Pawprints

As Q strutted away, Joe and Bob looked at each other nervously. "What should we do now? Boss didn't say anything..." Joe whispered to Bob conspiratorially. Tony couldn't help but roll his eyes, those two thugs were way too thick to be of any importance. Right now, Tony had to focus on how to escape. He twisted around to find out the best way to get out of the zip-ties holding him.

Seeing Tony struggle, Joe's eyes widened. Attempting to look fierce, Joe growled, "Hey, stop that! Anymore of this kind of actions will result in things getting a little..." Joe tried to crack his knuckles but winced as he failed. "...rough."

Bob bumped Joe on the shoulder lightly as he gasped in delight, "Hey, that was funny! RUFF and ROUGH sound the same, right?"

Joe smiled proudly and leaned on Bob, agreeing, "Yeah, I read about it in this book called '1001 Animal Puns', Mum gave it to me as a birthday gift." Tony rolled his eyes again- It was comical how Joe and Bob looked exactly like they were married- but Tony figured that any other escape attempt would be foiled if Bob and Joe told Q. Sighing, he grew limp and fell into a uncertain sleep.

Tony was woken up by the sound of light footsteps getting closer. He shot up in a panic but was immediately pulled back down by the zip-ties. Bob and Joe, who were playing 'Go Fish', shot up as well and stood to attention, their cards littering the ground messily. Q burst into the room, a wide smile adorning his face as he waved an Ipod around, dancing to the song 'Stayin' Alive'. "Stayin' alive!" Q chuckled madly as he bopped to the final few bars of the song. As the song ended, Q turned the Ipod off before leaning in towards Tony's face, looking almost seductive before his face became a dark scowl. "Stayin' alive's gonna be a problem for you soon, huh?" Tony flinched hard as Q skipped away again, leaning against the wall.

After a few tense minutes of Q humming to himself and examining his fingernails (Bob and Joe had cautiously returned to their game of 'Go Fish', whispering to each other, often frantically looking up at Q's face), Tony was nearly dead with trepidation. "Q has to be here for some reason, but what, Oh God, what?" Tony thought wildly, stifling a whimper.

Finally, Q bounced up from the wall (Joe and Bob dropped their cards and scrambled to stand), and grinned brightly, "He should be here any moment now!" Smiling at Tony, he continued, "I want you to meet a dear friend of mine, he came in specially for you! You see, he is quite like me, family dead because of the great Tony Stark, Merchant of Death!" Spreading his arms widely, Q winked at Tony. Tony felt his breath quicken. What was going to happen?

Just then, the sound of clomping footsteps came nearer and nearer. Rushing to the door like a child who had just heard the tell-tale sound of the Ice-Cream truck, Q threw the door open, announcing in a booming voice, "Introducing my dear friend and an enemy of Stark, Jackass!" Tony couldn't help but swallow a laugh- Jackass? Was that the name of the man?

However, Tony's internal laughter soon died down as an absolute MONSTER of a man squeezed through the doorway. It was one of those people who you would instantly label as 'thug' if you saw him walking by the street. He was huge, easily two or three times Tony's height and Tony was pretty sure weight, too. There were scars on his arms, face, neck, legs...You name it, he had scars there. Tony was pretty sure his biceps were as big as his head.

"Not Jackass. Jacques. French." Jackass- I mean, Jacques- rumbled. Joe and Bob had slowly inched to the far end of the room, obviously trying to worm away from the man who could snap their necks as easily as snapping a toothpick. Q seemed utterly unfazed by the size of the man, waving his hands dismissively, "To-mae-to, to-mah-to, whatever!"

Hoping to turn the subject away from Jacques' name, Q pointed eagerly at Tony, "See, this is Stark! You can have your fun with him but..." Wagging his finger at Jacques like one would do to a child, Q's expression turned mock stern. "...Don't kill him! I'm going to do that, okay?"

Snapping his fingers at Bob and Joe, Q sent another warning gaze at Jacques before strolling out of the room, Bob and Joe scuttling behind him.

Tony looked nervously at Jacques, who had proceeded to open up his jacket, revealing an impressive array of knives. There were knives so fine they looked like toothpicks, knives that looked perfect for slicing bread and butter, and there were the knives that looked like- "THEY COULD CHOP OFF YOUR ENTIRE HEAD!" Tony's brain screamed. Jacques selected a silver, polished knife that was in between the toothpick and slicing-bread-and-butter category.

Tony braced himself for the pain as Jacques lay the point of the knife on Tony's hind leg, the one that had been injured. "You killed my mother." Tony heard those venom-filled words and wanted to ask "How?" But then there was pain as the knife sliced into his leg, reopening the old wound and tearing open fresh ones. The pain was like fire and Tony gave an involuntary shudder as he saw the leg start to gush blood.

Moving on to the second leg, Tony barely had time to process the second sentence, "You killed my father," before more fire was licking at his legs, there was blood pooling on the chair now as cuts opened on his legs and Tony dropped to his side, whining and whimpering behind the gag. Jacques seemed utterly unaffected by Tony's pitiful state as he casually wiped the knife clean on his hand before stepping towards Tony's underbelly. "No, no, no, nononono..." Tony gasped to himself as the knife grew closer and closer to his underbelly... Trying to twist away, Tony aggravated his leg injuries even more and howled quietly in pain.

Bracing himself again, he looked down in surprise as the knife stopped near his underbelly. Slowly looking up at Jacques' face, he saw undeniable sorrow and rage flit across his face in a myriad of emotions. "You-" The knife sliced into Tony's belly and Tony howled with shock and pain. "-killed-" The knife was tracing a line into Tony's belly and Tony's howls were getting longer and longer. "-my-" The knife was going to make an exit, then the REAL pain and the blood would come gushing out. Tony sucked in a breath. "-sister." The knife made a clean exit and the blood was coming out, Tony could feel the pain, the PAIN, as he flopped limply like a fish out of water.

Cleaning the knife again, Jacques sent a blow onto Tony's head as he was trying to lift it, sending his head crashing down on the blood-slick chair again. "This is for my family." Jacques growled as he positioned the knife above Tony's chest. Tony's eyes widened as he realized Jacques was about to disobey Q's orders and HE WAS GOING TO DIE, OH GOD, HE WAS GOING TO DIE.

The knife was getting closer...and closer...

Tony closed his eyes.

Then Q came strutting in, causing Jacques to stand to attention out of habit. Tony released a shaky breath and grew limp, being unknowingly tense when the knife grew close.

Taking in the situation in a heartbeat, Q sighed at Jacques, "What did I say, huh?" Jacques stood coldly at Tony's side, the knife still gripped in a position to kill. Frowning at that sight, Q explained calmly to Jacques like he was a little kid, "I let you get your revenge. I could kill you with a sniper if you don't step away right now. His death is mine." Jacques seemed to weigh the options carefully, before, FINALLY, stepping reluctantly away from Tony and leaving the room. Q cast his eyes on Tony's body critically and hissed at him, "Enjoy your time alive." Then, he too, left the room, leaving Tony alone.

"That was close. Too close." Was Tony's final thought as he fell back into an uneasy sleep.