"oh! peter! stop it!" matt reprimanded as peter jumped in yet another puddle. splashing matt and little gypsy who tightly clung to his hand. the three children were walking home after a long day of selling guns and all three were tired and worn out.
"what?!" peter shot back. "im just walking." peter stuck his tongue out at matts back as matt turned away and kept walking. at long last the three orphans arrived at their destination. 'lokis house for heros' manager: loki lafeyson.
"hi mr loki! were back!" they all three announced cheerfully in unison. loki slowly spun around in his chair turning to them with an air of condescension. he smiled too sweetly.
"hello boys and...girl."
"did anybody come to adopt us while we were gone?" gypsy asked struggling to see over the edge of the desk and standing on her tippytoes to make her small sture the inch or two taller it made her.
"hmmm... let me think..." loki smiled and pretended to give the question thought for a moment. then he leabed forward slamming his open pal onto the desk. "NO!" he yelled. peter stepped forward and webbed to the ceiling where he dangled upside down bove the headmasters head.
"peter? what are you doing?"
"dangling." peter rolled his eyes. "you blind? didnt think it was contagious but maybe matt gave it to you."
"peter..." loki started. "youre never going to get adopted you know that dont you?" little peter dropped to the ground and sighed.
"yes sir." he admitted staring at a spot on the floor.
"good. so how did it go today? did we meet our quotas?" loki raised his eyeborows folding his long thin fingers together in front of him elbows placed on the desk. young daredevil offered up a hesitant shrug.
"well... sorta," he looked down at his clipboard. "we sold forty three machine guns, thirty semi automatic pistols, and eighteen snipers." matt folded his hands behind himself and offered up a smile. loki heaved a sigh leaning back in his chair and then standing up as he reached for his scepter. he twirled it carelessly in his grasp as he headed around the desk.
"you sa that like its a great thing." he was calm but all three knew it was the calm before the imminent storm. they froze lined up in front of lokis desk.
""LOOK AT MY FACE!" he yelled leaning close to the three horrified children. "DOES IT SOUND LIKE A GOOD THING?!" he demanded angrily. the three were silent. knowing better than to speak and possibly enrage the asgardian more.
"i think... we can do better than that. dont you?" he was smiling and his tone was even but his eyes glinted dangerously.
"yeah. we wouldnt want to spend the weekend in thors bathroom now would we?" the three turned and even with the door closed to that place of horrors they could still smell the putrid scent emanating from behind its closed doors. such was the punishment for the few who failed to meet their quotas.
"no mr loki." they chimed in dismally. loki smiled brightly.
"okay good! now off you go! go steal something for me." the three headed out of the office and in passing stopped before the doors of the bathroom.
"hi janet." the greeted their friend trapped inside those four walls. the wasp peered at them through a sall crack in the woodwn door.
"hi guys." she replied sadly as the three headed back to their room for the night.
later in her flying car astrids phone rang.
"hello mom sorry i meant to call but..." her voice trailed off. a a loss for a good excuse. on the other end astrids mom placed her hand atop the punching bag to stop its swinging and held her cell with her free hand.
"i just wanted to congratulate you on stealing ze tower." astrid sighed heaily. running a hand through her blond hair. "zat waz you wasnt it?" her mom countered. "or waz it a villain whos actually successful?" she laughed to herself knowing the answer. astrid would NEVER be a successful villain. shed always known this. this was an ITYS moment if mrs blake ever had seen one.
"just so you know mom," astrid replied evenly. "i am working on something big. very big. very portant! when you hear about it, you are going to be very proud!" she nodded to herself enforcing her words even though her mother couldnt see her.
"ha! good luck with THAT! okay... im outta here." ending the call her mother went back to her martial arts training. growling to herself astrid landed her car and headed into SHIELD hq. where she could get the necesary funds for her newest expedition: capturing the sorceror suprme! once she got into the inner sanctum she headed down the long hallway.
"astrid blake to see director fury." she announced at the front desk.
"yes... pleae have a seat." maria hill gesured off to the side as she continued to ype away on her computer.
years and years ago... back before the dark age... before dirt was invented... before the concept of inventing was invented... okay yeah anyway a LONG time ago...
little astrid at the age of about five was seated on the living room floor wearing thors cloak of destiny relly just a red sheet that was old and slightly stained as sh watched the avengers for the first time. with her eyes glued to the tv screen she announced with glee: "ma! im going to be a hero when i grow up!"
"im afraid you cant do that. they already have heroes. youre just a little girl."
later...
"ma!" astrid announced. "look its a picture of me marrying a superhero painted with watercolrs!" she held up a lovely painting with pride. her ma glanced at it briefly.
"eh," she shrugged and urned away. astrids face fell.
later...
"ma! look what i wrote! its a nine hundred page book about me and my superhero!" sh held up the thick novel with pride.
"eh," her mom went back to her magazine.
astrid keely remembered all those times shed been rebuffed but now it was her chance. her chance to show her mom! shed show the world! shed show everybody! astrid blake WAS and IS the best supervillain this world was ever gonna see! shed prove it! she looke down at her blueprint with pride. she just needed a small itty bitty loan and that soreceror would be hers. all hers. she smiled to herself.
astrid was abruptly jolted out of her musings as a young man slid up beside her.
"hey!" he smiled easily. looking over her shoulder at her blueprint she was studying. "im applying for a new villain loan go by the name of IRON MAN!" he announced gesturing with his hands and accidentally bumping astrid in her side just as she slid away to the opposite end of the bench.
"creep." she muttered inder her breath returning to her blueprint and plans.
"thats a awesomaical term for awesome. which is, me of course." seeing that shed managed to scoot the farthest possible distance from him on the bench he leapt up and plunked himself back down beside her.
"IRONMAN! THATS ME!" he grinned and layed his hand across her shoulder. "because im AWESOME!" he leapt up and dd a little jig while cheering for himself.
"check out my newest armor!" he extended his hands and the metal flew out of nowhere and encased himinside its metal shell. "ever seen this before? no you havent i invented it. do you want a demonstration?" without waiting for a response he fired his repulsor ras at the wall but neglected to take into account the many MIRRORS in the place. the beam of energy bounced off the first mirror and into thenext richoceting around the room haphazardly at high speeds. until it finally collided with none other than the ironman himself it blasted him into the far wall just as maria hill called astrid forward. astrids eyes were wide as she abandoned the ironman in the hole in the wall hed just caused. he rubbed his head as he picked himself up out of the rubble.
"so all i need," astrid explained patiently striding back and forth in front of the director of SHIELDS desk. "is money from \the bank. to get an iron man suit and then the sorceror is ours. if i have an ironman suit i can get close to the sorceror AND be able to tote his body back to my evil super bad-ass lair." the director cleared his throat.
"well. vety nice presentation." he started "id like to see this magic dampener"
"aahhhbsolutely!" astrid offered up a crooked grin. the director leaned forward.
"you dont have it! AND YET you have THE AUDACITY! to ask the bank FOR MONEY!" he growled out his features twisted in unmistakable annoyane.
"apparently." astrid admitted meekly. the director stood up.
"do you have ANY IDEA what the bank has invested in your tomfoolery? when so few of your 'sinister' plots actually turn out? how can i put it?" he considered then looked up at the clock on the wall. "lets say that clock is you," he pulled ut his pistol and cocked it. "if we dont start getting our money back..." he pulled the trigger aiming it straight at the cliock meeting its mark the glass shattered and the clock fell to pieces.
"get the picture?" astrid gulped and nodded nervously. "look astrid the point is there are a lot of new villains out there, stronger than you, hungrier than you, stranger than you. like that fellow out there! IRON MAN! he just stole avengers tower!" astrids jw dropped at the realization. for a moment she was dumbstruck.
"okay okay... so... as far as getting money for the iron man suit goes..."
"get the magic dampener. THEN well talk."
before leaving astrids features curled in pure rage as she set her sights on the iron man she pylled out her freeze ray and before he even knew what was coming froze his head. he leaned then clattered to the floor. then on a more happy note she left.
