Asgardian Earth, The White House.
Loki sat in the Oval Office, legs resting on the desk as he drew slowly on a mellow cigar, its smoke curling through the room with notes of cedar and a faint, citric brightness. Beside him stood a blushing woman wearing clothes one size too small for her that revealed far more skin than any respectable professional outfit should. She held an empty clipboard in her hand, held close to her chest to hide the glaring cleavage of her outfit while glancing at the man in the seat.
"Did the Under Secretary agree, hon? I would hate for a third capable person to succumb to a dangerous ailment, don't you think?"
"H-he agreed, sir," she said. "He will help initiate the launches and guide you through the process of activating the nuclear football."
"What a nice man…" Loki mumbled, glancing at the mortified woman beside him. "You can leave now."
"O-oh… Sure." The woman, looking as if she'd received a lifeline, immediately smiled and bolted toward the exit despite wobbling on the unbearable heels she'd been forced to wear. Just as she clasped the handle and opened the door halfway, a beam of green light struck her back. Her hopeful expression froze into one of despair as she looked at the horrified faces of her two colleagues. With that, she turned to dust.
"She was fun for a few minutes," Loki said, a cruel and amused smile on his face. "Clean it up. I abhor such filth near me."
The woman's two colleagues, horrified a few moments before, immediately burst into action, bowing their heads and starting to clean the ash-like dust on the rug. Without any capacity to call janitors, they were forced to use folders and the very clipboard the woman was holding to scoop up her ashes.
As Loki amused himself with the misery of nameless mortals, a spatial fluctuation in the office caught his attention, and he raised a brow.
"A guest from afar?" He asked, his eyes fixed on the source of the fluctuation, as sparks appeared in the center of the room. Just as the portal expanded and started stabilizing, he chuckled and waved his hand, releasing a green rune into the air. The space seemed to completely solidify as the forming portal faltered and snuffed out in moments. "Try better, sorcerer."
Just as the golden sparks vanished, Loki felt another force intruding upon the space that he'd just solidified. Sensing an unfamiliar yet overbearing energy, he raised a brow, allowing it to tear into the stable space. This time, a mist-like red emerged from the spatial distortion, slowly widening to form a portal.
"The Aether?" Loki felt a moment of curiosity. "No, this is different from the Reality Stone… weaker."
Moments later, however, his curiosity died as he waved his hand and shot a beam of green light at the expanding crimson energy, instantly snuffing it out.
"A meeting with God requires one to humble themselves, stranger," Loki said with a mock polite tone. "Try again."
"All right, you puny fuck," Alex said, his voice echoing through the center of the room as a black mass expanded into a large sphere that retracted to reveal him and Susan. "Since you've had your fun, let's get to business."
Loki's expression momentarily faltered at the perfectly stable transportation. He sensed no fluctuation of any kind from the emergence, as if the two strangers had appeared out of thin air.
"A symbiote?" Loki said with disdain. "An incomplete life such as yourself dares to say that to me?"
Within a moment, the surroundings began to melt away, revealing the literal purgatory beyond the walls. Scorching lava flowed all around, with the floor being the last to start melting as Loki took flight, floating effortlessly in the air as the lava rose higher, consuming everything.
Alex made no move and continued looking at Loki expressionlessly. Not the one floating above the lava, looking down on him, but the one that stood in front of him, barely a few feet away.
Susan nervously grasped Alex's sleeve, itching to activate her powers. The only reason she wasn't acting was that Alex actively held her back through their mental connection. Just the waves of heat all around them were intense enough to start melting their skin, but that still didn't get a response out of Alex. Only when the lava had practically consumed the entire floor and was about to reach him and Susan did he respond.
He sighed.
"Trickster god," Alex said. "I must say, this is quite realistic. If not for the fact that I'm immune to almost all elemental means, I would have likely suffered mental collapse here. And the heat, it certainly feels real."
Loki frowned, a hint of caution flashing in his eyes at Alex's casual demeanor.
"Don't worry, if I really wanted to kill you, you wouldn't even know how it happened. I'm here for some things. I suppose I don't need to tell you what they are, do I?" Alex asked.
"Don't underestimate me, half-life," Loki snapped as the lava burst out from the ground, enveloping Alex and Susan completely. In the next instant, however, the surrounding environment was directly shattered by a crimson glow that erupted from Alex at the center.
"Took me a moment to find the core of that spell," Alex said to Loki, who was now standing right in front of him. They were back in the Oval Office as if nothing had happened; the only sign of the illusion's existence was Susan's disgruntled state that she was barely able to suppress. After all, despite Alex's protections, she had been feeling the lava's heat quite intensely.
"Answer me, Loki, or do I have to extract that information from your head?" Alex asked.
"I have no information about the Infinity Stones," he said, choosing not to antagonize this unknown entity further. "They were securely hidden away the day this planet was transported away from its original universe. Only the one who hid them knows where they are. And she's… not here at the moment."
"That so?" Alex asked with a raised brow. "It seems Jane is still drifting around in space. Pity, though. It would have saved quite a bit of effort on my end. Gaia, initiate satellite deployment for this planet and calculate how long before the cluster is close enough to pull this planet in."
"What are you doing?"
"Taking over, Loki," Alex said flatly. "You and Hela have turned this entire planet into your personal playground in the weeks since Jane's been gone. Since that's the case, I might as well take over."
"Do not test me, creature." Loki's voice took on a threatening depth. "I am a—"
A smacking sound echoed through the room. "You are nothing," Alex said after backhanding Loki before the Asgardian could even react. "Not convinced? Try to use your best magic. I'll even give you an ample amount of prep time. Once you are done with your tantrums, summon Steve Rogers. I have something to talk to the supposed head of the Illuminati."
Not even waiting for Loki's response, Alex directly grabbed the man's collar and raised him.
"And before you decide to do something dumb, know this. I have a piece of my body on you, itching to devour you into nothingness. Keep that in mind." With that, Alex tossed Loki through the window, effortlessly breaking through the heavily reinforced bulletproof glass.
"Wasn't that a bit too heavy-handed?" Susan was still recovering from the effects of that heat when she saw Alex utterly humiliate Loki.
"It's fine. He's not worth much anyway. While there are a few redeemable versions of Loki out there, he's not one of them," Alex said.
"Do you have someone in mind to manage this planet?"
"The people here decided to consolidate their resources and form a faction known as the Illuminati. Essentially, a collective of the most influential superheroes to govern the world in these trying times. If I remember correctly, their goal was to create a means to escape the planet. Sort of a Noah's Ark, I guess."
"That's not a bad move," Susan said. "If you hadn't come into the picture, and we faced an unbeatable enemy, we would also probably try to formulate an escape plan."
"Yeah, but with Loki and Hela going ham on the planet, the population has directly gone down to half of what it was before—barely four billion people are left alive here."
"W-what?" Susan gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "What could possibly kill so many people in a few months?"
"Two weeks, to be exact," Alex said. "Before that, they had Jane to keep them in check. Since she disappeared, they have been completely unrestrained. As for the reason, war. Hela and Loki love playing proxy wars and have pretty much initiated World War Three."
"My god…"
"Still think I was heavy-handed with him?"
"God no," Susan said. "Wait… Are these Loki and Hela the same as Thor? Gods from humanity's mythology?"
"The very same ones," Alex nodded. "Though they aren't actual gods and are more like really strong aliens. The only real Gods—with a capital G—are the Celestials… Save for a few exceptions."
"Like the one that's now the center of Gaia…"
"Precisely."
***
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