The mountain peak was a desolate throne of rock and ancient pine, illuminated only by the flickering bioluminescence of the storm clouds above. Thor threw Loki to the ground with a force that would have pulverized a mortal's spine.
Loki didn't groan. He didn't scream. He simply lay in the dirt, his body racked with a high-pitched, jagged laughter that echoed through the trees.
"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor roared, the air around him beginning to hum with static.
"It's good to see you too, brother," Loki purred, wiping a smear of mud from his pale cheek. "Though I must say, the 'noble warrior' look is getting a bit tired. Are you here to deliver a sermon or a beating?"
Thor summoned Mjolnir back to his hand with a sharp crack of air. He stomped toward Loki, grabbing him by the collar of his armor and hoisting him up until their eyes were inches apart. Thor's voice was thick with a grief he couldn't hide. "I mourned you, Loki. We all did. I watched you fall into the void, thinking my brother was lost forever."
Loki's smirk didn't waver, but his eyes turned cold—colder than the abyss he had fallen into. "Did the All-Father mourn? Or was he simply relieved that the 'mistake' had finally corrected itself?"
"He is your father as much as he is mine!" Thor bellowed.
"He told you, didn't he?" Loki spat, shoving Thor's arm away. He paced the edge of the cliff, his green cape snapping in the wind. "He told you of my true birth. I was never a prince. I was a trophy. A stolen relic kept in a gilded cage. You lived in the sun, Thor, while I was cast in your shadow. You want to know why I want this world? Because a king needs a kingdom, and Earth is a world of subjects just waiting for a master."
"You want to rule because you're afraid," Thor countered, his tone shifting to pity. "You're trying to fill a hole in your heart with a throne, but it won't work. Humans aren't yours to own."
"And yet you let them kill each other by the thousands," Loki laughed. "But the moment I offer them order, you come flying down with your hammer. You don't understand power, Thor. You just understand hitting things."
Thor's patience snapped. He reached for Loki's head, intent on dragging him back to the Bifrost. "Enough! You are coming home to face judgment."
"The Tesseract isn't here, brother," Loki smiled, a sharp, cunning expression. "And without it, you're just a tourist."
High above the treeline, the Mark VI streak was a blur of crimson. Tony Stark was fuming. His armor was scuffed, his prisoner was gone, and he had just been backhanded by a man in a cape.
"Stark, slow down," Leander's voice came through the comms. He was flying alongside the suit, his golden wings cutting through the air with effortless grace. "Thor isn't your average target. Asgardians don't play by the same rules of physics you do."
"I don't care if he's from Asgard or Atlantic City," Tony snapped, the repulsors in his boots flaring. "He took my suspect, and he did it without a permit. I'm going to show him how we do things in the 21st century."
"He's the God of Thunder, Tony. You're a guy in a very expensive tin can."
"Then it's a good thing I've got a can opener," Tony retorted.
The Mark VI's sensors locked onto the heat signatures on the ridge. Tony didn't go for a diplomatic landing. He tucked his arms in and accelerated to Mach 1.5, a kinetic missile aimed straight at the heart of the Asgardian Prince.
Thor was in the middle of a sentence—"Listen to me, brother—"—when the Iron Man slammed into his chest. The impact was like a mountain falling. The two of them tore through the forest, snapping ancient oaks like matchsticks before tumbling into a clearing a mile away.
Loki watched them go, a smug grin on his face. "I'm listening," he whispered to the empty air.
"Are you?"
Loki spun around. Leander Hayes was standing five feet away, holding the quicksilver handcuffs.
"Leo," Loki said, his voice dropping an octave. "You should be down there. Your 'Tin Man' is about to find out what happens when you poke a sleepy God."
"I'm not worried about Tony," Leander said, walking toward Loki. "And I know your game. You want them to fight. You want S.H.I.E.L.D. divided. But you're forgetting something, Loki."
Leander's eyes flared with a brilliance that made Loki blink. The metal handcuffs in Leander's hands suddenly surged forward, wrapping around Loki's wrists and expanding. This time, they didn't just lock; they anchored. The metal flowed downward, rooting itself into a massive granite boulder behind Loki.
"You underestimate the 'mortals' you claim to rule," Leander said, his voice resonating with a metallic hum. "Stay here. Watch the show. Maybe you'll learn something about the world you're trying to conquer."
In the clearing below, Thor stood up and shook the dirt from his cape. He looked at the Iron Man, who was currently unfolding his weapon systems.
"Try touching me again," Thor warned, Mjolnir crackling with blue sparks.
"Then don't steal my things," Tony replied, his faceplate sliding up. "What's with the getup? Shakespeare in the park? Does your mother know you stole her drapes?"
"Mind your tongue, outsider," Thor hissed. "Loki will face the law of Asgard."
"As soon as he tells me where the Cube is, he's all yours. Until then, you're just an unauthorized alien on my lawn."
The faceplate snapped down.
Thor didn't wait. He launched Mjolnir. The hammer struck the Mark VI with the force of a freight train, sending Tony crashing through a line of trees. Tony scrambled up, his HUD flashing red with armor integrity warnings. "Okay," Tony muttered. "New plan."
Tony fired a full-power Chest Unibeam. The concentrated arc reactor energy caught Thor in the solar plexus, knocking him back into a cliffside. Tony followed up with a flying knee, the two of them grappling as they tumbled down a ravine.
Thor reached up and grabbed a bolt of pure lightning from the sky. He funneled the massive electrical charge directly into the Mark VI. The suit was engulfed in a blinding white glare. Inside the helmet, Tony braced for a total system shutdown.
"Power at 400 percent," J.A.R.V.I.S. reported calmly.
Tony blinked, a wild grin spreading across his face. "Well... how about that. I like the new design."
He opened up with a triple-beam blast—both palms and his chest firing simultaneously. The massive energy surge caught Thor off guard, throwing him across the clearing. But Thor was a veteran of a thousand wars. He landed on his feet, his eyes glowing with divine fury.
He charged. Tony met him halfway. The two collided in a flurry of sparks and thunder. Thor grabbed the Mark VI's forearms, his grip so strong the high-strength alloy began to buckle and groan. The metal creaked as Thor began to peel the armor away with his bare hands.
"Jarvis, override!" Tony yelled. He fired a point-blank repulsor pulse into Thor's face, forcing the God to let go. Tony followed with a brutal headbutt, the Vibranium-reinforced helmet clanging against Thor's skull.
Thor's head snapped back, but he didn't fall. He roared, delivering a headbutt of his own that sent Tony reeling.
They were both breathing hard now, the clearing around them a wasteland of shattered wood and scorched earth. Thor raised Mjolnir high, the sky darkening in response. Tony opened his wrist rockets, the micro-missiles locking onto the God's chest.
"ENOUGH!"
A golden shockwave erupted between them.
Leander dived from the sky, hitting the ground with a force that sent both Thor and Tony stumbling back. He stood between them, his hands outstretched, his golden wings fully unfurled and glowing with an intensity that rivaled the lightning.
The air around Leander hummed with a strange, harmonic frequency that seemed to dampen the static in the air.
"That's enough," Leander said, his voice calm but layered with a power that made the hair on the back of Thor's neck stand up. "We're all on the same side, whether you like it or not."
Thor lowered his hammer, looking at Leander with a mixture of confusion and respect. "You... the boy who touched the hammer. You would stand between two warriors?"
"I'm standing between two idiots," Leander corrected. He looked at Tony, whose armor was smoking and dented. "Tony, the Helicarrier is waiting. Thor, Loki is anchored up on the ridge. He's not going anywhere."
Leander looked at both of them, his golden eyes burning. "Now, give me a face. Let's bring the prisoner home before the rest of the world finds out we can't play nice in the sandbox."