A/N: And the Avengers' crew finally make their appearance.

Chapter 1

It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, the birds on the other side of the soundproofed one way glass walls seemed to be chirping and as he walked down the hallways of the SHIELD Fury saw more than one smile on the SHIELD agents' faces.

Something was going to go terribly wrong, his gut told him and he frowned, terrifying the new recruit who handed him a file. The information, Fury noted flicking through a ridiculously sparse few pages with very little on them, was lacking and far too unimpressive. Since he had first become a part of SHIELD, Fury had come to expect big fat dossiers of information, not just a couple of paragraphs. Whatever Doom was doing he was playing his cards very close to heart. It was difficult to spy on him when the only 'people' he interacted with in his castle were only the Doombots. The last agent that had tried to infiltrate the Doomstadt had been sent back dead with a note pinned to his chest.

'Try harder.' It had read and left SHIELD at a dead end. The only person better at undercover missions was Romanoff and try as she might she wouldn't be able to pass for a Doombot. Stark had made a robot that was an exact copy of the Doombot but even that had failed. The tracker hadn't even placed it within a mile of Doom's castle in Latveria before it suddenly disappeared. A box of its gutted parts had been mailed to Stark's office a few hours later with another note on it, this one reading 'Try better.'

And now they had super soldiers to deal with. In the last battle Thor had thrown Mjolnir into one of them and while the soldier had been unable to pick it up again, he certainly hadn't seemed to be hurt by it. Even when Tony's blasters tore them apart they didn't scream, they didn't say a word, simply disintegrated into pieces that burnt to ashes in a horrific manner that left the bystanders in shock and left them with no organic matter to analyse.

He snapped the almost empty file shut with one hand and opened the door to his office, stopping abruptly.

Everything was as immaculate as he'd always left it, none of the sensors that littered the room, wired to go off if anyone other than him came close to them, had gone off and his pens, files and paperwork were on the right side just as he'd kept them for the past twenty years ever since he had lost his left eye to shrapnel.

So why was his chair turned completely around?

Silently he put the file away and drew his gun, just about to move to turn the chair when it swung around of its own accord.

"Director Fury, what a pleasure to see you again!"

"You sit like a whore."

Yes, the day had gotten very bad indeed.

"Please, sit."

"You're in my chair."

"I was going to wait in the other one but it was utterly uncomfortable. Although I suppose that was planned, you'd rather like it if someone entered your domain and wasn't completely at ease. It makes interrogating subordinates go so much faster." Not completely at ease like him, he meant and the vein in Fury's head throbbed. "And do put your gun down. We both know they don't do much to me, have you learnt nothing from last time?"

"Thor said you were dead."

"Thor was wrong. He often is you know. Or perhaps you don't know." Loki, of all the supervillains in his world (and there were far too many, Fury decided) sat on the armchair pressing the pads of his fingers together and tapping them on his lip. "You'll learn."

"Why are you here?" Fury did not lower the gun.

"I have a proposition to make."

"SHIELD does not negotiate with terrorists."

"I suppose then that the World Security Council had nothing to do with you? Or was it someone else who ordered a nuclear strike on Manhattan." He waved it off just as soon as he said it. "Never mind, that's old business, not what I'm here to talk to you about."

"Then talk."

"I want to help you."

And his former words went through Fury's mind.

'I come with glad tidings of a world made free'

That guy never meant what he said.

"Help us?"

"As the file you were reading inevitably informed you Doctor Doom has been growing more and more daring in his ventures. The super soldiers nearly defeated your Avengers the last time did they not?"

"Get to the point."

"I want you to kill him. And I want to watch it happen. In return I shall help you with this endeavour since your own efforts have borne no fruit."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Why shouldn't you? Does it seem out of character to you? That I would strike up deals with anyone as long as I got my way in the end? I double crossed him to bring this information to you, the highest bidder so to speak. The bid I want, is him dead. Nothing more, nothing less." He snapped his fingers, conjuring a file and slid it across the table to Fury. "As a show of faith, all my information on the super soldiers."

With one hand still pointing the gun at him Fury opened up the file, his one eye nearly falling out of his head at the information in it.

"What is this?"

"When I first made Doom's acquaintance he was eager to show off his toys. Braggart really, it's quite pathetic." Loki ignored the blank look Fury shot him. "But in the process I caught the faces of a few of his super soldiers."

"These are students."

"Yes, all from NYU, they went missing over different periods of time all in early last year. Since then there have been a number of students reported missing. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to make to assume most of them were also taken to be involuntary subjects to his experiment."

"We can't know if it's involuntary." Far too many idiots in the world, Fury decided. And with Doom's dominant personality there were a host of passive sheep like people in the city that Doom wouldn't hesitate to manipulate and exploit for his own good.

"Of the five names here, only two have previous records mostly small misdemeanours like underage drinking, vandalism etc. One of them is a straight A student with a scholarship, the other a normal student who is currently working part time at a bakery and the third was a cheerleader. All of them living busy lives, none of them fit the profile of someone looking to be drugged up and join Doom's army. I looked into their movements there is no place where their paths might have crossed with a Doom supporters'. And just last month, another student went missing, Tommy Katsopolis. He was last seen outside the building from where his girlfriend deals cocaine."

"He's a cokehead?"

"Yes but his friends insist he wouldn't do drugs during exams. The police dismissed it since he's been reported missing four times in the last two years, and in all cases turned up a week or so later."

"You've gone through the police reports."

Loki blinked. "What makes you think that?" He said flatly but Fury ignored it in favour of the file in his hand. This was the kind of information he had wanted on Doom and he finally had it, all thanks to the god who started it all, the first super villain in the history of Earth. Still, it had been a good four years since Loki had been seen terrorising people and in comparison to what they had been facing lately the alien attack on New York was almost paltry.

"You think you can help us get Doom?"

"Fury, I will not stop until you do. Viktor and I have unfinished business." Something in his voice convinced Fury. There was anger and, oddly enough, grief in it and both of those were things Fury could use. He lowered the gun and sat down in the uncomfortable seat opposite his.

"You'll have to work with the Avengers on this."

Loki waved his hand, leaning back in his chair (his chair, damn it!) "I have worked with lesser creatures."

"Right."

Loki smiled, slow and serpentine, sliding the metallic phone on Fury's desk closer to him.

"Make the call."

Tony paced the length of the Avengers tower living room. As he usually did when dealing with Fury, he felt an urge bubbling up in him and made a beeline for the bar. The bar that, as he soon realised, Pepper had all but emptied as part of her health kick. There was a single bottle of whiskey left and he got the feeling he would need it far more after he heard what Fury had to say and consequently left it there with a morose expression, turning instead to the fridge.

"Something's off." He told Bruce who was following his movements from the dining table. The rest were there as well but Clint and Natasha were prone to ignoring him when he began talking about Fury's weirdness and the Captain and Thor simply offered him empty platitudes. Only Bruce recognised his paranoia as valid and actually engaged in rational (no matter what anyone said, they really were completely rational) discussions about the same. "Fury never tells us to assemble in the tower."

"Tony's right you know." Bruce said to the table and although everyone was previously showing varying levels of disinterest they leaned in to listen to him. It was one of the perks of having a rage monster inside of you, Tony concluded. They all listened to Bruce but never him. Although that may also have something to do with the fact that he always thought Fury was up to something. "He usually briefs us in the SHIELD headquarters and he didn't even tell us to suit up or anything, just that we needed to talk in Avengers tower."

"See, even Bruce agrees." Tony said, his face buried in the fridge rummaging for something to drink. He resurfaced with what he assumed to be a milkshake and took a long chug out of the glass. Upon tasting it his face turned green enough to give the Hulk a run for his money and he put it down again. He tasted green tea, soy milk and apricots and it was hideous.

"Maybe he's giving us permission to storm Doomstadt on the down low." Clint shrugged. "The World Security Council can't allow it because of Doom's diplomatic immunity so he's telling us here where they aren't watching."

"That surprisingly enough makes sense." Natasha said and Clint sulked at the casual nsult of his intelligence.

"Only it doesn't, Doom has the support of over twenty other nations and if we attack him on his home turf they'll be obliged to attack USA as part of the treaties they've signed." Replied Bruce astute as always.

"How can anybody still think Viktor isn't Doctor Doom?" Tony snorted.

"It's logical I guess." Steve postulated, their own personal ever neutral Switzerland. "I mean it's not like we have him on tape pulling his hood down to show the world it's him. Innocent until proven guilty. Without proof they can't rush into things especially when it concerns the Head of a State."

"You mean they don't want to. It's all politics, they just want the trade. Ugh, stupid super villain." Tony gagged, on both the thought of politics and the aftertaste of that disgusting concoction.

"We have to catch him in the act." Bruce added.

Before the discussion could be continued, JARVIS' voice filtered through the space, startling Thor who was still unused to the 'voice in the sky'. "Sir there's an unauthorized entity in the elevator with Director Fury."

"Don't let them up JARVIS."

"I'm afraid my security protocols are being over ridden again. Director Fury insists it is important."

"Guys?"

"We're ready."

Thor summoned Mjolnir, the Captain picked up his shield from where he'd left it on the couch and Natasha and Clint both armed themselves and they all turned to the elevator as the digits indicated on the panel grew higher and higher.

The doors opened but the 'unknown entity' was apparently leaning against the walls and hidden from their view. Fury stepped out first and immediately rolled his eye.

"Why the hell are you all standing like rabid guard dogs?"

"Hey Fury, who's your friend?"

The friend stepped out smoothing a hand over the black sweater he wore and tossed his short black hair back.

"The name's Loki, I believe we've met before."

A roar as Thor rushed forward was his only answer.

So whatever did you all think? Did I keep them in character or are they too OOC? Leave a note (Or don't, your choice)