They All Fall Down

Chapter Two:

Tony barely noticed as his friends left the room and went out to dinner. His mind was too clouded by the lack of sleep this project had demanded, and too preoccupied by the fact he just obtained the final missing piece. He laid out the test tubes in a rack in front of him, in the orders and amounts that they needed to be added in. He reached over to the vial of strychnine and poured the right amount into a graduated cylinder, placing it next to the test tubes.

"Hey Jarvis, wanna crank up some tunes?" Tony spoke to the ceiling, while fiddling his new beaker and stirring rods. Shoot to Thrill started playing through his speakers. Everything was set up in place. Well, next to the old cheeseburger wrappers and empty cans of redbull.

"Right. Lets do this!" he was excited really; all his hard work was about to pay off.

Tony reached over the mess of leftovers to grab a pair of forceps. Safety first, right? He poured one mixture of chemicals into the beaker and swooshed it around before reaching for the strychnine. He gripped the forceps tightly, and held the vial over the beaker. A strange scent wafted over to his nose. Unfortunately, Tony readily dismissed it, as he rarely, if ever, used strychnine. It must be normal.

He poured the strychnine into the mixture, which immediately started churning by itself.

"uh… Jarvis? That's not supposed to be – SHIT!"

Tony had tried approaching the beaker, even if to just rush it to under one of his containment hoods. He could feel the immediate heat coming off of it, even two feet away.

"Sir? May I suggest immediate evacuation of all personnel in Stark Tower?" suggested Jarvis, a possible hint of worry cloaked by his monotonic robotic voice. No sarcasm. Shit was serious.

"Yeah, except I'm the only one here, old buddy. I'm just gonna grab the suit and head outta that window. Initiate immediate lockdown. Anything happens, it doesn't get out of this room, got it?" Tony commanded his creation while walking over to the Iron Man Mach VIII he was currently working on. It would have to do.

"Oh, and Jarvis?" Tony turned around, "I-" and didn't finish his sentence, as he was thrown back into a work counter nearby. Dummy, nearby, scooted over and bent down next to him, not helping protect him at all, but the thought was nice.

The beaker had exploded. The floor shook. The ceiling started collapsing in chunks, crashing through the lower few floors. Windows smashed, the blast only contained by the lockdown doors.

"SHIT" Tony yelled, and a piece of ceiling came crashing down to land on his head, knocking him unconscious.

soooo… sorry for:

the long wait (ton of college apps and schoolwork, exams are coming up soon too!)

the crappy writing… (I kinda lost motivation… sorry)

the length of it… (above two?)

next chapter will be better, I promise/hope! It will involve the rest of the team soooo more fun to write! Thanks so much, anyway!