Autumn Leaves

A Murder- Not A Crime

Ravennha cursed Doom's existence. It wasn't the first time, but she'd never meant it more. He'd been causing trouble again, and so the Avengers had gone out to stop him from wreaking havoc upon a recently repaired New York. Loki had come too, since he was basically an unofficial member of the team. The Council hadn't wanted him anywhere near Earth, but they had no choice when ordered to by the King of the Gods himself. Actually, they had, but it would invariably lead to an intergalactic war, against motherfucking immortals.

They were still adamant that he should not join the team, however, even though Fury and the Avengers had protested. The general public were still unaware of Loki's presence on Earth, which is why he had to wait until the area had been entirely cleared of civilian life. It was also probably why Ravennha was being cornered by Doom.

The others had been fighting a particularly resistant Doombot, assuming that it was the Latverian megalomaniac himself. Ravennha could see that it wasn't him, but they hadn't listened to her, and so she'd gone off by herself to find the egotistical wanker.

In hindsight, it had not been sensible, nor wise. But she hadn't had hindsight then, only foresight, and she was sure that it needed glasses. Anyway, she'd found Doom, or rather, Doom had found her. Without Loki, she was ten times more vulnerable, and so when Doom had aimed a specialised ray-gun thingy at her, (she was sure it had been him who had engineered the power sapping rays so long ago) she hadn't seen it coming, and so was trapped, virtually powerless.

Which was when Loki finally appeared. With an iron grip, he wrenched Doom off of her, and Savannah (she'd fully reverted by now) closed her eyes, and did her best to pretend that she didn't know exactly what was going to happen next.

But she did.

And she'd forgotten to cover her ears, so she clearly heard the sickening *crack* as Loki snapped the man's neck. And then she heard a muffled thump as his body fell to the floor. She shuddered, and Loki teleported to her side, causing her to flinch. 

'Savannah, are you injured? Did he touch you?' Loki's tone of voice caused her to wince again, and she screwed her eyes up even tighter, clenching her fists in a futile attempt to hide their erratic trembling. Loki gathered her up in his arms, and then they were on her bed, in her bedroom. He held her tighter, and she whimpered involuntarily.

'I am sorry that you had to see that, my love,' he said, and Savannah snuffled helplessly into his armour.

It was uncomfortable, but she needed his presence more than anything. He seemed to sense this, and in a wisp of green-gold dust, his armour disappeared, and he was clad only in a dark green t-shirt, and black jeans. Soon enough, the Avengers arrived, Thor looking ... well, thunderous, as only a Norse God of Thunder could.

'Brother,' Thor said, 'Did you dispose of Doom?' 

'Yes,' Loki said.

He was probably going to say more, but the look of absolute horror stopped him in his tracks. 

'Do you not remember the terms under which Father sent you to live your punishment by?' 

Sitting on his lap, Savannah felt Loki stiffen, and she looked up warily, only to see Loki even paler than usual.

It turned out that Loki was not allowed to kill another human being, for risk of execution by... by... torture. There was an uproar at the meeting table when Thor told the others this, even Tony looking disgusted. 

'But Doom is hardly a human being,' Savannah retorted, 'And he's murdered plenty of innocent civilians. Loki saved my life.' 

'I'm sorry,' Natasha said, 'But he had it coming. To quote Chicago, it was a murder, but not a crime.'