Chapter Text
~
If his father could see him now he’d probably be asking him what he’d done to Stark industries. While yes things had once been going so smoothly it all had gone downhill in a downward spiral that Tony wished not to remember. It had been a turbulent train crash. The worst part was that it now left Tony with debt up to his eyeballs, a pregnant wife to look out for and an apartment to pay for. Juggling all these responsibilities was painful, especially with the lingering tension from the blowup that was Stark industries. But Pepper stuck around much to Tony’s shock but their relationship was tense to say the least now. I mean Pepper had been - and technically still was - CEO and she was also feeling the effects of Stark industries. The debt was massive but the business was still technically standing, so Stark and Potts had been slowly but surely chipping away at the debt through restarting and reforming Stark industries.
Dealing with the reforming of the company had been draining so he’d gone back to the drink. He’d been at his usual bar and had been watching the news on the bar's small TV. As usual gang activity in New York had increased as being reported by the news anchor, mainly brought on by the gang run by ‘The Mad Titan’ as his goons called him. But everyone knew the other aliases he’d gone by over the years, Thanos being his other more well-known name to the folks. Tony shuddered at the memory of the man and his goons, knowing he’d been in deep with the man due to paying him a ‘protection fee’ back at the peak of Stark industries performance in the day. Thinking back to those days, Tony had no idea why he was even paying that fee considering he had his own men that he was paying to protect the Tower and then Compound when the industry moved out of town.
~
“Shit, shit, shit no-” Tony cursed under his breath as he ran down the stairs and watched as the train he was supposed to be on disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel. He stamped his foot on the ground out of frustration as he pushed his fingers through his hair. If he told Pepper he’d missed the train back, she’d surely ask where he’d been and he had a feeling that if he tried to lie she’d dump his ass quicker than he could tell the truth. He slumped down on a nearby bench, hands still running through his hair as he debated what to do. As he sat on the bench, a man in a business suit came walking in Tony’s general direction. Tony paid him no mind, assuming ‘hey, he was a busy guy. Maybe he was waiting for a train.’
But when the man stopped to sit down next to him, it gave Tony pause before he looked up at the man and properly took him in. He looked basic at a passing glance with a clean grey suit and a lithe body. As Tony took in the man's face - noting the man’s distinct features - the man had finally noticed and had turned his face to look at Tony who promptly moved away slightly. The man in response smiled. And it was that smile that sent an uneasy feeling down Tony’s spine. The smile seemed genuine but there was a coldness to it that Tony couldn’t get out of his mind.
“Sir, do you have a minute?” The guy spoke. Tony raised a brow in response. The man continued. “I’d like to offer you a great opportunity.”
Tony’s brow furrowed as the man continued once more as he sensed no resistance on Tony’s end. “Would you like to play a game with me?”
The sound of a briefcase opening caught Stark's attention - I mean he hadn’t even noticed it - and in it was… money. Money and… cards? Blue and red specifically. The man had noticed Tony looking so he explained. “Play Ddakji with me. Each time you win, I will give you 70 dollars.”
Ddakji?
Tony thought, and the confusion must've been obvious on his face. So the man explained.
“Ah, let me explain. Ddakji is a game we play over in Korea. Your goal is to flip this card.” He raised one of the Ddakji cards. “By hitting it with the other card. If you win, you get 70 dollars. Does that sound fair?”
The man’s smile was clearly trying to relax Tony to an extent, but Tony was still confused. “Wait, so if I flip your card- I mean your…. Ddakji over, you’ll give me 70 dollars?”
“Yes, that is correct.” The man replied. “However, each time I win, you must give me 70 dollars.”
There was a small pause before the man continued. “I’ll let you go first.”
And in a moment where Tony should've been figuring out when the next train got there or calling Pepper to let her know what had happened, Tony was instead chucking a blue card at a red card, hoping for it to flip to get that 70 bucks. It was a desperate attempt at getting some money - although Tony believed it may have been a scam. Perhaps because it was his first time playing but he ended up losing hard.
And all Tony could do was look like an idiot at the man. The man simply stared back expectantly.
“Do you not have any money?”
“Money…” Tony trailed off as though he’d forgotten the concept of money.
“Then you can pay with your body.” The man replied so easily that honestly it should've tipped Tony off immediately that something wasn’t right. “I’ll shave off 70 dollars per slap.”
“My body?” As Tony spoke, he found himself being shut up by a nice, hard…
Slap
Tony stumbled back in shock, his hands immediately coming to his face. He was so shocked that instead of just walking away he instead raised the blue card again and angrily sputtered. “One more round.”
And that’s where Tony found himself. Round after round. Slap after slap. The man winning over and over. But the rounds continued. Even as the people from the passing trains would drop them off, one card at a time. The people walking off that train witnessed the desperation of one Tony Stark getting himself slapped over and over again like an idiot. And all for 70 bucks.
And finally, after what felt like hundreds of attempts, Tony finally got the stupid card to flip. He overreacted, admittedly. He cheered, he squealed like a pig, he yelled over to the man “I won! See that?” and all the while the man calmly stood there, slowly clapping with that smug smile on his face.
“Now get your ass over here.” Tony yelled in exasperation as he swung a hand at the man, attempting to slap him. But the man stopped Tony in his tracks. He grabbed his wrist with that stupid smile on his face as he calmly handed Tony the 70 dollars.
“Here’s your 70 dollars.” He put it into Tony’s open palm of the hand the man was still holding. “Congratulations.”
Tony’s face fell slightly, mumbling a small “Oh right.” as he counted the bills slowly.
As the two sat back again on the bench with Tony counting the dollars again, the man watched him with keen eyes before he spoke up again amidst Tony’s swimming thoughts, breaking him out of his trance.
“You know sir, you can make big money playing games like this for a few days.”
Tony raised an eyebrow, this must’ve been some sort of pyramid scheme, no? Tony wasn’t that dumb to fall for that shit. “And why should I call you?”
The business man smiled, before calmly explaining. “Mr. Stark, your company - Stark Industries - owes millions of dollars to the government including back taxes. Need I go on, Anthony Edward Stark?”
That immediately freaked Tony out. “You know my name? You did a background check on me? What the hell?”
But the man did not reply nor did he hesitate as he continued on as though he hadn’t just said all of that.
“If you are interested,” The man spoke as he stood up, briefcase in tow as he offered Tony what looked like a business card. “Spots fill up fast. Give me a call.”
And with that, the man walked away and onto a train. He stood by the doorway of the train and watched Tony as the train's doors shut and began to speed away. The man never stopped looking. When the train left, Tony assessed the card he’d been given. Three shapes on one side and then a number on the other. It… confused him admittedly and scared him. What else did that freaky guy know about him?
~
When Tony finally got back to his apartment, he was met with a worried Pepper Potts. When he shut the door, Pepper immediately stood up and it was clear she wanted an answer so Tony attempted to defuse the situation, despite his nerves still being fried from his encounter.
“I’m sorry, the train left la-”
Slap
“Where have you been Tony? I almost called the police out of fear you’d been kidnapped by a loan shark or god forbid one of that Titan’s goons!” Was followed by the slap from Pepper. To be fair, she looked positively devastated and to be fair, Tony had really affected her today.
“I’m sorry Pepper I- I’m being honest when I said the train left early or well rather I didn’t make it there in time. I had to wait for a later train, honest Pepper.”
There was a brief pause between the two of them, but a million words spiraled between the two of them. The two of them held onto each other as the emotion died down. They eventually chose to sit down on the couch and discuss what Tony had done that day, how deeper of a pit had Tony gotten them in or if they’d managed to surface up slightly somehow amidst the debt. The conversation continued over light, cheap but healthy microwave meals before the two eventually went to bed.
But after Pepper drifted off, Tony had gotten out of bed and walked over to the balcony to think about that business card. The man had said he’d get more money if he played games… And while Tony was convinced it was definitely some sort of scam, his interest had been peaked and so eventually, he called the number to the sound of the gunshots in the neighbourhood.
~
It had been awhile since Loki had been a part of the Mad Titan’s gang. He’d escaped to the countryside while his sister Sylvie had taken over his old apartment just in case the ‘man’ came knocking. While she could get under his skin, Loki had to admit she was great to have in his corner even if sometimes her loyalty reminded him of Thor but even Thor wasn’t crazy to come hunting him down after they’d cut contact. For now in this quaint postcardesque village, Loki had managed to land himself a job at a small cafe run by an older gentleman. The two got along quite well, even if it unnerved Loki to have to see the man pay out those same protection fees he’d seen get mailed around in New York but this time it wasn’t his gang so that put him at a slight ease.
The owner of the cafe was a short but stumpy man by the name of Mobius M Mobius. As mentioned he was an older gentleman and it seemed as though - judging by his hair - he’d been a part of the community since its creation. Despite his cold demeanour, Loki would confess that clearly he’d grown soft around the man. Even seen him as someone he could… Settle down with?
No, that was a stupid thought, Loki shook the thought away as he walked to the bus stop in the night, checking the time every so often. He'd played a game with a man outside the cafe when Mobius was counting stock called Ddakji. He’d naturally gotten a hang of the game rather quickly and had won more times than he’d been slapped. As he made it to the bus stop, he stood by and awaited for… something. He wasn’t sure what he was actually waiting for to be honest. But that something arrived in the form of a van. The door opened and Loki assumed it was for him. He could see others in the car but they seemed to be asleep. He fiddled with his sleeves as he cleared his throat.
“A-are you the guy? The one I called?” he stuttered, feeling unnerved by the pink jumpsuit and the mask. He flicked his eyes over the mask and he could definitely see some sort of shape similar to one of the shapes on the card. He licked his lips as he hesitantly got into the van. He recognised that if he needed help or had gotten kidnapped then he had people who’d look for him like Mobius or Sylvie or… Well that was it, Perhaps if his mother- Frigga was still alive maybe she’d have… Maybe she’d have worried for him.
But no, even before she died the two had very clearly buried the hatchet and cut ties long ago.
As he sat back in the van, the door closed and eventually a gas began to fill the space. He didn’t even really have a chance to respond before eventually he passed out from the inhalation.
~
Loki eventually awoke to the sound of some bizarre music playing over a loudspeaker with bright lights overhead. As he sat up, he noticed two things. One, he’d been sleeping in one of the many bunk beds that were in this massive room. And two, was the clothes. A bizarre turquoise jumpsuit with the number ‘056’ on it. He blinked in rapid confusion as he looked around and noticed all the other people waking up in similar positions to Loki. They must've all been brought here the same way as him, he thought as he managed to crawl out of the bed and down into the growing group of people down below. As he walked down, he noticed a few key characters as he made his way down. A brunette man with a white streak in his hair sat on one of the mattresses, looking around at the group of people but making no attempt to climb down. Loki also noticed a fair few other faces, like a bulky man with light brown almost ginger hair with scars on his face, some woman with red hair and then as he joined the crowd and made his way to the front he saw the face of the man he wished to never see him again. Or well to be more specific - as there were many people Loki wished not to see again - the face of a man belonging to a bald man with muscles upon muscles…
The Mad Titan.