Young Asgardians

12

"Amora's greatest strength is her ability to take control of people's minds, but the one person she's always been unable to influence is Loki. He's been trying to overcome Amora's spell this entire time. I think he'll be able to eventually if he has a little help." Sigyn explains, gauging the reactions of the team carefully. Everyone had gathered in the living room after Sigyn's arrival and Loki's confession.

"Are you suggesting we let Loki use the Norn Stones?" Bruce asks, raising an eyebrow. "How do you know we'll be able to trust him with them when he's an adult."

"Or a child for that matter," Clint adds under his breath.

"You don't think he cares about the relationships he's formed with you all at this point." Sigyn protests.

"I just think he might care about escaping future imprisonment more," Clint says, clenching his fists. Steve's glad Wanda took Loki out of the room to join Thor's game of hide-n-seek. Both Wanda and Vision return leaving Friday to watch the kids.

"We can talk about this when we actually have the stones, which we should be focusing on," Steve interjects. "Can we count on you to find them, Tony?"

"Yeah, I was working on it all night. I think I can give you relevant locations."

"I've spoken with the All-father, and the royal courts and Amora is to face Asgardian justice for her entry into Asgard. Now it seems she may have been trying to steal the Norn Stones, but Loki beat her to it," Sigyn says, sighing as everything further complicates.

"Then we find the stones first. Amora can clearly get to all of us, and until she has the stones, we're in her way." Steve says, looking around at the other Avengers. "Wanda, you're our best line of defence against Amora, so the rest of us need to keep our distance and keep Thor, Loki and the stones out of Amora's reach. If we're gonna beat her, we gotta do it now, so suit up!"

The Avengers do just that, and Steve asks Friday for constant updates on how the young Asgardians are doing. They've stopped play hide-n-seek and are now sitting on Loki's bed; Thor listening to Loki read one of his books aloud.

Similar to before, the stones appeared on the radar sporadically, but Tony and Bruce had concluded that this just meant that they were separated about New York City. Wanda and Vision stayed behind in the tower with Thor and Loki while the other went out to collect the stones.

Loki was upset by Steve leaving again, but they managed to distract him for a while with a movie. Thor was sat on the floor with an iPad in his lap playing some of the games Tony showed him the other day. Loki is sitting above his brother on the couch with a pacifier in his mouth and calmingly running his fingers through Thor's hair. Wanda can see the toddler's eye drooping so decides now is a good time to put him down for a nap before lunch. However, Thor insists on staying with Loki even when the other will just be sleeping. Thor doesn't know exactly what happened last night. However, he knows everyone was acting very serious this morning and that Loki looked shaken. Thor sits in the chair in the corner of Loki's bedroom with his iPad as Wanda tucks his little brother into bed.

Both Asgardians jump at a loud bang coming from a floor below them. Wanda jerks her head towards the door before she drags Thor over to Loki bed and tells them to both stay put. Loki is wide awake now and holding onto Thor as they both sit in his small bed. The curtains are still open, letting the sunlight up the room.

Wanda rushed to the sound of what she assumes was an explosion as finds Vision already there. The door to the stairwell is off its hinges and charred slightly as it lays on the floor.

"Who is it, Vis?"

"I'm not sure." He says slowly. "I've alerted the Captain."

Wanda can feel her magic react with something in the room but still doesn't see anyone.

"Mr.Rogers asked me to tell you he's on his way back." Friday interrupts, and when Wanda opens her mouth to respond, a woman beats her to it.

"Perfect, I've been meaning to speak with him again." Amora smiles as she appears next to the window. Wanda shots off her magic towards the Asgardian, but she's gone again before it hits her.

They both run up the Loki's room right as they start to hear thunder clouds roll over the tower outside. When they get upstairs, the air in the room is charged with electricity that makes the hair on Wanda's arms stand on edge. Thor is standing between Amora and Loki, his eyes glowing with pure energy as Amora is shrouded in green light.

This time when Wanda attacks, she hits Amora sending her into the adjacent wall, momentarily knocking her out. The quinjet land outside on the balcony soon after and Steve is running up the stairs to Thor and Loki's floor.

Amora begins to lift herself off the floor weakly, and Wanda suspects that this has less to do with Wanda's assault and more to do with Amora's physical state. She looks extremely drained, and for the threat, she poses it doesn't take much effort of Wanda's part to hold the sorceress down.

Steve charges into the room and goes straight towards Thor and Loki.

"Vision take her down to the cell room for now." Steve nods in the direction of Amora. Thor finally releases his grip on his little brother when Steve goes to lift Loki into his arms. "Are you guys, okay?" Steve asks. Both boys nod and Steve, not letting go over either Asgardian turn his attention to Wanda.

"What about you? What happened?" He asks her. Wanda retells the events of the explosion and Amora before she asks him about the mission. Steve looks down at Loki before he responds.

"We got most of the stones, the others should be here soon but-" he pauses. "Sigyn got hurt. Someone else was after them, and I don't think he was from Earth."