Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

37. Nesha IV

Those fifty metres turned out to be fifty metres too far. As Loki and Brunnhilde ran out onto the tarmac, a squadron of soldiers came around from behind the ship. These were not Palisade guards either, but an expeditionary company that must have been called up to reinforce the Palisade's perimeter.

Loki was the quickest to react. He aimed his blaster at the closest soldier and managed to strike down a second one too by the time the soldiers responded with blasts of their own. They roared with rage — a sound Loki realised was familiar. This was a squadron of the same Exian company he had been charged with training. Between their seldom worn full-battle regalia and the murk of the spreading smoke from the fire, Loki hadn't recognised them. But those battle cries were unmistakable and for the first time, he appreciated fully the impact of that vicious clamour.

Sorry, boys, I'm not coming willingly.

'Go ahead!' he shouted to Brunnhilde and he let out a massive wave of energy, sending it rushing towards the Exians.

He took out those closest to him, but the force of the wave didn't have the impact he had wanted. Heavy on their feet, the Exians were also hard to sweep over. Loki ducked behind a maintenance cart and set off another blast at the Exians, but there wasn't much left in the weapon. He could feel his skin burn where it came in contact with the blaster; the next shot was just as likely to blow off his thumb as wound any of the Exians.

It was an unfair fight. The Exians didn't bother with the swords strapped to their sides, they relied on their heavier and larger blasters, which had a good twenty times capacity of the weapon Loki held in his hands. Worse yet, with every second, they were drawing closer. The window of opportunity was closing.

Swallowing the blood building up in his mouth — the wound in his cheek from his fight with Nebula had reopened somewhere along the way – he brought up his hand. The lingering heat from the blaster was an excellent focus point. He forced that heat to materialise and then imbibed it with energy a thousand times its source. A whip of green-hued flame crackled through the air, forming a temporary barrier between Loki and the approaching Exians.

He ran, but fire wasn't going to slow down a blaster shot. Within moments, pain tore through his left leg — from his knee, up his thigh and then down, resonating through his bones all the way down to his ankle. Loki slid to the ground. His eyes watering, he reached for his knee and found only a charred mess where the joint used to be. As far as blaster fire went, it was pretty much a direct hit. He tried to get up and got nowhere. His undamaged leg was no more willing to cooperate than the injured one.

He whipped his head around. The broad-shouldered silhouettes of the Exians were nearly upon him now.

Allfather, if this is...

Mechanical parts hissed as they shifted into position. Lights flared up, cutting bright beams through the smoke. Then, the cannon fire. Loki grinned as Brunnhilde took up the ship's cannons and showed the Exians how things were really done. Under the cover of friendly fire, Loki did his best to crawl over to the hatch of Thanos' ship.

Unfortunately, Brunnhilde couldn't take them all out. Loki had drilled some basic tactics into them. They found safety behind technical equipment scattered around the tarmac and began firing back at the ship, trying to find weaknesses in its defences. And some continued firing at Loki. Crawling was too slow. He wasn't going to make it.

Loki gulped down a breath of ash and cinders, then performed the only spell he could think of. The magic surged through him with the velocity of a lightning storm and coalesced around the blast wound. The burn of the healing left him screaming as much as the blast itself had, but it was quick. Within two seconds, the bones and the tendons had knotted back together.