It has been a week since Loki and Thor crash-landed into this strange Earth country. And it just happens to be a tropical paradise.
What a lucky accident.
"Good thing we landed here and not somewhere cold. I heard there are places on Earth that are much colder than the Frost Giant's planet," Thor says.
"You must have heard about Antarctica" Cheyenne adds in a know-it-all voice. "Oh, hush, you," Thor teases her.
Loki sits on a sofa in the small, but cozy living room the Apodacas have in their home. He is in a comfy position with his arms resting behind his head. He wears a sleeveless green T-shirt with cargo shorts. He had to admit, human clothing is quite comfortable. Loki watches as Thor and Cheyenne pretend to fight each other, their fists beating at each other's stomaches. Loki smiles, and slowly nods his head from side to catches Cheyenne's eye, who comes over to him to play fight with him.
Every day, the brothers help the Apodaca family, Cheyenne and her dad, and they make sure the house is orderly. Today they are going to start their search party for the Tesseract. To reward them for all their hard work, Cheyenne's "papá"* is going to take them on a ferry out to sea to search for the Tesseract. They thought maybe the Tesseract was taken by someone, and if someone took it they would not know what to do with it. They might have thrown it into the sea where all things that want to be forgotten go.
Loki and Thor grow more and more attached to Cheyenne and her father every day. Cheyenne began to teach them Spanish so they could communicate more easily with her dad and other peopole in Costa Rica. Her father has been patient and practices Spanish with the brothers. The boys are fast learners.
Once Thor put on a shirt, (yes, he does walk around without a shirt on inside the house ~ hey it's hot in summer in Costa Rica; you can't blame the guy!) the Apodacas and the brothers set out for the pier. When they get there, Cheyenne's papá* goes to talk with a man, probably his friend. They greet each other familiarly and the man motions for Thor, Loki, and Cheyenne to come over.
"You ned a ride? Hop on," The man says, in almost perfect English.
"How do you know English?" Loki asks.
"Patience and a lot of practice, mijo.* Soon you will learn Spanish, just wait and see."
The man looks at Cheyenne, then back to Loki. "Maybe you can ask this young lady out to dance in Spanish. You'd make a cute couple. What do you say, mijo?*" The man says, grinning.
Loki and Cheyenne both blush. "No, no we are just good friends," Loki says, hurriedly. Loki sees that Cheyenne looks slightly upset. The man and Cheyenne's papá* laugh, and so does Thor whose laugh is loud and hearty.
The man introduces himself as Jorge.
"Wow, you have a loud laugh, mijo,*" Jorge exclaims.
"Yes, I do. Why do humans - I mean others always tell me that?" Thor asks, rhetorically.
The little search party all squish onto Jorge's little ferry.
Thor, Loki, and Cheyenne sit by the water to look for any signs of the Tesseract in the water. Jorge starts the motor and drives the ferry onward. Papá sits with his legs propped up on a stool, and pulls his hat over his eyes as he naps. Thor stifles a laugh.
"Does your father always sleep in this manner on the ferry?" Thor asks Cheyenne. "Yes, but sometimes he sleeps on the floor of the ferry," Cheyenne says, laughing and her eyes dancing.
The ferry was just going past the beach when it almost crashed into a surfer. The surfer is a girl, with long ebony hair, and bright blue eyes. She is athletic, and beautiful. The surfer waves to them as she passes. "¡Lo siento!" She cries out as she makes her way back to shore.
Loki and Thor watch as Cheyenne waves back to the girl.
"Who is that?!" Thor asks, smiling from ear-to-ear.
"Mi amiga, Emily,*" Cheyenne says, looking curiously at Thor as he stares in the direction Emily went.
Cheyenne turns around and sits next to her father. She starts to put on a scuba diving suit for when she will dive under the waves in search of the Tesseract. Thor and Loki are already in their scuba suits. They sit down on the other side of the ferry and look into the sapphire water. The water undulates in little motions, and sloshes against the side of the ferry, almost hitting Thor in the eye. A drop of salty water lands in Loki's eye, and he rubs it as it stings him. Thor laughs as Loki pours a water bottle over his eye, hoping to wash the salt water out of his eye.
Thor goes back to staring into the depths of the water. He sharpened his vision while he was in Asgard (His father had taught him) so he can see the ocean floor pretty clearly. No sign of the Tesseract.
In a few minutes, the trio will dive into the water. Before they do, Loki decides to confront his brother. Thor has that distant look in his eye that he gets whenever he remembers Jane Foster. He is troubled, and since Loki has brotherly senses, he can tell when Thor is upset.
"You miss her... do you not?" Loki asks his brother. Thor flinches which is unusual for him. He is always calm and composed.
"Why? Why would you ask that, brother?" Thor asks, fumbling through his words.
"Well..." starts Loki, "The surfer who passed us earlier reminded me a lot of Jane and I thought maybe she reminded you of her, too. She has the free spirit Jane has."
Thor nods, deep in thought. His eyes look distant and Loki knows he shouldn't bring up the subject again. Not now.
Then, Thor surprises Loki. He says, "The surfer did remind me of her, and she also reminded how I may never get to see my lovely Jane ever again." Thor walks away.
Yazmin walks down the street, El Caballero. She reaches the little apartment which is so far tucked behind another apartment building, it is hidden from the view of the people on the street. She waves to Sra. Saldana as she makes her way to her door.
CLICK. The door swings open.
Yazmin throws her heavy-duty backpack onto her plush couch. Then, she slips off her hiking boots, dirty from a long day of hiking around the Costa Rican tropics. Then, she opens her backpack, and stares at the magnificent treasure inside.
Yazmin found the treasure when she was making her way back home, and she happened to take a different route home to spice things up a bit. She saw this treasure lying in a ditch by the sidewalk, and she just had to take it home and investigate it.
She smiles as the sapphire glow illuminates her face.
"We need reinforcement," Cheyenne says, handing Loki the phone.
"We know who to call," Loki says.
"The Tesseract could be half way around the world by now. There is no way we can do this by ourselves," Thor agrees.
"I cannot believe I am doing this. These humans are my enemies and I am asking them for help?," Loki says, regretting his decision.
He is going to call in the Avengers.
Loki dials the numbers. Thor snatches the phone from him.
"Hm, on second thought, let me call them in," Thor says. If Loki calls the Avengers in, they would never come.
"Be my guest," Loki shrugs.
The phone rings. A man's voice answers first. It is Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America.
"Hello? If this is a certain Polly Harkins, this is not Jerry for the hundredth time," Steve says. He sounds annoyed and tired, as if he had just been working out at the gym.
"This is Thor, son of Odin. We need your help. The fate of the world is in the our hands again. The Avengers need to assemble."
"Affirmative. Let me get ready. Oh, and you interrupted my workout. I'm not particularly happy about that." Steve answers. Typical Cap... Thor thinks.
The phone hangs up. The phone rings again and another voice sounds. This time it is a woman's voice.
"Hello, my dear Natalia. This is Thor, son of Odin. The Avengers need to assemble. I'll tell you the details later." Thor says.
"Wow, sounds pretty serious. Okay, count us in." Black Widow answers.
"Us?"
"Yeah, Hawkeye and me"
"Oh, I see." Thor smirks. "You are together now, are you not?"
"Why yes. We stick together got it, darling." She pauses for a second, "On second thought, count us out. I'm sorry. We are making wedding plans and we have to stay undercover and incognito until the wedding is over." Thor can hear the disappointment in her voice.
"Fine. Take care, and do not forget to invite us to the special day!" Thor exclaims, laughing jovially.
"We won't," Black Widow says.
She hangs up.
Thor does this for the other Avengers: Dr. Banner and Tony Stark.
Dr. Banner is on his way to Central America anyway because he has a rare case of yellow fever to treat there. He will stop by after he takes a peek at his patient.
"Just do not bring the disease with you, Doctor." Thor adds, cringing at the idea of getting yellow fever. He heard it was a ghastly disease.
"Will do," the Hulk answers. Thor can feel him smiling on the other side of the line.
Tony Stark is a little harder to convince, but he finally confirms after Thor bribes him with a money prize for whoever finds the Tesseract first.
"I'm in, hammer boy. It's hammer time!" Stark answers, laughing.
Just as always, he never takes anything seriously, Thor thinks.
He hangs up for the last time. "The Avengers are going to assemble," Thor tells Cheyenne and Loki.
The trio celebrate and high-five each other until their hands turn red. They laugh so much they roll on the floor. Cheyenne's Papa comes in, and sees the rowdy bunch.
"What in the heck are you all doing?!" Papa yells.
"What?! You speak ENGLISH?!" Loki and Thor shout in unison.
"The whole time, yes. I thought it would be fun to play a trick on you guys. Well, frankly I didn't trust you at first, but now I see that you two are like sons to me." Cheyenne's Papa answers, grinning from ear to ear.
Loki smiles, respect in his eyes. "And I thought I was the god of mischief."