C.H.A.S.M. [MARVEL FANFICTION] ✓completed

16.

Where I escape a boring conference alive... somehow.

-

Loki gave Penny a short, almost imperceptible nod, and the next moment Jock was pressed against the ground. Penny covered his mouth with her hand so he couldn't call for help, but a well-aimed knock to the head later that wasn't necesaary anymore.

"Thanks Rocky," Penny stepped back as Rocky shook his hand to get the tingling feeling out.

"You're welcome," he grinned.

"What's next?" Michael enquired, "we're alone... for now."

Nutmeg pointed to the fake Infinity Stone.

"Stowne!"

Loki nodded.

"Yes, Stone. We need to get our hands on that thing."

"And why exactly don't we just grab it?" Sarah enquired as Chelsea went a little pale.

"Stop trying to read my mind, Maximoff one junior," Loki commanded, "and Sarah; I've been told," — he gestured with his scepter to Jock — "that it's not safe for humans to come anywhere close to it."

"And I've been told only princes and princesses and other royalty can touch it," Michael added, "which reminds me; they're holding a meeting here soon about destroying other planets with this very Stone."

Loki frowned thoughtfully.

"Why would they do that? They're risking that everyone finds out it's a fake... well, unless it's not a fake. It's certainly no real Infinity Stone, but... Well, it needs to be removed either way, I'll see if I can do that with my scepter."

He carefully inserted his scepter under the stone, and lifted it upwards so that the Stone balanced on the middle spike of his scepter-turned-trident.

As the Stone touched the golden tip, the stones started glowing — both the blue fake Infinity Stone and the stones in Loki's scepter-slash-trident.

"Loki..." Rocky warned, and as the metal around the stones started heating up because of the friction, Loki pulled back the scepter.

"That doesn't work," he concluded, "any other ideas?"

"I could try pick it up," Loraine began, "I'm a princess of Asgard, so I'm royalty, part Frost Giant, so not a normal human, and I'm not wearing my necklace so it can't possibly react to the gems in there."

"No," Loki replied curtly, "we're not risking that."

"Pwetty..." Nutmeg mumbled.

"And Wolf's the only other one beside you and the twins that could've been of royal blood, if Natasha really is a queen of Russia," Daniel reasoned, "although Natasha can't have children, so Wolf's great-great-lots-of-greats-granparents were probably adopted."

Loki sighed.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" A voice from behind them enquired.

They turned around to face a merman with a deep blue eyes and an equally blue tail, covered in patterns of red and blue that marked him as a king, or in the least a Chief, which was basically the same thing amongst the tribes. But what was most noticeable about him was his face.

"He looks exactly like Captain America," Daniel hissed, and Rocky nodded.

Everyone had noticed the extreme likeness to Steve, and in their distraction it took Loki a while to answer the question.

"Yes," Loki spoke after a moment, picking up his authorative tone of voice again, "I am Loki," he introduced himself, not even bothering with a fake name.