Tony was almost done cutting through the rest of the debris blocking the turbine funnel. He had built a ruby-laser torch into the Iron Man suit for just such an occasion . . . or, you know, a similar one. When he thought he’d cut enough, he kicked the pieces of debris several times until they fell away. There we go, he thought. Should be able to get the turbine going again now.

He glanced over as sparks caught his eye. They were caused by ricocheting bullets. The bad guys were after Captain America. So far he was holding his position next to the red lever. That’s what Tony needed him to do . . . but he would only be able to do it for so long if Loki’s fighters got a clear shot at him.

On the bridge, Fury and Hill and their surviving support personnel were holding off Loki’s men . . . but they were also trapped. Fury needed to figure out a way to break them loose before Barton found a way to Loki.

And speaking of Barton, there he was! But Fury didn’t see him before he had already fired an arrow. Fury gasped, anticipating the impact on his body—but Barton hadn’t fired at him. He was aiming at the command console. His arrow didn’t have a point but a grouping of pins. They hit a pin jack on the console and immediately the entire instrument panel flashed malfunction and began to power down.

Fury also heard one of the remaining turbines powering down. If he couldn’t do something about that, they were all going to be dead.

He fired at Barton, who didn’t stick around to engage him.

We are in an uncontrolled descent, a voice over the speakers said. The Helicarrier tipped steeply enough that some of the fighter aircraft spilled off its flight deck.

“It’s Barton. He took out our systems.” Fury said over the speakers. “He’s headed for the detention level. Does anyone copy?”

He put it out over the speakers because he wanted Natasha Romanoff to hear.

She did. “This is Agent Romanoff,” she said. “I copy.”

We might get out of this after all, thought Nick Fury.

Tony powered up his boot thrusters all the way and started leaning into the closest turbine blade. He had to get them up to a certain speed where they would be self-sustaining—but not much faster than that or he wouldn’t have a chance to get out before the spinning blades mulched him. The first few revolutions were slow, as the blade tips scoured away bent and torn bits of metal from the inside of the turbine housing—but once those got smoothed out, things went better. Pretty soon Tony was going to have the whole thing up to speed.

Which apparently was just in time, he thought. He could feel the Helicarrier lurching around him and Jarvis had mentioned that another of the turbines was powering down.

He held the Helicarrier up all by himself, more or less, or at least slowed its rate of descent, trying to get this engine back online so he could rejoin the fight and try to keep the rest of the team alive.

With the Hulk out of the way—though, Thor hoped, not hurt—Thor could get back to his real task, which was making sure Loki did not escape. He charged into the detention level and saw Loki just getting out through the glass revolving door that held him! Thor ran, arms spread wide to tackle Loki back into the cell.

But as he made contact with his brother, the illusion vanished! Thor skidded on his stomach into the cell, as the door closed behind him. He spun and got up to see Loki there, gloating on the catwalk. “Are you ever not going to fall for that?” he smirked.

Thor roared and pounded Mjolnir into the cell wall. The glass cracked but held. Loki looked nervous, but when he saw Thor couldn’t get out, his face broke into a relieved smile. So did the guard with him. “The humans think us immortal. Should we test that?”

He went to the control panel that could drop the cell out the bottom of the Helicarrier.

There was a small noise, and the guard dropped silently to the floor. Thor turned in the direction of the sound and saw Agent Coulson, holding a very large gun. “Move away, please,” he said.

Loki did, watching Coulson warily.

“You like this?” Coulson asked, meaning the gun. “We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don’t know what it does.” He powered it up, and rings along its barrel glowed bright orange. “Want to find out?”

But Loki wasn’t there in front of him. Thor saw it too late to do anything. That Loki was an illusion . . . and the real Loki was behind Coulson.

He stabbed Coulson in the back with his spear and watched as the brave agent sank to the floor. “No!” Thor cried out. He pounded the cell wall but could not damage it.

Without a word, Loki walked slowly back to the control panel. Coulson watched him go. He couldn’t get up. Thor could see he was badly wounded.

Loki tapped the touch screen, and the floor disappeared. Air roared up into the Helicarrier from the opening. Then Loki touched another control, and Thor dropped through the Helicarrier’s lower levels and out into empty air, falling thousands of feet toward the ground. sW7Aq3wcVp31TGe2UeYzKn+xyVACaIO6CZ8CTCAJSI1FjY/+erl4Mu0CZIs99Xqf