Chapter 5

Loki was beginning to get irritated. He'd searched the palace high and low for Thor. He'd checked in all his usual haunts: the training yard, the armory, the kitchen. Nothing. No one had seen so much as a perfect golden hair on Thor's head all day. Loki ground his teeth. He knew he should have stuck a tracking spell on Thor before he started their 'game'.

He made his way back to his study and pulled out his scrying mirror, mumbling the spell's incantation under his breath. The mirror fogged for a moment and then began to clear. He saw his brother sobbing while a man with disgracefully short blond hair clutched his brother.

Loki's eyebrows rose as he took in the scene. The room his brother was in was bleak and unfamiliar. It was clearly nowhere in the palace. And then there was the question of the man, the clearly non-Asgardian man. His stomach dropped like a sack of rocks as stared at the thin mirror.

"Tyr's balls," Loki cursed.

It was obvious.

Completely obvious.

His poor stupid brother had been kidnapped.

The idiot! How did this even happen under Heimdall's watch?!

Normally Loki would jump at the chance to point out the failure of the realm's omnipotent guardian but in this case the thought brought him no joy. Oh Norns, his brother had been kidnapped. He'd been kidnapped while he was supposed to be watching him on the day of their sister's coronation.

He set the mirror down.

He had to do something! He needed him back now.

Thor. His brother didn't cry easily. No, but he'd been sobbing in the mirror. He was with some strange man who no doubt had already harmed him severely given Thor's state. Oh, what would their mother say?

His stomach flipped again. She would never forgive him if anything happened to her youngest.

He could imagine his father's grey eye starring him down from Asgard's golden throne. The disappointment would be palpable.

Not to mention what his eldest sister would do to him. She might talk a big game, about how much she found Thor annoying, but Loki could see that beneath her mask and biting remarks, she loved Thor. There would be no doubt that after she gave him an unparalleled lashing for losing Thor, she would declare war on any realm that stood between her and Thor.

He shivered thinking of the unstable energy Hela had given off after coming home bathed in blood from the Nifelheim uprising. That couldn't happen again. He needed to find Thor.

With that thought, Loki set his scrying mirror down on the table and pulled on his green cloak. He whispered the incantation for invisibility and headed for the rainbow bridge. He had no time to lose.

After Thor's sobbing gave way to hiccups and finally to silence Steve helped him wash his face and clean up. His eyes were still a little puffy, but past that it didn't look like the kid was bothered in any way. He had a cheerful grin back on his face and was roaming the kitchen for more Poptarts.

How the kid was still hungry after eating a box and a half was a mystery to Steve, but what did he know he had a ridiculous metabolism of his own and growing children needed food. He could tell the blond was starting to get restless after the third time he asked when Hawkeyes was coming back.

Steve couldn't really say but he was getting to be at the end of his rope with what else they could do in the kitchen, so he began to straighten up their mess. The toaster looked to Steve like a lost cause but who knows maybe Stark could fix it. If he was anything like Howard, he could probably do it in his sleep. He set it off to the side before setting the silver wrappers in the garbage and tossing the empty box in the recycling bin.

"Okay Thor, why don't we go see what Clint is up to?" Thor bobbed his head excitedly and trailed after him as they left the shared helicarrier kitchen and headed for the lab.

He wasn't really sure what the security protocols were. After Maw everything was so rushed no one had really had the time to tell him beyond putting him in a suit and sending him off to Berlin to fight aliens. But Thor however mysterious his entrance was, is still a kid and Steve needs an update on what their attack plan is.

He strode into the lab to find Stark, Banner, Natasha, and -to his relief- Clint looking over a screen. He frowned, "Isn't that the ugly new building in New York?"

Stark gasped at him looking mildly offended, "If by ugly you mean the only 100% green self-sustaining building on the planet. Didn't know you were against fighting climate change."

Steve rolled his eyes. No, he hadn't missed the plain as day giant glowing blue letters that spelled out Stark on the top of the tower. That didn't make the building any less ugly though.

Thor slid past Steve and stared curiously at the screen. He then laughed loud and light, "You are right, Captain that is an ugly building! Is it normal on Midgard to light buildings on fire?"

Stark spluttered, eyebrows rising into his forehead, trying and failing to find something to say to Thor. The last words of that Thor said seem to finally catch up to Stark as he follows the kid's gaze to the screen, "That son of a bitch!"

"Language, there's a child present," Steve said automatically, as he stepped closer to see what fire they could be talking about. There was no fire a second ago.

Thor looked around curiously but seems to take the cursing in stride, which is good no kid needs to be cursing the way Stark does.

Stark opened and closed his mouth, "Right, whatever choir boy. I think we have more important things to worry about," He gestured wildly at the screen, "like the black flames coming off of my newly finished building."

"Yeah, I'd say its time we get to New York. Suit up boys," Natasha pulled a pistol out from under the lab bench and slips it into her holster.

"Does that include me?" Banner asked, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "Because I'm not really sure that's- "

Stark cut the scientist off with a clap on the back, "Of course gentle green giant, you're part of the saving Earth party too now. You can't just leave your science bro alone with these Neanderthals. Get a little angry let off some steam."

He'd like to disagree with Tony Stark, if only because the man needed someone to keep his ego in check, but in this case- well he'd seen the videos of what the Hulk did to Harlem, and they could use a little of that right now.

"Banner we could use all the help we can get," Natasha said pulling knives out from behind a panel in the wall and handing them to Clint. Did she have weapons like this hidden all over the carrier?

The scientist rocks back and forth worrying at his lip before he finally nods, "This might be the last time I ever get to see New York after all."

"With that attitude maybe! I think we could use a little more positivity in here," Stark said before he reached for something on the other side of the lab table. "Rogers looks like Agent Coulson knitted you up a suit too."

Steve blinked and there's suddenly a red, white, and blue monstrosity flying towards him. He catches it with one hand and frowns. It was armored, but only just enough. It was more like Clint and Natasha's catsuits than the more solid armor the strike teams went in with. Steve had only met Coulson a handful of times, the man was a bit awkward, but Steve could tell his heart was in the right place. The loss of a good man weighed on him. If Berlin had gone better, they wouldn't be in this situation now.

"Okay, everybody be down in the hanger in ten," Clint said stepping past Steve towards the door. Thor makes a move to follow him and Steve finds his eyes landing on their youngest passenger. The kid had been so quiet for the last few minutes he'd nearly forgotten he was here.

"And what shall I do? I need a weapon as well!" Thor pipes up, "Do you have any swords?"

Clint stops in his tracks and looks down at the kid, ruffling his hair, "Hey buddy, we need you to stay here. There are some more people I could introduce you to. You like pirates, right? Because I know a guy with an eye patch!"

"You mean to ride into glorious battle without me," Thor accuses his lower lip wobbling as he looks at them, "I thought we were friends. Shield Brothers don't leave their comrades behind." His pointer finger jabs angrily at Steve, before he casts his betrayed look at Clint.

Please don't cry. Please don't cry. Steve repeats like a mantra in his head as he watches tears gather in the kid's bright blue eyes.

"No, Thor," Clint says crouching down next to him and resting his hand on the boy's shoulder, "We are friends. It's just that this will be very dangerous and we don't want you to get hurt. You're still young-"

"I'm not a baby!" Thor yells, stomping his foot. Little sparks of electricity flew in every direction, "I'm 120 years old and I know how to fight!"

It was so quiet Steve could hear agents arguing two floors down. It was the first time he'd ever been in a room with Tony Stark that was quiet.

It didn't last.

"So, anyone else want to switch your bet to the kid's not human?" Stark asks his suit humming as the pieces connect and activate over his body.

Thor looks downright bashful, "Sorry, I can't control it very well. Mother says that once my magic settles it will be easier. Loki says I should be practicing more." He scuffs his boots against the metal grating on the floor.

"Well shit," Clint says succinctly. Apparently, Steve isn't the oldest one on the ship. He really wishes he could go back to when the weirdest thing out there was Nazis with red faces.

Clint is really tired of aliens, even aliens that look like they are eight but apparently are a hundred and twenty. And yeah even old-young man Steve Rogers looks taken aback at that revelation.

"So, anyone else have a plan on how we're going to help E. T. Phone home?" Tony says trying the break the tension. Steve looked confused, Banner looked slightly amused, and Natasha looked exasperated. Huh, he had to give it to Stark he was good at ending awkward silences.

"God Rogers, they really didn't catch you up very well," Tony rested his hand on Steve's shoulder, "When this is all over, we'll have to have a team movie night. Catch the old man up to speed! It's a tragedy that he can't recognize my pop culture genius."

Natasha rolls her eyes again, "Can you really fight?"

"Of course! I would not lie to you my lady," Thor has his hand over his chest like a little knight swearing a promise. It would be kind of cute if Clint didn't now know that apparently an upset Thor sparked.

Natasha tilts her head to the side, a small signal Clint knows means she's measuring someone up, "Do you know anything about those aliens?"

Thor shakes his head and looks at the picture of Maw more closely, lowering his chin slightly as his brows furrow, "I am not familiar with them though attacking this planet seems a strange choice. "

"Oh, and why would that be?" Natasha asks, mildly.

"Is this not Midgard? It's not as my tutors told me, but you do seem like Midgardians," Midgardian's Stark mouths at them with a raised eyebrow, "There's not much glory in conquering it and it is under Asgard's protection. An attack on Midgard would mean that my sister and her Valkyries ride to battle."

"Look tyke," Tony says looking down at Thor from his place beside Banner, "I don't know about you, but I certainly don't see any flying horses or beautiful women coming down to fight this guy and he's already had two major attacks. Maybe you're wrong or maybe you're lying."

"How dare you say I am so cowardly I would resort to lies!" Thor growls at Tony and crosses his arms over his chest as he thrusts his chest forward like a tiny prince, "Nor am I wrong! But perhaps they have not noticed yet. It is my sister's coronation day!" Thor smiles blindingly for a second before the blood all seems to rush from his face and he deflates like a popped balloon, "I am to miss her coronation then."

Natasha cuts in again before Thor can spiral downwards any further, "Do you know something about the scepter then? As far as we know it comes from space."

The focus on an objective seems to pull Thor back to himself somewhat, "It seems they use some kind of sorcery, but I do not know what. I'm not very good at magic, mind magic is particularly difficult. Loki knows more about it than I."

"He should come with us," Natasha has that determined look in her eye. Clint doesn't like it one bit.

"He's a child!"

She shrugs, "He says he's not and you saw him in the hanger he clearly has some sort of training. It can't be any worse than taking Stark into the war zone."

"Stark is an adult with a million-dollar suit!"

"Yeah," Tony says crossing his arms over his chest, "He's an adult who doesn't like being discussed as if he's not present!"

Clint glares at him but its Steve that speaks next. The man has a solemn look as he looks at Thor, "I agree with Clint."

"He might be able to find a weakness or know something about breaking the mind control that we don't." Natasha's voice is low and desperate. Guilt stabs at Clint's stomach. He knows exactly what, or who, she's thinking about. "Nat, Phil wouldn't want this."

"Well, he's not here to call the shots." Natasha turns around and furiously begins tugging her widow's bites on.

"How many kids that put out sparks do you know?" Stark shrugs and finishes with his suit armor leaving his faceplate up, "I say we let junior tag along. I'm with the sexy spy."

"Seems we're tied," Nat says as she tosses Clint his quiver of arrows, "Banner what do you say?"

"Me?" The scientist squeaks.

Thor folds his arms across his chest. His cape flutters settling around him like a blanket as he stares excitedly at Banner.

"Well, I mean-" Thor turns the full force of his begging puppy dog eyes on Banner and Clint knows Steve and him have already lost.

"If he really is one hundred and twenty, he should be able to make his own decisions, right?"

"There you go. Democracy in action. Now hurry up I'd like to get to the big apple before all of my life's work is a pile of ash." Tony flips down his faceplate, "I'll meet you there."

With that Stark is out of the lab and off to find the nearest exit leading outside. Clint groans and turns to Natasha, "You know this is going to blow up in our faces right."

Natasha shakes her head as she hands Thor a set of knives and ushers him out of the lab towards the hanger, "That was already a given. It's all about controlling the firepower. You should know that."

Clint sighs and follows Banner and Rogers onto the Quinjet. New York, here they come.

Author's Note: Here we go before the New Year! Only two chapters left for this fic and boy golly guys I love seeing an ending in sight for at least one of my projects. As always reviews and constructive criticism are all appreciated. I read and appreciate every single one of them! You readers are the best :)