Mini Stories

Metal Smoke

An unfinished wip

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Ship: Tony x Artemis

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Artemis sighed as he followed Rhodey through the casino, frowning softly. "I told you he wouldn't come. I tried to warn you—" He hissed before spotting a certain billionaire. He sighed and followed after Rhodey, moving to stand to the left of Tony. "Found you."

The playboy grinned as he saw the two. Artemis rolled his eyes and paid attention to the craps table, mouth pulling to a slant. He didn't really understand human casino games, never did. What was the point of betting so much money only to loose it all and repeat? He snapped out of his thoughts as Tony prompted him to blow on the dice.

"Absolutely not though I'm sure Rhodey would be more than happy to." He grinned as Tony then tried to get the other to do it instead. When the other lost, he let out a relieved sigh. "Finally. Let's get out of here." The glitch spoke, turning and starting to walk away. Rhodey, Tony, Happy, and the rest of security were quick to follow.

-

"What the ever living fuck do you mean he's been kidnapped?!" Artemis snapped, baring his teeth at the news. Pepper sighed and pulled up the video they'd received, knowing the other wouldn't believe the news otherwise. Immediately he glitched forwards, standing right in front of the tv. Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy all jumped a bit. They never could get used to Artemis glitching.

As the video played, he could feel himself getting more furious. Someone kidnapped Tony, right from under their noses. "Rhodey you better have gotten a copy of this." The glitch snarled. "Yes, I did. Several in fact. I knew you'd do your...thing on the original." The other spoke. Before anyone could add anything else, the glitch jumped into the screen.

Everyone shifted closer, watching as a now tiny Artemis dashed around the screen. Lines of code appearing under his fingertips as he seemingly lifted the video like it was a carpet. They could hear him mumbling through the speakers, unable to actually make anything out aside from his rising anger.

"Codes. Codes. Codes. C'mon—where the fuck was this taken?!" Artemis suddenly snapped, finding this wasn't the original. It was a copy, one made to erase the subtle things about the video. He huffed and ran a hand through his hair, glitching out furiously. He turned and motioned for the others to step back.

Once they did, he glitched back out. "This isn't the original. You guys were given a copy of the original video. Probably to wipe the metadata and make it impossible to find where the stupid thing was recorded." Artemis cursed as he paced. "Rhodes you need to get on trying to figure out where this was."

Rhodey sighed. "Already trying Artemis. There's too little to work with and—" "I don't care! Figure it out!" The glitch snapped back, making the others take a step back. He paused before realizing he scared them. "Sorry—sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you Rhodes or scare you guys."

Pepper sighed softly. "It's okay. We'll figure this out Artemis. We'll keep an eye on things and if anything new surfaces you'll know." She spoke. She knew the other and Tony had been friends for a long while now. His worry was justified.

The glitch nodded, taking a few breaths to try and calm himself. He was worried and scared for Tony. Where was he? "We need to figure out how these fucks figured out where Tony was. There has to be some—in spy or something." Artemis spoke before moving around the room. He shut and locked the door, moving to shut the blinds. "Jarvis, please sound proof the room and turn the security cams and mics off."

The AI was quick to do so as the other moved back to where he was. "For right now, let's just assume the only people we can truly trust about this is us four. I have a software that makes my phone untraceable, no matter how hard someone tries to track it. I'll give you guys new phones that you can use. Keep your old ones but use these to talk about the situation. Anything new text to the others with these."