Hi everyone! Long time no see! Yeah, sorry about that, what with school and everything, I've been kinda bogged up. But I hope this chapter makes it up to you! I own nothing, and I'd like to thank everyone whose favorite or followed the story so far! Enjoy!
"Ok, honey can you hand me another bucket of nails?" Steve Rogers called down to his wife from his perch in the partly made tree-house.
"The long ones or the short ones?"
"Um, the long ones."
Mrs. Rogers grabbed the bucket of nails and began her ascent up the plank ladder.
"Sweetie I just wanted to tell you again how great I think it is you're doing this for Ryan's tenth birthday. She's going to be so surprised when she comes back from Ria's!" She reached to top of the ladder and gave her husband a peck on the forehead.
"I hope so Hon," Steve replied, smiling at the kiss and reaching out to take the bucket. "But I don't know if I'll be able to get it finished in time. I mean I've had a whole weekend but this is bigger job then I thought!"
"You could have had it done in two minutes if you'd let me use magic."
Steve jumped at the voice and whirled around, clutching a hand to his pounding chest. "Will you stop doing that?! You know I hate it when you pop in out of nowhere!"
Loki, lord of Mischief, smiled brightly from his seat on one of the larger branches of the tree. "Ah, but that's what makes it so fun!"
He crawled down the branch like a cat and dropped onto the floor of the tree house. "Like I said, you could have had the whole Ryan free weekend to relax with your lovely wife if you'd just let me build this fortress of trees."
"Let you build the tree-house?" Steve asked raising an eyebrow, "Not likely. Knowing you it'd end up coming to life and start wreaking havoc on the neighborhood."
"Actually I was just going to build it superfast and then enchant it to be bigger on the inside; but I like your idea much better!"
Steve raised his hammer but his wife grabbed his arm. "Steve dear, remember what happened the last time, and besides, he has a point. Ryan'll be here in a few hours and you're only half done!"
Steve glared at his wife, who gave and apologetic shrug. Rolling his eyes, he dropped his arm. "Fine!" he groaned. Then he turned, pointing a finger at Loki, "You can finish up. But no spells, enchantments or any other sort of hocus pocus to make it anything more than a tree-house, alright?"
Loki shrugged, looking put out. "Fine, fine, honestly Rogers you're so boring sometimes."
He stood up, raising his hands to begin the spell. He paused suddenly, and turned back to the Rogers. "You um, may want to stand clear of this. There's going to be nails and boards flying around…literally."
Taking the hint, Steve and his wife quickly scrambled down the ladder and into the safety of their home. They slid the back door shut just as the first board went dancing through air up towards the tree-house.
"Oh Steve it's just like that scene from the Sword in the Stone!" Mrs. Rogers cried in excitement as they watched the flying construction equipment dance in the air around Loki, boards being sawed and nailed into place by an invisible force.
Steve groaned, trying to force away the image of Ryan pulling her wooden sword from a stone while a blue cloaked and white bearded Loki looked on proudly.
III
Ryan's blue eyes widened as she looked up at the tree. "T-this is mine? You guys made this for me? I-it's…beautiful."
The tree-house, or more appropriate, tree-castle rose up in the tree, the walls were painted to look like stone, the door could be raise and lowered like a drawbridge, and on top of one of the small towers flew a blue pennant with a gold R emblazoned on it.
"I love it Daddy! Thank you thank you thank you!" The young girl squealed with glee as she hugged her father.
Steve smiled through gritted teeth, "I'm glad you like it sweetheart." He turned to look over at Loki, "Your Uncle Loki helped too…"
Ryan squealed again and gave the other man a hug as well, before rushing up the ladder to the castle.
The minute she was up Steve's smile feel into a snarl. "I thought I said you could only use magic to build the tree-house!"
"I did!" Loki insisted, "It's a perfectly normal tree-house that…just happens to bear a striking resemblance to Windsor Castle."
While the two men argued, Ria Potts-Stark continued to stare in blank shock at the tree-castle her best friend was currently running around. She turned to her father, disbelief and annoyance on her face.
"Daddy how come you never built me a tree-house?"
"Well, sweetie there aren't exactly any trees growing in the tower…"
"Oh…" she was silent for a moment, "Could…you build a tree in the tower?"
Tony raised an eyebrow at his daughter, and then lowered it, a thoughtful look on his face. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number.
"Bruce? Yeah it's me. Hey do you think you could help me talk Pepper into covering the sixteenth flour with dirt and foliage?"
III
Three weeks later…
"So kid, whadda ya think?" Tony Stark asked as he grinned smugly down at his daughter.
Ria looked up at the gleaming spaceship like tree-house that towered above her. The tree it rested in was set square in the middle of the room, surrounded by a small forest of plastic shrubbery, all of which looked out at New York City from the dizzying height of Stark Tower. A miniature park inside of a skyscraper.
"It's perfect! Thank you so much Daddy!"
She grinned wide, and hugged her father. He embraced her back, and in doing so couldn't see the grin turn into a smirk.
"Ryan's gonna eat her heart out when she sees!" Ria whispered to herself.
"What was that honey?"
"Nothing Dad!" Ria replied, just a little to brightly. "Nothing at all…"
III
Ryan Rogers was not really the jealous type, but she did have pride. Ria may have been her best friend, but a person could only stand so much bragging before they had to hang up on even the best of friends.
"Stupid Ria, just because her tree-house has a TV and a computer and phone in it!" Ryan grumbled as she climbed the ladder to her own tree-fort. "What, does that make her think it's better than mine?!"
"Now why are you marring such a lovely face with such a frightful scowl Princess?"
Ryan jumped at the voice, and then smiled when she saw the figure currently occupying one of the tree-house's chairs.
"Hi Uncle Loki. It's Ria again, she's got a new tree-house too and she's just spent the last half-hour telling me how much cooler it is than mine!"
Ryan snorted at the very thought that anything could be superior to something made her father and 'uncle'.
Loki smiled at Ryan's obvious contempt for the Stark girl's bragging. He'd never really been on what one would call…friendly terms with the child. He found her to be utterly too much like her father, and she had obviously taken to every terrible tale that Stark had told her of him. They mostly tolerated each other's presence to please Ryan, but if there was a chance to wreak some havoc on the Stark household with Ryan's consent, or even cooperation…
"Ryan my princess…" Loki said slowly, choosing his words carefully.
"You know I would never want to cause contention among friends…but…what do you say to knocking Miss Potts-Stark down a few notches?"
Ryan scowl slowly turned into a smile…
III
Ria was on her phone, in the middle of explaining all the advantages of her tree-house over Ryan's to her friend Jaya, when she heard the first splat.
At first she had figured it was just another dumb pigeon flying into the surrounding windows, a common enough occurrence at Stark Tower. But then there had been another splat, and another, and another!
Ria figured even a whole flock of pigeons couldn't be that stupid, and had paused her one-sided conversation to peer out one of the portals of her tree-space ship. What she saw made her jaw drop.
Splattered across the window, in a mix of dripping, oozing paints where the words: Magic beats Science!
For about five minutes, Ria simply stared at the words, her usually quick mind drawing a complete blank. Who would want to write such a weird message on her tower? Why would they? And how could somebody have painted a window sixteen stories above the ground?!
And suddenly, as she looked out at the oozing graffiti, the answer to all the questions came together in three simple words.
"Ryan and Loki…"
Ria's lips pursed, and her eyes narrowed. Two could play at that game. In fact…two would! She picked up her phone from where, in shock, she had dropped it. Jaya's voice was coming through, asking if Ria was still there.
"Jay, get up here. We're about to initiate the greatest long distance prank war this state's ever seen!"
III
Ryan lay on the floor of the tree-house, laughing hysterically. Loki smiled benignly down at her from his position next to a magically conjured trebuchet; which had just finished launching a dozen equally magical paint bombs across the miles that separated the Roger's backyard from their intended target.
"Oh man!" Ryan wheezed, clutching at her sides to try and stop their shaking. "I- hahahaha-I wish I could see Ria's face when they hit! Hahahaha!"
"Indeed. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing her father's reaction either." Loki said with a smirk.
"I'll—hahaha—I'll bet she's just sitting there wishing she had a real spaceship to fly over and get us back with!"
III
"Do you mean to tell me this is real spaceship?!" Jaya exclaimed as Ria adjusted various dials and knobs from her seat in the tree-ship cockpit.
"Yup." Ria pronounced with almost tangibly conceit. "I made a few modifications to it while Daddy and Uncle Bruce weren't looking. I've just been waiting for an excuse to take it out for a test flight, and good old Ryan just provided me with one! Now put your seatbelt on! We're about to launch this baby!"
Jaya just shook her head, too overwhelmed to act in her normal capacity of 'Voice of Reason'. It wasn't easy being friends with a super genius, (even if you weren't to far behind on the bell curve yourself), especially one with the resources and utter lack of common sense possessed by Ria Potts-Stark. Most of the time, you just had to buckle up for the ride and hope it'd all turn out all right in the end. And apparently, this was going to be one of those times.
Ria flipped a final switch, and the engines roared to life, scorching the artificial shrubbery below them.
"Now!" She called over the roar of the thrusters as the spaceship lifted from its tree. "If my mom asks, it was all my Dad's fault for not keeping a closer eye on my extra-curricular activities! OK?!"
"What?!" Jaya called back, unable to hear anything over the engines and the large window of the sixteenth floor opening up to allow their flight,( and the voice of JARVIS trying desperately to talk some sense into his young charge).
"Awesome!" Ria agreed. "Ok, Five, Four, Three, Two,-"
"Miss Ria," JARVIS cut in, " I really must advise against this course of acti—"
"ONE! BLASTOFF!"
The spaceship shot out of the tower like a Pez an over sized Pez-dispencer, sailing over the skyline of New York and throwing all of the Chitauri War veterans who saw it into a screaming frenzy.
Ria, oblivious to the panic she was inciting grinned like a Chesire cat as she guided the ship through the crowds. "Flies real smooth huh?!"
"S-s-sure!" Jaya managed to say through chattering, gritted teeth as she tried desperately to avoid looking out the window.
"Yup!" declared Ria, looking like a proud parent as she adjusted the ships coordinates. "When Ryan and Reindeer Games see this baby, they'll wet their pants! Onward!"
And with that the ship speed off in the direction of the Rogers Household…
III
Ryan was still laughing uncontrollably when the shadow appeared over the tree-house. A first, she thought it was just a passing cloud, but then she heard the noise…
"Wa-haha-wait…what's that?"
There was as strange sound in the air, like a far off whistle. Only, it seemed to be getting louder by the second. Still slightly shaky from laughing so hard, Ryan managed to get up and walk over to the window.
She stuck her head out to see what was happening—and received a huge water balloon smack in the face!
Dazed and dripping, Ryan staggered back and Loki had to reach to catch her before she fell on the floor.
"Wha-wha—huh?" Was all she managed to get out.
Gently placing Ryan on a chair, Loki moved swiftly to the window, careful only to peer out enough to see, but not be seen.
For a moment his mind simply couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. There appeared to be some sort of…spacecraft hovering about a half a mile over the Rogers's home. This was not such of an odd occurrence as one might think. Rogers was, after all, an Avenger. But usually the aliens tried to take out the bigger structures before moving into the suburbs.
It was only when his eagle-sharp eyes spotted the logo on the hull of the ship that Loki realized what was going on. "Stark."
He might have known that little smart-mouthed brat wouldn't stand to be one-uped for long. The gunnels of the ship looked to be preparing for another strike, and Loki knew he had to think fast.
"Ryan!" He said sternly as he turned back to his stunned charge. "The sanctity of your home has been breached by the machinations of Ria Potts-Stark ! We must avenge this outrage! Will you aid me in this princess?"
(He cringed as how much he sounded like Thor rallying the troops, but, war was war).
Ryan had never been one to back down when faced with a challenge, (particularly when it meant showing up Ria). She leapt from her chair, raising her hand up to her dripping hair in a salute.
"Sir yes Sir!"
Loki grinned dangerously. "Then let us begin."
III
Jaya looked on in growing anxiety as Ria laughed manically.
"That was awesome! Hahahaha! Did you see that! Right in the kisser! Who's tree-house beats who's now huh?! Mwhahahahaha!"
"Huh huh…" Jaya answered absently, eyeing the tree-castle below them apprehensively. Something…odd was going on down there. She thought she saw a green flash of light, but she must have imagined it, as it was gone the next second. Still, Jaya knew enough about Ryan Rogers's unconventional babysitter to know they should be acting more cautious then they were.
"Ok Ria, we got her…so can we go know? I'm supposed to be back in time for dinner…"
Ria rolled her eyes at her meeker friends unease, and gave an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, Yeah, just let me drop one more on the—"
At the precise moment, the ship rocked dangerously in the air as something from below struck the lower side with the force of a cannonball!
Ria scrambled wildly to regain the ship's equilibrium. "What the heck was that?!"
"I don't know!" Jaya leaned over in her seat, peering out the window. "It looks like they're trying to soak us back! I-is that a trebuchet?!"
Ria scowled. She should have known that Loki would conjure up something. "Well…there's more where that came from! Our 'that' I mean. Get in the second cockpit Jay! If it's a war they want, it's a war they'll get!"
Ria's eyes were gleaming crazily as she prepared for a second attack, and Jaya wondered why she didn't just stay home whenever Ria's number came up on the phone.
III
Steve and his wife had been enjoying a wonderful date in the city; at least, they had been until the Chitauri scare earlier. After giving the city a quick sweep, Steve had concluded it had been a false alarm, probably just Stark messing around again and not being careful.
At any rate, both of them were tired, and ready to get home and enjoy a nice, quiet evening.
One would really think they'd have learned better by now.
As they neared their neighborhood, streams of people began fleeing past the car, waving arms wildly and screaming such things as:
"Water! Water Everywhere!" and "The Horror! The Horror!" and frequently "I told you we should have moved! When it was only cookie dough floods I told you!"
With growing dread, (mixed with ever increasing acceptance that they're lives were never going to be nice and quiet) the Rogers pulled onto their street.
The place looked like it'd been hit by a tsunami. Lawns had turned to bogs of mud, houses were missing shingles, the ground was littered with pieces of trees and hundreds burst rubber water balloons.
Several trebuchets manned by a slew of duplicate Loki's were firing at a small spaceship that was rapidly firing back. The largest of the trebuchets was could be seen sticking out from behind the Roger's house, sticking up from the tree-house.
The original Loki was conjuring water balloons at an amazing speed, which were being loaded onto the trebuchet by a soaking wet Couler (recruited to the Roger's side of the skirmish a few hours ago), as above them, in the highest tower of the tree house, an equally soaking wet Ryan, sporting one of her father's old blue war helmets, barked orders to her Loki troops.
Steve and his wife simply looked on in absolute shock as the scene played out before them, water balloons splattering their car.
Finally, Steve turned to his wife, and with an expressionless tone asked, "Do you think Fury could make one of those big old glass cells for Loki again?"
"I think we should be more concerned with getting one for Ryan.." She replied.
Well, there you go! Hope you all enjoy it! Thank you so much for waiting so patiently! If you'd like to see some of what I've been working on, feel free to check out my other story Rising Son. I hope you like it! Reviews are always welcome!