He parried away the sword at every chance, forcing Utgarda back as far as he could, but he missed one, he moved too late. The sword took a gash out of his face over his right eye. He clamped his eye shut and continued fighting as well as he could.

"Cease or they will die!" Utgarda yelled, "One more move and the robot and the girl get it."

Two of his men came forward, seemingly from nowhere, holding Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, geared to tear the two of them apart. Loki's hands squeezed into fists, but the ice melted back down, even unfreezing the pistol that he had been holding. He continued aiming it at Utgarda.

"Let them go," Loki ordered.

"I do not have to follow your orders. You are not even a prince anymore," he narrowed his eyes, "Tell your resistance fighters to stand down, or they die." The Jotuns tightened their grips on their two captives.

Loki glanced at his brother, "Thor, please."

"But -."

"It's the only way to save them, Brother."

"Hey, Reindeer Games," Tony said pretty neutrally, for him at least, "what's going on your side of the war?"

Loki smiled, "not much, Jackie Chan, but I think your tuxedo might need a wash."

"It's fine, Man, I swear to God," Tony smiled back at him, seeming to know what he was getting at, "where are the horns?"

"I had to take of my helmet, I kept getting HBO."

"Do you get sports and weather?"

"I never bothered to check, but I assume so. I guess you have the premium package where you are," He used this opportunity to analyse his options. There were three shots he could choose from, his pistol still trained on Utgarda. With the angle that each bullet would have to be fired at, he would only have the time to fire once. Tony had indicated that his suit was still fully operational, but Pepper Potts didn't have a suit. If he didn't kill Utgarda, Utgarda would kill him, but he had quick reflexes and the gift of invulnerability. He made his decision.

"Stop talking," Utgarda demanded.

Tony had got his coded message. He activated his rocket thrusters and pulled out of the giant's grip, kicking it off the roof. Loki spun from Utgarda to the Jotun holding Pepper, and blasted it in the head. It fell to the ground, very dead. Gas expanding rounds, excellent.

And Utgardaloki thrust a hand through Loki's chest.