C33 It Flew Away.

I clap my hands and then spread them wide. A projection of the effects the two controlling enchantments have appears, "Look for yourself."

He looks for a while, eventually muttering, "Even if I'm worthy, I still wouldn't be able to wield Mjolnir."

"Yeah, I had to go through a lot of hassle just to get it in here.

I shrug, "I don't know the reason for all the family drama, but Odin must have turned it into a trial for Thor."

Loki leans against the table.

After some time, he asks me with seriousness, "How far would you go to get what you want?"

I think for a while, "First, I would make sure I actually want what it is I want. Don't wanna go through a bunch of trouble just to get something you end up not liking in the end," I shrug.

He nods, "And how do you do that?"

I start pacing, "I suppose there are a couple of ways. You could try figuring out what's causing you to want it in the first place and see if it holds any weight."

"If it does, you can imagine having it and anything good or bad it may come with." I stop and spin around to him, "It's important to not delude yourself when doing that part."

"If those don't work, there is still one other way, the only sure-fire way I know of." I pause to build a little suspense. "It's to get a taste of it. That way, you can experience it first hand."

Loki starts to nod again, and I'm pretty sure he was about to say thanks, but I warn him first.

"But! You have to make sure to get more than just the frosting. Otherwise, you could end up buying a cake only to find one of the layers was made of shit instead of chocolate."

"Yes—that—wouldn't be too enjoyable," Loki has an ugly face.

"Then, if it ended up being something I truly wanted, I would determine how bad I want it and act accordingly. No need to wage war for a cake when you can just buy it."

Loki is going to respond, but he looks at the door, "Looks like it's time for me to go. Thank you for your counsel; it's cleared some things up for me."

"No problem, see you later. Oh, and the way you messed with Thor," I give him the 'OK' symbol, "golden."

He smirks before disappearing and letting everything go back to normal.

'I wonder what he'll do. Messing with Thor is a given, but will he still end up with Thanos?'

---

"W-what just happened?"

"It flew away." I stand up from a chair, "Well—looks like we won't be studying it anymore."

"Uh, where are you going?"

"I'm going to see where it went."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Nope."

"—I think I'll stay here."

I nod at the guy who's been kinda useless and walk out the door.

Barton already left, so it was pretty easy getting out of the temporary base. I found a vehicle that wasn't being used and 'borrowed' it.

'Heh, I wonder what they'll think when they see me, a 'scientist,' doing all this stuff on the cameras—probably not much, since I don't exactly look like pencil pusher, and they know where I come from.'

On paper, at least.

I went towards the town at the fastest the car would go. I could already see the tornado Thor makes to help in destroying the Destroyer.

Arriving there, I park some distance away and watch the action happen. It's just like in the movie, as far as I can tell.

'I guess Loki still did the same.'

I see Coulson hiding behind a car along with Jane, her intern, and the professor guy.

Barton's on a roof nearby.

Eventually, the automaton is put down. 'What a shame. I would've loved to get my hands on a version closer to the comics.'

Soon after that and promising Jane he would return, Thor left with the Warriors Three.

Barton climbed down from his perch and went to Coulson, "The hell's going on? First a space hammer, then a walking suit of armor, and after that, a god. What's next, an alien invasion?!"

"I'm not all that enthusiastic either." He sighs, "I should call headquarters. We'll need heavy equipment to get this thing out of here."

"Yeah, don't want to keep this around here any longer than we—hey, is that Dr. Goldmann?" He points at me.

I wave at them and give them a thumbs up. 'I have to encourage them. Maybe if they work harder, they'll get a vacation. Hopefully not to Tahiti.'

I have my feet out the window, and I'm eating peanuts as I watch everything.

'I'm such a good person,' I smile to myself as the duo gives me a blank look.

---

"I'm ba—"

The condo is full of people.

"Surprise!"

Except their all tide up and look like they've gone through torture.

"That it is, but I don't know if it's the kind I need to reward or punish someone for." I look at the duo, who now look aggrieved.

"Ah, Brother doesn't trust us," Lana looks to Sera.

"Mm, I know. We trust him so much, but he doesn't trust us back. It's unfair." She crosses her arms.

I look at her with a dead face; I don't even say anything.

She eventually goes red and looks at all the interesting cracks on the wall.

Except there aren't any, and she has to pretend, making her even redder.

"All these people broke in and tried kidnapping us. It didn't work," Lana points at the people. "We found out that they work for an octopus, and it wanted you to work for it."

"Do you by chance mean Hydra?"

"Yes! We should go and find it and then turn it into a pet." Sera forgot about her embarrassment.

I walk to them and mess up both their hair. "You two boneheads. Hydra is an organization, and the—person—who made it isn't really something you can put in a fishbowl."

"Then how about we take it over?" Lana suggests.

"Hmm—not a bad idea. It would be kinda fun too."

I remember something, "Ah, but it has too much baggage, and it's full of fanatics. That would make it a hassle to do anything with it."

I look at the half-dead 'visitors,' "So—why did you keep them around?"

"In case you wanted to do anything with them. We know you like it as much as we do." Sera 'smiles' while squinting her eyes at me.

Rolling mine, I say, "You two can get rid of them; just make sure there isn't a mess left behind."

I went to my office after dealing with them, sitting down, I get lost in thought.

The trip to New Mexico was very fruitful and will help me in my future plans.

I did have a chance to look at the Destroyer, but it didn't provide much of anything that I didn't already learn from Mjolnir.

The version of Destroyer here is much closer to the one in the movies than the comics. This one was meant to be guard, not something that could potentially fight with Celestials.

'Phase two is almost ready.'

Business is phase two.

I'm going to have it based in Latveria since I won't be in this world for all that long, and I'll just give it to Doom then.

'That, and who the fuck would want to deal with the United States tax system if they didn't have to?'

Doom actually seemed—happy—when I told him what I wanted to do. Of course, his actions were just slightly different than usual, and only someone familiar with him would be able to tell.

Why he liked the idea, I don't know.

'Maybe he liked that it would be good for Latveria—or perhaps the idea of making new armor was exciting to him.'

Once the business is established, we will start making metals and other materials that are better than anything on the market.

However, everything we make will be very use-specific, and while it will draw attention, no one will try to stop us because we're only going to target small and inconsequential things.

The goal isn't to make money but to establish supply/distribution lines while getting all the legal go-aheads.

That way, when we really start doing shit, no one will be able to stop us.

'Then starts the global domination! Muahaha—'

-cough- -cough-

'No, that's Doom's job, not mine.'

After everything is established; we will start dominating everything to do with high-performance materials.

Construction, military, aeronautics, and countless other industries will be under our influence.

But that is only to lay the foundation for when we start—

"Brother, your getting caught up in your own thoughts again." Lana ran over and hugged me from behind.

I looked behind me, "I tend to do that a lot. Did you two take care of all the trash?"

She smiled but hugged me tighter since she knew why I was so prone to getting lost in thought, "Yep! We just burned them all up and then cleaned any mess that was left."

"You made sure to block the smell, right?"

She froze, "Uh—"

We heard a rapid knock on the front door.

I sighed and stood up to deal with the aftermath of having the smell of burnt corpse spread through the building.

Unfortunately for me, I already know how to handle this kind of situation—because it's happened before.

'A few times, actually.'

---

//Note//

It's been a while since I watched Thor, so give me a little slack if I messed up the scenes a bit.

--

Why does Loki take advice from him?

Because they have built up some rapport; and can be considered more than just acquaintances.

Loki also realizes that Zadkiel has more experience than him.

--