Power Struggle

Chapter Four

After charging me up from a socket in his bedroom, Loki made me practice not only transferring energy to him, but seeing if I could direct it to a specific part of his body.

Since he'd laughed at mine so often, the thought of giving him a static halo was more than a little enticing and you could say that I was very motivated to succeed!

Unfortunately, although I mastered the art relatively quickly, Loki's magical abilities meant that he was quickly able to damp the fuzz down to his usual brushed back, slightly curly 'do.

Bastard! I narrowed my eyes at him.

I mean, he'd been laughing at me for weeks, couldn't he let me laugh at him for one lousy afternoon?

He soon soothed my irritation with the offer of practicing by giving the Avengers each their own nice static 'fro.

We shared an evil smile at that thought.

Oh, this is gonna be fun.

Once I stopped touching them, the static would slowly dissipate over time. The trick, he advised, was to do it to someone who was alone, and do it so subtly that they wouldn't realise. Then we just had to wait until they happened across someone who would find their coiffure rather comical.

I got my chance at Tony the very next morning. And what's more, he fucking deserved it too!

I staggered into the kitchen in search of coffee not even caring that my hair was standing on end, albeit from bedhead this time.

Tony turned around with a giant mug of coffee in his hand, slurping rather rudely.

"Well, if it isn't the Highway to Hell," he snarked.

My face scrunched in confusion.

"AC/DC. Get it?" Tony smirked, clearly proud of his own cleverness.

I groaned, slapping a hand over my face.

"Jesus Tony, you're going to hurt yourself reaching so far up into your ass to pull gems like that out!" I growled at him, not at all happy to be dealing with this crap before I'd even had my morning coffee.

Loki's eyebrows drew down as he frowned. He hated not being in on a joke. Like it was a personal insult.

"What does a highway to hell, and alternating and direct currents have to do with each other?" He asked in an irritated tone.

Tony grinned like he'd been waiting for it. Oh, no—

"Jarvis, give us Highway to Hell, by AC/DC, dial up to eleven."

A wall of sound crashed over us. Loki actually yelled in pain and clapped his hands over his ears. Tony just stood there smirking like a loon.

"By the nine!" Loki shouted over the jarring music. "What in Hel is that noise??"

"Jarvis, turn it off!" I shouted. But Jarvis doesn't work for me, and Tony had given him the order, so I was outta luck. Or rather, Tony was outta four fancy hidden speakers.

I aimed simultaneous blasts at the speakers and fried them. The sudden silence was almost as loud as the music had been. Hey, it was self defense, okay?

"Goddamn it, Roxy! Quit breaking my toys!" Tony roared at me.

I stalked up to him, nose to nose, and poked him in the chest with one finger, delivering a small shock right above his arc reactor. Tony went pale and jumped back.

"What the fuck is the matter with you?! They played that shit at prisoners of war in Guantanamo, but they at least had the humanity not to torture them first thing in the damn morning!"