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They walked down the street, Darcy battling the cool winds whipping around her. Brooklyn was quiet this time of morning and she was grateful that the streets in this part of town were more barren than in the middle of the city. She gave Loki a passing glance as he continued by her side, wondering if he was ever going to tell her the full scope of what they were doing. She grimaced at his stature. He wasn’t even bothered by the cold.
“Stop.”
“Stop what?”
“Staring.”
“I’m not staring. Loki, what we are doing here? This part of town is mimicking de-militarized.”
“Lewis, I didn’t ask you along so we could play 20 questions. I just need you to act as a lookout, while I fix an issue.”
“Fix an issue? Look, I am not going another step until you tell me what in the hell you are up to.” Darcy stopped and crossed her arms.
Loki kept walking, then finally stopped and turned on his heel, heading back to where she had planted herself on the sidewalk.
“Agent Lewis. I came into knowledge of a breach in the fabric of your reality. I am simply going to seal it up.”
“Seal it up? Isn’t Doctor Strange in charge of sealing all the breaches that have opened?”
“Since he has been *so* busy and overworked, I offered to take care of this one myself.” Darcy looked at him skeptically.
“Uh-huh. Okay, then why did you ask me to come along again?”
“Did you not tell Agent Romanoff that you were wanting more field experience? This is a small excursion and shouldn’t take too long. I just need you to distract whoever is around the portal. That’s all.”
“That’s all?” Loki gave Darcy a slight nod and smile, turned and started walking again. Darcy took a moment and then began to follow him again. When they stopped, it was across the street from a row of stores. One of them Loki was paying attention to.
“Lurconian Pan-Hellenic Cultural Society,” Darcy read aloud. The sign was a garish blue and had been stationed in its place for quite a while, judging by the wear and tear. “What the hell is this?”
“It’s a cultural center, Agent Lewis. For people who worship the dread demon Lurconis.”
“Excuse me? A demon? A dread demon? What the hell is a dread demon and why in the hell would *anyone* worship it?” Darcy was starting to regret agreeing to this outing.
“These people worship it because it is powerful and is able to grant them certain favors as long as they offer sacrifices to it. And we are going in.” Loki started off, making a beeline for the front door of the building.
“Loki, this is a bad idea. We should wait for Stran-“
“No! We don’t need to wait for Strange. You and I can handle this. I have every faith in you. And there doesn’t even seem to be anyone here.” Loki and Darcy looked into the front windows to see what they could. The blinds in the front windows were shut and the center appeared to be closed. “Come on,” he whispered. He easily opened the front door and they entered. Loki strode quickly into the offices on the first floor of the building while Darcy stood to watch.
“There’s no one here. Let’s keep going. There should be a basement entrance here somewhere. Help me find it.” Darcy and Loki searched for a minute before Darcy bumped into a bookcase… that made a whirring sound. She stared at Loki. Loki stared back for a moment, then intoned, “Stand back.” He made a swishing motion to the left with his hands, and the bookcase moved left.
“Well, that’s not ominous or anything,” Darcy said dryly. Loki gave her a smirk and headed down a long winding staircase. Darcy followed closely, not wanting to be left too far behind. As they neared what Darcy could only assume was the bottom of the dark staircase, they could hear voices. Human voices.
Chanting.
“Lurconis adventet.
Lurconis satietur.
Lurconis vetustate miliorum daemonum,
novus alitus carne novorum,
potens alitus precibus potentium.
Lurconis hodie epuletur
et clemens nobis utatur.
Lurconis exsistat
ut dona nostra edat illaque
in carnem suam vertat.
Lurconis adventet.”
Darcy’s eyes widened. She didn’t know what they were saying, but she knew it was Latin. And she knew interrupting demon church was a bad idea. Loki motioned for her to come with him as he continued to head to the bottom of the staircase. She could see a dim light now. When they reached the landing, the scene became much clearer. The chamber looked like a forgotten subway station. There were 16 people, all hooded, kneeling and chanting around a mini-Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Their chanting had become louder and louder as they neared the underground mass.
There was a little girl with a hood over her head, tied up and placed on an altar.
The worshippers were making their sacrifice.
Loki heard Darcy activate her gloves and turned around just in time to see her move swiftly past him and bound down the remaining stairs.
Loki was not quick enough to stop her from making her next mistake.
Darcy placed herself between the altar and the worshippers. “No, stop! I won’t let you hurt her.”
Darcy could hear the little sobs coming from underneath the hood, but didn’t dare move from between the little girl and the crowd. The crowd who had not stopped chanting. She heard a crackling behind her. She realized she was on the wrong side of the altar.
The light surged through the portal as a gigantic snake emerged from it. Lurconis had arrived.
Darcy threw herself around the little girl just as Lurconis came in to collect his offerings. Then… there was nothing. She looked up to see Loki standing between the monster and the altar. The monster stalled for only a second.
“RUN!” Loki yelled.
Darcy grabbed the little girl and hauled her off the altar, just as Lurconis bit down on Loki.
Loki disappeared in a flash as Lurconis’ teeth connected to his hologram. “Over here!” Loki motioned behind a pillar as worshippers started to panic and run. Darcy guided the little girl to the safety of the pillar and took off her hood. She was a tiny girl with big brown eyes and brown hair in pigtails. Loki dashed into the fold, daggers out.
“Hey, you’re okay now, alright? What’s your name?”
“Tandy,” the frightened child squeaked through tears.
“Okay, Tandy, I need you to stay right here, because that guy is going to kill a lot of folks if I don’t get in there, ok? It’ll be alright!” She said yelling as she ran into the cacophony of worshippers that Loki was already sparing with.
“Loki! Don’t kill them!”
“What? Why not?” Their fighting continued as Loki stabbed one worshipper in the thigh. “They were about to kill that child!”
“But these people might be under some mind control or something. You can’t just kill people!”
“Oh, fine,” Loki mumbled as he followed Darcy’s lead and began neutralizing the threats of the oncoming worshippers. A few of them had stumbled too close to the demon and Lurconis took full advantage of the “offerings.”
“Lewis! I need a distraction!”
“How exactly do you want me to distract a giant snake, Loki?!” She screamed.
“Just do anything! I need to close that portal!”
“Oh, fine…” Darcy began fighting her way back over to the portal. Lurconis was only halfway out, while the remainder of him was still on the other side.
Darcy activated her gloves. The hum of electricity surged through the air. She walked up to Lurconis and punched the huge snake demon right in the middle of its nose. The glove on her right hand tased the monster, sending a shock through its head. It jostled away from her, shaking, but only for a moment.
Lurconis gained his composure rather quickly and lunged forward to devour Darcy.
She sidestepped at the last moment, whirling around to the demon’s left, activating the taser prongs in her gloves and shooting them into the side of Lurconis’ jaw.
Lurconis writhed as the amperage went through him.
Then, he exploded.
**************************************************
Natasha, Coulson, Tony Stark, Sam and Rhodey were all in the glass-walled conference room as Loki and Darcy arrived back at the New York headquarters.
“Tony, I’d like to send Agent Romanoff to Wakanda with General Rhodes. It makes more sense, especially since she has a much better diplomatic record than you do. No offense,” Coulson said.
Tony quickly retorted, “None taken. Hey, Nat remember when you tased King T’Challa repeatedly that one time?” Nat crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at the comment. Just then, the yelling outside the room was upon them.
Loki and Darcy, covered in yellowish-green slime, and *was that guts*, were yelling at each other over… whatever they did to get themselves covered in viscera.
“I am never going to help you again!” Darcy yelled.
“Well, I am never going to ask you again, so that works out just fine for me!” Loki stopped his stomping in the hallway. “Also, you made some very naïve mistakes in there! You bounded in without knowing the full scope of the situation.”
“You didn’t tell me the full scope of the situation! You said there was no one there! And if you think for one second I am going to let a little girl get eaten by a giant snake just so some wacko in Brooklyn can have a new car or something, you have another think coming, you selfish, ego-driven jerk face!” Darcy began to walk away, and Loki came up beside her, matching her speed.
“You are a harpy!”
“A harpy?!”
“Yes, you are the harpiest harp whoever harped! I’m surprised everyone in the Nine Realms can’t hear you when you start in! Isn’t it you who is always saying you want to go into the field? Here, I have given you a chance and you behave as a child! Perhaps you shouldn’t have turned your “tasers” up to 11!”
“IT WAS A GIANT SNAKE DEMON!” Darcy screamed. Then she felt all the eyes on them.
Darcy turned to see everyone in the conference room staring at them. Darcy grimaced realizing the state they were both in.
Sam smiled and waved a little wave at her.
Loki straightened himself. “We can finish this later.”
“No. We are done,” Darcy said sternly, looking him in the eye. She left the hallway briskly. Loki looked at everyone in the conference room, flashed a wide, leering grin and headed back to his rooms.
Everyone was silent for a moment in the room.
“Yeah, okay, Natasha can go to Wakanda,” Tony absently said as he moved to look out the glass walls and watch Darcy and Loki walk away.
“What was that about?” asked Rhodey.
“A better question is what was he up to? Forgive me, I know he’s supposed to be on our side now, but… I still don’t trust him,” said Sam.
“Tell me about it. He literally killed me one time,” Coulson interjected. “However, I do trust Thor. And if Thor says he is on the level, we play on the level. We owe him that. No one is saying we have to pal around with Loki. We just have to give him a chance to right his numerous wrongs.”
“Like killing you,” said Sam.
“Right.” Coulson threw his pen on the table.
Tony continued to watch the hallway.
Natasha continued to watch Tony.
*********************************************************************
“That’s right, we are live in Brooklyn on the scene of what appears to be an explosion in what authorities are now calling a cult. 13 members of the cult were arrested and charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, and arson in this morning’s events. And in the center of it all, we are told that either members of S.H.I.E.L.D. or The Avengers were involved and managed to save a little girl who had been kidnapped by the cult. Authorities say 7-year-old Tandy Jessup was reunited with her family earlier today after they arrived at the scene. Tandy had been missing since late last night.”
“That is amazing to hear, and we are all glad she is safe. Do we know exactly why S.H.I.E.L.D. or The Avengers were there?”
“No, we really don’t. We did manage to get some footage of the people in question, however. As you can see, they are both covered in what can only be called slime and were not eager to be questioned about the blast. And, we are now being told that one of them has been identified as… Loki. Yes, that is the same Loki who tried to destroy New York City 10 years ago. We have positive identification. Wow, well, Bill, I don’t know about you, but if this is the kind of world we live in where evil Norse Gods can turn their lives around and save little children from cults, I’m glad to be a part of it.”
“That’s amazing, Cindy, really well said. Do we have any idea who the woman in the footage is?”
“No, not at this time, but we have reached out to S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers to get clarification on that and if the villain, Loki, is now working with either organization, as is being suggested.”
“Thank you, Cindy. We go now to Edson Whipple at the Weather Center. Edson, what kind of weather are we looking at?”