The wall encompassing New Asgard was imposing. Stone and golden in color, it stood 20 feet tall in a massive circle around the brand new city. A man stood at the top, the same man who delivered the message originally, Baldur, decked out in Asgardian purple and gold and shined bright against the grey and white clouded sky.
"Welcome gentlemen," he said, "to the outer wall of New Asgard. Have you an invitation to enter? If not, begone."
Steve and Tony looked at each other, confused. Tony said, "Yeah, we have one. You're the one who gave it to us, remember?" Steve took it out of his pocket, glad he thought to bring it.
"Hand it over," he replied, outstretching his hand as if they could easily reach the more than 20-foot distance between them and place it in his hands.
Steve said, "Well, are you going to come down here and let us give it to you or...?" He gestured to the closed gate, expecting someone, if not Baldur himself, to open it up so they could.
Baldur replied, "Toss is to me."
Tony looked around to make sure he wasn't getting pranked and said, "Hey genius up there! The wind is going to take it and make it go wherever. It'll never reach your hand."
Baldur rolled his eyes, losing his patience, he said, "Tie it to a rock and throw it up here. Must us Gods tell you mortals how to do everything?"
Steve found a hand sized rock, tied the paper to it, and threw it at Baldur. He took it and read it over carefully, almost as if he was afraid it was a forgery. Finally, he looked at someone standing inside the wall and said, "Open the gate! The king's guests have arrived."
The gate opened and revealed a stone path with Asgardian guards standing at the ready on both sides. They aimed their spears directly at Steve and Tony and stared them down from their posts. Steve put his hands up instinctively.
"Whoa," Tony said anxiously.
"Single file, gentlemen," Baldur said as he guided them down the armed stone pathway. *BAM!* The gate shut loudly behind them.
As they walked along the path, Baldur said, "I know neither one of you asked, but I've concluded living among you Midgardians is wonderful. You must hold the same sentiment, at least about me personally, because you mortals named a whole day of the week after me."
"Yeah, 'Baldursday' is my favorite day," Tony snarked, "wouldn't you agree, Cap?"
"I mean Sunday," Baldur continued, "what a lovely senitment! What makes it even better is many mortals take that day off from their completely worthless jobs on Sunday, making it an even better day! That's not the only place you mortals have shown me love. 'And God said Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, and that it was good.' What an amazing thing to say! Loki wishes he could have such great sentiment written about mischief, or possibly get a day named after him. He's so jealous."
Steve whispered to Tony, "His jealousy could be a problem."
Baldur said, "Oh he's not all bad, although I feel as though I'm obligated to say such a thing because we're cousins, but don't let that cloud your judgement of me."
"Yeah well, we all have that one crazy relative in the family," Tony stared at the city of New Asgard as they walked through it. It looks much larger on the inside, and the regular citizens appeared to be minding their own business outside their stone homes. Although everything was new, it felt as though everyone and everything had a place. The three of them walked through the city center and marveled at children playing in the beautiful fountain. Although it didn't look very safe, given that the water was brown. "I think you need a better water filtration system here," Tony remarked.
Baldur said, exasperated, "That's not water."
"What is it?" Steve asked.
"Chocolate."
Tony stopped and stared at it. He asked, "You guys have chocolate fountains here?"
"Tony, focus," Steve said, pushing him along so they wouldn't lose their guide.
They walked around the massive palace to the side yard full of young men, women, and children practicing with machine guns. At the very end stood Thor beside Loki who was also practicing.
Thunder rumbled across the sky. Steve and Tony looked up, wondering if it was going to storm. Although it was cloudy above them, they didn't appear heavy enough for rain.
"Loki, you're supposed to hit the center of the target," Thor scolded, "that's the entire point of this exercise, to be able to hit the target every single time!" He gestured to the bullet holes around the entire target except for the very center. Loki angrily threw his gun down and glared at him.
"My king," Baldur said, walking up to them, "I present to you Steven Josephson and Antonio Howardson."
Thor looked them over, confused, and said, "Baldur, you know those aren't their names."
"They're not the sons of anyone?" he asked.
"Never mind," Thor replied, "thank you."
As Baldur walked away backwards, he said, "Loki turned the well water into chocolate again."
Thor turned to Loki and commanded, "Change it back." Loki shook his head defensively and put his hands up, as though he were innocent. "We know it was you, you're the only one who does such things."
Loki made the small motion with his fingers and made a heart shape with his hands.
"I don't care if the children love it," Thor said hastily, "we need water to drink, not chocolate! Return our water back to its natural state."
Loki waved his hand in the air, and in the distance they all heard the sad whines of children, upset that their chocolate was gone. Thor finally turned to Steve and Tony and said, "Welcome to New Asgard. Sorry about all of that."
"What's wrong with his face?" Steve asked, pointing at Loki. He had noticed there was a strange black line zig zagged across his lips, and he hadn't spoken a word since they arrived. Instead, he was clearly using charades to communicate.
Thor explained, "Loki over here tricked Sigyn, the Goddess of loyalty, into eating a rotten apple from Idunn's garden, so she sewed his lips shut as punishment." Loki frowned at him.
More thunder rumbled; this time is sounded almost as though it were directly above them. As Steve and Tony looked up at the sky, Tony asked, "Expecting a storm?"
"That sound isn't thunder," Thor answered, "it's Loki's stomach. He hasn't been able to eat since this spell was placed on him a month ago now."
"He's been like this a whole month?" Steve asked, horrified, "And that isn't deadly?"
Thor explained, "We don't need to eat as often as you mortals because of our lifespans, among some other reasons. It would be more so as if a moral hadn't eaten in two days. Not deadly, but certainly not healthy." He turned to see Loki narrowed his eyes at him, hugging his belly as hunger pangs struck. Thor turned back to Tony and Steve, "So, shall we have our meeting?"
He directed them to the throne room inside the newly built palace. Although not as glamourous as it was on Asgard, it was still well decorated and gilded. Inside sat two thrones of equal height. Thor sat regally in the one on the left while Loki slumped over in the one on the right.
Tony snarked, "We don't have to kneel or bow down to you or anything, do we, Thor? Because I like these pants and I don't want to get them dirty."
Loki nodded while Thor shook his head and answered, "Nothing of the sort." He turned to stare at Loki who avoided his gaze.
"What exactly is this about, Thor?" Steve asked, "Why all the formalities?"
"After we learned Thanos scattered the stones across the galaxy," he explained, "Loki and I came up with an idea on how to possibly get them back."
Tony said, "Okay, you and everyone else."
Thor added, "It's possible our idea may work." He turned to Loki and said, "Present it to them."
Loki outstretched his hand and made the tesseract appear in it before their eyes. Flabbergasted, Steve and Tony didn't know what to say or what to think. How could it be here? How did he get it? Did they have the other stones? When could they try getting everyone back? It was too many to ask all at once.
"Is it real?" Tony asked, taking a few steps toward it, but stopping himself short, "Am I really seeing this right now? Is this a big joke because I am not laughing! Are you kidding?"
"It's a duplicate of the real tesseract," Thor explained, "Loki here has spent more than 350 days magically putting this fake tesseract together molecule by molecule."
Steve asked, "Does it work?"
"That is the question we've been asking ourselves," Thor said, "it's far too dangerous to test it here. We have no idea if it'll work like the real thing, or blow up in our faces. I invited the both of you here because I was sure you would want to be the first to know."
Tony asked, "How can we test it?"
He answered, "We'll need a desolate area far away from all life, just in case this thing gives us attitude. Dr. Strange should be able to help us out with that. We can all go to New York together to see this through."
Before he could elaborate, a guard entered the throne room and announced, "My king, Sigyn requests to see Prince Loki."
"She may enter," Thor said.
Loki stood up as they all turned to see the doors open and reveal and tall blonde woman decked out in long flowing robes. She glided across the floor straight to Loki walking towards her.
"My king," she said in a sing songy voice to Thor.
"Sigyn," he replied.
She walked up to Loki, pulled him in close, and sealed her lips against his. With her teeth she ripped the thread out of his lips. "Spell's over," she said, pulling away from him.
Loki said, "Awfully tricky of you, casting a spell like that on me."
"Awfully loyal of you not to break it," Sigyn replied, walking away from him and out of the room.
When Loki turned around, all eyes were on him. He stared back at them. Thor stood up from the throne and asked, "You could have broken that spell at any time?"
"You think too little of me," he said, "a toddler could break that spell if they wished for it to be so. Well brother, have you missed the sound of my voice?" Thunder roared throughout the room as Loki doubled over and held his belly as the pain of hunger grew.
Thor answered, "Not particularly. What I do miss is the sound of silence. Go eat something before you pass out from hunger."
As Loki turned and left for the dining hall, Tony asked, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road!"
"I'll get the chariot together for our departure shortly," Thor said.
Steve stopped him, "Forgetting something, Thor?" He gestured towards the door Loki had just walked through. "The tesseract?"
"I have not forgotten anything," he said, "no, Loki is coming with us."
Steve shook his head and sighed, while Tony threw his hands up in the air. "We know that's not possible," Tony explained, "we know it's not. The conditional pardon he got last year for being allowed to live on Earth was that he can't leave New Asgard, and if he does he'll get electrocuted by Dr. Strange's spell until Dr. Strange shows up himself and portals him back here, so he stays within these walls." He pointed to the ground. "You get that?"
Thor insisted, "I can't leave him here unsupervised, he causes too much chaos."
"Yeah, turning water into chocolate is only one step lower than the genocide he nearly committed against us," Tony snarked.
"That was only this week," he explained, "last week he had the God of fire light up every firework and launch them across the entire city, scaring everyone nearly to death thinking we were under attack. Then the week before that he managed to convince Hod-who is blind-to fire a mistletoe arrow at Baldur's heart. If I hadn't been there to intervene, he would be dead."
Steve thought for a moment and said, "If he was mute at the time, how did he convince a blind man to do anything?"
"He has his ways," Thor said, "Loki will accompany us."
"But he can't leave New Asgard," Tony reiterated.
"There is always a way to get around a spell," Thor replied.
With his chariot transformed more into a carriage so they'd all fit, along with supplies for the trip, Thor reigned his giant goats Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder to it, and when ready the four of them took to the skies together and headed west for North America. They flew so fast the clouds practically disappeared as they went by.
"Now this is the way to travel!" Tony marveled, "Forget a private jet!"
Thor looked over to see Loki in the front seat beside him begin to nod off. "What's the matter?" he asked, "Eat too much, too fast? You can rest if you need to, brother. It still more than an hour until we arrive at our destination."
Loki sat upright and opened his eyes, "I'm fine. I need no rest." He propped his feet up on the front of the carriage.
"How are you outside of New Asgard right now without the spell Dr. Strange put on you activating?" Steve asked.
"Spells are always very specific," Loki replied, remaining cryptic, "you'll see."
It didn't take long for them to eventually arrive outside of the sanctum in the middle of New York. Thor found a parking spot and took it, fitting the entire carriage and goats in perfectly. Loki conjured a ball and bounced it against the front door to simulate knocking.
When Dr. Strange opened it, he immediately wanted to shut it again out of annoyance. Instead, he sighed, and wondered to himself if he should have known this would happen sooner or later. "How did you get here without my knowing?" he demanded, walking across the sidewalk to meet them.
"That's not how you worded the spell," Loki replied, smiling at him, "the way you cast it, you claimed the second I step foot outside of New Asgard is when you'd know I'd left. As you can see, I haven't stepped foot outside of it yet." He wiggled his toes through his shoes, his feet still propped up on the carriage.
"What were you going to do?" Dr. Strange joked, "Walk on your hands over here?"
He watched Loki smiled and immediately did a handstand onto the sidewalk, then made his way over to Dr. Strange. Thor said, "Never temp a trickster."
Dr. Strange averted his eyes as such a display. He finally grabbed Loki's leg and broke the spell he cast on him so he could stand normally. He flipped over and gave him an evil smile.
Steve and Tony jumped out of the carriage. Tony said, "Nice to see you again, wizard."
"Hello," he said, unable to share their enthusiasm.
"Loki," Thor said, "we need something inconspicuous while we're here." He gestured to his goats and carriage already bringing attention to passersby.
Loki covered it with a glamour of a yellow cab minivan. "There," he said, "ugly enough for you?" He turned and stepped inside the sanctum.
"I take it you're here for a reason," Dr. Strange said, following him inside.
Instead of answering, Loki turned and bent backwards into the floor. He disappeared, leaving only a bunch of dirt behind as a mess. Steve asked, "Where did he go?" They all went inside to see.
"Loki?!" Thor asked. Nothing. He turned to the others, "Don't do anything rash until I find him, alright?" He ran up the stairs. "Loki!"
Dr. Strange donned his cloak and flew up the stairs. Meanwhile in that short amount of time, Loki had opened up all of the portal gates to different worlds, a sandstorm, rainstorm, and snowstorm quickly flew in from all different places. Dr. Strange tried to quickly close them back up while getting sanded and rained on.
Then Dr. Strange searched around the sanctum and stumbled across every single book in the library sitting on the floor. "Boring," Loki said, using magic to read through one and then toss it to the side, "boring," another, "also boring. These book don't hold any interesting spells in them."
"I want every single book you've torn off these shelves off the floor this instant," Dr. Strange huffed.
Loki snapped his fingers and the books came alive and started flying through the air in every direction, most of them right at Dr. Strange's face. The cloak tried to protect him but it couldn't do much against the force.
"What," Loki said, "you said you wanted them off the floor. I have done as you asked." He slammed the final book shut and sent it flying. "You mortal sorcerers have no interesting spells." He stopped and stared at a floating black book kept away from the others. "Now that looks different."
"No!" Dr. Strange shouted, pulling it out of Loki's reach with his magic, "Not the Darkhold! That's the last thing I need, you dreamwalking and breaking the multiverse." He tried to grab at Loki, but his illusion disappeared.
Just as Thor was about to run into the room, the floor slowly sucked him down and everything turned brown. Dr. Strange used his cloak to keep himself in the air.
"Chocolate?" Thor asked, "Really, Loki?" He had turned the entire building into chocolate, and it couldn't withstand the room temperate and New York City summer heat.
Dr. Strange flew around the sanctum, not spotting Loki anywhere. "Loki?" he called, "Come out this instant!"
Loki rounded a corner to face him, standing perfectly on the now half melted chocolate floor. Dr. Strange tried to create a portal under his feet to send him falling, but Loki jumped up and turned into a peregrin falcon and clawed at his face. He sent his cloak after him but Loki transformed back into himself and froze the cloak in place with his Frost Giant powers.
"As if I'd fall for that trick again," Loki said.
"Stop all this nonsense now," Dr. Strange commanded as he slowly sunk down into the chocolate, "or I'll...I'll send you to the fire dimension!"
Without hesitation Loki said, "Liar."
"You think I'm bluffing?" he asked, readying his sling ring, "I'll do it if I must!"
"I know you are," he taunted, "because you know not the magnitude of what you threaten. The fire dimension has no equal. The essence of fire itself is all consuming and the dimension of its name is no different. Open a portal there and it attempts to burn its way out, incinerating all life within its grasp and desperately trys to spread itself to consume more. Thanos nearly lost half his men and almost destroyed himself when he sent me there. Can you risk incinerating more than half the city-maybe even the entire country or the globe itself, if you can't tame the flames, sorcerer?"
Dr. Strange asked, "Are you lying?" Loki turned himself into a dove and flew away.
Meanwhile, from the bottom of the stairs, Steve and Tony struggled to stay upright as the chocolate slowly pulled them down as it melted into the ground around them.
"This isn't working," Steve said, desperate to pull himself out.
"No kidding," Tony said, "I have an idea. I wasn't going to mess with him, but it looks like we're running out of options fast. Just roll with it, Cap." He watched as a flock of books flew over his head. "Hey Loki!" he called, "I heard you're super jealous of your cousin Baldur because us puny mortals named a whole day of the week after him!"
Loki walked up behind Steve from around the staircase and asked, "Your point?"
"Oh God!" Steve said, startled he was suddenly standing behind him.
"If you stop all this craziness and turn this place back to normal," Tony said, "I'll pick a day of the week and rename it after you. What do you say? Why not Saturday? Huh? What has Saturn ever done for us mortals? Right, Steve? From here on out I promise to call Saturday, 'Lokisday' until the day I die. What do you think?" He crossed his fingers behind his back.
Loki looked him over carefully and outstretched his hand for a handshake. "Deal," he said.
They shook hands, and all the magic disappeared. A soft glow slowly came across Tony's body and then disappeared.
"No!" Thor shouted from the top of the stairs. "Don't shake his hand! I told you not to do anything rash until I returned!" He ran down the steps. "Loki, have you written anything in stone?"
"Not yet," he answered, "but I was about to."
Tony looked down at himself in fear and demanded, "What did you just do to me?"
"I cast a spell," Loki replied, "should you ever forget and say 'Saturday' ever again I'll steal your tongue." He smirked. "Although, since you are mortal, you'll likely die not long after such is done to you, so for your sake, I hope your memory is decent."
"Unbelievable," Tony said, stepping away from him, "I show you some kindness, and this is how you repay me?"
"That was not kindness you just exercised," Loki replied, "that was poor attempt at trickery."
Tony spat back, "Oh like you deserve kindness after everything you've done!"
Steve asked in horror, "What are you going to do with his tongue?"
Loki shrugged and answered, "The goats will eat it. They love mortal body parts."
Thor commanded, "Loki, break your spell."
"I am simply doing as he said," Loki explained as innocently as he could muster, "and isn't that what a good, considerate, friend does? Comply and bend the whims of their companion's needs every once in a while?"
"We are not friends, asshole!" Tony shouted.
Just as things were getting tense, Dr. Strange floated down from upstairs with his newly defrosted cloak, and asked hastily, "What exactly is your purpose for being here? Or did you really come all this way just to mess with the sanctum and piss me off?" He landed beside the four of them.
"No that was not our intention," Thor answered, staring his brother down angrily, then turning back to Dr. Strange as he said, "I assure you we have a good purpose for being here, Strange. Loki." He jabbed at him.
Loki outstretched his arm and presented him with the tesseract. Dr. Strange nearly fell over from shock as he stared at it's bright blue glory. "Oh my God," he said.
"You're welcome," Loki replied.
"You actually did it," Dr. Strange said in awe.
Thor explained, "We came all this way to show you in person, and to let you know you're one of the first to know, as you originally requested."
"And I also requested you get a phone so you could call me," he said, "but since you're already here. Does it work?"
Thor explained, "We have no idea. We need to portal someplace desolate to test it. It could be a dud, it could explode, or it might work as intended. We'll need a place far away from all life." He reached into his pocket and pulled out an individually wrapped chocolate square. Loki gave him the ultimate look of betrayal. Thor saw this and asked, "Do you wish for some chocolate, Loki?"
"Yes, I do," Loki said, holding out his hand.
As Thor handed it over, Steve said, "Are you serious? You're rewarding him for everything he just did?"
Loki popped the chocolate into his mouth and almost immediately spit it out back into the wrapper, then threw it into a void he made with his magic. "Oh it's sour!" he exclaimed, "Gross! Who made this?"
"Idunn," Thor answered nonchalantly, "I didn't ask what she put in it."
Dr. Strange ignored their antics and asked, "Just how desolate of a place do you think is needed?" He turned and walked the group of them down the halls of the sanctum.
"A place with no life within 100 miles," Thor answered walking in step behind him, "I want zero causalities incase this thing explodes."
*THUD! BOOM! BANG!*
They all turned to see Loki desperately holding onto the walls lined with spears, and had knocked several onto the floor. They bounced and rolled away from him as he struggled to gain his balance.
"What's wrong with you now?" Tony demanded.
Loki pointed directly at Thor and asked, "What was in that chocolate?!"
"Sedatives," he confessed, "I asked Idunn to put some together just in case you decided to misbehave."
"I'll remember this," Loki threated as he knocked more spears to the ground, losing his balance and his fight against the sedatives.
Thor replied, "Oh I'm sure I'll hear about this for the next 500 years." He walked up to him and held him upright. "Now, can I see the tesseract please? I would like to take a look at it once more. May I?"
Now half asleep, Loki presented the glowing cube once again and stared at it. "Isn't it beautiful?" he asked.
"Yes," Thor replied, "it is. Here, let me hold onto it for now. I promise to take good care of it." He took it out of Loki's hand and slowly guided him away from all the fallen spears. "You know, Loki, you look dreadful."
"I do?"
"Absolutely. You must be so tired having just practiced all that magic and made us all run circles around you. Why don't give in to your tiredness, and fall into a deep sleep?"
"Goodnight."
SPLAT! Thor let Loki fall flat on his face in the middle of the hallway. Tony asked, "You couldn't have done that sooner and saved us all some trouble?"
Thor explained, "I was hoping he would behave himself. Unfortunately for us, he barely tasted the chocolate. We'll be lucky if he's out for a full 30 minutes." He walked back over to the group.
Steve said, "Dr. Strange, I've been meaning to ask, how's Wanda?"
He shook his head, "Not well." He guided them down the hallway to a room at the very end. There, Wanda walked around inside a giant glass box, her powers creating a red mist surrounding herself and the container.
"I guess we can take some solace that she looks happy," Tony said sadly.
Thor asked, "I guess I've been so busy with New Asgard lately I've been out of touch. What's wrong with her? Why is she inside a glass cage?"
Dr. Strange answered, "You don't know? A few weeks after our trials were over and she was ruled a threat to humanity, I promised to take her into the sanctum and teach her to control her powers. She was grieving over the loss of Vision, but doing relatively alright until the UN decided they wouldn't let her have a funeral and bury him. Instead they were going to use his vibrainium for other classified purposes. She couldn't take it, so she left, and disappeared to some address in New Jersey Vision had talked about once. The next thing I knew, I felt her powers exploding over the size of a small town. It wasn't good."
Tony asked, "Seriously, you didn't hear about all that over Norway?"
"I was busy," Thor said, "what did she do?"
"Her broken mental state combined with her poor control over her powers had her manifest a fake Vision to have a life with," he explained, "she enslaved the town and gave them new names, new personalities, and dressed them up in different decades. I tried to go in and talk her down. I even brought in Clint on several occasions, but she refused to listen. She wouldn't remove her spell, not even after I explained to her that she was tormenting over a thousand people with her nightmares. I contained the spell within this glass box and brought it here. It's been months, and she still refuses to accept reality. In there right now, in her mind, she's still living in that town, with her dead family members and two children she conjured up."
Thor whispered to himself, "She's lost everything, and at such a young age."
"Who hasn't at this point?" Tony asked rhetorically, then stopped and stared at Steve who frowned at him. "Come on, someone should get her out of there. It can't be heathy. How is she eating...or drinking...or...even get dressed without..."
"She's been using her own magic to sustain herself this entire time," Dr. Strange answered.
"Let me give it a go," Steve said.
Dr. Strange nodded and created a portal that let Steve walk through the glass. As soon as he stepped inside, it was as if he entered a whole different world. He suddenly appeared in the yard of a modern suburban house. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought he was in Westview, New Jersey for real.
He stepped up to the normal looking house and knocked on the door. When it opened, a 10-year-old boy stood on the otherside. "Hi," he said.
"Hello..." Steve said awkwardly. He glanced inside to see another 10-year-old and a familiar grey haired man on the couch. "Is Wanda in? I'd just like to talk to her."
"Mom!" the boy shouted.
"What is it, Tommy?" she asked, coming out of the kitchen. She stopped and stared at Steve standing in the doorway. "Tommy we don't open the door to strangers!" She marched over quickly.
"Wanda," Steve said, stepping inside, "I'm just here to talk."
"About what?" she demanded, "What I'm doing here? How my children are absolutely real and that my parents and my brother and Vision are all here and real with me right now even though they shouldn't be?! Get out!"
Steve tried to stop her. "It's okay, that's not what I wanted to discuss."
"Out!" She used her powers to launch him out the front door and across her lawn before slamming the door shut.
Dr. Strange pulled him out of the cage with a portal and helped him walk out. "Every time someone tries to get in there she gets worse," he said, "I fear she may never return to the real world."
"She didn't even let me get a sentence out before shutting me out," Steve said.
Tony said, "Damn that looks bad."
"If we can't do anything to get her out of there," Thor said, "we still have this tesseract to test. If it works, perhaps we can find the real mind stone and give her hope Vision may return." They all nodded in agreement.