Summary:

At every battle, they can see a flash of green from the corner of their eyes, and a hint of crushed pine needles and Juniper.
One once do they ever see Loki- Clint pierces him with two arrows and watches the blood fall.
Tony thinks something is terribly terribly wrong, because the eyes of Loki are so similar to his own during the Palladium.
Tony has to know what is going on.
Too bad Trapping a Trickster, is amazingly tricky.

(Good thing he enlists the help of a Teenager with freaky spider webs, and a Neurosurgeon who messes with magic every Tuesday.)

Viewing the Doctor Strange movie is not necessary for this fic

Doctor Strange will be brought in the second and maybe third chapter.

I saw the prompt somewhere, where everyone thinks that Loki is lying so they ignore his warnings of a great threat, except Tony, who was similarly dismissed years earlier.

Kudos to my first Avenger fic in quite a while.

They had all been seeing suspicious flashes of green in the corner of their vision.

The smell of Juniper and crushed pine needles always resonated seconds after the flash of deep emerald. On more than one occasion, Thor had spun in surprise, hoisting Mjolnir in preparation to strike what was (and always had been) thin air.

It had been months, eventually the flashes of green were accompanied with the sound of leather and the slight glimmer of something shimmering.

They encountered robots already out of commission- holes punctured through the metal with all evidence of something sharp. Tony couldn't find a single weapon that could match the destruction.

It was only during a mission gone wrong- which they should have expected; they had gotten too comfortable with the failed attempts and almost embarrassing crooks they caught more because of boredom than a sense of moral obligation.

It was Clint that caught it- his nearly superhuman vision spotted the green flash and focused on it faster than anyone else could.

The archer fumbled, his body chilling sharply as a feral snarl ripped from his throat.

"Clint?" Steve asked, pausing worried as he heard the sound through the team's communication unit.

Clint stared, unable to form words as the tall pale humanoid spun, something small and sharp slicing through the throats of the mutated creatures they had been fighting. A single touch caused another to stiffen, then fall apart with loud cracks into large pieces.

"Hawkeye, report!"

"It's him," Clint hissed, drawing back his bowstring to press against his cheek, "It's Loki."

The unit was silence as everyone else registered his words.

In the silence, Clint exhaled slowly and let the arrow fly.

He wasn't sure why, but a large part of him had expected the Asgardian to catch the arrow like he had during the invasion. Instead, he was throwing knives against the mutated wolf creatures, kicking and sending blasts of blue. Loki hadn't seen the arrow, and didn't stop it as it sunk deep into the junction of his neck and shoulder.

Clint wasn't sure of Asgardian anatomy, but he knew the arrow must have hurt.

"Hawkeye, do not engage. Iron Man is coming to you-"

"A bit too late for that," Clint responded, pulling back another arrow and holding. Loki jolted with the impact, one hand rising to his neck where already dark red was perverting his green clothing.

Clint could tell the exact moment Loki realized who must have fired the shot; the god fought suddenly more viciously, desperately, against the swarm of the mutant creatures in an attempt to get free. Even one of those creatures were tough work for Iron Man, Clint could only imagine how difficult the pack was.

Clint let the arrow fly, and frowned when the carbon fiber shaft dug deep into his side just below his armpit.

Loki faltered, one of the mutated creatures sinking its teeth into Loki's leg.

The loud sound of Iron Man blasted up from between the crevice of the two buildings. The high whine of repulsors loaded and blasted towards Loki, knocking away the mutated creature.

Loki looked up, pale and wounded more than he had ever seen.

Iron man pointed a laser at the god, but didn't fire. He hovered, allowing the god to slowly fade.

Clint smelt the crisp smell of Juniper and crushed pine needles.

Tony frowned, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. The loud sounds of his music caused the spare nuts and screws on his work bench vibrate and roll onto the floor.

There was a bottle of something, half empty sitting on the floor. A tumbler was smashed, scattered chunks of glass from where he had thrown it hours ago.

His mind was hurting, and every time he almost fell asleep he kept seeing the exhausted dull look Loki had given him, impaled and bleeding from more than one wound.

There was something about it which was painfully familiar. Something about how his eyes had formidable bags, or how his skin was erring on the side of being translucent. Tony could imagine much too vividly how the trickster's hands would shake.

Tony stood up suddenly, swiping one hand across his face in an exhausted gesture. The music thrummed loudly, the lead singer's voice reached a crescendo and a spare bolt finally fell from his workbench.

"Sir?"

Tony sighed, glancing up at the ceiling although Jarvis technically resided more within the walls.

"J, how fast do you think you could order be a Net Gun?"

Jarvis was silent for the duration of Tony reaching his liquor cabinet, and pulling out one of his favourite drinks.

"Sir, I do not advise using a Net Gun within the household, regardless of your current status with Clinton Barton and your ongoing prank-"

"No no!" Tony shushed, clicking his tongue scoldingly, "Not that J! Think bigger! Imagine how easy it would be to get the baddies if we just have to fire a fishing net at them!"

"Sir, I do not believe that tactic would be effective against the flame body entities two months-"

"Okay fine, but normal baddies."

Tony flicked his wrist in a unique way which was unique to summoning a hologram of the most recent model. The Iron Man suit manifested under his outstretched fingers, glimmering faintly blue with the iridescence of a sapphire.

"If we took this out-" Tony mused, pulling open the back panel where the steel spine of the suit created the snug fit against his own back, "And removed the flares, would that be enough room for a Net Gun?"

"My searches have determined that the size of a Net Gun is too large for the suit."

Tony swore.

He removed more pieces, including the spine supports and a few inflatable pouched near the small of his back entirely there for comfort, "Now?"

"The size of a Net Gun is too large for the suit. The problem resides with the size of the net itself, not the launching equipment."

Tony hadn't thought of that.

"There's no way to cram a fishing net into my back?" He asked, grimacing at the absurdity of the question.

"Negative. May I suggest searching for an alternate source of your net?"

"Yeah right, Jar." Tony snorted, rolling his eyes amused, "Where am I going to find a compound with the ability to form a net like substance, yet be strong enough to hold down a rampaging rhino?"

Jarvis promptly offered security footage obtained through the streets of Manhattan as well as several police cruisers.

Tony's jaw dropped.

"Son of a Bitch, well, what do you know?"

Spiderman was alarmingly easy to track down, although it may have been because Tony had Jarvis who could single handedly view every security camera and the police radio.

He found the spandex wearing superhero just outside a rather shady looking corner store. He was in the process of webbing up a rather furious looking older man, an intimidating knife just a few feet away.

"You know- I think I've said this before but you people really need to give up on your sharps. Sharing needles is already a mess, now you're going to be sharing knives? Christmas weapon exchange?"

Tony almost cracked a smile, although the voice was deceptively young. He didn't sound like he was out of High School yet- was he even legal?

The robber or drug addict- Tony didn't care, made a loud noise of protest, thrashing against his restraints. The white web didn't even move.

"Don't discriminate, they could celebrate Hanukkah." Tony sniped, landing loudly right behind the hero. Spiderman jumped, springing backwards into a handspring before landing it with liquid grace even Natasha didn't have.

"Oh my bad, should have asked. You want some web to play Cat's Cradle?"

Tony snorted and raised his face shield, holding his hands aloft in peace. "No thanks, I come in peace. Just want to ask a few questions."

Spiderman stared with the large imposing white eyes on his mask, although Tony was getting the impression of a stupefied blink. "You 'come in Peace'? What am I? Spider's from Space?"

"They made a movie named that," Tony offered, "or something like that. Clint has terrible tastes in movies."

Spiderman shook his head, "Clint? As in, Hawkeye?"

"Hey, don't go fangirling on me, I still have questions."

"Tony Stark has questions for me," The boy breathed out, sounding just as awed as any reporter Tony had ever met, "Maybe it is Christmas."

"Yeah yeah, let's go, Spider Boy-"

"It's Spiderman."

"And I'm Iron Man, seems we got our masculinity out in the open. Now chop chop, up the water spout or something and on the roof."

Tony returned to the tower with all the composure of a cat stuck out in the rain too long. He glared, grumbled, and with one memorable hiss he actively swiped Steve's glass of apple juice onto the floor.

Nobody would quite get it out of him what was wrong, or who had crushed his dreams. Natasha offered to find whoever had stolen his car, her drink was also knocked to the floor.

Tony then took off to the basement, murmuring something about impossible compounds and teenage hormones.

Thor had returned with a large bag of groceries, he boisterously announced that he had tried shopping on his own and procured a marvelous feast. Steve, the resident chef, hadn't the heart to tell him that a Rotisserie Chicken rarely went together with Mango Chutney Anchovies.

Thor hadn't minded, and instead prepared roasted lamb leg in such a way even Bruce, the normally healthy eater of the team, was taking seconds and thirds. The thick gravy was filled with flavours Clint suspected was impossible to obtain with human ingredients.

Tony still refused to surface from his lab, Jarvis relaying some sort of mangled message involving nerf guns, air compression, and Blackbeard the pirate.

They settled down, partially in a food coma to watch a film Clint had illegally pirated from the internet.

They were just to the point where a large crocodile was on the rampage when Natasha tensed and looked around quickly. Her hands fell to her side, before they clenched in absence of her knives.

"Tasha?" Clint asked, not quite sensing anything was wrong, "The movie isn't that bad."

"Oh it is; didn't you notice that the voice actor is American but everyone else is Japanese?"

They all jumped, Clint fumbling as he kicked off the coffee table to lunge over the couch in a crouch. Natasha followed suit, holding in a tense position just shy of Clint's leg. Thor jumped upright, one hand ready to summon Mjolnir at a moment's notice.

The invader was a young man, dressed in spandex.

"Or if that's not bad," The stranger continued, "They swapped out the main lady's actor halfway through- and nobody noticed? I mean- look at them! That's just racist if they think we wouldn't catch that!"

"This movie is a classic," Clint defended, looking offended.

The masked man looked at him pointedly, "In return I raise you the score this thing got on Rotten Tomatoes."

Bruce quietly cleared his throat, "It's so bad they didn't even rate it."

"Nobody asked you, Banner!"

At once the stranger's stance shifted, altering to something borderline anxious and excited, "Wait- Banner? Like- Bruce Banner?"

Bruce blinked but offered a small confused wave.

"Did we literally get broken into by a fangirl?" Clint deadpanned, looking almost scandalized, "His wardrobe is worse than yours, Cap."

Steve gave a squawk of something surprised and offended.

"Oh!" The masked man hurried, holding his hands up with peace, "No! I'm not trying to break in, no damage here. Well, I may break the TV but only because you all shouldn't have to suffer-"

Clint cracked a fist angrily.

"But I'm here for Mr. Stark!" The man hurriedly finished, "The name's Spiderman! He came and asked me a question and I realized I wasn't being really clear so I came over thinking I could maybe elaborate and maybe see his lab which would be very cool, and wow you're big." He finished lamely, eying Thor as the Asgardian walked over with lumbering steps, "Am I going to get punched? I'm going to get punched, aren't I."

"Nay, my friend." Thor chuckled, "Your words betray you as only a comrade."

Spiderman tilted his head slightly, "Oh, alright, cool. You seem like the kind of guy who would do that pot of ale and safety, or something like that."

Bruce snorted, having caught the Shakespeare reference.

"Wait," Steve blurted, turning and lowering himself slightly to finally be at eye level with the large white eyes, "You're the masked man who caught 43 robberies?"

Clint blinked and looked stunned, "We ask you to get up to date with modern era, and you do that by looking at police reports?"

Steve smiled instead, offering a hand, "I like to keep my eye on the underdogs. Amazing work, Spiderman. Especially with that Lizard fellow."

Spiderman made a small noise which was not human, "Oh my god, I'm shaking Captain America's hand. I'm talking to Captain America."

Bruce shook his head and turned back to the TV, apparently the plot had thickened and now Euros were involved with the large Crocodile rampage.

"Jarvis?" Natasha sighed, straightening and putting on a fake relaxed stance, "Can you tell Tony that he has a guest?"

"Of course, Lady Natasha."

Spiderman jolted, "What is that? Is that a full scripture AI?"

"I am Sir's fully equipped and operational Automatic Intelligence."

"Oh you're beautiful." Spiderman cooed, looking up excitedly, "Are you restrained only to this tower? Or do you have a Cellular link as well?"

"I am fully operational of all of Sir's suits as well as most coding networks."

Spiderman nearly swooned.

"So what's your real name?" Tony asked, fiddling with a tiny screwdriver on an equally tiny screw.

Spiderman shifted, sitting on a table top across from Tony's main workbench. He had been passing the time, throwing plastic scraps on the floor for Butterfingers and Dummy to retrieve.

"Err, I'd rather not." Spiderman responded, "You know, I got a life out there."

"Well we all do, It's not like we're Superhero's all the time," Tony dryly added, pausing, "Well, actually maybe Spangles is, I think he got a cat out of a tree on his morning run."

"Lucky him, I bet he's crawling with er- cats."

Tony grinned, pointing his screwdriver at Spiderman dramatically, "You, I like you. Can I keep you?"

"Only if I get a diamond encrusted collar."

"Done. Do you need a hammock or are you going to just sleep in your own web, little spider?" Tony crooned, "I can get you a jar of flies weekly."

Spiderman snickered, finding the situation equally amusing.

"So, question," Spiderman started, thrumming his fingers on the table as Butterfingers wheeled over having caught the piece of plastic. He snatched it, twirling it with inhuman dexterity before tossing it across the room again, "The suit. You said in a few press releases that it's a Titanium Gold Alloy but that doesn't make sense."

Tony paused, looking up with genuine curiosity, "What do you mean?"

"Okay okay," Spiderman jumped down, his spandex outfit squeaking slightly. "If it was Gold, it would have weighed three hundred, and a normal person can't move that! And it would have been too soft- I've seen footage of you getting hit. I was thinking, the Titanium makes sense, but It would have to be a Nickel-Titanium alloy, and I think that's called Nici-"

"Nitinol," Tony corrected, crossing his arms and looking marginally impressed, "And Graphite with Carbon fiber to reduce the melting point and increase the heat shell."

Spiderman cried out excitedly, "Exactly! I don't understand why nobody has questioned it!"

Tony shrugged, "People are idiots, and they like the thought that I'm made of gold. Although, you," Tony snapped, pointing dramatically at the younger male, "You aren't stupid. That web juice you have is revolutionary- heck I should call Bruce down here; he'd love to analyze it."

"Please," Spiderman looked dazed, "Bruce Banner is my hero."

Tony cracked a grin, leaning back on his chair and crossing his arms, "But, although you're smart you have a few flaws. Mainly the enemies you fight,"

Spiderman tilted his head, "I just fight people who the cops can't?"

"The cops are useless."

"No!" Spiderman argued, before pausing and sighing, "Okay, maybe."

"This web juice is impossible," Tony deadpanned, "I don't know how you stabilize it- and I invented a new element!" Tony growled annoyed, "And I can't figure out a high schooler's chemistry experiment."

"Hey!" Spiderman argued, "I'm not in high school!"

"No, you're in University." Tony responded, twisting his finger and summoning a hologram under his fingers, he then tossed it across the room to the masked figure.

The moment Spiderman started to read through the data, he let out a high pitch awkward laugh, "What are you? Sherlock Holmes?"

Tony purposely didn't say anything as the younger boy started to anxiously skitter across the room.

"Look, Mr. Stark, what- what do you want?" He started, word fumbling out of his mouth quickly, "I don't have money- I - I'll give you the compound! Maybe eventually you can deconstruct it or or- or I'll work for you or-"

"Whoa whoa," Tony blinked, holding up his hands, "Hold up there Arachnakid. Look- I don't care. But I need your help, I'm trying to bag a supervillain and your webs seem like the only thing that may do it."

"My help?" Peter breathed, exhaling a quiet "Whoa."

"Right, but I'm making you a better suit."

"What! No! No I made this one myself!"

Tony raised an eyebrow and spotted the faint blood stain on the bright blue, "You sew?"

"Actually used a spinning wheel."

"You-" Tony's jaw clicked, "Did you just-"

Peter very guilty answered a long questioning, "No?"

Tony breathed through his nose, "Okay kid, first, I'm going to clear you from the internet so other people can't track you down as easily as I did."

"Really? I thought it would be hard to get me off the web."

Tony groaned, and threateningly pointed, "Stop. Seriously, these puns are going to get to me, I already get enough from Natasha."

Peter paused, "Normally I'm the one being driven up the wall-"

Tony threw the screwdriver.

Spiderman was given two outfits, both made out of military grade Kevlar and a flexible material Natasha had on her own suits. Tony had to eventually consult Peter, debating over a payphone the color scheme.

Eventually Peter had won, Tony calling defeat when Peter had managed a quick witted pun involving Tony spitting venom, and got his well-known blue and red.

The second suit was Tony's prized beauty, made in ash greys with reflective panels between the artistic spider webs, it looked as gaudy as a tiger. Once it would be compared to the Manhattan buildings and stone, it would camouflage in a way which shouldn't be possible.

And as much as Tony enjoyed Peters quips and memorable one-liners, being on the defensive and the lookout was the only way he would catch Loki.

Not that the others actually knew what Tony was planning on doing.

(He had a feeling, considering the two arrows 's Clint had sent, that they would attack first anyways.)

Eventually they did get the call, a series of robots attacking downtown. There were only five, although each were the size of a small car and had loud chittering noises with grenade launchers.

Clint had made one joke about a car commercial involving giant rodents, and then the grenades started detonating.

Spiderman was being tracked on his HUD, his heat signature since the reflector panels were working amazingly well. He was staying out of the way, with the exception of flinging back one or two grenades that had gotten too close to the pedestrians.

Tony felt bad that he purposefully wasn't trying to hack the robots, yet he knew with this type of damage control Loki would show up any mom-

"Sir, I am detecting the presence of Loki five hundred meters behind you."

Tony selected the private communications link and searched for his little spy-der once again, "You hear that Arachnakid?"

"Hard to hear anything over your bucket of bolts, Sir."

"Hey there," Tony argued back, blasting one of the machines to get its attention, "You a bit rusty with me?"

"That was terrible."

"It was better than yours!" Tony argued back, trying to get through a metal panel on the one angry robot.

"You're such a female."

Tony paused and frowned, sending a repulsor blast at the machine.

"You know. Fe, like Iron-"

Tony groaned, if he could rub his temples he would. "Alright kid, stay out of the way but keep your eye on Loki. I'm gonna hack these things- the moment it looks clear you web him and get him out."

"Your team not fond of him? Then again he did invade- Whoa. Are those antlers for real? Is this Renaissance Fair, because he's missing the corset."

Tony snorted and left the small hero to do his thing.

Clint finally sent a diamond tipped arrow through the metal of one machine, Thor then struck through the hole and finally managed to tear it apart. Steve used the sharp edge of his shield to open a cavity, where Natasha quickly lobbed in one of its own grenades.

Jarvis managed to hack into the coding and remotely shut down the machines. At the same time, he heard a faint sound of crackling ice but before he could look, it was gone.

"Jarvis?"

"It appears Mr. Parker has successfully captured and detained Loki. They are currently located on the new construction of the Hardison Building."

Tony grunted, watching the creatures grow limp and drop entirely to the ground. Thankfully, all that was left was the immense clean up job.

"Jarvis, team line," Tony instructed, landing on the cracked pavement, "Whoo, go team."

"Really, Stark? That's the best you got?"

"You're playing with fire, Bird brain."

"Out of the two of us, who actually has the combustion arrows?"

"Guys, focus. Clean up is heading through, we're done here."

"Sweet, I have a few errands to run, people to not see," Tony sighed, watching silently as the GPS map uploaded on his HUD, "Combustion arrows to avoid."

"Check in if you need anything, Iron Man."

Tony gave a salute before firing his repulsors and blasting through the air, taking an elaborate path just to make sure that nobody (SHIELD in particular) was tracing his path.

He zoomed into the construction zone, amazingly windy and settled on a steel beam. It was actually pretty precarious, but had plenty of open areas for some sort of ninja or insect boy to swing around on.

"Hi! Glad you made it!" Peter chirped, perched upside down only by his hands and feet on a beam directly overhead.

"Kid, how are you sticking?" Tony blinked, shaking his head in disbelief, "That surface is almost entirely flat."

"It's my amazing spider powers. I can smell fear too," Peter offered, and Tony wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

Loki was wrapped up almost comically in a cocoon large enough to be a sleeping bag. It had several supports connecting it to nearby beams and chains, making sure the god wouldn't be breaking free anytime soon. The shell was also ridiculously thick, considering two strands of the web could stop a falling car.

"That's more than I had to put on the Lizard," Spiderman remarked, climbing around to view both of them, "Those Asgardians sure have something in the water."

Loki glared, his helmet had been taken down and set on a nearby pillar, secured by a bit of web. Loki's hair was dark and wet looking, yet crusty in some spot. He had a head wound? His mouth was filled with a thick gag of the web, causing his skin to look more pale with the pure white silk around him. White silk like snowflakes.

"Whoa, you're not looking too hot, Prancer." Tony blinked, rising the face plate so he could approach the god, "Actually, you've been looking terrible for weeks."

Loki's nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed with all the terror of a cornered animal.

"I'll just uh, leave you two." Spiderman saluted, "Text me if you need me, gramps."

Tony flipped him off right as Spiderman gave an actual flip.

Loki's face turned into a sneer, the attempt looking more desperate than real.

"Alright, so uh," Tony shifted awkwardly, he wasn't good with this kind of stuff, "I've been thinking and some things haven't been clicking right. About you, well, about everything."

Loki tugged at his restraints.

"Okay, so the Invasion, that was really obvious. There were dozens of loopholes, and everything you did was too…" Tony struggled for words, "Too orchestrated, like, you were giving a performance or something."

Loki paused, and his eyes once again revealed terror. Tony felt something cold nestle in his chest, "Oh my god, you were- the scepter it-"

Tony blinked and shook his head, "Okay, so uh, why are you helping us? I mean, you aren't doing anything for show, you're sticking to the back and god knows how many times you've given Natasha a panic attack because she can't see you except out of the corner of her eyes. You're playing like you're trying to stay ali-"

A dove cooed and flapped in, landing nearby as Tony only felt his heartbeat in his throat.

"You're trying to stay alive," Tony whispered, blinking rapidly, "That's why you're helping us. There's something coming, isn't there?"

Loki hung his head, Tony could see his pulse thrumming through his throat.

Tony felt at a loss, he wasn't sure what to do. Loki had the look of a wounded animal in his green eyes-

"Jarvis," Tony spoke, sliding his faceplate closed, "Pull up Loki's profile from SHIELD."

It said blue eyes.

"Son of a bitch."

I'm aiming for this story to have around 2 or 3 chapters, depending on the length of the next chapter.

Review and depending on what you would like to see, I'll alter the following chapter to accommodate you.