章 22: TGS - #21
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Onboard the Helicarrier, May 4, 2012
–Jack Sullivan–
"So, I read about you. How strong are your powers really? I saw the news about the container ship and then did some rough calculations. If you could really do that, I can't imagine anything on Earth being able to stop you. Well, maybe, except-"
"Except you,"
Dr.Banner looked kinda resigned as he said, "No, not me. The Other guy. How could I stop you? The Other guy, however, has no limits and if he does have some, I have yet to find any," He then cleaned his glasses incessantly as he squinted at the dozens of displays laid out in front of him.
Apparently, SHIELD had the gamma readings of the Tesseract but they were not exactly the right frequency if he heard Banner's murmuring correctly. He needed fresh readings to track the Space Stone and that was just not going to happen until they had the mind stone in their possession.
Which would not happen until they met Loki and so far, SHIELD had not found Loki or any sign of…
"We need to go. Loki has been spotted," Captain America barged into the lab and said, all decked out in his uniform with the iconic vibranium shield in his hand.
"Let's go," Finally, some action.
"See ya, Doctor," He nodded at Banner and then after opening a portal in front of him that led straight to the bridge, entered it to see the bridge a whirlwind of activity.
"You! What are the limits of your portals? Can you make one to Germany right now?" Fury stomped towards him as soon as he spotted him and Captain America exiting the portal.
"Sure, where is Loki?" he asked him as he made the show of extending his left arm in front of him, facing towards the huge glass windows that showed the clouds floating outside.
"Wait! We don't want the entire Helicarrier going to Stuttgart," Coulson exclaimed as he came running after him.
"Oh, you don't? Stuttgart it is then," He said purposefully, enjoying the way Fury's eyes widened dramatically at the implication that he could open a portal large enough to transport something as big as the Helicarrier, to potentially any location in the world.
"Come on, Captain, we don't have time to waste," He gestured to Captain as the portal opened in front of him.
He then turned to Fury as another portal opened up in front of the Helicarrier, much smaller than the one he would have made had he needed to transport the entire ship. This one was just large enough for a skilled pilot to take a Quinjet through.
He then fixed it so that it would remain geo-locked to The Helicarrier's position and just before entering the previous portal, he pointed to the portal that had appeared on one of the bigger screens and said, "For the jet,"
The next moment, he found himself standing in front of a small forest. He…probably should have taken a look at the exact location of Loki. No worries, an easily solvable problem.
"Where are we? Where is Lokiii," The Captain certainly did not take it kindly that he covered him in a barrier as they rocketed towards the area where the city was most congested.
"You are in the right direction. I am right on your tail," His comms crackled to life as he looked back to see a Quinjet hot on their tail. The Captain, having recovered from the surprise rocketed takeoff, responded, "Copy that, Romanoff. Prep for prisoner transport,"
"YOu sound confident, Captain. This is someone who was hailed as a god one day," Romanoff's voice sounded amused as they soon came across a large courtyard currently filled with people and a bunch of Loki copies.
"Well, I know one thing, Mam. There is only one god and he does not look like that," The Captain said and gave him a look. He obliged and dispelled the barrier, but not before giving him a little boost.
From the looks of it, the Captain was not expecting his fall to turn into a boosted one instead of a free-falling one but even then, he acted remarkably quickly and turned himself into a battering ram, with the Vibranium shield at the peak.
In the meantime, he had already cast a spell that was basically a fancy heat camera that allowed him to see what was Illusion and what was Loki, allowing him to accurately shoot the Captain towards the real version. He had to say, real sloppy of Loki to cast an illusion that could have been unravelled by someone with a heat camera. Shows the extent to which his mental state must have destabilised because of all the things he went through under Thanos' tender mercies. He had to pity Loki, but not the Loki who would gladly sacrifice a bunch of mortals to get a win over Thor but the one who understood the sacrifice he had to make, in order to ensure the stability of the multiverse. The Loki who realised the burden of being powerful, of being the only one having the power to make it right, the burden of not giving oneself any other choice than the right choice.
Meanwhile, the severely mentally deranged Loki was standing in the middle of a couple of people and was pointing his sceptre at an elderly person who had stood up.
"Look to your elderly, people. Let him be an exa–ghh," His speech was cut short as the Captain slammed into him with very high speed, allowing him to throw Loki's real body across the courtyard, away from the congregation of people around him that Loki could have used as hostages. Of course, he had discreetly used his barriers to remove the people as soon as Loki had noticed something coming at him at very high speeds otherwise many people would have been caught in the ditch that Loki dug into the ground as the Captain kept pushing Loki as far as he could, clearly understanding Jack;s intention to separate Loki from the normal people.
Unfortunately, Loki managed to free himself and shoot at Captain who promptly ducked behind his shield and created a distance between Loki and himself, coming to stand behind his own floating form and the Quinjet looming behind both of them like a shadow.
"Give up, Loki. You are outnumbered,"
He left the talking to the Captain since he was the higher-ranking officer on the ground and he had no interest in talking to this version of Loki. He was just an abused venomous snake as of now and not even the majestic god-like snake he would become later on. Right now, he was not even a shadow of his full potential.
Loki stood up and surveyed the forces assorted against him and made the very stupid decision to engage with them.
"Ah, the soldier lost in time and the enigma," Loki said even as he charged his sceptre which glowed with an ever-increasing blue glow. Still, he had the sceptre pointed downward so neither he nor the Captain reacted beyond subtly tensing his body on the Captain's part.
"I know all about the soldier, it is you I am inte-"
Loki's tirade was cut short as the cloaked form of a very surprised Loki appeared a mere foot away from them, his sceptre stopped a mere inch away from his forehead by a green barrier.
He looked Loki in the eyes and after noting the blueness of his irises, pushed the barrier away violently, flunging Loki directly into another one of his barriers which then proceeded to crush him flat against the ground, cratering it even more.
"How did you know about his illusions?" The Captain asked as he continued to look around, trying to spot Loki's next tricks. He was also very startled when the barrier that was suppressing Loki and rubbing his nose in the ground was shattered into pieces as Loki, with a particularly high-pitched snarl, jumped out of the crater and aimed his sceptre at him. He could see that his last attack had damaged him a little as his hands trembled a bit as he charged up another one of his attacks.
He purposefully let Loki break through his barrier that time. Though, he did make him struggle a bit and call upon more of the spectre's powers before he did so. No reason to show Loki all his cards, especially since the time to shut down this entire time had not yet come.
He looked at the charging up blast and smiled upon hearing the faint whine that was identical to that of a repulsor array running at full throttle, along with the AC/DC that began blaring in their comms, and waved his arm, creating a large block of green and just dropped it in between Loki and them, creating a large horizontal line in between.
Loki faltered as his attack just hit the barrier and dissipated harmlessly, leaving nary a trace on the huge barrier he had summoned wordlessly. He had not even moved from his spot ever since landing here. Technically, he was not even on land as he was floating above the land minutely.
Before Loki could do something else, Stark, in all of his gold and red glory, landed in front of him and then pointed a plethora of weapons, most of which promised painful injuries, at Loki, who immediately pointed the sceptre up and began kneeling down with his hands up.
"Yo, greenie, mind lowering the huge block?" Stark looked up at him with his face plate up.
He groaned internally at the lackadaisical approach. Hawkeye was still in Loki's grasp and lord knows how but that man was the best known sniper this world had ever seen. Even enhanced people did not have as good of an aim as he did. Probably something to do with minute genetic advantages that allowed his brain to evolve into a point-and-shoot calculation machine, probably one in a billion chances of that happening and the man took full advantage of that to turn into the gold standard of sniping.
Honestly, it was as if the writers gave him the bow and arrow more as a nerf tool rather than a standard weapon choice.
Even so, he did as Stark asked and willed the barrier to disappear. Stark's suit rather clumsily walked to Loki's location and pulled out something from the surprise storage container located on his back and slapped it on Loki's hands. So they were just fancy handcuffs on them.
Still, he was surprised to see this new barrier. It was significantly bulkier than he remembered it being. It also housed a bigger block at the back, probably both as an armour and a place to store things. He wondered what else had Stark added this time. Probably added a few things to work against him if needed, not that it would work anyway.
"Boys," Romanoff greeted them as the Quinjet landed, its ramp lowering down in their direction.
"Mr.Stark," The Captain greeted Stark as Iron Man pulled Loki up and then strapped him down in one of the seats, again using some sort of specialised rope that Stark pulled out of his back storage pocket.
"Will they hold?" Romanoff looked back and asked, as the Quinjet began taking off.
"Please. I made them. They will hold, Romanoff, don't doubt me. By the way, miss me?" Stark said as he sat down in one of the seats. Or rather, tried to anyway. Upon realising the weight of his suits, he just leaned against a wall and just froze his servos or something, to relax. Honestly, he should just come out but his ego would not allow him to admit any fault in his designs.
Romanoff just rolled her eyes and focused on piloting the jet.
He looked at Loki who was currently glaring daggers at him. He was tempted to bind him with his barriers as well but Thor was coming and no point coming off as too aggressive at the get-go. So, he just sat there cross-legged, floating in the air, seemingly meditating as he willed for his flaming eyes to close.
In reality, he was concentrating on his senses and flaring them outwards through the dozens of small barriers that littered the area around the Quinjet. He wanted to see if he could get a glimpse into the Bi-Frost and see how that worked out. He expected it to fail obviously but there was no harm in trying, especially since the event of Odin using his Odin Force to force open the Bi-Frost would not happen ever again.
"So, any reason we are not on an expressway to the base using the portals that our resident Green Torch can just summon at will,"
Of course, expecting to be able to focus on something else with Tony Stark sharing the same place would have been a fool's errand anyway.
"Doesn't work that way," He rumbled, using his extra deep voice, and then went silent, hoping against all odds that Stark would take the clue, not that it would ever happen.
As expected…. "So how does it work, then? Can't open a portal to a place that is constantly moving? Hmm, then technically, the Earth is also moving so how do you decide which place to open a portal to? Also, how does that work anyway? How do you make the laws of physics your bitch every time you open a swirling orange hole in the sky?"
He sighed internally and his shoulders drooped a bit, visible even to the outside. He was really hoping not to encounter mad scientist Tony today.
THUD!
Oh, thank god. He tried not to let his relief show too much as thunder rumbled all around the jets. His barriers detected a huge spike of energy that temporarily overwhelmed all other data he was getting from his barriers before the sound of impact over their Quinjet. It was too short of a spike as Thor was transported to the exact location of Loki.
His gaze snapped to the ramp as it was forcefully lowered and Thor came stomping in, straight towards the currently strapped in Loki.
Stark tried to stand in between but Thor just shoved him back which, combined with the haste with which Stark had stood up from his servo lock, caused him to take back several steps uncontrollably.
Thor took one look at the straps and handcuffs and ripped off the straps with contemptuous ease. He then grabbed Loki's suit and just jumped out of the Quinjet, all the while ramp's servos sparked as they tried to deal with the sudden application of the strength of Asgard's Crown Prince.
"Stark, you said they would hold," Romanoff quipped as she tried to steady the Quinjet amidst the turbulence they were experiencing.
Stark did not reply, probably nursing his bruised ego, as he stood up and stomped towards the ramp, evidently intending to pursue Thor and Loki.
"Performance issues? I have heard they are more common in men your–" he quipped at Stark, taking great pleasure in the way he paused and turned around to glare at him menacingly. No, literally, that petty man had inserted LEDs into his headpiece that increased their brightness to really deliver the fact that he was glaring at someone, not just looking at them through the eyepieces.
He then turned around and flew into the clouds. His eyes widened minutely as he noticed the huge block on his back also activating auxiliary repulsors to increase the overall thrust as Stark almost immediately broke the sound barrier, adding to the turbulence they were experiencing.
He moved his finger and the turbulence instantly stopped as the entire Quinjet was covered with his barrier, allowing Romanoff to steady the jet.
"Thanks," She muttered to him as he sat in the same place, cross-legged, looking at the ramp which was trying to close itself but clearly failing.
The Captain, in a rare fit of decisiveness ever since he woke up in the modern world, donned a nearby parachute and looked at him, "Well?"
"You should go. Stark would probably need you," He looked past Steve to look at Romanoff who smirked at him, "After all, men his age do indeed have performance issues,"
Steve looked confused at the byplay but he nodded as his eyes flamed back to life, his form unfurling to stand back at his almost 8 ft height. He looked at the strapped with parachute Steve and willed for two separate barriers to envelop their forms and slowly exited the Quinjet. He then turned around and forced the ramp to close up and used some of the debris to create a lock around it.
After seeing that the ramp was closed, he turned around and zoomed towards the area where the thunder was most rampant, his speed creating a sonic boom even bigger than Stark's as he had long since controlled his flight speeds. At this point, he could do sustained flights of speeds exceeding Mach 6, which was pretty good.
He arrived on the battlefield to see Loki standing over a rock, clearly having fun as he watched his brother and Stark duke it out.
Well, that would just not do, he thought to himself as another barrier appeared on top of Loki and just…pressed.
Once again, bullying the current Loki was funny even if his condition was pitiful.
After subduing Loki and assigning the Captain to watch over him, he turned his attention to the aforementioned duking it out that was happening in front of him.
In the canon timeline, the fight in front of him would have been much less of a duking it out and much more of one side trying to survive the blows of the other party. It was clear that had Thor truly wanted Tony dead, Tony would have been dead, no ifs and buts about it.
The scenario in front of him was quite different. Thor was apparently hitting Tony with Mjolnir and lightning full force and he even had some scuff marks on him, which was surprising.
Tony, was apparently sporting a barrier that glowed a very subtle blue in one of his hands, which was doing an admirable job of blocking Thor's lightning and absorbing enough of Mjolnir's blows that Tony's suit was not instantly going out of operation in a single hit.
He could see Thor growing frustrated at the constant repulsor attacks that Tony was subjecting him to, not to mention the mounting frustration at not felling someone who was a mortal with just fancy technology. His doubts were proven true, when in the next moment, Thor just whacked Tony's shield so hard that it shattered but it did its job, allowing Tony to survive that blow.
He could see smoke coming out of Tony's backpack as it fell off his back, the red in it visible even from so far away. So, that was how Tony had achieved the power necessary to power a shield capable of taking hits from even Thor.
In the future, Tony would certainly have the tools necessary to sustain such a shield but seeing it today meant that Tony had certainly taken inspiration from his own barriers and from the looks of it, succeeded.
Thor, apparently eager to finish the troublesome fight and get back to his brother, called upon lightning and after lighting up a significant portion of the forest, threw the same lightning at Tony who braced for the impact.
Why was he not flying? His eyes narrowed as he looked at the deformed hands and legs. Ah, Thor must have grown wary of them.
"Hah, serves him right," he muttered to himself as he stood on the same ledge where Loki stood a few moments ago.
The ensuing impact lighted up another significant portion of the forest. Thor turned around, assuming that the job was finished but he was surprised as he looked behind. He must have sensed something.
Right in front of a very braced-for impact Tony was a huge barrier that had tanked Thor's attack and had broken down from it. Well, at least that was what it looked like. He was so going to make fun of Tony for trying to brace against lighting by putting his metal arms near his metal head. Hah, what a rush!
Thor's gaze snapped towards him as he floated down to him.
"Prince Thor, I am sorry you had to see your brother captive but he has something that is incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands and we must retrieve it. I suggest we cooperate because that is in everyone's best interest, including Loki's," He said and inclined his head towards a handcuffed and strapped Loki who was, once again, hatefully glaring at him.
Unsurprising.
"Release my Brother!" Thor roared as he jumped up in the air, hammer drawn and lightning dancing on top of Mjolnir.
He sighed internally. Why did he expect them to act like their mature selves?
The ones that had matured due to the losses they had suffered. Losses that they had yet to go through yet and hopefully, never had to go through, courtesy of him. But then, would they even become the same beacons of hope and strength that they would turn into, in the future? Or would he be worsening the future if he tried to make their current lives easier?
No, he cannot think like that. He must believe that there is a better future there and he would do everything in his power to make it come true.
Those thoughts ran through his mind in an instant as he raised his arm towards the falling form of Thor as a huge barrier sprang forth from his hands, enveloping the crashing form of Lighting, lighting up the entire barrier as arches of lightning danced around it.
There was a huge gonging noise as Mjolnir, the closest thing to an unstoppable object in the Nine Realms, met his barriers, the closest thing to an immovable thing.
The result was...
Word Count - 3725
If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.
I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.
A/N - This, in my opinion, is the best chapter I have written to date.
Enjoy!
P.S - Longest chapter yet. Am I on a roll or what?
The average Word Count so far is almost 2700 words which is insane to think of when the first ever chapter I wrote was only about 1100 words and in my mind, that was enough as a chapter.
Now? That would be a synopsis.
Ah, how the days go by.
P.P.S - Anyway, it is 3 AM here and I am rambling. Good night.
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