Stucky One Shots

Part 25 - Welcome to the Panic Room

"Tory I need you in the lab!" Came Tony's yell. I rolled my eyes but went downstairs anyway. I was met by the doors all closed and lights out. On further - wary - inspection, I saw a note on the door in papa's familiar scrawl.

'Welcome to the Panic Room

'Think about it. Hard

'Safeword is Avengers - Good luck

'Papa x'

Panic Room? Why is that familiar? The song! I'd been listening to it yesterday.

Think about it. Hard. What the hell was that supposed to mean? The doors opened, and once through them, I found myself in a glass box. There were an array of weapons laid out on the table.

A gun.

Four knives.

A bow and quiver of arrows.

A pair of headphones?

Another note, this time in dad's neat cursive.

'Welcome to the Panic Room.

'Listen carefully to JARVIS.

'VERY carefully.

'Answer him when he asks something; we can hear you. You can safeword out now, or the doors lock. The second we hear that word, you're out.

'Pocket the weapons, as many as you want.

'Tell JARVIS when you're ready.

'Good luck,

'Dad. x'

I slid the knives as carefully as I could into my back pockets, put the gun in my hoodie pocket and threw the bow over my shoulder, hooking the quiver to my belt loop with the carabiner clip.

"JARVIS, you there?"

"Not JARVIS, but yes." Came Tony's voice. "Welcome to the Panic Room. We all did this before we joined. It's terrifying as hell, I'll give you that, but it's different for everyone. I'm not supposed to tell you this but play the song. You know which one. It will help, I promise you. Handing you to JARVIS now." There was a moment of radio static, then JARVIS's voice filled the room.

"Welcome to the Panic Room. State your full name."

"Tory Emilia Rogers-Barnes." I remembered dad's words 'answer him when he asks something.'

"Enter when you are ready, Miss Rogers-Barnes. Good luck." I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to listen very carefully to, but I took in what he said, then put in one headphone, flicking my phone to the right song and putting it on loop.

(Welcome to the

Welcome to the

Welcome to the

Welcome to the)

I took a deep breath and pushed the door, entering the main part of the lab. The door slammed and locked behind me, making me jump.

Hell-raising, hair raising

I'm ready for the worst

I definitely wasn't ready for the worst. A small click behind me made me jump, and I whipped around. Upon seeing a target on the wall, I pulled a knife out of my pocket - ripping my jeans in the process, causing the other blade in that pocket to clatter to the floor - and threw it. It hit the centre of the target with accuracy I didn't even know I had. It was a sloppy manoeuvre, Nat would have never dropped a blade, but it worked.