"So what do you think about the kid?" Steve slouched in his seat, chin propped up in his palm.
"I know not how to judge this Danny creature. All of the Draugar I have met in the past have known little in the ways of compassion," Thor crossed his arms, waiting for the medic to finish reviewing Jane in the neighbouring room.
Steve straightened, "What do you mean? Is he different or something?"
"Draugar are dark creatures with very little semblance of intelligence. Their bodies transform into hideous monsters from seclusion in Hel's realm. This 'Danny' has shown none of these traits, not even bodily mutation. He works off emotions – almost as if he was human…" Thor frowned deeper.
"Well what does that mean? The kid's dead. It's only one or the other."
"Not true," A proud and conceited voice boomed out, "There have been some cases of hypothermia where the victims have actually died and come back to life – quite a few of them have described it as almost being half-dead," Tony stopped a few feet away from where Steve sat, "Not to mention all the studies based around Schrödinger's cat theory."
Steve and Thor blinked, "What?"
Tony sighed, "Doesn't matter. Want to go check on Casper?"
The two friends blinked again, eyes dull of knowledge.
"Seriously? Okay, is there a video store around here? We really need to have a classics marathon or something."
Horrifying wails pierced the air, followed by a thunderous and angry voice. Cocking his head to the side, Steve asked, "What's going on?"
"I do not know," Thor's voice was tinged with worry.
Standing, Steve followed Thor exiting the room, Tony trailed behind silver suitcase in hand. Walking down the many corridors and halls, they found a distraught woman standing next to a livid Odin.
"Father, mother, what has happened?" Thor reached out for the woman, who grasped at him in despair, shoulders shaking.
"It is your brother, Thor," Odin was grave, his apparent anger smouldering into grief and distain.
"Has he escaped somehow?"
Thor's mother shook her head, burying it deeper into the silver armour, "N-no! He's g-g-gone!"
Steve watched as Thor's form slumped over slightly – as if a heavy weight had been shoved on top of him, "Gone? How so?"
"The cell is destroyed. There is blood. Far too much for him to have..." Odin's voice quavered.
Steve felt torn for the man. Despite everything Loki had done, he was still their son and they loved him – adopted or not. Steve had seen many families ripped apart during the war. The pain never lessened each time he witnessed it. It was always as raw as the first.
"How could this happen? Our men should have been standing guard at the dungeon gates, was Loki not on constant watch?" Thor's eyes looked hollow as he stared at nothing.
Thor's mother lifted her head from her son's chest, "The guards were pulled away from the cell by the call of the Draugur's attacked. They were completing their rounds before returning to the dungeons keep."
"When the Draugur attacked? Is that who did it perhaps?" Steve wondered aloud.
"There is no doubt that that vile thing was what murdered my brother! Stark, you may have vouched for that creature, but I do not believe it! Draugar are all the same and deserve to be destroyed!" Thor roared, firmly pushing his mother into her husband's arms before turning on his heel, marching to where Steve guessed the dungeons were.
Tony had frozen in shock before quickly becoming animated again, chasing after the heavy footfalls of his companion, speaking rapidly, "Really, aren't you a bit quick to accuse? I mean, there really isn't any evidence that Danny had been the one to do it! And even if he did, he must have had a valid—"
"Silence, mortal, stay out of my way!" ripping Mjölnir from his belt, Thor grasped the handle before shooting forward, using the hammer's powers to fly through the castle.
"Thor! Do not leap into battle unjustly! It is unwise of a king to lay blame on others without evidence!" Odin called, cradling his sobbing wife.
"Aren't you going to stop him?" Steve asked hurriedly.
"Thor must learn the difficult way that his actions will always have consequences. I will not stop him."
"Damn it!" Tony cursed, hurriedly throwing his suitcase on the ground. Stomping on it, mechanical arms exploded outwards. Bending over and shoving his hands deep inside the machine, Tony lifted the expanded case up to his chest – allowing the suit to coat him entirely, spreading over his form like a second skin.
The painted helmet slid over his face, "Come on," The Ironman suit hummed as it readied its thrusters, "We gotta go after him."
Steve nodded, "Okay. I'm right behind you."
"Do not let my son commit such rash acts out of anger, or he will have to once again face the penalties for his measures by his father's hand!" Odin's wife called out as Steve ran in the direction Tony had left.
"We won't let the situation get that far, ma'am," Steve yelled over his shoulder. Tony had already sped off ahead.
/ / /
The guards were whispering again. Danny could hear the murmurs through the thick, opaque ice. They hadn't said a word in Danny's direction since coming back from their rounds. The sentries had swapped shifts, which Danny was almost thankful for. The previous guard had been a little too conversational – meaning Danny had an uncharacteristic urge to strangle the annoying 'god'.
Danny tugged at his chains self-consciously, shivering from his contained ice-powers. He could feel eyes on the other side of the ice following his shadow, still whispering to each other.
Pulling again, Danny attempted to gather energy into his left hand. A sharp zap quickly made him reconsider.
Giving up, Danny leaned back against a cold wall. He hoped the sun hadn't risen yet back on Earth. The last thing Danny wanted was to come back late and make his parents worried or mad – he didn't know how his situation could get any worse.
A dull thud echoed around the chamber, shortly followed by another. The thick ice wall Danny was staring at grew a thin spider-web of hairline fractures, hastily spreading across the entire flat surface with another thud. Peering closer, Danny's eyes widened before pinching shut as he ducked his head instinctively. Ice shattered in a rain of diamonds, piercing through Danny's suit, embedding shards deep into his skin. Yelping in pain, Danny slumped onto the wall – tentatively brushing at his bleeding skin with his clamped hands. Calls of "My Liege!" and "Your Highness!" were tuned out as he hissed, yanking out a short jagged splinter from his neck. Danny didn't hear the cries of shock either as a heavy fist slammed into his face, snapping his head to the right violently.
Wincing, Danny cricked his neck, only to get another fist into his other cheek. Thrown off-balance, Danny landed on the frozen floor and shook his head, groaning as he tried to clear it.
Hearing the roar of his attacker and the whistling of pressured air, Danny quickly rolled to the side. His assaulter slammed their fist into the ground where Danny had laid only moments before. Pushing himself to his feet, Danny kicked out his foot – hitting whoever it was in the back of the knee.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw the hulking form of Thor, hand entrenched into the ice and tugging fiercely to pull it out while glaring at Danny with a deep burning hatred, pinning him to the spot.
Danny's eyes flicked down to his clamped and powerless hands. Oh boy, he was in trouble.
/ / /
Steve gulped in a large breath as he sprinted after Tony. Having long lost sight of the metal suit, Steve had since started wandering the halls trying to gain an insight to Stark's location.
Gazing out at the night-sky to find his bearings, Steve watched as the sun began to rise, casting a faint grey-blue glow across the castle. Jogging to a stop, the super soldier bent over at the waist, his lungs aching from lack of oxygen and denser gravity; he had no idea where Tony had gone and hadn't had enough time to scope out the building properly to begin to even think where to find him. For what was originally a simple test-run had now blown far out of proportion. Demons, demi-gods, portals able to cross into other universes, It was all too much for the man out of time.
Running his hands over his face tiredly, Steve peeked through calloused fingers to stare outside. He could see the rainbow bridge from his vantage in the distance, pulsing gently in the dim sunlight.
Looking back out to the horizon, Steve felt a niggling sensation in the back of his mind, urging him to focus. Peering closer at the bridge, the veteran noticed a dark, humanoid figure lying partway down its long stretch. It wasn't moving.
Steve battled with his conscience. Tony should be able to handle Thor by himself, right?
Hesitating once more, Steve headed for the bridge.
/ / /
Danny felt the ice crack as his back collided with it. Grasping the front of his suit, Thor lifted a hand towards his face. Reflexively kicking a leg out, the halfa caught the god in the shin, forcing Thor to release him and tumble to the ground in surprise.
Stumbling, Danny hunched over, trying to regain his balance. He couldn't do much damage with his powers sealed and hands tied, there wasn't much hope for him against a guy who could control the weather at will.
Thor launched himself at Danny, who tumble-rolled to the side, near the mouth of the ice-hole. Edging backwards, he looked over his shoulder to find the guards stationed at his cell had long since fled, slamming the doors behind them, leaving Danny with no way out and his ice-core beginning to destabilise.
Danny huffed, "W-worst army ever."
Turning to Thor, the halfa tried negotiating through icy breath, "L-look, dude, j-just tell me what's wrong because, s-s-seriously, I have no idea. Then maybe we can g-get this whole m-mess cleaned up and you can go back to doing, er… whatever g-god's with anger m-m-management issues do."
"You demon! You murder my brother and try to claim your innocence? Have you been controlling Stark this whole time? Trying to gain our trust so it would be easier for you to attack?" raising his hammer, Thor threw it at Danny's head, who ducked in time to feel the heavy stone brush against the tips of his hair as it flew over.
"If I c-could do that to Tony I would have done it a long time ago – believe me, I've tried! And b-besides, I've never k-k-killed anyone in my entire life – I-I'm like freaking B-batman or something! It's all in the rule-book!" Danny's teeth chattered.
Thor gave him a blank stare.
Rolling his eyes, the halfa explicated, "He's a c-comic book character. Really cool. F-fights crime with a utility belt and… you know what? F-f-forget it."
Thor held his hand out for his hammer, where Danny reactively dodged once again, stumbling to the ground onto his knees.
Thor seemed confused as his hand was left empty – his hammer hadn't returned to him.
Spotting a small sharp piece of ice to his left, Danny scooped it up, clutching it to his person.
Thor laughed menacingly, "You think that a little thing will hurt me? Even without Mjölnir I surpass you in raw strength. When I am finished with you, Draugur, you will wish that this 'Bat-Belt-Man' was here to save you."
"Oh, I'm not p-planning to hurt you w-with this, I plan to d-d-do that myself!"
Danny jammed the ice toothpick in between the cuff and his wrist and wriggled it deep between the opening, catching his glove a few times before smoothly ramming it through. Circulation returned to his hands as he felt his powers spread throughout him.
Danny grinned, letting the large shard be consumed by his ice-powers. Hoar-frost covered the cuffs, solidifying and shattering them as Danny yanked his hands free, standing up to face his opponent head-on.
"Now, I wonder if gods can get frostbite?"
/ / /
Tony approached the dungeon chambers silently, hovering above the ground with his thrusters on minimum.
Wishing he was able to communicate with JARVIS, Tony manually switched his visual settings to thermal-vision.
Blue covered his screen. Scanning past the immobile objects, Tony found a humanoid red and yellow figure being thrown back into what he assumed from the dark blue was a wall. If that was Danny, where was Thor?
The human-shape was lifted by an unseen force, its head snapped back as it was once again violently flung by an unseen force. Squinting closely, Tony noticed one of the larger cold objects in the room moving – heading towards what was assumedly Danny.
Hurriedly switching off his thermal-vision, Tony barged through the doors, a loud whine emitting from his glowing palm in offence, only to stop just as suddenly.
Thor, the now identified hot-spot, had been thrown into the far wall – all the fight in him lost as he lay propped slightly upright by loose chunks of stone and ice, his hammer nowhere in sight. Danny stood in the centre of the room, hand still clenched into a fist covered in ice crystals.
"Well, I've heard of being cold-hearted but this is impressive. The ability to lower your body temperature to form and manipulate ice at will? That is admittedly very cool."
Danny's glare almost left Tony feeling unnerved, "Yeah, very cool," He growled low, "Just as cool as you stealing my parent's inventions."
Tony rolled his eyes, flicking up his metal visor, "I was going to give them credit afterwards. But come on, your parents aren't exactly on the cover of the Biophysical Journal, are they? I needed something to work with. My credibility would have capsized if anyone knew I was working in cohesion with a pair of neurotic loser ghost-hunters, you know?"
"Did you just call my parents 'neurotic losers'?" Danny gritted out, right palm flaring a vivid green as he stepped towards Tony.
Tony coughed to hide his growing worry, "I was speaking from the public's perspective. I personally think they're great people – albeit a little weird sometimes—"
"'Weird'?" Danny raised an eyebrow, his left hand glowing ferociously to match the other.
"Okay, seriously? You're not going to listen to anything I say are you?" Tony lowered his helmet and raised his hands to the oncoming half-ghost.
Danny chuckled darkly, "When hell freezes over."
"Well I'm pretty sure you're capable of that," Tony pointed out as Danny charged.
/ / /
Hefting the injured gate-keeper, Heimdall, higher on his shoulder, Steve half-dragged the Asgardian closer where he claimed the Draugur was being kept.
"Are you sure we're talking about the same Draugur here?" Steve asked.
Heimdall nodded weakly, "Yes. Only one was allowed access to Asgard. The other I did not see but I fear catastrophic consequences if the unwelcomed one succeeds. Sadly, I was unable to stop the fates."
"Well, sir, sometimes no matter how hard we try, fate just tries a little harder."
"Hey, Steve!" Jane Foster hurried up the corridor – hands grasping lightly at her injured torso – to match the pace of the blond American's.
"Nice to see you walking, ma'am," Steve said politely, continuing in the direction of the dungeons.
Jane had worry tinging her tone, "You haven't seen Thor at all have you? His parents told me what happened, we can't let him do it!"
"Do not worry Miss Foster, we have enough proof that the Draugur—"
"Danny. His name is Danny," Jane Foster interjected.
"—That Danny is innocent," Steve finished, hauling the gate-keeper higher on his shoulder, who grunted softly in response, "But we must hurry. Stark is already there but we don't know how much of a defence he will be against Thor by himself."
"Well then let's go!" Ducking under and lifting Heimdall's other arm, Jane helped drag the semi-conscious body towards the dungeons.
/ / /
"Really, Danny! Is this necessary?" Tony called down, dodging another green energy ball from his vantage on the ceiling.
The half-ghost ignored him, sending a blast of ice at the red and silver armour. The ice clipped the suit's foot, where it crawled halfway up Tony's calf. The thrusters shorted out, leaving the suit imbalanced as the unnatural ice gripped and crawled into the armour's skeletal frame.
"Uh-oh," Danny heard Tony grunt as he faltered in the air, pin-wheeling in his descent.
Landing roughly, Danny left Tony no time to recover from the fall as he grasped the grooves in the chest-plate, lifting Tony into the air with his towering stature.
"Now," Danny began, "You will give my parents full credit for your little so-called original invention or I tell your girlfriend and the press what you've been up to."
The helmet's face peeled back with a metallic clank, "You know about Pepper?"
"There is such thing as the internet, brainiac," Danny's lips were pulled up into a smirk, "I might be a C-student but I'm not so stupid that I'd get into a fight without some blackmail. A little tip I learnt from you, actually," Danny replied slyly.
"Huh, funny. Well here's something else your uncle Tony's gonna teach you. Tip number two; always stay focused."
"Wha—" Danny felt a heavy weight collide with his ribcage. Releasing Tony, Danny collapsed onto the debris-ridden ground, pinned down by whatever had run into him, "Oof!"
Shuffling a hand between whatever was on top of him, Danny pushed up with all his might, rolling to the side swiftly, Danny found himself once again looking into the angry eyes of the Asgardian god.
Pushing himself out of arms-reach, Danny held his palms out in front of him, powering up another energy ball—
"Stop!" Jane Foster, the pretty physicist that had so kindly talked to Danny, stood at the entrance of the dungeon, "Thor! I swear to whatever god is in this castle, if you touch even a single hair on that boy's head, I will—" Danny blushed deeply at the explicit language that poured from the scientist's mouth to describe the multiple forms of torture she was seemingly willing to use on the god, "—got it?" Jane crossed her arms in front of her bandaged chest, one eyebrow raised questioningly.
Thor nodded silently.
Danny let the glowing energy dissipate as Jane Foster made her way down the staircase, helping support an injured Asgardian. Steve Rogers, whom Danny recognised from his last fight with him, stood on the god's other side, carrying the brunt of the weight as they descended the ruined staircase.
"Heimdall! Jane!" Thor cried out, ignoring Danny and rushing towards the trio.
Danny halted in curiosity, watching the reunion with suspicion, keeping an eye on the suddenly passive Tony Stark.
"What has happened? Are any of you hurt?" Thor cupped Jane's face carefully, ostensibly twisting it to look for any visible injuries.
Jane slapped his hands away, "I'm fine. Heimdall is the one that's hurt! He says he's seen something to prove Danny's innocence!"
Danny perked up at the sound of his name, his stance becoming less rigid, "Why should I have to prove my innocence if I already know I am?"
"Be silent, death-bringer!" Thor hissed, helping lower Heimdall onto the stairs. Jane hit him on the shoulder.
Heimdall groaned low in pain, "He was an unexpected. I had not foreseen him earlier due to his lack of humanity. It is difficult to see those of Helheim, as our worlds are so separated," Heimdall wheezed, his breaths sounded painful, "It was easy to see this Draugur – he is more human than the other. He has not cast off his mortality so quickly."
"What does that mean?" Steve asked, crouching to eye-level with the gate-keeper.
Heimdall ignored Steve, "I faced the unexpected and lost in battle. He has escaped with Loki to the mortal plane – I do not know their plan. I was lucky to have been spared."
"Loki is alive?" A look of wonder passed over Thor's face before becoming stony, bellowing, "Guards! We are in need of medical assistance!" turning to Danny, Thor sneered, holding out his hand to his now-receptive hammer, heading up the stairs past the swarming medics beckoned at his call. Thor waved his hand carelessly for Danny to follow.
Danny narrowed his eyes before reluctantly trailing behind.
/ / /
"Danny's not back yet," Sam said down the line worriedly, "Do you think he got into some sort of trouble?"
"He'll be fine. I'd be more worried about Danny finding some hot Mexican babe while he's, you know, 'working'?" Tucker asked conversationally with a mouthful of breakfast-bacon, his cell phone pressed between his shoulder and ear.
A growl of disgust and a dial tone was all he heard.
"Hello? Sam? Where'd you go?"
/ / /
The portal was still swirling eerily as the team approached it. A shiver ran down Steve's spine at the sight. Danny, leading the march towards the floating green abyss, stopped at its mouth.
"Are you sure this will take us back to Earth? Because I'd rather not be trapped in the Ghost Zone with no way out."
Tony leant forward and poked Danny in the spine with a metallic finger, "We don't. Which is why you're going first, ghost-boy," he jauntily replied.
The Draugur glared in response, before hesitantly holding a gloved hand out, stepping closer. His hand slid through the universal veil, meeting with no resistance. Stepping in, Danny's body was embraced by the green, absorbing him whole until he was no longer visible.
"Who's next?" Tony clapped his hands together with a sharp clack of metal.
Jane Foster wasted no time, stepping through the portal without any signs of disinclination. Thor and Tony swiftly following.
Looking back at the once-chaotic scenery, glowing majestically in the mid-morning light, Steve stepped back through the portal.