A Child of Mischief (Loki/Avengers story)

27. Legends

As they ride into the village, Cora looks up from her hands, her eyes go wide and she gasps as she see's the damage the village sustained. Looking between Derek and Sadie, and then behind her, Cora covers her mouth from shock as she see's a lot of the buildings have pieces missing and some are completely destroyed.

"Did any of the ancient statues of kings past get destroyed?" Cora unthinkingly asks, Loki turns his head to look at her and lightly shakes his head.

"No, the attack stayed contained within the village." Thor answers, as the carriage comes to a halt.

"Any missing villagers or casualties?" Peter asks as Thor and Loki dismount their horses.

"Thankfully, no. Everyone has been accounted for." Loki says as he waves his hand at the recruits signaling for them to exit the carriage.

"Everyone except Peter and Cora hold out your right arm." Thor says, all but Peter and Cora hold out their right arms. Loki goes up to each recruit and places a bracelet on their right wrist.

"What the hell are these?" Xander asks examining the bracelet that had been placed on his wrist.

"Limitation cuffs. All of you will now truly know what it is like to work without powers. If you try and remove it, it will send an electric shock through your body. So, my advice don't try anything stupid." Loki says as the recruits begin to whine.

"You two are no exception to this rule, this is the one thing I will have you all be equal with." Loki says as he stands in front of Peter and Cora. Peter holds out his arm and Loki snaps the bracelet onto his wrist. Cora holds up her arm and shows that she is already wearing her own bracelet. Loki nods as he places the bracelet that was meant for Cora back into his pocket.

"Brother, I just said that Peter and Cora do not have to—." Thor begins to say, as he watches Loki place the limitations cuff on Peter's wrist. Loki gives him a look that makes Thor stop talking mid sentence.

"That's not fair, why can Cora wear her own and we have to have special ones?" Sadie scoffs and asks.

"The bracelet's that you all wear are the exact same as Cora's. All of you are being treated the same when it comes to making sure you do not use your powers for this." Thor says, and looks back and forth between all the recruits.

"Peter, Cora, you two may go and explore the village. But do not wander to far away, we need to be able to find you at a moments notice." Loki says, Cora and Peter nod and walk away from the group.

"It's been a crazy few days, huh?" Peter asks as he and Cora walk away from the group and survey the damage that yesterday's battle caused.

"You can say that again." Cora agrees as she slowly walks beside Peter.

"Ow, what the hell?" Sadie screams off in the distance. Peter and Cora turn to see what happened, and find Sadie laying on the ground.

"I told you not to try anything stupid, and the first thing you do is try and take off your limitation cuff. Miss Morelan, are you trying to test my patience?" Loki asks as he stands over Sadie, who slowly stands up. Peter and Cora turn back around and continue to walk.

"Things haven't gone as anyone had planned for them to go." Cora says as she stops and looks out over the village and toward the Observatory.

"I'm not sure if any of them had a plan to how things would go in the first place." Peter says, Cora laughs lightly and smiles as she moves a stray strand of hair out of her face.

"I think that's the first time I've seen you genuinely laugh and smile while we've been here." Peter says as he looks at Cora.

"It was bound to happen eventually. Although only having been here for three days and knocked out for one of them, no surprise it happened this soon." Cora says and laughs again, Peter laughs with her but then turns his head as he senses they are being watched.