€”were afloat and active beside him. Elle got up on her feet, a hand over her eyes to shield the light of the repulsors from her gaze. All of them arrived at their positions around the long, tubular tunnel and efficiently rounding Zeke up.Β 


'Did you really think I couldn't multitask?' Tony said, an indignant tone colouring his voice. It felt real, he was here. 'I've got my Iron Men at all locations. You detonate them all you wantβ€”I can contain it. It's over, Zeke.'


Zeke only smiled, the darkness in his face and iniquity in his heart.


'Oh but, it's only just begun.'








∞






π’π“π€π‘πŠ πˆππƒπ”π’π“π‘πˆπ„π’ ππ€π’π„πŒπ„ππ“Β 


TONY


β–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒβ–ƒ






Tony was first to spot Elle, cradling her shattered side and a painful expression smeared across her face. She was looking up at him, straining on the single armour that lowered to the ground with a halting position and rising up with a soft revving of gears. He let his head armour slide and let Zeke see the prideful glint in his face as he tilted his head to the side.


Zeke tossed his helmet to the side, shaking his head formidably. All his eyes held were vengeance even after his defeat. 'You are a Stark. I should've expected this... this dummy to replace you.' His knuckles cracked with tension as he shrugged his shoulders. 'But here you are.'


'Sins of the father,' Tony clucked his tongue. 'Obadiah died on his ownβ€”he killed himself, Staneβ€”'


'Don't say his name!'Β 


The mere voicing of his father's name on Tony's lip brought the man on his edge. Tony accepted his rage with open hands, ready to fight it out of he had to. Zeke's repulsors were back online until he heard another voice in his ear.Β 


'Tony,' Rhodey said quickly. 'The self-destruct sequences at LA is initiating but we're outnumbered. Anybody copy?'


Maria was quick to back him up. 'This is Hill, I copy. They've all come online, Stark. I don't think the teams could stop this and the evac is still looking lousy.'


'JARVIS, connect me to the teams,' he instructed without fail, his AI and soon in a mind hive with all his teams at the rounded-up three locations. He obstructed another painful blow from Zeke, speaking into his line swiftly. 'Iron Men, restrain all unitsβ€”'


JARVIS' reply was futile to his good intentions.Β 'Sir, you can't control all the bots at a single motion. Might a suggest an alternative?'


'Uh-huh, what've you got?' He grunted as he aimed another blast, bringing Stane into a headlock. Zeke bashed his hands over Tony's helmet at the force of a feather, keeping him unfazed. His grip loosened with surprise when he heard the alternative from his AI. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moveβ€”a divine move, evenβ€”to pull off a stunt this big. Without considering the weight of the unthought outcomes, he took his chances.


'Do it.'


'But sir, you must know that it will affect every electromagnet- '


'Ignore and dispatch, JARVIS. Just do it!'


'Initiating kill switch protocol in three. Two. One.'Β 


All would end, Tony thought.Β 


'EMP pulse triggered.'


Everywhere went dark. And electromagnetic pulse that size would fry anything mechanical in a simple snap. Any piece of electronicβ€”anything feeding on any sort of current, including the bombersβ€”seals down. Stark Industries owned almost every electronic supply chain to main cities and capitals around the world so operating a kill switch at such massive size is a big deal. And specifically targetting Stark tech systems, it was a loss he wouldn't deal with but could overcome.


An off switch to all of his tech. Including Iron Man. His armour shut down, the panels holding themselves intact careening down to merge with debris. He stood in front of Zeke as an equivalent, ready to face him as an equal. Zeke's suit fried to nothing and the magnetic strips that held him together, piecing apart in a rain of instruments. Zeke watched to his utter horror and confusion as his armour fell to nothing, sizzling with the impact.


'How could you?' he whispered, horrified. 'Trillions of dollars, all of itβ€”'


'Drained, I know.'


Zeke snapped his gaze to him with disgust. 'It's suicide.'


'Better than letting civilians die,' he said, clipped. He took a step forward to see if he still had the fight left in him. 'You're under arrest, Ezekiel Stane.'


He laughed, regardless of the threat. 'Very original.'Β 


His fingers glowed a fine golden as if the repulsor blasts were coming from within him. Tony instinctually stepped back, hands out in the front at a stance of surrender. He couldn't even call in bots that fell dead and cold in the ground, still initiating reboot sequences.Β 


'I doubt thatβ€”'


He never finished that sentence. Zeke's shoulders hunched forward, his startled dark eyes seeming to retreat to the back of his head. He almost toppled as he took long strides forward and all Tony could think about at that moment was absolutely nothing. He couldn't move and only watch. Zeke was at the tip of the iceberg, shocked like a doe in the timbers. That's when his face started to fall as if heaving from the gravity, planting himself face first in the ground.


Tony witnessed it, then. A tall, thin sword impaled to his cybernetic spine and driven so deep in a downward blow, coating his flesh with blood and tearing through the fabric of his shirt. It ceased all purposes, his once glowing spine cutting off all motor functions as Zeke heaved one last breath.Β 


Tony dragged his gaze to the woman who clumsily moved from her brace position from behind a cracked wall, sluggishly collapsing to the ground and all the fight lost in her. Her bloodied lips moved with soft words which Tony caught, gulping hard.Β Every electromagnet in the country, anotherΒ voice echoed in his ear. He'd ignored the consequences for the sake of survival, overlooking the one consequence that would bring a fatal blow to the state in chaos.


'You wouldn't see the knife coming.'






 ∞ 






[ ...one more to go. ]


[ update (18.01.2020) : edited! ]


Comment