Loki exited Aperture, a plan already in mind. Just for the hell of it, Loki erased his presence, jumped the fence, and began jogging towards his apartment. He had a plan. It wasn't a foolproof plan, but it would do well enough for his purposes. And if all went well, he would live in relative comfort for the next few years. At least enough to weather the storm of prejudice coming their way. But first, he needed to find certain people.

Loki opened the door to his apartment and briskly walked in, entering his bedroom and grabbing some travelling bags. He called his landlord as he did, carefully folding his clothes and inserting them into his suitcase. The call connected and Loki got to the point.
"Hey, landlord. I'm leaving today." He said.
"Wha-" The landlord asked, confused.
"Right now, actually." Loki said. "I'll drop the key off at reception."
"But- This is so sudden!" The landlord objected.
"Well, you know. Business matters and all." Loki said.
He finished packing his clothes and went to systematically clear the house of anything that was his property, starting from the bathroom.
"So yeah, I'll need you to do all the stuff you need to do pretty quick." Loki said, taking all of his toiletries and taking them back to the bedroom. "It's kind of urgent for me to disappear."
"...Fine." The landlord said. He knew that Loki had something big would happen soon, so he didn't press further.
"Thanks." Loki said. "I'll give this month's rent to the receptionist. Oh, and call up a taxi."
He began to pack the stuff he couldn't take into boxes. His cooking utensils, dishes and cutlery went into one box. In another box, he put in his DVDs, DVD player and his other electronics. He boxed pretty much everything except for his phone, his throwing knives and the clothes on his back. On reflection, he didn't have that much. 2 boxes worth of stuff and a suit case.
"It's been nice staying here." Loki said.
He hung up.

A few minutes later, Loki had his boxes stacked up at his chest, with the suitcase dangling on his arm. The elevator opened and deposited him on the ground floor. The receptionist raised an eyebrow at his appearance, but she didn't ask any questions. He walked sidewards towards the desk and used one hand to drop his key and an envelope full of money labelled this month's rent. He waved the receptionist goodbye and exited the door. A taxi was pulled up on the curb. Upon seeing Loki, the cabbie opened up the boot and Loki loaded his boxes and suitcase into it. He then got into the passenger seat as the cabbie closed the boot, got into the driver seat and started the engine.
“Where to?” The gruff cabbie asked.
“The flower shop on 7th street, please.” Loki said.
The taxi drove out from the kerb and headed down the road.

The taxi pulled up at another Kerb, 20 minutes away, this time in front of a flower shop. ‘The flower pot’ was its name. A fairly small floristry, it was charming in its own right and was owned by people Loki trusted. It actually had a few rooms above the store, where people could live. It sat in the middle of a shopping district. Not exactly peaceful, but he could hide here for a while. Loki offloaded his luggage and paid the cabbie, who drove away. Loki stepped awkwardly up to the door, wondering how he would ring the doorbell, when it opened and a man with a large build was revealed.
“Loki!” The man said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“Sup, Tom?” Loki said casually. “This might seem a bit weird, but I need to live here for a while.”

A few minutes later, Loki was having tea with Thomas and His wife, Claire, in the back room, after they let him in and put his stuff in one of the spare rooms. He put his coat on the rack by the door because he’d talk for a little bit.
“Ah.” Loki said, satisfied. “This tea is good.”
“Thanks. It’s an earl grey blend.” Claire said.
“Loki.” Thomas cut in. “What did you mean by you need to live here?”
“Straight to the point, huh.” Loki said.
He grabbed a cookie that was set out on the table and began biting it.
“Well, I got a new job.” Loki said, munching the job. “A merc job, this time.”
Thomas and Claire were quiet, waiting for him to continue. They were old army friends who retired to get married. He trusted them enough with this information.
“Well, I can’t exactly hand out details, but after I do it, I need to lay low for a while.” He said, reaching for another cookie.
It was evident that they were thinking, and Loki bit his cookies while they did.
“We’re good friends, Loki, but we’ll need more reason than that.” Thomas said at last. “For closure, at least. Even if you can’t tell us anything…”
“Well, you know the Disney massacre?” Loki said. “I don’t know if the people who hired me were involved in it, but it caused a lot of trouble for metas, involved or not.”
Loki ate the rest of his cookie and leaned forward, serious.
“There’s a co-worker who I have to bust out. A meta, like me.” He said. “My employer told me to find a safe place for her, and lay low for a while.”
“I see.” Thomas said. “And who is she?”
“Her name’s Scarlett.” Loki said, taking his cup and sipping some tea. “Alias: Sweet Dream. As far as I know, she can enter the dreams of unconscious people and learn their weaknesses.”
“That sounds… dangerous.” Claire said, sipping her own tea.
“Of course it is.” Loki said, putting his cup down. “But I can vouch for her, at least.”
“You do this quite a bit, you know.” Thomas sighed.
“Oh, come on.” Loki said. “I’d like to think that I’m pretty dependable.”
“Alright, Loki.” Thomas chuckled. “You can stay here. We’ll accept Scarlett when you bring her here.”
“Good we got that settled.” Loki said, getting up. “Thanks for having me.”
“Any time, Loki. Any time.” Thomas said, getting up as well and shaking his hand.
Loki walked out of the backroom, taking his coat as he went. Thomas and Claire followed to see him out.
“Oh,” Loki said, remembering something. “One more thing.”
He fished around in his coat pocket and took out the hard drive Ruby had given him.
“Plug this into your computer.” Loki said, giving it to Claire. “I don’t know what it does, it’ll just do what it needs to, apparently.”
“Where’s it from?” Claire asked, inspecting it.
“Employer.” Loki said. “They have a robot suit. She’s a pretty cool person.”
“You have to tell us the full story when you get back.” Thomas said, grinning.
“I’ll tell you what I know.” Loki smiled, walking towards the entrance of the flower shop. “Later.”
He turned and waved as he said it, and the couple followed suit. Soon, Loki walked down the peaceful road, mind back to business.

Loki hailed a taxi again, and to his surprise, it was the same person that drove the taxi from before.
“Where to?” The cabbie asked.
“Stucorp.” Loki said, dropping into the passenger street. “Drop me off a few blocks from there.”
The cabbie grunted and started down the road. [i]Stucorp, huh.[/i] Loki thought as the taxi drove towards the high-rises. Stucorp was a company that developed weapons, as far as he remembered. That normally meant that their security was extremely tight, which would be troublesome. And Scarlett was being held there, which meant some kind of prison cell. Even more troublesome.
“What kind of mega corporation has holding cells, anyway?” Loki muttered, staring out the window.
Gary Stuart was the CEO, as far as he remembered. Loki didn’t know too much beside that, but it was safe to assume he had some highly ranked metas in his company. Nowadays, it was kind of odd not to have at least one. It would be tricky to crack, and it would likely have security systems Loki didn’t even know of. 

The cab arrived, near a building that was a few blocks from the towering sky scraper that was Stucorp. Loki got out and paid the cabbie, who drove off down the street again. He looked up at the huge structure, wondering how he would do this. He saw a helicopter take off and wondered who was in it. [i]Nothing for it, then.[/i] Loki thought. Nothing to do but get right into the heart of the matter. Loki began to walk towards Stucorp, with the intent to infiltrate.