Book 4: Arcane [Thor]

Chapter 25

The escape of the three individuals from the Grandmaster's home had the entire guard armed to the teeth and ready to hunt them down. The ruler called for an audience with two individuals who had their hand in the melting pot as well: Loki and Scrapper 142. They marched into a room flaked by guards to face the Grandmaster on a floating platform. Topaz stood by him with the large staff in hand, while an army of servants and followers stood at his back awaiting an order.

"I'm upset," the man stated. "I'm very upset. You know what I like about being upset? The blame. And right now, that's the mindset that I'm in. And you know who I'm blaming?"

"Grandmaster, I can–" Loki spoke up.

"Hey! Hey! Don't interrupt me!"

"Here you go," Topaz said. The woman handed over the staff to the leader, who gave her a disbelieving look.

"Why are you handing me the melt stick? He was interrupting. That's not a capital violation."

She pulled the staff away, disappointed by the decision.

"Now where was I...? My precious champions have come up missing and it's all because of that Lord of Thunder. It's all because of him. Your brother," he pointed at Loki. "Whatever the story is. Adopted, or complicated. I'm sure there's a big history. And the contender that you sold me," he then pointed to the scrapper.

"My dear friend, if you were to give me twelve hours, I can bring them both back to you alive," the God of Mischief reasoned.

"I could do it in two," Scrapper 142 promised.

"I could do it in one."

"Let's stop there," the Grandmaster interrupted. "You know what? I woke up this morning thinking about a public execution. But for now, I'll settle for this sweet little, 'Who's gonna get him first?' game. So you're on the clock."

Scrapper 142 marched from the room, determined to find the fugitives in question. Loki bowed to the ruler before rushing after the female at her heels. Once the two of them were out of sight, he slid up alongside her.

"What have you done?" he questioned.

"I don't answer to you, lackey," Scrapper 142 answered.

"It's Loki." A hand shot out to grip her wrist tightly to pull them to a halt. "And you will answer to the Grandmaster."

She threw off the grip roughly, his other hand snapping out to grab her once more. The action was thrown off yet again, so the god went for the arms next. It resulted in a punch to the face that caused his head to snap back. It took everything in his power to hold his ground with a grunt.

The prince unsheathed a short sword, holding it towards the female. "Why would you help my brother and Arcane escape with that green fool?"

She removed her own thinner dagger to defend herself. "I don't help anyone."

Both of them engaged. Their movements were swift and fluid. Neither were afraid of close combat. They danced around each other, locking up and breaking through holds to try and gain the advantage of the other. One move pinned the scrapper's arm to his front and dragged the leather guard on the lower part of the arms down enough to reveal the tattoo underneath.

"You're a Valkyrie," Loki spoke with surprise.

The female disarmed him quickly to shove him off. Then before he had a chance to recover her boot slammed into the Asgardian's gut. His back hit the wall, hard, sliding to the ground.