"Well boys, it's that time of year again," said Odin.
Thor and Loki followed him into the throne room.
"Summer camp."
Thor raised his fists in pure joy. "Yes!"
Loki groaned. "And this time," Odin continued, "We're trying out a new one. A Midgardian one."
"Oh, how I love Summer Camp!" exclaimed Thor, who had run off to pack. Loki sighed, and summoned up some magic to pack his suitcase for him.
*The next day*
"See you soon boys!" shouted Odin. "Behave, Loki!" called Frigga after the bus pulling away. Odin let out a sigh. "At last, Loki is gone." Frigga opened her mouth in shock. "Darling, how could you say that? He is our son!"
"He gets a tad tiring after a while though." "So does Thor." They silently nodded, and made their way back home.
On the bus, Thor was singing camp songs. "99 bottles of ale on the wall, 99 bottles of ale! Take one down, smash it on the ground, and 98 bottles of ale on the wall! Brother, join in!" Loki crossed his arms, and sunk lower into his seat with his ear buds in. "Quiet down, my fool for a brother, I have discovered 'Shakira.'"
As they neared the camp, Thor leaned over Loki to look out the window. "Look, Loki! We grow nearer!" Loki just growled at Thor. "Get off me, you stupid oaf," he snarled. Thor pouted. "Why did you take the window seat? I wanted the window seat!" Loki smiled deviously. "I know."
Thor roared with anger. "It was simply to spite me, wasn't it? You anger me, brother!" Loki grinned to himself. "What kind of me would I be if I let you have small pleasures as this?" Thor hit the seat.
Soon, they arrived. Thor stepped out, dressed in his tight too short shorts and red t-shirt. "Aaahh. I love the smell of camp, do you not, brother?"
Loki stepped out in his regular, non-show-off shorts and sighed. "I think that's your ego you're smelling, Thor."
They all assembled in the mess hall, and the two sat down with five others. Thor smiled. "Greeting, fellow campers!" They turned. There were four guys, and one girl. Loki looked at the girl, who had short red hair. Hmm, he thought admiringly, she looks ferocious. I could have a chance with her.
"Hi," said one with short blonde hair, "I'm Steve, this is Tony, this is Bruce, Clint, and Natasha." "It is most exciting to meet humans like thou!" boomed Thor. "I am Thor, Mighty God of Thunder, and this is my younger brother Loki, God of Mischief and Trickery."
"I'm not that much younger," Loki grumbled, eager to impress the one they call Natasha. His heart sank as Clint put an arm around Natasha. "Well, it's cool to meet you," he said smoothly, and Tony laughed and leaned into Loki's ear.
"Natasha is dangerous, man, you don't want to be messing with her. Take it from someone who's tried." Loki pouted.
The camp leader tapped the microphone. "Testing, testing…" He had an eye patch.
"Welcome to camp, everyone. Since this is not your first time here, I will skip the pleasantries, and get down to the rules, because you best be followin' the motherf-" A counsellor tapped him on the shoulder and leaned forward. He whispered something in his ear, and the man cleared his throat. "I mean, you best be following the rules. Absolutely NO horseplay in the mess hall, NO staying up after hours in cabins, and NO hogging the lavatory in the forest!"
Clint giggled. "That was me," he explained.
"You will be assigned a counsellor, and you will be CLOSELY MONITORED. So no funny business! That means you, Stark."
They got assigned their counsellor, and her name was Maria Hill. The new friends ended up in the same cabin luckily.
As another counsellor was passing, he stopped Steve. He had a nametag that read Coulson. "Hey! How's my favourite camper?" he asked, fist bumping Steve. Tony sighed. "He does this every year."
Loki was beginning to become good friends with this 'Tony Stark,' and they had become total mischief bros.
That afternoon, they had some free time. "Hey Tony," said Bruce, "You wanna go swimming?" "No, sorry Bruce, I'm going michieving with Loki." Bruce looked down. "But… but we always go swimming together in free time." "Maybe tomorrow."
Tony ran off, and fist bumped Loki. Bruce sat down on the edge of the dock, feeling very lonely.
Over in the field, Clint was trying to teach Natasha how to do archery, and Natasha was trying to teach Clint how to punch properly. "Ow! Tashaaa!" Clint whined as she hit him. "That's what makes a good punch." "I'm gonna have a black eye tomorrow!" "Oh, grow up Clint." Clint looked ready to cry.
"Natasha, be nice!" called Steve, who was jogging around the track by the field, leaving to go meet Thor for a hike. Natasha grumbled, and helped Clint up. He smiled, and leaned in to nab a kiss. *PUNCH*
In the forest, Thor met up with Steve. He took a deep breath. "Ah, do you smell that wondrous nature?" Steve laughed. "Yeah, Thor. It's called pine." "This pine, I like it. ANOTHER!" he said, breaking off a full branch of a tree. Steve opened his mouth. "Uhhh, that's completely against the rules. You can't deface nature!" Thor dropped the branch. "I meant no disrespect…" "Just, don't break any more branches." "You have my word." They kept jogging.
Soon, they came across two snickering guys by the bathroom in the forest with cans of spraypaint. Steve wiped his forehead, and went over. "TONY!" The two turned, and Thor rushed forward. Loki's face lit up with fear, and Thor grabbed him by the jaw.
"Brother, did you not hear the camp leader say to follow the rules?" Loki laughed as he swatted Thor's hand away. "These human laws have no meaning to me." Tony laughed, but Steve smacked the back of his head.
"Desist at once, Loki!" Thor threatened. Loki snickered. "Or what?" "I will eat your supply of pudding!" Loki's expression turned to one of pure rage. "You do that I kill you!" "You can't kill me." There was a moment of silence.
Loki sighed. "Fine, Thor. You ruin all the fun!"
Later that night, it was getting close to lights out. The man with the eye patch, who's name was Fury, drove around outside the cabins with a megaphone.
"LIGHTS OUT IN TEN MINUTES EVERYONE!" he yelled menacingly. "Okay, guys, get into bed!" said Maria Hill. "You especially Tony!"
They got into their covers, and sharing bunks were Steve and Thor, Tony and Loki, Natasha and Clint (Clint got the high bunk that he liked to call his 'nest') and Bruce got the giant master bed… just in case he had a nightmare.
"Lights out!" called Maria, and the cabin was plunged into darkness. "Hey Loki," whispered Tony, "Come here, I downloaded a really cool movie onto my StarkPad yesterday."
Loki went up to the top bunk, and layed down beside Tony. Tony put a finger to his lips, as not to wake the others, (If Thor's snoring didn't already) and plugged in headphones. "Friday The 13th?" asked Loki in confusion. "Just watch," smirked Tony.
By the time it hit 2:00 in the morning, Loki was positively scared out of his mind. Whenever a branch scratched across the window, he jumped. Tony laughed. "Calm down, Lokes, it's only a movie."
"What if this J-Jason is really out there?" Loki whimpered. "He's not, man. Trust me!" Suddenly, Loki got an idea. An awful idea.
"Stark, I have an idea," Loki whispered. "Uh oh," Tony grinned. "Let's" he whispered something in Tony's ear.
Tony's face fell, and he looked at Loki. "Loki, we can't do that! We'd be banned from camp, and someone could get hurt!" Loki narrowed his eyes. "Are you a prankster or aren't you?" Tony gulped. "Yeah, but-" "Good then. Get your things." Before Tony had any time to protest, Loki had silently hopped down to the ground, sneaking by his brother and Steve.
After leaving fake illusions of them in their beds, the two tiptoed by Clint and Natasha, where Clint was making sounds in his sleep. "Ahhh- caw caw caw…. Ahhh- caw caw caw…" Tony plugged his ears.
"Okay," Loki said as they got out into the night air. "Loki, I don't want to do this." "If you don't, I'll tell the whole camp about the time you watched Maria dress!" Tony gasped. "You said you would never tell! Friends never tell secrets!" "Shut up, Stark, or you'll wake the whole forest. Alright, follow me."
They walked deep into the forest. Loki took out a tiny keychain he had in his pocket. Tony nervously bit his lip, not acting like himself at all. Inside the keychain was a glowing blue center, and Loki set it on the ground. "It's my emergency magic," he explained to Tony.
He closed his eyes, and smashed the keychain with his boot. Suddenly, the blue glowing smoke enveloped Loki, and he grew two sizes. His clothes melted away, and new, tattered ones formed against his body. And the whole outfit was complete with… a hockey mask and a machete.
"Loki, I-" "Save it. Let's go mischief," said Loki. Tony put a hand on his arm. "I'm going back to the cabin. I can't help you." A look of hurt passed over Loki's face. "But I thought we were 'bros,' he said. "We were. But this is too dangerous. My pranks are fun and stupid, this is serious. I… I can't help you." And with that, Tony left Loki in the forest.
Loki clenched his fists. Everyone always abandoned him. He was used to it. It just hurt even more each time. "No matter," he grinned to himself, "I will win the title of head prankster at summer camp!"
He sneaked up behind their cabin, and started scraping the log walls with his knife. He heard rustling, and a loud thump as someone rolled out of bed. It sounded like Bruce. Bruce came close to the wall, seemingly listening. Loki giggled silently as he scraped the wall again.
Bruce jumped back, and Loki heard him whisper to Steve to wake up. Steve got up, and came over to listen. Loki pounded a fist against the wall, and he heard them both jump back. By now, everyone in the cabin had woken up.
Thor was grumbling at the late hour, and everyone started to rustle. But the light wouldn't go on until morning. Loki heard Natasha asking what was going on, and he decided this was the moment. He stepped in front of the window, and looked in, pale moonlight lighting him from behind.
"AHHHHH!" Natasha screamed as she saw Loki dressed as Jason, and fell over.
Thor rushed out, but Loki hid. "Show yourself!" Thor yelled, fist at the ready. Loki made a branch crack for effect, and Thor came right beside the tree Loki was hiding at. Suddenly, he grabbed Loki's collar and dragged him out from behind the tree.
"Alright, foul creature, let's see who you really are!" He took off the hockey mask, and saw Loki's unblinking green eyes staring back at him. "Loki?" The whole group of campers groaned, and Natasha came and kicked Loki in the nuts. "Ow!" Loki yelped, and doubled over. Thor dragged him by his hair back to the cabin, and put him in bed.
"Tomorrow, you answer for your crimes."
The next morning at breakfast, Fury had a very serious face as everyone sat down with their trays. "As you may or may not know," he started, "Last night as 3 in the morning, there was an incident with one of the campers, who played a trick. First of all, 3 IN THE MORNING? ARE YOU NUTS? You could've waited until 7!" He adjusted his eyepatch. "But, that of course wouldn't have made it any more acceptable. Loki Laufeyson, please stand up."
Loki stood proudly at the cabin's table, and Fury sighed. "Since you are new to the camp, I will let you off with a warning. But if you ever, ever do something like that again, it will not go unnoticed!" Tony's mouth dropped as he looked at his friends. "That's not fair!" he whispered, and they all nodded.
After breakfast, a group had gathered around Loki, who was telling the story of last night.
"And then she screamed, and I ran and hid…" Tony shook his head as the group walked by.
It looks like Loki had won the title of Ultimate Prankster away from Tony.
Tony and Bruce were sitting by the dock, feet in the water. "Hey Bruce, I'm sorry I snubbed you for Loki." "It's alright Tony. I knew you'd come back. They sat in silence for a few seconds, then Tony pushed Bruce in. "Hey!" They laughed and splashed around.
Thor and Steve were doing their daily run in the forest. "Your brother is quite the troublemaker!" said Steve. "That is true. He has always been." "It was pretty funny what he did though," Steve said, then caught himself. "Uh… I mean, what Loki did was completely wrong." Thor laughed.
Nat and Clint were out training again, and today Clint had two black eyes. Clint tried a punch at Natasha. "There you go!" she said, and he smiled as he covered his eye. They moved on to archery training, and Clint wrapped his arms around Natasha and pulled the bow close to his chest. "And… release," he said, and Natasha released not only the arrow but the bow, which swung back and hit Clint in the head. He swayed, and fell over.
Natasha burst out laughing, and Clint rubbed his poor, beaten up head. She stopped laughing, and bent down to help him.
Loki returned to his cabin, smug from his newfound popularity. He decided to take a shower, and happily whistled as he took his things off.
He didn't mind camp… in fact, he was starting to like it! Even if he didn't have any friends, he had people who worshipped him, and that was all he cared about. But he did like the warm feeling he got from his friendship with Tony… but that was in the past. He didn't need friendship!
He shampooed his long black hair, and let the hot water run over him. After about 15 minutes, he stepped out. But wait. Where were his clothes? He started to panic. He couldn't find them anywhere! And where was his towel? It was gone too!
He bit his lip as he walked toward the window, and peered out. There, hanging from the top of the tree with an arrow through it, was his leather uniform and towel. He growled as he saw Steve, Tony, Thor, Bruce, Clint and Natasha laughing at him, and hit the glass.
He turned back to the shower, and saw one word written in the fog on the glass.
LOKI'D!
He balled his hands up into fists. I hate camp, he thought.
When it was time to go home, everyone said their goodbyes. The friends who had met had named themselves 'The Avengers,' and of course, Loki wasn't included.
Thor slapped Loki on the back. "It's disheartening to leave this camp, is it not, brother?" Loki grumbled. "Quite."
Before they left, The Avengers all put their hands together. "This camp, I like it," said Thor. "ANOTHER!" They all yelled, and laughed. Loki gagged from the bus.
As they arrived home, Odin and Frigga greeted the boys with open arms. "How was it?" asked Frigga. "Spectacular!" said Thor. Loki stayed silent. "Wonderful," smiled Odin, "because you're going back next summer!"
Loki fell down.
