Detailed authors notes at the end of the story… I don't own anything.
Warning: Loki in this story is somewhat evil. The story is from Loki's point of view with no dialog, so you have been warned! And this story is long – almost 12000 words and 17 pages on word!
Summary: This is set after the Avengers. Loki is banished to earth after the punishments/tortures of Asgard don't have any effect. He might have been tortured and powerless but he is still the God of Chaos.
One final note: This story might start of as similar to many of the others out there but shortly afterwards it (I hope) goes in a direction that isn't out there. Although with the amount of stories in this fandom I would be surprised if someone else did not have the same ideas.
Enjoy!
God of Chaos
Odin was an idiot if he thought banishing Loki to Midgard was going to teach him a lesson.
Shortly after being taken back to Asgard following the events of Midgard the All-Father had announced his punishment. For his deeds against Asgard, Jotunheim and Midgard he had been sentenced to 21 years of torture in the Asgard dungeons. It was the longest time given to anybody; no one could ever recall anyone being sentenced for so long ever before. There had been whispers of surprise but also whispers of glee as to 'the Jotunn bastard getting what he deserved.'
Despite being somewhat immortals and having all the time in the world, the dungeons of Asgard ran on a different time as the rest of the realm. 21 years was a season for the rest of Asgard. It was like the Aesir had worries about time when it came to punishing their citizens. Most people spent a few weeks in the dungeons, the most a year only to come back in a week. Many thought that Loki would perish in mind at least after such a stay. However 21 years of torture did not break the trickster. When he was brought up broken in body but not in mind he spat at Odin feeling a deep satisfaction when it looked like Odin was going to slap him himself.
Odin had decided on banishment. Of course banishment without his position, (that was lost anyway) and his Aesir gifts and magical powers. His magical powers weren't easy as getting rid of his Aesir gifts. It had to be done through runes. With a command from the All-Father Thor was holding him down face first and Odin was bringing down the tip of Gungnir to the bottom of his spine and he felt the rune that he was placing start to burn. He was determined to keep quiet. He squirmed as he felt the area heat up and reach down into his muscles. He held in his screams biting them down when he felt the magic reach his bones locking it in.
When Odin removed the Gungnir only to replace it at top of his spine putting a rune there as well he couldn't hold it back anymore and started screaming. Loki knew he probably would not survive the third one that was placed at the base of the throat that would not only fully lock his magic in but render him silent as well, a sure way to stop a sorcerer. However sentiment had been Thor's greatest weakness and no matter what he had done Odin must have a bit of sentiment for his adopted son as well because he stopped after the second rune.
When Loki could see through the pain he saw his silently crying mother and knew why he had been spared the third rune. If he was Odin he would have given himself that rune. First of leaving the rune off meant that Loki could still do magic. Just tiny stuff, parlor tricks but beggars couldn't be choosers so he would get what he could take. But the second reason was that Loki could still speak and his silver-tongue was his most dangerous weapon that he had in his disposal. Allowing Loki to keep it was asking for trouble.
He glanced down at his hands, he was sure that Odin was going to take his Aesir form as well but he looked up in surprise into Odin's eyes as it looked like he would remain Aesir. Odin didn't say anything but Loki could almost hear him as he kept the eye contact; it wasn't Loki's fault that he was a Frost Giant and he hated his Jotunn form. Odin would take the blame for that at least.
Despite everything that had been done to him Loki still wanted to acknowledge this little bit of kindness that his ex-adopted father had shown him but before he could say anything Odin was saying the words that would banish him and Loki felt something pull him through his navel and he was falling. It wasn't like falling through the void that had felt like free falling. This one felt like he was being pulled somewhere in a great rush.
He crashed into a body of water and the cold hit him like no other. He began swimming towards the surface hoping that he could get there before his lungs gave up. From the taste of salt he knew he was in the sea. How considerate of Odin to drop him into the middle of the sea. He hoped it wasn't the ocean or this banishment would be very short. He reached the surface and took a few minutes trying to stay afloat in the stormy sea. It looked like it was the darkest part of the night, so minimum amount of people would have seen his arrival if any. After a few minutes of rest he looked around and saw the lights not so far off in the distance and started swimming towards them. It took a bloody long time however he reached some sort of port and got out of the water and just laid there breathing.
He had no idea what city he was in but he was in need of rest, sleep and healing. He took a few minutes to get his breathing under control, cursed his almost mortal body and got up to hole up somewhere.
He found an abounded warehouse near the port and a relatively dry corner to hold up for a few days. His magic somewhat still worked however not enough like it used to. Now he would have to choose what to do. Heal a bone and he would have to rest for a few hours before he can begin again with something new. It took several days of withering on the floor of a dirty warehouse before he was healed enough to move. At least the salt water and moving in the sea had ensured that any open wounds were cleaned and no longer a concern. He remembered reading somewhere that the minerals of the Midgard seas having a healing affect on the Aesir, apparently it also worked on Jontunns. He wondered if Odin had dropped him into the sea for that purpose alone but didn't waste a lot of thought on it.
He chose to heal his bones that would let him move easily and his most seeable scars because he needed his looks for what he planned to do. The rest he could do while on the move.
When he could move without pain he left the warehouse in search of life. He found some homeless people a couple blocks away and struck up a conversation. He might have been a prince and he might have been vain however he had never been arrogant enough to use whatever was necessarily to survive and right now that is what he was doing, surviving. In a few days or weeks he might start on his plans of living.
He wanted to laugh out loud when he learned that All-Father had dropped him off in New York. The one city in Midgard that would have his head if they found him there, but mortals had short attention spans, he would use that to his advantage. When you were not expecting someone especially in some situation, you would not see them but it was best not to linger more than necessary. Midgard was relatively a large realm he could disappear in it if necessary.
With direction from his new friends he made his way to a homeless shelter that would not ask many questions and offer him a shower, clean clothes and a warm meal. After a shower, clean however dismissal donated clothes and a surprisingly good meal he was more or less ready to face his new life in Midgard.
He might have been devoid of most of his magic however he was still Loki, sleight of hand was one of the things he was known for. He had gotten into enough trouble in his younger years and had spent enough time getting caned for nicking something from a noble that would have left a lesser begin learning his lesson. His parents had thought that he had learned his lesson after being beaten several times almost to death however he had just learned not getting caught. He had still nicked stuff off of people back home however they never knew it was him. And Odin couldn't punish him without hard evidence.
Within a few hours of walking the streets of New York Loki was in possession of several hundreds of dollars. He never kept the wallets he lifted, you could be traced through the identification cards that people in Midgard were fond off and the cards they used for money. Hard crash or coins, no matter which realm you were in was a sure way of keeping low a profile.
Thor might be the idiot who had a hard time learning anything that wasn't Asgard related however that wasn't Loki's style. He adapted to places like he belonged there. He had spent a week on this realm trying to conquer it. He had learnt a lot in that week. Learning the many alphabets of the realm was one of the tasks he had set himself on the first day.
Too bad he was following that idiot's, 'the other's' plan for conquering the planet. If they had left it up to him he would have handed Midgard to them on a platter however he had told them it wouldn't happen by sheer force, if they wanted the realm it would take time. Throughout Midgard's history no one had been able to conquer the realm as a whole. It could not be done through force. The last person to try it just 70 years ago had started a war that had involved most of the countries on the realm and it had not ended in his favor.
The mortals of Midgard were proud people who believed they were independent. They would fight to the death to keep their so called freedom. The trick was to be worshipped like he told them, they craved subjugation, they just did not realize it. But that mad Titan had wanted it done quickly. He wondered if he only wanted the Tesseract why also try to conquer earth at the same time? Why tell him he could keep it when they clearly were not allowing him to run the show? If the mad Titan wanted it, Loki could have gotten in, stolen the Tesseract for him without the fanfare.
He gave a shrug, they were no longer his problem and he continued to walk down the street and his mind started to go the thousands of possibilities of where anything he did would go. That is how his brain worked, if anybody had asked him what his super power as a god was he would have told them that it wasn't his magic or silver-tongue. It was the ability to see the many different paths from a single point of view. If he was to explain it, it was like standing in the middle of a valley with infinite possibilities in each direction and if he wanted he could follow each path down to see where it went.
He had cringed at everything that had been happening that week as every action he took brought him closer to destruction. However he had decided the moment he had landed on earth that the plan was doomed and that he could at least have fun to the maximum. And the Avengers had given him bucket loads of it. His time on that helicarrier had been amazing. The Black Widow had actually gotten one up on him and was able to surprise him. No one had done that in centuries! And he could verbally spar with Tony Stark for hours – he had been a worthy opponent.
Did he feel remorse for all the innocents that died in that attack? Of course, to a degree, however humans had such short lives and a god felt just enough remorse when killing a mortal like a mortal would feel when they killed an ant or a bug that was getting in their way. And there were so many of them - just like bugs.
During the week of creating chaos he had also learned as much as he could about Midgard that he could now put to use. After having enough cash he walked into a moderately good clothes store and picked out a change of clothes. A smile and a little flirting with the almost teenager sale clerk assured him to dress and leave the store dressed more to a higher standard of the realm in lose grey pants, a light blue shirt, a blazer, good dress shoes and a scarf, with his hair tied into a pony tail at the back.
After a taxi ride to one of the hotels that had European tourists he was drinking straight scotch at the bar taking in his victims. One of the reasons he was called silver-tongue was that he was the original con artist; he could convince anyone of anything. He was the person that got Asgard whatever it wanted and on many occasions had gotten Thor and his friends out of trouble they found themselves in. He knew that what he did was not regarded well in any realm however that had never stopped Odin asking him to do something, always for the good of Asgard of course.
After about an hour at the bar he zoomed in on his target, a very rich middle aged lady. If he had to guess her husband was here on business and she was bored, looking for some excitement in her life. As her eyes travelled over him he caught her eyes, held her gaze, gave a tiny shy smile, and averted his eyes. He turned back around to face the bar and after a minute felt her slide into the seat next to him and she was hooked. That is how you got people, let them come to you. Let them think everything you wanted them to do was their idea.
He left the hotel two hours later with her investing in his business, in cash, with about five thousand dollars. She would never see him again. He got himself a room at a better hotel and set up shop, within a few days he had about 50 thousand dollars. He kept his conning to minimum numbers not to draw unwanted attention and decided to skip town before the authorities caught up with him. He hadn't been idle in the last few days either; he had been slowly healing himself when he had enough magic and he had decided on his plan of action. While he could con like no other Midgard had become the tech center of the Nine Realms. If they continued on their track in a few centuries they would be a force to reckon with.
Therefore one thing he needed to do was to learn how to operate a computer down to its monocular level. That would require a teacher, he could learn by himself but that would take time.
He chose to travel by land; by bus or by train, and set off. While the securities at airports were crazy, you could get on a bus without anyone checking your ID, as long as you had a ticket. Like theorists only travelled by plane! And when you had money and know how to talk you could get away without having any paper work.
Of course he was no longer without an ID. Crash in a city like New York had armed him with a driver's license but if he could help it he would not use it. You could never be too sure of fake things if you didn't make them yourself. He needed a proper identity and that would take time and thought.
However the first thing he needed to do was disappear from Heimdall's sight and Odin's all Seeing Eye. He knew what he was doing right now was small stuff and even knowing that his ex-adopted father was probably 'having a cow' (yeah he was being to learn how to talk Midgard) what he was doing was undersized, but he didn't intend it to stay that way.
He changed the people he was hanging out with and went 'underground.' He was not shy of doing things the hard way and getting his hands dirty.
His final goal was Las Vegas, which apparently had 16 tattoo shops for every 10000 people. He knew he could find someone who could do what he needed. Although he was reluctant to mark his body more than it already was he needed the protection. He did not have the energy to cast hiding spells. He needed rune work. While on the way there, he took the time to do different things.
First of he headed down to New Orleans without any stops, after gathering what he needed from there he set of.
From there he made his way down to Florida to learn how to steal a car in less than 60 seconds, also learned how to drive one like a mad man in street racing. That was a rush! It was like catching a bilgesnipe by the horns and wresting it to the ground. Who knew Midgard could offer some adrenalin pumping activities?
He travelled up to Memphis where he learned how to high jack someone's bank card and use it to draw money from any bank.
In Dallas he learned how to crack a cell phone and not be traced through it.
He made a detour to Denver where he got himself an apartment, lived in it for about a week. Set it up like he was staying for a while, cloaked himself and left the apartment. He waited in the shadows for night, watching and like he knew it would happen, Odin's soldiers with Thor in the lead showed up. Letting him know while he wasn't being watched all the time they were keeping an eye on him and him disappearing from sight was something worth investigating. He knew Thor would not go to SHIELD or the Avengers because then he would have to tell them that Odin had banished him to Midgard.
He knew they would look for him in the city, Thor and the rest were morons if they thought he would disappear from sight only to remain there. But he knew how their minds worked, they thought he had disappeared from sight to do something and he would blink back to existence after the deed, after all he no longer possessed the power to stay hidden for an extended period of time. And Thor could, once he was found, if necessary beat what he had done out of him.
He alone knew he had just vanished from their sight for the foreseeable future. He got in his 'stolen' Toyota RVA. Despite falling in love with fast cars, he knew how to stay under the radar and a car that was one of every four in the state was the way to go. He was wearing faded jeans with a red plaid lumberjack shirt, sneakers (he wouldn't do cowboy boots if it killed him) with a Colorado Buffalo's cap and sunglasses. His hair had been cut short and he spoke in a perfect mid American accent. He knew if his (not) mother saw him in the street she would have a hard time recognizing him.
He thought that he should have been allowed to conquer this planet just for their horrible clothes but they helped him stay anonymous.
It took him about 4 months to get to Las Vegas however he was immortal; he had all the time in the world. His immortality was something Odin couldn't take away. He could take his god like powers; his magic, super strength and healing which meant that he could die if he got hurt enough but no one could take away his long life. That at least was his birth right. He would not die as easy as a mortal as he still had some of his magic but a bullet to the head he could not survive.
During the 4 months he hadn't used any of his magic for spells and the like. On the way when he knew he had enough power he had stored it in different crystals he had picked up in New Orleans. They weren't the best quality and he could feel some of the magic drain from them day by day but they were all he had and he needed the power. By now he had shoe box full of power. The shoe box was also covered with runes incase Odin was able to feel the power. Heimdall he knew would not; his powers were for seeing rather than feeling and he was using precious magic to stay hidden.
When he got to Las Vegas, he found a relatively middle class hotel and paid for the room in crash for three weeks in advance. In the room he painted certain runes on the walls and used one of the crystals to make them work, hiding him further. The room would serve as a focal point and cloak him as he moved about the city.
Next he set out to acquire the ink. It needed to have certain metal pigments in it to work, a lot of nickel, a tiny amount of titanium and quite a bit of mercury. He mixed the amounts himself adding a bit of his blood to the combination and once again using up a few crystals to make the magic come alive. Once done it was a dark claret red, perfect for hiding runes.
After the ink was done he set off to find the tattoo artist that would be capable of doing the runes. After visiting 47 different tattoo parlors in 2 days he found the girl in a small shop. You could fell the feint magic flow through her veins. Midgard had magic however they had long ago forgotten how to use them. He had run across quiet a number of mortals who had magic in their blood. This girl didn't practice magic but as she worked the runes the magic in her veins would react and that is what he needed. He told her what he wanted to be done, paid her up front in cash and mentally prepped himself for the agony ahead.
He broke out in sweat after ten minutes of her starting working. She asked several times if he really wanted to continue but he assured her that he was fine that she should continue. She had no way of knowing that the coloring she was placing under his skin was sinking down all the way to his bones and into his bone narrow where his magic resigned.
At the end of the day he dragged himself back to his hotel room and collapsed on the bed. The first rune was the biggest and would be the most important. It started just at the base of his throat and went all the way down to the end his ribs. It was huge and ugly if anyone asked him but Cynthia, the tattoo girl said it looked 'awesome'. Its purpose was to hide the person from sight of seers, animal watchers and all seeing eyes. It took her 3 days to finish it. He told her he was going to take a few days to recover and then continue. She on occasion still asked him if he was sure of getting the tattoos since they were so painful and also mentioned that is was painful because she was hitting right on the some of the bones. He wanted to tell her that was point but refrained from doing so.
He made it to his hotel room, put up a do not disturb sign on his door and used up 3 more crystals to ignite the rune further. He then proceeded to spend the next 2 days in the bathroom throwing up with a dangerously high fever. These types of runes needed magic to feed on. You needed to be magical to have runes. The reason people chose runes as opposed to spells was then they didn't have to cast the hiding or protection spells again and again, however you still needed the power to maintain.
His magic was no longer accessible to him except that the runes reached into his very being to use the power there. And it was still there, Odin would never be able to remove his magic, he had just locked it so Loki couldn't use it. At the moment it was battling the lock, Loki hoped that the protection runes outdid the lock because basically the lock runes were dark magic and the protection rune light and light was always supposed to trump the dark. If his gambit didn't work Loki knew that he might die a painful drawn out death here at an insignificant hotel bathroom in Midgard. But the protection rune won at the end as it seeped deeper and latched onto his magic and began to work.
He didn't drop the cloaking spell in the room just in case and once again used a crystal to renew it. He frowned looking at the box of crystals, at this rate he might not have enough to last but he was hopeful that the next set of runes would be done quicker.
The next two were smaller in size and one went over his right collar bone and the other over the left. The purpose of these two was against scrying. Each took a day to tattoo and for each a further day spent in the bathroom throwing up. This time he put up with the fever and the queasiness easier as he knew the runes would win out at the end. He was sure that the people at the hotel thought he was a junky getting high.
Afterwards came the 'ignore me' runes. These actually were a group of spells rather than one rune. There were four sets; one set would go around both his biceps and the other around his forearms. They were for the people who might be interested in him. It would encourage them to look the other way. He was putting these on for Midgard. So it would be easier to show someone a fake ID and for them to notice the fake but let it go. Or if a police officer saw him to something illegal he would look the other way. He knew that they would not work on major offenses just small ones, like if someone saw him lifting a wallet, murdering someone no matter how protected you were was noticeable and seeable.
He at one point wanted to travel through the airport system and 'ignore the person who has a familiar picture' for the security guard was what he needed.
He decided that he liked Cynthia, who after looking at what was to be done decided that instead of just going around like a band it should go at an angle for a better look. He gave into her, knowing that while he didn't give a rat's ass he also used his looks and if the female and the male population thought the runes were sexier the better.
Once again each set took a day to tattoo and him spending a further day in the bathroom but after a week she was putting on the last rune. He gave her a thousand dollars in cash as tip, a kiss on the cheek for the help and left the tattoo parlor. He went back to the hotel and for the last time got the box of crystals. There were only three left, he smiled knowing that they were not needed anymore. He used one for the last time to cloak the room, one for a simple spell so he would not be disturbed until he broke the enchantment and the last one to ignite the last set of runes.
After the final night in the bathroom he dragged himself to the bed when the first lights of dawn where showing. He crashed on top of the covers and promptly passed out of exhaustion.
He woke up 2 days later in the same position as he had gone to sleep. Each muscle screamed in protest as he got up. He stretched over abused muscles and showered, dressed in black jeans and a long sleeved black t-shirt. He checked out of the hotel and left his bag of stuff in a bus stop locker room and made his way into the bad side of town. It was time to see if the runes worked. He walked further and further into the dark alleys until a group of people peeled themselves out of darkness and he was surrounded by eight.
He turned his head to the heavens and shouted, "Heimdall! Are you watching?" and attacked the gang. After twenty minutes he was breathing hard with various cuts on him and covered with blood but every single one of the mortals were dead beneath his feet. It had felt good to unleash and let go, he had been far to controlled of late. After waiting for a few minutes to see if the bifrost would activate he threw a wicked grin towards the sky and left.
After finding a hotel by the hour, a shower and a change of 'borrowed' clothes from a local he set of to retrieve his bag from the bus stop. He made his way back to the better part of the city, checked into one of the big hotels and got himself a suite. He changed into soft cotton pants and a crisp white shirt and a vest over it and set out to see what Vegas had to offer him.
He gazed about and stayed in the casinos observing. The slot machines he discarded just after a few minutes, the chances of winning on them was that; chance. The same almost also went for the roulette table, by the time he ball slowed down from its spinning you had about 10 to 13 numbers to choose from before they stopped the betting. It still was a risk. The dice was something his (not) brother would have enjoyed as it was mindless luck played with a bunch of people shouting and cheering you on.
He was drawn to the tables were people were playing cards and after observing for a few hours, his mind spotted the patterns and the numbers started to come together. He changed a hundred for smaller chips and sat down on a table. After just about an hour he had won 10 thousand dollars and left the table in good spirits but before anyone became suspicious.
The next night he visited a few different casinos played at different tables and went back to his hotel with over a 100 grand. The next day he checked out, went to a different hotels car park and stole California plates from a car. Went to the other side of town to one of the other big hotels car park waited until he saw a couple drive in with a reasonably priced car and remove a large number of suitcases from their car and make their way into the hotel. A large number of suitcases meant they would be here for at least a week and the chances of them using their car for that time were low. If he was lucky it would be several days before the couple noticed that their car was missing. He followed them into the hotel, lifted their car park ticket while they were checking in and made his back to the car and was on his way in 2 minutes. He stopped in a back alley somewhere and exchanged the plates and left Las Vegas.
He made his way to the Silicon Valley. He drove straight to Santa Clara ditched the car and made his way to San Jose by bus. When in town he took the time to check out the living arrangements and got himself moderate single bedroom apartment in a relatively big apartment complex and for the first time since coming to Midgard settled down for a while.
The next day he set out to meet the guy who would be teaching him about computers. He had met Shane through a series of contracts he had made while on the move and had offered the guy a hundred grand to teach him, fifty at the start and the rest when he could hack a secure government site. The guy hated the government and was known as one of the best. The best part was he hadn't been nor still wasn't really interested in the alien invasion. He had talked about it at length being a conspiracy theory. Too bad he was just a hacker he would make a good criminal but Loki needed him to teach him so played along to his beliefs and in a couple of days had convinced the guy that he had the same viewpoints and Shane thought he had meet a kindred soul.
Shane chose to live at night. Loki would meet him around midnight at the back of his internet café which was open 24 hours where he had set up shop. Then he spent the rest of the night learning about computers, from taking one apart and putting it back together to making his own operating system.
Loki had always been an insomniac, now with the slightly different air pressure, oxygen levels and with routines in place he noticed that his few hours of sleep were getting less. Before San Jose he had at first been sorting magic in crystals, getting the tattoos and using the rest of the time to heal what was taking a little longer to heal or getting rid of scars. He was basically exhausted by the end of the day and for the first time in his life had been getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep each night. Now he noticed that about 90 minutes a day seemed to be all he needed, at least back in Asgard it had been 3 or 4 hours.
He was lucky that hackers seem to prefer working at night which worked to his advantage because then he could find other things to occupy his time in the day time which was definitely easier. He decided that he had been neglecting his body for a while and despite not having the strength of an Aesir he was determined to get the most out of his somewhat mortal body which would be with him for the next few thousand years.
He started his days of with a jog around the city and was pleasantly surprised when he noticed that there were a number of people who enjoyed the activity as well and found out that he would exchange greetings with them. Sometime in the late morning he visited a martial arts dojo and worked on different forms of fighting this realm had to offer. He really enjoyed the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira and found himself hanging out at the dojo that offered that art. Sometime in the afternoon he visited a gym to build up his muscle strength.
After dinner he went with an activity he enjoyed. He would spend several hours in the local library reading his way through the library until it closed. He could read 2000 thousand words a minute so that made acquiring books just to read redundant. He could devour several books each night. He read anything from history books, to reference books, to fiction which he found he really enjoyed. Asgard was fond of ballads of warriors and battles but people of earth had stories about everything. He found out his reading speed would slow down as he enjoyed a particular story. He still read it in about 20 minutes or so but for him that was slow leisure reading. When he found a particular book he liked he made sure to acquire it for his growing library which had already covered one wall of his house and had started on another wall.
Being physical or busy allowed his mind to be somewhat to quiet down which was always a welcome relief. With the night time which was filled with learning something completely new in centuries left a few hours in the morning to fill and he decided to fill those with making the weapons he had lost. First he set of to create the throwing knifes he lost. He found a local business that thought forging as an art form. One thing he liked about earth he decided that was the sheer size of things one could find and do. Anything he looked for the realm offered it in some form or another.
It took him several months get the right metal and to forge 6 knives. He had decided to put runes on the knives as well so they would be not only be stronger but also penetrate most metal armor. This time he wasn't put off by putting runes on, it was standard procedure for Asgardian weapons, although all warriors were taught to how to forge weapons you never needed to. He itched to try the knives out on the Iron Man to see if they would go in. He knew they wouldn't do much damage because they were too short but he would love to see the overconfident man's reaction when he was used as a pin cushion.
When the knives were done he set to create a holster for them. When he once again started to work runes into the leather he cursed Odin and his fore fathers as he was left to relying on creating runes and then using precious magic to set them to working. This time the cursing was because the work was left up to him, and it was hard with so little magic. If he had been in Asgard on any other realm he could have paid a cordwainer to get the job done. The holster once done sat on his back just like the one he used to have in Asgard and his knives could be drawn at a moment's notice. He knew that the runes on the holster made it possible for him to walk through any metal detector they had on the realm and if he was not body searched he would always be armed.
Once that was done and before he was looking for something to do he learned how create FBI and CIA level aliases. He then spent the next few weeks creating different aliases for himself.
He became Freddie Page from Brazil who was a sales man that sold airplanes.
Then he was Magnus Martinson from Sweden who was a computer engineer.
He became Bill Hazledine from Spain and worked at a book store.
He was William Buxton from Florida who was an architect.
He became John Plumptre from Canada who did nothing but live off his inheritance.
His favorite became a 33 year old Brit, by the name of Tom Hiddleston. The man was from London and had a degree from Cambridge on Norse mythology. He was a recluse that lived in a small apartment and wrote papers about Norse mythology. He even had a twitter account. The trick to creating a solid person on paper was placing things in the system looked like they were dated. So the papers and the articles Hiddleston wrote had to look like they were written over the last few years.
He laughed for several hours one day when he got an email into one of his accounts with a job offer from a company as a consultant and once he poked at the shell company it fell away and he noticed that SHIELD was making the offer.
After noticing that it was SHIELD that was offering him the job he tried to see if he could hack their data base through the back tracking the e-mail and was pleasantly surprised when he got through the basic level. There wasn't much, he got the cafeteria orders and the laundry rooms and he promptly set out to change them. The cafeteria got a delivery of live chickens by the case for 3 days before someone could fix the order. Then the laundry room started to change everyone's clothes into pink.
Loki worked on the SHIELD data base for over week before realizing he wasn't going to get further into the system. However with the ability to break in even that much told him that he had at the moment learned all he was going to do from Shane and it was time to move on. After all the rest of the stuff he could continue to learn online.
He packed up all the books he had acquired and his other stuff and placed them in storage. He hooked up with several contracts he had made through the grape wine of criminals and headed out to Europe. He had a blast going from one country to the other and coning his way through Europe's élites and collecting valuables and converting them into crash and putting them into a bank account in a Swiss bank. He knew even if he was exposed as an alien the Swiss banks would not give up his bank accounts. When he had the amount he required he set of the final part of his plan to settle down on earth.
Over the last few months he had been looking into where to move after San Jose. One thing he knew was that he couldn't risk staying in the US any longer. That begged the question of where to move. He had disregarded any countries that had US ties and didn't feel like moving to a country like North Korea so he could be away from their government.
He knew that despite being wanted on an international level, the US government was not looking for him. They thought he was back in Asgard. They were however looking for a computer hacker, a murderer and several different con artists but all those were low on the wanted list and no one had yet connected the fact that they were the same person. He also knew that if his existence on earth was to come out he would have a better chance in a country that wasn't friendly with the US. He after all only had scared a dozen or two people in Germany and killed a couple of thousand in New York. On a global scale he wasn't the worst criminal earth had. He was wanted because he was an alien and a terrorist. He hadn't even threatened other countries. Many of them didn't even have him on their watch list but international crime divisions could and would exchange news and information if needed. So he looked into countries that didn't have extradition arrangements with the US.
One of the top choices was Dubai and despite not liking the city and the country he brought a house in there under a rich European alias. A safe house on the side, that was paid for by its good citizens as it took him about a week in the city to con the money for the apartment. He also ruled out any country that he was not going to look like a local. Dubai had more foreigners than locals.
He decided that he was going to make his new home in Croatia. The country was small and was old and was aesthetic to look at. He could also pass of as a Croatian. And most importantly Croatia had no extradition agreements with the US.
He became Val Novak. Who was born in Croatia and his parents had moved to Britain when he had just been a toddler. He considered making himself an orphan adopted by a British couple but that one just rang a little too close to home. One of the reasons he chose Britain was that he knew when he was relaxed or under stress his all tongue sounded British to others so in case of a slip up this would be easier to cover.
Val Novak had made his fortune over the internet and now was moving back home to familiar himself with his ancestral roots, while continuing to work from home.
He brought an old renovated house several hours outside of a city but close to a small town that had its own swimming pool as well as its own little private beach and several hectares of fruit trees in the gardens. He coughed up 3 of his stashed millions for the property and a further 2 million for the state of the art security. He wanted to send Stark a thank you e-mail as Stark Industries security was added to the property, he made his own modifications to the system of course.
He once again damned Odin to the pits of Hel when he set out the place rune stones into the borders of his property. This was an ancient way of securing a property, seven rune stones would be placed at strategically places on the property and then they would be connected to each other, easy to do if you had the magical power. One of the sure ways of sealing the rune stones to each other and making the boundaries secure was connecting each rune stone to the other with a bodily fluid. Normally blood, as you said the enchantments and walked the perimeter dripping blood on the border was the strongest way to do it. However he didn't have that kind of power so he had to settle for a less secure option. He wondered what any of his new neighbors would think if any of them saw the new owner pissing on the borders of his property. It took several days and gallons and gallons of water before he was done and his lands where more or less secure and hidden from unwanted eyes.
He converted the ground floor of the house into huge area that was library and work room, he built his computers into this room as well. His servers where placed in the basement with their own security. He slowly set out to get more and more of the country under his control. Buying and conning local companies under his control. Offering politicians money, giving to the poor, (this he didn't like doing but it would win him the people if he ever needed their protection.) He also noted that he needed to find an easier money source as if he kept to the same tricks someone would catch on. Some of his alias where already wanted in several countries throughout Europe for con related offenses.
Once the novelty of moving and settling down into a new place wore off he realized he was jumpy. When he reflected on the matter he noticed that he had somehow ran out of things to do to create a life for him, he was missing Thor and his stupid campaigns. When he further prodded at the memories that weren't fun to being with he noticed what he really was missing was the excitement and the adrenaline that came with doing stupid things.
He never had thought himself as one that enjoyed the mad chases through the realms but apparently he was missing the rush and the adrenaline. He had already discovered fast cars and with a little bit of research he discovered motorcycles, and mountain biking at full speeds down a mountain. After that came sky driving. Then he realized these activities were more exciting with the knowledge of that if he fell he might really hurt himself or even die. Shortly after he discovered snowboarding, this was tame by his standards but for the first time since finding about his heritage he found something he liked doing in the snow.
A little while later he discovered the greatest rush earth had to offer him, stealing! Here on earth he had stolen money and cars however he could do those things with a hand tied behind his back and blind folded. He had stolen many other things in his life throughout the nine realms as well. On other worlds things were protected by magic and the only things guarded usually were weapons and magical jewelry. Here everything had a price and the more expensive the stuff the more guarded by the highest technological systems they were. Breaking the systems and walking into museums and rich people's homes became his favorite past time. It didn't hurt that it helped with his computer skills as well his bank account.
He discovered that a titanium charm around his left ankle set of the runes on his body in a different way and he could walk through lasers without them going off. With a different charm on his right wrist he was invisible to all security cameras. Too bad they didn't work well together, they canceled each other out so he had chose which he wanted for a specific job.
After sometime he was offered a job with a team. They were to steal a 'Picasso' painting that was going on sale at an auction house in Spain. He was in charge of the tech stuff and was offered 300 thousand Euros for a two day job. He took it because it allowed him to test his tech skills in a real environment with other people.
The job went without a hitch and was a great rush that left a stupid smile on Loki's face for the first time in a long time. He didn't think much of the painting, it looked like the artist was drunk when he had drawn it and was color blind on top. On the other hand this opened a whole new field of things for him. There were a massive number of artists on the realm that he hadn't been aware of. Art in Asgard was done for either to tell a tale or decoration, on this realm artists did art for the sake of art and there was so much of it. He did a little bit research into the most noticeable artists and visited a few number of art galleries around Europe.
When he determined his favorite painter he wanted to have one of his works. He did a little bit of groundwork and after a few days took a flight out to France Vernon and stole himself a Monet, it wasn't a large painting, rather small for his works but colorful full of flowers that looked like they were out of focus. He had loved it the moment he seen it. When he got back he was offered 12 million dollars for the painting through a contact.
His eye brows rose as the read the encrypted e-mail and his eyes travelled over the painting that he had hung up in the living room, 12 million dollars? The money he had been paid to steal the Picasso now seemed like an insult when he looked into the price of paintings. He cursed when he realized that he had not done enough research before going on the heist. He had gone for the sole purpose of the rush, now he needed to do two things. First find the bastard that ripped him off and give him a piece of his mind and then steal some more paintings.
Next time he was more ready, he made better contacts and set out to steal a painting that was already contracted. In a matter of 6 weeks he had over 20 million dollars in an offshore bank account under an untraceable alias and one of his aliases was wanted in France and Britain.
He also made sure that certain people got hold of the bastard who ripped him off and wasn't surprised when news of his demise at the hands of a hitter travelled through the gape wine of thieves.
During one of his heists he made unexpected friend. He ran into a little blond thief who with everything she did out ran him. She took him for a wild run through the museum and he could hear her crazy laughter as he chased her and the guards chased them.
He without delay tracked her down, which was difficult but he wasn't looking for her as you would look for a thief but rather like he wanted to offer her a job. Once he had several addresses he sent her a box of uncut diamonds to each of her properties. They were a girl's best friend weren't they?
He was surprised when he woke up in the middle of the night 2 days later with a buzz in his head. He knew someone had entered his property. He looked over his security and found nothing was tempered with so he was doubly impressed when the little blond made it all the way into his kitchen before he saw her and she still hadn't set of any alarms.
She, he decided was peculiar. She also stole just for fun like him. She promptly invited him on a heist and he went along with her to Bangkok and discovered a new rush of repelling from top of buildings at running speeds. They travelled to New York because she wanted to break into 'Tiffanies' she told him she didn't want to steal anything from them, "Because their diamonds are clean and they don't do blood diamonds, but Tiffanies was supposed to be unbreakable."
He had no idea what she talked about most of the time but went with her anyway. They ended up repelling from the sky scraper next to the store and actually swinging over to the other building. He was surprised no one actually heard her screams of joy. They ended up rearranging the entire store and leaving a note saying "Just 'cause we could!" If she wasn't mortal and he more capable of feelings he would have loved her.
She also told him that she was one of the good guys. When he had raised just one eyebrow and given her the look she had explained to him that her 'team' only stole from the bad guys and gave the money back to the people they stole it from. They were on a break and she was just having fun. While he didn't buy into the whole 'Robin Hood' thing what she said potential, if you were to steal from someone who had already stolen property they were not likely to report you.
Loki and the blond thief parted ways after New York, she wanted to head off to Washington to steal the 'Hope Diamond' and he wasn't really into stealing diamonds so he went back home. In short order he was coning and stealing his way through Europe's bad guys and making himself a fortune. In just under a year he became 'unofficially' one of the richest people in the globe also one of the most wanted in different circles. If only the people who were looking for him knew who they were looking for.
Once all his bugs and plans were in place he set out to do what he did best – create chaos. Earth had offered him enough distractions until then but it was too quiet for his liking. He started of small, little unrest by the people in small places, followed by some small riots here and there.
Europe was easy to get, someone was always fighting someone and there were so many differences that came with people living together for centuries that it was easy to light a fire under the already smoking pile of trouble. He hit the people of Europe with financial ruin as well as religious beliefs. He thought they deserved them, had they worshiped real gods as opposed to an ideal god then they might not have trouble distinguishing which was the real religion.
If he wasn't a god already he would have admired the mortals' ingenious ideas. With an absence of real gods the people had come up with ideal worships. Should all the people who was supposed to believe in their religion did exactly as it said in their books then anyone in the world would have trouble standing up to them and they would have peace. However the trouble came with arrogance, mine is better than yours, which wasn't necessarily an earth problem. If he could have found the people capable Loki would have liked to have long philosophical discussions about the belief system of the realm but there had been no one who held his attention. The so called religious leaders were either too arrogant or to full understanding that it made him sick.
Nevertheless he enjoyed watching most of Europe devour itself. While watching from far away was good, he liked being there in the chaos. He relished in it. As several countries that had already been divided because of religious reason went back to arguing and eventually civil war he walked the streets of war and drew in deep breaths taking in the chaos and the fear of the people.
He went out in the streets of Spain with hundreds of thousands of people as they called the government to resign as they protested against economic reforms. He watched from the streets as peaceful protest soon turned violent.
The same week as the world watched Spain he joined in the riots in Britain as thousands of people looted and burned and clashed with the police. That had been easy to organize, the police killing a 16 year old while in detainment for shop lifting. Of course the police had nothing to with it, except detain the child but the rest was fun to organize. He used the social media to spur the people on. And it worked beautifully.
There were so many who did his work for him, already angry or just wanting to create chaos. He wondered if they had still worshiped him if these so called freedom fighters would have been his disciples, 'serve the God of Chaos, worship him and create more mayhem!'
In Greece he joined with the people as they attacked the government for raising the taxes and the first day 5 people were killed and hundreds arrested. Of course it had been him, actually his control of the banks of Europe that were putting the pressure on Greece for the loans to be paid back. The death of protestors got more and more people into the streets and they took a page out of Brit's notebook and began looting. He had never in his life had more fun as he walked the streets of ancient Athens as it burned.
In Turkey thousands of people hit the streets because their government was going to tear down a park. Of course it had been one of his companies that had offered the government officials millions for the development rights knowing that the people would object. Politicians were so easy to corrupt. He relished walking in the cowards of people as they were shouting, screaming and crying as their very own police who was supposed to protect them attacked them with water and tear gas. He enjoyed himself immensely as he threw Molotov cocktails at the police with new friends.
Next came Kiev, where people were already unhappy with their government and politicians who were so easy to manipulate it didn't take much to spark the people. He found the right leaders in the people, if he was a nice person he would have found the leaders that wanted peace, those that would sit down with the governments instead of fighting with them. But Loki was looking for chaos, he chose the people who no matter what you said would still protest the government.
His good friend Shane was one, no matter how smart or how well informed he was he was so anti government that it was easy to incite people like him and Loki had hundreds of years of practice. He used to enjoy doing this when he was younger, get the representatives from other realms arguing with one another with just a few well placed words. He had then spent hours or hours of listening to Odin lecture, with each lecture he had learned more and more about what to do for further disorder rather than what not to do.
These riots sparked many more in the countries themselves as well all throughout Europe. America was quiet and keeping out of it which he didn't mind. They themselves were trying to pull themselves out of almost financial ruin and didn't want to get involved. He was fine with that; he had other plans for America.
Middle East was easy to get they were already half way there anyway, so with a few pushes they either declared war on each other or descended into civil war. Many countries were dealing with their own problems so no one actually had the energy to care.
Then he hit Africa. Africa was already on the verge of collapse all he had to do was give it a little push. In a matter of weeks tribes were fighting tribes and it looked like civil war would break out in many countries as well as some countries actually fighting their neighbors.
When it looked like Africa was going the way of Europe America decided to step in, just like Loki was expecting them to. He had made sure to create unrest in countries with oil and diamonds so America wouldn't have been able to resist coming along to help and get their hands on the natural resource. He knew there were no other powers to come along to help, and just like he expected America decided to use the Avengers to help calm the people down.
Captain America came to stop a riot, Loki had been in the country for over a month working with an anti-government, anti-American group of fanatics spurring them on. If the American government thought that their symbol of peace and super solider would work on others they were sadly mistaken. Within moments the crowd that was fighting each other was united against a foreign government and was burning flags, conveniently provided by Loki's group.
This was followed by the still free news groups to call for America to pull back from Africa. They started to question the Avengers alliances. Were they the protectors of the world or America? Were they looking to help the world or just America's interest? Why were they helping now? Why not help Europe? Why were all super heroes American? When SHILED pointed out the Black Widow another fight started. The Russian government demanded publicly that Natasha Romanova come back to her home country, when she refused, she was labeled traitor.
That is when the fun started. He contacted Shane and let him reach some of SHIELD's databases. Loki himself had not yet broken through them however he knew they were others out there that were better than him that would try, they just weren't aware of Big Brother. Within days SHIELD's dirty secrets started to flash across the internet and main new channels.
While the whole world was reacting to a secret organization that controlled governments someone got through to the labs were they were dissecting the Chitauri.
When the hackers got hold of the photos and the videos and flashed them across the internet it didn't look like the American government was doing research. It looked like what everyone had always known it would like if any government had gotten hold of an alien. But the most exciting part came when the conspiracy theorist slash hackers came into the discussion. They pointed out that the government wasn't dissecting but they were rather creating these monsters. They weren't aliens at all, they were all lab created by the secret organization and when you looked at it in a different context you could see what they were talking about.
Loki had laughed as more and more shadow fell over the attack in New York. People started asking if there were extraterrestrial life forms where were they? Why just one attack? Why hadn't there been any other contact? Why did the person who led the attack look human? Was Thor, one of the avengers really an extraterrestrial?
That is where he came in. He directed the hackers into the files he had placed some time ago that looked like they were part of the SHIELD database but were not. And the internet met Lorrin White. A British born solider who had joined the service when he was 19 and had suffered a life ending injury in Afghanistan at age 24. That is where the story got interesting certain governments had tested on him. He was supposed to have been an improved solider like Captain America.
The poor lad had lost his sanity in the labs after 6 years of research done on his body just so the world governments could create the perfect solider. He had gotten away and had lashed out with rest of the lab rats. What Loki liked about the whole thing was that he wasn't even lying about some of the things. SHIELD along with other secret organizations were actually trying to recreate the Captain America serum and there had been quite a number of experiments done. The Hulk had been one such an experiment.
Loki would have loved to have seen Thor's face when the internet discovered his files and it looked like he came out of a bottle too. He knew that most of these would not change the beliefs of many of the people, especially those people who actually knew the truth but the whole thing was to create uncertainty.
When there was uncertainty there was doubt, where there was doubt you could play with people's emotions and beliefs.
A few months later Loki woke up one morning and noticed that his mind was rather quiet. He realized that earth was standing at a crossroads. From now on things would go only two ways, infinite roads in each direction but a clear crossroads.
One way led to war. The final world war earth would ever know, where billions and billions of people died and there were no more governments left. It would take a thousand years for the realm to rebuild itself or never if they were to fire their nuclear weapons. The human race could actually kill itself off. Loki knew that despite many roads leading down to that option he knew that Odin would then interfere. He was the All-Father; he would not allow earth to come to that. He would not allow the humans to kill themselves and Loki did not fancy living in a realm where Asgard suddenly ruled. But war was so much profit when one knew how to manipulate it and for an immortal it was just like a dark patch in their long life.
The other way was not much better. It led not to war but to total and inevitable chaos. Again billions would die but not in the large numbers as a war and not through the direct action of others but many countries would refuse to share food and medicine with one another leading to more civil wars and hunger and sickness. There might be several countries that might pull out of the chaos if they were governed well and they might come out of the other side as the next power.
Two weeks later Loki hadn't still decided on which road he was going to push earth down when he walked back into his house after a long morning swim when he heard one of his computers beep. He walked over to have a look before going to get a shower. He wasn't really interested in any mischief making that day he was going to skydiving in the afternoon. A smile came over his face when he realized that one of his little programs had been able to break through to Stark's personal database and left a Trojan.
Stark though sheer determination was holding most of the world together by holding onto the economies of many of the countries that he did business with. Most importantly he was single handedly was holding the American economy together. Add on top that he was Iron Man willing to protect people in any country he had been the only Avenger to survive his attack on SHIELD with relative few hits.
Loki almost skipped over to his bathroom and took a shower holding onto his mirth. He dressed in black jeans and a long sleeved dark green shirt and padded back to the kitchen and got himself tea in one of those over large American mugs. He sat down in front of his computers carefully placed his tea down and ran his hands through his still damp hair which was now almost to his shoulders. He pulled himself towards his main screen and turned everything that had been on standby on. He sent a quick e-mail to his so called friends that he couldn't make it to their skydiving date that afternoon.
A true evil smile came over his face as finally after spending 6 years on the realm the end was near.
"Let the end games begin," he said as he began typing away.
Author Notes:
Any flames you send my way will be ignored.
This is where I am leaving the story – you decide what Loki decided to do with earth or if the Avengers were able to stop him and save the earth. I might come back to write more in this story but not a continuation but dialogs and scenes that were happening throughout this story. I have the scene where the Avengers find out about him in my head but I want to go back and write my other stories first.
First of: I have nothing against any countries, if anybody is offended I am sorry, I was just trying to create more chaos for Loki.
Loki's tattoos were inspired by (copied from) Lindsay McDonald's tattoos from the last season of Angel.
For anyone who thought the things in the story were not possible, I would recommend that they watch the awesome show called Leverage, listen to their podcast or DVD commentaries or visit their writer's website to see what is possible and what is not. And also think that this is fiction!
I wrote this story in response to all the stories out there were Loki is banished to earth and is homeless and defenseless and has to rely on the avengers for help. And I have read several stories were he gets a job at Starbucks!? Don't get me wrong I love some of those stories but come on people – this guy is a 1000 year old! Supposed to be the strongest scorer in the nine realms, written as smart and charismatic, he is going to do better than Starbucks!
If anyone noticed there was a slight crossover with another random in there, cookies to anyone who might have picked up on the identity of the little blond thief.
Thanks for reading – I really enjoyed getting into Loki's psycho mind, I hope you have enjoyed the ride as well.
