//------------------------------// // Best Laid Plans, Part 1 // Story: A Tale of Two Worlds // by The King of Gingers //------------------------------// Loki stared at himself in the mirror. His midnight-black mane cascaded down his head in messy ringlets. He slid both of his forehooves back, slicking the locks into a more ordered mane. "Hot date tonight?" Starswirl called from his place on Loki's writing desk. The illustrated magician had what appeared to be a handheld game device between his forehooves as he reclined in his favorite hammock. The hammock swung between two large palm trees that swayed in an artificial breeze. "Hotter for you if you do not be quiet." Loki shook his mane out again, his frizzy mane falling around his face. "I have gleaned what I need from your pages; incinerating you now would bring no small amount of satisfaction." He slicked his mane back and turned the mirror around lest he continue the cycle for fifteen more minutes. "You've been promising the same thing since you read the formula." Starswirl stuck his tongue out the corner of his muzzle, the video game bleeping and blooping in his hooves. "I'd advise you to read the whole thing. The old coot I'm based on did a lot more than learn about death." Loki snorted. His body glowed as his armor phased in, polished and gleaming in the twilight shining through his windows. He trotted over to the ancient diary, staring down at the moving illustration. "Is it that princess I've seen around?" Starswirl took a moment to turn his eyes to Loki. He ran a hoof through his beard, a salacious smile on his face. "Not even here for two months and you're already in good with the royalty. If I were a paranoid stallion, I'd be worried that you were up to something malicious." Loki's eyes were measured and level. "Whatever would give you that impression?" Starswirl burst out laughing, leaning back in his hammock. "Oh, get over, Loki. Like I care. I'm just a living illustration. This is the most fun I've had in centuries." He waved a hoof expansively. "Bring the whole castle down for all I care; whatever you do is bound to be infinitely more interesting than being stuck in that chamber for another thousand years." Loki closed his eyes as a slow sigh escaped him. "My ride shall be here soon, so I think it's time we ended this conversation." His horn glowed as he grabbed the edge of the book. "Unless you have a way to escape, you shall still be here at my disposal when and if I am ready to continue reading you." Starswirl gave Loki a dismissive wave. "Compliment her mane, try not to talk too much about yourself, and make sure to be back by bedtime." Loki slammed the book shut. Despite himself, he couldn't hold back the chuckle in his throat. Crazy old stallion, he thought. Casting his gaze across the room, he gazed at the castle through his tall windows. It stood silently as the sun dipped low into the horizon. Banners fluttered lazily in the late spring wind. Somewhere inside, Princess Luna would undoubtedly be preparing for their viewing of the meteor shower. Loki's half-smile turned into a grin before he shifted his attention back to his writing desk. His horn flickered, moving the diary aside to replace it with several other reference books. He opened each aging tome with great care, propping them up on their thick covers. Loki's immeasurable mind took up his previous spots within each book with ease. His magenta eyes drifted across the pages, flitting from tome to tome. Information swirled and coalesced inside him, sorted into useable chunks while comparing the knowledge against his own vast stores. --he Draconequus' tail has been rumored to be an aphr-- --armony, legend has it, were grown from the branches of a powerful tr-- --ite their similarities. The royalty of Canterlot may be alicorns, but not all alicorns possess the-- His horn glowed; an ink pot, quill, and piece of parchment were fetched from a drawer. The parchment was already well-worn and nearly half-full, despite his considerable length. Without looking, Loki dipped the pen into the pot and began taking notes. His eyes blazed a trail over each book as his room filled with the earthy smell of ink. The scratching of his pen and the crinkled turning of yellowed pages accentuated that comforting scent. Three sharp knocks echoed through the bedroom, causing the fur on Loki's upper back to stand up. The memory of his engagement with Luna sprang immediately to mind. He shook his quill against the ink pot, bottling the squat glass jar and storing it away. The knocks came again with greater urgency. "Just a moment," he called. He stacked his books neatly and rolled his parchment tight. Stowing his possessions away, he rushed to his bedside window. At the release of their locks he windows burst inward, a great gust of air preceding a large, dark-furred pegasus knight clad in midnight blue armor. The knight descended into the room on bat-like wings, his bright yellow eyes severe as they studied Loki. "Your chariot awaits, Loki." The knight's tone was gruff and clipped. Looking past the stiff-necked soldier, Loki spied an ornate chariot held aloft by the pegasus' two comrades. Their wings filled his room with a harsh drumbeat as they fought against gravity. Loki took a second to regard himself in the small mirror he kept next to his bed. He ignored the burning glare the pegasus shot at the back of his head as he made sure his armor was shined and his mane was properly slicked. "Very well," he said at length. Turning with a flourish, he walked past the taller stallion. "We are waiting on you, now." The stallion snorted in what he might have thought a secretive manner. Loki fought down a smirk. ----------------------------- The cool evening air cut across Loki's features, refreshing him after so long cooped up in his room. As the chariot rounded the far side of the castle, the expanse of Equestria opened up before his eyes. Its rolling green hills and the dark Everfree Forest were covered in a deep blanket; it was as if the land itself were setting down for the night. The sun's greatness was long past, the sky's edge barely streaked a dark red that bled up into a deep, bruised violet. Already the stars twinkled in the silent night; their luminous vigil was matched by Ponyville itself, a small pool of guttering candlelight in the darkness. The chariot turned a hard right. Loki grunted, trying to keep himself from tipping over the side. His charioteer smirked. Cut into the western face of the castle, Luna's garden was sunk into an oval balcony. Loki used the time of their long approach to pick out its details; he saw a central fountain with a predictably equine statue pouring water, surrounded radially by vertical trellises of hanging fruit. Smaller statues dotted the lush green grass. The chariot dipped over a low, columned wall to come to a rest next to the fountain. The charioteer clucked his tongue and his fellow guards stopped abruptly. Loki was nearly thrown into his driver's back; he righted himself with an indignant huff. Loki hopped out of the chariot without waiting to be told. The grass was soft and wet underneath his hooves and the smell of loamy, fertile earth filled his nostrils. His fur shimmered when the chariot took flight once again, though he barely glanced in their direction. Now that he was right in the thick of the garden, Loki was given the chance to take in its artistic touches. For starters, every statue was some depiction of Luna. Loki took in each statue in turn. His eyes rested on Luna as a filly, Celestia by her side. Celestia looked as if she was teaching Luna to fly. He shifted his gaze to the statue closest to him and beheld a scene of Luna tossing her head into the air as a crescent-shaped moon rested on the tip of her horn. The statues were exquisitely cut from marble, their smooth finishes gleaming pleasingly in the yellow candlelight. Rearing up on her rear hooves in the center of the garden's fountain, Nightmare Moon snarled her rage heavenwards. Her lean body was cut from a single slab of darkest obsidian. The material was the purest ebony Loki had ever seen, standing out from even the backdrop of the coal-black night. It seemed as if light itself couldn't escape Nightmare Moon. The entire effect was as if the statue hummed with an unknown power; if Loki didn't know better, he'd have wagered that the Nightmare itself had been crushed into this single form. "I keep it to remind myself." Luna's voice was as soft as rain. Loki looked over his shoulder to see her standing next to a fruit trellis. Her usual finery – her silver hoof covers, her necklace, even her crown – was absent. Her hair undulated in its unseen breeze as she approached the central statue. She tilted her head back, gazing upon the horror she used to be. "I cannot believe you would have commissioned such a thing be built." Loki followed her gaze. His armor began to feel far more restrictive than normal when set against her sudden casual appearance. "I did not." Luna didn't break her gaze from the inky black statue. "This was built by my sister. She had it built fifty years to the day after I was banished to the moon." She spread a forehoof around expansively. "This entire garden was once a memorial to the pony I was before the Nightmare took me." Silence coated the night between them. Loki coughed softly. "What does keeping the statue remind you of, Luna?" "To never again allow myself the sin of jealousy," she stated with a somber tone to her voice. Loki spoke up before the awkward silence could again descend between them. "I think I am a tad overdressed." He offered a wry grin, tapping his breastplate with a forehoof. "I did not wish to assume this was to be such a personal affair." Luna's smile was an equal mixture of amusement and gratefulness. "Dress or don't as you please, Loki. You are my guest and I shall not impose upon you." Loki smiled a fraction wider. His armor glowed a coruscating golden hue, fading from existence to leave him as nude as his date. He flicked his tail about and shook out his mane "To tell you the truth, it can become cumbersome at times." Luna laughed softly and brought a hoof to her mouth. "When I first saw you, I wondered if you ever got those horns stuck on anything." "Not yet," Loki responded. Luna walked away and he fell in step beside her. "The closest to that I have ever come is when my brother got me entangled in the antlers of a raging bilgesnipe." "Bilgesnipe?" Luna raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Yes." Loki raised a hoof, indicating a creature several times his height. "Large, scaly. Massive antlers, very temperamental." He chuckled. "With all the exotic fauna in Equestria, I admit I assumed you'd encountered them." The two of them came upon a blanket spread between two fruit trellises. A small basket lay in the center with its contents hidden by a red napkin. Luna walked onto the blanket and sit herself down as Loki followed suit. "No," she answered as her horn glowed and she pulled the napkin back. "I can't say that I have, Loki. They sound exciting." She grinned as she pulled plates of cheese and bread from the basket. "Not when you're riding one as it's trying to shake you off and devour you." Loki pressed a hoof to the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply. "I cannot believe that oaf talked me into that in the first place." He floated a nib of bread with a slice of cheese close and bit into it. The pungent aroma of the cheese mixed with the headiness of the dark black bread to make him sigh. One thing you could say for Equestria: the food was fit for a god. Luna pulled a bottle of wine from the basket and poured them both a measure. "Oh, pranks are part and parcel of being siblings. You would be shocked to hear what I've done to my sister in the past." Loki raised an eyebrow. "Go on..." Luna sipped at her wine, sliding down onto her side with a sigh. "Oh, there have been so many." For a few moments, she was lost in reminiscence. Loki was about to ask her to continue as Luna's face scrunched up. She shook with barely-contained giggles. "Come now." Loki leaned in, his eyes squinted in interest. "Anticipation is not good for the soul." Luna sat up as she composed herself. "Well, when I was just a teenager Celestia was quite the stern taskmaster." She straightened herself up and put on an exaggerated frown. " 'Now Luna, you must take your studies seriously! You will be responsible for the entire night someday!' " Her voice was high and shrill; Loki chuckled heartily. "I couldn't stand it. Every day for weeks on end; studying, lectures, astronomy. Oh, astronomy." She flicked her eyes up to the sky. "I almost started to hate the stars. Anyway, I decided to take her down a few pegs, so," Luna sipped her wine and had to stifle another giggle. "I poured pink food coloring into her bubble bath." Loki stared at Luna for what felt like ages. The seconds ticked by and the other horseshoe finally dropped. He laughed, sly and cutting. Luna joined him, her ladylike trill perfectly accenting his schemer's chortle. Their laughter carried on for nearly a minute before they regained their composure. "My goodness," Loki sighed. He had to wipe a few tears from his eyes. "I must bow my head in deference to you, Luna. She must have been absolutely furious." "Oh, I was sure she was going to send me screaming into the sun." Luna said, a fresh round of giggles bubbling up her throat. She settled down and sighed happily. Sipping her wine, she stared off into the night sky. "It took forever but she finally turned me into a proper Princess. It probably worked too well; it was a millennia and a half later that I was reminded what fun was." Her eyes became glazed and her brow furrowed. "Fifteen hundred years..." Loki's mirth evaporated as he saw the look on Luna's face. Setting down his wine glass, he canted his head. "It goes by quickly, doesn't it?" Luna awoke from her reverie. She turned to look at Loki, her face an inscrutable mask. "What does?" "Time." Loki spoke matter-of-factly, settling his haunches down. He smiled in an attempt to be warm and comforting. "It's like a river. At first it hardly seems to move at all." He levitated his glass upward to stare contemplatively at the blood red contents. "Even as it moves faster, whatever it takes is so small you hardly notice." He downed his wine with one quick swallow. "You stop paying attention, and the river becomes a canyon." Luna pursed her lips and stared at Loki through narrowed eyes. "That is quite accurate. I would not have expected a unicorn – even a king – to understand a long view of time." Loki downed the rest of his glass. "What can I say? I am a philosopher and a scholar, as well as a king and mischief maker." Luna's doubtful demeanor fell away with a slow smile. "Mischief maker?" She finished the last of her bread and cheese, swallowing before she continued. "I presume you mean you pranked your brother in the same way I did my sister?" "Him, among many others." Loki smiled proudly. Now it was Luna's turn to raise an interested eyebrow. "Go on..." "Tut tut." Loki shook a hoof at Luna before motioning to the sky. "We are forgetting why we came: you said there was to be a meteor shower tonight." Luna followed Loki's gesture and tilted her head to look at the sky. "Ah yes," she said, mild trepidation in her voice. "We are about due for that, aren't we?" Loki inclined his head. "Is there something wrong, Luna?" "Wrong? No, that is not what I would say." Luna got her hooves under her and stood up; Loki moved to followed suit but Luna waved him to remain seated. "It is simply that, just like when I raise the moon for the night, a meteor shower requires a specific spell." "Do you need time to prepare?" Loki crossed one forehoof over another. "No, I can get started straight away." Luna turned her back to Loki as she stared up at the night sky. Her wings shivered and nestled tighter against her flanks. "Then please explain," Loki said, "why I am getting this feeling that you are nervous." Luna didn't answer for several seconds; she lowered her head as time pulled taut like a length of rope. Loki raised a hoof as he prepared to speak only to find his voice caught in his throat. A sound unlike anything he had heard before graced his ears; it was a low rumbling, sweet and rich as freshly made honey. Tiny flashes drew Loki's gaze heavenward. The sound continued to rise in both intensity and pitch as streaks of white-hot light tracked across the inky black sky. The other shoe dropped and Loki's mouth fell open: Luna was singing. Her voice, normally warm and lilting, had fallen several octaves as she built up her tune. Her song rose and rose as the first few falling stars were joined by ever greater numbers of meteors. Their burning bodies spread across the sky like waves of water in a churning sea. Luna threw her head up as she belted out a single long, high note; the night exploded in light as more trails criss-crossed the sky in complex fractal patterns. Loki had long thought himself jaded. He had experienced a lifetime's worth of war, betrayal, and humiliation in the last few years alone. As he sat there behind Princess Luna, staring at the effervescent sky alight with magical fire, he could feel his heart beating in his chest. It was as if someone was beating a drum inside his body. Excitement, anticipation; these were feelings Loki had thought lost to him on anything less than the fulfillment of his schemes. Comets collided in mid-air. Their enriched guts ignited explosively, scattering in flowers of heat that cast harsh light and deep shadows all across Equestria. Luna's dusky face was rendered pale as her song reached its crescendo. She tossed her head back, flinging herself up onto her rear legs. Her eyes screwed shut tightly. Her final note was belted out on a sore throat that could do nothing to inhibit her voice's power. Loki's eyes still stung with fading afterimages as her song died. The sky darkened with only the twinkling of celestial bodies to break up its emptiness. Cheers rose across Equestria; the collective voice of the kingdom lifted up in praise to Luna's show. She heard none of it. The applause of one individual tore her gaze from her night. Loki finally found his voice as he let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Marvelous!" Loki clapped his forehooves. "Brava, Luna. Brava. I have seen many things in my lifetime." He stood and lowered his head in a bow. "Never have I been witness to such an event with a single person as its cause." Luna laughed softly and bid Loki to rise. "Now, now. Flattery is unbecoming, Loki." Her smile spread as warmth suffused her chest. "I do appreciate the compliment." She reached up and straightened out her mane. Her ears had turned a light shade of pink. "I do not usually sing for anyone other than my sister." "Is that why you were nervous?" Loki inclined his head aside. Luna's smile grew into a grin. "Among other reasons." Loki matched her grin. The cheers had died away moments ago, leaving them alone amongst the gentle babbling of the fountain and the cool wind whipping against the castle. "Well?" Luna raised her eyebrows. "Well, what?" "We were discussing pranks." She raised an accusatory hoof in his direction as she moved past him back to their picnic area. "You owe me a story, Sir Loki." "Oh but there are so many to choose from," Loki sighed melodramatically. "My brother was a favorite target when we were younger." "I'm sure each one is quite entertaining." Luna took her place across from Loki. She popped the top off their wine and poured herself another drink. Much like a comedian told to make a joke, Loki found his repertoire of stories drying up as he was put on the spot. He rolled around the wine in his glass and ruminated for a time before downing the rest of it in a quick gulp. "Some time ago," he began, "I was able to make some mischief on some upper class ponies of this very city." "Oh, my." Luna covered her mouth with a hoof as a sly grin stole over her face. "Admitting to tricking some of Equestria's own citizens? Such bravery." Loki held up his forehooves defensively. "They had it coming to them, believe me: pair of upper-class twits, these two. If memory serves, they were in attendance at Tattered's retirement party." "Some of those parasites, huh?" Luna spat out the words, distaste etched across her beautiful features. "Whatever you did to them, you have my preemptive forgiveness. Now do continue." "Well," Loki said as he lay down on his stomach. "Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had actually perpetrated a prank upon me. Then they insinuated that I was incapable of doing the same." "Uh oh." "Indeed. I am not one to let such a challenge go unanswered. So, once we had wandered into town, I found this insufferable rich couple berating some poor servant without cause." Loki grinned wickedly. "They discovered that such cold attitudes do not go unpunished." "Ooo. The plot thickens." Luna leaned in closer, resting her chin on the top of her hoof. "First," Loki hissed, relishing the memory. "I froze her tea to her tongue." Luna bit her bottom lip as laughter shook her body. "Then, I froze his overfed rear end to the rather expensive-looking cushion upon which he sat." Luna's laughter trilled. She covered her mouth as her muzzle scrunched up with mirth. "Oh, that's not the best part." Loki chuckled, a few seconds away from joining Luna in her laughter. "Finally I decided to show the world the mare's true nature. So, I turned her mane into snakes." The memory was finally too much for him. Loki closed his eyes and laughed as the picture of the twit's frightened face danced across his mind. His laughter died in seconds when he opened his eyes. Luna was staring at him with wide eyes. He couldn't read her expression; the closest he could discern was either confusion or horror. "You turned her mane into snakes?" Her voice was barely above a decibel above a whisper. The chill in the air seemed all the colder for Luna's disposition. Wrong-footed, Loki attempted to recover. "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time." "How could you do such a thing, Loki?" Luna rose to her feet like a roused viper. She stared down at him with accusation burning in her eyes. "Do you truly believe I could be so cruel?" Loki did not hesitate to meet her gaze. "The spell was not meant to last; a week, at most, before she –" "No, Loki." Luna's voice cut through his as a sword through rusted armor. "I literally mean how." She stabbed a hoof toward his rear. "Your cutie mark designates your magical specialty as ice. Such advanced transfiguration spells are beyond your capabilities, even if you were a king." Loki felt a clawed hand closing around his heart. He was once again aware of his heartbeat. It was no longer a drum beat; it was loud roar in his ears. He took a deep breath and let it out, slowly and composedly. "You caught me," he admitted. "I was simply exaggerating the story in order to impress you." "Nonsense!" Luna barked. She spread her wings, towering over Loki and imposing her presence upon him. "I have played against you for months, Loki. What we do not admit in life, we lay bare when we compete; I can tell you're trying to bluff your way out of this." Loki's veins ran cold again. He felt as if the world was closing in upon him in spite of the spacious garden surrounding him. Luna snapped her wings against her body and walked around him slowly. "I sensed there was something odd about you, Loki." Her voice was low and dangerous. She hung her head in the same way a wolf would as it observed its prey. "Ever since I first spied you through my looking glass. And then, the way you talked; how well we connected. You do not speak or act like any pony I've met since my return from the moon!" She put on an affectation of his voice. " 'The river becomes a canyon', you said. Even the most empathic of ponies has never come that close to describing what it is like to be an alicorn." "Luna, I can explain." Loki stood, trying to face down his accuser. Luna gave him no space. She stamped forward and loomed over him practically nose-to-nose. "You are trying to bluff again, Loki." Luna did not accuse; she simply stated fact. She backed off and snorted, her nostrils flaring. "You even play chess unlike a unicorn of your age." She jabbed his chest roughly. "You play well, but it is not from raw intelligence; you play as if from a wealth of personal experience." An invisible noose tightened itself around Loki's neck. The cards were falling, the house was shaking. His heart crashed inside his chest, roaring in his ears like an unchained beast. He licked dry lips with a dry tongue and blinked in a slow, drunken way. Luna stood back. The accusatory tone of her voice dried up, replaced with a subdued melancholy. "Any or all of those inconsistencies could possibly be explained away. You were a king, privileged above all others and most likely given an exceptional education." She shook her head slowly. "No amount of privilege or education can allow you to perform the feats you claim, Loki." Tense silence caught them both. Loki's mind struggled to find an angle, a lie he could feed her to keep the inevitable from occurring. He wondered how powerful an alicorn truly was; would he be able to best her and make an escape? "It's all right, though." Luna looked up. A small smile pulled at the edges of her lips. "I figured out your secret. With all the evidence before me, it was painfully simple." "If that is true," Loki said through a tight throat, "then you'll know why I kept it a secret." "Actually, no." Luna shook her head. "That is the only part I cannot figure out. So now I ask: why, Loki, would you hide the fact that you are an alicorn?" "I –" Loki started. The noose lifted, the cards reset, and the house was laid upon firm soil yet again. He looked right at Luna, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. "What?" "Oh, come now." Luna huffed indignantly. "Do not insult my intelligence now. That is the only possible explanation. Not even a changeling could have such a breadth of magical ability." All the possible lies and explanations – even the possibility of battling through her – paled in comparison to the gift Luna has just set in Loki's lap. Quick as a wink, he set his face into a look of gravitas. "Our kind are always in some position of power. I simply did not wish to upset this world." "Oh, Loki." Luna's entire body relaxed at once, as if someone had cut the strings that held her aloft. She smiled genuinely. "We would have accepted you without reservation." "I had just been betrayed by my own brother." Loki chuckled ruefully. "You must excuse me if I had trust issues." The two of them shared a relieved round of laughter as the new lie replaced the old. Loki's head swam with giddiness; rarely had he ever come so close to his lies collapsing. "So," he continued. "What happens now?" "Now?" Luna leaned back, her look pensive. "Do you mean 'is Luna going to reveal me?'?" Loki could only shrug apologetically. "No, Loki. I am not going to tell anyone; that is not my place." A sly smile lit up her aristocratic features. "There is one condition: you have to show me." "Show you?" "Of course." Luna's lips parted to reveal her pearly, straight teeth. "You can't expect me to let you leave without seeing the real you." Loki chuckled. "I cannot argue with that." He stood from their picnic and walked a few paces with theatrical slowness. The wind picked up his mane, tossing it about his face with its cool bluster. He turned on his hind hooves and swung about to face Luna. She had sat up to watch with anxiousness glinting in her eyes. The wind slowly died to barely a trickle. What had been a constant background noise suddenly became deafening in its absence as the fountain slowed to a stop. Even the song of the crickets ceased as the atmosphere filled with the smell of ozone. The deafening silence covered Loki like a thick, wet blanket. In the vacuum, he could make out the beating of his heart as deafening as thunder. ----------------------------- A familiar drumbeat met his ears. A heartbeat. Heimdall lifted his head. He cast his golden gaze about the tapestry of the universe. There came the heartbeat again. He fought to keep his own pulse in check as he closed his eyes. May Odin allow the wayward traitor to be careless a third time. Seconds dragged as long as years. The guardian frowned. The drumbeat sounded a third time. Heimdall's head snapped up and his eyes shot open. He stared at a dark patch of sky with purpose in his stance. Light years became leagues became feet became inches. Before his god's eyes stood a garden, filled with all manner of pleasing fauna and elegant statuary. A dark-furred horse gazed upon something that glowed with golden light. Out of the roiling light stepped another horse clad in ice blue fur. Tall, thin, regal. It spread wings of magnificent length and lifted its head high. A single horn stabbed forth from its forehead. Heimdall smiled. It wore Loki's armor. ----------------------------- Stark Tower gleamed in the late afternoon light. High upon the brick building directly north of the new edifice, a man sat upon a window-washer's scaffolding. He wore a full body worksuit with a generic name – Smith – emblazoned on his breast. His head was shaved and covered with a cap, pulled low over his brows. Frown lines pulled at the edges of a face that always seemed to have smelt something horrid. He sat on the edge of his scaffolding, his work equipment set out beside him; there was a large, long squeegee next to a bucket of cleaning fluid, as well as a safety rope attachment for his suit. On his lap was his lunch, a nice helping of vegetable-and-meat couscous which steamed with heat. Folded neatly and hidden away in a pack behind him was a Heckler & Koch G36C assault rifle. It was stuffed next to a small, strange pistol loaded with ballistic hypodermic needles. Something buzzed in his pocket. He sighed and rolled his eyes. Setting his meal aside, he reached down and fished a disposable flip-style cellphone out and stared at the name. "Merde," he grunted. Flipping it open, he brought it to his ear. "Que voulez-vous, Ross?" "How many times do I have to tell you," came the growled reply. "Speak English." "Pardonez-mois, Général Porcine." The man switched to a heavily-accented English. "What do you want?" "Why haven't you acquired the package?" "Do you want a job well done or done quickly?" "I want it done at all. You told me you were the best." "I am the best," the man replied firmly. "For what I'm paying, you should've had him a month ago, Batroc." There was the clinking and dripping of alcohol on the other end, followed by a swallow and a sigh. The man's thoughts turned to the odd weapon in his pack. "I now have the tools I need. I just need to wait for the target to leave the tower; make it look like a disappearance, that he ran away." "Excuses. I knew I should've hired Wilson. He's crazy but he'd have – " A peal of thunder tore through the sky. The phone sparked and fizzled. Batroc cursed in French and tossed the smoking phone away. He looked up to behold a sky that had darkened in less time than it had taken to be told off by his boss. The storm was centered over Stark Tower, twisting borealis curling through its black clouds. Batroc's eyes filled with burning white light. He hissed and snapped them shut as another crack of thunder rolled through the city. His eyes were filled with spots when he opened them. "Merde." He reached into his pack and pulled out a pair of binoculars. Leaning forward against the scaffold, he peered through the lenses. The image was fuzzy and nondescript. He thought he could see a figure standing on the balcony where he swore nothing had stood before. He adjusted the lenses to bring the image into focus. Batroc saw someone tall, broad, with a bright red cape and long blonde hair. In his left hand, the figure held a war hammer. "Peut-être," he said as he lowered the binoculars, "le temps de l'attente est terminé."