Protector

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"How come you have powers?" 

Almost instantly Veronica looked at her hands, feeling small. "I... I-I don't know... I always had them..." Thor nods, understanding. "But I don't like to call them that. Powers, I mean... I prefer to call them abilities. Powers sound too much like a superhero..." She shakes her head at the thought. "And I'm not a superhero."

Thor turns around to face a correctly. "Yes, you are." He looks deeply in her eyes, as if he's reading her mind. "You saved me back there. I'll never forget that. So, you're a superhero to me."

"You're saying that me, a girl who lives on the streets in London, is a superhero? Just because I saved you from a green monster?"

"Well, that green monster is actually my friend... I mean, he and I were kind of heroes too. We're part of the Avergers. He's the Hulk and I'm the God of Thunder..." When Nikki looks at him he has a dreamy look in his eyes. Like he's looking back at good old times he had with friends. Were the Avergers his friends?

"Avergers?"

"You don't know the Avergers?" He looked at her shocked, like she just turned blue. "We're famous! We saved the world twice already!"

"Well, when you live on the streets of London, you don't really hear a lot of those things..."

"What do you mean, 'live on the streets of London'?"

The girl only laughed at the question. "What you really think everybody lives in a big house, has a roof above their head, a bed to sleep in?" She did't give Thor the time to answer. "The answer is no."

And with that she stepped out of the bed.

°°°

Veronica was looking out of the window of the room she was in, an awful one. It had a lot of colours, one huge bed, even a stone bath and a whole closet fulled with drinks. Slowly she was realising she might be stuck on this planet. Will I ever go back? How are the kids? What will they do without me? Will they be fine?

Thor and the Hulk were having a conversation, but she wasn't praying attention. She didn't even understand what they were talking about. Something about a jet, even a woman suddenly walked in. Veronica wasn't listening, until a object collided with the window she was leaning on. Looking back, she noticed that Thor was shortly laying on the ground before quickly getting up and saying: "Because that's what heroes do." Before jumping out of the window, dragging Nikki with him.

"What are you doing?" She yelled out of fear as he landed on the roof of another building.

"Getting to our way out of this planet." Before she could ask anything else they were on the ground again and Thor immediately started running.

"Hey? Hey! Where are you going?" Getting no answer she figured she would have to follow him to find out. Running as fast as her legs could carry her, she ran after him. Careful not the lose him out of her sight. 

When she finally caught up on him, he was entering, actually breaking in, into a what looked like like a small plane. It was filled with electronics. Nikki slowly entered the jet.

She walked up to Thor, who was standing close to the wheel. His hand was placed on something and he kept saying weird names. But when he said 'Point-Break' everything in the jet lighted up. 

"Wauw..." The girl turned towards Thor, her eyes were full of awe. The man simply smiled at her. But their joyful moment was quickly cut short when the back of the plane got ripped of. The Hulk.

He walked closer to the duo, telling them that they couldn't leave. The closer he got, the more damage he made. Thor was pushing on all the buttons he could find, trying to find a way to stop the green creature to completely distroy their way out.

Suddenly a small hologram of a woman appeared. She had shoulder lenght red hair and her eyes shined gently. She's so pretty, was Veronica's first thought. 

"Hey, big guy." The red-haired woman said. "We don't know where Utrons headed but you're going very high, very fast. So, I need you to turn this bird around, okay? We can't track you in stealth mode, so I need you to help me out, okay? I need y-... I-I need... I n-need you t-..."

Nikki didn't know what came through Hulk's mind, but once the video was finished he started to throw himself at the walls of the plane, screaming. After a while he got clearly exhaused and didn't fight back anymore to whatever was bothering him. That's when she noticed that he was changing back into a man. Thor was the first one to speak.

"Banner?" He walked towards the man and knelt down beside him. "Hey... Hey, hey, hey... You alright, Banner?" He gentlty touched the man's shoulder, only for him to back away screaming.

"Shhhhh, shhhhhhh... Sun's going down, sun's going down...Breathe... I won't hurt you..." 

What the hell does the sun has to do with all of this? That's something Veronica didn't understand, but chose not to say anything about it.

"Thor..." The man breathed, who Nikki thought was named Banner. "What happened to your hair?" 

"A creepy old man cut it of."

"It looks good." 

"Oh, thanks..."

The girl just stayed silent, looking at the two men and waiting for their interaction to come to an end.

"Where are we? How Nat?" 

"Euhm... Well, N-Nat's good..." Thor said, clearly confiused by the question.

"Okay... And what about Sokovia? The city? Sokovia? Did we save it?" Now it was Veronica's turn to be confiused. Why is he talking about a city?

"Banner... Banner, listen, Sokovia, Ultron, that was two years ago."

"So, you're saying... I've been Hulk for two years?" And now it was Banner's turn to be confiused.

"I'm afraid so..." Thor said softly, feeling bad for his friend.

"What the hell happend?" Banner finally got up, walked towards the wheel, where Veronica still was. He stopped his tracks and looked back at the blonde man. "Who is she?"

Thor walked past Banner and put a hand on her shoulder. "That is Veronica, she's from Earth and I'm going to get her back home."

The black-haired man only nodded before going back to what he wanted to do, knowing that they could cath up later. He placed his hand on the same way Thor did moments ago.

"Banner there is something you should know..." He couldn't finish his sentence because the jet started to speak. 

That's when Veronica decided it wasn't her business anymore, she walked to the back of the jet. Giving them some time. The two men clearly have a past together, and she wasn't part of that. She barely understood what they were talking about seconds ago. But she was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard a voice speaking, to same voice as in the arena.

"I have some bad news. My beloved champion has turned up missing. Take to the streets, celebrate my champion." At that moment the girl knew it would get hard, very hard to get of this planet. Because she knew what would follow. 

"It seems that criminally seductive Lord of Thunder has stolen him away..." 

"Oh shit..." She muttered, she was right. She turned back to the boys.

"How to we get of this planet now?"