(A/N: Okay, so I've already uploaded a bit of this story onto my Fanfiction.net account (SociopathicAngel) and I though 'Why not upload it here, too?' So, here is the prologue of what will end up being a multi-story fic that stretches across seven different fandoms! I hope that you all will enjoy it! :) )
The Avengers knew there was trouble when the giant glowing green flower appeared in the night sky.
The team had been lounging in the common room of the tower when it simply appeared, starting as a single pinprick of light, identical to every other star in space, before spiraling outwards into an enormous lotus blossom design. The fantastic display hung directly over the stoic figure of the Statue of Liberty in the distance, her blazing torch pointed skyward as if to say, 'You guys had better get your butts in gear and fix this. Now.'
Needless to say, they didn't need any further encouraging. They were all halfway into their suits when Fury called, a hologram of his stormy features popping up in front of Tony as he hastily stepped into the suit that had ejected itself from the far wall.
"Just what in God's name is happening down there, Stark?" Fury asked in, well, fury. "The energy readings are off the charts! Get over there!"
"Well, what do you think I'm doing here, Nickey?" Tony replied with his usual dripping sarcasm, "Getting ready for a late night stroll? Rodgers, Banner, Romanoff, and Barton are loading in the jet as we speak. And Thunderpants," he said just as Thor reentered the room, his cape billowing behind him and his hammer held loosely in his hand, "is flying over with me."
Fury nodded once. "Good. I want whatever that is taken care of yesterday." The hologram blipped out and Tony and Thor flew out of the large window that Jarvis had opened for them, heading straight for the distant monument. They rendezvoused with the others a short distance from the base of the Statue of Liberty and briefly stared up at the lights above them as they rotated slowly against the void.
Steve was the first to tear his eyes away from the sight.
"Iron Man, have Friday scan the tower for any signs of life," the patriotic captain requested.
Tony quickly addressed his AI, "You heard the man, Friday. Scan the entire structure, top to bottom. I want a full spectrum, not just heat."
The display on the inside of his visor lit up in a glowing green grid as the program quickly swept over the metal of the statue. Less than a second later, the display focused on the high up torch, magnifying it so that Tony could see a patch of blue amongst the night vision green.
"Boss, there appears to be something moving around on the torch, but it's colder than the metal surrounding it," Friday noted, "Could be a machine, alien, or mutant, but it definitely isn't human."
Tony nodded and quickly relayed the information to Steve.
"Friday found something moving around on the torch, but it's far below 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Definitely not homo sapien." Thor sucking in a small surprised breath at this, but either no one heard or no one thought anything of it.
Steve nodded and began to concisely give out orders. "Everyone back in the jet. Iron Man and Thor, both of you fly up ahead of us. I'll have Friday take over and drop us off." Steve turned and jogged back towards the jet with the others, completely missing the sarcastic salute that Tony sent towards his retreating back.
Without further ado, Tony's repulsors activated, casting a blue glow in the dark as they propelled him into the sky a short distance behind Thor, whose lightning was crackling around him in anticipation.
They quickly circled the statue, the oxidized metal blurring past them as they approached the top of the structure. As they flew, possibility and theories traveled at a similar speed through Tony's mind.
Maybe a machine? No, Tony, you know machines. No machine could do this. Alien? Possibly. Mutant? Probably. Maybe that new fellow that popped up in Greenwich Village. What was his name? Dr. Weird... Dr. Odd.... Strange! Could be him. He did use some weird green energy against those supposed time travelers the other month. Although, it would have been nice I he had given us a heads up that he was going to be-
His thoughts came to a screeching halt and he nearly fell out of the sky in surprise as the figure on the torch came into view. There, standing on the platform with his eyes glued to them in apprehension, was the Trickster himself.
A faint green aura surrounded Loki, leaving no room to doubt that the symbol in the sky was his work. Thor landed a few feet from him, hooking his hammer onto his belt and approaching Loki with his arms wide open before Tony could warn him to stay back.
"Brother! What are you doing here?" he exclaimed, an exuberant grin overtaking his features.
Loki held out his hands in warning, hastily trying to back away from Thor. "Brother, no! Don't come any-" Faster than any of them could react, a bolt of green energy shot from the aura surrounding the god of mischief, throwing Thor into the railing and denting it under his weight. The normally invincible god was passed out cold, a large scorch mark marring his once-clean chest plate.
"...closer," Loki finished, sighing in resignation at the oaf's foolishness. Apprehension once again took over his features as he looked up at the still-hovering man of iron. "I hope that you can see that that was completely his doing."
Tony didn't reply as he scanned Thor for vital signs. Once he was certain that the man wasn't in immediate danger of dying from him own stupidity, he turned his gaze, as well as his repulsors, towards the silver-tongued god.
"I would say that it's good to see you again, Reindeer Games, but then I'd be lying. Why are you here and what's with the light show?" Tony asked, keeping an eye out for the quin jet. Might as well try to get some answers out of him before Barton pumps him full of arrows.
Loki held his hands up in a peace-making gesture. "I'm just trying to get home, Tony. I do not have the time to explain. Simply let me finish my spell and I will be out of your hair."
Keeping one repulsor focused on the lie smith, he held the other one up in a halting gesture. "Whoa, hold on, Prancer. Since when have we been on a first-name basis?" he asked, gesturing between them. "Also, what do you mean 'trying to get home'? Can't you just have Scotti beam you up?"
Loki's expression took on a slightly pained quality as his eyebrows drew together in a frown. His mouth opened in preparation to speak, but before he could answer Tony's questions, the jet finally arrived.
It rose up out of the dark so silently that Tony reflected that his modifications to the stealth tech might have been a bit too good. It was as silent as an owl, as silent as death. The open cargo bay door came into view and there, feet planted in the opening, braced against the wind, stood Clint. An arrow was already knocked on the string of his bow as he drew it smoothly back. His thumb touched his cheek as he stared down his arrow. His eyes locked with Loki's and a moment stretched into a second, a minute, an hour, a year as the trickster's expression cycled from shock to fear to pain to worry, finally settling on something that could only be called grief. Clint let the arrow fly.
And the entire world promptly dissolved into chaos.
The arrow was halfway to Loki when a bell toll rang out and the symbol in the sky grew brighter, swirling faster and faster. The petals of the blossom curved downwards, creating a brilliant dome overtop of the statue. It began to shift from its serpent green, becoming a prism of colors; it faded from sunset orange to purple, burgundy to sinister green. Blood red and pitch black swirled in its center to create a dead sun before giving way to the colors of a spring forest. Happy yellow circled within gunmetal gray and the color of leather danced with shades of midnight and crimson.
When the arrow was three quarters of the way to Loki, he reached towards the dancing colors, his eyes searching.
When the arrow was seven eighths of the way to Loki, Clint disappeared into thin air. He began to glow green. Not like Loki with his signature emerald green, but with the greens that one might find in the shadows of an ancient forest, mottled and cool. Clint had barely a moment to blink before he simply... wasn't there.
Natasha, who had been standing directly behind Clint, let out an involuntary cry of despair. Her eyes fixed on Loki across the gap and her features quickly schooled themselves into steel. 'Worry about Clint later,' she thought to herself, 'For now, make Loki regret that he ever laid hands, scepter, or magic on him.'
Finally, the arrow reached the leather-clad god, but it deflected off of the encompassing green light with an electric crackle. Instead of lodging itself in flesh, it instead found a home in the bottom of Tony's left boot. The repulsor there sparked and sputtered and Tony fell, desperately trying to regain his balance as he accelerated towards the waves far below. Before he reached them, purple and orange hues swept him away.
As he vanished, Natasha took Clint's place on the open ramp and fired her entire clip at Loki, her face a mask of unadulterated rage. The bullets flew at the god like a swarm of hornets at an electric bug trap, ricocheting off into the night. As they disappeared, so did Nat in a flash of ebony and scarlet, her second gun halfway out of its holster.
Unnoticed amongst the chaos, Thor vanished in a glow of red, brown, and black. The dented railing was the only thing to suggest that he had ever been there at all.
Loki stood on the now empty platform, shocked by what had just occurred. This had not been part of the plan. He had known that the Avengers would arrive before he completed the ritual. He had even casted a protection spell around himself in order to prepare for their arrival. But despite all his preparation he never thought that the spell could redirect this way. The spell was supposed to take him and him alone. It almost seemed as if it had taken on a mind of its own.
He finally recovered his wits and yelled across the gap to the jet. "Run you fools! Before you get sucked in as well!"
Inside the jet, his calls fell on deaf ears. Steve activated the electromagnets on the arm of his suit, causing his shield to fly into his grip. He quickly dropped his hand onto Bruce's shoulder, taking in his tense posture and the green tinted grief in his eyes. Bruce looked up and read the same grief in Steve's. They were the only ones left.
"If I go down or disappear like the others, let him out," Steve ordered, giving Bruce's shoulder one last steadying squeeze. "It's been an honor to call you my friend."
Bruce's features twisted in sadness, but he managed to nod in agreement and farewell. Steve turned towards the open bay door, tightening the grip on his shield, completely devoid of fear. This would be his last sacrifice, his last grenade.
"Friday, get us in close enough for me to jump," he ordered, his eyes glued to Loki.
"On it, Captain," the AI replied.
As the jet drew within a few meters of the platform, Steve took a running start and leapt through the air. He hit the floor with a thud, rolling to absorb the impact and bring himself to a kneeling position. He thrust upwards with his shield, using the large muscles in his legs to add force to the attack. The shield, like everything else, deflected off of the protection spell, but the aura seemed to be weakening. Miniscule cracks were spreading over its surface. Loki watched these with dread as he blocked Steve's attacks, giving ground under the onslaught of strikes. It took almost all of his concentration to keep the magic from lashing out at his attacker as it was supposed to.
"Why are you doing this?" Steve demanded as Loki blocked a punch aimed for his solar plexus, "Thor was your brother! What did you do to him?"
"Halt your attack and I might explain," Loki grunted as he turned aside Steve's shield.
"You'll attack if I do," Steve replied before aiming a kick at Loki's side.
To his surprise, the god caught the kick, gripping his foot and shoving it away from him so that Steve was forced to roll backwards into a kneeling position. As soon as he had some breathing room, Loki thrust his hands out towards Steve and glowing green chains shot from his palms. Steve came up just in time to see them and jumped out of the way, the restraints shooting past him.
Bruce had been watching the fight from the jet, becoming increasingly confused with every punch that was thrown. None of Steve's attacks landed because of the shield around Loki, yet the trickster didn't press his advantage. He simply backed away from Steve, sometimes dodging a particularly strong attack and sometimes blocking it or turning it aside. He had only just begun to ponder this when Loki shoved the captain away and summoned glowing chains from his palms. Steve dodged to the side and instead of restraining their intended target they continued across the gap and into the jet, coiling around Bruce. The scientist fell over in shock, the green tint in his eyes growing stronger, but before his head could crack against the hard floor, hues of storm clouds and sunshine caught him and carried him away.
Back on the torch, neither of the combatants had noticed his disappearance as they studied one another, one with distrust and one with exhaustion.
"I could have utilized my seidr at any time, you oaf," Loki sighed with no real vehemence behind his words. "You may relax. I swear on my life, I will not harm you. I don't think I could even if I tried," he chuckled.
Steve took in Loki's slumped, swaying form and lowered his shield, straightening carefully from the defensive posture that he had adopted, keeping his shield in front of his body. He watched Loki carefully, prepared to react instantly to any trickery. It was this attentiveness that saved the trickster's life.
In their fight, the pair had circled around the torch until Loki was standing next to the dent that Thor's body had created. Suddenly, large cracks appeared in Loki's shield. They spread over his body and the light completely shattered in a matter of moments. Loki's legs buckled and he fell towards the dent. He surely would have gone over if Steve hadn't sprung forward and caught him. Steve had seen plenty of people faint from exhaustion when he led the 107th to safety in World War II. He knew this wasn't a trick.
He carefully dragged the fallen god away from the edge, leaning him against the main part of the torch. Loki let out another low chuckle as his head lolled on his shoulders.
"Thank you," he laughed. "That could have been messy."
"What happened to you?" Steve questioned as he knelt a safe distance away from him.
Loki shook his head wryly. "I overextended myself. I believe the binding spell that I attempted was the one that set me over the edge, both literally and physically. The spell above us was only intended to transport myself, but it seems as if it has gained a mind of its own and decided to take your comrades instead. Transporting five people requires exponentially more energy than transporting a single man." He sluggishly pulled his legs in, folding them in front of him and resting his hand in his lap as he regarded the man next to him. "For once, I am being truthful; I did not mean for them to be taken."
The super soldier peered into the trickster's eyes and, detecting no deception there, nodded. He glanced up at the swirling symbol above them before standing and slinging his shield onto his back.
"If it took the others, why didn't it take me?"
Loki glanced upwards as well, his face briefly twisting into a scowl. "I- I do not know. Maybe there are still things that you need to know," he hypothesized, peering at Steve in curiosity.
Steve nodded. "There is one question that needs answering. If that thing just transports people, then are the others still alive?" he asked, hoping against hope that his assumption was true.
The god nodded and Steve's heart soared. Loki, seeing the excited and grateful light in the other man's eyes, couldn't help but smile sadly. Once he found out where they had been sent, he wouldn't be so happy.
"Where did the spell send them?" Steve asked, hardly able to contain himself.
Loki shook his head morosely, his features twisting into another expression of displeasure. "I truly am sorry, but I haven't the faintest clue. You see, the spell doesn't transport people over distances of miles, kilometers, lightyears, or any of your other Midgardian terms of measurement. The Mandala Effect is a trans-dimensional transport and, seeing as there are an infinite number of parallel universes, finding them would be an impossible task. I doubt they were sent to the one that I had been aiming for."
Steve's heart deflated. How was he supposed to find them now? He leaned up against the torch and ran a hand through his hair and sighing in frustration. He gestured towards Loki.
"Where were you trying to go anyways? Looking for a world that isn't protected by superheroes?"
Loki chuckled again and Steve couldn't help but notice that he seemed to be much more cheerful than when they last saw them. He had just had his plans foiled and had almost died from exhaustion, and yet he seemed to find amusement in almost everything. "No, quite the opposite, in fact," the god replied, "You see, I'm not your Loki. I'm from a different universe, one where you and I are friends."
Steve stared at the man across from him in surprise. His first instinct was to cry "That's not possible!" and claim that the god was trying to trick him, but he quickly dismissed the notion. When he thought about it, he had certainly encountered stranger things than this. He slowly shook his head in amazement with a wry smile.
"Well, that makes a lot more sense," he laughed. "You certainly don't act like our Loki. He would have called me a puny mortal a hundred times by now, insulted my intelligence twice as many times as that, and tried his hardest to kill me instead of laughing and thanking me for saving his life."
Good Loki, as Steve now called him in his mind, smiled sadly. "The me in this universe is not to be blamed for the entirety of his actions. When I first arrived here after a mishap in magical experimentation, he found me. The encounter was... disturbing, to say the least. He has been controlled by forces far stronger than him and he fights a fate worse than death. He is to be helped,not hated."
Steve's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Loki opened his mouth to reply, but it suddenly snapped shut, his eyes widening as he felt an upward pull on what little was left of his magical stores.
His hand shot out and gripped Steve's arm with surprising strength. "I can feel the spell activating again! I don't know where you'll end up, but you must survive," he insisted, desperately staring into Steve's eyes. "This world needs you. I will find a way to return you here, but you must stay alive."
Steve nodded. A glow of ruby red and emerald green had just begun to encircle him when an idea flashed into his mind.
"Find Doctor S-" he blurted out before he suddenly disappeared, his idea incomplete.
"Doctor who?" Loki asked the empty air before slipping into unconsciousness on an empty, dented platform thousands of feet in the air, an empty jet floating next to it. Far above him, the mandala blinked out of existence, fracturing, breaking apart, and fading way. The stars and moon once again shone alone in the night sky.
(A/N: Ok, so first of all, I hope you enjoyed that little intro! I'm going to post this story as several different stories. This first story will be the prologue and then each one after that will detail a separate Avenger's adventure in the universe that they were sent to. If you would like, review this story and try to guess which Avengers are being sent where! >:) Also, I wanted to share the inspiration for this story. A little while back, I heard about this thing called the Mandela Effect (as in Nelson Mandela), but I misheard it as Mandala. This is a theory that explains the widespread misremembering of events by stating that people who experience this phenomenon have "slid" between parallel realities. Examples of the Mandela Effect include believing that "The Berenstain Bears" is spelled Berentein, with an E, and believing that Nelson Mandela, the namesake of the phenomenon, died in prison thirty years before his actual death. I would recommend checking out the Snopes article on it because it's actually really fascinating.)