Chapter 25
When the Avengers went to the warehouse the next morning, Tyr was nowhere to be found.
“I told you,” Loki grumbled, pacing across the room towards where the map of the city had been. Gone now, but he remembered the pair of men pointing at it, planning their next attack. He hadn’t listened closely enough to know what they were doing, but looking at the wall brought back the word they had stressed the most.
“Queens,” he said, “that’s where they’re going.”
“How do you know?” Tony asked.
“It doesn’t matter how I know.”
Thor glanced questioningly at Loki, and realization dawned on him, “You used astral projection.”
“Perhaps,” Loki shrugged, putting on a mask of indifference.
“I thought you had abandoned that craft.”
“I had,” Loki answered, “Astral projecting should not be used to kill, but it was. Tyr killed Mother. I saw it fitting that he should die in the same manner.”
“It still does not—“
“Tyr lost the right to a fair fight when he chose to use Frigga’s gift as a weapon of war,” Loki spat.
“And if you did the same, how are you any better?” Thor asked, “Would she have wanted you to use it that way?”
“It doesn’t matter what she would have thought,” Loki growled, even as he realized Thor was right.
Thor gave him a long, sad look, “We both know that’s not true.”
Loki shook his head, dismissing the subject, “We haven’t the time to argue about the past. We need to stop Tyr.”
He looked meaningfully towards Thor, “Whatever it takes.”
By the time the Avengers spotted Tyr on the eastern side of Queens, he had already set several buildings on fire, and a collection of his followers were tearing through the different stores and houses, searching for a stone that simply wasn’t there.
Steve put together a plan fairly quickly, sending Tony and Thor (as the members of the team that could fly) to deal with Tyr, while Natasha and Clint were assigned to protect the citizens. He and Loki could handle the goons.
Loki groaned inwardly that Steve would purposefully keep him away from Tyr, but though he didn’t want to admit it, it was probably for the better.
He counted up to 15 different goons, but who could know for sure? Half of them fled at the first sign of Avengers anyhow.
One goon, brave enough to try to attack Loki as he left a sandwich shop, didn’t even get halfway to him before a guy in a blue and red suit knocked him to the ground from behind.
“Spiderman,” Loki recognized him from the local news.
“Raven,” Spiderman replied, and Loki recognized the voice of the boy from the bake shop he’d gotten cinnamon rolls at.
Peter?
“Parker?” Loki asked.
Spiderman gave him a thumbs up, shot a web, and he was gone.