Thick as Thieves Ch. 24 (Marvel) (Patreon)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Taking advantage of recent events~

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They move through the shadows as one unit, slipping past automated security with relative ease in the complete absence of any living guards. Meanwhile, Lady Loki watches Cameron and Felicia move through the former’s eyes. Breaking into this place is not exactly a challenge for her Champion or his mentor, and they are soon within a hidden underground vault filled with all manner of treasure.

This is the fifth such location that her Champion has ‘knocked over’ in the weeks since his plan to take down ‘the Kingpin’ had come to fruition. In the wake of Wilson Fisk’s arrest, his organization had been in shambles, after all. Word that his second in command had betrayed him and caused untold amounts of damage had spread through the streets of the city quite quickly.

Men of ill repute had abandoned their posts en masse upon learning that they weren’t going to be paid anymore and with the belief that there would be no reprisal for their dereliction of duty. Everywhere Lady Loki looked, it seemed to be the exact same thing. Everyone agreed that this Wilson Fisk was done.

So of course her Champion and his mentor were going to take advantage of that. Having copied the contents of James Wesley’s computer, they had access to an entire list of locations that were said to be filled with all sorts of goodies.

Sometimes it was just more information, which they then passed on to the heroic spider that haunted their steps and made an appearance every now and then. The spider could then turn that information over to the proper ‘authorities’ or even use it herself to stop further criminal activity.

But other times, like tonight… it was ‘loot’. Lady Loki watches as her Champion utilizes his connection to her demesne to transport the surrounding wealth out of the room and over to her cavern. It appears in a neat pile over in the corner with the rest of the things Midgardians consider valuable, waiting to be sold through his mentor’s ‘black market’ connections.

They clear the place rather quickly like that, as despite Felicia once asking Lady Loki to bar Cameron from using this method to store his ill-gotten goods, her objections were rather absent in the face of it benefiting her just as much. They had yet to engage in another competition like the one that had precipitated that request though, so it was possible she would make the request again at that time.

Either way, things are soon all packed away, neat and tidy as ever, and Cameron and Felicia slip out of yet another of the Kingpin’s stashes, having enriched themselves at the imprisoned criminal’s expense. Lady Loki, meanwhile, is watching as Cameron uses her gifts to great effect, fooling the Midgardian Technology put in place to guard the place from intruders with ease.

Her Champion has proven to be a quick learner in all respects, taking to having her boons like a fish to water. He’s fully incorporated her illusions into his toolkit at this point and has sucked up any and all knowledge about how to use those illusions even better as she’s passed it down to him.

Put simply… it was time.

Lady Loki waits until they’re back home first at least, but once they’ve finished their ‘work’ for the night, she manifests before the two of them, preventing any celebratory copulation from immediately starting up.

Both Cameron and Felicia pause at her sudden presence, giving her curious looks. She, meanwhile, simply looks at Cameron intently.

“It is time, my Champion. I would have you begin to put serious thought into how you will go about completing my first serious task for you… to find out the state of Asgard and the health of my ‘dear father’ so that I might know how dangerous it would or would not be to leave my demesne for real.”

Even as she was now, a facsimile of herself, a solid illusion, it wasn’t enough. The real her was still back in her domain, tucked away and safe beyond measure… so long as she didn’t fully poke her head out.

This was why she’d empowered Cameron in the first place, after all. She had named him her Champion and given him the power he now wielded with such ease not because she wanted to see what he would do with it or anything as inane as that, but because she needed an agent to do her bidding out in the greater universe.

To his credit, her Champion grows serious at her words. His mentor, on the other hand…

“Cameron isn’t ready for that.”

Turning her gaze towards the white-haired Midgardian, Lady Loki scoffs.

“He grows more capable in the use of his abilities by the day. If not now, then when? I will not wait forever to reap the benefits of our association, especially not after everything I’ve given him as my Champion.”

There is an emphasis on ‘everything’, a reminder that Lady Loki had even allowed Cameron to copulate with her august self once upon a time. It had been a pleasant enough experience… but he was still largely mortal and had gotten more out of the exchange than she did.

But Felicia still shakes her head.

“You don’t understand. You’re asking him to take on the Avengers for you. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, or so they like to call themselves. Thor, at least, is seriously no joke. We end up on the wrong side of him and we’re all in for a world of hurt.”

Lady Loki’s eyes flash at that, her lips thinning out into a line.

“Do not think to lecture me about my own brother, mortal. I have centuries of experience with Thor. I know precisely how that overly brawny brute thinks.”

And yet, Felicia still does not let it go.

“Do you? Do you really? Because your male self has attacked Earth a dozen times at this point… and never once succeeded. The Avengers stop him every single time. And Thor… from what I’ve heard, he’s actually learned a lot from his time on Earth. He’s changed in ways you can probably barely imagine.”

That… Lady Loki narrows her eyes, biting back her initial impulse. As much as the Midgardian’s backtalk displeases her, there might be a kernel of truth to Felicia’s words. It has been quite a long time since she last saw Thor, after all. But then…

“That only proves my point. I am blind to any changes my brother might have gone through in the past few centuries… just as I am blind to anything that has happened to my male self or to Asgard. I require answers if I am to decide on my next steps… which is where my Champion comes in. I am not asking him to fight your so-called ‘Avengers’ on my behalf. I am asking him to do what he does best and what you have trained him to do better… snoop.”

Felicia looks like she takes offense to that. Good, because Lady Loki was intending to be a little offensive. Before the Midgardian can muster up a response however, her Champion steps in.

“Felicia, enough. I would have been caught by SWAT back in the museum if it wasn’t for Lady Loki. Not to mention the powers she’s granted me are the sole reason that Fisk no longer has his fat hand around Brandon’s throat, ready to squeeze. I owe her plenty and I already promised I would help her with this when she deemed me ready.”

Cameron sweeps his gaze over to her; jaw set and eyes filled with determination.

“Where do you think we should start, Goddess?”

Felicia slumps, moving over to the couch and sitting down on it with her arms crossed over her chest and a mulish expression on her face. Most importantly of all though, she no longer tries to interrupt. Lady Loki tries to keep her gloating minimal as she preens under her Champion’s loyalty… but it’s impossible not to smirk a little bit, her eyes glittering.

“That is the question, isn’t it? There’s an argument to be made for a variety of different avenues. Finding my brother or… my other self are two of our many options, I suppose. Tracking down Thor sounds like it might be easier than tracking down the male Loki, however.”

Beginning to pace, she brings a hand to her chin, entering a thinking pose as she walks back and forth.

“The problem becomes how we get the information out of either of them. For all that my brother might have changed, he’s still likely the type to punch first and ask questions later, no?”

That last bit she directs at both Felicia and Cameron. The former says nothing but the latter nods hesitantly.

“Uh, yeah… he’s got a bit of a reputation online for that sort of thing, that’s for sure.”

Heh, ‘online’. The Midgardians had connected themselves by a strange ‘world wide web’. It was… quaint. But also interesting to her. Billions of Midgardians lived now and it would be impossible for them all to keep in touch. But their ‘internet’ certainly allowed for more connectivity than would otherwise be possible.

“Unfortunately, he still might be a better option than my other self. I cannot say with absolute certainty obviously, but even if the male Loki seems to have significantly diverged from what we were in the past, I know enough about him to know he would not make the extraction of any kind of information easy. He would not trust you if he were to meet you, even if he sensed his own power within you in the form of my endowment. Nor would I want you to try to tell him the truth anyways… it is a conundrum.”

She sighs just thinking about it. Because really, what was the right answer here? Thor, who was just as likely to try and smash Cameron with his hammer as he was to talk? Or Loki, who was just as likely to try and stab her Champion in a kidney as he was to do anything else?

“… Both are bad options, admittedly.”

Cameron slowly nods, frowning as he contemplates her words. The silence that ensues does not make her squirm or anything like that, but she does find it to be a bit… awkward. Until…

“Then don’t approach either of them.”

Felicia’s words draw Lady Loki’s attention back to her, as well as Cameron’s. The white-haired Midgardian remains seated with her arms crossed over her chest and for a moment Lady Loki begins to scowl as her eyes narrow. Was the mortal woman still trying to get in her way?

Only, before she can respond, Felicia continues on with a shrug.

“You said we’re only gathering information right now, right? So don’t approach Thor or Loki yet. It’s not worth it. Neither of them is likely to be a reliable font of information. What you need to do is find out what other people know about them first. The government is bound to have some sort of agency dedicated to keeping track of this stuff. We find out who it is, break in to wherever they keep their files, and read up on whatever information they have.”

Oh? Lady Loki perks up, all of her irritation towards Felicia fading away. She rather liked the sound of that, actually. Though part of her balks at the idea of anyone on Midgard actually keeping tabs on her male self or her brother.

“Do you really think they’ll have any information worthwhile?”

Felicia scoffs.

“Of course they will. We Midgardians might not be quite as punchy as you Asgardians, and most of us don’t have magic like you do either. But where we lack, we’ve found ways to make up for it over the years. Technology, yes, but we’ve also developed in other ways to make up for any sort of ‘deficiencies’. We’re crafty little fuckers and that’s somewhat best exemplified by just how much fuckery our intelligence agencies get up to.”

Her Champion chuckles then, shaking his head in wry amusement.

“Funny to think that we’re about to go from using the US government to take down Fisk, to breaking into the US government to rob them of whatever intelligence they might have gathered. But… I like it. I like it a lot.”

Felicia smirks, preening a bit.

“Hmph. Never forget… the enemy of your enemy is NOT your friend. They’re simply your enemy’s enemy. We used law enforcement to take down Fisk because we knew they would want to anyways. And now we’re going to use them again to get what we want out of them. Simple as that.”

And maybe… maybe it really would be as simple as that! Lady Loki grins, feeling quite good about this proposed course of action. Even if it wound up getting them nowhere, she was quite interested to see what Midgard had to say about Asgard and its Princes all the same.

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A/N: Throw me a comment if you can but please leave a Like if you don’t want to, it’s the main metric I use to track whether a story is doing well or not!

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MuXRVinWImaBJlNqA4t5gerFjNCMKRz8fT1A0SSoxgw/edit?tab=t.0