Avengers meet the Ghost King

Chapter 18

After a quick shower Nico joined the rest of the Avengers in the kitchen.

"So who was the maniac with the spear?" Nico asked, raising an eyebrow. Natasha, Steve, Bruce, Clint, and Tony looked to Thor who was staring at his hands.

"That", Thor stated slowly, "was Loki, he is,or was my brother"

"OK god of mischief and magic that explains the disappearing act. But why do you look like you just saw a ghost. That can't be the first time he's used that disappearing trick", Nico said.

Thor opened his mouth to say something before he seemed to choke and closed it. After another second, "I thought he was dead", he got out before breaking down in tears. This seemed to catch everyone off guard, whatever any of them were expecting Thor to say, it wasn't that.

"How did it happen", Steve asked kindly.

Thor took a deep breath before explaining, "Loki first came to Earth looking for me. I had been sent to Earth by Odin to learn a lesson I desperately needed. Loki was angry when he discovered he was not my true brother but adopted. He tried to destroy me and in our battle we nearly leveled a small town. Afterwards on Asgard instead of facing punishment by Odin he fell into the void. We knew not where he was or if he was even alive. When he reappeared here on Earth I came to retrieve him and we, the Avengers, joined together to defeat him and his Chitauri army. After his defeat I returned him to Asgard where he was sentenced to time in solitary in our jail. Time passed before I needed his assistance. Dark Elves, one of Asgard's oldest and most powerful enemies were laying siege to Asgard. I released him from his prison in order to escape with Jane Foster, who was the Dark Elves goal. We held the final battle on Svartalfheim where we defeated the Dark Elves and secured the Ether, but Loki was wounded in battle and I and everyone witnessing thought him dead. Until now."

"So what do we do about him now?", asked Clint after a thoughtful silence.

"We find him", said Steve, "We can't let him cause anymore damage."

"OK but how do we find him, the guy can literally teleport", Natasha assessed.

"I bet we could scan the Earth for frequencies. There has to be some sort of traceable wavelength or side effect of his magic" Bruce posed to Tony.

"Yeah definitely. Give us what? Three days I bet we could get a trace on him" Tony said confidently.

"While you guys figure that out, is there any film from these battles" Nico asked.

"Sure, just ask Jarvis to play it for you.", Tony said with an offhanded wave already huddled deep in thought with Bruce taking about electromagnetic frequencies and other sciencey stuff.

Natasha padded into the kitchen next morning to see Clint eating a bowl of cereal.

"Where's everyone else", she asked grabbing an apple.

"I didn't catch Steve before his run and Bruce and Tony are still in the lab. Haven't seen Nico since last night" Clint said in between bites of cereal. He was so engrossed in his cereal in fact he didn't notice Natasha slip off in search of Nico.

She found him in his room. Natasha had stopped outside his door listening for anything. When she heard the sounds blaster fire inside, she slipped in. Nico was watching the battle of Manhattan, alien version. The Hulk had just pounded Loki into the floor when the video stopped.

"You can come out now" Nico noted not turning away from the video feed.

"I wasn't exactly hiding you know", Natasha said stepping closer to Nico. "What are doing?"

"Just studying", Nico said taking one last look at feed before nodding and closing it out. "What did you need?" Natasha didn't say anything just hummed to herself while looking at Nico.

"Find what you're looking for?" Natasha asked

"How did you know? You know what never mind stupid question", Nico said looking just as intently at Natasha as she was at him. Jarvis interrupted their staring match, "Agent Romanoff and Mr. DiAngelo you are needed in the Lab".

"What did you need for us for" Natasha asked as she watched through the automatic lab doors, Nico trailing close behind.

"We found him", Tony said flying around the lab between screens.

"Or rather we found a reliable way to track him", Bruce took over, "At first we thought we could track the heat signatures Loki leaves behind but that was to unreliable and not specific enough so then we looked at the electromagnetic and visual spectrums"

"Speak English", Steve interrupted.

"We have satellites scanning the globe for him, using our program as soon as they pick him up we'll know", Tony said finally looking up from his screens.