Was Loki used to seeing his dark designs compromised? Yes, undoubtedly, he would never have come to isolate himself on a lighthouse otherwise.

Did he take note of it? Yes, every time. A failure here, a Machiavellian plan thwarted there, everything was well recorded. Of course, it was always so irritating, no matter how many times, one rarely appreciates defeat when one is a god.

Loki was therefore used to finding himself in front of disastrous scenes. And yes, it was often his fault. Sometimes he could have prevented it, very often even because most of the time the course of events was predictable. But then, Loki had to admit, he didn't foresee that the lighthouse would end... just like that. At the same time, did he have to guess by himself that Namor didn't appreciate being invaded on his territory ? No. The Atlantean only had to put up signs to indicate his property, like everyone else. There was no lack of possibilities.

Property of Atlantis, do not enter.

Here lives Namor, god of the oceans, grumbling on the edges.

Please do not cast spells in the ocean. It frightens the fish and my people thank you. Namor, king of Atlantis.

Private corals do not use to make necklaces.

That kind of thing. But no, the fish man had preferred to destroy his lighthouse and leave him a rather aggressive message. If Loki hadn't already come across Attuma, who was a bit more problematic, he would surely have been worried. However, his lack of concern had been replaced by anger. The Atlantean had, the height of impudence, dared to cover his Jaguar with seaweed! Loki was truly indignant about it. It takes rules to govern a world and "don't touch the car" was one of the first.

After a magical cleaning of his car, in short a snap of the fingers later, Loki drove, with his usual caution, to New York.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

As he drove more sensibly through the streets Loki sighed. He had probably left for a long period of boredom. Yippee. Loki may have been doing a little crazy lately, but he wasn't unconscious. After the "slight" incident with Namor he had much more to gain by keeping a low profile for a few weeks. All he had to do was find an occupation that would not be noticed by the Avengers. Maybe open a café? Loki frowned as soon as the idea crossed his mind. Was it really a good idea? Serving drinks to humans all day long wasn't really useful unless he was indoctrinating them? From that point of view, it was worth thinking about. He had some really good ideas that went through his head while he was riding. The hum of the engine was supposed to help him think.

Loki parked his car in a street adjacent to the one facing the Tower and walked in its direction. In the end, even though the reception was likely to be violent and Loki would have preferred a thousand times to stay in his corner, he didn't really know where to go. He knew the Tower, it seemed to be the best solution. And he began to enjoy walking in the crowds of people who were giving life day and night to New York City. If he had bothered to do a little introspection, he would have realized that now he would rather be here than lost in a forest or perched on a lighthouse. Strangely enough... Mortals were beginning to please him. Well, not really "please ", but he could stand them much better than before. He even found himself finding them entertaining without the need to enslave them.

He dodged a child who was walking a very young puppy without looking where he was going. When he came to the door of the Tower he was not sure if the door would open. But it did, revealing a patriotic soldier who raised an eyebrow before inviting him in with a wave of his head.

"Thor is going to be happy to know you're home. Tony a little less."

The Jotun piteously lowered his shoulders and gave the blonde a sorry look. He had worked that sad look for centuries on his brother, no reason why it shouldn't work on the walking flag. Steve gave him a perplexed look in reply and Loki swore mentally. In the end it didn't work on him, with a minimum of hindsight, it was obvious. The dark-haired man returned to his usual neutral air and walked into the hall. He wasn't going to dwell on it after all it was just a detail. Loki slipped into the elevator, not knowing what to expect after starting a war that could spread around the world.

"Well, hello hello," Clint said as Loki stepped out of the elevator. "How was the ocean? Tiring, wasn't it? Anyway, I prefer the countryside."

"I wouldn't say tiring," answered Loki. "Isn't Stark here?"

"He said he was going to try to get away from you as much as possible to stay cool. Births always make you make new resolutions. »

Loki nodded vaguely without really listening to the brown; his main concern was still there.

"And... Report to the Atlanteans?"

"Oh that, Tony declined all responsibility and told SHIELD to take care of it. So we're in the clear, Fury's in charge. Just don't do this every two weeks. End of the world's funny when it only happens once."

Loki looked at the SHIELD agent who went into the living room, probably to watch a movie, and considered following him but recovered. First he had to find an occupation, so he started wandering around the Tower.

After many twists and turns he ends up facing Tony and a young boy. The genius stopped in the middle of a sentence, blinked several times, turned to his companion to make sure he wasn't the only one to see him and, only when he was sure that he had the source of ninety percent of his problems in front of him, he began a proper sermon. Loki listened with one ear, holding in his head a few words like "don't start a world war", "stop causing potentially fatal accidents in the city center", "don't start a war at all", "remember to brush your teeth after a meal", "stay away from him so that he can live more serenely", etc.

Under the admiring eye of the young man, Tony caught his breath and reflected in silence. He took a deep breath as he approached the Jotun.

"You know what, since you obviously love to steal my stuff, I'll leave this whole lab to you. It's a gift," Tony said, placing a metal card in Loki's hands. "It's on the same floor as your room. Enjoy it! Come on Peter, let's go work on your project."

Loki looked at the map while Tony put a hand on the young hero's shoulder as he guided him into the Tower. All right... Tony was getting weirder and weirder. But after all, why not? Loki looked up at the ceiling. Let's see, if everyone did that... Why not him?

"..."

Loki remained fixing the ceiling for several seconds. Damn. What was the voice called again?

"J.A.R.V.I.S, can you order me a pizza?"

"Of course, Mr. Barton. As usual?"

"As usual," confirmed the archer. "You got it, buddy."

"Thank you, sir. I'll let you know when it arrives."

Loki followed with eyes Clint passing in front of him once again.

"Yo the alien," he greeted, playing with one of his arrows that beeped alarmingly. "You still hanging out in the corridors?"

The Jotun frowned as he prepared to answer him, but the archer continued on his way without paying much attention to him. Okay. This time it was for him.

"J.A.R.V.I.S?"

"Yes Mr. Odinson?"

"Where is Stark's abandoned laboratory?"

- I will guide you there. First take the elevator, it is on the same floor as your room. »

The brown guy mentally confirmed the AI's claims, he remembered that Stark had explained it. And he was glad that he had remembered this information and not the information about how much water he had to consume every day. Loki looked at the automatic doors that had just opened and stepped forward.

When the doors reopened, J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice accompanied him to a door, located quite close to his room.

Loki slid the card along the sensor and the door slid silently. The Jotun passed the doorway and the light was on. The asgardian silently snooped around the lab, lifting a few plans here and a few gizmos there. Tidying up was really not a Stark specialty.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

"Thor. Did you know that on Midgard witches and witches are supposed to ride on broomsticks?"

"No. But since you already have the right outfit, all you need is the broom."

"Hey! You stop with that," Loki said indignantly.

His attire was quite respectable. More than his brother's anyway. Thor smiled mischievously and Loki grumbled.

"Anyway, I said I was going to make it better."

"Improve what?"

"The broom Thor, are you even listening to me?"

"Yes of course," answered his brother before returning to his training with the Hulk.

The Jotun looked at the two of them as they confronted each other and left the room in a hurry. Loki hated being ignored. The Jotun returned to lock himself up in his laboratory and set about his new task.
After some rather short experiments, each one more dangerous and approximate than the others, Loki came out of his cave with a strange metallic broom in his hand. He took the elevator and left the tower with his creation. It is in a park that Loki began the first outdoor tests.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

"SHIT SHIT SHIT SHITSHITSHIT! HOW DO I BRAKE HOW DO I BRAKE?!"

Several New Yorkers looked up and saw a semblance of a broom that crashed into a building. Right next to a giant screen where a man was grumbling all day long.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Loki returned to the Tower, fulminating, his failed broom (almost broken in half) in hand. He tossed it into a corner of the lab and went to sit in his chair. The Prince of Asgard grumbled as he wiped the remaining dust from his clothes. The broom was a failure and his idea to make one was stupid. Midgardian technology was too approximate to give a conclusive result when combined with magic. At least not with so little time.

Loki looked through the many backup disks and the few blueprints that were loose on the desk. He grabbed a disk at random and plugged it into one of the built-in ports directly on the desktop. He opened a file, always randomly because random had the advantage of doing things right, and came across a prototype of an anti-gravity shoe. Loki put his elbows on the desk and looked at the different models Tony had already developed. The genius seemed to have encountered a thorny problem, which was probably why he was using reactors. But no matter how pungent it was, it wasn't a problem that a little magic couldn't solve. Loki took a closer look at the many files in the folder. After all, why not...

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Loki was delighted. First of all, the aesthetic rendering of the shoes was absolutely masterful thanks to an unstoppable choice of color: black and green with a slight golden touch on the soles; but on top of that, and this was the genius of the thing, they worked. A miracle offered by his science and a little magic boost, undeniably more conclusive than the previous one.

It was a work of art in short. A work of art that the whole world should enjoy. Loki smiled mischievously and looked at his cell phone. He had belatedly discovered social networks; elusive sources of hate spilling, but above all a very accessible means of communication with the whole world. Millions of midgardians lurking in front of their pages, sickly refreshing in the hope of a new trend to follow, a landmark event, an actor's relationships and so many other trivial things.

So many choice targets for the launch of his online brand. The Jotun had to admit it, he was not a little proud of himself. For the time being, he only had one product. And he was still missing a few small changes. It didn't seem appropriate to market flying shoes to the whole city, then the state, then the country and then the world. Most importantly, he needed a team.