Hey Guys! Here comes KandyKitten, crawling out of her hiding once again.

So sorry it took so long – a month, my god – but, as everybody who may have clicked on my profile in the past weeks knows, I twisted (it's the best word I know, it's something wrong with the cords since I fell unfortunately) my wrist pretty badly and I couldn't type or write in any way for two weeks straight.

Anyways, it's better now and I can type again, but…well. I've not been working on this story for quite a while and I'll have to find my way back to it, so this chapter…it's not my best. It's my arch back to Tangle and it doesn't do too much for the story…but I'll be getting better again soon.

Well, enough explanation…I'll let you read yourself back into this piece now.

Lots of Love, KandyKitten


The team was assembled in the former laboratory that now looked like a construction site. They had formed a loose circle in the dust-covered cage around the place where the cot had sat. Now, it was shoved aside, revealing the splinters that had been hidden underneath - one of the enigmas Loki had left them with.

Steve was sitting on his heels, arms on his knees, but now he reached out to touch the hole in the glass floor. "It goes right through one of the runes."

"How could that happen?" Fury stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed and fingers tapping on his arm. With his solely-black clothes, he looked even more imposing than usually in all the bright dust. The few agents in the room nervously bee-lined around him, trying not to get in his line of sight.

Tony could not blame them. He, too, had never seen Fury looking this close to losing control.

"You said he would be powerless behind those walls."

"And he should have been." Thor was not looking at Fury, but at the frame's rim. Seeing the video of Loki's escape, he had thought the stuff still covering it as a thin layer was ice, but it was too…stable. Too cold despite the continuously rising temperature. "I do not know how he could have broken through."

For a moment, Tony wondered. Whatever that stuff was, it meant something to Thor, so could it be the man was lying to them?

But he didn't want to start arguing with a friend in front of Fury, especially as he still wanted to support said friend, so he shoved the thought aside for the moment and turned back to the conversation. They could talk about that later.

"Especially without us noticing," Natasha let her fingertips slide along the sharp edge to its origin. "Looks almost like chisel marks or something. We never saw him move this thing, did we?"

"Or holding a weapon," Bruce added. "He couldn't do that by hand."

"So he did it per magic." Fury gave Thor a meaningful look. "Something he shouldn't have been able to do, as someone here assured us."

Slowly, Thor definitely had enough of the accusations. "Something he should not be able to do inside a flawless net. Even the smallest mistake could have given him enough room for something like this."

"Are you saying this is our fault?" Fury was all but snarling by now.

"I am saying that maybe, you were too hasty and made a mistake," Thor growled back, sounding no less imposing.

"Hasty? It's not your world that is on the line here, it's mine. And if you had not been so hell-bent on protecting a delusional, ruthless killer, we would have known everything we needed long before he did this."

Delusional, ruthless killer, Tony sarcastically thought. Smooth one, Nicky.

Aloud, he said, "Right, guys. Childs and wells remember? So why don't you two continue this conversation once we talked about how we get him back?"

"Get him back?" Clint scoffed. "He's probably halfway across the globe…or the fucking universe by now."

"Excuse me, Sir…but I don't think that's the case." One of the agents – or soldiers, maybe? – had taken a step forward. He looked seasoned, but when solely being in the focus of a whole band of superheroes and a few of his bosses' bosses, he shrunk into himself.

"And what exactly makes you think that?" Fury barked at him.

"One is missing. One of us must have taken a hit." The soldier slowly raised his fist, holding something colorful up. Tony frowned, stood up and closed in, trying to see what it was and then…

"Stun darts?" he asked incredulously, almost amused, raising his brows at Fury. "Really?"

They did not even look like the modern, tiny darts he knew, but more like those he had seen in old movies before, like syringes with bushy flight stabilizers – two yellow, one red - on one and a short needle on the other end.

Fury tore them from the soldier's grip. "Tranquilizer darts equipped with Adamantium needles and filled with a highly proficient sedative. What's coursing in his veins right now is enough to take out every human in this room, so even he should lie flat right now. For a few hours, at least."

Turning sharply, Fury started to yell instructions, ordering his people to form groups. "We start with his former headquarters and set a perimeter of at least twenty blocks all around it. Coulson, Hill! Hack into surveillance cameras, cellphones I don't care what it is, at long as we have eyes on everything! Send out agents in civil, too. And check every hospital in case he collapsed somewhere in the open."

Hill and Colson, whose face was harder than usual, nodded and left the room, waving for some of the people to follow them, ultimately leaving the Avengers alone with Fury. The director stared tensely at them, growled, "And you make yourself valuable somehow, too," before stalking out.

The Avengers watched him leave silently, then Clint said, "That still doesn't explain how Loki could run, though."

Tony rolled his eyes. As if that would help them along right now…but he could understand Clint, too, so he decided to keep it shut.

Bruce sighed and put his glasses –now decorated with white prints - back on. "We put a lot of pressure on that glass. If it contracted or moved a few millimeters or something, would that be enough?"

Thor shrugged slowly. "Was it everybody else, I would say no, but with Loki…he is capable of incredible things if he is determined enough."

"Good." Steve stood up, too, dusted his hands off. "Now that that riddle's solved..."

Fury might be too angry to consult Thor on his brother, but the rest of the team was not…just as they didn't really believe one syringe-full of simple sedatives could knock Loki out. Other than Fury, they had seen how easily Thor withstood any form of earthly poison and why should it be different with the younger brother?

"You know Loki best. Let's say he's still awake, probably weakened. What will he do?"

"He will go to a place he knows first."

"So he will probably be in this cellar he was in last time," Steve concluded. "We should go there, too, then and…"

"But he will not stay for long," Thor interjected. "Loki knows we know this place and he will be gone before we come to confront him."

Natasha crossed her arms. "Will he leave the city?"

Thor shook his head, then shrugged. "I cannot say. He might run as far as he possibly can and leave the planet, but I do not think so. He still should be too weakened to reach any other realm than one of this nine and on most of those, his face is fairly known. He would be taken the moment someone discovered him."

"So he is running free somewhere in the city," Clint muttered. "Great. Just…fucking great."

"Shouldn't he… stand out?" Tony asked. "Even for New York's standards, dressed like that he sure should make an impression."

"No. If he decides to stay out in the open, he will make sure to look midgardian." There was a deep worry in Thor's voice, but also a slight tone of appreciation, maybe even a hint of pride that the man just couldn't hide.

Natasha frowned, staring at the holes in the wall...and then something hit her. "We might have a bigger problem," she slowly said.

The rest of them turned to her. "What do you mean?" Steve asked worriedly.

"There was something, I noticed that before with the people who...with victims of deprivation. It's pretty obvious in the video, how he flinched away from all the sound and light as if it would scare or hurt him." Seeing that she still received incredulous looks, she rolled her eyes and went on. "That was one siren and he was already freaking out."

Tony closed his eyes flutteringly when he got where Natasha was getting at (remembering how overwhelming the city had been after the weeks in Afghanistan, actually). "And right now, he is in the middle of New York City."

Clint suddenly looked worried. "You think it will be that bad?"

"Well I sure was confused when I woke up and saw all those cars and screens and neon lights everywhere," Steve admitted. "So, Thor, you think he'll react violent?"

"I cannot say," Thor said again. "Loki's first reaction to confusion or fear usually is to withdraw. If he is faced by a person, though….if he feels cornered, confronted in any way, he will fight all the more vehemently."

So they had an agitated demigod getting violent when he felt cornered and a hardcore bunch of agents and soldiers hunting him down right in a tight, noisy civilian neighborhood. Tony tried to rake a hand through his hair, remembered his suit in the last moment and settled with a sigh.

Suddenly, he was feeling very tired.

"Then we'll have to catch him before there are too many people on the streets." Steve's voice took on its commanding tone that had the strange ability to send the rest of the team into immediate action mode. "We fan out, try to get eyes on him. Stark…"

"On it." Tony flicked out his phone and switched it on. "Jarvis, hack into every camera in the whole city. Run the footage of the past thirty minutes, too. Watch out for Loki. And stay on all of SHIELD's frequencies, I want to know every move Fury makes."

"Will do, Sir," the smooth voice replied immediately.

Tony thought about cutting the connection, hesitated and added, "And tell Pepper not to leave Miami until I tell her its save. Tell her not to leave, no matter what she hears or sees on the news."

"Certainly, Sir."

He cut the connection, stared at the device for a moment and prayed Pepper would listen to him – this was promising to become ugly soon, if not through Loki, then through the Chitauri, and he wanted her out of the way, as far as possible – then he pulled himself together, straightened up and put on the helmet, following Steve outside.

Loved ones brought into relative safety, there was no time for any more thoughts and doubts. The team set into motion to leave the facility and fan out over the city as good as possible.


While the Avengers discovered and discussed his breakout, Loki already was on the move.

After all the frenzy, he wanted nothing more but to stay in the cellar's darkness for a while, planning his next move, but he was not stupid. Two of the humans working for this Fury had been here for a long time, had maybe shown it to the others and it would only be a matter of time before they would search it.

So, he reluctantly stood up and immediately noticed something was not right. He stretched out his hand to steady himself against the column when the dizziness he had not noticed while sitting hit him. For a moment, the world tilted, then he had himself back under control and the sensation vanished.

He was not sure if it was from exhaustion or the poison, but it meant the same: He was not able to take them on yet, thus he had to leave.

Focusing on every motion, he managed to dust himself off and weave a magical veil that would protect him from being seen – he did not plan on keeping that for long, though, he was feeling too dizzy still. He would look for someone whose clothes he could copy and then blend in.

With that plan fast in mind, he set into motion, swiftly moving through the cellar system and then through the dim-lit streets of the still mostly sleeping city. The drizzle was not strong enough to soak him, and instead of making him freeze, the cold soothed his headache and countered the dizziness and, for once, Loki was not bothered by that.

He moved according to the plan, steadily and without hesitation…until he reached a main street.

When he saw it, Loki stopped dead, freezing completely.

It was…sheer horror, the cars that noisily rushed back and forth even now, the bright screens showing colorful pictures and words that had no context or meaning for him – nobody ever had explained the concept of advertisement to him. He almost turned his back and walked away, but forced himself forward, right into the colorful shine. As long as he kept his head down, it was manageable.

It did not help against the…pressure, though. He was used to the wide, splendorous constructions on Asgard and these block-like things reaching into the equally grey sky made him feel dwarfed, contained…

He truly wished he could be in an open field where he would not feel the pressure of those stone walls closing down on him from all sides, but he knew they – and the crowds that hopefully were to come – would be his best protection against discovery (and against an open attack, of course).

Still…he wished to leave this noisy place with its lights and stink far behind.

Sighing, Loki rose his gaze from his boots, not high, just far enough to see the vibrant lights blinking distortedly in the puddles on the sidewalk, creating a twisted picture of the city lights around him, then as it did neither worsened his headache nor hurt anymore, he curiously looked up higher, up to the sky. It was brightening slightly already…but it could just be the city's brightness reflected in the clouds.

A loud, humming roar caught his attention. Loki had learned to recognize it as a car's sound and averted his eyes from the headlights…and his gaze caught something else instead.

In the short flash of light, he could see the shelves behind a windowpane, some of them obviously loaded with food, some bearing things of unknown purpose. Loki took all that in with one glance, but dismissed it just as fast, because the room was dark.

In the darkness, the pane was a mirror.

Slowly, he stepped closer, until he could see more than the street and a dark figure, that was not much more than a distorted blur, until he saw a tall man, his face hidden in shadow and his build concealed behind thick, black fabric. He watched the man raise a thin hand, saw him hesitate, saw the hood being pushed back.

It was the first time Loki saw his own reflection since the fleeting glances he had caught in the steel and glass Midgad's cities were so full of.

It was the first time since almost two years that he actually examined it.

The first thing he noticed was that he had lost some weight – he had indeed known that, but he had not known it was visible. It undeniably was. He was alarmingly pale, too…probably the effect of being inside too long.

Do I actually look this miserable?

Frowning, Loki tried to smooth his perturbed hair….and suddenly, he froze, staring at his reflection wide-eyed.

Now that his hair was no longer held back by gel, it fell lightly around his face and neck, slightly curling at the tips, and loosely combed back in a style that matched Thor's, it actually gave him a slight resemblance to his not-brother.

Except for the color, Loki thought, letting a hand wander over the strands again, closely watching as the half-stranger in the reflection did the same. But then, we never truly had anything in common, especially not physically. Not even our blood. Nothing.

Apart from their eyes, maybe. They both had blue eyes.

If, maybe, Odin gave him those eyes to resemble Thor more, to give reason to believe they were related? Or had his skin remembered what it should look like and held on to a color of ice?

Loki shuddered and hastily tried to shove the thought aside. This was the wrong place and most certainly the wrong time and the Jotun's eyes were not blue but…

...red. Completely.

Loki cocked his head aside in contemplation.

Never when he had used his estranged Jotun-abilities had he wondered if they would become overall red, too, but now he did, tried to imagine himself when this red gleam shone from his eyes, from a face with a darker complexion than he had now.

He only stopped himself from smashing the glass by remembering it might alert somebody to his presence.

He could not stop the wave of loathing that washed over him, though, and suddenly, he did not want to stay here. Did not want to keep looking at himself.

With tense, jerky movements, he pulled the hood up again, stuffed his hair under it, turned and marched away, muscles taut and shaking, fingers moving to create a weapon and he balled them into a fist instead. He had used this cursed blood too often in the past. It was affecting him.

Thor must have seen it. On the cage. He knows what it means. He knows you can….

"Forget him," he growled lowly. "He does not matter." But as much as he tried to convince himself that it was true, he could not help the tinge of shame mingling into all the anger and loathing as he moved on, trying to make it through the night.


The morning eventually came, and with it came the masses, concealed by hoods and umbrellas. Sometimes, they would store sometimes throw suspicious glances at the uncountable agents, black cars and even a few helicopters roaring above, but mostly, they minded their own business of hastening from doors to cars, from cars to doors, from store to store.

Loki did move among them, watching and, once again, could not help but to think from above, the city must look like an anthill. Then again, maybe that was true for every town.

A faint smirk appeared on his lips, letting his eyes sparkle for just a moment.

Loki's mood had not exactly improved over the night, but his condition had. His ability to think clearly came back and even the noise of the flying machines circling high above his head was only annoying, no longer overwhelming to him.

As if on cue, one of those things roared past and Loki lowered his head, carefully looking around. If he was the only one facing away, he would look suspicious…but he was not. Only few faces, many of them those of children, turned upward to look. The rest did not react, they kept walking, running, talking.

Almost disbelieving, Loki let his eyes wander over the crowd, over people in tight, impractical clothing that he knew would hinder and slow instead of protect in fight or flight. He remembered the fatality of the sheer mass, how the cars became either death-traps or obstacles during an attack.

Yet, those people behaved exactly as they had before the Chitauri had come, moved in the same way, dragged their unprotected youngest with them in the open. They behaved as if…

Loki frowned again, slowing his steps, his eyes widened in what he thought was sudden understanding.

He had heard the gathering forces, had heard the mortal team leave in a hurry…but that could have been for another reason, maybe one of their own criminals. And they had left other guards, the men who had fired at him…and then, the was those people bumbled around…carelessly…they behaved…

They behaved as if they would not fear a coming attack.

But why did they not, when the Chitauri were moving among them again? How could they be so without fear and care after all the pain and death of the last attack?

It was incredible, impossible and Loki felt the sudden, bizarre urge to laugh.

Could it be?


Welcome to the end of chapter twelve!

Again, sorry I took so long. From now on, I'll be working more swiftly again^^

Next time…I guess, we'll have a look into what Loki plans to do next, now that he has the possibility to (of course) and soon, we'll have another look into Asgard, too (it's about time!). And of course, there're some confrontations ahead…

I hope you all enjoyed! Reviews and constructive critic are appreciated!

Thanks to you who put this story on favorite or follow and, of course, especially to you, my constant, faithful readers! I love you all!

Lots of Love,

KandyKitten

P.S. To my reviewers:

Potkanka: I know what you mean, I'm rooting for our lovely psychopath, too…well, he didn't enjoy his freedom for long, I guess…but at least, he's still free and there's been nothing horrible happening so far! Oh well, the Avengers are choosing Loki over Chitauri right now…they are long gone anyways and if not, SHIELD has surveillance. And yep, Thor's in trouble now…his credibility has passed away….but who cares about what Fury thinks? Anyways, thanks for the review! Till next time!

Shall be lifted Nevermore: Thanks^^ Glad you liked it and thanks for the review!

jaquelinelittle: I don't know, I think he might have brought himself into danger a little because he acted without planning – there could have been a dozen traps in the room, but then, he got lucky. Anyways, it worked and he's finally in the wind! No, they are not considering he leads them or knows anything about the current plan (though it could be a back-up, of course) but Loki could still tell them about their real strength, from where they could come, maybe weapons they might have held back and such, so he's still valuable…and he still could take the leading position again, of course. Can't tell you anything about SHIELD…would give away too much^^ Guessed right: They go after Loki! Let's see how good that works out…thanks for reviewing and till next time!

LePetitErik: Thank you for reviewing and glad you liked it! I'm trying to keep up^^

Limmet: Ah, no, he's not been thinking about revenge, just about getting away…but the urge that has already started to come up again will intensify a little…but well, you'll see that in the next chapters^^ Well, glad you liked it so far, thanks for the review and hope you stay in line! Till next time!

Guest#1: Here is more and even more will follow!

ninjaloki: Thank you! Glad you liked the way I had him running^^ Thanks for the review and till next time^^

Guest#2: Uuuuhh…well how can I give you information without giving information…well, there are some bad-but-not-too-horrible things to come…but it's still gonna be hard for Loki before it can become better. Well, anyways, thanks for the review and I hope you stay in line! Till next time!

no-MY name is Anonymus: And hopefully, he'll stay out for a while! A Loki-complex..doesn't sound too bad, maybe it'll make it! But even if not: thanks for the review! Till next time!

ShadowAbsol: Oh yeah, he is! Thanks for reviewing and I hope you stay on line!

angrbodagiantress: Thank you for the flowers, you're making me go all red…well it's going to take some time before all is cleared up…until then: I'm glad you liked it and thank you for reviewing! 'Till next time!