Loki

Chapter 1C

Loki emerged in the hallway after the Time Twister finished it's loop. In the distance he spied a figure pushing a cart down to the other end of the hallway. Loki stepped towards him.

***

"Wish I could say I'm surprised." Hunter B-15 said dryly.

"Yeah, I wish you hadn't interrupted us." Mobius shot back as the two of them along with the squadron of Minutemen following close behind them.

"Me? It's my fault?"

"Look, he couldn't have gotten very far."

"Split up." B-15 ordered. "Prune on sight."

"No!" Mobius exclaimed as he branched off from the group. "No pruning, no resetting. He can still help us!"

***

Loki entered into the office area. The entire space was lined with office desks along with a few workers occupying a handful of them. Loki saw his target. The man pushing the cart. Upon closer inspection it was clear that he was the same man at the registry desk from before.

"Hey." Loki whispered as he approached him.

"Hey! I know you." The desk worker said, eyes widening as he spotted Loki. "You're that criminal with the blue box!"

Loki shushed him quickly, grabbing him by the shoulders and forcing them both to squat down into a low crouch beneath the level of the desk.

"What's your name?" Loki asked.

"Casey?" The worker said with uncertainty.

"Give me the Tesseract, or I'll gut you like a fish, Casey!" Loki threatened, mustering up an intimidating voice.

"What's a fish?" Casey asked loudly.

"Shhh!" Loki shushed him, then asked. "How do you not know what a fish is?"

"I've live my entire life behind a desk."

"Well what difference does it make?"

"Well, I wanna know exactly what I'm being threatened with before I comply." Casey said.

"Death, Casey." Loki said gruffly. "Violent, painful death!"

"Okay, okay." Casey said, putting up his hands in surrender. "I comply, I comply. I comply, jeez."

Casey stood up from the desk and rifled through one of its drawers and produced a glowing blue cube. "Is this it?"

Loki took the cube along with a breath of relief then looked down at the drawer that Casey had opened. His eyes widened as he looked down to see several stones, each glowing with their own unique light.

"What?" Loki uttered, picking up one of the gems. "Infinity Stones? How...how do you have these?"

"Oh, we actually get alot of those." Casey said. "Some of the guys use them as paperweights. Some of em''."

Loki manipulated the stone in his hand for one more moment before he dropped it back into the drawer. He then stood up from the cubicle and began surveying the environment he found himself in. Holding the Tesseract he moved towards the middle of the room, staring around him in astonishment.

"Is this this the greatest power in the universe?" He voiced.

The elevator dinged as the doors opened. Hunter B-15 and her squad emerged from it, Timesticks activated and ready. Hunter B-15 darted towards Loki, raising her Timestick to strike. Loki activated the Time Twister just before she approached, warping him out of the area completely. The Timestick descended as she completed her strike, smacking directly into Casey's cart and pulverizing it in seconds.