Chapitre 113: Chapter 112 : Princeling and his Delusions!
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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 112[May 2012]
Manhattan, Subterranean base
–Axle Riddle–
"Welcome to Midgard, Prince Thor," He greeted Thor who was just getting alighted from the Stark Jet, which he had immediately rerouted into the river and then straight into the base because he could take no further risks anymore.
"Greetings, Invisible Man. I was told that that was the moniker you assume,"
"That is correct, Prince Thor."
He had informed the Secret Service agent that Loki had been whisked away by a targeted application of the Tesseract, and also provided the video footage so Pierce should not be able to make too much of a ruckus. By now, Pierce had realised that his plan to keep the Invisible Man unaware of everything by keeping everything in New York quiet had gone up in shitters, so he had started moving his personnel in New York as well, at least right up until he put a stop to it, with the President's help of course.
Wouldn't want to do anything illegal after all. POTUS had issued written orders that no changes, nothing of the sort that Pierce was aiming for, would be allowed to happen in Manhattan because it was an area of special interest and the harmony could be disturbed because of the rapid changes in personnel that Pierce was proposing, which was mostly just him filling in his HYDRA goons in important positions, something that the President had probably realised by now.
So, that was halted but there was yet another problem that had appeared on his plate, other than Loki and the Chitauri.
The Mole people.
They had once again started sending, not entire waves of molemen but scouts, smaller, much faster mole people who were sniffing around the artificial boundary he had created last time and while they were barely even worth a mention, due to their low prowess, their numbers could not be underestimated and if they mounted a full fledged invasion during the Chitauri Invasion, that could be problematic.
"Prince Thor, we are on the verge of a planetary invasion but thankfully, the invasion will come through a portal which will prove to be a bottleneck for them. Now, for the Invasion itself, we might be able to handle it but so far, Loki has proven to be far more slippery than we could have imagined. Can we trust you to handle Loki in that case?" He asked Thor, because he would rather not deal with Loki at all.
"Aye, Loki's ways are strange and illusory. I will handle it, that is why I was sent here but Loki and the Tesseract–"
"Goes with you, I understand. You have my word that both of them will be with you when you leave for Asgard," He assured the Prince. He didn't want the Tesseract or even the sceptre in the hands of the government anyway, so this was the best option.
The sceptre would be broken down, obviously, and he would have to consult with the Ancient One on how to get rid of the small primitive but very much evil intelligence that was programmed on the Mind Stone by the Other before he could try and use the Mind Stone to augment himself.
But then again, he might not even feel the need to use the Mind Stone unless Thanos himself came in front of him or if he had to lift a continent, because the second the curtain fell, he had a hunch that his overall power levels would shoot through the roof, not in terms of power, but in terms of range and the level of fine control he could exert.
"So, we know that Loki would have the inertia of the fastest Jet on the planet and even if he is an Asgardian and essentially bulletproof, he would still be paste if he went from that speed to a sudden stop," Randall said, as he came down from the Jet along with Tony and Bruce, and went right into Randall's lab.
"That's right. So, no point in summoning Loki if you are just going to paste him anyway. So, we have to search for ways they could have bled off that momentum and made sure that Loki reached them alive," Tony said and then they went out of the huge space that he was going to label as the Hangar from now on because this was the place where both the Flying Car and the Stark Jet was kept.
"Prince Thor, please get comfortable. It could be a while before we get any leads on your brother. In the meantime, we have some people who are very excited to challenge you to a spar," He informed Thor who looked confused and lost at the prospect of mere mortals challenging the God of Thunder to a spar.
"They are not ordinary humans, if that's what you are wondering," He helpfully informed Thor and then nudged him towards the guest chambers he already made sure that Randall had prepared using his giant 3D printed, so that if anything breaks, it could be replaced within moments.
He also informed Michael, Harvey, and Leny about Thor's arrival because these three were the most excited to catch hands with Thor, despite Leny's shy behavior.
He then moved on to the SCIENCE! Section of the base. "Gentlemen, any luck?"
"No. We have not found any unscheduled Jet launches. The fastest Jets are all accounted for. Dropping Loki from a height also does not make sense because at that velocity, even if he dropped on water, it might as well be concrete,"
"So, they have something that can nullify the momentum then?" He asked the trio, because that was something that could be built, even with human tech, as was evidenced by Future Tony.
"Yeah, it looks like it. Anyway, let's move on to the parts list. Jarvis is actively monitoring power dips around the world. Iridium can be used to stabilise high energy fluctuations, to the point that minor fluctuations would be invisible to all known apparatus,"
"So they need it as a stabilising agent."
"Correct."
He left the eggheads to their job and shifted his attention to Manhattan as a whole, because he couldn't discount Loki already having ordered his men to infiltrate the city. Worse, the brainwashing meant that they could be anybody, even Coul–
Shit.
He immediately seized Coulsin in a soft grip, knocked him out, and ordered Randall to create a cell for short term detention, something that was easy since they had created all quarters with the intention of being able to quarantine someone with the push of a button. Randall was startled but immediately guided him to the nearest cell, as he dumped Coulson in the cell, and made sure that Coulson was kept in the cell until Loki was found and rendered inert.
Damn, that was a close call.
He couldn't believe how foolish he'd been, trusting someone so implicitly just because he knew that in canon, nothing happened to Coulson.
"Randall, check if Coulson ever came into a hundred mile radius of Loki's known sightings and also check his location when the New Mexico base collapsed,"
That was a close one. He should have been more careful, even if Coulson was innocent.
It had been two days, and he had not slept ever since. Despite his body being more than capable of going weeks without sleep, he had never been this high strung before and it was beginning to show its tool.
So, with a final sweep of the city, he catalogued all the weapons, tools that could be used as weapons, people who were in possession of such tools, people who had newly moved in, and more.
Especially people who lived close to Stark Tower, which was not difficult since all the Stark Tower employees lived close by, in a cluster of skyscrapers with leases that had been directly negotiated by Stark Industries.
He then did a mental sweep of his entire range, still finding nothing out of the ordinary, he sighed in relief.
Ordering Randall to just call for him once he finds something, he snuggled deeper into his blanket, in his bed, and tried to sleep.
Hopefully, when he woke up, the Portal would not be too far away.
___xx___
Undisclosed Location
–Loki Laufeyson–
"You prove yourself incompetent, Pinceling," He grit his teeth at the insolence but bore it with the grace of a ruler.
"The defenders have proven to be more resistant than expected," He tried to justify the emergency rescue, which sent yet another signal out in the cosmos, about the Tesseract.
"Which is why we gave you the sceptre, princeling. We smelled your weakness ages ago. My Master does not like losing his prized possessions. Retrieve the Sceptre, Get us the Tesseract or elsssee," He jerked back, the connection breaking as he punched the ground, the bruise already on his hand worsening on impact but that physical pain was nothing to the sheer anger he felt at his treatment at the hands of the Other.
His Master…
He shuddered in fear as his back was drenched in cold sweat at the thought of facing the Other's Master. No, he could not afford to fail, he had to win.
He ignored the voice that asked him about his master as well. No, he was no one's pawn or slave. He was his own master.
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone