In the darkness, Loki opened his eyes.
His head felt woozy, as though he were hungover. The world swayed around him, and waves of nausea rose in his throat.
He gritted his teeth and forcibly swallowed the feeling back, trying to sit up and figure out what was going on. Why did he feel as though he had lost his memory?
But the next second, accompanied by the clank of metal, he realized that his hands and feet had been fastened to a bed. Iron restraints held him spread-eagled, while nearby machinery hummed softly.
"Is anyone there?" He struggled a few times, but without magic, even with physical abilities three times greater than a human's, he still could not break steel.
With a clattering sound, the restraints drew the jailer's attention. A figure in the darkness turned toward him from nearby, red eyes lighting up like those of a demon. A voice filled with electronic distortion replied:
"Do you mean people in the broad sense, namely intelligent lifeforms? Or are you narrow-minded enough that by people, you specifically mean humans?"
As soon as the words fell, all the surrounding lights came on. Loki turned his head away from the blinding glare, his long black hair falling over his eyes.
After adjusting for a moment, he opened his eyes again and saw a gleaming silver "suit of armor" standing beside the bed. Its strange face, vaguely resembling an ant's head and seeming to wear a smile, loomed before him.
Loki inwardly sighed. He knew enough to recognize it as a robot.
He had seen similar electronic intelligent lifeforms on other planets, but he had never expected to encounter one on Earth too. And it appeared to be the one that had captured him.
No. His limbs were pinned down like a