Loki’s Successor System

"Took you long enough," said Sylvia, her eyes remaining slit.

Alura turned around and looked at him as well, "Looks like you got your balls to grow…."

Jin then looked over his shoulders to see Flint closing the portal with nothing but yet another snap of his fingers. He then walked past them all, and presented the place to Jin.

He outstretched his arms to their limits, and smirked widely, "Welcome, Jin, to our little hideout…"

The large room in which they remained was dark, but there were white strips of LED lights prevalent throughout the entire room that were the only light source.

There were black egg pod ball chairs, ordinary couches, a huge TV on one of the walls, and even a small pool table.

There were two other people in the room other than them. A hobgoblin playing pool all by himself, and an elf laying down on one of the convertible chairs.

Flint ran over to one of the couches, and plopped down on it. Then he slowly looked up at Jin who stood there looking around, "Like it?"

"Yeah, but what do you mean it's a hideout?"

"I said it's a hideout, because," he pressed his lips together in a line, "it's a hideout."

"And why is that?"

Flint started getting up, rising to a sitting position instead, "You're gonna learn exactly why just now. Just hang out with us and you'll see…"

"By the way, welcome back, boss," greeted the Hobgoblin.

The Hobgoblin possessed all the normal features of a hobgoblin. However, its skin was noticeably paler than that of your average one.

Its head was bald, and there was a gold earring in one of its ears. It also wore a black jacket that screamed the word 'expensive' to Jin.

The elf then greeted Flint as well, "Yeah, welcome back, boss…been a while…"

The elf's skin was also incredibly pale. It wore the same black jacket as the Hobgoblin who was at the pool table, playing all alone.

Jin grimaced at Flint, "Boss?"

Flint stood, "Yeah, Jin," he smirked, "I'm the leader here."

"Leader of what?"

"Come on, you're gonna make me spoil things for you. Hang out with us, and you'll figure it out yourself…"

Flint then approached the hobgoblin, "Yo, Krod, I see you're practicing."

Krod watched as Flint outstretched a hand, and a cue stick came hovering into it.

Clearly, it was impossible for a normal guy to just make an object come towards him, and so, Jin was astounded by Flint's exhibition of magic.

'Telekinesis? And portal magic? Who is this guy? What else can he do?'

Flint held the cue in his hands firmly. The cue was a long, thin stick that they would use to play pool with.

Krod smirked, "I see you're up for a game…"

"Yeah, sure," Flint smirked as well.

"Eight ball?"

"Yeah."

"What's on the line, boss? Call a bet."

"I see you're trying to wager back the money you've lost to me," Flint passed a hand through his hair, and bent his back lower than normally.

Krod started heaping the balls together with the help of the diamond-shaped rack. When the balls were held in place, he removed the rack, "Yeah, I lost thousands. Tryna win it back from you. Call a bet…"

"You call it…"

"Alright, then I'd say a thousand…"

"Shooting for the stars I see. Bet. You go first."

Krod then rested his cue ball on the table, and behind the head-string, which was a white drawn line that acted as a starting line for the game.

Then, he got in position and took aim. Simply, he then thrust his cue into the white cue ball, which was the only ball that had no number on it. The ball hit the heap of numbered balls, causing them to scatter about the table.

"Six solid," called Krod, changing positions.

There were two types of balls. Solid colored balls with no stripes. And then there were balls with a stripe of main color, and the parts without the stripe remaining white.

Krod then took aim again, and struck the cue ball with his cue. The white cue ball quickly hit the completely green ball, which was solid six.

Krod smirked at Flint given that he had just landed his first hit with a breeze.

***

"I win," said Flint, as he struck the cue ball with extreme delicacy.

The cue ball then hit the black ball with the number '8' on it. Consecutively, the 8-ball bounced off the edges of the table, and went into one of the pockets, which were holes the balls were supposed to get hit into.

Flint callously smirked at Krod, making his brows do push-ups, "One extra thousand to my bank account…Sheesh…thanks, Krod."

"Fuck you!" Krod snarled.

Flint blew a kiss for him.

Aggressively, he clenched his teeth, held both sides of the cue stick, and broke it to a perfect half.

Flint peered at the broken stick, "You're paying for that…"

Riled, Krod dropped the stick, and pounded the pool tabletop with his balled fist. Some seconds later, all the colored balls on the pool table bolted into the air.

Looking up, Jin could see the balls stuck in the ceiling, and not falling down to the ground again. With widened eyes, he then looked down at Krod once more.

Flint's smirk reappeared, "You're paying for that too…"

Krod quickly stormed off, stomping his feet loudly.

After an incredibly face-paced game, Flint was triumphant. Never before had Jin become so enthralled by a simple game of 8-Ball pool. If he had the chance to watch them play for hours, he would've done so without regretting a minute of it.

Merely a minute in the game, Jin had heeded both Krod and Flint pro players, even though they were clearly cheating the entire time.

They were using magic to move the balls, while their sticks fooled the viewers into thinking that they were hitting them with the sticks.

"Alright, then. What are you guys gonna do now?" asked Flint, folding his arms again.

Alura and Sylvia were sitting next to each other on one of the white couches.

Alura then looked over at them, "I want a drink…"

"Sure," Flint replied, turning his head to face Jin after looking at her.

"Jin? You drink?"

Jin scratched behind his head, "Yeah…I drink."

"Really," Flint's eyes got bigger, "What do you drink? Lemme hear…"

"Anything that isn't alcohol," Jin responded.

Flint narrowed both his eyes at him, "That's not what you call drinking, man…"

"I know, I was just kidding."

"So you don't drink at all? Here I thought we were gonna grab a few drinks, and get drunk at a bar somewhere…"

"DID SOMEONE SAY DRINKS!?"

The loud, high-pitched voice that sounded throughout the room was that of the elf who had been sitting silently in the living room all along.

Suddenly, he appeared before Jin's face, "DID SOMEONE SAY BAR!?"

If an Earthquake were to occur, Jin and the elf would be smooching like a couple under the fireworks.

Ill at ease, Jin moved his head back, and then quickly did the same with his body, edging away from the elf guy.

Unlike the normal Elves, this one had jet black hair, and just this fact alone made Jin slightly amused. Seeing an Elf with dark hair was like stumbling across some pig twerking. You don't see it at all.

Sure, he could've probably dyed it, but dying your hair was known as a sin to Elvish culture. And there weren't many people who opposed Elvish culture. So stumbling across a black-haired Elf was impeccably a rare sight.

Flint gazed at the Elf, "Baron, we were going to the Bar but—"

Baron disappeared before Jin's eyes, and reappeared in front of Flint, interjecting his statement with the enthusiastic words, "We're gonna go to a Bar together!?"

"We were…"

Jin grimaced, 'Teleportation?'

"Then let's go," he boisterously put a hand on Flint's neck and around his shoulder, "Let's go drink till we're drunk!"

"Jin here," Flint pointed, "doesn't drink alcohol. And I wouldn't wanna leave him out so I'm changing my mind."

Slowly, Baron's neck rotated, until his entire face was directed at Jin. In an instant, he was still next to Flint and peering at Jin, but in the other, he was standing at the side of Jin.

Jin turned his head to the right to get a look at him, "What?"

Baron's brows knotted; wrinkles started appearing all over his face. When his face was completely contorted, Jin started to wonder if he had said something bad.

Standing amidst Jin's personal space, Baron finally asked, "You don't drink?"

'Just who is this elf guy? His breath is strong of alcohol when he looks clearly under eighteen like me!'

Baron then reiterated, "You don't drink?"

Jin took a step back, and started gazing down at the floor, "No, I don't. I'm still underaged…"

Suddenly, Baron rested his hand upon Jin's chest, and quickly, he found himself standing amidst a strange place, filled with all sorts of people boozing away their souls with drinks.

Nervously, he looked around; darting his head from left to right.

Baron was nowhere to be seen.

"Guys?"

A few people at the bar stared at him.

When unexpectedly, Flint and Baron had appeared in front of him again.

Flint smiled, "Sup, Jin? Funny meeting you here.."

"In a bar too? I thought you said you don't drink," he jested.

One after the other, Alura, Sylvia, Krod, and even Baron himself appeared. People in the bar glued their eyes to the jarring scenario before them—one of these bewildered spectators even spat out his drink all over the person he was sitting next to.

Jin and the others were all confused, with the exception of Flint and Baron himself.

Krod was the last person to appear in the bar, he had collapsed to the floor, with a magazine entitled 'New York City's Hottest Baes'.

What's more, his unbuckled pants were down, and had his jacket not been in the way; he would have displayed to them what they didn't want to see.

He dropped the magazine, flew up from the floor, pulled up his striped boxers, and then pulled his pants up as well. Then, he started looking around in confusion, "What in the fuck? I was taking a dump. How did I end up—"

That's when it hit him. He started gritting his teeth as he glared at Baron. The magazine started to hover first, and then everyone's drinks started to do the same.

Not too long later, even people's hair started to hover as if gravity were on a coffee break.

Everyone, who were standing beside Baron, quickly took a step back.

Baron raised a thumb, grinned, wiggled his brows, and said, "Nice pipe, Mr.Stripe!"

"Mother fucker…" cursed Krod in a calm, quiet tone as he could not believe what Baron had uttered in response.

Baron grinned again, waved, and disappeared.

"BARRRROOONNNN!!!!"