Well here's my newest bunny! Please give it love! I own nothing but my own insanity! BTW Phil didn't die in this!

He lay in what felt like a drugged state. But that couldn't be right could it? No…He had stopped that. He had finished with all of that. Then why did his head feel like it was floating? Not just his head. His whole body felt like it was floating in an ocean of space. He felt hands on him. They were gentle and possessive. He loved that odd mixture. One set was tentative as if they were afraid to touch him, but the touch spoke of ownership and left no doubt about it. The other set was more aggressive, not that the other was lacking confidence, but as if they were afraid of causing pain. While the other, the more aggressive one was fearless.

He made a small noise and the hands seemed to vanish and the space around him came crashing to an end. Now instead of the floating darkness there was hardness beneath him. And pain. A lot of pain. He tried to fight it, tried to fight the urge to scream. He wouldn't. He wouldn't be broken again. His mind was already telling him where the damage was, fingers broken, ribs broken, but most of the injuries were surface ones. He would look like a mess but at least his internal organs were safe for the most part. He closed his eyes and tried to get back to the floating space. Back to those loving hands.

"It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you."

Roald Dahl The Witches

"Hey look on the bright side pretty boy you don't have to go too far from your books for this one." Morgan clapped Reid on the back as the young genius poured himself his possibly fifth cup of coffee that morning. Of course he was so used to the behavior he had braced himself for impact and didn't spill a drop of his precious liquid.

He supposed there was some sort of relief on not having to go far from home. It also gave them an edge when dealing with a new unsub. They would be in familiar territory and not have to build a repore with a new police force. Of course the downside was that an unsub based in Manhattan had a lot of targets and many places to hide.

Sitting down at the table he sifted through the folders his eyes widening as he processed the information in front of him. It was certainly a unique case. All races, all ages, no preference in gender. Yet they had all been killed the same way. It appeared to be a sacrificial ritual. But for what? He willed his mind to give him statistics, facts, information. But this was like nothing he had ever seen before. He narrowed his eyes at the crudely produced slash marks…They weren't just cuts. "Garcia can you blow up the injuries for me on the screen?"

That caught the team's attention and as he moved to get a closer look. Hotchner came up to his side and studied him "Do you see something Reid?"

There was a snort from Morgan "Please tell us you got somethin' pretty boy because this case is all over the map."

"And need I remind you in one of the most largely populated areas in the United States." Rossi toned in as he flipped through the file and muttered "Certainly doesn't have a problem with blood…"

Then what he was looking at clicked in his head. "It looks like some sort of Norse symbol. Though it might be my brain making patterns out of chaos…I would have to compare it up close to see for sure. Did you know that rune stones hadn't been found in Iceland until the modern day?"

Emily raised a brow at that and smiled as she tried to steer the genius "I'm sure they'll let you get as close to this thing as you want to make sense out of it…"

Hotch turned to J.J "We need to keep the press out of this as much as possible. We don't need them blowing this out of proportion and getting other agencies involved. We'll profile the unsub and work the case just like any other."

The blonde smiled brightly her mind already thinking of what connections she would use. "Yes sir."

Stark Tower

The news was blaring in the background as Tony delicately lowered a wire into his latest invention. Of course others might call it a glorified toy but then others weren't billionaire philanthropists who also doubled as superheroes. He had just settled the wire when something on the news caught his ear. "Jarvis turn up the volume on the news by 5 percent will you?"

Instead of answering the A.I did as he was told and Tony turned to study the images on the T.V. A pretty news reporter was standing outside of a building obviously waiting to ambush the very federal looking types who had just came out of it. A blond haired woman broke from the group and intercepted the news reporter before she could reach the rest. "Tell us is it true that there's a new threat in the Manhattan area? Reports are coming in of slasher victims being found. Is this the work of a serial killer?"

The blonde woman smiled pleasantly at the reporter before her bright blue eyes made contact with the camera "My name is Jennifer Jareau and I'm an agent of the FBI team that is working this case. We're prepared to give a press conference later this afternoon but at this time we are making no statements. However we would appreciate the press's cooperation in keeping a media panic to a minimum. The calmer residents remain the more quickly and efficiently we will be able to track down the person or persons responsible for committing these crimes." Her smile never left her face and her courteous tone had the reporter changing the topic to when the conference would be.

Tony arched a brow as he watched her work. She was good. If Pepper wasn't such a pro at handling the news for him he would try to get her on his team. He looked at the FBI team that was in the background. He didn't recognize any of the agents, though he did notice that one was wearing a very unofficial looking purple scarf. He gave a snort of amusement and turned to get back to his work when he heard Thor's roar echo throughout the building. He sighed dramatically. Playtime would have to wait for later then.

Coming up into what served as a communal kitchen and entertainment area Tony looked for signs of damage "What's wrong God of Thunder? Did the toaster vanquish your strudel again?" He smirked before he noticed that Thor was staring intently at a piece of paper in his hand "What's that?"

Thor turned and presented him with the paper. It wasn't very often that he came to Earth and he had arrived rather suddenly saying that Frigga had told him his presence would be needed. Tony had teased him about being a mamma's boy until he informed him of the fact that his mother was a seer. He was still a ninny in Tony's book.

However she might have been right about this one. The paper was crumpled and he didn't know if it had arrived that way or if Thor's manhandling was responsible for it. The words were written crudely in what Tony was desperately hoping was dark red finger paint. ThIs iS foR LOKI The paper turned out to be a news article about one of the slasher killings. Well…He guessed this just got the Avengers involved.

Police Station

J.J put down her phone and considered it for a moment and then brushed her hair behind her ear as she prepared to break the news to Hotch. He seemed to sense that she had something to say and turned to her "J.J?" she looked at him and said "A representative of the Avengers just called. Someone left a note written in blood at Stark Tower, claiming the kills were for Loki."

The team looked to see what Hotch's reaction was going to be. He considered it for a moment before saying "They do have an FBI affiliation…Any help we can get for this would be welcome."

Reid looked like Christmas had come early. "Are we seriously going to get to work with the Avengers?"

Morgan looked aghast at Reid knowing that he would soon be forced to endure an onslaught of Avengers facts. He rubbed his forehead and went to get more coffee. Hotch gave Reid an amused smile and let the facts roll over him as he asked when they were going to arrive. It was better if Reid got this all out of his system now. If his first interaction with David Rossi was any indication of how he would act in person.

"Did you know that the Iron Man Mark Armor weighed 89 pounds?" Reid realized that he was reaching the team's threshold for Avenger's facts when a voice spoke up from behind him. "Actually it was 90…how did you know that?"

Reid froze drinking his coffee his wide brown eyes stared a head as if he couldn't believe who was speaking to him. He slowly set down the coffee with a shaking hand as he turned and looked at Tony Stark…Ironman…In person. "I…I…calibrated the proportion of the material against the mass it would take to function as a suit and then approximated from there…"

Tony smirked "Smart kid…" He said as he reached forward and offered his hand "Tony Stark successful genius, billionaire and part time superhero."

For a moment it looked as if Reid was just going to stare at the hand rather than shake it but he managed to get himself functioning as he reached forward and clasped it. "I-It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Stark I've been a big fan of yours. I'm Dr. Spencer Reid and if you don't mind later can I ask you a few questions about the Iron Man suits? I'm also interested in your latest work on satellites…"

Spencer Reid was cut off when Hotch reached across and shook Tony's hand "Dr. Reid has a very curious mind as you can probably figure out. This is the rest of the team Agent's Morgan, Rossi, Prentiss and Jareau."

Tony had been giving Reid a lingering look before politely turning to the rest of the team "Ah yes Jennifer Jareau I saw your impressive work on the news this morning." He smiled brightly as he looked at the rest of the team. His eye kept wandering back to Spencer, no one ever seemed interested in his work outside of the Ironman suit anymore. He decided he liked that one and that being practically blackmailed to come here wasn't such a bad thing after all. "I've come to invite you to meet with our own agent Phil Coulson and our 'Team leader' Captain America who are on their way."

Speaking of the devil at that moment the two entered the police station and Agent Coulson made a beeline for the BAU group "Hello I'm Agent Phill Coulson I'm sorry for sending Mr. Stark but he was the closest to you besides Thor. I hope he was at least cordial…?" He gave Tony a pointed and threatening look.

Quick to speak up Spencer nodded his head "Actually given some of the things he's said to the media he was very polite with us…" Realizing that he now had everyone's attention Reid shifted uncomfortably and took a step back into the group.

A second round of introductions had everyone familiarized with each other. Phil was quick to get to the point "Since this case involves one of the Avenger's enemies we want it to remain in BAU hands but would like to be kept up to date with any new information."

Hotch nodded his head in agreement "However credit for the arrest is going to go to the local police and we are going to avoid widespread media coverage as much as possible."

Because of the group's size and his proximity to some of his biggest hero's Reid thought it best to step away so as not to embarrass himself he was looking at some of the blown up pictures of the injuries that he had requested. He didn't even notice he was no longer alone until a voice spoke from next to him "Quite the vicious fellow we're dealing with…"

Reid was startled and turned with surprise to see Tony Stark smirking at him with serious eyes. He studied Reid for a moment before gesturing to the pictures "What are you looking for in all that mess?"

Getting comfortable Reid gave a hesitant smile and turned to the pictures as he traced one of the slash marks with his finger "At first I thought they were Runes so on the way over I read a few books on them. However I don't think these come from the traditional alphabet…these look like runes that an individual has created for casting…"

Filing that information away for later Tony remained serious as he looked to where the young genius was pointing "What does that mean about our bloodthirsty little friend?"

The rest of the team and the Avengers were quiet as they listened to the conversation. Reid noticed and looked away as he said hesitantly but quickly "Based on what I know and have studied individual Runes can be produced for a number of reasons however these specific ones look as though they involve a number and some sort of summoning rune…What worries me is what this unsub will do when the force they are summoning does not come."

One of the officers came into the room aware that he had interrupted something "Sorry but I think you should see this…" He turned on the T.V and it blared to life as a reporter stood outside of the station they were at. The team had arrived in two black unmarked vehicles. On one of them someone had painted in red the same runes that were on the body.

Tony gave a low whistle "Apparently they know you're here."

Hope you enjoyed this! More to come! Loki appears in the next chapter!