C201 Spider-Man (Patreon)
Content
“Wait...” Loki calls out with a frown just as Natasha was leading Matt and Jessica out of the room.
Everything was taken care of and signed, making both of them official members of the Avengers. All that was left was a tour of the tower as well as the facilities that they would be using during Natasha’s training lessons.
“Yeah?” Peter asks as the group turns around.
“What’s the matter Loki?” Jessica asks with a raised eyebrow.
“I...” Loki starts but soon goes quiet as a constipated look appears on his face. “You know what? It doesn’t matter.”
Loki stood up and walked passed the group towards the elevators.
“I’ll see you back at the office!” Loki called out as he rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.
“What was that about?” Peter turns to Jessica and asks.
“I don’t know, but he seemed more annoyed and angry than usual.”
——————————————
‘There’s no way in Hell I, Loki Odinson, former King of Asgard would join a group of do-gooders.’ Loki thought disdainfully, as he stormed down the crowded sidewalks of New York City.
Earlier in the conference room, Loki was only inches away from offering to join up with the Avengers alongside Jessica.
Sadly, his pride got in the way and stopped him from following the only woman whom he’s ever felt something for.
Well, besides his mother, though it was certainly a different kind of feeling.
Loki just wanted to stay by her side, as she made his mortal exile exciting and worthwhile.
“That f*cking Spider ruined everything...” Loki muttered as he kicked a beggar's cup, spraying coins everywhere.
“Hey! What the hell, man!?” The beggar yelled as he scrambled to collect his daily earnings.
“Disgusting mortals...” Loki comments with a sneer. “Get a job, you filthy bum.”
Loki continued taking out his misguided anger on the passing pedestrians. Some saw Loki’s actions as a man looking for a fight and gave him exactly what he wanted, though they were all beaten fairly easily.
...
When Loki began to calm down, the sun started to set and he found himself in Central Park, where a sort of fair seemed to be going on.
Families rushed through the area, each of them pulled by excited children as they rushed to play games and line up for the rides.
“...” Loki sat on a nearby bench and watched the families and couples passing by.
He wondered what it would have been like if he was taken in by a normal family, like these mortals.
Being adopted into royalty was like being born into a job. Loki and Thor never had moments like this.
Their father was a hard and stern man. Although he was loving and warm on occasion, those times were few and far between.
Unknowingly, a small bit of jealousy invaded the banished Jotun's heart, as he watched the smiling children frolic around with their parents.
“Just die...” Loki muttered in contempt.
A passing family seemed to overhear his words and sped up their steps, pulling their children away from the unhinged man.
Suddenly, as Loki was wishing death on all the happy families, multiple blacked-out cars drove into the park from all sides.
“?” Loki and everyone else that noticed in time turned around in shock as they watched masked gunmen of all kinds step out of the cars, armed to the teeth with automatic weapons in hand.
What appeared to be three separate groups took aim and started firing at one another. Each group was masked up, though their clothing and accents showed a possible gang affiliation.
One group was dressed in all-black tactical gear, though they spoke nothing but Spanish so that narrowed down their affiliation.
Some sort of Cartel.
Another group was dressed in black as well, yet they didn’t have any tactical gear, just really big guns. They spoke with heavy Irish accents.
Irish Mob perhaps?
The final group was like night and day compared to the other two. Although they pulled up in blacked-out cars, each of them wore a decorated leather biker cut, which proudly said Dogs of Hell on the back.
“Are these mortals crazy?” Loki was beyond confused as he watched this oddly set-up firefight start with an entire fair full of innocent people in the crossfire.
Just as Loki was watching the show unfold, a stray bullet flew by and embedded itself into his arm.
“Ugh!” Loki grunted in pain as he grabbed his arm and jumped over the bench, taking cover behind a nearby trash can. ‘Mortal trash!’
Loki wasn’t the type of person to take an attack on his person lying down, though he wasn’t exactly armed to compete with firearms.
If they were armed with cold weapons, like swords or baseball bats, then Loki could enact his revenge in an instant, but sadly that wasn’t the case.
Thinking quickly, Loki grabbed the phone that Jessica gave him and made a call to the only number saved in his contacts.
‘If I can’t act myself, others can do it for me.’
——————————————
Minutes earlier...
On the opposite side of the fair, a man with a military-style haircut was seated at a picnic table alongside his beautiful wife and children.
[Insert picture of Frank Castle/Punisher here]
Frank Castle is an extremely skilled United States Marine.
He recently took a leave of absence to spend some quality time with his family, as he’s rarely home. He has served all across the world but mainly in Afghanistan as of late.
Upon his return, Castle began to realize just how weary he had become from all of his time in combat and away from his own beloved family.
“I can’t believe you’re eating that deep-fried cheeseburger...” Frank's wife, Maria says with thinly veiled disgust, as her husband takes a large bite of the fried dough-covered monstrosity.
“Wha? Itsh guuud...(What? It’s good.)” Frank answers with food stuffed in his cheeks.
“Daddy, don’t talk with your mouth full!” Lisa, Frank's daughter reprimands him as her mother does to her and her brother.
Frank Junior, the Punisher's only son just shakes his head as he throws a fried Oreo into his mouth.
His mother wasn’t happy about his food choice either, though she held her tongue as it wasn’t as crazy as what his father was eating.
“Daddy, when do you leave again?” Lisa asks sadly, knowing this reunion wouldn’t last for long.
Instantly, all eyes were on him, waiting for an answer.
“I don’t know...” Franks swallowed his food and spoke unsurely. “I might stay a bit longer this time around.”
“Really?!” Lisa and Frank Junior exclaimed hopefully as they practically jumped out of their seats.
“Weren’t you going to apply for another tour?” Maria asks as she didn’t want her children to get their hopes up for nothing.
After all, she knew that her husband loved being a marine.
“No, I think I’m going to wait for a bit and then make a decision.” Frank shakes his head as he goes back to stuffing his face.
What Maria and his family didn’t know, is that Frank lost a lot of his brothers in the last mission they took. What was supposed to be a surprise raid on a terrorist stronghold was actually an ambush that he and his men walked straight into.
A part of him wondered whether he would ever want to return to the marines again. After all, he served enough to live off of retired military pay for the rest of his life.
“...” The Castle family seemed to brighten after hearing this, as they sat and ate together with smiles on their faces.
Even Frank, who is a fairly stoic man, was smiling as he enjoyed the atmosphere of family life.
Soon enough, the unthinkable happened.
Automatic gunfire tore through the park as bullets filled the fairground.
“!” Frank instantly jumped into action, as his time in the marines was full of situations like this, though he was a split second too late.
As if the surrounding gunmen were purposefully aiming in their direction, countless bullets were hurled his way, drilling holes into his oblivious wife and children.
“...” Frank froze in horror as his family toppled over and hit the ground.
“Daddy! It hurts...” Little Lisa cried out as she coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“Frank... the kids...” His bleeding wife crawled to cover her children with her body as she looked to her husband to save them.
“...” Frank Junior wasn’t responsive as he lay there unconscious and covered in blood.
Just as Frank was about to hop into action, a string of bullets peppered his chest, sending him crashing to the floor alongside his dying family.
Having failed to act in time, Frank was forced to look on helplessly, in utter horror as his own wife, son, and daughter began to bleed out on the cold hard floor.
A/N: 1486 words. Starting the next one in a min.