The Tear of Celeste

Chapter 38: Chains

You stretch looking over at the boys with a semi-annoyed expression. "Are you done playing paparazzi?" You say in a teasing tone. You have never been a model and while today was fun with you just walking around doing what you wanted to, you still felt awkward with them taking pictures of you.

"Oh!" Peter says excitedly. "Why don't I take some pictures of you two together?" He said, holding up his phone with an excited smile.

That confused you a bit. "I thought we were doing this to teach Loki how to take pictures?" Had you missed something?

Peter looks nervous at that. "Oh! Well, he already got the hang of it! This is more for me!" He said in a way that was pretty obviously a lie, but you were not sure why he would be lying about this. "Just for training you know!" He tried, but he was obviously sweating.

Peter was so sweet, but a terrible liar, you were honestly amazed he somehow kept his identity as Spiderman a secret from the world. You felt that if he ever had to be interviewed he would need a bodyguard just to keep him from spilling all his secrets the second he got too excited or nervous.

So you choose to ignore him lying, he probably had his reasons, and honestly, you didn't mind getting some pictures together with Loki.

"Sure," you said, looking at Loki with a slight blush, "if you don't mind that is?"

Loki put his phone back in his pocket and walked over to you. "I only ever stood model for portraits, and that is painstakingly slow and stiff," he said, stretching his back in a way that reminded you of a cat. "It would be nice to try a more, what do you call it, natural way?" He flashes you a grin that does not help with the blush.

And so you and Loki walk around the park more together, you showing Loki all the wonders of just wandering in the greenery, even convincing him to try walking barefooted in one of the cleaner areas of grass, just to feel it between his toes.

At one point you can't even see Peter anymore, but you notice it's because he climbed one of the trees to get a higher viewpoint, which made you giggle.

You didn't mean to spend all day in the park, but it was starting to look that way as you noticed the sky darkening and that there were a lot fewer people walking around. "Maybe we should get our spider boy and call it a day," you said as you turn to Loki.

Loki is smiling at you, holding out a hand for you. "Perha-" He starts out, but don't get to finish the word before you both hear the sound of engines roaring and see the headlights of several cars speeding toward you. All of them are black and the same model.

With a shimmer of magic, Loki is in his battle armor, pulling you behind him. But the cars are coming from all sides! You are already surrounded!

You quickly put your hands on Loki's back, trying to boost him, but you hear a loud bang sounding like a cannon and you both get knocked to the ground.

You try to get up but find yourself tangled up in something. Looking closer you find that you are tangled up in a kind of golden net, chains so thin that they are almost invisible to the naked eye if not for the magic surrounding them. And despite being too thin they seem to be incredibly strong. You can't pull them apart and Loki's dagger does nothing against their hold.

You notice the golden glow about it, and for a second you can almost see some magical symbols floating around it, recognizing them. "Loki!" You said, looking at him. "It's Greek!"

Loki looked at you shocked, then to the net. "Hephaestus chains!" He hisses. You know enough Greek myth to know that if these were the chains forged by Hephaestus, even a god could not break free. But you are also shocked to learn that apparently Greek gods ALSO exist here!

The men surround you quickly. They drag you and Loki over to one of the cars, throwing you in the trunk before slamming it close.

Looks like you have been kidnapped... Again.

༺☆༻

Peter was, to put it mildly, panicking. He didn't have his suit or web shooters on him! He normally would always go out with them, but didn't today since he was basically pushed out the door, as soon as he had a clean shirt on, by Mr. Stark. And there were way too many people for him to fight with alone! But if he waited on backup he would lose track of you and Loki.

When one of the cars drove past his tree he dropped down on it, trying to land as softly as possible, crawling down to the backside of the car to hide from the driver. He kept his eyes on the car with you and Loki were in and quickly jumped to another car going in the same direction. Luckily the cars had big tires so there was room under them. He crawled onto the underside of the car before he put his earpiece in.

He called the compound. "Come on Mr. Stark, please be over your hangover," he whispered in desperation, keeping his eyes on the car with you and Loki.

Natasha was the one who picked up the phone. "Yes?" She said, not introducing herself as the only ones that should have this number should be the ones knowing the team.

"Natasha!" Peter said, relieved, holding onto the car. "We have a bit of a problem!" He said, trying to also keep an eye on where they were going.

"What now?" She asked, her voice turning serious at Peter's tone. "Hydra I think," Peter said, looking at the other black cars telling her that they kidnapped you and Loki.

"Where are you right now?" She asked and Peter could hear her sounding the alarm in the compound.

"Um, on the underside of one of the cars," Peter said seriously, making a face. "I didn't bring my suit with me," he told her, telling her what street he thought they were on and what direction they were heading.

"No matter what, keep this call open! Do not hang up!" She said seriously as she relayed the information to the others. "We are tracking you now."

"Great! Thank you!" He said, focusing fully on the car with the hostages in now. "There were a lot of cars driving in different directions, probably to throw anyone tracking us off."

"Do not engage them until we- ---- I wil- ---- Make su- --- -ter?" The call started turning more static, making Peter's stomach drop. "Natasha?" He asked worriedly. He heard the call disconnect and almost swore, banging his head lightly into the underside of the car. Hopefully, they would still find them.

But as the cars started driving into an underground parking lot Peter knew he was in trouble.

༺☆༻

There is not a whole lot you can do while you lay tied up in a trunk with Loki. You have tried to get untangled, but since there was no light and you both kept being tossed around you quickly gave up. The chains did not glow anymore and Loki could not use magic, stating the chains were blocking it.

Loki seemed to have given up too, focusing on keeping you both as still as possible in the trunk to not get hurt, but with the limited movement from being tied up, he didn't fully succeed. "I have to admit," he growled, "when I imagined us being tied up in chains I had a very different scenario in mind."

You paused, cheeks heating up. "What?!" He froze too, seeming to realize what he had said. "What?" He tried to say, too innocently.

You shook your head, no time for that right now! "When we get out of this we are gonna have a talk, but for now, any plans?" You said, fidgeting a bit with the chain again.

"No, if these are truly Hephaestus chains there is no getting out of them," he said, shifting beside you, "and given I can't use my magic and can't break them I would bet they are," he said with a growl.

"I know the myth," you said, trying to untangle yourself slightly again, "though I don't know if it's the same here."

Loki sighed, trying to get an arm free. "He crafted them to catch his wife and her lover in the bed, making sure they could not escape without outside help."

You nodded, sounded like that one was the same. "And everyone could forever thank him for the idea of using chains in the bedroom."

"... What?" Loki asked, and this time it was your turn to realize what you said, giving him an innocent: "What?" Back.

The car stopped and the trunk opened up.