A/N: 'Nother chapter! Longer this time. This either might be one of my shorter fics, or this could go on for a little longer. We'll see as I continue writing, but I'm So hapy that everyone is enjoying this story!
I don't own Marvel, or the Avengers, or Loki, or any of that stuff. I own Naiden though, and anything that doesn't actually exist in the Marvel Universe.
Natasha couldn't help but stop and watch as Tony and Loki had started to fight. She had seen some training like that, had seen only a couple of others fight with the intensity that they were doing now. It could be classified as mindless, because there was nothing else but to fight, to survive, nothing else mattered in that time. She now knew what Clint had been talking about when he said he saw them fighting back in the city. When she saw Captain America fly past the doorway she snapped out of her daze, aimed her gun, and shot the creature that had thrown him in the head.
Captain America took a breath when he saw his attacker fall to the ground, and saw Widow standing in the doorway, more backup finally arriving. He didn't have much time to catch his breath though, rolling back to avoid a long pole slam down where his head used to be. Very few of the alien guards had jumped into the fights when the dozens of prisoners had charged the room, and he wondered how Tony was able to keep going. These prisoners were ruthless, like animals, worse than anything he had faced back in the war, and he wasn't sure that was actually possible. Looking over he saw that Loki and Tony were both still going, even if they were hampered by a lack of real weapons. Steve rolled and brought his shield up, the edge catching the jaw of the alien that had tried to impale him.
Bruce ran back the room, seeing the fight inside, and paused for a second at the doorway. Naiden was behind him and glanced out behind the shorter scientist. Bruce took a deep breath, knowing he had to get Tony's suit parts to him before he even thought about helping.
"I propose that you start by taking out some of the guards, first," Naiden said to him. "They're outside of the building, and then it might draw some of the prisoners out." Bruce raised an eyebrow, looking at him. "I can create a somewhat protective around you," Naiden looked at Bruce. "It should help you get to Tony as well. I wasn't trained to fight, I just know mainly protective and useful spells, nothing for damage."
"Hold on to that," Bruce told him. "And probably stay out of sight. SHIELD agents should be here any time."
"If they don't leave this just to you guys," Naiden commented. "It was the Avengers that saved Manhattan, why not save a SHIELD base?"
Bruce grumbled a little and slipped inside the room, an arrow flying past him to take out one of the prisoners that was headed for him. Looking back, Bruce nodded to Clint who was in the hallway back by the door, trying to use the distance to his advantage.
Tony had been trying to move back as they fought, trying to get to the door to get to his gauntlet and boots as soon as possible. He had managed to procure a spear from one of the prisoners and was using that to try and clear a path, to lessen the occupancy in the room. It was harder with only one usable arm, and he was taking some beatings and starting to feel it through his armour. He tossed the spear to Loki when they crossed paths, Loki immediately using it to stab a man, remove it and swing it along the floor to bring two other prisoners to the ground. Tony nodded to him, taking the free second to actually take a breath.
The guards were staying back, and Tony was thankful for that, at the moment. Natasha and Clint had joined to help with Cap, and that meant that not all the prisoners were focused on just him and Loki. It was usually difficult enough when it was two on two, and he usually had full use of his weapons, and limbs, but it was exhausting to try and fight off over nearly two dozen teams.
"Tony!" His name caught his attention and he lifted his arm to catch the bag that Bruce threw towards him.
"Hello babies," Tony grinned as he pulled out a boot from the bag. He leaned back when something when flying for his head, recoiling back to its master, and nearly dropped his stuff. There was a clang and Cap was in front of him, shoving back the attacker. "Thanks Cap." Tony grabbed the boot, pressing a button and placing his foot inside, watching the gears moves to form around his foot and doing the same with the other.
"Do you think now is the time to take a breather?" Tony could see the little smirk on Steve's face as he said it, throwing his shield, hearing a couple resounding thuds as it bounced, and flew back to Steve's arm. "I mean, you can't just stick us with your party guests when you get bored of them."
"Careful, Rogers. I'm a taken man, and you might make my boyfriend jealous." Tony pushed his hand into the gauntlet, flexed his fingers, and felt it power up against his palm. He was glad he didn't have to attach these parts to his arc reactor for them to work, but he also wasn't sure how much power or functionality they had left, not after the battle in New York. "He's the tall, dark, and scary one murdering men over there."
"Kind of hard to miss," Steve nodded. They heard the familiar roar of the Hulk as he ran out, knocking down several prisoners on his way outside, where he was free to 'smash'. "Let's try and end this faster."
"Getting tired already?" Tony stood up and fired a shot at a man trying to sneak up behind Loki. "This is only intermission."
"I have a lot more respect for you, and Loki as well, I can say that." Tony caught his eye and they both moved, getting back into the fight. Tony fired his boosters, getting some height, and kicking a couple of prisoners in the head, stunning them for a few seconds. Running past them and slid under the swing of the spear in Loki's hand as he knocked another man, then faced Tony, catching the spear before it swung back the other way.
Tony waved his covered hand. "Let me see that piece of trash around your wrist, baby." Loki switched the spear into his other hand and put it out, close to Tony. Turning to the side a little, and managing to cradle Loki's arm between his chest and his bad arm, biting the inside of his cheek at the pain of the pressure he was putting on his arm. A small laser tool opened up from the pointer finger of the gauntlet, and Tony set about cutting through the cuff on Loki's wrist, without trying to burn Loki as he still fought. Easier said than done when he heard Loki growl a couple times when the laser nicked part of his arm.
"Sorry, sorry, but if you didn't insist on playing with the other kids until you were all set," Tony grumbled a little. "Seems SHIELD has upped their tech game a little- a ha!" He pulled the cuff off and Loki whipped his arm around, his old familiar staff appearing in his hand, downing two guys at once and facing Tony, old armour appearing in a green shimmer. "Mm, now that's what I like to see."
"Don't get too full of yourself, we haven't taken down half of them yet," Loki reminded him. The Hulk let out a roar in the background. "Although it does feel good to have more allies on our side this time."
Tony grinned at him, stealing a quick kiss before bolting off in the other direction, intent on keeping anyone from getting further into the SHIELD base. What they didn't need was someone sneaking away.
After Clint had slunk away into the room, set on reclaiming a number of his arrows, Naiden slowly poked his head around the edge of the door to look inside the room. He wasn't stupid enough to rush in, not with no kind of combat training under his belt, but he could try to protect who he could. He knew Tony and Loki didn't need it, not now anyway, so he kept his limited elven spells focused on the Black Widow and Hawkeye, and it seemed to be working for now. The floor of the room that he had been living in was filling up with bodies and all kinds of blood.
He had seen all kinds of aliens, all kinds of life forms living in the cells of his youth, but he was seeing even more now. There were big ones and small ones, quick ones, and ones that could knock down a small building with one swing of their fist. The Yar were outside, occupied with the Hulk, and some of the bigger prisoners wanted to give it a shot, taking down one either as big as they were, or almost as big. No doubt they would want to boast that they had slain the two great champions, and a beast of Earthly might. And no doubt their lives would been a little bit longer if they hadn't of gotten so greedy.
Naiden pulled back, leaning against the wall and saw someone coming down the hall. Turning his head he saw Coulson coming over, a few things over his shoulders, stocked with some weapons and restock for Clint and Natasha.
"Sounds like more fun than Tony's last birthday party,' the Agent commented on all the noise coming from the room.
"I wasn't around for that one, but I've heard stories about it," Naiden commented, watching Coulson look around the corner. He hefted up the large gun they had made from the tech of the Destroyer and turned into the doorway, aimed in the room. He let out one whistle, one high pitched and loud whistle, (that made Naiden almost lose his spells it bothered his ears so much), and fired the gun. Glancing back into the room he saw a few bodies drop to the ground and Coulson threw a bundle of arrows to the archer, and Natasha slid over to grab the extra ammo for her weapon.
Captain Americas shield bounced off of a couple of walls, slamming into stray fey, and jogged over, out of breath. "I think we're doing alright," he said through a couple breaths, hand on his side. "We've dwindled the numbers down significantly."
"We still have the guards after this," Natasha said, glancing outside at where the Hulk was still fighting.
"Let's clear this room first," Steve said, readjusting his shield. "Just a-" They all stopped and turned when they heard a particularly loud shout of pain, a scream of agony. A few seconds later there was a pulse of power, knocking everyone off their feet. Naiden looked in the room, towards where the scream came from and nearly lost his breath.
Tony used his boosters to back away from the swinging swords of the prisoner and shot another blast from his gauntlet and felt the power fading. One more shot and the gauntlet was officially out of juice, all that was left were his boots. He caught the broadside of a pole and was slammed into the wall, his bad arm taking the brunt and he gasped at the sudden rush of pain. One more push with his boosters and he was away from the walls, slamming into the one who hit him in the first place.
"This is getting ridiculous," Tony said under his breath. He stole a glance over to Loki, feeling him nearby. Later, Tony would think that staying in one place was his first mistake, and not looking for the partner of the prisoner from was his second mistake. He gasped when something caught him in the stomach, throwing him back up against the wall. In the split second he was able to lift his head he saw the sharp end of a large axe swinging down towards him. Tony kicked a foot up, heard the whine from the booster in his boot, and felt his body start to move away-
Until the boosters died. The axe found purchase between the twisted armour plates of his bad arm, the force of the creature driving it straight through just under his elbow, slicing straight through the bone. Tony had about 2 seconds of shock before blinding pain filled his entire body, like lightning striking his core, a scream escaping from his mouth.
Loki turned, heart hammering in his chest when he heard the scream. He saw the axe in the wall, Tony screaming, slowly starting to the slide to the floor, and the creature reaching down for the man. A burning rage filled Loki as he saw this. How dare this impudent creature think to lay a hand on his mortal. He felt his magic bubble up, rushing to his fingers, spells working in his hands, his finger crackling with power until he released a wave throughout the room. He saw the creature let go of his axe, falling to the ground, Tony sliding down to his knee, back against the wall, breathing heavily, eyes wide with shock.
The god walked over to the creature, grabbed the tentacles on it's head and, put a boot on its back, and simply ripped its head off, kicking to the body away from Tony. He leaned down in front of Tony, putting his hands gently on the smaller mans cheek. "Anthony," he spoke clearly to him, looking him in the eyes, trying to get him to focus. "Anthony, can you hear me? I need you to try and focus on me." Tony's hand came up, grabbing at Loki's arm. "I know, my love."
Tony let out a little snort through his nose. "You love me," he managed out, pain lacing his voice. "You've only said it," he let out a whine when Loki tried to move his bad arm, "once before." Tony leaned his face into the one hand still on his cheek.
"Tony?" Tony opened his eyes and saw Naiden sliding down next to them on the floor. "Tony, are you okay?"
"Peachy, with a little side of keeeeeen," Tony dragged out as Loki lifted his arm up. "Holy shit," the engineer said, looking over to the side. "He cut off my arm, my arm is actually gone."
"Only part of it," Naiden said, talking, trying to distract him. The rest of the team were finishing off those left in the room, keeping them away from Tony and Loki. "You can totally rebuild that though, you were just talking about building a new one remember?"
Loki moved his fingers around the end of Tony's arm, magic weaving together, creating a green net that gently formed to bleeding stump. Tony hissed in pain, trying to keep the higher tones out of his voice, as the net tightened and turned solid, like green fabric.
"Guess, I don't have to," Tony took a deep breath, Loki's hand going back to his cheek, "have surgery now. Bright side."
Loki placed a kiss on Tony's forehead. "It should only take a few more moments, the pain should start to dissipate."
"Knew our winning streak would have to end sometime," Tony smiled lazily, feeling the effects of Loki's spell, like a high dose of morphine.
"We haven't lost yet," Loki informed him.
"Lost part of my arm." He grinned at Loki's flat expression.
Loki took his hand back after a moment and started to get up. "Naiden, stay with him, make sure that he doesn't try to do something idiotic."
"You're setting me up for failure," Naiden shot back.
"Make sure he doesn't try to follow me," the god amended. "I'm going to end this." He turned to see that the rest of the Avengers were outside now, the Yar guards the only ones left, and their numbers had been reduced by the Hulk alone. "This stops."
