Author's Note: Animefreak….it's a zombie story with gratuitous sex. Yep, someone had to go. I did kill Captain America. AND I made Iron Man do it…. And I did do it just like that. (evil dirty little leer) SPOILER ALERT*** Oh, wait, no there's not. All I will say is this, keep reading. It may get better, it may get nastier...but eventually it will have an end and a point.

Love,

The Sign Painter.

The lobby was empty. Our footfalls echoed across a floor so shiny, it could have been made of Swarovski. Even the walls, modernesque in their curves of metal and glass, shone in the light, still given off from the arc reactor at the core of the building. The only building left that still had power-that we had seen. We stopped just inside the doors. It was quiet….way too quiet.

Clint nudged Tony and pointed across the expansive room. They didn't call the man Hawkeye for nothing, he had immediately seen what we did not. Blood. Lots of it, smeared across the floor like a slaughtered bull had been dragged away by a fucking truck. There were large splashes of red across several of the information kiosks. As we neared them we saw a fountain around the corner of glass blocks.…flowing red. Several bodies were submerged in it, their blood mingling with the water. Their stomachs were ripped open, bloated intestines floating in the water like seaweed. Arms and legs missing vast chunks of meat swirled around in the ever moving water. Their heads were torn apart. These cadavers would not be rising ever again.

"What the fuck happened to them?" Clint breathed. "These don't look like any of the victims we have been seeing. They look like some animal was at them, look how ragged the marks on the heads are. Like the Hulk just picked them up and chomped half of their heads off. No offense."

"None taken," Bruce replied. "You're right. The large trail of blood is different too. This isn't what we have been seeing. It goes into there." He pointed to two large silver double doors that were streaked down low with blood from what looked like hands.

"That's a conference room," Tony said. "Just one big room."

"It looks like someone tried to hold on while they were being dragged in there," I said softly.

I took one step forward and the air in front of the door blurred, then sparkled like sunlight dancing across water. Slowly a form began to appear.

"Is that…" Tony began, and the form solidified. "Loki!" He raised his gun.

Loki held up a hand. He looked exhausted, not at all like his usual smug mischievous self. "Stark," he began. "You know that won't affect me. Stop, and listen."

"Why the fuck should we listen to you?" I don't think he even realized that he had instinctively stepped in front of me, one arm back, the hand pressed against my side. Protective…or possessive. Sometimes those go hand in hand.

Loki sighed wearily. "Look at me, Stark. Do I look like I pose a threat to you right now. Or to her?" He flicked his hand in our direction. Still dismissive….still Loki. Just a tired version of his former glory.

"You always pose a threat to something," Clint growled. "Fucking shit up gets you off."

Loki feigned a smile. "That is does, Archer, but not today. Listen to me. Do NOT go beyond this door. I can not save you if you do."

Natasha snorted. "You have never saved a human being in your entire life."

"That is not entirely true," Loki said. "I have been saving her this entire time." He motioned toward me. "But if you enter this room, I will not be able to do that. Nergaul…" his voice drifted off, and he cut his eyes to the ground.

I gently pushed Tony's hand away and moved to his side. "You actually look remorseful," I said. "That has to be bullshit. You have no emotions other than joy you get from fucking up someone else's day. Now get on with it, what lies are you trying to sell us."

"Things did not go…as planned," Loki said, turning his gaze up to meet mine. His eyes were icy. "When the serpent god, Nergaul, and I joined together, it was to take over this miserable world and rule it together. He could control the armies of the dead, that was to be his only involvement…but he is more of a trickster than even I, and he could not stand to not mingle with you…humans." He spat the word with his usual venom. "I only wanted to take this world over, make the last of the inhabitants be slaves to my superior race," (that earned me a leer which I did not like, but was more to Loki's usual demeanor.), "but Nergaul did not keep his word. Things have gotten out of hand. By the time he is through, there will be no more slaves, there will be no world to rule. He only wants to destroy this planet…and eat it, till it is gone."

"Eat it?" Bruce asked.

"Eat you, human," Loki said, again sounding weary. His form was beginning to shimmer again.

"Superhuman, thank you very much," Tony said. "What's with the sparkling there, Edward?"

Loki glared at him. "It is taking all the power I have to stay in your realm. Nergaul is trying to keep me out, because he wants this planet for himself. He will destroy everything in his path, and eat until all your race is gone. That does not fit my needs at all. That was NOT our original agreement." Loki sniffed like an angry child, and then motioned toward the door again. "My grip on your world is slipping, so listen well. Nergaul has many forms, but his true form is a serpent that can split itself into many parts. One of them is in this room right now, and he will kill you if you go in there. You must NOT do that."

"Okay, wait," Tony said, holding up a hand in a shushing gesture. Loki looked put off. "So you are just trying to save us, so we can be your slaves when all this is done? We are going in that fucking room, and you know that we will. There is a possibility that whoever left those," he pointed toward the handprints, "may still be alive. Judging from all the blood, they probably are not, but they might be. And we have to find out."

"Then you are all FOOLS!" Loki roared. His formed flickered violently. "Dead fools!"

Tony took a step toward him. "Out of the way, godboy. By the way, where the hell is your brother?"

Loki's eyes narrowed. "He came to stop us when this all began. Nergaul has him…put away."

"Is he alive?" I asked, remembering how he had saved me.

"Yes, though I cannot say the same for your Director Fury." Loki's voice had begun to sound like he was speaking through water. "I cannot free Thor. Only HE can. Listen to me, you cannot stop him if you are dead."

"So you got us all into this mess, and now you want us, the puny humans, to stop him? And how the hell are we supposed to do that?" Natasha asked.

Loki opened his mouth to answer, but began to fade. His voice wasn't audible anymore. Frantically he looked from the door to us, speaking furiously.

"He's begging us not to go in there," I said softly, as Loki disappeared completely from sight.

"Come on," Tony growled. "He's a trickster, Journey. We've had this conversation before. And you may let him fool you repeatedly, but I refuse." He started for the door again.

I grabbed his arm and spun him around. Tony's jaw was set, he looked genuinely pissed, and his gaze was pointed at me. "You can make me live those moments over again for the rest of my fucking miserable life, which may not be that long if we go in that fucking room," I said. I was furious with his accusing gaze. He couldn't let it go. Hell, I couldn't let it go. I was mad at myself for enjoying Loki the last time he had come to me, and for the electric way he'd made me feel in the shower. But I was damn sure not going to let Tony bully me and make me feel worse. "Let's not make this about your goddamn ego, alright?"

"What the fuck does that mean?" He said, leaning his face into mine. His dark eyes flashed.

I held my ground. "It MEANS that if you just want to go in that room because Loki said not too, then you could be getting us all killed just to prove a stupid point. We go in that room because we want to help the people that might be alive in there, not to ease your jealousy."

"Jealousy?" Tony laughed wryly. "Little girl, I don't get jealous. I breed it in others. Why the fuck would I be jealous? Because you enjoyed fucking that prick? You probably even liked it the first time!"

"FUCK YOU!" I yelled. Tears were threatening to sting my eyes, but my anger held them at bay. "You know good and goddamn well I did not like it that first time."

His grin was savage. "It doesn't matter anyway. After all, you were calling my name."

I slapped him hard across the face. A collective gasp went up from Clint and Natasha. Tony's face was a mask of surprise, hurt, and anger. The bright red hand print began to bloom on his cheek. Bruce put a hand lightly on my shoulder.

"Guys?" He said, his soft voice breaking through the death stares Tony and I were giving each other. "I'm no expert, but it seems this is probably not the time and place for this kind of….discussion."

"Discussion is closed," Tony growled through clenched teeth. "Steve is fucking dead because of Loki and that Nergaul god thing. I intend to free anyone still alive in this room and get fucking retribution one way or another!" And with that he spun around and kicked open the conference room doors.

The smell hit me before my mind could actually wrap around what I was seeing. It was atrocious- the stench of rotting meat mingling with a musky odor like you might smell in a zoo…add the smell of animal shit to that, and you have yourself a dangerous combo. My eyes began to water. Instinctively my hand clamped over my nose and mouth. Someone behind me gagged, I think it may have been Bruce. A low moan of "Shiiit," came from Natasha.

"Well," Tony said quietly, "that's totally fucked up."

The serpent thing was coiled up in a corner on top of two huge conference tables that had been pushed together. It looked a lot more like a big fucking nasty worm then a snake of any kind. It was covered in a slick looking grayish skin, not scales, but something like eel skin that rippled and undulated as it breathed. It was very large, appearing to be at least four feet in diameter, and probably 20 ft long. I wondered just how big Nergaul actually was if just a piece of him was as long as a fucking bus.

The end of it that I presumed to be the head, had no ears or eyes that I could see, but there was a definitive mouth. The thing would stretch that open, as if gasping for breath, revealing three rows of sharp teeth that reminded me of something off of Shark Week.

"It's swallowing," Clint whispered. "I had a Burmese python when I was younger…that's the way she swallowed, looked like she was gulping air. See the lump moving?"

We did. There was a lump about four feet behind the massive jaws, and it was slowly moving backward every time Nergaul swallowed. That bulge was somebody. Or had been.

Possibly even more disgusting then the worm snake thing, was the room around it. The blood trail split off and led to different parts of the room. It was so thick on the floor we were standing on, because the creature had drug a lot more than one person in here…it had dozens of them. They were strung up around the room in various places, encased in what looked like the nasty shiny shit that slugs leave behind as they move along. The stuff looked gelatinous, but solid, and was strung EVERYWHERE. From the ceiling, from the chairs, the monitors on the walls, the bookcase in the corner. There was not much left in the room that was not coated in that shit, except Nergaul's nasty corner. In it's corner, under the table were piles of mucous in various colors of maroon and black. Bones stuck out of it. That's it's fucking toilet, I realized. I could have gone my whole life without that realization.

"Stop," a weak voice said from behind us. We turned around to see Loki again. He was behind us, leaning against the edge of the blood soaked fountain. He looked even paler than usual, if that was possible. "Listen to me."

I walked over to him. His eyes scanned me warily. I had a feeling he was very vulnerable. "I'm listening," I said.

"Stark, please close those doors." Loki's voice came out in a begging kind of whine. Whether it was the sound of the strange god's voice, or his non characteristic demeanor…or maybe just the horror in the room beyond…something spoke to Tony. He began to slowly pull the large metal doors closed. The worm thing never moved, just continued to sit and ruminate. None of the nasty jelly sacks full of people moved either. The people inside were dead. Just snacks for later.

The doors shut. Loki took a deep, relieved breath. "If I had known he was that thing…" his voice trailed off.

"Now," Natasha said. Her voice sounded a touch shaky, but she quickly rectified it. "Tell us how to kill him."

Loki nodded. "You can not kill him piece by piece. You have to get all those vile things together, and kill him as one whole. If you had managed to survive that thing in there," he gestured to the room, "which I doubt, but if you had, and you had killed it, the other parts would have known. They would have scattered as far apart as possible. As long as one piece of him is still alive, then Nergaul lives. But get them all together…"

"How?" Tony asked.

"That's not an easy task, but I am a trickster after all," Loki gave him a tired but sly smile. "Mischief and mayhem are my lot in this life. Get to the top of the Tower, but do not call Nergaul, call me. If you call me, I can come through easier. I will know what to do by then. But you all must be careful. There are pieces of that thing all over this building, along with the undead."

"It still feels very strange to hear you telling us to be careful." I said. I was still very close to him. His scent permeated my nostrils…he smelled of mint and ice. Not unpleasant at all. Refreshing like ice cream on a hot day….

Loki winked at me, and the refreshment fell away. He leaned forward so only I could hear. "I have still got you. You are still mine." he whispered.

I smiled at him. "No, you don't. I belong to no one. No one."

His form was beginning to waver again. "I must go," Loki said aloud. "Stay away from the stair wells." His voice faded out like the end of song on an album. And he was gone.

"What did he say to you?" Tony demanded. "He whispered something to you, what was it?"

I turned to face him. He did not look so much pissed, as worried. "He told me I still belonged to him," I answered.

"And what did you say?"

"I told him I belong to no one."

"Is that so?" Tony's eyebrows knitted together. His face was oddly hard to read.

"Apparently it is," I didn't like the fight that had erupted between us, it had hurt. But we needed to focus on the task at hand. There was time for all that crap later. I took a deep breath. "So, if we are supposed to stay out of the stair ways, then where the hell is the elevator in this place?"