S.H.I.E.L.D stormed into the room, weapons drawn. The agents moved passed the Avengers and set their sites on Loki still laying prone semi conscious in Thor's arms on the floor.

Nick Fury walked through the wreckage of the room, broken glass crunching under each boot step. The Avengers turned to look at him but he didn't looking at them, his one dark eye was focused on Loki.

"Good work team. You've truly saved the day." His words didn't match his dark tone. He was angry and exhausted like they all were. But there was a sense that Fury was angrier and more tired then the rest of them. "We'll take it from here." He waved for a group of men in lab coats to move forward.

They wheeled with them a contraption that might have been a medical gurney but to Tony's eyes it looked more like a medieval torture devise, something like a rack; a slab with straps, belts, and metal clamps.

The men rolled the the rack right up to Thor and Loki. Remarkably, uncharacteristically and perhaps speaking to the extent that he was injured Loki seemed to have quietly slipped into unconsciousness his black hair draped across his pale face, his head resting in the crook of Thor's neck and shoulder.

"What do you mean to do with my brother?" Thor asked in a watery voice that didn't fit the god. The men in lab coats moved to take advantage of Loki's inertness but Thor held fast to his brother and would not relinquish him to the men. "He is in need of a healer, you must let me take him back to Asgard so he may receive the care he needs." Thor spoke in a low tone that would have intimidated most people, but not Nick Fury.

"No," Fury said through clenched teeth. "Give Loki to us Thor, he's committed atrocities against the people of Earth and he should answer for them."

"He has done much wrong on our home world as well, we can give him a trail and punishment that will fit his crimes, Odin will provide justice for both our people." Thor leveled a stony glare at the SHIELD agents with guns pointed at his brother.

"How do you plan on transporting yourself and Loki back to Asgard?" Fury knew that the bridge between Earth and Asgard had been destroyed and that it hadn't been easy for Thor to get back to Earth.

"Once the Allfather has the power he will arrange our return." Thor did not like how this conversation was progressing. He had a plan it might just take some time, Fury was making it sound like he was an unprepared fool.

"Look, you don't know when you're getting a ticket home. How are you going to deal with him until that time Thor? We have the facilities." Fury was trying to reason with the god. Thor did not care for the patronizing tone Fury used.

"That didn't work out so well last time..." Tony made sure to remind everyone that the cage on the helicarrier hadn't held Loki.

Fury narrowed his eye at the smug billionaire "Things have changed. Loki was right before, the other cage wasn't built for him, but I've had a team working on it and they have rectified the situation." There was a glint in Fury's eye that made Tony wonder what exactly this team had come up with, flashes of medieval torture chambers came to mind for the second time since SHEILD had arrived and it gave Tony an uneasy feeling. He shook it off, they were on his team, right; they were the good guys.

Steve stepped up. "Thor, I think you're going to have to let them take him." Steve fell into his old black and white ways, Loki was the bad guy after all and the authorities should handle him. "Let them hold him for now, just until decisions and arrangements can be made." Loki was like a live wire after all, he might be docile and dormant now but that didn't mean he couldn't go on another rampage in a couple hours.

Thor made a strangled kind of sound, he seemed unsure of what to do. The god looked oddly small holding his brother, Loki's cloak and armor seemed to enveloped Thor as the younger lay across the elder. At some point after Loki had lost consciousness Thor had taken hold of his hand and was now worrying his thumb along the back of other's pale appendage.

Banner who had returned to his average self seemed very uncomfortable with the whole business. He was surprised at the conclusion he came to but it seemed to make the most sense. "I'm sure it'll be alright Thor, I'm sure Director Fury will take care of any prisoner left in his charge."

"You will see that he is seen by a healer?" Thor questioned Fury. He wasn't sure the injuries that Loki had suffered, he knew if they hadn't killed him by now they most likely would not but Thor was no healer and mightn't there be unforeseen complications.

"He'll be seen." Fury answered curtly.

Steve and Natasha move to Thor's side as three of the men in white coats move forward once again. This time Thor allowed them to lift Loki up off the floor and move him onto the gurney. The SHEILD agents' guns following the defeated god.

He is unceremoniously laid down and quickly strapped, belted, tied, and bound to the contraption by the silent agents. They swiftly place multiple locks and straps tightly on his legs, hands, arms, chest, throat, mouth, and even across his eyes.

Natasha placed a hand on Thor's arm, his expression is grim and he looks like he might be ill. He moves to follow as they start to wheel the oblivious god of mischief away.

"There's still a lot we could use your help with here Thor." Steve speaks softly as Fury and the other SHEILD agents follow after their prisoner.

"We'll be in touch soon." Fury says over his shoulder and then in a whirl of helicopter blades and black metal they were gone.

"I should not have let them have him." Thor bites back the urge to curse. The way they took him away was not how one treats an opponent met in battle. They meant to strip his dignity from him and that did not sit well with Thor.

"They'll just throw him in a cell Big Red, like checking a coat he'll be there when you're ready to collect." Tony looked around surveying the damage to his penthouse. "Why is there a demigod shaped hole in my floor?"

Bruce was still looking uncomfortable with arms crossed over his bare chest. "Sorry I think that was me."

Clint snickered and Natasha gave him a pointed look. "What? The bastard got what he deserved."

"You know what." Natasha scolded and everyone looked over at Thor trying to gage his reaction.

He had collected his hammer and was looking rather stormily out over the city. "I do not know what exactly my brother deserves, that is not my place nor is it yours, it is for the Allfather to decided."

Thor turned back to his new friends, his brother's at arms and made a difficult confession. "My job was to look after my younger brother, I'm afraid I have preform this task poorly." Thor had begun to suspect that it was his loosing sight of his brother that had started him on this path so long ago.

Nick Fury stood over his prisoner and seethed as they flew through the smoke that was billowing over Manhattan. Nick shut his eye and pressed a hand against his forehead where a throbbing headache had decided to blossom.

At least Manhattan was still here. There had been a few minutes when he thought that the island was going to end up a nuclear blast crater. He fought back the bile that jumped up in his throat and spit on the floor of the helicopter. His fists clenched and he fought the urge to lose all composure and pummel the unconscious demigod. Instead he let himself take a moment's pleasure in what they had in store for their newly recaptured guest.

The Avengers moved into the aftermath of the battle. They could hear sirens and whistles in the distance; emergency personnel and rescue workers were on their way. Thor and Iron Man helped clear the roads as best as they could so that any rescue vehicles could work their way into the battle zone. Cap and Clint started to search the wrecks and rubble for survivors and Bruce and Natasha tried to aide the unlucky injured who hadn't been able to escape or get to shelter.

There was so much damage. But the professionals moved in quick including SHEILD who worked to sweep away as much alien tech as they could as fast as they could.

Thor had been in many battles before, and had even seen destruction on a greater scale than this in his close to a thousand some odd years, but this time it ate away at him. He couldn't help but be crushed by the fact that this time was different, as he helped shift another destroyed car he was crushed by the knowledge that his brother had been the master of this terror.

He was quiet during their ministrations, they were all fairly quiet, even Tony Stark was not his boisterous self. Thor kept drifting into distant memories of his brother and himself from a millennia ago. He was becoming more melancholy with each remembrance that floated in front of his eyes.

He remembered when his younger brother use to follow him around, and when they would listen to Odin tell them stories. Loki never liked scary stories when they were little he would often hide behind Thor during especially scary parts. He remembered when they'd played games with their mother and the time they had disobeyed their parents and snuck into the forest to climb the tallest tree they could find. Loki had fallen and broken his ankle, Thor had carried him home.

"Hey, Thor you alright Buddy?" Tony asked as his armor mask retracted.

Thor didn't know what to answer so he said nothing.

"I think we've done what we can tonight." Tony clapped him on the shoulder and called over his com to see where the rest of the team were. "I think it's time we get something to eat."

Nick Fury had stood watch from the control room as his agents wheeled the bound and unconscious God of Mischief into the cell they had arranged for him. The agents quickly went to work attaching long thick cables from the ceiling of the large round vertical room they were in to the corners of the backboard that Loki was strapped to. Once they were hooked the agents detached the legs of the gurney they gave the all clear sign to Fury who pushed a button in the control that made the cables retract. Loki was lifted high up in the circular concrete room which had been used until recently as a testing facility.

The cables raised him to the center of the room where he was level with the control room window thirty feet in the air. He was suspend nearly twenty feet from any wall and at least twenty feet from the ceiling.

Fury took his eye off the demigod to study the computer screens in front of him. They were scanning Loki and monitoring his vitals. He could clearly see the god was still unconscious. Fury called up a full body scan that gave him an xray image of the god. It appears life size on the large seven foot control room screen that took up a good length of the wall to Fury's right. The SHIELD director smirked as he reviewed the damage. The Hulk had certainly done a number on the immortal.

With the new research his team had done Fury was also able to pull up a full body scan that showed in glowing green the magic energy coming from the demigod. Compared to pervious scans the team had taken on the helicarrier and during the battle the green glow was dramatically diminished. 'out of juice then' Fury thought as he looked from the monitor to the prisoner hanging out in front of him. It was going to be easier then Fury thought to collect his 'pound of flesh' from this bastard. Now he just had to wait until his prisoner woke up.

Loki regained consciousness slowly. He laid for a time feeling disconnected, he couldn't think at first, thoughts entered his head but he couldn't hold onto them. The first thought that stuck was 'pain'. He groaned softly, everything ached.

His second thought was 'where'.

He came to the decision that he needed to open his eyes. Where ever he was seemed dark and he couldn't hear anything. He tried sluggishly to get his heavy eyelids to open, they felt like they were stuck together, or crusted over, had he been crying? Perhaps it was blood. He couldn't decide which was more unsettling.

He wanted to rub his eyes so he could see, he expected that moving would be uncomfortable maybe even painful. He did not expect when he attempted to raise his hand that he would be unable to move it.

His brain had sent the signal for his right arm to move but when he tried he couldn't budge. He was confused for a moment and tried to move his left. It was held fast, it was then that his brain registered the bonds holding him tight over his thick leather and armor.

He tried to move his legs and hot pain shot threw his body, he gasped reflexively, but his mouth was covered tightly and no air gets through. His throat tightens and he chokes, his body racked as he coughs. The multitude of straps pressing, pinching, and cutting into him as he convulses.

He breathes through his nose and his heart starts to race. He tries harder this time to open his eyes, he is desperate for any information about his predicament. He forces his right eye open and is rewarded for his effort with nothing but blackness. Fear grips him.

He is captured, trapped, and without any knowledge of who his captor is. 'Curse Odin's eye' Loki thought 'this might be the end.'

TBC...

I would like to say thank you to all the real life super heroes that called into action during disasters. Military, Police, Medics, firefighters, and all the brave volunteers. Thank you.

Thank you for reading and reviewing hope you enjoy.