People ran about on the ship doing what they had to for that's where they worked. Jets and planes landed and were taken care of by the people who did their duty to the company who owned the vessel. And one particular group helped the newest arriving ship land in the open space for it. From the entrance of the ship, Steve Rodgers and Coulson emerged. It had been a while since Steve had been in a place that felt like his time, and the top of the ship was starting to feel like home. Like the military base, he trained at.

Coulson was the first to step off the ramp to the jet. He looked around for the lightest second and spotted the familiar redhead that would show the blond behind him where to go. "Agent Romanoff─Captain Rodgers."

Steve nodded his head to the woman clad in the black leather jacket and a tight red shirt. "Ma'am." He could feel the power and the determination radiating off of her in waves that could rival a tsunami.

"Hi," Natasha replied to the blond. Turning her attention to the older agent she said, "They need you on the bridge; they're starting the face trace." Coulson nods his head to the two and walks off, his mission already ready for him. "It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. Thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?"

"They're vintage. He's very proud."

They made their way from the ship, talking about the fanboys' collection and how he is head over heels for the man from the 20s. As they walked, a confused man wearing a brown tweed jacket and suit looking around at the people who worked. He had no idea where he was or why the SHEILD was on a boat in the middle of the ocean.

"Doctor Banner," Steve called the attention of the confused man. He shook hands with him as he replied, "Oh, yeah, hi. They told me you'd come."

"Word is you can find the cube."

"Is that the only word on me?"

"Only word I care about."

Bruce motions to the bustling of military men and women. "Must be strange for you, all of this."

"Well," he begins. "This is actually kind of familiar."

They walked to the edge of the ship when Natasha told them it would get hard to breathe. Both men were curious to know if the large military vessel is a submarine. Bruce sasses to no one, "They want to put me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" Each of them was proved wrong when the large propellers on the side of the ship began to turn, pushing away the ocean water from around them flying up off the ocean surface. "Oh no, this is much worse."

Rows of computers and stations stood on either side of the walkway. Men and women talking and commanding others, scanning computer screens and writing information to be relayed throughout the ship. The same blue jumpsuit and SHEILD patch were worn by all that worked, except for Natasha, Bruce, Steve and the man behind it all. He stood in a circular podium just below the conference table they stood around. His leather trench coat fell to his calves and he barked orders to those around him.

"All engines operating. SHIELD emergency protocol one nine three-point six in effect." A woman spoke to her earpiece, brown hair pulled back to a low bun. She turned to Fury who stood above. "We're at level, sir."

"Good, let's vanish." Fury tells her and turns to the people behind him. Bruce Banner stood where he was, a bit scared to move in the flying plane-hellicarrier; but the blonde from the 40s walked to Fury and handed him a ten-dollar bill. "Doctor, thank you for coming."

Bruce shook his hand. "Thank you for asking nicely. So how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind."

"And where are you with that?"

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones..." Phil looked up from a computer below them. "...laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

Natasha, who had been comfortable in one of the meeting chairs, spoke a bit of the truth. "It's still not gonna find them in time."

Banner had told them to narrow their field, the range in which they were searching was too vague, it had to be brought down. By suggesting them to search for gamma radiation using spectrometers around the world, they had found leads on the Asgardian almost instantly after Bruce went to the lab Natasha had shown him.

"You're gonna love it doc, we got all the new toys!" Fury called out.

When Loki's vision with the chituari leader and the Mad Titan had finished, a memory from the very back of his mind resurfaced. Years of his old life being pushed to the back, punishment if he remembered, finally returned. But what he saw surprised him. A slight vision of a little boy. Black hair, green eyes, and a smile that pegged him for mischief. Something about the little boy in his memories was important but he could figure it out.

His mind blanked during most of the conversation, letting auto-answer do the talking as he explored the suppressed memories. "Tell me what you need."

Clint Barton stood by the entrance of the makeshift laboratory Dr. Selvig was using. One hand holding the shaft of his arrows, the other cleaning the fatal arrowhead. "A distraction. And an eyeball."

"I mean if it's not too much trouble," Coulson added.

"No-no, it's fine." Steve stood next to him. A silent prayer for something to make him leave the agents' side.

"It's a vintage set. Took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges but–"

"We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent match. Wait- cross-match, seventy-nine percent." An agent called out catching everyone's attention. People believed that the doctors' algorithm would work, but how well? It proved to be perfect for the man in the black robe in Germany matched the memory of Nick Fury. "Stuttgart, Germany. Twenty-eight, Königstraße. He's not exactly hiding."

Turning to Steve, Nick spoke. "Capitan, you're up."

The gala was gorgeous. Women in their best dress and men in their most proper suits exited their limousine and walked into the hall without worrying about who was behind the building. Especially one man in particular. Black raven hair and pale skin matched the black and white suit he wore. A scarf of green and gold gave color to the somewhat dull outfit and a gold cane to match the ensemble. Blue eyes glinted evilly as he peered over the railing. Two hundred people max stood at the bottom of the stairs, all but one. The one he needed.

He walked down the stairs and knocked the guards unconscious with his cane and grabbed the man. Dragging him to the nearest table, Loki fished a device from his jacket and placed in on the man, the people around him yelled and screamed as they ran out of the building. A sickening smile etched its way onto Loki as he watched the madhouse.

When Loki's main objective had been completed, he released his grip on the man and walked to the entrance. His formal, mid-guardian suit glowing and morphing into robes. Robes of his nobility and power as an Asgardian. "Kneel before me. I said- KNEEL!"

The echo of his scepter–that used to be his cane–silenced the crowd. Each and everyone who had been in the streets and a part" of the gala had huddled in a group surrounded by fake images of Loki. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's 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."

A man, old and wise, stood from the crowd. A stern expression dawned his face as he spoke. "Not to men like you."

"There are no men like me," Loki chuckled.

"There are always men like you." Now a bit agitated, Loki rose his scepter to the man and announced how he shall be an example to those who oppose him. But before the blast hit him a shield blocked the way. The blast-back sent the Norse-god back, stumbling to the floor.

A man dressed in red white and blue stood in front of the man. The shield in his hands was colored red, white, and blue, just like it was when it was first made all those decades ago. "You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

"The solider–" Loki rose to his feet, hands gripping the staff tight till his knuckles turned white. "The man out of time."

"I'm not the one out of time," Steve said.

They charged at each other. Shield against scepter. Each one gaining the upper hand over the other, and with a quick jab to the abdomen, Loki sends Cap back and aims a shot at the quinjet. With a shot command that falls upon deaf ears, they continue. People around them running away in fear of getting hurt or shot. All that was left outside the gala hall was the aircraft carrier, Capitan America, and the youngest son of Odin throwing a hissy-fit.

"This guy's all over the place," Natasha says to the co-pilot. Her expertise in flying quinjets coming in handy as she doesn't need to look at which switches or buttons to push to stay steady. But the familiar sound of a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist startles her the tiniest bit. The PA system shuts down and the catchy AC/DC song Shoot to Thrill plays over the coms.

Tony Stark comes to the aid of Capitan America and fires a repulsor blast at Loki, sending him down to the ground. "Make a move reindeer games." Knowing that Loki couldn't defeat both of them, he surrenders. Asgardian garbs fade away to reveal his regular Asgardian clothes. "Good move."

Loki sat on one of the seats in the quinjet, hands cuffed together and closely watched by Cap and IronMan. The others were having their own conversation. Talking to the man on the other side of the radio. But he didn't care about that, no, he was cautiously looking at the roof of the plane. He heard the rumble in the distance, he saw the flashing whiteish-blue light out the windows.

"I don't like it," Steve says.

"What? Rock of ages giving up so easily?" Tony joked.

Steve shakes his head, looking in the mischief god's direction. "I don't remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, you were pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?"

"What?"

They continued in their little banter. Tony joking about all sorts of topics and Steve confused, but amused, playing along. It seemed that no one noticed the thunder and lighting coming from outside. They didn't notice the roaring winds. All but one. She sat in the pilots' seat curious at the sudden storm, "Where's this coming from?"

A bit scared, Loki leans forward. Again looking at the windows and the hanger door, he replies to Tony's sass. "I'm not overly fond of what follows."

The people inside jumps at the sound of a loud bang on top of the quinjet. Loki sinks in his chest as Steve, Tony and Natasha try to figure out who's hijacking the plane. And when the next flash of light illuminates the quinjet, Thor stood on top. Deciding that getting to HQ would be a good idea, Natasha speeds up. Hoping that she can get him to fall off. Yet the genius doesn't agree with what the Russian decided and instead opened the ramp.

"What are you doing?" Steve answers putting on his cowl.

Thor lands on the ramp, serious and angry. Hitting Tony back, he lands on Steve, knocking them to the ground. But it isn't why Thor is there. Mad, Thor grabs Loki by the neck and flys off.

"Now there's that guy," Tony says getting up off of Steve.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha says.

Steve nods. "That guy's friendly"

"Doesn't matter." Natasha retorts. "If he frees Loki, or kills him, the tesseract's lost."

Steve tries his best to fight Thor off but to no avail. He punches him down to the ground quickly. Tony joining the fight too late; Loki in his grasp as he jumps off the quintet into the forest below without a trace as to where they were or where they went. Steve gets up and puts the cowl over his head, the shield close by, "We need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan—" Tony flies out the quinjet. "Attack!"

Already strapped into a parachute—because he can't fly—Captain America was ready to jump off the plane and search for Tony and the two gods. Natasha's advice fell to deaf ears as Steve jumped headfirst into the foresty abyss.

Thor landed throwing Loki haphazardly on the dirty cliff ground. Anger in his eyes and pity for his nephew. Who knew his brother would be so cold to his own flesh and blood? To abandon him, his mother, his son, for power. Thor didn't know where to start on his words. Too many thoughts ran through his head on what to ask, to question him but the most important one at the moment was, "Where is the tesseract?"

"Oh-ho, I missed you too." Loki joked getting comfortable on the rocky ground. 

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" 

"Oh, you should thank me." Loki sassed. "With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the All-father have to muster to conjure you here? 

"You're precious earth." He looked at the dark forest below the cliff. The tall trees and mysterious undergrowth that lay just a few meters down. He couldn't understand how a world like this could have anything precious on it, from what he's seen, this whole world is in shambles, soon to be ruined. The people are selfish, rude, and care not for others but for themselves. He can save them. 

"We were raised together, we played together," Thor cried out, a bit angrily, as he looked to the black-haired man. "Do you remember none of that?"

"I remember a shadow, living int eh shade of your 'greatness'," Loki spat. "I remember you tossing me into an abyss! I should be king!"

"So you take the world I love, and the home of your family, as recompense for your imagined slights? No. The earth is under my protection Loki, and so is the one person who you swore to protect." 

Thor and Loki continue to talk, each one arguing with the other about why Loki should return home or kept on earth to rule.  Neither saw the man in the bright red and yellow metal suit fly in to interrupt heir conversation. Tony swept Thor mid-sentence leaving Loki free, able to leave whenever he pleases. But instead, he stays and watched the fray from the high advantage point up on the mountain.  Watching as the man in the iron suit gets tossed around and slammed into the vegetation. Watching his brother summon the powerful bolt of electricity from the sky only to aim it at Tony. 

Loki enjoyed watching the brawl happen before his eyes, seeing his brother almost matched in strength fight the measly midguardian. Laughing as they pound each other to oblivion. As the fight goes on, Loki hides under the foliage and rocks as the man in blue drops down to 'save the day' only to shield himself when the negotiation goes south. The angered Asgardian raises his hammer and crashes it on the shield, creating a loud flash of light. All three men fall to the ground, dirty and bruised from the fight.

"Are we done here?"  Steve asked only to get nods from the other two.

A/N

Sorry this chapter took so long to write, I had most of it done but I couldn't find a way to finish it. Hope you liked it, again I'm sorry it took so long.

~Kitty