Hey, sorry for the long delay. Was busy catching up on my Hogwarts Mystery fan-fiction, and now I'm ready to continue with this one. Hope you enjoy!
Episode 31: Lack of Obedience!
Waking up in their living quarters below the Sakaar stadium, Peter and MJ groaned from the aftermath of the shocks they got from when the Grandmaster activated their Obedience Disks. Even Thor was constantly rubbing his neck, while the brunette-haired Valrie occasionally floated by outside the doorway.
"It's no use," Peter muttered. "We're never going to get out of here…."
"Don't talk like that," MJ insisted. "That's what the Grandmaster wants us to think. It's how he got to Brunnhilde."
"But how are we supposed to escape if we don't have our Marémon and can't take off these stupid Obedience Disks?" Peter snapped.
"Maybe I can help with that," Thor muttered, removing his hand from his neck.
To Peter and MJ's surprise, there was no longer an Obedience Disk on Thor's neck. Grinning, Thor held up his hand where the Obedience Disk now lay harmlessly in his palm.
"During that last controlled shock the Grandmaster gave us, I noticed the electricity didn't affect me as strongly as it used to," Thor explained. "So I figured this was probably an after-effect of my new 'gift,' and put that to the test by administering a small electric pulse into the Obedience Disk when I woke up. Apparently, it was enough to overload the Obedience Disk's circuits and make it come off on its own."
Immediately, the other enslaved Marémon Wielders who shared the same living quarters as Thor, Peter, and MJ rushed over begging to have their Obedience Disks removed.
"Guys, don't make a scene!" MJ insisted. "If we make too much noise, we'll get caught right away. So let's wait to remove our Obedience Disks and try to escape till later."
As MJ spoke, the brunette-haired Valrie floated by. Upon seeing the crowd of Marémon Wielders gathered together, she frowned and held up the remote. This caused the Marémon Wielders to back away just as Brunnhilde showed up.
"What's going on here?" Brunnhilde demanded. "Are you bothering the new arrivals?"
"No, ma'am," said one of the male Marémon Wielders.
"Good, now back to work or my Valrie will shock all of you!" Brunnhilde ordered.
So Thor, MJ, and Peter left the living quarters along with the other Marémon Wielders. As they were cleaning up the stadium, they overheard from the exiting spectators about their Marémon losing to the ones that challenged them earlier. Thus, the HYDRA representatives Ar-I and White Wolf decided to not buy them. Instead, the two decided to leave Sakaar while Loki was forced back into slavery by the Grandmaster. Thor and Peter confirmed this rumor when they encountered Loki in an outside part of the stadium where garbage was taken out, wearing an Obedience Disk and looking very irritated.
"Looks like your HYDRA buddies didn't care much for you after all," Thor said mockingly.
"Only because the Grandmaster cheated," Loki grumbled. "Now I may be a cheater myself, but his is low even for my standards."
"Then why not consider working with us to get out of here?" Thor offered. "Don't you want to find Hela and figure out where she's gone to?"
"I know she's somewhere in these mountains looking for the Crown of Surtur," Loki replied. "Combined with the Sacred Flame she stole from our father, I think she intends to create the Eternal Flame Crown in order to summon Surtur. When that happens, I don't want to be anywhere near here. So I will help you for now, brother. But as soon as we're out of Sakaar, I won't hesitate to destroy you."
Thor paused and said, "Fair enough. So first, Pete is going to try to link the Obedience Disks to SHIELD's network using my Obedience Disk. But for that, we're going to need some tools."
"And you want me to get those?" Loki guessed.
"Right. Then once SHIELD finds us, the Grandmaster will most likely panic. While he's occupied, MJ and I will sneak over to the building where our PDBs are kept to grab those. But to make sure we're not caught, you're going to hide our absence by creating illusions of ourselves in the stadium."
"I assume you somehow managed to remove your Obedience Disk, and that's why your hand has been on your neck this whole time."
"Yes, and I'm only telling you this because if you try to rat us out to the Grandmaster I'll give you the same jolt of electricity I used to remove the Obedience Disk — only it'll be much stronger."
As a demonstration of his point, Thor clenched his hand and electric sparks erupted from his hands. Loki's eyes briefly widened and then he chuckled.
"So my older brother finally got himself a magical gift, just like me and our sister," Loki remarked in a sarcastic manner. "Father would be so proud if he were here, though he might be incarcerated for his part in my actions depending on how things go between him and SHIELD."
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While the next round of the Contest of Champions Tournament was happening, Peter followed Loki to the stadium's control room where the security cameras and electronic equipment were.
"Do you still have the Mind Stone Badge?" Loki asked.
"Yeah," Peter said, holding up the yellow gemstone-shaped pin that he got from Odin. "It was one of the few things I got to keep, apart from my backpack."
"Those fools," Loki smirked. "If they knew anything about Infinity Stone Badges, they would know the badges contain a fraction of the original stone's power. So in the Mind Stone's case, it has the power to cast minor illusions. But while this power is typically imbued upon a Marémon of your choice, it can work on humans too."
Next, Loki touched Peter's Mind Stone Badge and waved his hand over their heads. Then Loki knocked on the door to the control room, causing someone to answer it. On the other side stood a tall muscular woman with a thick face, white markings on her forehead, black hair tied into a tight bun, and wearing a yellow armored suit.
"Oh, Grandmaster," the woman said to Loki, her eyes widening. "What brings you here?"
To be continued…
