Bab 135: Wakanda
Blake, imitating Hulk's moves from the movie, grabbed Loki and slammed him from side to side.
He smashed him left and right more than ten times.
Then, amid the roaring wind, a weak voice could be heard.
"I'll talk! I'll talk!"
"Blake! He's agreed to talk, do you hear me?" Thor shouted immediately.
He wasn't really worried that Loki would be beaten to death. Whether it's Asgardians or Frost Giants, their bodies are extraordinarily resilient. No matter how severe the injury, as long as it's not fatal, they can recover fairly quickly.
His main concern was that if this continued, Loki would suffer psychological trauma. Even Thor himself was starting to feel traumatized just watching.
"Bang!"
Blake delivered one final heavy slam to finish it off.
Looking at Loki's current state, two idioms came to mind: lifeless eyes and breathing faintly.
It wasn't physical pain but absolute mental torment.
He had come to Earth full of ambition, planning to conquer the world by stepping over countless people. He never expected that before his beloved Chitauri army even arrived, he'd already been beaten down like a bear!
"Enough! I'll talk, I'll say everything! Pop!"
Loki groaned, then opened his mouth and spat out a blood-tinged bubble.
This time, the troublemaker was utterly subdued. Conquering Earth, the throne of Asgard—all that now seemed trivial.
Earth was terrifying!
Blake was terrifying!
In Loki's imagination, he would have been elegantly imprisoned, then used the Mind Scepter to break through Banner's mental defenses directly.
The plan was to let these so-called superhumans, whether they're called superheroes or not, turn on each other in a chaotic mess. Then he would slip away and finally lead the Chitauri army in a glorious campaign.
But Blake had perfectly shown Loki what it means to be brutally punished by society.
"Speak! Tell me, where is the Tesseract?"
Blake sat down beside Loki's head and asked casually.
"That, I don't know!"
"What?"
"Bang!"
…
Back on the Helicarrier, around the oval meeting table on the bridge.
Blake, Tony, and the others sat in a circle with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Nick Fury and Hill.
Beside the table lay a half-dead Loki on the floor, pinned under Thor's hammer.
Just a moment ago, Loki had claimed he didn't know where the Tesseract was, leading Blake to beat him again.
But this time, it seemed he was telling the truth.
Under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s interrogation techniques combined with Blake's fists, Loki had even revealed every prank he'd played as a child.
Based on the psychological expertise of the agents present, he genuinely didn't know where the Tesseract was.
Here, the story diverged from the movie. During the time Loki tried to kill Thor on Earth by controlling the Destroyer, he had already witnessed the powers of the Ancient One and Blake.
Although Thanos assured him that the Ancient One would not interfere easily, Loki no longer held the Asgardian arrogance from the movie, where he regarded all humans as mere ants.
As a result, his plan changed accordingly.
After deciding to draw attention himself, he took precautions in case of unforeseen events.
Loki instructed Hawkeye to leave the original base with Dr. Selvig immediately after acquiring the iridium, so they could build the device to activate the Tesseract.
The idea was to open a portal and release the Chitauri army. With Earth's forces spread thin, Hawkeye could then break him out in the ensuing chaos.
Blake exhaled deeply.
After all this effort, they were back to square one. In the end, they still needed Dr. Banner's device to locate the gamma radiation signals.
"Moreover, Hawkeye isn't like Loki. Although he's under Loki's control, his mind remains intact, and he isn't as vain or eager to show off as Loki.
Agents are discreet and practical, so Hawkeye could very well summon the Chitauri army from some hidden corner, then launch an assault afterward.
If he does that, it could cause even bigger problems.
In the movie, they opened the portal and immediately started the battle. The fighting was intense, but that portal only stayed open for a little over two hours.
Thanks to the Avengers' efforts to delay and fight back, the Chitauri army didn't even get out of Manhattan before their mothership was destroyed by a nuclear missile.
However, if Hawkeye chooses to build up forces in a corner first, things could spiral out of control.
Especially since Loki mentioned that the Chitauri army uses the scepter's signals to establish command. This control includes Hawkeye, who's also influenced by the scepter.
"It's fine. Dr. Banner's program is still running. Spectrometers in labs worldwide are helping us scan for gamma rays. As soon as they activate the Tesseract, they won't escape our surveillance."
Blake clapped his hands, breaking the silence.
"For now, all we can do is wait and decide what to do with this guy."
Blake pointed to Loki lying on the ground.
"We should build a special prison at the bottom of the ocean and lock him up deep in the Pacific!" Coulson said angrily. For some reason, just looking at Loki annoyed him and made his chest ache faintly.
"I warn you, he is from Asgard. He must come back to Asgard with me to face judgment. He's a prince of Asgard—my brother!" Thor immediately objected.
"He's been on Earth for only a few days and has already directly or indirectly caused over eighty deaths!" Nick Fury said calmly.
"Uh... actually, Loki was adopted by my father," Thor muttered, a bit embarrassed.
On the ground, Loki couldn't help but roll his eyes.
They only briefly discussed how to handle Loki. Their minds were elsewhere, as no one knew where Hawkeye had taken the Tesseract.
Even if they had equipment to shield radiation, activating the Tesseract should be detectable, right?
To open a portal big enough to bring an army through, they wouldn't be able to do it in a small room, would they? If it's outdoors, it would definitely be detected.
Though having no news could be considered good news, the current situation was really unnerving. The calmness made it impossible to predict what might happen, which was the most terrifying part.
After waiting all afternoon without any results, Loki was eventually locked up in that massive circular cage from the movie.
As evening gradually turned to night, even Blake started feeling uneasy, as did Loki, who wondered what could be happening with Hawkeye.
Then, at dawn, just as the first light broke and the sun hadn't yet risen, alarms blared across the Helicarrier.
Everyone immediately rushed to the bridge.
Dr. Banner arrived first and focused on a computer screen.
On the screen was a flashing red exclamation mark, with a world map below it. As Dr. Banner tapped on the keyboard, the map zoomed in.
"It's finally appeared. Where is it?"
Captain America was the first to ask.
"Hold on. It's narrowing down... just about to be confirmed… It's in Africa, in a place called... Wa… Wakanda!"
---
Regarding that portal only being open for a little over two hours, this was a deleted scene from *Avengers: Endgame*. Rocket, after watching footage of the Battle of New York, laughed at the Avengers, mocking them for taking over two hours to fight off such a "weak" species. In response, Tony shaved Rocket's head with a razor.
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