Loki, the Norse god of mischief, sat on his throne.
"Bored!" He exclaimed and kicked his legs over the throne's armrest so that he was now seated sideways.
"Bored, bored, bored!" The frost giants looked at him with concern. Loki had the tendency to entertain himself at the expense of others, and they hoped that he chose a different species to dangle in front of a hungry beast. The giants returned to their tasks, actively avoiding their dictator. Loki sat properly on his throne and clasped his hands under his chin.
"What to do? What to do?" He mumbled to himself.
"I could toss a couple of frost giants in an arena and watch them battle, but I did that last week. I need something fresh." He opened a viewing portal and flipped through different worlds.
"I could try to take over Asguard again, but I like these robes. I'd rather not dirty them." He spotted the Avengers on Earth battling yet another superpowered villain hellbent on destroying New York. Loki got a mischievous idea.
"Giants! Prepare the battle arena!" Loki shouted and stood, preparing to work a spell.
Peter swung through a swarm of giant, robot wasps with laser stingers. He dodged the bright red laser beams and landed on a window, sticking to it effortlessly. The board meeting that was happening inside the building stopped abruptly to stare at the web-slinger.
"Kid, I could use your help webbing the wasps," Tony Stark called through the commlink. Peter was still getting used to the fact that he was currently working with THE Avengers.
"Sure thing, Mr. Stark," Peter chirped in response and casually dropped from the window, freefalling until he was only a few feet from the ground. He shot a web and swung between cars abandoned on the street by frightened civilians. Peter spotted Tony, clad in the Iron Man suit, fighting off a swarm of the child-sized robot wasps. Peter created a net with his webs and captured five of them.
"They just keep coming!" Clint Barton shouted with frustration. Hulk leaped into the air and grabbed two handfuls of the robots, crushing them.
"We need a new strategy," Steve ordered and looked for an exit. Just as he was about to make his move, a portal opened up above the city and began to suck the Avengers and their villain of the day into it. Peter held on to a street sign and shot a web at Tony, catching the man by the chest plate.
"Great! Because one massively destructive event wasn't enough," Sam Wilson said sarcastically as he tried to fly against the pull. He kicked his wings into high gear but it did nothing, and he was soon sucked up into the misty green mass. The signpost Peter was hanging on to creaked as it began to come loose.
"Just let go of me, kid! It'll be alright!" Tony shouted. If that portal meant death, then at least Peter would be left behind to protect the city.
"I can hang on to us both, Mr. Stark!" The sign shifted as the bolts that held it into the concrete loosened further. Tony cut the web with a short blast from his hand and immediately began his ascent with the rest of the Avengers. Peter let go of the sign and tried to grab for Tony, but it was too late.
"Mr. Stark!" Peter shouted after him, watching his mentor— and in many ways, his father— disappear into the portal. Before Peter could catch hold of anything else, a damaged wasp bot whacked him in the head hard enough to make his vision blur. Peter passed through the green mist into darkness.
Peter's ears were filled with a high-pitched ringing. He started to sit up, but dizziness overtook him and he promptly laid back down. He lifted his hands to his head with a groan but paused when he realized he could feel his hair and the sticky wetness of half-dried blood. Peter opened his eyes. The light shouldn't have hurt as much as it did seeing as there was barely any, to begin with. The ringing in his ears was dying down and Peter realized he could hear voices.
"Oh shit, he's awake," one voice said. It sounded familiar, but Peter was struggling to think at the moment.
"Peter, kid, can you hear me?" Another voice asked. Calloused hands cupped his cheeks, they were cool against his flushed skin. Peter's vision slowly came into focus and he recognized the furrowed brow of Tony Stark that he saw more and more often.
"Mr. Stark?" Tony sighed with relief and pulled his hands away.
"Yeah, how's your head?" Peter only groaned in response.
"You got a nasty cut on your head while trying to save Tony. That was brave of you, son," Steve said from his spot in the corner of the damp cell. Peter would have been blushing from being complemented by his childhood hero, but his head ached too badly to do much of anything. Peter slowly sat up and looked around. They were chained at the waist to a stone wall in what looked like an elongated medieval dungeon cell. There were iron bars, wooden cots for beds, and a cold, packed dirt floor.
"Where are we?" This time, Thor spoke up.
"We are being held captive by my brother, Loki. I have no doubt that whatever he had planned for us will be savage." Peter bit his lip nervously. He noticed a pair of golden wrist cuffs on Thor, they had Norse symbols etched into them. Peter looked around the cell and saw everyone was deprived of their weapons and armor.
"And here I was thinking we'd get off easy by just being killed," Clint grumbled.
"We'll find a way out of this. We always do, right?" Bruce tried to encourage the downtrodden group.
"And while we're here, who's left to defend Earth?" Rhodey spoke up. Peter counted who was in the cell: Tony, Steve, Natasha, Clint, Thor, Sam, Rhodey, Bruce, and even Bucky. The last one sat moodily in his spot.
"S.H.E.I.L.D. is still operable and independent heroes will take our place while we're gone. Earth will be protected," Steve assured. Their conversation was interrupted by a bang on the cell bars.
"The real question is will YOU be protected?" Loki sneered at them.
"Brother, release us this instant," Thor demanded in a booming voice.
"I don't think so. You're under my rule, now." Loki snapped his fingers and two frost giants stepped into view, "any volunteers?" Tony instinctively shifted in front of Peter. The mischievous god took that action as a "yes."
"Man of Iron, thank you for volunteering. Your opponent shall be," he took a moment to scan the cell," ah, yes. You with the metal arm. I smell some tension between you two. This 'ought to be interesting." With the wave of his hand, Tony and Bucky disappeared from the cell and into the hold of the two frost giants. They were escorted from the dungeon.
"No! Let them go!" Peter shouted, his pleas matched by the remaining Avengers.