Havoc and Retribution

Mental Construct

Thor and Loki spill onto the floor of the Avengers Tower soaking wet, badly bruised and disoriented. Immediately, an alarm sounds, a fairly annoying klaxon that Tony says perfectly mimics a submarine from the fifties. Why he chose that, no one knows. The Bifrost has barely closed before one of the Iron Man suits zooms into the room and reforms itself into a rather tight cage around Thor and Loki, squeezing them back to back, unable to move arms, let alone swing weapons. "How typically childish," Loki says blandly.

The man behind the suit comes strolling around the corner into the common room, a half-finished green smoothie held flippantly in his hand. "You are ruining my rug," Tony informs them, looking at the water pooling on his rug in distaste.

"I'll ruin much more than that if you don't call off this mechanical monstrosity," Loki tells Tony coolly.

Tony hits a button on his wrist and the suit contracts, pushing into Loki's chest and cheek. In response, Loki points one of his free fingers towards the antique leather sofa, a zap of green light flinging outwards and setting the couch alight.

He can't turn his head, so he fixes an eye on Stark. "Should I do the ottoman next?"

"Not that this isn't fun," Thor grumbles, Loki's elbow in his side. "But I hardly think it's fair to trap us both."

"Rock of Ages has a point," Stark presses another miniscule button and the suit releases them only long enough to release Thor, then folds back around Loki as a suit, immobilizing him.

"This is wasting all of our time," Loki snarls at Stark. "If even I don't have time to trade witty nothings, then-," At a flick of the wrist from Stark, the suit seals itself over Loki's mouth.

"What's up Thor?" Stark turns to the big Asgardian, completely ignoring the death glare that Loki is giving him from his metal prison. "Vacationing on Earth?"

Thor looks at him and the seriousness of Thor's expression is enough for Tony to release the suit's hold on at least Loki's mouth. "What is it?" Tony asks quietly.

"You need to gather your forces," Loki snarls. He screws his face up in a disgusted way and his words are forced. "You need to... call the Avengers."

"What's the super-secret password?" Tony asks, folding his arms like a petulant child.

"Stark," Thor says quietly as Loki renews his magical attack on the suit. "This is really serious. It's about Jay and Hel."

Tony swallows, turning away for a moment to gather himself. The Avengers haven't talked about Jay all that much since that day on Vanaheim. She left Steve locked in a cell in the Vanaheim resistance stronghold, went off to fight Hel alone, killed Tyr, and then promptly disappeared. There was a lot they didn't know, a lot to process, and all together too little hope that Jay had survived. It seemed far more likely that she'd given her life to destroy Hel and without Loki to tell them what had happened, they had all gone their separate ways. Thor had returned to Asgard to set up a watch for Hel or Jay, and Natasha and Clint had done their best to dig into Warren Biochemical with little luck to unearth anything they could about Hel and Tyr. Bruce and Tony have been working on figuring out how Hel manipulated the Birfrost. Steve has almost disappeared completely. They have all dealt with their grief differently, no one daring to hope that Jay survived.

He looks at Thor and Loki. "Tell me everything."

Thor looks at his brother pointedly and Stark says, "Are you sure?"

Thor nods and Tony releases the Iron Man suit. Loki stumbles forward, marks on his arm where the suit had pressed in. "Time to start talking," Stark says.