Hey guys! Sorry my updates have been a lot less frequent. I sowwwy...
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Onward!
Loki reached forward, grabbing the back of Bruce's shirt. "Come on."
Bruce, jumped, but looked to see Loki trying to get him away from the danger, and nodded.
Loki changed his grip to Bruce's sleeve and started running away towards his invisible pod. He was a little disappointed that Bruce was so much slower than him at a sprint, slowing Loki down more than he would have been okay with. Loki could almost feel Ebony Maw's glare down his back and winced, feeling like he was done-for if the Maw realized who he was. His fears were confirmed instantly when he heard Ebony Maw's icy voice call out to him,
"Odinson!"
Loki grimaced, looking over his shoulder to see Ebony Maw levitating not far behind him with a floating car at his side. Iron Man and the two sorcerers seemed to be too preoccupied with the Black Dwarf to notice Ebony Maw slipping away from the general action to confront Loki. Loki internally shivered down to his toes, but showed no external signs of fear as he had always practiced to do. He stopped in his tracks, turning on his heel to face the Maw.
"What?" Loki snarled.
Bruce stopped and looked up at Loki in confusion.
"I don't believe befriending our current threats would have been part of your orders from the Great Thanos."
Loki rolled his eyes, motioning for Bruce to stay put and stomped closer to Ebony Maw. He whispered in anger,
"You're foiling my cover! What do you think I'm doing? I'm gaining their trust! Finding their weakest points! I've already found plenty! I'll relay the found information to Thanos as soon as I can, but I assure you that my loyalties remain concrete! Don't ruin this for me! Go fight the other guys!"
Ebony Maw's eyes twitched in anger, but he seemed mostly unmoved. "Watch your next moves carefully, God of Mischief. You know the consequences."
Loki rolled his eyes again as Ebony Maw turned and left, throwing the levitating car at Doctor Strange as soon as he turned. Doctor Strange spun back time with a flash of green light, and the car was turned to scraps of factory metal. Loki sighed, turning around to continue running. He grabbed Bruce's arm again, breaking into a quick sprint.
"What was that all-"
"Focus on running now, Bruce." Loki snarled. "You're slow enough as it is."
Loki caught Bruce's confused glance at his side, but ignored it, leading Bruce to an empty grassy park with a fountain in the middle. He stopped there, letting Bruce catch his breath.
"What was that all about?" Bruce asked.
Loki grit his teeth, hissing quietly, "Not right here, Bruce. Someone might be listening."
Bruce's eyes lit up with realization, "You gained his trust?"
"Perhaps." Loki said. "If a certain person doesn't blow this for me..."
Bruce nodded slowly. "Oh... Right..."
"Now shut up, Bruce." Loki said, looking over at the battle in the distance. Iron Man and Doctor Strange were powerful, but Ebony Maw was a match for their power, and Black Dwarf a match for their strength. They were smashing each other into buildings, and Ebony Maw seemed to be massacring every car on the street to throw at them. Black Dwarf threw his axe at Iron Man, hurling him backwards and colliding into a nearby tree. Bruce ran over to him.
"How we doing? Okay man?"
Iron Man was implanted into the ground, but slowly got up.
"Really, really good. Planning on helping out?"
"I've been trying. Hulk won't come out."
"Watch out!" Loki hissed, shoving Bruce to the side. Bruce ducked and gasped as Black Dwarf came running towards them, throwing his axe again, but narrowly missed. The axe slammed into a tree, which fell over. Loki and Bruce missed the trunk narrowly, but the narrower leafy branches covered them. Loki was instantly back on his feet, glancing warily at Black Dwarf. He could hear Bruce having some sort of complaint to the shying Hulk behind him, but ignored it. Black Dwarf came charging toward Iron Man, who was still sprawled on the ground, but a small red-and-blue clad figure jumped out of seemingly nowhere to hold back Black Dwarf's axe. A young voice called out cheerfully, and slightly breathless.
"Hey guys!"
Iron Man rolled over, "Kid! Where'd you come from?"
"A field trip!" the red-and-blue person began, but Black Dwarf threw him aside to crash toward the fountain. The kid quickly jumped back up to his feet, shooting narrow cords from his hands which somehow grappled onto the Dwarf's back. The Dwarf whirled around, roaring.
"What's his deal?" the kid yelled.
Iron Man pummeled the Black Dwarf with his pulsars, flying into the air to avoid the Black Dwarf's aggressive blows.
"Oh yeah... He's from space. He's here to steal a necklace from a wizard."
Loki backed away, grabbing Bruce's arm as Iron Man and the new red-and-blue clad soldier battled the Dwarf with vigor.
"Why aren't you helping?" Bruce said.
"Technically, I can't." Loki hissed. "Undercover, remember?"
"Right..."
"Come on." Loki said, dragging him away from the battle. "Can't have the one person who trusts me killed, now can I?" Loki noticed the place where his stealth ship was parked, grinning as it seemed an ideal place to stick Bruce to keep the pathetic little man from getting harmed.
Loki stopped when he saw Ebony Maw fly by with Doctor Strange levitated at his side, unconscious, and lying bound on a concrete slab. He heard Stark say over his shoulder.
"Kid, that's the wizard!"
"I'm on it!" The kid replied, shooting another sort of rope from his hand to grab onto the nearest building, somehow pulling himself forward this way to swiftly trail behind the captive. Loki watched as the kid zoomed out of sight out of the corner of his eye as he kept leading Bruce toward his space vessel, then stopped and froze as he saw the disc-shaped vessel in the distance shooting down a broad beam of light which drew in the silhouette of the unconscious Doctor Strange. Loki cursed under his breath. Thanos could not acquire the Time Stone! He was already powerful enough as it is, and Loki already had so little hope of avenging his brother!
"Stay here, Bruce. Assemble the Avengers. I'll get the Stone." Loki broke into a sprint, running as fast as he could towards the beam. He was beginning to get worried that he might not be able to make it in time, but that red-and-blue spider-kid grappled one of his ropes onto the sorcerer, trying to hold him back. This effort didn't last long, and the kid was quickly overpowered with the strength of the ship's beam, and started floating towards the entrance of the ship with the unconscious Doctor Strange.
"I'm being beamed up!" The kid yelled in panic. Loki grit his teeth, running faster, just reaching the beam of light as the Doctor was beginning to enter the lower entrance of the ship. The spider-boy somehow avoided this route, grappling onto the side of the ship with one of his projectile ropes, and pulled himself free of the beam. Loki leaped into the line of beam light, feeling uneasy as he felt his feet leave the security of the ground and he began to float into the air. He was about halfway to the entrance of the ship when Strange got trapped fully inside and the door shut beneath him. The beam of light instantly ceased. Loki gasped, feeling weightless for a moment and began to come plummeting towards the ground, which was at least a couple hundred feet away. He stared in horror at the approaching ground with his eyes wide with alarm and terror, but suddenly he felt something grab his back. An alien force jerked him upwards and Loki looked up, realizing it was the kid. Loki was drawn upwards swiftly by one of the kids ropes. Now up close, Loki realized it wasn't any sort of rope, but more like as spider web. As soon as the kid ceased pulling him, and Loki reached the lower level of the disc-shaped ship, Loki grabbed onto the side of the vessel, pulling himself upwards and panting in relief and exhaustion.
"Oh, God! You okay, man?"
Loki looked up to see the masked face staring back at him. In was a little unnerving not to see the face of this stranger, but Loki could tell enough from the voice alone. Young. Perhaps just about 16 in Midgardian years. A male. Determined. Though an underplaying hint of fear.
Loki nodded, and the kid gasped. "Oh, God! You're him!"
Loki groaned, realizing where this conversation was heading and didn't care anymore. He glanced down at the ground as it grew further and further away. Then Iron Man came into sight, zooming through the clouds with what appeared to be a bulky rocket at his side. Loki heard gasping beside him and noticed that the spider-kid seemed to be having trouble breathing. His tore off his mask and his mouth was wide and agape with effort to breathe. Loki barely began to notice the thinning of the air, and guessed that Midguardians must be several times more sensitive to slight changes of altitude.
"Can't breathe... oh God..." the kid gasped shallowly, grabbing onto the side of the vessel for support.
Iron Man quickly flew closer until he was nearly directly behind them.
"Hand in there, kid!" And the rocket-like projectile beside him short towards the kid. The kid became limp, falling backwards, but the rocket-think collided onto his back, red, metal-plated armor materializing around him. The kid jumped up, grabbing once again onto the space vessel's side and stood up.
"Mr. Stark, it smells like a new car in here!"
Loki rolled his eyes at the Midguardian, searching around the surface of the disc-ship for some sort of opening or door that he could climb inside. His eyes locked onto one, which was sealed shut and lay several feet above him. Loki leaped upward, grabbing onto a rough pipe, and conjured a small knife into his spare hand. He drove the knife into the crack of the door, wedging it securely within the crack, then pushed hard onto the handle to loosen the door. The kid behind him seemed to get what he was doing and shot a web over Loki's shoulder to grab onto the door. At the same time, Loki pulled at the gap with his knife, and the kid tugged hard on his web until the door finally broke loose. Loki closed his hand, letting the knife dissolve from sight, then he peered inside.
