I'm so sorry for keeping you guys waiting so long! I have 320 followers on this story which is just freaking amazing! It's been a hectic month but you guys have kept supporting me and the story so thanks! The reason I haven't updated is that I've been extremely busy with work and family stuff. SUMMER IS SUPPOSED TO BE RELAXING, DANG IT. Thankfully, my schedule is slowing down and I had the time to rewrite this 3 times. I just wasn't happy with it and writer's block hit me hard. I am content with the final product, though it is definitely still littered with grammar mistakes as per usual…sorry haha.
I usually answer questions from reviews but I think(?) most of them are answered in the chapter. If not, I'll answer some next update.
As always I don't own the avengers….
****onwards*****
"Is there a reason you are bullying me and not your brother?"
Tony flew to left to dodge the swinging spear Loki was currently yielding. It was similar to the weapon he had used with the tesseract, however, this time it lacked the blue glow and instead radiated a dark green. The two were alone, Tony's teammates too far away to help him take down Loki.
The rest of the Avengers were occupied; the scepter wielding demi-god had cast a spell that summoned what looked to be a hoard of horned monkeys. Each time the Captain was able to throw off one, two more little devil monkeys took its place. While he was glad to be avoiding the monkey mayhem, another one-on-one with Loki was not high on Tony's wish list.
"I am hoping if I make you bleed," Loki lifted the scepter again, teeth sparkling into a sadistic grin, "the little Skīr-r will come out of hiding."
Another swing barely misses Tony's head as he raises his eyebrows—not that Loki could see them behind the Iron Man mask. He wasn't sure what a Skīr-r was, but he had a feeling it had to do with his baby girl.
"Skīr-r? I'm going to have to ask you to clarify, I don't speak crazy," Tony cringed as Loki's spear grazed the side of his armor, sparks shooting from the clashing metal. Shit, that thing could actually do some damage.
"Her kind, the Skīr-r," this time the spear grazes Tony's boot as he tries to fly away from the demi-God. He loses control of the repulsors for a second, but rights himself just as Loki swung for his chest, "it is what she is, you foolish mortal."
"Stark! What is he talking about?" Tony ignores Steve in favor of not being skewered by Loki, an exasperated sigh comes across the line, "Thor, do you know what Loki is looking for?"
"Aye, the Skīr-r," Thor grunts as a demon monkey tugs at one of his golden locks before he grabs it by the neck and tosses it carelessly, "are ancient beings of legend. The All-father is the only Asgardian to have ever met one."
"Why does Loki think Stark knows a Skīr-r then?"
"I do not know, however, if Loki thinks a Skīr-r is here on Midguard, the All-father would want to know," Thor twirled Mjornir causing monkeys to fly everywhere as he headed toward the Man of Iron and his brother.
"Shit, shit, shit," cringing within the suit, Tony curses himself for not putting his mic on mute. He doubts he will be able to escape the questions later. Distracted, Tony doesn't notice Loki's scepter glowing an ominous green until he is blasted into a building.
***line break***
Fury started to search for Elli's bracelet soon after establishing connection with Jarvis. The first time Loki's scepter had cut into the metal of Tony's suit, Elli's hair and eyes had burst into flaming energy, ruining the braids he had just finished. If he didn't find the damn thing soon, the ethereal child would leave despite her daddy telling her to stay with her Papa. He dug around in her bag until the little pink band appeared under a purple sundress.
"Elli, sweetie pie, it's alright," Fury scoops the six-year-old into his arms, a pleasant warmness tickling his skin from the tendrils of hair floating around her head. He slips the bracelet over her hand before securing it on her wrist and pressing the button that suppressed her energy. Her eyes dulled and her hair fell limply but she doesn't turn away from the screen.
"He is looking for me. It's my fault he is hurting daddy," the whisper is barely loud enough for Fury to hear, but he cringes in guilt all the same.
"No, no baby girl, it's not your fault," her Papa held her closer, running soothing fingers through her hair. She didn't believe him, but she remained quiet, twitching every time her daddy's suit took a little more damage. The pair couldn't hear what Loki was saying, Jarvis usually muted fights due to Clint's constant swearing, but she knew he was talking about her.
Clinging to her Papa, the world began spinning as a dark green light invaded her daddy's vision causing Elli to start to truly panic. Everything was blurry until the suit came to an abrupt stop when her daddy's body hit a building. Warnings and alerts flashed across the screen as her daddy struggled to get up. It was getting hard for her to breath as a green leather boot came down next to the arc reactor.
Fury cursed as the bracelet began to spark. Loki was on the screen holding the Iron Man suit down, the scepter raised high above his head.
"ELLI DON'T—" A wave of blue lights throws Fury into the wall as Elli's bracelet breaks in half.
****line breaaakkk****
"THOR GET TO IRON MAN, NOW!"
Steve could only watch as Loki whipped Stark around like a ragdoll, sending him crashing into buildings. The whole team had been trying to get close enough to help but every time they were pushed back by a blast from Loki or a new horde of monkeys.
Throwing more devil monkeys off of him, Steve looked up again to see the Iron Man armor dangling upside down, Loki holding the suit by the right ankle. It was impossible to tell if Stark was unconscious or just dazed from all the manhandling.
They were as high as the portal had been—Steve realized, as Loki let the suit go.
"He isn't slowing down!"
"Thor isn't going to make it," Clint was on the roof a few buildings over, having been able to escape most of the monkeys "and Hulk is buried in fuzzballs a few streets over."
It was exactly like last time, except that no one would be there to catch him. They could only watch in horror as their teammate fell from a deadly height.
"NO!" All of the Avengers looked up to see a ball of light collide with the Iron Man armor.
***line breaaak***
"No, no, no, daddy," Elli couldn't help mumbling to herself as she flew through the city—it was a nervous tick she had inherited from the elder Stark. Pepper said they both had so much going on in their brains, sometimes they couldn't hold it all in.
She was turning around a building when she saw him falling, the same way he falling was last time, the same way he fell in her nightmares since that day.
"Daddy…no, no, no….NO!"
She didn't bother to slow down as she collided with her daddy's amour, enveloping it in her energy and letting it flow under the metal to her daddy's bruised skin. They both descended slowly to the street below, her daddy still asleep, not noticing that the chaos around them had stopped as the monkeys poofed into green smoke.
Gently tearing the ruined armor off, Elli cupped her daddy's face in her hands as she kneeled on his chest. Taking one hand from his face to rest on the arc reactor, Elli could feel the light running through his veins as the bruises on his face began to fade and the cuts closed. It was only when he started mumbling in his sleep that she stopped—her daddy would be okay now.
"Skīr-r…" Elli whipped around to see Thor coming closer to them, the other avengers not far behind, "Never in the nine realms did I think I would ever see one…"
"How do you know that that is a… Skīr-r?" Captain America came up next to where Thor had paused in shock, "…is it supposed to do that?"
For the first time in her life, Elli was suddenly very self-conscious. Her light was flickering very fast, her body almost like a strobe light in the mix of her excitement and fear. Captain America was standing not even 10 feet from her! All the times she played pretend with Agent Phil and it was finally happening! But…something was wrong, in all her fantasies and daydreams, her hero was smiling at her, almost as excited to meet her as she was him. He wasn't smiling right now, his mouth formed a thin line and his blue eyes that she imagined would sparkle in real life—they were cold, calculating. She didn't like this, she wished her daddy would just wake up already.
"Ah, there you are," Elli jumped, Captain America forgotten, as Loki landed next to them. She stopped flickering and began to burn in anger, her hair flaming bluish energy around her head. How dare he even come near her daddy again.
"GO AWAY!" A wave of blue light pushed everyone back a few feet, Elli remained on her daddy's chest as the air whipped around them.
"Now, now," Loki scowled before pushing back against the wind to get closer, "no need to get testy."
Elli only answered by blasting the man straight through the nearest building.
"Thor, can you get that thing away from Stark?" Captain America narrowed his eyes at the creature sitting on Iron Man's chest. Anything Loki was interested in had to be dangerous. He didn't know what Stark had to do with it, but the thing had to be contained before it caused anymore damage.
"Not without hurting the Man of Iron," Thor pushed again the building wind, confused at the actions of the ancient being that had been in many of his childhood stories, "however, I am not sure we should interfere. Skīr-r are powerful, but told to be extremely peaceful beings unless feeling threatened in some way. Engaging her now might only make things worse…"
"So I should just let it rampage?" Thor shook his head in defeat, mortals were impossible to reason with. Steve growled lowly in irritation as the vortex surrounding the two seemed to keep pushing him further and further back, "Hawkeye, Widow, I don't suppose either of you could get a shot?"
"Not with this wind, arrows and bullets would be useless," Clint stood at the top of the nearest rooftop, arrow trained on the thing sitting on Stark's chest.
"Thor might be right, I think we just have to wait this out," Natasha was studying the being Thor had told them was a Skīr-r. The energy was human shaped but small. Compact. What confused her was why the vortex was still going, Loki hadn't come back so there was no reason for her to feel threatened. And she hadn't seemed like she felt threatened by Loki—more like she was angry, like he had touched something that was hers. It was as though the Skīr-r was having a fit of some sorts. A tantrum, Natasha's eyes widened, a child's tantrum.
"Thor, how—"
"NOW CLINT!" The whirlwind was suddenly non-existent as strange calm laid itself over the Avengers. Natasha felt her stomach drop as the energy had dimmed to a dull glow as an arrow cut easily through the air towards its target.
***line breakkk***
When Tony woke up feeling pleasantly warm and lacking the pounding throb of a concussed head, he groaned in annoyance. He loved his baby girl, he really did, but he wished she hadn't inherited his tendency to ignore rules—even if she broke them for the right reasons. He knew Elli hated seeing him hurt, but how was he going to explain to the Avengers how he made a complete recovery over-night?
He groaned again as he thought about the lecture Rogers was sure to give him, he had passed out during the middle of a fight. And the whole Skīr-r thing was going to suck when they inevitably brought it up. Now he had a headache that his daughter's energy couldn't fix. Going to pinch his nose in irritation, Tony finally noticed that he was still wearing the suit. The suit which was still offline and very heavy without any power to run it. Cracking open one eye, he noticed it was still fairly light out, despite the setting sun. Lying in the middle of a destroyed Central Square, Tony would have sworn aloud if not for the six-year-old right in his line of vision.
Elli was kneeling on his chest, her forehead pressed against the arc reactor with her hands pressed against her ears. And she was glowing, fantastic.
Looking around, Tony saw Thor, Natasha, and Rogers standing together behind Elli's back. He couldn't see Clint or Bruce, but he figured the archer was on a rooftop somewhere and Bruce was probably getting pants. Glancing around some more, he noticed Natasha's hair whipping around her while he felt no wind whatsoever. Realizing they were in the eye of some kind of tornado or vortex, Tony knew Elli was in the middle of a tantrum. She didn't have them as often anymore, but with the high stress of the past few hours, Tony couldn't blame his baby for losing some control. Raising a heavy metal hand, he ran his fingers through the wispy tendrils of hair floating around her head.
"Daddy?" Lifting her head slowly, Elli blinked away tears. Tony watched as little balls of light floated upward from her eyes—he realized he had never seen her cry in this form before.
"Yeah, sweetie pie. I'm alright, it's alright, we're alright," Tony cracked a smile as his daughter sat straight up, smacking his chest repeatedly as she hiccupped with her sobs.
"It's not al-hic-right! Y-you were falling, and-hic-I caught you and, and," Elli was rubbing her eyes furiously now, the mechanical hand still beating on her father's armor, as she desperately tried to stop crying because she was a big girl and big girls didn't have temper tantrums because things didn't go their way, "AND I DON'T THINK CAPTAIN AMERICA LIKES ME!"
"Elli, baby, no one could ever not like you, you're the kindest, smartest, most amazing little girl in the world. Got it? Best kid ever. Now honey bunch, you gotta take some deep breaths, otherwise you might give yourself a heart attack" he wasn't sure what had happened after he got knocked out, but he was going to kick Captain America's ass after this, and Loki's if Elli hadn't done it already, "that's it, in and out. How about we get ice cream after this?"
"Ice cream?" Her sobs had been reduced to sniffles, a hopeful smile in her voice made him chuckle. His kid still was a little glutton for mint chocolate chip.
"Yeah, we can go with Papa. And you can get two scoops, just this once."
"Two!?" She never got two scoops!
"Yep," Tony smiled, "but first you have get rid of the whirlwind and turn off the glowing. Otherwise, I don't think we can go."
Looking around, Elli noticed the weather anomaly she had created. Nodding, she cut the wind off before looking at her daddy expectantly. Tony wrapped a metal arm around her waist as he began to slowly sit up.
"Forgot something," he would have to get Fury to pick them up since the suit was down for the count right now. He could get Clint or Natasha to call in since his comm was busted as well.
Hearing Rogers shout, Tony turns his head as Elli's glowing form dims to smooth sun kissed skin. Not a second later, the metal tip of an arrow collides with his chest plate resulting in a resounding ping. Rather than falling to the ground, the arrow remained in place having speared his daughter right through the back. Tony's throat felt raw.
"Elli…"
Elli looked down at the piece of metal that protruding from her tummy. She was slightly irritated that it had ruined one of her favorite pairs of pajamas but then froze as she realized it was dripping blood. Her blood. Wide eyes looked up at her daddy as she tried to say it didn't hurt, that he didn't have to worry but instead she could only cough violently as blood pooled in her mouth, the dark red liquid spraying across her daddy's face.
"ELLI!"
***linnneee break***
I'm sorry, this is a terrible place to leave you guys but I gotta stop for now. And she did technically meet the avengers ;) Sorry if Steve seemed like a total ass in this, it is accidental but also kind of on purpose. Oops! He'll redeem himself though!
ALSO, is anyone playing pokemon go? I got a Vulpix last night and squealed with joy :D
