Ch.3
The Avengers were sitting in a circle around Thor, all looking with the same disturbed expression up to him.
"Wait, wait, wait, I just want to know if I heard you right at the beginning, it went....inside of her?" asked Clint with wide eyes.
Tony let out a weird kind of snort at that.
"It's complicated, but yes it bonded with her." Thor confirmed, probably not even realising how weird it would sound.
"You mean infected?" Bruce asked in a quiet tone.
"Aye, you could say so" Thor nodded.
"Even after hearing it the second time it sounds weird. Must have been horrible." added Clint shuddering.
"The experience surely wasn't pleasing." confirmed Thor again.
"How did you say, it was called?" Steve joined the conversation.
"The Aether."
"I was being controlled by magic, but something like that would drive me mad." Clint whispered, with a dark look in his eyes.
"What is it exactly, Thor?" Bruce spoke up.
"An infinity stone."
"A wha-" Clint didn't get to finish.
"I thought you said it was a liquiet?" mentioned Tony raising an eyebrow.
Just as it looked like Thor was about to answer, Steve stood up.
"Whatever it was, I'm glad it was destroyed." he said and looked at Thor.
With that sentence everyone turned to the asgardian. Thor's eyes flicked to the other side of the room as he smiled and nodded. He didn't want to worry his friends with something that was hidden safety and couldn't do any harm. Lying to them probably wasn't the best option, but, well it was already done. Maybe he got something from his brother after all. Natasha's eyes narrowed worryingly at him.
"That's great, and with that bastard of your brother off the map, it only will get better." Clint stood with a satisfied smile.
"Have care how you speak of him." Thor growled.
"Yeah, whatever, even you have to admit, he was a psychopath. He certainly just helped you to get out of prison and then betray you, but well something went wrong with his plan." Clint said while strolling out of the room.
Just when Thor was about to stand up and follow the archer, Steve put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't mind him, you know how he is when Loki is mentioned. I'm sorry for your loss Thor, for both, your mother and your brother." Steve said in a calming voice.
Thor looked gratefully at him, before leaving to his room. Over the past weeks he hadn't really gotten time to grief.
*
Sitting on the bed in her room, Natasha thought about the story Thor told them. The attack in London was mentioned in the News and even some people posted pictures or videos on the Internet, they had taken while being there. It wasn't much through. Shield hasn't gotten much more info eather, only some recordings of high energy spikes in that area.
The most interesting thing for her was however, how Thor's eyes left the group, as he confirmed the destruction of the 'Infinity Stone'. He lied. She was sure of that. It wasn't something Thor would frequently do, so it was worth further investigation.
For now she has a report for Fury to write.
*
Tony was irritated. Just two days after Thor's arrival, Dr. Doom has shown up on the radar of Shield. His attack was taking place in Queens, not far from the place he last attacked. He had some odd king of obsession with that area of the city. The robot army was bigger than the last one, but not much harder to defeat. The fight lasted only three hours, before the Avengers were making their way back home.
No one had gotten any fatal injuries, but they still got a bit banged up. Tony's arms were hurting from the constant holding back of the robots, so they wouldn't squish him like a fly.
So yeah it was understandable that he was in a bad mood.
He still hasn't gotten over Pepper, but stopped drinking after Fury and Steve threatened to take away all his alkohol. Sure he could protect his Tower from Fury coming and taking away his scotch, but he rather wouldn't want to risk it. Shield always got a way around things. Besides, like he already said, he wasn't in the mood for another hour of Patchy yelling at him to keep his shit together.
"Sir, there's an incoming call from Director Fury." Jarvis informed him.
"Just the right time Nick, patch him through Jarv."
"Stark." Fury greeted, with his usual scowl on his face.
"What's up Nicky." Tony tried to sound like his ordinary cheerful self.
"Don't call me that Stark. Let's make this quick, I want you to check on some energy spikes that were showing up from time to time since two weeks ago. They're similar to the magical signature we picked up on, on the New York Invasion. The first one showed up in Central Park. We couldn't identify the places the next ones were. We would like you to have a look at it, understand." Fury looked him in the eyes, with a stern expression.
"Yeah, yeah, got it, Central Park, magical signature, check it out with my superior tech. Thanks for the informations Patchy, see ya."
Before the Director could mutter a single word, he hung up.
Like hell he's going out of his workshop today.
Or any other day.
*
Thor just couldn't believe it. Three days after Doom's attack the team was called out, because something seemed to be happening, near the Statue of Liberty. Right now he was standing with his friends on the quinjet, which was hovering 50 meters away from it, looking at the top of the statue.
Right there on top was standing Loki, his brother, clad in his usual armor, smirk on his face, looking down to them. The crown of the statue was changed into his horned helmet, and the torch into the scepter, they got to see in the invasion.
Thor's face could only be described as comical. Eyes wide and bulging out, like they're gonna fall out of the sockets any second, with tears in them. Mouth wide agape, tongue tied. He couldn't get a sound out of him.
He wanted to scream for his brother to come down here so he could hug him, and never let go, but at the same time ask him why he betrayed him and let him think he died. The least of his thoughts were right now what Loki just did to the statue.
"Oh, fuck me" he heard the hawk mutter, before the archer turned to him.
"You said he was dead, Thor" he hissed, while glaring at the god of Thunder.
That sentence somehow, brought back Thor's voice. "Brother. You're alive! B-but how? I saw you d-die in my arms, Loki." he shouted, hopping the younger god could hear him, through the whistle of the wind.
"Director, Loki's here, he is probably the cause of these signals you mentioned." Steve spoke into his intercom.
"Damn it Stark, you were supposed to have a look at that. You had the readings from New York, so don't you dare try to excuse yourself." The voice of Nick Fury was heard yelling, in everyone's earpiece.
"Look, Nicky. I'm not some agent of Shield to do your dirty work. Hell, I wasn't even supposed to be an Avenger, Iron Man yes, Tony Stark not recommended, remember. So you don't get to tell me what I'm supposed or not supposed to do." Tony finished, already taking off with his suit, of the quinjet.
There was a stunned silence, before the Captain spoke up. "Tony we're going to talk about thi-"
"There's nothing to talk about Cap."
"- Now Thor try to speak to Loki, find out what he wants-" Thor nodded and took off in the sky, while swinging Mjolnir.
"-Bruce you're staying here, if the Hulk is needed we will inform you-"
"Good luck" the scientist said and went back to his seat.
"-Romanoff you pilot the jet, Barton you come with me on the top. If it comes to a fight Natasha will try to steer it in direction ground." Steve finished, taking his shield in hand, waiting for Clint to get his bow ready.
In the meantime Iron Man and Thor arrived at the top of the statue.
"Hey Reindeer Games, come to let the whole world see how horny you are?" Tony slipped into his usual demeanor.
"Not that you can blame me for wanting to get some attention, with that Tower of yours." Loki put on a smug mask.
"Eeh, wrong Rock of Ages, you must have noticed, to what it's changed now."
"How couldn't I've noticed."
Thor took a moment to look at the two of them, before deciding to step in. " Enough, Loki what are you doing here?"
At that Loki turned to Thor and his expression soured. "What Iam doing here. Oh, maybe I've just come to visit to let you know, preferable with this masterwork of mine,-" he gestured to the statue. "-that I am still alive, and you have just left me on Svartalfheim, while injured might I add, to go rescue your precious mortals."
"But you were dead." Thor choked out of himself.
"Oh really, you haven't even checked the pulse or if I was breathing. Yes, yes you wouldn't have found one anyway, but at this time I really thought you would have learned to wary to trust me."
Thor was silent for a split second, before his brows furrowed and he spoke in a lower voice. "You had a sword through your chest, brother. You couldn't falsify something like that."
Loki snorted and his hands started to glow green. "Please Thor a little stab to my ches-"
"It went through your back" Thor shouted.
"- couldn't kill me, you really think so little of me. It only took a few hours for my magic to heal me."
'I don't have to mention the being unconscious part' Loki thought.
"Ok, boys, if you could stop your hissy fit, so we could skip to the real fight." Stark's voice interrupted the arguing brothers.
"Tony!!!" Steve could be heard saying.
"Nice one Stark" definitely Clint.
"You want all the attention you can get on yourself, don't you? Well then as you wish, Stark" with that all three of them rushed on each other.
*
That was seven months ago. And Loki's still on the loose. Every time they even get near to catching him, he just simple vanishes. POOF. Last time the space princess visited earth he hasn't shown any sign that he is able to use teleportation. After a lot of cursing and shouting, Thor explained that Loki was probably exhausted, using the tesseract and scepter, so that he had not enough energy, whatever that means. Clint still was a little grumpy that Thor didn't even mention, and let Tony quote, '-that your maniac of a brother got more shitty powers, that will not help us defeat and give him what he deserves.'.
The fights weren't even that hard, more so annoying, but sometimes Tony came home laughing his head off. Most of the time they couldn't be even called fights. Only on occasions the god went around destroying things, when he was in a really bad mood. Normally the trickster did what he was best known for. Creating Chaos and Mischief.
Like locking all the automatic doors in the city, making cars drive backwards, although that could be dangerous, or turning all the leafs in trees to ice cream (the kids that had witnessed it were surely now laying in their beds, tugged under the blankets, silently praying to the god of Mischief.)
Sometimes Amora and the Executioner would also show up and help the wizard (he hates it, when Tony calls him that). The team was confused, as to why she would help the younger god. They thought she was only after Thor, because she wanted to get in his pants, when Thor explained that the two had been childhood friends, before the Enchantress got banished.
"So even as a child he was a freak" Clint muttered at that.
Clint also got a punch in the ribs, from Natasha, for that.
*
This time the fight was taking on some road, Tony didn't bother to remember the name. Everywhere crawling were small, black, hairy and venom spitting spiders. While Natasha, Clint and Steve were taking care of them, Tony and Thor had to deal with the trickster, again.
Right at this moment the younger brother was standing by a wall preparing some kind of spell. Most likely to teleport away or something, because the fight was mostly over, and it would only take the others a few more minutes to come help the two Avengers. If Loki wasn't so tired right now he would already have vanished, but they got some pretty good hits on him today.
That's when Mjolnir crashed into the wall behind the trickster. It shattered to pieces and a big cloud of dust appeared, shielding the god from sight. When the dust settled down, the trickster was nowhere to be found.
The team took some time to gather some of their weapons, and help a bit with the cleaning that Shield took care of, before making their way back to the jet, unaware of the little black creature, with striking green eyes, lurking in a corner of an alleyway, watching them.