Late that night, Loki lay in bed in Gibbs' spare room, staring up at the ceiling. Tree branches knocked gently against the window sill as wind blew through the open window. The sound was soothing to the Asgardian.

Sighing, Loki rolled out of bed and walked over to the window. Leaning on the sill, he stuck his head out the window and took deep breaths of the fresh night air. It cleared his mind from all the excitement and mystery of the past few days.

His mind returned to his scepter, now in the hands of Clare Leopard. How in the heck did she get that scepter? The Avengers, or S.H.I.E.L.D., was supposed to be in possession of it. They had taken it from him after stopping his invasion of New York. He assumed that it had either been kept in some S.H.I.E.L.D. location or in Stark – no, Avengers – Tower.

Also, who helped her? Loki didn't care what this Clare Leopard could do – there was no way she had stolen the scepter without outside help. Without dangerous help. But who?

Loki ran his teeth over his bottom lip, contemplating exactly who could have aided Leopard. If his assumption that Thanos was somehow behind all this was correct, it could easily have been one of his Children sent to Earth to initiate another attack. He'd need to start tracing Leopard's background to try to find out who it was.

Shaking his head, Loki was about to return to his bed when he heard a soft rustling noise in the branches outside his window. The god of mischief froze, his total focus on the noise. He had been hearing those branches and leaves move all night. This new noise had been irregular to the pattern he had become accustomed to.

As he removed his daggers from his belt, Loki slipped out of the window, relieved it was on the first story. His boots made no sound as he landed on the ground. Peering up into the branches, Loki could just make out the shape of a slight figure in the tree. It was a woman's figure.

Leopard! Loki bent his knees slightly and then leapt up into the tree. Grasping the first branches to come within reach, the Asgardian propelling himself up higher....

....right into the leg that came swinging around at him.

The force behind the blow knocked Loki into a thick branch. He gripped it as he flipped onto it, avoiding her next kick. Spinning around, the Asgardian launched himself forward, his daggers out for the kill.

The woman was turning just as Loki hit her, and he felt one knife sink into flesh while the other hit something unyielding with a dull clang. The force knocked them both out of the tree and they tumbled towards the ground fifteen feet away.

The woman landed first, Loki hitting beside her. She lashed out with her right fist, socking him in the jaw. Loki rolled away as she sprang to her feet, reaching for a case that had been concealed at the base of the tree.

As she moved away from him, he was able to get a good look at the intruder. Turns out his first guess was wrong; she wasn't Clare Leopard.

The woman had dark brown hair pulled back tightly, with dark eyes. He couldn't see any of her features; they were hidden behind a mask that concealed the lower half of her face. Her forehead was covered with a band of dull grey metal, that wrapped around to her temples. It must be part of the mask. She wore a black bodysuit, just like the one Clare Leopard had been wearing when DiNozzo and Loki had confronted her.

As Loki gripped his daggers and prepared for another lunge, the woman yanked something out of the case and pointed it at Loki as he jumped towards her. It was in midair that he realized exactly what had been in that case.

A sniper rifle.

The woman touched the trigger slowly, almost leisurely, and Loki was treated to the pleasure of watching the bullet fly at him, almost in slow motion.

He just had time to think, This can't harm me when the bullet struck his torso and exploded.

The force of the explosion launched Loki back towards the house. He flew towards his window and crashed through the glass. Landing on his bed with a groan, Loki noticed lights flickering on in a different section of the house. The other occupants were waking up.

Loki pushed himself back up onto his feet and dove through the window. Hitting the ground headfirst, he neatly transferred his momentum into a somersault and came up on his feet. Just in time to see the mystery woman streaking across the road, towards the houses on the other side of the street.

Thor, Gibbs, and Fornell flung the front door open and joined Loki on the front lawn. Loki had only to point in the direction of the woman to prompt Thor to whirl his hammer around. Grabbing the back of Loki's collar, Thor took off, flying through the air after the woman.

"So," Fornell said. "I guess we travel the old fashioned way."

With that, the two agents took off running after the gods.

Thor and Loki were able to catch up to the woman as she was taking a shortcut through someone's backyard. The backyard was fenced, and a swimming pool occupied most of the space within. A section of the lawn surrounding it had a small pop-up soccer goal, and lawn chairs occupied a region on the other side of the yard.

Thor dropped Loki on the grass and landed a few feet away, hammer up and ready to throw. The woman spun around and fired at Thor. The god of thunder batted the bullet away with his hammer, sending the missile streaking into the side of the house. It detonated on impact, destroying a portion of the building.

Loki came lunging forward, hurling one of his daggers at the woman. Swinging the butt of her rifle up, the woman deflected the dagger and somehow managed to angle the deflection to send it spinning directly at Loki. The god of mischief flung himself backwards, sliding on his knees to avoid the trajectory of his own weapon.

The woman brought her gun up as Loki slid towards her, smacking him in the shoulders with the butt of it and sending him flying into the swimming pool. Thor threw Mjolnir at her but the woman just planted the butt of her rifle in the ground and spiraled up and over the flying hammer.

Loki surfaced in the pool, spitting water out of his mouth. Stroking to the side of the pool, he hauled himself out and ran at the woman, cursing his waterlogged clothes. He tackled her from the side as she landed from her flip, knocking her to the ground just as Mjolnir streaked back over their heads to Thor's outstretched hand.

The woman grasped Loki's shoulders and hurled herself into a roll, taking both of them into the pool. As they hit the water, she somehow maneuvered herself to be on top of him and was forcing him to stay underwater.

Loki slapped at her desperately as he felt his oxygen dwindling, his knife making frantic attempts to kill the woman. He felt the blade strike the side of the pool and carve through the liner, and then the weapon was yanked from his hand as the point got lodged in the concrete siding.

Black spots danced across his eyes as the image of the woman holding him down became fuzzy. Loki was starting to think he was a goner when a terrific thunderclap sounded above him.

He was jolted back to full awareness by the bolt of lightning that struck the pool. The electricity coursed through the two of them as they were thrust out of the pool by the shock wave caused by Thor slamming his hammer into the water.

During their flight through the air, the woman's hold on Loki was broken and they both landed in different locations. The woman staggered to her feet and snatched her gun as Thor flew at her.

Thor raised Mjolnir and struck at the woman, but she brought up her gun in front of her. Loki waited for the weapon to shatter under the hammer's mighty blow, but instead, Thor was launched backwards by the bright light that flashed on contact between the two weapons.

Gibbs and Fornell chose that moment to hop over the fence, guns drawn. The woman, seizing her opportunity, struck off at a sprint for the back of the yard.

Fornell and Gibbs opened fire at the woman. She zigzagged, heading for the lawn chairs. Grabbing one in her left hand, she whirled and released the chair. It spiraled through the air right at the two agents, causing them to scatter.

Loki climbed to his feet as the woman vaulted over the back fence, tossing something behind her as she disappeared behind the fence. He recognized it as it hit the ground. It was a Chitauri power core, jury-rigged into a bomb.

"Bomb!" Loki screamed, turning to run. Thor got to his feet and took off, grabbing Fornell's arm as he swung Mjolnir and gained altitude. Loki took Gibbs' arm and forced him to start running, away from the glowing orb.

The bomb went off as they reached the street, incinerating the entire house and yard. The force flung Loki and Gibbs forward, driving them into the hard, cold asphalt. Thor and Fornell were far enough away not to get majorly affected, and alighted in Gibbs' front yard.

Loki raised himself up enough to glance behind him. The property behind him was gone – nothing was left but black dust. He hoped nobody had been living there.

Gibbs coughed beside him, rolling over onto his back.

"Kate," Gibbs coughed.

"Who?" Loki asked quickly, looking at Gibbs.

"Not who," Gibbs responded. "What. The rifle...it appeared to be a Marine sniper rifle. We called them a kate."

"Marine," Loki murmured. "So she was military?"

Gibbs shrugged, making an effort to sit up. "We're going to find out, Laufeyson. Tomorrow."

Loki glanced up at the sky. "Uh, Agent Gibbs? I believe you mean today."

/**/

So...that happened.

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Skylar Wittenborn