And then Steve was in free fall.

Now, Steve knew that Loki's plan more than likely did not include his death, but the panic that occurs in any sane person falling from more than a thousand feet at 9.8 meters per second per second still coiled up in his stomach and turned his blood to ice.

He spread his arms and legs to get what little resistance he could on his way to becoming a blood spat on the sidewalk.

Now he really wishes he could fly.

Unfortunately, the serum did not see fit to give him wings, so as he neared the pavement, he prayed desperately that whatever Loki was counting on would hurry the hell up!

The sidewalk filled his vision in seconds and he closed his eyes, bracing for impact.

So he didn't see the blur of red and gold that swooped underneath him and lifted him when he was mere feet from the ground.

But he definitely felt it.

His eyes flew open as he felt something lifting him. Thankfully, he wasn't dead. That was a pleasant surprise.

The pair of Avengers flew across the street and landed on a small rooftop across the street from the Tower. Steve dropped lightly to the ground as Iron Man landed next to him, flipping his mask open, the same cocky grin as usual curling his lip.

"Need some help, Capsicle?"

Steve plays along. "Nah, just practicing my Parkour." Parkour is one of the few hobbies Steve has picked up since he'd woken from the ice. It tested his strength and helped him think.

Stark chuckled. "Remind me never to go with you, Rogers. That's just a little hardcore without having a flying suit."

His voice suddenly adopts a serious tone.

"Seriously, though, what'd you say to make Reindeer Games decide it'd be fun to teach you what, 'defenestration,' means?"

"Not much, actually. He went on the whole, 'You will never defeat me," cliche supervillain monologue, and when I said we would Avenge the Earth even if we couldn't stop him... well, he got a little pissed." Well, that was a half-truth. Sort of.

"Ah."

For a moment there's an uncomfortable silence.

"So, Tony," starts Steve, as if this is a spur-of-the-moment question. "In case of an emergency, how do we get you out of your suit?"

Tony smirks. "Already so eager to get me undressed, Cap?"

Steve turns faintly red in the cheeks, and Tony decides to grace his question with a real answer.

"Hopefully there won't be an emergency, but if there is, there's a disassemble button on my left ankle. Please don't push it unless you have to, though, because it won't go back together afterwards."

"Got it," Steve says, masking the satisfaction he feels.

Just then, a loud crack is heard from Stark Tower. A shaft of pure blue light shoots into the sky, and all the people on the streets look up curiously. Their curiosity quickly morphs into suspicion, then terror as a small swarm of Chitauri come flying through the newly-opened portal.

"Oh. There's the army," quips Stark lowering his faceplate. His repulsor beams power up as he shoots off towards the portal. He manages to hit several Chitauri, but for every one he disables, three more fly out of the portal.

Still, only about a hundred of them fly out altogether, just enough to pose a threat, but nowhere near a fraction of the actual size of their forces.

Steve hears Agent Romanoff, three stories below, say something along the lines of, "That's an army? Budapest was worse than this."

He smirks. Oh, the naivety. That will soon be remedied, however.

He squints slightly against the harsh glare of the sun as he peers across the street to Stark Tower, where Loki stands on the balcony, watching the chaos below his feet with satisfaction.

He catches the god's eye, and Loki cocks an eyebrow at him. There's a flash of light and a squeezing and then he's beside Loki. Luckily, no one is paying attention to the god when there's a swarm of aliens invading New York, so no one notices the second figure appearing beside him.

"Well?" prompts Loki.

"I can take down Stark and the Hulk. Maybe Barton as well, though it'd be hard to approach him, considering how he likes to perch on rooftops."

Sure enough, an arrow shoots out from a nearby rooftop towards an oncoming Chitauri warrior, sending it plummeting to the ground.

"Take down Barton first. I have a promise to keep with a certain redhead."

Steve remembers the footage from Loki and Romanoff's talk back in the helicarrier. "Sir?" he says, slightly worried about Loki killing her.

"Oh, I won't kill her, not yet. Just make her watch helplessly as I turn Barton yet again.

Steve quickly quashes a momentary jolt of guilt. "How would you prefer for me to take him down?"

"Here," Loki says, waving his hand absently. Suddenly the soldier is encased in armor, a perfect replica of Stark's Mark VII.

"I'm sure you can do the rest, Rogers."

"Yes, sir."

With that, there is a flash and Steve is again standing on the opposite rooftop.

He lowers the faceplate, taking a moment to adjust to the new focus required to watch the multiple screens, then takes off towards Barton, silhouetted against the blue sky, now marred by alien cyborgs falling from the clouds.