That text from Dr. Strange was unexpected. With half a donut clenched between his teeth, Tony had read the words twice over before he spat it out and bolted for a suit, nearly knocking over a couple of tech interns in the process. He hastily had F.R.I.D.A.Y submit a flight plan that was about an hour too late, and went tearing off through the sky with the sort of high speed that was sure to piss off the powers that be. Tony wouldn't have it any other way. He never missed a golden opportunity to thumb his nose at Secretary of Defense Ross.


As he made his way into the heart of the city, he told himself that this wasn't an uncommon a sight for Iron Man to spotted flying around. Easy to dismiss it if the feds complained. He knew for a fact that the suit would act as a beacon to Thor. When he abruptly landed in Central Park, he flipped up the visor and anxiously looked around for the big lug and his weasely little brother.


"Holy shit, it's Tony Stark!" a nearby teenager yelled, their face poked full of more metal pins and screws than the gauntlet assembly covering his left hand.


"That's me!" was the cheery reply with a wide smile. "Have you seen a big tall Norse God anywhere? I think I lost him somewhere."


"Holy shit, Thor is so hardcore!" the kid gushed as they went running off with cellphone held out, readly to film. Tony did a double-take, vaguely offended.


"Oh yeah? Well I could MacGyver anything on the fly if I ripped that metal out of your face!" Tony yelled, just so he felt important again. That was more impressive than a hammer and a cape anyway. "Whatever."


Thor spotted Stark’s Ironman suit descending on the relative calm of the center park right away, and headed in that direction, making sure that Loki kept pace with him. He overheard a bit of the conversation as he approached him. Thor patted his stomach, smiling. “Indeed, my core is quite firm,” he said. He wasn’t sure why he was in such a good mood, but he was pleased to see Stark. “Do not be insulted, Stark. Midgardian bodies are merely softer in general.”


Though he’d been occupied trying to locate the Infinity Stones, Thor had missed his friends. It made him think for the moment of those friends he’d lost on Asgard, fallen under Hela’s blade. He’d barely had time to grieve, but perhaps they were sheltered from disaster enough for a short while, at least, that he could spend some time wallowing. But perhaps not.


“What of Banner and the rest?” he asked.


"Who, me? Insulted? Never. Just lookit you, picking up a more finely honed sense of Earth humor." Tony lobbed a lopsided smirk at Thor, before turning his head to one side and speaking loudly. "You can suck it! And be glad I don't have a magnet in this suit!"


Enough about kids trying to oogle Norse Gods through their cell phone screens. Someone - notably the God of Thunder - looked like he'd been to hell and back, minus the luxury of a handbasket. He squinted up at Thor because there was less hair and an eye missing, and made a mental note to commence with his normal coping mechanism of poking fun after formalities were out of the way. Formalities that included looking over at Loki, who was skulking around a few feet behind Thor. Loki's chin was tilted down toward his chest, and eyes were looking out from under lowered brows like two chips of cold hard ice. It was the classic bad guy sulk face that brightened Tony's mood another notch.


"Aww! Don't worry, Blitzen? I won't shoot unless you sneeze the wrong way."


"I'm ever so grateful," replied Loki, looking and sounding not so grateful.


"Good. You should be. While you try to turn that frown upside down, the adults are gonna talk."


While Loki glared daggers at him, Tony gave Thor an affectionate little mechanical swat against a rock hard bicep.


"I haven't seen Banner since Sokovia. Cap, Nat, and Clint are gone. On the run from the government. Cap and I had a falling out, so I'm pretty much the lone Avenger right now. There's Vision, but he's been sidelined as too powerful. A hundred and something countries were angry about us leaving a trail of death and destruction everywhere. So, that was a thing." Tony drew in a breath like he was trying to steady himself before continuing, trying to lighten the mood a bit more. "Anyway. You look like the universe decided to screw the pooch right at you. Do you wanna keep playing catch up here, or at the Tavern on the Green?"


Tony decided that he needed a drink. Or two. Or three. He said a silent prayer of thanks to himself for A.I.s and autopilot.


Thor was instantly cheered from Stark’s seemingly terrible news but mention of a tavern. “Yes, lead us to this tavern,” he agreed. “It sounds as I have missed quite a lot. As have you. I have seen Banner quite recently, but I wondered if he’d come back here as we have.”


Thor made sure that Loki was staying close. He was not going to let him out of his sight, while he’d sworn to keep an eye on him. “Come, brother. Some more wine will improve your mood.”


"I highly doubt that." Loki rolled his eyes as the trio began walking, and with the wave of one hand, wove some magic so that they both appeared in nicer attire. The thought of listening to Stark's inane ramblings had him growling under his breath, "I might see fit to break a glass and use it to gouge at my own ears."


"You've got a weird kink about breaking glass," Tony said, with a wicked grin. "Speaking of? You owe me a window. That's the last time you come over to my place and I offer you a drink."


Lagging only slightly behind Thor's side, Loki was glaring daggers.


Undeterred, Tony kept strolling along in his suit, seeming as though he didn't care. In his mind, glaring daggers was probably the default reaction of all bad guys.


Before Loki would rain down another invasion on them, Tony slipped enough money to get them a good table, pronto. In less than three minutes during a dinner rush, they were seated. His armor was parked close by, outside a door to the patio, and Tony had ordered them a round of drinks. Of their choice, of course. Tony's choice was the harder stuff. Eighteen year old scotch. Single malt. No ice. He wasn't skimping, and he wasn't watering it down.


"Soooo, Point Break. Tell me about Banner," Tony said, preferring to wait until he was sitting down for what he hoped wouldn't be more bad news. He really was worried about Bruce, but was valiantly trying to cover it up with his usual heavy dose of sarcasm. "I just want to let you both know, he's a deadbeat dad. Do you know how hard that is to explain to our robo son why his other science dad is missing? If I wasn't rich, I'd file for child support. Where's he been hiding out, anyway?"


At first, Loki was looking between between his glass of wine and Stark like one of the two was made of deadly poison. By the time the odd little Midgardian had finished speaking, Loki was looking at Thor out of the corner of his eyes. The look was one Thor had probably seen countless times before, usually before a battle was about to go unexpectedly wrong. It was a warning that it was often best to stab first and run from the raging crazy quickly after. Not that Thor ever listened, but perhaps there was a first time for everything.


Thor saw the look on Loki’s face and he frowned. If he was plotting something in that brain of his, it would be an awful time. They hadn’t even secured proper living quarters, although Loki’s looked like it would do nicely. Nonetheless, he was tempted to simply keep his brother shackled to his side, but that was hardly practical.


Thor took a deep drink of his beer. It was weak, but he wasn’t of a mind to get drunk. “It is a lengthy tale, but I shall attempt to speak it briefly. After I left Midgard last time, I went in search of the infinity stones. I fear there is some agent behind all of the recent chaos, who also seeks them. Instead, I found the fire demon, Surtur, who attempted to capture me, and declared that Ragnarok would soon destroy Asgard.”


He glanced at Loki, considering how to gloss over his part in stranding Odin. Finally, he decided to just leave it out entirely. “Our father perished, lifting a centuries old ban upon our sister, Hela. It was she who stranded us on Sakaar, a planet of scavengers who fight champions against one another for sport. It was there that I encountered Hulk. We were pitted against one another in the arena. It soon became clear that Banner was unable to return, despite my efforts to reach him.”


Loki was looking between Thor and Tony, all but holding his breath while trying to keep his face as neutral as possible. All the while, the wheels were turning. How much could he get away with? How far could he push things, without being too obvious? How much did he love his brother...and brakes applied, the wheels came to a screeching halt. Loki was staring at Thor in awe, unable to believe that his brother had left out the part about his usurping the throne. He managed a small smile at Thor, only there wasn't any cruelty or bitterness behind it. It was a wistfully nostalgic expression, as though Thor was telling the tale of childhood stabbings again.


Once he reigned himself back into the perfect picture of princely aloofness, Loki glanced over at Tony, and added, "The beast acted admirably in the final defense of Asgard. He apparently had more of his wits about him than before."


"That's good to know, I guess," replied Tony, before he polished off the remainder of his drink in one go. At the top of his missing persons list, the person he missed the most, was Bruce. He held up the glass in one hand and tapped the rim until a waitress leaned in. "Yeah, I'm going to need another one of these. Make it a double."


Once the waitress was gone, Tony let out a sigh and hunched forward, arms folded against the edge of the table.


"So you two fought each other, huh? Who won? If I had to put money down, it'd be on Banner. No offense, Point Break? You can take a punch, but I've seen him knock you into next week. You go flying. Without your hammer. "


"Ah ha." Loki looked triumphant. Once the initial shock of seeing who the Grandmaster's champion was had worn off - and the sudden panic to get off the planet as quickly as possible - he had been quite pleased that he had bet against Thor. "I did not know it until the match began, but I bet against Thor as well. I had not seen him before then, only heard of his fighting prowess."


"Oh noes. Loki and I have something in common. End of the world is nigh! Where's my refill?" As though on cue, a fresh glass was set down and Tony clutched onto it like it was a life preserver. "Did you find out if there's more Infinity Stones? Or any leads on who's behind this mess, even if it's hearsay? And, speaking of hammers, where's your magic ban hammer?"


Loki, who had been feeling comfortable enough to bother saying anything at all, suddenly looked like that door was slammed shut. Not at the mention of Thor's hammer, but the stones and who might be involved. He started to idly look out at their surroundings, listening closely while appearing to not be paying attention.


“I was beating the mighty Hulk until the Grandmaster incapacitated me,” Thor said. He had not intended to go into detail about his newfound abilities, but then Stark asked about Mjolnir. Thor sighed heavily.


“When we first encountered our sister, Hela, she destroyed the hammer. She crushed it in her hand like it was made of clay and not the heart of a dying star.” Though he no longer needed it, he still missed Mjolnir. It had been a part of him for so long. “But I have no need of it now,” he added, almost as an afterthought.


“There are six infinity stones. The tesseract contains one. Vision, another. The Aether has become another. One of them has put us in the situation we are in now, and I believe is in possession of your friend Strange.” None of them were particularly safe, which gave him a great deal of unease. “I know not anything of the final two. I was unable to locate them on my quest so far.” Suddenly the conversation seemed very serious. The potential for things to go horribly wrong was immense. He ventured a glance at Loki. Thor knew well that the power of the stones would be a temptation his brother would be unable to resist.


Loki's face was turned slightly away, his gaze distant and expression betraying nothing. In truth, he was listening but making it seem as though he wasn't listening, while gently tapping an index finger against the stem of his wine glass. It was the very essence of someone who was idle and bored nearly to tears, trying to occupy their thoughts, likely with thoughts of new statues or writing another play.


The silence at the table was broken when Tony let out a long whistle, and Loki moved only to cast a fleeting glance over at the source of the sound before looking away again.


"So the sister you didn't know you had showed up, and she banned your hammer." Tony reached over to pat Thor on the shoulder. "Sorry, big guy. I didn't know you had a sister. But now we know that your family was pretty messed up, too. Welcome to the club."


That was a statement that Tony didn't derive any joy from. There wasn't much to be found in anything that had been said. On a scale of one to ten - one being absolute suck and ten being 'this might not be so bad?' - it was ranking about a two. With room to get worse.


"So ok," he continued, letting his mouth run as fast as his thoughts. "We basically know what four of them do, mostly, and two are missing. We don't know what their purpose of even existing is other than to cause trouble, although it seems like one guy can actually use his, even if we're not buddy buddy. Since we are where we are now because there's backlash with the time thing, probably not a great thing to use it unless it's a last resort. Which that guy did, so yay for team Earth. We need to figure out what happens with them, and...you guys still have one of them, right?"


Loki's finger kept gently tapping at the same rhythm as before, without faltering in the slightest. It gave him the air of someone mind-numbingly bored with the conversation, even though he was anything but.


Tony was looking from big bro to little bro and back again. When Loki continued to ignoring absolutely everything, he rolled his eyes and looked directly at Thor.


"You guys still have it, right?" Tony asked, eyebrows raised expectantly. It was a pretty fascinating energy source that he'd been privileged to read up on before Tweedledumb across the table decided to leap face first into the deep end and tried to take over the planet. That's when Tony considered that Odin and Howard should have gotten together to give eachother a pat on the back for their shitty parenting skills. Odin needed several more backpats, by the sound of it.


Thor glanced uncomfortably from Tony to Loki and back again. “The tesseract was in Asgard when Asgard was destroyed,” he said. He hadn’t really had all that much time to even contemplate what was going on between then and showing up in New York. Rescuing his people had been the only thing that had mattered.


Loki’s attitude was suspect, though. He had an unhealthy fascination with the object, which wouldn’t lend itself to this show of disinterest in the topic at hand. “Brother, do you have knowledge of the Tesseract? What became of it during the battle?” he asked.


Loki was always suspect, but in this case, it was an unhealthy fascination combined with abject fear. Yet he was so thoroughly immersed in projecting boredom and lethargy, that it took him a moment to register he had been spoken to. That finger stopped tapping and Loki barely turned his head toward Thor to give him a stare that, should it be described, was equal parts incredibly bored and deeply weary. It was, in fact, how he truly felt. He had no allegiances to Thor's friends, so it was tedious to listen to their insults and reminders of his past transgressions. The only thing he felt compelled to protect was his brother, and even that was a tenuous thread that he was desperately clinging onto.


"Alas. I have no knowledge of where it might be," replied Loki, his voice smooth and accompanied by the slightest noncommittal shrug of one shoulder. "If it was not destroyed, surely it must be floating in space alongside our sister's corpse. If she is truly dead. I need not remind you that her aspect was death, and even without access to Asgard, she was able to break Mjolnir without effort. Such a waste of such profound power." He meant the Tesseract, but the way it was stated made it uncertain if he was also talking about Hela. He deeply sighed before adding on the finishing touch, "Even so, if it survived the fall of Asgard, the Tesseract is well out of our reach."


It all seemed very convincing, because Loki didn't consider it lying. He truly believed it was wasteful not to use it, and also knew that he could not run the risk of accessing it in any way, or it might be tracked by Thanos. As it was, it technically was out of everyone's reach where it was, so that counted as well. In fact, Loki looked fleetingly apologetic, which also wasn't a lie. The less Thor or the Man of Iron knew of it, the better. In fact, Loki thought it all to be one minor white lie for their collective good, and a lot more technical truths than he ever bothered with before. It wasn't that he didn't want to confide in Thor, but that he knew he couldn't. The further away they all were from Thanos, the better.


Across the table, Tony was staring like he felt as old as Thor and Loki were, combined.


"That's just great," Tony suddenly gruffed out with impatience. He looked ready to down the contents of the second glass and ask for a third. "Now there's a rogue infinity stone out there, maybe, that any crazy ass can grab. If your crazy ass maybe-not-dead sister doesn't have it, already. And the entire universe is down an ally if we really, really needed it. Yeah, eff it. I'm downing this."


Tony tipped his head back and there went the rest of that second drink. He grimaced and held up the empty glass as a hint that someone needed to fill it, pronto.


Loki's eyebrows went up ever so slightly as he watched the display, and he looked to Thor, slightly worried.


"Oh dear. Has he any Asgardian in him?" he whispered to his brother. "Great-Great-Grandfather perhaps?"


“Stark,” Thor said, frowning. “A great many things have not gone the way we would have hoped. But we have no knowledge of it falling into the wrong hands. We need only find the Tesseract before anyone else does.” He felt a little resentment at Stark’s attitude, considering Thor had been the only one looking for the stones in the first place.


Other than someone who apparently wanted them to cause chaos in the nine realms.


He looked to Loki. “Keep in mind, brother, that Midgard spirits are quite weak. I’m sure Stark has built up his tolerance over several years.” Thor felt guilty about not trusting his brother. His answer was delivered with such casual disdain. Surely the idea that Hela might be alive and in possession of such a powerful object would be cause for anyone’s concern. But he had only Loki’s word to go on for now. He didn’t believe him, but he wouldn’t challenge him until he had some proof.


“Now. Let us discuss how we shall go forward. Why are the others gone? Rogers and Barton and Natasha? And why would Vision have lines on his side?”


Loki's carefully schooled facade almost cracked when Thor mentioned finding the Tesseract, but he was able to cover it up like he was amazed at the Midgardian's capacity for a drinking. That was easy to do, since the only other being he had seen pack it away with such vigor was the Valkyrie.


"As it would seem," Loki said under his breath before he fell silent and pensive again, frantically thinking of how he might thwart his brother's well-meaning plans, and how swiftly the next steps in his own plans would need to be implemented.


Truth told, from where he was sitting, Tony wasn't about to buy into what Loki had said either. Wasn't a safe bet It presented a lot of other things to think about, good points, but he wasn't going to be surprised if Loki was up to...well...anything. It was a family matter best left up to Thor at this point, until it became a threat to everyone else, and then Tony was going to bust out the Hulk Buster armor and jack hammer punch Loki in the face a few thousand times..


Tony bit his lower lip and looked guilty, because he realized too that he was slighting Thor's efforts, essentially pissing into an Asgardian sized bowl of Cheerios. Hopefully it didn't result in being grabbed by the throat and being left with a few inches of air between his dangling feet and the floor.


"Shit. I didn't mean that I don't appreciate what you've been doing, because you've gone above and beyond the call of duty, Point Break. You're here now and I'm gonna help. We'll figure out a way to get it back." At that moment, the waitress took the empty glass out of his hand and replaced it with another full one. Tony made a little toasting gesture. "I can hear you two. My liver's pickled by now. Don't worry about it. Suit has autopilot and I can fight, completely tanked. Did it before with a buddy of mine. Blew up my living room."


Loki simply shook his head and turned his attention back on their surroundings, as Tony went right on talking. Talking while looking uncomfortable with the subject matter.


"Lines on his...yeah. Sidelined means you're shoved off to the side and don't get to play with the rest of the team," Tony explained, his free hand making a rolling motion as he snuck a slow sip. He picked up like he hadn't paused at all. "Remember the thing where hi, we dropped a city, and that was my fault because murder bots? Oh, and Wanda made a mistake with her powers and sent a bomb into a building, that killed civilians. A lot of countries wanted accountability, to tell us when we could or couldn't act and leave a path of rubble and bodies behind us. So they wanted us to sign an Accord saying that the United Nations could give us a green light. I was for it. I didn't want more people to die, and thought we should have oversight. At first, Natasha agreed with me, at first. She flipped sides later.


"Rogers said no. Wanda was kept at the headquarters to keep her out of the public eye and it was a dumb move, since Vision and I were trying to protect her. Barton showed up and set her loose. Oh. Cap's old war buddy was framed for a bombing that killed the King of Wakanda, who was headlining the whole Accord me and Natasha were signing. So, that happened. Anyway, we all had a big bust up in an airport. Rhodey's back got messed up bad by Vision trying to get Sam off our asses. Accident.


"So, most of Cap's side ended up in super jail, including Wanda. I realized Cap's buddy wasn't to blame for the hot mess...." Here Tony's voice trailed off for a moment, and he decided to breeze over the really difficult parts. "Some other guy was hell bent on busting us all up, so he rigged up the bombing...and everything. Guess what? It worked. I haven't heard from them, since. Yay! It's my fault. Again."


He toasted and smiled, before taking an even longer, slower sip. If Thor's temper went thunderous, the least he could do was try to be numb.


Still looking away, Loki tried to hide how concerned he was that their first line of offense against Thanos was in pieces. He could barely be heard murmuring, "So much for avenging the Earth."


Tony flipped Loki off. And he kept right on doing it.


Loki didn't even notice.


Thor listened to everything Stark said. It was difficult to piece things together because of the odd affectation of the other man’s speech. “I do not understand. If we had not acted against Ultron, many many more would have died. We did not court destruction.” He thought that Stark said he supported such a measure, so he awaited some explanation of that, though no Midgardian government was going to shackle the God of Thunder.


He caught Loki’s comment and glanced from him to Stark and back again. “We shall resolve these problems. There is a larger issue at stake. If whoever seeks the stones arrives here, we will need all of our resources to defeat them. These petty squabbles will need to be put aside. If you ‘countries’ want to fight them without us, so be it.”


"Yes, we have other problems too. And I know you might think it's petty, but this country's government came to us and wanted us to have accountability," Tony was saying, and he looked exasperated with the whole situation. He could see it from all sides but no one ever tried to see it from his. He downed the rest of that drink and put the glass down so hard that Loki actually jolted in his seat a little bit and started paying attention.


"I ran into a woman who gave me a picture of her son, after a speech I was giving to some students. Her son died in Sokovia. We knocked a building over on him. So yeah, I guess I can go to hell for thinking maybe we need some accountability here. I thought we'd have more say in shaping it later on too. I didn't expect it to get this bent outta shape. So can someone please tell me how to resolve this problem? Because everything I try to do sets sail directly for fail."


Loki looked to Thor, not wanting to get into the middle of whatever was going on. Outwardly, he looked unsure of what was going on. Inwardly, he was a little thrilled over the tension between the two. If they failed to see eye to eye, it might make it harder for them to find out who it was was gathering the stones and buy him more time.


Thor frowned. He could tell that Stark had good intentions, but the idea was beyond ridiculous. He had to be careful, however, because it was a tricky subject. “Stark, we did the only thing we could do. There was no other course of action. What would they hold us accountable for? Would they have formed a committee to make a decision on the best course of action, while the situation quickly escalated beyond our capacity to save all life on this planet? Giving these governments a signed contract would not change what had to be done in that situation, nor what we would do, regardless of their decisions.”


He spared a glance at his brother who was very quiet. A large portion of the problem they were discussing was Loki’s fault directly. Of course, another large portion was surely Stark’s arrogance. Truly, it all began with the Tesseract, however, which was still missing. It was no doubt a difficult problem. “We all wish that innocent lives will be spared. That is exactly what we are trying to do. Do you really believe an army of politicians can protect the world better than we can?”


"That's exactly what they did, though," Tony explained. "The United Nations gives the ok. That's several different countries. If they don't give an ok, we couldn't act. The choice was this. Sign, or retire. If you don't sign and you act? You get thrown in super-jail. I've been there, after they threw Clint and Wanda and Sam in there. And some guy that I didn't know. Not fun. These countries? Really serious. You're from another planet, so I'm not sure if anyone can tell you no. So there's that, ok? Just...I'll worry about it. If anything, they'll crack down on me. Nothing new!"


He started to laugh and it was a little too high in pitch to sound anything more than someone that would have taken the slightest nudge to get pushed over the edge.


Someone was keenly interested in that. That was why Loki was taking a very casual sip of wine, but his eyes were slightly narrowed as though he was studying a rare butterfly with intense scrutiny before pushing a pin right through its head.


“Then they must be made to see that their plan is a bad one. If we retired, how long would it be before they were begging for our return? Would they see the error of their ways in time?” He knew they were up against a threat, and likely a very large one. “We could still gather intelligence and explore our options, but we must hold out for as long as we can before acting. Either they will beg for our help, or we will do what needs to be done and be fugitives. You will all be welcomed in New Asgard once it is established.”


The fact that Barton and Wanda had been locked up made Thor angry. He wished he’d been there to protest, but he had bigger problems to worry about. It was a Midgard problem, but he had more or less sworn to protect Midgard.


From where he sat, Loki agreed with what Thor had said - it was folly to sign away one's freedom to act - but kept his opinions to himself. He didn't want to offer anything that would help or hinder the situation, and there was no way he could say anything after his past misdeeds. Instead, he continued to be very watchful.


Tony had been angry at himself too, especially with the parting shots between him and Ross before he secretly bailed for Siberia. Sure, he was still irked at Clint for the whole breaking backs thing because that was a real sore spot. He really hoped Barton ended up in the crap bag hotel, because that would make things a little better. Tony was many things. Petty was among them.


"If I don't suck it up and retire, even if I don't want to, I might try to talk Pepper into moving to New Asgard. I really thought it was something that could be amended, but...yeah, not so much." Tony scrunched up one eye and shrugged a shoulder, before he reached out to give Thor a friendly pat on the shoulder. "You see a threat? Go get it. Good luck. I signed, so I'm kinda stuck. I can talk my way out of it, or pay a fine, or whatever. You? Heh. I'd like to see them stop you."


Thor knew that Stark was in a difficult position, but he grinned at the comment. “It’s true. They would be hard put to stop me. Of course I will do what I can to keep people safe, but I fear the next threat will require all of us, Stark. Whoever is after these stones is not of this world, and we will need all that we have to stop them.”


"Oh yeah. I think if it came down to that," was Tony's reply, with a sardonic smile, "I'd probably fly the finger at the government and help. Then I'll end up in jail, and everyone else can laugh their asses off. That'd be ironic. Wouldn't it?"


Thor chuckled at the idea. He’d been imprisoned on Sakaar, but he doubted any Midgard prison could hold him. He would be interested to see if they could. “If they arrest you for saving the world, Stark, we’ll break you out and bring you to Norway. We might rename it Thorway, actually. What do you think of that, Loki?” he asked, turning to grin at his brother.


By the look of it, Tony was really going to need the suit's autopilot, because he folded his arms on the table, put his face into them, and let out a teeny tiny high-pitched 'Yay!' sound.


Loki's thoughts came to a screeching halt, just as he had been contemplating that he wouldn't have to do a single thing at all in one capacity. The Man of Iron would probably be the cause of his own undoing. That made things a little bit easier. It was all too easy for Loki to look amused and to easily smile back at Thor in agreement.


"I think you're ridiculous," was Loki's all too fond reply. "Yet far be it for us not to take part in breaking prisoners free of a dungeon."


After all, they had experience.