I was asleep in my room in the Avengers Towers when I heard a massive a crash of thunder which woke me up in the middle of the night. I grabbed my cosmic staff that was leaning against the wall next to my bed and ran out of my room, ready to take on whatever it was. I didn't care that I was still in Cedric's Hufflepuff t-shirt which I had 'borrowed' and a pair of PJs shorts as I slid down the hallway in my socks. I just wanted to make sure that nothing was going to attack the tower.
As I ran down the hall way to the elevator, I saw that I wasn't the only one ready for a fight. Dad was running the hall in his Captain America themed PJ pants that Tony kept buying him as joke Christmas present and a white t-shirt with his shield on his arm.
"I'm guessing you heard it the crash too, Snowflake?" he asked me as we got in to the elevator to head up to the communal living area where the crash had come from.
"Yeah, I was sound asleep when I heard it. What do you think it was?" I asked him as we both got ready for a fight.
"No idea, but I think were about to find out," Dad replied as the doors of the elevator opened.
Dad made sure I was behind him as we made our way to the living, protecting me from whatever might be there. We had been researching where the rouge Hydra agents may have taken Loki's scepter when SHIELD had been taken down once and for all. The Avengers had taken down a number of Hydra cells, but I had been tracking the movements of one particular Hydra agent, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker with Dad ever since the summer holidays had started and I was worried he may have found out what we were doing and had come to stop us. But when I heard the voice coming from the kitchen, I knew we had nothing to worry about.
"Brother, where are thy pop tarts? I know I kept a supply of them in here and they are gone!" Thor bellowed at Loki from the kitchen.
"Odin's beard! Could you be a little quieter you giant oaf! You will wake the entire tower," Loki hissed at him, clearly not impressed about being woken up in the middle of the night.
"A little bit too late for that. We're already awake," I said walking in to the kitchen with Dad.
It was hard not to start laughing when I saw the scene playing out in the kitchen. Thor was still in his full Asgardian armor from his travel to the towers and had ripped everything out of the cupboards looking for his beloved pop tarts. Loki was standing on the opposite side of the kitchen bench to Thor and was dressed in the loose linen black shirt and pants he wore to bed. His jet-black hair was sticking up in all directions from just waking up. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was looking at Thor like he was a lunatic.
"What the hell is going on here? It's 2 am in the morning?" Dad asked them, putting his shield down on the kitchen table.
"Hello Captain, dear Elsa! I have decided to join you here at the Avengers tower. I have settled my affairs' on Asgard and wish to spend time on Midgard with my family and my fair Jane. But when I arrived, I found that Loki had eaten all my pop tarts and was merely trying to find out why," Thor said in his booming voice.
"You know what. It's way too late for this and I am way too tired to deal with it. It's my summer holidays and I planned on getting as much sleep as possible. But I'll settle this argument once and for all. Danny ate your pop tarts, Thor. They had been sitting there for over a year and were almost out of date, so Danny decided to finish them off. Now, if you don't mind. My pillow is calling my name," I said in between yawns.
"See, you oaf! I told you I did not t take your beloved pop tarts!" Loki told him as Dad laughed at the bickering brothers.
No bothering to stay and listen to the fight between the two brothers, I let go of my cosmic staff and let it trail behind me as I walked back to the elevator. As I got in to the elevator, I turned to see Dad trying to settle the argument between the two and laughed at the look he gave me for leaving him alone to deal with the Asgardian gods.
"Is everything okay?" Mum asked, standing at the door to hers and Dad's bedroom as she got ready to take on any danger that may be waiting.
"Everything is fine. Thor's back and yelling at Loki about his stupid pop tarts. Dad's dealing with them and I'm going back to sleep," I told her, still trying not to yawn.
"Why am I not surprised," Mum laughed, kissing me on the top of the head as I walked back to my room. "Wait, is that Cedric's shirt?"
"Uh, I might have 'borrowed' it while he was packing to go home before school finished. Night Mum!"
"So, he just turned up in the middle of the night, yelling about food?" Cedric asked as we talked in the morning when I woke up after the late-night surprise arrival of Thor.
"Yeah, and everybody thought it was someone attacking the tower. I was sound asleep when he started yelling about his stupid pop tarts. I swear, if he's going to be staying in the tower, he's going to have to learn to lower his voice," I said, still yawning from the late-night excitement, but reminding myself the thank Tony's for giving most of our friends phones. It made it so much easier to talk to Cedric.
"Do you really think that's actually going to happen?" Cedric laughed.
"You know what. Probably not," I said, walking out of my room and down to the kitchen on our level of the tower and putting the phone on to loud speaker so I could get some breakfast cereal. "I really miss breakfast at Hogwarts, with how it's just there and waiting for you when you walk into the great hall."
"I know, so do I. But at the same time, I don't because if we were back at Hogwarts, it would mean that we would be studying for our OWL's."
"Don't remind me. Not having exams last year was so good. I'm really not looking forward to all the studying we are going to have to do. But fifth year also means prefects. Who do you reckon will the Hufflepuff prefects? I'm willing to bet you will be one," I said, sitting down to eat breakfast.
"No way, it's going to be Hamish. But you're defiantly going to be one. I mean, you're an actual superhero," Cedric said, making me laugh.
"No way, I caused way too much trouble when I used magic outside of school," I told him.
"Okay, what about this. If I do get prefect like you said, I will get you all of the butterbeer that you want at Hogsmeade visits but if you get prefect you have to do the same for me," Cedric said.
"You're on! I am totally going to win this bet," I laughed as Cassy walked out of the elevator still dressed in her PJs.
"Please, both you and pretty boy are going to make prefect," Cassy said, taking my bowl of cereal from me and eating it.
"Hello Cassy. Can you please not call me pretty boy? You know how much I hate that nickname," Cedric asked, sounding completely over the nickname.
"No can-do pretty boy. If I did, I would have to stop calling Spangles Jr here her nicknames and that's not gonna happen anytime soon. Oh, and capsicle, Nat's waiting for you in the gym."
"Thanks Cassy," I said sarcastically, picking up my phone and taking it off loud speaker. "I'll talk to you later. I don't want to keep Nat waiting, she always makes me do an extra workout when I'm late," I said to Cedric as Cassy called out good bye, pretty boy behind me.
"She just called me pretty boy again, didn't she? One day I will get her to stop calling me that. I'll call you later and you can tell me all about how fun avenger training was," Cedric said, trying not to laugh.
"Very funny, you know how training will go. I'll be pretty much dead by the end of it but I can't complain. It's all part of being an avenger and it's what I chose to do. Even if Tony doesn't know that I'm part of the team yet."
"You will have to tell him soon; he will find out one day anyway. Love you, Elsa. I'll call you tomorrow," Cedric said, making me smile. It didn't matter how many times he said he loved me, if always felt like the first time.
"Love you too. Talk to you tomorrow."
"You're late," Nat said the second I walked into the gym.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, I was on the phone to Cedric," I told her, putting down my water bottle and starting to do warms ups stretches'.
"I like the boy, but that is no excuse. How is Cedric anyway," Nat said with a small smile on my face that told me that she really wasn't that mad at me at all.
"He's good. I was just filling him in on our late-night arrival last night," I said, rolling my eyes at Thor's over the top arrival to the tower.
"Don't get me started on that. I was asleep when Thor came thundering down on to the top level of the tower. I seriously thought a bomb had gone off in the tower, but as soon as I got JARVIS to pull up the footage of what happened, I went straight back to sleep. There was no way I was going to deal with an annoyed Thor at 2 am in the morning."
"Why didn't I think about getting JARVIS to pull up the security feed? I was up and on my feet with in seconds of waking up. It took me ages to get back to sleep," I said, annoyed that I hadn't thought of asking JARVIS about what had happened.
"It's good practice for you in case there ever was an emergency. Now, on to the sparing mat and show me what you've got, Rogers," Nat said, walking on to the mat herself and getting ready for our sparing match.
It was defiantly a hard task trying to take Nat down in training but I managed to get the upper hand a few times before we moved on to general training which included boxing, running laps and the usual things that people did during training. I had just about had it after our normal two hours of training when Loki came walking into the gym.
"Please don't completely wear down, Elsa. There is some training of my own that I wish to do with her," Loki said, leaning against the boxing dummy that I was using.
"Hey! You said nothing about any training today!" I complained, taking the boxing gloves off my hands.
"That's because it's not physical training but Asgardian magic training," he said with a smirk on his face. "Now go have a shower and meet me in my quarters in half an hour."
Loki's level of the tower was decorated a lot like his personal rooms at Hogwarts. It had a green, black and gold colour scheme and had dignified look to it. The whole level basically screamed Loki when you walked on to it and defiantly had a very different feel to than the rest of the tower.
I walked into the living area looking for Loki but I found Dad in full Captain America uniform looking out the window instead.
"Hey Dad. What's up? Why are you in uniform and where is Loki?" I asked him, sitting down on the dark leather couch.
"I'm right here, dear Elsa," Dad said, transforming in to Loki in front of me.
"Can you not do that! It freaks me out when you pretend to be Dad," I laughed, throwing a pillow at Loki.
"But it is so much fun! I can feel the righteousness running through my blood every time I wear the uniform," he joked, making me roll my eyes.
"Yeah, whatever weirdo. Now what type of training did you want to do with me?"
"Just what you saw, Elsa. Casting illusions," Loki said, shocking me.
"No way. I can't do that. I can only make copies of myself," I told him.
"Yes, but that is how every illusion power starts. By creating duplicates of yourself. You need to stop doubting yourself, Elsa. You are capable of so much more than you know. Now just give it ago," Loki told me, holding a hand out to help me up off the couch.
"Fine! I'll give it ago. But I'm not promising anything," I said as I let Loki led me to stand in front of a mirror.
"That's all I ask. Now what I want you to do it look at yourself in the mirror, look at your reflection and picture your mother looking back at you."
Loki continued to coach me for the next few hours after a while I actually managed to create an illusion of Mum but I was only able to hold it for a few seconds. Not to mention it was absolutely draining, by the time lunch time hit I was exhausted.
"Just give it one more try and we will finish for today," Loki told me, as I flopped back down on to the couch.
"Fine, but I'm not getting back up. I'm staying right here," I told him, closing my eyes and focusing on the image of Mum in my mind.
A strange warm feeling washed over me and when I opened my eyes, I looked down over at the mirror to see Mum looking back at me. But unlike the previous times, the illusion didn't flicker and disappear.
"I did it," I said in Mum's voice and jumping to my feet. "I actually did it! Wow, is this what it feels like to be tall?"
I looked around the room from a different point of view than I was used to. Instead of standing at my usual 5'2 height, I was standing at Mum's 5'8 height. It felt so strange, I was so used to being short and I didn't know if I would ever get used to it.
"Now, here come's your real test. Your father has just walked out of the elevator and is looking for you," Loki told me, taking my place on the couch.
Smiling at Loki, I sat down in the arm chair opposite him and waited for my dad to walk in to the living room.
"I was telling Elsa it's just a matter of practicing," Loki said to me as Dad walked into the room.
"I'm sure she will get it eventually. You know Elsa, once she gets her mind set on doing something, she doesn't give up," I said, playing along with Loki.
"Loki have you seen Elsa? Nat said she was doing some training with you," Dad said walking over to us and leaning down to give 'Mum' a kiss on the cheek. "Hello, Angel. I didn't know you were down here. I thought you were having lunch with Pepper."
When Loki and I lost it laughing, Dad knew something was up right away. He looked over at Loki with his arms crossed over his chest and raised an eye brow at him.
"Okay, care to let me in on the joke?" Dad said, looking at Loki as I took my chance to drop the illusion while he wasn't looking at me.
"Oh, I don't know. Why don't you ask Elsa," Loki told him, trying to stop himself from laughing any more.
"What do you mean Elsa's not..." Dad said turning to face me, but stopping mid-sentence when he saw me sitting in the seat that he saw Mum sitting in only a few seconds ago.
"Hi Dad! Like my new trick?" I said, laughing at the shocked look on his face.
"Great. Just what we need, the two of you casting illusions," Dad said, smiling and shaking his head.
"Hey! This would have come in handy when we were taking on Hydra," I said to him.
"Actually. That's why I'm here. We have found him. Von Strucker. He's in Sokovia."
"When do we leave?"