Endless Mischief

Loki knew exactly what to do this loop. The Idea had formed the moment he woke up in his cell on Asgard. He would save Mother this time. He needed a way out of his cell, preferably one that wasn’t suspicious, in case he managed to get released this time (Which he highly doubted). Well, it would be easiest to get Odin‘s Attention. Well, screw not suspicious then, but whatever. So, knowing that the Guards would not let him meet the All father, he turned to the Gatekeeper.

„Heimdall“, he said quietly, making sure none of the guards heard him. „I don’t suppose you could deliver a Message to the All father?“ No answer, but Loki was sure Heimdall heard him just fine. „I would love to do so myself, but I have my doubts he will come to visit soon. Tell him“, he paused for a second, considering his options and then grinned. „Tell him I know about Hela Odinsdottir.“ Again no reaction, but Loki expected that much.

He sat down. This would probably take its time, but Loki could be patient. After all, he had nothing but time. Infinite Time.

———

It takes Odin exactly 1 Day, 5 Hours and 14 Minutes to visit his „son“. Yes he had been counting.

There he stood, Gungnir firm in his grip, his eyes cold as always. He looked every bit the ruler he was made out to be.

„Leave us.“, Odin ordered the guards, who ,on his command, hurried away . There was silence for a moment, then Odin spoke again.

„How do you know of Hela? If you intend to use this Information to be freed, I advise you to think of something better.“

„Actually, I do not intend to do anything with this Information. It‘s not something I want to deal with.“ Not for the-what twelfth? time. „I just started with something that I knew would draw your attention, so you would hear out the rest.“ he explained.

„Well, you did succeed. Talk, for this is the last time we will in a long time.“ Loki just smirked at that. The same words every time…

„The Dark Elves are still alive.“, he simply says. Odin narrows his eyes at him, though obviously surprised at the statement.

„That is untrue. My Father killed all of them.“, Odin says and Loki smiles at him.

„And that’s where you‘re wrong.“, Odin looked at him like he just explained that cats started a war. Which he actually had one loop. It had been fun, and the faces of the SHIELD Agents had been priceless. He bites his Tongue to stop the chuckle that came up at the memory. It wouldn’t really help his case.

“You speak lies, the Dark Elves are long dead.”, Odin spoke with the slightest bit of annoyance present in his voice.

“They are not.”, Loki insisted, a hint of frustration slipped into his voice too. “Malekith lives, same as some of his followers. They. Will. attack.” Odin’s cold expression did not waver, but the slightest bit of annoyance was visible in his eyes.

Loki took a breath. Angering him wouldn’t get him anywhere. Besides, He had known that the old man would be stubborn.

“Even if you are telling the truth, why would they attack now?”

“The Convergence.”, Loki said. “ And The Aether too.” He couldn’t say more, it would simply be to suspicious. If he wanted this to work, then he needed Odin’s- well trust is not really the right word… support fits better.

“I don’t remember my son to be a seer.”, Odin said, again no emotion in his gaze.

“My apologies to disappoint you, but I am not.”, Loki said-mocked.

“Then how would you know this, Loki?”

“Because I saw them when I fell through the Void!”, Loki snapped at Odin. It was a lie, but it was one that made the most sense.

“Did you?”, he questioned and Loki was really starting to loose his patience. With anyone else he could hold it up just fine, there were enough loops to prove that. But he knew what to expect when talking to anyone else, since he had talked with them over and over again. But he hadn’t talked with Odin for at least 200 Loops, and even then, the last Conversation with him he had was his sentence to rot in his cell forever. Odin also was unreasonably good at surprising Loki. And he did not have the patience for his games right now.

“Yes All father, I did.”, he insisted. Odin looked at him, then he turned.

“Goodbye, Loki” And then he was gone and the Guards came back.

Loki stepped back from the Boarder and turned his back to it. A wave of green energy threw over the things in the cell.

***

(Murder Mystery you say? Part: 1)

The Tesseract started spinning. Everyone looked at it with alarm. It rotated faster and faster, until it let out a blue beam of energy, opening a Portal, which kept getting bigger. Suddenly it collapsed and a bright, blue shockwave was sent out. Fury used his arm to cover his eyes from the brightness while his other hand slid to his weapon.

A man had appeared, black hair and a spear in his hand. Everyone in the room immediately raised his weapon at him, but the mans only reaction was a twitch of his eye.

“Sir, please put down the spear.”, Fury said. The man smiled.

“No.”

“Put down the-”,Fury started, but the man interrupted him.

“I won’t, Director Fury. I do, however, not plan to use it either, as long as you cooperate.”

“That won’t do. Put. It. Down.”, he commanded, but the man only tightened his grip around it as to make a point.

“I said I won’t use it as long as you cooperate, but if you continue I will feel myself forced to use it.” Fury narrowed his eyes.

“Fine, what do you want?”, he gave in, still eyeing the man suspiciously, who’s smile looked more than a little bit insane.

“What do you think of murder mysteries?”

——————————-

“So let me repeat that. You called us, the avengers, even though the Idea should be discarded, to play a murder mystery with the you. And it’s a test to see if said discarded idea could work after all?”, Tony concluded and stared at Fury with disbelief.

“Yes.”, the man simply answered. “It was designed with the purpose of testing if all of you can work together as a team or if it’s completely hopeless.”

“That’s all nice, but why am I here?”, Coulson, who stood at the end of the group, spoke up. Fury looked him dead in the eye.

“The Person who designed the test insisted you should be here.”, Fury explained shortly.

“And why am I here?”,the blonde guy in armour with hammer asked. “I only came because Heimdall saw my Brother appear here on Midgard, not for some…game.”

“Yes, well, your Brother is the reason we are doing this game. He stole the Tesseract and now we need to test if you can work together to get it back.”, Fury snapped and the the blonde guy tensed up a bit before nodding.

“Fine, I agree to play this game then.”, he said and Fury seemed a bit relieved at that. Wow, the guy who stole the Tesseract was really something then, hm? Tony had no Idea how a Murder Mystery was supposed to test their team abilities, but okay.

“Good, now Introduce yourself to each other while I get the Papers with your roles.”, Fury said and then left the room. Tony turned to the other people in the room.

—————

“I’m back.”, Fury announced himself to the room, interrupting a discussion between Tony and Bruce, which honestly, the man was amazing, he’ll invite him to live in the Stark Tower after this! “Here are your roles.”, the man said and handed each of them a paper with Information. Tony read over his own quickly.

The whole thing took place in a small, really small, hotel in the middle of nowhere, where Tony himself was stopping by on his way to somewhere else for a night. He was a detective, a good one at that, and his Assistant, Agent Coulson of all people, was helping him in multiple cases, apparently working under him to become a great detective himself too. The paper also told him he had 24 Hours to get the case done before he has to leave the hotel because he only booked one night.

So he was going to be the main Investigator here?

The others had finished reading by now and he noticed Barton and Rogers glancing at each other and then at Fury.

“Come on, we’ll go to the location now.”

——————

The Hotel was indeed very small. It consisted of a small Lobby, which also functioned as Party room, if the bar was anything to go by. There we’re 9 Rooms in total, spread around 2 Floors and a Elevator to reach said Floors, though there were stairs too. They were shown their rooms by what could only be Shield agents in disguise and then just followed the instructions on their papers of what to do the hours before the ‘murder’. For Tony it literally said do whatever the fuck you want but don’t leave your room before the murder happens. That means he has 2 Hours of free time!

He pulled out his phone and proceeded to watch vines and memes.

——————

The probably fakest scream he had ever heard, it sounded suspiciously like Barton, echoed through the building and Tony immediately made a beeline for the Elevator while mentally preparing himself for his part as the detective. The Door opened with a ‘bing’ and Tony stepped out immediately, taking in the situation.

Fury was laying on the floor, and honestly his acting skills were amazing, as he looked really dead, next to him a shattered glass and a white fluid on his mouth. Poison.

Natasha was standing next to him, her hands over her mouth, he mentally applauded her acting skills and wondered if it was a spy thing.

The Idea was discarded as he looked at Barton, who was…yeah he was a bad actor. A really bad actor.

Rogers was standing next to him, his acting wasn’t any better though and Tony mentally sighed. Like, this was the guy his old man had been so obsessed with?

Thor was standing a few steps away from Furys Corpse. Tony had never seen anyone with worse acting skills. That was all to be said.

Bruce looked shocked, like cliche-fake shocked.

There was a ding behind him and Coulson appeared out of the Elevator, glancing around the room the same way Tony had. At least his ‘Assistant’ was a good actor. Looked like it was a spy thing after all and Barton was just terrible at acting.

“No one leaves the room. Coulson make sure they don’t. All of you, stand back from the victim.”, Tony commanded, trying and succeeding in sounding like the detectives in movies always did. Everyones attention shifted from the Fury to him.

“Who the fuck are you to tell us what to do!?”, Natasha accused and Tony was thrown of for a because she was one hell of an actor.

“A detective, and a damn good one if I may so myself, so step back from the Body and let me do my job.”, he said. Natasha hesitated and then nodded and stepped back. Tony walked over to the Body and inspected it further.

There was the obvious white fluid around his mouth, nothing else. No bruises, cuts or anything, only the white stuff. He was obviously poisoned and Tony moved onto the shattered glass next to him. Whatever had been in it, probably poisoned alcohol, had soaked into the carpet.

He stood up and turned to the nervous/terrified people watching him.

“So, look’s like I’ll have to question all of you!”, he announced and Barton and Rogers had the decency to look offended.

“Why would I kill him?”, Rogers said at the same time Barton said: “It wasn’t me.” Tony only rolled his eyes.

“I decide who in the room is a killer.”,he clarified and then turned to Coulson.

“Coulson, make sure none of them leave or touch anything while I question them.” Coulson nodded and Tony turned to the other people in the room.

“You first”, he pointed at Bruce.

“Me?”, he sputtered and Tony rolled his eyes.

“Don’t worry, you’re not any more suspicious than everyone else, I just randomly pointed at someone.”, he assured and Bruce let out a sigh of relief. Tony opened to the door to the kitchen, because it was close by and better than the Broom Closet. Bruce followed him inside without any further complaints. Tony snatched himself a chair and gestured for Bruce to take a seat.

“So, your name, association with the victim, your opinion on him and alibi for the moment of the Death. Oh and everything you noticed too.”

“W-Well, I’m Doctor Bruce Banner and I’m a therapist, I am-or was- currently privately working for Fury as he has shown…violent tendencies, which have been getting worse over the past few months, so I was following him basically everywhere in case, y’know.”, Bruce said. “My relationship to him…He was an annoying patient, rude, violent, but I’ve had multiple of those and after a while we got along pretty well i guess…” Tony wrote that down.

“Alright…Did you notice anything strange? And what were you doing at the party? I’m right assuming it was one? Oh and could you please describe what exactly happened?”, Tony questioned.

“Yeah, you’re right it was a Party, for Furys Birthday. I erm , I was talking to Thor, Fury’s Bodyguard when I suddenly heard a thump. Fury had fallen to the ground and was shaking and twitching for a few seconds, then he just…died.” Tony wrote that down too.

“Alright, thank you. You can go now, send me in someone you think has a motive or was close by to see what happened.” Bruce stood up and nodded.

“I’ll do that…”, he said as he walked out the door.

A few moments later Natasha entered the room and sat down on the chair Bruce had sat mere moments ago.

“Alright, your name-“,

“I didn’t do it.”, she interrupted him.

“I’ll decide that. Now, your name, your association with Fury, your opinion on him, what you were doing and the events out of your perspective.”

“Natasha Romanoff, I’m his Business Partner and a good friend of his.”, she introduced herself. “I was just chatting with him when he got his drink brought. Fury only sipped on it once and fell down a few seconds later. He twitched and shook until he died.”, she explained. Tony wrote that down. Business Partner we’re always suspicious.

“Does his Death somehow help your Business? Or you personally?”, he asks and Natasha glared at him.

“Yes, actually. We we’re CEO’S together and split the money. Now that he’s dead I’ll get all of it, but I don’t need more money. I have enough.”, she insists. He still writes it down, but he doubts it was her.

“Alright then, Red. Send in someone you think is suspicious.”, he says and if glares could kill he would be dead now.
Moments later Rogers enters. GrEaT.

“Alright, i’m gonna need your association with Fury, your opinion on him and what you we’re doing at the party.”, he repeats, leaving out names, because really that was more politeness than anything else and Rogers didn’t deserve his politeness.

“I’m his…son.”, Rogers says slowly and it looks like that sentence physically hurt him. Tony can completely understand why. “He was, well, a good… father and we got along really well. He was violent and easy to anger, but never to me and my… brother or his close friends.”

“Alright… And what we’re you doing when Fury died?”

“I was talking to my…Brother Clint when it happened. Though he went to the Toilet a few minutes before Fury died.”, Rogers says and the glances between the both of them he had noticed a few hours ago made sense now. And to the Toilet?

“Alright. Please send me your Brother next.”

“I will do that…”, Rogers says as he stands up and hurried out the door. Moments later Barton entered and sat down.

“Your association with Fury, your Opinion on him and what you we’re doing at the party.”, Tony asks again.

“I’m his…son. I was talking to my Brother when it happened.”, Barton says.

“Rogers says you were on the toilet a few minutes before it happened?”

“Yeah, I guess.”, he says, then: “ But that doesn’t mean it was me!”

“Yeah, sure, we’ll see. Alright, send in Thor please.”, Tony says and gestures for the door. Barton just glares at him and leaves.
Thor entered after a bit and he looked so lost on what to do that Tony almost let out a laugh. Almost. He wouldn’t want to anger an Alien God Prince.

“Alright, your Opinion on Fury and what you we’re doing when he died.”, he asks again. Having to ask everyone the same stuff was boring. Really boring.

“He was an…my paper said I think he’s an Asshole?. So I think he’s an Asshole.”, Tony couldn’t quite stop the snort that escaped him at that. “And I was talking with Banner.”

“Why did you work for him if he’s an Asshole?”, Tony asks.

“Money.”, Thor says and Tony makes an ‘o’ shape with his mouth and writes it down.

“Say, you’re his Bodyguard, right? What happens if he dies? Do you just loose your job?”, he asks and Thor shakes his head.

“I’d have to work for his Children instead.” Interesting.

“Alright. One more thing. Could you show me the Camera Footage?”

***

Loki blinked at the ceiling. It was moving! It moved very very much actually! It wins around itself and changes it size, making figures. It was like a show! He tears his eyes off the Beautiful dance and looks around. There was a chair next him. And Someone sat on the Chair. He squeezed his eyes…It’s Thor! And he was talking too-he squeezed his eyes again-…Stark! And there we’re more people There! He has to tell them about the Ceiling shows!

“The Ceiling makes good shows.”, he tells them. “They’r very pretty.” Someone moves but Loki doesn’t look who it is, instead staring at the ceiling again.

“..Is he high?”, he heard…Stark say. Was he high? He did feel very light…Like the floating ball things.

“Maybe. I had to give him loads of pain medication, but I don’t know enough about his biology to know if it’s enough to make him high.”, that was Banner! He should tell him he feels very high.

“I feel very high. Very, very light!”, he says and he hears Stark groan.

“Yeah, definitely high.”, he says.“But that’s good, it’ll be easier to find out what happened to him.”, Tony then says.

„Loki?“,Thor asks and Loki turns to him.

“Mhm?”

“What happened to you?”, he asks. Loki thinks. A fuzzy memory.

“uh, Fell?” No thats’s not it. “Uh” AH! “No, Jumped!”, he says and there are sharp intakes of air around him. He feels a lot like air right now. Very light. Maybe he’ll fly away? Or will he get sucked up like the other air? That’ll hurt.

“…Why?”,someone asks. Not Thor. Stark! When did he get next to him? OH he should answer!

“Wanted t’ reset.”, he says. He’s getting heavy. Being light was nicer. But at least he won’t get breathed in now!

“Reset?”, someone says. It’s a she. Ah! Natasha!

“Y’s. Mess’d up. Need’d new try.”, he explains.

“Messed up? How did you mess up?”, she asks.

“Don’t rememb’r”, he only knows he did something wrong and needed a new loop. Then he groans.

“What is it?”, Banner asked.

“You s’ved me. I’ll h’ve to do it ag’n.”, he mumbles. He startles when a big hand clutched his own. It feels like Thors.

“No. Loki don’t do that again. It’ll be fine. You don’t have to do that again.”, Thor promises.

“K’ay.”, he says. If it’s to calm Thor down then he won’t jump this time. Or did Thor mean the resets? “C’nt stop reseting th’gh.”, he adds. Just to be sure.

“Reseting?”

“Y’h. It always happ’ns. Somet’mes I’m friends with you. But then it’ll res’t and y’ll hate me aga’n.”

“…Does he means arguments?”, Stark asks someone else.

“Maybe, I don’t know what else he could mean.” Ohhh that’s Rogers! ”But we don’t hate him after fighting.”

“But he could think that…”, Clint says quietly. He doesn’t hear the other parts of the conversation. His head is getting heavier. Loki rests his head on the pillow. It’s very fluffy. Really, Really, Really, very fluffy. Very comfortable. Better than where he starts most loops. He closes his eyes.

“T’e Pillow is n’ce.”, he says.

“ That’s good. Oh- Loki wait, before you sleep, I have a few questions.”, Banner says and Loki forces his eyes open again. Questions are very important. He hopes they’re fast though. He’s very tired.

“Mm’h?”

“Do you think we…hate you..after we argue?”, he asks.

“Dunno. You alr’dy hate me m’st times. A’d I alw’ys reset when you d’dn’t so I don’t know if you h’te me aga’n.”

“Loki, we don’t hate you. And we won’t just because of a fight.”, Natasha says as a-matter-of-factly. ”Why do you think we do?”

“N’w York m’stly.”, he explains in a are-you-dumb-way.

“Loki that wasn’t you.”, Thor says. “That was whoever send you. Not you.”

“B’t I alm’st nev’r tell you. So you always h’te me.”, he slurs and closes his eyes again. “‘M t’red…”, he mumbles. “ ‘Re we d’ne?”

“That-!“, Thor started but Banner interrupts him. “Yes-yes. you can sleep now.” Loki sighes in relief.

“Th’ks…G’dn’ght.”, he whispers, then he falls asleep.

***

„Why, Loki? Why would you do this?!“, Thor asks for the millionth time.

„I wanted Midgards Hotdogs.“, he says, just to see his brothers face. Thors face shifted from anger and grief to confusion, then disbelief and lastly to understanding. Okay He could understand the first four, but why understanding?!?

“I understand, Loki. Midgardian food is certainly something to take it over for!”, Thor says and Loki barely manages to hide his flabbergastion behind a mask of calm. Over five thousand loops and Thor still managed to absolutely be absolutely unpredictable with the most random things. Really, Loki could predict his every move in a fight, but not his Reaction towards the most random things!

“If you understand then you can certainly agree with my actions and will not longer try to stop me.” Thor shakes his head at that.

“I cannot agree with your actions, but if you stop this madness now, I swear I will give you a Hotdog.”, Thor proposes. Loki was fairly certain this was a trap. He didn‘t care.

„You swear?“

„If you close the portal, I swear I will get you one.“, Thor promises. Loki shrugs and slowly hands over the sceptre to his brother, who
takes it with obvious surprise on his face. He probably didn’t think this would work.

“Deal.”, he says. “But it better be the best Hotdog of the whole fucking universe.”

***

“Sir, please put down the spear.”, Fury says, hand on his gun. The man looked at him, at the spear, back at him and at the Spear again, before dropping it on the floor while muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “It’s not a spear.” Fury was more surprised he actually listened.

“Should I remove my other weapons at well?”, the man then asked.

“That would be good, yes.”, Fury said, despite not having any Idea where he could have any weapons on him, as none we’re visible.

The man nodded and fiddled with something at his boot, pulling out a small dagger before dropping it on the floor and proceeding to do the same thing on his other boot. He then pulled out another one out of his sleeve. And another one out of the same sleeve. And another one. And Another one. And another one. He repeated the action with his other sleeve and Fury could practically hear the other Agents gape at the man as he pulled out one from somewhere around his shoulder and another one and another one.

That continued for the next five minutes and everyones jar basically dropped to the floor when the man just kept going. How many Daggers did he have?! It continued another minute, Then he finally held up his hands in surrender. At the man’s feet was laying a whole weaponry at this point. Only that it was only a weaponry of knifes, daggers, small swords and the spear.

“Holy shit.”, he heard Barton whisper behind him. Fury silently agreed with him.

“Who are you?”, Fury asked, getting back to his job. The man shrugged.

“Does it matter?”, he asks with something like boredom.

“Yes, it does matter.”

“If you say so. My name is Loki. Loki of Asgard.”, he said and Fury tensed. Great, another god.

“Loki? Brother of Thor?”, Selvig asks and Loki nods.

“Sadly, yes. That oaf is my brother.”, he says, and while Loki looks annoyed, Fury can hear the hidden fondness in his voice. So they got along well? Fury just hoped he wasn’t too much like his Brother. Thor had been a handful.

Despite apparently being the god of Mischief, Loki was cooperative. Sure, he danced around questions, but he followed their orders and didn’t destroy anything or kill anyone, so Fury counted that as a win. After a bit of arguing on Selvigs side, who said that Loki couldn’t be trusted, it was decided to interrogate him. And fury then decided to do it personally, which is how he ended up sitting on a metal chair, on a metal table, with the God of Mischief at the other side of it, who seemed to be somewhere between amused and bored.

“So, Loki, what brings you to earth?”, he starts and Loki shrugs.

“Someone send me here, but I don’t feel like taking over a planet for him.”, Loki says so very casually as if they we’re talking about the weather. Fury tenses. Loki is of asgard. If he was send here by Asgard to take over Earth…

“Take over…Earth.”, he stated and made it sound like a question.

“Correct. He sent me here to do that and steal the Tesseract for him, but like I said, I don’t have any Interest in doing that.”, Loki repeats.

“He?”, Fury asks and Fury can swear he sees the Gods eyes get a bit dark.

“Not the Allfather, for your Information. I haven’t been on Asgard since Thor last left this planet the last time he visited, which was the destruction of that city.”, Loki says and Fury lets out a sigh of relief in the privacy in his mind. But Loki dodged the question.

“You weren’t on Asgard since then?”, Fury asks, because he has a feeling Loki wouldn’t tell him who send him.

“No. Asgard believes me dead.”, he states. “From their side I…fell-“ Fury had a feeling Loki didn’t fall “-of the Bifröst when it was destroyed, which is why he hasn’t come back yet.”, he explains and then adds: “The Bifröst is the only way to travel between worlds.”

Asgard thinks Loki is dead. Loki was thrown(?) off the Bifröst and now send to take over Earth for someone.

“Where did you fall to?”, Fury asks and Loki sits up a bit straighter.

“The Void. It’s…nothing.”, Loki says and fiddles with his hands under the table. “No sound. No Gravity. No air. Nothing.” Now doesn’t that sound delightful? But how was Loki still alive if there was no air?

“How the fuck are you still alive?”, he questions and Loki shrugs.

“I have no Idea. Pure stubbornness of my Magic probably.”, he says and pulls his hands from under the table- AND HOLY FUCK HE HAS A DAGGER. Fury stares at the Dagger.

“How.”, he just asks.

“Well, Magic is basically-”, Loki started.

“Not that. How do you still have a dagger on you?”

Loki shrugs.

“No, how?”

Loki shrugs again.

“You have so many, where do you even keep all of them?”

Loki shrugs again.

“Somewhere”, Loki says.

“How.”

Loki shrugs again.

“HOW?!?”