Tony's visor slid open halfway as he kept his blasters aimed at the dragon, eyes squinting.
"JARVIS… am I the only one seeing that big, glowing, fire-breathing dragon behind him?" Tony asked, hoping—actually hoping—it was a hallucination.
JARVIS didn't comfort him.
"No, sir. You are not hallucinating. The creature is real. It is emitting extreme thermal energy far beyond the Mark VI's optimal resistance. Engaging it directly is… inadvisable."
Thor stepped forward, still catching his breath from the earlier scuffle. His eyes narrowed at Luke.
"You the mage of Midgard," Thor said, voice booming with irritation. "Loki's affairs are the business of Asgard. Mortals should stay out of this."
Luke raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. And your highness, your little brother stole something important, killed a few people, tried brainwashing half the world, and caused a massive international panic."
He pointed casually at Loki, who was still sitting on the ground, now watching proudly like Luke was reading out his résumé.
"So forgive me if I don't treat this like a family misunderstanding."
Loki's lips curled into a smug grin, as if he were genuinely pleased with the list of crimes being recited.
"He is under my custody," Thor insisted.
"And he's under Earth's consequences," Luke said evenly. "You don't get to clean this up like it's a family problem."
Thor's grip tightened slightly on Mjölnir, shoulders stiffening.
"But since you're the prince of Asgard, we can talk cooperation. You get your useless brother…" Luke tilted his head toward Loki, "…after we get the information we need out of him. Then you can have him back. He's pretty much worthless to us after that."
Loki's smug expression collapsed instantly.
"Worthless?" he muttered, genuinely offended.
Thor bristled. "Loki is no bargaining chip to be passed between realms. He—"
Luke lifted a hand.
"If you don't like the conditions, we can settle it with force," he said plainly. No threat in his tone — just a statement of fact. "But trust me… that won't end well for you."
Thor looked between Luke, Tony, and Loki, jaw tight. He clearly hated the situation, but the reality was simple.
He was stranded on Earth.
He needed the Tesseract to return to Asgard.
Picking a fight here would only make things worse.
The fire dragon behind Luke gave a low, rumbling growl — a reminder that this wasn't a battle he could win cleanly, not without causing chaos.
Thor finally exhaled and lowered Mjölnir.
"…Very well," he said, voice controlled. "For now, I will cooperate."
"Good," Luke said, dusting off his hands. "Because if you didn't, this entire area would've turned into a scorching field of nothing."
He snapped his fingers.
FWOOOM—
The fire dragon let out one last disappointed snort — a deep, rumbling hrrrgh like it was annoyed it didn't get to show off — before its body unraveled into embers and vanished into the air.
The forest temperature finally dropped back to normal.
A moment later,
THUD.
Captain America landed at the edge of the clearing, parachute collapsing behind him. He looked around at the scorched trees, the cracked ground, the faint glowing embers in the dirt… and then at Luke, Tony, Thor, and Loki.
He took in all of it with one long blink.
"…Did I miss the fight?" he asked.
Steve barely finished his question when Luke opened his mouth to answer.
"Well, you miss—"
He abruptly stopped.
His entire expression shifted.
His head whipped toward the treeline so fast Tony flinched. The relaxed, joking Luke vanished in an instant — replaced by someone who looked genuinely startled for the first time since any of them had met him.
His eyes widened.
It wasn't playful shock.
It was real shock.
"What the fuck…?" Luke muttered under his breath, staring at something none of them could see.
Tony straightened. "Okay, that's not reassuring. What did you see?"
Luke didn't answer.
Not a word.
He simply shot straight upward — a shockwave exploding from the ground as he vanished into the sky like a missile.
Leaves blasted outward. Pebbles skittered across the soil.
Tony blinked. "Uhhh… Natasha? The 'help' you got just took off. Like—took off took off. Did anyone know he could fly? Because I did not know he could fly."
***
In the sky
Luke climbed higher, cutting through clouds with a trail of distorted air behind him. The wind roared past, but his focus was locked far ahead — on something no one else could sense.
"Damn it… what is this?" he muttered.
He could feel it — a surge of magic so strong it pressed against his senses like a tidal wave. Thick, overwhelming, ancient. Whoever it belonged to wasn't just powerful…
They were dangerous.
Even from this distance, the weight of that mana made his instincts scream.
"This is bad. Really bad."
The Marvel universe was unpredictable, full of cosmic monsters, gods, sorcerers, and who-knew-what-else. Normally Luke didn't worry — but this…
This was different.
This was the kind of presence that made the world feel small.
Luke swallowed once, scanning the horizon.
"I swear… if this is another world-level destruction threat, I'm going to lose my mind."
He shot forward, following the source of the massive magic signature.
Whatever it was — he needed to see it now.
*****
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