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MidReal Story
Variant Hunt
Anonymous
Jul 4
Scenario:Reports show extra Loki variants across the world spreading mischief
Create my version of this story
It was just after breakfast when it all started.
First the phone call from Tokyo, then London, and finally New York City.
All three were coordinating with us in real time as they dealt with the same unexpected issue: extra Loki variants had just appeared.
I’d had a few cases involving the Loki variants in the past, but nothing like this.
They were tricksters, fond of pulling pranks and causing chaos, but up until now they’d never coordinated their efforts.
This was different.
They were working together and it didn’t bode well.
“Stay on top of the situation,” I told them.
“We’ll do the same here.”
The last thing we needed was an army of mischief makers running rampant in one of the world’s largest cities.
After hanging up, I turned to my colleagues, Jack and Alex, who were both sitting at the table eating their own breakfasts.
I held up my phone.
“That was Tokyo.”
“I gathered that much,” Alex said.
“Their Loki variants have arrived and are causing chaos.”
“And they’re not alone,” I said.
“London and New York are facing the same problem, only it’s not just one or two in each city.
There are dozens of them…and counting.”
“Why would they be attacking all three cities at once?”
Alex asked as she scrolled through her own phone looking for news reports of the incidents.
I didn’t have an answer for her, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t already working on it.
Jack, our resident tech expert, was already on his feet and grabbing his laptop bag.
“Alex, you stay here and see if you can find any information on similar incidents that may have been overlooked or not reported,” I said as I followed him to his station.
I pulled out a chair and sat beside him as he booted up his system and connected to our surveillance network.
“I want to see if we can spot any patterns in their movements or if there are any clues that we might have missed earlier.”
“I’ll see what additional cameras we can tap into.”
As Jack worked his magic on the system, I called up the latest footage from London and New York City and began studying them more closely.
I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I figured I’d know it when I saw it.
It was going to be a long day, and with any luck I’d have an answer before the night was over.
My phone rang, and I saw it was a call from Japan.
I put it on speaker and answered.
“Detective Thompson here.”
The voice of an old friend came over the line.
“Detective Tanaka from the Tokyo Police Department.I just wanted to confirm your report of Loki variants here in Tokyo.”
“That’s correct,” I said and forwarded the video footage of the latest incident.
“There were several dozen of them and there appear to be more arriving by the minute.
Do you need assistance rounding them up?”
“Yes, that would be most appreciated.We’re a bit short handed at the moment, and our animal control department isn’t equipped to handle this many of them.”
I heard barking in the background and chuckled.
“No, I wouldn’t think they are.If you could forward us the latest footage, we’ll see what we can do to assist on this end.”
I looked up as Alex appeared beside me, a worried look on her face.
“We have a problem,” she said, her words trailing off as she saw Jack’s screen.
His eyes narrowed as he studied the images.
The culprit is one of the Loki variants?”
“That’s right,” I replied.
“Only this time he didn’t leave a calling card or any message at the scene.We checked for an address, but all we found were random numbers and letters.”
“On the surface it looks like gibberish,” Jack said, “But I’m seeing a pattern.”
“You are?”
He nodded, tapping the screen.
“It could be an encoded location, but I’ll need more data to decode it.”
I looked at the images on his screen, noting that they were from different locations across the globe.
London, New York, Tokyo…all three had been hit by the Loki variant, but they’d also left behind the same cryptic message: 48°51′35″N 2°17′30″E.
“Let’s see where this is.”
Jack’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he brought up the coordinates for the location.
The map zoomed in, showing the Eiffel Tower standing tall and proud, while below it was an area that did not show up on any public records.
“At first glance it appears to be a park, but there’s no name or any other identifying information,” Jack said.
“And all three variants have mentioned this same location?”
I asked, and Jack nodded.
I quickly gathered up my belongings and headed for the door.
“Alex, I need you to get ready for a field operation,” I said as I rushed past her.
Jack, grab your gear and meet me at the elevator.
We have some Loki variants to round up.”
The excitement in my voice was evident, and it was hard to contain my enthusiasm for what we were about to do.
It wasn’t every day that we got to take down a global mischief maker, and I was looking forward to it.
Alex grinned as I passed her and followed behind me, her steps quickening as she headed for the armory.
“Glad to see you’re feeling better,” she said.
“I am now,” I replied.
“How do you feel about joining us?
This will be your first field assignment since joining us, so let’s make it a good one.”
She grinned even wider.
“I can’t wait to get out there and prove myself,” Alex said as she hurried ahead of me and disappeared into the armory.
The three of us met up in front of the elevator and we headed for the roof to grab our equipment.
I quickly donned my gear and made sure my gun was loaded and ready for action.
Alex did the same as Jack fiddled with his laptop and checked to make sure everything was operational before slipping it into his bag and slinging it over his shoulder.
The helicopter would be here in a few minutes to pick us up, and I couldn’t wait to get there.
I was so excited that I didn’t even notice the phone ringing until just before I got on board.
I saw the number and immediately answered it before closing the door behind me and strapping myself into my seat.
“Detective Thompson speaking.” I said over the noise of the engine as it started up.
“Emma, it’s me,” the voice on the other end said.
“Moscow just checked in.”
“What did they say?”
I asked as I slipped on my headset and took control of the chopper as we lifted off.
“They have four variants,” Jack said as he held up his laptop, where he had just finished typing out a quick message.
“What are their codes?”
I asked.
I could see where this was going, and it wasn’t looking good.
I already had a bad feeling about this.
The new report confirmed my fears as Jack held up a sign with four different codes written on it.
I read them out loud to Alex, who was sitting across from me.
“Zero-zero-one-seven, zero-zero-one-eight, zero-zero-two-one, zero-zero-two-two,” I said.
Alex’s eyes widened with surprise as she quickly typed something into her laptop and then spun it around to show us what she had found.
The codes were assigned to a specific country, but I didn’t recognize the countries they belonged to at first.
It took a moment for them to register in my brain before it all made sense.
“Oh no,” I said.
“We have a situation.”
Jack’s eyes widened with fear as he read Alex’s screen.
“What is it?”
he asked as he leaned across the aisle to read it more closely.
“They have Loki variants in eight different countries,” I said.
“That’s not all,” Alex said.
“They’re going nuclear.”
“This can’t be happening,” I said as I stared at my computer screen in disbelief.
As the images flashed across my screen one after another, I couldn’t help but think that this was my fault.
What had I done?
The variants were supposed to be contained, but now they were spreading out of control.
I just couldn’t believe that they had managed to get away from me so easily.
One after another, I saw the reports from around the world come in and I knew that things were about to get a whole lot worse.
Tokyo, London, New York City… All of them were bad enough by themselves, but when you added Paris and Moscow to the mix, things were going downhill fast.
It was only a matter of time before the whole world was in chaos.
And there was nothing I could do to stop it.
“What are they doing?”
I asked as another report came in from Sydney.
Jack held up his computer screen and I read it over his shoulder.
“The same thing they’ve been doing all along,” he said.
“But this time it’s worse.
Much worse.”
“Why do you say that?”
I asked as I leaned closer to read the screen for myself.
“The codes,” Jack said.
“They’re associated with nuclear facilities in every country they’ve been found in.”
My blood ran cold as I realized exactly what that meant.
If they were targeting nuclear facilities… That could only mean one thing.
And it wasn’t going to be good for anyone.
We had to stop them before it was too late.
I quickly called my contacts at INTERPOL and filled them in on what was happening.
They promised me that they would have teams on the ground at each location within the hour and that they would do everything in their power to secure the facilities before anything went wrong.
But we had to move fast.
Jack still had a few codes left to decipher before we could figure out exactly what the variants planned to do next.
As soon as we found out what that was, we’d need to head there and neutralize the situation as soon as possible.
“They’re gone,” Nina said as she ran into the room.
“What do you mean, they’re gone?”
I asked as panic set in.
“All of them,” she said.
“We’ve lost visual contact with all of the variants.
They’ve just disappeared.”
“How is that even possible?”
I asked as I tried to make sense of what was happening.
It didn’t make any sense.
“Their portals must have shorted out,” Jack said as he typed frantically on his laptop.
“But that shouldn’t have happened until midnight.”
“Well, it did,” Nina said.
“And now we’ve lost them.”
“Not necessarily,” Alex said.
“They might have just moved on to their next target.”
“I don’t think so,” I said as I looked at my computer screen.
“The reports are coming in from all over the world and it looks like they just disappeared within minutes of each other.
There’s no way they could have made it that far in such a short amount of time.”
“Then where did they go?”
Nina asked.
“I think they might have abandoned their positions,” I said.
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Alex said.
“If they wanted to take out nuclear facilities, why would they leave when they were already there?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“But we need to find them before it’s too late.”
“Agreed,” Alex said.
“What do you want us to do?”
“Nina, you and Alex go find that last variant and try to get some answers out of it,” I said.
“Jack, you’re with me.”
“What do you need?”
he asked as he hurried over to my desk.
“We need to figure out where they went and head there as soon as possible,” I said.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Jack said as he followed me out of the office.
I could tell that we were running out of time and I just hoped that we’d be able to get there before it was too late.
We headed toward the control room to see if we could pick up any clues on our way out.
As we approached, I could see that one of the variants was just about to walk through a nearby doorframe.
“Stop!”
I yelled as I ran toward it, but it was too late.
The variant disappeared through the doorframe just before I got there and I slammed my fist against the wall in frustration.
“We need that variant,” I said as I rushed into the control room.
“Nina and Alex are already on it,” Jack said as he hurried over to his desk and started typing away on his computer.
“I hope so,” I said as I watched him work.
He was making quick progress on decoding the remaining codes and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before he had something for us.
But we had to move fast if we wanted any chance of stopping whatever was about to happen.
“We’re good!”
Jack called out as he typed one final command into his computer.
“I’ll get everything set up for us so we can head out as soon as possible.”
“Good idea,” I said as I grabbed my phone and sent a quick text message.
A few moments later, Nina came running into the room with Alex right behind her.
“Did you get it?”
I asked as they caught their breath.
“We did.”
Nina held up a small case containing two tranquilizer guns.
“But we need to hurry if we’re going to stop them.”
The variants had managed to escape through a portal and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding.
They shouldn’t have been able to do that without the Tesseract, so something strange was definitely going on.
But there was no time for me to think about it now.
We had a variant to catch and we needed to do it fast.
I quickly checked my phone and saw that Jack had sent me a message with coordinates.
I didn’t have time to ask how he’d gotten them, but they were the first real lead we’d had in this whole mess and I intended on following it.
“Here’s the location,” I said as I showed the others my phone.
“I hope you’re ready for a little field trip.”
I quickly gave them the rundown of the plan and made sure that they were both armed and ready before we headed out.
I’d never used tranquilizer darts before, but I trusted Nina and Alex, so I knew that they’d be able to handle themselves just fine.
“You two know what you need to do?”
I asked once I was sure that they were ready.
“I think so.” Nina gave me an uncertain look as she checked her gun one last time.
“But you’re sure we can trust these coordinates?”
“No,” I said honestly.
“But it’s the best lead we have, so we need to move quickly.”
“I hope you’re right, Emma,” Nina said as she and Alex followed me out of the office.
“I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
“Neither do I,” I said as we walked toward the door.
“That’s why I need you two to stay in communication with me at all times and not engage the variant unless absolutely necessary.”
“They’re going to try and trick us,” I said as I led them through the halls of the facility.
“They might even try to hurt us, but whatever you do, don’t let them near the portal generator.”
“We won’t,” Nina said with a nod as she and Alex followed me into the elevator.
“And watch out for their tricks,” I warned as I pressed the button for the ground floor.
“They might try something funny on the way there, so be prepared for anything.”
“Got it.” Nina didn’t look quite convinced, but I knew that she would get the job done.
I just hoped that we could get there before it was too late.
The minutes ticked by slowly as we walked through the city on our way toward the given location.
I knew that it wouldn’t be long before we reached our destination, but it felt like forever as we made our way through the bustling streets.
“What if these variants aren’t behind all of this?”
Nina asked as we waited for the light to change before crossing the street.
“What if they’re innocent and we’re just making things worse?”
I don’t know,” I said honestly as I looked up at the sky and wondered what was happening on the other side of the planet.
“But what I do know is that we don’t have much time before something bad happens, so we need to hurry.”
Nina nodded at my words, her expression serious as she adjusted her grip on her gun.
The coordinates given by Jack led us to a maze of shipping containers filled with graffiti and covered in rust.
We were in a large parking lot filled with rows upon rows of shipping containers, and I could see nothing but rusted metal as far as the eye could see.
We were in a narrow space between two rows of containers, and there was no sign of any life in this place aside from us and whatever Loki variant we were looking for.
“Jack?”
I called into my earpiece to let him know we’d arrived at our destination.
“I think this is the place.Are you getting anything on your end?”
My eyes scanned my surroundings as I waited for his response, but there was no sign of anything other than rusted metal and graffiti as far as the eye could see.
“Not yet,” Jack’s voice came over my earpiece a moment later.
“But I’ll let you know as soon as I do.”
“Thanks,” I said before turning to Nina and Alex as I motioned ahead of us with my gun.
“You two ready?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Nina replied grimly as she checked her gun one last time before we continued on our way.
I made sure to walk fast enough to keep a good pace as I led them down this narrow path.
It was just wide enough for two people side by side, but the tight quarters would make it difficult for us to pursue the variant if they were to try and get away from us.
I didn’t realize how much of a disadvantage we’d be at until we finally caught up with our target.
As soon as we turned a corner and came face to face with the variant, they teleported away with no warning at all.
“Damn it,” Nina swore as she looked around in frustration.
“What do we do now?”
Nina asked as she and Alex fell into step beside me.
“We keep going,” I replied grimly as I led them forward.
My gut told me that we were on the right track, so I just needed them to trust me and follow my lead.
“What if they’re trying to trap us?”
Alex asked after a moment.
I trust Emma, but what if they’re trying to lead us somewhere dangerous?”
“I don’t know.” Nina’s voice was quiet as she replied grimly, “But we need to follow her anyway and see where this leads us.”
I didn’t say anything as I led them through the maze of shipping containers and tried my best to ignore the rusted metal and peeling paint as we walked.
We were almost there, and I could feel it in my gut as we finally caught up with the variant and came face to face with them.
The variant teleported away with no warning at all, and I cursed under my breath as I looked around for any sign of where they’d gone.
“Emma?”
Nina’s voice came over my earpiece a moment later.
“Are you getting anything on your end?”
“I don’t know.” My heart sank as I looked around the dead end we’d come to.
I didn’t see any doors or any other way out of here, but I knew that the variant could teleport anywhere if they wanted to.
“Look around and see if you can find any other exits,” I instructed them grimly as I scanned my surroundings.
There was nothing here except for rusted metal and graffiti, but I knew better than to look away until we were sure it was safe.
I led them forward slowly as we searched for any signs of where the variant could have gone.
“Now we have a problem,” I said grimly after a moment.
“I think they’re trying to trap us, but I’m not sure where they’ve gone off to.”
“Shit.” Alex’s voice was quiet as she replied grimly.
“What do we do now?”
“Only one thing we can do.” I paused.
“Let’s go find them and get the hell out of here so we can figure out what the hell is going on.”
I could almost hear them nodding on the other end of the line, and I knew that they were just as anxious as I was.
This was supposed to be a simple reconnaissance mission, but it had turned into so much more than that.
We didn’t know what the Loki variants were up to or what they were planning next, but I was determined that we would find out.
“Let’s go find them.” I repeated grimly as I led them forward.
It was time for us to catch up with the variant and find out what the hell was going on, no matter what it took.
I didn’t have to wait long for an answer.
As soon as we caught up with the variant, they teleported away with no warning at all.
“Shit!”
I cursed under my breath and looked around for any sign of where they’d gone, but there was nothing there except for rusted metal and peeling paint.
We were stuck here with no way out, and I knew that we had to come up with a plan before it was too late.
“What do we do now?”
Nina asked over my earpiece a moment later.
“I don’t know yet.” My heart was pounding in my chest as I tried to think of a way out of this, but I knew that we didn’t have much time.
We had to come up with a plan and get out of here before it was too late, or we’d be stuck in this godforsaken place forever.
“All right, let’s go find them and get the hell out of here so we can figure out what to do next.”
I could almost hear her nodding on the other end of the line, and I knew that we were both thinking the same thing.
We had to catch up with the variant and figure out what the hell was going on, no matter what it took.
“Alex and Nina, come in.” I repeated grimly as I led them forward through the maze of shipping containers.
“It’s time for you guys to come back now.”
I didn’t know where they’d gone or what they were doing, but I knew that we had to regroup before we could figure out what to do next.
“Alex, Nina, come in.” There was still no response from either of them, and I felt a sinking feeling in my gut as I realized that something was very wrong here.
“They must have found a way out,” Jack said grimly as he came over to stand beside me and looked around at our surroundings once more.
“But if they did, then where are they?”
I asked as I looked around at the empty space all around us.
I didn’t see any sign of them or where they could have gone, but something wasn’t right here, and I knew it in my gut.
“We need to find them now.” I repeated grimly as we headed after them once more, determined to find them before it was too late.
“All right, let’s try this again,” I said as I took another step forward and stared down the group of variants standing before me, their leader at the front.
“You guys need to come with me right now, and if you don’t, then I’ll have to take you down by force.”
The leader just laughed at me as he took a step forward, his green eyes blazing with mischief and energy as he stared at me and grinned.
“Oh, is that a threat?”
He asked with a smirk as he took another step forward and stared at me again, his eyes sparkling with energy and power as he looked at me and grinned, his gaze pinned to mine as he waited for me to respond.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I said evenly as I took another step forward and stared the leader down, meeting his gaze head on as I waited for him to make his move.
“I think you should be,” he said with a smirk, but before he could say anything else, Alex stepped forward and cut him off mid-sentence, her fiery powers flaring up as she looked at him and smirked again, her dark eyes blazing with energy and power as she met the leader’s gaze head on.
“Why don’t you try me?”
She asked with another smirk as she took another step forward and stared down the leader, her eyes blazing with energy and power as she met his gaze head on and smirked again, her powers flaring up even more than before as she waited for him to make his move.
“I can do better than that,” the leader said with another smirk before he snapped his fingers and waved his hand in the air, his powers flaring up even more than before as he summoned a ring of fire around him before he materialized a bottle of wine out of thin air and raised it to his lips, taking a long swig before he drained it completely.
“Is that all you got?”
Alex taunted him with another smirk before she stepped forward and raised one hand in the air, summoning her powers to her once more as she prepared to attack them before they could make their move.
“I can do better than that too,” the leader said with another smirk before he snapped his fingers again and summoned the rest of his friends out of thin air, sending them forward to take us down before we could make our move.
“Shit!”
I swore under my breath as all hell broke loose, the rest of the Loki variants coming at us from all sides as they took us down while their leader watched them work from the safety of his ring of fire, his eyes never leaving us for a second as he made sure that we didn’t try to escape.
“Alex, you take the leader, I’ll take the rest of them,” I said evenly as I took another step back and raised my gun, switching it to tranquilizer darts just like the others had done.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Alex said evenly as she raised her hands in the air, sending out another wave of fire to keep the others at bay while I took them down one by one, making sure not to kill them if at all possible.
“Jack, can you track the other one?”
I asked the tech expert as he checked the relic for the location of the other Loki, his eyes scanning the room for any sign of him while the others tried to keep up with us.
“He’s long gone, but they left behind something else,” Jack said evenly as he looked back at us, his eyes scanning our surroundings for any sign of him while we tried to keep up with him.
“What is it?”
Nina asked him curiously, but Jack didn’t answer her right away, his eyes scanning the room for any sign of him while he tried to keep up with us.
“Another relic,” he said finally as he found it, his eyes scanning the room for any sign of him while he tried to keep up with them.
“They’re not even trying to hide it anymore, are they?”
Nina asked him curiously as she watched him work, her eyes scanning our surroundings for any sign of him while she tried to keep up with him.
“Nope,” Jack said evenly as he started tracking it’s location, his eyes scanning our surroundings for any sign of him while we tried to keep up with him.
“Now what?”
Alex asked me evenly as she looked back at us, waiting for my response.
“We go after them,” I said evenly as I waited for Jack to find their location.
“But how?”
Alex asked me curiously as she looked back at me in confusion, her eyes scanning our surroundings for any sign of them while she waited for my response.
“We use the relic to find their location and then we go after them,” I said evenly as I waited for Jack to find their location, my eyes scanning our surroundings for any sign of them while I waited for him to tell us where they were.
“And then what?”
“We take them down and go after the other one first thing in the morning,” I said evenly as I looked back at her, my eyes scanning our surroundings for any sign of them while she nodded in agreement, knowing that we didn’t have much time to waste on this case if we wanted to catch the other manager before he made his next move.
Meanwhile, Nina and Jack were still tracking the other Loki’s location, their eyes scanning the room as they tried to keep up with the others while they worked, making sure that we didn’t lose sight of each other as we tried to figure out what to do next.
“They’re working together,” Alex said evenly as she looked back at me in confusion, trying to wrap her head around what was really going on between them now that she knew they were working together to bring us down.
“It makes sense in a way if you think about it,” I said evenly as I looked back at her, my eyes scanning our surroundings for any sign of them while she tried to figure out what to do next.
