Tesseract Child

Guarding Giants

"Shhh," interrupted the captain because the little guy wouldn't shut up even to be given an answer to his own question. "Years ago I was enhanced and trained to be a perfect fighting machine, a super-soldier. The big guy up ahead can easily match me and he can make lightening bolts come crashing down out of the sky on bad guys everywhere. You don't need to fight. Shhh..." The captain looked back at the K.O.'d guards, then looked at the itty-bitty Robin he had balanced on his hip, then examined the walls closely to make sure they weren't still melting.

"Can you please ask the big guy to stop stomping his feet," whispered Robin still, ever so quietly prattling on. "The guards heard us and if we're not going to fight we need to be quiet, stealthy, silent. "

"Can you be quiet?" interrupted the captain asking it as a question, rather than issuing an order.

"Don't know..." honest but bloodshot blue eyes looked at him blearily. Robin did fall silent. After a while his trembling eased and he was able to lift his head and pay attention to where they were going.

The Captain let Thor take the corners and intersections first, so opposition was neutralized before the child even came into range. Thor seemed to be enjoying it. Actually, he seemed to be performing. His battle roars were a little too animated but also a lot quieter than normal. Really, bonking two soldier's heads together, then slamming a third with a showy backhanded fist was not the most efficient way to clear the room.

Robin smiled for him. Thor puffed out his chest.

"How fairs our tiny warrior?" asked Thor coming back to ruffle the child's hair and check with the captain.

"Better, I think you can put me down now," Robin answered. He then pointed up. "Look there."

"What are we looking at?" asked the Captain.

"That's a data line. There should be a computer terminal through that door."

Robin looked between the two soldiers. The Viking one had been mostly silent with the patriotic looking one doing most of the talking. "Sir, if you could keep a lookout," Robin asked of the Viking.

Next he addressed the patriot, "That way I can hack the security system and you Sir, can find out why the base is so empty. There should be more personnel around and because there isn't, it would be good to make sure we're not walking into something messy."

Captain America swallowed a smirk as the kid tried to give them the illusion that the grown ups weren't letting themselves be bossed around by a kid. The problem was that everything the kid "suggested" was exactly what a commanding officer would order. He even seemed to have figured out the Avengers chain of command.

Robin was looking up at him with a happy excited puppy look. Captain America gave as serious a nod as he could and the kid tried the door. It was locked. Thor's pass card didn't open it either.

"Give me a boost please? I can slip through the louver window over the door."

Thor lifted Robin who scrambled through the louver window. The bed sheet got caught on the window frame and slipped free again. Thor frowned and grabbed it for the child passing it back to him when he peeked out of the door at them.

"Kid, I'm getting tired of looking at your bare bum," the Captain stated before pushing into the room.

Twelve/Thirteen year old Robin, would have been snarky and a little indignant. At five years old, somebody just said 'bum', Robin giggled like it was the silliest joke ever!

Thor slapped Captain America upside the head not really appreciating the humor and little Robin giggled more, tying his sheet around him, then turning to the computer terminal and typing at a million miles a minute. He was bouncing cheerfully from foot to foot again.

"Okay I found out where everyone is!" Robin whispered. "There's a giant green gummy bear and a red and gold robot attacking the base. They've drawn everyone into the southeast corner of the facility so if we follow this route here, we should encounter minimal resistance."

"The gummy bear and the robot are our allies," the Captain explained.

"Oh and there's a purple Green Arrow coming in from the East," Robin added.

"A purple-green arrow?" Thor asked.

"Sorry, an archer wearing purple," Robin clarified with a happy smile.

Thor wondered which realm this strange Robin child was from. He was from neither Midgard, nor Asgard. He recognized neither Thor God of Thunder, nor Captain America. Robin believed himself a protector of man. What strange place had the Tesseract brought him from where a child would think such a role required of him? A world of man bat's, magician's and Martians? Thor could honestly say he'd never had so insignificant a being take it upon itself to act as his protector before. The world made a little more sense when the Captain had held the child cradled to one shoulder. A loose nail in the window frame had scratched a small blood track across the child's back. It made no sense that someone so fragile would ... Thor's thoughts were interrupted.

Thor felt a small hand tugging at him. They were moving out.