Home | Loki [Book Two]

Chapter Sixteen

Loki and I stood by the window to watch as Thor's stolen ship attempted to avoid the small fleet of defensive ships. 

"Why isn't he firing back?" Loki asked. 

"The Commodore doesn't have a weapons system," I realized. 

"We should get out there and help," he said.

"No." I stopped him. "Valkyrie will make sure they get back to Asgard. We stick to the plan."

He hesitated. 

"They'll make it," I assured him.

He nodded. "We should probably get ready to go, then."

We surveyed the possible ships, eventually deciding on a huge ship, labeled only as the Grandmaster's Supercruiser. 

"Will this be able to make it to Asgard?" Loki asked. 

"No," I said. 

"Then why did we choose it?"

"Because it's the only thing that can house all of Asgard if worst comes to worst."

"It won't be able to do that if it never gets to Asgard."

"I'll get it there."

At that moment, the Kronan from before shattered the door to the garage with nearly a hundred gladiators following him. 

"Hey man," he said. "I'm Korg; this is Miek. We're about to jump on that spaceship and get out of here. Wanna come?"

"You do seem like you're in desperate need of leadership," Loki said. 

"Why, thank you."

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, let's go."

Loki and I, along with the gladiators, boarded the ship. I ran to the closest thing it had to a cockpit and punched in a few commands. 

"Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?" Loki asked. 

"How hard can it be?" When he glared at me, I grew serious. "I know how to teleport us, so I only have to fly it for a little while."

"It's impossible to teleport that far with this many people."

"I'm pretty sure that I can sort of bend space to do this. It's different from the way we teleport, but it works sort of the same way, from the few times I've experimented."

"Well, good luck," he said. 

"Is everyone good to go back there?" I shouted to the passengers. When general sounds of confirmation answered me, I took that as my cue to leave. 

As the engines fired up, a sort of blue-gray portal-looking mist surrounded the ship. A few seconds later, Asgard came into view, replacing the blue color. 

"It worked," I breathed. 

"How'd you do that?" Loki asked. 

"I--" I was about to explain when I noticed a huge army appear far below on the Rainbow Bridge. "Hela. She's here."

"Already? What about Thor and the others?"

"I would assume the bright orange spaceship sitting on top of the palace is their's." I turned back to the crew. "Ready to save the world?"

"Probably not," Korg responded cheerfully, "but we'll try anyway."

"That's the spirit." I looked back at Loki and smiled. "I think they need a leader."

"Indeed they do," he said, returning my smile and kissing me quickly. "I'll talk to you after the battle. I love you."

"'Love you, too," I said, then began maneuvering the ship down as Loki made his way to the back of the ship with the rest. It was trickier to fly the clunky scrap metal than I had expected, but I figured it out eventually. The fog gave me more trouble than I had hoped for, but I managed to get us through without breaking anything important.

"Your savior is here!" I heard Loki shout as we flew down to the Asgardian people huddled in the center of the city.

I shook my head but smiled faintly. Always one for the dramatic, I thought.

By the time I made it out to the boarding ramp, the gladiators were already off the ship and making a circle around the people to protect them. 

The people slightly recoiled in fear and watched with curiosity when I came out of the shadow of the ship. I hadn't necessarily caused them pain in the past, but they knew I could.

"Why do your eyes look like a kaleidoscope?" a girl too young to have known much fear asked. 

I bent down so I could look at her from her height. "I'm a superhero," I said. 

"What's a superhero?"

"A superhero is someone who helps people all they can."

"Can I be a superhero?"

"Sure. Every superhero has to start somewhere. I don't see why you couldn't start now."

"Awesome." She giggled and hugged me.

I caught Loki's eye over the girl's shoulder and he smiled at me. 

"Run along," I said to her. I stood up, brushed the dirt off the hem of my dress, and joined Loki at his side at the front lines. 

"How long until she gets here?" Thor asked. 

"Not as long as we hoped for," I said. "Is everyone ready?"

"As ready as they'll ever be to face the goddess of Death."

I replaced my green dress with an outfit more fitting for battle and took Loki's hand. "In that case, let the battle begin."