"I am Loki, of Asgard!"
The colossal figure, towering high enough to connect the earth to the sky, spoke. His voice boomed across the heavens, drowning out even the thunderous crash of the fallen Dark Elf flagship.
The massive dust clouds kicked up by the ship's collapse seemed to serve only as dramatic stage fog for his divine entrance.
Loki gazed down upon the city.
He looked like a true god surveying his mortal domain.
And the people of New York, craning their necks to look up, felt like nothing more than ants beneath his boot.
"No, seriously... what is he doing now?"
Luca and the others, still recovering from the shockwave of the ship's crash, looked up to see Loki monologuing in the sky.
Thor, having landed safely with Gwen, followed Mjolnir's pull and regrouped at the feet of the Boxer. His face was grim.
"It is the Aether," Thor said, his voice heavy. "Loki's own magic is potent, but to project an illusion of this scale and clarity... he is amplifying his power with the Aether."
"The Aether? I thought you said that was the Dark Elves' doomsday weapon?"
Tony Stark climbed out of the Boxer's cockpit, looking confused. He had only gotten the crash course on Asgardian lore from Thor on the way back from Brooklyn.
Thor shook his head. "The Aether is merely its liquid form. Its true nature is one of the six Infinity Stones—the Reality Stone. It has the power to turn matter into dark matter, to bend reality itself. The Dark Elves merely sought to use it to extinguish the light of the universe."
Luca, having watched the movies, tuned out the exposition. He stared up at the giant, translucent Loki with a weird expression.
Using the Reality Stone just to make a big hologram of himself? Isn't that a bit... underwhelming?
Of course, Luca was underestimating the God of Mischief.
Loki was currently using the Space Stone (Tesseract) and the Reality Stone (Aether) in tandem. He had twisted the orbital mechanics of the Nine Realms, faked the Convergence, and was now manipulating the opening of portals across dimensions.
To do all that and still have the bandwidth to project a giant "Worship Me" hologram?
Loki truly earned the title of First Sorcerer of the Nine Realms.
But still... wasting that much mana just to make a speech?
Classic Drama Queen behavior.
"I am burdened with glorious purpose!" Loki's voice echoed.
"Freedom? It is life's great lie! A bright temptation that strips you of true purpose!"
"But now, I am here!"
"Your King! To bring you... true order!"
Luca stared blankly. "..."
"Thor, are you gonna handle this? Your brother is off his meds again."
"He's adopted," Thor muttered, embarrassed.
He wanted to shut Loki up, but hitting a giant hologram with a hammer wouldn't accomplish much.
Loki continued.
"From this moment, every thirty minutes, a portal to another world will open!"
"Return the Scepter you stole! Kneel before me! Accept my rule!"
"Or else... Midgard will become an eternal battlefield!!"
The faces of the heroes fell.
The Frost Giants and Dark Elves were just the appetizer. Loki was threatening a full-course buffet of interdimensional invasions.
If he made good on his threat, New York—and maybe the world—would be nothing but rubble.
---
Meanwhile, on the SHIELD Helicarrier.
Nick Fury's one good eye narrowed. His face wasn't just grim; it was confused.
He turned to Maria Hill. "Didn't Loki steal his own Scepter back?"
Hill, who had been wondering the same thing, answered immediately. "That was the assumption, sir."
"Surveillance at Stark Tower was down during the Battle of New York. Based on Captain Rogers' report, someone disguised as him tricked the STRIKE team and took the Scepter. They briefly fought."
"Intel analysis concluded it was Loki using illusions to retrieve it."
Fury turned his gaze to the head of the Intel Analysis department—a man secretly loyal to Hydra.
The man started sweating bullets under Fury's stare. "B-based on available data... that was the most logical conclusion."
The Scepter is gone. It was taken that day. I don't know where it is, but it's not my fault, the Hydra agent chanted internally, trying to keep his composure.
Fury stared at him for a long moment, then turned back to the screen.
"So," Fury said calmly, "The Scepter isn't with us. And it's not with Loki."
Fury wasn't planning on handing a WMD to a megalomaniac to buy peace. But his paranoid mind couldn't accept that a weapon of that power was simply missing.
He needed to find it.
---
Back in the sky.
Loki didn't disperse his giant hologram. He kept it there, looking down at New York with a mix of scrutiny and playful malice.
He was enjoying the fear.
"The clock starts now. I—"
CLANG!
A metallic sound rang out. Not from the ground, but from the sky—right next to the giant projection.
Suddenly, the fabric of the projection seemed to tear.
A figure even larger than the hologram stepped through the air, as if crossing an invisible threshold.
It was a colossal, black-and-white mechanical giant.
Before Giant-Loki could react, the mechanical intruder wound up and punched him square in the face.
WHAM.
The majestic, god-like projection of Loki was tackled out of the air. The two giants crashed into the "ground" of the illusionary plane, wrestling in the sky.
The black-and-white robot straddled the God of Mischief, raining punches down on his holographic face.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
And as it beat the living daylights out of the projection, it spoke in a flat, monotonous, mechanical voice that echoed across the city:
"TARGET ACQUIRED! TARGET ACQUIRED!"
"INITIATING PURGE! INITIATING PURGE!"