Loki opened his eyes to a brightly lit colorful room, and found himself laying on a hard table, only wearing short shorts. When he tried to sit up, pain radiated from his stomach across his left side. He looked down at his hands and to see they were bandaged up in skin color bandages. Underneath, he could feel his flesh had been burned up to his elbow, and down by his feet, ankles, and lower legs.

"Whoa, easy there handsome," an old man in a long yellow robe said, "one wrong move and all these beautiful stitches we made for you will rip apart, and then you'll bleed all over the place again. And I personally have met my blood seeing quota for the day, and it isn't even noon yet." He appeared to be floating, no, not flying, Loki could tell he was standing on some sort of hovercraft.

"What?" Loki asked, "Where am I? Who are you?"

"You can call me Grandmaster," he explained, "I'm the ruler of this little planet here called Sakaar. We reside at the very end of the universe and collect all unwanted and lost things. I, personally, would love to know what we should call you."

"Whoever he is," a young woman standing beside him said, "he owes me a new ship."

Grandmaster said, "I'll pay for your new ship. This lovely lady over here is called Scrapper 142."

Valkyrie explained angrily, "Wherever you just flew in from, you ended up crashing directly into me inside my ship, totaling it!"

"I just told you I'll get you a new ship," Grandmaster assured her, "As for you, new guy, it looks like someone set you on fire and then tried to cut you in half. Actually, I don't know which came first, the fire or the slicing, but your guts were ripped wide open all over Scrapper 142's ship and your burns are fresh. You lost lots of blood. We thought you weren't going to make it for a while there, but you pulled through. Although, it appears this facinating number you were wearing wasn't fireproof." He held up Loki's green, black, and gold suit, now burnt to a crisp and completely unwearable.

"That's Asgardian leather," Loki said sadly. Valkyrie glared at him but said nothing.

"So," Grandmaster asked, "what should we call you? Or do you prefer to get a new name instead?"

"I am Loki."

Grandmaster continued, "Well Loki, while you certainly have the physice to pull it off, I still can't recommend you walk around naked, or near-naked, as you are right now. That draws much too much attention to yourself-trust me, I would know. You need new clothes! What colors do you like wearing the best?"

Loki couldn't believe this. A complete stranger on a foreign planet saved his life and was about to dress him? He slowly turned on his right side, away from his fresh wounds, and delicately sat up. "I look best in green, gold, and black."

"Oo," Grandmaster said, "can't do green. No, that color is monopolized by my champion, sorry. And about the gold, if you haven't already noticed, Sakaar is the planet where all unwanted and discarded things end up. Gold isn't really something people tend to throw away, so we have almost none at our disposal. The best I can do is yellow, but never fear, we have plenty of black to spare."

Loki struggled to not roll his eyes. "Yellow is fine."

"Instead of green," Grandmaster grabbed Loki's face with both hands and stared deep into his eyes as he said, "now that I see your eyes are a piercingly goregous horizonal blue, why not try to match those perfect azure orbs?" Loki pulled away from his hands and nodded ever so slightly in agreement.

What an odd prediciment he found himself in. He had no idea someone could survive being pushed out of the bifrost, and now he was on a planet where the ruler was already infatuated with him. This was lining up perfectly. Although, he feared for his mother on Asgard, he was sure his father and brother were dealing with Hela just fine on their own.

Soon he was dressed in blue and black leather with a yellow cape. He knew with his magic he could easily change the colors and the clothes to whatever he wanted, but he also knew it would be in his best interest to appear weaker than he actually was. No magic for now.

"There are some things you should know about this place," Grandmaster explained as he started Loki's tour, "time works differently here. I don't know how fast you would heal on any other planet, but here your injuries could last for decades."

"Decades?!"

"Yeah," he continued nonchalantly, "or you could wake up tomorrow morning and find yourself completely healed."

Loki said, "I'd rather have that option."

Grandmaster added, "Unfortunately you don't get to choose, whatever happens will happen."

"You mentioned having a champion earlier," he said, "a champion of what exactly?"

"Oh yes my beloved champion," he explained, "once a month I have all of my slaves...ugh I hate that word, slaves...I should really come up with a better term for them. Involuntary fighters, I don't know about that one either, but it'll work for now. Anyway, once a month I have my involuntary fighters fight each other to become my champion, and so far this big guy I got quite a while ago has never been defeated. He usually kills his oponents in a vicious and brutal manner. It's an amazing spectical I have people bet on."

Intrigued, Loki said, "I thought you just said time works differently here, how can you have a monthly sport?"

He answered, "Oh it does. We still have hours, days, weeks, all those sorts of things, but we experience them differently compared to the rest of the universe. Anywhere else I'd be millions of years old, but here..." he hesitated, "I'm not." Loki raised an eyebrow but didn't dare say anything to contradict him.

Over Two Weeks Later

The Grandmaster held a party a day before the start of the fights. Loki's injuries still appeared as if they had happened earlier the same day. His stitches and burns were nowhere near the beginning stages of healing, which irritated him. He didn't want to be wounded forever, but he knew there wasn't anything he could do about it.

At the party, in front of everyone, Valkyrie excitedly ran up to the Grandmaster and exclaimed, "I found your newest contender in time for tomorrow's match!"

"Can't wait to meet them," Grandmaster replied, "everyone, gather around! Lets see what kind of speciman Scrapper 142 has brought to me this time. Maybe this one will live through the final round, huh?" He motioned for everyone to come in close. He stopped the music.

Loki grabbed one last drink for himself and stood to the side of the Grandmaster's hoverchair, but away from Valkyrie and Topaz. Others quickly gathered around them in a giant circle.

In an instant, a hoverchair appeared with a deathdefying scream. "Aaaahhhhh!" Thor sat before them, strapped in tight. He suddenly stopped screaming and stared at everyone staring back at him.

How did Thor get there? Loki couldn't figure it out on the spot, but he realized it was best to pretend he didn't know him. He merely looked down at his drink and said nothing.

"Welcome to Sakaar, contender," Grandmaster said, then hesitated and turned to Valkyrie, "it's a he?"

"It's a he," she answered.

Grandmaster asked, "So, what's your name?"

"I am Thor," he answered, "God of thunder! Who are you people?!" He looked around at everyone standing in a big circle surrounding him, and stopped and stared directly at his brother. "Loki? You're alive?"

He shook his head but watched as everyone turned to him in surprise. Grandmaster asked, "Do you know him?"

"I've never met this man in my life," Loki lied.

"He's my brother!" Thor shouted.

"Adopted," Loki said quickly, "that hardly counts." In his head he cussed Thor out but he knew there was no use in saying anything by that point.

Thor demanded, "Loki, we're brothers! Get over here and get me out of this stupid chair!"

Grandmaster leaned over and said, "Adopted or not he seems to know your name and claims to know you, so why not have a quick little discussion?" He motioned for Loki to step forward.

First, Loki turned around, gulped down his entire drink, and then left it with a waiter before turning to face Thor once again. He awkwardly stepped forward in front of everyone and stood by Thor's right side. "How did you get here?" he asked.

"The same way you did," he answered, "Hela pushed me out of the bifrost right after she pushed you."

"Then where have you been all this time?" Loki asked, "I've been here for weeks."

"Weeks?" he said, "Our sister just tried to kill us both not more than 20 minutes ago!"

Loki explained, "Apparently time works differently here. I will say it is good to see you again. Glad you're still alive," he paused, "and well." He looked him over and realized it appeared he wasn't burned by the rainbow bridge in the slightest. His clothes were barely singed.

Thor said, "Come on now, Loki, you know we need to get back to Asgard as soon as possible to stop Hela from killing everyone! Help me out here!"

"Sure," he replied, "or I could stay here where I belong and you can leave once you defeat the Grandmaster's champion in tomorrow's match. Good luck with that. Great to see you again, brother, as always." He turned away from him.

Thor used all the strength he had to pull away from the restraints to grab at Loki's left side. He pulled at him, and Loki yelped in pain and fell down against his hoverchair.

Thor's strength was suddenly gone and pain coursed through his veins starting from the obediance disk on his neck and down his entire body.

"Okay!" Grandmaster said, holding the button down on his remote, "That's it. Even with your fiesty attitude, I was thinking of letting you join my inner circle instead of using that marvelous muscular structure you posesse for my fights, but you screwed that opportunity away."

"No!" Valkyrie protested, "I gave you a contender so I want my money."

He turned back to Valkyrie. "Name your price."

"10 million units."

"Deal."

Thor said, "Excuse me?" He looked over at Loki struggling back to his feet. What was wrong with him all of a sudden? Loki pulled up his shirt to reveal the bandages wrapped around his torso were now stained with fresh blood, slowly seeping through the white bandages. His stitches had been torn open. Thor looked him over, confused, and said, "Loki, I'm sorry, I didn't know-" His hover chair jerked forward and away form him. "Loki! Hey! Wait!"

Loki watched his brother get taken away and held his side in pain.

After Loki got his stitches resewn, he sent an illusion to the dungeon where the slaves were kept. He saw Thor sitting on the floor, dejected. "Hello again, brother," he said.

Thor chucked a piece of garbage at him and watched it go straight through his illusion. "Oh so now we're brothers," he snarked angrily.

"I can't jepordize my favor with the Grandmaster by being seen down here with this filth," he said, "and in truth, you're lucky I've come down here to see you at all after you ripped my stitches wide open." He hugged his belly.

Thor said sincerely, "I do apologize, Loki. I didn't know you were injured."

Loki scoffed, "You watched Hela gut me like a fish and toss me through the bifrost and didn't think I was hurt?" He help up his bandaged hands. "What about you? If you went through it as I did, why didn't you get burned?" He paused. "Because you're Asgardian, of course! A real one, not like me." He stopped before he called himself a fake, but both knew what he was going to say.

"My clothes were singed," Thor explained gently, "only the metal parts survived wholey intact. If you've been here for weeks, why haven't you healed over yet?"

"Time works different here," he answered, "it's entirely possible these wounds will last me many years."

Thor took a deep breath and asked, "Have you even tried to leave?"

Loki answered, "While I do enjoy living here, the Grandmaster is a bit too eccentric for my taste and loves garbage a little too much. I was thinking of staging a little accident for him, and now that you're here, we could rule this world together, on equal grounds." He gestured to him and himself and made a thumbs up motion.

With his annoyance only growing, Thor asked, "Does it not concern you in the slightest that Hela is on Asgard right now, likely threatening Mother and Father's very lives?"

Loki insisted, "Father will deal with her as he did before."

"Have you made any attempts to contact Mother?"

"I have," he confessed anxiously, "and I haven't managed to get through to her for some reason."

"And that doesn't bother you!?"

"Of course it does!" he said, "But it's most likely nothing. You can't always jump to the worst possible senario, Thor. She's a busy woman."

Thor huffed. "Unbelievable."

Loki explained hastily, "Oh and pray tell, how exactly do you plan on getting back to Asgard? Say somehow you manage to defeat whatever champion awaits you tomorrow, then what? Our sister destroyed your hammer, and you're completely useless without it!"

"I beg your pardon?!" Thor said, taking great offense, "If I'm my weapon, who are you then, 'the God of knives?!'"

Loki gasped, offended. "That was entirely uncalled for."

Regretting it, Thor said, "Alright, wait-"

"No, Thor," Loki said angrily, "I wasn't going to participate in the betting pool tomorrow, but now I am. I'll wager a heavy wager against you. I haven't seen this champion everyone keeps mentioning, but I've heard rumors he's a real brute in the ring. You better not let me down." He slowly made his illusion disappear.

"Loki!" Thor shouted as he threw garbage at him as he vanished, "Damn you, drama prince!" Loki didn't even flinch.

The next day, when Loki woke up, his injuries no longer hurt. He unbandaged his hand to see the burns were gone. He carefully unwrapped himself and saw all his wounds had been healed overnight, just as the Grandmaster claimed could happen. He happily tossed the old bandages away.

Loki didn't see his brother again until the final match of the games. Thor was introduced and came out with a new haircut, red streaks down his face, and different Sakaar style weapons he had never seen before. Only then did the champion get introduced, and Loki couldn't believe his eyes. The Hulk burst through the doors and suddenly everyone and everything was doused in green.

Of course! Green was monopolized for the Hulk! Meanwhile Thor actually tried to have a conversation with the monster.

"What's wrong with your brother?" Grandmaster asked, "Doesn't he realize this is a fight?"

"Hey!" Thor shouted up at them, full of excitement, he bellowed, "We know each other! He's a friend from work!"

Loki couldn't even speak. Nothing snarky came to mind. Only the memory of nearly being smashed to bits by the Hulk several years earlier was inside his head. How had the Hulk ended up on Sakaar? He had no idea, and could barely wrap his head around the thought of it. He couldn't even concentrate on the fight until the Hulk turned around and smashed Thor into the ground.

"Yes!" Loki jumped up and shouted, "That's how it feels!" He turned to see everyone in the VIP lounge staring at him. "I'm just a huge fan of the sport."

Grandmaster turned back to the fight and watched closely as Thor slowly gained the upper hand. Lightning shot out of him so powerfully it shook the entire arena. Since when could Thor do that?

Just when it looked like Thor was about to win, the Grandmaster activated his obediance disk and forced him to convulse into the ground, making him to lose the match.