A/N: I bet you all thought I'd died or something, huh?
Nope! I just had a novel to write and college to apply for, but now I am free! Mostly. Anyway, I apologize for the delay and I hope this delay makes up for it. Warning that there will be some OCs in this chapter (because Loki's coworkers couldn't easily be canon characters), but they're not going to be major. Also, I apologize for the implied /OC, but that's again a one-time thing just to show that even without his memory Loki is, in almost all aspects, still Loki.
Setting Kaiser up with the café was Peter's self-proclaimed work of genius.
The owner, an ex-cop, would go through any layer of favors for Gwen's sake, and she had been too curious about Kaiser to even act grumpy about agreeing. It wasn't a place Peter went to all that often before he and Gwen started dating, but he had been sort of forcefully acquainted with it, and didn't feel there was any risk of culture shock, not after how well their amnesiac had dealt with the cleanup group. It was a tiny place, about the size of a classroom, with a cozy little loft upstairs where people liked to drink their coffee and read. (Said loft was also currently attached to a room that had once housed the owner, Linette, herself, but now contained only boxes full of linoleum wrap and cardboard cup holders that even Peter was more than a little reluctant to actually go into, lest he be buried under reasonably- priced kitchenware.)
She had been complaining about the need for a waiter for years. A bad leg had forced her to quite the force and trumping up and down the stairs wasn't an easy option. But all of her employees were relatives of former coworkers or long-time customers, Linette didn't trust anybody enough to let them deal with her clients. Peter had already regretfully refused the job twice, and Gwen probably many a time more than that.
Okay, so an amnesiac British guy with a scar as big as Peter's hand wasn't exactly trustworthy, but they'd vouched for him and prodded until Linette had consented for an interview. Not that poor Kaiser really knew what an interview was, but he was currently kicking the process' ass with only natural effort, as Peter had expected. Like he'd said, genius.
Gwen wasn't any less optimistic, though she only showed it by smiling over her cup as they watched Kaiser talk their hard-faced friend into a blinking state of awe. "I don't know how he does it, she loves him. I thought she was going to shoot him when he walked in the door, now she looks read to fall at his feet."
"Yeah, he has that effect on girls." Peter had a plastic bottle of milk in hand (plain, he'd lost the taste for chocolate),and the barista was giving him dirty looks from behind her counter. "I think his sweat gives off some weird hormone or something, he can't just be that good."
"Maybe it's the accent. Clearly it's something strange, because he definitely doesn't have your outstanding eloquence and charm on his side," Gwen taunted with the appearance of entire severity, nodding with a solemn half-frown. "Wow, she's completely smitten. I never thought I would use that word, but smitten she is. How is he going to get around work?"
"It's walking distance, I'll go with him for awhile, at least until he stops looking like a street- robber's wet dream. Seriously, he's so helpless I think even I'm tempted to rob him sometimes."
The latter part of that final sentence was a certain exaggeration (though the barista didn't seem to realize this and now looked highly concerned on top of annoyed) but the former was true enough. Kaiser was improving, but though he looked healthy enough to serve a few cups of coffee up and down the stairs it was obvious he wasn't going to be available for much else. Maybe that was part of why Linette was watching him with such genuine consideration- there was definitely no threat in a guy who could barely sit up straight. Weakness wasn't usually a prerequisite for employees, but Peter had given up on "usual" about the same time he developed the ability to stick to the ceiling of subway trains.
The job had pretty much been in the bag from the moment Linette agreed to an interview, so nobody (except probably Kaiser himself) was exactly surprised when she stood up to shake his hand, saying a few parting words that probably had something to do with the boring legal part of working. Peter watched the two throw this mumbo-jumbo back and forth a moment, then grinned broadly and gave a few dramatic claps as Kaiser walked toward them, expression even more of a daze than was usual.
"That was a very frightening woman," he admitted in way of explanation as he joined them. Gwen gave him an understanding smile, and offered the cup of tea they had bought for a similar purpose, but Peter only shrugged.
"Just wait until she gets mad, it's terrifying."
"Not as much so as May, I am sure?"
"Well Aunt May's a special case, she could probably force supervillains to their knees with a single glare."
"Super what?"
"Don't worry about it."
"When do you start working, Kaiser?" Gwen wasn't concerned with the revelation of supervillainy, they had after all shown him a city leveled by its results, but they had decided it was probably best not to give too many details. Kaiser had enough to worry about without suspecting everyone he met to whip out a magic ray gun or something.
There was a pause as Kaiser sipped his tea, and another as he frowned ever- so- slightly over the rim in apparent thought. "Saturday. That's… two days. One of the employees will be showing me what to do. I don't know how to make coffee, or deal with customers- I am worried I'll only disappoint you both."
"I dunno, I think coffee selling's a little easier than advanced physics, but I may be wrong." Kaiser didn't actually seem so sure of this, so Peter made a note that sarcasm should be reserved for unimportant situations in the near future. "It's nothing tough, you'll have it all down in ten minutes, tops."
"And if I faint?" This hadn't happened in about a week, but Kaiser hadn't been doing much physical activity, either, and the genuine concern in his eyes was mimicked more or less in Gwen's frown. Peter knew the man was more worried about his work habits than his health, but he shared his girlfriend's anxiety over the latter.
"Linette knows what's up. You feel dizzy you can go lie down, that's what breaks are for."
Kaiser didn't look exactly certain, but he was determined to do some kind of work, and so with a shrug somewhere between nonchalant and a simple excuse for movement the man consented. Peter didn't think there was much reason to freak out like this- judging by the way the barista was watching her new coworker, he was going to get along in this place just fine.
Work was a strange experience.
It took Kaiser less than a day to become familiar with the routine of working in the shop, yet much of the job could not be classified as routine business. He couldn't, for example, guess what sort of person he would next be serving, or how many, or who would spill their drink and where they might do it. The innovation was a little bit fun at first, but even with the guidance of Anna and Kim (his two coworkers) it was also extremely overwhelming.
Peter and Gwen were, in most ways, stables. He was learning what to expect from them, and even beginning to understand May, and while the woman he worked with were strangers yet they were at least constants he could learn to know. But this constant flow of people… regular customers were a dream of sorts, a break from the near-frantic demands placed on him with each new wave of weary New Yorkers, but even those were few and far between. (Peter and Gwen were, of course, the most common- every day he worked they would stop by, and when they could stay for a drink or two, as well as to provide their embarrassing check-ups on his well being, or to help him home. He felt half like a child, but comforted all the same.)
Mostly it was just oddities. Kaiser would have been terrified by it all, but he found it helped to sort those he served into groups- upstairs were usually two types. The young ones ('teenagers', who Kim always divided into Hipsters, Jocks, Wannabes, and other words he couldn't quite understand) and the haggard adults on their labtops, many of whom were finely dressed while others made up the most slovenly of the café's visitors. And downstairs all sorts took their breaks- mostly it was the rushing working or learning class, a phone almost always under the ear and labtop or textbook tucked away until the final destination was met. Not the most polite, but the least involved, and so usually Kaiser's favorites.
There was always somebody each hour or so who would complain loudly of the prices- as though he had been the one to set them- and another who spent five minutes or upward deciding which drink suited their current fancy. Around the afternoon Kaiser saw swarms of younger customers, most of whom spent only the time it took to purchase their orders actually inside the shop but quite a bit more lingering outside, and by evening things simply became weird.
One man had demanded his coffee be prepared five different times over, until the taste was just right, and then become so frustrated that he demanded to see the manager and argued with Linette for quite some time over why he deserved a free drink. A woman had wandered in drunk, and Kaiser had become so flustered in attempting to deal with her that the girls had needed to come and rescue him from his own confusion. Though that had actually become a bit of a frequent occurrence, unfortunately- only once did he have to take the reverse position, when some upstart boy decided he had the right to demand a good deal more than coffee from Kim. Kaiser, seeing she had no desire for this and knowing she had no interest in men at all, had made himself dizzy for a day after by grabbing the boy around the collar and throwing him rather forcefully out the door.
Silence had followed, and not the sort Kaiser assumed was positive. He had expected to be fired, or threatened, but Linette had only asked him to take up night shifts in the recent future.
Which had led to this, a late Friday evening sweeping up the shop an hour or so past closing, while Anna went through inventory with the back door swung open for conversation. It had been nearly two weeks since he had begun working there, and his health had recovered enough that headaches were few and far between, and lifting had become a simple task. Kaiser was glad for it, of course, but more so glad that the wound on his head was more of a scar now, though it was by no means pleasant to look it, even if Anna constantly told him how interesting it was. The girl enjoyed inventing her own stories for how it may have come about, and Kaiser never stopped her. They were interesting at the least, if not quite comforting.
"Maybe you walked in on a robbery- or, even better, I bet it was a drug transaction. Like a big one, with public politicians and cops involved and everything, and they just whacked you with the briefcase to shut you up," she suggested eagerly. "Or maybe it was a wild animal attack."
"Well those squirrels are rather fierce," Kaiser agreed absently, a slight hitch in his voice as he raised one of the tables enough that he might sweep underneath it. It was amazing what a mess one small room could accumulate in the course of a few hours, sometimes he thought people must be putting in a good deal of literal effort to accomplish it. (Of course, there were kids like Peter, who came in with their skateboards and forgot until someone like Gwen alerted them to the problem. Kaiser hardly minded, though- he loved the chance to be doing something, so long as he didn't work long enough to bring up another headache.)
Anna chose to bypass his little commentary, rather than run the risk of forgetting her next theory. "Or maybe the Alice statue came to life and beat the shit out of you. That's the one you were next to, right?"
"So Peter tells me. I don't know, really. I haven't gone to the park yet, or at least I don't recall it."
"Seriously? Don't you want to look for a clue or anything?" This was followed by the usual thumping of boxes that meant Anna had finished her counting quickly and was in the process of shoving materials back onto the shelves. As Kaiser was almost done with his cleaning, this meant an early night- free time he didn't quite want. "Knowing nothing about you must suck."
"It's not awful, I think. It's… frightening, is all." Everything was a threat. Kaiser knew he viewed things the same way a child might, as new and threatening and best left avoided. Yet unlike a child he had no mother or father to cling to in his fright, and he could hardly count Peter as anything but a younger brother, so while his company was welcome, he had the feeling it was an inadequate substitute. For what, though, he couldn't say. "I'm learning."
The last of the tables cleaned and dirt exiled to the trashcan, Kaiser bypassed Anna as she exited the closet to enter it and set the cleaning supplies out of the way. She waited outside as he shut the lights and door, and then stepped in with the keys to lock it. "But you're an adult- do you even know what a kiss is?"
"From what I've read it seems to be when two people enjoy each other's company enough to smash their mouths together. I can't imagine it's pleasant."
"Well it is. Seriously." He must have looked suspicious, because Anna huffed up in indignation that quickly turned to a wily sort of grin as she pondered the situation, which Kaiser wasn't particularly comfortable having aimed toward him. He shifted uncomfortably, resting against the counter for something to do. "Try it. Hold still, okay?"
"Um, what-?" Kaiser expected it, really, but he still jumped an inch or so when she snatched him up and pressed her lips to his. It really was just clumsy, for a moment, but somewhere in his surprise Kaiser had brought his hands to the girl's waist, and her own locked around his neck, pulling him closer with a surprised but amused little laugh.
It was a rare moment when he remembered anything, but this was the first time his body gave him cues with no mental recollection. It was a vaguely foggy experience, from a thinking standpoint, and by the time they separated and Kaiser could actually think a moment he was a little breathless and a good bit embarrassed. "Um- I'm not quite sure- that was startling."
"Fun though?"
"Forward. Fun, but somehow I doubt May would approve. Do people generally kiss strangers?"
"Some. You're not a stranger, Kaiser, you're an attractive British coworker with memory loss. Call it… exploring." Anna was still close, but Kaiser supposed he was to blame for that- his hands hadn't moved, and he was on the verge of pulling them away for tact's sake. Yet he was curious, and no harm seemed to have been done for it, so he stayed as he was.
"Well, I did say I was trying to learn."
"Then call Peter and tell him you're staying in the upstairs room for overtime or something, you're not done learning yet."
Very little of genuine consequence may have come from this little… episode of sorts had Anna not been such a fan of her phone. Kaiser, needless to say, had been more than keen to sleep in until their shift at work began, but she had no head wounds hindering her ability to actually rest when she slept, and so pestered him for about an hour while he was still in the realm of semi-consciousness.
"You know, you are really adorable right now. Mind if I post a picture?"
Anna no doubt had her camera out and poised, but Kaiser couldn't quite drag his head up to actually look. He registered only that he was at least half covered by a blanket, and turned with his scar hidden against the pillow, and felt this was enough to mumble some noise of consent. Of course, Peter's warnings that he may be best keeping himself secret never even jumped to mind, and so it was that a picture of himself lying between rumpled bed- sheets ended up on the screens of SHIELD's virtual security team.
Kaiser wouldn't have known to be concerned by this even if he were fully aware, and so there was certainly nothing unhappy in his manner when he and Anna finally returned to work. As was usual on Saturdays, Peter and Gwen took up a table for homework within two hours of the store's opening, and were back in the business of amusing themselves by taking up his time with inane questions. (Or, at least, Peter was- Gwen may have smiled infrequently, but she never actually joined in the distractions.)
"So you're sure green tea lattes don't come with a shot of caramel?"
"Peter, you hate green tea. I can give you caramel, but you're chancing at an expensive joke."
"Hey now, customer's always right. And I say green tea goes with caramel."
"Give me the five dollars and you're welcome to prove me wrong."
The sad part was that Peter actually took this chance to dive for his wallet, and Kaiser had no doubt he would have gone through actually paying if they hadn't been interrupted by a sudden, collective girlish gasps and equally numbered mutterings of admiration or awe. It wasn't often the people in this place agreed on… well, on anything, so Kaiser pardoned himself quickly and glanced up, but saw nothing more impressive than a well dressed man holding a rather ostentatious suitcase making his way into the shop, and quite a few people stopping to stare and nudge their friends if they didn't happen to have noticed yet. Even Peter had suddenly frozen, with a look of adoration that had Gwen rolling her eyes.
"Am I missing something?" He wondered at a whisper, unsure if it would be appropriate to say this at a volume that might be overheard. The man wasn't paying him much attention though, so dangers seemed low- he simply slid into a seat as though oblivious to the stares and absent-mindedly began to flick through a menu, not looking altogether impressed.
"Yeah, you kind of are," Gwen admitted with one of her typical half-laughing smiles, "but don't worry about it. Go get that guy his food, I'll handle Peter's fanboy breakdown."
Kaiser nodded and drew himself up as she, still laughing quietly, leaned forward to snap her fingers repeatedly in front of Peter's dazed expression. He smiled at the boy's amusing awe but spared them no more than that minute glance- apparently this was an important customer, no good to keep him waiting, especially as the man had set down his menu after about ten seconds of browsing it.
"I take it you are ready to order, sir?" The man glanced up at his voice, wearing the oddest expression, entirely blank but for something in his eyes that had Kaiser stepping back nervously.
But it cleared up with a shake of the man's head, and after he'd watched him a moment longer he nodded, flipping open the menu to tap, seemingly randomly, on an order. "Yeah, get me that. And an espresso, biggest size you've got. Shot of…I dunno, vanilla, sounds fun."
Fun coffee. Well, not the most usual of terms, but hardly obscure. Kaiser jotted down the order, confirmed it, and went on his way with a brisk smile. When he carried the sheet off to Kim he found the girl watching him in a way that clearly suggested she found him moronic. "Oh what have I done now?"
The paper was snatched away and handed back to Jack (their cook for actual food, who was excessively unfriendly and avoided Kaiser to the best extent of his ability) and a sharp gaze turned on him, even as Kim went about making the coffee. "That's Tony Stark. How do even you not know that?"
"Pardon?"
"Tony Stark. Iron Man. The superhero."
"Oh, yes- I know him. Really? I expected something a touch… grander." Kaiser glanced back over his shoulder towards the man, shorter than Peter and himself by far, and found nothing that might mark him different than any ordinary business worker. There was a faint light beneath his shirt, but he supposed that was just a phone shining through. "He's so small."
"What'd you expect? Not everybody can be tall, dark, and British like you." Kim set the espresso down on a small platter and nudged it to him, nearly knocking the unfortunate drink off the counter, then took advantage of the freed empty space to rest her folded arms on it. "He lives on the opposite end of town, no idea what he's doing in here at ten in the morning. He look drunk to you?"
"No, he was sober. Perhaps he had work out here?"
"A rich guy like him still doesn't stop by places like this. He could get beans flown in and hand picked from Cuba if he wanted to."
"Perhaps he's in a hurry. Or lazy."
Kim shrugged, but Kaiser could tell she was dissatisfied with such an explanation, so he picked up the tray and turned away, speaking over his shoulder as he went. "Oh very well, I'll weasel something out of him. But don't get too excited, I'm sure he's not here for anything special."
It would take awhile yet for Stark's food to finish preparing, so Kaiser felt natural enough bringing him his drink a little early. He set it on the table with a few required pleasantries then straightened up and tucked the platter underneath his arm as he made to leave, stumbling slightly in his step and hesitating as if his eye had just now been drawn to the briefcase. "What an unusual color- do they usually come in red and gold like that?"
"Nope, custom made. Benefit of being me, I guess," Stark was clearly more interested in his drink than conversation, but still Kaiser leaned over slightly for a proper look, noting that the briefcase seemed to be made of metal. It was mostly a ploy, his interest, but he really couldn't help being intrigued.
"I can't imagine what you would need a thing like this for. Most of the people who come in just keep a few files with them." Kaiser knew better than to reach out and touch a stranger's property, so he simply rose, now, done with all the inspecting his eyes alone could do. "I don't see a lock, though, why such a protective case?"
Stark didn't seem to like the question much. "I don't take the best care of my things, call it a precaution if you want."
"Against what?" Kaiser wouldn't get his answer, however. At that moment Jack called impatiently to let him know Stark's food was ready to come out, and with a quick apology for taking the man's time he hurried off to comply.
Kim was waiting with the plate and a curious expression at the counter, but he could answer her with no more than a shake of his head. "I really do think it's just business- maybe he prefers to eat out. Not everybody has expensive tastes just because they can afford expensive food," he replied quickly, before she could tease him for his failures in casual interrogation. He hadn't had enough time to get much else out of the man, unfortunately. "He's a hero you said, it can't be anything devious."
"Who says heroes can't be devious? Actually, who says 'devious'?"
"I do, I read it in a book. Do people not use that word?"
Kim tsked and shook her head, mouth twisted in a sympathetic grimace. "Yeah, honey, no. Don't believe books all the time, you'll end up like Anna."
"Not necessarily a bad thing."
"She thinks you were attacked by a magic statue."
"Perhaps she's correct, then who'll look foolish?"
"Oh just go serve your devious superhero and shut up, you have other customers. We should get Stark out of here before Peter's fanboy drool creates a lake or something."
That did seem to be a danger, so with another laugh Kaiser stood and turned, again looking back as he went, intending to offer some reply. Yet when he did he saw Kim had her eyes fixed on something past him and was midway through a yelp of surprise. Startled, expecting some robber or something of the sort, Kaiser began to turn around, only for something to close around his neck the moment it was halfway exposed.
The platter fell to the floor with an awful noise as the contents shattered, but Kaiser paid it little attention. His hands automatically reached up to try and tug those around his throat away, but his attacker had him raised half a foot off the ground, and the constriction was, as a result, already keeping the blood and clarity from his head. Metal, that much he could tell, cold and unyielding, no matter how he scrambled to undo the grip.
"Sorry if I'm not in the mood for your games, Loki. Enough joking around- how did you get out of Asgard? What are you doing back here?" A mechanic voice demanded, accompanied by a slight increase of the pressure, cutting away what little air intake he'd actually been receiving.
Loki? Something about the word drew Kaiser's attention, but he couldn't focus, he couldn't even breathe. He tried to speak, to say he had no idea what was happening or what these questions meant, but all he managed was an incoherent choking gasp, and eventually nothing more than the movement of his lips. Attempting to form words with a meaning he was quickly forgetting, while his attempts to fight his way free grew rapidly weaker.
This pity act of Loki's was beginning to piss Tony off more than he might have normally thought possible. The god was a good performer, he'd give him that, but if he was going to keep this up and refuse to answer… well Fury had been pretty clear, and for once he'd agreed with the Director's methods- if Loki didn't cooperate, no use keeping him around.
"Three seconds, Maid Café," He warned. Loki wasn't a complete idiot, if he didn't take the threat seriously it was his own fault. And the god didn't seem on the verge of speaking, so Tony began to power up the repulsor, a steadily growing light- firing from this close, point blank at the neck? Even Loki wouldn't walk that one off easily. "One-"
JARVIS, ever faithful as he was, alerted him to a rapidly approaching object to the left, about the same moment that object knocked into the side of his face plate and sent him crashing through the nearby table (evacuated, obviously; most people had either packed up and left or scrambled away from their seats in confusion when Tony'd warned them to shut up about his getting the suit on), not enough to hurt but enough that the wood snapped beneath him, and sent him ungracefully to the floor.
Now people started to panic- and really, who could blame them? Peter figured it was probably pretty weird seeing one superhero come up and smack another one through a table. "I just punched Iron Man. Oh my god. I'm never washing this fist again." Wait a second… "Oh my god, I just punched Iron Man! Shit, uh- hey, sorry man, but that's my friend-"
He dove to the side almost before he realized he'd done it, the spider sense practically dragging his body along with it. Still, Stark's repulsor blast singed the side of his arm- more damage done to the fabric than his skin at that low level of power- and would have hit him square in the chest a millisecond sooner. There was a soft clanking of machinery as Iron Man got to his feet, and instinctively Peter took up his own fighting pose, hovering just in front of where Kaiser had hit the ground, chest heaving and completely unresponsive to the efforts his coworkers were making to help him.
Thankfully, Iron Man did no more than raise his hand and light it up, though he almost seemed to be glaring through that mask. Which was of course impossible, but still a little disturbing. "Back off before you get hurt, kid. He's not who you think he is."
"Really? Cause it looks to me like he's a guy who was trying to sell you some food. What's wrong, didn't like the coffee or something?" It felt weird, throwing this sort of banter at Stark- he knew him, sort of, they'd worked together more than once at the rebuilding site. He was a good guy, something must have been up for him to go after Kaiser like that- but the fact still stood that he was going after Kaiser. "What happened to role models these days? Armed assault isn't really the best- whoa, hey!"
Another near miss, but this time when Peter looked up from his dodge it was just in time to see Iron Man shooting towards him before he was caught around the waist by a metal grip, and they both went flying out the door.
It was propped open on nice days like this, or Peter would have caught a back full of glass- he didn't have much time to appreciate though, considering he was trying to break out of the grip of a superhero amongst superheroes. "Whoa, come on, not cool man."
Neither of them wanted a fight, or this could have gotten pretty ugly from here- especially, much as he hated to admit it, for Peter. He was still pretty new to this business and Iron Man was… well, Iron Man. And also now dangling him a few hundred feet in the air, though that would have been the easiest part of all this to remedy. "You be a good boy and swing off to deal with some more reptiles. I have a mass murderer to catch, and you're not making it any easier on me."
"Mass murderer? Dude, have you seen that guy? He faints when he has to lift too much, he'd have trouble killing a fly!" Bad idea to give this much info to Stark- superheroes weren't supposed to know that much about random waiters. Then again, the place had plenty of regulars and most of them knew Kaiser by name now, so maybe he could pass it off if it came to that. Bigger problems for now.
"See, here's the thing, he's lying. It's a pretty easy thing to do, I'm sure you've heard of it."
"Ouch."
"This isn't the time for joking around, kid! Stay out of this."
Peter knew it was only because the man knew he'd be fine, but he was still more than a little insulted when he was dropped a moment after this comment. Iron Man probably thought he'd swing off with his tail between his legs, but there was a phone poll nearby, and on thinking quickly Peter managed to catch it with his web and loop around, very nearly smacking into some pedestrians, to shoot off again, this time colliding into Stark a second before he pinpointed the café again.
He would have been impressed with his own quickness, but the other man didn't seem too appreciative of being kicked in the face, and Peter didn't have many handholds up here. By the time he swung off again Iron Man was already back at him, and this time the repulsor that nicked his shoulder burnt enough to do some minor damage. It wouldn't kill him, but it wasn't a friendly match anymore.
Okay, rude. Peter didn't know what he was planning to do, but he did know that once Kaiser was in a hospital he'd be safe from misjudging superheroes, and so rather than do the smart thing and call for a truce, he shot a string of web at the armor's eye slots. Iron Man just tilted his head to avoid them, but he revved up a second later, and Peter knew he had the distraction he needed.
If he could keep from getting his ass kicked in the next ten minutes.
Running would just be stupid, so he quickly scrambled to the top of a building, hoping to get some ground available, and ducked and rolled to avoid yet another beam. Iron Man knew better than to fly over the roof, though, and it wasn't like Peter had many effective attacks from this distance. The suit, however, had plenty. If he could just break the repulsors…
Not too likely, considering how quickly they fired at him. Peter swung off to the safety of a billboard to avoid another barrage, but this time kicked immediately off again, carrying himself just far enough to throw a mid-air (and probably really impractical) punch. It missed, to no great surprise, but he spun as best he could and shot one web to the brick building to his left, the other towards the armor's jets. Iron Man saw what he was doing, and though he didn't quite move his foot in time to protect it, he did immediately grab hold of the web and tug, throwing Peter off-balance before the other could catch against the building.
And then he turned, obviously intending to fly around with Peter stuck like this. Okay, bad idea- he quickly detached the web and tumbled to the ground, fairly close thanks to the length of the web, and rolled as he hit it, coming into a defensive stance just as Iron Man crashed to the ground in front of him. The café was behind his back, now- no chance of the man just walking through.
"You're making a big mistake, Kid." Stark warned as he stepped forward, slowly enough to give Peter the obvious chance to think. "I'm not going to hurt anybody, he can take a lot more than you think he can. Just trust me on- what? Fury the hell are you doing? I'm working. JARVIS screen my calls or someth- huh?"
It took Peter a moment to realize he was speaking into the helmet, to somebody he couldn't hear right now. His defensive position didn't waver, but he did frown slightly beneath the mask, not sure if this was a sign for or against him.
Amongst the entire crowd, many of whom had seemingly remained out of curiosity, Gwen had been the only one with the foresight to immediately call for an ambulance, but until they arrived Kaiser had nobody to count on but his coworkers. Not necessarily a bad thing in most circumstances, but none of them, even Linette, had any extensive medical training, though she had at least stopped them from CPR. Kaiser had air. He didn't really want it, not now when each breath seemed to rip open his throat, but he had it. He didn't need breath, or maybe he did- it was hard to tell, every part of his neck was hurting too badly for guesses of his own.
And he could taste blood- he couldn't see who it was, probably Anna, but somebody had actually come near to fainting when they bent over him and, as far as he could guess, found his lips red and trails of blood falling from the corners of his mouth. He could taste and feel it, though why it was a problem was hard to tell right now. There were people crowding around him, panicking, and meanwhile he was almost relieved.
Loki. The man had called him that- an odd name, to be sure, but it felt right to hear, probably right to say (though he could hardly test now), and certainly right to think. Loki. Kaiser was nothing but a string of letters to him, but this had the ring of something that belonged, something that was his. With or without his memory, he was sure o it.
"-iser!" That voice was loud, and familiar. He grimaced and tried to focus on it, but his head swam as much as the image did, and it seemed a vain effort. "Kaiser, hey, listen to me okay? We're getting a hospital, you need to stay awake. Okay, just don't fall asleep. Oh god, are you okay?"
Peter's voice, that was it, but why was he dressed so strangely? The boy was nothing but a blur of red. He looked up at him for a moment and smiled weakly, almost oblivious to what had been said. "He knew my name," Loki muttered.
And the next moment dropped his head back in a dead faint.
A/N:Whee? See, I kept the OCs minimal because I love you guys. The story just kind of called for them, sorry folks.
Anyway, no more of the name Kaiser now, so sorry to those who enjoyed it.
