Lily sat in her living room. Blue eyes staring blankly at the TV screen that was showing images of costume clad heroes in New York City fighting against massive aliens that seemed to come out of a black hole in the sky.
It was all strangely surreal, she thought. That after debate for years and years about Earth being the only planet that had the capacity of life, this chaos was being shown on the international news. The civilians running for their lives as the horror unfolded before them.
"Do you think it's the end of the world?" called her grandmother from the kitchen, still cooking even while heroes and villains battled it out in the US.
"Fuck knows." Lily replied, brushing her cropped icy blonde hair from her eyes. So she could continue to watch the television, growing impatient with it all.
"Don't use that language in this house, Lillian!" The strident yet frail voice hollered from the kitchen again. Lily sighed, a smirk on her full lips.
"Yeah, yeah," Lily brushed off the warning and got up from the old fashioned sofa and walked towards the source of the voice. Her grandmother, Margaret, was a strong willed woman, who liked to keep busy while she ignored the rest of the world. Cooking was her favourite past-time, though it couldn't be said that it was one of her talents, but there were a few recipes that Lily could say were almost enjoyable not that she would tell her grandmother that they were anything other than mouth-watering.
Lily placed a gentle hand on her grandmother's shoulder, which was slaving over a hot oven, her wrinkled face held the features of a once beautiful woman. Her blue eyes had a sparkle of playfulness to them. Silver hair was coifed in an elegant French twist.
Margaret jumped from the contact.
"Oh! Lily, don't you sneak up on me like that!" She turned to face her granddaughter, rubbing off her hands on her cartoon dog printed apron. Margaret's eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled broadly. "You look so much like your mother - except for that ugly hunk of metal in your nose! That is something a hooligan would sport in my day!" Lily held back a laugh as her grandmother pinched her nose ring.
"Ah well, who cares what you think, old lady," joked Lily, reaching past her grandmother to grab her keys from the side.
"Where are you going?"
Lily wondered how she would put into words where she was going without upsetting her grandmother.
"I'm going to be staying with a friend in Rhode Island," Lily lied; really she'd be taking the trip from Boston to NYC. Not that Lily would worry her grandmother with that.
"That's a bit sudden," she said, taking a pie out of the oven and placing the steaming pastry on the counter.
"I forgot to mention it," Lily sat on a dining chair after finding her boots and lacing them tightly onto her feet.
"Will you be there long?" Margaret took off her oven glove and hung it on one of the nobs of the oven. Lily craned her neck to speak to her grandmother.
"Not sure, until I'm fed up of her I guess." Lily took her helmet from by the door, before roughly tugging it over her head. "I'll see you soon then, Nan."
"Drive safely, now!" called the elder woman as the door swung back on itself, leaving the silver haired woman alone. Lily strode to her Ducati Supersport 750. Her tight leather overalls provided the proper protection on her motorcycle. After kick starting the bike, Lily pulled down the visor on her helmet, fingers flexing as she revved the engine. The bike vibrating headily against the curve of her ass, Lily always did love the purr of the engine. She threw the bike off the kick stand and flew off the driveway and onto the road.
The ride would be a long one to New York, one that Lily would enjoy. She wove through the cars that were held still on the highway. Revelling in the freedom that her motorcycle gave her, yet the thrills weren't enough to hold back the thoughts that were warning Lily to turn back.
"No, god damn it. I was given these powers for a reason. It's time to use them." She growled, changing the gear for a faster one and speeding past the traffic. What should have been a four hour drive quickly became three. Lily watched the skies as they gradually became darker and unwelcoming. Lily persevered as brutal winds threatened to topple her over.
As she came to the border of the city, the roads became filled with cars that had been vacated, doors still left ajar. The city itself loomed still. Lily stopped for a moment to stare in horror at one of the hideously massive beasts that had come close to the edges of New York.
Lily felt that time was against her, there were only five heroes and if the monsters began to reach out further than Manhattan then the world was doomed. Lily pressed on, driving into the city. Twisting and turning through the chaos of the city. Monsters, humans and the debris of the initial attack became too much for Lily to continue. She reluctantly parked her Ducati and pulled off her helmet setting it on the seat. Lily began to run to the centre of the fighting. After three hours of driving, the battle was still raging. Government planes tried to bring down the airborne monstrosities, but their efforts did little to help the Avengers, as they were called.
It was as if Lily was invisible, watching the destruction of NY pass her by. Lily focused her mind; she focused her eyes to the point where particles could be seen and felt. Every atom, every subatomic particle, Lily could sense and using her mind, she could bend.
Lily focused her energy onto the largest beast that was threatening one of the Avengers, the only woman in the group. The sharp metal plates that made up its body were almost impenetrable to a human. The redheaded woman brought the monster to the rest of the Avengers. Lily followed bending the energy around her so that she could keep up with the massive reptilian alien.
She slowed down to watch from afar as a seemingly human man, grew into a giant green humanoid, with bulging muscles and an very angry demeanour. Who ran into the alien, stopping it in its path and as it nearly fell to crush the costume wearing warriors; Iron Man shot a missile into the beast sending it back with an earth shattering crash onto the ground.
Lily felt sudden warmth wash over her. She felt at peace somehow being around people who were familiar with unusual gifts that normal human beings would consider something worth dissection and experimentation.
"Human, what are you doing just standing there?!" Lily roused from her thoughts, straining her eyes through the dust and rubble to see a familiar Nordic god clad in leather and gold armour. His rugged yet handsome features and tousled blonde hair were enough for Lily to recognise him, but the armour and hammer made it obvious. This well sculpted man was none other than Thor.
A shatter of glass from the skyscraper to the left of her warned of the incoming impact of aliens smaller than the previous yet just as deadly as they rode on the equivalent of a sinister chariot that travelled at astonishing speeds through the air. They held civilians above the city skyline ready to drop them to their deaths. Lily's eyes narrowed to slits as she centred all of her energy into separating the humans from the vicious blade plated creatures. Rising her palms in front of her she brought her aura out in a glow of icy blue. With one sparkling hand she pulled the humans away from the aliens and with the other she brought the invaders down to the ground with such fury there was no way that they would have lived. Gently Lily lowered the thoroughly shaken people to safety.
"Go find shelter in the subway, stay off the streets at all costs," She advised, her aura dissipating into the air.
"Telekinetic. Nice." Lily turned towards the sarcastic yet recognisable tone of Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. She smiled. "And here I thought I was going to get some more air time. What's your name kid?"
Lily tapped her nose and winked. She turned back to eye the city sky line, looking for some sign of a source, quickly finding a pillar of blue light shooting into the sky and above it a portal to another dimension. It was in that direction that she sped off; bending the time around her so that her speed easily matched the motorcycle she coveted. She stopped short of the Stark Tower.
It was lit up like the fourth of July. Tony couldn't have asked for more attention if he screamed for it. Lily found herself speeding up again, moving through the building with unimaginable speed, the lift being far too slow for her liking. It was as she drew closer to the roof that she was thrown back, the force of it slamming her into Tony's modern and lavish kitchen. The metal was unforgiving against her back.
Lily struggled to force air back into her lungs before she gracefully stood looking for the offending enemy. Her breath caught as she took in a tall, dark green leather clad figure. His emerald eyes sparkling in amusement and a smirk tugged at his lips. She ignored the fact that his horned helmet made her wonder if it was a promise of other things.
"Strange, I'm sure I'd have remembered you out of those bumbling idiots," his eyes grew dark as he raked over the lithe yet curvaceous blonde heroine.
"And I've got no fucking idea who you are, and I'm sure I'd remember that helmet." Her sultry voice breathy and feminine it was similar to that of Marilyn Monroe. It made the tall, mischievous man's muscles tense and his smile widen.
"Of course someone as naïve as you wouldn't recognise a God now he stands before you," Lily rolled her eyes. She'd met men like this throughout her life plenty of times, all bark and no bite.
"And what makes you so special," she flirted, prowling towards the statuesque God. Cerulean eyes trained on the lusty viridian ones that grew darker the closer she came. He laughed a deep, throaty chuckle that made heat pool in the pit of Lily's stomach.
"What is your name, little one?" he questioned, amused at her fire. Lily stood before him, looking up into the face of her foe and feeling strangely at ease.
"Lily."
"Fitting." He mused, before adding, "Will you not ask for the name of the God you speak with?"
"I'm not sure I need to but, I shall humour you." She sighed, brushing a stray blonde tendril from her thick dark lashes. "What is your name, Oh majestic lord?" The god wondered why such a powerless human felt she could take that tone with him.
"Loki, God of Mischief." The power that came with those words Lily imagined made the females of his planet quake at the knees. "This is the part where you kneel."
"I do not kneel to power hungry self-absorbed men such as you. Especially ones that think it's a good idea to invade my planet." Oh how Loki wanted to prove this girl wrong. How he wanted to see her on her knees. And he made an oath to himself that he would bring this human to fall to her knees at his glory.