The God of Mischief feinted to the side, narrowly avoiding the clawed hand that swiped at his heart. One touch, and he would be as good as dead, reduced to nothing more than an echo in the wind.

With a cry, Loki unleashed a torrent of green fire, hoping to subdue the shadow-like creature.

It hissed and leapt forward, forcing the Trickster to intensify the flames, despite the dizziness that plagued his head and knees that were on the verge of collapsing. His vision swam, but the wraith was thoroughly distracted by the flickering barrier.

Loki contemplated an escape, but where could he go? The streets of New York City were far too crowded with mortals to run, and he was too exhausted from weeks of fleeing to even attempt a levitation spell.

Maybe it was time to die.

"LOKI!"

Hold on... That sounded like-

Suddenly, he was momentarily blinded by a flash of white light as his chest erupted in pain. The smell of burning flesh reached Loki's keen sense of smell as the world shot out in front of him, the shadow and the wall of flames quickly flew away. Something behind him slammed into his back and shattered.

Wait, no. That wasn't right. It was Loki that was moving.

He skidded across the tiled floor of what he recognized to be a mortal gymnasium and his head connected painfully with a concrete wall.

Loki coughed in the dust-filled air, his eyes raking over the debris-littered floor and the sunbeams that fell across it. The god did not envy the mortal that had to clean up his mess.

The clank of metal hitting tile echoed in the dark room.

"You know, Fury hasn't let me drink or throw any parties until we found you? Jarvis found your location right away, but nothing is good enough for Nick, apparently I have to catch you too," Loki could imagine Tony Stark rolling eyes behind that metal mask of his. "And let me tell you, you are really hard to keep up with."

The god smirked, not bothering to rise from his slump on the floor. In fact, he quite relished the cold seeping into his shoulders. Offering an exaggerated wince, Loki mocked, "Ooh, two and a half weeks without a party? I am so sorry to cause such pain. It was terribly selfish of me to run myself nearly to death, when I should have simply died so a worthless mortal can enjoy himself the miniscule amount of time he has left," By the end of his little speech, Loki's tone had escalated from a sarcastic mock to a snarl, his face marred by a sneer.

Then he was surrounded by darkness. Loki realized what was happening just as a clawed hand stabbed through his smoldering chest.

"NOOOOO!" he screamed, his voice mangled by fear and pain. Loki watched helplessly as his hands began to dissipate, fading into a golden dust.

He met the shadow's glowing red eyes, his own of green brimming with pleading fear. "Please!" he whispered desperately. Loki was wrong, he did not want to die, not yet. He still had much to live for, much to do.

There was only one thing he could do now, though, and it was far from agreeable.

As the last of his arms faded away, he launched his consciousness away from his body, reaching for an anchor, anything to hang onto. Loki grabbed the nearest life form and plunged straight into the mind of Tony Stark.

Wellll, it looks like I have begun a story :P

I shall take it upon myself to update as often as I can (because that's the main concern, of course), and THEY WILL BE LONGER THAN THIS! this is just the intro, so EXPECT MORE THAN A PAGE AND A HALF UPDATE

I am sooooooooo excited to be writing this!

One more thing before you click next chapter, I LOVE GETTING REVIEWS! If you have any comment about anything at all in my story TELLLL MEEEEE! Find a mistake? TELLLL MEEEEE! Find something you like or want me to continue? TELLLL MEEEEE! Have a suggestion? TELLLL MEEEEEE!

Thanks for reading! :)