Wind whipped past Gibbs as he and Rogers fell toward the glass skylight below them, spider-webbing across the roof, the shield the only thing between them and impact. It was not looking good, from Gibbs' point of view.

A streak of red and grey hurled toward them from the ground and Gibbs narrowed his eyes, his first thought being missile. Then he saw the flapping red cloak and knew immediately who was flying toward them.

Thor.

The god grabbed the back of Gibbs' jacket, yanking him away from Rogers. Rogers continued to fall toward the skylight below as Thor headed back toward the ground, gripping Gibbs' jacket. Below, balanced on the girders between the glass panes, stood Hailstohm, who leaped into the air as the captain approached her, grabbing him out of the air and turning their momentum into a roll as they hit the skylight, cracking it but not breaking it completely as they skidded down the side of the building.

Loki stood on the ground, impatiently watching his brother and the frost giantess land, his gun in one hand and a dagger in the other. Gibbs staggered as Thor released him, catching his balance as Hailstohm let go of Rogers and the Avenger steadied himself on his feet.

"We got them, McGee," Loki said, tapping the comm in his ear. He addressed Gibbs. "Where are Bishop and DiNozzo?"

"STRIKE," Gibbs said, drawing his gun.

"Rumlow took them, said something about security measures," Rogers filled in, glancing around him, tensing for a fight. "We should go."

"Not without Ellie and Tony," Loki snarled. "McGee, I need to get to the STRIKE wing. Thor, Hailstohm, on me."

"They're going to be on top security, Loki," Rogers tried to warn.

Loki just looked at him. "I may not be the proudest of it, but if anyone can singlehandedly take down a SHIELD location just by showing up, it's me."

"And me," Thor asserted.

Aggravated, Loki lifted an eyebrow at him. "No, you were captured at a SHIELD location. You didn't succeed. I toppled the entire place, leveled it."

"I'm coming with you," Gibbs said, and Loki nodded.

"I guess I'm in," Rogers said. "But we better make this fast."

****

Thor hurled Mjolnir through the doors, shattering them from the force of the weapon as they charged through. The hammer returned to Thor's grip as Loki and Gibbs, their guns up, fired at the STRIKE agents running toward them.

"Enough of this," Hailstohm declared, lifting her hands. Daggers of pure ice shot from her fingertips and sliced through the bulletproof vests, downing several agents at once. Between the four Avengers and one frost giantess, the STRIKE agents didn't stand a chance.

"Captain, lead the way," Loki requested, gesturing for Rogers to take the lead. "You know how to find STRIKE's quarters, I presume?"

Rogers nodded and assumed the lead position, Thor shifting to the side. Any SHIELD agents who attempted to stop the motley crew were blasted with ice, hit with one of Loki's daggers, struck by Mjolnir, slammed by a shield, or shot down by a bullet. With McGee having managed to successfully hack into SHIELD's mainframe and causing mayhem in their systems, they met with fairly inconsequential resistance.

"Cameras are down along your entire route, as well as in some other sections," McGee said into Loki's ear. "Don't want them to anticipate your destination."

"Do you have eyes on Bishop and DiNozzo?" Loki inquired.

"Give me a second," McGee requested. "Okay, they are still in the STRIKE quarters, but it looks like they're gearing up. I'll see if I can hack into their comms and tell them you're coming."

The corridors diverged up ahead, one continuing on straight, the second heading to an elevator. "Straight," Rogers ordered. "Elevators are biometrically controlled. We won't have access. The stairs will be easier to force our way through."

"Still," Loki said, and summoned all his magic to the fore. Five illusions, each a duplicate of one of the group, hurried toward the elevator while Loki masked the rest in invisibility. The illusions would provide them with cover for a while, although keeping up five of them would tax Loki's reserves.

They continued along the corridor until they reached the door for the stairs, Thor smashing it to pieces with Mjolnir. He ushered the others inside, Rogers taking the lead with Loki on his tail.

"Here," Rogers said, gesturing to a door after running up several flights of stairs. He burst through, Loki holding his gun up and checking the corridor before chasing off after the captain. Gibbs was right behind him, followed by Hailstohm and Thor.

"We're almost there, McGee," Loki panted, tapping his comm.

"I just got through to Bishop and DiNozzo," McGee said, sounding triumphant. "They're readying to leave now; they already incapacitated the agents who were watching them."

Just as McGee finished speaking, the door to the STRIKE quarters slammed open and Bishop and DiNozzo appeared, dressed in full STRIKE gear and carrying their rifles. "Thank goodness!" DiNozzo exclaimed. "We were afraid we'd have to stay behind with these maniacs!"

"Come on, let's go!" Gibbs snapped.

The team headed back the way they had come, taking the stairs back to the ground level. The few agents they ran into were quickly knocked aside by Rogers' shield or by a blast of ice from Hailstohm.

"The sooner you can get out of there, the better," McGee told Loki, his voice strained. "SHIELD's fighting back against my presence in their system."

"Got it," Loki answered curtly.

They burst out onto the ground floor, sprinting for the exit. An assembly of STRIKE agents waited there, rifles all aimed at the six Avengers and one frost giantess.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," DiNozzo muttered.

Loki scowled. I wish they would all just get out of our way.

A flash of red caught his vision and Loki decided to go with his instincts. Summoning the crimson energy into his hands, feeling it burn beneath the skin of his fingers, he thrust out his arms and willed the agents to all be thrown out of the way.

Scarlet tendrils filled the air, streaking out from Loki and striking the agents. It was like time stopped for a moment as the tendrils slammed into the men and women, hurling them into the walls with tremendous force. Screams of pain filled the air as snaps and thuds echoed in the corridor, the agents falling limply to the ground with whimpers and groans or just in silence.

Then the reality Loki had first pictured lay before his eyes, all the agents effectively removed from their way.

Someone touched his arm and Loki jumped, the red disappearing from the edges of his vision. He whirled to find Bishop standing there, looking a tad alarmed. "Loki, are you okay?"

"Yes," Loki answered, cupping his hand to her cheek for a moment as he met her gaze. "They were just in our way."

Bishop looked troubled but he brushed it off as the team charged out the exit. Racing away from the Triskelion, Thor grabbed Bishop and took off without a word, soaring away from the building. Loki jumped into the car he, Thor, and Hailstohm had driven in to get there, glad SHIELD hadn't had it towed yet. He supposed they had been a bit preoccupied with Rogers and Gibbs to worry about a stray car.

"McGee, can you keep them from putting up barriers until we're out?" Loki asked, starting the engine.

"Not for long," McGee said in frustration. "So, uh...drive fast."

"What if I get caught speeding?" Loki returned, lifting an eyebrow as a grin slipped over his face. "McGee, if anyone can get us out of here in record time, it's me."

Gibbs slid into the passenger seat, Hailstohm, Rogers, and DiNozzo crowding into the back as Loki threw the car into drive and roared forward, aiming for the exit as tires squealed on asphalt.

"Go!" McGee yelled, making Loki jump and swerve slightly. Rogers grasped the handle over the window as he swallowed, DiNozzo and Hailstohm looking a bit nervous. Gibbs, on the other hand, didn't seem nearly as concerned.

Loki floored it, narrowing his eyes at the security booth perched at the other end of the bridge over the Potomac River. It marked the only barrier between him and freedom.

I can do this.

The car tore down the road, Loki reveling in the sheer speed. The sound of another engine filled the air, a voice booming in the air as he risked a glance to see a quinjet hovering ahead of them. "We order you to stop this car immediately or we will open fire."

"Yeah, right," Loki muttered. "Let's see if I can do this...."

He created an illusion of the car, manipulating it to drop behind the actual car as he held to his speed. The illusionary car slowed down as the quinjet dropped back to target the illusion, repeating its warning with an additional "This is your last warning."

Meanwhile, the team kept driving toward the security booth as fast as the car could go.

"Loki, the barrier's going up!" McGee said nervously. "You need to get over it now!"

Loki saw the spikes rising out of the pavement and gritted his teeth, sweat beading his forehead. Despite his speed, he knew he wouldn't be able to make it before the spikes reached a height that would total them on impact.

This wasn't good.

Without a word of warning, Hailstohm struck the back passenger window, slamming her ice coated hand into it and shattering the glass. "What are you doing?" DiNozzo snapped, but the warrior ignored him and shimmied out through the opening, ignoring the shards of glass that scraped her skin and leather tunics. Like the Asgardians, the frost giants could withstand minor injuries the mortals couldn't.

Clambering on top of the car, Hailstohm disappeared from everyone's view. Loki wondered if she was simply escaping before they wrecked, but the whine of the quinjet engine didn't allow him to slow down to check. He heard their guns opening fire and felt his illusion die out, the real car slipping out of its invisibility.

A blur of red flashed by over them and Loki heard the crunch of metal being bent and folded, the gasping, angry whir of the jet's engines. "Thor got the quinjet," Rogers reported, twisting around in his seat to peer through the back windshield. "Now we just have the...."

His words died out as Hailstohm's plan suddenly became clear.

As clear as thick ice.

A spray of ice struck the ground before the rising spikes, as high as the car's front bumper now, and shot forwards and up, creating a ramp over the barrier, formed purely from the ice.

The car soared up the ice ramp, flying through the air for a moment before landing on the asphalt again with a heavy thud. Despite the ominous creaking of the frame, it didn't completely break apart and Loki continued speeding away from the Triskelion, their pursuit for the moment stopped.

****

The NCIS safe house had food, extra clothing, and plenty of weapons – Loki's favorite of the three.

McGee sat at the kitchen table, working feverishly on his laptop. He had joined them at the safe house after he finished messing with SHIELD's system, bringing a short message from Vance: Disappear.

Apparently, a briefing had gone out to all the agencies shortly after their escape, announcing them all as Public Enemy Number One.

"It's like Gibbs' counting," DiNozzo had muttered on hearing the message, earning a head slap from Gibbs. But Loki, McGee, and Bishop had mustered faint smiles at the remark, squashing them before Gibbs glanced at them. Gibbs did have three Rule 1s.

Only McGee was not regarded as an enemy yet, but both he and Vance were sure that ranking would come in time. Hailstohm was being treated as an "illegal alien," since Jotunheim and Midgard did not have any sort of agreement. She had also been mistakenly labeled as "Hailstorm" in the report, which admittedly was not too far off the mark. Loki had been returned to his status as a war criminal, and Thor, Rogers, and Gibbs were all to be treated as dangerous threats. Bishop and DiNozo were classified under "high alert," which disappointed DiNozzo.

"What, fighting aliens and terrorists isn't enough to earn me a higher standing on the danger scale?" he demanded.

McGee ignored him. "You all owe Stark. He helped me hack into the mainframe. I told him I just needed an in – I would do the rest. He knows nothing more, but I told him to take Pepper and maybe get away for a while." He looked grim. "Loki has been branded as someone to kill on sight, too. I think they're afraid of him doing – what he did the last time SHIELD was hunting him down."

"So all that redeeming myself was for nothing?" Loki grumbled. "I want to go back there and demolish that Triskelion of theirs, just for that." He felt the burning beneath the skin on his fingers, itching to shape the Triskelion into the ruins left of the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility out in Nevada.

"Well, we know you aren't a criminal," Bishop said, pulling her hairband out and shaking her blonde hair loose. "It's just SHIELD calling you a criminal this time, not the world. This time, it's all a lie." She looked tired. Many of them hadn't gotten much sleep last night.

This time.

Loki knew she was only being truthful, but it still stung. He had accepted his past, had had to in order to embrace NCIS and his new role as an Avenger, but the burning in his skin intensified for a moment, as if to tell him that could all change. He wasn't quite sure what it meant, but the ability to change it felt reassuring.

"We can't stay here forever," Rogers said, adjusting his jacket across his broad, muscular shoulders. Most of them had already changed into civilian clothes, to try and blend in as much as possible when they eventually left the safe house.

"That's what the disguises are for," DiNozzo said, shrugging on his leather jacket.

Hailstohm tilted her head back as Loki stepped toward her. Touching her forehead, he closed his eyes and summoned his magic. He needed to make an illusion that would last, much like his own.

My looks are not an illusion.

The warrior's blue skin, ridged brow, red eyes, and silver braids disappeared, replaced with platinum blonde braids, ice blue eyes, and skin as pale as his own. The illusion created itself – he had learned long ago that a flawless illusion must be instinctual, informed by the subject itself and not forced by the castor.

New appearance complete, Hailstohm nodded at Loki, looking completely human in her new jeans, red tank top, and lace up combat boots. Thor and Loki had also changed into mortal clothing, Loki dressed in a casual black suit while Thor wore jeans and a T-shirt, his blonde hair pulled into a ponytail.

"What now?" Loki asked quietly, looking at Gibbs. "Rogers is right. We can't stay here forever. Not while SHIELD is putting its plan into action."

"We can return to Asgard," Thor said, lounging back in his chair. He had been watching McGee work with confused curiosity.

"No," Loki said, a little too quickly. "Going to Asgard won't solve this."

"It will only slow us down," Hailstohm added. "Let us save that for a last resort."

"Vance said we only have access to the safe house for a couple hours," McGee said. "He said we need to make our plan and leave. He doesn't know how long he can stall SHIELD from gaining access to NCIS' files, and he doesn't want us hanging out here when they do."

"They can do that?" DiNozzo asked.

McGee looked grim. "If SHIELD's classified you all as threats, then yes. Everyone but Rogers, Thor, and Hailstohm work for NCIS, and Hailstohm is here under Gibbs' authority. If we have anything they can use, they will try to get access to it. And they've got a whole department of computer nerds who could do it even if Vance refuses to permit it."

"McGee, update," Gibbs said, stepping around behind the computer geek. "What do you got?"

"A general idea of how the Blackout Interface works for Operation Blackout," McGee began, looking up from his screen. "Between what I took from Kahan's computer and the USB drive Hill gave you, Gibbs, I've got a comprehensive picture that only needs more digging and interpretation to become clear. And, uh, a little more time to decrypt Kahan's files."

"And?" Gibbs prompted, lifting an eyebrow at him.

"Operation Blackout a larger part of Project Insight, one of its most significant parts. We know Project Insight is intended to eliminate threats before they happen – preemptive justice, I suppose. But Operation Blackout involves an enhanced assassin who will find and target those missed by the helicarriers, those whose location remains elusive or difficult to access. The Blackout Interface connects the assassin with the helicarriers via satellite, thereby allowing him to receive instant data on targets and locations as well as keep them informed of his every move. Apparently, he's supposed to be used most in densely populated areas and when targets have gone off the grid."

"The assassin must be who we ran into on the Gauntlet," Bishop said, frowning. "We destroyed the satellite before he was able to sync with it."

McGee's eyes widened as he glanced back at his laptop. "Apparently, he's still deadly without the satellite's help – SHIELD's predicting he'll be invincible synced up with the satellite."

"Then let's not let that happen," Loki said.

Rogers frowned. "Any notes on the enhancement itself?"

McGee scanned his screen, then shook his head. "No, not really. They make a point of calling him an assassin, not a super-soldier. No note on his other abilities. It's odd, though; the file names are all from Greek mythology, at least most of them are. Keres, Iolaus, Zeus, and Olympus. I'm still trying to figure out what they mean."

"Zeus and Olympus I know," DiNozzo said with a frown. "But not Keres or Iolaus."

McGee shrugged and tapped at his keyboard, searching the names. "Okay, so Iolaus is the nephew of Heracles and helped him fight the hydra. Apparently, Ker is a goddess of violent death, who can split herself up into an army of doubles, called Keres."

DiNozzo, Bishop, and Rogers exchanged a glance. "The assassin we fought could split in three," Rogers said. "That must be what those files are alluding to."

McGee pursed his lips. "That's the best guess, for the files are heavily encrypted. I can't decode them at the moment."

"And Iolaus against the hydra," Bishop mused. "A reference to the Nazi organization HYDRA?"

"Perhaps," DiNozzo allowed with a frown.

"HYDRA was destroyed," Rogers asserted. "Trust me, I saw them fall."

"So why mention Iolaus?" Bishop wondered. "Perhaps an allusion to Insight and Blackout helping keep threats like HYDRA away?"

Rogers pressed his lips together, his expression hard. "Maybe."

DiNozzo rubbed his jaw. "That assassin seemed kind of familiar to me."

Bishop frowned. "I didn't notice anything."

DiNozzo glanced at her. "I don't know why, but I feel like I've seen him before. I'm not sure where."

"Can you draw him?" McGee asked Bishop, curiosity piqued. She nodded and took a seat, taking the paper Hailstohm passed her and a pencil.

Loki stood behind her, watching her work. He twisted a strand of her blonde hair between his fingers, careful not to tug on it and disrupt her concentration. Bishop drifted the pencil across the page, leaving light, grey strokes behind as the face of a human man began to take form. As he watched, red tendrils clouded his vision and the strand of hair fell from his fingers.

A rooftop appeared before Loki, several bodies littering the scene. A younger Gibbs and DiNozzo stood by a propped up computer, Kate Todd standing near them. All three were armed; the first two with pistols and the last with a shotgun.

"I'm out," Gibbs commented.

"Me, too," Kate remarked, checking her gun.

DiNozzo handed Gibbs another clip and the former Marine slid it into his gun. A door leading down into the stairwell creaked open, the barrel of a gun pointing out. Kate immediately snapped to attention.

"Shooter!"

She hurled herself in front of Gibbs as the gun fired, taking the bullet in her chest. As she collapsed to the ground with a soft sigh of pain, Gibbs and DiNozzo advanced on the shooter's position, firing until he tumbled out through the doorway, dead.

Gibbs pivoted toward his fallen agent. "Kate?" he called, hurrying to her side. He knelt beside her huddled form as DiNozzo grasped her arm and turned her onto her back, unzipping her jacket to locate the wound.

Instead of paling at the blood seeping from a fatal wound, the agents sighed in relief when they saw the bullet gripped by Kate's bulletproof vest, the only reason she was still alive.

"You okay?" Tony queried.

"Ow," Kate moaned. "I just got shot at pointblank range, DiNozzo. What do you think?"

"You're not going to be going to Pilates class tomorrow?" DiNozzo quipped, his voice dripping with relief. Kate just groaned.

Gibbs eased Kate up off the ground, DiNozzo making sure she didn't stumble backwards. "Protection detail's over, Kate," Gibbs rebuked.

"You did good," DiNozzo commented.

"For once, DiNozzo's right," Gibbs agreed.

Kate laughed. "Wow. I thought I'd die before I ever heard –"

The sound of something splattering interrupted her sentence, blood cascading out the back of her head as the bullet that struck her forehead exploded through her skull, sending her dropping to the floor in a shower of blood. Crimson spatter speckled DiNozzo's face as he recoiled at the snap of the gunshot, the two agents staring down in horror at their downed comrade.

With the scarlet mark on her forehead, Kate's glassy eyes gazed up at the sky. A pool of blood slowly spread away from her.

She was dead.

But she's Agent Sniper. How can she be Agent Sniper if she's dead?

Gibbs lifted his gun, turning in the direction the bullet had come from. "Ari," he whispered, scanning for the shooter.

Loki remembered DiNozzo telling him that Kate had been killed with a sniper rifle, a "kate," he had called it. Now she wielded the same weapon that had ended her life at NCIS, a metal band hiding her death wound from the world.

The scarlet tendrils erased the scene, leaving Loki standing behind Bishop and gazing down at the image of what had to be the assassin she, DiNozzo, and Rogers had faced.