DAY 15: 1830 HOURS
He felt like a freak, and he understood that he probably was. Everybody else around him were either in three piece suits or the latest fashions that seemed like trash, and he was dressed in a pair of second hand jeans and a shirt with the Bat signal on it. Bella was dressed in her Marine uniform. According to all the authorities, she was still in the Corps and an attache to SHIELD.
He wasn't meant to be here. He recognized some faces, and thank the all powerful one they didn't notice him. He was surrounded by people he had tried to kill. They sat in a table with the English teacher, Sophia in between them looking a little nervous.
I feel like a donkey's butt.
"I have a problem with your daughter's essay," the mousy bespectacled woman looked across the table at Bella, seeming to ignore Loki completely.
"Is this the one about banning capital punishment and bringing back torture instead?" Bella cocked her head, her hat, or 'cover' as the Marines called it, sitting on her lap delicately. Through her stockings, a glint of silver metal could be seen in the light, her right leg was metallic.
"If so, it was obviously a joke."
Loki grinned, and Sophia nudged him, grinning too, "joke," Loki repeated, "yes indeed."
The woman tossed a ten page essay on her desk. Bella read it, "'the Massacre of New York'," she said, "'subtitle; how the Destructor should have taken over the world'."
Loki laughed, "Can I have a look at that?" she tossed it over to him. And he flicked through it, "'everything wrong with the Massacre of New York," he flicked a few more pages, "'choosing New York as his first point of large scale attack, the Destroyer made a fundamental mistake; while it is good to be visible in order to crush the enemy's morale, it is imperative that all utilities have first been destroyed so that the enemy, ie us, cannot coordinate an effective resistance. In short, the New York Massacre should have occurred later in the human Chitauri war as the Allied bombing of Dresden occurred in the later stages of World War Two'," he tied not to laugh, but faced Sophia with a grin, "you are hereby promoted to my Commissar of Defense."
Sophia beamed, and the English teacher looked down at them disapprovingly. Bella snatched the essay back off him and glanced at the cover, "F? Are you kidding me?" she shook her head at the teacher with a surly glare, "why?" she asked simply.
"The subject manner is inappropriate for a child so young," the teacher replied, pushing her glasses further up her nose, uncomfortable in the chair, "and what we were looking for in the assignment was originality and a non violent subject matter, perhaps a short story about her visit to her father."
Sophia visibly fumed as the teacher said that, and Loki patted her arm, "relax, friend."
"Look, Teach," Bella snapped, "You know my daughter and if the subject matter was supposed to be non-violent, you should not have told your class 'a topic of your choice'. Have you read any other assignments on this subject?"
"No," the teacher informed her.
"Then it is original," Bella said flatly, "it is written in a perfect essay format, and all the information in this document is entirely correct," she slapped the essay back down on her table, "fix this mark," she ordered.
"You cannot order me around like the enlisted in the Corps," the woman said meekly.
She sighed, "Fix it or I will inform the Principal of this blatant abuse of your post when grammatically, structurally and sequentially, this essay is perfect," she arched an eyebrow, "and if the principal does not authorize a re-mark, I will lodge this complaint with the District Superintendent of Schools."
"I will fix the mark," she said quickly, "A plus," she squeaked.
Bella smiled, "that's what I'd do."
As Loki got up to leave behind Bella, he grabbed the essay off the table, "I believe we have seen everyone," but then Bella stopped dead and spun back around, facing him, "what is wrong?"
"Act natural, you're not hurt," she whispered to herself. Loki glared at her for a moment.
Sophia grabbed Loki's arm. She knew exactly what was going on, "come on, Loki, let's get some punch," she led him away by the arm, and he glanced back to see a tall blonde approach behind Bella.
"Set a court date, yet?" he asked her in a slimy tone and she turned to face him.
"Daniel, what an amusing surprise," she cocked her head, and Loki immediately felt his hackles rise. He chose to pay total attention to the snack table, dipping his hand into the corn chips.
"Sophie, is that your father?"
"Unfortunately," Sophia leaned by the water cooler with a plastic cup of punch, "I suppose compared to your dad, alien Pol Pot, he's not too bad. At least he has never actively tried to kill me."
Does that mean he has inactively tried to kill you? He couldn't help listening in.
"Daniel, please, enough with the sass. I'm here with my daughter."
"And your latest fuck," Daniel bit at her, "how old is he? Nineteen? Twenty? Robbing the cradle there, don't you think?" he sneered, "you've always been a slut."
"Hey!" she snapped at him, "let's not forget who was fucking around on whom."
He laughed, "And you were an angel," he snapped at her again, "you were always deployed, and you still are, the Desert Fox," he took some papers out of his pocket; "I am filing for total custody."
"So you can be closer to Soph to ignore her more accurately?" Bella bit back, "you can say anything you want about me, I don't give two shits what you think of me, but don't you dare threaten to take my daughter away into a life of depravity and neglect."
"Depravity and neglect?" he laughed, "She spends half her time with Captain Rodgers and the rest she usually spends with that asshole Tony Stark and his bitch. You neglect her more than I do."
"Who helps her with her homework? Who comes to these stupid events dressed like Marine Barbie?"
"You are a whore."
Daniel was making a scene, and most mothers and teachers were glaring at the pair of them in silence. This was part of his plan.
"Stay here," Loki told Sophia, who nodded, but she followed not far behind anyway. She knew he was going to do something stupid.
"Please," she grabbed his sleeve, "don't do anything stupid."
"Why do you assume I'm going to do something stupid?"
"You have that righteous look of justice and indignation on your face just like Captain America," Sophia bit back. She was a lot like her mother.
Loki approached them, grinning, "From that barrage of empty threats and foul language, I must assume that you are Daniel De Martino," he outstretched a hand to the stranger; "I am most pleased to meet you."
"Who the fuck are you?"
"Luke Silver, otherwise known as the nineteen year old kid. Oh yes, De Martino, I heard every word," he replied quickly, but not too quickly, "you remind me a lot of my brother," and then his smile disappeared, "I hate my brother." Bella's lips quirked in a smile.
"But out of this, Smartass," Daniel sneered at him.
"Leave her alone," Loki demanded. For a second, he was thinking of invoking a royal command and then he remembered that he was technically wasn't a royal anymore. Oh well. "I will not fight you, De Martino, but you will leave." He turned to walk away.
"Big words for a runt, for a cute little feller" Daniel yelled at him, "Care to back 'em up? Protect your bitch!"
Loki stopped. Nobody called him a runt, and nobody called him cute. He was not cute. He was the god of chaos, a mass murderer. He was not cute. He could never be cute!
Sophia noticed his demeanor change, "Loki, no."
"Please," Bella gulped, "don't do anything stupid," those words mirrored those of her daughter.
"Damn," he whispered, then he spun around fast and a swift punch connected to Daniel's jaw and he was knocked back. He only needed one. Daniel fell back on the gymnasium floor unconscious, with blood dripping from his split lip and his nose was so broken the hole would make a good cup-holder. People gasped and run about, calling an ambulance and gathering around the fallen man. Bella and Loki stared at each other for a while.
"You idiot."
He sat on the chair in the end of the Rock. His new cell looked like his old cell, only much bigger, and instead of being designed for a big, green, witless beast, it was designed especially for him, and not even his whirring mind could defeat the electronics. Unlike the electronics, he hesitated slightly, which never bode well for him.
"You punched Daniel De Martino in the jaw," Fury paced around in front of the cell, "give me one good reason why I should not lock you up?" Loki was silent for a long time, sitting there, staring. The last thing he was going to do was squirm. It did not become him at all.
"I am just so funny," he replied flatly.
"Don't sass me," Fury bit at him, "I can leave you here to rot."
"I am sure you could," Loki replied, not at all phased by the empty threat. He had developed a lot in the past couple of weeks, and had found that nothing really bothered him, not even the armed guards, but he wasn't sure if that was due to knowledge or arrogance.
"What do you think you were doing?"
"I was defending a lady's honor," Loki finally answered him, "on my planet, it is considered admirable to protect one over yourself." He crossed his arms defiantly over his chest.
"You're on my planet where that is called assault," Fury snapped back. Inwardly, he was wondering about the sudden mood swing, and thinking that maybe his agent was doing a little more than her job here.
Loki arched an eyebrow. Bella grinned at him from Fury's side, "wow," she said, and Fury looked at her, "that's kind of sweet." She grinned and shook her head, "that's never happened to me before.
"You're welcome," Loki smiled back, swinging his legs over onto the other side of the bench and lay down, deciding that civilized decorum was absolutely useless in this situation.
"Loki!"
He recognized the voice immediately; Thor. "Now I'm in trouble."
"What have you done?" he entered the room, "can you make an attempt not to get in trouble for more than a few days?"
"It's good to see you too," Loki arched an eyebrow, sarcasm dripping from his teeth.
He looked although he had walked out of a resonance fair, with the long, flowing red cape and silver armor. He stopped in front of the cell and stared at him with furious eyes. Then he turned to Bella.
"Lady Isabella, what is the meaning of this?"
She smiled wryly, "he punched out my ex-husband," she said flatly, "apparently murder's fine, but he can't abide with rudeness."
"He was calling her all sorts of names," Loki looked at his brother, "were we not raised to defend the honor of our women-folk?" he sat up to look directly at Thor.
Thor deliberated for a short time, "yes," he answered, "in our philosophy, you have done nothing wrong, Loki."
Fury's eye widened slightly. He was outgunned, both from within and from with-out the heavens. Loki smiled slightly.
"It is good that you are remembering who you were," Thor told him.
"It's all coming back to me now," Loki grinned at his brother, "unfortunately not all of it is flowers and bunny rabbits."
Bella looked her boss in the eye, "I swear, with your God as my witness, this will be a completely isolated incident, isn't that right, Loki?" Bella arched her eyebrow at him, and it was pretty clear by her face that he either must agree or be head-slapped.
"Right," Loki said with a smirk, "and from now on, I'll also do all my chores and stop kicking puppies."
"You are allowed to leave back to your protective custody," Fury told him, "however from this moment onward, your travel privileges have been revoked."