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Loki leaned back on the chair, placing his feet on the table in front of him. He crossed his left leg over his right, frowned, then uncrossed them. He tried crossing his right leg over his left, but the table was shuddering under him, moving because of the commotion Thor was causing no doubt.
Sighing, he placed both his feet on the floor. That wasn’t much better, considering the floor was also shaking. Why couldn’t Thor control his temper yet? He wasn’t even the god of tempers, and yet, his brother never seemed to learn.
Loki sighed again, looking up at the ceiling, rather than the abysmal handcuffs around his wrists. He could get out of those laughably easily, but well, he wanted to see what those Avengers would come up with. An intergalactic threat such as Thanos had to be dealt with properly, after all, and he couldn’t trust Thor to do something as important as that.
“We each time travel to the past, pick up the stones, come back to the present, and undo the snap,” the captain was saying, looking characteristically serious.
Loki absently wondered if all his brother’s friends, mortal as they were, were challenged in some way. Why would they create such an unnecessarily complicated plan.
“Alternatively,” Loki interrupted whatever they had started yelling about. “You could just go back in time using your funny technology, then use the stones to kill Thanos, leave the stones behind and come back to the present time.”
When they actually started contemplating it, Loki bent down to hide his face behind his hands. He hated being shackled, he really did, but the entertainment was just better this way. Especially when Thor heard about the plan.
Loki could barely stifle his giggles as Thor’s face went from ‘this plan is interesting’ to ‘we’re never doing this’.
“Did my brother even tell you about the consequences of your plan?” Thor asked, voice dark and annoyed. “Did you even ask?”
Loki was touched (not) that Thor still considered him as his brother, but Thor also had a bit of a sentimentality problem, which well, Loki wasn’t going to be the one to rid him of that. It would take way too long and way too much effort, and Loki wasn’t planning on sticking around here for that much time.
“What are the consequences?” That was the Iron Man guy, who was the smartest and wariest man in the group, and yet, someone who was desperate to undo the snap.
“Would you like to enlighten the group Loki?” Thor asked, turning to him with an insincere smile on his face.
“Not in your wildest dreams Thor,” he said, lifting his shackled hands up. “Unless…”
Thor growled, actually growled at him before turning around and storming to the other side of the room. Far enough away from the little glass prison cell Loki had been put in that Loki couldn’t reach him telepathically. Not that it would make a difference to Loki if he did want to bother his brother.
Loki watched their faces for a while, the mortals were so expressive, until he got bored. Then, he thought about all the ways he could convince Thor to let him go this time, without having to put in the effort to remove his cuffs himself. Once he got bored with that, he turned to how he could destroy Thanos without much effort. That one wielded a lot of interesting possibilities – he could get one of the mortals to snap their fingers and kill themselves while destroying Thanos, he could convince Thor to snap his fingers… oh the possibilities were endless.
“We’re going back to the original plan then,” someone said, close enough that Loki could hear without putting in any effort.
Loki sighed, turning his attention away from his thoughts and back to the little mortals. They kept shooting his angry looks, so he merely waved his fingers, letting a few sparks of magic dance around them and relished in their flinches. It was too bad they were going back to their original plan. Something was bound to backfire; with the way they were planning to meddle with time.
Loki leaned back again, stretching his legs to place them on the table, ignoring the way it was still shaking.
This would be very interesting, if they managed to mess up as badly as he assumed they would. If he hadn’t had those pesky shackles on, he might have clapped his hands together out of excitement.
Loki loved it when he was right.
The mortals’ plan had backfired, with Thanos’ warship appearing on the horizon just as they finished their little snap. And Loki had tried to convince them that Thor should do the snap, he really had. Thor was a god, he wouldn’t have died from such a pesky thing as infinity stones, not from wielding them at least. But as soon as he had suggested Thor, his brother had been out of the running. Which was one of the most amusing things he had ever seen, considering he was being genuine about helping them this time.
Sadly, they got their little green beast to do the snap.
Which had probably permanently crippled the beast, but Loki didn’t care all that much about it. What he was more interested in was the battle that was going to start outside.
Thor, the Iron Man and that captain had all disappeared outside, while the other avengers where stuck somewhere underneath the rubble. And, one of them had the infinity gauntlet. Loki wanted to laugh, but since his cell was under the threat of damage, and so was he, Loki just rested his head in his palm.
Now he had options. He could just teleport from the cell, thereby avoiding getting crushed painfully. Or he could pick his way out, waving cheerily at the other avengers who were stuck here.
With a grin, and a snap of his fingers, Loki was standing in his armor with no shackles on. He stretched his arms out and then twisted from side to side. Placing his hand on the wall of the glass cell, he pushed just the slightest bit of magic into it.
It shattered beautifully, glass pieces blowing apart and scattering all over the floor. Loki laughed with glee, at the sight. This was proving to be more fun than he had imagined.
Skipping out of the ruined mansion gleefully, Loki smiled and waved at each of the mortals he saw. They sent him panicked looks, but they didn’t pray to him in the chaos, so he saw no reason to stop and help them. He always rewarded his followers, or anyone who respected the fact that he was a god.
“How are you doing there, beast?” he asked the green one with the broken hand. The poor thing was stuck underneath quite a few pieces of rubble. Leaning closer slightly, Loki smiled. “I can free you, in exchange for a favor?”
The beast snarled at him, eyes wild and thrashing with fury.
Loki laughed and danced away from the small projectile it threw at him. No need to waste energy stopping the projectile, especially not if it went and hurt one of the beast’s friends.
“I suppose I’ll never see you again,” he said, smiling widely and walking away, ignoring the beast’s cursing.
Rubbing his palms together, Loki wondered which part of the ruined mansion he should wander to next. He could feel his brother’s signature lightning buzzing through the air, so he knew that his brother would hold his own against the titan. Loki frowned, pausing for a moment. No, his brother would hold back among the mortals. Something about not wanting to be too strong and scaring them away.
Damn his brother and his skewed morals.
Loki corrected his course, walking towards the basement instead. It was filling with water, from what he could sense, and he almost jumped with joy at the fear and chaos occurring underground. Sure, he wasn’t the god of fear, but afraid people always made for more chaotic and entertaining subjects. Something Thor didn’t understand, the oaf.
“Hello there,” he said, peering into the darkness. “I don’t suppose any of you want me to save you in exchange for a favor?”
The two people there yelled at him, cursing his entire existence, which well… rude. Scowling down at them, Loki stomped down on the stone he was standing on, sending a thread of his magic into it. It crashed down into the water with a resounding bang, that pacified his frayed temper. These mortals were so irritating, not even believing that he was a god or that Thor, their poor, precious Thor could destroy this entire backwater planet in seconds. Well, if they survived their little tiff with the falling rocks, Loki would laugh in their faces. If not… it wasn’t much of a loss.
Humming a little tune, a Jotun lullaby, if he remembered correctly, Loki walked out of the debris with his hands causing more chaos around as he pushed and pulled magic through the walls of the foundation. If any of those poor sods wanted to live, they could do it with extreme amounts of luck, and maybe some skill.
“Thor, there you are,” he exclaimed as he turned in the direction of the lightning. “What are you even doing on the floor?”
Thor scowled at him, looking back at the collapsing mansion. “Did you just cause that building to break down massively?”
Loki shrugged. “They didn’t want my help. So, I did whatever I wanted to.”
Thor closed his eyes, looking up to the sky as if praying to their father for patience. Loki loved it when Thor did this. Sometimes, father would try to get involved, then it was a matter of when father would go from mildly concerned about Thor’s antics to straight up amused about how much chaos Loki had caused. Loki would get punished eventually, while Thor went free, but it was the principle of the matter.
“Do you think father is going to get involved?” Loki asked, looking at the sky contemplatively.
“I thought your old man was dead, reindeer games,” the Iron Man quipped as he rolled through the sky near them. “What are you even doing outside your cage?”
Loki rolled his shoulders. “That cage wouldn’t have contained the least powerful Asgardian I can think of, forget holding me. And those shackles were truly awful. Even Thor could have made more powerful ones.”
“Do you have to be discussing this right now?” the captain asked, sounding miffed as he got pummeled by the purple giant.
Loki sighed at the sight. He had forgotten how ugly Thanos was, especially compared to other immortals who were much better looking. If he had been born on Asgard, Thanos would’ve been thrown straight off that waterfall.
“Talking and fighting is something that can be done, capsicle,” the Iron Man said, diving at Thanos with guns blazing. “Thor please take care of your brother, then come and help us.”
Thor turned to him with a resigned expression on his face. “You aren’t going to make this easy, are you, brother?”
Loki smirked at the challenge in his tone. At least Thor was prepared to be yelled at by his mortal friends. “Do you really think so lowly of me, Thor? Mother would be disappointed.”
With that, Loki teleported behind Thanos, absently batting the huge sword the titan threw at him. He frowned at the purple giant, then grinned brightly as an idea manifested in his head.
“Catch me if you can,” he taunted at the three avengers, teleporting onto the titan’s shoulder with a mad cackle. Thanos batted at him, and he teleported to the other shoulder, then behind his legs and right in front of his stomach.
Thor seemed to have caught on, if his slightly slower than normal attacks were anything to go by. To any outsider, he certainly seemed to be aiming at Loki, but Loki could see the thrill of the fight in Thor’s eyes, and he knew that Thor was aiming at the Titan – the titan that Loki kept teleporting all over.
In seconds, Thanos was covered in multiple cuts and injuries, lightning burns streaking across his forearms and back. Loki was sitting cross-legged slightly above Thanos’ head, dodging the missiles that Iron Man kept shooting at him, which caused them to land on Thanos’ head.
Loki cackled again, ducking under the shield the captain threw. “You can aim better than that, can’t you?”
Thor lunged at the two of them, and Loki teleported behind his brother, kicking him between the shoulder blades. Thor stumbled, turning it neatly into a tackle as he crashed into Thanos.
Loki smirked at the crater that had been created in the floor. He couldn’t help the slight amount of pride as he saw Thor neatly parry the huge sword, and the proceed to short circuit the titan’s nervous system, leaving Thanos twitching on the ground without his legendary mind at work.
He almost felt sorry for the two shocked looking avengers, until he felt the spark of foreign magic.
“That damned second rate is here,” he hissed, turning towards the slowly opening portal.
Thor stood up, turning to see the spectacle as well. “Loki!” he yelled, causing the sky to thunder loudly. “Don’t you dare attack any of them!”
Loki slumped, putting on the most put out expression he could manage. “Can I at least destroy that mess of creatures?”
Thor shrugged, turning away from him once he was sure Loki wouldn’t attack any of his mortal friends. Loki shook his head. Sometimes, he hated being reasonable and letting Thor have his little playthings. At least his brother let him have free reign on the stupid aliens Thanos had brought with him.
Loki stretched, pulling his trusty little daggers out of a pocket dimension. He let a bloodthirsty grin stretch his face, and launched himself into the air.
This was bound to be a little bloody.
What a lot of fun!