Steve fell from heights with some frequency. Gravity was an old and persistent enemy of his, older than his enhancement, older than his time at bootcamp, older than the time he'd broken both arms falling off a see-saw. This was, however, his first time being thrown this far by a person.

The throw was fairly shallow, high enough to get him over the trees and a couple streets. The vertical vector wouldn't be much of a problem, falling a couple of stories wasn't something that really bothered him. It was the horizontal component that was worrisome.

Fenton, it seemed, had one hell of a pitch.

He hit water – the Neckar River – shield-first and skipped. The vibranium dampened the impact, which, yes, it had no business doing. Steve had spent some time in physics classrooms, thank you very much. Vibranium was the next best thing to outright magic.

He sent up a plume of water, then skipped like a stone, his stomach doing flips as he was once again, however briefly, airborne.

He hit the water again and seemed to skid several more feet before friction brought him to a stop and he began to sink. Luckily, his skillset included swimming.

Lightning cleaved the sky above, a deafening boom of thunder right on his heels.

.

Loki hissed through his teeth. The sky churned with his brother's – No. With Thor's ire and Odin's magic. He had factored Thor into his earlier plans, the plans that included his capture, but with a new strategy in mind, Thor's early arrival was nothing but inconvenient.

A smaller hand slipped into his, and Loki felt magic not his own wash over him. His first instinct was to lash out at it, push it off, free himself, but he recognized it's character.

"Invisibility?" he asked, looking down at Danny.

"I can't hold it forever. I've got the iridium. Where's Barton?"

"The archer can take care of himself," said Loki, leading the way with long strides. "Are you going to revert to your previous state now that you got what you wanted?"

"I don't think I can. That staff seems to prevent me from taking actions that would reduce its hold on me. I assume that is why none of us have slept?"

Loki didn't deign to answer. His mind was occupied by other things. Such as how much power Danny was holding back. In contact like this, Loki could feel it, its weight tangible and looming, cold and dark. Not entirely unlike his own internal well of power, if he thought about it. Similar enough to the Casket of Ancient Winters to make Loki… Not homesick. Not exactly. Nostalgic, perhaps.

So much power in one so easily controlled. In one so hesitant to use it.

Loki didn't know what to make of him.

He wondered what Thanos would…

No. Loki knew what Thanos would do if the child fell into his hands. Another… Another lesson. Another tool. Another weapon. The latter two were, after all, what Loki was using him for.

It was a good thing that Thanos only wanted the Tesseract. After Loki returned that and the scepter, the Earth, and every being on it, would be his.

"I've been wondering something," said Danny. "Your army is a loaner, right? They aren't your people."

"What makes you say that?"

"You've been calling them 'the Chitauri' when you talk about them to Barton, and you don't say 'we' when you're talking about them. Maybe your language doesn't work like that, but you're pretty good at English, so…"

"I don't speak English," said Loki. "The language I am using is All Speech. Your mind is only interpreting it as English."

"Oh, huh. Does that mean you can't read English, or…?"

"Practitioners of All Speech can understand all languages, written or spoken."

"What about sign language?"

"That as well."

"Cool," said Danny. "But what I was saying was, how are you going to keep control when the Chitauri aren't with you anymore?"

Loki stopped and whirled, yanking his hand away. Not with him anymore? He—That—They were Thanos's creatures, and—

The child might have a poi—

Lightning struck.

.

The lightning guy was a surprise. Danny was just going to say it. He had approximately zero (that was a 0, a goose egg, none) plans for dealing with a lightning guy. Especially since he wasn't a fan of large amounts of electricity.

Lightning guy, on the other hand, had no problem with picking up Loki and flying away.

Great. Wonderful. Perfect. Lovely. How was he supposed to catch up to that without going ghost?

An arrow flew overhead. Danny turned to see Barton running up behind him.

"You're faster than I am," he said, holding out a small, square device. "This is a tracker. I'll take the iridium."

"Okay," said Danny, making the trade. "Good luck."

Barton nodded. Danny ran.

.

Tony Stark wasn't a genius for nothing. His suits had emergency backups. Not very good ones, space was a premium in a design like this, but enough to get moving again once they kicked in.

"—if you can fish him out before any locals investigate." Romanoff said to her earpiece. "What happened to your suit?"

"What happened to those fancy weapons you had?" asked Tony, kneeling to pick up the tangle of wires whose removal had, however briefly, turned him into an expensive, handsome, and inconveniently large paperweight.

"They all stopped working," said Romanoff.

"What, the kid snuck by you and pulled wires out of all of them?"

"We had eyes on him when they deactivated. All at the same time."

"Think the parents had some failsafe?"

Before Romanoff could answer, a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder took their attention.

"Crap," she said. "Thor."

"Loki's brother?"

She put her hand to her earpiece, and Tony realized that his comms must be acting up, too, because no one pinged him.

"We have eyes on him and Loki. Get Rogers and everyone get ready to move out. We might not get another chance. You still okay to fight."

"I highly recommend against it, sir," said Jarvis.

"Sure," said Tony. "Mind if I catch a ride?"

.

"Where is the Tesseract?"

Loki gasped in mock hurt before laughing, using a nearby tree as a prop to 'stabilize' himself. "I missed you, too!" His words echoed back oddly off the mountains around them, despite the continuing storm.

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?"

"You should be thanking me! I know about your oath of protection, but how much does it mean when you're holed away in Asgard?"

"I thought you dead, Loki?"

"And did you mourn?" asked Loki, curious of the answer despite… everything.

Perhaps curiosity was too mild a term. There was too much desperation in it. Too much hunger.

"We all did. Our father—"

"Your father," snapped Loki. "You saw what I did with the casket."

"We were raised together. We played together. We fought together. Do you remember none of that? We are brothers."

Loki did remember. The problem was, he remembered both what Thor was describing, and another, darker version of events, like holograms played over one another. And he knew how prone his 'brother' was to seeing only what he wanted to see.

"Please," said Loki, "maybe that's what was going on in your mind, but let me assure you, you were the only one who thought of us that way." He sneered, pushing past Thor to stand at the edge of the cliff. "And then, even you tossed me into an abyss! I, who was and should be king!"

"So, you take your anger at Asgard out on the Earth? When you know it is under my protection?"

"These humans will be slaughtered in droves," snarled Loki. "I will bring decimation down upon them, whereas he—"

Thor leveled Mjolnir at Loki's chest. "You will do no such thing. You will give up the Tesseract and come home. Give up this—"

Danny materialized between Thor and Loki.

"You know," he said, "he's being mind-controlled, too."

He pushed Loki off the cliff, and they fell.