WHY DO YOU HAVE LEGOS?! TELL MEEEE

[feel like a sir MILES]

captain america did not have to cluck like the mother hen that he was for marty to know that he was there; in fact, she knew he was there the moment he walked by, but she did little to acknowledge his presence -- not that that was unusual by any means. while the all american mom silently brooded in the doorway, she contentedl -- pffffthahaha yeah right! -- less angrily than normal continued to eat like the grody little monkey she was. quite the feat considering she had already gone through a little more than half of what she had set out, and was only starting to show signs of slowing down. ******** you! you can judge when you have powers that require so much energy it stunted your growth, dickheads...

it wasn't till captain mom heaved a sigh melodramatic enough for the young, and the mutated that marty begrudgingly admitted he was there. she visibly paused, put down her french fries dipped in apple sauce, and cleanched her jaw as he officially entered. during the tense silence, she took in a small breath, and turned to stare expectantly at him; however, she seemed to grow frustrated with how long it was taking him to spit it out. he did, eventually: training was in an hour.

she did not respond, and returned to eating her meal like a farm animal.

whether marty was listening or not was anybodies guess, because she did no so much as glare, curse, spit, bite, or throw an incredibly violent tantrum as captain mom explained what they'd be doing today. she showed no sign of having paid the slightest bit of attention until he finished talking, and even then she took her time responding. "if you have something to say, then say it, and stop making stupid ******** faces." she spoke in a nonchalant tone, but, before he could respond, she continued: "i'll see you in an hour."

well, that was different.

*

loki watched, clearly not amused with how pathetic his shiny, new toy was, as ripley made her way back over it sad, bitter defeat. it almost made him want to cry: to weep over the sad truth that his master plan was, quite literally, in the hands of a moody, talking stick. a disparaging though if ever there was one, now that he thought about it. realizing that if ripley saw that he seemed upset about something she would probably fly into some sort of irrational hysterics about how it meant they were somehow doomed, he saved face by offering her a pleasant smile as she glowered at him, "now, now, ripley, there's no need to be like that; i was only teasing." he reassured in a calm, and caring voice, but that's all it was -- a voice.

"just be sure to eat slowly." he continued, not that she particularly needed to hear it, but he felt that things might smooth over between the two of them were he to act like he was giving her advice out of sentiment. at least she might stop acting like he was going to to take sexual advantage of her, and then feed her to tro-- well, the former; he would not, under any circumstances, molest her. ever. never ever. not even when ragnarok came to claim them all, and certainly not a day after! however, he knew that their struggling relationship would do much better were he act kindly towards her instead of telling her that he'd never touch her because he though she was a repulsive, diseased mortal.

their breakfast was eating in welcomed silence, as far as loki was concerned. he'd even go as far as to say the meal was enjoyable, and (unbeknownst to ripley, but incredibly beneficial to her) it allowed him time to calm down. loki no longer felt the need to find small, subtle ways to torture her, and crush her spirit.

not that that was going to stop him from luring trolls, because that was for training.

"what was what?" the god of mischief feigned alarm -- shocker! -- and squinted into the distance. "i see, it seems we have some unexpected breakfast guests; shall we break out the finery?" loki joked, not even bothering to hide his excitement as trolls burst into the grand hall.

there were not beer bellied, though, and they gave one the sense that, should someone try and style their hair, that someone would immediately get ripped to shreds, and then eaten.

the troll that had met charged loki met a bitter end well before it had even gotten close to him, "well, should you wish to survive, i suggest you fight." explained the smug b*****d. of course, he wasn't going to actually let her get hurt-- well, too hurt, but the whole point of this was to eventually stop her from being a damsel in distress.

he focused his magic, and his fancy, enchanted throwing knives on another troll making it's way into the hall.

the troll with ripley in hand gave her a shake, and, while not smelling as good as hogshead, smelled good enough; he promptly threw her violently into the nearest pillar.

[the star-lord ideal]

"i'm not --" he stopped himself right there. marta was being agreeable. he was not going to say anything to make her change her mind, even if that meant defending himself by saying that he was not, in fact, making faces when he was. he hadn't meant to make faces. the surprising thing was no longer that she could eat more than she weighed, it was that she was agreeing to something.

that alone was surprising enough. but, well, she was being agreeable to captain america which was something else entirely. perhaps this would go over much more smoothly than he had aforethought it would. steve nodded once and a small smile crept onto his face. "we'll be down in the basement of the helicarrier today," he explained to her, so that she knew where to meet. he would not have been shocked to learn that she said this simply to get him away from her and he could not shake the nagging feeling that marta simply would not show up.

"i'm glad to see you're up and about so quickly," he added hastily. it was time for him to take his leave before he continued to overstay his welcome. after he said this, he made his way back to his quarters where he changed into something that would be a bit more useful during a training session that was also a bit more subtle than the tights. it was one of the shield uniforms that he had been provided. they seemed to think that everyone needed something a little old fashioned all the time.

when it was time, steve jogged down to the basement of the helicarrier, arriving a couple minutes early. he stared up at a clock on the wall. the second hand seemed to be moving extra slow to him, but perhaps that was because he was anxious about whether or not marta would show up. he did not want to have to give a negative report to nicholas fury. however, there was only so much he could do with someone that seemed so, well, broken.

steve hoisted up a punching bag, figuring that teaching her the proper jabs would be a good way to start the training session. she was a scrappy fighter already, but with some proper training she'd be more than a power set and therefore useful in more than simply having her powers. the training session was bound to be a long one, considering other things had gone a small bit awry in previous days -- injuries and not showing up and the like.

he still had a couple of minutes and so he wrapped his fists, before taking out a couple of punches on the poor bag that stood no chance. the wrappings came a little loose and so steve paused to re-wrap them, but that was when he heard her. he heard the elevator doors open and as he was wrapping, he looked up. he stole a glimpse at the clock on the wall. she was exactly on time. his eyebrows raised but he did not say a single condescending statement about it. (he was not loki.) "we'll start with boxing technique," he explained. "let's get your hands wrapped and then we can begin," he offered her a couple wrappings for her hands, "get them wrapped up. it should be snug, but not too tight. if you need help, let me know." he knew better than to reach out and simply grab at her hands and start touching her without permission.

- - -

"why you so excited?!" she shrieked just before her scrawny, frail body was thrown into a pillar. while she did not weigh enough to crack the ice, the amount of force that had been given into the toss was enough to cause it to crack. she slid down like a rag doll and looked nothing but pained. he wanted her to fight, was he insane?

"will cause room to break!" she shouted as she tried to stand up, but her back was sore as she landed directly on her back when she had been tossed. groaning, she finally managed to get back up to her feet, only to be greeted by the troll that had tossed her like a frisbee. it roared in her face, causing her face to become drenched in saliva.

ripley threw her hands up and they crackled with blue energy. but it was not quite enough. soon there was a fist coming in her way, but in a matter of fractions of seconds she had completely phased out and turned into the bright, sparkly, rainbow desu of colors. she hoovered above the ground and left her clothes in a pile. the troll seemed confused and shoved its hand right for her head. only to have it go through her head and hit the pillar behind her. ripley seemed a little panicked. a little panicked was putting it lightly, however.

she threw a hand down in the direction of the trolls feet and another towards the ceiling. two portals formed and the troll immediately fell through one, seeming rather confused about its sudden movements. it showed up back at the ceiling and fell straight to the ground, breaking its neck as it did. there was a sickening crack of bones and ripley stood there staring down at her handiwork. "do not like this," she whimpered as her eyes grew rather wide. she was completely startled. it was one troll down, but there were still four more left. as another charged at her, she shoved both hands out in front of her, the two portals layered to create a bright flash of blue light in the form of a beam. it singed the troll completely. hair on fire. but it did not seem to completely knock out the beast.

"i do not like this at all!" she was still rainbow and floated several inches above the ground, collapsing backwards through one of the pillars that had been cracked. unfortunately, the troll that she had just singed the fur off of followed her through the pillar and broke it completely, sending the ceiling it was holding up collapsing down on top of it.

she glanced up, "behind you!" she called out to loki, raising a hand to point at a troll that carried a large battle axe and was about ready to sever loki's head off. though it was more than likely that loki already knew this -- but ripley didn't know this.

[feel like a sir MILES]

captain mom was smiling, marty could hear it in his voice, and that almost set her off; however, she gritted her teeth, and bore it. the fact that he was pleased as punch -- pleased enough to get punched -- by her agreement infuriated her, and it took a couple of deep breathing exercises, and a constant stream of insults, in every language she knew, mentally directed at steve, to keep herself from acting on her knee-jerk reaction to spite him. keeping her temper down, and not kicking steve in the groin was an obviously difficult task for marty, and she looked like she was going to go for the throat of the next person who spoke to her. she did not trust herself to respond, so she sat white-knuckled, and motionless till he left.

the sound of marta flipping over the table could be heard from down the hall.

marty had calmed down sufficiently by the time she started to head for training, but all that meant was that she no longer wanted captain mom's severed head on a pike. (a plate would do just fine.) despite her feelings of contempt, she made sure to head straight to the basement of the helicarrier after her regularly scheduled sulking -- she did not want to be late. a surprising shift in character, but only if one didn't know the reasons. in truth, her goal was the same as it was since she had gotten her (to get the ******** out) the only difference was no she had changed tactics, at least, that's what the small piece of her otherwise, utterly obliterated fighting spirit told it's self so it would sleep better at night. (fury didn't call it breaking in new recruits for nothing.)

generally speaking, marty arrived right on time, but an extra sensory perception she had always had told her that, in actuality, she was about five seconds late. (to be more specific she'd have to go into some pretty frightening factors of ten, which she could, but it was easier to generalize five seconds.) marty did not bring this up, hell, she didn't say anything, instead she stood silently in the doorway until he noticed her. when he did, he said nothing about her being on time, or even showing up; this did not make her happy, but it did not make her unhappy, so it was a step in the right-ish direction, maybe.

when she realized he was offering her hand wraps, she approached him cautiously. she paused to scowl at him before looking away, and reaching for the hand wraps. she missed them the first time, causing her to grab them more violently the second time. once she had them, she scuttled a good five feet away from him. marta had no idea how to properly wrap boxing wraps; the closest she had ever been to a punching bag was someone's face. not that she was going to tell captain mom that, because that meant he would try, and help her, or some other, equally frustrating bullshit. no, she was going to figure it out herself, and without anybodies help.

"just tell me when i get it right." she grumbled, dropping the second wrap roll by her feet, and just focusing on one. her first attempt immediately slid down her wrist, and so did the second attempt, and the third.

*

loki visibly cringed as ripley slammed into the nearest pillar, and he briefly looked concerned for his favorite death ray; however, his worry dissipated once she managed to get back to her feet. "i'd be more concerned about the approaching troll!" he called back to her, but his voice was drowned out by the roar of a troll about to charge him. he spun on his heel, and threw a magic bolt directly into the troll's third eye. it did not kill the beast, but it caused it to veer, and crash into a pillar, taking it down in the process. by the time loki returned his attention to ripley, the troll was already upon her. he readied another bolt, prepared to take down the beast if she could not. what? you didn't actually think he was going to let his favorite tool of mass destruction get hurt more than necessary did you? protecting her was his main priority in battle-- er, more or less.

for a moment it looked like ripley was actually in trouble, but before he could strike, she exploded into an intangible form of bright colors. (also, she was naked, and while he didn't care, he mentally steeled himself for the tantrum she was going to have when she returned to normal.) "you are doing great!" loki called to her, ecstatic for the chance to finally see her powers utilized in an applicable situation. loki watched the ensuing battle in keen interest, fully aware of the approaching troll, yet he did nothing to counter it. whether by chance, or design, her application of her portal system was ingenious: the beam especially.

oh, the possibilities.

ripley cried out to him, and he responded by nonchalantly glancing in her direction just as the troll took a powerful swing. the attack phased through him, and the actual loki stepped out from behind one of the few, reamining pillars. he silently came up behind the troll, and struck it in the back with odin knows what. it toppled over. "now, where's that last one?" he scanned the area only to realize it had fled, and a telltale creak of the ceiling let him know why: they had destroyed too many pillars, and the roof was about to come down. "ripley!" he called, rushing towards her, "we need to move forward; i need you to focus, and change back." he demanded, scooping up her clothes. well, he'd never hear the end of it if he didn't, because she'd be so focused on the fact that she was naked rather than thankful she was alive.

loki looked up, the ceiling gave another ominous groan. they were running out of time. he glanced to the pillar beside him, realizing it was about to give way, but he figured she would not be able to change herself back if she was under too much breath. he looked back at her with sincerity, "it's going to be alright, i promise, just breath, and focus on changing back."