Jokey Loki gulped, wondering silently, "How did they find my current residence?"

"Time Detectives? What, did somebody steal a watch?" Homer asked, more confused than usual.

"No, we handle different kinds of cases in whatever time period needs our help, but we're after a certain miscreant who's been prank calling us. Namely, your Loki." Detective Loki explained.

"And that's serious enough for you to travel across time?" Marge asked.

"We've only come all this way because it's interfering with a public service, and we-"

"How many criminals have you killed?" Bart interrupted.

"Bart!" His parents scolded.

"What? Dad, you told me to be my 'misbehaving, authority-hating little self,' remember?"

"That was before I knew the law would be here." Homer gritted through his teeth.

"As I said, we've only come to deal with this petty misdemeanor in person because it's interfering with a public service, and frankly, it's long past the point of irritating."

"Oh yeah, well if you're really real detectives, why don't you deduce some stuff about me?" Homer dared them.

Loki and Mobius faced each other. "Go on, I know his character from TV, so it'd be too easy for me." Mobius whispered.

Detective Loki studied the Simpson dad, looking him over and seeing what information he could gather from his mannerisms and attributes. "Let's start with the obvious, shall we? It's easy to see from the vacant expression on your face that you're a simple-minded man, given to act on pure instinct. Judging by the size and shape of your belly, and a whiff of your breath, you obviously drink a lot of beer and eat a large amount of fatty foods. From the slouch in your posture and the way you walk, you seem to be a rather listless, thoughtless individual." Loki stepped closer to him, looking him further in the eyes. "The combination of shadow and crust under your eyes suggest you take regular long midday naps, yet your nighttime sleep remains uninterrupted. However, you act in your home as the authority figure, so it stands to reason that your working position reinforces that same sense of authority. Hmmm… but to put an individual of your caliber in a high position seems counterproductive… unless it was a position of only maintaining a facade, or the appearance of a higher duty…"

Homer Simpson began to feel dizzy trying to follow Loki's train of thought, but it moved at much too fast and mighty of a pace, and Homer's brain crashed in the process.

"Uhhh… maybe you should summarize while Homer can still see straight." Marge suggested.

"Yes…I believe from the information I've gathered that your husband is a night watchman."

"Mmm… actually, he's the safety inspector from our nuclear power plant, but everything else you said was spot on! I'm impressed!" Marge complimented.

Detective Loki cursed in Asgardian. "I thought for sure I had that deduction by observation method down!"

"Hey, don't beat yourself up." Mobius consoled him. "You've learned a lot from that Sherlock Holmes book! I agree with Mrs. Simpson: you did great."

"Was that a foreign cuss?" Bart asked curiously. "Cool, man!"

"Bart!" His father shook his fist at the boy threateningly.

"Good afternoon everyone." A blonde little girl in an orange dress greeted as she walked in the door. "Who's this?"

"They're detectives, Lisa." Her mother answered.

"Detectives? Bart, what did you do this time?"

"It wasn't me!"

"Dad, what did you do?"

"It wasn't me either!" Homer replied in an equally whiny tone. "They want to talk to Loki." He looked to the side, but to his surprise, his Loki was no longer by his side. "Huh? Oh nice going, you scared him away!"

"Don't worry, we're Loki experts." Mobius assured them, his team having already noticed and started discussing their target's disappearance.

"Yes, we're quite familiar with all his tricks, Homer, son of Simp. I know him like I know myself." Detective Loki added.

"Then you know he's still here: he only made himself invisible." Grievance told Loki in his head.

Loki nodded and gave Jörmungandr a telepathic signal, who was also still magically concealed. The humongous serpent sniffed the room until he found his master's doppelgänger; he immediately slithered upstairs and grabbed the variant with his mouth while the resident family heard his grunt.

"You may as well show yourself: we know your game." The prankster hesitated, readying himself for a sneak attack, until he heard a stern voice.

"Loki, you make yourself visible for these nice people right this instant!" Marge demanded.

"Yes ma'am." Jokey Loki did as instructed, though Jörmungandr remained unseen.

"Now we've got him!"

"Have you been pranking these detectives and interfering with their work?"

"Please! Would I, Loki, God of Mischief, ever waste my valuable time on practical joking telephone calls?"

"Loki-"

"…Maybe a little."

"A little?" Mobius echoed. "You've tied up our line more times than we've had cases! That's over half a dozen times in the past 6 months!"

"It was just a harmless series of jokes, a bit of fun! Can't you take a joke?"

"Sure we can." Sylvie smugly retorted. "We just took you, didn't we?"

Jokey Loki rolled his eyes. "Oh, how very droll. So what do you propose to do, turn me in to the fun police, oR iS tHat yOu aS wELL?" He sassed.

"Better, wE cAn tAkE yOu bAck tO yoUr bRoTheR." Mobius sassed him back, watching his expression shift to a more disgusted one. "Yeah, we'll see how he and Odin handle your little bouts of mischief!"

"Now now, let's talk this over; I'm sure we can come to some sort of an arrangement."

"He's a Loki alright." Sylvie grumbled.

The prankster turned to his pale variant. "You're the Loki of the group, aren't you? You surely haven't grown so dull that you'd tattle on me to my- to our- oaf of a brother for merely acting within my title of 'god of mischief,' would you?"

Detective Loki smirked. "You'd be surprised at some of the things a Loki can do. I take it Odin doesn't know you're here?"

Jokey Loki gave an amused snort. "Odin doesn't know? He's the one who banished me to this backwater town on this backwater planet in this backwater realm, after my attempted subjugation of that backwater city of New York, in the first place!"

"Wait, he banished you to Midgard for trying on conquer Midgard, with no guards watching you and all your powers intact? Is even your Odin a complete imbecile!?"

"Basically. I was chained up when he sent me here, but they shattered on the way down."

"Yeah, you should have seen the huge crater he left when he hit the ground!" Bart exclaimed. "I was selling tickets and everything!"

"Keep talking and it won't be the only crater I leave on the ground, brat." The fallen Loki warned. "What about your Odin? I suppose it's not enough for him to torment you, he has you rounding up other Lokis in your so-called detective business to make them more miserable as well!"

"My Odin is dead." Jokey Loki fell silent as his variant paused for effect. "Or at least as good as dead: he was erased from existence with the rest of my family by a higher power, because I made a move they didn't agree with. At the time, yes, I was angry with my Odin as well, and I felt betrayed by his lies and hypocrisy, but looking back, knowing I'll never see him again, I just… I wish I could see him one last time. You have the chance I wish I had: perhaps you could use it to make amends? Perhaps he'll apologize for his lies and mistreatment, but you can only know for sure if you go speak with him, and if I were you, which I sort of am, I wouldn't waste that chance!"

Detective Loki held out his hand, offering to take his variant home, but he still looked pensive. Suddenly, he fired a blast of bright green magic at his detective doppelgänger, who readily anticipated this reaction and avoided it. Feeling Jörmungandr's fangs around him, Jokey Loki touched the snake with a green glowing hand, coaxing it into releasing him, and the Simpsons family ran away in a panic as the humongous serpent was made visible. Sylvie fired a green energy blast at the prankster, but he promptly pulled out a surging blue cube and teleported himself far away.

"He has the Tesseract?!" Loki blurted in surprise.

"What is it with Lokis and that Space Stone-filled cube?" Mobius pondered.

"Any ideas where he teleported off to?" Sylvie wondered.

"Grievance?" Loki prompted.

"Yeeeeees, I know where the other you is." The Symbiote spoke for them all to hear. "I attached a piece of myself to himmm while the big old snake held him in his jaws, and I can readily track down that part of me, no matter how far he goes!"

"Whoa cool, you have a shadow demon!" Bart exclaimed. "Can I get a shadow demon mask too?"

Loki ignored the child. "Excellent, lead the way!"

The Time Detectives hopped on Jörmungandr's back as Loki relayed Grievance's directions to his snake, riding miles and miles away to what looked like an amusement park.

"He's somewhere in the crowd, watching us." Grievance told them. "Creepy." A little black blob flew into Grievance as he spoke. "Ohhhh, he shook off the mini meeeee. Nevermind." They looked around, not seeing any Lokis.

"He must have shapeshifted to avoid detection." Mobius presumed. "I hope he hasn't escaped again."

Jörmungandr will find him." Loki assured. "Do you smell him nearby?"

The great serpent led them through the crowds, having been turned invisible again with his master's spell, but to their surprise, they followed him away from the masses of people. They soon found themselves in a closed-off area of the park, with a surprisingly large assortment of rides that were marked out of order.

"This is very suspicousss-" Mobius looked around.

"Yeah. It feels like he's setting us up for an ambush, speaking from experience." Sylvie agreed.

"Then let's get ourselves a better vantage point, shall we?" Loki suggested.

They climbed up to get an aerial view, searching for anything suspicious. Suddenly, a little boy from the crowd wandered over to them, pointed, and chuckled. "Heehee, you're in danger."

"I beg your pardon?" Grievance motioned them to turn around, and Loki and Sylvie quickly teleported Mobius out of the way as a monorail train came speeding at them from behind, before it disappeared into a blue portal.

"Well, that was sudden!" Mobius remarked. "There's not even a track in sight!"

"Never underestimate the inventiveness of a Loki." Detective Loki bragged. "Or his playfulness, and it seems we've walked into the middle of his game."

"That's correct, albino Loki!" The detectives looked up towards the rogue Loki's voice and saw him looking down at them from the ledge they previously stood on, sitting upon a horse that looked like it came straight from the merry-go-round. "And I am in quite the playful mood indeed! I challenge you to a magical duel, Loki versus Loki: just us two, no others, no Jörmungandr, no weapons, not even summoning daggers! 'Twill be a magic-only battle! I would like very much to match your powers against mine."

"And if we should best you, you'll cease those obnoxious prank calls?"

"I swear by my honor."

"Which means absolutely nothing." Detective Loki and Mobius stated simultaneously.

"Oh very well, if you win, I won't call you anymore, I promise."

"I still think he's lying." Sylvie doubted the variant. "And what do you want if you beat us, the throne of Asgard?"

"Ah, excellent question. I thought it over on the way, and I want your time machine!"

"Oh, I'll bet you do!" Mobius smirked. "I bet you've got quite a few moments from your past you're fixing on changing, right?"

Jokey Loki winked. "You'd win that wager, but what say you, Loki? Are you up to my challenge? Shall we commence with the magical duel?"

Detective Loki confidently nodded. "I thought you'd never ask!"