Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 46

Loki raises his gaze to meet Savin's, a cocky smile on his face. "You'll have to try harder than that."

Savin slowly lowers his gun, his brows furrowed. "Alright, I'll bite," he says. "What do you want?"

"What I want is for you to leave," Loki says. "I suspect it won't be that simple."

"Not unless you want to do my job for me," Savin says. "But I take it you're not here to kill Stark."

"You'd be correct," Loki says.

"Are you here to help him?" Savin asks. "Because that's not going to work out very well for everybody."

"I'm not here for that, either," Loki says. "I'm here to annoy him. I seem to be very good at that." Of course, he is also here to help him, but he's not going to admit that.

"I can tell," Savin deadpans.

Loki just flashes him a smile.

"So if you're not here to help him and you're not here to hurt him," Savin says, "are you going to try to stop me from killing him?"

Loki shrugs. "Probably not."

Savin cocks an eyebrow. "'Probably'?"

"That's what I said, yes." Because technically there's a chance — however small it is — that something will change and he'll be able to step in. He doesn't expect it, but he doesn't want to write the possibility off. He doesn't want to accept just yet that he's completely useless, even if he knows he is.

Savin shakes his head to himself. "Alright, well, I am going to kill Stark. Since it seems I can't kill you—" He gestures to the god with his gun that's proved itself all but worthless. "—I'll extend an invitation to you instead."

Loki glances back at the building Tony went barreling into. Should he go check on him? Does he even want to, if there's nothing he can do to help? He could just prove to be a distraction. He could get the man killed in a failed at tempt to help him. No, he's probably better off keeping his distance, at least until this part is over. Hopefully Tony makes it out alive and they can continue their little adventure.

So Loki fakes a smile. "And I will gladly accept it." Maybe he can at least learn a thing or two while he's here.

Savin walks off, so Loki follows after him, eyes scanning the chaos in the streets. He's glad there's so much else to focus on. No one has even looked his way. Had he been with Tony or Harley, he'd shield himself from view to ensure that doesn't change, but he's not sure he wants Savin to know he has that power. He likes to keep some cards close to his chest.

Eventually, Loki says, "So you work for the Mandarin, I presume."

"Maybe," Savin says, which basically confirms it. "What do you know about the Mandarin?"

"Very little," Loki says. "I have better things to do than follow Midgard's latest terrors. But I do love to hear that Stark is continuing to make enemies in my absence."

Savin chuckles at that.

"Why do you ask?" Loki adds. "Is there something I should know?"

"No; I'm just surprised you know about him at all," Savin says. "I would have thought you'd be back in… whatever fairytale world you're from."

"I was," Loki says. "Prison grows boring after a time, so I left."

Savin snorts. "You just left prison."

"The Asgardian dungeons do not hold a torch to my power," Loki says. "It was an easy escape." Technically, he's not lying. He did break out of the dungeon quite a few times before Odin threw him on Earth, and his final escape was fueled by the 'power' of his passion for annoying people.