Stephen Strange had found himself in a bind. Despite the fact that his job required fighting the most powerful beings in the multiverse it was the one of the first times he had had to face something from Outside. Since the 1930's there had not been a single emergence of any of the entities listed in the old tomes. His current foe was unfortunately one of the less well travelled of these beings, which meant that there was little information given about how to defeat it. He assumed there was little information anyway as he had yet to find any reference to this being in any of his books
The case had started when one Mister Harold Jones had been discovered dead in his apartment with no entry wounds, exit wounds, lacerations or any signs of any poisons was given in the toxicology report. Also he had apparently somehow been completely mummified within ten hours of the last time he had been seen by another person. For some reason the Eye of Agamotto refused to allow him to view the prepetrator, that was odd, and he decided to research why that might be the case.
He had looked for advice in the writings of previous Sorcerers Supreme, but due to the time when they were written, the advice given was to search for any unknown entities in the eldritch tomes. However, after the second world war the mass publication of the moderately safe tomes had led to all techniques contained therein becoming worthless, whether for summoning or for eradication. The dangerous tomes, sodden in dark magic, had been locked miles underground with the key thrown away and the lock filled in.
No, he only had one option, although that option did not seem all that bright, after all Satannish had been too difficult to control during their one encounter. The option was simple, several wizards had brought into their employ spirits or benevolent demons, in fact after a previous sorcerer supreme, one Samuel Mathers, had translated his book, there were at least 72 demons in constant use. He would have to reach into the aether and summon a spirit to assist him.
When he returned to the Sanctum Sanctorum, he pulled out an old, dusty and frayed around the edges book on summoning, drew a summoning circle on the ground and began to chant.
Smoke began to fill the room, and Strange had to cover him mouth to avoid breathing it in. When the smoke cleared he found himself staring into green eyes, very green eyes, almost supernaturally green eyes, and most importantly green eyes that he had seen a few times before. He had found himself staring into the eyes of the Norse God of Mischief. The god had been a general annoyance to the entire population of the world in the last twelve months, the most memorable occasion had been when he had to used a flying middle school to steal the nation of Wales.
Loki smiled at him: "Well, thank you for freeing me. But I have to go, I have the sudden urge for Ice Cream, and Main Street is the perfect bowl," he made to move out of the circle, but it acted true to it's purpose and refused to allow him exit. Blue light fizzed around him and a small amount of blood oozed out of his hand where he had first touched it.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to stay here" Strange stated "I'll call your brother when I've finished with this case... and what do you mean freeing you, you've been on the lam for months now?"
"Amora is terrible at cooking you know, and if you don't eat every last poisonous bite she'll put a lust spell on you that makes every man in a five mile radius jump your bones..." he slowly sat down inside the circle, careful not to get wounds on his back. He smirked "Generally I wouldn't mind, but when the people in that radius consist of Mephisto and the Red Skull, well..."
Strange turned back to his books, looking for an answer that made sense, what kind of creature could cause such a horrific death.
Just then Loki spoke again: "He's not dead you know".
"What do you mean, "he's not dead"?" Strange stared at him.
"Odin's Eye, first Stark and now you, are all mortals really this stupid?" Loki sighed, Strange was confused by the comment as, much to the annoyance of most of the people who had to stop the duo's schemes, Loki actually rather liked Doctor Doom, and the Sorcerer Supreme was certain that the god in front of him didn't think that Doom was beneath him despite the fact that the man was mortal, at least that was what his unrecopriated flirting indicated. Somewhere during his mental tirade Loki started speaking again "The victim isn't dead".
"So, the completely mummified victim, who the police have already confirmed as dead, is apparently still alive?"
"Well, he's still conscious,and that is a major part of being alive".
"How do you know this, were you the killer?" Strange asked, even though he knew that it wasn't the case, it wasn't exactly Loki's style, and the early testing of the aura of the magic had proved that it wasn't any of the common magic using villains, not to mention the rift to nowhere that had closed as soon as Strange had arrived on the scene.
Loki looked at him in surprise "Do you really think that I would do something as undignified as that?" he cried.
"So, how do you know what's going on?"
"When I first met Tezcatlipoca. Have you heard of him? He's an Aztec god." At Strange's glare he gave up and continued "Well, I was at an age you might refer to as seven but to me was really about about eleven hundred, he told me about priest of his who tried to summon heretical gods, the creature he summoned cared little for the well being of humanity, one could say not at all, well actually it could be stated that the entire planet could burn to nothing before its eyes and it would feel nothing, soon after the priest was mummified with one look, Tezcatlipoca also told about how he made this priest drink an elixir of immortality and left him chained to the temple, completely sentient, suffering for all eternity..." Loki trailed off "Now that I think about it, Tezcatlipoca was a bit of an arsehole".
Strange gave an involuntary shudder, "Is that all you have to tell me?"
"Depends on the payment..." Loki had a smirk on his face.
"What's must I pay?" Strange sighed, knowing that the answer would most likely be for the god to borrow a dangerous spell book or an artifact that was the magical equivilent of a nuclear bomb.
"For any help at all you must promise that you will not contact Thor, if I take you to Tezcatlipoca for information..." he trailed off with a mischievous smile.
"Yes...?" Strange groaned.
"I have always wanted to try out this famous cookie dough ice cream," at Strange's exasperated expression he smiled "Namor always made us eat Phish Food".