Playing With Fire (EDITING)

Ruckus

"Positions," Han whispered, crouching with Kurt, Kitty, and me behind a large marble structure beside the stairs. We nodded and scattered to our various positions. Kitty phased into a wall and Kurt shifted to his Nightcrawler form and scaled the wall opposite Kitty's. I vaulted over the stair railing and took the steps two at a time silently to the top where I sat and stretched my legs out in front of me in the way of anyone coming down the staircase. Below me, I knew Han was disappearing to his designated position as well.

The plan sounded far simpler than it would be but we were trained grifters, so at least it would be fun. I would be the trigger; when a guard tried coming down the stairs to relieve the shift Han had so conveniently knocked out cold, I would trip them and wait until they hit the bottom to grab a key ring. Angry, they would try to get it back and that's when Kitty would come in. She would appear long enough for me to toss her the keys before passing them off to Kurt and disappearing again. Kurt would climb out of reach with the keys and wait for the guard to round on me, the last person visible to be angry with.

If everything was still going according to plan at that point, I would then challenge the guard to duel me for the right to get his keys back. The duel would produce enough noise to draw attention to me and allow Kurt to escape to Han with the keys; Han would then take the keys to Megan who was waiting outside the palace doors. She would carry the keys to Doug who waited in the gardens with Loki disguised as Kurt. Once the keys had been exchanged, Megan would teleport to the ballroom where Clint and Nat were waiting. She would partial out some pixie dust to both and the three of them would move around dusting every guard in sight.

It then fell to me to draw out the duel long enough to force someone to sound an alarm. The dusted guards would hear the alarm and go nuts with mirages and illusions. In the split second that the alarm is raised, I would dust the guard I was dueling and Kitty and I would escape in the ensuing chaos.

Everyone would rendezvous in the gardens with Doug and Loki before Megan would teleport myself, Han, and Clint to the palace doors. We would fake a run before allowing ourselves to be caught and dragged to the throne room where a mirage of King Odin, controlled by Loki, would command us to be thrown off Asgard.

Then came the truly tricky part. We had to trust the others to meet up with us along the way and try to free us. The guards would then take them and have us all dragged "unwillingly" to the Bifrost where Heimdall would follow his orders and toss us out.

The only slip we couldn't plan a backup for was if someone recognized Kurt as Nightcrawler. Having two Kurts in the group would ruin everything and Loki would be discovered.

While I sat in the warm sunlight at the top of the stairs, I sighed and ran through everything in my head again. I made a mental checklist of all I would need with me and went through, checking off each item. Evangeline in my pocket- check. Swords at my hip- check. Knives in their places- check. Baggie of pixie dust- check. All good.

It was a good thing we were used to things never going our way, because the plan began falling apart as soon as the shift relief came around the corner toward the stairs.

Lady Sif was dressed in armor and boots with a sword strapped across her back. Inside, I swore. Say goodbye, carefully-laid plan, I thought.

As she approached, she eyed me warily. "What are you doing here?" she snapped.

I raised my eyebrows. "Napping? Is that such a crime?"

"Nap in your room," she scolded. "This is a public area."

"Sue me," I replied firmly.

"Leave," she commanded.

"Uh, hm, no." I crossed my arms over my chest and settled myself into position.