The Misadventures of Loki and Strange

Chapter 2

"What are we after first?"

Loki looked at Strange questioningly, his arms folded across his chest as he wandered around the room, admiring the various bits and pieces in the vast collection.

He'd already been warned against touching things, this apparently felt needed after a mishap with Thor had left Strange to tidy things up that, while not exactly being a huge time waste, was an inconvenience.

"The first thing that has been picked up is a form of spirit collector."

Loki raised his eyebrow, turning away from a set of ancient stone figures with intricate runes carved into them to look at Stephen.

"Okay, and?" He shrugged, "what harm could that be doing?"

"Nothing in the right hands, it's relatively weak but if it gets into the wrong hands the living could quickly become the dead long before their time."

"Right," Loki nodded slowly, "once again, I'm not sure where we fit into this, or me more specifically."

"Perhaps for this one you aren't needed, not in the long run, but for stronger things I may need you."

"You can't use your wizard friend to help you?"

"Are you trying to talk your way out of our agreement?"

Loki gave another shrug and smiled, continuing his investigation down the aisles of goods.

He knew that there was a bigger reason he'd been asked to help and it infuriated him that he wasn't getting the answers he wanted, there wasn't a chance that Strange and his little helper couldn't settle this by themselves.

So why was Loki being dragged in?

Sure, he may have been a great candidate, what with his vast knowledge of the other realms and the relics that he had had to learn as he grew up, he was also considerably powerful, but there was an underlying reason that itched at the back of his skull.

He'd get the truth eventually, he always did, but he disliked being left in the dark.

"Okay, so this collecting contraption, any idea who has it?"

"From what I've gathered a group of amateur ghost hunters in another state."

Loki stopped again and gave him a look of bemusement.

"Ghost hunters?"

"Yes, think along the lines of Ghostbusters."

"Are they not the same thing?"

Stephen's expression now matched Loki's of flickering confusion, it took him a few seconds to realize that Loki didn't know about the popular franchise.

"I'll explain later, but yes, basically."

"Odd, we don't really have ghosts in Asgard and if we did, we certainly wouldn't hunt them, we respect our dead."

"Your people seem to believe in a lot of mystical and otherworldly things without question, many here don't," Stephen shrugged plainly, "everyone has their beliefs."

"Do you?"

"Do I what? Believe in ghosts?" He watched Loki nod then pressed his lips together for a moment, "I didn't, but things have certainly changed that view."

Loki hummed and started to make his way back towards the other man.

"That's for the best."

He stopped a few feet away, leaning back so he was half perched on the edge of a display table, his hands sliding into the pockets of the black suit trousers he was wearing with one ankle crossed over the other.

Stephen held out a series of photos and Loki took it, holding them up delicately to inspect what was pictured.

It wasn't anything spectacular to behold, just something that was made up of three pieces, two were a set of clunky, metallic armlets with old lettering etched into it and the other a rectangular box with similar inscriptions.

To Stephen it looked almost like a children's toy.

Flipping through the photographs showed moments in time where the things was either being displayed or used, nothing exactly to write home about, but there was something that caught Loki's eye and had him bringing the photos closer, his eyes narrowing as he honed in to confirm his suspicions.

"The etchings on this thing changes."

"What?"

Stephen moved around to stand near Loki, leaning over to look at the photos.

Loki found a way to shuffle them so that they would sit comfortably in one hand, using his other to point out specific areas in each picture.

"The language on it is changing with each use," Loki said, frowning a little.

Stephen, much like Loki had, leaned in closer to examine it better before nodding, licking his lower lip slowly.

"So they do, can you translate them?"

"If I had better pictures, maybe? No guarantees."

"We'll be sure to find them."

Loki set the pictures to one side as Stephen stepped back to his original position, both of their faces contorted in thought.

"I'm guessing the current language would be your Midgardian English, that's at least one question answered."

"Now we need to figure out how they managed to get their hands on it and a simple way to get it back."

"Getting this thing back from them can't be that hard, we just have to turn up, steal it and be on our way."

"In this case it may be best to negotiate a little."

"Oh, or that of course," Loki chuckled, "I'm very masterful at negotiations."

Stephen squinted his eyes a little and tilted his head briefly, almost seeming as if he was daring to question Loki's claims.

"So I've heard and this is perhaps where your finesse will come into play, these are normal people so I don't want to be too heavy-handed."

"And if they refuse to hand it over, with or without negotiation?"

"Then I guess we may have to get just a little heavy-handed."