A beautiful world in a burning galaxy, exploding in a burst of flame by the sword of a monstrous fire giant. The orange-skinned, white-eyed inhabitants forced to flee as they lost their home. A noble hero, undergoing cybernetic experimentation, to fight to protect his people and prevent another similar disaster from happening again, even defending them from the mighty Thor after a dangerous misunderstanding. And the dwarves of Nidavellir forging him an axe called Stormbreaker, which gave him or anyone who proved worthy Thor's powers of thunder!

"So, he's not a Thor variant after all: I suspected as much. Odin enchanted his axe in a similar manner to Mjölnir when he proved himself worthy, after Surtur destroyed his home world... just as he does mine." Loki began to fret. "I don't know how long I can hold him in his memories and keep my hold on Topaz: she had better enter those kill codes soon!"

He released his hold on Bill's blade and telekinetically summoned his own. As Bill snapped out of his past, he was bewildered to see not one, but multiple identical Lokis surrounding him.

"Come on." Loki thought. "Bring down the thunder!"

Just as Loki had predicted, Beta Ray Bill raised his axe to the sky, but just before he summoned another lightning bolt, the real Loki hurled a powerful blast of fire at him, engulfing him and subsequently causing a massive explosion! As the smoke cleared, the audience was on the edge of their seats as it revealed both men, collapsed on opposite ends of the arena.

Loki groaned and in retrospect, reconsidered such a bold move. "That should at least buy me another minute or two."

Half the crowd began to chant Beta Ray Bill, while the other half chanted Aurora, each side hoping their favorite would rise first. After about a minute and a half, Loki finally peeked his head up, noticing something fall off his neck. He grinned, seeing the obedience disk fall from his opponent's neck also, as well as hearing the surprise and excitement of the other prisoners as their disks did the same.

Loki rose to his feet, ready to end the match. He held out his hand, and to everyone's surprise, Beta Ray Bill's axe flew into his open palm. Loki's grin grew as the weapon he was firmly grasping had dubbed him worthy, and he posed with it as sparks shot out for dramatic effect, the crowd finally clapping for him.

"Come on, Bill, quit horsing around." The Grandmaster attempted to encourage his champion, who was regaining consciousness, yet still on his back. The Grandmaster pulled out a device from his robe pocket and pressed a button, but nothing happened. He kept pressing as Loki started walking up to his enemy. "Why isn't his obedience disk working?! And what did Topaz eat for lunch?! She's been gone the whole match!"

A group of guards reported, "The prisoners are rioting! And their obedience disks have been deactivated!"

"Well, go stop them!" The Grandmaster's guards made their way down, until their boss suddenly interrupted, "Oh, wait! I have a better idea! You only need to stop one!"

"Revolution, here we come!" As Korg led most of the ex-prisoners to freedom, Mobius and Bloodwing made their way through the arena, to respectively get to Loki and the Grandmaster. Bloodwing found a spot in the audience where he could fire an arrow unseen, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Mobius being grabbed by one of the Grandmaster's henchmen. As they brought they grey-haired analyst up toward the Grandmaster's seat, Bloodwing nocked back another arrow, but he blacked out when he was hit on the head from behind.

"You-you wield Stormbreaker! That means you are worthy!" Beta Ray Bill exclaimed.

"And I got that pesky little disk on your neck removed for you, so if you'll kindly yield to me, I've a revolution to lead!"

Bill nodded. "Thank you: you have freed us all. I had given up hope long ago; I have misjudged you."

"Oh, Boris~!" rang a sing-song voice from high in the audience. Loki looked to see Mobius being held by two guards and Bloodwing held by two others, the Grandmaster waving at him. "You wanna be a good sport and give Bill his axe back? If you don't, I'll introduce MustacheMan here to my Melt Stick! Wanna see what it does?" The Grandmaster touched the round tip of his staff to the back of Bloodwing's head, and Loki watched in horror as the vengeful marksman painfully melted into a disgusting puddle of liquified flesh. "Yep, melts 'em like butter! I usually only use it on the big offenders, like the bird-man who tried to kill me, but where's the fun in being the ruler of a planet if you can't make an exception or two? Now give Billy the axe; oh, and let him get in a few good swings, 'kay?"

Loki became petrified as the madman pointed the Melt Stick in a frightened Mobius's direction. "ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!" Loki's mind raced back to the scene of Mobius's pruning, when Judge Renslayer betrayed him, seemingly vaporizing the analyst into nothing, right before a horrified Loki's eyes. He pushed the memory away and knew he couldn't bear to watch anything like that again! "Please! I'll give him his axe!" Loki slowly turned back to the Korbinite in Thor's clothing, holding up the battle axe. He gulped as he took a step forward, but then his eyes lit up with an idea. "Bill, I need you to do as I ask right now: you owe me, do you not?" Bill nodded as his adversary quietly continued whispering as he walked up to him, "My illusion is going to fight you, yet you're going to react to him as if he were real, and he shall react to you accordingly. Strike him as you get the chance, and I shall make him appear wounded. But do not fatally harm him unless I instruct you to do so: do you understand?"

"I believe so." Bill whispered back.

"Good. We need to keep that lunatic distracted- or entertained- until I can get my best friend to safety."

"Yes, I heard him: I will gladly help you save your friend from such a shameless coward! You care a great deal for him, don't you?"

"Yes. He's like a father to me." Loki offered Bill his weapon. Bill took it and bowed his head. Then, Loki stealthily created a solid illusion of himself and teleported his real body as far upward into the crowd as he could. As he snuck his way up, Loki's duplicate prepared for battle as the sound of an orchestra playing "Ride of the Valkyries" magically filled the air. As he began to charge at the noble horse-man, Duplicate Loki sang to the main melody of the song playing.

"Enough of this PRA-ttle, on with the BA-ttle, lightning is SWIFT, but swifter am I!~" The operatic illusion swung a convincing Lævateinn blade with blinding speed at Beta Ray Bill's neck, but he ducked and kicked at Loki's chest, leading him to gracefully backflip away. He lit Lævateinn aflame and formed a ring of fire around their stage, leaving the audience in awe.

"My fire has SNARED you, you are the BE-ta, glorious VIC-tory, it shall me MINE!~" The illusionary detective shot a stream of flame from his sword and took a flying leap, sword and axe clashing one more time, the fiery sparks even more magnificent than before. The entire audience oohed and ahed, but Bill headbutted Loki and spiked him into the ground.

"Heeey, yeah!" The Grandmaster applauded. "A musical death match: I- I don't think that's ever been done here! Whoo, someone make a note of that: I like it! Let's hear it for the musical magician!" The crowd joined him in a round of applause for Loki's performance.

The real Loki smiled in relief that he'd successfully diverted his attention from Mobius and kept climbing their way. Meanwhile, his duplicate got to his feet and gathered green energy into his palms.

"Oh, Beta Ray Bill~ your legacy's through~"

He blasted the Korbinite, who took the force head on.

"You'll kneel down be-FORE me, champion of none!~"

Bill thrust his way through the green blast and his axe through Loki's right leg. The audience roared as the Loki illusion fell to the floor, landing on his remaining knee. He loudly grunted, convincing everyone he was in great pain.

Bill scoffed and mocked him. "It is not I who is on one knee. And you've lost your rhyme."

"Excuse me, I am improvising these lyrics completely, while simultaneously planning fighting strategies and stylishly thrilling our audience!" Loki bragged, pushing himself to stand. "I don't exactly have the time to conjure up some parchment and a pen and brainstorm up a Shakespearean sonnet!"

"...right." The musical musician returned to his chorus.

"You may cut me down~ but I shall rebound~ I never say DIE, I always return!~" Loki moved in for a stab, which stuck into Bill's foot, but it was countered as the Korbinite warrior removed the blade, hurling it and its wielder several feet away. As the musical accompaniment continued to sound, Bill hurled his axe, Stormbreaker, which severed the arm that held Lævateinn.

"It's an illusion, it must be some kind of trick!" Mobius hoped, knowing his friend.

"Hey Bill!" The Grandmaster called down. "Don't kill him, okay? He's very entertaining, the crowd loves him!" Loki crept up behind the two henchmen holding his friend hostage and bashed their heads together, knocking them unconscious. He quickly grabbed Mobius and positioned himself in front of him, taking out the other two guards with a strike from the real Lævateinn. The Grandmaster jumped as he swung a warning strike at him next.

"How did you- wait, no, don't tell me: magicians aren't supposed to reveal your secrets. But can you top this disappearing act?" The Grandmaster bantered as he touched his Melt Stick to Loki's chest. Loki raised his eyebrows and smirked, looking down. The confused Grandmaster followed his eyes and noticed the round melting tip of his staff sliced off, now in pieces under Loki's boot.

"The game's over: you're out of the contest!"

"Oh! Oh? Oh... backup plan." The Grandmaster nervously muttered and called out, "Hey Scrapper 142, I'll give you a huge bonus if you capture these detectives again!"

Brunnhilde sat in her spaceship seat high in the arena, holding up a finger as she finished off a bottle of ale. "5 million units, for each of them."

"Okay, 5 mil each, now quick-quick-quick!"