Four days had passed since the battle and Tony's disappearance. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been coming and going, setting up plans and keeping the Avengers updated. The Avengers themselves had been searching and planning on their own.
At the moment Steve, Bruce, and Thor sat around a holographic display, going over ideas. Bruce spoke up after a long moment of silence. "Jarvis tell me again, what were the last few things the suit read before it went down?"
"Loki had arrived and was aiding Mr. Stark in the battle. Mr. Stark asked me to track him and deploy missiles if he got too close. After fifteen minutes something compromised the two empty buildings and they began to crumble. Then the shoulder missiles deployed and the suit's system went down. I can assume that Loki got very close, causing the missiles to explode too close to the suit, temporarily shutting my system down."
"Thanks Jarvis."
"My pleasure, Dr. Banner."
Bruce began typing, bringing up the recovered footage from the suit, he paused it when Loki first showed up. "So what do you think Thor? You know your brother the best."
"I am not sure, I have not known what my brother thinks for some time, truth be told. What he told Tony in these images could be the truth; I would like that to be so but… "
Bruce leaned back and began to massage his temple. He unpaused the video, searching for anything he had missed. "Four days and we are still no closer to having any idea where Tony is. He could be anywhere in the world, no strike that, anywhere in general cause your brother had to get involved."
"I doubt he is on Asgard, he would have a hard time sneaking into my realm."
"Yeah great! That helps us a lot!"
"Bruce calm down, we'll figure this out." Steve stepped in, placing a hand on Bruce's shoulder. The doctor sighed with frustration but nodded and sat down, turning back to the screen. Realizing that it would be best to leave for the time, Steve motioned to Thor to follow him.
They sat staring over the city in silence.
"It is possible that my brother is not responsible for this."
"Thor, I- What do you mean, explain?"
"The images from Tony's suit showed that the buildings had began to crumble, and that it was not Loki's doing, no? Then we know that Tony's weapons exploded, they were only told to do so when Loki got close. Perhaps my brother tried to push Tony out of the way."
"Thor, Loki has tried to kill us on multiple occasions. Why would he suddenly decide to risk his life for one of us and show up to fight with us?"
"Why indeed, why would my brother show up to aid us in the battle? I may not understand my brother well but he does everything for a reason." Thor paused, frowning. "Perhaps, once he joined the fight, he realized that we might find traces of his magic in the area, and if Tony had been crushed by the building he would have been to blame."
"Either way, I think that if we find Loki, we find Tony. And this wouldn't be the first time Loki has had an alien army to attack us" Steve glanced at Thor, trying to read the god's expression.
"If it was my brother's army then why would he attack it, not attack with it?"
"You said it yourself, we don't know what goes on inside Loki's head."
Jarvis interrupted their conversation abruptly. "I am sorry to interrupt but Dr. Banner has requested that you two join him immediately, he seems to have found something." The two of them jumped in surprise. They glanced at each other, quickly getting up and rushed towards the lab.
"What is it Bruce, what did you find?" Steve entered the room, followed by Thor, rushing over to where the doctor was working. As the approached Bruce spun around on his chair, looking at them with bright eyes.
"Great you're here. Look!"
Turning back to the machine he typed something in. He scooted back, allowing the others to see what was playing. It was a video, of slightly lower quality than what they had seen before. It showed the fight from a different point of view. They were able to see all of what Loki had been doing throughout the fight. They watched as he appeared, then for the next few minutes, fought. They heard the sound of the buildings exploding, which caused Loki to stop and look up. He paused for a few moments then proceeded to fight, seemingly quicker. Then, without warning, he let off a burst of green energy, killing the aliens closest to him, and ran towards Tony, who was currently being swarmed by aliens. He ran into Tony, killing some of the surrounding aliens. For a moment he tried to push Tony but was then surrounded by a large explosion, which had to be Tony's missiles. It was getting hard to see due to the increasing static and falling concrete. The last glimpse they had was Tony lying flat on the ground and Loki, kneeling on the ground, with one hand up in the air. Bruce then paused the recording as everything went dark and turned to them.
"Good, yeah?"
Steve looked at Bruce questioningly. "Yes, very, but how did you get this? We haven't seen this before."
"Well, I noticed in the suit footage that there was a security camera on one of the buildings that wasn't destroyed. So I got Jarvis to hack into the system and got this footage from the time of the fight. Only problem is how grainy it is."
Thor broke into a grin. "This is wonderful friends, it shows that Loki was indeed trying to save Tony."
"Yes, but he failed. So why didn't we find them under the rubble?"
"Did you not see it, Captain? My brother was summoning a shield to protect them!"
"What, how can you tell-oh wait, because you grew up with him, right? That's usually the answer."
"You are correct, I have seen my brother do it many a time. I am sure it is second nature to him. They were most definitely safe underneath the rubble, my brother is strong enough to hold a shield like that for some time."
" 'xuse me." Bruce moved back in front of the screen again. "So if what you said is true, Thor, and I assume that it is, then we should have found them under the rubble, so maybe-" Bruce unpaused the recording, which showed only static. He sighed impatiently. "I don't have time for this. Jarvis is there any time after this point where there isn't just static?"
"Allow me to check, Dr. Banner, this may take a moment."
The three men sat in silence for a minute.
"Sir, the static begins to decrease approximately ten minutes before you arrive, I shall skip ahead to that point."
The recording shifted forward. Through the heavy static they could barely make out a picture. The static lessened more and the men gasped. The rubble was swarmed by aliens, all scuttling around rapidly.
"What are they doing?"
They watched as the aliens moved like ants on a hill. The rubble shifted and they moved faster. For the next few minutes there was nothing but that. Then they slowed. From this point of view the men could barely see aliens disappearing into the rubble. A few minutes later a mass of aliens exited. From between the bodies the men glimpsed a flash of red and gold.
"Tony!"
As Tony disappeared off camera another group of aliens entered the rubble, larger this time. It took longer for them to reemerge this time, and the men noticed that the rubble would fall one section at a time. Finally the aliens emerged, leaning closer to the screen the three men could barely see what was behind the aliens, a figure in green and black, with long black hair, unmistakable even when covered in blood. As the aliens dragged Loki off camera the rubble finally collapsed. The recording paused, leaving a static silence in the air.
"After this sir, nothing more happens until you arrive."
"Thank you Jarvis; you were incredible."
"I am always here to help, Dr. Banner."
The three men turned to each other, Steve was the first to speak. "Well, wow, that explains a lot. We still have no idea where they are, but at least we know for sure who has them."
"Yes, and we know that the aliens were not working for my brother, who seemed to be badly injured…" Thor trailed off, a deep frown furrowing his brow.
"Right, and I can guess why they took them." Steve sighed. "Either to hold them for ransom or to interrogate them, depends on how smart their leaders are, of course. Hopefully it's for ransom, then we will be able to know where they are, at least. We might get some kind of ransom note."
"Now we know what we must do, my friends, we must find them and get them back." Thor seemed to have recovered from his doubtfulness and slammed a hand down on the table in front of them.