"What the hell is this?" A familiar robotic voice called out, causing Loki to freeze in place for a moment. This... was not an ideal situation. Loki turned to look over his shoulder at Iron Man, gripping his staff tightly in his hand.
"Iron Man." Loki's greeting came out much more calmly than Loki felt. This was, perhaps, an incriminating situation and he had hoped to avoid a confrontation if at all possible. "What brings you here?"
"I live here," Iron Man replied easily. They were outside of Stark Tower, but Loki knew that the man had other homes. Had been expecting him to be at one of those other homes, in fact.
Loki laughed nervously without meaning to. "I was under the impression you were visiting elsewhere."
"You thought I wouldn't come back when I saw my tower was under attack?" He questioned.
"Ah, well..." Loki was interrupted by something hard and metallic slamming into him. He was pushed back, but able to keep his guard enough to stop himself from being thrown off his feet. Loki traded a few quick blows with the metallic creature before slicing it in half with his staff. He was internally cringing when he turned to face Iron Man again. He knew this was going to get a poor response.
"Loki, explain what is going on right now!" Iron Man demanded.
"Ah... Well, you see..." Loki began slowly.
"Have you stopped putting up a fight, Loki?" Another voice called out, similarly altered. Both Loki and Iron Man turned to the approaching voice. The green cloaked metallic form paused in it's approach when it noticed the red armored hero. "What is this?"
"Oh, dear..."
"Teaming up with another hero, Loki?" Doom demanded. Nearly at the same time, Iron Man was making his own accusation.
"Joining forces with other villains?" Iron Man questioned.
Loki took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Here we go..." He muttered under his breath. The two armored men faced each other.
"What do you mean another hero?" Iron Man questioned. "Has Loki teamed up with heroes before?"
"Is he not teaming up with you?" Doom demanded. "And what do you mean by implying that Loki is a villain?"
"Loki is a villain!"
"It is unbecoming to attempt to tarnish the reputation of your competition," Doom stated calmly.
"Competition? Excuse you?" Iron Man demanded.
"You are clearly jealous that Loki is a higher tier Hero than you are, but that is not reason to try and sabotage our battle." Doom explained, gesturing grandly, his cape billowing out around him with the movement. "Now step aside and let us finish our battle."
"This is my tower! I'm not going to let you-"
"This does not oncern you."
"The hell it doesn't!"
"You will not keep Doom from his victory!"
"Loki is my villain!" Iron Man yelled.
"Incorrect!" Doom yelled. "Loki is my hero and our battle shall not conclude until I am the Victor!"
Iron Man turned to face Loki. "Loki, explain yourself!"
"Yes, I would also like an explanation," Doom said, turning to face the god.
Loki was nervously twisting his hand around his staff, but sighed when their attention was turned to him. "I am a villain to the likes of Iron Man," He said to Doom. He turned to Iron Man next. "I have been fighting Doom as a hero."
Iron Man raised his faceplate to meet Loki's gaze without obstruction. "Bullshit."
"I thought you would feel that way," Loki sighed. He glanced over at Doom, but the man was watching quietly for the moment, so Loki decided to focus on Iron Man. "I have made a name for myself as a hero in other places, and as a villain here. I knew that due to my... rather flashy introduction to this city, it would be unlikely that any rumor of me as anything other than a villain would be unlikely to spread here. I just don't like to be boxed into one role. Plus... once I saw Victor, I just..." Loki shrugged and bit his lip.
"So you went out and found a repacement for me to fill your hero fantasy?" Iron Man demanded.
"Tony..."
"Doom is not a replacement for anyone!"
"It's not like that," Loki said. "Victor is a worthy opponent, I couldn't help but want to oppose him."
"You wanted to oppose him so much that you changed sides to do it?"
"I knew you wouldn't understand," Loki sighed.
"Loki is more suited to being Doom's hero than playing second string as a villain to bolster your reputation," Doom declared.
"What was that?" Iron Man shouted.
"But Doom is willing to let Loki play whatever role he pleases. Whether he wishes to oppose Doom or join him."
Loki looked at Doom with no small amount of adoration. "Victor..."
"Oh my god," Iron Man exclaimed. "Are you in love with him?"
Loki jumped at that accusation. "Wh-what? I-I... Why would you even..."
"Doom's relationship with Loki is none of your business, Iron Man." There was a pause before Doom raised his hand and pointed his palm at Iron Man. "Unless you are insinuating that you have a romantic inclination towards him."
"What's it to you?" Iron Man asked, taking up a fighting stance.
"Doom does not enjoy rivals." Doombots were suddenly surrounding them and Iron Man raised his own hands in anticipation of attack.
"Now, now, let's... let's all calm down and talk about this," Loki insisted. "Yes, it is true that I have... romantic entanglements with you both, but!" Loki spoke up as he saw them tense and prepare to attack. "But... neither of you have declared your intentions for me to include exclusivity. You are not even one to indulge in exclusive engagements, Tony, so you have no room to complain me."
"Were you ever gonna tell me that you found a knock off Iron Man to spend your down time with?" He yelled.
"Obviously you were lacking if he felt the need to replace you with a better version," Doom said.
"There's is no reason that we can't all... work this out," Loki told them. "You have similar interest, you could easily get along... Honestly, I was planning to introduce the two of you, I just had not found the right time..."
"Doom is finding your placation to ring false."
"Yeah, I'm with him."
"Fine!" Loki yelled. His magic lashed around them, destroying several Doombots and knocking both armored men to the ground. "I wanted to be able to fight both of you and I thought you'd be too jealous to share, so I decided not to bring it up. Can you honestly blame me when you're both so blast happy that you're making a public scene in the midde of a battle?" Loki's glare turned from one to the other of them. "I'm sure we can work this out. I can team up with Iron Man sometimes to fight you, Victor, and team up with Victor to sometimes fight you, Tony."
"Are you suggesting that we...share?" Tony blanched at the thought.
"Greedy as you are, I know that you cannot possibly turn down a chance to see me in a way that you never have before," Loki said with a grin.
"Interesting," Doom said. "Doom is intrigued by your... proposition." He looked Iron Man up and down carefully. "Doom is willing to attempt this... arrangement."
Loki and Doom both turned to Tony. The man sighed. "Fine! Fine... I'm... willing to try this out."
Loki's smile became more genuine. "Excellent. Now, can we finish our battle before we hammer out more details?"
"Alright. I'm still pretty miffed though." Tony turned to look at Doom. "How about we work together to take out our frustration on Loki?"
"Doom finds this suggestion favorable."
"Seems I have my work cut out for me," Loki said to himself. This went better than he expected in a way. If he could survive a joint battle against them, he imagined that he could come out of this situation even better than when he went into it.