The Sage of the Mind

Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP. 

The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 105[May 2012]

Manhattan

–Axle Riddle–

Randall, Bruce, Tony, and all the other Hulks under his employ.

Quite a formidable lineup for someone like Loki. It was also quite a risk because he was not quite sure if Loki would sandbag himself just like he did in canon but that was why they were going in the Stark Jet and not the OG Quinjet. 

The Quinjet, while advanced according to the standards of the military, was nowhere near as powerful as the Stark Jet. It had all the long range weapons they would need and once the civilians were cleared out from the impact zone, Stark could turn the entire block into a large crater without even using a substantial amount of the ordinance he had packed into the Jet.

Also, he had localised repulsor targeted lasers so shooting Loki from the sky should be fairly simple. He had also given them express orders that subduing Loki is the secondary priority, the primary mission is to deprive Loki of his mind control capabilities, and from the footage and reports they had access to, from SHIELD's servers, they knew that the staff or the sceptre was more likely to be the source of said mind control abilities.

So, he was quite hopeful as the Jet streaked across the sky at maximum speed towards Loki.

On the other screen, he could see Loki just hanging out, in the background of the event, drinking wine and looking at everything with his narrowed gaze. Having access to SHIELD's alpha tier meant that they had access to everything that SHIELD did, which was most of the digital world.

SHIELD was much closer though and he could see Romanoff with a STRIKE team headed straight for Loki in another Quinjet. No Captain America to back them up right now.

He debated getting Cap involved but it was too late for that anyway and it would have taken time to get him up to speed, time that they did not have. Maybe once the INvasion began, the Captain could help. He had already stocked everything that he could in the underground tunnels.

The SHIELD agents in New York were still going through the motions, with no signs of any panic or anomaly.

Romanoff was slower but they were much closer so they would be reaching Loki about 10 minutes earlier than Stark would. Bruce must be nervous but he should be fine considering that Little Bellina and Betty were both very safe here in Manhattan.

He was still, out in the open, in his apartment but once Loki was captured, he would be going underground, subterranean, in fact, and would do everything from long distance.

He still hadn't decided if he wanted Loki to get away with SHIELD because he couldn't trust SHIELD as of now, and if Thor became involved with the current rendition of SHIELD which would not wait for Loki to be tortured, things could become so much more complicated than they had any right to be.

"Tony, I want you to not clash with SHIELD anymore than we have to," He typed his message across the specialised keyboard made for him in the Lab.

"What?"

"SHIELD will reach there first and if they manage to subdue Loki on their own or if they claim jurisdiction, I want you to let them take Loki. Just follow them on their way to their HQ."

"But didn't you say that Loki is an Asgardian? There is no way these guys can defeat Loki, right?" Bruce asked him and he was right, if only Loki was fighting to win.

"No, something is wrong here. Loki showing himself out in the open like this. It smells fishy. I want you all to engage from a long distance only and once SHIELD has him, follow their Quinjet."

"If you say so, Boss," Tony muttered as the Quinjet finally reached the venue. 

Loki seemed to have sensed that because, just a minute prior to that, the man did something that created a huge green fog in the venue. The guests were surprised at first, expecting it to be some sort of performance but something happened that made them all run around like headless chickens.

He sighed, the man with the access to Iridium was probably already dead now.

On the specialised holo monitors, he could see Loki, along with seven of his illusions, clad in his traditional Asgardian armour, emerge out of the hall and stop amidst the panicking people.

Tony was 5 mins away and SHIELD had just reached the location. Romanoff did not seem to be the mission command for this because the STRIKE team just dropped down on a nearby building and Rumlow ordered Romanoff to go ahead and draw Loki's attention on the Quinjet.

Loki's attention was drawn alright, to the very loud Quinjet.

The next exchange was quite literally the definition of sandbagging on the side of Loki because somehow, the STRIKE team managed to hit Loki, all the Loki's with sniper rounds. Sniper rounds that somehow dispelled all the illusions and made the original Loki who was now standing all alone, stagger back as if the sniper round did any damage worth mentioning.

Then Romanoff opened the machine guns on the Quinjet and fired right in front of Loki's feet, carving out the marble in front of him. Loki had not even held the people hostage, something that would have increased his chances of escape enormously.

Another Sniper round hit him dead center and he fell down, with dozens of red dots appearing on his body. Getting the hint, Loki raised his hands and dropped the sceptre.

Good Lord, how could the SHIELD agents be so stupid? He thought to himself as they were now approaching Loki on their own, with the spectre within Loki's reach.

"Tony, zap Loki with the strongest repulsor array you have. Knock him out, right now." He ordered Stark who was on the scene as well but was in complete stealth mode.

"Aye aye, Captain," Tony shouted, with too much glee as, with a small whining sound, Loki was stuck in the chest with a blue laser, creating a small explosion on impact, which knocked back all the STRIKE team members who were slowly approaching Loki.

The laser also removed the stealth of the Stark Jet but that was fine for now. All the sensors aboard the StarkJet indicated Loki being severely injured, and unconscious with the Sceptre being knocked away from him.

"Ah, Romanoff. It's so nice to see your beautiful face once again," Tony said over the hacked comms as the SHIELD team received new orders from Pierce to secure Loki and bring Stark with them as well.

Stark was all too eager to comply.

"Randall, maintain a secure distance with the Quinjet. Make sure that you don't make any hasty decisions. If the situation changes, wait for my orders," 

"Ookay. You are being awfully forbidding, Invisible Man."

He didn't have any answer to that because his mind was still a mess from thinking of all the possible outcomes of this entire thing.

He had to make sure that the New York Invasion happened. He also wanted to make sure that the Avengers were formed and that they had SHIELD's complete support during the Invasion.

All of that went up in flames when Fury went and died, letting Pierce take complete command of the organisation. Now, he couldn't let Piercfe get ahold of Loki, the sceptre, or even Thor who was no doubt on his way to rescue his brother.

In the meantime, "Coulson, are you sure this plan will work?" 

"Trust me, Invisible Man, I am not about to let someone else get hold of the Shield." Coulson said with an oddly determined look on his face as he dialed in on his contacts, his extensive contacts within SHIELD.

Apparently, Coulson was making sure that his childhood hero, who was now living in Manhattan, had his signature weapon, i.e, the Vibranium shield. He didn';t know how Coulson was going to get that item out of SHIELD custody but Coulson wanted to feel useful and this was something that he swore he could do.

So, he let the man do what he wanted. He was still shaken from Fury;s death and the no doubt vast responsibility that Fury had dumped on his shoulders.

He scanned all of Manhattan, once again, for safety but could not find any anomalies of any kind.

Bellina, Betty, and Cho were all safe and secure in the subterranean base. Frank was warned about possible attackers and while Frank was not yet a complete member of the team, he had allowed Frank to keep the frankly absurd armour that he kept in his house, enough to outfit a small military team with all the weapons they might need.

"So, who is coming, Invisible Man?" Tony asked him, the ever perceptive one.

"It's Thor, isn't it?" Bruce was the one who answered since he was buried in the SHIELD databases ever since Coulson gave them all the metaphorical keys to the kingdom.

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