Darcy, who stood next to Loki slowly raised her hands. The god only looked at the thief with focus.
"Put that aside." An ordered boy aiming at them, though he still looked shocked that Zakary is not really Zakary.
"There's no need to be nervous." Tried to convince him Loki. "I'm just going to take that and never come b…" He felt an angry kick on his tibia. "Au." He hissed surprised, looking angrily at Darcy.
"Just put that on the floor." She told him.
"Is that what you came here for? To help him, not yourself?" Loki frowned.
"I came here alive and I want to leave alive." She answered visibly angry with Loki, probably still because of what he did when they left the tower. The god sighed. It was going to be harder than he expects.
"Push that to me." Said the kid. Loki wanted to say something again, but Darcy just did what the boy told them to.
"You don't negotiate with a terrorist." She whispered so only Loki could hear her. The god rolled his eyes.
This kid could be dangerous but to call him terrorist was a huge exaggeration.
"Don't talk to each other." Little 'terrorist' said slowly coming to the door and still aiming at them.
Darcy frowned but said nothing more. Loki wasn't that lenient.
"See, we just want the scepter. It's nothing personal. You will calmly live your life in that nice mansion without hoards of people wanting to take that away from you and we will gladly complete our task without unnecessary bloodshed." He explained as convincing as he could. "Can we agree on that?"
But that was a huge mistake.
The kid who was now right next to the door fired into the ceiling.
A bit of dust and a few, tiny pieces of wood fell from the ceiling and then…
Nothing happened.
The kid wanted to shoot again, but the gun just clicked a few times.
It was empty.
The thief didn't lose time. He threw the weapon away and run to catch the scepter.
Darcy hurried after him as fast as she could, but the kid already got to catch what he wanted. She threw herself at him. Unlikely he was faster again. He ran outside the house making her lost her balance and fall on the floor.
She quickly stood up and wanted to run after him, but she heard Loki's voice.
"Mortal, don't bother to, he knows this place much better than you, you will never going to catch him."
Darcy glared at him.
Oh no, she was not going to give up that easily!
She ignored the god's words, ran out of the house and went after the thief. She saw his blurry figure in the opposite end of the narrow alley between the buildings. Maybe it wasn't all lost.
When she was running her skirt started to cumber her the first time since she arrived in Sakaar. When she was hurrying after the thief it constantly got tangled up her legs and she had to jump awkwardly in order not to fall.
It was really slowing her down, but somehow she did not lose the boy yet.
When she turned right after him he was still running through the next alley.
Darcy took a few deep breaths and tucked her skirt. Yes, that was definitely going to help her.
Now she was speeding even faster than before. She was losing the boy on every turn, but then she always caught the glimpse of him and ran in the right direction.
As time passed it was getting harder and harder for her to breathe. She was slowing down and she already thought she won't get to catch the thief.
But suddenly, when she ran around another corner, she stopped dead.
In the alley, just a few meters away from her there was standing Loki with a scepter in his palm and his other hand wrapped around the thief's arm.
Darcy let go of her skirt making it lay itself loosely around her legs.
"Mischief!" She snarled still breathing heavily and before Loki could stop her, she went to him and also caught the scepter. "You said there's no sense in running after him, hm?"
"Not for you." The god smiled with pity. Darcy felt dizzy from anger that raised in her and she squeezed the scepter so hard, her knuckles turned white.
Then, the kid suddenly kicked Loki in the tibia. The god groaned surprised and before he got to tighten the grip on his arm, the thief was running away.
But they had the scepter.
"Why it had to be tibia again?" He asked a rhetorical question frowning in pain.
Darcy raised eyebrows and smiled sweetly.
"It's clearly a popular choice today."
Now the god was the one to glare at her. They stood there for a few seconds, both holding the scepter as hard as they could, so the other one won't be able to snatch it and run away.
Finally, when Loki stopped thinking about his hurting tibia, he slowly, trying to look as honorable as he could straighten up and said.
"I admit that it was nice working with you, but now I suppose it's time for us to split up." He smiled with satisfaction and reached to his pocket, but…
He found nothing.
He frowned and checked the other one-nil.
"Is that what you're looking for?" Darcy smiled at him taking the pilot out of her own pocket.
"When?" Loki couldn't believe it. Did she fool him? He was always the one to trick others.
"When you were miserably trying to convince the kid to give the scepter to you." She explained fully satisfaction.
When Loki took a closer look at her, he noticed she didn't even have her round transmitter hooked to the arm anymore.
"Now, you won't just run away." She said and before he noticed what's going on she riveted one of his hands in one part of handcuffs and one of hers in the other to make sure he really won't run away.
"Come on, are you serious right now?" Loki looked at her defeated.
"I'm not going to let you fool me again." She said distinctly. "Tricky Loki."
"Where did you even took that from?" He asked and sighed deeply.
"Garbage dump along with the funny, wooden clock. I have it in my pocket. This garbage dump here it's like one, big store with used things except it stinks and you don't have to pay." She explained smiling the wider the more disgust she saw on Loki's face.
"Can you get even more primitive?" He asked though he seemed to talk more to himself then to the mortal.
Darcy sighed on him with disapproval.
"Can you get even more pretentious?" She retorted. "Besides it's not like you have a choice."
The god looked at her with a tired expression, wondering what choice did she have in mind.
"Don't tell me you want to tangle me in your, obviously ineffective and obviously doomed to failure plan of running away." He stated with so desperate voice, that Darcy almost regretted him.
Almost.
"It goes like that." She started and cleared her throat before explaining. "We go back to the tower. We got to the level with ships. You set me some autopilot to earth, get me some of those teasing things and make sure to go to the Grandmaster only after I fly away. You give him the scepter and tell him whatever you want about me. And we both profit."
The god blinked a few times. He didn't realize that this kind of exit of the situation was even available before he heard that plan.
Of course, it was very underdeveloped and a lot of things could go wrong, but it wasn't impossible.
So Loki rolled his eyes, just to show off, but answered with a resigned tone.
"Let it be, mortal."