Elaine got hit with the knock-out gas even faster, too quick for her even to see where it came from. When she woke up, though, she knew things were Not Right.

"As good, you're awake," a voice Elaine could only describe as 'obnoxious' said. "Wouldn't want you to miss out on all thefun, hm?"

"You have a very strange definition of fun," Kae said with a groan as she sat up, putting a hand to her head where it had hit and bounced off the cement when she'd been knocked out. Loki looked distinctly Not Pleased as he sat up, his eyes narrowing. "What the hell is this all about?" Kae looked around for the source of the voice.

"You, my lucky friends, are here to help me lure a certain man-spider out of hiding," the voice replied. Elaine looked around. It seemed to be coming from above them. "It's a scientific fact that he reacts the fastest when I have... guests."

"Scientific fact, huh? Sounds like you've done this a few times," Kae continued, because clearly her brain-to-mouth filter wasn't working. "Which means you probably know how this ends, so why don't we skip to that part and you let us go?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that, dearie," the voice replied. "Not until a few very necessary things happen in a very specific order. And no, I'm not going to tell you what they are, it's much more fun to figure them out yourself."

Elaine looked up when she heard a soft humming from near the ceiling. Something flat and wide was slowly lowering town towards them, and a person was kneeling on top of it. When it all came into the light, she nearly burst into snickers. The person kneeling on the hoverboard was dressed head-to-toe in green-brown armor and seemed to be wearing a matching helmet that looked like it was spawned from a Halloween mask.

Kae stared for a few long moments before she snorted. "Okay, really? That's the best you could do? I've seen way better villain get-ups. The Chitauri were more frightening. Then again, they're more frightening than pretty much everything. But still. That has got to be the worst villain costume I've seen." She shook her head.

"It doesn't need to be frightening, dearie, it just needs to be functional," the person replied, waving a finger at her. Clearly, he was missing more than a few fries from his Happy Meal. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to keep an eye out for my intended audience." He waved a hand, and a few of his minions came out of the shadows. "They'll keep an eye on you for me, so behave."

"We always behave!" Kae said with a huff. "We're behaving right now. Just not necessarily how you want us to behave." She crossed her arms over her chest.

Hobgoblin was already gone, though, and didn't respond. Elaine looked at the minions warily. Some of them were blatantly armed.

Kae was good for about half an hour, long enough for the fear to really settle in. Which made her mouth work overtime.

"Hey, he makes you wear that ridiculous color too? That's just a disgrace. I mean you don't even look like proper minions." Kae paused. "Or maybe you do, and that's the problem."

The minions glanced at her, but for the most part ignored her. She couldn't do anything to them, and injured hostages were worth less.

Kae huffed again and started wandering around their little area, seeing how much they could get away with. She was scared, yes, but she was also pissed. She did not like being kidnapped. At all. And she wanted out.

As soon as she reached the small perimeter the minions formed, one of them casually reached out and pushed her back to keep her in the circle. She wasn't going anywhere.

Kae stumbled back a few steps, glaring at the man. "Well, you're just all kinds of chivalrous, aren't you?" she snarked. "Really, I haven't seen such gentlemanly moves since Steve. My favorite part of this is that you're too much of a coward to actually do anything without your guns. Bet you're just another bully and you're nothing without that gun."

Equally as casually as before, the same minion reached out and backhanded her hard enough to send her sprawling to the floor. It wasn't against the rules; he hadn't drawn his weapon.

"Kae!" Elaine exclaimed, going over to her friend to help her back up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Kae touched her split lip with a grimace, and then paused when she noticed a blur of green and black. Loki had leapt on the man, snarling and ranting in Norse as he bashed the man's head into the ground. Multiple times. Kae watched in awe as Loki did nothing short of beating the shit out of the minion.

"My humans," he finished with, baring his teeth in a snarl as he stood and left the minion on the ground, ignoring the various guns that were now pointed at him.

Elaine opened her mouth a few times, resembling a fish, but no sound came out. There were no words for what she had just seen.

"What just happened?" she whispered to Kae.

"I... don't know," Kae whispered back, watching with wide eyes as Loki took up a spot in front of the girls, clearly guarding them. And clearly still pissed. "I think he knocked my brain loose."

"I don't think your brain is any looser than mine," Elaine whispered back. Once she was sure Kae was alright, she crept up so she was next to Loki. She leaned over a little so she could see his face. "Should I ask?"

Loki glanced at her before he sniffed and went back to his silent vigil over the girls. "Do not approach them again," he ordered, glancing back at Kae and Elaine both.

"Got it," Kae muttered, getting to her feet and gingerly prodding at her lip, which was still bleeding. But she stayed where she was, more than willing to let Loki be all intimidating and scary.

Elaine nodded, but filed the incident away for later. She definitely needed to ask about it when they weren't in so much peril.

Kae slowly relaxed when Loki made it clear that no one else was getting within three feet of the girls. Now they just had to get to the rescuing bit.

Almost eight hours later, the Avengers found the abandoned warehouse Hobgoblin was using, crouching outside to survey the area.

"They're both inside," Tony said quietly, looking at the two little blips on his map that indicated the girls. Because he was paranoid enough to put GPS chips in Elaine's eyes and in Kae's prosthetic. Hey, he knew it would come in handy sometime.

"Good. Thor, you, Clint, and Natasha focus on the bad guy, keep him away. We'll get the girls out." Steve glanced around to make sure his orders were heard before he nodded at them to move out.

All three nodded and went to do their thing. They were stopped, though, when they found that they were beaten to the metaphorical punch. Spiderman was already there duking it out with Hobgoblin, although they really seemed to be sparring more than anything else.

Tony noticed too and paused part-way to where the girls were. "What, is this some sort of thing?" he asked with mild disgust. "I mean, seriously. Villain. You take villains down, not dance with them." He snorted.

Spiderman glanced down at them, decided enough was enough, and hit Hobgoblin hard enough to make the villain retreat for the time being. Then he attached a bit of web to the ceiling and hung upside-down from it to watch the group.

"Well aren't you all the motley group," he commented. Rather than being an intentional jab, though, it was a bit more light-hearted. Just a bit of habitual banter.