Loki looked around the building, it was strange. Everything was shiny, like no one lived there. He knew this floor was meant to be the space the man lived in, yet everything looked almost untouched. Only the bar to the side showed any signs of life. He heard the platform outside start coming to life and he was able to watch as Stark's suit spluttered and gave out.

His lips twitched as he watched the man of iron be stripped of his iron. They were making themselves weak. He was silent, watching as they entered the building and headed for the bar section. "Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity."

"Uh—" Tony stammered, looking up at the man. "Actually, I’m planning to threaten you." At least he hoped he would be able to. After all, the Hulk was able to face Thor without issue.

"You should have left your armour on for that," Loki pointed out.

"Yeah, it’s seen a bit of mileage. You’ve got the uh—" Tony hesitated, trying to find the correct word to describe the stick, "blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

Loki knew what the man was doing. "Stalling me won’t change anything." This was seriously the great defenders? A mortal man whose suit of iron had already given in?

"No, no, no— threatening," Tony corrected. "No drink? You sure? I’m having one." If anyone thought he was going into this without a drink then they were actually insane.

It was not like the drink would even touch the side. A mortal drink was hardly more than some strangely flavoured water to him. "The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" So much.  He had so much to fear.

"The Avengers," Tony said with a smirk. "It’s what we call ourselves, sort of like a team," he waved towards himself, "’Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ type of thing."

"Yes, I met them," Loki said. They didn't impress him. The only one who deserved any of his respect was his little hawk — and that beast.

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I’ll give you that one," Tony said begrudgingly. "But, let’s do a head count here. Your brother, the Demi-God—"

Loki turned away from the man. Why did Thor always come up, why did he never get to step out of the Golden Prince's shadow. However, it was amusing how the mortal used the time he had his back to him to slip on those cuffs of his — he seemed to think he didn't even realise.

"—a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you big fella, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them."

Loki smirked, turning to face the man. "That was the plan." His little hawk was pissed off with him?

"Not a great plan," Tony commented as he walked towards the man. "When they come, and they will, they’ll come for you."

"I have an army." Nor was it any normal type of army.

"We have a Hulk." He wouldn't know what hit him.

Loki was not looking forward to meeting the beast, nor how hard it can hit. "Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off." He did not feel as calm as he let that comment sound.

"Yeah— you’re missing the point."

Loki gets told that a lot. The others never realised they could mean something else. Sometimes, they never see the bigger picture. Sometimes, they only see the monster and not the man behind it.

"There’s no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you," Tony said sharply. "’Cause if we can’t protect the earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it," he nearly growled, making sure it was clear that he was not going to back down.

Loki walked over towards the man. "How will your friends have time for me, when they’re so busy fighting you?" He questioned as he placed it against the man's chest. It made a noise like it had touched metal and the haze faded back to the stone. Did this mortal have a second layer of iron hidden beneath his clothes? "This usually works."

"Well, performance issues. You know?" Tony smirked.

Loki growled, grabbing the mortal by the neck. He threw him across the room, listening as he called out for the figure in the ceiling he'd dismantled with a simple spell. He stalked over, grabbing him by the neck resulting in another terrified call. "You will all fall before me," he growled, hearing the man give one last shout before he threw him out the window. Defenestration; he'd always wanted to send Thor out a window since he learned about it, the mortal will have to do for now.

An eyebrow raised as something went flying out the window after the mad mortal. And it was not too long before Loki realised what it was. He could hear the roar of the suit flying back up towards him, before suddenly the man of iron was flying in front of him.

"And there’s one other person you pissed off! His name is Phil," Tony shouted, firing a repulsor blast at the God and watching them go flying onto their back.

Loki smirked as he got back to his feet, the opening of the portal louder than any crack of thunder Thor has ever caused. He walked out onto the balcony, calling his armour back from the pocket dimension. The streets below him were in chaos as the Chitauri rained down on them.

Something heavy landed behind him, and Loki turned around to spot his ex-brother. The thunder didn't look pleased, a snarl across the man's face.

"Loki, turn off the Tesseract or I’ll destroy it!" Thor ordered.

"You can’t. There is no stopping it," Loki said with a grin. "There is only the war!" He didn't want a war.

"So be it."

Loki lunged forwards, he couldn't let the thunderer get the first impact. The scepter came in useful as it allowed him to bounce away the hammer's blows, the stone within absorbing the lightning and sending it back. He heard the platform creak as one of the letters got caught in his blast, sending it plummeting to the ground.

-----

Clint looked out at the battle commencing beneath them as they arrived in the quinjet. He flipped one of the levers next to him, dropping the main cannon down. The next lever swapped Nats controls to ones that control the weapon system. He ignored her looks, knowing he was normally the one to use the weapons not her. But he couldn't do it, he couldn't fire on the man in the tent like he should. Clint so hoped she'd stay shooting the opposing warriors and not Loki.

The controls jolted in Clint's hands as one of them managed to get a lucky shot and clip one of the wings. Swearing under his breath, Clint fought the quinjet back into submission, continuing his attack near the tower. "Nat!" He called over his shoulder, seeing the confrontation happening off to the side.

"I see ’em."

Clint watched as Nat fired on the man in the tent, keeping an eye on just how close they got to landing a hit. He could see that the fight between the two brothers was getting messy, various beams and bolts of lightning shooting around into the sky.

He knew that Loki could take an attack from the jet, but it still didn't stop him from worrying. He'd only just found him again, he didn't want to lose him — he didn't want the man in the tent to die surrounded by hatred and death, and not the cheers and performances he glowed in.

Clint grunted as a lightning bolt hit the right wing of the jet. He could hear Nat swearing in Russian alongside his. He focused again, trying to stabilise the craft as it began to spin out of control. He shouldn't have gotten lost in that memory.

He could see vaguely through the spinning that Thor had given up using his hammer and was instead just going at Loki with his fists. "Couldn't have done that sooner," Clint muttered under his breath as he clung onto the jets steering column. It was a quick fight, avoiding all the buildings as they continued to spin in their plummet, but he's happy at least he didn't end up seriously damaged as he crash landed across the road.

-----

Loki felt his throat close up as the lightning hit the jet. He was being so careful with the staff so no beams would hit the craft and yet it was Thor's attack that downed him. His little hawk was in there, he doesn't know what he'd do if he finds out that attack had killed the man.

He crashed backwards as Thor hit him with his fist, using his distraction to get closer. He scrambled to his feet, trying to avoid the punches as best as he could. He doesn't know what hurts more, the fact that Thor doesn't realise, or that he shot his teammates out of the sky.

-----

Clint took off his headset as he got to his feet, he couldn't settle for too long, there was too much to do. He scanned his eyes over Nat when he spotted her, making sure she wasn't hiding any injuries from their impromptu landing.

"We gotta get back up there," Steve said as both agents made their way out of the crashed jet. He scanned the sky, spotting the newest wave of enemies to join the fight.

Clint felt his breath catch in the back of his throat as he noticed the beast flying out of the portal. He's not even sure how it managed to squeeze its way out, yet there it was, an armoured leviathan. It dwarfed the warriors as they poured out the portal behind it, looking large enough to swallow them all whole.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve questioned, holding his finger to his ear piece.

"Seeing. Still working on believing. Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

Clint scanned the surrounding areas at Stark's question. There was none of the distinctive roars or destruction. Their green rampaging team member was missing. Was the man actually informed that he was to attend this? He could hear the other two continue to talk, trying to find their team member and trying to keep each other informed.

He fired an arrow, taking down the warrior that was sneaking up on a family. He kept scanning the area, it was slowly being filled with the warriors and panicking citizens were being chased out of all the wreckage.

Clint motioned to Nat, pointing out the warriors attacks. They'd need to act quickly. He fired his bow again and watched as Nat used her bites to take out more of the army.

-----

Loki grunted as Thor pinned him down. The oaf always had to prove their strength. He wasn't even surprised he was being pinned, only that he hadn't been thrown harder beforehand.

"Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?" Thor growled, motioning with his freehand towards the surroundings.

Loki glanced over, seeing how his army was filling the city. There was thick black smoke filling the air, screams reaching his ear even from this distance. But it was needed, it had to be — he had no choice but attack. How didn't Thor realise, his supposed brother. "It’s too late." He hates it. He hates the pain it is causing. "It’s too late to stop it."

"No. We can, together."

Loki really would like to agree, but he couldn't, no matter how determined Thor was. The Other was breathing down his mind, he had no choice. He didn't. He didn't want to. He didn't. He felt the blade quicker than he'd realised he'd called for it. "Sentiment!" Loki growled, stabbing the blade deep into the oaf's side.

Loki's feet scrambled for grip as Thor grabbed him by the neck with a pained shout. He grunted as Thor threw him to the ground, skidding across the surface until he fell from the platform. He angled himself, landing on the flying Chitauri crafts.

-----

Clint crouched behind one of the overturned cars, taking shelter from the attacks of the aliens. He could see that Nat was trying to work out a way out of the situation, but he is not sure how they can as the weapons the Chitauri were using didn't seem to have a reloading or cool down period.

He looked over his shoulder, noticing that Captain America was approaching. Clint scanned the place again. "We've got civilians trapped," he said as the hero slid into place next to them. He glanced up, watching as Loki flew above them on one of the flying vehicles.

"Loki," Steve growled under his breath. He looked down, noticing that the enemies were advancing on a group of civilians and overwhelmed police force. "They're fish in a barrel down there."

Nat stood, firing over the top of the car and taking down some of the advancing aliens. "We've got this," she said, seeing the man's head snap to look at her. "It's good. Go!"

Steve glanced over at the two assassins before nodding as both waved him on. "You think you can hold them off?" The two could handle themselves.

Clint grinned, continuing to shoot down the various soldiers around them. "Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." He grinned widened as his arrow loose and took down other soldiers around the first.

He moved carefully between the various shelters as he continued to take down the warriors. Clint collected as many arrows as he could, trying to keep his stock up. But far too many were being damaged by the armour of the enemy.

Clint tucked his head around the concrete he was hiding behind. He could see a bus, one that looked to be slightly rocking. Looking closer, he could see that there were people within, trapped from the crash. "Nat!" He shouted, pointing towards the bus.

"Good eyes!" Nat replied, changing course towards the bus.

Clint moved quickly, using the cover Nat supplied to get to the bus. He looked over the area, spotting the mostly untouched building and doorway. He helped the fire civilian out of the bus, directing them towards the opening while Nat cleared the path.

After helping the last out of the bus, Clint quickly dove back into the fight next to Nat, taking down as many soldiers as he could.

"Just like Budapest all over again!"

Clint shot Nat a look as he fired his arrow. In what way was this like Budapest — apart from being a shitshow? "You and I remember Budapest very differently." He would much rather be hiding out in some vents than fighting aliens who would occasionally shrug off his arrows.

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