Chapter 18: LOKI MEETS THE TWINS
Loki stared at several surveillance screens before him with a cheeky smile plastered on his face. Behind him, several men dressed in similar uniforms were scattered unconscious across the room. Only one guy whom he had spared was seated on the control seat, and Loki's hand was settled lazily on his shoulders... it wasn't a threat, but just as quickly, it could be if need arose.
From this room, he could see all the sections of the facility as well as all the staff and the activity that was taking place here (which was a lot). Loki sighed in both relief and tension at the same time. Just like the strange guy Lucifer had told him, this organization appeared to be massively equipped with very sophisticated technology.
Even his illusion alone as he mimicked the resemblance of various staff had almost failed him. Almost all the entrances here required a person to have a passcode or some clearance which varied with every place he had tried to access... he had to resort to the good old social engineering to even get to this control room.
All that aside, his mind was already made. He was not leaving the place without what he came for... what was taken from him.
"Wait... stop right there," the trembling guy quickly stopped changing the video as instructed. Loki leaned in and squinted his eyes as if not believing what he was seeing.
"Zoom in." The live feed on the screen was enlarged and Loki clapped the guy's shoulder in joy.
"Brilliant... and there she is."
The Asgardian felt an anger begin to rise inside him on seeing the footage that was playing before him. "What in the name of madness are these humans doing... ?"
He could see the scepter alright, but at one side of it was a woman who, if what he saw was right... well, she could not be normal.
The girl was literally levitating on air inside a glass room while she stared at both her arms which held what appeared to be glowing balls of flame. On the other side, Loki's eyes kept chasing a dot that kept blitzing through another similar structure until at one point it slowed down enough for him to see that it was human as well... precisely, it was a human male.
Now more than ever, he began to realize that he might have misjudged the threat this group of humans were posing. True, up to now he had not encountered any significant opposition as he breezed the security, a little sweet talking here, a brief head-banging there always seemed to work the magic.
All the victims were carefully secured and hidden who knows where, but he had been certain that they would be out for a while. Now he wasn't sure anymore.
From the screen, he watched a tall guy with a weird one-eyed monocle reach out for what looked like a communication device and began talking to the two strange humans. It was obvious that he was talking to them, as slowly they too began to focus on him, and strangely, the girl lowered herself to the ground and the fiery balls in her hands extinguished, just as her male counterpart slowed as well.
" can you get the sound?" he asked the only other human in the room with him.
For a while longer, the Asgardian god of mischief watched what transpired from the control room. From what he heard, these HYDRA thugs were planning to chanel the scepter to create an army of superpowered minions. had he heard it without seeing, he could have brushed it aside as human stupidity... this mortals had plenty of those, but he was staring at two prototypes of that plan.
"They... they created that?" Loki asked no one in particular. There was a sudden urgency in his voice.
Suddenly, with an insane speed, he had grabbed the remaining guy's hair and brought it down hard on the desk, making the items on it topple and fall along with the guy's unconscious body.
Loki stood there, his chest heaving with the intensity of his rage. The control room now felt smaller, more suffocating than before, the screens around him mocking him with their images of what these humans had done with his stolen power.
He was a prince of Asgard, a god with immeasurable power and respect. And yet here he was robbed and humiliated by mere mortals. he sighed and calmed himself. now it was his turn to show this filthy people the true meaning of power.
With a flick of his wrist, he shifted his appearance once more, taking on the guise of the man with the monocle. It was time to find out where this despicable human was and put an end to his plans.
Moving with a newfound purpose, Loki swiftly left the surveillance room, leaving behind the unconscious bodies of the facility's personnel. He navigated the corridors, his steps silent but purposeful.
Doors slid open as he approached, his altered appearance granting him access without question.
Eventually after what felt like an eternity of searching, Loki found himself standing before a reinforced door, guarded by armed men. With a confident smirk, he approached them, his demeanor oozing authority.
The guards hesitated, their eyes flickering between the man in front of them and the door behind them. Of course, they were questioning their sanity. I mean, they were sure that the Baron was still inside that door... he had not left... he could not have left... but here he stood right in front of them.
"What the hell are you staring at?" Loki yelled boldly as he pushed past the men.
No resistance came.
Faced with the intimidating presence of the man they believed to be their superior, they stepped aside without a word.
The heavy door slid open, and Loki entered the chamber, his heart pounding with anticipation.
In the center of the room stood the woman he had seen on the surveillance feed, her eyes was wide with fear as she stared at her own hands. Next to her stood the now calm blitzing man. The man with the monocle had been standing in front of them except now there was no glass separating them.
Baron Strucker now turned as he heard the door open and shut behind him.
"So, this is where you've been hiding," Loki hissed, his voice dripping with venom as he stepped into the room.
There was a confused gaze for a brief second in the Baron's eyes as he stared at what looked like his twin... a twin he did not have. But then a sneer twisted his lips.
"And who might you be?" he asked mockingly. Of course, Strucker, being the head of HYDRA, knew who exactly this was, but it never hurt to play the good old stalling game.
Loki's eyes narrowed dangerously and his illusion flickerd before revealing his true self. "you are not worthy of speaking my name human" he spat, with malice. " I have come to take back what you and your thugs stole from me."
Strucker's smirk faltered, replaced by a flicker of feigned uncertainty. His lips curled in preparation of another sarcastic tirade.
The Asgardian, however, had no patience left. Before Strucker could respond, Loki was upon him, his hands lashing out with inhuman speed. With a swift motion, he disarmed the man, sending the scepter which he had been holding clattering to the ground.
"You think you are smart?" Loki growled as he suddenly closed the distance between him and the guy, his grip tightening around the man's throat.
But before he could torture the man further, a sudden wave of pain surged through his body making him drop the man and fall to his knees. He looked up in shock to see the woman, her eyes glowing towering over him.
"You will not harm him," Wanda hissed, her voice reaching and ringing deep in Loki's mind. It sounded like a command he could not deny... then it changed to a command he did not want to deny... then into... into a nightmare that he would do anything to get rid of.
Slowly Loki began to tremble, his resistance failing, his hands rose to his ears, but still the voice rang louder in his mind. Then a lightning-quick object danced past him, and as the Asgardian began to fall into the darkness, he could not believe he had seen the man run past him before he even felt the impact of the man's punch.
Darkness!
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