Unfinished Gems

Trick Hunt 13 - FIN

Tony held in his hand a tablet. But it was what was on the tablet that had Dean's full and undivided attention.

"Have you been hacking SHIELD's files again?" asked Dean amused.

"Yes, but that's besides the point. I'm more curious why several Asgardians have been arrested multiple times, and twice sent to the loony bin before Fury had them picked up," said Tony, eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Ask Sam," said Dean immediately.

Sam looked unrepentant.

"I challenged them to be Hunters for a month, instead of Warriors."

Natasha suddenly snorted.

"So that's what going on. Fury has been going nuts trying to figure out what the Asgardian idiots are up to."

"Not our fault they're used to having monsters handed to them instead of researching and finding them the hard way," said Sam.

Clint was snickering now.

"Don't Hunters often pretend to be cops or priests to get information?"

"I had to bribe the three who are keeping the Asgardians in line with money, enchanted weapons and a personal favour from the god of mischief. And then they upped their demands after the third time the Warriors got arrested after the hunter bailed on them when they drew too much attention. I gave them Fury's number and told them to dump bailing the idiots out on him," said Dean, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

That had most of the Avengers laughing.

Dean had, in order to keep Thor from worrying about his friends, taken him out on a few hunts to demonstrate what they did and how.

After the first hunt, Thor had learned how much patience was required. After the second, he realised it really wasn't that much different from the many monsters he dealt with among the nine realms, save that he had to actually look for it and he couldn't just announce his presence without having people looking at him like he was crazy...or the cops trying to arrest him for being a nuisance.

After the third, he realised this job was uniquely suited to Loki. He was a wellspring of information long forgotten or lost to the humans of Earth, and he thrived in research. Before when they confronted a monster that was threatening the innocent that they didn't recognise, it was usually Loki who knew what it was and how to kill it.

Hunters didn't do it for the glory. Everyone worked equally in the shadows and did the research. The only difference was that he was being acknowledged by other researchers and hunters for his skill and merit, even if it was a quiet one.

Considering Thor had gone over what he knew of the 'ballads' written about his accomplishments and was somewhat disturbed to notice a trend to either downplay Loki's part of skip over it entirely, he couldn't entirely blame his brother for preferring life as a Hunter to living in Asgard as a somewhat redeemed Prince.

At least with Hunters, it was personal that they kept quiet about what they did. It was just the nature of the job.

Either way, any misgivings Thor had about the prank Sam had tricked his companions into went out the window when he realised what a Hunt was. Even if it meant their dignity as warriors took quite a few hits because Fury had to keep bailing them out all the time.

He at least had learned with Jane to keep his true nature quiet.

"So, what's the record?"

"Well a woman fitting Sif's description has been arrested fifteen times, and thrown into the loony bin once. Fandral's being sued for sexual harassment in three states, arrested sixteen times, and is currently banned from multiple bars...and one strip club. Volstagg is now banned from any all-you-can-eat restaurants in the state of Colorado, most of Sioux Falls, and has been arrested ten times for illegally impersonating a cop, twice for a priest...and twelve times for attempting a dine-and-dash."