"Stark, can you get us stabilized in the air?" Nick Fury's voice bellowed throughout the control room. Officers were scrambling to discover the true source of engine failure.
"On it," Tony replied, already bolting through the doorway. "Come on, Cap. It's time to put that blue spandex to the test." Steve Rogers quickly followed Tony towards the engine room.
"Everyone else, neutralize these intruders while we are still in the air," Fury commanded, pulling his gun from its holster, preparing to protect the flying fortress at all costs.
Steve pushed through the people filling the corridors, trying to keep up with Tony – without hurting anyone. "Stark! Can you fix this?"
Without skipping a beat, Tony replied sarcastically, "Won't know until I'm there, Cap." The airship jerked, causing everyone to slide to the left. Tony reached for a doorjamb as Steve grabbed the back of Tony's shirt. As the ship pulled up, Steve slid down to the floor, and was soon suspended only by Tony's shirt. With a loud bang, Tony's shirt ripped, and Steve crashed to the other side of the hall, which had become the floor. Another explosion caused the ship to return to a somewhat normal balance. After catching his breath, Tony rubbed his chest. "Well, way to ruin one of my favorite shirts, Cap. Glad you've made yourself useful after all." He stood, and quickly jogged down the corridor.
Following him, Steve yelled out, "Can you cut it out, Stark?"
"Cut what out? My charming good looks or my devilish scientific ability?"
"I don't know why I even bother." The ship jerked again, sending both men sailing into an adjoining corridor, their hands scraping against the walls to find some sort of something to grab a hold of. "Tony!" Steve yelled, grabbing his arm. Yet another explosion echoed throughout the ship, and the ship began to level out, but was still leaning towards its weak side. Both Tony and Steve took a minute to breath. "Parachute," Steve said breathlessly, pointing to the wall where twelve parachutes were line.
Tony, dazed, only nodded in agreement. As they donned the chutes, the ship took another turn of the worst, and the men continued down the corridor. Crashing directly into a metal railing, Tony screamed for Steve to stop right as he collided with him. "Ow…" Tony moaned, pushing Steve over.
"Well, you are no pillow, either," Steve said, pulling himself off of Tony. A familiar laugh echoed throughout the room. "Where are we?" Steve asked as he looked around the room?
Loki knocked on the glass of his prison. "Welcome back, gentlemen. I see you have taken the scenic route."
Tony looked up, realizing he was now face to face with Loki, who stood on the glass prison wall, squatting down and staring directly at him. "Steve, I believe this would be an excellent time to leave."
Steve scrambled to reach the other side of the room, "I would say so. Let's get out of here."
"Right behind you, Cap."
Loki laughed loudly, "Oh, you'll be leaving all right. Just not in the way that you had expected."
"Brother!" A frantic voice called out. Thor barreled through the open corridor, smashing into Tony at the metal gate.
"Dear God. Gravity is not just a good idea, people," Tony said, pushing Thor over. "It's the law."
"I apologize."
"Apologies don't make a two hundred pound demigod any less painful."
"Tony, can it. Let's get out of here."
"Brother! Are you hurt?" Thor said, frantically looking for Loki.
Loki laughed. "Up here, you buffoon."
"I wouldn't be so happy up there, Reindeer Games. One wrong move and you'll go flying out of this ship like one flew over a cuckoo's nest." Tony pulled himself up, trying to reach the computers.
"Do not call me that," Loki snapped.
"Calm down, Princess. We'll keep you safe and sound."
Another explosion resounded through the halls, and the ship returned to normality. Steve jumped to his feet. "Tony! The engine!"
"I think we are out of time for today, ladies and gents."
"Surely, you can't be serious." Steve said, crossing his arms.
"I am serious, and don't call me Shirley. But, really, one more explosion and the ship is going down. I need to reroute us to a better location to, well, land abruptly."
"Why are you not working on the engine?"
"It's failing, cupcake. I'm directing it to fail in somewhere that is a bit more suitable for our ship to meet the ground."
Natasha took slow, deep breaths, hoping Bruce could not find her. She was now beginning to realize one of her nightmares, an enemy that she could not manipulate into submission. She now faced pure brute power, a force that wanted only to destroy her and nothing else. There was no ulterior motive. She silently wished to herself that she had been kind with Banner, but knew that it was too late now.
A smaller explosion happened to her left, causing shrapnel to fly towards her. Ducking to cover herself from the flying metal, she slid from her hiding spot. Grabbing the closest railing to swing herself over, she caught a glimpse of the Hulk charging toward her. He scooped her into his giant hand and threw her toward the new opening along the side of the cargo bay. Just as she landed, Clint Barton burst through the opening, his bow ready. "Shit!" she yelled, swiftly kicking his legs out from underneath him. He fell to the ground, aiming the bow directly at her forehead, the Hulk barreling toward them. Before he released the arrow, he quickly changed his aim toward the giant bent on trampling him. As he released, the arrow struck the Hulk in the arm, which he quickly pulled out and roared in anger. "God damn it, Clint," Natasha mumbled, picking herself up and charging down the adjoining hallway."
The Hulk roared again as Clint quickly stood to follow Natasha. The ship dipped again, this time sending Clint and Hulk sailing toward Natasha, ripping through the walls lining the corridor. Natasha gasped as she reached for something to grab hold of, but she could not keep her grasp on anything well enough to stop her from falling. She sailed into the containment unit, landing directly on Loki's prison with a loud thud. Steve looked up to see what the commotion was. "Shit!" he yelled, heavily swinging himself over the railing. Loki and Natasha made quick, desperate eye contact as the realization of what was about to come fell upon them. Loki reached his hand up, as if to take hold of Natasha's hand, but she tightly closed her eyes and grabbed onto a side support bar of the containment unit. "Natasha!" Steve yelled, struggling to grab one of the bars himself.
A loud, threatening beep sounded, and Loki looked to Thor. "Brother!" Thor bellowed, winding up Mjolnir. Steve pulled himself up the bar, trying to reach Natasha.
A second beep sounded, louder than the first. "Cap!" Tony yelled from below. He could not physically pick himself up off of the ground. Steve ripped a cord lining the containment unit and sent it soaring down to Tony. He grabbed onto it and quickly wrapped it behind him and under his arms.
"Where's your suit?" Steve yelled, frantically.
"I forgot to pick it up from the dry cleaners, obviously!" Tony smarted off back.
A third and final beep echoed throughout the ship. A loud click followed, but nothing moved. Natasha eyes flashed open as Steve grabbed a hold of her arm. They were still free falling. Suddenly, the unit slid towards the opening door beside it. Natasha caught one last glimpse of what she thought was the end of her life, and looked directly into Loki's emerald eyes. He reached his hand up again as the unit shifted hard and fell through.
"Brother!" Thor bellowed again, jumping after the unit.
"Oh, goddamn…" Tony yelled as the cord pulled him through the door after his teammates. The Hulk had just fallen through the corridor and was now barreling into the open air after the containment unit.
"Cap!" Tony yelled, but there was no way Steve could hear him.
Steve wrapped his arm around Natasha's torso, pulling her close to him. She in turn wrapped her arms around his neck and legs around his waist, holding on for dear life. Steve looked into the containment unit as Loki was thrown from side to side. Frantically, he searched for a way to let the god out. This was not the way to let him die, and Steve's overwhelming desire to keep as many people safe as possible got the better of him. He pounded against the glass with all of his might, cracking it slightly. Loki looked up, seeing Steve's efforts.
"Allow me!" Thor yelled, landing on the containment unit. Steve nodded, pushing him and Natasha off, allowing them to free fall. Thor beat the glass of the unit until it cracked open, sending glass cascading down inside. He reached inside, waiting for Loki to be thrown close enough for him to grab onto him.
Natasha pulled her aching body from the sand. Steve's arm was stuck underneath her torso, dug deep into the sand, the parachute entangling the two of them. She methodically pulled her legs from the ropes, calling out to Steve. "Steve? Steve, are you okay?"
A loud moan came from under the parachute where the tired soldier lay. Natasha pulled a knife from behind her and began to cut the ropes leading to the parachute.
"God!" A loud moan echoed across the barren wasteland of sand. "Where are we? OW!" Tony yelped in pain as he tried to sit up straight. "OW!" He yelped again, finding the source of the pain.
Bruce, laying down in the sand, had returned to his former self. Groaning, he stood up, his pants barely hanging onto his body. With a deep sigh, he looked around the desert. "Did I kill anybody?"
"No, but you came very close," Natasha said, with a tinge of anger in her voice.
Bruce walked to Natasha and placed his hand on her should. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely.
"Don't worry about it," Natasha replied, helping Steve to his feet. "Alright. Let's do a headcount. Tony?" she yelled.
Tony lifted his arm from a couple yards away. "Present! OW." he yelled.
"Thor?" Natasha bellowed.
"I am here!" she heard faintly. Thor was a bit off, walking toward the group, carrying whom she assumed to be Loki. "He is badly hurt. I have no healing stones. What can be done?"
"Out here? I don't know. We have nothing. Bruce!"
Steve reached Tony and looked at his body, his leg was turned slightly in the wrong direction. "It's broken."
"I figured out that much, Captain Obvious. Thank you for saving the day again."
Steve sighed heavily. He gingerly slid one arm under Tony's shoulders, and the other under his knees. He quickly picked him up, attempting to cradle him as to not cause Tony an unnecessary pain. Tony yelled, but quickly quieted down. As Steve brought Tony to the rest of the crew, Natasha and Bruce checked Loki's wounds.
"It looks as if he has some major bruising and multiple lacerations to his stomach, wrapping around to his back. We need to get him to a doctor soon," Bruce said, pressing gently around his chest.
"Do not touch me," Loki sneered.
"Bruce," Natasha said, pulling him to his feet. "Tony."
Steve set him down gingerly next to Loki. Both turned to look at each other, scowling. "Looks like Reindeer Games decided to join the party."
"Looks as if Iron Man is just a petty princess without his suit of armor."
"Loki!" Thor yelled.
Loki laughed, watching the entire company start to bicker with each other.
"Bruce, we can't just carry them with us," Natasha said, crossing her arms.
"We can't leave them here, either," Steve retorted.
"Moving them could make their injuries worse," Bruce said, calmly. "And it is so hot out here. Where are we?"
"Somewhere in the Sahara," Tony piped up.
"Shit." Natasha walked over to where Tony and Loki lay. "Thor," she said, surveying the nearby area for any sort of wreckage they could use. "Do you think you could help us carry the both of them?"
"Without causing both massive amounts of pain, no." Thor knelt beside Loki. "Can you conjure something, Brother?" Loki refused to answer. "Then we are stranded here. I refuse to leave my brother."
"I don't think we should leave anyone behind, but should a few of us not look for the others? The ship must have landed somewhere around here," Steve said, looking out on the horizon.
"I agree with Steve," Natasha said, walking toward Thor. "Steve, Thor. You two should give us a radius, see if there is anything close to us that could be of use for us to get moving, or if there is any sign of the ship. Bruce and I will try to do, well, we'll try to do something."
"Yes, ma'am," Steve said, walking toward Thor.
"And you will look after my brother?" Thor asked, hesitantly.
"Yes. I will look after your brother."
Thor nodded, and the two started walking towards the sun.