The storm had slowly settled so the three weren't running for their lives anymore. Wanda and the blonde walked at a similar pace and Loki was running after them after he was thrown of course a few moments ago by a fire blast. Even if the storm was mostly over, there were still a few falling rocks.

"So if you don't like going by Loki, what am I allowed to call you?" Wanda asked.

"Sylvie." The blonde replied.

"That's pretty." Wanda smiled.

Sylvie didn't reply.

Loki finally caught up to the two and stood on the left side of Wanda, while Sylvie was to Wanda's right.

"So what's the plan?" He asked, pretending that he wasn't out of breath.

"There's a town near here. And can you shut up?" Sylvie replied, not bothering to look at him. "Just because I have to work with you doesn't mean I want to hear your voice."

"Alright well slow down, variant." Loki rolled his eyes.

"What part of imminent death confuses you?" Sylvie quickened her pace and Loki grunted before speeding up as well. "And don't call me Variant."

"I'm sorry but I'm not calling some faded photocopy of me 'Loki'."

"Good. Cause that's not who I am anymore. I'm Sylvie now."

"Oh so you changed your name, brilliant."

"It's called an alias."

"It's not very Loki-like."

Wanda rolled her eyes. She had a minute of peace, and that was when Loki got stuck behind that fire rock.

"Yeah? What exactly makes a Loki a Loki?" Sylvie scoffed.

"Independence, authority." He turned to smirk at the two women. "Style."

"So naturally you went to work for the boring, oppressive time police." Sylvie replied

"I don't work for them. I'm a consultant."

"You don't know what you want."

"Oh yeah? What about you?" Loki asked. "Your years-in-the-making plan was to tear the place down, create the ultimate power vacuum, and then just walk away." Loki shrugged.

Sylvie gave a shrug in reply, not saying anything.

Loki stopped walking to finish his thought while Sylvie and Wanda continued.

"I'd never have done that." He claimed.

Sylvie turned around as she walked.

"Yeah? Well I'm not you. Can we get on with this now?" She turned back around and continued.

Wanda turned and looked towards Loki, not saying anything as she walked.

Loki sighed.

The three continued walking through the pink planet, looking at the abandoned homes, the destroyed vehicles. Still no glass anywhere.

"I wonder what currency these people use." Wanda commented.

"What do you mean?" Loki asked.

"I don't know. If I was to have a home after all this is done and over with, I'd like some money." Wanda replied.

Sylvie scoffed.

"Midgardians." She rolled her eyes.

"Hey! I don't need to steal stuff every time I'm out and I'd like to not have to." Wanda defended herself.

"What you're asking is basically seeing if you can steal from whoever lives here." Sylvie replied.

"Not if they all fled. And it certainly looks like they did." Wanda said.

They approached a market place that looked destroyed and abandoned, holes through the walls and ceilings, ripped up and flipped vehicles scattering the area.

"If they did flee, it was in vain." Sylvie said, turning her attention to the area.

"How long do we have?" Loki asked.

"Twelve hours or so. Things down here are only going to get worse. More flames, tornadoes, and of course the collapse of society in the face of annihilation." Sylvie said with a sigh.

"Hey what's that?" Wanda pointed at what appeared to be a run down gas station.

The door was lying flat on the ground and inside showed a lit up room with food all around.

"Thinking about stealing again?" Sylvie asked.

Wanda rolled her eyes as the three started towards the gas station.

"Maybe there's some form of life in there that can help us." Wanda said.

"Or something in there can charge the Tempad." Loki said.

"It's a gas station." Wanda looked at him as if he were dumb.

"The Tempad requires a massive power source, not some run down shop." Sylvie glared at him.

Loki just stared at the two, crossing his arms.

Wanda walked inside of the shop and Sylvie followed her, watching the door to see if Loki would follow them in. He did.

Wanda began searching the store for any life forms while Sylvie climbed over the check out counter and used a key that was sitting behind it to open up the cash register.

"Wanda!" She called. "They have golden coins with numbers on them. Does that mean anything to you?" She asked.

"Nope!" Wanda replied. "If everyone here dies though, might as well grab them in case we end up somewhere else." She said.

Sylvie turned to Loki who was standing at the doorway and gave a smile.

"Trade?" She offered a handful of the coins.

"Cute." He replied before walking towards where Wanda had wandered to.

Wanda grabbed a few snacks off the stands that she figured would be useful.

She bent down to look at one of the items that had fallen onto the floor. As she went to grab it though, a dark brown paw came out from under the food stand and attacked Wanda's hand.

Wanda flinched for a moment but then smiled as she realized what type of paw it was.

She used her magic to lift up the stand, causing a few more snack bags to fall off, but it revealed a small brown tabby underneath who crawled out from under the stand and next to Wanda's legs.

"Aww aren't you just the cutest little thing." Wanda picked up the kitten and stood up straight.

She turned to see Loki coming towards her, which caused her to jump because she didn't realize he was right there.

"Jeez. You scared me. Anyways, try this."

She used one hand to hold the kitten and used the other to pick up a bag of gummy worms, handing them to him.

"They're good. Trust me." She said.

She stroked the kitten and the creature mewed, causing her to melt from all the cuteness.

She used her magic to lift the small pile of snacks that she'd selected and she brought them with her towards the cash register, still holding the animal.

"I'm gonna call you Kip."

She set the items down on the counter and Sylvie looked at the animal with concern.

"I guess we found some sort of life." She said.

Wanda grabbed a plastic bag that was used to hold items, and she put all the snacks in it.

There was a boom like sound and both Wanda and Sylvie turned their heads to see Loki flying towards them, the bag of gummies falling from his hands.

"What are you devils doing here?" A voice echoed. It was that of a cranky woman's and Loki gave a grunt.

"We're just travellers." Wanda said quickly.

"Travellers? Stealing from me?" The woman stormed towards the three.

She had a bob hairstyle and was only a few inches shorter than Loki. She had a machine that looked like a super leaf blower.

"We thought this place was abandoned." Wanda continued.

"And put my cat down!" She demanded.

"Ma'am, they were trapped under one of your shelves, I was just trying to help." Wanda set Kip on the counter.

Loki got up and stood next to Wanda while Sylvie remained on the other side of her, only behind the check out counter.

"What do you devils want with me and my store?"

"We just want to ask you a question." Sylvie started. "Where is everyone?"

"The ark." The woman stated as if it were obvious.

The three variants glanced at one another with confusion.

"The evacuation vessel."

Sylvie looked to Loki.

"Something like that would have enough juice to repower the Tempad."

Wanda spoke.

"How do we get there?" She asked calmly.

"Train station's the edge of town. But you'll never get a ticket." She stated, glancing out of her shop.

"Let's go then." Sylvie said to the two.

Wanda glanced at the bag of snacks and the small animal before leaving, and as if Kip understood her, they jumped off the counter and sprinted towards the three as they exited.

"Hey!" Wanda heard the store keeper shout.

"Hurry." Wanda urged and the three started running, Kip following.

Once they were far enough away, they returned to a walking pace and Wanda picked up Kip.

"Who's a good little kitty." She nuzzled her nose on the kitten's small head.

"We don't need a pet to join us, Wanda." Sylvie said.

"Then why'd you let them follow us? Seems like you could've told me to put them down at the shop." Wanda said with a smirk, ignoring the blonde's comment.

Sylvie rolled her eyes and Loki smiled, watching Wanda treat the animal like a furry baby.

"Up there." Loki pointed out as he turned his attention off of Wanda.

Wanda looked straight ahead and saw a long line of people waiting to get onto a ramp that led to the train.

"Well this looks fun." Loki said as they approached it.

Guards wearing dark red stood guarding the train entry. They wore black masks that covered their face and all of their body was equally covered with red armor.

"Come on." Sylvie led the three so they were walking down the line.

"We can't fight our way into the train." Wanda said.

"Who said anything about fighting?" Sylvie replied, looking at the line of people.

"All your plans involve fighting." Loki backed Wanda up.

"Not this one." Sylvie said simply. "I'm going to enchant a guard, have him lead us through the crowd, and if anyone gives us any trouble..."

"Make him start shooting?"
"We can't kill these people, they'll die later."

Loki and Wanda said at the same time. Oh great, it was happening again.

"So then what? Kill every guard and hijack the train?" Loki continued.

"Whether or not there's a fight is entirely up to them." Sylvie said with a nod.

"We're doing this one my way." Loki said with a smirk.

He moved to the left so that he was between the women and as he did, and a copy of the red guard armor appeared over him.

"How do I look?" He said, his mask up.

"Like someone with a shit plan." Sylvie stated.

"It's a great plan!"

"I'm not joining this conversation anymore." Wanda said, looking straight forward.

"Just follow my lead." Loki said.

He grabbed Sylvie's arms and moved them so they appeared pinned behind her back, then he attempted to do the same with Wanda but she refused to let go of Kip.

Loki glared at her before taking Kip from her and putting them on Wanda's shoulder before pinning her arms as well, then he held both women with one of his arms.

"I feel like you're enjoying this more than you should." Wanda commented, practically hearing his smile.

Loki scoffed and put on a serious face, as did both women.

They made it past the line and onto the ramp, ignoring the shouts and complaints from the folks in the line.

As they reached the next guard that was guarding straight to the train and not just the ramp leading up to it, Loki tried to speed the variants through but the guard stepped in front of them.

"Woah." He stopped them, putting a hand out.

"Taking these two to Shuroo." Loki stated, using a fake tone to seem more assertive. Wanda had to restrain from smiling.

"Okay. And the tickets?" The guard asked.

"Orders come from the top to get these two and this feline animal on this train." Loki stated.

The guard didn't seem to buy it, and he turned to two other guards who were sitting down, facing away.

"Sir this-"

Sylvie reached out and grabbed the man, enchanting him quickly before returning to her 'captive' state.

"Everything okay?" The guard who was previously sitting asked.

"Yeah everything's.. fine." The enchanted guard said. "Yeah I just remembered that headquarters radioed in their request for them this morning."

There was a moment of silence and the variants plus the enchanted guard looked at the other guard.

He let out a sigh. "Okay."

The enchanted guard stepped aside and held out his hand, welcoming them in.

"Okay." Loki nodded in his guard voice.

The three walked into the train, Kip still on Wanda's shoulder.

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My favorite quote of this chapter: "They have golden coins with numbers on them."