Chapter Four
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers.
The Bifrost was now being repaired (and Loki was kind of glad that Thor wasn't going to have made such a permanent change to Asgard for all that he would one day be king) but not enough time had passed since Thor had retrieved the Tesseract to even begin to make the Bifrost passable again. Instead, they had been sent directly the Tesseract and when the time came they would call for Heimdall and be taken back the same way. Not that he knew how long he would be staying. Thor hadn't thought to mention it on his own and Loki was loathe to reveal a vulnerability by asking himself.
"This does not look like the Avenger Tower," Loki remarked as he looked around. It was a little obvious, to be sure, but it still had to be said.
"We will go there soon, Brother," Thor assured him. "But first, let's go in here."
He pointed towards a small store that said "7 Eleven" and, reluctantly, Loki followed him in. He did not want to go in but he was even more unwilling to wait outside with the humans by himself and trust that Thor wouldn't get distracted by all the glorious Midgardian wonders.
7 Eleven seemed to sell a lot of food , most of which he had never seen before. Thor headed straight for a shelf towards the back of the store that contained blue boxes labeled 'Pop-Tarts.'
"What flavor would you like?" Thor asked him politely.
"What is a Pop-Tart?" Loki countered.
Thor's eyes lit up. "A Pop-Tart is only one of the most delicious breakfast foods that I have ever tried. They come in a wide variety of flavors and are conveniently packaged so that you can eat them even when not at a proper table."
"I don't want one," Loki told him.
"But you didn't touch your scrambled eggs," Thor protested.
Loki rolled his eyes. "I'm not a child, Thor. If I don't want to eat breakfast then I don't have to. Also, I'm a prisoner so you can stop worrying about my eating habits."
"You would think that being a prisoner means that we could force you to eat breakfast," Thor countered.
That was a good point and so Loki chose to ignore it. "Why don't you eat these Pop-Tarts if you really want them?"
"I am not hungry right now, I just had a satisfactory breakfast," Thor replied. "But that is a good idea so I shall get some for later. Are you sure you do not have a flavor preference?"
"I'm sure," Loki said firmly.
"Then I will simply have to get a box of every kind available," Thor informed him, taking a box of each of the six flavors and slowly walking up towards the cashier. They boxes couldn't have been heavy but Thor did look a little awkward holding them all.
Loki could have offered to help. He didn't.
When he and Thor arrived on one of the higher floors of the damaged Stark Tower, after Thor had pestered him into eating a blueberry Pop Tart that he refused to admit to liking, they faced a crowded room. Loki did not know many humans but he did recognize all of these people.
There was the man whose home t hey were currently occupying, of course, Tony Stark. HE had an impressive amount of sheer audacity, especially considering that Stark was by all accounts a genius and he had seen Loki in action before. When he faced Loki down completely alone and unarmed (when he was just a regular human without the armor) in Stark Tower, he had known exactly what he was doing. The stupidity of the action was only increased by the lack of stupidity of the man.
Yes, Stark had ultimately survived but it was a close thing, even considering that Loki had not killed him directly but had thrown him off of the building. Self-destructive, perhaps? IT would line up with his past far better than sentiment and would-be heroics and it would be nice to think that there were a few rational people out there. Even taking that missile to the Chitauri wasn't selfless as Stark would have died had he done nothing.
SHIELD director Nick Fury was there as well. Was he never going to escape one-eyed authority figures trying to thwart him? Though the fact that he had managed to fool and frustrate someone that made him think of both Heimdall and Odin was certainly an unexpectedly pleasant part of his stay on the SHIELD airship. The both of them were notoriously difficult to get one over on. Heimdall, in fact, proved highly resistant to the world-destroying Casket of Ancient Winter. Still, his presence could only be a negative given the amount of damage that Loki had done to SHIELD forces.
Steve Rogers. Just his 'Captain America' moniker would be enough to alert Loki to something being amiss about him even without the whole sordid tale of the man out of time. Being yanked away from everything he's ever known and trusted and being thrust into a terrifying new world through no fault of his own…Loki might have identified and Roger's story definitely had potential. Unfortunately, he was so dreadfully boring.
A stand-up guy loyal to the cause and accepting of everybody? What was he supposed to do with that? It was some of Thor's most irritating qualities only greatly magnified. Loki had enjoyed dominating him in that fight in Germany the way he'd never been able to dominate Thor. It had actually been a shame his plan required him to surrender when Stark showed up. Bringing his own fight music? That was style.
Bruce Banner. After his rampage had nearly brought the airship down, it was a little surprising to see him still uncaged. There was a cage to be found, undoubtedly, but there he was walking around a free man anyway. But then, it had not been terribly long since the New York battle and the Hulk had – mostly – managed to face the right direction then. That gratitude would fade and Banner would once more be forced to face the truth about himself. He was just as much of a monster as Loki, regardless of what those around them might like to pretend sometimes. He might as well just let the galaxy know that he was a Frost Giant. But then, if he was a monster then people would see it through his actions and he need hardly condescend to let them know why.
Agent Barton. That man who had been his most faithful and among the most useful of his puppets was somehow managing ot look at him with more hostility than everyone else combined. It was so like a human to take something that really had nothing to do with him and make it personal. He was probably blaming himself for what he had done. If he'd been an Asgardian, his mind never would have been stolen. And he'd even failed to kill Natasha Romanoff as he had been sent to do.
Weak.
Despite that, he could and probably would make things more difficult than they needed to be. But then, nothing about Thor's whole delusional 'redemption' scenario was at all necessary so what was one more needless element thrown into the mix? He could only hope that this wouldn't be boring but his expectations were not high. It was Midgard, after all. Why had he ever wanted to rule it again? Ah, right. Thor. Was there nothing that was not about that man?
Agent Romanoff. Loki's personal least favorite. It wasn't, as these humans seemed to think, because she was a woman. Sif was a woman and, while she was as annoying as any of his brother's friends, he well-respected her skill in battle and knew that without is magic he wouldn't have a prayer against her. And it wasn't that she had tricked him, either, because that had been annoying but ultimately useless.
No, he hated her because she lived a lie, the same lie that Thor was trying to shove down his throat. Redemption. The idea that no matter what you had done, you could always make up for it by championing the side of good. If there even was such a thing. SHIELD had its share of dark secrets and the island of Manhattan had almost been obliterated by one of their 'birds.' It would have been another interesting test of Asgardian immortality had he not been there himself. Thor had cheated anyway with that falling death trap.
Those who believed that they could change their fate, often written long before they were aware of it, disgusted him.
"Hello, friends!" Thor boomed, effortlessly cutting through the awkward silence.
"Thor, you said that Asgard would imprison him," Fury said, a little annoyed.
Thor nodded. "That I did."
"Well he doesn't look very imprisoned to me," Fury said, nodding Loki's way.
Loki merely gazed coolly at him.
"What kind of Asgardian justice is this?" Fury demanded.
"We were not going to kill Loki," Thor replied. "He is my brother."
Loki was not but he was not about to have this argument again in front of people he did not particularly care to have know about his origins.
"So that left us with two options. Imprisoning someone forever is a little excessive no matter what they have done so we could either imprison him for a very long time and hope that he would not be even more evil at the end of it – which is usually what happens – or we could try and prevent future outbreaks of evil deeds by redeeming him," Thor explained. "We chose the latter."
"That does make a certain sort of sense," Rogers said slowly. "But only when someone desires redemption for themselves. Does Loki?"
Thor wouldn't look at him. "He's here, isn't he?"
Fury just shook his head. "I hope you know what you're doing. Stark's convinced me to allow this for now but the Council cannot hear about this."
"You would lie to your own leaders?" Thor asked, shocked.
Stark snorted. "Lying to the Council is official SHIELD policy."
"It's true," Banner added. "Apparently they've been looking for me for a year and yet SHIELD sent Natasha off to me the minute the Tesseract was stolen."
"I do not mean to pry but why is everyone here?" Thor wondered. "Is something going on that I am not aware of?"
"No," Barton assured him. "We were just curious to see how this little drama would play out."
"Ah, with Loki?" Thor realized. "Tony, you said that you would have suggestions for how we should get started, I believe."
"I do," Stark said, nodding.
"We all helped," Romanoff said, smiling downright wickedly.
"But before we get to that," Stark said, seemingly casual. "If you're going to be spending some time down here you're going to need money, right? You had to have had some to buy those Pop Tarts you have with you but how much can you possibly have?"
"None," Thor admitted. "I was recognized as having fought in the battle against the Chitauri and was given these for free."
"Free stuff is always good," Stark agreed. "But you cannot rely on it. How would you like it if whatever you wanted to buy was paid for by me? Chances are, I can get a tax break for it anyway."
Thor looked delighted. "That would be wonderful!"
Loki was reluctant to break his silence in front of all these people who hated him but he really did have to say something at this point. "He's going to want something in return more substantial than a 'tax break.'" Whatever that was.
Barton and Romanoff both glared at him, not so much for what he had said but the fact that he had spoken at all.
Stark grinned a little, unconcerned. "Well…what do you know about 'merchandizing'?"
"Absolutely nothing," Thor said honestly.
"It's where you sell products related to a person or character. Well, I've licensed everyone else – and by that I mean, the Hulk, Captain America, and myself – and so I would like to have your permission to start selling Thor merchandise."
"Why would anyone want something with my name or image upon it?" Thor asked, confused.
Stark shrugged. "I don't know but they will, believe me they will. I'm already making a ton of money on what I've sold so far. I mean, I had already been selling Iron Man merchandise and even sales for that are up. You don't need all this money anyway and dealing with all the logistics and little details will just give you a headache. Let me do this and I'll take care of all of the financials. Just sign here." He held up a contract.
Thor took the contract and Loki moved so that he could read it (because he knew that Thor wouldn't) and, after Loki nodded, Thor signed his name.
"It's a little disturbing that you just happened to have that on hand," Rogers said, shaking his head.
"Is this about my persistence in getting you to sign?" Stark asked, amused.
"I'd call it more harassment," Rogers grumbled. He looked at the rest of them. "He followed me to the gym and yammered on about the benefits of doing this for three hours. I went through twice as many punching bags as usual!"
"So, Loki, any chance of you-" Stark stopped abruptly at the look that Loki was giving him. "I'll take that as a 'no' then."
"I have signed," Thor said, handing the contract back. "Now what is your idea?"
From the way that certain members of the group were smirking at him, Loki had a feeling that he probably did not want to know.
"This," Loki sniffed, looking at all the trash dotting the side of the road, "is beneath me."
"I know that it may not be the most glamorous of tasks, Brother, but it must be done," Thor told him. He turned to Banner. "I had not been aware that cleaning up highways was a part of our Avenger initiative, however."
"It wasn't," Banner agreed. "But they decided to try something new and expand."
"They decided to do this the minute that they heard your plan," Loki translated.
"I'm sure that's not it," Thor disagreed.
Loki sighed. "Am I supposed to just pick up the trash with my bare hands or am I allowed to use magic?"
Thor looked surprised at the question. "If you weren't going to be allowed to use magic then there would not be much point in ignoring your complaints and letting you keep your magic."
Loki waved his hand and all of the trash within view began to float towards the bag they had brought.
"Wait," Banner said, frowning. "Are you saying that Loki doesn't think you're being hard enough on him?"
The last thing that Loki wanted was to discuss his various issues with Thor's special brand of punitive measures with an outsider and so, as the three began to walk towards more trash, he said, "Does it bother you that you have a cage at Stark Tower?"
Banner blinked at him. "How did you even-?"
He hadn't known, of course, but it was obvious that he would.
Thor groaned. "Loki…"
"What?" Loki asked. "I'm honestly curious." And still very much thinking about what had happened the last time he had seen the monster lurking within this seemingly dull scientist.
"That cage is for everybody's protection in case the Other Guy gets out of control. It's a precaution and nothing else," Banner said clearly.
"I suppose," Loki said slowly. "But then, you're hardly the only one who's dangerous and yet you're the only one not trusted, aren't you? Anyone else can plan to have a real fight in the middle of a crisis and no one so much as bats an eye but when it's Dr. Banner then he can't display the slightest emotion or else hands start twitching for guns."
Thor sighed. "You always do this. I'm so sorry, Bruce."
"Don't worry about it," Banner assured him. He narrowed his eyes at Loki. "I rarely show signs of being angry. If people were to freak out every time one of the others got upset then they would almost never calm down."
"Or it could be the fact that they can get angry without destroying everything in sight," Loki theorized.
Banner smiled wanly. "Believe me, getting angry is not the secret."
"Still, just knowing that there is a special place to cage you and no one else…" Loki trailed off.
"I think you well-proved that my various cages can adequately house others if need be," Banner replied. "And yes, for your information, the others do occasionally use it."
Loki raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Tony," Banner revealed, "uses it whenever he wants to practice his fighting but is too…busy to take it outside."
"And this happens often?" Thor asked him uncertainly.
Banner smiled again. "Let's just say that if the Other Guy does come out and needs to be contained then he might have to wait awhile."
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