After Loki demanded for everyone to kneel like villain straight from a fifties cartoon, there was a loud bout of laughter. Loki whirled around to see two teenagers leaning on each other to stay upright, and were cackling like a pair of drunk, high hyenas.
"He said kneel, Willsy!" The female of the pair crowed, wheezing from laughter. Her name was Cydney Castellan, and she was tall, skinny and had short blonde hair with dark brown eyes. "Doesn't even do us the courtesy of dropping the soap!" She almost fell over, but William's grip prevented her from doing so.
"O-orgies!" William howled. He was half an inch taller than Cydney with blue eyes and light blonde hair. This week, he had an obsession with the word orgies, and that was all you really needed to know about him. This set Cydney off again, who had been in danger of sobering up. The pair tilted dangerously backwards in their laughter.
Loki snarled and stalked over to them. Cydney looked up, and wiped a tear of laughter off her face. She was smirking. "Hi," she said brightly.
"Do you have no respect for those that are your betters?" Loki demanded dangerously.
"Not really, no," William replied. He waved.
Huh. Loki kinda reminded him of that asshole general he'd forgotten about until just now. William put it out of his mind, vowing to return to the topic in the future.
(Thaddeus Ross shivered for some unknown reason. He shrugged it off and went to adjust the heating, ignoring the feeling of doom sliding down his back)
Loki snarled again in displeasure and moved to touch the closer of the two, Cydney, with the staff. Cydney, never one to do what one expects of her, grabbed it just behind the blade and yanked it out of his hands. She skipped backwards to avoid the knife Loki had drawn from his boot to stab her with. She, now at a slightly safer distance, examined the staff. It was very shiny she noted, and she decided to keep it. The staff pulsed in displeasure, but Cydney ignored it and turned her attention to her partner in crime.
Who looked highly unpleased. "You don't get to do that," he hissed, and drew a glock. Cydney, without looking up from the staff, drew one too. She pointed it at Loki without looking up. The staff was vibrating.
"Jet," she said. "SHIELD, not AIM." Cydney slung the staff over one shoulder, still aiming the glock at Loki, "Willsy?"
"We gotta bounce," William said, and reached for her. Cydney extended her semi-free elbow. He grabbed it. They beamed at him.
They vanished with a loud crack as Captain America landed on the ground with a loud thump.
Loki went peacefully. On the inside, he fumed.
How dare they? Those insignificant ants. They ruined his (not really his, never his) plans! Fools! Now, the Hawk would have to hack into SHIELD's mainframe to track him, but how to convey that without giving himself away? (How dearly he wanted to do exactly that)
He looked over to the silent but watchful soldier, the man out of time. He scoffed silently and flinched as thunder struck overhead. Thor.
"What's wrong," the man that surrounded himself in technology sneered, "scared of a little lightning?" He snickered at his own joke.
"I'm not overly fond of what follows," he said dryly.
Thor touched down on the roof of the jet. Loki sighed. The assassin warned the others.
Thor, the unsubtle oaf that he is, ripped a hole through the jet and yanked Loki out.
Lovely.
Now, Thor would plead with him to return to the sneers and loneliness of home, where he would forever be shadowed by his younger brother. Where his children…
No.
They had promised. They had promised, and if Loki could not count on them, then he was truly alone.
(He wants to be stopped)
(They won't stop him)
Tricksters
An overly broad term, but is suitable enough for the Hitchhikers Guide to InterUniverse Roadtrips. We define it as thus:
Do not offend, do not talk to, and for the love of all, do not tell them that their jokes are cliche. Do not even think it, for they will KNOW.
Coyote had been banned from Xiggyerous, planet of the best tequila in the universe, because someone told him that his tricks were cliche, and he would do better by taking off his shirt and standing on a street corner. That person now lives in Belgium, and Xerous, the best bar in Xiggyerous was blown up, set on fire and nuked, all at the same time. He then proceeded to commit several capital offenses (outdrinking the mayor, pantsing the prime minister, talking about Belgium in great length (a capital offense in any civilised planet), revealing the king and queen's wiggery, and wearing a horrendous shade of purple)
Do you even know how hard it is getting kicked off that bloody planet?
Anansi is the one you really need to look out for, because when he's out drinking with aforementioned trickster, he's in the habit of sending unsuspecting denizens of random planets and universes Universe-Hopping (see Universe-Hopping for Dummies) which resulted in this guide.
Also, never try to outdrink a trickster, as it never ends well.
Tricksters find themselves as utterly hilarious, but, in practice, are never actually so. They have been banned outright from the universe Quetionsaleer, and from half the planets in Bottlersarsbugut, which is an outgoing, relaxed sort of universe. Which speaks to how annoying that tricksters actually are, to get banned from any of the planets in that universe.
They are worshipped in every Earth culture, and have a cult in Trickster Planet, the place to definitely go for towels that are bright and vivid in color. Trickster's planet is also the home of the rare breed of Rare Pairing Fangirl, and where the last few Wincestians lurk. We do not speak of the Wincestians.