A brainwashed Doctor Selvig and other several scientists work together to build the machine they've been working on the past couple hours. Finally, with a little insight from the gem in Loki's scepter, they were able to figure out what they needed to stabilize the next portal.

Clint Barton walks in the room, holding a tablet. Selvig orders something to a scientist and turns his attention over to Clint. "Where'd you even find all these people?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. has no shortage of enemies." Clint holds up the screen of the tablet so Selvig can see the picture. "Is this what you need?"

Selvig glances at the teal screen, inspecting it for a second to see if it's the right element. "Yeah, iridium. It's found in meteorites and forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get ahold of."

"Especially if S.H.I.E.L.D. knows you need it." Clint lowers the tablet and with a newfound confidence, thinks about all the places he can find this rare material.

"Well, I didn't know. Hey!" Selvig spots someone approach from behind Clint, and recognizes him as Loki. "The Tesseract is showing me so much. It's more than knowledge, it's... truth."

"I know." Loki says and turns to Clint. "What did it show you, Agent Barton?"

"My next target."

"Tell me what you need." Loki says with determination. He will do anything, and that means anything, to get his war. He must finally prove to everyone that he is better than Thor, that he can rule Asgard despite his alien blood and cold background. He wants to prove to everyone that he is indeed good enough, no, better than Thor could ever dream to be.

The blue glow of Loki's scepter seems to glow a little brighter as Loki thinks of his hunger for greatness and envy of his brother. No one seems to notice.

Clint walks over to the side of the room and opens a black, long case. He takes out a thin item and holds it in the center. When he flicks it forward, it turns into his trusty bow. "I need a distraction, and an eyeball."

***

The air of the room is tense with waiting. As the minutes tick into hours, the responders to Loki's threat start to get antsy. In all honesty, they'd rather be fighting something than waiting around the control room for a computer to get the location of Loki.

Steve and Phil stand next to each other, staring out the big window of the helicarrier. Still slightly awkward, Phil wrings his hands in front of him. "If it's not too much trouble, that is."

"No, no, it's fine." Steve rosponds, agreeing to sign the cards Phil managed to collect later in the day.

"It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all." Now just rambling, Phil thinks back to when he got all the cards. "Near mint, slight crippling around the edges, but-"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent known as Agent Sitwell enhances the image just captured in his computer. "We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent, crossmatch seventy-nine percent."

"Location?" Phil speedwalks up to the computer to confirm they have a match. Sure enough, a blurry picture of Loki stares right back at him.

Sitwell presses a couple buttons on his keypad and a globe pops up. A red beacon shines on one spot of the globe, representing the location on where the assailant is. "Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

"Captain, you're up." Nick Fury leans over his bridge to amplify his voice. Steve turns to him, nods, and hurriedly goes off to another branch of the helicarrier to get his outfit and shield.

***

Loki scratches the back of his neck in disgust. How do these Terrains think this attire is in any way appealing? Is it their goal to be as uncomfortable as humanly possible? On Asgard, everyone from the soldiers, to the royalty, to the commoners wear silky robes fit for any type of weather. This is just repulsive; aggravating to say the least.

However, thanks to the Terrain disguise, Loki was able to get in the gala with ease. No one questioned him as he used a golden staff with a blue gem in the hilt to guide him as he walked. In fact, it seems no one is paying attention to him at all.

The humans Loki is surrounding himself with seem to be in the higher tier. All of the men wear black suits with ties to match, while the women wear tight, black dresses in a variety of styles. They are all in groups, talking about money and economics.

Loki walks down the stairs elegantly and passes a pair of girls talking to each other. One of the girls catches his gaze, and her blue eyes harden. The woman's companion laughs at her own joke and takes another sip of her champagne. The girl with the hard blue eyes pays no attention to her friend though, and keeps a suspicious gaze on the criminal.

Suddenly, Loki throws his cane up, catches it from the bottom, and smacks someone across the face with the blue gem encrusted end. Everyone gasps and backs away as Loki grabs the owner of the museum they are holding the gala in. He flips the man onto a table and takes something small and silver out of his pocket.

With one press of a button, the silver mechanism sprouts blades in a circular pattern, just large enough for a puncture through the-

"Ugh!" The girl with the blue eyes flinches when Loki shoves the blades on the man's right eyeball. She takes a shaky breath and continues to help up the man Loki smacked in face with his staff.

The girl's long, light brown hair bounces at its curly ends as she jumps up into the air. However, her high heeled black shoes hover just above the ground, not making contact with the shiny floor.

At the door of where the iridium is being kept, Clint hooks up his end of the silver mechanism to the eye scanner. After waiting a couple moments, the owner of the museum's eye projects out of the silver handle and the door opens for the evil agents. Clint stuffs the tube of iridium in his bag and signals his partners to clear the area, no witnesses.

Loki leaves the man lying there and slowly walks out of the museum. As he enters the outside, his clothes morph into his golden and green Asgard outfit. His staff also changes into its true form, revealing itself as Loki's scepter.

As Loki crosses the street, a police car turns a corner sharply and speeds toward Loki. The god of mischief shoots a beam of energy from his scepter at the car, hitting the hood of the vehicle. The police car spins and crashes into the building behind Loki.

The people try to get away from the commotion, but Loki sees his chance. He uses his magic to make three duplicates of himself to corner the people into a group.

"Kneel before me!" One of his duplicates orders. The sudden appearance of the crazy man makes the people scream and back away even further.

"I said." The real Loki slams the end of his scepter onto the ground, making the gem light up and catching everyone's attention. "KNEEL!"

Out of shock, the group of people raise their hands above their heads and slowly kneel to the ground. Loki smiles and laughs, making sure his voice is projected so everyone in the crowd can hear him. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It is 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. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"Not to men like you." Slowly in the midst of the crowd, an old man stands up, clutching onto his courage for dear life. The people around him stare at him in awe.

"There are no men like me." Loki smiles madly, but on the inside he is seething that a Terrain man would dare to announce himself as his equal.

"There are always men like you." The old man reminds the crowd of all the rulers who took advantage of their peasants with that one simple sentence.

"Look to your elder, people." Loki refuses to lose his composure as he points his scepter at the old man. "Let him be an example."

An energy beam shoots out of the blue gem straight at the old man, but before it could hit its target, someone falls in front of the beam and blocks it with their shield. The beam gets blasted back and knocks Loki to the ground.

Captain America lowers his shield and starts walking toward Loki. "You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

Loki smirks and starts standing up again. "The soldier. A man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time." Steve keeps a straight face and other people start standing up from the crowd as well.

A quinjet lowers from the sky and hovers above the ground. Natasha's voice is projected throughout the area. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

Instead of complying to her orders, Loki shoots a beam of energy at the jet. Natasha maneuvers the jet away just in time and the people start scrambling away from the fight. Captain America sees his chance and throws his shield at Loki, but he knocks it away. Well, looks like they'll just have to fight the old fashion way.

The Captain goes in for a punch to the face, but Loki ducks and jabs the end of his scepter into Steve's stomach. Steve grunts and clutches his abdomen, trying to regain his breath. The two battle like this for awhile, Steve getting most of the hits punished on his super soldier body.

At one point, Loki punches Steve across the face, knocking him down to the floor. Steve tries to stand up again, but Loki presses the end of his spear to the back of Cap's head. "Kneel."

Steve shoves the golden stick off his head, jumps up, and round kicks Loki in the face. "Not today!"

The girl with the blue eyes from the gala flies over the chaos and lands behind Loki. She grabs his cape and yanks him backward, making him lose his balance. Steve takes this opportunity to kick Loki to the ground. Loki swivels his legs, catching the new girl off balance.

Loki grabs Steve's legs and flips him over. In the quinjet, Natasha waits for the perfect moment to try and shoot at Loki, but she's not getting a clear shot. "The guy's all over the place."

"Agent Romanoff, you miss me?" Suddenly, the radio in Natasha's quinjet glitches and starts playing AC/DC's Shoot to Thrill. "Sorry I'm late, but I had to pick up a package along the way."

Steve looks up just in time for Iron Man to drop Sigma into the fight. The blonde stabs her spear through Loki's green cape and into the ground as she lands, trapping him there. She rolls over and quickly stands up between Loki and the girl with the blue eyes to protect her in case Loki gets any funny ideas.

Iron Man lands and charges up all his weapons, pointing them directly at Loki. "Make a move, Reindeer Games." Loki puts up his hands in a surrender motion, his armor morphing into regular non threatening clothes. "Good move."

Captain America grabs his shield and stands up, staring at Loki as he speaks. "Mr. Stark, Miss Thompson."

At the same time, Lauren and Tony respond, "Captain."

The three heroes load Loki up onto the quinjet. The mystery woman introduces herself as Wendy Evans, an ex-therapist for blind people and current scientists studying cures for blindness. She explains that she got her gift of flight from a hijacked plane, and Fury never found out about it because it was reported she was killed in the crash. She goes with them into the jet to meet Nick Fury back at the base.

Natasha flies through the thunderstorm with Wendy sitting right next to her in the copilot seat. Nick Fury speaks to the spy over the radio. "Said anything?"

"Not a word." Natasha responds, glancing back at Loki to see him still sitting there in silence.

"Just get him here, we're short on time. And I want to meet this Wendy person, and have her explain to me why she's been kept a secret for three years." Nick orders.

In the back of the jet, Steve mumbles to Tony and Lauren, "I don't like it."

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easy?" Tony retorts, not really caring as long as Loki doesn't try to escape with him still around.

Lauren smiles, tying her mask around her golden belt. "No, Stark, I think he means he doesn't like the fact that he got his ass kicked and needed our help." Lauren takes a seat and turns to Steve. "Or are you just angry we arrived late?"

"I just don't remember it being that easy." Steve first looks at Lauren then turns to Tony. "This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, you're pretty spry for an older fellow." Steve looks at Tony with confusion so the latter continues. "It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple of things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

"I wouldn't put it past him. He's not called 'Captain America' for nothing." Lauren responds, making Tony chuckle.

"And you're not too bad yourself, but I have to ask, why the sigma?" Tony leans on the side of the jet, awaiting an answer.

Lauren smiles in amusement and says, "Eínai to sýmvolo pou férnei ta pánta mazí. Ypárchoun pollá prágmata pou den gnorízete." (It is the symbol that brings everything together. There are a lot of things you don't know.)

"Sorry to disappoint, but I do think I know a lot." Tony responds after a second.

"Not fair. You used a translator." Lauren thinks of all the gadgets Tony has inside his suit, and would think it odd if he didn't have a translator inside.

Steve feels a bit cheated out of information, and decides he wants to know why the two are here in the first place. "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you two in."

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you." Tony turns to look at Steve. Lauren just gives him a look that says, well, he's not wrong.

Thunder and lightning shake the jet. Lauren stands up and raises her right hand, the one with the glass in it, to stop the sound waves from disturbing their ride. Steve notices Loki tense up and says, "What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." Loki says something for the first time being in the jet. Right when he says this, another clap of thunder is heard, but Lauren bends it away before it could reach the jet.

Something lands heavily on the top of the jet, making a big booming noise. As Tony is putting on his helmet, Lauren confirms their suspicions. "That wasn't thunder."