Discimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don’t worry, I am pletely sober).

  Onboard the Helicarrier, May 4, 2012

  –Jack Sullivan–

  “So, I read about you. How strong are your powers really? I saw the news about the tainer ship and then did sh calcutions. If you could really do that, I ’t imagine anything oh being able to stop you. Well, maybe, except-”

  “Except you,”

  Dr.Banner looked kinda resigned as he said, “No, not me. The uy. How could I stop you? The uy, however, has no limits and if he does have some, I have yet to find any,” He then ed his gsses incessantly as he squi the dozens of dispys id out in front of him.

  Apparently, SHIELD had the gamma readings of the Tesseract but they were ly the right frequency if he heard Banner’s murmuring correctly. He needed fresh readings to track the Space Stone and that was just not going to happen until they had the mind stone in their possession.

  Which would not happen until they met Loki and so far, SHIELD had not found Loki or any sign of…

  “We o go. Loki has been spotted,” Captain America barged into the b and said, all decked out in his uniform with the iic vibranium shield in his hand.

  “Let’s go,” Finally, some a.

  “See ya, Doctor,” He Banner and then after opening a portal in front of him that led straight to the bridge, e to see the bridge a whirlwind of activity.

  “You! What are the limits of your portals? you make oo Germany right now?” Fury stomped towards him as soon as he spotted him and Captain America exiting the portal.

  “Sure, where is Loki?” he asked him as he made the show of extending his left arm in front of him, fag towards the huge gss windows that showed the clouds floating outside.

  “Wait! We don’t want the entire Helicarrier going to Stuttgart,” Coulson excimed as he came running after him.

  “Oh, you don’t? Stuttgart it is then,” He said purposefully, enjoying the way Fury’s eyes widened dramatically at the implication that he could open a portal rge enough to transport something as big as the Helicarrier, to potentially any location in the world.

  “e on, Captain, we don’t have time to waste,” He gestured to Captain as the portal opened in front of him.

  He then turo Fury as another portal opened up in front of the Helicarrier, much smaller than the one he would have made had he o transport the entire ship. This one was just rge enough for a skilled pilot to take a Quihrough.

  He then fixed it so that it would remain geo-locked to The Helicarrier’s position and just before entering the previous portal, he poio the portal that had appeared on one of the bigger ss and said, “For the jet,”

  The moment, he found himself standing in front of a small forest. He…probably should have taken a look at the exact location of Loki. No worries, an easily solvable problem.

  “Where are we? Where is Lokiii,” The Captaiainly did not take it kindly that he covered him in a barrier as they rocketed towards the area where the city was most gested.

  “You are in the right dire. I am right on your tail,” His s crackled to life as he looked back to see a Qui hot oail. The Captain, having recovered from the surprise rocketed takeoff, responded, “Copy that, Romanoff. Prep for prisoransport,”

  “YOu sound fident, Captain. This is someone who was hailed as a god one day,” Romanoff’s voice sounded amused as they soon came across a rge courtyard currently filled with people and a bunch of Loki copies.

  “Well, I know ohing, Mam. There is only one god and he does not look like that,” The Captain said and gave him a look. He obliged and dispelled the barrier, but not befiving him a little boost.

  From the looks of it, the Captain was not expeg his fall to turn into a boosted one instead of a free-falling o even theed remarkably quickly and turned himself into a battering ram, with the Vibranium shield at the peak.

  In the meantime, he had already cast a spell that was basically a fancy heat camera that allowed him to see what was Illusion and what was Loki, allowing him to accurately shoot the Captain towards the real version. He had to say, real sloppy of Loki to cast an illusion that could have been unravelled by someoh a heat camera. Shows the extent to which his mental state must have destabilised because of all the things he went through uhanos’ tender mercies. He had to pity Loki, but not the Loki who would gdly sacrifice a bunortals to get a wihor but the one who uood the sacrifice he had to make, in order to ehe stability of the multiverse. The Loki who realised the burden of being powerful, of being the only one having the power to make it right, the burden of not giving oneself any other choice than the right choice.

  Meanwhile, the severely mentally deranged Loki was standing in the middle of a couple of people and ointing his sceptre at an elderly person who had stood up.

  “Look to your elderly, people. Let him be an exa–ghh,” His speech was cut short as the Captain smmed into him with very high speed, allowing him to throw Loki’s real body across the courtyard, away from the gregation of people around him that Loki could have used as hostages. Of course, he had discreetly used his barriers to remove the people as soon as Loki had noticed something ing at him at very high speeds otherwise many people would have been caught ich that Loki dug into the ground as the Captai pushing Loki as far as he could, clearly uanding Jack;s iion to separate Loki from the normal people.

  Unfortunately, Loki mao free himself and shoot at Captain who promptly ducked behind his shield and created a distaween Loki and himself, ing to stand behind his own floating form and the Qui looming behind both of them like a shadow.

  “Give up, Loki. You are outnumbered,”

  He left the talking to the Captain since he was the higher-ranking officer on the ground and he had no i in talking to this version of Loki. He was just an abused venomous snake as of now and not even the majestic god-like snake he would bee ter ht now, he was not even a shadow of his full potential.

  Loki stood up and surveyed the forces assorted against him and made the very stupid decision to eh them.

  “Ah, the soldier lost in time and the enigma,” Loki said even as he charged his sceptre which glowed with an ever-increasing blue glow. Still, he had the sceptre pointed downward so her he nor the Captaied beyond subtly tensing his body on the Captain’s part.

  “I know all about the soldier, it is you I am inte-”

  Loki’s tirade was cut short as the cloaked form of a very surprised Loki appeared a mere foot away from them, his sceptre stopped a mere inch away from his forehead by a green barrier.

  He looked Loki in the eyes and after noting the blueness of his irises, pushed the barrier away violently, flunging Loki directly into another one of his barriers which then proceeded to crush him ft against the ground, cratering it even more.

  “How did you know about his illusions?” The Captain asked as he tio look around, trying to spot Loki’s ricks. He was also very startled when the barrier that was suppressing Loki and rubbing his nose in the ground was shattered into pieces as Loki, with a particurly high-pitched snarl, jumped out of the crater and aimed his sceptre at him. He could see that his st attack had damaged him a little as his hands trembled a bit as he charged up another one of his attacks.

  He purposefully let Loki break through his barrier that time. Though, he did make him struggle a bit and call upon more of the spectre's powers before he did so. No reason to show Loki all his cards, especially sihe time to shut down this eime had not yet e.

  He looked at the charging up bst and smiled upon hearing the faint whihat was identical to that of a repulsor array running at full throttle, along with the AC/DC that began bring in their s, and waved his arm, creating a rge block of green and just dropped it iween Loki and them, creating a rge horizontal line iween.

  Loki faltered as his attack just hit the barrier and dissipated harmlessly, leaving nary a tra the huge barrier he had summoned wordlessly. He had not even moved from his spot ever sinding here. Teically, he was not even on nd as he was floating above the nd minutely.

  Before Loki could do something else, Stark, in all of his gold and red glory, nded in front of him and then pointed a plethora of ons, most of which promised painful injuries, at Loki, who immediately poihe sceptre up and began kneeling down with his hands up.

  “Yo, greenie, mind l the huge block?” Stark looked up at him with his face pte up.

  He groaned internally at the ckadaisical approach. Hawkeye was still in Loki’s grasp and lord knows how but that man was the best known shis world had ever seen. Even enhanced people did not have as good of an aim as he did. Probably something to do with minute geic advahat allowed his brain to evolve into a point-and-shoot calae, probably one in a billion ces of that happening and the man took full advantage of that to turn into the gold standard of sniping.

  Holy, it was as if the writers gave him the bow and arrow more as a ool rather than a standard on choice.

  Even so, he did as Stark asked and willed the barrier to disappear. Stark’s suit rather clumsily walked to Loki’s location and pulled out something from the surprise ste tainer located on his bad spped it on Loki’s hands. So they were just fancy handcuffs on them.

  Still, he was surprised to see this new barrier. It was signifitly bulkier than he remembered it being. It also housed a bigger block at the back, probably both as an armour and a pce to store things. He wondered what else had Stark added this time. Probably added a few things tainst him if needed, not that it would work anyway.

  “Boys,” Romanoff greeted them as the Qui nded, its ramp l down in their dire.

  “Mr.Stark,” The Captaied Stark as Iron Man pulled Loki up and then strapped him down in one of the seats, again using some sort of specialised rope that Stark pulled out of his back ste pocket.

  “Will they hold?” Romanoff looked bad asked, as the Qui began taking off.

  “Please. I made them. They will hold, Romanoff, don’t doubt me. By the way, miss me?” Stark said as he sat down in one of the seats. Or rather, tried to anyway. Upon realising the weight of his suits, he just leaned against a wall and just froze his servos or something, to rex. Holy, he should just e out but his ego would not allow him to admit any fault in his designs.

  Romanoff just rolled her eyes and focused on piloting the jet.

  He looked at Loki who was currently gring daggers at him. He was tempted to bind him with his barriers as well but Thor was ing and no point ing off as too aggressive at the get-go. So, he just sat there cross-legged, floating in the air, seemingly meditating as he willed for his fming eyes to close.

  Iy, he was trating on his senses and fring them outwards through the dozens of small barriers that littered the area around the Qui. He wao see if he could get a glimpse into the Bi-Frost and see how that worked out. He expected it to fail obviously but there was no harm in trying, especially sihe event of Odin using his Odin Force to force open the Bi-Frost would not happen ever again.

  “So, any reason we are not on an expressway to the base using the portals that our resident Green Torch just summon at will,”

  Of course, expeg to be able to focus on something else with Tony Stark sharing the same pce would have been a fool’s errand anyway.

  “Doesn’t work that way,” He rumbled, using his extra deep voice, and the silent, hoping against all odds that Stark would take the clue, not that it would ever happen.

  As expected…. “So how does it work, then? ’t open a portal to a pce that is stantly moving? Hmm, then teically, the Earth is also moving so how do you decide which pce to open a portal to? Also, how does that work anyway? How do you make the ws of physics your bitch every time you open a swirling e hole in the sky?”

  He sighed internally and his shoulders drooped a bit, visible even to the outside. He was really hoping not to enter mad stist Tony today.

  THUD!

  Oh, thank god. He tried not to let his relief show too much as thunder rumbled all around the jets. His barriers detected a huge spike of energy that temporarily overwhelmed all other data he was getting from his barriers before the sound of impact over their Qui. It was too short of a spike as Thor was transported to the exact location of Loki.

  His gaze so the ramp as it was forcefully lowered and Thor came stomping in, straight towards the currently strapped in Loki.

  Stark tried to stand iween but Thor just shoved him back which, bined with the haste with which Stark had stood up from his servo lock, caused him to take back several steps untrolbly.

  Thor took one look at the straps and handcuffs and ripped off the straps with ptuous ease. He then grabbed Loki’s suit and just jumped out of the Qui, all the while ramp’s servos sparked as they tried to deal with the sudden application of the strength of Asgard’s Prince.

  “Stark, you said they would hold,” Romanoff quipped as she tried to steady the Qui amidst the turbulehey were experieng.

  Stark did not reply, probably nursing his bruised ego, as he stood up and stomped towards the ramp, evidently intending to pursue Thor and Loki.

  “Performance issues? I have heard they are more on in men your–” he quipped at Stark, taking great pleasure in the way he paused and turned around to gre at him menagly. No, literally, that petty man had ied LEDs into his headpiece that increased their brighto really deliver the fact that he was gring at someone, not just looking at them through the eyepieces.

  He then turned around and flew into the clouds. His eyes widened minutely as he noticed the huge blo his back also activating auxiliary repulsors to increase the overall thrust as Stark almost immediately broke the sound barrier, adding to the turbulehey were experieng.

  He moved his finger and the turbulenstantly stopped as the entire Qui was covered with his barrier, allowing Romanoff to steady the jet.

  “Thanks,” She muttered to him as he sat in the same pce, cross-legged, looking at the ramp which was trying to close itself but clearly failing.

  The Captain, in a rare fit of decisiveness ever since he woke up in the modern world, donned a nearby parachute and looked at him, “Well?”

  “You should go. Stark would probably need you,” He looked past Steve to look at Romanoff who smirked at him, “After all, men his age do indeed have performance issues,”

  Steve looked fused at the bypy but he nodded as his eyes fmed back to life, his form unfurling to stand back at his almost 8 ft height. He looked at the strapped with parachute Steve and willed for two separate barriers to envelop their forms and slowly exited the Qui. He then turned around and forced the ramp to close up and used some of the debris to create a lock around it.

  After seeing that the ramp was closed, he turned around and zoomed towards the area where the thunder was most rampant, his speed creating a soni even bigger than Stark’s as he had long since trolled his flight speeds. At this point, he could do sustained flights of speeds exceeding Mach 6, which retty good.

  He arrived otlefield to see Loki standing over a rock, clearly having fun as he watched his brother and Stark duke it out.

  Well, that would just not do, he thought to himself as another barrier appeared on top of Loki and just…pressed.

  Once again, bullying the current Loki was funny even if his dition itiful.

  After subduing Loki and assigning the Captain to watch over him, he turned his attention to the aforementioned duking it out that was happening in front of him.

  In the timelihe fight in front of him would have been much less of a duking it out and much more of one side trying to survive the blows of the other party. It was clear that had Thor truly waony dead, Tony would have been dead, no ifs and buts about it.

  The sario in front of him was quite different. Thor arently hitting Tony with Mjolnir and lightning full ford he even had some scuff marks on him, which was surprising.

  Tony, arently sp a barrier that glowed a very subtle blue in one of his hands, which was doing an admirable job of blog Thor’s lightning and abs enough of Mjolnir’s blows that Tony’s suit was not instantly going out of operation in a si.

  He could see Throwing frustrated at the stant repulsor attacks that Tony was subjeg him to, not to mention the mounting frustration at not felling someone who was a mortal with just fancy teology. His doubts were proven true, when in the moment, Thor just whacked Tony’s shield so hard that it shattered but it did its job, allowing Tony to survive that blow.

  He could see smoke ing out of Tony’s backpack as it fell off his back, the red in it visible even from so far away. So, that was how Tony had achieved the power necessary to power a shield capable of taking hits from even Thor.

  Iure, Tony would certainly have the tools necessary to sustain such a shield but seeing it today meant that Tony had certainly taken inspiration from his own barriers and from the looks of it, succeeded.

  Thor, apparently eager to finish the troublesome fight a back to his brother, called upon lightning and after lighting up a signifit portion of the forest, threw the same lightning at Tony who braced for the impact.

  Why was he not flying? His eyes narrowed as he looked at the deformed hands and legs. Ah, Thor must have grown wary of them.

  “Hah, serves him right,” he muttered to himself as he stood on the same ledge where Loki stood a few moments ago.

  The ensuing impact lighted up annifit portion of the forest. Thor turned around, assuming that the job was finished but he was surprised as he looked behind. He must have sensed something.

  Right in front of a very braced-for impact Tony was a huge barrier that had tahor’s attad had broken down from it. Well, at least that was what it looked like. He was so going to make fun of Tony f to brace against lighting by putting his metal arms near his metal head. Hah, what a rush!

  Thaze sowards him as he floated down to him.

  “Prihor, I am sorry you had to see your brother captive but he has something that is incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands and we must retrieve it. I suggest we cooperate because that is in everyone’s best i, including Loki’s,” He said and ined his head towards a handcuffed and strapped Loki who was, once again, hatefully gring at him.

  Unsurprising.

  “Release my Brother!” Thor roared as he jumped up in the air, hammer drawn and lightning dang on top of Mjolnir.

  He sighed internally. Why did he expect them to act like their mature selves?

  The ohat had matured due to the losses they had suffered. Losses that they had yet to gh yet and hopefully, never had to gh, courtesy of him. But then, would they even bee the same beas of hope and strength that they would turn into, iure? Or would he be worsening the future if he tried to make their current lives easier?

  No, he ot think like that. He must believe that there is a better future there and he would do everything in his power to make it e true.

  Those thoughts ran through his mind in an instant as he raised his arm towards the falling form of Thor as a huge barrier sprang forth from his hands, enveloping the crashing form of Lighting, lighting up the entire barrier as arches of lightning danced around it.

  There was a huge gonging noise as Mjolnir, the closest thing to an unstoppable obje the Nine Realms, met his barriers, the closest thing to an immovable thing.

  The result was……

  Word t - 3725

  If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you head on to my P*treon.

  I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

  A/N - This, in my opinion, is the best chapter I have written to date.

  Enjoy!

  P.S - Lo chapter yet. Am I on a roll or what?

  The average Word t so far is almost 2700 words which is io think of when the first ever chapter I wrote was only about 1100 words and in my mind, that was enough as a chapter.

  Now? That would be a synopsis.

  Ah, how the days go by.

  P.P.S - Anyway, it is 3 AM here and I am rambling. Good night.