"Arrest him!" The golden Odin ordered.

"Wait, you've got the wrong Loki!" Mobius defended his friend. "He was telling the truth: the Loki from your universe was the boy that escaped to Earth just now!"

"Don't listen, it's all lies!" Thor asserted. "He is trying to fool us!"

"Let me try persuading them." Sylvie offered. "Your Majesty…" She touched Odin's shoulder, which flashed green with her enchantment. "This is not the Loki you're looking for."

Odin blinked. "No. This is not the Loki we're looking for."

"Father, are you sure?" Thor asked.

"As sure as my name is Odin Borson. Heimdall, take these three back to Midgard at once!"

"Wait, Odin! There's just one more matter to attend before you go." Loki quickly hugged his adoptive father and returned to his friends.

"He didn't deserve that hug!"

Loki smiled at Grievance. "Maybe not, but I did."

Sylvie smirked as they were promptly sent back to Earth. "Enchantment's too easy when the people of this universe are all idiots."

"Well, that's pretty much the standard for Asgardians of any universe, but yes, these ones are especially dull." Detective Loki clarified.

"That may be true, but your local variant here is still pretty cunning, and now we've got to figure out where he ran off to this time." Mobius told them. "He didn't swipe any of our Tempads, did he?" They all checked their pockets and shook their heads. "Good, then at least he can't run off to another timeline or universe."

"No, I don't think he's planning on time travel anymore, and he's not looking to hide: I know that look on my face, and he's plotting a plan of attack, before we or Asgard or anyone can strike him down first." Loki explained.

"Told you we should have eaten his brains when we haddd the chance." Grievance reminded.

"Like he's trying to inspire fear in them to feel powerful, and to feel safe?" Mobius asked.

"Yes, he's likely seeking out a source of power, probably one Asgard isn't particularly knowledgeable about, perhaps one in his local neighborhood."

Mobius gulped. "Like a nuclear power plant."

"That'll suffice." Jokey Loki said to himself as he reached Springfield's Nuclear Power Plant. He snuck into the facility, while two elderly men were notified of his unexpected visit by the silent alarm. They watched the intruder from a monitor in the boss's office on the top floor.

"Smithers, who is that young punk with the buffalo lodge horn hat, sneaking into the reactor core?" The boss, Mr. Burns, asked his second-in-command.

"That's… oh, that's the young man who accompanied Homer Simpson on 'Take Your Child to Work Day' this year."

"Accompanied who?"

"Homer Simpson, sir, he's one of the employees who works in sector 7G."

"Well what in blazes is he doing here after work hours? His dad didn't tell him we give out free samples, did he? Because we don't."

"No sir."

"Then release the hounds."

As Jokey Loki approached the nuclear reactor core, a pack of fearsome Doberman dogs ran up to him, but he immediately calmed the cranky canines, and they sat in a circle around him in a defensive manner.

"That devilish hooligan- he's tamed my hounds!" Burns exclaimed. "Smithers, do we have any vats of electric eels we can drop him into in that room?"

"Wait, it looks like someone else has entered the premises and is going to the young Simpson."

"What, who!?"

"Loki, are you in here somewhere? It's me." The familiar voice called out.

The Loki variant looked back and acknowledged his visitor. "Why have you come here, Mo- Ma'am?"

"You disappeared, and we were worried about you. I've been looking everywhere I could think of." Mrs. Simpson responded. "Are you afraid those detectives will take you back to your family? Don't you think they miss you?"

"Pfff, they miss me like they miss the plague. They certainly don't want me back, they'll only send me away to another unfortunate realm so that they don't have to deal with me themselves: that is Odin's style."

"Maybe we can talk to them on your behalf. As much as we enjoy having you over, it is your home, where you belong… isn't it?"

Loki shook his head. "I have no home. First my biological father abandons me and Odin takes me away from Jotunheim to Asgard, then when I become too much of a burden for him, Odin banishes me here, then the people here want me to go back to Asgard, and who knows where Odin will exile me to next: Muspelheim, Svartalfheim, Niflheim? I'm an outcast no matter where I go; I do not belong anywhere."

He began to chuckle maniacally, turning to the reactor core. He teleported Marge to a safer room and began to pool his magic power into the reactor, drastically and dramatically increasing the power and danger it radiated. As it soaked in the energy, he teleported back to Marge Simpson. "But soon, those Asgardian hypocrites will finally understand my plight, for they won't have a place to call home either when I blow their kingdom to kingdom come!" Marge gasped. "Oh, they're a hardy people: they'll survive anything, and I'll give them plenty of warning to flee before this mighty bomb launches!"

"Loki, you can't destroy an entire planet just because you're angry with your family!" Marge scolded.

"Ugh, you sound like one of them. You're not my mother!"

"Mmmmm. Maybe not, but I do care about you, and if I were your mother, I'd tell you to stop this before you get into even more trouble than you're already in, before you go too far. Please."

"Hmmm." As Marge Simpson tried to think of a solution to help him and Loki pondered her words, they both paused as they heard another walk in on them.

"Marge, did you find him yet?" Homer Simpson asked. "Oh, there he is. Those flatfoots haven't caught you yet, huh boy?"

"They tried, but I escaped them."

"Homer, did you leave the children alone?" Marge questioned him.

"Not all of them. Maggie wanted to come wish her big alien brother good luck!"

"Maggie? Where's Maggie!?"

"She's right here on my shoulder-" Homer looked behind him, noticing no baby there. "D'OH! She's faster than she looks!"

"Homer, how could you bring our baby to a nuclear power plant and lose her!? Find her!" As Marge scolded her husband, Loki had already noticed Maggie heading towards the glowing reactor. He quickly grabbed the child, shielded her from the energy flowing out of the machine, and teleported her away, gently handing her to her mother. As soon as Marge took Maggie, Loki wobbled over, sore from the radioactive blast. As Homer approched him in concern, Loki wearily extended his hand, and Homer offered an arm to help him up, until-

"Why you-" Loki swiftly throttled Homer, choking him past the point of his eyes bulging. "You wretched, pathetic, no-good excuse for a mortal, if you ever put her in danger again-"

"Thank you Loki!" Marge exclaimed, embracing both Loki and her baby. "You saved Maggie's life!"

"See, he's practically one of the family!" Homer squeaked out. "Wh-h-hat would we do without him?"

Loki took a moment to reflect, releasing his grip on Homer's neck. "Yes. As foolish and irresponsible a man as you are, you're still a good deal better a father than my previous one, but nevertheless, you are indeed in desperate need of leadership." He turned to Marge. "As the superior parent, you obviously require a decent male role model to assist you."

"And to keep you out of mischief." She added.

"As much as possible, I suppose. So, shall we make my induction into the family official?"

Mrs. Simpson paused for a few seconds. "Are you asking us to legally adopt you?"

"…I am. What say you? Will you take full responsibility for this lonely troublemaker?" He proposed, conjuring up an official document.

"Well, yes, of course! Are you alright, Loki? Do we need to take you to the hospital first?" Mrs. Simpson asked with concern. "You're glowing green!"

"Oh, that's normal for me. I'm immune to Earthly poisoning, including radiation. I might need a nap when we get home though."

As both parents signed Loki's adoption form, the Time Detectives observed the scene from the monitor with Burns and Smithers.

"You're seriously not going to stop him!?" Sylvie questioned her Loki as he held her back.

He shook his head. "We needn't. Not yet, at least."

"That family of imbeciles is going to let him get away with whatever crap he feels like doing if they adopt him!"

"No, I highly doubt that, my dear. You see, despite his juvenile behavior, he's a Loki like us, and as we and Mobius know well, the root of a Loki's mischief stems from loneliness, fear, and pain." Loki refuted. "Now that the Simpsons have truly accepted him as one of them, a family that won't judge him by impossible godly standards as Odin's family has, because they're far from perfect themselves, and they're at least not above admitting it, he'll surely feel loved enough for his inferiority complex to diminish with time. Perhaps he'll still commit acts of mischief for fun from time to time, but he'll still be punished as well. And he proved he has affection for them: you saw how protective he was of his baby sister."

"So we're letting him get away?"

"Absolutely not." Detective Loki smirked. "I already have a fitting punishment in mind for him." He whispered his idea to Sylvie and Mobius, and they each smiled and approved, disappearing from the room as the two power plant bosses looked at each other in confusion.

"Uhhh… Smithers, are they all gone?" Burns wondered.

"It would appear so. The reactor is powered down to normal operations, and there's no one visible on the monitors."

"Nothing was stolen?"

"No sir."

"Excellent. Then Smithers?"

"Yes sir?"

"Re-leash the hounds."