Author's Note: Oh my God, thank you to everyone for taking such an interest in my little story! I never expected anything like this! Bless all of you!

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Chapter One: Return of "Reindeer Games"

They were in New York City, in Dr. Stephen Strange's sanctuary, the very one that Loki and Thor had visited several weeks ago. Well, Thor visited, Loki fell through a portal for thirty minutes and then crashed to the polished marble floor. Now, he had a chance to look around more at the beautiful sanctuary, filled with its artifacts and grand architecture. Oh it was nothing like the interiors of Asgard but it had a very nice look about it.

Unfortunately, Loki and Bruce had sort of destroyed the grand staircase when they crash landed. Oh well. The wizard probably had the place insured.

Wong was busy flipping through pages in a thick hard covered book. He was a chubby, shorter man that didn't look all that powerful, but Loki had seen that he knew the same magic that the good Doctor knew and he wasn't about to mess with anybody who could send him falling through another portal. Bruce had been given a pair of ill-fitting clothes and his hair was still a wild mop of brown and gray. He was sitting on a hunter green elegant looking couch, his leg twitching. Dr. Strange had his large red cloak cape thing on and stood with his arms crossed, eyeing Loki the whole time while he used his own powers to heal his head injury.

"You needn't be so suspicious of me," Loki said, once he was done and felt much better. His head no longer hurt and he didn't feel like he was going to fall flat on his face, but he knew he would have to take it easy.

Strange scoffed, "You are a deranged sociopath who killed hundreds of innocent people five years ago when you decided to take over the world. I have every reason to be suspicious."

"Deranged is a bit harsh, isn't it?"

"Laugh all you want. The only reason you aren't screaming your head off in an infinite fall right now, is because of Dr. Banner."

Loki stood up from his chair. Strange uncrossed his arms and was prepared to bring up his shields again. Loki simply smirked at his overreaction. He magically transformed his clothes to that of a black suit with a green tie. Strange looked confused. "Well, I don't want to stand out here, do I? I'm not like you with your big obnoxious cape and collar."

Strange rolled his eyes. "For the record, Mr. Trying to Blend In, I've seen YouTube videos where you were wearing a horn helmet."

"I've found it," Wong interrupted and carried the heavy volume over to a table. He set it down and pointed to the dusty old page. Bruce jumped from his seat and practically ran to the table. Loki and Strange both gave each other a, I could totally beat you in a fight, look and went to see what Wong had found.

Bruce had been looking over the pages of the book first and said, "Yeah. These are it. These are those stones that Thanos had. Don't you think so?" He turned to Loki as he came up beside him. Loki scanned over the pages. They were written in some sort of ancient script that he didn't recognize but off to the side were drawings of six stones, one each color of the rainbow.

"Yes. Those are the Infinity Stones."

Wong nodded. "And you said that this Thanos has two of them already?"

"Correct."

Dr. Strange placed his hand on the book and dragged it across the table to him. He started reading it in parts. "All six stones are full of immense power…just one stone by itself can destroy whole worlds…the Soul Stone is the only stone that is known to be permanently hidden." He flipped the book shut. "Thanos has two stones. One is hidden somewhere no one knows. And Earth has at least two."

Loki looked up in surprise. He knew about his scepter, but there was another one on Earth? Well, this was news. "Where are they?" he asked.

"One of them is right here," Strange said and he gestured his arms in a way to do a spell. The thick necklace that he was wearing opened up and revealed the incredible shine of the green Time Stone. Loki was stunned. Strange was nothing more than a parlor wizard compared to himself and yet here he was with an Infinity Stone dangling around his neck.

"How long have you had that?" he asked, still in disbelieve that a mere mortal had such a powerful object at his disposal.

"About a year, but the stone has been under the protection of many sorcerers throughout the years."

Loki blinked. "Are you telling me that there was an Infinity Stone right here in New York the whole time?"

"Yes…I guess so, why-?"

"You mean to tell me," he interrupted, getting annoyed. "That I had two stones in my procession and there was another one so close to my grasp? I could have had three!" Strange lifted an eyebrow at him and Bruce stared at him in disbelief. Loki looked at the pair of them realizing that he probably shouldn't have voiced his frustration of being so close to being in control of three of the most powerful items in the entire universe. It made him appear like the terrible person they sort of already thought he was. "I mean, well, I guess it doesn't really matter now does it." He crossed his arms over his chest.

Strange let out a deep breath. "Tell me again why I shouldn't be so suspicious of you?"

Bruce sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Look, the God of Mischief here is a bit of a handful but I think we can trust him." Strange opened his mouth to protest but Bruce was faster. "And even if we can't trust him, there is a much bigger problem heading our way."

Strange nodded with a new air of determination. "Then what is your plan, Dr. Banner?"

"We need to assemble the Avengers."

Loki groaned, "Oh dear."

"Oh dear, indeed," Wong said. "The Avengers have split up."

"What?" Bruce cried.

"Really?" Loki said, a bit too happily.

Bruce walked slowly to the couch that he had been sitting on not two minutes before. "Wow, you really miss a lot when you're in space for two years." He slumped onto the couch and rubbed his temples with the tips of his fingers. Loki felt sorry for the poor man who couldn't seem to catch a break and he also watched him very carefully to see if there was any hint of the beast within. After all the stress of today, he was surprised that Bruce wasn't the Hulk right now tearing apart cars. Bruce sighed, "Okay, then we need to contact Tony Stark."

"Easily done," Strange said and then he was off to make some sort of location spell. Wong followed him. Loki and Bruce were alone and honestly it was a bit weird. They had never really talked or anything. Hell, Loki and Hulk never talked or anything.

"Do you think Valkyrie and the others survived?" Bruce asked.

"I'm sure they're fine. Thor had a distress message sent out, so if they need help someone will show up. Besides, Valkyrie may be a pig headed lady, but she knows what she's doing."

Bruce nodded and seemed to worry less. And then he asked the question that Loki had been internally asking since he woke up, "Do you think Thor is alive?"

"Of course," he lied. "Thor's crafty, he has gotten himself out of worse situations."

Bruce once again seemed less worried and went back to sitting in silence. Good, let him not have to dwell on what Loki was dwelling on. Part of him believed the words he had told Bruce, but a bigger and pessimistic part of him thought that his brother was gone. He tried to shake the dismal idea away but even when he could he still had this horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Damn him, for being so selfless. Should've saved himself, instead of me.

That was Thor, always trying to be the hero. Loki didn't know which was worse though, being a hero for glory or being the selfless hero who died heroically at the end. At least the glory seeking hero would be alive at the end in theory. And he really didn't want Thor to be dead.

It was funny really.

For what felt like a life time, he had wanted Thor to die, or at the very least be very unwell. And now-

Dr. Strange came back into the room, Wong once again close on his heels. "I found where Stark is." Without waiting for a response, Strange twirled his arm around in a large circle and an orange, sparkler like portal opened up. Strange didn't hesitate in walking through it. Loki could hear Strange say, "Tony Stark, your assistance is needed."

Both Loki and Bruce stepped closer to the portal. Loki paused in a place just away from the entrance of the portal, so he wouldn't be seen. So did Bruce. That was odd. "What are you waiting for?" Loki asked him. "Shouldn't you follow the annoying wizard man and help persuade your equaling annoying friend to help us out?"

"Yeah. Uh, I know, I um…It's just been two years and I uh, I don't know what to say."

"Well, speaking from experience why don't you just say, "Hey, I'm alive." It's very effective."

"It's not that easy, Loki."

"Says you." He got closer to portal to hear what was happening.

He heard Stark say, "And who exactly are you?"

Strange said, "Dr. Stephen Strange and if I might say, every minute that we waste going through these formalities, the universe is put closer to complete destruction."

"You seem a little tense magic man," Stark said in a dry tone.

Strange sighed, "Look, we need your help. Are you coming or not?"

"And who's we?"

Loki loved making big dramatic entrances and after hearing that open-ended question beckoning him, he just knew he had to make one. "Well, for one, me." He stepped through the portal and stood next to Strange. They were in a sunny park by a lake with plenty of people around. Strange sighed again at Loki's entrance.

Tony Stark, who had always been so witty and annoying, stood with a light haired woman and his mouth fell open in shock. It was quite hilarious seeing the infamous Iron Man speechless. "Loki," Stark said in a horse whisper.

"Hello, Stark. It's been a while hasn't it?"

Stark suddenly broke out of his trance and took three quick steps towards Loki with a dangerous look in his eye. The light haired woman grabbed Stark's arm and said, "Tony! Tony, what are you doing?"

Stark pointed at Loki. "You have approximately three seconds to tell me what the hell you are doing here before-"

"Before what?" Loki asked, unimpressed. "Before you make a sarcastic comment?"

"Okay," Strange said, "You are really not helping."

"Who said I came here to help?" Loki said with a smirk.

"Alright I'm out of patience. Pepper, please let go of me." The light haired woman or Pepper, let go of Stark's arm reluctantly but stayed close by his side. "Someone tell me what is happening right now."

Loki huffed annoyed. "What is happening? Okay. A terrible monster named Thanos is coming to Earth to retrieve two Infinity Stones to destroy half the universe. I think that about does it. Any questions?"

Stark scowled at him. "Yes I have some questions. Why should I believe a word you say?"

"Because your friend will back me up."

"I don't care what Thor has to say about-"

"No, not my brother. Your other friend."

And as if on cue, Bruce came walking through the portal and came between Strange and Loki. Once again, Tony was speechless and shocked. It was Pepper who spoke, "Oh, my God, Bruce."

"Hey, Pepper." Bruce swallowed. "Tony. I…I'm alive."

Loki nodded his head in approval. Stark eyed his old friend as if he was only an illusion that could disappear at any moment. "Yeah, I see that. Where have you, ah, where've you been all this time?"

"…Space."

"Space?"

"Yeah. It was very weird."

"Excuse me," Loki interrupted, "I don't mean to interrupt this lovely reunion, but there is a mad Titan on his way to kill half the population, so can we hurry this up?"

"Right," Bruce nodded. "Pepper it was nice to see you again, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to steal Tony away for a while."

Pepper sighed and shrugged weakly. "What else is new?"

Stark leaned closer to Bruce and whispered, "So you're working with the magic man and Reindeer Games, then?"

Loki rolled his eyes at the nickname that he had long ago forgotten. When he had fought Captain Rogers in Germany five years ago, Stark came flying in and blasted him with his repulsor beams. "Make you move, Reindeer Games." It was a knock against his horned helmet that looked like reindeer antlers to him apparently. Technically, the helmet was based off of cow's horns, and if Loki really thought about it, that was much worse.

"Yes," Bruce said without hesitation.

Stark stared at his friend for a minute before giving in with a sigh. "Alright then. I trust your judgment Bruce. But that doesn't mean I trust him." He glared into Loki's eyes and Loki didn't even flinch.

"Oh, believe me no one trusts him," Strange muttered from where he was standing off to the side. "Now, shall we?"

…

"When the universe was formed into existence there were six powerful groups of energy that remained in the aftermath. These six energies were formed into stones." As Wong continued educating Stark with magical projections of the stones, Loki sat on the steps of the ruined staircase feeling both bored and anxious. They needed to be making a plan, not giving Stark a lecture on how the Infinity Stones came to be. But nobody ever listened to him. "The Power, Space, Reality, Soul, Mind, and Time Stones. With just one of these stones a person could be unstoppable, but if someone were to gain all six…" Wong trailed off, lost in his own thoughts of what this meant for the universe.

Stark sat up straight in the chair he was sitting in. "And this guy wants them all? Tell me his name again."

"Thanos," Bruce said as he paced jittery around the room. "He already has the Power and the Space Stone, Tony and it won't be long till he comes here. He's a destroyer of worlds. The attack in New York, that was all him."

Stark's eyes shown with realization and he jumped from his chair. He walked around until he was in front of the staircase. "So, you used to work for this Thanos guy, then?" Loki ignored the question at first. "And to think all this time I thought you were some evil mastermind, but no, Reindeer Games is just a puppet."

And that's when Loki answered. "I am nobody's puppet," he spat. "And I did not work for him. What he wanted was mad. He wanted the scepter and the Tesseract to carry out his plan and there was no way I was ever going to give them to him."

Stark chuckled humorlessly, "You expect me to believe that?"

"No. I expect for you to believe that I'm an evil person."

Stark shrugged. "That's certainly easier to believe."

Loki would never admit it, but that stung.

Strange cleared his throat after no one said anything for a while. "We have to protect the stones on Earth."

Stark glanced over at the Doctor. "We have to get reinforcements together."

Loki rolled his eyes and rubbed his temples, feeling the start of a headache. "Well no shit, Sherlock. You two are both excellent at pointing out the painfully obvious."

Stark and Strange both glared at the trickster and Stark asked, "And how do you know who Sherlock Holmes is?"

"Just because I dislike you Midgardians, does not mean that I can't read and enjoy your literature."

"Focus guys. Come on," Bruce said. "Dr. Strange has the Time Stone and Vision has the Mind Stone. Where is Vision?"

"What is a Vision?" Loki asked.

"He's an android that Tony and I sort of helped make two years ago."

"…So, you made a robot with the stone from my scepter?"

"Android," Stark snapped. "Are you hard of hearing, Reindeer Games? And to answer Bruce's question, I kinda lost Vision two weeks ago."

"You what?"

"Well, ever since the Avengers broke up a lot of the old team has been, how do I put this, wanted by the government. And I'm pretty sure that Vision and Wanda, you remember Wanda right?" Bruce shook his head yes. "Well, I'm pretty sure they're an item and that Vision left to stay with her."

"How do we find him?"

"Cap would know how."

Strange and Wong both groaned. "Great and Steve Rogers is public enemy number one," Strange muttered.

Loki was confused by that. What could the dear Captain have possibly done to be hunted by his own government? That question would go unanswered for the time being because then Stark continued, "He told me if I needed help, that I could call him, but we're not really on speaking terms."

Bruce walked up to Stark and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Tony, right now it doesn't matter who you're talking to. All that matters is protecting the stones and if Steve can find Vision, then we need to call him."

Stark nodded solemnly and pulled an old flip phone out of his pocket. He opened it and stared at it for a while. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. And after fifty seconds of just standing there he still hadn't called Rogers.

Loki sighed annoyed. "Oh, stars above." He twisted his hand and the cell phone disappeared from Stark's grasp and appeared in Loki's hand. He glanced over the phone; there was one number in the phone, so he selected that one and pressed call. He held it to his ear and it began to ring.

Stark turned around surprised. "What did-why do-?"

"I'm saving time and unlike you, I have no qualms about calling Captain America." It rang two more times and then went to voicemail. "That's unfortunate, it went to voicemail."

"Give me the phone." And Stark yanked the phone from his hand.

"Rude," Loki muttered.

Stark let out another deep breath and left his message: "Hey, Steve it's me, Tony. I just wanted to let you know that there might be some people after the stone in Vision's head, so if you know where he is, just help him out alright. When you find him, meet me at Avengers headquarters. I'll explain everything there. Kay, bye." Stark flipped the phone shut and sighed again.

"I think you were making this far too hard," Loki commented. "It was just a phone call, for star's sake."

"Oh will you shut up. Don't talk to me about how hard that was, when this is about something you know nothing about." Loki had evidently struck a nerve. "Where is Thor anyways? Why are you here instead of him?"

Why indeed.

Loki blinked a few times. "My brother in all of his vast wisdom, thought that saving me was more important than saving himself. How about this Stark, if he is still alive we both ask him why he made such a poor decision."

Stark opened his mouth but then stopped. He heard something or sensed something. Loki listened too. The wind had picked up and there was a distant noise of people…yelling? Everyone in the room stood still and glanced to the main door. Outside there were groups of people running past in a panic. Loki stood up, Stark reached the door, and everyone left the safety of the sanctuary for the havoc of the streets.

Everything was in a frenzy: people hurrying to get away, cars speeding along the road, and every person who passed Loki looked fearful.

This was bad.

Stark put on a pair of glasses that glowed around the edges, no doubt another of his inventions. He was trying to figure out what was going on when a car crashed into a light post not two feet away from him. Bruce and Wong stayed behind to help any injured person in the car and Loki, Strange, and Stark all walked around the corner. Hovering about twenty feet above the street was an enormous ringed shaped space craft, its engine humming and blowing the dust in the street everywhere.

"Oh dear," Loki whispered.

"You know this ship?" Strange asked, suddenly next to him.

"Yes, it's one of the pod ships from Thanos's ship. If the ship is here, then some of Thanos's children will be here for your stone."

"Hey doc," Stark said to Strange. "How 'bout you put the green glowing gem in your back pocket?"

Strange instead opened his necklace, did a few hand motions, and conjured green rings around his wrists. "We might have to use it."

"Indeed," Loki agreed as he transformed his suit to his traditional black and green leather outfit and pulled out his dagger.

The dust settled as they continued to cautiously make their way down the street. Standing in the middle of the road was the slender and nose-less Ebony Maw and the giant axe wielding Cull Obsidian. Both were dressed in dark dismal clothes and both were impressive foes. Maw was a powerful and gifted telekinetic and Obsidian was basically an evil Hulk.

Maw smiled cruelly when he saw the three of them approaching. "Glorious day! Today is the day you give up your meaningless lives to the merciful Thanos and-"

"I'm sorry Earth is closed today," Stark quipped. "And unless you both want your asses kicked I suggest you don't even try to take the stone."

Loki had to smirk at the disgusted expression on Maw's face. Bruce and Wong came running behind them and stood with them. Maw turned to Strange, "You, sorcerer, does this man speak for you?"

"Absolutely not. I speak for myself." Strange lifted his hands straight up in the air, made small circles and then two orange shields formed around his hands. He took a fighter's stance and said, "And I say go back to space." Maw scowled and he and Obsidian slowly started walking towards them.

Wong followed Strange's example and stepped forward. Bruce just watched on in amazement. Stark looked to Bruce, "You want to help out?"

"Oh! Right sorry. Not really, but when do I get what I want." Bruce strained for several seconds and his neck turned green, but he didn't change into the Hulk. Loki and Strange exchanged a worried glance. "Come on, come on."

"Ah, Bruce what's the problem?" Stark asked impatiently.

"I don't know. Hulk and I kind of have a problem."

"This is no time for a problem. There's a problem," Stark pointed at the two aliens who were getting closer. Bruce tried again, but to no prevail. Stark sighed, "Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards."

Loki shook his head, "I'm not a wizard, I'm a master of the mystical arts."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, you're a wizard. Bruce are you gonna Hulk out or not?"

Bruce shook his head in tired defeat. "I can't."

Loki muttered, "What a day. Our ship is attacked, my brother is an idiot, and now are best line of defense won't come out. Anyone else feel like running away?" It was a joke meant to ease the tension, but both Stark and Strange glared at him again. "Stars, when one of you makes a smart ass comment its fine, but I make one and it warrants a death stare."

Maw recognized Loki and said, "Ah, the youngest Odinson. Your death will wipe out the last of your family."

Loki froze.

"What?"

"When you fled your ship, we killed your brother." That horrible dread that Loki had had seemed to consume him till he felt like screaming. Maw smiled cruelly again. "Will you die a more honorable death, I wonder? You see, your brother he begged for his life."

It was like the whole world was tipping over on its side and all Loki could see was red. "You're a liar!" he shouted, taking several steps forward.

Maw chuckled; Loki wanted to slice open his throat. "I am many things, but a liar I am not."

Loki's hands balled into fists and he felt the bite of his fingernails drawing blood. "Alright, Reindeer Games, please don't do anything stupid."

Stupid? He probably would, he wasn't at all thinking straight. How could he? Thor was…Thor was… He couldn't even bring himself to think it. Maw had to be lying. Right? But-no. Maw wasn't a liar, none of Thanos's children were. So... Everything seemed to fade away for Loki. He didn't care about protecting the stones, or about Bruce or Strange or Stark or Wong or about anyone else in the entire damn universe. Nothing mattered.

Except for his rage.

He threw his dagger directly at Maw's head and focused his magic on the dagger until it multiplied into ten daggers. Maw easily avoided them by using his own powers, but two of the silver bladed daggers stabbed Obsidian in the shoulder. The giant roared in pain and frustration and started charging at them.

"And you did something stupid," Stark said, yanking Loki by the shoulder back behind him. He casually started walking towards the monster and said, "Okay, Friday let's do this." His Iron Man suit materialized around him, starting at his chest and spreading to the rest of his body until he was safe and sound in the suit. Four metal half circles deployed from the suit's back and fired four repulsor beams at Obsidian and sent him flying backwards. Maw tossed him to the side to prevent him from crashing into him. The half circles folded into themselves and connected back to the suit.

"What was that?" Bruce asked, impressed.

"Nano tech, you like? It is pretty basic techno-"

Maw rose his hand up and Stark was flung into the air with a shout of surprise. Strange sent his orange shield flying at Maw and knocked him over. It was Maw's turn to shout in surprise. Strange turned to Bruce. "Dr. Banner, since your green friend will not be joining us…" He created another portal and pushed Bruce in, sending him to a grassy park. He closed the portal and stood with Loki and Wong.

Maw got back to his feet looking more than a little pissed off. He told Obsidian, "Deal with the iron fellow." Obsidian spotted Stark hovering in the air and leaped up after him. The two crashed to the ground a street or two over.

"Stark can handle him," Wong said. "We'll deal with this guy."

"Three against one? Seems a bit unfair," Strange mused.

Loki shook his head. "Don't get cocky, wizard. He's been doing this a lot longer than you have."

Maw levitated forty or fifty discarded bricks from the broken buildings nearby. With a wave of the hand, he had shaved them down into sharp spikes. He pushed them forwards towards the three, but Strange was faster, opening a portal to catch them all before hitting anyone. Wong opened an identical portal and all of the spikes came flying out directly at Maw. Most of them never even reached Maw, but one grazed his forehead. He stumbled back, his hand reaching his forehead feeling his dark blood.

"You'll pay for that." He twisted his hand and Wong was thrown through a shop window. Maw then lifted his arms into the air and he surrounded himself with a vortex of flying debris. He smirked at Loki and Strange and began to run at them.

Loki glanced at Strange. "Together?"

Strange sighed and weakly nodded his head. "On my count…three, two, one, now!" Strange pushed his hands forward and a blast of crimson orange magic formed an enormous shield and Loki sent out a burst of his shimmering green magic as a reinforcement shield. Maw ran directly into and was immediately halted. He sent his debris flying but it all just bounced off of the shield. Loki and Strange's combined power created a shield of magic that not even Ebony Maw could break through. Maw strained to push past their magic and Loki and Strange strained to keep it in place. "Well, this is difficult," Strange muttered, as his hands began to shake.

"I told you not to get cocky."

"I'm sorry, but you came to Earth to concur us. I think you're the cocky one."

"I was cocky about my ability to fight powerless mortals, not flat faced telekinetics."

Maw pushed harder and yelled in anger. Perfect. They had Maw so focused on breaking their shield all they needed was some third party to come and get the drop on him-

"Hey, Squidward!" Stark yelled as he flew over Loki and Strange's heads, straight at Maw. His arms were straight out when he flew and his left arm caught Maw in the stomach, throwing him to the ground.

Loki flinched at the sound of metal making contact with Maw's soft flesh. "Oh, that had to hurt." Both Loki and Strange lowered their hands in mild exhaustion and their shield evaporated. "Nice to work with you, Doctor."

"Same to you, but let's not make a habit out of it." Loki half smirked, in spite of himself but it soon faded. The realization that Thor was probably dead suddenly weighed heavily on him. Strange seemed to notice his change in demeanor. "Um, I'm sorry about your brother. He, ah, seemed like a good man."

Loki glanced at the ground and didn't know what to say. Apparently, he would have time to think about it later because suddenly Obsidian came out of nowhere and landed next to Strange and Loki. He roared as he grabbed Loki's arm and tossed like a rag doll through the air. "What the hell!" he shouted, as he flew high up away from Strange and Stark.

"Hang on!" Strange yelled, but then Obsidian kicked him down.

Well this is lovely.

Stark and Strange were too occupied with fighting Obsidian again, that they probably won't have a chance to save him. Not that he really needed saving, he had already survived one crash landing today, but at the same time he didn't want to get knocked out for the third time. Teleporting was out of the question, he had drained himself significantly after forming that shield. The city streets seemed to be getting closer. Crash landing seemed like a big probability.

But then something hit his back and he was yanked upwards. "Whoa! What?" He was five feet above the ground, hovering.

How…?

"Hey! You alright?" cried a voice from above him.

Loki looked up: A man in a red and blue spandex uniform and mask with big white and black eyes and a spider printed on his chest was hanging onto a white rope (was that a web?) that was attached to a building and onto another rope that was attached to Loki.

The humans continued to impress him.

"You alright?" the masked man, who sounded more like a boy, asked again.

"Yeah, I-I will be." He grabbed out his dagger and cut the rope, no it was definitely a web, that was connected to him and he dropped to the ground. He brushed himself off and his savior landed next to him. Oh yeah, he was a boy, he was far too short.

"You sure you're okay? You came flying out of nowhere."

"And who are you supposed to be?" Loki asked while catching his bearings.

"I'm your friendly neighborhood, Spider-Man," he replied.

"Oh, of course. That explains everything. Thank you."

"Have I seen you somewhere before?" Spider-"Man" asked. "'Cause you like seem really familiar."

"Are you a child?" Loki asked instead of answering the Spider's question.

"What! No! I'm a man! An adult man!"

"Really, because you sound like an adolescent child." The Spider seemed to be pouting and that just proved Loki's point in his mind.

Spider-Man? Spider-Boy is more like it.

Stark went flying across the skyline. "That's Mr. Stark," Spider-Boy said.

"You know him?"

"Of course, he gave me my suit and he's my mentor."

"Kid, don't take offense, but I think you need a better mentor. Now, I need to go back and help the wizard doctor."

"There's a wizard doctor?" Spider-Boy exclaimed.

"Yes and you might be able to help out. Come on!" Loki took off running back to where he had left Strange. Spider-Boy swung by his webs from building to building, following Loki.

"Look, mister," Spider-Boy called from above. "I'd love to help you out with this wizard doctor, but I should really help, Mr. Stark."

"Stark can handle himself. He's probably just fighting the giant dwarf."

"There's a giant dwarf?" Spider-Boy exclaimed.

Loki sighed and shouted, "Stop acting like everything is exciting and new!"

"Sorry, but wizards and dwarfs are exciting and new to me!"

Loki was not going to survive this day without having a massive headache. He and the Spider-Boy rounded the corner where he had left Strange. Maw was up and had tied Strange up with a cord or wire or something and was strangling him. Loki flicked his hand and his green magic dissolved the wire. Strange fell to his knees in a coughing fit. Spider-Boy swung on his web and surprised Maw and even managed to kick him in the jaw. Loki ran over to Strange. "Doctor, are you alright?"

Strange rubbed his tender neck. "I've been better." Loki offered him his hand, Strange reluctantly took it, and Loki pulled him back onto his feet. "Thanks." Loki nodded. "Is he a friend of yours?" Strange asked pointing to Spider-Boy who was doing rather well at fighting against Maw.

"Not really. I think he's a friend of Stark's though."

"Wonderful. Now I am tired of this alien's continual harassment."

"Then let's finish this."

Strange smirked slightly and ran to Maw. He conjured an orange sparkler wipe and caught Maw's arm. Spider-Boy webbed his other arm. Maw growled, "You pitiful humans! Why can you not just lay back and lose!" He lifted a car and threw it at Spider-Boy who did an impressive backflip to avoid it. However, there was a random teenage girl on the street who was in the path of the car.

"Spider-Boy! Get the girl!" Loki shouted, running to help Strange with the struggling Maw.

"It's Spider-Man!" And with that he jumped through the air, past the car, scooped up the girl, and swung her to safety. "Hey, you alright?"

The blonde girl looked shaken up, but then her eyes widen. "Oh, my God, you're Spider-Man!"

"Yeah, um, yeah. That's me."

The girl got very excitable. "You are like my favorite super hero! I absolutely love you! I'm Samantha by the way and I can't thank you enough for saving my life!"

Spider-Boy shrugged, "Well, you know it's all part of the job-"

"For star's sake!" Loki yelled. "Put her somewhere safe and get back here and help us!"

"Right! Sorry." The Spider scooped the girl up again and swung her a couple blocks over, where she'd be safe. And just in time too.

Maw hollered, "Enough!" He rose both arms up and both Loki and Strange flew backwards and hit the ground hard.

Loki didn't know how long he had been down, but his head was killing him again. He slowly sat up with a grimace and felt the side of his head with his fingers. It was wet with blood.

Really not a good day for head injuries.

The wind picked up again and blew through Loki's hair. He looked up and saw a triumph Maw, an unconscious Strange, and a squirming Spider-Boy all being beamed up by a blue light into the large pod ship. Once they were all inside, the ship's engines fired up and it sped up into the atmosphere. Loki just sat there dazed.

Had they failed?

Stark came flying by and stopped in front of him. His helmet opened up. "Loki, what happened?"

Loki muttered, "The good Doctor and a somewhat helpful Spider-Boy both got beamed up into the ship."

Stark's eyes widened. "Peter. Damn that kid." He took a deep breath and said in a rush, "I'm going after them. Bruce and Wong are in a park and Bruce needs to get to the base. Reindeer Games, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but you've got to make sure that the others know about Thanos and what is happening."

"You want me to assemble the remaining Avengers?" Loki asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, crazy I know." His helmet closed and he flew up after the pod ship.

Loki stayed sitting there staring at the shrinking ship and Stark until they were both out of sight. There went the Time Stone as well as three of Earth's mightiest heroes. He had to have faith that Stark and the Spider would save Strange and maybe, just maybe, prevent Thanos from gaining another stone.

But Loki had never been much of an optimistic person.

A portal opened and Bruce and Wong came through. "Loki! You okay?" Bruce questioned as he ran up to the trickster.

"I'll live." He got to his feet and stumbled only once. "Stark and the Doctor are on the ship."

"Oh no," Bruce whispered. "What do we do?"

Wong opened another portal leading to the sanctuary. "I must protect the sanctuary. Whatever you two do, I wish you both the best of luck."

Loki nodded his thanks. Wong stepped into the portal and closed it behind him. Loki sighed and pressed his palm to his head to try and stop the bleeding. "Stark told me to get you to the Avengers's base… I guess we should go there."

Bruce nodded. "Yes. That's right, Steve will be arriving with Vision. Let's see if we can call a taxi or something." Bruce headed off in a direction that would lead to a less abandoned street to hail a taxi cab. Loki tottered slowly behind and let out a deep breath for the millionth time today.

This was madness. He, Loki the God of Mischief, a person that the entire planet condemned as a terrorist and a sadist was going to help assemble a group of super heroes who would no doubt not trust a single word he said.

What could possibly go wrong?

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Author's Note Again: I couldn't resist the "No shit, Sherlock" line because I assume most of you know that Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange) and Robert Dowling Jr. (Tony Stark) both played different versions of the famous consulting detective.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it was a joy to write. I'm not sure when I'll be able to publish another chapter. I recently had all of my wisdom teeth removed and I'm still recovering.

P.S. To my friend Samantha, I put you in my story with Spider-Man, are you happy now?