The Bird

Tony didn't quite know war to think of his daughter standing before him. Her normally chocolate brown eyes were now a bright, electric blue. From what he could shed she was uninjured, at least physically.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity."

"Actually, I'm planning to threaten you."

"You should have left your armor on for that."

"Yeah. It's see a bit of milage and you've got the glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no. Threatening. No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing can change that. What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers." Tony said, pouring himself a drink. "That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's mightiest heroes' type thing."

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah. Takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a headcount here. Your brother, the demigod, a super soldier, a living legend, who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breathtaking anger management issue, a couple of master assassins, and you, bug fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

"We have a hulk."

"I thought the beast had wandered off."

"You're missing the point. There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"

Loki touched his scepter to Tony's chest, but all it did was clank against his metal reactor.

"This usually works."

"Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five-" Loki grabbed Tony by the throat, tossing him on the floor. "JARVIS, anytime now." He said, standing back up.

Loki grabbed him again. "You will all fall before me."

"Deploy!" Tony yelled before Loki threw him out of the window, one of his suits following.

Loki stared down as the suit attacked to Tony just before he hit the ground.

"And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil." Tony blasted Loki back.

Skye helped the God of Mischief to his feet.

"Orders, sir?"

"Stay here with me. We will watch the world fall together."

Skye followed Loki outside as the Chitauri flew down from the portal. Thor landed on the deck below Loki. Skye went to move towards him.

"Loki!" He yelled. Loki held his hand out, stopping Skye. "Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it."

"You can't. There is no stopping it. There is only the war."

"So be it." Loki jumped down, attacking his brother.

One of SHEILD's jets flew around to Stark Tower. Skye looked to the preoccupied Loki before sending a blast of energy, shredding one of the jet's wings, causing it to spiral to the ground below.

"Look at this!" Thor yelled as he had Loki pinned. "Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?"

"It's too late. It's too late to stop it."

"No. We can, together."

Loki paused, looking at Thor before stabbing him in the side. "Sentiment." He scoffed before Thor started fighting him again, tossing him on to the deck from over his head.

Loki rolled over the side, landing on one of the Chitauri's flying chariots. Skye glanced at the God of Thunder before jumping as well.

Their brigade shot at cars, sending debris flying and people running for cover.

Loki watched as one of the Leviathans was destroyed, the Chitauri screeching in anger.

"Send the rest." Several more Chitauri and Leviathans came through the portal. Loki turned to Skye. "Find the Captain. And kill him."