Inspired by... a prompt. For some reason, won't let me post the link, so you're going to have to take my word for it that the prompt was an awesome one. Carry on.

Intro

As with everything, he begins small. A stray cat or two plucked from the streets, unloved and unnoticed. Their blood is red like a man's, he discovers, and their cries sound like a child in pain. They are small but vicious, claws leaving jagged stripes down his face, his arms, but he overpowers them so easily – too easily – and the first thrill of pain and dominance turn cold and empty much too quickly.

Human children do not have such vicious claws, but they are larger, stronger, and take more guile to obtain. He enjoys the hunt, the chase, and these encounters teach him patience and finesse. Unlike the animals, children beg, he finds. He likes the begging most.

But it still is not enough. They break too easily, he decides, and where is the fun – the challenge – in that? The sobbing pleas of a grown man once proud and now broken are far more satisfying. They do not give in as easily as the children, but these toys still break too easily and too soon.

It is not enough, and he grows listless and angry. Murder sustains him, but he has never felt so very bored.

He does not know what he is. The mortals call him Abaddon, the Destroyer, and he accepts the name as an offering from lesser beings. He has long since forgotten his real name, anyhow.

He could not be human, he decides, because humans do not enjoy the coppery taste and smell of blood like he does. All creatures look and act the same in the throes of untold pain. A man is no better than a child is no better than an animal. But pain does not reduce him to an animal. He bears it unflinchingly with a detached sort of fascination. And so he could not be human and must be something greater still.

But what else is there beyond Man? There are those so-called "Mutants" surely, but they bleed and whimper just the same.

And then he hears about Asgard and the gods of his ancestors. Yes, he thinks. Surely this must be the challenge he's longed for? Does a god feel pain, he wonders? Does a god bleed just like a man?

Maybe he's a god, he thinks. Maybe he's more than that if he can bring a god to his knees. Just the thought sends a shiver up his spine.

He chooses his target carefully, determined to find the greatest challenge among the Asgardians. He considers Thor for a moment but decides against it. He is strong, yes, and fierce and most likely has a high threshold for pain, but his mind is lacking in guile. Capturing him would hardly be a challenge.

And then he sees Loki, and he knows he will not rest until he has brought the God of Trickery to his knees.

"...they call him 'Abaddon' in the papers," Tony was saying, eyes trailing over the newspaper draped across his lap. He sounded bored, but Thor knew better; Tony Stark would not have brought it up unless he was fishing for a reaction.

Thor had only just heard the name. His mortal friends filled him in on the details of the crafty mass-murderer, and it chilled him to think of what atrocities these humans were capable of. Killing in battle was acceptable, even honorable, but killing for the sake of killing was not something that Thor would ever understand.

And, by Odin, the manner in which this monster killed was enough to chill even the god of thunder.

He tortured his victims, Hawkeye had explained, until they were no longer recognizable as human. Each victim was treated more savagely than the last, and it was this rapid escalation that worried Thor and his fellow Avengers. Normally this sort of thing was left to the police to deal with, but who knew what the madman would do next to up the ante? He might start trying to wipe out whole families, whole cities.

"Says here the police almost got the bastard," Tony was saying. "They shot him full in the chest, but he did not so much as flinch."

That meant he was not human, Thor realized.

That meant he had just officially become their problem.

Thor reached for his hammer.

A/N: Urrrgh, I felt like I needed a bath after writing Abaddon's POV.