Chapter Three:
"Um, Loki?" Thor asked worriedly catching the look of fully determined mischief, "what are you planning to do?"
"Oh, nothing... much"
Thor didn't ask. Sometimes it was better not to know. Easier just to wait for the chaos to unfold.
"Right, well, try not to kill anyone." He offered instead.
"Hey-that was just the one time!"
"Wait-what?!" Thor whirled around to see if he was serious.
"Got you." Loki laughed. Thor took a moment to get the joke and then joined in. The Avengers just looked at each other and shrugged. Yes, it was better not to question.
"Too the river!" Loki hollered happily taking a sharp turn around a thorny rosebush. Thor was less quick when he tried to doge the plant, since he was previously looking at his brother and didn't see the rather obvious bush as it came up to greet him. Instead he plowed ungracefully through it.
"Brother!" Thor winced pulling thorn after thorn out of his long red cape.
Loki tried not to laugh at this and - failing- miserably- continued to run. "This way, quickly!"
The Avengers skirted around the rose bush warily.
Banner looked like he was going to collapse from exhaustion, "How can these kids have so much energy? I'm-so-incredibly-tired. Oh, and you know what that means, right?"
"Oh no," Natasha groaned, "Really? , now is really not the time!"
"You know I can't stop it!" Banner's heart speed was one of the last things on anyone's mind before that moment. Until it was too late, and by then of course, it was on each and every one of their minds and at that point, panic ensued.
"Bruce, you have to fight it. Bruce?" Steve was hardly one to panic. Sure, he panicked when the GPS he bought mislead him to the next state over and not the supermarket. Sure, he panicked when he found out nobody knew Bing Crosby or Bob Hope, but when it came to jumping out of airplanes parachute-less, or fighting ten against one in closed elevators, he was as calm as his yoga instructor. Maybe it was the confusion of being sent back in time on Asgard and escaping from guards while following a miniature Thor and Loki, or maybe it was just his age getting to him, but he felt scared and unsure. He cast the idea away of falling to his knees and begging them to go on without him, and decided to just go with the weirdness best he could manage.
Banner was changing now, faster than anyone would like. Green shot up his body like moss growing up a tree except much much faster and far more threatening-like.
"Oh, shoot." Tony managed to say before the Green Rage monster roared into existence. The Princes spun around, running backwards, to see this surprising new development of their friend.
"Brother! Get behind me! It's a green, horn-less Bilgesnipe!" Thor cried, gallantly drawing his hammer and rushing towards the Hulk, "How dare you attack us, foe? Retreat, or feel the weight of my hammer!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Brother, it's clearly a stress- induced giant of some form." Loki half guided, half pulled the still fuming Thor away from it while still swinging uselessly at it, and finally resorted to crying out petty insults. "And if you haven't noticed, it's not attacking, so you can put that down."
"Is it just me or was that kid way too eager to kill Banner just then?" Tony was kind of thrown off by how much Thor loved waving his hammer around.
"It's okay, guys, really, he's friendly." Clint explained mostly to Thor, "Banner just does that sometimes, you know- he has some serious health issues" he gave a shrug that said 'Give the guy a break'
"Hulk friend." The green giant agreed smashing his fist on the ground with a resounding thud to make his point, which might not have made his point exactly but did make him heard.
After a brief moment of thought, and a sharp jab in the should from Loki, Thor apologised for trying to run him through with his hammer and insisted the giant accept his cape as a peace offering which was slightly torn up after it's encounter with the rosebush but Thor assured him it was crafted from Asgard's finest threads. The Hulk accepted the gift and draped the red cape, which really did nothing for his green complexion, half-heartedly over one giant shoulder because it didn't fit anywhere else.
The group already broke back into a run by this time, weaving through the forest, hopefully in the general direction of the river, with a new found speed and determination.
"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Natasha asked uncertainly, "I'm sure we've been through this part already."
Steve glanced at a large rose bush flattened in a perfect line where someone very heavy had barrelled through it. "Loki? Thor? We're going in circles."
"That kinda sucks," Clint murmured quietly.
"Of course we're going in circles!" the younger boy answered, "How else were we going to throw off the guards?"
"That's actually a really good point." Tony responded. He liked the way this kid thinks, "When were you planning on telling us?" Natasha questioned.
"I just thought it rather obvious if I said, 'We're going round in circles'. After all we've passed that rose bush twenty times by now. I assumed everyone would notice passing a rosebush the size of a horse with a Thor sized bite taken out of it."
"That's a really good point as well" Tony said again, with less enthusiasm.
"Did you not notice the guards are farther away?"
"We were just following you." Clint explained, then realised how stupid he made them all sound. "We're unfamiliar with these parts." He tried again. Then silently told himself to shut up.
Natasha cringed, "Let's just keep going and forget about this, okay?" Everyone seemed to agree, and they began pushing forward again, until Thor, who was walking as he always was, next to Loki, turned to him and said, "Wait-We're going in circles?"
Everyone groaned at that point and Thor took it as a hint to stop talking but on his face remained a look of utter confusion.
"I think we should go find that river right about now." Loki concluded glaring at Thor who responded with,
"You know, that's a very good idea, we shall do that. Let's follow that trail!" he started ahead to take the lead.
"What trail?" Loki asked unimpressed, standing where he was.
"The trail that we blaze!" Thor answered, with his head held high, still walking.
"You're going the wrong way."
Thor stopped in his tracks. Then turning around, he began jogging in the opposite direction, back to his brother saying sheepishly, "Um- maybe you should lead for now."
Loki lifted a slender eyebrow.
"Please?" Thor offered, giant blue, sad, puppy dog eyes looking like liquid innocence.
"Fine. We follow that trail." Everyone's eyes followed his pointed finger at the opposite direction of Thor choice of a path.
Soon everyone was moving quickly again, and in no time they were travelling at a healthy pace with the scent of the river rising to meet them. As it happened, it was a rather wide river, and there were no boats that they could see along the rocky shore. When they reached the clearing of sand and rocks, they took a moment to sit for a break seeing as the sound of the guards thumping footsteps were now far behind them.
The Hulk shrunk back into the form of Dr. Banner and he used Thor's cape as a shirt, borrowing one of Loki's throwing knives (what kid conceals throwing knives in the folds of his garments?) to cut out a hole for his head to fit through. All in all, it was a very creative looking poncho, not to mention very red and full of holes and, well-a poncho. The rest of the avengers took off their shoes and began cooling off in the icy cold water.
"So," Thor started resting on the warm sand with both feet in the water, "How do we get across? Think we can swim? I'm a pretty good swimmer, I bet I could make it to the other side."
"Swimming? But that's so boring and unimaginative!" Loki was resting against a tree, taking in the cool shade, "Too bad it's so hot out."
"Then make it cold." Thor yawned tiredly, closing his eyes.
Loki sat up straight, his shrewd green eyes becoming sharper, "You know, that's the brightest idea you've had all day." He waited for Thor to bask in that compliment till he turned to him and realised the big muscular blond of a brother had fallen asleep there.
Getting up and walking closer to the lake he looked down thoughtfully at the still water. The Avengers had long since abandoned it. Natasha and Clint were chatting together holding hands on a large rock, Steve was making a sand castle, of sorts, while Tony was making an impression of Stark Towers out of sand, and Bruce was attempting (and failing) to skip stones on the flat surface of the lake.
Using his magic, Loki cast out a green coloured mist that covered the entire lake, when it cleared, the lake was-different.
The Avengers looked up, and made their way over with jaws dropped.
"Holy Odin's eyepatch!" Thor yelled waking up to the light touch of snowflakes falling on his face. Snow was falling gently out of the August sky, against the once warm sand and the now frozen lake.
"Everyone, lace up your shoes, and follow me." Loki ordered, pointing to the pile of discarded shoes that each had a slender blade running underneath the sole.
The Avengers looked at each other. They were all thinking the same thing. Skates. Heck yeah. Ten minutes later, everyone was laced in their new skates, and teetering around on the smooth ice. Thor slowly made his way over to Loki cautiously, like he would topple over with one wrong move, which he had his fair share of experience with when he first got onto the ice. Bending forward at the knees with both hands spread out to balance himself, while his whole body shook at the effort, he looked like a blinded tightrope walker. Steve and Tony were pretty good, and so was Natasha. Clint was a little rusty but he had Natasha to guide him around by the hand which kept him from falling on his face.
"Steady there, Barton," she laughed, as he nearly stumbled over his own feet.
Dr. Banner was less lucky. Oddly enough his nose managed to survive its violent greeting to the frozen ice ground with little loss of blood considering its brutal bashing. He assured everyone who witnessed his graceless fall, that him and his nose were okay but he continued to wobble along the ice with the gracefulness of a dying animal.
Loki, on the other hand was enjoying skating circles around everyone, making them dizzy, and trying to get Thor to chase him. He abandoned that idea though when Thor finally gave in, and fell backwards before he got an inch closer, screaming bloody murder on his journey back up again.
Everyone was so busy skating they didn't notice the Allfather escorted by two guards join them on the scene. If looks could kill…
