Sam grit his teeth and took the sudden rush of absolute, excruciating pain that hit him when he woke up. According to Loki this would last anywhere from forty-five minutes to a full hour. Still it was preferable to having to deal with the agonizing pain keeping him awake for almost three days.
Dean wasn't much better, but at least they had each other to complain and bitch about the process.
It hadn't taken long before they began a morbid game of 'who had the worst pain/injury and why'.
It did little to take the edge off it, but it did make passing the time a bit more bearable.
Finally, when they could at least move without nearly screaming in agony from their muscles feeling over-strained, despite having slept for nearly three days, they left the panic room.
Loki would teach Sam some of the standard moves of Asgard to work out whatever kinks they had, once they'd stretched. It would still take them a day or two before they were able to even remotely claim they were back up to hunting again though.
When Thor hadn't made an appearance in a full week, Loki realized that either he wasn't on Earth at the moment or he was showing a degree of patience Loki wouldn't have thought possible for him.
At this point his nerves were frayed enough after having to deal with War and the not so fun two days of Ellen finding out they were no longer entirely human.
Okay, so he hadn't known she had a cousin who lived in New York who had gotten badly hurt during the invasion...but shooting him in the ass was completely uncalled for!
Loki decided it was probably best to simply bite the bullet and go to New York, rather than wait until Thor found them and made a nuisance of himself.
However Dean refused to take the Impala to New York, citing their vacation in which there had been a large number of traffic congestion in three blocks alone on a good day. And that wasn't getting into the fact that while he might bond with Stark over classic cars, he didn't want to give the spies a chance to put a bug in his baby.
They might accidentally stumble onto something they shouldn't, and that would cause a whole mess of trouble he'd like to avoid, thank you very much.
Sam didn't mind, as he had already mapped out a few new musicals to drag Dean and Loki too. He had enjoyed his vacation in New York, invasion notwithstanding.
And since they were heading to the recently dubbed "Avengers Tower", Dean was planning to either drag Castiel with them, or make him act as their ride to the city.
Castiel apparently liked planes less than Dean did, even if he was learning how to use a phone.
He not only dropped them three blocks from the tower, but he also agreed to appear once Sam prayed to him personally. Loki was slowly but surely corrupting Castiel. It didn't help that he was so out of touch with humans.
It took them fifteen minutes to reach the tower...and three before they were more or less ushered through the elevator doors to an overly intrigued Tony Stark.
"So our Good Samaritans from the invasion finally came back. You do have names, right?" said Tony.
Sam snorted. Tony Stark was like a much more hyper version of Dean before Loki woke up.
"We do, but I have something to say to the bird brain currently hiding in the vents," said Dean.
Tony and the other Avengers paused, before Clint (how he fit into Tony's tiny ass vents no one knew) came out and looked at Dean.
He eyed Dean up, but clearly didn't recognize him.
"You have something against me?" he asked.
Without much warning at all, Dean shifted into Loki.
"More along the lines of I'm giving you a free shot without having to worry about me retaliating," deadpanned Loki.
Clint stiffened. Hell, every Avenger in the room stiffened at the sudden appearance of the god who had caused so much trouble.
Sam, bless him, had the presence of mind to slap Loki on the head.
"Loki either you explain properly or I'm bringing Bobby hear to give you a lecture. Or I'll call Ellen to really give you a headache," said Sam.
Startled by the sudden attack and the fact Loki was not only letting it slide, but he just seemed annoyed, Clint decided to take action.
Within three steps he was in Loki's personal space and gut-checked him before landing a particularly vicious hit with his knee to Loki's groin.
Loki went down, and Sam snorted.
"You did say you were willing to have your ass handed to you."
"I also said he got one free hit, not two!" snapped Loki, wincing. God or not, no man liked being nailed in that area. Considering Clint wasn't Thor, Loki recovered within a few seconds.
"So. Are you two the Good..." started Tony, but Sam raised his hand.
"We're aware of the nickname you gave us. And our names are Sam and Dean Winchester. Even if Loki is currently in control at the moment," said Sam. Then he turned mischievous. "He's also behind the pranks on both you and whoever found the weapons missing."
"Wait...that was you?" said Tony, almost eager until he remembered who he was talking to.
Loki rolled his eyes.
"If you're worried about a repeat of last time, don't. I've more than paid for the sins of falling prey to the Mad Titan, let alone the other ones I'll not go into."
"Wait. Mad Titan?" repeated Natasha.
"When I attacked New York, it was under the orders of Thanos, the Mad Titan. Like Agent Barton I either followed his demands or I lost my free will. And to be quite blunt I was still pissed with Odin and Thor after the mess that caused me to fall from the bifrost in the first place. Thanos could care less about Earth save for the fact that he knew it could grow into a genuine threat to his plans. So he used me in order to nip that threat in the bud," said Loki flatly.
Seeing the collective blink, Loki added "Check the pictures of when you took me to the helicarrier and compare it to Barton's after I took control over him. See if you can pick up the similarity between them. Though it's also part of the reason I'm still displeased with Thor."
Tony hacked the files, and it took all of two minutes before Banner figured it out.
"The eyes. It's the eyes."
Tony zoomed in on Loki's face. Sure enough, his eyes were an electric blue color instead of the green they were now. The same electric blue that Clint had while under Loki's control.
With that sort of proof it was hard not to believe Loki.
"If you really were in New York during the invasion, why did you help us instead of warn yourself?" asked Clint. He hadn't fully forgiven that incident, but he was willing to give Loki the benefit of the doubt.
"There are many afterlives which all living beings might eventually end up. As an Asgardian, I am slated either for Valhalla or Helhiem upon death. As humans you have one of three choices depending on how you die. Heaven, hell or purgatory. However my destination was...mixed up...for lack of a better term."
"Mixed up?" repeated Steve. "How do you end up getting a mix-up like that?"
Loki had a pained expression on his face. Sam decided to take up where he left off.
"He made a demon deal, and because he didn't remember he was Loki he went to hell for four months. Which, at the level he was at before he was freed by an angel, was equivalent to forty years here," said Sam. "Coincidentally it's also why he suddenly regained his memories despite the seal Odin put on them as his punishment."
"What's a demon deal?" asked Tony at the same time Steve asked with a hopeful voice "Angels are real?"
Loki gave Sam an expression that said 'You tell them. I'm not dealing with their idiocy without something strong to drink'.
"What do you know about hunters?" asked Sam, figuring that was the best way to start.
Two days later...
Thor had been searching for days to find Loki now that he was back to normal...unfortunately magic wasn't his forte and his mother refused to help.
So when he arrived in the Avengers Tower, he honestly didn't expect to see more than his mortal friends.
"Thor! Was wondering when you'd be back. Meet Sam and Dean Winchester...aka the mystery Good Samaritans that have been driving Fury up the wall," said Tony cheerfully.
Dean kept his back facing to Thor, while Sam seemed innocent enough. Except he was almost the same height and build as Heimdall, with the intelligence of Loki.
A fierce combination.
Speaking of Loki.
"I have been unable to locate my brother's mortal form. I was hoping you could assist me in that endeavor, Man of Iron," said Thor.
Unnoticed by the blond, Dean was visibly trying to hold back what was clearly laughter. Also unseen by Thor was the fact that Natasha, Steve and Clint were handing Dean twenty bucks each. The longer it took Thor to figure out the truth, the more money Dean made off the three.
He had bet them it would take him transforming into his Asgardian form before Thor clued into the fact that he was Loki. They had been the only ones who hadn't believed him when he said Thor was that dense.
If he hadn't figured it out by dinner, Loki was going to prank him to clue him in. As it was, he was waiting for Thor to figure out Sam had transitioned from 'human' to 'Asgardian'.
It took a minor accident with a metal fork before Thor picked that up. Sam still wasn't used to his new strength, though to his credit he kept his eyes on Natasha's face rather than her chest or ass. Especially when she was sparring with him.
Dean generally fought Clint, and it was clear that he was trying to mend bridges...or shut Sam up.
Clint more or less forgave Loki properly when he 'accidentally' nailed said god in the ass with one of his arrows.
Which, funnily enough launched yet another Winchester barb session which the Avengers watched with mounting glee as you could tell neither of them meant half the things they said. Tony even brought popcorn.
Tony easily agreed to help, though Thor didn't have enough specifics to make it worthwhile...and he was discreetly looking at a still shaking Dean who was clearly trying not to laugh.
When Thor did finally look Dean in the face, he dismissed him completely as Loki. What he didn't see was Dean giving the three a smug look and accepting yet another round of twenties.
Thor finally caught on to the fact Loki was there...after his brother smashed a large water balloon full of enchanted paint on Thor's head, turning his hair a neon purple color that just clashed with his own.
"Loki?"
"You are the most dense idiot in all the nine realms. I was here since you arrived and not once did you even sense me," said Loki. Though Sam could see he was slightly hurt that Thor couldn't sense him as easily as Sam could.
Sam always knew when Loki was in trouble.
Seeing Thor's expression, Sam intervened.
"Hi, I'm Loki's mortal brother," he said calmly. His grip paid testament to the fact he was no longer human.
Thor's eyes widened in realization.
"The Allfather was generous during the trials," said Thor somewhat tactfully.
"More like Loki said that if Dean and I couldn't pass the trials together, then he didn't want to return to Asgard in the first place," said Sam.
Seeing Thor's shock, Sam smiled wryly.
"You'll find that Dean is a rather big influence on Loki, and vice-versa."
Loki specialized in transformation and illusions, but he was a jack-of-all-trades magic wise. To prove a point to Thor, who found Loki's closeness to Sam rather suspicious (as had the Avengers, until they realized there were no romantic feelings between them, but a sort of bond like one you would find in twins) Loki set up a test.
He made fifty fakes and had Thor attempt to pick the real one out. Every time he designated one as a false, it would vanish leaving the rest.
These fakes covered all the senses available, and not even JARVIS was able to tell which one was real from his sensors.
None of the Avengers could guess which was the real Loki, and he had guaranteed a free shot at him if they could. Or a week free of pranks.
The only one who successfully managed to narrow down the real Loki with any real consistency (they repeated the test three times) was Sam. He found him three out of three times without fail.
Thor, to his credit, did find Loki once and almost found him a second time had he not flubbed which one was real. He was so flustered by the second fail that he couldn't find Loki a third time. Still the fact was he was able to find his brother, even if his method of doing so involving smashing things.
Natasha had tried that trick as well, but Loki had managed to switch with his doubles in time and made it look like he was still there while he left to talk to Sam.
Thor wanted Loki to return with him to Asgard...with Sam as well once he found out how close they were.
Loki, however, had other ideas.
"I'm not going back. For all I know Odin has yet to lift the banishment he placed, and while I have passed the trials I'm not entirely certain Sam would be welcomed. Besides, we still have to clean up the mess we created because those damn angels didn't give us critical information," said Loki sourly.
Steve and Natasha both took some hope in meeting Castiel. Steve because of his faith, and Natasha because Castiel confirmed there was a chance for her to wipe enough red from her ledger to enter heaven. She had a long way to go, but there was still some hope.
However Loki was fairly certain Micheal was cursing Dean's name for informing Tony Stark about how naive the angel was...and then promptly enlisting him into corrupting said angel.
The look of unholy glee at the thought of corrupting an angel to be more human had Sam immediately testing to see if Tony had somehow become possessed.
He wasn't, but the cackling was definitely creeping everyone save Dean and Tony out.