I awoke with a jerk from a dream about toe jam sandwiches. Nasty. The room was empty, but it didn't feel empty. Someone had opened the curtains up, revealing the chartreuse electric storm and vortex of clouds in the sky. I frowned. Tony closed the curtain so I did not have to see (an oddly kind gesture for a narcissist). I scanned the room but saw noone, chalked it up to being overly paranoid, and went to take a shower in Tony's private bath.

The hot water felt phenomenal. I let it pour over my sore muscles, slowly working out the kinks in my shoulders from swinging the bat so hard. My thighs were still a little sore from Loki's harsh prying hands. He was so beautiful and terrible…my mind wandered back to that meeting in his room. Why did he have to be so fucking scary?

"If I had asked nicely, would you have been so willing?" Loki had asked. I pondered that question as the heat from the water stirred something between my legs. Without even realizing it, my hand had slid between them, satiating the ache that had begun there. And I was still thinking about the strange God…

I jerked my hand away and pushed those weird thoughts from my mind, turned off the water and toweled myself off. Once again I felt eyes upon my skin. Goosebumps broke out across my arms…I pulled the towel tightly around me.

"Why hide yourself from me? I have already seen you like this."

I cried out, and a hand clamped over my mouth. "HE will come now, to check on you. You will tell him you are okay, and get rid of him. If you do not do as I say, I will kill him slowly and make you watch. Do you understand? He is vulnerable to me without his precious suit."

I nodded, and sure enough Tony came into the bedroom doorway. "Are you okay?" he called out.

"Yes," I said, my voice shaking a bit as I stepped from the bathroom. "I just slipped getting out of the shower.. I'm okay. I'm going to get dressed now."

He studied me for a moment. Finally after a painfully long moment of waiting, he nodded and went back into the other room. I felt breath upon my neck.

"That's a good little one," he said. "You were thinking about me in the shower." His lips brushed my ear. "I was quite enjoying the show."

"What the fuck do you want?" I asked spinning around to face him. "Why don't you stop this madness?"

He leaned close to me and I stiffened. Loki sniffed at my neck. "You smell frightened, my lovely. I do love that smell." He licked the curve of my neck. "And the taste, oh, the taste." His voice had grown husky. "I will enjoy frightening you and using you for a very long time."

I jerked away. "I'm not your toy."

"Do you pull away from me because you are frightened, or because I make you feel something more? Something that your Iron Man would not like very much at all?" he smiled maliciously.

I felt my face begin to burn with embarrassment. I wasn't sure what the fuck I was feeling. Extremely confused was as close as I could come to explaining it.

Loki took a moment to watch my face. His green eyes were glittering. "You see, girl, you are my toy. And we have not even begun to have our fun yet." He crossed the room. "I have to go now, but I will be seeing you again very soon." He winked and disappeared, just as the Avengers crashed through the door. I was still standing in the doorway to the bathroom, just where Tony had left me, a towel wrapped tightly around me. My eyes were huge as I stared apologetically at them.

"That little fuck was here, wasn't he?" Tony yelled.

"He said he would kill you and make me watch," I said softly. "I don't want you to die, Tony, I'm sorry. If he kills me, he just kills me. I don't want to fucking die, but I don't want him to kill anyone else because of me."

Tony sat on the bed as the others looked around the room. He patted it, and I obediently went to sit beside him. It was funny how obedient I had become when it came to this man. "Next time, I don't care what he fucking tells you, you scream bloody goddamn murder, you understand me?" He took my chin roughly in his hand and made me look at him. "Do you?"

I nodded and he loosened his hold. His eyes softened. "He is a trickster, Journey. He lies. And I mean to have his fucking head on his own staff for what he did to you, and for what he has done to our world." He slid his hand down to my neck. I shivered. The strange feelings inside of me were making me feel giddy almost. I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. Hysterical. I took a deep breath and tried to center myself.

"Clear!" Bruce yelled from the bathroom.

"He isn't alone," I said. "He is working with someone else."

Clint sat on the bed on the other side of me. "So you have said before. Any idea who that is?"

I shook my head. "He didn't get comfy and smug enough to tell me. Just that he was some kind of high wizard or some shit. Sound like Dungeons and Dragons to me." I laughed uneasily. Because it did sound like some kind of D&D game, but it wasn't, it was real. This is the big time, baby, I thought.

"How's JARVIS?" I asked.

Tony looked pissed. "Someone has hacked me, and I can't get back control. It's insane, all the security codes, all the protocol, and…"

"Wait," I said, "did you just say you were hacked?"

Tony arched an eyebrow at me. "Don't rub it in, Pom Pom Queen."

I was twisting the sheet excitedly in my hands. "Don't you remember when we were-uhm-the first day and we were-"

"Fucking," Natasha said, strolling up behind Clint and setting a hand on his shoulder. "We are all adults here."

"I love it when she talks dirty and puts her hands on me," Clint grinned.

She smacked him in the back of the head. "Okay, well, most of us are. Anyway, what's your point?"

"My point it, that at some point in time, Nick Fury was trying to get ahold of Tony, but Tony told JARVIS to ignore the call. And when you all came barging in, JARVIS was saying that his command prompts had been overridden. Which one of you did that?"

Bruce and Steve were standing by the bed now as well. They looked at each other. "Did any of you do it?" I asked.

They all began to shake their heads. "It had to have been Fury," Tony said, catching what I was getting at. "And if he never gave back control of JARVIS…but why? And," he looked around the room, "where the fuck is Mr. Pissy One Eye anyway?" He sprang from the bed and ran back into the living room.

I jumped from the bed, modesty forgotten, and starting pulling clothes from my bag. Bruce looked at me and smiled. "I must say once again, nice view in this room," he quipped and then turned and walked away.

If I were more of a girly girl, I would have giggled like a fucking hyena and blushed…but instead, I just blushed and followed him out of the bedroom. I had fought my hysteria too much to let the Hulk make it come pouring out. Why did there have to be so many sexy fucking people in this goddamn penthouse?

Tony was standing in front of Fury, his arms crossed. The one eyed man was still sitting at the little table, sipping his drink, and looking thoughtfully out the window at the storm.

"You know," he said, "That could use a little hail, don't you think?" And with a flick of his fingers, hail began to drum down on the decking outside.

Steve winced. "That's a blow to the ego that we did not realize that you're not Director Fury."

Fury laughed. "Good boy," he said. The ice clinked in his glass as he drained it. "I am indeed not Mr. Nick Fury. But I do make a good likeness, do I not?"

"Who the fuck are you then?" Natasha growled, pulling her gun and pointing it at the imposter. "And where is Fury?"

The fake stood and held his arms open toward us. "Come now, let's not resort to weapons. I, as you can see, am unarmed."

"I wouldn't exactly call being able to create lightening and hail from thin air, not to mention making corpses rise from the dead, being 'unarmed', would you?" I asked.

The feral teeth baring smile returned to his lips. "You make a valid point, my dear. How rude of me to not introduce myself properly."

That was when his skin began to melt revealing smooth gray scales that undulated across him. His eyes became the color of lava, shimmering in their sockets. "My name," he said with a raspy voice, "is Nergaul. I am ancient as the sun, and have been here since the dawning of time. I have watched man rise and fall through the ages like a plague upon the Earth. I have enjoyed millennia of your wickedness. All acts of pain and deceit, rape and murder, torture and theft, are mine." He bowed at the waist, and tipped his face up toward ours. "I am the bringer of tempests and the ruler of all that is dead. And now, I am your God."

Steve opened his mouth, no doubt to spit out something extremely self righteous, but closed it again, and shook his head. "This is crazy," he muttered instead. "Natasha, just shoot him."

"Happy to comply," she said and pulled the trigger. The bullet blasted from the chamber, hung in midair, and then dropped to the carpet with a soft thump. "Fuck," she breathed.

Nergaul clapped his hands together with glee. "Loki said you would all be very amusing to play with," he tittered. "I am so pleased that I listened to him for once. He is a complete and utter fool, but occasionally, he has to get something right, yes?"

Tony was standing in the room with his arms crossed. "Uhmmm, no actually. Now give me back my JARVIS, and stop turning my employees into zombies, would you?"

Nergaul tittered again. "Such a forceful one," he twiddled his fingers together. "Loki really hates you. With a passion, as you say. I am afraid I cannot comply to your demands, Mr. Stark."

"He hates to be called that," I said. "Makes him feel like a dad."

When Nergaul grinned, I was not surprised to see rows of sharp little razor like teeth poking nastily out of orange tinted gums. He flicked a forked tongue out at me for a moment. "Ah, and he has told me much about you. He was very right about your life spark. Drinking the essence of your fear will be quite delicious."

"That shit is honestly starting to creep me out," I countered. "All you fucked up Gods what to talk about is "smelling my fear", and "tasting my essence". That is not how you pick up a woman, you know. Aren't you supposed to be all knowing?"

Nergaul shook his head. "No, that's the Other God," he crossed himself and spit in the floor. The spot began to sizzle. Once again, not surprising.

Steve just about lost composure then. "Son of a BITCH!" he roared. "This has gone far enough! I am tired of all the incessant blasphemy-"

Nergaul put up his hand. "Son, I am older than your God, and twice as vengeful. I do not want to get into a debate about whose god is whose, that would just be dull. I would rather play a little game."

"What kind of game?" Steve growled, angry at having been cut off.

"How about blackjack?" Tony said. "Or strip poker? I rock at that game."

The god tittered again. "No, no, nothing like that. You do amuse me, Tony Stark. I do not know what Loki goes on and on about. No, those games will not do." He flicked his wrist in the air again and snapped his fingers. That sensation of falling came again, but this time there was no blacking out.

We landed on our feet in soft grass. I looked around me to see the others all standing, dazed looks upon their faces. I had done this a time or two, and my stomach didn't even flutter much this time around. It appeared that we were in some sort of field between the city and some forest.

"Where are we?" I asked.

A voice from up above me tittered and answered, "You are very close to home. I thought you would enjoy a little time among the locals. Loki will not approve, but then, who cares?" He laughed.

We looked up to see Nergaul sitting high in the branches of an old oak tree. He pointed a gnarled finger. I could see the city beyond the large field we were in. Smoke was rising from various areas, the lights were mostly out. It looked like a war zone. Stark Tower stood like a glowing beacon high above the other buildings, still lit by its own internal arc reactors.

"You must fight your way back to the Tower, to be able to stop all this. If you survive, that is. Get back home, back to the top and scream my name to the heavens. I will make it all end." Nergaul smiled his razor smile, and disappeared. "If you want your world back, you must do this. I will be watching," his disembodied voice echoed and faded away.

"Anyone else reminded of the Cheshire Cat?" Clint said softly.

"Yeah," Tony answered. "And he was mad….but we are all mad here." He came up behind me and put his arm around my waist, hugging me tight to his side. "Looks like we get to find out just how superhero we are, without all the suits and weapons and hype."

"Fuck," I said. "This is going to hurt a little."