Okay, so here's the next chapter! It's kind of long compared to some, but oh well. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Robin.

I sighed, staring out of the window in Stark Tower, overlooking the city of New York. The spring air made it seem peaceful, but we knew that it wasn't going to last. But just by the way it looked, it seemed like, even though we knew there were escaped convicts, the city wasn't in danger. There had been no attacks yet. But yet was a key word there, as I always said. It was only a matter of time before Loki would make his attack. I came to understand the fact that, although he seemed to have an obviously apparent fondness for me, that he was still a villain, and, therefore, would still do villainous things. It didn't bother me too much anymore. What bothered me was the fact that I still didn't quite know which side I was meant to be one. Good. Evil. Hero. Villain. None of those titles seemed to fit me at all. I sighed, maybe I'd just settle for being the anti-hero at the moment, it seemed to be the only thing that fit me.

We had scoured the city yesterday and there was still no sign of Loki or those convicts. Either he's really good a hiding, or they're not hiding in New York. I ruled out hiding in another dimension when, only mere hours ago, he broke into the prison again and released six more convicts. That was a total of thirty convicts now. Those were not very good odds for us. I wondered how he kept them all under control. He probably managed it with the promise of freedom, either that, or he used that scepter that controlled people's minds. I walked over to the couch and sat down, tossing a black and purple rubber ball up and down. "Another break-out and we're no closer," I sighed, "Remind me to never be a cop. I suck at this."

"To be fair," Steve said, "We aren't working under normal circumstances either."

I sighed, "I know, I know." I looked to Thor, "Any ideas on what he's planning?"

Thor sighed, "I do not know, it seems so random and irregular, it does not make sense."

I sat back in the couch, stroking my chin in thought as if there was an invisible beard on my face. I knew the reason that the break-outs were so random, and that was because Loki was taking time out of his scheming to visit me, but even I didn't know his plan. "Hmm . . . maybe he's using the convicts to launch another attack on New York. . . He probably figured that the prisoners would be rather pissed about being locked up," I thought out loud.

"Then why wouldn't he use the Chitauri again?" Stark asked.

"They probably lost faith in him," I responded, "I mean, he failed once, who's to say he won't fail again, right?" I paused, "Besides, he'd need the Tesseract to open the portal. Did he manage to snatch it on his way out, Thor?"

Thor shook his head, "No, it is still under Asgardian protection."

"So that means he had only one option, and that was to strike a deal with the criminals here on Earth."

Stark nodded, "And with the criminals he'd have an army driven with fury and hatred. They'd have a personal reason to fight on his side."

"Which makes matters even worse," Steve agreed, "People go to great lengths to get their revenge."

I nodded but said nothing. I knew from personal experience how far revenge could drive a being. I still hadn't quite fulfilled my vow of revenge that I had made years ago, but I was afraid that I was not quite strong enough for such a large task. I couldn't take Hydra on alone, but I didn't want to drag any of my newfound friends into that mess with me. My troubled thoughts were interrupted by an explosion in the distance. "That's not good," I stated rather obviously as we quickly headed out to investigate. By the time we reached the site of the explosion, it was utter chaos. People were running down the streets in a massive frenzy as a sea of orange jumpsuits only prisoners would wear was flooding out. The prison itself was broken and in large, raging flames. The fire needed to be put out before it spread across the city.

I looked to Steve and shouted, "I'm going to control the fire, cover me!" He nodded and held his shield at the ready. I looked to the building. It was a massive fire, almost entirely engulfing the prison. This was going to take a bit more concentration. I closed my eyes and slowly raised my arms, mentally calling the fire to me as if it were alive. I felt it's warmth as it slowly snaked over, spiraling around me and occasionally hitting my pale skin. The flames didn't burn me, however. I took a deep breath before slowly forcing it into a tight fireball, clasping my hands together and depriving it of oxygen so that it went out. I slumped slightly after I had finished with the flames, panting from the effort. That took more energy than I had wanted. I looked up, already seeing a few convicts knocked out from Steve and the others.

Ayame looked to me, "Okay, that fire thing was awesome, but you know I could have iced it, right?"

I looked at her for a few moments, and then slapped my forehead as if to try and compensate for my stupidity. I completely forgot that Ayame had the power to control ice, the polar opposite of my own power. "Dammit! Forgot about that!"

She laughed, "Wow, Robin, just wow."

"Oh, shut it!" When I recovered from my previous action, I launched myself into our weird, little, round-up battle. But, of course, once again I ran into battle without thinking, like always, and was soon pinned against the wall by a convict.

The man looked at me, his almost black eyes cold and cruel, scars all over his face and bald head. He grinned at me, showing me an oh so elegant display of horrifically rotten teeth. He held a serrated combat knife to my neck, threating to easily slice open my tiny, rather insignificant looking neck. "Any last words?" he sneered.

I looked away, the acrid stench of breath that hadn't been seen to for years hitting my poor nose like a wave of sludge. I gagged, my face scrunched up in disgust, "Yeah, your breath stinks!" I kneed him where it hurt and kicked his stomach as he recoiled. Before he could get a chance to recover from staggering, I punched him in the face, hard enough to knock him out. Once I was sure that he was out for the count, I ran back out into the streets to help the others out. It was pure chaos. I leaped into battle beside Ayame, helping her fend of the convicts with swift kicks and punches. She was freezing them into place with her ice power. I didn't dare use my own flames because it would have surely melted the ice. "So," I said as I batted away a rather small and skinny convict, "Where's the man behind all of this?"

Ayame shrugged, ice shooting from her fingertips as she froze another prisoner in place. "Um," she said, looking around when we had a small break from fighting, and then pointed ahead of her, "Right there!"

I looked up in the direction of where she was pointing, and, sure enough, there stood Loki in his green, black, and gold armor, wearing that weird, gilded cockroach-reindeer helmet thing. "So," I called out to him, "Dabbling in a bit of explosive-making are you? Or did you just manage to make the building spontaneously combust?"

Loki chuckled and winked at me, "You'll have to figure that out yourself, mortal."

Ayame looked at Loki, and then at me, her expression filled with confusion. She looked like she wanted to ask what the wink was about, but asked something else instead, "What should we do?" she whispered to me.

"Simple," I whispered back to her, "Keep him busy until we get the convicts temporarily locked away until the prison gets fixed."

"How do we do that?"

I grinned, "Just follow my lead." I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted to Loki, "Hey! Reindeer Games! What's with your helmet? It looks so stupid! What are you, King of the Cockroaches or something?"

He narrowed his eyes, "What?"

Ayame giggled, "And what's with this stupid attack plan? Isn't World Domination kind of been there done that? We'll still kick your sorry ass!"

"And throw it across the room," I added, "because we're master ninjas!"

He stalked up to us in annoyance and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, lifting me up into the air. Damn, he was strong. Although, it may have helped a bit that I was tiny and extremely short for my age. "I will not be talked to that way," he said, teeth clenched.

I looked into his narrowed, green eyes. Sorry, Loki, I said to him mentally, nothing personal, but I can't let you destroy New York or something like that. You know how it is. I said out loud, quietly, "You wouldn't hurt me."

Loki looked into my eyes and sighed, I know, but did you have to thwart me that way?

I'm a troll, I like to annoy people and finding a different way to distract you would seem suspicious. That was something I would have said a while ago, so. . .

I get it. He gently lowered me, setting me back on my feet and letting go of my shirt collar, "You're right," he said quietly, "I wouldn't."

Ayame looked to the two of us, completely puzzled, "What's going on here?" she asked innocently.

I looked over to her, "Uh . . . it's kind of a long story. . ."

She nodded, "We've got time."

Loki and I shared a glance, "Um . . ." I said, "I don't quite know how to explain it. . ." I silently cursed my awful social skills.

He chuckled softly, "That's all right, Robin."

I sighed and after a moment of thinking, I told Ayame everything that had happened. If I didn't tell her now, she'd only ask later. I told her about what happened after he healed me, which was not much to tell, really. And what happened when I went out for that walk. Everything. After I had explained it all, she looked at us with wide eyes, "So, that means. . ."

"Yep," I said quietly, and then added, "Please don't tell Steve!"

She giggled, "I won't! Your secret's safe with me."

I let out a sigh of relief, "Thanks."

She smiled, "No problem."