Who is excited for Loki Season 2 next year? I personally am glad they got a few different directors, ones who have worked on Marvel already! Sorry, I really hate what Kate did to the show and Loki. I could care less about Sylvie.
Thank you vero0824londo, H3LLF1R3IIOS and Dorian Castillo for the likes and follows!
"What do you mean the blood sample is insufficient? It was all over that barbed fence!" Charlotte yelled at the technician.
"If the computer says it's insufficient, then that's what it is." She replied, giving her a look for Charlotte's impatience.
"What about the clothing material? Any hair samples or maybe even a hangnail?"
The technician sighed, turning from her computer. "Officer Lane, I wanted to find answers through these evidence, trust me. But, without the right amount, I can't do any analysis. Sorry."
Mack, beside Charlotte, gave a nod to the Technician. "Thanks, anyway. We'll look more into the crime scene." He urged her out and the two walked down the hall. "You can't yell at her for doing her job."
Charlotte inwardly scolded herself, Mack was right. She only had herself to blame for this situation. "Lane! Balden!" The call of Johnson froze the two, they turned as their lard boss shuffled toward them.
"Am I to understand not only are seven women missing but one of them in a civilian you put in to lure the kidnapper out?" He questioned.
Charlotte shrunk back, "Yes, sir. It was Loki and I who allowed her to join." she explained.
"She's a friend of Loki's." Mack added.
Johnson snarled. "Then where is he? He should be answering about this also!"
The officers looked to one another, "That's the thing sir." Charlotte gulped. "He's missing too."
"What!? They took him as well!?"
"N-Not exactly." Mack tried to correct. "He's just gone missing once we found his friend was as well."
Johnson rubbed his thick brows between his stumpy fingers. "This just became more complicated. Look, we need to find out where they were taken. Get on it now before we have to start searching for bodies."
Charlotte prayed it didn't come to that, as their boss left them to the job. "Let's get a look at that fence. Maybe something else was left behind." Mack suggested.
Charlotte agreed.
The two returned to the scene around 5am, the sun ready to rise in just a couple of hours. Mack inspected the fence with a flashlight in his hand. Charlotte climbed over, searching for any other evidence left behind. Sure, the snow that was taken care of behind the building left signs of movement. But they were simple shuffles and couldn't indicate a shoe print. She followed the shuffling that turned down a deeper alley. Charlotte kept going, her eyes focused on the snow covered ground when she spotted something red to her right. Careful of the knee high snow, Charlotte tilted the flash light to see drips of red blood in the snow.
"They had gone this way, leaving a faded blood trail."
Charlotte walked slower, eyes scanning for any other red spots. It was when she finally reached the wall that she frowned deeply. "...Where did you go?"
Thinking she missed an exit, Charlotte retraced her steps, but when she found the fence again she became dumbfounded. Mack noticed through the fence, raising his flashlight.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"I found a faded blood trail where they left, but it just leads to a dead end." She explained.
Without hesitation, Mack clamped the flashlight between his teeth and climbed the fence. He narrowly avoided the barb wire and jumped down with ease, flashlight back in his hand.
"Show me."
As requested, Charlotte led him down the same way she followed, finding the wall once again. Mack hummed, pressing his hand against the wall as if trying to feel for something.
"Looking for a switch?" Charlotte asked sarcastically.
"Hey, you never know, right?" He shrugged, but gave up once given a look. "They must have gone somewhere from here. No way did they climb the wall."
"There's no doors on the other buildings, and the blood leads them here so… wait." Charlotte's eyes fell downward, suddenly noticing they weren't standing on any snow by the wall.
Mack followed her gaze, the two seeing what the snow would've covered; a man hole cover. She grinned and started to try and lift the predominantly heavy metal lid. Mack knelt down to help and with a few grunts and strains, the two managed to lift it high enough to shove it. Charlotte rubbed her hands and inspected the man hole, Mack pointing the flash light over it.
"You don't think?" Mack questioned, but Charlotte gave the answer when she started to climb down the ladder. "Lane, wait! We should get an investigation team on this."
Charlotte ignored him. "Don't you see? This is how they've been kidnapping girls through the city."
Not caring about the dangers below, Charlotte blindly descended into the sewer. Without much of a choice, Mack followed after, keeping his flashlight tight with him.
Touching the ground, the two instantly started gagging as the smell, Charlotte covered her mouth and nose with her scarf as Mack held his nose. He flashed his light about, finding the narrow tunnel empty but noises echoed over the tiniest sound.
"Now what?" He asked.
Charlotte with her own light looked around. "I would say we split up, but I don't think you'd go for that."
Mack huffed, "Loki maybe, but no. Not me. We should stick together." he sternly told her. "Any word from him, by the way."
Curious, Charlotte got out her phone, but saw no calls or texts from him. "No, I don't know why he just up and disappeared like that."
Mack stopped over to her, careful where he walked. "Conveniently right when we lost, Sif was her name? Scandinavians are weird."
Charlotte turned to him. "You can question their names once we find her and the others. Maybe for all we know, Loki is searching for them himself." Though why he wasn't contacting her, she didn't know.
"Well, I say we stop here-"
"No!" Her voice bounced off the walls, startling Mack. "We're this far in, they must have left something behind to lead us."
"...Charlotte." He pointed past her, his light shining on something a but further down the sewer.
She walked over and gasped through her scarf. "A stiletto shoe." Ignoring possible germs, Charlotte inspected it, bringing it back to Mack. "And it looks fairly new, it couldn't have been here long."
"It looks like it might've belonged to Jenny or Emery. I saw the girls dancing at the club wearing the same type of shoes." Mack informed her.
Charlotte's tenacity grew. "Then we're heading the right way."
Loki would try again and again to break through the restriction of his magic, whatever was keeping them all locked in there. But it seemed all for not, only to exhaust himself. He couldn't even salvage a sliver of it to form a duplicate in order to indicate where they were.
"If only I could've seen what's outside, I could inform Charlotte." He growled to himself.
"Any luck?" Emery asked, approaching him.
Loki turned, regrettably shaking his head. "It's trickier than I anticipated."
"It feels like one of those large shipping containers, but that's just a guess." She told, hoping to help.
Loki hummed, folding his arms. "So, not out in the open city. Somewhere desolate where these things are commonly found."
"In Philly, usually around ship or train yards. Most train yards are abandoned, so no one bothers with them anymore." Emery told. "But, I don't remember hearing anything like a shore or water."
"So we're most likely in a train yard." He determined.
Jenny spoke up, "Maybe even an under passage. I've seen a few under the bridge when traveling between here and Jersey." she explained.
Loki thought about it, but frowned at the math. "That'd be a long trip to move someone. I determined I was only out less than an hour, maybe half. It has to be somewhere near city limits to be able to traverse with human cargo."
"Please don't call us that." One small girl whimpered, held by an older woman.
Emery turned to them. "We have to use our brains, girls. If we can figure out where we are, Loki might be able to contact the police and they can free us." She assured them.
Though none seemed tenacious as she was, seemingly they had given up hope on being found. Emery didn't though, she turned back to Loki asking in a low voice. "You can contact them, right?"
"Of course, we just have to make sure we don't send my partner and force on a wild goose chase." He reminded, Loki approached the girls. "Do any of you remember anything when taken?"
A few refrained themselves, seemingly unable to remember a thing before waking up there.
"We just know it was dark in the night and some of us were drunk. We don't even remember anything after we left the bar." Corey told him.
"If anyone could remember better is anyone who wasn't drunk." Corey's friend, Sarah, told him.
"That's only Emery and Jenny." He turned to the two. "What do you remember before being taken?"
Jenny spoke first. "I was heading to my girlfriend's apartment, I had just finished a shift and was talking to my dad. Once the phone call ended, I was tackled to the ground and something was tied to my arms and a cloth shoved in my mouth." She shuddered at the memory, rubbing her arms. "I eventually was carried off, but…"
Loki's brows shot up, "But?" he urged. Jenny rubbed her head in an attempt to remember. Loki stepped toward her, pressing his hand to her head to see her memory.
He replied the moment she was taken in her mind, seeing from her perspective of men grabbing at her and tying her up as she said. What he was shocked to see was she was taken to a metal lid in an alley and the memory went hazy there.
He let her go, she gasped at the memory and looked up at him in a cold sweat. "Sewers! I saw a sewer cover before blacking out!"
"Do not tell me we are in some underground waste!" One girl whined.
"I haven't smelled anything rancid, so it might be somewhere else underground." Emery concluded. "Did that help?" She asked Loki.
"For now, yes." He assured.
Sarah groaned in frustration. "That doesn't help at all!" She cried out. "This city has underground tunnels like a maze! We're going to rot in hell down here!"
"Sarah! Calm down." Corey coaxed.
They weren't going to rot like rats down here, Loki was sure of that. He couldn't tell Charlotte they're pin point location, but had to send her a message to where to look for them. Even if he had to be cryptic about it.
"This is where I draw the line, Lane!" Mack suddenly barked out, having been scuffling in the sewers well over twenty minutes. "The next man hole we find, we are climbing back up and getting a proper search team."
"If you want to head up, fine!" She yelled back. "But I am not giving up on those girls."
"I'm not giving up, I'm simply pausing to get more people to help search. Isn't that more ideal?" He tried to reason.
When Charlotte felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, she wretched it out gasping at the message she received. "Loki's on their trail!" She told over her shoulder.
"What!?" Mack nearly inhaled the fumes and coughed. "Where is he?"
Charlotte turned to him, reading the text. "Not too far, he said he's underground somewhere. Believing that's where the girls and Sif are. She must have informed him then messaged me."
Mack sighed, knowing this just meant Charlotte was more bound to not leaving the tunnels. "Can he give us a location so we can meet up and search together?"
Charlotte sent a text back, asking for more information. Mack stood by, when he looked down and spotted a fat ugly rat chewing at his shoe laces. He screeched at the sight, bumping into Charlotte. She slipped and her phone dropped from her hand along with her flashlight. Though she hadn't just fallen anywhere, when she tried to reach for the wall to steady her balance, she then fell through an open narrow tunnel. Her scream echoed out as Mack yelled for her.
Almost like a water slide, the wet stone tunnel made her slip down and fall right onto some concrete. She thankfully landed on some boxes breaking her fall from a potential broken bone.
When Charlotte got her barings, she looked around shocked by her sight. It was a larger tunnel- One that looked to be larger than the SEPTA tunnels. The ceiling was at least thirty feet, and she noticed it was lit as grates were patterned above her with the early sun shining through. Hearing the sounds, she figured out she was underneath Philadelphia in an abandoned tunnel system. The walls were covered in graffiti with stone and wood work being as old as her grandfather.
"The sewers lead into this?"
"Charlotte!" She turned and moved just as Mack came tumbling after her. He crashed where she had, coughing as the boxes barely did any cushioning for him.
"Mack, are you alright?" She helped him up as he rubbed his arm.
He sighed and dusted his jacket off. "Nothing too severe." His eyes caught onto the sight and he gasped. "No way- We're in the City Branch Tunnel!"
"Where?"
Mack walked under a great, hearing people tread over it carelessly, unknowing what was under their feet. "It's an abandoned rail system, used for cargo travel years ago. It closed around the early 90s and was left abandoned."
Charlotte didn't dare question why he knew this. "So, do you know where in the city we're at?"
"We should be somewhere under Broad Street. It stretches all the way to 27th if I remember." He informed her.
"They have to be here then, they wouldn't carry these girls all the way from here to 27th Street." She figured.
"I'll check this side of the wall," Mack said, pointing to the left then the right. " and you check that side. They're used to be outcoves, so maybe some are still open if they haven't been sealed."
Charlotte nodded, the two taking their guns out tensing themselves in case anything were to happen.
As they searched each side, they came across some old car tires, piles of wood from the rail line, and some trash that had fallen through or left behind by people scavenging about. Each outcome they inspected was bricked up and had no way of getting in or out. Her heart sank at the thought of someone possibly on the other side, but seeing how aged these bricks assured her none of the girls were trapped inside.
"Any word from Officer Lane or the police?" Emery asked Loki, sitting beside Jenny.
Loki checked his phone once more, grimacing on the lack of reply. "Nothing, not since I've replied to her message."
"What did you say?" Sarah asked. "You must have sent the wrong directions!"
"Calm down." Corey tried to sooth her, but Sarah got up, shoving her friend away.
"You're supposed to be getting us out of this, not getting stuck with us! What kind of cop are you!?" Sarah yelled at him.
"I'm not a cop." He replied calmly.
"No shit you aren't!" Sarah jabbed her finger into his shoulder. "All you did was just get our only help lost and now we're all gonna die!"
Jenny cried into Emery's shoulder, making her glare at the girl. "Stop it, you're not making this any better!"
Sarah reared her head at her, directing her emotions to the next victim. "Oh, says the whore who just kept telling us we were gonna be fine. News flash! We're beyond not fine!"
"Silence!" Loki snarled at them, sending the one girl a look. "I'm hearing noises outside the doors."
Emery momentarily left Jenny to press her ear against the doors. Despite the thickness, air holes were in the containment allowing them to get some oxygen. "He's right, I hear voices."
A sudden thuds and metal groaning jolted her from the door. She rejoined Jenny as Loki kept his hard eyes on the door. If they were going to toss another girl in or do something to the current ones, Loki was ready this time.
"Mack, what's this?" Charlotte called, her voice reaching him a few feet away.
Mack walked over as she was scrutinizing some metal door built into one of the outcoves. "Oh, it looks like an old electric switch box. Probably used to switch the rails or lights."
Charlotte knocked on the side, then the door. She frowned and knocked again as Mack continued investigating. Why did the thing sound more hollow than she assumed? Putting down her flashlight, she gripped the cold metal and lifted the lock latch as it creaked. Then she pulled the handle of the door, hearing it screech open and gasped on what she found inside.
"Were there any hidden tunnels within this hidden tunnel?" She asked.
Mack turned to her. "What do you mean?" He then saw her start crawling- actually crawling into the metal box. "Lane! What are you doing?"
When he walked back over, he then saw what she meant. Inside the switch box was now a hand made excavation. Though Charlotte didn't have to slouch from the low dirt ceiling, it looked like a cramped tunnel.
"You keep searching, if nothing, join me through here." She told him.
"Hey, hey!" He called, kneeling down. "What did I say about splitting up?"
"Then call back up!" She called back, clambering deeper until Mack couldn't see her light anymore. "I feel like we're getting closer."
Thankfully the ceiling grew higher and the tunnel more spacious. Not as much of a walk as the Branch tunnels, Charlotte was met with walking into something metal. She stepped back, shining her light to find a large shipping container. Then she saw this large underground encampment! Further away she spotted signs of people living here; makeshift tents, old clothing for blankets and bedding, along with piles of trash that made her gag at the scent of something rotten and or a dead animal and two.
Her focus returned to the container, she circled it until she found the doors, a lock not one she'd seen before. It held no keyhole nor did it hold any use for a combination. The intricate gold shine from her light made her believe the lock was actual gold. Charlotte even swore a soft glow was emanating from it, but blamed it on the reflection of her light.
"Sif? Hello?" She called softly, walking toward the side of the container. Charlotte pressed her ear against it, hissing at the cold sting.
Charlotte started hearing a noise, but not from the container. Someone was coming from the entrance she just came through. She turned her light off and rushed behind the container, feeling the wall of it as she was engulfed by darkness.
Some shuffling of shoes and crushing of the dirt, a light finally returned from a lantern held by someone. Charlotte didn't dare peek out, not knowing how many there could be.
"We can either abandon them here or move them." One said, a gruff male tone.
We, so more than one. Her answer was given when another male voice answered. "Well, we can leave the one girl who fought back- She wouldn't be well priced even if she's built like a brick."
Sif.
"Leave for dead?"
"Duh."
Charlotte raised her gun up, trying her best to even her breathing. She could take on two with a gun on her with Mack- Wait, where was Mack? If he was outside, they must have encountered him. Unless….
Charlotte maneuvered to the other side of the container, her eyes scanning for anyone else but only finding two shadows bouncing off the walls. She'd have to handle this herself, if she didn't the girls could be killed.
There was a violent hiss from the container and a cloud of smoke imitating it. Coughing could be heard and soft thuds, they were deploying the gas bombs on them!? Once they entered, Charlotte followed after, seeing one man with a knife holding a brunette haired woman.
"Police!" She barked, aiming her gun at the men. "Don't move!"
One turned, holding his hands up as he was close to the huddled unconscious women. The other didn't move, his knife still in his grip along with the woman's hair. Charlotte stepped closer, it was Sif.
"Let her go." Charlotte demanded.
He wore a face mask to keep from inhaling the remaining smoke as did the other guy. Wearing beanies their hair hidden and the only description Charlotte could make out was the skinny one in the back and the one holding Sif was hefty.
"I got back up on the way, so just drop the knife and lay down, hands on your heads." She told sternly.
The lean one listened, doing as she said, but the other defied her commands. "I said put the knife down- Now."
"I wonder what moves faster;" His cheeks thickened as he grinned under his mask. "You're a gun, or my knife."
Suddenly, Sif moved to the upper cutting the man, which made him drop his knife. He tried to choke slam her, but with hidden strength like before, flip him to the ground. She got the knife and held it to his throat, keeping a death grip on his wrists.
"I did." She hissed.
Charlotte sighed and got her cuffs out, going to the scrawny guy first to secure him. Then she went to Sif, seeing him unable to even move to struggle under her. For someone a bit skinny like Sif, she had the strength of a wrestler. Maybe that's what she was.
"I got him." She told Sif, cuffing his hands and with her help, got him to his feet and forced him on the ground outside.
"Are you alright?" She asked her, having the thin man join the hefty one.
Sif coughed but nodded, "Yes, the girls are unharmed as well." She nodded and searched her phone, but forgot she had lost it in the sewers. There goes another one- and her job just provided it for her.
"Mack should be outside the tunnel, but I don't know if there's more men." Charlotte strained on what to do.
"I'll fetch him for you, you check on the girls." She insisted, leaving before Charlotte could protest. She turned though, "Wait Sif! Where's…" but she was gone. "Loki."
All the women were accounted for, and a bus was called right away. Mack had apparently been jumped by the men, a cut on his head indicating the attack. He assisted in taking the women safely out of the hidden tunnel, covering the youngest teen up in his coat.
Back up arrived sooner than expected, as apparently the end of the tunnel lead right to a correctional center. Cop cars, ambulances, and even media trucks to try and cover this news filled the old rail branch. The girls were given oxygen and readied to be sent to the hospitals. Mack was tended to as well from the head injury, but insisted he was alright.
As the two men were being taken to the police station to get ID'd, she went over to Mack. "Good thing I called for back up when you went in. Who knows what would've happened."
"More like thanks to Sif for taking one of the guys out." She corrected. "By the way, what ambulance took her?"
"Hm? I don't know, I didn't see her." He told her.
Charlotte frowned, "But she left to get you when I arrested the men." she told.
Mack gave her a look, wincing when knotting his brows together. "The only ones who got to me were the responders. Sif wasn't anywhere."
"Charlotte!"
She found Loki running toward her. He looked relieved seeing her. "Thank Norns, you're alright."
"Where have you been!?" Charlotte shouted, smacking his arm. He jumped back, shocked by her reaction. "First you disappear when Sif gets taken, I don't hear from you for almost three hours, then you give me some cryptic message of them underground and yet not a sight of you near by!"
"I could say the same for you!" He barked back. "I hadn't gotten a word back from you after I gave you my message, thinking you had been caught!"
There was a moment of silence before the two broke the glares and started laughing at each other. Mack sat by, a bit dumbfounded by their laughter before he cleared his throat. "So, uh, all good?"
Charlotte wiped her eyes looking at him. "The girls are found alive, the suspects are apprehended, just need to question the girls and men, and I think our case can be considered closed."
Loki nodded, "I'll talk to the women, Sif is currently being looked at at the hospital." he informed.
Charlotte pressed a hand to her chest. "Oh good, I was worried about her."
"She can be a bit tenacious when admitting she's hurt or such." He explained. "But she is perfectly fine."
Mack leaned on his knees sitting at the bumper of a car. "You saw her?"
Charlotte raised a hand at him. "Loki, where did you go when Sif got taken?"
He looked down at her. "I deeply apologize for any trouble it had caused, but when Sif had been abducted, I went off on my own to follow them. Unfortunately, I lost them and tried to contact her for any information as I searched the city. When she informed me of her location, I immediately assumed she was in the underground train."
"So you pretty much got lost." Mack interpreted.
He chuckled sheepishly, "You could say that. " Loki admitted. "I wasn't getting anywhere, so that's when I sent the information to Charlotte, but never got a response back and feared the worst. I finally got word from Sif and she gave me the directions here after I had finally met up with her. I insisted she get herself looked at, she eventually relented and that's when I made my way here."
Mack gave a skeptic look, but Charlotte let it go. "Well, that's said and done. You wanted to question the women, right?" Loki nodded. "Fine by me, Mack and I can question the men and report to Johnson while there."
"I shall contact you when done." He informed.
Charlotte made a face that caused Loki to raise a brow at. "Actually, the reason you never heard from me is because we were in the sewers and I slipped and lost.. My… phone." She grimaced, to herself. "The phone my job had bought for me and can't replace."
Mack chuckled and patted her back. "I'll try and see what I can do. It's not your fault your cursed with breaking and losing phones every month."
"Though this is her second phone this month." Loki pointed out.
Charlotte turned red as she huffed at the boys. "Alright! I get it! Just- Let's just close this case already!"
The distaste for the smell of antiseptic cleaning, the horrible food, and the annoying itchy bed sheets. Emery literally couldn't find any complaint, compared to being locked into that hell hole, she was warm and safe here. The girls were all in separate rooms as families and friends were being contacted. Emery expected Charlie to burst into the room any minute, her heart pounded at being reconnected with her girlfriend once more.
So when the door opened, Emery held her breath to see the beautiful girl she loved, but was surprised to see Loki peeking around the curtain.
"Hope I am not disturbing your rest." He gently told.
Emery eased herself. "No, it's alright."
He stepped over to the end of her bed. "I just have a few questions, just a couple. Nothing too exhausting. I know you need your rest."
She shook her head as he took a nearby seat to her right. "Loki, you saved me and the girls. I'll talk about anything if it helps put those monsters in jail."
He smiled, "It will; We wanted to know if you had known anything on why the men took you and the others?" Loki asked.
"They never really talked to us, and the girls didn't know either. We can only guess about trafficking since they mostly took girls that matched all how we dressed and looked." She answered.
"Did they do anything else to you? Anything harmful?"
She shook her head. "Not really. They fed us some awful food, but only so many times. Our phones before dying indicated the times of day, so we were only fed at night."
Loki leaned back, crossing his legs and rubbing his chin. Night only? They left the girls during the day and only came around at night.
"They never talked to us, never touched us; barely made a sound unless feeding us or throwing another girl with us." She told. "Who knows what they would've done with us if you hadn't been there."
Loki stood from the chair. "Someone else was there, but not I." he told, earning a weird look from Emry.
"What do you mean? They threw you in and-"
Loki reached up to move her hair, just barely touching her skin to let a digit make contact with her temple. Emery went blank for a second, before blinking as Loki pulled away.
"Are you alright? Shall I call a nurse?" He asked, adjusting her pillow as she moved in the bed.
"No, sorry, just... Exhausted I guess." She sighed, rubbing her eyes. "I might need to relax before I can answer anything else. Sorry."
Loki nodded, "No, you did just fine enough. I'll relay the information to the police." He walked over to the curtain pausing. "Just to verify- sorry. Who was the last one to be taken? After you."
For a few seconds, Emery frowned at her lap to remember. Then she looked up, "Sif, her name was Sif." she confirmed. "Could you thank her for me? We're saved thanks to Sif and Officer Lane."
Loki smiled, "Of course. Rest well and contact Charlotte for any information you'd like to give us." he told.
"Sure thing." Emery told.
Loki left the room, sighing as he adjusted the labels of his coat. "One down, five to go."
I apologize for the last two chapters being shorter than usual. I wanted to get past the case and move on with the story!