The Multiversal Road-Trip: Book Five

27

OK... so, walking on the underside of a building floating in the middle of space was a new one. Even weirder since it didn't feel like they were upside down. Scott couldn't help jumping to test what the gravity did. He came to the conclusion that the gravity was messed up. "This is so weird. And so cool. So awesome. So-"

"Shut up, Scott the Dictionary," Loki sighed, turning back to grab him before he ended up floating off into space. Oops... he didn't look impressed. Suddenly Scott felt the need to be on his best behaviour. "Focus."

"Focusing," Scott said, shaking his head and sighing, readying himself for the upcoming mission thing. Focus, Scott, he told himself. Everyone's counting on you to be the tourist.

Loki rolled his eyes and carried on walking as though he could hear his thoughts.

Oh wait... never mind.

As far as Scott could figure, this robot afterlife was literally a building floating in the middle of empty space. That was all there was to it. Kinda like a... well, from the outside it reminded him of a prison block crossed with cafeteria building, just not made of brick. That made no sense. He knew what he meant anyway.

Not the friendliest of places then, if his experiences of the school cafeteria were anything to go off.

The underside of the building was pretty bare – every now and again there was a door to the parking lot (which was empty save from Loki's super cool spaceship) but that was it, until they reached the edge, at which point there was some weird kind of staircase that seemed to turn a whole one eighty to the other side.

"Right, so we're like, the flea on the tightrope, and we're in the upside-down right now," Scott explained to himself, much to Wanda and Stephen's confusion. "Stranger Things reference."

"Shut up," Loki hissed at him, before crouch-walking up the staircase, which looked weird. But cool. Scott went next, grinning to himself behind the helmet.

He half expected, when he walked off the edge, that he would fall off into space, but the gravity just flipped (which was a weird-ass experience) and before long they were facing the front of the building, and it made sense now why Loki was crouch-walking, because with Scott walking up like he owned the place, the guard by the door noticed him immediately. Oops.

"Hey! Stop right there!" the guard shouted at Scott, and pointed – wait, was that, like, an actual gun or a water pistol? – at him. "Who are you?"

Loki straightened up and spared Scott a single disapproving eyebrow before flicking his hand and the guard suddenly wasn't pointing it at them, but at himself, and then pulling the trigger. Scott gasped, because he thought for sure the dude was dead, but a load of electricity just came out the end and the dude dropped to the floor, with a bunch of sparks. What gun electrified people? And where could he get one?

"Scott, you're an idiot sometimes," Loki sighed, as Stephen and Wanda came to join them. He leant down to retrieve the dude's gun. "Hm. Basic."

"Sorry for my temporary idiot-ness," Scott apologised. "But at least you have a guard now." He was actually quite excited for this – Loki never really used his shapeshifting ability, except for a brief moment when he turned into him (which was weird).

"Gosh, this guy's got very bright hair," was Stephen's first remark. Honestly, Scott had been thinking that too. "Can't imagine you with bright green hair somehow."

"Nah, I think I'd look great," Loki said, and Scott didn't know whether to agree or not. "He's very emo, though."

"You should be emo," Wanda said. Everyone looked at her. "What? I think he'd be quite a good-looking emo."

Stephen studied the very concerned looking Loki. "Honestly, now you've said it, yes. He should definitely be emo."

"Wait, you really think so?" Loki asked, seriously.

"Well, I mean, you wear all black anyway," Scott shrugged. He didn't want to give away how happy he was now Wanda and Stephen had finally realised what he had realised literally the first day he ever met Loki. "But we should probably get on with this rather than discussing fashion choices."

"Good point," Wanda nodded. "Now you better work your magic, I guess."

Scott watched interestedly. The guard that had been knocked out was pretty much human-looking, thankfully, or it might have blown his mind had there been green Martians hanging around. Loki didn't change for a few seconds, his face screwed very slightly in concentration, but then suddenly he was an exact replica of the guard dude, even down to the uniform and the green hair.

"Holy crap," Scott breathed, amazed. "Nice hair."

"Thanks," Loki said, in his regular voice. He looked down at himself. "I don't like being short. I'm almost as short as you, Scott."

"Ha, share my pain," Scott grinned, standing as straight as possible to make the most of his five feet eight inches. Ironic though, since he could be 65 feet if he wanted to be.

"Wait, does this mean I'm actually taller than you now?" Stephen asked, smirking. "I like this."

"Shut up, I have time to find another guard yet," Loki sighed.

"Oh, honestly, guys, try actually being short," Wanda said, more amused than annoyed. "And anyway, you have your normal voice. Isn't that going to be a problem?"

"Believe it or not, I can mimic other people's voices quite well," Loki said, literally in Stephen's voice. Switching back to his own voice, he said, "For this dude, I just have to put on an American accent and I'll be good to go." It was only then when Scott realised his accent was actually British. As was Stephen's. How had he never realised that before?

Wanda nodded to herself, clearly psyching herself up for what they were about to do. And who she was about to see. "Well then. Let's go do this thing."