I Think We're Alone Now

Ch. 10: VIP

 Eyes on her back. The scepter fixed in her hands. Grip, tightening. Pulling it back. Watching it release. All the tension. Only one thing missing, which for the record, wasn't her favorite thing.

"Tony's still up there," Natasha says.

Ah. The thing. And now he's falling.

"Ah!" Marilyn squints.

Hulk swoops in to save the day, and Marilyn applauds. It was a whole lot better than him crashing into her.

Marilyn hasn't exactly given up the scepter yet. Actually, she's attempted to hide it behind her back

"What, this?" Marilyn nervously laughs, "it's my walking stick. Haven't you heard? I've undergone a tragic accident..."

She really needed to stop telling people this. What if she was caught in a fire? She had been, today. She'd been through a lot today, but none of it seemed to be an accident. It was partly her fault, even.

"Yes, it's glowy. This way people can see me in the dark and they don't run over me with their cars. Yeah, that's why I need it. I was run over by a truck."

Almost true.

Except she was the one crashing the truck. There were aliens and debris flying around willy-nilly, so Marilyn just jumped in and issued a quick apology to the driver. He was already freaked out, so it wasn't her fault, however the chirtari she'd ridden on, was totally flipped out by her presence. Loki did it. Natasha did it, but when Marilyn got in, it went all crazy.

Not fair.

Marilyn snatchs the tesseract and juggles it in her other arm.

"Loki!" she calls.

He's just inside.

"Hey."

"You- wow," he reaches for the tesseract first, but Marilyn pulls back.

"You only get one. Pick."

"That wasn't the deal!"

"That's before I knew how cool these were. Still, you get first choice, since, you know..."

He had 51% of the partnership.

"You're not serious."

"But I am."

"I'll take..." his eyes dart back and fourth.

"Pick one."

"I'll take the tesseract."

Marilyn smugly hands it over. She was hoping to keep the scepter, anyway.

"So..."

"It seems things went well."

"Have you, by any chance, thought about...you know."

"What?"

"How we'll get the aliens to go away."

"I- I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one."

"Okay." Marilyn watches him walk away.

Then, she turns around in horror. They'd come for her. They'd finally come for her. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.

"On behalf of the Time Variance Authority, I hereby arrest you for time against the sacred timeline." A weapon is held up against her.