Largo Descent (Loki x Nebula)

First Stop, Knowhere

Loki
Out of all the places in the galaxy, he never thought his quest would lead him.. Here. How fitting, searching for the heart of a dead celestial being by traversing the mind of another. Poetic.
He landed the small ship he had stolen in the main hangar of Knowhere, which was already crowded with other ships of all shapes and sizes. He pulled himself out of the cockpit, heading down the ramp of the single person ship. He sneered internally as he took in the crowd around him, at his own peasant clothes. All of this was below him. it should it be below him. But, there was always the fact that he had barely escaped with his life during the war on Earth. After nearly having his neck broken, he had slithered into the shadows, hiding. Occasionally helping from afar. He grimaced as he rubbed his throat absentmindedly, remembering the Mad Titan's hand wrapped around his neck.
He shook himself from those thoughts. He could worry about that later. He had a job to do. Find the Collector. Locate the map. Steal it, and the Heart was his. Simple, quick. With just enough challenge to keep things interesting. He smirked slightly to himself, slipping into the crowd to secure his destiny.
The inside of the dead celestial's skull was something to behold. Patch work metal structures were crammed into every available inch. The sounds of alien tongues and the hum of machines clogged whatever space was left over.
Loki strolled down the cramped streets, playing the part of a curious passer by well. The cheap light of thousands of neon signs highlighted the sharp angles of his face. He glanced around, his eyes flicking over the strange creatures and odd shops around him. Now to find the Collector.
After a little too long of searching, Loki was growing unnerved. He knew he wouldn't be the only one after the map, and the longer he spent wandering around the higher the chance of someone getting to it before him. He glanced around casually, looking for a sign of anyone who stood out of place. That was going to be difficult, given the amount of already strange creatures there were. Then he saw it, a flicker of too quick movement out of the corner of his eye.
He stopped offhandedly at a stall selling multicolored glassware and other shiny trinkets made of things he couldn't even name.
He glanced over the glass before picking up a reflective vase. Pretending to inspect it, he tilted the vase to the side, catching the reflections of the crowd over his shoulder. His eyes narrowed as he saw the figure in the curve of the vase. The figure was cloaked. How original. He thought wryly.
The figure was walking at an almost breakneck pace, storming through the crowd. A few curious eyes glanced up at the figure, but none strayed for too long for fear of causing trouble. Loki watched as the figure stormed past where he stood, and he carefully set the vase down. The shop owner hurried over to him, offering the vase and talking in a garbled tongue. Loki held up a hand and shook his head.
"Just looking." He said with a sympathetic smile. The shop owner, a green man with beady eyes, shoved the vase forward again, pleading in a foreign language. Loki feigned a sympathetic smile and shook his head, turning to stroll off. The shop keeps huffed before turning to haggle another potential buyer, leaving Loki to slip back into the crowd. Scanning over the faces, he spotted the cloaked figure as they strode through the crammed street, shoving past people. He smirked slightly to himself. This would be too easy, too easy indeed.
He trailed the figure through the crowd, keeping a careful distance. They went down several streets, turning into a clearly practiced route. After a while of following, the cloaked figure took a sharp left turn, storming into an alleyway. Loki quickened his pace subtly, not wanting to lose them.
He carefully peered into the narrow alleyway, searching. He saw the shape of a leather hood in the dim light. His fingers brushed over the knife he had hidden inside his coat, preparing. He hurried after the figure quietly, keeping to the shadows. Just as they were about to turn out, he gripped their shoulder and shoved the figure into a wall, pressing the blade into their throat.
"Where is the collector?" He asked cooly. A girl with pink skin blinked up at him wide-eyed in shock. Her mouth opened and closed like a caught fish for a second before she responded.
"D-down the way, to the left in the big museum . . " She sputtered. He glanced her over, confused. She was shaking in fear. This girl was not who he had followed into the alleyway. He'd lost the cloaked one.
The girl wore a simple leather jacket and servants dress with her hair curled into pigtails. He had recognized her uniform from when he had done a little digging on the Collector.
"You work for him, don't you?" He mused. The girl gave a stiff nod. He carefully pulled his knife away and slipped it back into the lining of his coat. He made a sweeping gesture.
"Show me, if you please." He gave her a cold smile. The girl gave another stiff nod, moving rigidly off the wall and moving forward.
"Y-yes! Right this way . ." She said, dazed, still processing the situation. Loki moved after her back into the crowd, his mouth twisting into a slight, grim smile. He would finish this before anyone knew what had begun.

Nebula
It had been years since she had set foot in Knowhere. The last time she'd been here, she was trying to kill her sister and get the power stone back. She thought, hoped really, that she wouldn't have to come back. But this was not a sentimental journey, not that Nebula was much for sentiments. Somebody here had something, something she and a whole lot of other people wanted. She knew she wasn't the only one going for the map. That much was obvious. But it was a matter of who else and what else was going to go for it.
Some guy called the 'Collector' had his grimy little hands on it. Nebula had seen the man once before, the last time she was on nowhere. He was a strange little creep, with a shock of white hair, a pompous coat, and way too much eye makeup for anybody to reasonably have. Getting the map from him would be almost too easy.
Nebula stalked through the crowd, keeping her head down and hood pulled low over her face. The sea of people parted at her brisk pace, not wanting to be trampled.
Her boots thumped rhythmically against the metal grate platform beneath her feet. She followed the virtual path that she had brought up in her mind's eye. Painful as it was, being part machine had its perks.
After turning down several streets, she sensed something. Someone was following her. She rolled her eyes. Now was not the time for a common mugger to try to threaten her for some pocket change. Not that she would let them. They'd be dead before they even lifted their weapon. But there was something a little too casual about her new tail. This wasn't a thief. At least not the usual kind. As she turned another street corner, she risked a small glance at her pursuer. A male, humanoid, with pale skin and dark hair. He would have looked like nothing more than a casual traveler, passing through. But there was something about the watchfulness of his movements that made her assassin instincts flair. On any other day, she would have turned right then and there and confronted him. But she had a job to do, and she wasn't about to risk her plans for a low life like this.
So she veered left into a small, dark alleyway that smelled of waste and who knows what else. She pressed her back against the wall, slinking lower to the ground. She crouched behind an old dumpster, keeping deathly still.
She heard the man slip into the alleyway, moving stealthily through it. She watched, almost amused as he drew a knife and grabbed a random girl, shoving her against the wall with a metallic bang. He murmured something that she could not quite hear. She caught a few words of their exchange as she adjusted her hearing frequencies.
"-Work for him, don't you?" Her brows drew. She knew that voice.
"Show me, if you please." Then it clicked.
Loki. She nearly growled in frustration. Of course, that little snake was here. He was after the same thing she was. The Heart.
The girl squeaked out something else, and the two left. Nebula glowered after them for a second before standing swiftly and turning back the way she came. She should have known he would be here, half the power-hungry people this side of the galaxy would be gunning for that map.
But he had foiled her plans, the girl in the alleyway had been her contact and her quick way into the Collector's museum. She had promised the girl her freedom in exchange for leading Nebula to the heart. It had been a hefty promise, but one Nebula intended to follow through with. She knew what it was like to be a slave.
But now that was all to waste. She had to find another way in. But that would be no problem. She'd always been resourceful. If she had to find the back door, so be it.