Tony circled the rough perimeter that he and the others had created. It wasn't look bad, even if he did say so himself. All of the larger heat signatures were within 400 yards of the square that they had cleared, and according to JARVIS, the team were doing a good job of keeping the creatures back, with few lasting injuries to their own persons.
It was with a surge of half-worry, half-appreciation that Tony saw Sherlock and his doctor friend charge clumsily into the square itself, guns raised above their heads, their fire drawing in the few straggling creatures.
The one big problem, Tony thought as he soared past where Clint was capably boxing in two bulbous creatures from above, was the almost phosphorescent green Hulk that had joined in the battle, followed by a seemingly unarmed Timelord, and Donna Noble.
Regardless of what Fury had muttered in Tony's ear as he had jetted off, he was the only one that could release the access codes to the anti-Hulk formula; he wasn't even going to risk it while Bruce was on the ground.
"Hey, Sherlock-" Tony called into his radio, "Holmes! You there?"
"Yes- yes, what do you want?" the detective all but panted in reply. From a distance, Tony could see him turning his head sharply, his arms sagging despite his efforts, exhausted by the fight as he tried to urge his friend to remain near the edge of the nearest building rather than in the middle of the fray.
"What's the story with Bruce? You getting him out or what?" Tony asked irritably, eyeing the small gathering. One creature had followed the growls that the Hulk was emitting, and was now edging around the square as the Hulk tore into a grand stone structure.
Natasha appeared like a dart whipping through the air, driving the creature into a corner with the small explosives that she kept on her at all times, and her pistols.
"Donna's trying to lure him away, but she's doing a terrible job at getting noticed –she's too small." Sherlock responded after a few tense moments where Tony watched him dodge a large chunk of architecture that the Hulk hurled in his direction.
John must have heard Sherlock's comment, as he immediately abandoned the relative shelter of the building alongside which Sherlock had been keeping them, and sprinted towards Donna, firing shots into the air to draw the Hulk's attention to him.
Tony had to admire the man's guts, and the sound of the detective swearing loudly in his ear, before following him, was all the reassurance he was going to get concerning Bruce's safety.
"Well, good luck with that – you need to get him away soon unless you want your city completely refurbished." He stated drolly, but there was no answer other than a harsh, bitten out expletive.
Tony let out a laugh, the first one in hours, but even that moment of brief frivolity was cut short, as a noise like the thrumming of twenty bells, and the running of a thousand nails down chalkboards filled the air. The roars halted immediately, and the Hulk froze just as Donna, Sherlock, and John reached its heel, and in tandem, every mutated creature turned its head from side to side, trying to find the source of the wretched sound.
"Do you guys see that?" Steve demanded, his voice laced with what Tony knew was panicked bewilderment.
"Yeah…that's not good at all." Clint added, only serving to confuse Tony more. Tony turned his sights upwards, searching the skies for the anomaly that should have appeared if Moriarty had gone ahead with his plan.
But he only became more confused as Natasha and Thor both chipped in to state their anxieties, as no matter how hard he strained the Iron Man sensors, Tony couldn't see any sign of the portals opening.
That was until JARVIS opened various alarms before his eyes, telling him that there were strange singularities at ground level that he should inspect.
Tony drifted higher into the air, so that his scanners could overlook a large area, but he needn't have bothered. He could see with his eyes, and a wave of dread, what the others were bickering about on the ground. Dotted about, in the wider streets and open areas, even in their chosen square, contained pieces of the air seemed to be rippling, bubbling, as if heated to extraordinary temperatures; it was as if the air were becoming a volatile mass.
"Oh, crap." Tony muttered, and for an irrational second it felt as if he had been betrayed, but by who he wasn't sure – honestly, was it too much to ask that the portals were where he expected them to be?
Without further ado, the rippling, churning portions of air expanded into spherical arches of about ten feet each way, darkening and solidifying until the readings on Tony's suit told him that the temperature around them had dropped, and that the gravitational analyses showed that there was something within them.
The portals had been opened.
Like a boulder being hurled into a lake, dread overtook Tony's ability to speak, just for a second, as he watched two, then another creature break the perimeter and charge through the portals nearest them. Tony just hoped that Asgard was as guarded as Thor said it was.
As another, feet below him made to move away from the group, Tony fired a line a fast acting rockets into its path, forcing it in the other direction. That was enough to bring back the surge of action that usually carried him along, and as he monitored the others, doing a decent job of keeping the creatures away from the portals while the perimeter expanded bit by bit, Tony saw from the corner of his vision how the greenest, most human, of the creatures was standing stock still.
Sherlock reeled back as the portal in the centre of the square ripped open the very fabric of his already precarious reality. He knew by the scraping sounds from all around that more were being forced open across the city.
The Doctor was being no help whatsoever; the Timelord was darting in and out of the sheltered crags of the square, between the legs of the creatures, around and around the Hulk, doing nothing more than wave his metal screwdriver in the air, muttering to himself as nothing happened.
Sherlock watched the ridiculous man with an irrational, rising hatred as he narrated his failures, calling out apologetically that there was something interfering with his attempts to put the creatures to sleep, and that he couldn't do that to Bruce.
But he couldn't think about that. Right then, his entire focus was upon John, who had jogged to stop beside Donna, as she yelled at the formidable and looming form of the Hulk.
"Bruce, please, listen to me when I'm talking!" Donna cried, wavering between emotionally pained and furious at being ignored; her red hair was being pulled from her face by the high winds soaring from the open portal.
As Sherlock came to his side, wrapping one hand around the other man's upper arm, John kept his gun raised in the air, and glanced around them, on guard for external attack. He was no longer firing, as the Hulk was standing, chest heaving mere feet before them, but Sherlock knew that he wouldn't hold back if he needed to, as although Natasha and Tony were doing a fine job of containing the other creatures, the risk remained.
"John, this isn't safe, come away." Sherlock beseeched him, muttering in his ear even as Donna continued to implore the Hulk, whose head was turned in the direction of the portal, his eyes narrowed with a peculiar cunning.
"Sherlock, shh!" John hissed, but he didn't shake off the hand, allowing them to remain close to each other. Sherlock battled down the rising panic in his chest, telling himself over and over that they were quick, and that so long as he had a hold on John, they would be fine.
Suddenly, the Hulk's head snapped around, and his viridian eyes focused solely on Donna, hardening dangerously before softening, and his hand twitched imperceptibly towards her.
Donna's expression morphed into one of relief, and she stretched her arms out to him, under the disbelieving gazes of the detective and his doctor, almost meeting his hand, touching his enhanced fingertips.
"Come on Bruce, we need to leave now." She instructed, firmly, her forehead pinching with contained grief and relief as she stepped backwards. Sherlock followed John as he too began to tread backwards, checking behind him, clearing the way for Donna and the Hulk.
The Hulk took one step forward, and the detective was momentarily stunned by their success; the scientific possibilities if he could study the Hulk, while he were functioning with the mind of Bruce Banner, were phenomenal.
Sherlock felt a pang of guilt when he realised what John would think of his musings, but this too was cut short as one of the creatures broke from its trappings in a side-street, slamming past Natasha and charging into the square towards the portal like a thing possessed.
The Hulk's temporary calm evaporated in a second, and the next he had turned from Donna and was tackling the creature with a hateful growl, pushing it away from the portal and kicking it across the concrete of the square.
Donna screamed after him, rushing forward, making it less than a metre before John caught her by the wrist and held her back, struggling against her fists as he tried to tell her not to get herself killed.
Sherlock whirled about until he caught sight of the Doctor, still tinkering, in his own world as he dodged the occasional flying rubble.
"Doctor!" he yelled viciously, a stab of victory lightening is mood as the Timelord looked up as if in shock, and met his stare with curiosity, "You're supposed to have all the answers, do something useful!"
"I don't have-" The Doctor started defensively, striding towards Sherlock as if they weren't in the middle of a warzone, or John and Donna weren't struggling mere feet away from a parallel duel between monstrous beasts; his eyes lit up though, and he came to an abrupt stop only inches from the detective's nose, "Oh…but I do have-"
At this the Doctor's face stretched into a wide grin, flushed with joy, and he turned with a flourish on his heels, racing toward an empty side-street.
"I'll be back in a mo'!" he shouted over his shoulder, his voice echoing off of the bricks.
Sherlock stood, shoulders drooping and breath quick, watching in defeat as the Timelord disappeared. He had no idea what to do. So he threw caution to the wind and twirled around, taking Donna's other arm and helping John drag her to safety, his iron grip on his gun never fading.
Loki eyed Moriarty detachedly as the mortal's expression twisted into a deformed caricature of joy, sadistic and entranced as the man overlooked the destruction below. He recalled moments when he had felt the same rush of vile pleasure as he rose above his enemies, but this man presented new levels of calculated insanity.
Minutes ago, Loki had watched as Moriarty had extracted a slim, metallic device from the inside pocket of his fine suit, explaining that 'this, this here is the key to our success'. There were buttons and slides adorning the device that Loki couldn't put a name to, but he had observed with only a curt nod as the mortal had traced his fingers along a rotating gear, and made the fabric of the world rip open, allowing the creatures access to Asgard.
On the ground, Loki observed with a small amount of interest as the Avengers and their tag-alongs successfully managed to keep the creatures within one area of the city – true, Banner was there as well, indicating that they had failed at some point, but the show of strength was admittedly impressive.
Loki couldn't help but roll his eyes as he saw Thor twirling and pirouetting like a stunted song bird, hurling Mjolnir to and fro, causing as much damage to the city as the beasts that he was fighting. The blue spangled Captain was swift, but his defence seemed to be tiring him; Stark's iron suit caught the light as he circled the perimeter, but he was little more than a shepherd, and the agents in black were like mice beside the monsters. He wasn't sure what was happening in the centre, where the Hulk had gathered with the charming detective and his friend, but from such a distance it looked nothing more than a redundant farce.
As Moriarty chuckled darkly under his breath, Loki turned to face him, peering down his nose at the man without a word, waiting for him to respond as he should. Moriarty glanced upwards, acknowledging the god with a cocked smirk.
"You weren't lying when you said that you held the power over today's events in your hand." Loki drawled, basking in the proud grin that stretched across the mortal's lips in reaction to his words.
"I've told you nothing but the truth; there's no point lying to you – you're giving me what I want." Moriarty retorted, rolling the syllables over and around his tongue, letting them churn as his eyes shone with cold enjoyment, "All that power out there, all those super-humans, and magicians, and gods…and it's the man with science in his hands that wins. I win."
Analysing the expectant glimmer in the mortal's expression, Loki allowed a slight inclination of his head, to show that he understood the gravity of Moriarty's position. He peered once more at the device in the man's hand, opaquely this time, catching his attention.
"I am not familiar with Midgardian technology." Loki stated plainly, continuing to inspect the metal device with interest as Moriarty opened his palm a fraction to allow a better view, "This allows you to activate the interstellar device by the river…how?"
Moriarty's grin grew wider, and though he raised an eyebrow with a tilt that Loki thought was mocking at worst, he extended the device fully, so that Loki could inspect it without it ever leaving his hands.
"It's remote control; infrared and microwave signals connect this to the device, and let me activate it from here." He explained, in a superior tone that Loki cared little for, but he had a tight enough hold on his own superiority not to let it affect him farther than a caustic glare.
"And this functions only for you?" Loki inquired; he reached out his hand to trace his fingers over the device, but Moriarty dropped his arm with a tut, as if disciplining a young child.
"No, I just said that so that he wouldn't try to take it from me; it's far too much effort trying to fight them hands on, and I hate getting my hands dirty."
"I see." Loki replied, nodding wisely before turning his sights back to the crashing and flinging of stone wall below, "And I assume that should you please, the device can be terminated from here as well – for your own ease of course."
Loki watched from the corner of his eye, as Moriarty shrugged imperceptibly, straightening his suit as he slipped the remote device once more into his pocket.
"I have no desire to close the portals, but if I have to, I don't want anyone to be able to do it." Moriarty boasted, "Sure, the termination codes are in the remote, but I'd have to plug them into the machine itself – I'm nothing if not prepared."
"I applaud your forward thinking…and your tenacity." Loki drawled, and then he flexed the fingers of his right hand, cracking the knuckles as the light, chilled weight materialised between his digits.
Without another word, and before Moriarty could even react to his actions, Loki spun to face him, and thrust the deadly, sharpened sceptre, through the criminal's chest, hissing viciously at the ease with which it glided through the tissue, causing thick dark blood to pool in the expensive cotton shirt. Loki allowed his features to display the visceral hatred that he had been repressing since the moment he had laid eyes on the man.
Moriarty lurched forward, fighting against the force of the blow even as Loki forced him to his knees, looming over his rattling form as the mortal tripped backwards, grasping futilely at the railing before toppling downwards, the back of his skull hitting the floor with a sickening thud.
"Wh…what are you doing?" Moriarty choked out, a gurgling, cracking sound; the blade still embedded in his chest, Loki crouched over his body, able to hear the rattling of his chest, the screeching of air escaping his lungs, and the slow dripping of his blood crawling from his arteries.
Loki revelled in the victorious rush of adrenaline that coursed through his veins at the sight of the grand psychopath levelled to the ground, and his lips curled into a malicious smirk as he interrogated the man, ignoring his startled and pained pleas.
"Tell me, what was your plan again?"
Moriarty's eyes widened, but no understanding leached into them, only a bemused and horrified shock.
"I'm going to – gon-…I'm going to flatten the, the Earth…" the man was struggling for breath, wincing in pain, but Loki refused to show mercy by removing the blade, and allowing a swifter death, "and, and then…then Asgard…and, and more…" Moriarty laughed manically, hysterically, "but, but then…then you can rule…you can rule the ones that betrayed you – you c-can, you can make them s…suffer…"
At this Loki laughed, a dark, hateful chuckle that rose up from the depths of his chest and met with the fury in his glare.
"You think that I would rule Asgard?" he asked, voice barely a whisper, but harsh as the wind, "You think that I wish to destroy my home, allow your monstrosities to desecrate my realm?"
"I – I –I -" finally, a flicker of fear entered Moriarty's eyes as he realised what he had done, as if only then was he realising that his death was creeping up behind him, about to pounce, "But they-"
Loki's purr melted into a vicious hiss as he clasped the front of Moriarty's suit and pulled him upwards, worsening the path of the sceptre.
"They? My people – you think yourself far greater than you are mortal, to think that you could wage war upon the Aesir!" Loki allowed all of the rage that he had previously been unable to vent pour forth, "You truly thought that I would allow you to bring death to my people, to tarnish the palace where my mother sleeps? You are too proud mortal!"
Loki threw Moriarty to the ground, relishing the pained scream that the man released as the blade was jostled, and more blood pooled around him, staining his treasured suit.
The god knelt beside him, one last time, to whisper in his ear, as the man choked, no longer strong enough to give voice to his words.
"The few of your beasts that have made it to Asgard will be dealt with by the guards." Loki informed the criminal; he slipped a hand into the front of the tarnished suit, and closed his fingers around the slim, metal device, retracting it and holding it aloft for Moriarty's eyes to trace, "and I shall close the doorway before more can make the leap. As you fade, consider where you went wrong."
With that, Loki rose to his full height, and peered disdainfully at the gagging body. He gripped his sceptre tightly, and wrenched it free from the man's thorax, ignoring the gasped groan, and disappeared into thin air.
I don't know how many people saw that coming, or who can predict what's next, but I can assure you, things are drawing to a close very soon