Broken glass covered the floor around the window. Everyone stood staring at the spot where Fenrir had just vanished.
"Well, I hate to just leave, but I don't want to miss the show," Puck said, heading for the window.
"No!" Thor said, hurling his hammer at Puck. "Don't let him leave!"
Puck managed to slide out of the way of Mjolnir only to find himself being tackled by Tony. Sadly though, without his suit, Puck didn't even need his magic to flip Tony over his shoulder.
"Undo what you did to Fenrir NOW!" Thor yelled as Mjolnir flew back into his hand.
"Why would I do that? This is the best part," Puck said. Thor prepared to throw his hammer again only for Puck to disappear.
"You're being rather dramatic," Puck said, reappearing across the room. "It's only temporary. The effects will wear off in a few hours just like they always do."
"Fenrir can't wait that long," Thor tightened his grip on his hammer as he spoke. "I won't let him lose his freedom again."
"I admire your protective instincts, I really do, but I can't change him back yet. No one would ever learn anything that way," Puck said, moving his hands out to his sides. "I'm sure that you'll figure it out when-" Just as Puck's hands began to glow he was interrupted.
While talking to Thor Puck had been completely unaware of Clint moving around the room. He also hadn't noticed when Clint had grabbed one of Fenrir's abandoned manacles. Grabbing one of Puck's wrists, Clint managed to slam one of the cuffs in place before the man could shake him off.
"Now are you ready to talk?" Clint asked.
"These were designed for Asgardian magic," Puck said, looking at Clint pityingly. "They won't have any effect on me." Puck moved his hands again in an attempt to teleport. This quickly resulted in him lying face down on the floor.
"Why would anyone agree to wear these?" Puck demanded, staring at the cuffs in horror. "You Asgardians are a truly twisted race."
Steve went to stand in front of him as he pushed himself into a sitting position. "Change him back, or the cuffs stay on."
"You really don't understand what I'm doing here do you?" Puck asked, looking at each member of the team in turn. "I'm helping him. Just like I helped all of you." They all stared at Puck in disbelief.
"You're insane," Tony said.
"And you're in denial," Puck countered. "The spells that I used on you all, they can't make something out of nothing. All I did was take what you whatever you were repressing and bring it to the surface. I may have added a little enthusiasm but the sentiment was all yours."
"You actually think this helps?" Clint asked.
"I'm just trying to help you all see the truth. Showing you what it is you really want," Puck said.
"What we want," Thor said, stepping forward to stand with Steve. "Is for you to remove you spell, and turn my nephew back."
"You realize of course that you'll have to take the cuffs of to make that happen," Puck said with a smirk.
"Will you turn him back?" Steve asked.
"Fine," Puck pouted, as he help out his arm. Thor quickly removed the cuff from Puck.
"There, done," Puck said, waving his hand in front of his face.
"Just like that?" Tony said.
"No reason to draw it out. Though I still say you are missing a great opportunity," Puck said as he stood up and made his way toward the window.
"Where do you think you're going?" Clint demanded.
"I can't stand to see my works unappreciated. I need to find something else to do," Puck jumped onto the window sill and made a point to avoid stepping on any broken glass. "It's a shame," He said, taking one last look at Steve. "You really could have used my help. You're on your own now."
As Steve walked the streets of the city, he continued to wonder if Puck had meant his last remark as a jab at him. Or if he had just been faster to realize that, even though Fenrir was no longer a wolf, they still had no idea where he was. They'd known that Puck would have had cameras disabled, like when Fenrir had been with Clint, but there were still eyewitnesses to go on. When they'd left the Tower it had seemed like finding Fenrir would be pretty simple. New Yorkers were proving to be entirely unhelpful.
"A wolf?" The man asked.
"Yes, a giant wolf. It would have been running by here about twenty minutes ago," Steve said. The man continued to look at him as though he were crazy.
"I saw a talking gorilla a few months back. Is that what you mean? Did he get out again?" The girlfriend of the man asked.
"No, we caught him a while ago," Steve said, turning to leave. "Thanks anyway." He waited until he was out of earshot of the couple before trying to get Tony on his com.
"Any luck, Stark?" He asked as he walked.
"Nothing on my end. I just talked to Bruce and he hasn't had any leads either," Tony said.
"For the love of- how has no one seen him?" Steve demanded.
"It's New York. There are aliens and monsters attacking every other week," Tony explained. "You get used to it."
"This is ridiculous," Steve complained. "How are we supposed to find one man in a city with over eight million people?"
"Don't worry, I having Jarvis scan mobile devices and social messaging sites for a few key words. People might not pay attention to a wolf anymore, but a naked guy wandering the streets is always worth a few pictures." Tony said.
"Tony!" Steve said.
"Just don't lose your blanket," Tony said, closing their connection.
Steve wanted to call Tony back and tell him to take things more seriously, but they'd been working together long enough for him to know that that wouldn't do anything. And, while he would have liked it if he'd put it a little less jokingly, it wasn't as though Tony's advice had been bad.
When Puck had put his spell on Fenrir he'd been too preoccupied with the fact that Fenrir was turning into a colossal wolf to notice much else. In truth, none of them had. Luckily Bruce had enough experience with Hulk that he was able to connect the pile of torn clothes on the floor to what had just happened. He'd also made sure to grab a blankets for everyone to take with them on their search.
Stopping to ask another group of people if they'd seen a giant wolf, he began to wish that he'd taken the time to put his uniform on before leaving. It may not have gotten him any more information but at least people didn't look at Captain America like he was a possible lunatic. He hated to sound like Tony but he'd thought that by now most people would recognize him out of the red, white and blue. But half of the people he talked to seemed to think that he was involved in some sort of publicity stunt and the rest just thought he was a joke. And, necessary as it may have been, wandering the streets of Paris with a blanket under his arm didn't do much to help his credibility.
"Clint," He said, switching his com back on. "Tell me you've got something."
"No luck. I heard about this naked guy running around Central Park but… let's just say that it wasn't Fenrir, and leave it at that," Clint said.
Steve fought the urge to punch a wall. Fenrir had only been out of the Tower for a little over twenty minutes. He couldn't have gotten that far!
"I'm gonna start checking alley's," Clint said. "At this point he's probably just trying to stay out of sight until he can find a way to get back unseen."
"Just keep me posted," Steve said, shutting down his com again.
A voice down the street interrupted his thoughts. "It was a monster!" Steve hurried over to the voice and saw that it belonged to a kid. "Mom, I'm not making it up! It was huge and it came running right at me," The boy continued to his mom.
"Joey, I'm serious," The woman said, placing a hand on the little girl who was currently wrapped around her leg. "You're scaring your sister; now stop it."
"But it's true!" The boy insisted. Steve ran over before the mom could interrupt the boy again.
"Excuse me, the monster," Steve began, getting an angry look from the mother. "It wasn't a wolf was it?"
The boy nodded, excited to finally have someone listen to him. "I was coming home from my friend's house and it just came running out of nowhere. It was huge and hairy and-" At this point the boy's mother grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away.
"That's enough, we're going home," She said, grabbing her little girl and heading down the street. Steve called out after them asking where he had seen the wolf, and was able to get a street name before the boy was told to stop talking.
Steve didn't waste a second getting to the street the boy had mentioned. Hoping that Fenrir would still be around somewhere. After a few minutes of running up and down the street he decided to take Clint's approach and start checking alleys. It was in back of a dead end alley that he found him, huddled naked in the dark between a wall and a dumpster.
"Fenrir?" He said quietly. Fenrir, who hadn't realized that anyone had been nearby, immediately recoiled at the sound of his name and pushed himself tighter against the wall.
"Hey, it's just me," Steve said, hoping that he sounded reassuring. "We took care of Puck. Everything is okay now so, if you'll just come out of there, we can go back home."
Fenrir looked up at Steve. Steve saw a face full of fear and pain and blood. So much blood.
"Jesus, Fenrir," Steve said, slowly registering the blood smeared around Fenrir's chest and mouth. "What happened?" He asked. All the while silently praying to himself, "please be a dog. Please say it was a dog."
"I had to," Fenrir said. Shaking as he spoke. "The spell, it was making me- I had to do it."
"Fenrir, I need you to tell me what happened," Steve said, dreading what he might hear.
"The spell made me want to hunt. I was…I was afraid and I wanted to find somewhere to hide but there were already people here. I, I didn't have a choice," Fenrir said, pulling into himself.
"We should get out of here," Steve said, struggling to figure out what to do next. "Why don't you come out of there and I can call Thor and Tony to come and get us." He said, putting down the blanket to offer Fenrir a hand up. After considering it for a moment, Fenrir reached out to let Steve pull him up.
Almost as soon as Steve had Fenrir standing up, he was back on the ground. Now that Fenrir wasn't curled up Steve could see what he hadn't noticed before; that Fenrir's right leg was a bloody mess.
"What happened?" He asked.
"I told you. I had to do it," Fenrir repeated. Kneeling down in front of Fenrir, Steve took hold of either side of Fenrir's head and looked him in the eye.
"Fenrir. Tell me what happened to your leg," He ordered.
"The spell didn't just make me shift to the wolf. It made me want to hunt," Fenrir said. His voice quivering as he spoke. "I didn't want to hurt anyone so I thought I could hide. I came here but there were two children here already. When they saw me they started screaming and… they ran away. All I wanted to do was chase after them, but I knew how that would end. It was all going to happen again. So I made sure that I wouldn't be able to chase anyone." Suddenly the blood on Fenrir's face has a completely different meaning.
"You bit through your leg?" Steve asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.
Fenrir looked up at Steve with huge eyes that were quickly filling with tears.
"I had to," Fenrir said.
"How is he?" Steve asked, as soon as Bruce entered the room. Steve had gotten Fenrir back to the Tower as quickly as he could and, since then, Bruce and a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. surgeons had been in the med bay working on Fenrir's leg. Aside from a call from Jarvis a half hour earlier,telling Thor that he could come back, the team had been left in the dark.
"He, he's going to be okay," Bruce said. The team stared at him until he continued. "He won't be able to walk for a while. He really did a number on his leg. To be honest if we hadn't found out the trick with him and ice then he probably would have lost the leg. Even with Asgardian healing."
"I still can't believe he bit himself," Tony said. "Who does that?"
"He was desperate," Clint said.
"He'll be alright though?" Steve asked.
"Yes. Physically he'll be just fine," Bruce said. His phrasing didn't go unnoticed and they all waited to see what he would say next.
"Before I came out here I was talking to Thor. He has some concerns and so do I," Bruce continued. "The rules for Fenrir being released from Asgard, and allowed to come to Earth, were that he keep the manacles on and not use his magic. Technically, today, he did both."
"Not on purpose. He was under a spell," Steve said.
"Odin might not see it that way," Bruce said. "Thor isn't sure how closely he might be having Fenrir watched, but if anyone saw this then it would look like he was breaking the terms of his release."
"I have at least a dozen lawyers that could argue that one," Tony offered.
"We might need them," Bruce muttered.
"That's insane. So he lost the cuffs for a few hours," Clint said. "It's not like he's not wearing them now. I saw you put them back on him as soon as Steve brought him in the door."
"And maybe that'll be enough," Bruce said. "But Thor is worried that his father might send some soldiers to come and take him back to Asgard."
"Well that's not happening," Tony said, standing up from his seat. "Jarvis, anyone from Asgard shows up I want the entire Tower on full alert. And my armor comes directly to me."
"Indeed, Sir," Jarvis said.
"Aside from Tony putting the Tower on lockdown, what can we do?" Steve asked, doing his best to block out the rest of the conversation that Tony was having with is AI.
"Thor wants to have someone with Fenrir at all times. Just for the next few days, until we know what Odin's response is going to be," Bruce said. "We each take shifts and if anyone comes and tries anything-"
"We can blow them back to outer space," Tony said, interrupting Bruce.
"Basically," Bruce said.
It had been over a year since he had last seen Stark's Tower and the place was just as garish as he remembered it. As Loki stepped through his portal, and onto the roof, he took a moment to examine his surroundings. He could feel that something was not quite as it should be. Reaching out with his magic it didn't take him long to discover the problem. Alarms. Somehow, despite his magic, they had been able to detect his arrival.
Gripping his new staff tightly, Loki laughed to himself. It made no difference if the Midgardians had a few new tools to use against him. He had something far better. Heading toward the door Loki smiled at his new weapon. He hadn't wanted to waste any time in retrieving his son from his new captors, but he'd known he couldn't take any chances with his son's freedom on the line. Thankfully the Dwarves had been able to finish at least one of the weapons he'd requested. With this new weapon none of the Avengers would be able to keep him from his son.
As he approached the door to the building, he heard footsteps approaching on the other side. Loki smiled expectantly. It didn't matter who was about to come through the door. He would make sure that they paid for what they had done to Fenrir.
AN: Well, that was certainly exciting. Let me know what you thought. Review and I will see you next chapter.