"…I take it from your reactions that you know of my past reputation." Thanos commented as Loki and Mobius stared at him with wide eyes, paralyzed with fear. Loki especially stood frozen, his mouth hanging open as if he were a deer caught in headlights. Sylvie looked back and forth at the Mad Titan and her teammates, not knowing Thanos by appearance or why her fiancé and his dad appeared so frightened.

"And just what is your past reputation, if I may ask?" Sylvie questioned him back, staring him straight in the eyes with her fierce determination.

"Ah, at least one of you isn't shaking in terror like a small pup. I respect that." As Thanos stepped towards her, Loki immediately found his courage.

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER, MONSTER!" Loki shouted, but as he reached for his fire sword, Healer quickly sprang from Loki's chest, feeding off his rage and fear, and prepared to bite off Thanos's head. Thanos grabbed the charging Symbiote by the jaws, leaving him lashing his tongue and slobbering violently.

"What kind of monster is this?" Thanos grunted as he held Healer at bay.

"Healer is no monster, he's a loyal and devoted friend!" Loki replied. "You're the monster, Thanos!"

"Thanos, as in, the creep that tortured you and your brother, manipulated you as his pawn, screwed with your mind, and tried to kill you!?" Sylvie asked. Loki nodded.

Thanos squinted at Loki, not recognizing him. "I don't even know who you are."

"Really?" Loki removed his detective disguise, showing the Titan his face as he glared at him. "Because that whole 'I will hunt you down and make you long for something as sweet as pain' message you relayed through The Other gave me the impression we were on a personal level!"

Thanos just shrugged. "That does sound like something I would have said before I changed my plans for the universe."

"You mean your plans to murder half the population so that the other half can steal the resources the other half had?" Mobius finally spoke up.

"No, that's not how it was going to work." Thanos corrected. "First, it was going to be random, so it wouldn't have been murder, and it wouldn't have been stealing either if the former owners weren't around."

"Boy, I've heard of splitting hairs, but you really are mad! What you planned on doing was obviously premeditated killing with malice aforethought, which is the definition of murder, and the seizing of possessions of the deceased without inheriting them via will or buying them at an auction is certainly stealing!"

"You sound like you would make a fine lawyer."

"Well, I was an analyst and, for a short time, a judge at my old workplace."

"But also note that that definition of murder only applies to the sane, and you yourself called me 'mad.' Nonetheless, I have changed my plans, as I said, and my new purpose in life is to provide for and protect those in need, and that especially includes endangered species." He looked at the wild Symbiote, who clearly still longed to chomp on his brains. "I'll tell you the details of this case when you call off your beast."

"Forget it." Loki snubbed. "I'd never help you with anything, and for once, I'd enjoy watching your brains get devoured!"

"Hey, let's at least hear him out before we flat out refuse him." Mobius reasoned. "Maybe this Thanos has changed for the better?"

"And maybe, and more likely, he's lying and trying to manipulate me into doing his bidding again! He even admitted to us that he doesn't see how his planned genocide was wrong, and from what I know of him, Thanos is not the type to give up his convictions under any circumstances! We cannot trust him!"

"…You know, I remember a few people saying that about you when I had the idea to save you from being reset, to meet you after your nexus event, and look at how much you've changed! Granted, those people worked for an evil organization that brainwashed them, but they had good reason not to trust you regardless. I just think we should get all the information we can, whether it turns out to be true or false, before we make any rash decisions."

Loki scowled and looked back at the Mad Titan.

"Allow me." The Symbiote answered Loki's thoughts and stretched his tongue just far enough to reach Thanos's hand. Loki blinked in surprise as this Thanos's memories played through his head, revealing to him and Healer that despite his ruthless past, he truly longed to help the endangered animals, currently worrying over their safety. "Crap, he was telling the truth! Rrrrr of course, I will gladlyyy still bite off his head. As long as you hate him, I shall alsooo."

"Call off the beast." Thanos repeated.

Loki rolled his eyes and groaned. "Fiiiine! Healer, heel." Healer reluctantly oveyed his host, disappearing back inside his torso.

"You more than obviously know who I am: what do I call you three?"

"I am Mr. Ouroboros."

"I'm Mr. Paradox."

"Ms. Lushton."

Thanos nodded. "A ship was seen leaving the Philippines, filled with cages of poached island forest frogs, white rumped vultures, riverine rabbits, and other critically endangered species. I know it was the Barter Brothers who took them, but I need you to find evidence: where their planet of destination is, the identity of their buyer, any information you can find on their nefarious plot, and hopefully we can either rescue the animals before they're sold or turn in the buyers to the law and take the animals back."

"Right, you said the scene of the crime was in the Philippines." Mobius noted. "We'll obviously need a more exact location to inspect the scene for you, and we'll also need more information about these suspects of yours. I presume these 'Barter Brothers' have some sort of checkered past?"

Thanos nodded. "They deal in all kinds of trading, legal or otherwise. There's no line they won't cross to make money, even if an entire galaxy is threatened in the process. Here's the exact coordinates of the crime scene."

"Say, what happened to your sleeve?" Mobius asked Thanos, noting it was torn. "Did you confront your suspects already?"

"Actually, they tried to threaten me to stop looking into the case, but they're far too weak to damage any part of me but my clothing. So, Mr. Paradox, are you in?"

"Maybe, could you give us a minute? We'd like to talk it over first." Mobius stepped away with his friends for a private group huddle. "Well, what do you think? Should we check it out?"

"Should we look through his mind to see if he's lying?" Sylvie suggested.

"He's not. Healer already showed me." Loki told her.

"Can your Symbiote enchant people like we can?"

"He can."

"Then you want to take his case?" Mobius asked him.

Loki sighed. "I don't exactly want to help him, but I do want to help those animals. We are detectives, and we have a mystery to solve. What do you think, Syl?"

"I want to stab Thanos in the throat for what he did to you, but if this Thanos is innocent and hasn't even met you before, I guess there's no good reason to. You're the one who prefers to talk things out before taking action, so whatever you decide, I'll stand by you."

Loki nodded at her in appreciation and smiled. "Let's go save those endangered animals!"

The Time Detectives traveled to the summit of Mount Apo in the Philippines and studied the scene of the crime, searching for evidence they could use to find the poached species.

"They did a pretty decent job of cleaning up after themselves." Sylvie remarked. "I haven't found anything yet, not even any fur or feathers."

"Yeah, whoever is behind this probably picked this location as their drop-off point so if there was any incriminating evidence they missed, it would either fall off the side of the mountain or get burned up by the lava from the dormant volcano." Mobius agreed.

"We might have better luck getting information from the people around here than from the remains on this summit, if there still are any." Loki theorized.

"Wait! I have found evidence!" Healer emerged once more and pointed his head at a tiny dropping, camouflaged among the volcanic ash and soot. "It is a very small poop; inspect it."

"Ew, no."

"You don't have to even touch it, you pussy. You can move it with your telekinesis and inspect it under a magnifying glass."

"You watch your mouth, or I'll stuff hot peppers in it! Oh, I'll pick the, er, sample up telekinetically, but I'd still rather not look at it." Loki lifted it into the air as he said while Mobius held his magnifying glass up to it.

"It's a frog dropping. There's no way a frog would be up here at the top of a volcano unless it was brought here." Mobius deduced. "So we know the animals were here, but there's no visible way to know where they went yet."

"No tire tracks, no wheel marks… what if it was caught up in the tractor beam of a space ship and taken to another planet, or even another realm?" Sylvie pondered.

"Not by Bifrost, that's for sure. They couldn't possibly cover up the mark that method of transportation leaves behind!"

"Then let's ask some of the locals." Loki encouraged. "Or, to make things faster, Healer and I could use that combined multi personal mind scan to search for that specific memory, like we did in London!"

"Now we're talking!"

Loki and Healer carried out their plan, scanning the memories of the people in the surrounding cities until they found a witness of the event in the city of Davao.

"What's that revolting smell?" Loki complained, crinkling his nose. "It reeks worse than a teenage Thor after a game of round up the Bilgesnipes and five laps of obstacle course training in the same day!"

"Oh, those are durians." Mobius explained. "They're a smelly but sweet fruit native to tropical islands, as you could easily guess, and this city in particular is famous for them."

"I think they'd be better off just dumping them into the ocean, or the volcano so the stench doesn't frighten away their fish!"

"They're quite delicious, actually!" Sylvie interjected, and her male companions gave her skeptical looks. "What? I've hidden out on plenty of tropical islands during my time as a fugitive, so I've sampled a good deal of their native foods, not to mention other exotic pleasures… anyway, the smell is misleading. Here, I'll show you!" Sylvie broke off from the trio to purchase four durians from the market, and she gave one to each of her teammates. Loki was the most hesitant to try it, accustomed to trusting his nose when it came to judging safe food, but Mobius took a bite after Sylvie, and he began to eat the rest of his.

"You're right, it is good!"

Loki looked down at his durian. "Sylvie's a Loki, so she undoubtedly has similar taste buds to mine, and I trust her and Mobius. I'll be fine." Loki gulped and prepared to take a bite, but his Symbiote quickly ate it whole before he got to taste it. "Hey!"

"Too slow, Detective Monk!"

"Detective what?"

"It's a TV reference: it's… mostly a compliment." Mobius explained.

"Not the way I meant it."

"You gluttonous boor! At least tell me how it tasted!"

"It was, as Sylvie said, delicious! You should have tasted it too: our senses are shared."

While Loki opened his mouth to protest, Sylvie placed a bite-sized piece of her second durian in his mouth. His eyes grew wide and then closed as he savored the rich, sweet flavor, though his eyes opened again as he wished he had more.

"Sorry, we only had the money for four, and you're not the only one eating for two anymore."

"You're not the one here with cause to be sorry, Sylvie." Loki glared daggers at Healer.

"Look at the bright side: we both get our stomach filled no matter which of us does the eating."

"No, the bright side is that I can do this." Loki pushed Healer back inside of his chest, and the detectives pressed on to question the witness.