Well, there was good news and bad news. The good news: they hadn't been spotted by Mephisto yet. They'd made sure no monster either called for backup, or made it back alive to Mephisto to tell him what had happened. (Though that had mostly been Loki. Strange, Scott and Wanda were still very reluctant to kill anyone, even monsters.)

The bad news: the closer they got to the top, the more monsters they were encountering, which was seriously slowing them down, and wasting their energy. Even by flying up the stairs they weren't getting far. The risk also increased that one of them could alert Mephisto. (Stephen was slightly reassured however, because they came across no mortals which led him to believe they'd escaped.)

They stopped for a short break somewhere around the 150th floor. Wanda collapsed onto a chair and fanned herself.

"Guys can we rest for 5? It's way too hot in here," she asked, and Stephen thought that was a great idea. He promptly collapsed onto a chair next to hers and Loki sat on the table, while Scott stood by the window, peering out over the desert.

Scott whistled. "We're high up. Like, really high up."

"Well it is Floor 174," Wanda told him, wiping the sweat off her face absently. The other three looked at her. "What?"

"How did you know it was Floor 174?" asked Stephen, dumbstruck. Surely she hadn't counted them as she went up?

"Er... there's a sign right there," she pointed out, gesturing to the plaque next to Scott's head, which did, in fact, have the number 174 on it.

"Huh. Didn't notice that," Loki shrugged, wiping his dagger on his sleeve.

"I think you were too busy hacking monsters into pieces," Strange pointed out. "Seriously I didn't realise how lethal you were."

Loki gave a laugh. "You think I'm bad? I can tell none of you have ever seen an Asgardian war."

Scott pulled a face, like he was regretting contemplating what that could mean. "So, here seems like a good a place as any to finalise any ideas for the plan. Or to actually make one. Anyone got one?"

Strange shook his head. "Not a clue. Not even sure how we've got this far without Mephisto sending down extra guards. He must be really into his cards game."

Scott shrugged. "I guess it's good for us though, right? I mean he won't have any reinforcements to call on either, because they're all subatomic or dead and dusted."

"I don't know," Strange said, frowning. "It could be a trap, and we saw tons of monsters around. Mephisto will still have plenty of backup."

Wanda nodded. "You're probably right. Me and Scott didn't see any on the way here but from what I read he's got quite a big demonic army at his disposal. I'm guessing what we've encountered so far is probably less than a tenth of the entire army."

Scott's eyes widened. "A tenth? Are you sure?"

Wanda nodded. "Most likely."

Stephen exchanged a glance with Loki. "I'd probably say a tenth too. We saw a lot when we got here, though at that time no one was particularly interested in killing us. The security guards, I mean. The ones that were just playing games nearly killed us like, 8 times. Accidentally, obviously."

Poor Scott looked like his brain was exploding. "How can you accidentally kill someone?" he asked.

Loki cleared his throat subtly and sheathed his dagger. "I thought we were meant to be making a plan?"

How the times have changed, Strange thought. I used to be the one making sure no one got distracted. "Oh, yeah, right. OK. Um. Anyone got any ideas at all? I'm open to suggestions."

He looked at Wanda, who shrugged and crossed her legs, drumming her fingers on her knees thoughtfully. "We don't really need a plan as such, do we? Just because, you know, they don't normally work. And, if they do, we spend 8 hours perfecting them."

Loki smirked. "She makes a very good point. I don't think we have 8 minutes, much less 8 hours."

"OK, so just a rough idea then," Scott decided, walking over from the window and sitting down on the other free chair next to the table. "Like, are we going to take them by surprise, if we can, or try and make peace, or negotiate-"

"No!" both Stephen and Loki said immediately. Wanda and Scott stared at them.

"We tried that already and look how well that worked out," Loki pointed out, sounding bitter. "I think a surprise attack would be best. We need him to send hell down by himself, right? So we show him he can't win and he'll surrender."

"And how do we do that?" asked Scott. "If he's got Clint, T'Challa, Carol, Rhodey and Sam on his side plus a giant demonic army... I really don't fancy our chances."

They pondered this for a moment. Stephen scratched his beard absently. Scott was right: they didn't really have much of a chance, as powerful as he and his friends were. (He could call them friends, right?) "So we take them out separately," he decided aloud. Everyone turned their attention to him. "We can kill monsters because they respawn again eventually anyway, but we can't so much as injure the Avengers because they're being possessed but they're the good guys, and we can't kill Mephisto because we need him to send the casino back to hell. So we tie the Avengers up with magic, and one of us should take on Mephisto one on one. I think that should be-"

"Me," Wanda said immediately. Everyone looked at her.

"I was about to say me," Stephen finished, though he was so quiet they barely heard him.

Wanda looked around at them all. "Well, think about it. It makes sense: I know the most about Mephisto so I'll know all his weak spots and how best I could defeat him. And also, I think it's best for you three as well. Scott, you know the Avengers best out of us, so you'll know their moves and can use this to your advantage. Loki's done such a great job of decreasing the population of mutant Chitauri-like monsters already and, this is not going to sound nice, but he's the... least reluctant to kill out of us, if you get my meaning. And Stephen-" she turned to him and smiled "-with your amazing magical abilities, I'm sure you're far more than capable to handle both incredibly hard jobs at the same time, right?"

Strange returned the smile, somewhat awkwardly. "I won't let you down, Wanda. You can count on me."

Then he heard an odd sound. It sounded very suspiciously like someone trying not to laugh.

He turned back to face Loki and Scott opposite them. Both of them were obviously trying not to laugh (for whatever reason); Scott had his hand over his mouth and was trying not to make a noise, and Loki was trying to look less conspicuous, though it wasn't really working. What were they laughing at? Had Scott suddenly learned telepathy? Some inside joke? Or had they both just finally cracked at exactly the same time?

"What are you laughing about?" asked Wanda, almost like she was afraid to find out.

Scott tried to straighten his face. "You two, obviously! Please don't eliminate us in a blast of magic or throw us from the window but... you're quite cute together."

Stephen immediately wanted to either eliminate them in a blast of magic or throw them from the window. Both of them would seem too defensive. He and Wanda exchanged a horrified glance, then immediately turned the same shade of pink and started saying a bunch of nonsense that didn't really mean anything. He knew they were just teasing them really but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"We're not, like... really," Wanda stumbled, twisting her hand through her hair.

"Yeah, we don't... actually, like," Strange agreed, making about as much sense as Wanda.

Weirdly enough however, it was actually Loki who stopped his and Wanda's torturous humiliation first.

"OK, that was funny," he said, stopping laughing, though he still had a small smile on his face, "but we seriously should, you know, put this rough idea into action or we'll lose the element of surprise."

Wanda and Strange gave him an identical look of gratitude.

Scott stopped himself by taking a deep breath, then on went his serious face. "Yes. Yes. We should. OK." He shook his head as though that would make him more casual. "Just a recap. Wanda: Mephisto. Me: Avengers. Loki: army. Stephen: both. Right?"

"Right," Wanda confirmed.

Loki stood up and the others followed suit. "Come on then. Let's finish this. And for Odin's sake hope it's cooler up there or we're all going to melt."