It was the next day and the Grandmaster had demanded Loki bring his mysterious companion, aka Spencer, to the fight. Loki would never admit it, but he had concerns about Spencer and the Grandmaster meeting face-to-face for the first time. The God of Mischief had done his best to keep the Grandmaster's curiosity for Spencer sated for as long as possible, but the Grandmaster was done with Loki's vague dodging and wanted to meet the special human.
Spencer didn't concern herself with the modern fashion of Sakaar, it was ghastly to even look at. The young woman opted to wear her usual Sakaar outfit that she wore when going to explore the city; similar to Loki's green leather Sakaar outfit, and hers didn't have a cape either.
The leather was skin-tight but soft and breathable against her skin, better than the leather back home. Since her time away from home, her hair had grown considerably long. It had been short before she came to Asgard, but time on Asgard accelerated her hair growth for some reason. So, before her hair had come above her shoulders and almost a year later, her hair now went back mid-back in gentle waves.
Considering it would be humorous in some way to her, Spencer opted to do space buns on the top of her head, with intricate braid leading up to the bun. The event had already started, but Loki was only interested in arriving before Thor's fight. Cayden was lounging in the living room and Loki had yet to come to retrieve them.
"I like what you did with your hair," Cayden appraised, his eyes giving her outfit an appreciative look-over, "Loki is on his way."
Spencer huffed and plopped down beside Cayden, "I'm afraid I might end up getting us in trouble," She admitted in a mutter, "Last thing I want to do is jeopardize all the hard work Loki's done to try to get us off of this planet."
Cayden didn't response and just gave a light shrug, "I think you'll be fine."
Spencer found his lack of response weird, but shrugged it off. A few minutes later, Loki walked into the apartment looking excited, "Are we ready? Thor's fight starts in thirty minutes."
Spencer felt her left eye twitch, "You want him to lose, huh?" Spencer demanded, getting up and placing her hands on her hips.
Loki's excited expression melted right off at the icy glare Spencer was hitting him with, "Of course not," Loki scoffed with an eye-roll, "If Thor dies, I get stuck with you permanently, and I certainly don't want that." He gives a disgusted look on his face, as if those last words were sour and gross.
Spencer pins Loki with a long, deadly stare just to install some fear into him before turning to Cayden, "Let's go, big guy, try not to get distracted," Cayden stood up and towered over her, "You're on the clock, ya know." Cayden gestured for her to walk ahead, and Spencer did.
Cayden grumbled like a sullen child, "The first fight in months, and I have to spend it babysitting a woman who could destroy the planet on her own whim."
Spencer cooed at her companion, "Poor thing, how will you ever live through tonight?"
Cayden threw her a dirty look, "I hope Thor wins, at least that way I don't have to babysit you any longer."
"Ouch," Spencer feigned hurt, "And here I thought you enjoyed my company!"
Cayden smirked down at her, "I certainly enjoy looking at you-"
"Finish that sentence and I will cut your throat," Loki suddenly rumbled as the duo reached the God of Mischief; Spencer saw that dangerous look on Loki's face and was surprised. It wasn't unusual for Cayden to make those remarks, typically Spencer was quick to pinch Cayden with some electricity as punishment.
Cayden threw his hands up, "Okay, okay, no need to get violent."
Loki glared at the other man, "I warn you now, if Thor wins and hears you making those sorts of unsavory comments towards Spencer, he will most likely kill you with his bare hands." Loki warned before turning to Spencer and offering his arm to her.
Spencer nodded thoughtfully and took his arm, "You are most right, Thor is very protective of me." She murmurs.
Cayden cringes, "I feel sorry for your mate, Spencer."
Spencer threw her hand back and laughed, "Pietro was ganged up by all the important men in my life in my living room before we started our relationship; all six men ganged up on my poor Pietro," Spencer giggled remembering seeing the terror on Pietro's handsome face.
Cayden's eyes widened, "Six men ganged up on your mate? To threaten him? And Thor and Loki were there?"
Spencer chuckled and shook her head, "No, those two were absent. At that time, Loki and I weren't on the best terms, he did kill my father years ago." Spencer mused; Loki locked the apartment, and they were making way to their transport downstairs.
"You killed her Sire!?" Cayden was gobsmacked.
Loki, at least he had the nerve to look sheepish, nodded, "Yes, I killed her father, but somehow he was brought to life." Loki said, looking thoughtful.
"How could you ever forgive the man who killed your Sire?" Cayden demanded of Spencer in complete shock.
"Hating someone is a heavy burden on one's soul," Spencer explained pleasantly, "I was already grieving my father, I didn't need the negative emotion of hatred weighing down on me, so before Loki was taken back to Asgard by Thor, I forgave Loki." Spencer shot Loki a grin.
Loki just rolled his eyes and his expression took one of boredom.
Cayden glanced between Loki and Spencer, "What a strange relationship," He comments, looking the tiniest bit of disturbed, "I also feel like there is more to this story." He adds.
Spencer nodded with a goofy grin, "He saved me from dying," Spencer whispered to Cayden; the blue man raised his eyebrows up in disbelief.
"He saved you from death?" Cayden doubted.
"Spencer," Loki growled, tugging at her arm with his, "You do not need to tell him any of that."
Spencer and Loki locked eyes; Loki looked annoyed and Spencer looked amused, "Why because it shows you might have a heart?" Spencer teased with a cheeky grin.
Loki gave her a final glare before looking away, "I must ask your partner how he puts up with you." Loki says dryly.
Spencer rolled her eyes and turned back to Cayden, "Loki didn't have to save me, but he did. Despite how he did kill my father right in front of me many years ago, I cannot ignore the fact that he chose to save me years after. I am grateful for him and his friendship, though he likes to pretend that we don't have a cute friendship together." Spencer says with a giggle.
"I am Loki," Loki says icily, "I do not have friends."
Cayden smartly kept his mouth shut; those two had a strange friendship, but it was easy to see that the both of them cared for the other in their own ways. It doesn't take long to arrive at the massive arena; it is packed and loud! Even from outside the arena, Spencer could hear the roar of the masses shake the ground. Her eyes are wide, and she's rushing to look at everything as Loki guides them into the arena.
"We are honored tonight to see the battle from the Grandmaster's own podium," Loki yells over the roar of the crowd, "Try to behave," Loki looks between Cayden and Spencer.
The blue Sakaar native and the Earthling exchange funny looks before nodding to Loki to be on their best behavior. Halfway towards the Grandmaster's private room, the roaring crowd somehow grew louder and a man's funny voice echoed through the arena, "Wow! Look at all of you. What a show, What-a-night! Who's having fun?" Another roar shook the arena, "Please, I'm your host. Big round of applause for all of our under card competitors who died so gruesomely. Good sports. What a show! What a night! This is what you've come for, and so have I!"
"Died gruesomely?" Spencer paled a bit. She certainly didn't want to watch people dying gruesomely today. She just ate! There was a round of applause from the masses as Loki pulled them into the Grandmaster's room. It was well-lit, guarded heavily, and had hordes of scantily dressed women everywhere.
"And now, without further ado! It's main event time!"
Another roar from the crowds. Spencer gaped at how massive the arena was; thousands upon thousands of people gathered tonight. No wonder why the earth shook with their cries! Loki hurriedly grabbed a drink from one of the servers and pulled Spencer with him to the front of the room that overlooked the arena.
In the center was a holographic image of the Grandmaster; the holographic image was over sixty feet tall! "Making his first appearance, though he looks quite promising, got a couple of tricks up his sleeve. I'll say no more, see what you think. Ladies and gentlemen," Spencer walked up to the glass and watched as the door on one side of the arena open.
"I give to you," Spencer stopped breathing for a few seconds watching Thor walk out into the arena, "Lord of Thunder!"
His glorious hair was gone! He sported a shaved head, trimmed beard, minimalist armor, covered in weapons. Two swords on his back, giant mace in one hand, spiked shield in the other. Spencer felt so relieved to see her friend, so much that she wanted to scream out his name!
Outside, around her, the crowd jeered and booed at Thor!
Spencer frowned at the crowds as the Grandmaster continued in a giggly voice, "Watch out for his fingers, they spark."
Spencer heard Loki snicker behind her, and Spencer couldn't help but roll her eyes at Loki's behavior. "Okay, this is it. Let's get ready to welcome this guy. Here he comes," The Grandmaster looks excited now, and the crowd begins popping green fireworks and smoke into the air in excitement, "He is a creature. What can we say about him? Well, he's unique. There's none like him. I feel a special connection with him,"
Thor begins to put on his helmet and prepare for his opponent, Spencer watches with worry, Loki watches with giddiness, and Cayden looks on with wide-eyes. The Earth shakes as a door across form Thor begins to open, "He's undefeated. He's the reigning, he's the defending! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you!"
The door doesn't get a chance to fully open when the champion slams through it with an incredible roar! Spencer's jaw hits the ground in complete shock; It was Hulk! He wears an armored shoulder guard and a Spartan helmet. He carries a war hammer in one hand and a battleaxe in the other. Hulk pounds his chest and roars, further energizing an already frenzied crowd.
"Holy shit!" Spencer cursed with her mouth hanging open.
"Yes!" Thor yells in absolute joy.
The crowd immediately stops cheering at Thor's elated joy. Spencer feels Loki shift from beside her and when she looks over at him, Loki is white as a ghost with traumatized eyes, "I have to get off this planet." Loki says, backing away in horror.
Spencer felt a smirk stretch over her lips at his reaction, "Well, well, how the turntables," Spencer recited the line spoken by Michael Scott in The Office.
Loki doesn't get a few steps before the Grandmaster returns and turns Loki right around. "Well, hello there, Earthling!" The Grandmaster greets Spencer with a wide grin, "It's finally nice to meet you, but let's watch the fight, and we can get further acquainted afterwards," He says, seemingly more interested in watching the fight, which was fine with her. The Grandmaster seems on the older side, with tanned skin, and dark brown eyes, his hair is already graying. Spencer can hear the Hulk roaring from outside, so, she sits down on the large leather couch beside Loki while the Grandmaster settles on the other side.
"Hey!" Thor waves one of his arms in the air, "We know each other. He's a friend from work!" Thor yells up at them, though mostly at the Grandmaster. Unamused, the Grandmaster turns to look at Loki, and the God of Mischief clears his throat awkwardly and doesn't look at the Grandmaster.
Spencer smirks at Loki's obvious awkward discomfort.
Spencer watches and tries to listen to Thor ramble off to the Hulk before pointing towards them, "Loki's alive, can you believe that?!" Thor tells the Hulk happily; the giant green monster merely glances over Loki.
Loki sits there, petrified.
Spencer is laughing beside him; this was so awesome, she was never going to let Loki live this down! Thor continues to try to talk to the Hulk, but the big, green guy looks around at the crowd that is cheering his name, and Spencer furrows her eyebrows in confusion. Something wasn't right.
Finally, Hulk says something.
"No Banner, only Hulk!" He growls in a distorted voice.
Spencer's eyes widened at Hulk's words, "What the hell does that mean?" Spencer muttered to herself, throwing a look at Loki. The Asgardian Prince is focused on Thor and Hulk. When Spencer turns back to the Arena, the Hulk is moving insanely fast and towards Thor with intent.
Spencer's mouth drops as Thor dodges the first few attacks, but then Hulk shatters his shield and sends Thor flying. Thor draws a sword and stabs it into the ground to slow his momentum. Draws the other sword and faces off against Hulk, and words are said by Thor to Hulk, but the green guy isn't hearing any of it.
Hulk kicks Thor, sending him slamming into the wall so violently, it makes Spencer gasp in horror. From her other side, the Grandmaster shifts more comfortably on the couch, "Here we go!" He sounds happy now.
Spencer resists the urge to glare his way.
Thor jumps down just in time to avoid Hulk's Warhammer, which hits so hard that it remains lodged in the wall. With Hulk charging again, Thor rips the war hammer out of the wall and wallops Hulk with it. Hulk goes crashing alongside the arena. He ends up sprawled out in a pile of rubble, slightly dazed. Thor approaches Hulk and calls out to the dazed big guy. Spencer could very faintly hear Thor singing?
"Is he fucking singing?" Spencer deadpanned.
Hulk shakes his head as if trying to get his wits about him, before looking at Thor, who has his hand out towards him. Hulk watches for a moment before reaching out his own hand and for a moment, Thor and Hulk are touching hands.
Thor has a smile on his face; an almost dreamy smile.
Before Hulk has Thor by the leg and whipping him against the floor of the arena like a rag-doll; Spencer gasps out in utter horror as the Hulk did to Thor what Hulk did to Loki all those years ago in New York. The crowd roars in cheers for Hulk as Loki jumps up and shouts, "Yes! That's how it feels!"
Spencer and Grandmaster both look at Loki; Spencer with hell brewing in her ocean eyes and the Grandmaster looking momentarily taken back before laughing, "I'm just a huge fan of the sport!" Loki explains to the Grandmaster and, ignoring Spencer's scary glare.
Hulk is roaring back at the adoring crowd as Thor gets back onto his feet, looking annoyed now; Spencer sees Thor's lips move, but the roar of the crowd blocks out whatever Thor was saying. Hulk charges at Thor, and their weapons make a loud clang! Now Thor and Hulk are fighting war hammer versus battleaxe, and Thor is winning! He's getting the better of these exchanges, using Hulk's aggression against him. Thor continually knocks and or trips Hulk off his feet while evading all of Hulk's best attacks.
Spencer is inwardly cheering for Thor because the Hulk looks ready to kill! Hopefully, it didn't come to that or Spencer would have to intervene, and Spencer definitely didn't feel like fighting the hulk!
One particular vicious blow disarms Hulk, and Thor breaks Hulk's axe with the war hammer. There's a scuffle between the fighters' as Thor drops his war hammer and Hulk tries to take advantage of that, but Thor is quick and agile enough to dodge Hulk's incoming attacks.
Finally, there's a moment that they two separate. Hulk charges at Thor and Thor picks up his war hammer ready to smack the crap out of Hulk, but the big green guy catches the war-hammer in one of his huge, meaty hands. There is silence now as Spencer leans in towards the window, completely transfixed on the fight. Unknown to her, Loki and the Grandmaster mimicked her movement.
Growling, Hulk hits Thor with a straight jab that sends Thor tumbling across the arena. Hulk immediately leaps after him and lands on Thor! Hulk is now on top of Thor as they slide across the arena, just pummeling him with punches. Left-right-left-right. Thor's head snaps back and forth. Spencer's hand is covering her mouth as she watches in horror at what's happening.
Loki glances at her with concern; Hulk wouldn't kill Thor, right? The last thing Loki wanted was Spencer feeling that Thor was about to die and throw herself in front of that beastly Hulk!
Get up, Thor! Get up! Spencer screams in her head.
Suddenly, there's a tug at Spencer's fingertips. She furrowed her eyebrows, glancing down at her fingers, noticing the electricity sparking off of them; she looks back at Thor and finds his body thrumming with visible electricity. Thor suddenly knocks Hulk back with a burst of lightning.
Hulk is thrown back violently and lands onto the ground with a rumbling thud! The crowd gasps in shock; the Grandmaster is on his feet and not looking too happy. Loki and Spencer exchange wide-eyed stares before focusing back onto Thor. Thor's body is sizzling with electricity that is white; his eyes are glowing a similar color. Spencer can only watch with amazement; she's never seen him do this before!
The Hulk scrambles back onto his feet, looking pissed as hell! There's a stare-off between Thor and Hulk before they both charge at each other with incredible speed. Seething with electricity, Thor springs to his feet and then blasts Hulk with a massive lightning punch; it causes a ripple effect of power, sending both fighters' flying in opposite directions.
The crowd is now chanting, "Thunder, Thunder, Thunder!"
Thor and Hulk get back up on their feet; shaking off the after effects of that powerful hit before turning towards each other and as Thor reaches Hulk; the Grandmaster moves out of his seat and points something towards Thor. The Grandmaster zaps him with the Obedience Disk fob! Thor drops, totally caught off guard!
Spencer gasps in anger, but before she could turn her fury onto the Grandmaster, Loki grabs her and gives her a glare to not start anything. Spencer glares furiously as Hulk launches himself into the air, almost high enough to reach the many aircraft watching the fight from the sky. The young woman shakes off Loki and glares at the Grandmaster, "That's cheating, you know," She deadpans angrily.
The Grandmaster smirks at her, "If he's strong enough to defeat my beloved champion, then he's strong enough to become another one of my champions," He tells her in a smart, know-it-all voice that makes Spencer's blood hum with agitation, "Did you have money on Thunder? Sorry, love, I can compensate you just this one time though," He continues on with a grin as if not at all bothered that he cheated the fight.
Spencer felt as if she were speaking to some man-child; her anger not even registering completely for this fool. It would be pointless to unleash her rage on this moron, so, she huffed, "I'm a huge fan of Thunder, okay? Instead of paying the money I lost, can I see him in person tomorrow?" Spencer asked in a sweet voice.
"Oh, of course!" The Grandmaster bobs his head excitedly, "Come by tomorrow and Thunder will be rooming with my beloved champion! It's the massive tower in the middle of the city, you can't miss it!"
Spencer sighed inwardly, she just wanted to go home and curl up next to Pietro; her body missed his warmth, but besides getting to speak with Thor tomorrow, there was figuring out what the hell Hulk was doing here and how he got here. Nat had been hurt by the Big Guy's disappearance after Ultron, and he seemingly vanished. Spencer wondered if it was all the Big Guy and not Banner in control at the time.
Hopefully, the answers would come tomorrow.
But what exactly will happen after that? Spencer wasn't sure what was going on in Asgard at the moment, or how Thor even got here to Sakaar. As always, Spencer would put her own desires on hold to help her friends.
When Spencer got back to her shared apartment, she made a beeline for her door and slammed the door shut. Loki and Cayden exchanged wary looks, and it was Loki who sighed, "I think I prefer her spitting mad," Spencer had been quiet the whole ride back from the Arena and that left a strange feeling in Loki's stomach.
Cayden kept his eyes glued on Spencer's door; hearing her shuffle around in there, "When are you going to tell her?" Cayden pressed sourly.
Loki shot a glare at Cayden, "Never, with Thor here, it'll be easier for her to leave with him and I can stay here."
Cayden felt irritation prickle his skin, but let it go, "I'm going home," Cayden turns towards the door and leaves the apartment, leaving Loki to simmer in his thoughts. It isn't a surprise to Loki that he feels the tiniest bit of sad, dragging Spencer along this long, it was obvious that the young woman missed her home desperately, but would do everything to make sure Thor was alright. It was why Loki was taking advantage of Spencer's selflessness to push his own agenda here in Sakaar, he didn't even want to think of how angry Spencer would be if she found out what he was really trying to do.
But with Thor here, maybe it would never come to that.
At least, Loki hoped.