Hello all! This is the beginning of what I hope to be an exciting fanfic. This will be FrostIron and mainly Avengers, but the Harry Potter gang will show up in a few chapters. Many thanks to Untold Story for helping get me into gear and writing fanfics for myself! (For those of you who don't know, FrostIron is Loki-Tony Stark. It will not be a major plot point, but it will be in this.)

I do not own any of the characters I'm writing, just shamelessly making them do what I want them to with words. xD Anyways, enjoy!

"Dummy, it is not going to catch fire. Put the hose down."

His first-born robot only wobbled slightly before again training the extinguisher on the uni-beam.

Tony sighed. "Down," He said, very slowly and clearly. Dummy appeared not to hear him. Throwing up his hands, he returned to the control panel. "Fine. Have it your way. That 'donate to a community college' threat is still in effect, you know. You blast it, and it's not on fire –" He drew his finger swiftly across his throat. The threat was empty – drunken college students were certainly never getting their dirty paws on his machinery - but maybe it'd stave off another Dummy-induced extinguisher mess.

He closed off the last circuit with a flourish, eyed Dummy warningly, and turned the arc reactor on. It immediately blazed with a brilliant icy light. It looked strangely out of place, though, glowing within the suit's chestpiece without him in it. He looked down, at his current – and soon-to-be-outdated – arc reactor. He was never one to deny his own genius, but it never failed to amaze him what he'd made; something that started as a replacement for a car battery was now powering a superhero's suit. Well, a super person's suit, anyway. The word 'hero' didn't really appeal or apply to Tony Stark.

Locking down the chestpiece, he turned to face the makeshift target. "Aim…" He muttered to himself, wondering idly whether his new additions would actually improve the power, or blow up in his face… literally. "And…"

A blast echoed through the room, but not the kind Tony was expecting. He sighed, leaving his unfired arc reactor alone and turning to face the blond alien now facing him from across the room. He opened his mouth to speak, but not before Dummy had given the slightly-smoking Thor a good dose of fire-dampening foam.

"Back, Dummy," Tony said, waving him off, but he couldn't say he wasn't amused. It was enjoyable to see Dummy douse someone else for a change. Dummy retreated, rather reluctantly for a machine, with his hose still trained threateningly at Thor.

Thor stood in the middle of a slight singe mark on the floor, the Tesseract's case held tightly in his hand. Mjollnir was clenched in the other. Unlike the last time Tony had seen him, Thor seemed dressed for war – or at least, it looked like he was wearing armor underneath all the white foam.

Thor nodded gravely at Tony, always so formal. "Stark."

Tony waved a hand and bowed deeply. "Thor."

Choosing not to make a comment on that, Thor instead pointed Mjollnir at Dummy. "Is that your strongest defense against intruders?" He asked. Tony snorted and threw Thor a towel. "Hardly. If those defenses were on, you'd be taking a sweet trip down to meet the pavement right about now." He crossed his arms and leaned against his workbench, feeling no need to mention that JARVIS already had Thor's biocode programmed into the security system. "What brings you here to Midgard? Thought you had enough to keep you occupied in Asgard for a few centuries."

Thor looked away, pacing toward the window. "Stark –"

"Loki escaped, got it. When did this happen?"

Thor whirled on Tony, automatically raising Mjollnir. "You know of this?"

Tony rolled his eyes. Why else would you beam here all strung-up and nervous? Either Jane dumped you or your crazy brother escaped imprisonment. Again." He shrugged. "Thor, this is Loki. We all knew he was going to escape the moment we locked him up. That's just what he does."

Thor slowly lowered Mjollnir, wringing the handle in his hands. "When he was brought back to Asgard… my brother was tried for his crimes. He was found guilty for both treason and murder. It took much from my father to revoke the traditional sentence." Thor trailed off, but there was no question that he meant death.

"He was placed in our strongest vault, under constant guard." Thor started pacing again, and Tony stepped hastily back when Mjollnir started to emit a few angry sparks. "Loki is not the only magician in the realm – Odin gathered many, and they fashioned a pair of shackles to bind not only his hands, but his magic as well. We still do not know how he escaped."

Wonderful. So there was more magic they didn't know about. Magic that apparently Odin himself couldn't stop. This was just getting better and better.

"Right." Tony pointed his screwdriver at the Tesseract. "Well, thanks for the warning. Maybe you should be heading back, though, before Loki scampers back to Earth."

Thor looked down at the glowing cube, apparently confused. "I do not understand you."

Apparently pointing wasn't clear enough. Tony jabbed at the Tesseract with the screwdriver this time. "Remember how much trouble Loki brewed to try to get that thing? Maybe it should head back upstairs. If you keep it around here, Loki's sure to find it eventually, and I really don't want to have to rebuild New York again. You Asgardians are less breakable anyway."

Thor did something Tony did not expect – he laughed. "Stark, Loki cannot steal the Tesseract so long as it resides in Midgard."

Okay. This had gone too far without having some alcohol around to mediate the situation. After a scotch was safely in hand, he said, "And just what do you mean by that?"

"The Bifrost is destroyed, Stark. Loki cannot use magic. We do not know how he escaped his cell, but it was not by magical means. He cannot leave Asgard without the Tesseract. So long as it remains here, it is safe from Loki's grasp."

Tony couldn't help it; he beamed. Thor had actually used his head. And for actual thinking this time, as opposed to a battering iron. But despite Thor's unusually sensible plan, Tony couldn't see it working. This was Loki 'bag of cats' Laufeyson. He could do what he wanted. Thor said he didn't escape by magical means, but then how had he escaped at all? And if he could escape an inescapable fortress… he could beam himself to earth somehow. The only question was when.

Tony turned back to his new arc reactor, internally upgrading its position from 'pet project' to 'priority'. With Loki on the loose, even worlds away, he'd feel better with a stronger suit.

Plus, he'd finally get to use his new gauntlets with it.

"Well, let me know how that goes," he told Thor, turning the arc reactor once more towards the target. "If you're not planning on jumping planets anytime soon, maybe you should hand it over to SHIELD for the time being." SHIELD and Tony didn't quite see eye to eye, and he had the distinct impression that Fury and himself were seeing different pictures of the world altogether. But despite that, he couldn't deny the fact that their engineering vault was probably the safest place for the cube. If Loki honestly couldn't use magic… even Tony couldn't see him worming into a vault of that magnitude without the help of his wormhole.

Thor didn't seem all that happy with it, either. "Do you think that is best?"

"I don't, but I hate the alternatives more." He'd considered right off housing the Tesseract in the Avenger's mansion – but considering it was already a target, what with all the Avengers coming and going randomly – it didn't seem like a great idea to add another prize to the bounty. But more than that… the Tesseract was volatile, temperamental… magical. Not solid and dependable like machinery, not something that he understood. And as intelligent as he was, he doubted he ever would fully understand it. But much more than that, the battle of New York had given him a slightly clearer view of the fragility of life – one mistaken experiment with the Tesseract and boom – bye bye, Earth. He knew just how easily that could happen. Or what if Hulk went wacko and thrashed through all the protections around it, destroying both the cube and life itself?

Nope, SHIELD would have to do.

"As you say." Thor started to leave, but turned as the last second. "Shall I give them your regards?"

There were no words to fit his regards. Tony's answer was a resounding explosion as he fired the arc reactor's uni-beam. Thor smirked as he stepped to the door and turned the Tesseract, disappearing in an eerie blue flash. Off to SHIELD, Tony thought as he wiped foam off his arms and reset the target, Probably beaming right into some impenetrable fort. The security guard's faces would be priceless, he was sure; those who didn't suffer from the heart attacks, that is. He briefly considered asking JARVIS to hack into SHIELD's mainframe and pilfer the security video feed – but Fury's blood pressure was high enough for now. He'd have his fun another time, when Thor and the Tesseract weren't heaped on Fury's plate.

"Reset, Dummy," He called against his better judgment, and fired the beam again.

Next chapter in a day or two! Reviews are always appreciated, and don't hesitate to tell me if I've made some egregious and unforgivable error. :O