"Steve, yeah it's me. I'm calling you because it's fast. Yes I told him... didn't you see him? He stormed out of here I figured he would have passed you... he must have a super secret spy exit. Look I called Bruce can you let him in? He should be at the door...ok...I need you both up here now there's a situation." The call disconnected and Tony put a drive into the port on the nearest computer and spoke to the phone in his hand "Jarvis are you there?"

"Am I'm sir."

"Great, I've plugged into a computer here are you detecting it?"

"Yes, what would you like for me to do?"

"Download everything you can on from the servers that is about Loki, logs, scans, diary entries, all of it."

"Very well sir, I'm beginning now."

"Good let me know when you're done."

Tony looked out the control room window again and shook him head in disbelief, Thor was going to be so pissed.

Steve and Bruce burst into the control room, Steve was ready for action. They both stopped short when they found no one in the room but Tony.

"Tony, what's the problem?"

"What happened with Fury?"

Tony waved off their questions and motioned for them to get in the room. Steve stepped in and focused on what Tony was doing, while Bruce was drawn instinctively to the many computer monitors. The charts and graphs and things seemed normal but it was all making him uneasy. This place was giving him the creeps.

"What is going to here?" Bruce looked at one screen and then the next.

"Well, we've found out where SHIELD's been holding Loki." Tony pointed unceremoniously out the window in front of him.

Both Bruce and Steve moved further into the room to see what Tony was pointing at.

"What in the world?" Steve exclaimed. Bruce swallowed hard and spoke softly obviously disturbed by what he saw. "Has he been like that this whole time?"

"No," Tony's mouth was a thin line and his tone was serious. "from what I saw they were rotating and flipping him on that board up in the air."

"To what end?" Steve moved a step closer to the window.

"I don't know, Fury was ranting about experiments, containment, distraction. My guess is torture but It's anyone's guess what they thought they were accomplishing. As you can see..." Tony gestured to the many computers. "They've been monitoring him." Tony pointed to the large screen on the wall it appeared to display scans of the prisoner. "I think these scans are all real time."

Bruce took his eyes away from the window and Loki to look at the display, sliding his glasses on and stepping closer to it for a better look.

Bruce moved to the next screen. "this can't be good. In fact I'm sure this is very bad."

Tony stood next to Bruce and leaned over to see what he was seeing. "What part? All of this" Tony gestured around the room and out the window. "definitely doesn't look good."

"No it doesn't and no he doesn't, but here see, this is Loki's temperature. It's upwards of 102 degrees Fahrenheit."

"So he's got a fever? Can that kill him?" Steve asked he had gotten the impression that Loki was suppose to be immortal, he did live after being smashed by the Hulk. What could a fever possibly do to him?

"It's not just a fever, I remember seeing on the Helicarrier in the thermal view of when they had him in ...the cage. He was colder than the room."

"Then he's burning up. We've got to get him out of there." Steve looked around the room for some clue how to do that.

Bruce looked nervously from the Captain to Tony. "I'm all for stopping whatever this is, but what do we do with him?"

They all knew he had a point but they also knew they had to do something. "We'll watch him... we can handle him,we'll figure it out. We've got the Hulk." Tony moved to the control panel and quickly worked out how to get Loki horizontal and on his way to the ground.

"God it's hot in here." Tony commented as the three Avengers moved into the large room where Loki was being held. They'd managed to get Loki down and now he was laying suspended in the center of the room about four feet off the ground.

As they crossed the floor Steve spoke. "Loki if you can hear me, we're not here to harm you. We're here to help."

Loki made no sound and there was not movement that they could see.

"He's still alive isn't he?" Tony asked the scans seemed to indicate that he was but it was spooky just how still and quiet the dramatic god was now. "maybe he's only mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead." Tony chuckled nervously.

Steve looked back and gave Tony a questioning his sanity look. Tony couldn't help it he made jokes when he was nervous.

Bruce looked over his glasses at Tony with a serious face but relief in his eyes for Tony's distraction. "The Princess Bride?"

"You got it in one buddy." Tony said in a hushed voice as they got closer to Loki in the center of the huge room.

"I think he might be unconscious." Steve said over his shoulder.

"I wouldn't be surprised." Tony and the others came up to Loki's side and stood over the unmoving prisoner. What little they could see was worse them what they could make out from the control room. In between the straps covering his face they could see blood, cuts, and abrasions. The God's skin was grey and cracked. He looked dead but now that they were standing over him they could hear a faint wheezing as he breathed.

"We've got to get these straps off of him." Steve said matter of factly.

"Judging by the looks of things, the straps on his face are going to be the worst to remove." Bruce offered.

They could see dried blood that was probably plaster the straps to skin.

"Then maybe start there, if he is unconscious then maybe it won't be as painful." Tony felt slightly odd saying that, a week ago he wouldn't have cared what kind of pain Loki was in, he was a murderer after all. There was something about a person being tortured that just flipped Tony's view of things on their head and it was obliviously the same for Steve and Bruce. They didn't want to inflict any more pain on Loki no matter what he'd done a week ago.

They all hesitated and Bruce took the lead, and stepped up to Loki's side first. He was tentative and truly unsure of what would happen but he grabbed hold of the end of the strap over Loki's eyes.

The strap was held by a buckle and the strap had to be pulled tighter to get the buckle to release. Bruce tugged it and it released and they all held there breath waiting for something to happen but there was no movement in the strapped down man. Bruce removed the strap from Loki's eyes and let it fall away.

There were dark circles under his eyes and dried blood running from where the strap had bit into his skin. There was a distinct line of grim on his face where the strap hadn't been and bruising where the strap and buckle had left impressions.

"one down." Tony said over Bruce's shoulder and Bruce grabbed hold of the strap that ran over Loki's mouth he pulled down just as he had on the one before and this time there was a noise. It was so faint that the three didn't think that they'd truly heard anything. Bruce started to remove the strap from Loki's face but quickly realized it wouldn't come off easily like the first had.

He move it as far as he could before it started to tug at Loki's skin. "What's the hang up?" Tony asked hesitant to go in for a closer look.

"It's stuck to his skin with dried blood." Bruce explained. He bent down and got closer so that he could remove the strap as carefully as he dared. While working to tug the strap off as gently as he could as it pulled at Loki's freshly bleeding lips Bruce heard a whining noise.

He stopped abruptly and caused Tony to jump back. "What's the matter Bruce?" Steve asked from his side.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just that I think he made a sound, I think he might be awake."

Steve nodded "Loki if you can hear me, we are trying to get you out of here, we are not trying to hurt you but I'm afraid what we have to do might hurt." Steve spoke evenly and nodded to Bruce to continue working.

"Maybe you should just rip it off like a bandaid?" Tony suggested. Bruce shook his head and continued slowly on. He was not overly thrilled to be so close to the god of mischief and the soft whimpers he heard as he tugged little by the little the strap from Loki's damaged lips was very disconcerting and seemed totally out of character for the god they'd fought a week ago.

It was a slow process but finally Bruce pulled the final section from Loki's face revealing bloody, raw, split lips. Tony grimaced at Loki's wrecked mouth. "Ow"

"That might be an understatement." Bruce straightened to start work on the rest of the straps and Tony and Steve joined him to free Loki. Bruce wondered just how much damage they'd find after freeing the god, just how long it would take him to get over these injuries and what Thor would do if he found his brother in this condition.

Steve undid the straps at Loki's ankles, shins and knees, while Tony worked on his wrists and arms and Bruce unbuckled the strap at his neck and the two around his chest. It wasn't long before they stood in front of an unrestrained prisoner. They all held their breath for a moment wondering if Loki would seize this moment to attack.

When he didn't move or even make a noise after a long moment they all breathed a sigh of relief but were confront with the task of what to do next.

"I guess we get him to the car now." Tony suggested.

"Do you have everything from the control room?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah Jarvis got it all."

"Good because once we leave here I don't want to have to come back." Bruce wanted to get as far away this place as possible.

"Ok so Cap you want to fireman carry the Bambi and Bruce and I will get the doors?"

"I don't know if it's the best idea for Steve to throw him over his shoulder, that could really put a lot of pressure on his injuries."

"Well you and I can't carry him."

"I think any way we move him could injure him. The xray scans on the computer showed injuries all over him." Steve pointed out.

"Maybe we just worry about all that later and just get tall, dark and feverish out of here quick before his brain melts out of his ears."

"OK, lets just get him out of here." Bruce conceded.

Steve took Loki's gauntleted right arm and started to pull him up with Bruce supporting the injured and limp god as he was lifted up off the table.

Loki started to whimper again and even managed to struggle weakly in Steve's grip. His face contorted in fear and Tony thought maybe he saw a flash of green from the god's eyes before they were screwed tight in pain.

"We're taking you somewhere safe Loki, don't fight us." Steve started but didn't need to finish as the god ceased moving and all the fight left him as he hung like a rag doll over Steve's shoulder.

A very tall and extravagantly dressed and bloody rag doll.

Tony went for the door, Steve followed with Loki and Bruce looked around nervously before hurry after the others.

Tbc...

I have no clue where this is going except that the story ends with Thor taking Loki back. Just wanted to get this chapter up because I've had it unfinished for a while and well Happy Holidays.