Marvel: Merchant Days

An advanced aircraft flew low over the open Pacific as it raced towards the Western Seaboard.

"They are about to make land any second now."

"So are we."

Magneto turned to the woman and the humongous stature of a man standing calmly beside him.

"They stopped."

"Come."

The stealth craft slowed down as the hatch opened. Magneto levitated and flew out of the plane, followed by the woman, while the last man simply jumped down with a grin.

The Juggernaut landed first and kicked up a small cloud of dust that swiftly cleared away as Magneto and Phantazia landed in front of him.

"I had my doubts, and I can't say I'm happy to be proven right, in this situation at least." Surrounded by a patch of wet sand stood a disguised half naked Loki, secured only in the pants he was wearing.

"You are quite some pests." He spat in disdain.

"Heh, looks like this one has quite the mouth on him. How about I shut him up real quick?" The smack of his hands and the cruel grin on the Juggernaut's face showed just how he intended to do that.

Magneto however, raised his hands and put a stop to that.

"It doesn't have to come to that." He looked at the man in front of them, who was sizing them up as well, but doing it with a clearly amused smile on his face.

"And who are you supposed to be?" the man asked.

"You can call me Magneto." And that was the single most disadvantage of looking younger. The fact that he had to reintroduce himself to everyone he cared to speak to, and most times being met with suspicion at his young appearance.

Just as he expected, the man gave him a curious look, and simply shrugged – which was surprising and perhaps the mark of a mature mind.

"It seems you dearly missed that youthful vitality. Good for you." The man easily brushed it aside. "But you should have a good reason for following me."

"You possess great power. I believe I will appreciate a man of your talents."

Loki did a doubletake. He was flabbergasted not because the man was trying to recruit him, but because he was trying to recruit HIM.

The gall on this man. Sure, they were unaware of his identity, but either way, the sheer gall.

One thing though.

"How did you find me?"

"You weren't being particularly subtle with what you were doing in the depths of the Pacific."

Loki raised a brow at that. "You sensed it."

Magneto nodded. "Someone on my side did. And I believe others did as well. We were just closer, hence the first to arrive. Whether that's our good fortune remains to be seen."

"First? So I should expect others to come after me? For what, another recruitment speech?" The thought alone made him snort. And yet Odin dared to call him unfilial and warmongering for recruiting others to his cause, and here were the humans doing it en masse.

"Amongst other things."

Loki looked at his fingers as he brought them to his face and flexed them repeatedly. There was a fluidity to his nature and magic that wasn't there before.

He didn't eat the heart, that would have been too disgusting for someone like him. Absorbing the heart into his however… that was something easier and smarter to do. The only thing hard about it was finding a magic spell for the process, of which he had a dozen.

"What a shame." He smiled to himself as a sheen of blue wrapped his torso in fine linen. "Unfortunately, I don't like when 'people' tell me what to do. However, I do love telling people what to do."

He looked at the three of them. A manipulator of Magnetism, a goliath of a man that mirrored an unstoppable force, and a woman with unknown, but equally impressive abilities he reckoned.

"How about it? Maybe this time, you won't have so much experience with failing."

"A simple no would suffice." Magneto looked at him for a brief moment before simply turning around to leave.

Loki chuckled at the disregard. He looked at the woman and the Juggernaut with a charming inviting smile.

"How about it? Surely you two have grown fed up of his ideologies."

"I can pummel the pretty boy now, right?"

"Don't kill him."

Loki grinned.

He could hear the little waves that corralled into the land. He could feel the waves crashing and brewing off in the distance. He had known it beforehand, but it was only after absorbing the heart that Loki realized just what kind of creature the heart belonged to.

This was not just a simple creature lounging in the dark depths. The Hydra's Heart came from a monster that could easily snack on demigods. It was a Mythical existence that settled itself as a bane to divinity.

What the item tag never mentioned was that it possessed a venom that was so potent against gods, even killing them if they didn't have an antidote of the same level or higher.

The few Hydra he and Thor had slain in the past were pitiful squids compared to the creature the heart belonged to.

With all the benefits he gained from the heart alone, it was no surprise why he seemed eager as the Juggernaut rushed at him.

Meeting him head on was foolish so Loki simply slipped out of his way, making the Juggernaut come to a stop of his own when he realized he'd missed.

Wham!

His fist struck the Juggernaut square to the face and actually forced his head to the side. Sure it did virtually nothing to the man, but that in itself was a feat of strength far above what Loki previously possessed.

The man cracked his knuckles with a hateful grin. "Oh, I'm gonna enjoy this."

"Oh, you're not."

The movement was almost blurred in Loki's eyes but he reacted before the meaty fist could grab his head. They were at the shore so he had no problem calling upon the endless body of water around them.

He willed his form to collapse into a puddle of water under Juggernaut's feet. A bit curious, he wrapped the man in a dome of twisting currents and steadily increased the pressure as the seconds passed.

"Let's see how long it'll take for him to—"

He sighed the moment he saw the Juggernaut resist the currents for a moment to plant his legs on the ground and slowly took a heavy step.

"Not that long it seems."

"Hydrokinesis. I suspected, but I see your control of your talents are quite refined."

"Refined? Hmm, let's see."

Magneto and Phantazia watched as Loki opened his hand and how the waves around them became agitated. Their surprise came when Loki closed his fist and they saw the sea race towards Juggernaut in a frankly scary way and swallowed him whole before he could take his second step.

"Right now, your friend is on a one way trip to the dark depths. How long do you think he can survive before he gets there?"

Phantazia was the first to attack him after that as she fired some type of energy beam at him which he dodged. He returned the favor by firing water bullets by flicking his fingers at her, only for her to make them turn into harmless splashes when they reached her.

He gestured with his hands and the moisture in the air around her coagulated and tried to pierce into her in the form of hair-thin needles.

"Smart. I can't help but wonder how your abilities work." Loki mused to himself as his attack fell apart again, before shrugging. "I'll figure it out soon enough."

"I'm sure you will. But you'll do it with regret." Magneto levitated as pieces of metal started shooting out of the ocean to float around him.

Loki smirked. He had felt them rushing in from miles away and could have put a stop to it but decided otherwise. What he did do however was make sure that the sinking Juggernaut, who was being carried farther away into the ocean, avoided rescue by dodging all the debris.

Phantazia, who was wrapped in a protective bubble of waves, made a motion with her hands and Loki felt a tingle in his head.

He failed to address her about it as serrated edges aimed for his head. He evaded the rain of metals easily, taking extra care to avoid the little metal straps also flying around.

While he moved expertly, the debris had formed a canopy above him. Phantazia then charged them with electrified disruptive waves.

As they came down on Loki, she also sent out a debilitating pulse and focused them in Loki's direction.

Seeing all this, while also frowning at the nagging interference he was feeling around him, he calmly reached out with his hands and squeezed the air, fighting off the increased interference that was relentlessly trying to disrupt his abilities.

There was moisture everywhere in the atmosphere, everyone knew that. Now what would happen if these particles of air moisture were to undergo a fission reaction?

How dangerous would the forceful explosion of these particles, of the very atmosphere, be?

Well, all three of them found out in an unpleasantly hard way.

Pure force ripped through the very air and blew apart everything for miles around them with a blinding light and a deafening bang.

It was a big bang indeed.

That was simultaneously one of the hardest things Loki had ever done as well as the most suicidal. The explosion of force and energy would have ripped him apart if not for him displacing it with the mist of his Dimension Lost that formed around him.

The ground they were standing on was long gone for miles inland and the ocean had greedily swallowed the dug roots.

He stood on the water's surface and looked around him, feeling greatly pleased and amazed. The flash of inspiration had been there, the motion had been simple, but he had pushed his Hydrokinesis with his magic to its finest point. Easy, it definitely was not.

Water flowed into his body and revitalized him, filling his energy to the brim and even boosting past it as the contact remained.

"I will admit, that ability of yours is as admirable as it is finicky."

The dome of energy covering Magneto and Phantazia dropped. Her ability to control and disrupt energy waves of all kinds was the only thing that saved them from the blast.

Gone was the stoic mask of superiority on her face and replacing it was heightened wariness as she looked at him.

"Astonishing. What was that you just did? How did you even do it?" Magneto asked with genuine curiosity, hiding away whatever he might have felt during that brief flash of death.

"Who knows?" Loki replied while slicking his hair backwards.

Magneto did not appear to take offence to that. "I take it you will not be reconsidering my offer?"

"Only if you consider mine."

Just before Magneto could say anything to that, a deluge of red landed on the waves ominously and Loki almost instinctively roused up his magic in preparation for whatever the red energy was.

He did not have to do anything as the red energy's intensity dimmed enough to reveal a young woman standing almost protectively in front of Magneto and Phantazia.

"We are fine, Wanda. Things… escalated in an unforeseeable fashion."

"Unforeseeable?" The new arrival, Wanda, looked as if she couldn't believe her ears. "We almost died from whatever that blast was."

"In my defense, I forgot about your ship." Loki joked, but his mind was all focused on the young girl and whatever that red energy that pricked at his mind was. It felt so much like pure magic, or it would have if not for how eerie it felt to his senses.

She glared at him and all his mind did was rush through the shape of a scheme that ended with his benefits and profits.

"Stop glaring." He chuckled. "Looks like I'm interested in tagging along, for now."

"Is that so?" He believed Magneto almost chuckled. "And why is that?"

Usually, Loki played his schemes from under his sleeves when he did a show of hands, but he was still under the throes of inspiration so he did the opposite.

"I find myself pleasantly curious about her. What kind of magic is that?"

"How did you know it was magic?"

"I have some education on the subject."

Wanda on the other hand looked at Loki with disdain and disgust. "Stay away from me, creep."

"As long as you occasionally pardon my curiosities, I'll keep a fine distance." He smiled at the three suspecting mutants. "I don't do with orders but I'll happily lend my aid, occasionally, in repayment."

He waved his hand and Juggernaut fell out of a purple mist and landed on the sea but didn't sink.

"You're still conscious? Impressive."

"I'll… I'll kill you." The man rasped.

"If you want to float through the void of space next, then by all means." He turned to Magneto who looked contemplative after Juggernaut appeared, meanwhile Wanda looked surprised.

"I could feel you pulling him up." He said to her, making her surprise disappear and she once more turned to glare at him. Was… was that the light of a rebellious spirit in her eyes? Oh, this was just glad.

"You can join us." Magneto said at last.

"Splendid."

"Great…" Wanda groaned. "And what do they call you?"

"Enigma." He flourished his hands in a show of charisma that was utterly different from that of his brother. "But you, Wanda, can call me Nasreddin."

She ignored him and flew up back to the plane.

.

.

.

.

.

A/N: Hmm. I can't seem to figure out if I wrote Loki well.

––––––

.

Patreøn*com/1stDepth

.

––––––