The one-eyed Midgardian has a hand raised up in surrender when she looks back at him at those words. Loki giggles again, sounding unhinged even to her own ears as she shakes her head.
"An ant has no quarrel with a heel either. And yet…"
The man's one eye narrows and his jaw clenches in anger.
"Are you planning to step on us?"
Oh, she does so love an audience. Running her hand through her hair again, Loki laughs once more. The pain no longer pervades through quite so much of her body. Moving without her muscles screaming at her gets easier by the second. Casually stepping closer to the Midgardian Scholar, Loki keeps her eyes on the one who has the Tesseract.
"My plan is quite simple, actually. I am here to free you. All of you."
As expected, the one-eyed Midgardian takes the bait. She finds herself liking him truth be told. If she gets the chance, she might just take him as well.
"Free from what?"
"Freedom, of course."
His nostrils flare and his jaw sets even harder… but Loki is already moving.
"Freedom is the greatest lie of the universe. Accept that in your heart and you will know peace." She spins as she talks, and the blade of the scepter presses into the scholar's chest. She takes him just as she took the others, smiling wickedly as she sees understanding, faith, and adoration fill his gaze. He smiles with her, filled with purpose now.
"Yeah… you say peace and yet I hear the other thing."
Loki giggles, preparing to continue the inconsequential dialogue with the powerless mortal. Only, before she can the archer suddenly walks up.
"Ma'am, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and when it does, it'll drop a hundred feet of rock on our heads. He means to bury us."
Blinking, Loki looks past the dark-skinned Midgardian's bald head, up to the ceiling above where she first appeared. Her new pet archer is right. The power used to summon her did not properly dissipate. The Midgardians really were utterly incompetent, weren't they?
"Like the Pharaohs of old."
The scholar speaks up from one of his screens, proving his usefulness already.
"He's right, the portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got two minutes at most, Mistress."
"Well then."
BLAM!
Her archer doesn't need anything more than that. Good, loyal killer that he is, he immediately draws his weapon and shoots his former superior in the chest. A shame. Loki would have liked to have taken the one-eyed Midgardian for herself, to help in her plans, but it sounded like they didn't have time. Trust the Midgardians to build their barnyard version of the Bifrost underground. The fools really didn't know what they were doing.
But that was alright, because the Goddess of Mischief was here to show them all how it was done. Scooping up the case carrying the Tesseract, Loki feels a broad smile spread across her face. Already here and she was well on her way to completing her goals. Everything was going according to plan.
Together, her and her people leave the large room, traveling down a corridor of pure stone. Well aware of the time, Loki allows her archer to do the talking to get them into a Midgardian Vehicle that will take them away from the facility before it fully collapses in on itself.
Only, much to her surprise she finds that the one -eyed Midgardian survived being shot in the chest, because she hears his voice coming over the radio of the one that her archer tricks into letting them past. A small firefight ensues between the two former allies, but Loki remains where she is in the back of the truck, unafraid of the bullets whizzing past. She's already confirmed that they cannot injure her either way.
The escape from the facility goes just as planned, with the destruction of the Midgardian Base serving as more than enough of a deterrent towards continued pursuit. Distracted by their casualties and the recovery of their buried people, the Midgardians can't must up much of a proper chase, and what they do muster, Loki is quick to end with a well-placed blast from the Scepter.
Just like that, they're in the wind. Of course, eventually they have to slow down. Apparently, the Midgardian Vehicle cannot run indefinitely.
When they finally stop, Loki goes to her archer, placing a hand on his shoulder as she smiles at him. "We will need more men, my wonderful archer. And supplies. Tell me, can you procure both?"
"Yes ma'am. We'll have a short window to operate in before the Director tells the others that I'm compromised, but I know where we can pick up some additional soldiers, as well as the supplies we'll need for whatever you're planning."
Loki's smile widens.
" So helpful. So … strong and diligent. My brave, brave soldier."
For a moment, she's tempted to take liberties. But she's still so filthy. She needs a fucking bath so bad it hurts. Maybe even several. And besides, he's… Midgardian. It would be like sleeping with a horse. Nose wrinkling at the thought, Loki instead pulls her hand back from her archer and lets out a soft sigh. "Tell me, archer. What will your Director Fury do next? What sort of defense will your world mount against us?"
"The Iron Legion, ma'am. He'll get them whipped up as soon as possible. Unless we have a way to go to ground, they' ll be hunting us shortly."
Loki's eyes narrow at that, but if there's one thing she's good at, it's subterfuge.
"Do not fret. This Iron Legion will not locate us. Now that we've made it away, I can cloak us in my magic. Nobody will be able to track us down."
Her archer takes that into consideration with a tilt of his head for a moment before nodding sharply.
"Then they'll call in Tony Stark, ma'am. If anyone could hunt us even through your magic, it would be him." The name means nothing to Loki for a long second. And then… her eyes widen in memory. A hiss leaves her lips and she surges forward, grabbing her archer by his front and lifting him up into the air.
"Tony Stark. Have you misspoken, archer? Have you told me a lie? You said they will call in… Tony Stark?"
He doesn' t look bothered or worried, but of course he wouldn't. If she decided he was to die, he wouldn't fight her in any way. That is the level of loyalty that the Scepter imparts.
"Yes ma'am. He's the smartest man they have on call. They hid their research into the Cube from him, but now that they' ve lost it, they'll have to call him in."
There's not an ounce of deceit in the Midgardian's voice. He truly believes what he's saying. But then, Loki knew he couldn't lie to her. She knew it with a soul-deep certainty. The power of the Scepter was absolute, after all.
And yet… and yet, it wasn't possible. Letting her archer down, Loki turns away from him as she considers the situation with a growing scowl on her drawn, exhausted features. Tony Stark. The fool who had chosen to support her brother. Obviously she'd been upset when he survived her daggers. Seeing him through the eyes of the Destroyer as she ' d commanded the automaton via Gungnir had been quite the shock.
Even still, she'd made sure to rectify her error by striking the Midgardian with the full force of the Vault Guardian's beam. Or so she'd thought. There was no way that Tony Stark should have been able to survive the blow that the Destroyer had dealt him.
And yet, it seemed he had. It seemed a mere mortal had survived not one, but two of her attempts on his life. That was… more than vexing. That was infuriating.
Loki growls as she promises herself then and there that the death of this Tony Stark would be her first act once she was the undisputed Queen of Midgard. If she didn't get the chance to finally kill him in the coming days as she ensured her rule over this pathetic mudball, that is.
Oh yes … one way or another, Tony Stark ' s days were numbered.
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