Peter didn't know exactly what he had been expecting when he opened the door that fall day. It was a Saturday, possibly noon but he wasn't sure. Aunt May was in the Kitchen and had called for him to get the door when it rang, and stumbling down the stairs, Peter did so. He supposed he might have expected a salesman, or the neighbor wanting to borrow something from his Aunt. He absolutely did not expect to open the heavy wooden door and see three very familiar kids.
Peter stared.
Three pairs of varying green eyes stared right back.
Finally, after a few long moments of rather intense (and awkward) staring, the tallest of the three waved his free hand. "Hi Peter!"
Instant conundrum.
Option A. Say hi back and acknowledge that they know who he is and thereby revealing that he, Peter Parker, is also Spiderman.
Option B. Lie to the children of the God of Lies and protest against ever meeting them before, sorry, you must have the wrong Peter, shut the door and live the remainder of his life knowing he is most assuredly going to hell.
Option C. Shut the door without saying a word, go back to bed.
While Peter debated inside his head, the three boys stood on the porch, rightfully starting to look a little worried. Eventually Sleipner spoke up again and made Peter's mind up for him.
"We need your help."
Immediately Peter was opening the door and pulling all three little boys in off the stoop, eyes searching the street for enemies as he did so. As soon as they were in and the door was safely shut, Peter kneeled down to be at their level.
"Whats going on? Are you guys ok?"
Jorgumand shook his head, looking sad and a little distressed. "Everyone is gone!"
"What do you mean everyone is gone?" Peter asked, mentally going over what could possibly have happened.
"Mama went with Uncle Thor to Alfheim to help him with a Treaty." Sleipnir explained, "He took Adelis with him, but he said that we could stay here if we promised to be good. All the Avengers were going to take care of us until he got back."
"But somethings happened, and now everyone is gone into space and they said they wont be back for a few days!" Jorgumand interrupted urgently and Peter felt his eyebrows go up in surprise.
"Wait, you're saying everyone, all the Avengers took off, leaving the whole city and you guys defenceless and no one even bothered to text me?"
Jorgumand huffed exasperatedly. "No all of the Avengers. Tony's still here, and the X-men said that if anything attacked Earth they would help out, but no one is around to take us out tonight!"
There was a pause; in which all three of Loki's kids stared at Peter, waiting for him to see what they were saying, and Peter waiting for his brain to figure out what the hell was going on.
Finally, Peter realized he had to say something. "Take you out… where?"
"Trick or Treat'ing!" Jorgumand and Sleipnir hissed at the same time and suddenly Fenris' face split into a huge grin.
"Trick 'o'treat!" he yelled before Peter could shush him.
"Peter?" Aunt May called from the kitchen and Peter motioned for the boys to be quiet.
"Be right there, one sec!" he called out before turning back to the boys urgently. "So why can't Tony take you?"
"He told us you would take us, he even broke into Sheild's computer so he could find out where you live, and he had his driver take us here. He said you know where all the best houses are!"
Peter covered his face with his hands and cursed Tony Stark in every way he knew how. "Guys, look, I get that you're real excited but I can't just-"
"Please!" Jorgumand interrupted again, lurching forward to grab his arm, his eyes going wide and sad. "Mama said he'd try to be back today but he wasn't sure and we really want to go and we already made our costumes and if we miss it, it will be a whole year before its Halloween again! Please Peter!"
"Peter?" Aunt May called as she came into the hallway and stopped at the sight of the small crowd that had suddenly appeared in her house. "Who's this?" she asked, already leaning over with a kind smile on her face.
Buckling under the weight of three puppy eye'd gazes, Peter sighed and stood back up. "Aunt May, these are some friends of mine. Their Dad works at the paper and he's busy tonight so I offered to take them Trick o' Treating. Guys, this is my Aunt May, Aunt May, this is Sliepnir, Jor, and Fenris."
"What interesting names," Aunt May was saying as she kneeled down as Peter had been. Fenris smiled shyly from under Sleipnir's arm.
"Ye-yeah, their Dad is uh, Swedish, or something… I think." Peter supplied, ignoring the looks he was receiving from the older two.
Aunt May ignored the stumbled response and continued to smile at the kids. "Have you boys had any lunch yet?"
The boys shook their heads and Aunt May's smiled warmly. "Well then, how about you three let Peter show you his room and I will bring something up to snack on. Are you excited about tonight?"
There was a chorus of "Yes!"
"Ok you guys, lets go upstairs,"Peter said as he herded the kids out of the hallway.
"We left our costumes outside," Sleipnir alerted him, and a quick check of the front stoop revealed a blue duffle bag with the Stark Logo on it. Hefting it onto his shoulder, Peter gestured for the kids to start climbing up the they were in his room, and the door was shut tightly, Peter turned back to the boys and knelt down.
"Ok guys, I'll take you out tonight, but you have to promise to keep my secret. My Aunt doesn't know about my powers, in fact no one outside of the Avengers do and I need for that to continue. So when I'm out of costume, you can call me Peter, but outside of the tower, if I'm in costume you have to call me Spiderman. Ok?"
To his great relief, all three boys nodded and Peter felt himself relax. His secret no longer in immediate peril, he plopped down on the floor, crossed his legs and dragged the duffle bag closer. "So you guys made your costumes huh? Can I see?"
"Mama helped," Sleipnir added as Jorgumand kept forward and opened the back before Peter could. The first thing he noticed out of the piles of different coloured cloth was a gleam of gold and then Jorgumand was pulling out a helmet with a familiar set of horns and placing it on his younger brothers head.
"Fenris is going as Mama!" The excited boy explained unnecessarily. Fenris grinned from under the helm and Peter smiled back.
"Isn't that a little heavy?"
The helmet nearly went flying when Fenris shook his head. Impressively, the helmet didn't move much and it didn't seem to hinder the toddler's movement at all.
Meanwhile, Jorgumand had pulled a large amount of black fabric out and was pulling some of it over his head quickly. The cowl was immediately recognizable and Jorgumand finished the effect by rasping "I'm Batman!" Peter laughed at the impression and the fake scowl on the little boys face turned into a delighted lopsided grin. "Do you like it?"
"It's great! Did Tony get to see it?" Peter asked, already kind of knowing the answer.
Jorgumand nodded, "Yes, he said it was a great costume, and it was too bad he couldn't take us out. Thats when he told us you would."
Peter didn't doubt that for a second. Tony's feelings on the fictional caped crusader were well known by anyone with ears by now. As far as anyone knew, before the last movie came out, Tony didn't have an opinion of the dark comic book character short of a few quips about how original it was to have a superhero without any powers, lots of money and daddy issues. And then the last movie in the trilogy came out and any benign feelings Tony might have had fled in the face of the ending scenes. Peter still remembered the rants, how the studio should be paying him royalties for the idea. Apparently Tony was a little sore about the fact that Batman had copied him by picking up the nuke, carrying it across the city and sacrificing himself to save everyone.
"He didn't even sacrifice himself, It was a cop out!" Tony would rage while Pepper informed him again that Batman was a fictional character and wasn't in fact getting credit for an act that Tony did.
So yeah, Tony was a little sore about the subject and Peter wondered if Jorgumand had chosen the costume in complete innocence of this fact, or if he'd had outside influence. He wouldn't put it past Loki to do something like that, especially after Tony had gotten the kids hooked on Spongebob. Loki had promised retribution after all.
Still, the kid looked pleased about the costume so Peter gave him a thumbs up and turned to Sleipnir who like his brother was draped in black cloth.
"Let me guess, you're a stormtrooper?"
The smile on the boy's face fell off and he frowned in confusion. "A what?"
"Oh god." Peter brought his hands to his face in mock horror. "Ok, ok we can fix this. Don't panic. We can watch one of the movies after lunch. I can not believe you haven't- never mind, thats not important. What's important is that we. can. fix. this."
Three pairs of eyes stared at him like he'd lost his mind and Peter brought his hands away from his face. "Ok, I give up, what are you?"
Sleipnir, who still didn't look convinced that Peter wasn't completely mad, gestured to the dark robes that nearly swallowed him whole. "I'm Harry Potter!"
Peter had to admit, with the dark hair and green eyes, Sleipnir certainly looked the part, sans glasses and scar. "We can draw on a scar tonight, do you have a wand?" Sleipnir nodded and pulled a stick out of the bag with flourish and Peter eyed the polished wood. "That's- That's not a real wand is it?"
The Look on Sleipnir's face was hilarious. "Um…" The boy hesitated, clearly torn between telling the truth and possibly having his wand taken away, or lying to Peter. Not that Peter would take it away, what would the point be? All three of Loki's boys could cast magic easily without one. "Yes?" Sleipnir answered, sounding unsure of his own answer.
Peter ruffled his hair and smiled as the boy relaxed again. "Ok, so you guys have your costumes alright, but do you have anything to put your candy in?"
Sleipnir shook his head, Fenris was playing with some of the fake armour for his costume and Jorgumand had already lost interest and was edging closer to some of the gadgets that sat on Peter's desk.
"Right, pillow cases it is then." Peter said, mostly to himself when there was a knock on the door. Aunt May entered with a tray of ham sandwiches piled on a plate with four tall glasses of milk. Peter could help but smile at the image. The boys crowded around her the moment the tray was set down, showing off their costumes eagerly. Aunt May indulged them all, admiring Fenris' helm and feigning surprise when Jorgumand attempted to sneak up behind her with his cape on. The sandwiches had their crusts cut off, and Peter ate a few while the boys swarmed. After their lunch, he all but tied them down to watch Star Wars, A New Hope. It gave Peter a chance for some quiet and a moment to think. It would be easy enough to take the kids around the neighbourhood, all the houses in the area gave out candy and as the local kids got older, the parents were more willing to give the few costumed kids left more candy. But there was one more thing he was considering.
When he'd been a kid, Uncle Ben used to take him a couple blocks further. It was a bit of a walk, but it had always been worth it. The destination had been a house who's owner was the embodiment of the Spirit of Halloween if there ever was one. The normally tidy lawn and well kept ordinary house was turned into a haunted mansion, complete with sound effects, objects that jumped out at you and the best damn home made candy you've ever had. And Peter wanted to take the boys, already sure that they would love it.
He decided that they would go there first, and go door to door on the way back until the kids got tired. The only thing left to worry about was his costume. Sleipnir had told him very seriously that he had to dress up. Apparently even Loki had been prepared to do so. And it was evidently against the rules to go in his Spiderman costume.
Aunt May insisted that the boys stay for dinner before going out, and the small kitchen table was crowded for the first time in a long time. It was friendly crowding though, and Aunt May seemed to be really enjoying herself. Peter even wondered if Loki would be willing to let him borrow his kids once and a while so his Aunt could get a little kid fix. After supper, Peter helped them get in their costumes while Aunt May added ascetics like fake lightning bolt scars and utility belts. Peter managed to hash together a quick costume and just when he was about to raid the linen closet for pillow cases, Aunt May brought out three plastic pumpkin buckets she had gone out to get in secret while they were watching their movie.
"Where's mine?" Peter asked cheekily, and Aunt May raised a brow at him before producing a Frankenstein Monster head bucket. "Seriously?!" Peter blinked, secretly delighted. Then Aunt May bustled them all into the hall to take a quick picture and then they were out the door and into the crisp autumn air. It was still light out, but the sun would be down soon and they began the trek to the haunted house. Fernis rode on his shoulders to save his little legs and Sleipnir and Jorgumand walked around him jabbering on about anything that came to mind. When they came across other early trick or treaters the boys greeted their costumed comrades eagerly.
They got to the haunted house just as the sun disappeared behind the city skyline, and the sounds of scream tracks reached their ears.
"There aren't any real ghosts, are there?" Jorgumand questioned, looking a little nervous as they got closer.
"No, it's all fake. Don't worry. There's nothing in there thats actually scary." Peter reassured him as both Sleipnir and Jorgumand stepped a little closer to him. "Seriously though, if you don't want to go in, we can just go start trick-or-treating."
"We want to go!" "We aren't scared!" came the indignant cries and Peter nodded.
"Ok then, lets get going!"
The haunted house was every bit as campy as Peter remembered it being, and despite their initial bout of nerves, the boys enjoyed it as well. There was only one instance when a fake ghost swung down, and Sleipnir blasted it with his wand. Thankfully there was no one else nearby, and Peter managed to get the fire out quickly. They received their homemade candy when they left, and Peter had just started to direct the kids back in the right direction when a familiar voice called out.
"Peter?"
Gwen Stacy, dressed in a short blue dress with rainbow coloured armbands and leggings was walking towards them.
"Be cool guys," Peter muttered as the blonde approached. The mischievous looks he got in return did nothing but cause his apprehension to grow.
"Nice costumes guys!" Gwen complemented enthusiastically, grinning at the boys who preened a little under the praise. Then Gwen turned to Peter and gave him a look over. "And where's your costume Peter?"
"I'm Clark Kent." He pulled a determined face and tugged the top buttons of his shirt apart so that the Superman shirt he wore beneath could be seen. Gwen rolled her eyes.
"Wow, that is especially lame, even for you! I mean if you're going to be parading around on halloween with some professional looking costumes, you could at least put in a little effort." She lectured, gesturing to Fenris with his polished helmet.
"Personally I feel that I did pretty well considering the short notice and lack of options." He muttered as Gwen continued to praise the boys.
"So how do you guys know Peter? Are you guys cousins or something?"
"Uh-"
"Peter works with out Dad." Sleipnir explained easily when Peter stalled. "He's really busy tonight so Peter said he would take us out."
"Oh, well that was really nice of Peter!"
Peter was totally going to give Sleipnir all of the candy he got for getting Gwen to give him that soft look.
"Yeah well-"
"Don't ruin it." She interrupted, still smiling. "Did he take you guys into the haunted house yet?"
"Yes! But there are no real ghosts in it." Jorgumand assured her.
"Oh, well, thats a relief."
"What are you doing out here?" Peter asked.
"I'm going to a costume party," she gestured to her outfit, "...obviously. I'd invite you to join me but I think you are going to be busy for a while."
Peter was just about to respond when the familiar prickling of his spider-sense ran up his spine. It was mild, only a faint warning that something dangerous was around but it was more than enough to set him on edge. The boys didn't notice his sudden wariness, as Jorgumand was already talking Gwen's ear off with Sleipnir adding in a word or two when he could. Peter took the chance to look around to try and see what had caused the alert. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, but it was hard to tell with all the people running around in costume. He was just about to turn back to the kids and shrug off the whole thing when out of the corner of his eye he noticed movement in one of the shadows of the house nearest to them. It was a man dressed in a hoodie and a jacket, no kids and no costume. But what really caught Peters attention was the bulging of the fabric at the mans wrists.
Moving so that he was standing between the kids and the man who had yet to notice them, Peter did his best to see the man's face without making it obvious that he was looking. By some miracle the man didn't notice Peter's strange behaviour and for a brief moment he even turned in Peter's direction. It was enough, the streetlight just caught the man's face so that his identity could be determined. It was exactly who Peter thought. Herman Schultz, who also went by the moniker Shocker. He was a burglar, and particularly good at getting into safe's. He also was a gifted engineer and had designed a pair of gauntlets that could be worn on his wrists that could deliver extremely powerful vibrational blasts. Spiderman had tangled with him before, and Peter thought he was still in jail.
Apparently not, as the man made his way past the kids in the streets and disappeared down an ally next to a rather nice looking building. Peter frowned and turned back to Gwen. "Hey, can you do me a favour? Like, a really big favour?"
Gwen looked puzzled at his sudden change in demeanour, "Uh sure, what is it?"
"Can you just watch these guys for me for like… two seconds, I just uh- I'll be right back."
"What! Peter! You can't just-"
"Where are you going?" Sleipnir asked from his side and Peter looked down helplessly. He really didn't want to leave the kids, but Shultz was a dangerous criminal and Peter didn't trust him not to hurt anyone with whatever he was doing…
"I'll be right back, I promise." he said earnestly, "I will, I just need to go check something really quick. Just stay here with Gwen for a minute ok? You can tell her about how your dad took you guys to florida to that Harry Potter place!"
Sleipnir looked doubtful, but nodded. "And then when you get back we can go trick-or-treating?"
"Yes! Yes absolutely! I'll be right back, ok?"
But Gwen wasn't having it, "Peter no! You can't just run off!" she grabbed his arm as he started to turn away, "Peter, this is not the time for your other job!"
"I know! But I have to go, I will be really quick, I promise. I'll be back before you know it!" and with that he twisted out of her grip and took off running towards where Shultz had disappeared.
()()()()
Well, maybe he'd be a little longer than promised…
Shultz had broken into the posh house, only it hadn't been as empty as he'd planned and Spiderman had leapt in at the nick of time to save the terrified family. The fight that followed though took longer than he'd hoped and had taken him a couple blocks away from where he started. At least there weren't any kids around to get hurt in the fight. Peter had done his best to steer the battle away from the kid filled streets and now they were in a back ally way, with Peter jumping off walls and avoiding the powerful blasts Shultz was aiming at him. It was a hard fight, the engineer had upgraded his gauntlets to include some form of shielding so most of his hits weren't very effective.
Everything was going ok though until Shultz got in a lucky shot that sent Peter flying through some gates and into a parking garage. It got even worse when he turned his head to the side and saw Gwen rushing towards him.
"What are you doing here?!" he hissed as she helped him up and half dragged him to an alcove just out of the way before Shultz followed him through the hole he'd made. In the alcove Peter nearly had a heart attack. "You brought them!?" He nearly yelled when he saw Loki's three kids hunkered down looking up at him with wide innocent eyes.
"They brought me!" she whispered fiercely. "When you said you knew their dad from your job, Which job exactly did you mean? Did you know they have powers!?"
"Um-"
"Why are you whispering?" Jorgumand asked loudly and both Peter and Gwen turned to hush him. For some reason Shultz hadn't reacted, or gave any indication that he'd heard anything. He was still stalking around the parking structure, looking for Spiderman.
"He can't hear us." Sleipnir explained, his tone giving the impression that he thought that they were boing quite silly for not realizing that already.
"Or see us!" Jorgumand added.
Peter turned to Gwen and gave her a sheepish look. "So yeah, I should probably let you know that they can do magic."
"Wow, really Peter? I could never have figured that out for myself."
Jorgumand tugged on Gwens arm and scolded her a best as a four year old could scold. "You shouldn't call him Peter. He's Spiderman right now!"
"Yeah, ok guys, listen. You can't be here ok? It's dangerous!" Peter insisted as he kneeled down to be at their level. Fenris reached up to tug on the edge of his mask but otherwise didn't seemed bothered by the threat of the situation at all.
"We know, thats why we sent for help!" Sleipnir replied.
Peter blinked. "What exactly to you mean by help?"
The little boy didn't get much of a chance to answer. Over Shultz's yelling, Peter felt more than heard the heavy footfalls of something very very big approaching. Neither he, nor Shultz was prepared for the sight of a ten foot robot leaning in through the broken gateway.
"Get him Allen!" Jorgumand cheered, clearly delighted as Sleipnir muttered some strange words. The robot then turned to the stunned burglar, who unfroze long enough to raise his arms and send a blast towards the threat. The blast did little but make the robot jerk back an inch.
"You have a Robot." Peter stated, disbelieving even as he watch the robot go into battle for them. "And you named him Allen?"
"Tony named all his suits Mark, why can't I call mine Allen?" Sleipnir asked in return, and Peter decided against correcting the young boy. This was way more hilarious. Shultz wasn't doing so well against Allen, and it wasn't long before he was turning and making for a retreat. That wouldn't do, so Peter leapt out from behind the spell the boys had put up to keep them invisible and shot out his webs. The burglar fell to the floor, cursing and swearing and Peter quickly covered his foul mouth with another gob of web.
The robot itself seemed to be ok, not even a nick in it's armour, and after being given a command in another language by Sleipnir, it turned and began walking back in the general direction of the Avengers Tower.
The three boys then turned their attention back to Peter, all with expectant faces. "Can we go Trick-or-treating now?" Jorgumand asked.
Peter nodded. "Yeah, yeah that sounds great." He turned to Gwen. "You coming with or…"
The blonde girl stared at him wide eyed as the giant robot's footsteps faded away into the background and then gave herself a little shake. "Sure," she answered after a moment, "I'm already late for the party, what's another hour or so?" She answered with a shrug and that dazzling smile. "But you might want to keep your mask on, I think you left your other costume a couple blocks back."
And so that is how the Amazing Spiderman went trick-or-treating, accompanied by Gwen Stacy and Loki's three little boys. Gwen stayed with them for a while, but eventually claimed that she really did have to go. She gave each of the boy's a quick hug, praised them again on their choice of costumes, and with a quick kiss on Peter's cheek she was off to her party. It was probably for the best that she left then because a few streets over they were approached from behind by a dark figure.
"Mama!" Jorgumand dashed towards the figure and it took Peter a moment to recognize Loki.
Fenris rushed forward and held up his pumpkin bucket to show it off proudly and Sleipnir was delighted.
"You look just like him!" Sleipnir said happily, smiling hugely.
Loki, who was dressed all in black, smiled down at his sons and tucked the sleeping figure that was Adelis further into his robes before kneeling down and greeting them all properly. "Have you three been behaving yourselves?" he asked once the his were dispensed.
"Yes! Peter took us to a haunted house!"
"There weren't any real ghosts though!"
"Sleipnir killed one anyways!"
"And Allen helped Spiderman stop a bad man!"
"Is that so?" Loki gave Peter a look and it was particularly creepy when it came from a Snape look-a-like.
"Aunt May gave us pum-kins." Fenris stated, holding his bucket high so that Loki could inspect it.
"That was very kind of her." Loki said, giving his youngest son a warm smile.
"Can we keep trick-or-treating? Spiderman said there are only two more streets left!"
"Yes of course," Loki agreed, standing once more and turning towards the Junior Avenger. "Thank you for taking them this night. They have been looking forward to this for some time now."
"Well it's only the best holiday on earth," Peter answered as the boys started for the next house, laughing as they went. Loki watched them go.
"I was under the impression that Stark was going to be looking after the tower and its occupants."
"Yeah well, I'm pretty sure Jorgumand's costume had something to do with his change of mind."
Loki's feral grin was answer enough as to who had influenced that costume choice.
They made it through the next few streets without any problems, with Loki vanishing the candy in the boy's buckets when they got too heavy. Peter personally thought that was cheating, but wisely kept his mouth shut. When they made it back to Peter's house the boys all generously offered to give some to Aunt May. They said their goodbyes shortly after, and Loki thanked Peter once more before vanishing he and his brood back to the tower. (Out of Aunt May's view of course!)
Suddenly exhausted, Peter collapsed on the couch with his laptop and began checking to make sure that the police had gotten the care package he'd left for them hanging from the streetlamp. And he also pulled his aunts camera out so that he could download the photo she had taken that night. For the rest of the week his desktop picture was of himself surrounded on all sides by Harry Potter, Batman and the villainous Loki.
Happy Halloween everyone! Here is one of the oneshots I told you I was thinking about! If you guys have any ideas for short stories featuring Loki and his kids from the Lost Boy's story line, Please let me know, I'm always up for new ideas!
Also, please forgive me, in my rush to post this I have not had it beta read! Sorry!