The three of them continued down the corridor, and since Strange had already disabled all the security systems, it took hardly any time at all before they turned the corner and went into the second door on the left, which they found empty of guards yet again.

"OK, so this is not as bad as I was expecting," Strange said, voicing exactly what Loki had been thinking.

The lab just appeared to be a mix of a hospital from the future and the king's quarters in Asgard. There was nothing particularly lab-like about it, and certainly nothing weird to suggest this was where cybernetically engineered children were made. The ceiling was high and fake gold, the walls were also fake gold and even the floor in this case was fake gold. The only light seemed to be coming from the pods that lined the walls. They were the only scientific thing in the room.

Loki looked around, figuring out which one housed the Guardians-destroying person. Eventually he figured it out and said, "OK, Strange, do your spell."

The wizard nodded, then closed his eyes to focus. He hadn't even told Loki what spell he was doing, just that he knew it would work. Being a telepath, Loki had already found out, and he trusted Strange enough to get the job done. He just hoped they could get out of here as soon as possible and with as little hassle as possible.

Though really he knew better than to expect that, so he didn't believe it would be that simple for a second.

All the lights suddenly started dimming in the pods, then glowed so brightly Loki had to squint to see what was happened. He assumed this was likely Strange's spell taking effect, but it was also probably noticeable to anyone outside, so if any more guards were coming, that wouldn't be fun. There was a very high-pitched squeal coming from all the machines, and then, suddenly, everything stopped.

Hang on, was that part of the spell? Surely not. Loki looked around, wondering if maybe Midgardian magic had ever been used on this planet. Because if so, their plan had all been for nothing.

Strange still had his eyes closed tight and that concentrating look was still on his face. He made a hand motion and suddenly everything in the room sparked and broke simultaneously, in an epic way.

And by epic, it was pretty damn close to his thousand or so exploding space ships. And this time they weren't at a safe distance.

The force of the explosion sent Loki and Strange flying straight back out into the corridor, but as they braced themselves for the impact of the wall, a very welcome red blanket flew behind them and gave them a hug, at least cushioning the impact so it wasn't quite enough to cause much pain.

Loki loved that cloak.

He still hit the wall at quite a speed, but thankfully not enough to knock him out, though it was pretty damn close. It hurt, but at least they were alive.

"Thanks cloak," he said, patting the fabric as though thanking an animal. "You're a lifesaver."

Loki turned to Strange. Then his heart skipped a beat, because he hadn't moved. And he still wasn't.

"Er, Strange?" he said, worriedly, shaking him gently. Strange didn't show any signs of life. "Strange? Strange!"

Loki kept shaking Strange to try wake him up. "Come on, Strange, wake up," he kept murmuring. Loki didn't think he'd be able to live with himself if he didn't wake up. Even the cloak, which had extracted itself from behind them, was helping in its own way.

The wizard groaned slightly, and Loki felt relief wash over him, thinking all hope wasn't lost yet. He was just knocked out, thank God. Great, now he was speaking like a Midgardian.

When Strange still didn't wake up, he decided to be a bit more forceful. "Sorry, Strange," Loki said quietly, then punched him hard in the arm.

Strange awoke with a jolt. Loki could've hugged him but he scrapped the idea immediately. No way was he hugging anyone.

"Ow!" Strange shouted, grabbing where Loki punched him. He looked at Loki, angry. Wow, Loki would never admit it to him, but Strange looked scary when he was angry. "Why did you punch me?"

"You got knocked out," Loki said. He pointed at the doorway opposite them. "Also, you did that," he added.

Strange's anger evaporated. "Oh, crap," he said, which was about the strongest language Loki had ever heard him use. "All I was trying to do was magically hack into the system, not blow up half the flipping building!"

"Alright, calm down with the language," Loki joked, because Strange was starting to get worked up. It didn't help. "I think it worked anyway."

"Well, yeah, it clearly worked," Strange said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm. "Already told you I didn't mean to blow the place up!"

"Hey, quit the sarcasm," Loki told him, sharply. "There was a moment before everything blew up where everything stopped, so what I'm saying is the hacking worked, then as a result, everything blew up."

"Which means all the hacking wasn't worth it!" Strange argued. He wasn't mad at Loki, he seemed more mad at himself.

"No, no, it is worth it, because remember how I told you everything adapts the second magic is used on it?" Loki said, desperately trying to calm him down before Strange fainted (he looked incredibly pale after doing those spells and also being knocked out didn't help). "That means the hacking worked, but before you blew everything up, it was already magic-proof, so if my logic is right, the blowing up didn't damage anything."

Strange stopped. He looked totally lost for words. "Wait... you mean... I did it?"

"And in doing so, nearly killed us both, but yeah, you did it," Loki said. "And don't you dare scare me like that again. I thought you were dead!"

The wizard seemed speechless. Loki took the opportunity to get to his feet and inspect the lab. It was just as he'd suspected – there was a layer of charcoal over everything, but other than that, everything was exactly the same as it had been. He nodded in approval. Great. This damn job was finally finished.

He turned around to Strange, who'd walked over to inspect the damage with him. "What did I say?" Loki said, smirking slightly.

"We really did that with no problems at all?" Strange asked in disbelief.

"Looks like it," Loki said, then sighed in relief. "And now we get a rest."

Of course that was when the alarm went off.

"All of the Sovereign army, head to the laboratory and arrest the intruders," instructed the high priestess's voice over some invisible speaker.

Loki looked up in disbelief. He couldn't help himself from hitting the wall. So hard he made a dent in it. Then he shouted, "Are you kidding me?!"

Before Strange could say anything, Captain Marvel's voice crackled over the earpiece. This time she was speaking directly to them, though it seemed she was whispering and also running. "Guys, you've set off an alarm, I didn't know if you knew."

"We know," Strange said, and even he sounded exasperated.

Loki turned on his own microphone. "Danvers, how long until they're here?"

"Probably three or four minutes," Danvers estimated.

"Shit," Loki said. "This is not good. And how many are there?"

"Um..." Captain Marvel said, and Loki imagined her doing a quick head count. "Maybe five hundred thousand?"

Loki said a string of curse words that was enough to make Strange's ears blush. Huh, he didn't know that was possible with humans. "OK, Strange, how do you feel about making a portal right about now? Preferably to my ship?"

"On it," Strange said, then started to make one of his portals. But then something happened none of them had been expecting.

There was another announcement over the non-existent speakers, saying, "Attention, all Sovereign army! Abort apprehending the intruders in the laboratory! We've had a sighting of the Guardians of the Galaxy, just outside the atmosphere! Get straight to the ships and fire with the intent to kill!"

Loki and Strange exchanged a glance.

"Wait, the Guardians are here?" Strange asked, looking exactly as dumbstruck as Loki felt.

"Let's hope they're on our side," Loki said, unable to stop himself smiling. If the Guardians were here, that meant Thor might be! "Make that portal, Strange, we're getting out of here. Danvers, get off this planet."

"No way, I'm gonna help you," Captain Marvel insisted. "You focus on escaping and I'll deal with the ships."

Strange made his portal and he, Loki and the cloak jumped through, with Loki immediately getting into his captain's chair and powering up the ship as quick as possible before the Sovereign people got to theirs.

"Look, if you really want to help, I'm not responsible if you die," said Loki. He thought it best just to tell the truth in this situation.

"Noted."

Strange jumped into his co-pilot chair and closed the portal behind him. Immediately he gripped the controls, ready to shoot. Loki shot off instantly, and within the next ten seconds, they were going up at a vertical climb, the speed reaching 450 miles per hour.

"They aren't following us yet," Strange remarked, looking at the rear-view screen. "Why is it taking them so long?"

"Probably because we decimated their ships, so they'll have to find some other ones," Loki shrugged. He couldn't believe, after all that, the Sovereign still had some ships left.

By this point, they were almost at the edge of the atmosphere, and both Loki and Strange (and probably Danvers too, who'd caught up with them and was flying alongside the ship) were scanning the sky for the Guardians' spaceship, trying to find what had got the high priestess so worked up.

"Danvers, Strange, can either of you see them?" Loki asked, seeing nothing.

Strange shook his head and Danvers said, "No."

As they broke through the invisible barrier though, Loki caught sight of them. Straight in front of them, maybe 20 or so clicks away, there was a spaceship that looked exactly like his, except it was orange and blue. Subtle. From here, it was impossible to see who was inside, but Loki knew it was the Guardians. It couldn't be anyone else.

"Just checking, they're definitely on our side, right?" asked Danvers. "I mean, they aren't selling you to the Sovereign since you're, you know, wanted criminals."

"They're wanted criminals too," Strange reminded her.

Loki couldn't say anything. He wasn't sure what he felt at that moment. Supposing they survived this, he was going to see Thor again and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Happy, of course, but he wasn't entirely sure. And how would Thor react?

When they got closer to the mystery ship, it spun around to face the same way as them and once they'd got level, they flew simultaneously side-by-side.

Loki didn't see who it was. He could look later.

"Oh, here they come," Strange said, looking in the rear-view screen again. Loki looked as well, and saw another fleet of Sovereign ships flying after them, so he accelerated.

"Strange, get ready to shoot," Loki instructed. "Danvers, do... whatever Captain Marvel-y stuff you gotta do."

"Already on it," they both said in unison.

So Loki accelerated the ship to 700 miles per hour and the chase began again. Only this time, they had allies.

Which proved to be a lot harder than he thought, because it was harder to coordinate which jump points to go through with multiple people who you couldn't talk to. They didn't even have chance to check the GPS before the Sovereign started shooting, and it was time to have some fun with the steering again. Hooray.

The two ships and Captain Marvel weaved around the blasts the Sovereign were firing at them, and they kept firing back, and Strange was really getting good at this now, destroying a ship with every shot. Even the Guardians weren't getting as many.

"Danvers, how fast can you fly?" Loki asked as they went into a dive (Strange managed not to scream, incredibly). "Don't want to leave you behind if we go supersonic."

"I'll keep up," Danvers assured them. "Want me to get the Guardians to follow you?"

"They will," Loki said, setting the GPS to look for the closest jump point. He turned to Strange. "You ready to go through the jump points again?"

Strange sighed, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Can't wait. Can I have some of that magic liquid afterwards?"

Loki smirked. "You're getting addicted to that stuff. Maybe."

Then Loki accelerated the ship to go supersonic, there was a loud snap and everything went quiet outside. Checking the rear-view screen, he saw Danvers was indeed keeping up, and the Guardians' ship, while still far away, was far outpacing the Sovereign fleet.

By this point they were fast approaching the jump point, the feeling of G force and lightheaded-ness taking over before they went straight up, Danvers and the Guardians not far behind, then through another jump point, before they even caught sight of the fleet. Strange had stopped shooting in case he hit Danvers or the Guardians' ship, but hopefully in a couple more jump points they might have lost them. This time though, all the jump points were so close there was barely a click between them, and since they were going so fast, the G force was ridiculous.

After they'd gone through maybe six or seven, Loki slowed down the ship to about 400 miles per hour for Strange's sake, checking the rear-view screen for signs of the pursuing fleet.

Loki made a subtle fist bump motion when, after Captain Marvel and the Guardians' ship came through, there wasn't any sign of the golden fleet following them. Being able to hear the noises from the outside of the ship seemed strange again after that, but he was relieved that the earpieces still worked.

"Loki where the actual hell are we going?" Danvers said. "Can you even hear me? I've been talking to you for the last 3 minutes!"

"Danvers, we were going supersonic," Loki pointed out. "That's why I didn't answer."

"But still, where the hell are we?" Danvers asked. She seemed very confused.

"I don't know. My plan was just get away from the stupid golden space jerks. Anyway, did we lose them?"

"Yeah, about four jumps ago. I tried to tell you," she said, sounding exasperated. Really she didn't have the right to sound exasperated.

"Told you, can't hear you when we're going supersonic," Loki said, adding a note of exasperated sarcasm into his voice. "Anyway, I need to check on Strange and make sure he's not mentally broken from that."

Loki switched off his mic, switched on autopilot and turned to the wizard. He was shaking his head and looked a bit pale, but other than that he seemed OK. "How are you feeling Strange?"

Strange blinked excessively and said, "Is it over?"

"Yes, it's over," Loki said. "We lost them. And now I've got a damn headache."

"Same," Strange said, rubbing his head. "Can we make a deal? Let's never do this again."

Loki gave a laugh. "I'm making no promises." He turned around totally in his chair and saw the cloak had basically passed out on the ship floor. Without a doubt, that was the most dramatic and interesting piece of magic fabric he had ever met in his life. He returned his gaze to the windshield. Knowhere had come into view. OK, not the best place to land, but it would do for now.

He turned his microphone on again. "Danvers, we're going to land on Knowhere for a minute. You coming with us?"

"Might as well, nothing better a do to. To do I mean. Not a do to. That makes no sense," Danvers said, getting steadily more awkward. Loki and Strange exchanged a glance. "I nothing have to do. What? That makes no sense! I mean... yes, I'll stick around longer. For a bit. Until I have more things I need do to. To do."

Loki cut her off. "OK, great." He turned off his mic. "Well... I guess now we get to meet the famous Guardians of the Galaxy."

"You should be so honoured. On your birthday as well. what a treat," Strange said sarcastically. A change came over his face. "Wait, does that mean we'll see your brother as well?"

Loki sighed. "Yep. Well, let's not put it off any longer."

He took back the controls and set a course for Knowhere – his favourite severed head in the whole galaxy.

Not.