Chapter 3
The two of them walked through the winding corridors to the repair and technical department in search of Ouroboros.
When they got there, they were greeted by the familiar sight of their friend Ouroboros working on something at his station. However, with him was Casey, whose presence the two of them had not expected.
"And now that I've recalibrated it, it should do the trick." - Ouroboros explained fiercely to Casey, still completely unaware that they were no longer alone.
"Hey, guys, we don't want to disturb you but we have something important to talk to you about." - Mobius said, thus attracting their attention.
The two who had just been leaning over one of the TemPads now turned sharply towards the entrance where Mobius and Loki were standing.
Casey and O.B stared with wide, surprised eyes at the couple standing in front of them. They clearly needed a moment to understand the unbelievable sight before them..
Ouroboros was the first to come to his senses and quickly crossed the distance between himself and them and hugged Loki, who automatically responded by wrapping his arms around the shorter man. It probably looked comical due to their size difference, but they didn't care.
Finally, O.B moved away from Loki and greeted them friendly with his usual happy expression - "Loki, Mobius, you don't even know how happy I am to see you. Especially you Loki, even with my knowledge I couldn't tell exactly what had happened to you it happened after you replaced Temporal Loom. You have to tell me everything about it."
Finally, Casey arrived late and hugged Loki as well. It surprised the god how often he had been hugged by his friends lately, but he honestly didn't complain about it.
"Good to see you both." - Casey said to Loki and Mobius as he also released the god's grip.
O.B on the other way was vibrating with excitement and questioning Loki - "What happened to you? How was it? Can I check your temporal aura?"
However, partly saving Loki from the multitude of questions , Mobius repeated that they needed help. Which calmed down Ouroboros enough for them to explain the situation to him. When they finally summarized Casey and O.B.'s story and the information they had gathered, the Ouroboros finally asked - "So how especially can I help you?"
The analyst looked at the god next to him, waiting for him to answer, because Loki had never once mentioned what he had seen in the warehouse on the way down here.
"In the warehouse, when I used something quite similar to the Heimdall sight, only one that reaches across the entire multiverse, I saw how one of the variants did not disappear like most of them once. He disappeared twice in this way, but I did not recognize him as one of the three who were conferring privately. "- He told.
"Okay, that sounds pretty suspicious." - Mobius commented.
Loki looked at him knowingly and then continued - "I thought we could track him down and try to find out more about how he's involved in this whole situation. The thing is, these variants can't know that TVA exists, and if we kidnap one of them, someone will finally notice it. We have to avoid it somehow and that's why we come to you O.B.”
“I know it's a lot to ask, but we need something that will prevent them from finding out about TVA. I'm not even talking about equipment, I know you have a lot of imagination, so I thought maybe you could come up with something.” - Loki said pleadingly.
O.B looked at them for a moment, lost in his own head, then grabbed the nearest piece of paper and pen and began furiously writing something, mumbling to himself.
Literally about a minute had passed when Ouroboros turned to them with a cheerful - "I got it!"
They both looked at each other in confusion, but accepted the pretty fast advice with a shrug.
"So? What did you come up with?" - Mobius asked, walking up to O.B to look at the paper he was writing on. However, he found only scribbles and writing that he couldn't read.
"Based on your temporal aura, I will create something that emits waves that make you impossible to detect." - O.B explained chaotically, already collecting the parts around.
"Is that all?" - Mobius asked.
"Well, of course, you still have to change your clothes so that no one will recognize you." - Added the scientist with his back turned to them.
Poor Casey stood on his side, terrified, looking at O.B in his element.
Loki when he figured out what O.B was doing and when he started mumbling that he needed an encoding chip like the ones they use in Tem Pads, Loki was able to find it and give it to him.
O.B looked at him, surprised that he knew what it was, but he accepted it without much questioning.
Mobius moved aside with Casey as Loki himself began to help O.B as he briefly mumbled explaining what he needed and how to do it.
The two on the side were staring at a couple with real ADHD patching something out of nothing.
After about twenty minutes, two bracelets were created between the two, intended to hide them from detection by other time travelers.
"Now we just need to test it." - Said O.B, as always, with a smile on his face.
Loki took both bracelets - "Don't worry about it. But I have one question?"
"Hmm?"
"If this works, do you think you'd be able to make more of them? It could give us a nice advantage against the upcoming threat." - Loki explained quickly.
Ouroboros's eyes lit up with excitement as he realized what Loki meant. - "Of course! I'll start even now, if it turns out that they don't work, we'll just have to make some corrections, not build everything from scratch." - He said - “Casey! Can you help me?"
"Of course." - Casey replied humbly, walking to O.B.'s side.
Soon the two were back in the same position Loki and Mobius had found them in.
"Let's go." - Loki called as he walked past Mobius.
When they walked back down the hall, Loki handed the man a bracelet and then put his own on.
"So where are we going?" - Mobius asked.
"Earth year 2317." - Loki replied as a forest green portal appeared in front of them again.
"You first, please." - Mobius said happily as he let Loki pass in front of him. Loki smiled at the gesture from his silly friend.
When they passed through the portal, they appeared on a very tall building.
It was now night and, surprisingly, there were stars above them. Downstairs there was the usual street noise familiar to cities like New York.
Loki walked to the edge, looking into the distance and letting the wind blow through his black hair.
"I haven't felt this for a long time..." - The god confessed to the man who joined him by his side.
"The smell of exhaust fumes? I don't think you have anything like that in Asgard." - Mobius joked, earning him a light punch on the shoulder.
In response, Mobius dramatically grabbed his arm and said - "Ouch, remember that I am only a weak and delicate man."
Loki just rolled his eyes - "I meant the wind. And you're calling me the drama queen?"
Mobius just laughed in response and then became serious after a moment.
"You missed this, didn't you?" - He also said, looking in the direction Loki was looking.
The god only glanced at the man next to him out of the corner of his eye, admiring how the lights of the billboards from the bottom of the buildings were reflected in Mobius's eyes. Then he swallowed and quickly looked away.
"...Yes, I missed it,… a lot actually" - He said - "Okay, but that's not why we're here, we should change into something less prominent and look for an variants." - He added, looking significantly at their clothes. Or more specifically, clothes that belonged to Mobius.
"I'll leave that to you, pussycat. You have better knowledge of what they wear here, god spying on the entire multiverse." - Mobius teased.
"Stop." - Loki laughed. - "You're just jealous that now I can spy on you and not you on me, anymore."
"Yes? What did you see there?"
Loki blushed furiously, remembering the moments he later scolded himself for watching them. - "N-nothing."
Mobius laughed at the furious blush on Loki's face, completely unfazed by it. His job also made him watch some 'interesting' moments from other people's lives.
Suddenly something below caught Mobius's attention.
"Oh look, they have a cafe there." - He said as his eyes sparkled.
Loki, quickly forgetting his embarrassment, looked at café and then at him with amusement. - "We are here on a mission." - He said to the man next to him.
"Yes, yes, come on, let's just make a quick stop." - Mobius said, already pulling Loki from the edge to go down.
Loki, defeated and unable to resist Mobius' enthusiasm, especially after seeing how the man behaved in his absence, allowed himself to be dragged to the café downstairs.
Of course, before they left the roof, Loki changed their clothes into something more appropriate to the surroundings.
His clothes were a mixture of black and green, which he loved, but he dressed Mobius in blue and silver. After some thought, Loki decided that he would have to experiment with Mobius' wardrobe and definitely add a lot of blue color there, because this color really suited his friend.
To Loki's amusement, the man didn't even notice when his clothes changed under the influence of Loki's seidr. His goal was apparently to take the god to a café, probably to try to force him into some earthly sweets again.
When they got there, the cafe was still open, but that was to be expected since the city was still bustling with activity even though it was the middle of the night.
The man dragged Loki to one of the tables and told him to wait until he returned with something to eat worthy of a god (as he put it).
Loki simply sat in the chair, looking around at his surroundings.
Everything around looked quite normal, people were sitting at their tables in different groups. Although he had to admit that the style of clothes and hairstyles was different from the one he saw in 2012.
"People have really colorful hairstyles these days" - Thought Loki, looking at one girl with braids in various shades of pink.
His thoughts about the people around him were interrupted by Mobius who returned with a tray of drinks and cakes for them. He had that proud smirk plastered on his face.
Loki only took a look when the cake was placed in front of him.
"What have you come up with again?" - He asked, amused.
"Unfortunately, they didn't have lime cake, but I got a lemon tart and coffee for myself, and an apple pie and a smoothie for you. I'm sure you'll finally like something." - Mobius said, completely convinced that he was right.
Loki simply gave up, not wanting to spoil the other man's mood, and took a piece of apple pie on his fork. After the first bite, Loki could tell that it was not an Asgardian cake, because it was incredibly sweet with a hint of cinnamon.
Loki swallowed this piece with difficulty. He has always been picky about food...
Loki seriously put his fork on the plate and pushed the cake away from him - "Yes, I'd rather watch you eat the cake."
Mobius looked at him with disbelief in his eyes - "Oh come on, you don't like it?"
"If I try to eat more of this, I'll choke on all that cinnamon." - He said completely seriously.
Mobius just raised his hands in defeat - "Then try the smoothie, it's the only thing I can think of right now that you might like." - He said, biting into his lemon tart.
Loki only looked with slight suspicion at the strange drink that Mobius had brought him.
He smelled it and looked at it closely. The texture of this drink seemed strange to him.
Trying to talk himself out of drinking this strange concoction, Loki asked - "Why do you always make me go out to eat different things? I haven't seen you do it with anyone else." - Honestly Loki was curious about the man in front of him's answer because it seemed a bit strange to Loki.
For example, his brother loved going to taverns back in Asgard, but he always took his friends and sometimes Loki with him. He also did this with hunting trips or 'great adventures'. That's why it seemed strange to the dark-haired man that Mobius was taking only him anywhere, after all, he had so many other friends!
Mobius froze for a moment after this question, and then, looking at the plate in front of him, he replied - "I just like spending time with you..."
"..I like spending time with you too." - Loki said quickly so that the man wouldn't think otherwise - "But you don't do it with our other friends, why?" -He asked, catching himself saying 'Ours', it still sounded foreign to him, but he liked the way it sounded.
Mobius glanced at him - "Because I like spending this time together, just the two of us." - He knew that it might seem strange to Loki, because he was never anyone's first choice in company. However, he was for Mobius. And he honestly had to admit that he really cared about the person in front of him. God or no god, Jotun or Aesir, it didn't matter to him, because this Loki was 'his Loki'. And Mobius would give his life to keep him safe and sound.
Truly, the analyst had no idea when he started thinking about Loki this way, it came so naturally to him that he didn't really notice it.
Moreover, how could anyone not want to be in his company? After all, he is so clever, mischievous and intelligent. And sometimes he has that twinkle of happiness in his eye and that smile on his face that leaves Mobius speechless.
However, seeing that he was straying off track again, the man focused on the god in front of him again. And he saw that Loki still hadn't even tried a sip of the smoothie.
“Specially for him, I asked for one that wouldn't be too sweet!” - Mobius was slightly outraged in his thoughts.
"Drink it, it won't bite you." - Mobius encouraged, seeing Lokis hesitation.
Loki sighed in defeat at not being able to escape this and he took a small, hesitant sip of the drink, and surprisingly...he liked it.
It wasn't too sweet, but it was very fruity and the sweetness from there was natural. Without any Midgardian inventions.
Loki took another few sips of the good drink when he suddenly noticed his friend staring at him with a big smile.
"What?" - He asked after a moment, after swallowing.
"You like it."
"…I tolerate it, it's not that bad." - Loki replied, continuing to sip his smoothie. Ignoring the goofy smile of the man on the other side.
When they finally finished and paid for their meal, they walked out onto a rather busy city street.
They walked side by side along the sidewalk, looking around.
"So where should we start? Are we looking for something specific or should we just keep an eye out for Kang?" - Mobius asked.
"I still haven't fully mastered using this sight when I'm in the timeline. I think for now, keep an eye out for something that seems suspiciously, there is a possibility that we'll find something that will lead us to this variant." - Loki explained with slight remorse.
"Okay, and Loki?" - He turned the god's attention to himself. - "No one expects you to suddenly be able to use all your new powers, okay? Don't beat yourself up over the fact that you can't do something yet."
Loki looked at Mobius with slight emotion on his face and nodded slightly, showing that he understood what the man meant.
After that, they both went back to looking for any anomalies in their surroundings.
After a dozen or so minutes of walking, Loki's eye suddenly caught the man across the street. He was dressed rather unusually for this time. He wore a black hat and a long dark coat.
He clearly carried a large briefcase in his hands.
The man moved quite quickly and looked around nervously until he suddenly ducked into one of the dark side alleys where the light from the street lamp did not reach.
Loki took this as a rather suspicious sign and grabbed Mobius by the forearm and dragged him along as he ran across the street towards this mysterious man.
Suddenly, honking honked in their direction as they ran in front of what could only look like a delivery truck.
Mobius protested slightly, clearly confused by his partner's sudden change in behavior.
Once they were on the other side of the street, Loki released the man's forearm and made a clear signal with his eyes to the shady street in front of them.
Mobius, without needing any explanation, grabbed the time-slowing baton he had hidden on his belt and nodded knowingly to Loki.
Together they moved forward into the shady alley. Loki more from the front, and Mobius from the back, looking behind them to make sure that someone wouldn't surprise them from behind.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, tiny pieces of rubble fell from above and rolled at the feet of Loki and Mobius. They both immediately noticed them and then looked up. A figure was clearly visible on the roof of the building.
The men looked at each other and in silent agreement Loki teleported them to the top of the building.
Their sudden appearance surprised the two Kang variants who were tinkering with some strange machine.
Taking them by surprise, Loki immediately used seidr, shooting one of them in the chest, it happened to be the variant they were chasing earlier. Which caused this variant to roll to the other end of the roof.
However, the latter was still near this machine and quickly realized the seriousness of the situation and in a desperate move he fired a beam from this invention. It was something like a cannon, but there were a lot of other parts that, with a quick glance, Loki couldn't tell what it was for.
The first shot was aimed at Loki, who quickly dodged. Mobius, seeing that someone was attacking his partner, quickly sneaked up on this variant and hit him with a baton to slow down him.
The variant that had been pushed to the edge of the roof earlier got up and attacked Loki from behind, who was able to quickly throw him off of him and hit him unconscious on the cold concrete of the roof. However, this moment was enough for the machine to recharge and be ready to fire again. Loki, seeing this, fired a bolt of magic, this time hitting the machine and turning it off. At the same time, Mobius struck the variant that was operating this strange machine, knocking him off the road and then used a time-slowing baton on the machine.
When both variants were stopped, Loki and Mobius looked at each other with victorious smiles.
"It was almost too easy." - Loki smiled in his usual princely way.
Mobius was about to give a retort to 'Prince Loki', but at that moment the machine the two Kangs were working on began to smoke dangerously and make strange noises.
Mobius slightly worried about this - "It's probably not supposed to do that." - He said and was about to move away to a safe distance when the machine came to life again and started shooting in all directions.
They both immediately ducked down, avoiding the shots.
Loki quickly protected himself with a shield that deflected the blasts and quickly moved towards his friend when one of the blasts hit Mobius in the chest, throwing him off the roof.
It was only seconds or an eternity as far as Loki was concerned. One moment everything was fine and the next he had to watch his partner get hit by a blue beam of light and fall off the roof.
"Mobius!!!" - Loki screamed, rushing to try and catch him. However, when he reached the end of the building, the man he cared about was already lying below the building.
Somewhere behind him the damn thing finally stopped working.
Loki, regardless of anything else that was happening around him, quickly teleported to the bottom of the building and ran to the unconscious man.
Mobius skin glowed like when he entered the Temporal Loom in that stupid suit, but this time it glowed blue.
Blood flowed from his nose, but what terrified Loki the most was that the man did not respond and remained unconscious.
Loki shook the man's shoulder, terrified, trying to wake him up.
"Mobius!! Wake up! Come on, open your eyes!" - He repeated.
Unable to get contact with Mobius, he panicked and took out his TemPad and immediately connected with Bea.
"We need backup! I repeat! We need backup! Agent Mobius is injured!"