Giftless

Chapter 46

Fury told you to keep an eye out for Balder before you went back on patrol. If he'd been spotted once, he would be out causing more trouble. He had already tried to take over the world once. No one knew what he was up to, but everyone was on edge from seeing him again. Especially when The Harlequin and some of the other big super villains were acting up as well.

Nothing happened that night, or for many to come. You spent a lot of long nights at the end of summer catching bad guys, but saw no sign of Balder.

"When does your summer vacation end?" Loki asked you one evening while you were patrolling the streets in the warehouse district.

"September 1st," you replied. It was going to suck balancing being a superhero and going to high school. Especially with how many AP classes you were taking. Fury had already been working to get you permission to leave class for emergency healings. You had the feeling that wasn't going over well.

"That is not very far away," he commented. He sounded sad that he'd be losing having you almost all day every day.

"I know, and I'm not sure the school will let you be my guard this year," you reminded him sadly. You'd enjoyed having him as a guard. "They're bound to know I'm a super now and can protect myself..." that was going to make a lonely year if they didn't allow you to have your Loki. You hadn't realized how lonely your life had been until Loki had come into it. On top of that, by turning the idiot jock into a vegetable and your new distrust for all of your classmates, you were bound to be a social pariah, despite being Tony Stark's niece and famous.

That night's patrol was quiet, but you still had to finish your circuit before you could go back to the tower for movies and ice cream. You were halfway wishing for a healing call so you could leave the area early. It was that boring and slow. On top of that, you hated patrolling the warehouse district. It was creepy. You shouldn't be concerned about things that seemed creepy with how much power you had, but at the end of the day, you were still just a teenage girl. You wouldn't actually hope for a healing call, since that would mean one of your friends was hurt badly enough that you needed to be called in, but still...

You really hated being both bored and creeped out.

About halfway down a block, you and Loki both stopped short, seeing the two clowns at the end of the street. You slipped into the shadows quickly and smoothly to watch them. It only took you a moment to realize that they hadn't see you. They were obviously on some kind of mission heading somewhere important.

So you and Loki both had the same terrible idea at the same moment. /We should follow them/ you both thought to the other at the same time. With a silent grin, you both moved at the same time to follow the clowns, hoping they would lead you back to their hideout. You cast illusions around yourselves, making you nearly invisible.

You followed them through the streets of the warehouse district and into one of the abandoned warehouses. It seemed like just a normal abandoned warehouse, but they went straight to the back of it and you followed them down a flight of stairs, hoping you were getting close to their hideout so you could call it in.

You ended in a huge open room at the bottom of the stairs. You took a few steps in when the lights burst on, blinding you. You heard a crackle of electricity from your pocket and a whoosh and thunk next to you. You looked over to see what it was. Not much could make such a whoosh-thunk noise.

It was Loki.

Loki.

Loki had been the recipient of that whoosh-thunk sound.

He had a spear piercing all the way through his chest. "No!" you screamed as he collapsed. With a practiced flick of your hands you threw up a barrier of flames around you, shielding you from further attacks. "Hold on, Loki," you begged as you reached for your phone only to find it dead.

Not dead from lack of batteries, not dead from no service, but dead like someone had fried the poor thing. You couldn't call for help, couldn't call for backup. You were cut off.

You grabbed Loki's arm and tried to teleport the pair of you out of there, but your power just fizzled away. Teleporting wasn't happening. You were trapped in this room. There was no choice. "I'm sorry, love," you told him and ripped the spear roughly from his chest and had to listen to his howl of pain. You didn't have time to be gentle. You couldn't save him if you had to be gentle.

You held your glowing hands to the wound, healing him in the middle of danger, because you would both die if you didn't take the time and power to heal him. You just hoped that you could get him up and battle ready fast. This was as big of a healing as the one you had done on Tony. It was nearly an identical wound. You would be tapped and next to useless when it was done. It was in that moment, in the moment when you realized that the wound was identical, that you knew for certain that this was a trap.

You couldn't focus on that. You had to save Loki. It was your only chance to get out of this alive. So you threw your magic into healing him, hoping you would get out of this hell. If he didn't make it now, neither of you would.

You heard the clowns standing around your shields of flames, but they didn't try to breach them. It was the only good part of this so far. You were safe behind the fire.

Loki was healing, though slowly. It took so much longer than you would have liked, but you got the wound healed. Loki opened his eyes while you fought to hold onto consciousness, usefulness, and magic. You couldn't succumb yet, no matter how much power you had just dumped into Loki. There was still a battle to face.

Loki managed to haul you to your feet as your fire shield failed. You saw him reach out a hand, trying to summon a shield of his own, but he was so newly healed that he couldn't manage it. You tried to summon the power back, but couldn't, not in time. You had put too much into the healing.

You grabbed for your daggers as hands grabbed you, yanking you from Loki's side. You shrieked and again tried to reach for your daggers, for your fire, telekinesis, anything, but this was a well-planned trap. They had planned to make you weak and helpless when they got to their plan. You struggled against the hands who held you, but it was no use. Some kind of thick material was forced over your hands, keeping you from moving them. If you couldn't use your hands, you couldn't use your powers. They cuffed your hands together in front of you.

It was then that they started attacking you, kicking and punching and laughing the entire time. You fought off their attacks as best you could, but you were a bleeding bruised mess in moments. It was so hard to fight when your brain was foggy, your magic drained, your powers inaccessible, your hands bound.

A figure materialized in front of you as the clowns stepped away. "Enough, now," the voice said kindly in a familiar accent. you looked up at the figure through hazy eyes. It was Balder, Loki's brother, who looked nearly identical to Thor, but much harsher, more stern and battle worn. You reached up automatically, trapped in battle haze, trying to defend yourself. He grabbed your shackled wrists. "I said that's enough now." He wrapped his arms around you in an embrace that might have been comforting in other circumstances. You screamed and thrashed against him, fighting with your every last ounce of strength, until you sagged helpless in his embrace. He shoved a strip of cloth in your mouth, effectively gagging you. "There we go, easy now, you have been hurt enough for one day," he told you gently. You knew you had only been hurt because of him. His kind words and tone didn't fool you. "Shh, you've done enough. You have fought bravely, but there is no shame in living to fight another day. You are on our side now after all, my dear." He swept you up into his strong arms and settled you gently on a sturdy, straight backed chair. He had the clowns wrap chains around you holding you there securely, while promising it was just so you wouldn't inadvertently hurt yourself. You just panted, exhausted, sagged against your bonds, trying to force your brain to come up with some sort of plan to get us out of this.

Balder moved to the middle of the room then, turning to Loki. "Very well done, Brother, though it took you long enough. I knew you would complete your assignment and bring her to our side. The strongest super in the city," he purred the words and glanced at you. You couldn't see Loki's face from where you were bound. He was standing, though surrounded by clowns with weapons pointed at him, just in case he decided to do something stupid, or express a change of heart. "It was very clever indeed for you to tell me how her powers work and exactly how much healing she would have to do to incapacitate her. Very well done indeed, Brother," Balder's tone was jovial, congratulating.

It couldn't be true. It just couldn't.

Loki couldn't be Balder's spy.