บท 70: Headless Idiots
This was it!!
This was how Alfie was able to keep 'popping' up out of nowhere!
Steve Rogers thought.
The Portal made in front of him by Green explained a lot, after all the man said they had the same teacher.
"Go on, Captain. We'll handle Alfie, you will be needed elsewhere." Green stated.
They were able to get Queen Selena out of her situation, now they need to handle the main problem.
"Worry not, Steve. I will make sure to bring Alfie in one piece." Selena said with confidence.
"I have no doubt of that, good luck." Steve said before he walked through the portal.
••••••••
As Tony Stark and Loki had a bit of a verbal battle in his building, Alfie made himself comfortable at the top of the roof.
"This!!" Professor Erik Selivg shouted, excitement filling him despite him looking like he hasn't been taking care of himself in health and hygiene. "This is earth's next step! This is how we evolve!!"
For some time he has been working on the device in front of him, one that can fully use the tesseract's true capabilities.
This would open a portal of opportunities, of new discoveries. Professor Selvig is euphoric, the chance to work on something like this is a chance of a lifetime for an astrophysicist like himself.
Of course, the plans Loki has under his belt may be a bit too much, but soon after they— mainly him— will get another chance to use the device for other purposes. New worlds, resources and even things they never knew could be possible, and he would be in the middle of earth's biggest evolution into a cosmic civilization.
"Do you not know what this means, sir?!" Professor turned to Deathstroke as he is the only one that can receive his enthusiasm.
"Of course, it means our own planet will have more than it can handle now, more than usual." Deathstroke shrugged.
"Of course, but who cares about that. The opportunities will bring everyone a common interest, Curiosity!" Professor Selvig said giddily.
Deathstroke turned to the professor, yet the mask blocked the expression behind.
"Common interest, huh? The world is not united enough to have common interest, something like that would only bring greed from the idiots in power let alone the little guys who are ambitious.
But of course, they won't matter soon enough, when Loki reigns over this world we won't have to worry about them."
Deathstroke stood up from the ledge.
"Where are you going?" Professor Selvig frowned.
"I will be back." He simply said before summoning a portal.
*Fizzzzz*
"Loki said under no circumstances are you to leave this roof, Deathstroke. You've ignored his order's constantly, but this is too critical a time for you to do so again, do not do this." The professor pleaded.
"You're overthinking this, professor. In the end it is all for Loki and his plans. It is a countermeasure, besides, I will be back in just a second." Alfie disappeared.
The professor stood there with a sigh, prepared to go back to his tasks— but another portal opened up.
*Fizzzzzzz*
Professor Selvig turned in worry, but relaxed seeing who it was, rather he was lost.
"What happened?" He asked Deathstroke.
"…"
No answer came from the man donning black and orange.
"Sir?" The professor moved closer to check more clearly. "I thought you had something to do…"
"…"
No answer came from Deathstroke once again.
"Are…are you one of his dummies?" Professor asked.
And the 'dummy' finally responded, a nod.
He had seen Deathstroke disappear here and there in the past and return silently.
The thing that was unusual is every time he disappeared and appeared, there were intruders.
What's even more crazy is that these intruders were only ever after Deathstroke and no one else, they never went after professor Selvig or even Loki.
And when these intruders captured Deathstroke and escaped with success, the real Deathstroke would appear before the professor and them before they relocated their hiding spots.
So for him to do this again here, meant that there will be intruders.
"Should I expect company?" Professor asked worriedly as he looked back at the device he was working on.
The dummy nodded once again.
*Fiizzzzzzz*
And true to their words— and head nods— another portal appeared where three heads popped out.
"Alfie!!" Green bellowed out in rage.
Selena and Shadow behind him looked towards Deathstroke who unsheathed his sword.
"FUCK!!" Green shouted, angrily cursing while looking at the man in front of them.
Deathstroke in turn didn't waste time and ran towards them being the first to engage.
"What?" Selena asked curiously.
As Green fumed, Shadow turned towards Selena to give her the answers. "Look at his sword, do you think that's McBride?"
"He's a fake." She stated, but her tone questioned the truth.
"The fucking bastard have been leaving enough fakes to waste our time and spare himself some time, everytime we get closer…" Green didn't finish, he calmed himself to think clearly as Shadow continued.
"Everytime we get closer, McBride gets farther. He leads us towards him just to jump to another board while we wrack our brains trying to figure out which piece of the chess he is."
Green jumped towards the fake Deathstroke, handling him with ease. Though they could only hope facing Alfie could be this easy.
Shadow turned towards Selena. "Not long ago, my company started facing some…troubles. My employees started disappearing and the state of my company is slowly falling, worst of all…" Shadow turned towards Green who finally took down the fake.
"His wife and daughters escaped from assassins recently, he hasn't been able to think clearly. We believe McBride put money on Green's family to make things harder for us, which in all honesty did."
Selena's eyes widened slightly as he looked towards Green, she and her amazons met his family and they were lovely. She couldn't imagine how Green felt under that mask of his.
"It's a Hand ninja." Green stated as he snatched the black and orange mask of the face. "He's been affected by the mind stone."
"Where could Alfie be right now?" Selena thought aloud.
"I don't know, but the reason we're playing this duck and goose game is because he is doing everything he can to keep us away from Loki. So far he has threatened to go after Peter Parker and some others, recently our families and workplace…" Shadow loomed in thought trying to figure out Alfie's next move.
"Is it so difficult to find him?" Selena asked suddenly.
She remembered during the 40's where Alfie was more than capable of finding certain targets no matter where they were.
Back then there wasn't much —if any— technology that could have helped him to find some targets in a country let alone globally, but he always did.
But now in the 21st century, where a lot of technology is advanced, she couldn't believe how these two couldn't find Alfie McBride.
Of course, given how slippery he is, if he didn't want to be found, there should still be a way.
"Can you not find him using sorcery?" She asked again.
"We…we've tried." Green said, embarrassed.
"When McBride noticed we were using a tracking spell to find him, he took measures to interfere and mess up our efforts." Shadow explained.
"What measures?"
"The fucking bastard traveled throughout all the seven continents through portals and the tracking spell fell through!! We kept trying the spell but the bastard kept moving for days!!" Green gritted out.
Selena looked at the two of them, she wanted to judge them but she wasn't any better than them at this sort of stuff.
"Have you tried to ask help from the Sorcerer Supreme?"
Shadow's head suddenly dropped, as if he was in shame. "Let's not talk about that…"
He tried asking the Ancient One for help, but she brushed it off telling him it would be a great test for them.
She mentioned Alfie's determination through his days as an apprentice, how he overcame and tricked his way to victory over most of his annoyed sorcerer teachers.
She believed that Shadow and Green facing Deathstroke might be a way for them to improve and open their eyes to new tactics in their hobbies.
Shadow couldn't believe it, the Ancient One who is said to be the protector of the realm is letting an anomaly roam free to disturb the natural flow of things.
"Then how do we go about finding him?!" Selena suddenly questioned with an annoyed tone.
*Beep*
*Beep*
Green raised his arm to look at the display on his forearm.
His expression changed, what used to be anger turned to fear.
He looked towards Selena and Shadow. "Oh god."
•••••••••
*Whoooosh*
*Kraadosh*
A quinjet that belonged to SHIELD fell in the middle of Manhattan.
"NATASHA! CLINT!" Steve Rogers screamed out as he pulled debris to see where his companions were.
His face bloodied and his suit damaged from the crash.
What used to be the quinjet, was cut in half, cleanly. And there is only one person at the moment that could possibly do that.
"Come on!" Steve pulled his companions up from their nap and checked their conditions, just like him, they were hurt. The only difference is that they didn't have the super soldier serum flowing inside of them.
"Shitt!"
"That would be a first, my dear friend."
Steve turned towards the voice, and there stood Alfie McBride in all his glory.
Alfie has officially interfered with the plot.
"I never took you to be the type to curse." Alfie commented.
"Yeah, well people change." He said sadly, though he knew a way to bring Alfie back to his old self.
He walked forward towards his long time friend with his famed shield.
"Ready to get your ass kicked again, scrawny?"
Steve held the urge to say "language", but it never stopped Alfie before. And he wasn't any better as he just cursed moments ago.
"I'm always ready for a fight."
"Hahaha." Alfie chuckled before he moved, but not the way Steve expected.
*Fizzzz*
*Fizzzz*
Steve jerked his head backwards to see Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton disappear.
He turned back to Alfie. "Where did you—"
*Pahhk*
Steve was thrown back into the half-sliced quinjet, without his favorite frisbee.
"I've taught you better, Steve. Don't turn your back on your opponent." Alfie said as he held the red, blue and white shield.
Steve stood back up, ready to fight even without the shield. "What did you do with them?"
"Maybe it's because they are not overly dressed in bright colors, unlike you Steve. That may be why Loki never cared about them, so maybe their deaths will not rub his desire for attention too much."
With a frown, Steve dashed and jumped towards Alfie's head aiming to strike his head with his knee.
"Whooops."
But his knees didn't feel any contact, and Alfie disappeared.
"That's my cue, catch you later Steve."
*Fizzzzz*
Alfie disappeared into the portal just as another appeared.
*Fizzzz*
"Captain!"
"Steve!!"
The lifers showed up.
Selena, Green and Shadow saw the state of the quinjet and Steve. But what worried them the most is the fact that Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton are nowhere near.
••••••••
On the moon.
"What…what is this?!"
A man with a giant head stood peeping at Earth. Confused and worried about what is happening.
"I— no, I cannot interfere…"
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