Thor walked along the halls of the tower, Mjilnir swinging idly from his hand. He passed Bruce on the way, who flinched, and couldn't help but chuckle as he made another circle in the air with the hammer. Such an action always made the humans nervous, especially the ones who knew what the hammer-no, what Thor was capable of.

He could easily let the hammer fly from his hand and put a massive hole in the walls of the tower.

He wasn't going to though, of course! He had complete control of his actions. centuries of training, and then even more on the battlefield, had ensured that his throw was controlled. Powerful, yes, but controlled. In fact, now that he thought about it, the only time he had ever fumbled a throw was-

a dull, slightly metallic 'thump' came from above the asgardian, causing him to pause his stroll. Thor glanced up at the ceiling curiously, listening closely.

He knew well from the 'wars of nerf' that the Avengers regularly engaged in, (and from humiliating experience) that there were ventilation tunnels in the ceiling of this part of the tower. Hawkeye often used them to strike from afar. If one listened closely though, you could always hear when the archer was crawling through them. There was chance the archer was roaming them now.

Thor stood still, gazing at nothing but listening intently. His grip on Mijilnir tightened ever so slightly.

The sound, however, did not repeat, so Thor shrugged and continued on.

"Merely a dust rabbit." he murmured, mind drifting off to the traps he had set to catch such a beast.

"Don't leave the tower~" Ed mocked, pushing aside another ventilation grate and continuing down the vent, "My name is Tony Stark~ I'm a huge asshole and I like to detain minors in my vigilante tower."

He turned a corner, brushing aside his bangs for better visibility.

"Tch. As if."

He continued ranting to no one in particular, "It's fine, Suuuurrre. Have your viking drop me out of the sky, then act like I'm the one who can't be trusted."

"After all," he continued, voice rising in pitch, "We're clearly mature adults, with our goatees and spandex and dumb codenames. Pfft."

He murmured angrily, scooting along the (oddly clean) vents. It wasn't an easy task with only one arm present, but he had a point to make, and he didn't plan on giving up easily.

The fullmetal alchemist simply didn't do house arrest. The last time it happened, he had escaped through the window. (admittedly, his escape had led to a close call in the exploding 5'th labrotory, but that wasn't the point.)

The point was, someone had told him 'don't', and he had steam to blow off.

Of course, Ed admitted to himself, I can't actually leave.

Tony, after all, had his arm. It wasn't that Ed couldn't function without his arm, but it made alchemy a whole lot more difficult and time consuming.

Also, even if he somehow managed to return to amestris without his arm, Winry would kill him.

So, it wasn't really a matter of actually escaping. Just getting out of the tower, maybe running around a little in the city or something, and then coming back for his arm. Just enough to get under the jerk's skin and show this group of wierdos that Ed wasn't going to accept being ordered around.

Ed's stomach growled loudly.

"Or food." Ed added to himself, reaching his hand out to continue crawling forward. "Going out to get food would be fine too-AHHHH!" Ed screeched suddenly, recoiling back against the walls of the vents with a loud bang and holding his hand to his side.

"WHAT THE- IS THIS A FUCKING RAT TRAP?!"

Why, on EARTH did they have RAT TRAPS in their VENTILATION SHAFTS?!

Ed grit his teeth, and experimentally wiggled one of his ensnared fingers. Well, at least it moved. Ed had honestly thought for a second that he had broken his fingers. Afterall, IT CERTAINLLY FELT LIKE IT.

Whatever! he knew how these things worked. He could just release his finger and continue on-

And at that moment, Ed remembered that he only had one hand.

One.

And it was in the rat trap.

Ed swore colorfully.

"Sir."

"Hm?" Tony replied, focusing on tightening a bolt.

"Edward Elric has found his way into the ventilation system. Shall I activate the 'Anti Nerf Nest' protocol?"

Tony paused, taking a screwdriver out of his mouth. "That thing I use on Barton?" He smirked, returning to his work.

"Yeah, why not."

A mechanical whirring noise caused Edward to suddenly jolt upright, turning as quickly as his one trapped arm would allow.

Small panels were sliding open down the ventilation pipe as far as he could see, and they were all angled towards him.

Ed swore and scooted backwards, not that it did any good. These little panels had opened as far down the vent as he could see.

How did I not notice the seams?! Ed mentally screamed at himself for not noticing such an important detail! It wasn't like him to miss such a huge danger sign! Sure it was dark, but—

"Damn it!" Ed hissed, continuing his retreat. There was a whirring sound beginning to fill the passageway. Whatever was coming out of those slots couldn't be good! Were they guns?! Poison gas?!

Ed was not one to abandon the thought of escape so easily, but he also didn't want to take his chances with whatever this was! And the sound was only getting louder!

Making up his mind, Edward crawled forward quickly, ignoring the pain from his ensnared hand. There was no way the entire ventilation system was tricked out like this! If he could just get past the booby-trapped area-

A gust of air that Ed could really only compare to hurricane force winds suddenly blasted through the vent, taking Ed with it in a flurry of screaming, flapping fabric, and loud clanging.

Ed hardly even knew what was happening! He scrabbled at anything solid he could find, but his current situation was so wild and unpredictable that for the most part he just screamed.

His cloak was flapping madly. He was hit in the face by his braid at least twice (ow!), made 3 summersaults and was fairly certain there was at least one point where he was suspended completely in air.

Also, if his fingers weren't broken before, he was pretty sure they were now.

Then suddenly, after only a few short seconds of chaos that felt like much, much longer, he fell through a ceiling grate and was spat out of the ventilation system unceremoniously onto the floor, where he laid dazed and severely disoriented.

"Wha—what the…" He groaned, rolling onto his side. What…what on earth was that?! Vents weren't supposed to do that! He had never, ever been in a vent that did that! Actually, vents weren't supposed to have rat traps in them either! What the heck! Why were these guys' vents so…so…armed?!

Distant voices suddenly caused Ed to stiffen.

"Hey, what was that noise?"

"What the hell was that?!"

"THE DUST RABITS!" The last statement was followed by heavy, rapidly approaching footsteps.

Ed swore, looking himself over. He was covered in dust, had very clearly just ben ejected from the ceiling, was missing an arm, and had a rat trap stuck on his hand.

"Crap."

And then he ran.