Author's Note: Once again, real life has kept me from updating my stories. Hope you enjoy this little snippet of insanity.

Chapter 28 – Exit Stage Left… or was that Right?

Loki and his party trailed behind the ladies. As they exited the room, he glanced back noticing that Thor was still searching for him, but hadn't seen him yet. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Which room are we going to?"

"The West Ballroom. Why? You guys going to go change?" Lady Thor asked.

"Right… change. We need to change." Loki walked over to a door and opened it slowly. Peering into the room, he noticed it was empty. "Wait here," he instructed to the ladies as he motioned for his party to enter.

"What are we going to do in here?" Thranduil demanded as soon as they were all in the room.

"We need to change for this contest… so…" Loki grinned.

Sif giggled as she saw the sudden changes in Thranduil and Tauriel.

Tauriel looked down in dismay at the black cat suit she now wore. "I am not going out in there wearing this!" the she-elf said angrily.

"You don't have a choice if we want to get out of here without my brother finding us," Loki replied.

"Why do you not wish him to find you?" Tauriel asked.

"Let's just say, he thought I was dead… again," Loki answered.

Tauriel shook her head. "I still do not understand…" her voice trailed off as she stared at Thranduil. He now looked exactly like Thor. "Who…? How…?"

"Remember, I'm a wizard, right?" Loki grinned.

Thranduil stared down at his new form. "You can do this? You are doing this?"

"Indeed. Now, we need to go join our new companions." Loki walked to the door and held it open for them.

The ladies were posing for photos as they exited the room. Lady Loki caught sight of them. "Damn! That was fast… and wow… if those aren't the best costumes ever. If we don't win, I'll eat my hat!"

Thranduil stared up at the golden helmet she was wearing. "I would not recommend that course of action."

"Figure of speech," Lady Loki said with a laugh. "Although, the first one I made was edible… sort of."

"Sort of?" Tauriel asked.

"Come on! We gotta hurry or we won't be able to enter!" The female Captain America started walking down the hallway.

"Shame we don't have a Stark, Hulk, or Hawkeye to complete the ensemble…" Lady Thor mused. "Oh My God!" She stopped dead in her tracks pointing.

"What?" Lady Loki asked, then saw what her friend was pointing at, or rather - who she had discovered.

Tony Stark was striding down the hallway heading directly to them, Pepper Potts at his side. "Loki? Where the hell have you been? We've been searching for you…" He noticed Loki's companions. "I see you found your brother. What happened to those elves?"

"Those elves are still here," Thranduil said imperiously, sniffing disdainfully at Stark.

"Oh," Stark looked confused for a second. "Did you…?"

Loki nodded. "Yes, I did. Now… we are trying to avoid my brother…"

"Say, you know these guys?" Lady Thor asked. "Are you going to join us? We were, like, just saying how it was a shame we didn't have a Tony Stark or any of the others. You look pretty good, I guess. And a Pepper Potts won't hurt to add to our group."

"Ladies?" Stark looked a them in utter confusion.

"They think you're in a costume," Sif whispered to Stark. "They don't think you are who you are… at least, I think you are who you look like you are. That's not a costume, is it?"

"What do you mean? Of course I'm Tony Stark!" Stark bellowed.

"Wow! He even sounds like him!" Lady Loki said.

"That's because I am him. My god, I own this hotel, right Pepper? I do own this one, don't I?" Stark turned to Pepper.

"Actually, no. I own it. You gave it to me last summer for my birthday," Pepper smiled at him.

"Your birthday? Why would I do that?" Stark asked.

"You told me to buy me something I wanted… well…" Pepper grinned at Tony.

"Oh, well…"

"Listen. You two in with us or not?" Lady Thor asked. "We gotta get in there now."

"In?"

"Yes, they are," Loki replied, linking his arm through Stark's. "Just come along and pretend you're not Tony Stark," he hissed quietly.

They finally entered the room, following the Lady Thor as she walked directly to one table. "We wanna enter the costume contest as a group," her arm swept back to indicate the entire group.

The woman sitting at the table pushed a card across the table at her. "Fill out the name of your group, there is a $10 entry fee. Who's gonna pay?"

"I've got it… somewhere," the female Captain America piped up. She started digging through her belt, finally extracting a twenty-dollar bill. "And don't forget, these two are in the Loki Lookalike contest too!"

The woman at the table looked up at Loki and Lady Loki. "Not too bad, I guess. Not my favorite, personally I always liked Superman best."

"Supper man?" Sif asked. "You mean there is one who likes to eat?"

"No, Super – not supper," the woman quickly corrected her.

"Oh… sorry," Sif smiled apologetically. "Why is he super?"

"Seriously?" The woman looked at her incredulously. "Whatever. Anyways, here are your entry badges," she shoved some plastic badges across to them. "And you two, put this on yours." She handed Loki and Lady Loki a small golden sticker that looked like Lady Loki's helmet. "That gets you entered in the look-a-like competition."

Lady Thor scooped up the badges. "Thanks!" She passed out the badges, instructing them to put them on, making sure the helmet stickers were placed on the appropriate ones. "Now we gotta mingle. The judges could be anywhere in here."

They spent the next twenty minutes moving through the room. Loki kept his eyes on the doors, watching for his brother. Every time someone entered the room, he stiffened slightly until he was assured it wasn't Thor.

Someone finally stepped up to the microphone on the stage. "Okay folks! Can we get all the contestants lined up? We're gonna start with the Loki Look-a-like competition."

Lady Loki grabbed Loki's arm. "Come on! That's us!" She pulled him up closer to the stage where a young man was organizing all the contestants. He added them to the line and instructed the group to go up behind the and walk out one-by-one once the announcer started.

"Now, the winner of this competition, gets a free ticket to Sea World," the announcer started. "So, Loki… Come On out!"

The first Loki strutted playfully onto the stage, mincing his steps carefully.

"I do not walk like that!" Loki hissed.

"Shhh… it's just his way of getting the judges attention. I mean, seriously… we all look like Loki so we gotta finda way to stand out. Got it?" Lady Loki warned him.

Loki rolled his eyes.

When it was her turn, Lady Loki pasted a brilliant smile on her face and with an exaggerated sway of her hips, walked onto the stage. She paused in the middle and waved out at the audience, then blew them a kiss.

Loki sighed.

"Your turn, dude!" The guy behind him shoved him forward.

Loki stumbled onto the stage. "You little bilge snipe!" He shouted back at the man who had shoved him. Regaining his balance, he heard the sniggers from the audience. Glaring at them, he stalked to join the row of other Lokis arrayed on the stage.

"What was that all about?" Lady Loki whispered.

"Nothing," Loki snapped.

Once everyone was on stage, the announcer walked up and down, pausing by each Loki allowing the audience to cheer for their favorite.

"Ok, folks. Looks like we have a winner," the announcer said as a girl ran up on stage with an envelop. Ripping it open, he scanned the paper. "And the winner is…!" He ran over to the Lokis and grabbed the man who had pushed Loki onto the stage. "LOKI!"

"Seriously?" Loki sneered. "That one looks nothing like me."

"LOKI!" Thor's voice bellowed in the room.

Loki's eyes darted to the source. He saw the look of complete confusion on his brother's face as he took in the stage filled with an assortment of Lokis.

"Now, if you'll excuse me…" Loki spoke quietly to Lady Loki. "I do believe it is time to leave." Slouching down, making himself shorter than the other Lokis, Loki slowly slid to the back of the group.

"Oh no you don't!" Thor shouted, swinging Mjölnir he flew up to the stage. Landing with a resounding thump, he reached out and grabbed Loki… only it wasn't his brother. "You are going nowhere until you explain everything to me."

"Knowhere? Awesome! You buying? And how'd you do that trick?" the man asked Thor.

"What?" Thor asked him.

"Didn't you know they renamed the bar Knowhere for this year's con?"

"Thor?" Start queried. "The real Thor?"

"Of course I'm real," Thor looked around, suddenly realizing the room was filled with various costumed people, many resembling him. "What is going on?"

While Thor was trying to understand the man he'd grabbed, along with how he'd ended up in a room filled with Lokis and a few Thors, Loki took advantage of the distraction and slipped off the stage. Heading directly to Thranduil and the others, he nodded his head towards the door behind the stage. "This way."

"I cannot believe it!" Loki growled once they were clear of the room. He took a moment and returned the others to their normal form.

"Believe what?" Thranduil asked.

"That… thatman they chose; he did not look anything like me!" Loki sniffed disparagingly.

Sif smirked. "I thought he looked pretty good myself."

"He was shorter… and… his hair was all straggly, and… his cloths, they weren't even made with real leather!" Loki spit out.

Sif roared with laughter. "Awww, poor Loki. Didn't even win a Loki Look-a-like contest. Guess that means you don't look like Loki."