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Loki had never liked the tall glassy skyscrapers that seemed to him a poor imitation of the gold and crystal spires of Asgard. So melting the shining windows and letting the cool liquid-glass pour down the buildings to splash and harden again on the sidewalks below was satisfying despite the quick way his brother's associates avoided the attack. Or most of them did. The Iron Man was caught in it, struggling to crack the thick glass that encased half his armour. It was really a nice spell, he would have to remember it for later use.
“Brother, cease this!” Thor bellowed, flinging Mjolnir into an animated statue of William Shakespeare. The mighty hammer sent Bill flying, mangling the bronze sculpture. Loki sneered.
“Why? What is the matter, Thor, oh mighty warrior. Are you tired of battle already?” he taunted. “I thought you craved the heat of battle, or are those stories of the warrior Thor lies?”
Thor roared. “Do not dishonour me, Loki! I do not enjoy fighting you like this, my brother, but if you give me no quarter I will not back down!”
“Why, you wound me,” Loki declared mockingly. “What is wrong with fighting me, brother? Does it confuse you to think of more than a simple weapon swinging at your head? Is it because you can't win against one more clever than yourself?”
“No, you asshole, it's because you're a cheating bastard!” the Iron Man shouted, pounding his fists on the glass that held him. “Steve, you want to give me a hand here?”
“I'd love to, Tony, but I'm a little tied up right now,” Captain America replied, surrounded by the enchanted statues of Hans Christian Anderson and four bronze soldiers.
Thor looked around for his teammates and, seeing the Iron Man, swiftly threw Mjilnor, breaking the glass that held the red and gold armour in place. Loki took advantage of his distraction and sent a blast of magic at him, striking him in the chest and sending him flying back through the glass window of a dressmakers shop across the way.
Loki bared his teeth in a vicious smile, then saw a colourful shield whizzing through the air towards him out of the corner of his eye. He dodged it quickly, cursing as it only barely missed his head, and flung out his hand in the direction it came from. The traffic lights behind Captain America jerked and came to life, snaking quickly forwards with a groan of metal as it twisted around the Captain's waist and began slamming him into the ground.
“Now,” Loki said, turning to face the store his brother had landed in, tangled in the racks of formal dresses. “Are you tired already, Thor? Has living on Midgard and fighting mere mortals sapped your strength so?”
Thor struggled to his feet, tripping over the white dress that had wrapped itself around him. “Never,” he called. “I merely – what?” He stared at Loki, thrown off his train of thought when he saw his brother suddenly unable to stop grinning.
“Why does your face twist so, brother?” he demanded. “Are you laughing at me? I would not start enjoying your victory yet, Loki, it is far from assured!”
Loki fought and failed to keep a straight face. “Of course I am not laughing at you, Freyja,” he giggled. “It would be most rude to laugh at a bride on her wedding day!”
Thor looked bewildered for an instant, but then his expression cleared and he began to laugh, pulling the wedding dress off of his armour. “Yes, well, what is a bride without a bridesmaid, eh?” he called out. “Where is your dress, Loki, or will you not be accompanying me this time?”
“What the hell are they getting on about,” Tony said flatly, helping Steve pull himself free of the homicidal traffic lights, which had gone still once more. “Hey Thor! You maybe wanna stop trying on clothes long enough to keep the homicidal trickster god from making New York destroy itself, please?”
Thor waved his hand at Tony dismissively. “Yes, yes,” he said, summoning Mjolnir to his hand. But Loki was laughing harder now, and Thor looked at him inquisitively, his eyes bright with mirth.
“So it is not your hammer that was taken this time, I see,” Loki laughed. “Did Thrymr take your magic girdle? Or perhaps it was your lovely golden locks that he stole!”
“Ah, but I would not be troubled by a shorn head, Loki, you know that well,” Thor said with a wicked gleam in his eye. “For I could simply send Sif to find me a wig of enchanted gold, I am certain she knows where one can be found!”
“Okay, for real, cut it out you two,” Tony yelled at the snickering gods. “Thor, this is serious! We have to defeat Loki, remember?” He turned to Captain America, gesturing hopelessly. “Steve, tell them it's serious.”
Steve eyed Thor and Loki uncertainly. “I don't know, Tony,” he said with a slight frown. “I mean, New York isn't destroying itself any more, all the statues and everything have frozen again. It looks like Loki's had his fun, at least for the time being.” He looked around at the destruction surrounding them and raised his shield. “But we should probably take him into custody all the same. If we both hit him at the same time, that could knock him out long enough to collect him. And with Thor...distracting him, now is probably our best chance.”
Iron Man and Captain America readied themselves, and aimed at the god perched on a street sign, clutching his stomach and belly laughing at whatever it was Thor was saying about Odin's spear. But when Steve threw his shield and Tony released two pulse bolts, Loki seemed to know they were coming. He turned and, grinning widely, vanished at the last second, Steve's shield and Tony's pulse bolts passing harmlessly through the space he had occupied an instant before.
“Fuck,” Tony said. Steve caught his returning shield and shrugged.
“Oh well,” he said. “We tried. Let's go get Thor and report back to Fury.”
They caught up with the still-chuckling Thor standing in front of the destroyed dress shop, shaking shards of broken glass from his hair and wiping tears of laughter from his face. Though the street was wrecked and Loki gone, he seemed in high spirits and still full of stories of his past exploits with his brother.
“Tonight we will feast and drink long into the night, my friends, and I will recount all the tales of our grand adventures in Asgard!” he promised, clapping them on the backs and letting them take the lead as they left. Glancing around at the rubble of their surroundings, Thor said softly, almost to himself, “And some day, perhaps, Loki will come out of this madness that has struck him and can tell his own stories.” He smiled. “You were always the better of us at weaving words, my brother.”
The three Avengers took their leave, and from the shadows of a skyscraper Loki watched them go, the mirth that had filled him earlier going with them. “I am sorry, brother,” he murmured. “Would that I could grant you your wish, but I have fallen too far to rise up again.” And so he wrapped himself in the shadows like a cloak, stepping back into the darkness and vanished, leaving the ruined scene to stillness and the distant sound of sirens.