The Tragedy of Living

05

UNDERGROUND LAB

Selvig and several scientists worked around the CMS device. Clint walked in, holding a tablet.

"Put it over there!" Selvig ordered, turning to Clint. "Where did you find all these people?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. has not shortage of enemies, Doctor," Clint replied as he held up a screen showing information on Iridium. "Is this the stuff you need?"

"Yeah, iridium. It's found in meteorites, it forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get hold of."

"Especially if S.H.I.E.L.D. knows you need it."

"Well, I didn't know!" He saw Loki coming. "Hey! The Tesseract is showing me so much. It's more than just knowledge, it's... truth."

"I know. What did it show you, Agent Barton?" Loki questioned.

"My next target," Clint answered.

"Tell me what you need."

"I'll need a distraction," Clint said as he grabbed his bow. "And an eyeball."

HELICARRIER BRIDGE - NIGHT

As they were waiting to locate Loki using satellite facial recognition, Coulson was standing with Steve.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble," Coulson said.

"No, no. It's fine," Steve replied.

"It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but..."

"We got a hit," Agent Sitwell informed. "Sixty-seven percent match. Weight, cross match, seventy-nine percent."

"Location?"

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

"Captain, you're up," Fury told him and Steve nodded and left.

OUTSIDE THE STUTTGART MUSEUM - NIGHT

Loki was standing in front of the museum, dressed in 21st Century attire with his scepter disguised as a cane. He walked up to the entrance of the gala.

---

Inside the Stuttgart Museum was lavished gala with an orchestra playing, but they were interrupted as the head doctor walked up to the mic.

---

Inside the Helicarrier, where Steve's lockers was, Steve walked into the locker room. As he approached to the steel cabinet, the doors already revealed the updated Captain America uniform, along with the famous shield. He stood in silence.

---

Outside the museum, German guards stood in their positions. One of them was standing on tip of the roof, scoping. He heard a sound. He looked down. One of his guards was shot with an arrow. He raised his gun. He was shot dead by an arrow and fell. Clint and his crew arrived at the doors of the locked science building. Clint looked at the retinal scanner. He pulled out a S.H.I.E.L.D. eye scanner instrument.

---

Inside the gala, Loki looked from above the museum and descended down to where the head doctor was. As he made it down and near the stage, he flipped his cane the other end. The guard there noticed him, pulled out his gun, but Loki clubbed his head in. Chaos erupted. Guests began to leave the museum. Loki grabbed the doctor and flipped him over onto a marble table of the mythological creatures bilchsteim. Loki pulled out an optical torture device. He plunged down the doctor's eye. The doctor twisted in pain.

---

Outside the museum, from Clint's instrument, a holographic eye of the head doctor appeared and the image of the doctor appeared on screen. The doors to the facility opened. Clint walked in and found in a cabinet, a glass thermos with a cylinder of iridium. As the crowd ran away, Loki slowly walked out and materialized in his gold armor and helmet. The police arrived and with no hesitation, he blasted the cars, flipping them over and over.

"Kneel before me," Loki ordered, but the crowd ignored him. Three more Lokis' appeared, surrounding and blocking the crowd from escaping. "I said KNEEL!" While the crowd quietly knelt, Loki spread out his arms with a wide smile. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

As the words resonated to the kneeling crowd, an elder German man refused to kneel and stood, heroic before saying, "Not to men like you."

"There are no men like me."

"There are always men like you."

"Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example." As Loki was about to execute the man with his scepter as the light glowed blue. Right as the energy beam shot out, Captain America arrived, diving in just in time to block the blast with his shield, and knocked down Loki.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," Captain America said.

Loki stood. "The soldier. A man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time."

From above Captain America, the Quinjet arrived. A machine gun was pointed towards Loki, while Natasha spoke from inside the aircraft.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," Natasha ordered.

Like greased lightning, Loki sent a blast of blue at the Quinjet. Natasha maneuvered it just in time, giving Captain America the time to throw his shield at Loki. They both began to duke it out. Loki flung Captain America to the ground, and then he threw his shield, but Loki swatted it away. As Captain America was knocked down by Loki, the scepter was pointed to Captain America's helmet.

"Kneel," Loki said.

"Not today!" Captain America yelled, flipping and knocked him out with his leg. Loki grabbed him and flipped him over.

"This guy's all over the place," Natasha commented.

Suddenly, AC/DC's Shoot to Thrill overdrove the Quinjet's speakers.

"Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?" Tony asked.

Captain America and Loki looked up at the sky. Tony flew over in his Iron Man suit and blasted Loki right back to the ground. Iron Man touched down. He stood and pulled out every piece of weaponry the suit had before Tony said, "Make your move, Reindeer Games."

Loki put up his hands and surrendered. His armor materialized away.

"Good move," Iron Man said.

"Mr. Stark," Captain America greeted.

"Captain."