The Experimental Avenger

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight- Shape Shifter

"Skye, it's me, Kimberly! I can explain! Well not really, but I can try." To my relief she fell silent. Then she raised a shaky hand and pointed to something behind me. As I went to turn a pair of arms grabbed me by the shoulders and held me facing Sky. I knew who it was when I saw the blue hands that were a shade darker than mine. Without thinking I took my own hands and dug my fingernails into his hands. I refused to let go. Lots of my friends at school knew that I loved having long nails. It satisfied my animalistic side to know that I had claws.

Loki shook his hands furiously and got them slightly tangled in my hair as he tried to free his hands from my grip. I was satisfied to see small drops of red beginning to seep from the deep indentions that were caused by my smooth midnight black nails. I didn't remember painting them, so it must be an effect of this form.

The lines on Loki's hands only gave me more leverage. I then felt a cool feeling spread from my wrist down to my finger tips, then it jumped to my shoulders. I glanced over to see Loki's hands now frozen to my shoulders with no way to remove my nails from his skin. Why was his torture making me so happy?

"Release me! You have no respect for the powers I have shown you! Why are you so quick to turn on those who assist you?" Loki's rough exterior was crumbling before me and I used my newly learned abilities to torment him.

"I learned from the best." It wasn't completely true, but any chance I had to fight back at Loki I was going to take.

"What is going on here?" If my change in eye color had been unsettling to Sky, then she must think she is going insane now. An emotionally unstable teen undergoes a complete physical reconstruction and is then ambushed by a large, inhuman creature right before her eyes. Because that happens everyday...

"Oh, have you not told your friends about me? You see, the slight detail that Kimberly forgot to mention is that she isn't human. We are of the same kind. Do you see the resemblance?" He leaned down so that his cheek was pressed against mine. He had made sure it was my injured cheek too. The rough lines of his skin rubbing against the sensitive spot on my face was painful and I winced a bit.

"Well I think I got that much! Who are you? What did you do to Kimberly?" She reached out to touch me, but shrank back when my skin caused burn marks to appear on her fingertips.

"Skye, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-" Loki cut my apology short.

"Oh, a family trait. Only I can touch her when she is like this." At that moment the ice that had somehow formed from my body shattered and I clutched my hands together feeling as if my bones had been shattered instead of just the ice. I let out a yell of pain, but then bit down hard on my own tongue and tried to keep from making anymore sounds that would indicate my extreme pain. I dropped to my knees as well, so that I could curl my body around my aching hands. "Oops. Seems like I forgot to tell you something about this special 'gift' of yours. If the ice breaks, so do you." He surprisingly turned on the faucet and snatched my tattooed hands from the safety of my fetal position and shoved them under the stream of cold water.

I felt immediate relief as the droplets of cool water trickled down the slight indents in my fingers left from my use of electrical powers. The water felt so good! I splashed it on my face where the scrape was and it seemed to heal under the liquid's touch. I couldn't get enough of it. I was like a cat with catnip. Loki shut off the tap and I growled at him. What the heck?

"It seems this form has awakened another. The beast inside of you isn't happy with me." I had another form? I might as well be a shape shifter! Was he talking about the hulk?

"What is all of this about? You still didn't answer my first question." Skye had shifted backwards towards the door, but still stared at the pair of frost giants with a cautious gaze.

"This is Loki, he's my uncle. He's brought out one of my other sides!" I answered for the god of mischief, as I didn't trust him to answer Skye.

"You tell lies, and now I don't even get to introduce myself. Selfish child!" Then his hand lashed out and my head was thrown to one side from the force of the blow. He had slapped me.

At first I wanted to run, to get away from this man who always caused problems. But then the anger came. It was uncontrollable anger like I had never felt before. My breathing quickened and I felt the adrenaline begin pulsing through my body. I watched as the tattoos faded from my arms and the blue hue was replaced with the slightest green tint. I was too angry to be frightened or think of what was really happening.

"How dare you hit me!" I grabbed Loki by his clothing and then reached up to slap him in turn. "You have no right to even be here, let alone hurt me and my friends!" I didn't notice at the time that his skin no longer burned me, but I did notice the sinister smile that Loki's face displayed when he turned back to me.

"I dare hit you, because then it brings out your power. Don't you see it?" He then grabbed the sides of my face between his hands and abruptly turned it to look at the mirror above the sink. I didn't even look. I took my own hands and hit his locked elbows from the inside, causing him to lose his grip.

"You think that violence brings about good? You are dead wrong!" I then took that moment to kick him in the knee. I did notice that his skin was now human, so when he bent down I took a swing at his nose. I was satisfied to hear a crack when my fist made contact. He clutched his nose and sunk deeper towards the floor. After all that he pulled his hands away from his bleeding nose and he still smiled at me in a dark way that would haunt me for a long time.

"It caused me to control you, didn't it?" He let out something between a cough and a laugh, and just as I was about to inflict more damage to him Skye called out.

"Kimberly! What did you do? No more! No more." She looked at me as if I was some sort of monster.

"You are," Loki whispered. Then he slipped from my grasp and disappeared.