Disclaimer: Don't own Thor or any Marvel characters.

Hey! So this is set sometime after the future Avenger's movie with my own personal take on what the ending will be like. I hint at it in this chapter but will go into more detail about it later. If you have any questions, thoughts, ideas, and/or edits please feel free to let me know. I am still in the planning stages with this one so any ideas will be taken into account and may wind up in here!

Enjoy!

It was Steve's idea really.

He had been hanging around base talking about his days fighting Red Skull for a week now. Apparently it was the anniversary of his plane crash and he was truly hating the idea that he couldn't get drunk. So he decided to tell anyone with an ear something about his past. In short, everyone had been avoiding the manic Boy Scout for days now.

But it was something he said to Tony one day (who had been halfway through a bottle of scotch at the time) that really started it.

"You know, if I'd have only known where Red Skull was hiding earlier I would have gone after him before he ever had a chance to put anymore plans in motion. We knew he was a bad guy already! So why wait until he did something that we had to hunt him down for?"

Those first few words haunted Tony for days afterwards. Why didn't they just hunt down known criminals and take them in? Why wait?

Why wait?

That's when it struck him. It had been a few years since the last time they had heard from Loki but word was that he was living on Earth. Living on the very planet that he tried to-and almost did- destroy.

Now, Loki did have some sort of deal worked out with his brother but that still didn't excuse him of his past crimes now did it? No! In fact, he was living the dream of being able to be a villain then when he got defeated he could just say a few words to his brother and then just walk away.

So here they were. Nick Fury's merry band of supers he called The Avengers. The Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America, Thor, and Ironman who were all part of a larger organization called SHIELD. Here they were in Rockie Mountains surrounding a good sized cabin in the middle of nowhere. Freezing their butts off.

"Did I mention I'm wearing all metal? And metal is COLD! Especially in the cold!"

An already angry eye patch wearing man looked over at the whining man in the metal suit.

"Stark. Shut up," was all he said as he pulled out his radio.

"Agent Coulsen, we're in position to move in. Over."

"Rodger that. B team is suited up and awaiting orders. Over."

"Alright let's move!"

With this the scattered team moved in. Coulsen was heading a small black ops unit that would have a med team and an extraction team at standby for if things got ugly. He wasn't too far away but far enough that Loki would pick up on all the movement. Bruce had opted to sit this one out as he was still having difficulty controlling his transformation and was instead waiting back at base to give medical assistance if more than field medicine was necessary. He had also just finished building Loki's containment unit this morning, thus the reason the Team had decided to move in now.

The plan was relatively simple. Fury would be conducting the whole thing from the side to keep everybody moving. Thor and Tony would make a lot of noise and chaos and draw Loki out as well as distract him. While this was happening Natasha and Hawkeye would try to down him from two different locations (Natasha would be down on the ground in the cover of the forest and Hawkeye would be up on a mountain perch as a sniper should be). Naturally bullets and arrows and whatever else they fired would effect the god but hopefully all this combined would give Captain America, who would be hiding in the nearby woods) the opening needed to knock their opponent unconscious.

Naturally, most plans don't go accordingly. Especially with this group. That's why when Thor and Tony began calling to the god and setting off bombs to pull him out everyone was surprised when the Ice Price actually came outside. Furious as they come to boot. And when Loki was genuinely distracted by Clint and Natasha's bullets no one was more surprised then the shooters themselves. In fact, it was almost a relief when one of the ice monsters Loki had created out of the snow actually crashed into Tony and sent him spiraling out of control. Thor had quickly went to aid his comrade leaving Loki time to sense Captain America just in time to stop him from knocking him out. Steve would tell you later that Loki had a 'mad dog' glint about his eyes as he ripped the rounded shield from his arm and sent it into Steve's body making the giant super soldier collide into the wall behind him, smacking his soft leather helmet directly.

Then something really strange happened. Steve's radio went off right as Loki went to go hunt down Natasha.

Static. Then, "I have movement towards the back of the house. Over."

Hawkeye's voice was as calm as ever even over the radio static.

Then, Loki had taken off running. Not towards the back though, he ran directly into the treeline in front of his home.

In the wake of this Steve looked up just in time to see a battered looking Ironman with half his armour gone from his face mask, hovering in front of the house with his forearm extended out in front of him.

"No one messes with the face."

Then he launched one of his missiles straight at Loki's retreating back.

The last thing Steve remembered before finally succumbing to unconsciousness was hearing the whistle of the rocket through the air and the sight of Thor standing on the ground, looking at something he held in his hands.

It was hours before Coulsen's team would have time to do a perimeter of the house. They had to get Clint off his cliff first and then half the med team was occupied with Tony while the other half was occupied with Steve. Sometime in between this the black ops team had Loki fitted with a gas mask with NO2 in it should he decide to wake anytime soon as well as strapping down his hands and feet. Then a helicopter with a small holding tank would be used to transport him back to base where Bruce was waiting with his newest invention. Soon after Loki was being loaded up, Natasha finally appeared from the treeline. She was not surprisingly shot by one of her own bullets when the villain had put up some sort of shield early on. The med staff had taken one look at her side would before putting her on Loki's transport as in would be getting her back to base quicker than the rest. She put up a protest saying that Steve's wounds were much worse but since Steve was already showing signs of healing Natasha was forced to leave. Fury left too so he could oversee the arrival of their newest prisoner. That just left Steve, Tony, Clint, and Coulsen's team left on the mountain (Thor had flown off after his brother's transport still holding whatever it was he had found in the snow close to his chest). Finally, after almost everyone had left, did Coulsen send his team on a search of the house and perimeter.

Twenty minutes later a soldier came back out of the house.

"Sir, you better take a look at this."

The three remaining Avengers took one look at each other then Coulsen before deciding to follow (Steve was already okay to walk and Tony was just bruised up).

The soldier led them through the house at a sedate pace past the other soldiers working the area down. Furniture was being upturned papers were being gone through with careful photographs being taken of everything found. He didn't lead them to a lab or a workspace though. He led them to a bedroom.

A child's bedroom.

A boy's bedroom to be exact.

Before this really had a chance to set in for the four men surveying the room a call went up on all the radios.

"We've got a situation outside. Possible hostiles, at least one seemingly armed holed up in a tool shed to the back of the property. We need back up out here now. Over."

And just like that chaos came back.

All of the well trained soldiers from inside the house went pouring out into the area needed. Clint went with them sneaking up onto the roof of the house so he could get a vantage point if needed. Steve and Tony merely waited long enough to put on their respective headgear (even though Tony's was badly damaged) before following.

The soldiers had already set up a perimeter when they arrived an judging by the terse expressions on their faces they were not happy with something.

Knowing this could be one of Loki's tricks set in place to kill them all Tony set one of this missiles ready to launch. At the same time Steve made sure to take control of the situation and make sure all the soldiers were out of the blast radius. It was Coulsen though, who stopped them. The look of utter shock and enlightenment on the unflappable agent was enough to make any who knew him stop and stare.

"Coulsen?"

Slowly and tentatively, the SHIELD Agent walked up towards the door to the tool shed.

"We mean you no harm. Please, let us help you. If you have a weapon drop it by the door. Please, let us help you to safety!"

A muffled sob was heard and a full minute later the sound of something heavy hitting the ground.

Coulsen motioned everyone to stay back as he slowly opened the door to reveal what or rather who lay inside.

"Well," Tony said as he caught a glimpse of the 'hostile', "This is certainly not what I expected to see up here."

Cliff! Sorry just an idea that sprang to mind. Let me know what you think!

Who do you think is hiding? Why? What's going to happen to Loki? Thor?

Reviews make me update quicker!

Thanks for reading