Thanos' Daughter

Chapter 14

     After letting our target get partially through his speech, Loki made his move. I tried to signal him to hold off, but he didn't see me. I had wanted to do a full sweep of the room before we made our move. He could read my mind and should have known better than to dive into a hostage situation headfirst.

     I growled and began shoving people out of the way, trying to get across the room to intercept him. I reached the middle of the floor, just as Loki reached the guards at the staircase. He flipped the scepter around in his hands so that he was holding the bottom of the staff.

     One of the guards noticed him as he approached the podium from behind. The man raced to stop Loki, but the god simply smacked the guard across the face with the scepter. The man crumpled to the floor and a few cries of shock could be heard.

     Loki grabbed the startled speaker and shoved him over to an artifact that looked like a table. The man was flung onto the table and Loki held him in place.

     Like I said Loki's a drama queen, but I'd give him points for style.

     Reaching into his coat, the god took out a metal cylinder. It clicked on with a flick and whirred to life. Loki stabbed it down onto the man's face, to the horrified cries of the guests.

     Panic set in when the man's body began to spasm. People raced towards any exit they could find and many people were trampled in the process. I raced out of the building, following the throngs of people outside. I didn't want to appear as if I was an accomplice of Loki's so I figured it was safer to pretend to be a guest.

     Once I reached the doors, I glanced back to find Loki looking around with a sadistic smile on his face. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was enjoying having people flee from him in terror. He released the dead man and herded the last of the guest out the door. HIs body shimmered with his signature golden magic as he stalked them. His handsome suit faded into his Asgardian battle armor. I couldn't help but chuckle at the horns. I couldn't imagine whom Loki had pissed off to be given a helmet which looked like that.

     I raced into the shadows at the edge of the building, avoiding the potential S.H.I.E.L.D. agents hidden in the crowd. I also wanted to say hidden because my back felt like it was on fire. I hunched over in the entrance to a dark alleyway, trying not to scream from the pain.

     Loki made it out onto the red carpet at the same time I fell over from added weight on my burning back. I glanced behind me, relieved to find that my dark wings were back where they belonged. Loki had neglected to mention, however, that I'd have to regrow them in order to get them back. He'd also managed to change my clothes into my battle armor. I was grateful, but now I needed to hide the armor as well as my wings. I'd have to have a talk with him about that sometime.

     A siren blared over the screaming humans. I flapped my wings and was about to take off when Loki blasted it with the scepter and it flipped onto its roof. I grinned, thinking that display was a good use of the scepter's limited energy supply.

     I watched from the shadows as Loki duplicated himself around the fleeing humans. "Kneel before me," he commanded.

     No one payed attention because they were too busy trying to escape from him. It was ironic in my opinion.

     Four copies of Loki stood in a circle around the screaming humans. "I said kneel," Loki screamed.

     Finally, the people realized that they had no choice in the matter. Slowly, they all knelt on the ground in their fancy party clothes, looking up at Loki with wide eyes.

     Once the humans knelt below him, he smiled as if there was nothing in the world he wanted more than to have people bow before him. I hoped he didn't expect me to do that in our relationship. 

     This princess doesn't do well with authority or superiority. If Loki expected to be my king or something stupid like that, he had a Hel of a lot to learn, and I'd be happy to teach him.

     "Is this not simpler? Isn't this your natural state? It is the unspoken truth of humanity that you hunger for a ruler more powerful than yourselves. The bright facade of freedom diminishes your life's joy, in a mad struggle for control, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always bow before your leader." Loki walked through the kneeling humans, who parted like he had the plague.

     An old man stood up from the crowd. He stared at Loki with a look of disappointment and defiance on his face. "Not to a man like you."

     Loki grinned as if he'd been waiting for just that response. "There are no men like me."

     The man grimaced. "There are always men like you."

     Loki was gloating, I knew it even though I could only see the side of his face. I could hear it in the lilt of his voice. "Look to you elder humans," he lowered the scepter to point at the man's chest, "let him be the first example." Loki fired a bolt of blue energy at the old man.