Loki had just gotten himself put back together enough to get out of the hole in the floor. Painfully he dragged himself toward the door. Never had a mortal damaged him as much as that green monster. He would be healing for a long time. But heal he would, and then he would have his revenge. Even though the portal had collapsed and he had lost the Tesseract. Even though his Chitauri army was destroyed. Loki would show the so-called Avengers they never should have opposed him.

He heard a noise behind him and rolled over . . . and there they stood. All of them. Even the ones he’d thought dead. Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Captain America, the Hulk, and the Black Widow. She even held Loki’s scepter, adding to the indignity.

Loki sighed. He knew when he was defeated—at least for the moment. “If it’s all the same to you,” he said, “I’ll have that drink now.”

The Avengers met one last time to make sure Loki, Thor, and the Tesseract got off Earth and back to Asgard. Then they shook hands and dispersed, each knowing that if the need arose, Nick Fury would know how to find them. On the Helicarrier, with repair crews swarming the damaged turbine and the collapsed interior decks, Nick Fury held off the World Security Council as long as he could, wanting to get the Avengers a head start. But eventually he had to answer the Council’s call . . . and they were not happy.

They demanded to know how Iron Man had discovered the inbound missile. Fury told them. Furious, they then demanded that the Avengers be brought together and kept in one place under World Security Council supervision.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Fury said.

“Where are the Avengers?” the lead councilor asked.

“I’m not currently tracking their whereabouts,” Fury answered. “I’d say they’ve earned a leave of absence.”

This wasn’t strictly true. He was tracking their whereabouts and knew they had gathered to see Thor and Loki off back to Asgard . . . with the Tesseract. He also knew that once the Asgardians were gone, Tony, Bruce, Natasha, Barton, and Steve would scatter to the four winds.

Exactly as Fury wanted them. The farther apart they were, the harder it would be for the councilors to keep an eye on them. Fury was an old dog who knew lots of tricks. One of them was that he knew better than to trust groups like the World Security Council. After all, they’d already gone behind his back and tried to nuke Manhattan.

“And the Tesseract?” the councilor pressed.

“The Tesseract is where it belongs: out of our reach.” Right about then, Fury guessed, Thor and Loki would be gripping the handles of a cylindrical case holding the Tesseract. They were using its power to return to Asgard, since they couldn’t use the Bifrost.

“That’s not your call,” the councilor said ominously.

“I didn’t make it,” Fury said. “I just didn’t argue with the god that did.”

“So you let him take it and the war criminal, Loki, who should be answering for his crimes?”

“Oh, I think he will be,” Fury said. He didn’t know what Asgardian justice was like, but he had a feeling Loki wasn’t going to like it. The last time he’d seen Thor’s brother, Loki had been fitted out with a steel half mask that held his mouth shut. Unless Fury was badly mistaken, it would be a long time before Loki would be able to sweet-talk anyone into anything again.

The councilor wasn’t ready to let it go. “I don’t think you understand what you’ve started, letting the Avengers loose on this world. They’re dangerous.”

“They surely are,” Fury agreed. “And the whole world knows it. Every world knows it.”

“That the point of all this? A statement?”

Nick Fury leaned a little closer to the holographic silhouettes of all the members of the World Security Council. “A promise,” he said.

He broke off the call and returned to the Helicarrier’s bridge. There was a lot to do before this ship would be combat-ready again, and no telling how much time they had. The world—the worlds—were full of threats.

“Sir, how does it work now?” Maria Hill asked from her station. “They’ve gone their separate ways, some pretty extremely far. We get into a situation like this again, what happens then?”

“They’ll come back,” Fury said.

“Are you really sure about that?”

Fury nodded. “I am.”

“Why?”

“Because we’ll need them to,” Nick Fury said simply. Then he got back to work. QhmqcB0T04GETToh+FcplrZHEUkbCYcDx7PGzRMcYNxv1/esTURWBdJZj1IS8W9G