SEVEN
Recharge
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Loki stood by the open ramp to the ship. He put a hand up and pulled at the collar of his leathers, trying to make them lie more flat and himself look less like he'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.
"Odin's beard," came a chuckle. "What in all the realms happened to you last night?"
He turned to find Valkyrie approaching, curiously bereft of a bottle and dressed in borrowed Sakaar clothes. Off-white and very becoming, the matching sleeveless top and leather trousers certainly suited her. "That is none of your concern," he said tightly.
"Honestly, I hope you won. If you managed to walk away looking like that then the other guy must be dead," she said, stopping by him and folding her arms. "And what happened to your face?"
He opened his mouth but another voice came at him from behind. "Something even he could not talk his way out of."
He didn't even have to turn to know it was Amora. "I wasn't going to mention how you two ladies took great care to arrive from different angles, but that you both smell of the same soap and perfume," he said snidely. "Not to mention I believe you got dressed in such a hurry that Valkyrie has forgotten to hide all her daggers from view." He turned back to her and plucked it from down the deep V of her top. "Or were you two playing 'what's in the bag?' and Amora missed her prize but found two better ones?"
Valkyrie growled and wielded a fist at him. He grabbed her forearm to keep it from damaging him. She fumed.
He grinned a sly approximation of amusement. "Now now," he said, his voice dripping honey. "Let's all forget how much we don't like each other and get on with this, shall we?"
"Save it for Thanos," Amora added, albeit quietly.
"There's plenty enough to go round," Valkyrie bit out. She looked back at Loki. "Watch your tongue, not-Asgardian."
He let go deliberately and she stepped back. "Right. Now I have to retrieve something from the ship and then we can run through the plan. In the next few hours this may all be over."
"Where's Angela?" Valkyrie asked suspiciously.
"Getting her hand stitched up," Loki said dismissively. "Now can we—"
"Stitched up?" Valkyrie demanded. "Is she ok? She has to fight with us."
"And she will," Loki said wearily. "It was a flesh wound."
Valkyrie opened her mouth but Amora raised a hand at her. She made her question die on her lips as Amora took a step closer to Loki. "And how did she suffer this flesh wound, Loki Laufeyjarson?" she asked knowingly.
"You'd have to ask her," he said evenly.
Amora appraised him for a long moment. He simply raised his eyebrows at her.
Eventually she looked over his shoulder to Valkyrie. "He doesn't know," she said in a bored tone. "Let's get a drink while he gets his toys from the ship."
"It won't take that long," he said. "Can we just focus instead of drinking ourselves into a stupor mere hours before fighting a mad Titan with two Infinity Stones?"
Amora's head tilted but Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said. "Hurry."
Loki inclined his head and disappeared up the ramp.
The two women waited. And waited. They turned as they heard someone else approaching.
"Morning," Angela said, her right hand around the bright white bandage of her left palm. She stopped by them, looking around. "Where's the weasel?"
"Getting something from the ship," Amora said, looking her up and down. Angela's chainmail and armour were intact, but her tabard was gone. "You seem… used."
"I am," Angela shrugged.
"Your hand," Valkyrie said, gesturing to the bandage. "What happened to it?"
"I got stabbed. However, I won the fight."
"You got into a fight?" Amora asked. "Why am I not surprised?"
Valkyrie smiled and then the three of them turned as they heard boots coming down the ramp to the ship.
Loki made it to the grass but his hands were empty.
"Well?" Amora asked. "Did you get what you needed?"
"Oh yes," he said, immensely pleased.
"What is it?" Amora asked.
"It's part of the plan," he said. "Shall we discuss how to kill Thanos now?"
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Amora was standing straight, her hands out palm up, her eyes closed, concentrating. Angela, Valkyrie and Loki watched, but while the two women appeared fascinated, Loki seemed more interested in grabbing the collar of his leathers and pulling them straight.
Angela put a hand up and knocked his from its ministrations. "Stop that."
"It chafes."
"Then don't wear it," she countered.
He opened his mouth but Valkyrie turned wearily. "Will you two shut up?" she heaved. "All you've done since Amora's been charging up to get us anywhere is argue."
"They enjoy it," Amora murmured.
"I most certainly do not," Loki snapped. "How long is this going to take? You said we'd be there in a few seconds."
"The destination… is not quite… even," she muttered.
"Then make it even. You can do that, can't you?" he asked.
Suddenly everything was gone. No Sakaar, no grass, no breeze - no sun.
Everyone kept very still.
And abruptly it was bright again.
But… not.
"Ah," Loki said, apparently pleased. "Perfect."
"Shit it's cold," Valkyrie protested, looking around. Her hand went to the hilt of her sword as she turned and surveyed the frozen wastes, the howling winds full of snow and ice. "Is this…?"
"Jotunheim as ordered," Amora said, letting her hands drop. "You're welcome."
"Why here?" Valkyrie asked. "I thought the plan was to head to Knowhere and kill Thanos."
"And we will," Loki said. "First I need to recharge a weapon."
"What weapon?" Valkyrie asked. She looked him over. "I don't even want to know where you're hiding it."
He lifted his hands and simply whisked them round in a circle as if shining a bowling ball. A blue and black box, nearly two feet wide, blinked into view and he raised it slightly. "This."
"The winter casket?" Amora asked. "How will that help?"
"This can freeze anything," he said. "It will slow Thanos down so we can attack."
"Fair enough," Valkyrie shrugged. "So how does it work? What, do we plug it in somewhere? How long does it need to recharge?"
"Less than an hour," he said. His hands moved again and it was gone. "You can stay here or you can watch me take it down to the lake."
"If it's all the same to you," Amora said, "I'll stay here." She looked to her left. "There are caves over there. I'll be where it's slightly warmer than out in the open."
"Well I'm not leaving our only lift out of here all by herself," Valkyrie said. "I'll come with you."
"Of course," Loki said, mostly to himself. He turned to go. "Be ready when I get back. Remember Amora - no Loki with winter casket, no Infinity Stone for you. Don't leave me here."
She smiled. "Why, it's almost as if you don't trust me."
"Yes, isn't it," he said, but it wasn't a question.
"I will accompany you," Angela announced.
Loki looked at her - just looked.
She glanced at the other two women before fixing Loki with a guarded look. "You may be from here but they cast you out. I will protect the winter casket until it is recharged and back with the group."
"How very thoughtful," he said with a frown. He turned and trudged off.
The three women shared a smile. "We will await you here," Amora said.
"Do not freeze," Angela nodded.
Amora smiled. "Oh I'm sure we can find something to do to keep us warm."
Angela nodded again, blatantly understanding nothing, and turned and walked off.
Valkyrie took a step as if to follow her, but then stopped. "Do you think they'll be alright?"
"If they don't argue each other to death or kill each other in hand to hand combat, they'll be absolutely fine," she grinned. "Now - cave and shelter."
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Korg waved a hand to try to shush the protesting crowd. "Well of course you can have strippers," he said. "But it doesn't sound very fair if you don't pay them proper money. Sounds a bit like… slaves." He paused. "No - they have to be paid at least minimum wage and you can't touch them."
"What? Then they're not strippers!" came a voice.
He made himself stand taller, and then his hands went to his hips. He thought madly for a second; What would Loki do? Inspiration hit him and he raised one finger in anger. He noticed people stand back and, spurred on by this new-found respect, he nodded. "Well that's kinda what they are - strippers. All they do is strip - the clue is literally in the title. Now you gotta let them do their job and you gotta pay them well for it - they're like professional experts, right? And then you will let them leave, all above-board and with their clothes, man. If they decide to stay on after the performance, that makes them off-duty and you gotta treat them like the contributing members of society that they are. Everyone ok with that?"
People shared glances, then began to shrug. Voices muttered to each other within the party-goers:
"Yeah - seems reasonable."
"Sounds ok."
"Even logical, if you ask me."
"But… who checks their pay?"
Korg raised his hands. "We need like a union or something." He looked at a man standing by the wall. "You there - what do you do round here, man?"
He pointed at himself, and Korg nodded. The man cleared his throat. "Uh… I used to count gate money. For the gladiator fights."
Korg smiled. "Perfect. So now you're going to set up a union for all strippers on Sakaar - and joining is free, ok?"
"But… I'm not—"
"Hey man - I said I was in charge, right?" Korg said.
"Uh… yes. But—"
"Great," he said, clapping his large hands together. "Off you go - get it done."
"Uh - ok," the man said, a little blearily. He put his drink down and walked off.
Korg nodded. "There, see? I told you this would be easy."
"You know, you're pretty good at this," someone called.
"Not me," Korg said. "This is what Loki would have done." People grinned and he clapped his hands. "Ok, bring out the strippers!"
The music went louder. The people laughed harder.
And Korg stood by and watched, a feeling of pride welling in his chest.
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Loki found it surprisingly easy to stride through the snowy winds and icy blasts that looked like they were going straight through Angela and taking all of her body heat with them. He looked back, then again. "Can you keep up?" he called.
"Just keep walking, little man," she called back. "I shall not be far behind."
He muttered something under his breath but something made his feet slow just slightly.
They came over a small rise and below found a perfect mirror made of ice, at least a hundred yards across. He stopped and smiled. "There, see? We can recharge it there."
She did not stop, simply walking past him down the slight incline. "You mean you can recharge it. I have no idea how it works."
He followed her down to the shore and they stopped at the edge. "Angela dear, would you be so kind as to break some surface ice for me?"
She unsheathed a short broad sword from her back and swung it down to point the tip into the bank. "How much water do you need?"
"Enough for me to jump into."
"Are you mad?" she demanded, turning on him.
He took a defensive step back and put a palm up for calm, a nervous smile erupting over his face. "Not as such, no."
"You will freeze if you jump in that water."
"I won't," he said pointedly. "Anyway, what do you care? You're here to protect the winter casket, you said."
"Yes," she said firmly, stepping back. "That is all." She appraised the dark looking ice before walking out over it, hearing not a single click or creak of failure. She lifted her sword and jammed it in the surface. It splintered but did not break. She ripped it free, then slammed it down again, then again. This time chunks came free as she withdrew the sword. She swung it round and chopped at the edges until she had made a sizeable hole. She stepped back onto the bank and waved a hand at the aperture. "Do as you will."
"Oh but I do," he said, rolling his hands and producing the casket. He set it down on the bank and then unlatched the leather of his top, opening it up.
"What are you doing?" she asked, before hastily looking around for spies.
"Well I'm not jumping in with all this on," he scoffed. "Besides, I'll need something warm and dry when I get out. I may not freeze as fast as you but I will certainly feel the cold."
"Loki…" She paused.
He did not. He simply pulled off the heavy top and his boots, leaving them on the bank and his already smarting toes in the snowy surface. He thought about it and then pulled off the black cotton top for good measure.
She noticed the still-fresh scratches and bruises on his chest and arms and made her eyes go to the hole in the ice. "Loki… Why are you doing this?" she asked quietly. "It cannot be for Asgard, and it cannot be for your brother. What else do you have?"
"Do you know," he said conversationally, "I have asked myself that question a lot lately." He looked up at the snowy sky. "I once teased Thor about motivation - I said he'd gone soft on Midgard, fell in love with one of its wretched beings and that had turned him into a feeler instead of a fighter."
"And you?"
"I'm still a fighter, Angela," he said quietly. "And I certainly don't have any love for Midgard, or their tiny-minded indigenous occupants. No, I have something much better to fight for."
"What is that?"
He bent down and picked up the casket, edging up to the hole and looking down. "Revenge. Thanos owes me more than you could know."
He looked at her, unleashed a perfectly devious smile, and then jumped feet-first through the gap.
She rushed up to the edge. She peered down but the black, near-freezing water was churning with his entrance. Her sword tip went into the frozen surface next to her foot and she went down on one knee, an elbow resting there to keep her up.
She watched. She waited.
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