In the world known as Midgard, two very odd things were happening at once. In a large aircraft carrier, a meeting was suddenly disrupted as a man fell out of thin air and onto a table. Those watching could have sworn that there seemed to be ripples left in the air above, as if they were underwater and looking up at the faraway surface. Thor gasped for air, more breathless than the impact with the table could account for. There was a long minute of silence, in which the thunder god attempted to get his breath back, and the humans stared. Finally, Thor seemed to remember what was going on and vaulted off the table in one move. Grabbing the nearest human by the collar, he slammed the poor man up against the wall.
"Where," Thor growled, "is Director Fury!" The shocked man, unable to breathe, gabbled out a lot of nonsense before simply pointing to a door. Thor dropped him and barreled for the door, ramming it open with one broad shoulder. Completely ignoring the stunned looks he was getting from the others in the room, the god of thunder barged over to a tall man in a black trench coat. Director Nick Fury didn't seem to be all that phased, especially considering he was being faced with an angry, muscular god. Abandoning any sort of formality, Thor spoke quickly, if not concisely.
"Director. Loki, through much trickery and magic, has managed to escape the clutches of my people, of Asgard. He escaped with the Tesseract, and is, I suspect, somewhere on Midgard. Loki wants revenge on this world for his defeat. I fear that if we do not act quickly, many mortals will…" Thor trailed off as he realized Fury was no longer paying any attention to him. The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was speaking into a metallic microphone, issuing orders.
"Yes." He barked at an unseen person. "Stark, we need you immediately. Loki has escaped." Even before Thor had arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, the Trickster had arrived on Earth.
Near the very top of a large skyscraper, a blinding blue light appeared. It coalesced into a humanoid form, a man clad in green and black, who immediately ducked behind a nearby table. Anybody watching would have noticed that he did not seem quite human. As a matter of fact, he looked quite insane. Blood was pooling from multiple cuts around his mouth, his long black hair was mussed, his clothes were torn and covered in dust, and his eyes shone with the light of fear and victory. Loki, however, did not care what he looked like. All he cared about was finding what he'd come for.
After confirming that there was nobody in the room, he crossed the room to a large indentation in the floor. The concrete was cracked in a vaguely human shape, as if a statue had fallen from a great height into the floor. Wincing in remembered pain, Loki knelt, carefully moving chunks of concrete away with one hand. His movements grew panicked as he failed to find what he was searching for. Finally, Loki spotted a small glimmer from underneath a piece of concrete. He exhaled softly, a sound somewhere between a relieved sigh and a vaguely annoyed hiss. The Trickster carefully extricated what he'd been looking for.
It was a small silver necklace, the chain not made of links but of seamless, undulating silver. Hanging from the center was an oval charm, the color of submerged ice illuminated by the setting sun. As Loki wrapped his pale fingers around the charm, the room seemed to get colder. He exhaled again, breath misty with the sudden chill. Cheeks flushed a pale blue with triumph, the god of mischief rose, the necklace clenched in one pale fist. His back to the elevator, Loki failed to notice Tony Stark entering the room behind him, almost fully clad in his Iron Man suit.
Tony had not been happy about Nick Fury's call. In fact, he'd been downright irritated. Just when he thought things were settling down, in comes another thing he had to deal with. In fact, he was still grumbling to himself as he entered the room Loki was in. In the middle of calling Director Fury a very nasty name, Tony realized that he was not alone in the room.
"Well, this'll be easier than I thought…" He muttered to himself, Loki still oblivious to his presence. Carefully approaching the distracted Asgardian, Tony clenched one metal fist. Loki started to turn around, started to realize what was happening, but he was too late. The titanium fist smashed into the side of the Trickster's head. Loki slumped to the ground, completely unconscious. From inside the suit, Tony Stark smiled.
"Hey, Director Fury. This is Stark. I found him…"