Loki's Pain

Chapter Eighteen- Peter Comes Back

Peter had arrived at the Tower only to be surprised by the half-packed boxes stacked up in corners and sitting on the floor. He had not yet been informed about their sudden move, so the appearance of the Tower was quite a shock to him.

The Tower was also unusually silent, since most of the Avengers, and the other staff, were actually absent at that moment. Those two facts combined to give the Tower an somewhat creepy vibe to the un-nerved Peter. So when he saw the light emanating from Bruce's lab he rushed towards it gratefully, glad to find someone else in the empty Tower who might be able to explain what was going on.

"Mr. Banner!" He exclaimed loudly as he bounded energetically thru the door, a smile on his face. Bruce jumped from his chair and rounded on the kid, only to come up short when he saw who it was.

Still, Peter's smile faded quickly when he realized what he'd done. "Sorry, Mr. Banner. I shouldn't have surprised you like that. It was pretty stupid of me..." Peter apologized quickly, realizing he could have triggered a transformation by scaring him like that.

"It's okay, kid. Just don't do it again." Bruce replied before slowly sitting back down and looking over the small device laying on the table. He checked to make sure nothing had been jarred loose when he had dropped it, sighing in relief when he noted that everything looked fine.

"Soooo.....what's going on around here? Where is everybody? And why are there boxes piled up everywhere?" Peter asked Bruce, not offended in the slightest when Bruce kept his eyes on his task.

"Nobody told you?" Bruce asked, using a pair of tweezers to slide a tiny chip into place on the slim band.

"Obviously not..." Peter answered dryly.

"Obviously..." Bruce sighed in agreement before answering all of Peter's questions as simply as possible. "The Avengers are off doing various tasks or missions, the boxes are being packed up for a move to a new facility upstate, and this little device I'm working on is ment to regulate Ash's powers so he doesn't end up blowing us all to hell because of PTSD or a nightmare. Tony started building it, but he needed to take a break. He should be back shortly if you want to stick around."

"Woah, wait a minute.... ASH?" Peter exclaimed, and Bruce realized just how much he had missed lately. Peter hadn't been around when Ash first showed up, and only became a real part of the team afterwards. They had talked to each other a tiny bit when Ash first arrived, but then Peter was just gone, and barely spent any time in the Tower. Bruce couldn't help but wonder if Tony had been keeping Peter away due to the nature of the trauma Ash and Loki had received.

"Yeah....you have missed a lot lately. I won't go into a ton of detail, but both Ash and Loki got captured by some enemies temporarily. They have some major trauma due to it. But Ash was also experimented on during his time with them. It seems that he has gained a new ability because of it, but it is completely uncontrolled and tied into his emotional state....Hence this device." Bruce pointed at what looked like a high-tech bangle bracelet laying on the table. "I'm trying to finish it up so we can get it to Ash as soon as possible."

Peter nodded, his eyes focused on the new tech, his mind already working out the science behind it and what Tony had intended to do with it. Without even thinking he walked over and began working on it himself, practically pushing Bruce aside. Bruce started to object, but when he saw the look on Peter's face he kept silent. He looked just like Tony when he was creating his best tech. 'They really are so much alike...it is astounding that they are not related...' Bruce thought to himself with a small smile and shook his head. Backing off completely he went back to his earlier tasks and left Peter to it.

About an hour later Tony returned, surprised to see Peter bent over the table working on a second bangle bracelet. The first one had already been completed and was awaiting only a power core, and the second was finished up even as he watched from the doorway.