The breathless fall

Chapter 1

"What have you done now, Stark?"

"Power is at 14 percent sir"

"I Know Jarvis, quit reminding me"

WHAM!

Tony punches the nearest creature, trying to conserve as much energy as possible, because these stupid monster-troll things do not have the brains to go down when he hit them. Of course Banner is in the middle of –god-knows-where, and of course he "forgot" his damn phone, and of course the hulk could have made short work of these ugly buggers, but no. Banner has to save the world one sick orphan at a time.

Several of the trolls manage to dog pile Thor, who is now almost completely hidden from view under the mass of bodies swarming all over him. "Tony! I can not hold them off for ever!" he growls and smashes a troll over the head with his hammer. "We must deal with my brother quickly!"

"Agreed thunder boy, But I've got a party of my own to deal with." Gasping for air, Tony finally catches a glimpse at Loki, who is currently fencing with Captain America. Loki is a jabbing ,twirling blur with his spear and all the Captain can do is keep blocking, because Loki Isn't giving him a moment to breathe.

Tony gets kicked from behind and goes sprawling across the street sending sparks everywhere. He is momentarily winded and then coughs to get his breath back. He grasps a nearby car door to hoist himself up and uses a pulse to knock the offending troll on itsback. The troll smacks into a lamp-post with enough force that Tony heard its skull crack. "Take that you ugly bastard." He wheezes. And the world spins for a moment. –Ok deep breath, If I pass out I in front of the guys I will never hear the end of it-

"Power at 12 percent sir"

"Damn it Jarvis, I'm not going to ask you again!"

He shudders to his feet, now completely punch-drunk. Another troll makes the mistake of coming for him, and he kicks it in the ribs, sending it sprawling. Another one on his left grabs his helmet and tries to twist his neck. Tony jabs it in the ribs and with a painful squeal it lets go. It turns it slobbery, hairy face to him and howls as it swings a wide right punch. Tony uses the momentum to pull the troll into a spin and heaves it as hard as he can. Which in his current state means instead of launching the troll to the end of the street, it merely stumbles and turns again. It comes at him again from the right and punches him in the chest, actually denting the armor. The troll holds his right arm and Tony is forced to block a rain of punches with his left, barely managing to hold his own. The troll is actually grinning, standing there whaling on him ,but Tony manages to heave his body up and twist his wrist, so his fist is facing the troll.

"Launch it now Jarvis!"

The Gauntlet in the troll's grasp flies from Tony's hand and sends the troll rocketing into one of its brothers. The pair go right through a clothing store with a satisfying crash. And thank-fully don't get up. "ya... you ladies take your time, but I doubt you'll find anything in there to cover your ugly mugs."

Tony raises his arm, sending the call for the gauntlet, when its's smacked right out of the damn air by Loki, who then flashes a wolfish grin at Tony. Somehow the little bugger got away from the Captain. Tony looks quickly around and can see him sprawled on the ground near a fire hydrant.

"Steve you better be faking dead again or I swear I'll kill you myself!" is all that he can shout before Loki is upon him. Loki leads with his spear thrusting the air right at Tony's head, but he ducts to the ground. He bends his knees and launches himself up trying to kick the stupid Asgardian right in his gloating face, but misses. Loki grabs Tony's ankle and thrusts again this time at his torso. Tony pushes back and tries to catch the spear, but it slides along his un-gloved hand and lodges between to armor plates around his mid-drift with a horrible screech. Tony gasps, this time in pain, and his hand and stomach begin to burn. Loki drops Tony's foot and grabs his spear with both hands and pushes Tony to the ground pinning him there. His hands slick with blood try to grasp the spear and pull it from his side, but he cant get a decent grip on any part of it. He really begins to struggle as Loki puts his weight into the Spear and now Tony can feel the sharp point slowly sinking into his left side.

"God-damn-it get off of me, you slimy green Bastard!" he grunts trying to hit and kick any part of Loki he can reach. If he hadn't taken on a small horde this morning, he would totally be kicking the demi-god's butt right now.

"Really stark? This is all the strength you can muster? Cant you see all your struggles are a pathetic waste against me?" he chuckles.

"You're the Pathetic waste, Hitting a good guy when he's down. Its not even a fair fight now." Tony squirms, trying to dislodge Loki or the spear in vain. He can tell he's got to get him off soon, or.. -nope no blacking out, keep it together stark-

"Fair fight? He spits "Three mighty avengers against one god? No not fair at all. I had so very much wanted to rip each and everyone of you apart myself, but alas I'll have to settle for just you" Loki leans into his spear so his face is mere inches from Tony's " And After I'm finished peeling this ridiculous costume off you, perhaps.." He twists the spear making Tony cry out. "Perhaps I'll take that glowing heart of yours and keep it as a trophy. How long will you last without your battery, stark?"

Tony's vision hazes to red as he twists under the spear point, Growling like a frenzied animal. Loki jabs a dagger under his suit casing, cracking the outer arc housing. Tony's not caring about the pain, not caring about the danger to himself he head-butts Loki and uses his distraction to punch him as hard as he possibly can, and he pushes Loki just enough to loose his grip on his spear. Tony then staggers to his feet and repeatedly punches the god. "DON'T EVER touch me again!" Tony rages. Loki seems surprised by his sudden burst of animistic fury and Tony hope's is enough to at least go down fighting.

Tony is hitting Loki with everything he's got left, sending flairs, repulse blasts and a few good punches at the god, who is now staggering backward under the sheer number of Tony's attacks.

"STARK!" The Captain yells. "STARK! GET OUT OF THERE!" and Tony looks over to Steve who has broken the fire hydrant next to him and is using the high pressure water and his shield to hose down the remaining trolls Riot style.

Loki uses Tony's momentary distraction to back-hand him into a car. His head jerks up and he can see Thor on a building top, with dark angry clouds swirling around him. The water from the hydrant is getting everywhere and Tony can see Thor raise his hammer to call out his ligh- uhoh-

Tony puts nearly everything he has into is one pulse gauntlet and Loki is thrown into a stone wall. He then amps up the flight repulses and launches himself straight up. He sees captain jump into a nearby tree, as Thor calls down the Lightning. The effect is spectacular, the lightning chains up to every troll and they shudder and squeal and burst in sickening pops. Within seconds the are all nothing but brown puddles of goo. "yes! Now that's a party favor big guy!"

"I only wish I had thought of it earlier!" he calls back.

Tony laughs tiredly "Just give me more warning next time!" He looks around the puddles of slime from his spot in the air, but he can't find any green chaos god sized piles. "Shit, who has eyes on Loki?!" he panics for a moment, and sees him waving his arms sporadically. A blue glow begins to surround the god and Tony knows that whatever he is doing, cant be good. "I got him!" He yells dive bombing Loki from above and he's halfway there when Jarvis pips up

"two percent power"

Tony yells as the flight stabilizers cut out and he plummets like a stone. "Jarvis backup now!" he yells as he's falling towards the ground. He looks down enough to see that Loki has made a huge blue bubble out of his magic and –please please please let that be a real bubble and bouncy-

"JARVIS!" Tony is now close enough to see that there is something Inside the bubble, -Stars?- and Jarvis kicks in the backup just as Tony crashes into Loki. There Is a blinding blue light that floods over everything and he can hear Loki yelling, and then an eardrum popping boom as the world around him feels like its squeezing him and-

Tony stark falls through space itself.

Notes

Background: This takes place after the Avengers movie and Iron man 3, With some minor differences.

Tony and Pepper were never romantically involved in any way. (and never got his arc reactor out because of it) Loki has managed to escape from Asgard and is now living on earth.

I do not own any Marvel Characters, The movie's interpretation of them, or any other awesome stuff. this is purely for fun.