You were walking along a long corridor in silence with Valkyrie. It would have been awkward even if you hadn't been holding on to her arm in order to make you both invisible.

You'd bid farewell to Loki, Thor and Bruce about one minute ago. Loki and Thor were going to steal a ship strong enough to get through the wormhole, and Bruce was going to wait in Valkyrie's ship for you and her to get back, after you'd armed a revolution. You were feeling only slightly panicked.

"What's the deal with you and lackey then." Valkyrie asked stiffly. Was she trying to make conversation?

"It's Loki. And..."

"Let me guess, you're in love." she said, pulling a face.

"If you like." you replied with a small, slightly nervous laugh.

"You can see it when you look at each other." she told you. How were you supposed to reply to that? Thank you?

"You're lucky. Don't let it go." she told you abruptly. You were taken aback, but tried not to show it.

"I don't plan on it."

You had to fall silent then, as two guards passed you going in the opposite direction. When they were gone, you'd finally thought of something to say.

"Valkyrie..."

"Call me Val. We're stuck together for the time being so best not to mess around with niceties."

You smiled.

"Val then. I can actually teleport; it'll be faster than walking." you told her.

"Well why didn't you say so when we left my apartment?" she asked, stopping short.

"It's quite an odd experience, I wanted to check you were alright with it."

"Yes, I am." she told you firmly.

You closed your eyes; picturing the holding cell you'd been in earlier, and teleported. When your feet hit the ground you grabbed a tight hold of Val's arm, correctly preempting that she would fall over.

"You good?" you asked.

"Yeah, yep." she said, straightening up and letting go of your arm, becoming instantly visible to all of the prisoners. You quickly made yourself visible too.

"Does anyone here know a Korg?" you asked.

"Y/N! Welcome back." Korg said loudly, appearing from around a corner with Miek.

"Hey Korg. Remember that revolution you were telling me about?"

...

The prisoners had been extremely easy to rally, as you'd been expecting, and once armed they posed rather a bigger threat than you'd anticipated. Not that that was your problem.

After you'd freed the prisoners, you and Val had teleported to her ship (Warsong: even her ship was cool) where Bruce was waiting for you.

"Are you guys okay? Did the prisoners rally?" he asked anxiously as Valkyrie settled into the pilots seat and gestured for you to sit in the chair next to her.

"Oh they rallied alright. Now we just need to hope the guards are too preoccupied to notice the Grandmaster's biggest ship being taken." Val said cheerfully as the ship rose into the air; Bruce sat down heavily and put his seatbelt on.

"There's not much point Bruce, we're not sticking around on here for very long." you reminded him.

"I'd actually like to survive long enough to be able to get off of this ship and on to the next one." he retorted, holding on for dear life. You felt a rush of exhilaration as the ship raced forwards into the open air, and a wide grin spread across Val's face. Bruce had his eyes shut.

"Loyal Sakaarians, the Lord of Thunder has stolen my ship and my favourite champion. Take to the skies. Bring him down. Do not let him leave this planet!" the Grandmaster's voice echoed over the city. Valkyrie cursed loudly.

"Look, there." you said, pointing at a very large and obvious ship flying fast away from the city, towards the wormhole. It was flanked by two Palace Patrol ships, but only two. For now.

"Yep, that's the Commodore." Val muttered, changing course to fly directly behind the ships. Then she flicked up a panel and pressed a button, before putting both hands back on the joystick and pressing another large button. You jumped as the two patrol ships blew up simultaneously ahead of you.

"Nice shot!" Bruce said, and you turned to see him now leaning forward eagerly.

Valkyrie bought her ship directly underneath the Commodore and then pressed some more buttons on the dash.

"Open the doors." she spoke into a radio; you assumed Thor was on the other end. Then the whole ship spun upside down, yet the cockpit which the three of you were sat in remained upright.

"I hope that you're tougher than you look." Val said to Bruce, who looked at her in trepidation. You didn't mean to read her mind, but she was taking such amusement in what she was about to do that you couldn't help but overhear. You reached back and undid Bruce's seatbelt.

"Why? Why?" Bruce asked, increasingly nervously.

Val hit yet another button, and Bruce was launched upwards out of the ship with a yell. You craned you neck looking upwards to make sure he landed safely, which he didn't, sliding right to the edge of the door before managing to pull himself back up into the ship.

"Your turn." Val said.

"Wait." you told her, reaching out to grab her hand before she could hit another button. You'd intruded upon her mind more than you probably should have; you knew what she might do if things turned bad.

"Don't do anything stupid." you told her, echoing Loki's words to you earlier. "We're all going to get out of here."

"I know." she told you after a pause, with a funny smile. "Brace yourself."

You were launched upwards out of Val's ship and into the Commodore, making a slightly wobbly but overall stable landing. Bruce looked as though he had just got up from the floor; Loki was with Thor in the cockpit. You breathed a not-so-secret sigh of relief that he was there.

You doubted me?

No.

Liar.

"Shouldn't we be shooting back or something?" Bruce asked, making his way to the cockpit with you.

"Yes, we should." Thor agreed. "Where are the guns on this thing?" he continued, now talking into a radio.

"There aren't any, it's a leisure vessel." Valkyrie's voice crackled back through the radio.

"What?!" Thor and Bruce yelled in unified horror. You removed your hands from the back of Loki's chair very swiftly.

"Grandmaster uses it for his good times, orgies and stuff." Val continued. You closed your eyes. That's why the ship was so lavishly decorated. Wonderful.

"Did she just say the Grandmaster uses it for orgies?" Bruce repeated.

I wish people would stop saying the word orgies.

"Yeah, don't touch anything." Thor said, sounding vaguely ill. The ship rocked as there was gunfire from behind, causing you to grab the chair again reflexively. A few seconds later Val's ship shot out from underneath the Commodore and appeared to be flying straight towards the Grandmaster's riot ship, the Statesman, which was hovering over the rioting masses in the streets below and raining chaos down upon them.

"What's she doing?" Loki asked, leaning forward.

"She's hit... Val, this was the kind of stupid thing I was talking about!" you shouted into the radio. There was no reply.

You all watched in horror as Warsong ploughed straight into the side of the Statesman, exploding on impact. The Statesman was knocked off kilter and spun down towards the ground in a plume of smoke.

"No!" Thor and Bruce shouted, their devastation hitting you in the chest almost as hard as yours had. Barely a second passed, however, before suddenly a figure was flying out of the explosion, growing larger as it headed towards you...

"It's her!" Bruce exclaimed, flinching only slightly as Val hit the windscreen and hung on for dear life. The Commodore lurched to one side as there was more gunfire from the patrol ships pursuing you.

"Get inside!" Thor yelled.

"In a minute!" Val yelled back, and then pulled herself up onto the roof and disappeared. You heard footsteps thudding across the roof, and then silence.

"She's jumped onto another ship." Loki said.

"She's mental!" Bruce said.

"I should probably go and help. Banner, you fly." Thor told Bruce, standing up to leave the ship's controls unmanned.

"Here, take the wheel."

"Wha- no! I don't know how to fly one of these things! Loki can do it, or Y/N." Bruce responded in panic.

"Loki isn't allowed to fly." Thor scowled, and you threw Loki a quizzical look. He just glared at Thor.

"You're a scientist, use one of your PhDs!" Thor continued when Bruce didn't respond, moving away to the back of the ship.

"None of them are for flying alien spaceships!" Bruce shouted over his shoulder, now sitting in the pilot's seat looking very lost. You were wondering whether to go and help Val and Thor.

No. Stay here.

But-

Stay here.

You glared out of the window in annoyance.

You know I'm right.

Why do you think I'm scowling?

From behind, you could hear loud explosions and metallic screeching coming from the patrol ships, which sounded like good news.

"Okay, come on. There's gotta be a gun on this thing. That looks like a gun." Bruce was muttering, looking at a button with what looked like an explosion on it.

"That doesn't look like a gun." Loki supplied.

Bruce pressed the button. The ships lighting changed to a sort of disco effect and weird dance music started blasting over the PA, followed by the Grandmaster's voice.

"It's my birthday! It's my birthday! It's my birthday!"

As the sound of fireworks reached your ears, you closed your eyes briefly and then turned around. You'd had enough.

"Y/N, don't."

"You don't." you told Loki, fully aware that you sounded like a child. You weren't dignified with a response.

You jogged to the back of the ship, where you then teleported up on to the roof. You watched as the fireworks, colourful smoke and confetti blinded one of the ships that had been pursuing you and caused it to crash land into the water below; you were past the wastelands now and flying over the ocean.

Allowing another rush of exhilaration to wash over you, you easily took down a patrol ship with your magic, seeing Val and Thor tear apart another ship behind it with their bare hands just behind. After a minute or two, the only other ships that you could see were far away in the distance; Thor and Val bought the last remaining ship underneath the Commodore and then jumped up into the Commodore's open doors; you swung yourself back down into the open door to land next to them.

"Nice." Thor said, as the doors closed behind you. Nice was correct; your heart was pounding and you felt alive.

Luckily you are still alive.

What did I tell you about being able to look after myself?

"We're coming up on the Devil's Anus." Valkyrie said as the three of you returned to the cockpit, your flight path a lot smoother now that you weren't being fired upon.

"I'd buckle up if I were you." Bruce said, swapping places with Thor and looking in dread at the approaching wormhole. Loki stood up and gestured for Valkyrie to take his seat.

"How chivalrous." she commented.

There were only two proper seats in the cockpit and two bench like chairs against the far wall of the back of the ship. You tried very hard not to think about what the chairs might have previously been used for as you sat down on the right hand one next to Loki. Bruce occupied the left hand one.

None of you spoke as you approached the wormhole; the ship began to shudder violently as you entered it.

"Here we go." Val said gleefully, gripping the sides of her chair tightly. Thor's forehead was creased with worry. The euphoria you'd all been feeling just minutes ago had vanished completely, replaced by fear.

The ship's onboard computer shorted out with a spark and a pop and then the lights flashed out. You curled your fingers around the edge of your chair as the hull creaked noisily, under intense amounts of pressure. The cabin shook beneath the strain, irregular thuds indicating debris flying about outside of the ship.

Loki took your hand; you squeezed, hard.

It felt as though the air was pressing down on you, compressing your lungs, your entire body, and making it difficult to draw a breath. Praying the ship wouldn't be torn apart, you finally gave in and squeezed your eyes shut tight, half aware that you were losing consciousness.

'Please' you thought, as Loki's grip on your fingers loosened, and then his hand fell away.