Hello again! Back so soon, yes I know. :] Here's more of these new people! Avengers will come in the next chapter, promise! Enjoy.

Chapter 2

"Uh…" I stammer, unsure of what to do. So I do what I always do when I can't think of anything else to say: play it dumb. There's obviously no question as to if I really just did shoot fire out of my hands. "Well, I put my hands up, summoned a little fire, and shot it out of my hands. It's very refreshing—you should try it sometime! Well, if you can."

My friends stare at me, not protesting that I just told this stranger that I just shot columns of fire out of my hands. They're probably thinking the same thing I did: he's pretty convinced that I really did just do that, and there's not really a clever way to talk out of it. Instead, Upuli steps up to the man.

"Who are you?" she asks.

He shifts his gaze to her, finally, then says with the utmost bravado, "I am Loki. Do you mind sharing the same information with me?"

Landes steps up this time, her talents coming in handy as she says innocently, "I'm Lucy. These are my friends, Lei, Isabelle, and Torah." She points to Kylin, me, then Upuli.

This guy—Loki—smirks in response. "You are a talented liar, little girl, but it is the same way that a pathological liar cannot outwit another like himself in which we stand," he says.

This makes Landes drop her innocent façade, her expression dissipating into an irritated glare. "So I'm guessing your name isn't Loki either?" she presumes.

This makes him laugh in a way that makes my skin crawl. "It is," he replies, then begins walking casually, head turned toward us. "So how did you get these powers?" he asks. "It is very rare that I see commoners like yourselves with such gifts."

I narrow my eyes. So he saw more than just the fire… "Forgive us for not telling you everything we know, but… we are just a couple of teenagers and you're an… odd looking fellow talking as if we aren't from Earth or something."

He raises a brow, slightly amused. "And is there truth behind that fact?" he asks.

Now it's my turn to be amused. "We are from around. But I'm beginning to think you're not."

Loki almost laughs. "I continue to be surprised at how intelligent you all turn out to be."

"Well, yeah, we're not idiots," I retort, crossing my arms over my chest. "Especially not Lei over here." I think of how Kylin can watch someone do something for a minute, then turn around and do it even better without having done it in her entire life. Yeah, she's what you would call your straight A student. Try and beat that.

"So tell me," Loki goes on. "What caused you to have powers such as these?"

I sigh. This guy does not give up, does he?

"Dunno," I reply truthfully. "We just started developing them recently. Especially after the, ah, alien invasion in New York City." I hope this triggers something about him... I hesitate. "Do you have any idea why this could be happening?"

He stops, the expression melting off of his face. So he has some idea. "I'm not sure of your case," Loki says slowly. "Although it could have something to do with the invasion." He almost stumbles over the last word.

I raise a brow. "Oh, yeah? What makes you think so?"

"The energy source that was allowing the aliens to come in," he replies, "That could have something to do with it."

"But why us, when we're just random kids that live halfway across the country?" I press, hoping to get some more information out of him.

"I know not," Loki replies defensively. "But I am interested in figuring that out."

"Yeah, get in line," I say, digging at the dirt under my fingernails.

"So how about you, Loki?" Landes asks, changing the subject. "Any special powers? Or are you not as cool as us?" She ignores our warning glances.

Loki only smirks. "I have several," he decides to admit.

"So, what? We show you ours, you show us yours?" Landes asks.

This seems to amuse him further, and I can tell he's probably thinking, eh, why not? When he stops his pacing and says, "Alright. Let's see them."

My friends look at me first, so I know what to do. I look at Landes for confirmation, wondering if she wants me to do what I think she's wanting me to do. When she tilts her head up just the slightest measurement, my suspicions are confirmed. Although my power with fire is not completely fluent yet, I try the best I can. I feel the rushing heat to my palms when my hands are still at my sides, and I pretend to be getting ready to shoot it elsewhere. But in less than a second, I have my hand pointed toward Loki and am shooting fire at him.

From here, my plans are simple: shoot this crazy alien stalker with my flames, have him writhing on the ground while he is on fire, then run like hell! But these plans are ruined when something unexpected happens from Loki. The fire doesn't reach him. Instead, when I get a clear look at it, he is shooting ice from himself, fighting off the fire with its opposing element. When I look at his face with shock evident on mine, he is only smirking. Again. And not only that, but it looks like his face has turned blue, and his once green eyes now red. So, alien? Yes. Despite that, I find myself fighting to keep an equal amount of fire on his increasing amount of ice, and failing slightly. Because suddenly, I feel the same buzzing in my fingers that I did earlier in the bathroom sink, the same buzzing as if I was holding my phone in my hands and it was vibrating. Only this buzzing hurts, causing icy fingers to stroke my arm cruelly down to my shoulder blades, causing me to gasp and lessen my grasp on the fire for a moment. But I know that I can't let it down now—if I do, then what? His ice might touch me and would freeze me or something. Which just might kill me. So I bite my tongue and fight to win this.

Thankfully, my friends get the memo, and Landes teleports behind my attacker and shoves her pocket knife into his back. Loki ceases his defense on me with a yell, stopping the frost from his hands as Landes yanks the knife back. I stop my fire and watch as Loki (who has returned to his normal, human-looking form) doubles over slightly, a disbelieving smirk forming across his face. Oh God, he is crazy. He just got stabbed and he's smiling. Never talk to strangers, kids. They could be manic, magical aliens who want to stalk you.

Upuli and Kylin come to my aid as I fall to my knees, but I pay no attention as I watch wearily as blood slowly drips from his wound, staining his clothes, weakening him more by the second. I want him to fall, but he doesn't. His smirk only grows and the blood gradually stops. Suddenly, I realize it: he's healing himself. In a matter of seconds, he is back on his feet, straightened, fully healed, with a bigger smile that begs the question: Impressed?

"So, do we want to do this again?" Loki asks, then looks at Upuli and Kylin, who haven't done much in the battle yet. "You two? Need to let off some steam?"

Upuli scoffs. "Gladly."

And with that, she shape shifts into a gorilla. Yeah, you read that right. I laugh even in my state, pushing off the ground with my hands and trying to clear my head to join in. But when I stand, I watch as Upuli the Gorilla runs straight through Loki, who doesn't even move until he disappears. Before I even have time to be confused, Loki reappears next to Kylin, tapping her shoulder, smiling. Kylin comes back swinging, having to aim up to clip him in the face. Only she doesn't clip him in the face, because he disappears again. This time, when he reappears, there are multiple clones of him.

I count four, one for each of us. One has appeared beside me, with which I quickly shoot with fire before he can react. Only when I look up, the fire goes straight through him. I stop, standing a bit taller, and try punching him in the face. He blocks it easily though, his arm against mine feeling completely natural, compared to how I could blast right through him only a second ago. This is weird.

As I fight hand to hand with him, every once in a while testing the fire to him, I think of all of the bosses in Zelda I've ever defeated. There's always a strategy in the games, always a loophole, always a weak spot. Perhaps this applies to real life as well? I doubt it, but if it's true I need to find out. And fast. What I know right now is that he is holding back on killing us—he's showing off. He's messing with us. Laughing at us. So we need to get serious.

How is he controlling all of them?

I think of my other power, telekinesis. I haven't used that in a while, so I use it on my version of Loki to twist his arms away from me, throwing him backwards with my mind. He hits the ground several yards away, and I take this moment to check up on my fellow comrades. Kylin has her legs wrapped around Loki's neck, jerking backward to take him to the ground, then using her geokinesis to pin him down with the roots of trees. Landes is slicing extremely expertly with a knife, hardly missing Loki with it. He just jumps away and dodges just in time. And Upuli is playing ragdoll with him, smashing him against the ground repeatedly with her gorilla strength, then turning into a tiger and biting at his throat. I almost laugh, if he didn't disappear again and reappear behind her.

I am brought back to reality by my attacker, who appears again, right beside me. Only this version of Loki looks different than the one I was just fighting. I don't know how, but perhaps this one looks more… real?

I am distracted by Landes' voice that calls out, "Find the real Loki!" Apparently she found our weak spot.

I look back at Loki, the real one, who only smiles. He knows I realize that he's the real one. Perhaps I can hurt him severely enough that he will take away all of the other versions of him? I'm sure he wants to end this just as much as us. It's just a matter of who wins.

So I tackle Loki to the ground. He falls surprisingly fast under me, and I stick my hand in front of his face and launch fire at his face. Although before it hits him, he disappears again, sending me tumbling to the ground a short ways. I almost scream in frustration if I didn't hear him ending it behind me. After I hesitate, hearing him behind me, I stand, turning to see him laughing, and only one of him laughing. Loki is completely unharmed, not the slightest of a scratch on his face. Behind him, Upuli shrinks back to her regular form, glaring wildly. Kylin has a bloody nose, and Landes has a pretty nasty cut below her bottom lip.

"Oh, that was fun," Loki says finally, recovering from his crazed laughter.

"I agree," I say, surprising everyone. Hey, better that than being angry. That seems like it would give Loki a better advantage to me.

Loki laughs. "Indeed. You are far better than I had originally thought."

"Don't underestimate us next time," Kylin retorts.

Again, with that smirk. "I will keep that in mind. But you know,"—he begins his extremely slow pacing thing again—"you still have much to learn. Being new to these gifts and all… I could help out some."

Landes and I exchange dumbfounded glances.

"Um… thanks and all, but I think we've got it," Landes replies.

Loki stops and smiles a little bit. "Think about it," he says in an eerie tone. And what frightens me is that I actually stopped to think about it for a moment.

"Okay," I reply slowly with a creeped out smile, spacing out the syllables, giving him a thumbs up.

"Nice meeting you and all," Kylin says as we all begin walking away. "But I've an Algebra 2 test tomorrow that I still need to study for…"

And with that, we all turn and walk away without a glance back. But something catches my eye as we begin walking around the neighborhood, obviously not being so stupid as to go straight to Upuli's house so Loki knows where one of us lives, and curse when I see it. It's a camera, mounted on a pole, aiming directly where we were just fighting.

Ooh! Will word get out? As I said, Avengers in next chapter (which will be out shortly) so stick around! Oh and review please, they make me very happy. Have a blessed day. :]