(Hi! I have posted more than one chapter per day, but the visualization graph indicates that some people are directly accessing the last chapter posted and missing the previous ones. So if you are one of the people who have come this far please check that you have not missed anything and know that in the next few days I will also be publishing at least three chapters. Thank you very much for your attention!)
Sometimes the avengers, young and old, asked themselves why aliens were so interested on Earth. It's not possible that are there not any other planet in the universe that calls more attention than theirs. This time, the problem were the Skrulls, despicable creatures whose existence was revealed by Captain Marvel, who by the way was technically a hybrid between a rival species of them and humans, a long story that hasn't got to be told now. These extraterrestrials starting to make the new Hydra seems so lovely that they even missed this group of villains when they had to handle gigantic creatures coming from the sky just like it was happening now. For years Carol has been trying to end the fight involving Krees and Skrulls, which was the reason for another invasion, but unfortunately not all are opened to negotiate peace.
Stark girl was supposedly classified as part of the new avengers, but she had almost no contact with the youngers, hardly remembered their names, but in moments like this, she recognized that no matter who they were, they were completely qualified for their positions, they've been fighting for some hours and still had no downturn on the part of the heroes. Loki said that that was how Skrulls infiltered among the people sometimes, causing great mess, deaths, calling attention, so that the soldiers could mingle while the focus was on the attack. It was exactly why the most part of his eyes was not in the center of the battle; his magic was concentered on keeping his copies among the civils to be sure that no green being would hide while they fought. The god could be very useful when he wanted, but everyone knew that he wouldn't mind changing sides for those who attacked if the situation became favorable for them.
While his magic was focused on his spies, his body moved with a weapon in his hand to slaughter the aliens getting close, he and the weapon had a beautiful synchrony to be seen, fought as if they were one and it looked like they were just dancing as two lovers and not killing invaders from another planet. By "weapon", I mean the current Iron Girl, the avengers started to understand why the prince referred to her as if she were an object every time when the fight subject would come up, some even called her "Loki's Hammer" when they saw them that way. They couldn't understand how they learnt to battle like this if Lin had been locked for all the time she claims before she was introduced to them.
Thor laughed when saw the brother's bride's clothes for that day, she had built up for herself a suit in an Asgardian style, it was more practical to "dance" with her partner than with her armors, but also it wouldn't impair her whenever she needed to use her own technology, and even if this was a secret, that suit was the base for her main project.
What was the experience level of those who fought there to consider almost normal the fact of an alien spaceship being visible in the sky of the city?
The god of thunder and the captain were up there arranging the falling of the craft, it was possible to see the weather changing and uncontrolled rays falling upon the city. Thor was definitively in bad mood.
"Stark, the spider boy damaged his own suit" – Sam informed looking quite worried. It was likely that Peter always awoke the protection instinct of the group, though he wasn't a child anymore a long time ago.
"I'm coming for him" – Lin answered while Friday promptly retraced the avenger's whereabouts. Loki threw a blade into her direction in time for her to catch it and with no hesitation stick it to the Skrull's servant's skull who was coming by her field of vision. Unbearable creatures.
- I'll help the kid, can you survive without me, princess? – She threw a corner-mouth smile at him, lifting her hand to call the armor that Friday reserved for her, which only awaited her command to go to the battlefield. The Iron Girl fostered the prince, who wrapped the neck of another alien, breaking it easily.
The ground didn't take long to disappear from the Stark's feet after her armor was completely on her body, the kid wasn't much far and definitively he would end up hurt if he stayed still there, so she was in quite a hurry to get to him. Lin left the others take the decisions by themselves, the sooner she got to Parker, the less were the possibilities of him being substituted. Her body seemed to be done for that, it wasn't only the various minds in her subconscious that knew what to do, each cell of her body was prepared for a situation like that, her instinct, with no influence, acted already correctly and she wouldn't stay still when she knew she would win. She wasn't afraid of the goddamn beings of other planets nor of the ones against who she's fought lately, her traumatized soul would only tremble when dealing with humans and couldn't hurt them. She localized Peter in a dark and hidden alley, with another Peter strangling him.
It was already likely it would happen, everyone was subject to be substituted at any time (except Loki, who was only subject to change sides and to ally with the Skrulls). Maybe it was a mistake leaving the control on the claws of those who probably would destroy her in the first opportunity, after all, she can't even think about stopping them before seeing herself grabbing the head of the Spiderman who was throttling the other Spiderman and smashing it against the wall of one of the buildings, her gauntlet got dirty with blood and brains, but even then, her body commanded an explosion of the extraterrestrial, just to be sure he was dead.
Let's just register for you there inside that there is a possibility that you smashed the real kid, since you haven't even waited this guy get back to his original form.
If you were more worried to what happens around you than to saving Peter Parker, you would have felt the smell of Skrull in the creature we have just killed, child. – One of the voices answered, as cold as always.
The remaining Spiderman stared at her quite scared. He wasn't used to this kind of violence coming from her, no matter what reasons she had. The human decided to ignore her friend's expression, even with it bothering her more than it should. Lin didn't need someone she cared about to be afraid of her even when she didn't mean to cause this fright.
Peter didn't tremble when she touched him with the gauntlet of the armor that wasn't stained of blood, but he clearly wasn't comfortable. Tony Stark was like a father for him, the boy missed him so much that it was hard to describe the feeling, but the woman in front of him, just like her sister, scared away the pain a little. She kept his presence alive even without being with Ironman in fact while he was alive. Parker liked to think that she truly was everything she made others to believe, that she behaved like her father unconsciously and that she had no ulterior motives to become dear for the team. Being Loki's partner made everything so doubtful about her, even really liking the god, she wasn't slob to the point to trust him.
- You're hurt. – She whispered, so genuinely worried that for a moment Spiderman felt sorry to doubt. – I need to take you out of here… - she said in a low voice, dismissing her armor and getting closer to Peter.
- I'm not that bad. – Parker answered, even that taking out his mask to breath better evidenced he wasn't well at all.
- You should leave the lies for Loki, kid. Differently of you, he knows how to be convincing. Lin addressed him a weak smile, offering her shoulder so that he could rest himself and walk. The boy enrolled his arm around her shoulders. Even rolling his eyes, he knew she was right.
Stark used her "magic spray" to stop the bleeding in the Spiderman's belly, not having trouble in taking him out of the alley. She knew she couldn't spend much time at the same place, but she needed a safe and calm place to solve the problem with the avenger's suit. The voices discussed about what to do, they were in the middle of an enormous mess and probably this preferable calm space didn't exist around there. She was about to have Friday to use its armor on the kid's body to take him out of there when she saw a familiar face getting close in a vibranium vehicle. Why was Shuri there? Would she have doubted that Iron Girl would help Parker? It's the more likely, after all, she seemed surprised when saw them there, together.
- Want a ride? – the genius offered, stopping close to them and unlocking the car doors. She was happy realizing that Lin was really trying to help, she liked a lot the daughter of her big inspiration.
- No, thanks – she anticipated – as far as I know you can be one of these annoying aliens – she smiled ironically, pretending to involve Peter stronger and walking faster, he who looked at her without understanding a thing because his spider instinct didn't accuse anything about Shuri and he was pretty sure she also knew there was nothing wrong with the princess – didn't you see that ET face, kid? Look, in no way that was human, our beauty level is so superior.
- Fuck you, Stark! – Even in pain, Spiderman laughed about the interaction of the girls, they would make a beautiful couple if they didn't mock each other just for fun and nothing was in fact serious. Lin got back with an arrogant smile on her face, entered the car putting carefully Parker on the back seat and staying there with him. If anyone asked, she would say she'd done that just because the Skrulls had found them and were getting close.
Nanotechnology wasn't newness for the genius in the back seat, since Tony Stark appeared as an innovator on the field, her previous jailers forced her to repeat her father's achievements. She couldn't do it at that time, but later, when she was already free, she dedicated part of her time to learn with who truly understood about it: Ironman itself, or with wat remained of him, at least. Even she not dominating completely the subject until now, for not having a concrete basis to follow, Lin knew that damaging a suit like Peter's was extremely difficult, the being who made that deserved some sincere congratulations and maybe so the kid for this paramount carelessness.
Shuri speeded up, they were being followed. All that movement hardened the Spiderman's suit reactivation, not to mention the uncomfortableness it caused to Parker, who although was not bleeding, was yet hurt. The voices whispered in the younger's subconscious, guiding and disturbing her most of the time. She knew what she needed to do, she was completely capable of restoring the equipment by herself and even improve it if she wanted, but there were so many divergent opinions on her mind that what was simple for her became confuse and difficult. No, Lin didn't master nanotechnology, but just because she wasn't its creator, she knew enough to copy her father's work as she has been obligated to for a long time, it was her choice not to do it this time and maybe this was the reason why her own suit wasn't that amazing. She wanted to overcome Tony Stark's image and create something bigger, using him just as an example and inspiration, not as the base of her own structure.
Peter was sweating a lot, his skin was some tones paler, the princess analyzed him with suspect from the front seat as if she mistrusted Stark let something grave to go unnoticed, like a fracture in an internal organ, broken bones or something like that. Parker sighed in suffering, definitively there was something very wrong, but Friday and Karen had already analyzed him internally and didn't detect anything.
Skrulls were very close, they would catch up to them and would cause even more problems, although the vibranium car protected them for a while. The voices shut up for a moment and before they came back chattering, Iron Girl had the chance to act. Shuri seemed to have an idea alike to hers, she turned quickly the first corner just as her plan demanded, giving the seconds out of sight of the enemies that Lin needed to make them disappear.
This was one of the advantages of befriending a sorcerer: using magic he taught you to escape of other planet's beings who want to kill you and substitute your species. A subtle green light passed through Stark's body and beyond, transforming the car around her and the people inside it. The car stopped, parking throwed close to the sidewalk in time to stop completely before the extraterrestrials appeared again. There were other cars stopped there too, all abandoned way before they arrived.
When the Skrulls arrived, all they saw was a nine-month pregnant woman giving birth, a worried and scared husband holding his wife's hand in the back seat and a grumpy elder in the driver seat. The three faced their hitherto persecutors as if they were seeing them for the first time, showing the fear that any normal human would, they knew that game and knew what to do, though the pain face of the pregnant wasn't so as false as it should be.
Lin's magic was still unstable, she didn't have enough practice needed to dominate it completely and for that reason she let them to smell the flaw, she let them to notice that they were not what they seemed to be, impregnated the air with the lie and kept the terror face when addressed to them.
- The so-called Doctor Strange sent you for another place – She forced her Asgardian accent in each word, not stopping the perfect play that any Skrull would know how to do, they wouldn't recognize her voice, she was not an enemy anymore for anyone who looked at her with those aliens' eyes.
The persecutors' leader nodded in grief, leaving in search of other preys with his lackeys. He judged them as allies from the same species, ingenuous to the mystic gifts of one of the humans he was supposed to kill. Slobs. Shuri was the first to laugh after they moved away enough, seeing the illusion slowly disappear. She already imagined that Stark could do something like that, but it was the first time she saw it in person, simply fascinating.
Lin also smiled proud of herself, convinced of her abilities as she should seem to be. But then the silence in her mind started to cause a kind of strangeness. It wasn't common this interior peace to take place without Loki around. Peter by her side gasped in search of air, recalling her how confusing was the kid's situation. When she looked at him, the absence of the voices was explained with one word alone, said by one of them, whose identity the girl wasn't worried about now. Poison.
(…)
Thor and Captain got back to the ground without visible damage, victorious after expelling the enemies out of the planet. The few invaders left were quickly slaughtered by the rest of the avengers smoothly. These last Skrulls got kind of lost without the support of their leaders, they wouldn't last much anyway if they didn't surrender.
The god of thunder got a little confused seeing his brother standing away from the crew, alone. Knowing that another god would never be truly accepted on Earth upset him. Everyone just put up with Loki's presence, rare were the ones who really wanted him around, as if unexpectedly the trickster god would betray everybody and conspire again to the ruin of everything humans love. They were not totally wrong in waiting something like that, but he was his beloved brother, after all. No one should exclude the brother of the powerful Thor.
The blond didn't say anything, but went to the little liar creature, sat by its side on the wrecks of the city, leaving the storm breaker on the ground, close to him. He wasn't used to dialogue with the other, just as didn't master any matter the other could be interested in, he was sure Loki didn't want to hear about hammers, Midgard or any other thing that the god liked.
So, sometimes, they had these moments of complete silence, in which they didn't arouse each other's anger and didn't try to deceive each other. It was the best way to understand themselves and to spend time together.
The frost giant, in turn, made no recognizing gesture related to the presence of his brother, he'd only stare at his bloody hands quiet, aware that he was a nuisance and for the first time in a long without any disposition to transform his rejection on his entertainment. He was odd lately, too submissive and inoffensive to be something normal. Thor guilted himself to mistrust his brother even when the other wasn't doing anything, though, in the matter of Loki, doing nothing was the more suspicious thing he could do.
- Ah, brother… - the blond remembered out of sudden – Christmas is in a few days, humans celebrate this date getting together to those they love, it seems to be an important day on this planet, I wanted to make something like them and I'd like you to participate – The expression the dark-haired addressed to him was so damn genuinely surprised that the god of thunder wanted to take a picture of the moment to register it.
- Did you just say you love me? – the prince asked showing a tricky smile on his face, to embarrass Thor. – I should have recorded it, Lin would have inspiration material for her drawings about us for a long time.
- I didn't say anything! – his frown puckered – wait, what drawings?
- You wouldn't like to see them, they're traumatizing. – The smile stretched even more when he recalled what she had drawn. Thor would be horrified and now that the curiosity had been planted, Loki was sure his brother would find a way to see them any time.
- Are you going to spend Christmas with me, yes or no? – he seemed to be quite stressed out, that's why they didn't talk.
- As you make a point of my presence, I will go.
The blond god normally would be mad with his brother's behavior, but the shine of joy in his eyes kept his mouth shut. He should already be used to the true intentions behind each acid word said by his sibling. It was more likely that the liar already knew about the festive date, but he'd probably take it as any other day, thinking no one would remember him.
Forgetting the prince for a moment, Thor let himself analyze the place around them. All the team was there taking care of the hurt ones, both civils and friends, but the main agglomeration of avengers was around a tent not very far from there. All the heroes that the god could see had expressions as lost as Loki's when he got close to him. The blond then got alarmed since someone on the crew could be gravely hurt. He hasn't had the chance to check all of them and considering that Lin wasn't there with his brother, maybe she was the reason for such preoccupation.
- It's Parker. – the prince said simply, as if he didn't care, but his face got serious and distant again. – He was poisoned. Bruce and the others are trying to find a cure, but it's an alien substance, none of them know it and he is already too weak to be taken to a healer.
The god of thunder couldn't find the answers at that moment, over outraged to think of something rational enough to build a sentence. Life always found a way to shake him, no matter how many losses he has already had. Peter was the avengers' protected, no one really cared if he was an adult or not, they would always have the instinct of protecting the child (who was no child anymore, but like I said: no one cares). Tony made him one of them too early, many considered him kind of crazy because of that, however they were already too attached to him to expel him of the group when they realized what was going on. Thor was by far one of those who less got involved with the boy, but nor that made him feel less shaken with the news.
Something started to bother him… his brother was a great wizard, the best he knew, mastered uncountable techniques, had a knowledge of gigantic proportions about all the mystic areas and has already been to too many planets so that he could know more about each poison, remedy, drug or further a mere trick that could innovate his poor taste pranks. So, what was he doing standing out there instead of being with Banner trying to save Spiderman?
- If it's the case, why aren't you there inside with the others? – Thor asked enraged, almost pressing on to drag his brother into the goddamn tent and keep in there until the kid got better. Loki looked at him as if a third eye had appeared on his front out of sudden.
- Are you really this dumb, Odin's son? Or do you pretend to be? – the blond was surprised by the sadness masked with sarcasm that he had recognized in his brother's face – Tell me, in what reality do you think your so beloved friends would let the god of lies help?
- The world is not against you, Loki, so don't act as if people thought so much about you to the extent to see you as a threat even when you're fighting by their side! – Thor didn't let his brother contest him this time, grabbed his arm and literally dragged him to where the others were. His plan was to throw him into there, but he was stopped by Clint before he could get closer.
Hawk eye has never hidden his displeasure towards the Asgardian, he was one of those who had infinite reasons not to stand his presence on Earth, he would never forget what the god did to him, though this has happened more than a decade ago.
- Stop right there, goldilocks. – Thor wasn't using long hair for a long time, but Barton didn't care. – this guy can't come in.
- If you didn't notice yet, I'm not here willingly. – Loki commented, uncomfortable with his position. The blond should learn to be less gross when dragging people around, the trickster god would always end up all crooked when the other did something like that.
Once again, the god of thunder couldn't speak, even if his true will was to throw Barton far from there and thread his brother into that tent, he didn't have to speak. One of the people inside did this for him.
- Do you want to talk about temper now? – Stark's distinct accent was heard, too loud for someone so controlled as her. – You want to stop him to save the kid's life, why? Only for your damn pride?
- You know it was his past that caused this, Lin. You know like any of us that he is a murderer and is not trustable. – the gods couldn't define who said that.
- And the avengers care about that now? – the prince saw he needed to take her out of there before things got worse – Doctor Strange was a fucking doctor who let a lot of people die without even trying to save them, Ironman was the one who fed the war business supplying weapons, Natasha and Clint were spies, Bruce as Hulk was an unstoppable beast that has already killed as many innocents as enemies… Do you really want to make me believe that his past stops him of doing something good?
Silence. This was the answer she got. They knew she was right, but this wouldn't make the reality less uncomfortable nor Loki more trustable.
That moment became one of those when life stabs our faces to remind us who we really are. Being a good liar makes us to create hundreds of facets, one for each kind of situation. The real problem is when the lie becomes so constant and persistent that confuses our senses and makes it a true to our subconscious. Loki, at no moment, thought to be part of the goody ones, nor he would expect them to treat him like that, but there was so much time he was acting like them, that somehow, he was getting used to this life. Now they treated him like a monster again, looking at him with the same contempt Asgard people had addressed him most of the time.
The prince desired to let the poison act in the spider boy's body, desired to be the god everyone thought he was and who he really was sometimes. He wanted to speed up the kid's death so that the heroes had a real reason to hate him, he wouldn't regret to see life draining of Peter's veins, while everyone expected him to do something to save him. He was willing that each fucking avenger in that tent begged for his help on their knees, that they stopped to stare at him as if he would mess everything up at any time or as if they could stop him if he tried to.
However, he stuck to not giving them the taste of his worst side that they wanted to receive. Recognized the poison and sustained the look of each one of them before turning around to a small bench and invoke from the gap between the worlds everything he needed to prepare the antidote. He was standing backwards, but could feel he was observed by everyone, some waiting him to fail, others expecting what would happen and others simply looking forward the lowest mistake to execute the order to eliminate him. Yes, he would save Peter, but only because that was what they expected him not to do by free will. Don't be fooled, Loki really liked the boy, he just didn't care about if the he was alive or not.
The poison was complex, delicate and rare in a lot of galaxies. It was almost a dirty trick to use it and, at the same time, an extremely useful weapon. With it, he could lead any enemy to a certain, slow and agonizing death, unless, of course, you had a god around who dedicated a significant part of his life to study the most unbelievable things the universe can offer. How lucky were these ungrateful! Just for that, the prince decided to take a part of the poison and keep it in his poisons supply. Clearly, he would never do such a thing if he weren't upset.
Peter breath stabilized and everyone could at last relax, he'd be fine. Loki didn't take long to get out of the tent, he didn't wait for greetings and thanks he knew would never come and decided he had to disappear for now. It wouldn't hurt that they felt slightly guilty for so much distrust towards him. Maybe they called him the next time something like that happened.
His shoulder hit quite hard Stark's, who was at the exit, as if she wanted to stop him, she even held his arm in a mute ask for him not to leave, but it was enough to stare each other's eyes to know his decision was already made. That wasn't his place, most of the people agreed and he could clearly see this. Thwarted and showing certain disappointment on her expressions, Lin freed him and let him go. It wouldn't take much time for him to come back, at the end. At least this was what she seemed to believe.
(…)
The environmental disasters around the world had relatively increased since the interference in the timeline. The balance seemed to be withering more and more day after day and Stephen knew that it wasn't happening for natural causes or just because of what the avengers did. He was coming, so slowly and patiently that seemed to be joking with the life on Earth. All the destruction in exasperated proportions come from the nature was only a reflex of the presence of Eternity. The wizard asked himself if that was some kind of a sadistic pleasure or if the creature was only awaiting something; he feared for the humans on the planet and expected Loki to be successful with his plan. While the jotun and the girl with Original were fighting against the entity, he would be on firm ground focusing all his power to cover all the atmosphere with a shield strong enough to protect the people of any impact that could be targeted to Earth. He got uptight to know that some of his antecessors were capable of performing this completely alone and effortlessly, while he, aside from depending on potential enemies to get rid of those who really wanted to attack them, had to count on their help to stop heroes and to spread magical artefacts that would increase his power around the globe. Indeed humiliating.
But maybe the worst of all was to put the infinity stones in the hands of that man. It's not that he completely disliked Loki, but he was still the trickster god. He was deeply waiting that he would run away with the stones as soon as he could. They made a holy vow when decided to cooperate with one another, some kind of deal created by the ancient protectors of the reality that could not be broken. The prince, on his part, promised to fight against Eternity and not keeping the stones under no circumstance after the objective was accomplished. Stephen suspected that he, somehow, knew how to deal with the consequences of breaking the oath and that he would escape self-destruction after not doing what he was supposed to.
The god, however, didn't show any indication of betrayal hitherto, everything was going perfectly how agreed and this got the wizard restless. If things happened exactly how they expected, it meant that the battle would soon take place. He wasn't prepared yet to face what was coming.
But among everything, what most worried Strange was that some people started to notice that something abnormal is happening. They were asking too much and the situation started to get out of control. He feared that it wouldn't take long for someone to get to Wong, who would make them to understand what was going on. No, the wizard wouldn't ask him to abandon his responsibilities and take the risk that the others would, but the fact of being the only one worthy of substituting him if things went wrong was the particular thing that kept him out of the plans. The whole planet attracted the fury of that being with as much force as anyone who remembers more than one timeline individually or those infuriated him even more intensely for having a straight fault on destructing the timeline as they knew it?
Stephen practically couldn't sleep for days. His power left him too much conscious of what was happening, he could feel Eternity observing them, he felt the force that that being emanated and even could hear its breath. He would be about to go mad if he didn't hold to his duty with the strength he did. He knows that the entity has been watching each step they take, knows that she can access the future and that probably has already advanced each one of its plans. There's no hope of victory. They wouldn't let the planet to be destroyed without fighting against the threat, they needed at least to try, after all, if Eternity didn't want them to do something, all of them would be already dead, right?
May the treasure hunt begin.