The Morning of the Sovereign.
The dawn over Asgard was a bruised purple, bleeding into gold. Loki sat on the edge of his oversized bed, gently detaching the slender arm of the young woman sleeping beside him.
She was a woman now, he noted with a flicker of clinical detachment. Yesterday, he had been the guest of honor at a banquet in the Starry Sky Territory. He had used a touch of Vanir alchemy to fix a speech impediment in a local child, and in gratitude, the child's elder sister had begged the "God of Wisdom" for a "perfect night of adulthood." Loki, ever the diplomat, had reluctantly agreed.
But the novelty was wearing thin. After the fire of Hela and the sharp, business-like passion of Lulu, these "delicate" encounters felt like skim milk. He found himself bored by the predictable rhythms of the court. He was an Asgardian Prince; he needed something that fought back.
What is the price of being a legend? he wondered as he dressed. Vanaheim is too far for a weekend trip, and I can't exactly go prowling my own docks for widows without tarnishing the 'Wise' brand.
Loki performed a few celebratory aerial acrobatics in his personal scout-ship on the way back to the Palace. The word was out: if you wanted the Prince's favor, you brought out the vintage mead and the most interesting women in the province. It was a romantic, messy, and highly effective way to build a power base.
The Homecoming of the Fleet.
On the third day of his return, the news he had been waiting for finally arrived. Heimdall, standing sentinel on the Bifrost, sent word that the Wisdom Caravan had breached the local sector.
Loki arrived at the Norton Docks in South Sea Bay just as the families of the crew began to gather. The atmosphere was electric. The morning sun caught a string of black dots on the horizon that grew into the sleek, lethal silhouettes of three Asgardian warships. Tucked between them was a massive, boxy Kree-style transport vessel, with two more warships bringing up the rear.
The main hatch of the lead ship hissed open.
"Loki!"
Lulu didn't walk down the ramp; she sprinted. Still clad in her heroic captain's leather, she launched herself into the air, a three-meter leap that forced Loki to brace his feet as she pounced.
Smack! Smack!
She didn't care who was watching. She grabbed his face, planting hard, desperate kisses on his forehead, his nose, and finally a long, suffocating kiss that tasted of stardust and cinnamon. She pulled back for a breath, looking at him with misty eyes, before diving back in.
Loki groaned as she bit his lower lip in her greed. Thank the Norns for high-speed regeneration, he thought, even as he pulled her closer. She was a whirlwind, her fingers tracing his jaw as if memorizing him all over again.
"Does it hurt?" she whispered, her teeth grazing his ear.
"It hurts," Loki smiled.
"Good! Let it hurt! That's for leaving me out there for months!" She finally slid down, her long legs hitting the stone pier, and pouted. "You have no idea what we went through, Loki. It was... it was magnificent."
The Spoils of Midgard.
Lulu snapped back into "Captain" mode instantly. "Move it! Heave! Don't let those crates sit in the sun!"
Loki watched with fascination as the crew began unloading the haul. There were crates of Kree technology, energy rifles, and music players. But the centerpiece was something else entirely.
Two teams of crewmen, armed with Kree shock-rifles, dragged a massive, reinforced steel cage off the transport ship. Inside, a creature stood on its haunches, its eyes glowing with a predatory intelligence.
"Is that... a panther?" Loki asked, walking toward the cage.
It was more than a panther. The beast was nearly the size of a young Fenrir, its fur a shimmering, midnight velvet. It stood half a head taller than an Asgardian warrior, its muscles rippling like liquid shadow.
"Found her in the jungles of Midgard," Lulu explained, wiping grease from her cheek. "I tracked her from the air. She'd been eating Heart-shaped Herbs—rare flora that mutated her into a monster. She's smarter than most of my crew. I told her she was going to be your new mount, or she'd be a rug. She chose the mount option."
"The Heart-shaped Herbs?" Loki's eyes sharpened.
"I've got bags of them," Lulu whispered. "And the minerals you wanted. A purple metal the locals call Vibranium. I subdued a tribe of spear-wielding primitives to get it. They'll keep mining it for us as long as we keep the sky-god act going."
The Shadow of the Sorcerer.
That night, inside the private banquet hall of the Golden Palace, the "Captain" finally relaxed. Lulu sat at Loki's side, recounting the voyage with a glass of mead in one hand and a cigar in the other.
"We jumped into the Pegasus Galaxy by mistake," she admitted. "Lost three months navigating wormholes. But we made up for it by raiding three pirate bases. We bought that transport ship with the loot."
"And the Kree?"
"They're obsessed with our craftsmanship," Lulu laughed. "They offered me a Mothership in exchange for our short-range blade technology. I told them our steel wasn't for sale... yet. But look at this."
She reached into her coat and pulled out a circular gold pendant with a heavy, green gem at its center.
[Item Identified: The Eye of Agamotto (Time Stone Holder)]
Loki felt the temporal energy radiating from the stone. His heart hammered against his ribs. The final piece.
"I took a detour to a snowy mountain range on Midgard," Lulu said, her voice dropping. "Surrounded a monastery of mages at night. I told them I was collecting 'snow lotus' for the Queen, but I had my boys empty their vault. I didn't kill them—didn't want to alert the local 'protectors'—but I took this. No one in the fleet knows what's inside the emerald. Only you and I."
Loki pulled her into a fierce kiss. "Lulu, you are a treasure. This... this changes everything."
"I don't need to know why you want it," she said, shaking her head. "I just want to know when we're going back out. The Kree called us a 'remote island' on the edge of the universe, Loki. It made me angry. They think they're the center of everything because they have big ships."
Loki leaned in, his voice cold and resolute. "They won't think that for long. When we install the Rainbow Star-Destroyer Cannons on your new fleet, Captain Lulu will be the one at the center of the universe. I promise."
"Soon?" she whispered.
"Very soon."
Lulu's eyes turned predatory. She stood up, pulling Loki toward the bedroom. "Good. Because right now, I'm hungry. And I'm not talking about the cold food on the table."
Loki laughed, letting the "Octopus" drag him into the dark. The Merchant Queen had returned, and she had brought the keys to the Multiverse with her.
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