A Child of Mischief (Loki/Avengers story)

42. Survival

As Cora takes the last few steps out of the tunnel, she looks around and all she see's is ice. Using her shifting powers, Cora shifts from her black jumpsuit and into a thick thermal gray jumpsuit, with boots.

As Cora looks around, she gasps as she realizes where she is.

"How the hell did I end up on Jotunheim?" Cora asks herself as she tries to step back into the tunnel, but is shocked to see that the tunnel has somehow closed itself up. As the ground begins to rumble, Cora looks up and see's several Frost-Giants in the distance, backing up to the wall of ice, Cora closes her eyes.

"There is an Asgardian here, I can smell them." A Frost-Giant says.

"I smell one of us." Another Frost-Giant says. Cora slightly opens her eyes and quickly closes them as she see's the Frost-Giants stand right in front of her.

"Heimdall! Send help, I somehow ended up on Jotunheim, as I was trying to go back to the castle." Cora mentally screams.

Just as Heimdall is looking out to the cosmos, he hears Cora's plea for help. His gold eyes go wide with fear as he rushes from the Observatory and to the castle. As he makes his way to the infirmary where everyone is, Odin comes out of the throne room.

"Heimdall, what are you doing here?" Odin asks, but Heimdall keeps quiet as he arrives at the infirmary.

"Whoa, Heimdall. What's wrong?" Thor asks as he stops Heimdall just outside the infirmary. Heimdall takes a deep breath, before answering.

"It's Cora. She's in trouble." Heimdall says loud enough so that all that are in the infirmary can hear him.

"What do you mean Cora is in trouble? What's happened to her?" Thor urgently asks, just as Thor asks, the infirmary doors open up, to reveal Natasha, Peter, Andre, and Olivia. They all look back and forth between Thor and Heimdall with fear filled eyes.

"It seems that when she was on her way back here, she took a wrong turn in the tunnel and somehow ended up on Jotunheim." Heimdall says.

"We haven't much time to loose. We must get her now." Thor says as he begins to walk away from the infirmary.

"We're coming too." Olivia says as she exits the infirmary. Thor turns back to those in the infirmary doorway and shakes his head.

"Absolutely not. Things could get dangerous." Thor says, Peter shakes his head and stands next to Olivia.

"That wasn't a question of permission." Peter says as Natasha, and Andre come walking out of the infirmary to stand next to him and Olivia.

"Dealing with an alternate reality of Jotunheim is one thing, but ending up there and trying to survive that is a whole different agenda." Loki says as he walks out of the infirmary.

"You should stay here." Thor says to Loki and nods toward the infirmary. Loki looks back at Caitriona in the infirmary and then back at Thor.

"I'm making sure my daughter comes back, at her mothers request." Loki fiercely says and walks past Thor and toward the library. Everyone except Thor begins to follow Loki to the library.

"Heimdall, we'll need access to the Bifrost once we get Cora back." Loki says, Heimdall nods and walks with them to the library.

"And so, you shall have it." Heimdall answers, as he stops just at the library entrance.

"How is she holding up?" Peter asks, Heimdall looks at Peter, then looks off in the distance.

"For the moment, she is staying hidden. But, that will not last for much longer, the Frost-Giants that are close by will find her." Heimdall says, everyone turns and looks at him with worrisome eyes.

"The scent is coming from right here." One of the male Frost-Giants say and point right at Cora. Holding her breath and keeping her eyes tightly closed, Cora stands as still as a statue.

"How peculiar, unless." A female Frost-Giant says and swings her hand in front of Cora, who goes flying a long ways away from where she had been.

"Knew I smelled Asgardian." The male Frost-Giant says as Cora's invisibility power stops working and reveals her on the ground. Cora plays dead, hoping the Frost-Giants will leave her alone.

"She smells of Frost-Giant more than Asgardian." A different male Frost-Giant states. Cora feels herself get picked up between a Frost-Giants fingers.

"Let her go!" Cora hears Peter scream, taking the distraction, Cora spins out of the Frost-Giants fingers and uses her dagger to slice down the Frost-Giants arm as she falls back to the ground. Landing on her feet, Cora tries to rush to those that came to rescue her.

"I don't think so." The female Frost Giant says and kicks Cora across the ground. Cora's back hits the ground hard and she propels herself forward and wobbly lands on her feet.

"Cora, you okay?" Peter asks as he tries to fight off a Frost-Giant.

"Other than the splitting head ache and back pain, I've never been better." Cora sarcastically yet angrily says.

"The sarcasm is hardly necessary at this particular moment." Loki says as he and Natasha begin to fight off two Frost-Giants.

"Uh, Loki. Look at Cora." Peter says as he points at Cora, before using his web slinging to take one of the Frost-Giants down. Loki looks to Cora and gasps as he see's she's grown a few feet in height, her eyes are red, and her skin is a medium blue color.

"What the hell, happened to her?" Natasha screams as she takes down the Frost-Giant she had been battling.

"It's her Frost-Giant form, I guess they've gotten her angry enough to where she's able to use it, now." Loki explains as he makes a Frost-Giant fall to its knees.

"That's impossible." The male Frost-Giant says as Cora does a super jump and slices the Frost-Giant across its throat, it begins to fall to the ground, as it completely falls to the ground and makes the ground shake, Cora lands on the ground in front of it. With her head pounding, Cora begins to try and make it to everyone, but is stopped and flung through the air and smacks into the ice wall, as the Frost-Giant she took down gains one last ounce of energy and smacks its hand into her.

"Cora!" Everyone except Loki screams. Cora tries to pull herself up, but begins to feel the unconsciousness overtake her and she slumps back to the icy ground.

"We need to get her out of here, NOW!" Natasha screams at Loki. Loki side eyes Natasha and nods.

"Olivia, how many portals can you open at one time?" Andre screams to Olivia, Olivia ponders the question for a second and then focuses on opening portals behind all of the Frost-Giants that are still standing, once the portals are open, everyone begins to overtake the Frost-Giants and knock them into the portals.

"Keep them open until we call to get back to Asgard." Loki instructs as he goes to Cora and picks her up. She begins to mumble and groan.

"Shhh, just rest now. You've done well, with what's been asked of you today." Loki says as he lightly kisses Cora's forehead. Cora stops mumbling and goes still, Loki feels her go limp and he becomes worried.

"Is everyone ready, to go back?" Loki screams, everyone around him looks at him and makes their way over to him.

"Olivia get ready to open one big portal to drop them onto the ground." Peter says, Olivia nods and stares at the sky, it begins to slowly glow white.

"Heimdall, now!" Loki screams, and the blue and white light engulfs everyone close to Loki. Olivia fully opens the portal and drops all of the Frost-Giants to the ground as she and the others are teleported back to Asgard.