*pushes chapter at readers*
The room erupted into near-chaos after a small, shocked moment during which no-one spoke. Fury stood up, shouting at them loudly to gear up and get outside RIGHT NOW or else, and they each ran their separate ways, Steve to where his Captain America suit was stored, Nat and Clint down to the weapons room, Loki finding himself being pulled by Tony down to the workshop. They ran down the stairs and JARVIS opened the door for them without needing a word of command to do so. Tony barrelled in and pulled out an iron ma suit. Loki blinked. It had been re-painted to a slightly darker shade of red, almost like blood. Tony didn't waste any time pulling it on, and Loki went over to a table where he had crafted himself a few daggers over the past week, but Tony stomped over and stopped him, mask sliding up. "I was doing stuff yesterday and got some of my bots to build something last night," he told Loki. "They should have finished by now. JARVIS?" Loki looked around curiously, and then the back wall of the workshop slid back. At first, all he could see was a small room overrun with bots and still iron man suits, but then he noticed three of the bots clustered around another suit he couldn't quite make out. "They're making them one at a time," Tony said apologetically, "and I forgot to tell them to start on the second and third after they finished. But this one was my favourite anyway," he said, and the bots moved away to reveal a suit.
Not quite an iron man suit, but not just cloth either. It was more like a lightweight half-suit of armour, but with less metal. Dark green leather, most likely treated to be incredibly tough yet flexible, was partially covered with elegant silver plates, swirls cut into them decoratively. His old cloak – he hadn't even seen it in days – hung from the upturned shoulders of the suit. The metal plates protected his chest, back, upper and lower arms and legs, but the rest was that beautiful leather. He nodded appreciatively, mouth slightly open. "It's beautiful," he told Tony, and the mortal sniffed in agreement, before saying, "There's lots of knife slots in the material, and it's hard enough to stop a bullet. I made it darker green. Loki nodded absentmindedly, then slipped over to it and ran a hand over it. The metal was cool, the leather supple and flexible. He turned to Tony, a half-smile on his face despite the upcoming fight. "Begone," he told him, shooing him out so he could change. Slipping into the suit, it was as if… Well, JARVIS had probably made the measurements. It was perfect. He noticed a pair of thin leather gloves studded with metal plates on the back, and slipped them on, as well as the black boots he found waiting. Astonishing, that Tony had managed to design and get his bots to make this all in one night – though many of the materials might have been ordered to arrive within a few hours, to save time during manufacturing. No doubt the suit was a prototype, but… He noted the daggers on the table and quickly found the surprisingly well-hidden slots, pushing the knives in before striding out of the room to meet Tony.
The iron man suit, Tony inside, stared at him before the mask slid up. Tony's mouth was open, and he seemed to realise that as he closed it slowly. "Damn," he whispered, and Loki smirked. "It's better than I thought," Tony added, as Loki grabbed two twin daggers and slipped them into the gaps in his sleeves. Clever Tony – the suit was… "It's marvellous," he murmured, blinking at Tony. Tony smiled back, looking slightly abashed. "You look great in it," he told Loki, then his face darkened. "We need to hurry. We only have a few minutes left," and jerking back to reality, Loki nodded, and they raced outside. Clint and Nat were waiting, looking up, and Steve raced out a moment later. Fury and the police seemed to be arguing, but Fury flashed a badge at the officer, and he turned away, shouting orders. The streets were already clearing and far above them, they could make out a donut-shaped ship slowly making it's way down. Strange appeared next to them. "It's slowing down, we may get an extra few minutes before it lands," he told them, face grave. Then, to Loki, "The hell did you get that suit from?" Loki shrugged, smug. "Tony made it," he told him, and Nat and Clint turned around, both doing a double take as they noticed Loki's suit. Nat raised her eyebrows. "Wow," she remarked, looking him up and down. She looked rather 'wow' herself, in her black widow suit. Clint just looked like Clint, albeit with a fancy archery kit. Steve would never change, Loki thought to himself, and wrinkled his nose. Steve's suit must be so uncomfortable to wear, it looked so… Tight. Tony, of course, was hidden behind the suit, but he noted the others noting the slight colour change. Bruce was standing behind Fury, Loki saw, and the two of them made their way over. Bruce saw the suit immediately and gave Loki a good once-over, then giving him an appreciative nod. "You look good," he said, and Fury, standing next to him, shrugged and gave an incline of the head in agreement, before frowning again and saying, "Not the time for admiring each other's suits. It's landing within two minutes." And indeed, the doughnut was becoming bigger and bigger, beginning to blot out the sky. The streets were finally clearing, police swarming everywhere yelling at cars to get a move on.
Another minute and the donut landed, crushing buildings beneath its heavy bulk. The Avengers ran the short distance towards it, Clint pointing out a small rectangle that might be a door. They waited, unsure of what was going to happen. Then all of a sudden, a bright flash appeared from the sky behind them and when they turned around, they saw Thor and a band of warriors. Sif and the warriors three all stood behind Thor, who looked around immediately spotting Loki. A blink of surprise was all the emotion he showed for a tense few seconds, before he strode over and embraced Loki. Loki embraced him lightly back, and heard Thor whisper, "I am sorry, brother," as he let go of Loki. Loki shrugged. "It is well, Thor." He saw the flicker in Thor's eyes as he noted that Loki did not call him brother. Perhaps they had been brothers before, by spirit if not by blood, but after what had happened… Despite what he may have thought when he'd wanted to see Thor earlier, he no longer needed him back. Tony was enough for him. Though he knew Thor would always be a friend to him. Loki had almost forgiven him, him and Odin, for what they had said and done to him. Thor, he supposed, had been misled, and he was happy enough to welcome him as a friend. Odin, on the other hand, he would rather never have to see again. He briefly greeted Sif and the others, who seemed to have mixed feelings about seeing him again. He didn't care and stepped closer to Tony, as the rectangle in the donut Clint had spotted slid open, and from within strode out the large form he remembered all too well.
Somehow, he found himself reaching for Tony, and the mortal gave his fingers a brief squeeze before they faced Thanos head on. Doctor Strange was quietly murmuring to Fury and the rest of them everything he knew about Thanos – and the infinity stones. As he approached, he turned to Loki. "Anything to add?" he asked quietly, and Loki thought for a moment. "He has the power stone and many faithful followers. He's already the most powerful being in the universe. Other than that-" Thor interrupted him. "There was a plea for help from Nidavellir not too long ago. We found the planet overrun by Chitauri, but managed to fight them off for long enough to triumph… With heavy casualties to the dwarves. Eitri… Eitri claimed he had been forced to make a gauntlet to… To harness the power of the stones. Heimdall sent us here once we returned." And indeed, when Loki looked closely, he could see the signs of war on Thor and his band, dishevelled appearances and slightly bloodstained clothing. Strange sighed. "Then we'll fight until death," he said simply, and raised his hands, magic sparking around them, as Thanos approached. He made no move against them, simply walking towards them slowly. Alone. Fury raised a hand, signalling to them to wait. They did, albeit cautiously. Loki looked on that face and felt something deep inside him twist and roar, as his eyes darkened. He would kill Thanos for what he had done to Tony, what he had done to all the people he had hurt or killed the families of. But still, Fury did not let them attack, until Thanos stopped a safe distance away from them. Clint knocked an arrow and pulled it back, pointing it right at Thanos' s ugly purple head. Fury glared at him but he didn't lower it, not even as Thanos began to speak.
"There is an army in the ship that the mortals will be powerless against." Thor stood straighter. "I have faced armies alone and triumphed," he called out loudly. "No you haven't," Loki heard Sif mutter, and had to suppress a grin. Thanos smiled at them. "You haven't face my army yet, not in all it's glory. And-" Thanos stepped forwards, raising a hand. "You won't have to. If you give me him-" and here he pointed at Strange, before his finger travelled over to Loki, "and him." Tony snorted. "no chance, grape juice," he told Thanos loudly. Thanos shrugged. "Perhaps I could take your whole little party instead," he said. "How is that supposed to be a better trade?" Bruce asked incredulously. Thanos shrugged. "Exactly. You either give up the two, or we burn this world to cinders and take all of you anyway." Fury blinked. "So this army, what does it consist of, exactly? Because all we needed to do last time was-" Thanos nodded and interrupted him. "Yes, yes. Blow up the power supply. But these are not the Chitauri. They are… Upgraded, shall we say. And there are many more of them." Clint raised his head. "And they all fit on that ship? How do we know you aren't bluffing to make us give up without a fight?" Thanos smirked slightly, and reached his hand into his armour, drawing out a small bag from which he took two strange spheres, throwing them to the ground behind him without taking his eyes off them. Within seconds, the spheres unrolled and became huge, ugly creatures, not dissimilar to the Chitauri, but indeed looking… Upgraded. Loki could practically feel Tony raising his eyebrows. "So you plan to defeat us using mega ugly pokemon. Cool. How you gonna capture us if we all die fighting them, though?" Thanos rolled his shoulders and sighed as though bored. "I'm not," he said, and seemed about to say more when Fury lowered his hand, looking almost bored. Immediately, Clint let his arrow fly. Faster than was possible, especially from an overgrown purple raisin, Thanos had the arrow in his hand and it was broken. They ran towards Thanos, Tony launching himself in the air, but were stopped by a wall of purple that flung them backwards and held them in their original positions, spreading around them in a mist.
A few moments and Strange ripped free of the spell, flinging out long ribbons to try tie Thanos. The purple mist faltered, and a long roar ripped from Bruce as he grew into the hulk – and Loki never thought he would have been so happy to see him, even if he did have to fight the sudden urge to flinch. And then for a while, it almost seemed like they were winning. Tony concentrated his attacks on the Chitauri (for lack of an original name) on the left, and Loki fought the one on the right, ducking and dodging and whirling around it until he had stabbed it in so many places he was eventually lucky enough to get a deep enough slice to end the creature. Black blood spattered onto his chest plate, and he turned to help Tony, only to catch sight of him cutting the Chitauri in half with a powerful beam of light shooting from his hands. Strange's cloak had wrapped around the gauntlet stopping him from using it, and he was unsuccessfully trying to cut his hand off with a portal. "He's resistant to it," he hissed, face ashen, and then Thanos ripped from his bonds and a wave of power flung them back once more. Strange gave a sudden cry as a dagger flew past him, slicing his cheek. Loki looked behind Thanos in alarm, noting the black cloud emerging from the ship and making it's way quickly over. That was where the dagger had come from. He didn't have time to extend his mind to it before Strange collapsed, unconscious, and Loki realised the dagger had been poisoned. He flung his mind at the spell holding them in place and grappled with it before he dropped to the ground in a shower of sparks and leaned over Strange. Definitely poisoned. Thanos looked at him in amusement. "You're still alive, too," he mused, but it sounded more like a warning that a surprised statement. He stood up and looked at the black mist now circling around them, and then Thanos' spell vanished, forming instead a protective bubble around him, as the avengers dropped to the ground. Through the mist they could hear a strange noise, the same noise marbles clinking against each other might make. "Fifty upgraded Chitauri released on your city," Thanos told them. "It might have been worse." Steve tried to step into the blackness, but it wouldn't let him. Loki leaned towards Tony and pulled him up, horrified. Thanos was let into the black smoke when he stepped back, and was slowly obscured until all they could see of him was his face. "You have doomed Midgard by not going willingly. And you have doomed yourselves. You asked who would capture you? Here she is. I'll leave her to it." And then he vanished completely, leaving them in the black mist. Slowly, the mist drew back until it was concentrated in one spot, a black cloud obscuring the thing within.
And then, finally, the black vanished completely and Tony and Loki gripped each other, faces paling to paper-white, the other avengers looking at them and then the person facing them, realisation dawning. "Hello again," Oriax purred, madness and anger lighting up her dark green eyes. "I'm afraid it will take more than beheading to kill me." And then she laughed the low laugh she'd often laughed while watching them scream. Cruel black whips appeared in her hands. "It will be fun to play with you again."