The Stronghold 2: Immortals

Miniature Superheroes

The car got them to the airport with hours to spare. The group reunited with the children messing around and generally being loud and the adults being a little more sedate. But only a little. Rebecca and Sophie were chanting 'Lokina' and Amalia and Emmi were singing while the Pokemon ran wild. Harry was being flirted with by an airport attendant and seemed slightly afraid of the interaction but had a shy smile on his face. Georgina was trying to silence her friends and failing miserably while Loki was doing his best to ignore the stares from people around them.

"Why are you wearing armour?" a little boy asked, running up to the demigod with a plastic sword held in his hand. He was about three years old and very small to Loki's eyes. 

"Because I need it," Loki replied. 

"Why? Do you save the world?" the boy questioned.

"I'm going off to save the world," Loki said, deciding to humour the child. 

"Are you a superhero?" the boy asked with wide eyes.

"I'm a villain," Loki said with a smile. "I think you're the hero, with that sword."

"Then I need to stab you," the boy proclaimed, hitting the demigod's chest with the sword. Loki fake-groaned and slid off his seat onto the floor, long legs hitting the seat opposite.

"I win!" the boy shouted, sitting on Loki's chest.

"Ah, the hero has beaten me," Loki groaned, hiding his smile. 

"Jeremiah!" a voice scolded. A woman came running over and scooped the boy up into her arms. He tugged on her fuzzy hair and giggled, swinging the sword. 

"I'm sorry," the woman apologised. "He runs off a lot."

"I'm a superhero!" the boy yelled, swinging his sword up in the air. "I killed the villain!"

"It's fine," Loki said, picking himself up and sitting back in the little blue chair he was forced to wait in. "Just don't let him actually stab anybody, not everyone wears armour."

The woman smiled and put her wriggling son down on the ground. The boy proceeded to look at Loki mock-threateningly with his sword outstretched.

"Don't move," he warned. "Or you get stabbed."

"I'll stay in my chair," Loki promised. 

"Villain prison," the boy corrected.

"I'll stay in my villain prison," Loki amended, a smile spreading across his features.

A chorus of 'aw, how sweet' reached Loki's ears and he turned his head to see Rebecca, Sophie, Emmi and Amalia all staring at him, cooing. Georgina looked amazed but pleased that the demigod hadn't killed the child. 

"Do you have any children?" the woman asked, addressing Georgina. 

"No," Georgina said. "Screaming babies drive me insane."

"It is hard," the woman admitted. "But it's worth it all in the end, even if they do keep running off."

"She's already dealt with one person running away," Rebecca said slyly. Georgina kicked her but the other woman just grinned. Luckily the little boy chose that exact moment to run off so the mother went chasing after him as he rampaged around the airport.

"You handled that surprisingly well," Georgina said when everyone had got back to what they were doing before. 

"I've worked on controlling irritation at the tiny humans," Loki said. "I have found that it isn't considered human to start shouting at them when they approach."