Chapter 20: Loki Caught

Much like what happened originally, Loki attacked Heinrich Schafer, a scientist who had access to a warehouse containing Iridium, an element Erik needed in order to stabilize the portal generated by the Tesseract. Without it much like what happened in the SHIELD base before, the portal would open but then collapse in on itself not long after.

With this element Loki, can open a portal as large as he wanted while also keeping it open for as long as he wanted.

Shafer was a guest speaker at the gala and during his speech Loki openly attacked him and killed the man instantly, this was for two reasons. First to use a device he stabbed into the mans eye sending an image of the eye to the device's twin which was in Clint hands. He used the image to gain access to the warehouse.

The last reason was it was meant as a distraction, calling the Avengers unto himself so that Clint could get the necessary Iridium without any interference.

Loki watched in glee as the other frightened guests all frantically ran out of the building into the streets in an attempt to get away.

Unfortunately for them he had already got what he needed from the scientist, Loki made his way out to the street following the crowd. He planned to make as big of a distraction as possible. Equipping his Asgardian armor he created multiple illusionary projections and used them to surround the crowd trying to escape, as he crossed the street into a large plaza, a police vehicle began approaching at high speed, the familiar sound began to ease the minds of the crowd, help was here.

What happened next scared them more, Loki fired an attack using the Sceptre at the police vehicle destroying it instantly, the destroyed cop car sailed behind Loki as he continued forward. Seeing this the crowd of people screamed and clamored to escape, however Loki's projections prevented them from escaping and corralling them into a large group in front of his main body..

"Kneel before me." Loki spoke up, however there were a lot of screams and crying amongst the crowd, not many heard him, even those that did were unsure of what to do.

This angered Loki so he spoke even louder and slammed the Sceptre on the ground to make him more threatening, "I said KNEEL!"

As soon as the Sceptre slammed to the ground the gem it contained, glowed and hummed threateningly causing all of them to begin to get down. They saw what he was capable of using the weapon.

Seeing the crowd beginning to kneel Loki took a deep breath and enjoyed the sight of so many kneeling before him, the look of fear was like a drug making him feel euphoric.

"Is this not 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."

As Loki basked in the fear a single older man stood up and spoke out against Loki's speech resolutely. "Not to men like you."

Loki's smile slowly faded as the man's words ruined his moment but Loki calmly replied as he shook his head, "There are no men like me."

However instead of kneeling back down the man simply answered, "There are always men like you."

Seeing the man refusing to kneel and seeing many beginning to look at the old man with admiration, Loki broke back into a smile and began to aim the Sceptre at the old man who continued to stand resolutely, he knew he was not going to live after today but he faced Loki down all the same.

Loki spoke up so all could hear, "Look to your elder, people; let him be an example."

Loki fired the energy beam in an attempt to kill the man who refused to kneel, however before the bolt of energy hit the old german man it was bounced back to Loki, hitting his main body and knocking Loki to the ground, all his projections disappeared leaving only the real Loki.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing." Captain America said as he stood up, his shield at his side confidently.

Loki slowly got up and gave Steve a condescending smile, "The soldier, a man out of time."

"I'm not the one out of time." Just as Steve said this a UNSC D79-TC Pelican appeared in the skies above Steve.

Natasha activated the dual GAU-53 70mm rotary cannons, activated the target assist and aimed them at Loki.

Natasha announced over the PA system, "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

Rather than comply, Loki fired a blast at the Pelican, Natasha easily evaded, Loki attempted to fire another shot but Steve dashed forward and initiated combat.

Using his shield, Steve bashed Loki in the gut using the edge of the shield, this caused Loki to bend forward which led his face directly into Steve's incoming knee. A sickening crunch was heard as Loki's nose broke, Loki's eyes watered making it hard to see Steve's incoming attacks.

Unlike originally, Steve has been sparring with both his wife Peggy and best friend Bucky, during these spars Peggy and Bucky didn't take it easy on Steve. The world wasn't what it was back in the last World War. At that time Captain America was the only hero and there weren't many enemies stronger than him, sure Wolverine was around as well as his half brother Sabertooth but they weren't in the limelight like Captain America.

Although Steve wasn't weak in any sense, it was mainly due to him being an extremely skilled strategist and being extremely hard to beat himself, that made him a valuable member of the Avengers. No matter how many times he was knocked down, if he wasn't dead he got up and even coined the term 'I can do this all day'.

Such a humiliating sentence to say to someone who is beating the shit out of you. As if he had a will made of adamantium, Steve could push past adversity and come out on top. Even if he only won cause they beat the living shit out of him until they were too tired then Steve lays a very strategic hit, as if, he truly had waited all day and took that beating for this one moment, and bam. KO. Captain America wins.

So Peggy and Bucky both beat the casual fighting attitude right out of him, so now not only did Steve have a will of figurative adamantium, he also fought more viciously. If Steve had continued his former path of fighting style, death was very likely.

Loki couldn't believe how strong Captain America was, he knew he was a super soldier, but Clint had based his strength on old data. He was unaware that Adam's training exercises were leaked amongst the Avengers thru the Widows, using the ships artificial gravity generators within the holodecks, Adam worked out and trained under increased gravity.

This shocked many of them, thinking just how crazy, yet effective, it would be for super soldiers, since the serum repaired torn muscle tissue much quicker than normal people, it was quite effective.

Steve had begun doing the same so he was a bit stronger and faster than what Barton and SHIELD knew. Loki wasn't a push over tho, he truly was a warrior of Asgard, joining Thor and the warriors three on many adventures and has gone thru many battles together.

Once he got over the shock, Loki moved swiftly, leaping back a large distance, then dashing in, Loki went for the body, Steve barely able to get his shield into position was able to stop any direct damage but the impact was so powerful Steve was propelled backwards like a cannonball.

Loki made his way over to Steve, shaking the hand that punched the shield in pain, "Damn that things harder than I thought, maybe I should keep it after I turn you into a corpse for real."

As Loki got closer, a figure dashed out from above faster than Loki could react, and a large black military boot planted on Loki's face throwing him back. Before Loki could be thrown far a metal arm grabbed him by the ankle, "Coming your way, home run derby!"

Bucky spun on his heel and launched Loki like a baseball towards a prepared Steve who had his shield just at the front of his shoulder in a ramming pose.

As soon as Loki got at the perfect distance from him to maximize his momentum, Steve dash forward with all his might and crashed, shield first, into Loki.

A scream that had a mix of pain, anger and a little fear was heard as Loki crashed thru a building that lined the street causing a massive hole to appear, a large plum of white smoke billowed out from the hole.

Steve frowned then looked around, "Sorry, I didn't think he'd fly so far. Sorry."

Bucky came up behind Steve and shook his head. Steve really was a hero at heart, he didn't want to damage other people's property but with the strength of not only Steve but Bucky as well, the momentum was more than he expected.

Loki furiously stepped out from the hole covered in white flour, he had crashed into a bakery stores rear dry storage, each step causing clouds of white smoke to cascade down all around him.

The Sceptre was no longer in his hands, Loki had dropped it when he was batted away by Steve, Steve and Bucky both stood in the path between Loki and the Sceptre.

Loki stopped then gave a smile, behind the two, Loki's real body had already crept behind them and grabbed the Sceptre ready to strike. Natasha was trying to get a clean shot but was unable to due to so many civilians being still around, many had left as soon as possible while others stuck around with their phones and cameras out.

Just as Natasha was about to take the risk to save her teammates, Natasha heard Tony over comms.

"Agent Romanoff, you miss me yet?"

Suddenly the Pelicans speakers blasted AC/DC 'Shoot to Thrill' as Tony flew in, Yelena ran silently from behind Loki, the music blaring helped hide her steps, she was able to dash in and disarm Loki, kick him away in Tony's direction, who was flying down fast. She was even able to pull a double back head slap at the two stunned Avengers after seeing the projection disappear.

Tony landed right on top of Loki, every weapon available on the suit opened, all aimed at Loki, ready to fire at any moment, "Alright Reindeer Games, make your move."

Loki looked around and saw he was surrounded by not just Tony but three others as well, while Natasha piloted the Pelican to a more favorable position to be able to open fire if needed.

Seeing no way out Loki finally raised both hands over his head and released his Asgardian armor.

"Smart move." Tony said as his weapon systems retracted back into the suit.

"Stark. Yelena. Thanks." Steve nodded towards Tony in gratitude, he knew the two of them saved him and Bucky from serious injury.

Due to Adam, Steve and the Avengers that came with him knew this was all a setup, but they played their parts. Steve was thankful he wasn't going to have to sit out when the army of space aliens invaded his hometown, he also knew if that happened his wife would come up with another brutal boot camp for him.

Picking Loki up, Yelena handcuffed Loki and began to escort him aboard the Pelican. Tony and the two others fall in behind her in case Loki tries to escape.

As they walked Tony and Steve looked at each other up and down, Steve was the first to speak, "New suit?"

"Yup. You?" Tony asked after seeing subtle differences in the suit he had before.

"Yea, Peggy had it custom made till I can get my official one." Steve answered back as he kept his eyes on Loki while Bucky watched theirs to keep from falling for the same trick twice.

They remained vigilant until they were fully on the Pelican, the hatch closed and took to the air to head back to the helicarrier as planned.

Loki sat quietly and observed the two that accompanied the three Avengers he did know, he could only guess one must be the Adam Clint talked about but he had thought he would be taller.

"So you must be Adam." Loki smiled as he looked at Bucky, thinking he could play this off as being all knowing, he began to try to fish for information.

However, unexpectedly everyone laughed a little and Bucky just shook his head in denial. This both angered and stunned Loki, not only did he guess wrong but they had laughed at him as if he was telling a joke.

He was a king. He felt he deserved their respect at the very least since he was royalty. Loki remained quiet as he listened in on the others small conversations until out of nowhere a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky accompanied by the loud crack of thunder.

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