Somewhere on Knowhere: Book Three

20

One jump point later, and Loki was starting to feel the familiar feeling of adrenaline he usually got before a mission when they caught sight of the planet. All the Sovereign ships were gone, obviously, because it seemed like they'd exhausted their entire supply. Well, that was an extra advantage anyway.

Loki was glad he'd had the sense to get a black and in-parts-dark-grey ship, because it meant they could camouflage well against the empty expanse of dark space that surrounded the planet. That didn't stop him from worrying they'd be spotted though, even though he had complete faith in Strange's plan, and knew for a fact that, despite all the scientific enhancements these advanced planets had, Midgard remained the only place where the "security camera" had been invented. (Strange had explained cameras to him.)

Loki took a deep breath, and just as he was exhaling, Strange said, "Loki?"

Loki held up a hand without looking at him. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"You're going to give me the speech."

"What speech?"

"The typical Avengers motivation speech. Leave that to Captain America."

"No I wasn't."

Loki looked at him, unconvinced. Strange didn't look like he was going to back down. "You're forgetting I'm a telepath," he reminded him.

"OK, maybe I was but it's a dramatic moment and it's very rare I see you look nervous," Strange said.

Loki blinked. There was no way the nervousness had shown up on his face. "Well I'm not nervous. And the best way to keep up the dramatic moment is not to interrupt it by speaking."

Strange considered this. "Huh," was all he said.

Loki turned away from him and spoke to Captain Marvel. "We're getting into position now, Danvers. Keep your mic on so we know for the signal."

"Got it," she said, then headed off to her position while Loki steered the ship towards their position, just outside the atmosphere of the planet. They'd figured it out carefully so they got to the least guarded area in the whole planet and was where, if anyone looked up, all they would see would be the buildings obstructing them from view. Anyone unfortunate enough to be on the ground when they got there would be taken care of.

But not murdered. He was on a strict, no-murder day today.

Until it came to the weird guy that was being created. But that would be Strange taking care of that guy.

As expected, no one from the ground took any notice of them or sent ships up. From this view, it seemed the Sovereign weren't chancing using any of them until they had to, and obviously, they hadn't been spotted yet. So far so good.

Now to wait for Danvers to do her bit.

They'd sent her to the most heavily guarded area – a good few miles away from them – where the visitors usually entered. She was expected though, so while the high priestess and most of her guards (and they had a certain amount of guards depending on how dangerous the visitor was considered to be, so Danvers would probably have nearly as many as Loki, he thought) were busy talking about the fake situation she was having a meeting with them about, they wouldn't be noticed sneaking in as long as the rest of the plan went as it should.

A bit more silence. Then...

"Hey, Captain Marvel, here for a meeting with the high priestess?" Danvers's voice was saying over the earpiece, not directed at them, but the person who was going to take her down to the surface. Loki got ready to fly down.