Across All Time

Chapter 11- Smarty and Scrappy (Loki)

The moment I step into the next timeline I am flung to the ground and a hand is pressed against my mouth.
"Shhh!" Someone hisses, and the world is silent and dark other than my racing heart. I remain still, uncertain of what I'm facing.
Then I hear it. The shouting and angry footsteps.
"Where'd the little f**'s go?!" Demanded one of the brutes when the whole crew came to a halt. Cursing and muttering rippled through the bunch, along with a few other slurs that made the person holding me down wince. They wandered uncomfortably close to our hiding spot- now that I adjusted I could tell we were behind a rubbish bin. I
was getting seriously tired of alleys.
After minutes of heart hammering searching, one man came running from where the crew originally came from.
"I think I found them, down near Ricky's!" They called, and like hounds they all went chasing after the man- to Ricky's I assumed.
When it was silent for a while, the man let go of me and stood up.
"Oh god," he said, cracking his back, "Bruce just can't leave us alone now can he?"
A smaller man also got up, but didn't say anything.
"And what about the language? Does he kiss his mother with that mouth?" He chuckled, but was clearly shaken. "You do know it was his brother that initiated it right? You see, I would never go out of my way to sleep with his brother if he wasn't the one who started it,"
The smaller one pulled something out of his pocket, a flashlight, and turned it on. It shone right into the chatty man's face, and he winced against the sudden brightness.
The face revealed what I suspected. Another Mobius variant.
"Could you get that away from my face?! Jeez El, you gotta be careful!" He complained.
No matter where I seem to go, I always find him, but never the right him. I can see it in his eyes. Also he doesn't recognize me.
I hope that's a sign it isn't him.
He wouldn't forget me would he?
The two men cleaned gravel and mud off of their already dirty clothing, and I sat there watching until I was fed up.
I cleared my throat loudly. It was like a switch. They both turned and looked at me, as if they somehow forgot my existence.
"Hello?" I asked, although I was truthfully not sure what to expect. This past... whatever you would call the period of time since I started searching, has been extremely overwhelming and has left me far more vulnerable then I was comfortable with.
The Mobius variant started to speak, but then the smaller one made a lunge for something on the ground.
The temp pad. It must've fallen out of my pocket when I was pushed to the ground.
"No! Give that back!" I lunged for him, but he jumped out of reach and the Mobius variant stepped in between us.
"Whoa, backup buddy," he snapped. The one with the temp pad turned on the temp pad, and a slight glow revealed his face.
"O.B.?" I asked, although I already knew the answer.
"Oby?" Spluttered the Mobius variant, "like BO? Are you insulting us?" He took a threatening step forward. I crawled back a little.
"No! No," I put I hand out as a way of showing I was no threat, "I- I just thought you were a friend, that's it,"
"We may have saved you but we're no friends," the variant snarled. "C'mon El, let's go," he said looking at the O.B. variant, who was absorbed in poking at the temp pad. He didn't move.
"You should be careful with that," I warned.
"Or what?" Spat back the variant.
"Or I'm stuck here! Just- UGH!" I slapped the ground to try and release frustration. It didn't help. "Know what?" I breathed, trying to calm down, "What are your names?"
The Mobius Variant squinted suspiciously, "Who's asking?"
"ME! I'M asking!" I half laugh, completely fed up. I start to stand up, which makes the Mobius variant more defensive. I hold out both my hands, but he now has a blade in his hand and starts to take more threatening steps forward, so I back up until my back is against the wall and Mobius has the blade pointing at, but not touching, my throat. Despite everything, I let out a little laugh.
"Would you believe this isn't the worst thing that's happened to me recently?" I say bravely, trying to ignore the feeling that arose as soon as my back was against the wall.
The Mobius variant scoffed, but lowered the knife to place it in his beat up old belt. He stepped back.
"C'mon El," he demanded this time to the O.B. variant, "This bottom is no threat" he turned and started to walk away, the smaller man absentmindedly following.
I threw back my head and laughed bitterly. "Is that supposed to be some kind of insult?" I demand, throwing my arms out. "What kind of Gods forsaken place is this?"
I speed walk to try and catch up with them.
"It's not an insult sunshine, it's the truth," The Mobius variant sneered without looking at me. 
"Ha, delightful. Now give me back the temp pad and we can go our separate ways,"
"Temp pad? Is that what that scrap is? Well how about we keep it because we found it, and still go our separate ways?" He replied, "What's it do anyway El?" He asked the smaller man.
"I don't know, wait! I found something-" The O.B. variant- El?- must've pressed something because an orange time door burst open in front of them. They jumped back, terrified, and I just sighed.
"Oh great, do you really have to-"
"What is that?!" The Mobius variant interrupted me to snarl.
"I don't know, why don't you stick your head in it?" I suggest sarcastically. The Mobius variant turned his head to look at me.
"You know, people tell me that a lot, and more often than not, I do it," he said somewhere in between darkly and suggestively.