A/N: Well, here's chapter 21, i'm starting to run out of plot for this story, so if any of y'all have ideas, please tell me! Enjoy!
Natasha, Tony, Clint, Thor, and Bruce searched the whole tower for the little girl, or for any sign as to where she was.
"Wasn't in the lab!" Tony called.
"The small child was not in any of the rooms." Thor agreed, sitting down on the couch with a groan.
"Lili wasn't in the training room."
"Why would she be in a training room?" Natasha asked, crossing her arms.
"I may have been teaching her..." Clint started, trailing off as Natasha put up her index finger to silence him.
"We'll talk about that later...JARVIS? Do you know where Lili is?" Natasha asked.
"Ms. Potts wanted me to inform you and Mr. Barton that she and the two Fosters went to bring Lili out for a girls' day. They said something about meeting Agent Hill and Mr. Rogers at the park. My apologies, I must've forgotten to inform you." The AI explained, allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.
"You could've told us that an hour ago!"
"Again, my apologies."
Natasha rolled her eyes and went upstairs, returning moments later with one of her guns and throwing knives.
"Where are you going?"
"To calm down. Better in the training room than in here. Let me know when Pepper returns. Don't break anything."
**The park**
Lili sat in the soft green grass of the park under a large oak tree, presumably drawing, on the other side of the park, Pepper sat with Maia and Jane, carefully watching the four-year-old.
"Aunt Pepper? Why are we waiting?" She queried, walking over to the three women, unaware that she had been being watched.
"We're just waiting for Aunt Maria and Uncle Steve, then we'll be heading to lunch." Pepper explained.
Lili nodded and proceeded to go back to the oak tree and continue what she had been doing.
"Should we tell her the real reason Nat's been upset this morning?" A voice asked.
Maria.
She and Steve sat and watched Lili with them, intrigued by the child. She seemed so resilient, so innocent. Maria couldn't possibly understand why no one adopted her before the orphanage burned down.
"We'll tell her when she's older. She doesn't need to know right now."
Maria turned and glared at Pepper, who shrunk back under the woman's lingering gaze.
"Now, would you mind telling me why you felt it was okay to bring Lili to the park without consulting Natasha or Clint? Natasha called me up screaming, 'Lili's gone! Lili's gone. Someone took her. Loki took her.' She was completely freaking out. And Natasha never freaks out, so she was clearly on the verge of an anxiety attack." Maria told her, pressing her lips together and averting her gaze.
"JARVIS didn't tell them? We brought Lili out today because she was concerned. All this morning at breakfast she kept asking, 'where's mommy? Is she okay? Why is there a knife in the wall?' and looked at us with those big blue eyes. We didn't want to answer her because we felt it wasn't our place to say exactly what happened. Clint obviously didn't want to tell her. So we brought her here. With the intentions of going to lunch and then the mall later."
Maria sighed and leaned back on the bench. She had been the first one that Natasha had told about the miscarriage and that day she had gone to the tower while everyone else was out and comforted the distraught assassin. Natasha had already been through so much, she hated seeing her friend crying and upset, and she and Clint had tried desperately to make her leave the bedroom and get out. But that failed...usually with the woman throwing something at them, either a knife or a picture frame.
Lili still sat under the oak tree, curious as to what the women were talking about that seemed to be getting Maria all flustered.
"Hello Lili." A voice said from behind her.
Standing up, confused, her blue eyes found a man with shoulder length dark hair, his pale skin almost glowed against the sunlight, his green robes appeared to be too long for him, dragging on the ground as he walked towards her.
"What's that?" She asked, pointing to the septor and back up at the man.
"It's my septor...it gives me my power."
"Who are you?"
"I am Loki...of Asgard."
"Oh. So you're Uncle Thor's brother...you don't look evil...just weird."
Loki sighed.
This child talks too much...
"Why don't we take this elsewhere?" He asked, pointing with his septor to the woods, just a mere fifty yards away.
Lili shook her head, getting increasingly nervous, her blonde hair blowing in the soft breeze.
"No thank you, i'm not supposed to go with strangers."
"Why do you not want to go with me? Do I frighten you?" He asked, circling around the small child who shook her head and took a step back. Out of the corner of her eyes as Loki brushed a strand of hair from her face, she saw the group of adults had gotten up, Maria taking out her phone to call Director Fury and Agent Coulson. All she had to do was stall the God long enough for the adults to get to her.
"No, I'm just not allowed to go with people unless I know them." She answered, taking another step back.
The little girl let out a blood curdling scream as Pepper grabbed her, holding her close to her chest.
"Well, Ms. Potts. So lovely to see you again, give me the child." He demanded, holding out a pale hand as if waiting to be handed a valuable object.
"No. What purpose is she to you?"
"The Red Room that all of you talk so much about has of great need for her."
Pepper scowled at him, she had been told some information about the Red Room, but just that they had trained little girls to become assassins. Natasha never spoke of such abuse she suffered through.
"Why is the Red Room of any interest to you?"
"Since they have started giving me their best trained assassins for help. Destroying all of you."
"Go to Hell"
Loki took his septor and aimed it at the woman and the little girl, who cringed and buried her face into Pepper's long hair.
The CEO closed her eyes, embracing for impact, if it weren't for Lili who had her in a death grip or the fact that she was three and a half months pregnant, she'd have lunged at him right then and there, using a few self defense moves Natasha had taught her back after the first New York invasion.
When the blow didn't come, the woman opened her eyes to see Maria holding her by the arm as if to steady her, and Steve in front of them, holding his shield. She had hardly noticed the two of them approach.
Loki was no where to be seen.
"Where'd he go?" Pepper asked, standing up, Lili still holding her in a death grip like a child who had just woken up from a terrible nightmare.
"He disappeared...again...what about you? Are you okay?" Steve asked worriedly.
"Yeah, i'm fine. We should be getting back anyway, let everyone know what happened. Fury will probably want to speak to all of us for a debriefing at some point."
The group nodded and started to walk the short distance to the tower, stopping briefly at a small bakery to get some food for Lili, who had complained that she was hungry.
"Can I just ask why you felt it was necessary to get between Lili and Loki in your condition?"
Pepper didn't answer, only looked straight ahead, her heels clicking against the hard concrete as they briskly entered the elevator, Lili asleep in Pepper's arms, and rode up in silence to the main lounge.
Upon entering the main floor, the group saw the lounge in complete disarray. One of Clint's arrows had gotten stuck in the ceiling, cracks forming around it as Clint's bow lie off to the side right next to Tony's suit that lay in a heap of metal on the floor, a hole had been left in the wall, probably from Thor's hammer and some picture frames had also been smashed in the process.
The coffee table was lying on it's side and silly string was everywhere. On the walls, the ceiling, the counters, the stairs, everywhere. Amongst the mess, Clint, Thor, and Tony were on the floor, empty beer bottles lay all around them.
Surprisingly, Bruce and Natasha were nowhere to be seen, which relieved Maria, but she remained calm and collected on the outside. The last thing she needed was to deal with a rampaging Hulk or a rampaging assassin.
The men looked up to see a very red faced Pepper tapping her foot, pursing her lips, instead of her arms crossing her chest, they were on her hips, which was never a good sign.
Uh oh.
A/N: Let me know what y'all think! Please review :)