"Oh my god! We have to go back!" Tony yells.
"Back where?" Steve yells back.
"Back to the tower. Doom is at the tower!" Tony yells.
"No." Horror creeps over Thor's face. Loki and Valeria are in terrible danger. The team has spent the better part of the last hour fighting Doom's prison buddies in what was a pretty well-orchestrated trap, not that it worked. Thor uses his axe to attack the enemy with new ferocity. He cuts men in half as though they were made of cordwood and hacks at others like serial killer in a slasher fic. The team has never seen Thor in such a state before. Covered head to toe in the blood spray of many men, Thor stands in the middle of the carnage as though in a trance. The bloodlust has consumed him.
"Thor? Thor buddy you won. You can put the axe down now. We can go home and check on Loki and Valeria now okay?" Tony says while standing a good distance away from Thor, just in case. Thor looks up at Tony as if coming alive and marches to the quinjet. The others follow him. They know they cannot delay. The ride back is long and Thor paces back and forth the length of the jet ready to rip apart Doom with his bare hands. Tony hands Thor a towel to wipe away the excess blood from his face.
"Thor buddy, maybe you should wash up before we reach the tower. You don't want Valeria seeing you like this." Steve says. Thor nods and walks into the tiny jet latrine. He's covered in so much blood his hair is red. He leans over the tiny sink and soaks his hair and scrubs off the dried blood from his arms and chest armor. He rings his hair out and watches the pink water swirl down the drain. A storm follows the jet as it returns to the tower.
They land on the roof of the tower and run inside. Thor calls out for Loki, but is only greeted by silence.
"Valeria!" Thor bellows as terror floods his heart. He bursts into his daughter's room, waking the child from a deep sleep. She rubs her eyes and looks up at her father, upset and being awoken.
"Shh. Shh baby girl. It is alright. It is just daddy. Where is your mother? Where's Loki?"
"I don't know. I was sleeping."
"Did anything bad or strange happen tonight? Did Mommy do anything weird?"
"There were two mommies. Mommy made another mommy and had that mommy take me to bed. Daddy, what's an intruder?"
"Nothing sweetheart. Go back to sleep."
"Are you hurt daddy?"
"No sweetheart. Daddy beat the bad men. Daddy won."
"I love you Daddy. Good night."
"Good night sweet pea." Thor rises from his daughter's bed and calmly shuts the door behind him.
"Any sign of Loki?" Thor asks the others.
"No, but we have footage. Jarvis is showing it to us now." Tony says. They watch the playback and listen to Loki's conversation with Doom. Thor's heart clenches when he hears Loki offer to join Doom's team and conspire to attack the Avengers. He knows it's just a ruse to keep their child safe, and yet Thor cannot shake the hurt and the doubt that creeps into his mind.
"They took off from the roof. Jarvis, tap into the radar data from the nearest airport and find out where they went."
"They appear to have landed in the middle of a forest in western Pennsylvania."
"Oh goodie. I wonder what his headquarters will be this time. Maybe an old auto plant or a shutdown amusement park. Scooby Dooby Doo." Tony says. Clint can't help but chuckle. He offers to stay behind to watch Valeria and keep her safe. The rest of the team takes off on the quinjet to head to the coordinates that Jarvis gave them. They arrive at the location an hour later to find an abandoned helicopter and no clues. Thunder rolls overhead.
XxXxXxXxXx
"It's been three days! Where are they?" Thor shouts at Steve. He's practically in a panic.
"Thor it's going to be okay. We'll find Loki. He'll be fine. He's a big boy. He can handle himself."
"What if Doom is hurting him? What if, what if Loki meant those things he said?" Thor's eyes leak.
"Thor man look, no one here thinks Loki betrayed us. We all saw the tape. He did the most prudent thing he could do in that scenario. He protected Valeria and ingratiated himself to the enemy. Hell he's acting as our spy right now! I wouldn't be surprised if Loki contacts us before long and tells us everything we need to know to bring Doom down." Tony says.
"I want so desperately to believe that." Thor says.
"You should. I know Loki has betrayed you- a lot. Like a lot, a lot. But this time is different Thor. Loki was smart. He couldn't have played Doom better." Tony says.
"Why haven't we heard anything?" Thor says.
"He is probably in a place right now where he can't do that without drawing suspicion." Natasha says.
"Look, I know how hard the waiting can be. Not knowing if he is suffering right now and in need of rescue. I get it, and SHIELD has people working on the intelligence portion. Hopefully we won't have to wait for Loki to contact us.
XxXxXxXxXx
"So how old are you anyway?" Doom asks Loki.
"1246 years old. It's not polite to ask a god their age you know." Loki teases. He's kept up this flirtation for days. Doom seems eager to stick his metal dick (or whatever the hell it is that is still left between the man's legs) into him.
"Sir, the army is almost ready. Those new power units are perfect for our needs."
"Good. Good. Let me know when they are ready to deploy. New York will be experiencing Déjà vu very soon." Loki knows that Doom has been in prison for a couple of years now, but his men did not sit on their laurels while he was incarcerated. They continued on their mission and research, creating a cyborg army for their master and waited for his return.
"Yes sir." The henchman said and walked away. Loki has had many opportunities to kill Doom, but he wants to make sure that the cyborg army inside this giant underground bunker is destroyed as well.
"So here we are on the eve of our big battle. We should celebrate by consummating our business venture."
"Consummating? I don't know if I should. I prefer to reward winners and you have yet to prove yourself."
"What if I kill your brother for you, since you seem to have such a hard time doing it yourself?"
"I will kill Thor. That's the deal. It's my kill and you will not rob me of it."
"As you wish. But if I conquer New York City for you, what would you say then?"
"I'd say ride me Daddy. Show me what that mortal cock of yours can do." Loki leans in and leers at Doom. "If you are any good, I might keep you as a pet."
"A pet? You my feline friend are the pet here. I've never met another person besides myself that liked to have his ego stroked so much."
"Well, if you want me to stroke your…ego…in return, don't stop now." Loki says. Doom's deep voice rolls with a malicious chuckle.
"The battle begins tomorrow. I look forward to our victory." Doom says.
"As do I." Doom and Loki rise from their table and walk the corridor down to Loki's room. It is bare bones but he didn't expect much. It is also located right next to Doom's room. Doom raises Loki's hand to his metal lips and presses a stiff steel kiss to the back of it.
"Good night my Prince." Doom says.
"Good night my King." Loki says. Loki closes the door and takes a deep breath. He doesn't get in bed. Not tonight. He needs to wait until Doom is asleep and then go into the warehouse and find a way to set off the power packs on all the cyborg soldiers without killing himself in the process.
XxXxXxXxXx
"We know where they are. Everybody get ready. We leave in 10 minutes." Steve says. Maria Hill is there and has been tapped for babysitting duty. The others suit up and they take off in the middle of the night to a location in Maine.
They land half a mile away from a structure that used to be a Ski Resort back during the roaring twenties. It is obvious that some recent upgrades have been made and that the old building now has tenants. A lot of tenants in fact. The battle begins when they reach the edge of the tree line and are spotted by Doom's men.
Loki hugs the wall as the blasts shake the structure. He curses himself for waiting too long. Now Thor and the others are here. He can't set off the power packs on the cyborgs now. The explosion would almost certainly kill all of them. Damn! Damn! Damn! Loki runs back to his room. The last thing he needs is Doom wondering what the hell he is up to by not being in his room.
Loki runs up the stairs in his invisibility, almost getting run over by armed henchmen twice.
"Where is Loki?" Doom yells as the building shakes. Loki waits until his head is turned before uncloaking himself.
"I'm here. What is happening?" Loki asks even though he knows damn well what is happening.
"Your brother is here. We could use your help." Doom says. Loki's face is a passive mask as he spits out his response.
"I'm happy to oblige."
"Good, I'll let you fend off your brother while I worry about the rest." Doom says. He pulls out a wicked looking dagger and hands it to Loki. It is a silver emerald encrusted item that Doom clearly picked out for Loki as a gift. It would be touching if it came from someone else and under very different circumstances. Loki feels sickness settle into his gut.
"Thank you. It is lovely." Loki says. A particularly loud bang rattles the facility then. "What was that?"
"I released the cyborgs. They are engaging your brother and his friends now."
"Ah." Loki rushes to the balcony of his room to see what is happening outside. The team is swarmed with cyborgs and barely managing to fend them off. They're losing. Even the Hulk, smashing with all his rage and fury cannot keep up with the volume. Loki walks back to Doom cool and calm but pissy.
"Are your cyborgs instructed to capture or kill the Avengers?" Loki asks in a cool tone that suggests he is about be become very angry.
"Kill of course."
"And what of your promise to me to let me kill my brother? I've got a vendetta against him that is thousands of years old. If I am robbed of it I will be very put out." Loki glares daggers at Doom to let him know that he will dish his retribution upon Doom is he is denied his vengeance.
"So be it." Doom lifts up his wrist and speaks into a control device on his forearm, commanding the troops to capture instead of kill the Avengers. Since the cyborgs are untested he doesn't have full faith or confidence that they will be able to discern one Avenger from another, so they'll have to capture all of them.
A sedative is put into a tranquilizer gun and fired at The Hulk. The Hulk stumbles a bit and begins to shrink until a naked Bruce collapses into the dirt. Tony runs out of ammo and is low on power. His suit is damaged and he cannot sustain any more hits. The others are on their knees within minutes. Though a large pile of dead cyborgs lay in a heap outside, there were too many for the team to overcome. They are chained up from the ceiling in the fashion that Doom likes. At least this time they all still have their clothes on.
When Loki and Doom enter the room the team looks at him with shock. No one says anything however. Either they are completely fucked or Loki is their last saving grace. They can't afford to out Loki now.
"There you are. Now hurry up and kill him before he summons another one of those damn storms of his." Doom says clearly irritated. "And while you're at it kill the others as well."
"With pleasure." Loki says as he pulls out the dagger from its holder. Loki locks eyes with Thor, but his peripheral vision is doing a head count of the henchmen in the room. There are at least two dozen. The Avengers are chained and cannot fight back. This is bad.
Thor studies Loki. The scar on his ribcage tingles with anticipation of being opened again. The others believe Loki is still on their side. If they didn't they would have called him a traitor by now. The war inside Thor's head screams and roars. Loki is sauntering towards him with a dagger drawn like so many times before. Trusting Loki now would require a leap of faith.
Thor's mind calms. He can either die with fear and hatred in his heart or he can find peace.
"I trust you Loki. I trust you Loki. I trust you Loki." Thor mutters as Loki's dagger draws up.
Loki flings the dagger across the room and embeds it into a henchman's throat, killing him instantly. A dozen Loki's appear and pandemonium breaks out. As the henchmen all take aim at illusions stray bullets fly, some of which hit Steve, Natasha, and Clint in the legs. Some of the wounds are superficial but one hits an artery in Clint's leg. He'll bleed out in minutes. The real Loki tackles Doom.
It becomes obvious to the henchmen that the other Loki's aren't real and the shooting stops. Thor watches as Doom and Loki pummel each other. Loki tries to use illusions as a distraction, but it doesn't work. Loki was never very good at hand to hand combat, and he is losing. Thor feels a pull in his chest he has not felt in years. He stretches out his hand and calls upon a power that has been denied him since the day he raped Loki and prays for an answer of redemption.
Doom punches Loki hard in the face and Loki crumbles to the ground. Doom is a lot stronger than the average mortal, Loki is unhappy to find. Doom grabs Loki by the collar and hauls him up.
"You two faced lying bitch! I should've fucked you when I had the chance. Maybe I'll let my men take turns on you before I have my cyborgs rip your limbs from your torso!"
"Do you know why you always lose?" Loki chuckles as a drop of blood oozes from his mouth.
"Oh, why is that?"
"Because you are ruled by sentiment." Loki says. He's really talking about himself in this moment, but Doom doesn't know that. A high pitched whine like a jet engine is suddenly heard in the distance and by the time everyone has the moment to wonder where the sound is coming from, a loud crash explodes through the wall and Mjolnir flies into Thor's hand. The chains binding Thor buckle and drop when Thor tugs on them. He rips them from his wrists as though they were silly string.
"Now you die." Thor points at Doom. Thor shoots lightning bolts at Dooms men, frying them, before charging forward. Doom drops Loki into a heap on the ground and tries to run but Thor grabs him by the hood and swings his mighty hammer.
Doom's head bursts like a bloody water balloon. Loki gets up and runs to the others to free them. Clint is pale and fading fast. He needs immediate medical attention. Loki snatches a set of keys off a dead guard and undoes their chains as Thor fends off the last of the henchmen.
Steve can walk but the pain is excruciating. Natasha can't stand at all. Her leg has three bullet holes in it. Tony picks up Clint and carries him bridal style. Loki picks up Natasha, pulling her arm around his shoulders. Bruce is out cold still. It'll take hours for Doom's drugs to wear off. Thor will have to carry him.
They limp back to the quinjet and haul ass to the nearest hospital.