Sorry that it took a while to update. I'm not the best at coming up with ideas for pranks so finding a prank to do for this chapter took a long time. I was also working on my other story (A Little Bit of Mischief) that involves the same characters so I was mostly focused on that story. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. I wish that that the weather in this chapter would be the same during the summer and spring but right now it is snowing in my state. :( The weather here is so unpredictable. Like, seriously, where's my nice spring weather? It was nice a few days ago, what happened to it?! Well, at least I have an excuse to stay inside and finish this chapter. So, without further ado, enjoy! :)
Chapter Seven: Masters of Mischief (Fenris and Hela's Prank)
Out of all the people who were available to prank in the house, Thor was probably the easiest. The god of thunder, to say it in the nicest way possible, was quite gullible; and therefore, easy to prank.
After Jormungandr had managed to catch Bucky when the ex-assassin least expected it, successfully dyed his hair bright orange that lasted for a least a couple of days, and somehow had gotten away with only the silent treatment for a few hours, Fenris really needed to step up his game.
Although he had the best one to prank, Fenris wouldn't let his older brother win. He had to be creative.
Except, right now, he had nothing. Nothing. And his father was the god of mischief. If anything, pranks should be a piece of cake. But Fenris couldn't think of anything.
Doing something active usually helped him clear his head so Fenris had spent the past hour jumping on the trampoline in their backyard. Hela had joined in and together, the two younger siblings jumped and flipped until Hela plopped down on the trampoline's edge.
"Fenris," Hela said as she swung her legs back and forth. "Do you know what you're doing for a prank?"
Fenris executed a perfect backflip before answering. "I have no clue. Uncle Thor should be easy but all the good pranks are too mean or too much work to set up."
Hela picked at a loose thread on her shorts. "I feel the same. Jormungandr definitely won."
"Well, don't say that, sis," Fenris said, ever the positive one of the group. "We haven't even done anything yet."
"Which is exactly why he is winning," Hela complained. "Uncle Bucky is the hardest one to prank and Jormy nailed it. How are we supposed to beat that?"
Fenris kept jumping, trying to bounce an idea loose. He stopped as an idea suddenly came to him. "What if we team up?"
Hela turned to look at her older brother. "Is that even allowed?"
Fenris shrugged. "Beats me but I doubt that dad would care."
"I don't know, Fenris; I feel like that's cheating…"
"Oh, come on, sis! If we have any chance of beating Jormy, then we gotta work together," Fenris pressed on. "Sleipnir's prank was kind of lame but Jormy's was something else. If we work together, then we can share the prize and beat both of them. Show them that age doesn't matter when teamwork is in play."
Hela paused, contemplating. "Yeah, but what would we do? It's only one prank per person."
Fenris dropped down to his knees to be at the same level as his sister. "We prank both Uncle Thor and Pietro at the same time! But its gotta be good, amazing, spectacular, filled with gusto! Something that nobody would expect. Something that dad would look at and think 'these two are the best prankers around. Look at that teamwork! The execution! The reactions! Oh, why didn't I think of that myself!'"
Hela laughed at Fenris's dramatic attempt at persuasion. Fenris could do an impressively accurate imitation of their father; he even copied Loki's British-like accent that Bucky always teased him about.
"Fine," Hela assented. "We can work together."
Fenris grinned and hugged his sister from the back. "Thanks, sis!" he said and hopped down from the trampoline. He started running towards the house before Hela could stop him.
"Woah, Fenris, hold up!" Hela called after her brother. "We don't even know what we're doing!"
Fenris stopped in his tracks and sheepishly turned around and made his way back. Sometimes he got a little carried away and did things without thinking. "Oops…"
Together, the two younger siblings spent the next hour and a half planning out the perfect prank. One that would definitely show Jormungandr up.
/\/\/\/\/\
Thor was enjoying himself. Dressed in nothing but khaki shorts and sunglasses, Thor had found the perfect way to spend the rest of the afternoon. The nice summer weather was perfect for sitting out on the pool deck sipping an ice-cold beer and doing absolutely nothing.
And nobody was going to bother him.
Sigyn was at work and would be there until late tonight. Bucky and Loki went grocery shopping while the kids went to the nearest park to hang out. The only other person home was Pietro.
Or so they thought.
Just as Thor was waking up from a quick snooze, Pietro stepped out onto the back deck, carrying a tray full of sandwiches and lemonade.
"I made some sandwiches," Pietro announced and set the tray down on a small table. He sat down on another lawn chair and stretched out his legs. He was also dressed comfortably, wearing a white T-shirt that sported the Panic! At the Disco logo from a concert that he and Hela went to a couple months ago, blue basketball shorts, sunglasses, and black flip-flops.
"Thanks," Thor said and sat up, grabbing a sandwich from the tray.
Pietro grabbed a sandwich for himself and crossed his ankles while staring out towards the large backyard.
"I wish the weather was this nice in Sokovia," Pietro mused as he munched on his turkey sandwich.
"Just wait until winter. Loki said that Seattle tends to get a lot of snow," Thor replied. "I'm guessing that's why he picked this spot. Nice and big to blend into and plenty of snow."
"One might call him crazy," Pietro said and sipped his lemonade, the ice cubes clinking gently against the clear glass.
"Crazier than he already is?" Thor laughed and reached for his beer can. Lifting it to his lips, he expected to wash down the sandwich with a cool sip but nothing came out.
Titling it back, Thor looked at it, confused. He shook it as if expecting to stir something out of it.
"Did you drink my beer?" Thor asked, looking at Pietro.
"No."
"Huh," Thor muttered and set the can down on the table. He grabbed a glass of lemonade instead, thinking that he might have finished his beer without remembering that he did.
The two men sat there for a while, eating up the rest of the sandwiches and savoring the lemonade, completely clueless of what was lying in wait for them.
Suddenly, the back door opened and slammed shut with a loud bang, despite there being no wind. Pietro jumped and almost spilled his drink. Thor sat up and glanced over at the door.
"What was that?" Pietro asked.
"Probably the wind," Thor replied.
Pietro looked around, taking note of the still branches on the trees. "What wind?"
Thor shrugged. "Probably someone messing with us then." He had lived with Loki for long enough to know that his younger brother liked to play practical jokes on him for fun. If anything, it was most likely Loki trying to scare them.
Pietro settled down and set his empty glass on the tray. He carried it back into the kitchen and set it on the island counter.
The overhead lights flickered, startling Pietro. Looking up, Pietro tried to find a light bulb that was about to go out but all the lights in the house started to flick on and off.
"What the f-" Pietro muttered to himself, starting to feel a little uneasy. Maybe he shouldn't have watched that horror movie last night. Images of ghosts and monsters flooded his mind and Pietro hugged himself in an attempt to calm himself down as the lights turned back on and stayed on.
"It's just a movie…" Pietro thought to himself. Nevertheless, he was quick to join Thor back outside.
The two spent a couple more hours outside until mosquitoes started to pay them a visit, forcing them to go inside.
Thor took his usual spot on the couch in the living room and turned on the TV to a baseball game. He had little knowledge of how the sport worked but he enjoyed watching human sporting events. Bucky had played baseball when he was younger. Between him and Steve Rogers, the two men had tried to educate Thor on how baseball worked but most of the information had gone over his head.
Pietro had disappeared into his room to play some new video game that he had bought earlier that week, the flickering lights already forgotten.
Right when the pitcher started to make the last pitch of the game, the TV shut off. Shouts of muffled complaints rose from Pietro's room before the man himself stomped into the living room.
"I was just about to win!" Pietro complained.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Thor asked. "It's probably a power outage."
"Maybe. The lights were flickering earlier," Pietro said. Although the sun had started to set, it still gave them plenty of light to see so they necessarily didn't need any extra lighting.
"Are the neighbors experiencing the same things?" Thor asked.
Pietro shrugged and looked out the window. Loki had specifically bought this house so that he wouldn't have to deal with any prying eyes. The closest 'neighbor' lived half a mile from them, in all directions.
"If it doesn't come back on until tonight, we might have to have to use you," Pietro teased.
Thor gave a small laugh and got up to get a drink of water from the kitchen. Flipping on the faucet, he absentmindedly filled up his glass, not noticing the red liquid pouring from the faucet. Just as he was going to take a drink, Thor finally noticed and gave a little yelp.
"What in the Nine?!" Thor exclaimed and barely stopped himself from dropping the glass.
As Pietro came over to investigate, the little plastic balls that Sleipnir used to prank Sigyn suddenly rolled down the stairs and bounced into the living room. Startled, both men looked up at the balcony, trying to find what had brought the bag out from the boys' room upstairs.
The lights, once again, started flickering, adding to the back door banging open and shut. Eerie laughter drifted from upstairs, and then downstairs, and right next to them. The faucet turned back on, pouring out a red liquid that looked like blood.
Pietro stepped closer to Thor. He wasn't afraid of ghosts. Heck, he was half-dead himself. This didn't scare him, right?
Thor glanced around the kitchen and living room apprehensively as the sun continued to set, darkening the house.
"When did Loki say when they would be back?" Thor asked.
"I don't know! We eat a lot of food so it takes a while," Pietro snapped, his anxiety rising. He really shouldn't have watched that movie.
Out of nowhere, a red handprint appeared on the outside of the window near the front door and dragged downward.
Pietro barely managed to stifle his scream and clung tightly to Thor's arm. Even Thor seemed surprised and slowly backed into the garage, locking the door behind them.
"What is happening?!" Pietro gasped and locked the other door that led outside. He fumbled around on the shelves in the garage and flicked on a flashlight. He clutched it in his shaking hands as he leaned against Thor in a corner.
"It's probably nothing," Thor said, although he had started to think differently himself. He had heard of ghosts actually haunting places and attacking humans but usually, ghosts were known to make the room cold enough where one could see their breath.
Almost on cue, ice started forming on the windows of the garage door, snaking outwards from a handprint on the window. The air in the room suddenly dropped several degrees, enough where they could see their breath.
That had done it.
"We need salt. We need salt," Thor muttered anxiously as he fumbled around in the dark, looking for the bag of rock salt that they kept to use during winter. He had never seen a hostile ghost before but he vaguely remembered Loki telling him how to ward ghosts off.
"What?" Pietro asked, his voice quiet and shaking in time with his whole body.
Thor finally found the bag of rock salt and opened it. Just as he was about to pour it into a circle, the garage door opened with a blast of icy wind.
Both Thor and Pietro let out a startled scream (although they would both deny it later) as a black 2011 Ford Raptor pulled into the garage.
The front doors opened and two men stepped out.
"Are you two okay?" Bucky asked as he closed the door on the driver's side.
"G-Ghost…" Thor's voice trailed off. He had dropped the bag, spilling rock salt all over the floor.
Loki raised an eyebrow in confusion at his brother before bursting into laughter. He turned and walked out of the garage, disappearing around the left corner, and came back with Hela and Fenris in tow. Both kids were tripping over themselves in laughter.
"I found your 'ghosts,'" Loki said, trying hard to keep a straight face.
"Baaaabe," Pietro whined, still clutching the flashlight in both hands. "That's not funny!"
Hela wiped tears from her eyes and pocketed her phone, gasping for air. "You should - ha - you should have seen your faces!" She doubled over and collapsed onto the concrete floor in a fit of giggles.
Fenris clapped both hands to his cheeks and let out a high-pitched 'ahh!' clearly mocking Thor and Pietro before laughing.
"How?" Thor asked. "How? It seemed so real…"
Hela finally got hold of herself and stood back up. "We put a lot of food coloring in the water tank for the bloody water so don't be scared if the water is red for a while."
"And I can control ice and snow so that was my job," Fenris continued. "The lights were easy, just use the control panel in the basement."
"We couldn't see you," Thor pointed out.
"Dad gave us an invisibility spell that allowed us to drop the balls down the stairs and slam the doors," Hela explained. "It had just worn off, too, so we were going to try something else."
"The laughter…" Pietro muttered, in shock. "It was so real…"
"Oh, we hid a bunch of speakers around the house before we left. So that was just a YouTube video that we used," Fenris replied. The two kids glanced at each other before Fenris added: "And some of it may have been us."
"W-Why?" Thor stuttered, still getting over his shock.
"I set them up to it," Loki answered.
"What?!" Thor snapped, whipped his head towards his brother angrily. All these years, and he thought that he would finally expect Loki's pranks or that Loki would run out of ideas. And yet, Loki still managed to surprise him with elaborate, well thought out schemes.
"Well, I didn't tell them how to do it but more so what to do," Loki said casually. "I gave all the kids someone to prank as a competition to see who could pull off the best prank. And quite frankly, I think these two won."
Hela and Fenris looked at each and gasped. They clasped hands and jumped up and down in excitement, shouting happily.
"So the hair dye with Bucky and the plastic ball prank on Sigyn and now this was a competition?" Thor thought out loud.
"Yes, and the winner gets to choose where to eat out and gets out of doing chores for a particular day of their choosing," Loki continued.
It was quiet except for Fenris and Hela's little, excited giggles as Thor and Pietro thought over the sudden information.
Finally, Thor looked back up towards his brother. "I am so getting you back for this."
Loki gave a little smirk, knowing that Thor couldn't pull off a prank even if his life depended on it. "Well, you can't do anything until all the groceries are put away."
Turning towards Fenris and Hela, Loki said: "And while you two think of where to eat tomorrow, you should clean up your mess before Sigyn gets home."
They nodded and chased each other into the house, laughing the entire way inside. They could brag about this forever, knowing that they were the best pranksters out the kids.
Apparently the popular saying among humans is right: "Two heads are better than one."
Especially if it involves pranking the Helheim out of someone.
For those who may not know, I based the ghost details on the TV show Supernatural. Don't ask me why, but in Supernatural, salt repels ghosts so I based it off that. If you have any ideas, I'm open to anything. I might not update this for a while so don't start worrying where I am. If you are interested, you can read A Little Bit of Mischief. I hope that you are washing your hands (like everyone should have already been doing before this mess even started). Please review and fave, because any little bit of love makes me happy. :)
