As Loki and I approached an ancient-looking coffee shop, my eyes skimmed over the area. I realized that this is where I came earlier. The alley on the right of the coffee shop is where I was grabbed by the Frost Giant, and I teleported to Loki. It seemed like forever ago, but must've only been an hour or so.
"You seem cautious," Loki's voice broke me out of my thoughts.
He was staring at me. I relaxed my face muscles and tried to appear nonchalant.
"I'll be fine," I said, opening the door for him.
The door jingled the bells as I opened it, and I followed Loki inside.
We stood a few feet away from the counter so the barista would know we weren't ready.
"What do you want?" I asked Loki, glancing over the menu.
He frowned. "I don't know what any of that means, so I'll take what you get."
"Okay," I said. I decided on hot chocolate to calm my nerves, and I figured Loki's probably never tried it before.
I smiled at the barista as I approached him, but he didn't seem to notice. He had his headphones in and was scrolling on his phone absentmindedly. I didn't blame him, though, because Loki and I were the only ones in the shop.
"Oh," he scrambled once he saw me, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," I said, "-can I get two hot chocolates?" I pulled out a ten dollar bill.
The guy smiled and swept his gray-ish hair out of his eyes. "Sure," he said, telling me the price.
I handed him the money and put the change in the tip jar. I waited patiently at the counter and motioned for Loki to sit down. Of course he chose the booth farthest away from me.
I rolled my eyes before the barista set the steaming cups in front of me. "Thanks," I told him, quickly grabbing them and making my way to Loki.
I set down Loki's drink in front of him and he snuck a glance. "I'm almost scared to ask what this is," he said.
"It's hot chocolate. It's milk with melted chocolate. Try it," I told him, blowing into my cup before taking a sip.
Before Loki grabbed his drink, his appearance shimmered to reveal a new pair of clothes.
My eyes widened and I whipped my head around to see if the barista had noticed, but he had already dove back into his phone.
I glared at Loki as he picked up his hot chocolate.
"You couldn't do that before we came in here?" I whispered angrily.
Loki gave me a look. "What?" He asked innocently.
My eyes glanced over his outfit, which consisted of a black suit and tie. "Of all clothes, you choose a suit and tie," I shook my head.
"Well, why wouldn't I?"
"It's a suit," I replied in a 'duh' voice.
"Am I missing something?"
"I mean, I guess it's alright. Suits aren't really the casual clothing choice around here but, hey, I can't stop you," I cocked an eyebrow, taking a sip of my drink.
Loki watched as I did so. He picked up his cup carefully and tilted it around, investigating it.
"It's not gonna kill you," I deadpanned.
He gave me a sarcastic nod, and scowled at me before touching his lips to the mouthpiece and tilting the cup. He immediately jerked away, almost dropping the cup.
I sniggered at him. "It didn't even touch your mouth."
Loki smirked at me. "I'd move that snake if I were you," he nodded to my hand.
"What sna-" I started. My eyes immediately dropped to my right hand. A snake appeared from under the table and quickly slithered around my wrist.
My heart started to pound and my breathing sped up. "Get it off!" I whisper-yelled, trying to shake the snake off. I looked to Loki helplessly who was leaning back with his arms crossed, a smirk plastered across his face.
"You little-" I said through my teeth angrily, gripping the snake with my left hand and yanking as hard as I could. Luckily, it let go and I had to squeeze it so it wouldn't slither out of my palm.
I glared at Loki before his eyes glanced at my hand.
"Azeli?" He asked quietly.
I stopped glaring to see what he was referring to. I was squeezing the snake so hard that it was now stiff and lifeless. Suddenly, my hand started to grow warm, and before I could release the animal, it caught fire and turned to ashes immediately. I unraveled my hand and the ashes floated to the floor, vanishing as Loki's hand opened.
"Why did I do that?" I whispered, staring at my palms.
"I couldn't say," he told me, taking a sip of his hot chocolate.
I looked at him. "I thought you said you knew a lot about me."
Loki's hands went up in defense. "Correct, but I don't know all the details of what you're capable of-"
"Is that why you're sticking around?" I cut him off, pointing a finger at him. "To see if I could be useful?"
Loki glared at me and was going to reply before the coffee shop door swung open, causing the bells to jingle again.
I turned just in time to see a hoard of policemen clad in gear enter the room, guns aimed. They looked around and approached me and Loki as soon as they noticed us.
"You!" They yelled at me. "Who are you two?"
I quickly stood up, holding my hot chocolate. Loki did the same, and I glanced at him to make sure he was still dressed appropriately so as to not cause suspicion.
Before I could respond, the officer said, "Excuse me, but this is important. You two can't be here right now. I'm going to ask you to leave."
"What's the situation?" I asked before I could think. Jesus Christ, Tessa...
"We need to go," I barely heard Loki murmur.
I agreed, and went to move, but the officer put an arm out in front of me.
"Did you two happen to see what happened two blocks over about twenty minutes ago?"
We both shook our heads. "No," I told him.
"You look familiar," the man ignored me, giving Loki a look.
Uh oh.
"I'm sorry, I look familiar?" Loki repeated, pointing his thumb to his chest.
The man nodded, not blinking. "You look like that guy who tried to take over Manhattan."
"You can't just say that to random civilians," I jumped in, accusing the officer. "What if he wasn't the guy?"
"What did you say?"
Fuck.
The man raised his gun as his two partners lunged forward and grabbed mine and Loki's arms, twisting them behind our backs and taking out sets of handcuffs.
"We haven't done anything wrong!" I told him.
"Everything was caught on the security cameras. We know it was you two who were involved, and we have eyewitness accounts," the officer was saying.
They started to yank us to the door.
"You can't arrest us without reading us our rights! I'll sue!" I yelled at them, trying to twist out of the other officer's grip.
"We aren't arresting you," the original officer said. "We're taking you in for questioning. We don't even know if there was a crime committed."
"So then why are we being detained?!"
"Because we could've done this the easy way or the hard way, and based on what took place on camera, I had to play it safe," the officer said.
"Do you know who my uncle is?!" I blurted out, pulling that card. I've never had to use the Iron Man card, but now seemed like a good time.
We can't get arrested. I don't know what they think they saw on camera. I don't know if the Frost Giant even appeared on the camera. I couldn't even bring it up because what if it looked like Loki and I beat up an innocent human? I can't tell on myself; they'll charge me with something.
The officer detaining me let one hand go of my handcuffs to grab a hold of my hair and yank my head back to look at him.
"Don't play that bullshit card with me. I don't give a shit who you are or who you're related to," the officer said through his teeth.
I don't know if it was just anger, or my body sensed danger, but I felt that little spark again.
When he let my hair go, and my head returned to its normal position, I glanced around quickly.
There were only three of them. But they had guns.
I took a deep breath before I had a thought.
I held back a smile before raising my right foot, and stomping down as hard as I could on the officer's foot. His grip faltered and he leaned forward just the slightest, and I threw my head back to headbutt him in the nose.
As my head made impact, the officer groaned and fell back, passing out.
I bent down and was able to stick my hands behind my kneecaps and move my legs so that my arms were now in front of me.
The second officer slung his gun on his back and lunged towards me, but I kicked him in the chest which caused him to take a few steps back.
I glanced at Loki to see if he was alright, but as the last officer grabbed his radio to call for backup, Loki was quicker, and threw the radio on the ground and destroyed it.
Suddenly, I felt my body grow heavier, and I looked down to see my armor appearing again. Shit.
"What the hell?!" The second officer said. If I have all of these powers, I should have super strength too, right? As stupid as that sounds, it's possible.
So to test the theory, I yanked my wrists apart as hard as I could, and the handcuffs broke.
"What the hell are you?!" The officer asked, but I didn't have an answer.
"I... don't know," I admitted quietly.
While I was distracted, the third officer grabbed me from behind and gripped me tightly while the second one tried to decide between his taser or gun.
He was slowly approaching us, and as he went to remove his gun from his holster, I kicked him in the groin and, as he leaned forward, kneed him in the face, which caused him to sprawl out on the floor.
I was able to slip out of the third officer's grip which caused him to reach for his gun. He clicked the safety off as I closed my eyes and appeared on the other end of the room. He twisted his head to see where I went, and aimed the gun at me again. I blinked and was right behind him.
I tapped on his shoulder, and he whipped his head around.
It was a perfect opportunity, so I punched him as hard as I could.
I watched as he slowly fell to the ground. My armor shimmered away and I found myself getting caught in the moment.
Holy shit. I just knocked out three cops. This wasn't a Frost Giant, this was real life people and real life consequences.
My eyes widened and I slowly turned my head to find Loki. He was hiding underneath a table.
"Are you kidding me?!" I stomped over to him.
"Get up. Now." I told him.
Loki scrambled out from under the table.
"I fought a Frost Giant alone, fine. But you couldn't help me with three humans?!" I yelled at him.
"I don't know what those contraptions they held were, but I wasn't going to find out. You were doing just fine," he told me.
I looked down to see he was able to remove his handcuffs also, which made things a little easier.
"We have to go. Now." I said. "Like right now."
"What's wrong?" Loki asked innocently as I grabbed his wrist, pulling him to the door.
"We just- well, I just assaulted three police officers. I'm getting the fuck out of here," I said, pushing open the door.
We stepped out onto the street. I heard sirens, and even though it's a normal noise in New York, the paranoia of what I just did set in, and I grabbed Loki's hand and thought about being in the woods. Although it wasn't the safest or smartest place, it was for right now. I needed to think.
I couldn't help thinking, though, that we've only been together two, maybe three hours, and I've already gotten myself into a heap of trouble. With my family, friends, and government.
There is no safe place for me after what I've done.
* * * * *
unedited
-gray avery