The entrance was certainly not what either of them would've ever expected.

They'd expected for a bunch of demons to start attacking them, or the doorway to be booby-trapped, and they'd end up with an axe trying to chop their faces off, or maybe even the Avengers tied up and seemingly lifeless. Something along those lines anyway.

What they had not expected was some lady in a bright orange suit, with her head (which was just a skull) on fire, to smile at them and say, "Welcome! Is this your first time at The Casino Mephisto?"

Loki might've stabbed her, or Stephen might've summoned up some magic energy, but they were both too confused to speak.

Strange looked past the – receptionist? – and around the rest of the room. It looked like a regular old casino, with all the games and poker stations and whatnot, but full of monstrous beings, some like the receptionist lady with skulls on fire as heads, some actual monsters of which resembled Thanos' army more than anything else he could think of. If you ignored that and the fact everything was on fire, it was almost exactly like a normal casino (which Stephen definitely had barely any experience in, of course).

"Would you like to book a room in our hotel above?" continued the receptionist lady, who had made a clipboard appear from nowhere and was jotting who knew what down. "We have single rooms, double rooms, en-suites and suites, but you'll have to pay extra if you don't want house-cleaning."

Loki and Stephen exchanged a look.

"I see you've bought a weapon, sir?" she continued, noting the dagger Loki was still holding. "Good. We only let people with their own weapons participate in our Play Cards To The Death event on the 200th floor at midnight." She turned to Strange and frowned. "You can't participate if you don't have your own weapon, sir."

"We're not staying until midnight," Stephen said, trying not to be distracted by a monster screaming as his opponent stabbed him over their cards game, and green blood splattered across the floor. He didn't like this casino. "We're just meeting some friends."

"Well then, Mr..."

"It's Dr..." Strange muttered.

"Well then, Mr Doctor," started the receptionist, while Loki bit back a smirk, "feel free for you and your accomplice to join in with a game or to go to one of our bars while you wait for your friends, though I will point out that, since you won't be staying, you won't have the extra privilege of unlimited free drinks, only the first thirteen will be free, and please try to keep casualties to a maximum. Have a great day and remember to leave a review on TripAdvisor.com for The Casino Mephisto!"

Stephen was about to say something really intelligent, like his name wasn't Mr Doctor, but Loki nodded in politeness, and walked off, dragging Strange with him.

"Keep casualties to a maximum?" repeated Loki, absently spinning his dagger in his hand. "I like this place already."

"Can we just take a moment to think about how weird that was?" Stephen said, glancing back over his shoulder. The lady with the skull on fire was still waving them off. "From what I've heard of Mephisto, he's got some sort of giant palace in hell where the dead humans who did bad in their lives' souls go to be eternally punished, though he could do the same to living people too. So why is this place a casino?"

Loki shrugged. "Maybe he found out the tourism in hell isn't as good as it is in Vegas? Honestly, Mr Doctor, I'm as clueless as you are."

"Please don't start calling me Mr Doctor from now on. Where are we going anyway?"

"Anywhere where there's not this many monsters. I'd probably keep a weapon on you in this place if I were you."

Stephen didn't like having to injure or kill people if he could help it, after all, he'd spent half his life saving others, but supposed Loki was probably right in this situation. He summoned his weapon from the orange sparks he often made, but made it subtle. "So, any ideas of exactly where that'd be?"

"Not really," Loki admitted. "Like you said, I'm improvising." Suddenly he grabbed Stephen and forced him down and ducked. Not a moment too soon, as some guy to their left threw a giant axe that resembled Stormbreaker at someone to their right that would've sliced straight through both their heads if they'd still been standing a second later. Bless the Asgardians and their lightning fast reflexes.

"Yeah... so maybe the whole maximising casualties thing isn't very fun," Loki admitted.