If Peter had learned anything from his time hanging out with the Avengers, it was that they weren't indestructible gods - even Loki and Thor. They all had their weaknesses. They were just a remarkable group of people, nothing more and nothing less. It gave Peter hope for himself; that with all of his flaws and fears, he could still turn out as great as them.

However, it was when he saw his role models in their weakness that disturbed Peter. He hated to see the fear or pain on their faces as they went against something they were forced to overcome... It hurt him nearly as much as it did his teammates.

"Loki!" Peter called as he swung through a nearly collapsing building, searching desperately for his friend. "Mr. Loki, please answer me!"

It was supposed to have been just a normal day... Peter was Spider-Manning around the city when Loki decided to join him, they were doing things that they normally did together while looking for trouble. It was all so perfectly normal that neither one of them was prepared for the sudden attack.

A large portal of fire opened up behind them, Peter's senses barely going off in time for him to turn around when a blast of fire came out at them. Both of them had moved just in time to avoid turning into a blackened crisp, but Peter knew that this wasn't going to be a good fight... He knew what fire and too much heat could do to Loki, and he didn't want to see that again. So he tried taking on the enhanced fire bender as soon as he stepped onto the roof with them.

That was a mistake.

And Loki paid the price.

When Loki cursed and pushed him out of the way of a particularly deadly explosion, fear like never before coursed through Peter's veins. Loki's body was hurtled off the roof and into a building on the other side of the street, the sounds of glass and walls breaking nearly sending Peter's heart into overdrive.

"Loki!" Peter didn't think twice about shooting a web over and going into the building in search for the man. He just barely remembered to look behind him to locate the enhanced, but didn't see him anymore. That couldn't be good... But Peter couldn't care now, he had to find Loki.

It didn't take him long; all he had to do was follow the crash path. And Loki laid against the wall at the end, his side burnt and clothes damaged as he struggled to breathe through the pain.

"Mr. Loki, are you okay? Of course you're not okay, that's a stupid question...! What can I do to help? I can carry you out, do you think that'll be okay on your injuries? I'll be very careful!"

Loki grunted as he held up a hand to silence the boy, shaking his head stiffly. "It's fine, child. Calm down. You need to alert Stark and my brother of this, they are better suited to handle fires than we are."

"I can't though," Peter's voice shook as he tapped a hand to his mask, "I think Karen was damaged in the first blast, everything is offline right now."

Loki took in a deep breath as he glanced over to where the sound of heavy footfalls were coming closer. "Peter, you have to leave. No- listen to me," He held up his hand again when he saw the boy about to argue. "Neither of us are prepared to fight a fire controlling enhanced, especially you. I can cast illusions around myself, and you if need be, but it is more important that you go to fetch the others."

"I can't just leave you here though...!"

"You have to, child. Now go, I'd rather face this man than an angry Stark if you get hurt." Loki chuckled a bit, reaching over to pat Peter's shoulder and giving it a small push.

"But-"

"Go or I will send you out myself," All traces of humor were gone as Loki's gaze turned serious, his eyes glancing back to the sound of the enhanced getting closer. "Now Peter, I won't tell you again."

Peter took a deep breath, holding Loki's stare for a few seconds before standing up and rushing to one of the broken windows and jumping out. He knew what he had to do, even if it might cost him... He wouldn't make the mistake as last time though and let Loki take a hit that was meant for him though...

Quickly going around the building, Peter snuck back inside and slowly crept back to the room Loki was in. He could hear the footsteps of the enhanced man ahead of him, every sense in his body screaming 'DANGER' at him. It was strange... Peter had fought enhanced before without this much warning from his senses, what was so different about this man?

"Loki of Asgard..." A deep voice called, a chill going down Peter's spine at the malice in it. "I will take this as an honor, it's not often one gets to see the Earth's conqueror in such a weakened state."

"As well you should, because it will be one of the last things you are privileged to see." Loki responded, his voice cold but sarcastic - the two mixing together and creating the signature tone Loki was infamous for.

"Big words for a man that can barely move," The man's hands lit on fire as he took a threatening step forward. "Where is Spider-Man? Tell me now and your death will be swift."

"Mmm..." Loki's head tilted side-to-side in thought as he smirked, "No. How about you surrender now before I destroy you?"

The tingling feeling at the back of Peter's neck went off again as a blast of heat caused him to instructively shrink back, but Loki's yell of pain caused him to move out from his hiding spot. The front of Loki's shirt was burnt, showing red-raw skin. He groaned as he held the front of his chest gently, his fingers barely brushing the outer edges of the wound.

"Where is he? Tell me!"

"Bacraut..." Loki groaned as he shifted uncomfortably. Peter couldn't understand why Loki was just sitting there and taking all of this though... Why didn't Loki fight back? Or at least cast an illusion? Why did he just let this man attack him?

"Very well then," The heat rose in the building again as the man rolled his shoulders back, "I'll just kill you and find him myself."

It all happened in a flash, Peter himself wasn't quite aware when his body moved... But as the enhanced pulled his arm back to fire at Loki's head, Peter lunged forward. He first shot a web at the man's fist, yanking it back and pulling the man off his feet. He trapped the man's hands against the concrete ground before running to Loki. 

"Child, what- I told you-!" A pained grunt cut him off as Peter lifted Loki and jumped out of the widow from earlier.

"Just hold on, I'll get you somewhere safe."

In any other situation, Peter would have laughed at the shocked look that took over Loki's expression. It was certainly a funny expression that Peter had never seen before. But now was definitely not the time for that...

Landing on the street below, Peter raised a foot up just as a cab came screeching to a halt against it. He quickly went to the door and gently tossed Loki inside as he looked at the cabby, "This is an Avenger emergency! Take Interstate 87 towards Albany, once you get closer he'll tell you where to go."

"Peter-"

"You have to go, Mr. Loki," Peter smirked behind his mask a bit, his lenses narrowing ever so slightly, "I would rather face this man than an angry Thor if you get hurt."

Without even waiting for a response, Peter shut the door and slapped the hood of the car twice before it took off. Peter didn't wait long before he turned around and went back into the building.

Taking a deep breath, he jumped onto the ceiling and started crawling through the building silently. He paid close attention to his spidey-sense now; knowing that there was no way his webs could keep that enhanced down for long. Every small tingle or chill, Peter would stop and scan his surroundings before continuing his hunt.

Peter was hunting... This man just appeared out of nowhere and started attacking them, hurting Loki pretty badly in the process. What's more, he hurt Loki with fire! Fire was one of the few things that Loki had a weakness to! So it was safe to say that Peter was mad... And a mad Peter wasn't a very good thing for bad guys.

A short while later and Peter had found his prey. He was right, those webs hadn't lasted long on the man that was now wandering the seemingly empty halls of the building as Peter silently trailed after him.

"I know you're here, Spider-Man!" The enhanced suddenly called out, "Stop hiding and face me already!"

A small thud behind him was all the man had as a warning before Peter punched him. His head snapped to the side as his body spun around, almost like something out of a comedy if it hadn't of hurt so much. Peter shot a web at his feet which then caused the enhanced to fall over and smack his head against the ground; the teen did cringe a bit at the sound, but he couldn't afford to hold back at the moment... This man was keeping him from checking on Loki. He needed to be dealt with quickly.

Thirty minutes later had a Quin jet and Iron Man landing on the roof of the abandoned building, Loki going down the ramp as soon as it started lowering.

"FRIDAY, scan the building for all heat signatures," Tony commanded as he marched through the roof entry, Loki and Thor close after him. 

"Two enhanced human signatures on the next floor below, boss. One of them seems to be in distress."

The three raced down the stairs to the place that FRIDAY's scanners indicated, though they nearly crashed into each other at the dead stop Tony came to when he saw what was before him.

Connected to the ceiling was a large, human-shaped... cocoon? It lightly swung back and forth as muffled screams were heard from inside, smoke seeping out from the seams.

"You guys got here faster than I thought," A voice called out from a shadowed corner of the ceiling, causing all three heroes to jump slightly.

"Peter!" Tony frowned, his face plate lifting up to get a clear view of the boy. "What the hell is this? And why are you up there?"

Peter dropped to the ground and tugged off his mask, shaking his head a bit. "This is the enhanced that attacked Mr. Loki and me. And Karen went offline when this guy attacked, so I didn't know if you were enemies or not; I thought it would be good to hide and get the element of surprise."

"This... is the enhanced?" Tony poked at the webbed ball, his eyebrows scrunched together. "Don't you normally leave the head out? Can he even breathe in there?"

"Well I started to leave his head uncovered, but then I found out he can breathe fire. He brought it upon himself honestly."

"More importantly," Loki pushed his way to Peter and looked him up and down, "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Peter shifted his body slightly, hardly noticeable to the others as he shook his head. "Nah, he didn't even land a single hit on me." Peter's eyes trailed over Loki's body as well, taking in Loki's normal green and black leather outfit that replaced his burnt suit from earlier. "Why aren't you in the med-bay?"

All eyes went to Loki in question as Peter frowned, "You didn't tell them that you were hit by this guy's fire a lot, did you?"

"Because I wasn't hit." Loki crossed his arms and scowled. "That was all an illusion; as if I would let myself be taken down and injured by such a weak enhanced."

Peter blinked once, twice, three times before throwing his hands in the air. "Seriously? I missed out on so many jokes with this fight because I thought you were actually hurt! There were so many times I could have made a pun! I could have even gone a lot easier on the poor guy, I think I broke his leg! I broke a man's leg for you, Mr. Loki!"

As Peter continued to rant and rave about his complaints, Thor went to cut the poorly unlucky enhanced down and carried him onto the jet, the others following behind. Peter yelled the whole way and tried to explain a few of the jokes he would have made during the fight, but it all came out pretty unintelligible. 

"I think that's enough now, child," Loki chuckled the second Peter paused to take a breath, the boy still pouting. "I do apologize for worrying you, but if you would have done what I said in the beginning and left, then it wouldn't have happened."

"If you would have told me it was an illusion, then I wouldn't have panicked."

Loki couldn't help the small smile that tugged at his lips as his eyes glanced over to Thor and Stark piloting them back home. While Loki's expression looked light on the outside, his voice suddenly turned stern, "I expect you to go straight to the med-bay once we return to the Compound to have that injury looked at."

Peter's hand went to his side as he quickly shifted to hide it from the man, "It's not that bad..."

"Peter..."

The two of them stared into each other's eyes for a short period before Peter smirked a bit, "Alright, I'll go. But only if you do too, Mr. Loki."

The scowl on Loki's face returned as Peter swiped his hand through Loki's figure, his body disappearing in a flash of green just as a new body appeared on the other side of the isle. The real Loki sat hunched over in a seat, arm wrapped around his side with a weak but wicked smirk on his face.

"You've gotten smarter, child. I'm impressed."

Peter chuckled a bit, though it didn't have much humor to it. Because Loki really had been hurt, and he had hurt the enhanced in return... It somewhat scared Peter, he never thought he would have been capable of hurting another person like he had... But it was in the best interest for his friend. He did it for his friend.

And that made the guilt lessen just a bit.

A/N: I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! I suffered through a migraine to finish and post it for you... I'm sorry if the ending seemed a bit choppy, I can hardly see straight anymore but needed to get this out tonight. 

Remember to leave a comment please! Comments keep me motivated for posting new chapters faster!