The force of Thors blow was so strong that it flung Lokis body half across the room, until a table stopped his flight in an ungentle way.
The impact left Loki gasping for air and he collapsed on the floor, fighting in vain against the dizziness in his head.
He wasn't able to get up and he feared that the next punch would send him into the deep and dark land of the unconsciousness.
He could see his brother approaching and he closed his eyes. He deserved it, every single painful blow.
But then, nothing happened and he opened up his eyes again, to see what went on.
Rogers stood in front of Thor, blocking the gods' way.
"Stop it, this is not helping. Take us with you to Asgard, we'll help you. We'll fight for your people, right, guys?"
He said and scanned his friends' faces for approval. He found it; they nodded and seemed to think the same. They had to help Thor as best they could.
Thor tried hard to swallow his anger, but Rogers was right. To beat up Loki wouldn't help his family and friends in Asgard, but returning with the Avengers in his coat-tails most certainly would. Well, they weren't as strong as the gods, but they still had proofed themselves as good warriors.
"Alright, I accept your offer. You will return with me to Asgard. But first, I need more information." Thor pushed the captain aside and grabbed Lokis left arm, to squeeze it as hard as he could. The younger god cried out in pain as his arm broke with a loud crack.
"Who is this Thanos and what is he capable of, what is his goal? Speak! And I dare you…do not lie to me!"
"I won't lie, I won't! Just stop hurting me, please!" Loki begged and Thor let go of his arm.
"He was the one, who provided me with the Chitauri army when I attacked Midgard. In exchange I should have brought him the Tesseract, which I did, though a little later than expected, but I kept my promise.
Nevertheless, he told me that he would keep an eye on me, because he might have use of me in the future.
He said I owed him for delivering the Tesseract too late.
And today, the minute he realized that I was no longer lost in my head, he snapped with one finger and I found myself standing in front of him.
He gave me the order to create a portal to Asgard, one that Heimdall couldn't see and he told me that I would no longer be bound to him, if I did what he commands.
I have no clue what his goal is and what he's capable of, but from what I saw, I'd say he's very powerful and his army is huge. And that's the truth, brother, I swear."
"We'll see about that. Bring us to Asgard." Thor demanded.
"Whoa, wait a minute. I have to get my armor first, the one that Loki didn't use for coping with his stress." Tony said, while throwing an annoyed look at the trickster.
Luckily all the other Avengers had brought their weapons along, because when they had left the headquarters, they'd prepared themselves for a fight with Loki.
"And I have a question, Thor. Has a human being ever set foot on Asgard before? How do you know that we can enter the world of the gods, let alone breathe there?" Banner hated it, when he couldn't check things thoroughly before he actually had to do them.
This mission could go wrong in so many ways.
"Oh, don't worry, you'll be fine." Thor started to get a little bit excited about this.
His friends would finally see his world, the place he was born and raised. Would they be staggered by the beauty and glory of his father's palace? What would they think?
But then his thoughts got darker again, when he became aware of the doom that his world was now facing. They had to hurry.
"Loki! Get up and do as I said. Bring us to Asgard. No tricks or schemes, you've done enough damage."
With the help of Rogers, Loki got to his feet again, pressing the broken arm against his chest.
The movement sent a jolt of pain up to his shoulder and made him gasp for breath.
The captain eyed him worryingly, rested his hand on the tricksters shoulder in an attempt to comfort him and asked: "Are you okay? This is gonna heal, right?"
So much kindness, after all he'd done?
What was wrong with this human?
Loki frowned and instead of an answer, he simply nodded.
How could Rogers still like him, knowing that he created a gateway for an entire army, who was now about to destroy the home of Thor? Thor, who was Rogers' friend.
It made no sense at all.
Suddenly the captains' voice jolted him out of his thoughts: "What? Is something wrong?"
Loki realized that he'd been gazing at him the whole time.
But before he could come up with a plausible explanation, Thor growled at him once again.
In the meantime, Tony had changed into Iron Man and was ready to go as well.
"Alright, then, you should gather behind me. Do not step into the portal until I say you can." With these words, Loki took a deep breath.
He had to concentrate really hard to push all the confusion and the nagging thoughts aside that were filling out his head at the moment.
Slowly, out of nowhere, there was a crack to be seen. It expanded really fast and soon there was a hole in the middle of Tony's laboratory. Inside they could only make out green fog and nothing else.
"How does he do that?" asked Banner, looking puzzled at Tony.
"How the hell should I know? I'm a scientist not Harry Potter." was Tonys' response, and Banner rolled his eyes.
That man couldn't be serious for one single minute!
Certainly, he was a genius and as Iron Man almost unbeatable, but annoying as hell.
"Sir! I have to inform you that ripping a hole into time and space is far from secure, let alone stepping through it. I am not sure if all my systems will work flawlessly in Asgard. This is a huge risk." Jarvis sounded a tiny bit worried and that made Tony smile.
"Oh, come on. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!"