"Excuse me? You understand?" Loki scoffed, loosening his grip on his throat. "And exactly what is it that you think you understand?" Bruce took a second to get his breath back, surprised by this turn of events. He hadn't thought anything he could say would change anything, but a little honest acknowledgement was never a bad thing.

"I know what it's like to have a family that isn't always supportive," Bruce coughed, swallowing painfully.

"Is this your little attempt at comradery? Trying to connect with me so I'll spare your life?"

"Forgive me if I say I don't really see us becoming friends in any circumstance," Bruce muttered.

"You are right about that," Loki sneered, finally letting go of his neck. He brushed at Bruce's collar, smoothing out the wrinkles he'd created. "But color me intrigued by what you said."

"Why?" Bruce asked.

"Call it professional curiosity," Loki shrugged. Bruce looked away, trying to decide whether to lie and risk pissing off Loki even more, or opening up about something he didn't even tell people he liked. There wasn't really a point being embarrassed about his past, especially with someone like Loki. The threat to disparage his character was the thing to worry about.

"My father wasn't the easiest man," Bruce said, pursing his lips as he thought about things he'd put behind him so many years ago. You never really got over things like this, but you learned how to live with it, if you were lucky. "I guess you could say that my anger didn't only come from the Hulk. It's in my blood."

"Oh, do go on. This is quite interesting," Loki purred, raising an eyebrow in delight.

"He was never satisfied with anything in life, and he liked to take it out on me and my mother. My mom, she tried to direct everything toward her, but there was only so much she could do," Bruce explained with a sigh. "She'd been raised in a similar way and thought there was no way out. I wish she were still around for me to show her what life could've been like."

"How pitiful. There is nothing I despise more than weakness," Loki said mockingly.

"Watch what you say," Bruce growled, feeling his hackles raise.

"Hit a nerve, did I? What was that you said to me earlier? You wouldn't be so angry if there wasn't truth to what I said?" Loki murmured, flashing him a slick smile. "That kind of flippancy usually has a way of coming back around." Bruce grit his teeth, knowing that Loki wasn't going to concede that point.

"Fine, you want to hear the truth? My father beat the crap out of us whenever he even got slightly pissed off, so I dedicated my life to becoming successful, just to stick it to him. And then I ended up becoming an angry monster, the one thing I said I'd never do," Bruce spat, shoving Loki away. "The only silver lining was that he was dead before he could see how he infected me with his sickness." Loki looked down at his chest in surprise.

"Such petty grievances. My father stole me from my home and lied to me my entire life, so don't think you can compare your boring sob story to that," Loki smirked.

"Of course you would turn it into a competition. Sympathy and empathy are just out of the question."

"I don't need your sympathy."

"Well, you've got it anyway. Even after all the crap you've done, I still choose to acknowledge your pain. That's me fighting against the monster I have inside of me, instead of giving into it like you," Bruce shot back. "I could whine and cry and throw an intergalactic tantrum about how life isn't fair, but I don't. I use the resources I have available to me to try to make life better for other people. Tell me one thing you've done that isn't completely self-serving?"

"I don't owe anyone anything."

"And yet you expect everyone else to fall to their knees in front of you? That's why you failed. You can't see past the end of your own nose!"

"Oh, I can see things quite well. In fact, I see the man I'm about to kill standing right in front of me," Loki snarled.

"Then do it already," Bruce challenged, putting his hands out to the side. "How about we go outside and finish this once and for all?"

"Dammit!" Clint yelled, kicking a scuffed up box across the empty room. This was the third place they'd checked so far, with no luck. Clint was running out of options on this continent, but all of them were hesitant to venture further. Flying across the ocean would take too much time.

"Calm down, we'll find him," Tony sighed. They couldn't have Clint freaking out, since he was the only one with ideas of where to find Loki at the moment.

"You don't know what it was like with Loki," Clint spat, grinding his teeth in disgust.

"I understand that, but you have to admit that Bruce is a bit more well equipped to deal with anything thrown his way. Well, the other guy is," Tony pointed out.

"Then how did Bruce get taken in the first place? Why didn't Hulk shut Loki down from the beginning?" Natasha wondered.

"That'll be a good question to ask Bruce when we get him back."

"Maybe we should split up? We'll be able to cover more ground that way," Steve suggested.

"Okay Fred, great idea," Tony snorted.

"Who?"

"Natasha is totally Daphne," Tony grinned.

"Whatever, Velma," Natasha shot back.

"That's fine. We all know she's the smart one. Thor is definitely Scooby."

"And that makes me Shaggy?" Clint deadpanned.

"Better than Scrappy. Everyone hates him," Tony shrugged.

"We can talk about your friends later, but right now we need to focus on finding Bruce," Steve ground out.

"I agree. The longer my brother is out there, the more trouble he'll cause," Thor said seriously, bending over to do his version of whispering in Natasha's ear. "This Scooby is a mighty warrior, right?"

"Ruh-roh," Tony muttered, rolling his eyes at Steve's glare. He was about to downgrade Steve to Scrappy when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Tony snatched it out, hoping to hear some good news. "Talk to me."

"My searching has led to some promising results," Jarvis replied.

"Have I told you lately how much I love you?" Tony grinned, flipping the phone onto speaker. "What do you have?"

"There have been a few reports of a green haze seen around a building in upstate New York, but emergency responders are spread too thin to investigate at the moment."

"That's gotta be Loki!" Clint shouted.

"Send me the address. We're heading there now," Tony declared, hanging up the call. He looked around at everyone, finding matching faces of determination staring back at him. "Alright gang, let's go get our man back."