"Jesus, that was Shakespearean. A Greek tragic cluster fuck." Tony says as he downs his scotch. He and Bruce are hiding in the lab.
"I still can't believe that all the shit we've been through was all tantamount to a cry for attention. And Thor, he's never going to apologize for what he did."
"No he won't. Even if Thor ever admits to himself that what he did was wrong he'll never verbalize it."
"He's never going to get the hammer back is he?" Bruce asks.
"I don't think he will. I think we are going to be stuck with Thor and Loki for a very long time."
"Loki didn't exactly apologize for all the stuff he did either."
"Yeah, but at least I could see he feels remorseful, which is a start. Thor's still too angry. He's not there yet." Tony says.
"I've never seen love sour so badly. If they'd just fucking talked to each other…"
"That would have required one of them being honest and vulnerable with the other. Loki doesn't do honest and Thor doesn't do vulnerable."
"God damn idiots."
"Damned gods is more like it. I think Loki was right about them being destined to hate each other." Tony says.
"Do you think they will be able to act civilly towards one another?" Bruce asks.
"They'd better. That little girl deserves better."
XxXxXxXx
"Bah…" Valeria cooed.
"Can you say dada? Dada?" Loki asks. He's on the floor with Valeria in the clubhouse.
"Mmmmmma!" She reaches up and grabs Loki's nose. It is her favorite pastime.
"That's mine. You have your own nose."
"EEEEEEE! Bah Bah Bah."
"You don't say?" Loki makes a raspberry in her tummy to make her giggle. It is a nice Saturday spring morning. Clint, Steve, Tony, and Bruce are all on the couch playing some ridiculous video game. Elves don't look anything like that. Thor is on the couch too, watching the game, and watching Loki and Valeria. Loki can tell Thor is trying not to look like a kicked puppy whenever he looks his way. He was never a very good liar. Except for the ergi thing. He hid that pretty damn well.
"For the love of the Norns Thor, if you want to spend time with her then get over here." Loki chastises him. Thor walks over and gets down on the floor and lays next to the baby with Loki on the other side. She's in the middle between her momma and papa, and admiring the looks of the handsome blonde man that is now giving her his full attention. She reaches her chubby little hand out to him and Thor offers up one of his big meat fingers for her to grip.
"So strong you are little one."
"MMMMBah!"
"Is that so?" Thor's eyes sparkle as he looks at his daughter. He always imagined he would have many children. Then again, he imagined being there when they were born and creating them out of an act of love. His face falls and his eyes meet Loki's. They don't say anything. They don't want to ruin the moment with quarreling.
"Has mother paid you a visit at all?" Thor asks.
"No. I'm surprised she has managed to stay away. That woman has unbelievable baby fever."
"I wish we had some of our family heirlooms to give to her. She is a princess of Asgard. She deserves to have the items of our family around her." Thor says.
"Well hopefully Heimdall is listening and will say something." Loki looks upwards at the ceiling.
"Ma! Ma!"
"Can you say dada? Dada?" Loki prompts.
"MMMMa!"
"She knows you're her mother." Thor says. "Can you say dada? Dada?" Thor says.
"MMMMbbbbb..Da!"
"Traitor." Loki says to his darling girl. Steve's phone rings and the game goes on pause.
"Yeah. Where? When did that happen? Okay. Natasha's out shopping but everyone else is here. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. I guess Thor could stay behind." Steve looks over at the little family on the floor. "Strike that. I'll have Bruce stay behind." Steve hangs up the phone.
"Clint get a hold of Natasha and find out where she is. We'll need to do a pick up. Bruce you're staying behind. Thor you're with us." Thor makes a face that clearly says he insulted by the insinuation that he cannot be left alone with Loki. Loki makes a face about not being left alone at all.
"What happened?" Tony asks.
"There was a break in at a cybertronics lab in Virginia. Nick thinks it was Doom. SHIELD is tracking the plane that took off from the roof."
"Do we know what Doom was after?" Tony asks.
"No, SHIELD is doing an inventory to find out what was stolen." Steve says. "Everybody suit up. We take off in ten minutes."
XxXxXxXxXx
About an hour and a half later the jet touches down in front of a warehouse in the middle of rural Virginia.
"Why are evil villains always holed up in warehouses? It's so cliché." Tony complains.
"Not everyone can have your style Stark." Clint says.
"That is true." He replies.
"What do you think?" Natasha asks as she surveys the building.
"Tony do a fly around and drop Clint off on the roof. Thor, Nat, you're with me." Tony grabs Clint and takes off into the air. He circles the building once to check for bad guys before land on the roof. The others run to the building, hiding in corners, and shadows as they go. They reach a locked door and have to stop. Normally this is the part where Thor uses Mjolnir to 'unlock' the door. Unfortunately that tool is no longer available. Thor shoves his sword into the joint of the door and tries to cut the lock with the blade. Instead he is rewarded with a bent blade that is now useless.
"Thrice damned Midgardian weaponry!"
He has to use his bare hands instead. Thor grabs the handle and yanks hard. The metal of the door buckles quite a bit, but he has to tug on it two more times before the door comes completely off its hinges. Thor tosses it aside like a tin can.
They enter quickly, clearing the rooms as they go. It isn't until they are deep within the building that they make contact with Doom and his toadies. Gunfire erupts and the team takes cover. Steve and Natasha take out a several men quickly as Thor lays aside his metal boomerang and uses his power over the lightning to electrocute his foes. Tony and Clint join the fray from above, picking off snipers in the above rafters.
The team notices the dead bodies laid out on morgue slabs with wires and tubes coming out of their bodies.
"What the fuck is this place?" Tony asks over the comm.
"No place we want to be." Hawkeye says. "Doom, up top, twelve o'clock."
Doom pulls out a little switch from his pocket and presses the button on top.
"Shit I think he has a bomb!" Hawkeye yells right before an ear piercing sound drops everyone to their knees. Except for Tony, whose suit is filtering out the sound. Tony fires a weapon at Doom, but Doom dodges the blow and in turn shoots streams of electricity at Iron Man.
Unfortunately, Tony's suit does not absorb the charge like it does when Thor zaps him. He loses power and crashes to the ground.
"And now for the rest of you." Doom aims at Thor, but the electrical surge does not harm him. Thor smiles up at Doom and removes one of his hands from his ears.
"My turn!" Thor takes the bolt of electricity and shoots it right back at Doom with tenfold the power. Doom shrieks in pain and flees, leaving the ear piercing sound weapon behind. Hawkeye is the closest to the device. He rips out the comm devices in his ears to lessen the pain. It helps a lot. He crawls to the device and shuts the damn thing off.
"Awwwww…" Everyone sighs in relief now that the horrid sound is gone. Unfortunately, so is Doom.