Chapter 2
Loki and his group had found an underground bunker where they set everything up for the tesseract, and while the others worked on it, Loki sat nearby, feeling the tug on his mind and watching as things seemed to dissolve and reform around him. It wasn't the first time he'd seen the place he found himself in, nor did he think it would be the last, but that didn't matter; he just buried the free section of his mind, hidden beneath layers and layers of loyalty and obedience.
"The Chitauri grow restless." The voice sounded like several meshed together.
"Let them gird themselves." Loki spoke confidently, trying desperately not to let that kernal of free will be discovered. "I will lead them in a glorious battle." Emulate Thor but without all the smashing of things.
"Battle? Against the meager 'might' of Earth?"
Smiling reassuringly, Loki shook his head slightly. "Glorious, not lengthy. If your force is as... formidable as you claim." There was skepticism in his tone, but they expected that. He was god of mischief and chaos, it was in his job description.
"You question us? You question him? He, who put the scepter in your hand? Who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose when you were cast out? Defeated?"
His head snapped up and Loki glared. "I was a king! The rightful king of Asgard, betrayed...!" Calm, Loki. Patience.
"Your ambition is little, born of childish need. We look beyond the Earth, to the greater worlds the tesseract will unveil."
He clamped down on the urge to speak out of turn, but did comment. "You don't have the tesseract yet." His comment had the alien speeding forward, hand inches from his face when he stopped, then Loki gave a flat stare. "I don't threaten. But until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words."
The alien hadn't moved, irritated by Loki. "You will have your war, Asgardian. If you fail," it continued, finally stepping away, "if the tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you." It leaned forward, taking pleasure in the way its words affected the male before it. "You think you know pain? He will make you long for something sweet as pain."
With a jolt of agony through his temple, Loki found himself back at the bunker, breathing harsh and scepter glowing in his lap. It was infuriating, being slave to those who had found him, but he was free of the In Between now, and he was working on a way to rid himself of the influence of those who sought to chain him down. Chaos was a primordial force that could only be held back for so long before it broke free, and when it did, he intended to watch his tormentors burn.
Once the ship was in the air, Director Fury turned to Bruce Banner and Steve Rogers. "Gentlemen?" Rogers, of course, pulled out his wallet and handed him a ten dollar bill, still staring out the windows, and Banner had taken up position near the inner wall looking anxious. While Steve went off to watch things on the bridge, Fury moved to Banner and shook his hand. "Doctor. Thanks for coming."
Bruce's expression said it all, and then some, but he shook Fury's hand anyway and nodded. "Thanks for asking nicely. So, um... How long am I staying?" He fully expected himself to be imprisoned now that he was here, to be honest.
"Once we get our hands on the tesseract, you're in the wind." Fury promised.
Banner nodded and began pacing away a bit. "Where are you with that?"
Coulson spoke when he was motioned over. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops... If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."
Natasha spoke up then, looking around slightly from where she was crouched. "That's still not going to find them in time."
"You have to narrow your field." Bruce agreed, putting his mind to work. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"
"How many are there?"
Now that they were inside, away from the wind, Bruce was growing warm so he pulled off his jacket as he spoke. "Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places." By that point, his jacket was over one arm and he felt more comfortable, more at ease in his field of expertise. If he wasn't still so wary about the 'other guy' coming out to play at the first sign of stress, he'd have relaxed more. "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
Fury nodded and pushed off the stand he was leaning against. "Agent Romanoff?" Seeing her perk up, he continued. "Could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory please?"
Natasha walked past, expecting Bruce to follow. "You're gonna love it, doc. We got all the toys."
Fury then tuned out the other conversations and kept his eye on the screens around him.
Loki walked closer upon hearing the Hawk and the Scientist speaking, then stayed politely quiet as the scientist enthused. There was something about the enslavement showing truth and knowledge, but Loki tuned it out. Some people just weren't meant to be free, but others... Others fought. Still, he had to keep up impressions, so with half an ear, he smiled and replied. The Hawk was another story.
Whereas Selvig had fully given in, relishing the control over him in return for knowledge, Hawkeye had grown cold, unfeeling, following a list of targets and little else. The man was an assassin, a spy, he worked in the shadows and killed when necessary. Loki had needed him for his plan, but it still made the secret seed of freedom in his mind rail at destroying the mind of someone so strong. The request for an eyeball let him know the killing would start soon in more noticeable ways, but there really was no other option, not if he wanted his freedom.
While Director Fury and his people were searching for Loki and the tesseract, Harry spent time learning about Tony. He learned that the man had been kidnapped by men hired by his godfather, nearly killed, created the first prototype Iron Man suit in the middle of a desert from repurposed bomb materials, and that he was trying to get the courage up to marry Pepper. In return, Harry told Tony about his first life, the life of a wizard in a world of wizards, how he was famous for something that should have been attributed to his mother, how he'd become a martyr at seventeen only to wake up Master of Death and unable to age past a certain point. He spoke of the war itself, about marrying and having three children, then having to fake his death because, after a while, people began to notice he wasn't aging.
Tony got him to demonstrate more magic, including his animagus form, then had him test to see if Harry could power up a depleted arc reactor. When that worked, they moved onto other topics, such as the different creatures in his first world, what Death was really like as an entity, and about the different subjects that had been taught in Hogwarts. Neither knew why they were so comfortable with each other until Tony mentioned his old title as Merchant of Death, then Harry snorted.
"You realize that's likely literal now, right? If you didn't die from using the title for so long, even indirectly or unwillingly, then Death likely claimed you as theirs."
Tony was surprised, especially at the thought that Death probably liked him, but he shook it off. There was a call, and Tony was needed, so Harry changed forms once again and followed the Gryffindor coloured metal man. Only magic allowed him to keep up and not be exhausted when they arrived.
A gala... Haven't been to one since Mother-
Loki cut off the thought ruthlessly and headed inside, still decked out in his usual robes which had been glamoured to resemble an elegant three piece suit. They were there for a literal eye, not for him to reminisce. He was just hopeful his blatant sighting in front of the human cameras had helped the idiots realize where he was.
While Hawkeye made his way to the sealed door, Loki headed into the crowd, one piece of a two part machine in one hand and the glamoured scepter in the other. The scepter smacked into the guard, easily knocking him out, then as everyone remained too stunned to react, Loki grabbed the guy he needed, dragged him over to the nearest flat surface, pinned him down, and, once Hawkeye was ready, placed the device against the man's eye. He'd likely die from this, sure, but what was one human dead to the several billion he was saving?
Screams abounded, but he held on to the struggling man until the scan finished its job, watching people run away. The chaos appealed to him, as it always did, and as soon as he no longer needed to hold the guy down, he headed outside, the glamour changing instead to golden horns, his usual robes, and the scepter, once more its usual shape instead of a staff. An energy blast took care of an annoying car, then he was walking into the crowd again, illusions of himself springing up around them and crowding them together.
"Kneel before me." He demanded, watching as the people scrambled back in fear. More, Loki. You have to do more. Slamming the end of the elongated scepter against the ground, it glowed and he yelled. "I said, kneel!".
Terror. Terror in the eyes, terror in their movements, he could taste the terror in the air, but it didn't matter. He needed them obedient only long enough to be stopped before he was forced to kill another. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power... For identity." Words that sounded pretty but incoherent to his own ears, ones that spoke of twisted ideals and lives filled with terror and obedience, but it was necessary. He could feel them coming, could feel the change in the air that said soon, soon he would be free, that it all would have been worth it.
Quickly, he stuffed that part of him down deep again, before it could be discovered by the presence tainting his mind. "You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."
A man stood from the crowd, old and wrinkled, and Loki just hoped he was stopped before he was forced to kill him. Still, he had to give the old man credit for his courage.
"Not to men like you."
Loki smirked and shook his head. "There are no men like me." Which was technically true, because he was Jotun Seidr raised as Asgardian Seidr, made to believe he was a Prince when in reality he was nothing more than the royal family's charity case.
"There are always men like you." The old man defied, standing strong and proud as he refused to submit.
Damnit all, come on! Where the hell are you?
"Look to your elder, people." Lowering his scepter, he resigned himself to killing the old man. "Let him be an example."
Almost before he shot off the energy blast, it was blocked by a man wearing red, white, and blue, with a shield that deflected the blast easily, knocking it back into him. Of course, that meant he had to play the role of thwarted villain after he picked himself up, but that was better than killing anymore people.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." Steve looked down at Loki, smirked as the man glared up at him, but he could see a hint of gratitude as well which confused him before it disappeared.
"The Soldier." He laughed softly, the sound dark and wicked. "The man out of time."
From behind Steve appeared a jet, and Steve himself just shook his head. "I'm not the one who's out of time." The jet settled to hover, a weapon appearing out of the belly, then there was Natasha telling Loki to stand down, a blast of blue, the jet swerved to avoid being hit, and Captain America attacked, hitting Loki with his shield then with his fist.
No mortal, be they enhanced, super powered, or not, could truly defeat a god, but Loki only had to make it look good to outsiders before he gave in. Then, once the scepter had been confiscated and him removed from its influence, he could work on breaking the hold it had on him. There was also a large dot of magic coming closer and closer, one he hoped was powerful enough to help, though he wasn't sure how a Seidr had found their way to Midgard and if they turned out to be of use, he wouldn't take so long in ridding himself of his 'master's' influence.
Sudden blaring noise filtered through the air, but before he could get a look, Loki was blasted back by bolts of energy similar to his own. The magic user had arrived as well, though he held back, and with the loss of his scepter, he surrendered to the Man of Iron. Everyone loaded into the jet after that, Loki in a seat and beginning his work on his mind, and he barely flinched when he felt magic brush against his own, the feel of it cold like the depth of winter but comforting in an odd way.
Harry moved closer, crouching a foot or so in front of Loki, then he smirked mischievously. "So... Any of the stories true?" Seeing the man twitch and finally pay attention, Harry's smirk turned into a grin. "Did you really birth a six legged horse for Odin?"
Silence met the words, then everyone cracked up, even Natasha who usually pretended she had no sense of humor. Loki stayed quiet, but he was more focused now, and the second his eyes locked onto Harry's, he felt a gentle, questioning touch against his mind. As he'd hoped for such a thing to occur, he allowed the presence.
Harry nearly reeled as he found himself deep within shades of glowing blue, the colour tainting everything, and he almost felt sick at the sight before beginning to burn the taint from the god's thoughts. It was an arduous process, dangerous when done by an amateur, but Harry had studied extensively in his first world all the topics that would interest him. Mind magics and how to protect himself from them had been at the top of the list.
Lightning and thunder began to rock the jet only a few minutes in, the shaking knocking Harry and Loki out of eye contact, and Loki gave an apprehensive look around, hands tightening on his belt.
"What's the matter? Are you scared of a little lightning?" Steve quipped, irritated with something Tony had said given the tension in his frame at being so close to the man.
"I'm not overly fond of what follows." He admitted, watching nervously as Harry stood and stepped protectively in front of him.
The sudden thud that shook the jet had Harry casting a protective bubble around Loki and himself, one that wouldn't be easily broken, then he watched, eyes narrowed, as Tony opened the loading hatch and headed out, ears buzzing with adrenaline. It had been a long time since he faced a fight, a long time of peace, and he was adamant he wouldn't fight, not for Fury or anyone else, but this was different. Loki was a victim just as much as anyone else touched by the scepter, and Harry had been a licensed healer by the time he was fifty because he was tired of hurting people. He still had to protect his patients, meaning his spell repertoire was fully fleshed out, but he'd only attack in defense of his patient.
Before Tony could get fully outside the jet, Thor landed, looking pissed off and crackling with mini bolts of electricity, but he stopped short at the sight of Harry standing protectively in front of Loki.
"Enough. You've interrupted the healing of my patient. Either leave, or I'll send you halfway across the world, deep in the ground in order to get the time I need." Harry's voice was ice cold and brooked no argument, his eyes glowing bright, iridescent green with the power flowing through him, and even Tony shut up at the icy glare Thor got.
Thor, of course, wasn't to be dissuaded, and raised Mjolnir to try and threaten Harry out of the way. Patience finally gone, Harry snapped his fingers, summoning Mjolnir to himself and tying Thor in chains thick enough that it would take even him a while to get out of them. He knew the stories from his own world, how one must be worthy to wield the hammer, but all he felt was a slight weight, the crackle of electricity playing gently against his skin, and the hum of an ancient power.
"Sit down, shut up, all of you, and let me get back to my patient. Otherwise, you'll all be stuck facing the walls with thumbs in mouths because you act like bloody children."
There was a scramble to obey, then Tony, Steve, and Natasha averted their eyes. Anyone who could easily immobilize a god and steal his weapon of choice was automatically obeyed, at least for the moment. Harry relaxed minutely and levitated Thor to sit up against the wall, then once more crouched in front of Loki with a more friendly smile. "Now, how about we finish removing the taint that bastard put in your mind, hmm?"
"Yes please." Loki said demurely, welcoming the touch to his mind more quickly the second time.
Crisis averted, Harry began purging over a thousand years worth of memories from the control of the scepter, and the master behind the scepter itself. Behind him, while he and Loki were locked in eye contact and immersed in memories, Natasha looked at them and began whispering softly to the four men; Tony, Steve, Thor, and her copilot.
"Did we know he could do that?" She asked, locking onto Tony when he fidgeted guiltily.
"Sort of? Coulson brought him to the tower when he came to give me the files needed, he had a panic attack due to some of the videos, then he and I had a heart to heart. Some of the magic he showed defied the laws of physics, and it seemed effortless when he did things, almost like he had too much inside him to contain and using it made him calm. He said there were spells for pretty much everything, but I didn't think there was one for what he just did with Lightning Rod there."
Steve eyed the two, one knee bent and an elbow propped up on it, thumb and forefinger clicking together in idle thought. "Did he say where he learned them? The spells?"
Tony once more fidgeted, but sighed. "He did, but he doesn't want to say to anyone else. He's got a past, a painful one, and I know what it feels like. I won't share his secrets."
Rogers snorted in disbelief but said nothing and the rest of the ride back to base was spent in tense quiet, Thor, Steve, and Tony watching the man and God and Natasha doing her best to reign in her curiousity and fly.
The gentle touch down of the jet coincided well with Harry pulling out of Loki's mind, the god's neon blue eyes fading to a normal blue, then Harry cast a simple diagnostic charm over him and sighed with relief. "Good... The eye colour will fade with time, but I've removed all traces of his presence from your mind otherwise. My name's Harry Potter. You?"
"Loki of Asgard. Son of Freya, though I acknowledge no father." He might have been free of the corruptive influence of the scepter, but Odin had lied to him his entire life and only came clean when he was forced to. That man was no father of his.
With a nod, Harry vanished the cuffs on Loki's wrists and left him to his own devices, feeling the man's presence move behind him, then turned to Thor who hadn't even begun to try getting out of his thick chains. Raising an eyebrow in amusement, he Summoned Mjolnir, eyed the engravings, then vanished the chains practically smothering the blonde. "If I give this back to you, will you leave Loki alone? He was being controlled just as much as the others, the only difference being that he had a small amount of free will tucked away which allowed him to plan getting caught."
Thor's eyes flicked from his brother to the mysterious Seidr as he stood, and though he tried subtly summoning Mjolnir without answering the man, it refused to return to him. Sighing, he gave in and nodded, holding out his hand. "Loki will be safe from me, Seidr."
That was promise enough for Harry who could feel the magic take hold, then he handed over the hammer and turned back to his charge as the loading ramp drew down, showing the jet had been surrounded by armed agents.
"Nope! No. Nuh-uh. Everyone either puts their weapons away or I turn them into squeaky toys!" When no one listened, Harry narrowed his eyes and flashed a wave of magic that turned all weapons outside the jet into squeaky rubber toys for a twenty foot radius. He also put a shield around Loki before they walked inside, the god at Harry's side and flanked at the other by Thor. A group of agents surrounded them just outside the shield, then Fury, true to his name, stormed over furiously and stared the group down.
"What is the meaning of this? Why is there a hostile free and protected on my ship?" Fury's eye swung to face Harry as the main culprit and Harry just rolled his own eyes.
"In case you thought I'd forget, I warned you when you visited me in hospital the first time that he wasn't himself. I also warned you I wouldn't fight your battles, but I said nothing about healing those affected by them." Fury still didn't look happy, so Harry, without breaking eye contact, addressed Thor. "Thor, what colour were Loki's eyes as a child?"
The blonde startled at being suddenly addressed but didn't hesitate to answer. "Green. As green as your own."
"And what colour are they now, Fury?"
The man narrowed his own eye, glanced at Loki's, then gritted his teeth and answered. "Blue. The same colour Barton's turned." Before Harry could speak again, Fury sighed and motioned everyone into the lab where Bruce was working on tracking the tesseract. "You've made your point, Potter. He'll help us find the cube instead."
Once they'd all filled into the room, with Bruce giving Loki wary looks, The god in question cleared his throat. "No speculation needed. Selvig has it at Stark Tower. I know not how to destroy the device it will be attached to, but I don't think it a good idea to break it down before it starts up."
Fury glared at Loki first, then turned to Harry as if to say "see?" Harry just rolled his eyes and turned to Loki, ignoring the exclamations of the others. "He's right. That army is waiting. We either face it now, before it meets up with the larger force, or we deal with not only the Chitauri, but whatever else the master of the scepter has cooked up." Smiling sheepishly at the god, he added. "Sorry. Cleaning out your head showed me some of what you remembered from them. I didn't go looking on purpose, of course, but things do tend to slip in mind healing."
Loki shook his head and gave a slight smile. "No harm done. I'm rather more happy I'm free from His influence to care over much."
Tony drew attention to himself as he opened a nearby cabinet and withdrew a package of blueberries which he began to eat. "Hate to break up the love fest, but if we're not taking down the device before it goes online, how are we going to deal with the hordes of aliens that will appear?"
"First we need to find your companion. I believe his name was Hawkeye? Before young Harry here freed me from the influence of the scepter, I was to be freed at his hand. Likely, he will still come to obtain me, but now to kill, rather than capture. Those who control the Chitauri will not be pleased that I was freed." Loki averted his eyes, looking tired but no less stately and godlike.
His words set people into a flurry of motion as Tony and Bruce began scanning for Hawkeye and other life forms closing in fast, and Harry barely had enough time to throw up a shield around the room when the first bomb went off. The only reason the scepter hadn't gotten ahold of anyone's emotions yet was also because of his own magic smothering the scepter's. When the trembling stopped, Harry turned to see if Loki was alright and instead found him behind Thor, the blonde facing the wall which had blown out just beyond Harry's shield. Bruce barely escaped falling backwards into the hole in the wall by grabbing the table, which had been bolted down, then he scurried over to join Harry on the 'safe' side, eyes flashing green once before settling.
The second explosion came from further away, so Harry took the perceived safety and repaired the damage caused by the explosion, then locked eyes with Natasha. "Go. He'll likely be inside the ship close by. Try to hit him really hard in the head without killing him, and I'll be able to repair any other damage." He waved her off and she obeyed, the flash of her red hair being the only thing visible as she disappeared down the halls.
After Natasha left, it was like the signal for action had been given as agents began scurrying here and there, all in a hurry to do tasks, and Harry stayed with Loki and Bruce in the lab which he fortified so they could wait in safety. It was after a moment of quiet that Loki spoke, voice soft and eyes glittering with an unfamiliar emotion.
"You wield magic as though born to it, but so far as I recall, Midgard has not had a Seidr in millennia. Nothing more powerful than hedge witches before the burnings. How is it you came to be?"
Looking up to meet the man's blue eyes, Harry thumped back against the wall, eyes flicking between the two men in the room with him. "Fine. You wish to know? The 'Nine Realms' is rather misleading. My original world, before I reincarnated here, had magic and mythical creatures and all sorts of fantastical things. We lived adjacent to non magical people, hidden in our worlds carved out beside theirs. While they carved tracks into land to make way for more people, we made our wizarding spaces bigger without taking up more room. When they ruined the planet, we made our spaces breathable. When they caused the oceans to rise and their people drowned, we hid away in our protected spaces and persevered.
"On average, a wixen in my old world would live two hundred, maybe two hundred fifty years. I was the only exception." Harry hoisted himself up onto the counter, legs dangling, and began to speak further, uncaring that he was being recorded. "Before I was born, there was a prophecy that stated I would be the only one capable of killing a dark lord by the name of Voldemort. However, prophecies are subjective. If he'd ignored it, he would have lived, and so would my parents. By coming after me, he sealed his fate, and condemned me to many years of pain and loneliness. At age eleven, I received a letter detailing my acceptance to a magical school, a place where I could learn to harness and control my magic."
Loki perked in interest, eyes glittering with fascination. "Males were accepted?"
"Yeah, 'course! Untrained wixen children, no matter the gender, were a danger, either to themselves or to exposing magic as a whole. We had to be trained just like the girls, or we could lose control of our emotions and end up hurting ourselves or others. Anyway, during my school years, the dark wizard came back again and again, first possessing another teacher as a shade, then a different shade of his possessed the woman who became my wife during her first, my second year. Each year was fraught with tension and danger, until I eventually had to hunt down the things keeping him attached to life.
"Two of my friends joined me, and together, we ended the war. It wasn't without its cost, and during the travels, I managed to obtain three artifacts that, together, gave me mastery over Death. I can die, but I don't stay dead, and I'll never look older than I do now which, while early twenties is better than seventeen, is kind of a bummer."
Bruce waved slightly to get attention then spoke. "Why seventeen?"
Harry shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "That was the first time I died. I had a choice then; either go back to finish off the dark lord, or go on to Death. I decided to go back, not knowing the consequences, and when I woke back up, I was immortal. Death came a few years later, around my twenty third birthday, to let me know my aging was up, and I spent the next thirty years casting glamours out in public to look like I had aged normally. Ginny became my wife, gave me three beautiful children, then I faked my death and traveled.
"While on my travels, I studied anything that caught my interest; mind magics, which I used to help you," he nodded to Loki then continued, "the animagus transformation, dark arts, warding, curse breaking, different languages. You name it, I learned it. Eventually, though, I grew tired. My family had all grown old and died and there I was, stuck in the body of a young adult unable to move on. Death came to me again at that point, gave me a choice. The world had pretty much ended except for the magicals, what with the nonmagicals killing everything, and I couldn't go back even after several centuries. I was too famous, made it into history books and everything.
"Death came, told me I could stay or reincarnate in another world that needed my help. Said that it would be different, maybe even interesting, and I leapt at the chance to go somewhere different. Being born again was... weird, and my new mother died when I was three, my father left at ten, and I spent three years on the streets before I was kidnapped by Schmidt. Once more, I'd begun practicing magic to stabilize my core, but after Schmidt injected me with the modified serum created from his blood, he used the tesseract to kickstart it. He wanted to see what would happen if the energy from the cube mixed with a serum, inert or otherwise.
"It was excruciating, and the only things that saved me, aside from my own magic, were the facts that I was young, and had been drugged to be pliant. Children are adaptable, which meant that my body could change more to adapt to the serum, and with the drugs keeping me pliant, my body was unable to fight it. The fact that I can't die probably played into it as well, but not by much." Harry shrugged and conjured himself a glass to pour water into, then drank a bit to ease his parched throat. Wrinkling his nose, he changed it to pumpkin juice, took a sip, and sighed gratefully before he continued talking.
"I was out of it for weeks until Schmidt grew fed up, and he ordered Doctor Zola to kill me as a failure. Zola, the idiot, merely tossed me out in the back and left me to the elements. I couldn't fend for myself, couldn't really move at all, and I ordered my magic to put me in stasis. That's the last thing I remember before the tesseract woke up enough to wake me up, then four hours later, Loki came through the portal and I woke fully."
The two men stared at him in shock, Loki's eyes glinting strangely and Bruce likely commiserating with the pain. Then Loki, because Bruce didn't have magic, gently unfurled a tendril of magic that stroked along Harry's skin, making his eyes flutter half closed at the tenderness.
"You're magic sensitive because of the cube, aren't you? It waking you as it awoke makes sense because it fed your magic, but the only way you could know that I was compromised is if you were a magic sensitive." When Harry arched into the touch of magic at the back of his neck with a hum, Loki purred back and let more of his magic out, relishing in the shiver it brought and the unfolding of Harry's own magic in response. The younger male began to sway slightly on his perch then, looking punch drunk and staring at Loki as if the god was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen, but the moment was broken by Bruce.
"Not to interrupt... whatever this is, but Natasha sent a message. Fury wants your help clearing Barton, then we need to suit up and head to the tower." The magic in the air had grown thick enough that Bruce could feel it, and while it was a nice tingle, it was in certain parts of him that didn't need to tingle. He was glad when the younger of the two left, though how much younger he didn't quite know, and he returned to his work, studying the unique gamma trail the cube had left behind now that they didn't need to find it again.
"Thor will have my head." Loki murmured, sounding entirely too pleased with the thought, but he left without giving Bruce a chance to comment.
Insane... All of them are insane, and I just want to go home.