Oh hello there faithful readers! You all mean so much to me, and I'm always thinking of you when writing these chapters. I do try to please when I can, I just hope I'm doing a good job of it. Oh also, I've been good with the cursing up until now, just as a warning. Probably won't be this tame all the time.
Now, a chapter for you!
Everything had gone dark. Somewhere the alarm was still shrieking, but it sounded so very far away. Occasionally a light would flicker, just long enough to illuminate the wreckage of whatever that explosion had been. It took Loki a moment to remember why he was on the ground in the middle of ruin. The ambient ringing in his ears made everything that much more disorienting.
Chitauri. Just one. But one was enough this time.
Loki sat up, disturbing the thin layer of dust he'd accumulated and alerting him to a rather sharp pain in his left leg, just below the knee. It didn't feel broken- Loki knew that feeling well enough from his adventures with Thor- but he doubted it would hold his weight. Well if that wasn't inconvenient… He could always try healing it, but that took too much energy and he- no, they- still needed to escape this place. Speaking of the others, it was awfully quiet in here besides the settling of the debris and the alarms outside. He wondered vaguely if the others were dead already.
There was still a Chitauri out there. Somewhere.
Loki cringed, thankful that the darkness would hide his trepidation from whoever might be there to observe. The Other promised retribution should he fail, and he had failed. Loki had thought it would take them years to find him, decades even, and he had planned to do everything in his power to be gone from Asgard by then. Now there was a Chitauri right here on Midgard. He didn't know why this made him feel so anxious, it was just one of the creatures after all. Surely it would be easy to defeat. Right?
The trickster pushed himself onto his knees, hissing as his leg throbbed in protest. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he noticed the only consistent light in the room was filtering through spaces in the ceiling. It looked like whole sections of the ceiling had fallen, but thankfully the majority had remained intact. The dim emergency lighting coming from above was just enough to illuminate shapes and outlines. This would only be useful in getting his bearings, but beyond that Loki might as well be blind.
"Hello?" came a whisper from the darkness, making Loki look around for the source of the voice.
"Who's there?" he demanded. He had forgotten that the voice could really only belong to two people. The ringing in his ears made it difficult to tell.
A soft sigh, then movement. "Oh, it's you. Try not to come too close."
So it was Banner. Loki didn't need to ask why he couldn't come close; the other man's controlled calm could only be held for so long and the sight of an old enemy might be enough to set him off. Under normal circumstances Loki considered Banner's control impressive, but in these conditions it was downright miraculous. He had no doubt that the Hulk would bury them all in an attempt to escape.
Loki waited a moment, but the other man didn't say anything else. "Are you… alright?" he asked, the question sounding just as forced as it felt.
"I'm fine. Where's Tony?"
He looked around, but he didn't know any more than Banner did. Stark hadn't been this quiet since Loki had met the engineer. "I'm not sure. I hope he's still breathing." Actually, that was the truth. Of all the mortals he'd met, Stark was the last one he'd wish death upon.
"One second." Banner said, and Loki heard the sound of movement again. A moment later a bright light illuminated their surroundings, casting stark shadows in every direction. Squinting, Loki could see that Banner was seated leaning against the wall, and was holding his little mobile device up like a torch. The gadget did the trick; everything was visible in the glaring white light.
"That's much better." Loki muttered, searching the room. It didn't take him long to find Stark. "Look, just there…" He inclined his head toward a pile of rubble.
"Where is- oh." Bruce stood up hastily and made his way over to the wreckage. Tony wasn't conscious by the look of it, and he was pinned under a metal beam that must have been part of the wall before the explosion. Banner wasted no time in kneeling beside the engineer and checking his vitals. "He's alive. We have to free him."
Loki got to his feet, testing his leg to see if it would hold his weight. It did, though not without a stab of pain. Well, at least he could stand. "Is he injured?"
"I can't tell. It looks like he's got a few minor injuries, but I won't know if he's alright until we get this thing off him." Bruce cast a doubtful look at the beam lying across Tony's chest. Only a fraction of its weight was on the inventor, but it was enough to keep him trapped until they could move it. Stark's face was riddled with bruises and abrasions, but nothing that looked serious. He wouldn't be too happy with his self-proclaimed good looks being tarnished. Banner turned around and beckoned for Loki to come closer.
Loki obliged, though he couldn't get anywhere without limping. Banner scowled and looked the trickster up and down, moving to give him some room. "That laceration looks pretty bad…" Bruce went back to checking on Tony as Loki joined him.
"Where?" he asked, looking over the inventor and sizing up the beam that had him trapped.
"No, not him, you." Bruce pointed to his leg, which Loki hadn't looked at until now. Banner hadn't been kidding either. The leather of his pants was torn and soaked with blood, and there was a jagged gash across his calf that merited even his concern. That explained why it hurt so much. Bruce, though preoccupied by Stark's condition, actually looked worried about Loki as well. "Can your kind bleed to death?"
"Well yes," Loki said, kneeling and inspecting the metal beam, "But it takes much more than that. Is this concern for your long lost enemy, Banner?"
Bruce snorted and gave Loki what would have been a comical eye roll in any other situation. "No. You might just be useful in getting rid of our newest trouble. You'd be less useful dead or otherwise incapacitated." He sighed and checked Stark's vitals again. "He's stable, but we're not going anywhere like this. Could you… I don't know, magic this thing off him?"
Loki looked at Bruce with a raised brow. "What kind of question is this? Of course I could, but why use magic when it isn't necessary?" He placed his hands beneath the beam, looking poised to lift it.
Bruce was gazing at him with an extremely confused expression. "What are you doing? You can't lift that… can you?"
Loki sighed and gave Bruce a glare. "Of course I can you b-" he paused, many 'B' words coming to mind. Namely 'beast', 'bastard', and 'bumbling mortal idiot'. "You… Banner. I may not have all of my brother's strength but I am not as meek and feeble as you mortals are. Do you really think so little of me?"
Bruce sighed. "Well… I have seen you fight some of our best. If you're even a match for Steve or Thor then I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."
"Besides," Loki said, glancing around at their surroundings, "Removing the beam entirely could destabilize the rest of this debris and send it crashing down on top of us. It's much safer to move it long enough to rescue the… Stark."
"The Stark?" Banner chuckled, readying himself to grab Tony when he could. Truly the inventor's state was concerning to both of them; this extended amount of time spent not listening to the sound of his own voice must have been detrimental to Tony's health.
Loki didn't respond verbally, but gave Bruce a scathing look. He lifted the beam- which was heavy, but manageable- and held it just long enough for Bruce to drag Tony out into the clear. He dropped it as soon as Stark was safe, resulting in the ominous rumble of unsettled wreckage around them.
"Something tells me this place isn't going to be standing for long." Bruce said, checking Stark over more thoroughly this time. "We need to find the others and get out."
"Thank you for that observation. I'd surely be lost without you." Loki said dryly, looking at Tony as if he was a curiosity. "You mortals truly are delicate."
Bruce sighed for what seemed like the tenth time in the past few minutes. "Alright, you want to get out of here faster? Have you got any magical cure for unconsciousness?"
Loki sat for a moment in thought, then reached out and smacked Tony across the face without warning. The inventor gasped, then coughed as he inhaled a cloud of dust. This, in turn, made him wince. "Wh… what… what the fuck just happened? I feel like… like the Hulk sat on me!"
Loki snickered while Bruce fussed over Tony. "I said magic Loki, not physical trauma!"
"What? That was magic to me, I didn't think it would work." Loki enjoyed their looks of outrage for only a moment before Tony reached up and slapped him similarly across the face.
"That's what you get!" He ignored Loki's indignant snarling and looked at Bruce. "Seriously, please tell me the Hulk didn't sit on me. It feels like someone took a hammer to my ribs… Wait, did Thor hit me with Mumblewhatever?"
"Mjolnir," Loki corrected.
"Yes, I said whatever!" Tony punctuated his statement with a cough, causing Bruce to continue his fervent checking-Stark-over routine.
"There was an explosion somewhere in the building, you don't remember?" Bruce inquired, checking Stark's pupils with his cell phone's light. "Do you remember who you are?"
"Only the most attractive genius around. The world would be nothing without me." Without missing a beat he shot the two a wink, making Bruce sigh yet again and prompting Loki's scowl reflex into action.
Loki stood and walked (limped) over to the door, which was clear of debris and looked to be in working condition. If only he knew the little code that would open it… Well, hitting it with magic might do the trick. Mortal technology was so simple.
"You're lucky Tony," Bruce said as Stark swatted him away, "Looks like a few cracked ribs are the most severe of your injuries. This could have been a whole lot worse."
"Worse? I feel like I've been used as Steve's punching bag! Let me see what other Avenger jokes I can make…" Tony coughed again, but pushed Banner away as he tried to inspect him some more. "Can we get out of here?"
"I thought you'd never ask." Loki passed his hand in front of the key pad, making the things fizzle as the door slid open on its own.
"Did you see that Bruce?" Tony said in a hushed voice, "He's a Jedi."
Bruce stood up and offered his hand to Tony, which the inventor ruefully accepted after a failed attempt to stand on his own. They joined Loki at the door, Tony looking a bit unsteady on his feet. No matter how many times Bruce offered his help, though, Tony would refuse it.
Only one of the hallways leading away from the room was clear, so they didn't have much of a choice in the direction they would take. There were enough lights on out here that Bruce could put his phone away, but Tony snatched it out of his hand as he went to put it in his pocket. "Brucy Bruce, let's try calling them."
"Last time I checked there's no signal however far down we are." The trio paused as Tony leaned against an intact wall, fiddling with the cell. Bruce took every opportunity he could to check the inventor's health, which earned Stark's irritated glances.
"Can you not do that?" Tony said as Bruce insisted on checking his pulse again. "It's an invasion of my personal bubble. Can't you check on Mister Mischief or something? He looks less healthy than I am."
Loki scoffed and narrowed his eyes at Tony. "I'm perfectly fine, Stark, no thanks to you."
"Me? What did I do?" Stark asked, continuing to work on the little device to whatever end he hoped to accomplish.
"You and your S.H.I.E.L.D. friends gave that Chitauri life! I am going to be stuck on this miserable realm until this is fixed. Do you realize what an inconvenience this is?"
"Oh yeah, I'm sorry for keeping you from whatever important thing you have to do off in Asgard. By the way, whose fault is it that this alien is on our planet in the first place?" Stark dialed something in on the phone and brought it to his ear, giving Loki a scathing look.
The trickster stepped forward and glared, once again too close for Tony's comfort. "Do not mock me Sta-"
"Shut up, I'm on the phone." Tony was satisfied when Loki crossed his arms and remained silent, so he went back to listening to his dial tone. Loki walked away a few paces, only to be met by Banner's worried expression.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"I'm…" Loki stopped himself before his tone became too venomous. Bruce of all people was just trying to help, and Loki supposed he didn't really deserve all of the trickster's hate. Neither of these two did. They were the clever ones among the mortals and, surprisingly, they were the most tolerable. No, Loki wouldn't snap at them. At least he would try not to snap at them. "I am weary, but I'm fine. You should focus your efforts on escape."
"Yeah, about that…" Bruce hesitated, wringing his hands together and looking around, "I don't think there's any way out. I noticed the side of the building hit worst was where the elevator was, and I'm not sure how many other escape routes there are."
Meanwhile, Tony had apparently gotten the mobile device to work. "Hello? Steve? Speak up Cap, you sound fuzzy." Considering how inept Rogers was with most technologies it was a considerable accomplishment that he knew how to answer a cellphone.
Bruce shook his head and looked back at Loki, lowering his voice. "Can you do anything? Anything at all?"
Loki raised a brow. "What do you mean?"
"I mean… I don't know… Can you help us get out? I hate to keep asking you for magic, but…"
"Yes, I understand." Loki looked over to Stark, who was now yelling into the receiver for coherent directions from Steve. "I could… try something, but I cannot guarantee that it will work."
Bruce nodded hastily. "Anything's better than nothing. What can you do?"
"Well… I could attempt to teleport us all out, but I've never tried such a thing with so many people. I'm afraid it's no easy task in the first place." Loki paused, observing Banner's eager expression. "You would trust me?"
"We're depending on each other here, aren't we? We have to trust you if we're going to work with you."
Loki nodded, though he was quite perplexed by this. Not only would they give him trust, they would put their very lives in his hands… Of course these were desperate times, but it seemed unlikely that these mortals would so willingly rely on him. Even if Stark and Banner were being tame, the rest were unlikely to be so civil.
Tony finally lowered the phone and handed it back to Banner. "Come on, they're waiting for us. Fury thinks that Chitauri is still in the building, so we'd better be careful."
The three were on the move again. Loki and Tony could only move so fast, but the engineer said the others were nearby. Soon enough Loki found himself wondering what Stark's idea of 'nearby' was; any farther and he might just have to start complaining. The silence was much worse than the walking, though he had to admit his leg was bothering him. He'd never say such a thing out loud though. No, Loki was far too proud for that, but he would welcome a distraction nonetheless. "Stark?"
The engineer twisted to face Loki, though it looked as if the action pained him. Something that felt like sympathy made the trickster frown and mentally remind himself he was dealing with mortals, not friends. After composing himself Tony wore his usual expression of disinterest. "What?"
"Why not be like the rest of your companions?"
Tony paused, allowing Loki to catch up. "You mean, why am I not an insufferable ass to you?"
The trickster smirked as they continued, Bruce trailing behind. "For lack of more eloquent words, yes."
"Eh… let's just say we've all been the bad guy at some point. Except Steve. He thinks he's perfection incarnate, it's kind of annoying." Stark paused, then gave Loki a sideways glance. "I'd like to think that if there's bad in everyone, there's room for a little good too."
Loki couldn't help but laugh. "You expect me to be anything other than… well, me?" He smirked and looked forward again, ducking some hanging wires in his path. "I've long given up on serving anyone other than myself."
Tony's expression remained impassive, but Loki thought, if only for a moment, the inventor smiled. "And look at you now. Helping us mortals, because we're too stupid for our own good. Right?"
"Yes, but only on Odin's orders…"
"Stop it with that. You and I both know you'd do whatever you want, regardless of what big bad Daddy says. You've yet to kill any of us, or even try, so what's stopping me from thinking you've already changed?"
Loki scowled. "He is not my father. And you are wrong, Stark, I haven't changed."
Tony was right though. Infuriatingly correct. Of course Loki would defy Odin if he really wanted to, the All-father's punishment was not enough to stop him. It had been a convenient excuse to go along with the mortals, to help them only because he had no other choice. But the truth? He had more freedom here than he did in Asgard, and he was enjoying it. Even if he wasn't in his rightful place as a ruler, and even if he was among mortals of all people, Midgard had a certain allure that Asgard would always lack. Asgard was downright repulsive these days. Ruling it would be satisfying to an extent, but destroying it might finally bring him peace.
Peace. What an idealistic sentiment.
Stark shrugged as they maneuvered around a particularly tricky pile of rubble. Something about his smug attitude was irritating. Before Loki could say anything though, Bruce had grabbed them both by the arm and pulled them back. He pressed a finger against his lips in a request for silence. "Do you hear something?"
The three became still, listening intently for whatever Bruce had heard. At some point during their journey the sounds of alarms stopped, leaving the place eerily quiet. Every spark of a wire and every falling rock echoed through the empty hallways, but they had yet to come across another living thing. Simply standing around and hearing the sounds in the dim destruction made the place that much more foreboding. After about a minute of disappointing silence, however, Tony sighed and moved to continue down the hallway. "There's nothing there, c'mon."
"Shh! Tony, stop!" Bruce said frantically, grabbing the engineer's arm again. They all froze to listen once more, and this time they heard it.
There were footsteps coming from just above them. Someone was walking around on the next floor up, and whoever it was stopped nearly as soon as the trio had silenced themselves.
"That could be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, could it not?" Loki uttered in a voice so soft it was barely audible.
The other two nodded, but no one seemed willing to say anything else. After a moment of waiting they heard the steps heading away in the direction they had come from. Bruce breathed a sigh of relief and they all turned to leave, but another sound caught their attention.
"Is that you, Loki of Asgard?"
Tony and Bruce would have heard the Chitauri's native tongue, no more than chattering snarly nonsense. But not Loki. He spoke the All-tongue just as any Asgardian would, and he understood the creature's language as if it was his own. And it knew he was here. It also knew that its army had lost the battle, so it would be out for revenge on those who defeated it. And the leader who had failed it.
"We need to leave. Now." Loki said hurriedly and encouraged the other two down the hallway. They set off at a steady jog, but just as soon as they made it to the next passage the ceiling where they had been standing mere moments before gave way. The Chitauri jumped down from the floor above, brandishing a long spear-like weapon it had stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession; one of the many energy weapons they had seen the Chitauri use during the battle. Loki glanced back just long enough to see it bare its teeth and set off after them.
"This way!" Tony said, taking off down a different hallway. The other two followed, but the Chitauri was not far behind. It had gotten so much closer in so little time… Loki began to wonder about what Banner mentioned about its augmented strength. How could the thing be so fast? Loki knew Stark and Banner were outmatched without the Iron Man suit and the Hulk, neither of which would be easily accessible at the moment. Loki might be able to handle the creature, but he had never been the warrior type. He was a strategist above all else, and rushing headlong into a fight against an enemy he did not yet fully understand was not a valid strategy.
"How much further?" Bruce asked as they rounded another corner, ducking an energy blast that narrowly missed their heads.
"In here." Tony said, abruptly darting from the path and opening one of the many lab doors. The three rushed inside and hastily closed the door behind them, bolting it. As if that would keep the Chitauri out for long. They took a moment to catch their breath, Loki balancing on his good leg and leaning against the wall. It wasn't until they looked around that they saw the rest of the Avengers barricaded in the room, gathered around Fury. Curiously there weren't any S.H.I.E.L.D. agents about. The director probably had them out alien hunting. All eyes were on the three in a matter of moments, and in time enough to blink, Clint, Natasha, and Fury had all drawn their weapons and pointed them at Loki. Even Steve picked up a gun from somewhere and had his sights trained on the trickster.
"Oh hey, what's up guys?" Tony said, breathless. Bruce looked extremely uncertain, as if he didn't quite know whose side he was supposed to be on.
Fury looked… well, furious. "What's up? What's up? We've got a rogue alien running loose and a base that's falling apart and you bring in this guy?" He looked at Loki. "You've got about three seconds to explain what you're doing here before I start shooting."
"Yeah. I thought you were staying back at the tower." Steve said, to which Fury looked even more dissatisfied.
"Excuse me? You knew about this?"
Steve looked abashed as he realized his mistake, but that didn't take away his resolve. "It's a long story."
Thor was the only one to advance, though more out of concern than aggression. Fury was highly annoyed that the Thunderer crossed into his line of sight, but to Thor this was of no consequence. "How fare you brother?"
Loki sighed. Thor's concern reminded him too much of days gone by, but in light of the convenient protection he was currently offering, his attention wasn't altogether unwelcome. "Well enough."
Thor somehow managed to ignore Fury's angry torrent of threats. "You're injured."
"You're not. I'm disappointed." Loki gave Thor a smirk. He was only half kidding.
A loud bang at the door snapped everyone's attention back to their present situation. Bruce and Tony hastily joined the others, and Fury (extremely reluctantly) pointed his weapon at the door.
"We'll have to take a stand here before we can escape. If we can escape." Leave it to Fury to be negative. "Even if we kill this thing, getting out of here's not going to be easy."
Another bang, and this time… it wasn't at the door? This one sounded like it was coming from above. Everyone pointed their weapons to the ceiling.
"I don't think it's trying to get in," Clint said, backing away from where the noise had come from.
"No," Steve agreed, lowering his gun. "It's trying to bury us."
Fury crossed his arms, weapon still in hand. "Well shit. I, for one, am not going to stay trapped in a corner."
"I don't think any of us are keen on that idea." Bruce leaned over to look past Thor, nodding toward Loki. "Right?"
The trickster frowned. "I suppose not." He managed to step around Thor and beckon to the others as another blast shook the walls around them. This time a light rain of dust fell from the ceiling and the walls began to crack. Bruce and Tony hastily joined him in the middle of the room, and after a moment, so did Thor. Loki suspected Thor already knew the plan.
"And what do you think you're doing?" Fury barked, looking about ready to shoot something.
Loki sighed and beckoned for the others once more, slightly more exasperated this time. "Leaving. Care to join us?" He smirked at the indecision on Fury's face. There were few things more satisfying than confusing the Director like this, but Natasha's obstinate expression came very close.
"What, you mean like… magic?" Clint asked, relaxing the tension on his bowstring.
"Yes, now come along. Or would you rather wait to be buried?" They didn't need to be told again at the sound of another blast; this one caused a few ominous cracks in the surrounding structures. The remaining four gathered around looking anxious, but their determination to live was far stronger than any fear they might have of Loki's magic.
Loki raised his hands, his palms facing upward. It had been a long time since he tried something like this… He felt slightly out of practice. He took a deep breath, acutely aware of the nervous mortals around him. Was he really helping them this time around? It seemed so unbelievable. Loki closed his eyes and began whispering a spell. The familiar tingle of magic worked its way through his spine and down his fingers, and with any hope the mortals he intended to bring with him could feel it too. He raised his hands a little higher, made his voice a little louder, and…
He really hoped this would work.
Look, there was some character development! And let me tell you, this isn't the last of Tony and Loki's troubles, this is just the beginning. I hope you enjoyed this one! I adore your reviews, and the more I get the more motivated I am to write.
As always, thank you for reading. Until next time!
~Nightlance
