Chapter Four: A Nightmare is Never Just A Nightmare
So last time Panic never showed up at Raven's house after she left the wedding and the next morning Raven called Tony to tell him she thinks her dad's back but then Panic returned home looking like the Walking Dead and kept her little secret that I haven't revealed but you will fin out right now so be sure to follow and favorite the story and leave me comments. Also read the author note at the bottom of the chapter it's about the future of Panic's series.
Everything was black, no light illuminated the darkness. Horrific, screams of both men, women, and children filled the air with the noise. The whooshing of explosions and the sound of carnage scraping against concrete wouldn't stop. I wanted to cover my ears to block out people screaming but then a familiar voice rang through the air.
"Panic!" my dad's voice. The world zooms in and I see the world around me, no longer a dark pit of nothingness but what I see is even worse than eternal darkness, what I find is even more horrible. New York City, that's where I identify the area but it's so unlike the town it usually is. While normally thousands of advertisements line the building sides now they all lay demolished, glass from them scattering all across the dark black streets.
The world was on fire, large red and orange flames licked at the city side tempting anyone daring to leave to attempt something as futile as to run through the fire itself and still some people did. Chard bodies lay scattered around the cities edge and monster with horns protruding from the dark grayish blue colored creatures forehead.
Bile rises from my stomach but I push it back down, trying desperately to ignore the putrescent smell of both human and animal bodies alike. Apartment buildings have been razed to the ground, bricks from once tall standing buildings lay strewn around across the city sidewalks covering and burying bodies. I glance around, overwrought with the sheer destruction of my home.
Screaming civilians push past me, bumping, slamming into, and elbowing me all over until in the blink of a second they are gone as if they were sucked up or are able to walk through walls.
"Panic!" Dad screams my name again but still, I look around the skyline for any trace of him, only to find no evidence of his presence.
The sky fades from a smokey gray color and bleeds into a deep, oozing sort of red, tainting the sky with it's unholy color. The view sends chills down my spin and all I want to do is run, run far away from here. Lifting my head high I push the feelings aside and step forward, making my way deeper into the destroyed town once known as New York City.
Traffic lights serve as a blockade, preventing cars from passing so across from me instead of a barren landscape of cracked road there's a swarm of abandoned cars left in the streets with the headlights still blasting in full strength. Jumping over the fallen traffic lights I climb up and over car after car until my feet finally hit the calming sense of ground.
"Dad!" I call out, looking around my new surroundings. Avengers Tower looms over me, all lights usually illuminating the building are all shut off, the place looks as though no one has entered it in years. My eyes scrape the building and then I see it, see them, him, Dad, and...
Loki, he stands there, black hair straight and slicked back, green eyes literally glowing like a lantern in the dark. A wicked smile spreads across his face, his staff is raised but just as he touches the spear to his chest instead of pushing him off something else happens. It's like instead of impending death Loki turns back the aging process, from forty to thirty, to twenty, into his teens, childhood, and finally a baby but then a low purple light erupts from the staff and Dad returns to his normal age.
A new color, a blue glow illuminates the building and that's when it really dawns on me. Dad doesn't have his suit, he's a the mercy of Loki and will face whatever it is he decides. In the blink of an eye the world is ripped into a million pieces when Loki uses his spear. He thrusts the sharpened end forward, aimed straight for Dad's head. I watch long enough to see the spear strike his head and see it erupt into a million pieces.
A gut wrenching scream/sob erupts from my throat, filling the air with my anguished, shatterful cry. My face is soaked in salty, warm tears which stream down my face like a river. The world falls into slow motion as I run forward towards the building, my red hair flying back as I move forward. My heart thunders in my chest and I feel the grief, the depression, the inconsolable devastation setting in.
He's dead.
The words ring in my ears, he's dead and I saw it. The only other, biological, parent I've ever had is dead, dead like my mother, killed by the hands of another, another who hates me.
The worlds fades away and I find myself surrounded, not by creatures under Loki's ruling but by something much, much worse. All around me lay the bodies of the Avengers but instead of them being their regular ages they were...younger, almost as if they were teenagers.
"See Panic," Loki's voice sounds but unlike a glassy form of sound as I heard from Dad when he called my name Loki's voice is crystal clear. Almost as if he's talking directly into my mind. "This is the future of your pathetic little world and you ignorant little family of superheros."
Loki materializes in front of me, an evil glint evident in his green eyes.
"And your next!" he screams lunging the spear at my stomach and I close my eyes, bracing for the pain and let the scream building in my throat release, not even caring anymore.
"Aaah!" I scream, eye battering open as I shot up realizing I sit on my bed in the tower, covered in what most consider cold sweats. I was dreaming, it was a nightmare, or was it. Loki's words are still as clear as day in my mind and I can shake the goosebumps along my arms.
"Are you alright Miss Stark?" JARVIS asks, coming over the intercom in my room.
Panting, I realize just how sore my voice is from screaming. "Y-yes, where is everyone JARVIS? Did anyone hear me scream?"
"No," he responds after a moment. "Mr. and Mrs. Stark left during your nap to go to a fancy Italian restaurant called La Bella Luna while the other house guest doing other things. Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Romanoff have been sent on a mission to Brazil by Director Fury, Mr. Barton is target practicing in the gym downstairs. Thor is back in Asgard and Mr. Banner is in the lab. Would you like me to contact them?"
"No!" I say so quickly I startle myself. "No, lets keep this between you and me JARVIS, I don't want to worry anyone for some stupid, meaningless nightmare," I continue, more to myself then to JARVIS.
"Are you sure Miss Stark, your father would probably like to know that—"
I cut him off, glaring up at the ceiling. "No, butt out of it JARVIS don't tell Tony Stark about anything that happened this evening."
"You don't have the clearance to authorize such an action—"
Sighing, I run my hand over my face. "Just don't bring it up unless he specifically asks you if I had a nightmare alright?"
"Alright Miss Stark but I feel I should tell you that I highly disagree and this is being highly secretive when you had promised your father that you'd be honest, he may take this as an act of betrayal."
"Trust me JARVIS, it's better this way and beside it's just for now. I want to figure out what's really going on before I drag the Avengers into something pointless. I'll tell him, I promise."
"Alright Miss Stark," JARVIS says, going quiet.
What the hell is Loki planning, it has to be something big because I can just feel it in my bones. Just one time in my life I wish I could live at least somewhat of a normal life but being the daughter of Tony Stark has its downsides. I'll never have a normal life.
As mentioned above this is about the Panic series's future, this isn't the last chapter of this story, not by far but I was thinking about it and I was wondering, do you all want a fourth story in this series? I know it's early to be thinking about this but I feel like I need to know so I can start planning it so give me ideas for that if you want a fourth one, stuff that you want to see, the plotline you know?
Also would anyone like anything like any of these: A cross over series with Vanya, another one of my OC, a series of one-shots about Panic's life after all the stories, or what about a story re-write (SORT OF) like an Alternate Universe type of story but with Panic for example what would happen if Tony knew she was born?
Tell me what you all think because I have no idea what to do after this story ends for Panic's series and I wanted to know what you, my readers, wanted to see in the future. So leave me a comment and let me know what you want to see next for Panic, or if you want this to be her finale, let me know!