AUTHORS NOTE: Sorry it's late again! But it is a longer chapter this time. I'll try to edit better tomorrow yadda, yadda, yadda...Enjoy!


"GRENADE!"

Agent Mills was the first to tear her eyes away from the screens. The first to see the grenade drop into the meeting room. People shot to the floor as she jumped over the table to do the same. The explosion sent ears ringing and equipment into pieces. The screens of Loki's burnt face had fallen to static by the time the smoke started to clear. Agents and heroes checked their injuries and pulled first aid kits from under desks.

"Can I go back to the ground and gank that son of a bitch, now?" Dean got back onto his feet with only a little wince. Like he'd had one too many explosions today and wasn't going to let this one set him back. Kevin wasn't far behind.

"You think he's still on the ground? How else did that grenade get in here?"

Chuck was looking out the windows like he hadn't even noticed the explosions. Come to think of it, no one was sure he'd even ducked for it.

"He's still on the ground." Director Chuck dismissed. "The Avengers should probably go find him."

Just as Crowley opened his mouth to start complaining about the décor of the quinjets, Chuck clicked his fingers, and earth's mightiest heroes disappeared.


The Winter Soldier didn't know what he was doing here. He couldn't see his master. Rubble crunched under his boots as he walked. Rubble. No bodies. He wasn't sure how he knew this was where he should be. In all honesty, it didn't feel like he should be there. He stiffened at the sound of the voice that could control him.

"Sam." He turned to see Loki, he hadn't been there a moment before. "My favourite! You leave Deano alive?"

"Yes." The reply came without Sam needing to think it. Compliance had been made his reflex. But he could remember a time before that now. He fisted a hand. He remembered now.

"Good, good." Loki nodded. "I meant what I said. Do whatever the hell you want now. I think I've made my point with you. None of this will last much longer anyway. "

That was it. Loki turned to leave without another word. As if Sam's torture hadn't been important. As if Sam wasn't a threat. Sam bit the inside of his cheek. Glaring down the back of the man walking away from him, the man who'd manipulated him. Dozens had done this to him over the decades, but this one was here now. He needed a weapon. Anything. Parts of building that he could hit him around the head with or…Sam's eyes found a great silver hammer, handle sticking up just for him.

The ex-Soldier marched to it, eyes still on Loki's back. He pulled it from the ground and swung it in Loki's direction. He'd only meant to lift it in a threat – but thunder crackled up ahead. Light cracked around the head of the hammer and lightning shot forward.

The explosion of hammer-induced-weather subsided. Loki was gone and the lightning had scared the building across the street. Sam's hair was wild. All he could do was stare at the hammer in his hand and the writing engraved on it.

Whoever holds this hammer,
if he be worthy,
Shall possess the power of Thor.


[LIKE TEN MINUTES AGO]

The rubble and debris had settled in silence. Distant sirens. The sound of the breeze. They were the only things that disrupted the peace of the godly corpses. Loki's sceptre still glowed. The blue was the only shot of colour amongst the charcoal black and crumbling greys. In the middle of the destruction, it began to pulse.

The blue flashed until slowly…it began to move. It rose through one of the corpses bodies…the one who had been run through with the sceptre. The blue of the tesseract pulsed faster and settled in the centre of the skull.

More flashes. The pulses would've been felt in the air if anyone had been there. In the next flash, the blue coated the entire street. Only for a moment, but it was pure and magnificent.

By the time Gabriel pushed himself back onto his feet and yanked his sceptre out of his brother's body – that shiny blue thing in the middle had gone. Ah, well. He shrugged and stepped over some rubble. Style isn't everything.

His back was turned to the other body. He didn't see it slowly begin to seal over in a deep, bloody red. Who was he kidding? Style was everything. A grenade appeared in his hand and he prepared to send his resurrection to all of SHIELD. By the time he had, he didn't notice that the other corpse was gone.


"Ugh," Dean stumbled forward a little. Now, the Avengers stood back on the streets of Manhattan. How Chuck had done that was something to think about. "I'm not going to poop for a week…Well, Sammy's down here. So I'm gonna look for him and you can text me if you find that dick of a Trickster."

"That's very patriotic, Cap." Kevin said dryly. His look was one of disdain for the lack of intellect in other people's logic. "But-"

Crack. The clouds above them parted without revealing any more blue. When the Avengers looked up, they saw a tear in the fabric of the universe. The stars and emptiness of space circled up ahead, with aliens pouring out of it. Some had similar frames to humans under all those jagged edges and slimy scales. The others though…they were giant freakin' worms.

"But that."

Dean made a noise of frustration and lifted his shield higher. Charlie had lifted a gun before remembering her new magic. She smirked up at the aliens. Crowley rolled his eyes under his helmet. Kevin pulled out an arrow. The Avengers were ready to meet Loki's alien army and go down fighting. Before they could do that, a deep voice came from behind them, and they jumped around to face the figure.

"This all seems horrible."


Agent Mills looked up to Chuck, one of the less battered agents tended to her wounds.

"How could Loki survive an explosion with that sort of blast?"

"He didn't. Not really." Chuck didn't look away from the scene of Manhattan before them. That poor little island. This had to be it's third apocalypse in two days. An explosion burst over one block after he'd spoken. Chuck shoved his hands in his dressing gown pockets and sighed. "I'm going to have to go down there and remind him of that."


"Cas you're alive?" Dean stared at the figure in disbelief with the rest of them. Cas was floating. Cas was multi coloured. Cas had a shiny forehead.

"I'm better than that." His smile was subtle and kind. "I do believe the infinity stone brought me back. New and improved."

"New and improved?" Kevin looked him up and down. "Dude, you're red."

Cas drew his eyebrows in, before he could reply, the Avengers heard the rumble of a motorbike engine. Civilians had either fled or locked themselves away. Anyone taking a leisurely drive through the city needed to be questioned. No one moved when they registered the man on the bike, but they became more alert. All, apart from Dean, who took a few steps forward and let his guard down.

The bike clogged to a stop and Sam climbed off, he dragged Mjolnir at his side. He held it like it was just another one of the Soldiers knives, not an ancient Norse artefact. He took a few steps forward too. He stopped a few feet in front of Dean but didn't push his boundaries. He didn't understand how he wasn't collapsed and bloody in the street where he'd left them. He wasn't 100% sure why he was being smiled at.

"Sammy?"

"Dean." He'd meant to sound stronger than that. He was still exhausted and confused and guilty, but he felt a spark of calm too. Like he had by the car. Dean smiled more. He walked closer to him.

"Jerk."

Sam broke out a smile.

"Bitch."

Relief spurred Dean into hugging his brother. The Avengers stared on fondly…Most of them, anyway.

"When you're done with your little chick flick moment," Crowley grumbled from under his Iron Man helmet. "I think we have a world to save."

It was practically on cue, that one of the giant worm monsters made a groaning dive between the buildings the Avengers had covered. It was slow – but it was huge and impending. Its teeth were longer than every single one of them there. Even Sam. Crowley looked around the group expectantly.

"Anyone got some shocking and fantastic hidden talents they haven't told us about? Anything that could come in handy here?" Crowley sighed and took off his helmet. He plonked it over Dean's head on his way past him – which was met with a lot of complaining that he ignored. "Well, I do. Since none of you bothered to ask what happened to me in that lab accident that sent me to Calcutta. Try not to wet your favourite knickers."

With that, Crowley's skin swelled into green. His Iron Man suit began to burst off as he grew, and roared, and became one throbbing mass of Hulk. He landed a punch forward just as the great alien worm reached them.

"Well," Sam said. Stumped. "Yeah, that'll help."

Parts of Iron Man shot backwards for the helmet. Dean dropped his shield and skidded across the street as the metal armour swarmed him. Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch shared a glance and fell into taking down the aliens that had begun to litter the street. Sam was getting the hand of using Mjolnir, helping the big green monster take down the big worm monster. Things had escalated quickly, sure, but it felt good to be fighting on the right side.

"This thing has good balance." Sam said to Cas, after he'd smashed one of the aliens in the head with it and sent them flying across the street. Cas nodded. Laser light shot from the stone on his head and took down a line of aliens.

"Well, if there's too much weight, you lose power on the swing."

Dean broke through them, chased by more of the metal from Iron Man's suit. One arm had been completely engulfed already.

"Leave me alone!" Blue power shot out of his palm and through an aliens head. "Okay, that was cool…"

More pieces of the suit managed to snap around him. Dean was getting the hang of working it, he shot through more of the monsters. Even when he tripped over, he recovered in the air. Dean laughed, a whole new range of possibilities for ass-kicking was entering his head.

"Oh yeah, bitches!" He shot a line through a group of the monsters swarming Charlie and Kevin. "You ain't seen nothing of Dean Rogers yet!"

With that, You ain't seen nothing yet started blasting from the Iron Man helmet. Dean only had to listen to it for a few seconds before he felt so happy he could cry. He spoke with complete sincerity.

"This is the best day of my life."

Crowley-Hulk smashed the aliens to pieces. Kevin shot arrow after arrow at the things without breaking sweat. Charlie was working her magic…literally. Making the odd butterfly or bird out of sparkling red for the fun of it.

Soon, the street was clear of aliens. More broke away from a group a few streets down. A group that looked to be guarding something.

"I'm guessing that's where Loki is." Charlie said, and the magical red scenery flashed away. "I vote we take him down."

Crowley-Hulk grunted his agreement. The Avengers charged forward. Captain America's abandoned shield scraped along the road as Sam stepped over it. Kevin wasn't going to let it go.

"Hey wait," They all turned to face him. He still had his fingers between the arrow in his bow. "Am I the only one who hasn't changed super identity?"

The Avengers glanced around, realised he was right, and shrugged. Kevin nodded and loaded away his bow and arrow.

"Screw that. I always wanted to be the first Asian superhero for the United States, anyway." Kevin walked to the head of the group, picking up Dean's abandoned shield as he did so.

"Now, Avengers," He turned back to them one last time, before lifting Captain America's shield as his own and looking at the army ahead of them. "Assemble!"


AUTHORS NOTE 2: Next week our story concludes. The newly masked Avenger gang try to stop Loki once and for all as Chuck and Gabriel fight it out…over which Hunter they fan cast as which Avenger - in Chapter. 10 "Assemble!"