Once Scott, Wanda and Strange were strapped into chairs like hostages and the cloak was firmly attached to Strange in the co-pilot chair, Loki attached his own seatbelt, which looked pathetically weak compared to the ones he'd bodged for the others. Well, he couldn't have mortals rattling around in the back of his ship while they were going supersonic – that was a safety hazard.

A hundred jump points... personally, Loki had gone over five hundred in one go before, (and really, he shouldn't be going over fifty) so he wasn't a novice at this. But Strange had been, like, nine or ten with a bad reaction, and Scott and Wanda had no clue what they were going in for. Even worse, they had to be going faster than the speed of sound.

Dammit. Why'd they change the rules? Idiots.

He just hoped they didn't need a permit. He couldn't be bothered with that shit right now.

Loki was suddenly hit with the uncomfortable realisation that he may have three ill mortals in his ship in a minute, and he was anything but a doctor. Plus he didn't like it when people were ill. But hey... Wanda wanted to go ahead with it, and she was the boss, so...

Ugh. He might as well just get it over with.

"We all buckled up?" Loki asked, lining the ship up a click away from the first jump point (that would allow him to build up some speed).

"All ready, sah!" Scott saluted in the back, while Wanda and Strange nodded nervously.

He faced forward, looking at the space ahead. Under his breath, he sighed, "This is madness," before shooting forwards, throwing them all back into their seats.

Within fifteen seconds, there was a loud Bang! outside, and he couldn't help grinning, and saying, "There goes the sound barrier."

"The sound barrier?" Scott repeated, and somehow, he still sounded amazed. "Cool!"

Loki bit his lip as they approached the jump point. "Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention, don't be alarmed if your face goes a bit weird after fifty or so of these. Like, really weird. It's a normal thing to happen."

He could feel Strange's stare without even looking at him, and Wanda was asking telepathic questions at a million miles an hour (common sign of anxiety – thinking speeds up) which he couldn't spare the energy to decipher right now, and then they hit the first jump point. The G-force and light-headedness barely registered before they hit the next, for he'd chosen a specific path where the jump points were close together, then there was the next one, and a second later the next...

"Holy crap," Strange said, beside him. "This is a lot worse. A lot worse."

Loki clenched his teeth, focusing on steering so they didn't miss any, and said, "Well, I'm sorry. You lot just focus on not blacking out, OK? It'll be over in..." he checked how many jumps they'd been through, "...87 more jumps."

"Fun."

It wasn't fun. Even for Loki, who was just gritting his teeth and getting on with it, jumping so many points in quick succession was an incredibly uncomfortable experience. His ears were mostly full of a ringing noise, but he could just about make out screaming. OK, that meant they weren't dead or unconscious. That was good. And he was 99% certain he himself wasn't screaming.

But they weren't going to talk about that remaining 1%.

OK, that was 96 points done now... 97... 98... 99...

He grasped the emergency brake handle, and, as the last jump point came, yanked it hard and they stopped so abruptly, if they hadn't literally duct-taped themselves to the chairs, there would be three mortal shaped holes in his windshield. Well, no, his magic would have stopped that before they even got that close, to be fair. Honestly, it had just been funny watching Scott, the only one without any magic to aid him, try to duct-tape himself to the chair.

Why Scott even had duct-tape was beyond him.

Loki shook his head to clear the dizzy feeling from his head. Then he checked around the ship to check he'd definitely done this right – if he hadn't they'd be trapped in limbo forever, and that wouldn't be good for any of them. Luckily for them, the ship was hovering right in the middle of the jump – half the ship on either end. Perfect. It was the only way to keep the jump open, and they couldn't let it close, because then they'd have to wait for the next person who was foolish enough to come to limbo to open a jump for them, and he didn't have that patience.

Only when Loki was satisfied with where the ship was did he turn to make sure his comrades were OK. Dammit... there were downsides to caring about people. He always forgot to check on them. Unfortunately Midgardians needed more care and attention than your average Asgardian.

"You guys alright?" he asked, even though they clearly weren't. Strange seemed visually worse than Wanda and Scott, but even then, they were green. "Anyone need a bucket?"

"Oh, so now you're offering, when I just swallowed it," Scott complained.

"Didn't need to know that, thanks," Loki said, but honestly, while he was somewhat disgusted, the situation was also mildly amusing. At least he could talk. That was something. "Strange, Wanda, how are you holding up?"

Strange and Wanda clearly weren't feeling that bad if they could still respond with a murderous look. Hm, they were improving. In the Murderous Glare class, they may have just been promoted from Rookie to Amateur.

"Holding up just fine," Strange replied, trying to peel off the duct-tape which held the homemade seatbelts onto him. Unlike Scott, he'd had the sense not to directly apply the duct-tape. He didn't have the sense to realise it would take about a year to undo by peeling it off. "A little dizzy, but y'know."

"A little dizzy?" Loki asked, taking pity on Strange and slicing off the tape with his knife. "Dude, you look awful."

"You do," Wanda said, simply using her magic to unstrap herself from her chair. When Strange tried to get up, she said, "I think you ought to sit down for a bit, Stephen."

"But-"

Loki tapped him very lightly and he fell straight back into his chair. "You heard her. Sit down." Wanda tried to get up, but he wasn't having it. "That goes for you too. Sit down."

Wanda looked like she was ready to argue, and yes, she'd waited long enough, really, but she obliged and fell back into her chair. "OK, Doctor." Well, she'd waited five months. Another five minutes was nothing, really.

He turned to Scott, but as usual, he correctly guessed what he was going to say before he did. "I'm sitting," he said, hands up in surrender.

So, while they were all getting over the experience, Loki walked up to the front of the cockpit and stared out into the limbo dimension. Not that there was much to look at. Just blank space. Well, pale pink blank space – it was honestly a bit blinding when you'd been used to the darkness of empty space for ages. How they were going to find anything here was beyond him.

But Wanda wanted to check here, since that's where most people and things ended up, when they vanished, so that was good enough for him.

"Woah, this place looks weird," Strange said, interrupting his train of thought. "Why's it so pink?"

"Why are you asking me?" Loki replied, then turned towards him. Like the stubborn ass he was, Strange was standing up again. He tapped him slightly harder than last time and he fell straight back down again. "Sit down, for god's sake. There's no rush. Besides, we need to decide who's going out of you three."

"Wait, us three?" Strange repeated, narrowing his eyes. "What about you?"

"I've got to stay here to keep the ship from drifting," he pointed out. "And I am not letting any of you take charge." Well, that was fair enough, right? Besides, it wasn't his kids they were trying to find, and Wanda had already made up her mind that she would be the one to go out there anyway. And really, it was ideal to just have one person out there, in case they needed emergency back-up. Duh.

Strange must think he was stupid.

And on cue...

"I'm going," Wanda said, standing up and walking towards the ship's door. The only reason Loki didn't stop her was because he knew there was no way she could get out unless he opened it. "Let me out."

"Not yet," he said. "We're making a plan to make sure you don't asphyxiate first."

She raised an eyebrow. "That's likely?"

"No air in space," he reminded them. "I have a mask you can use, but it's faulty, and I wouldn't recommend going out with it for over a minute. So that's not very useful. I mean, unless Scott's willing to lend you his helmet..."

Scott shook his head. "Wouldn't do much good. Doesn't come off. I'd have to lend her the whole suit, and I am not standing around in my underwear waiting for her to come back, sorry Wanda."

OK, that wasn't an image he needed.

"I'll have the mask then, and come back in after a minute," Wanda shrugged.

Loki raised an eyebrow, mentally and physically. "You think you'll be done in a minute?"

"Yeah," she nodded. Loki shrugged. Alright then.

"OK," he said, simply, and both Strange and Scott double-taked, clearly not expecting him to be so casual about it. Well, she knew all the risks. They basically shared minds now. He walked over to the little compartment where he kept all his space supplies, rummaging through for a moment before Scott joined him, peering over his shoulder in a very annoying fashion. He did himself credit for tolerating it.

"Ooh, what's this? Treasure?" Scott asked, and Loki had to swat his hand away.

"Stolen shitty space crap," he corrected, finding the mask thing before shutting the compartment. Sensing movement from the cockpit, he said, without looking, "Sit down, Strange."

His annoyed voice was funny. "What? Why do the other two get to stand up then?"

Because you're about to collapse, and the other two aren't, and how you don't know that if you're supposed to be a doctor beats me, was the logical response, but instead, for some reason, he said, "Because it really annoys you when I'm being overprotective over you, and I will never admit that you annoyed is actually very entertaining."

Strange rolled his eyes, but telepathy told him Strange wasn't actually mad, so he moved on, handing the mask to Wanda, with brief instructions on how to use it, and she nodded, thanked him, then secured it on her face.