Good news, everyone! I came back last night! I can Update! I will say that this chapter is one of the shorter ones, but I like it. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing, though there are several unnamed OCs.
Chapter Ten
The jet landed carefully in a remote area of New York, and the ramp lowered as I rose from my seat. I left the jet without a word and was instantly greeted by Erick. "Good to see that you made it out in one piece, sir." He smiled, but it quickly fell as he looked around at the few exiting the jet. "Where's Barton?"
"He failed to meet up with us, I'm afraid," I told him, feeling the Scepter's power surge through me. Someone wanted to talk to me. It had to be either the Chitauri or the Other. I couldn't let the Scepter take me to them yet. Not until I had good news to report.
"He's not…" Selvig trailed off.
"Not to my knowledge, no," I sighed before glancing up to the black cargo truck behind him. "What of the Tesseract?"
Erick's expression brightened. "She's shown me what to do." He gestured towards the vehicle and started to walk towards it. He opened the back and presented the large device to me. "This will allow us to open a portal to a whole new universe. Now all we need is a stable and powerful enough energy source."
"I may know where we can acquire one," I informed. "Do you know of Anthony Stark's Arc Reactor."
"Of course I do," Selvig answered. "It was all over the news."
"The Arc Reactor has enough energy in it to power Stark's entire building and everything inside of it for a year at least. So if it was used to power just this device…"
"It will have more than enough power to open a portal, but will it be stable?" Selvig questioned.
"I would assume so. Stark has a smaller version of the Reactor inside of his chest, after all," I reminded, "and if it wasn't stable, Stark would have died a long time ago."
The Scepter's power surged insistently. The Other or the Chitauri must be restless.
"If we're going to New York City to commandeer Stark's Reactor, we need to move fast," a commanding voice added. I turned to find the same woman who was piloting the jet that flew us here.
"Yes," I agreed, "but I need to talk with someone first."
I took the Scepter and marched past her and back up the ramp to the jet. I hit the switch that drew the ramp upwards and checked around the small vehicle, confirming that no one was inside. Once the ramp was closed, I lowered myself into one of the seats and closed my eyes, finally letting the Scepter take me where it needed to.
The Other's form appeared faintly in the darkness and rapidly came into focus. "The Chitauri will not wait any longer," he growled.
"They will not have to," I assured. "We have a plan to open the portal, and it will take effect soon."
"How soon?"
"No more than twelve hours." I gave myself a longer window than I thought it would take to account for any slip ups or delays.
"Finally," he breathed. "I suppose that means you would like to meet them at last."
"I wouldn't be against it."
"Just remember: when this is all said and done and you have your war, the Tesseract falls to us or you will wish that Odin had left you on that frozen rock," the Other threatened.
I didn't respond as the Scepter's light intensified again, swelling within me until the scene changed. A massive horde of tall, long armed Chitauri warriors stood before me, their creatures and weapons of warfare groaning and growling.
"You're Loki," one of them shouted over the cacophony of noise. "You're here to help us take the Earth."
"I am."
The army's roaring grew louder with my confirmation, but the sight of so many of them made my vision distort.
They were going to Earth. They would blast everything in sight, and the population of the planet wouldn't matter to them.
The Scepter glowed brightly, and my vision settled again.
If they killed the humans, there would be nothing and no one left to rule other than this army that already had a prominent governing system.
"But I will tell you," I said, addressing the Chitauri commander who spoke to me, "that when you attack them, you need to destroy their vehicles first."
"Why?" he challenged. "Why not the humans themselves?"
"It's their fastest mode of transportation," I justified. "If you get rid of those, they have no way to run. From there, they're all yours." But it might distract the Chitauri long enough to let the humans run. Once they leveled the infrastructure, I could collect the Gems, deliver them to Thanos and be rid of these Chitauri. The people would be safe, and I would have something to rule.
"You got it," the Chitauri warrior agreed excitedly. "When will the portal be ready?"
"It will be ready when it's ready," I answered curtly, shoving the image of the Chitauri army away from my mind.
I came back to myself inside of the jet and stood from the seat. I lowered the ramp and walked back out, finding the humans in the same position as before.
"All we need is transportation and Selvig to operate the machine around the Tesseract," I informed. "The less people go, the less detectable we'll be. We'll be able to open the portal faster, so by the time SHIELD detects us, they will already be overrun."
"Yes, sir!" they shouted and got to work on preparing Erick and his machine to move to Stark Tower in the city.
After a few hour's drive, Selvig and a few others aided him in moving the large machine he had built around the Tesseract. It was assembled on of Stark Tower's roof top and connected to the Arc Reactor. From my vantage point on Stark's balcony, I watched the others leave before they could be detected, and Erick finish the process of plugging in wires and typing commands into a small computer. The Tesseract glowed, taking in electricity as the pointed, copper top of the machine started to slowly spin.
After a few minutes, Stark's gold and red suit flew into view, and he glided up to Selvig, though it didn't matter what he did. The Tesseract and the device were already self-sustaining. "Shut it down, Doctor Selvig," I faintly heard Stark order.
"It's too late!" Erick shouted up to him. "She can't stop now." He left his computer and paced closer to the Tesseract, never taking his eyes off of it. "She wants to show us something! A new universe."
Stark floated for a moment before raising his hands and delivering a golden blast towards the Tesseract. The shield around it absorbed the energy and thrust it outwards, shoving away both Stark and Selvig. Erick seemed to hit his head, and he didn't get back up, but Stark managed to right himself in the air and look down to me on his terrace. He glided towards me and dropped down onto a small, circular landing platform. Spinning rings came up from the floor, removing the different, broken parts of his suit as he walked down the path.
I went back up the stairs and through the glass doors and into the parlour to greet him. He was here for a reason, but whether it was to distract me, fight me or negotiate with me, I couldn't tell. "Please tell me you're going to appeal to my 'humanity'," I voiced as he descended the ramp to the main floor, his hands clasped behind his back.
"Uh, actually, I'm planning to threaten you," he corrected.
"You should have left your armour on for that," I cautioned, gesturing to him with the sharpened blade of the Scepter.
"Yeah," he agreed. "It's seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the glowstick of destiny." He pointed to the Scepter.
Glowstick of destiny. It was derogatory, but I couldn't help but smirk at the statement as I looked down to the shining Stone in the Scepter.
"Would you like a drink?" Stark offered, moving behind his bar.
I shook my head. "Stalling me won't change anything."
"No, no. Threatening." Stark indicated his collection of Midgardian alcohol. "No drink? You sure? I'm having one."
This was ridiculous. The portal was about to open and allow the Chitauri to pour into this primitive world, and Stark's last line defense was to offer me a drink and call it threatening me? "The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"
Stark removed the cap from a glass bottle of alcohol. "The Avengers."
The Avengers? I knew of the Avengers Initiative, so I assumed Stark meant himself and everyone involved, but who else could Barton have not told me about.
"It's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's mightiest heroes'-type thing," Stark explained as he poured himself a drink.
"Yes, I've met them," I reminded.
"Yeah," Stark scoffed. "It takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a headcount here: your brother, the One of Thunder." So Thor did survive. I wasn't sure if I should be glad or disappointed. "A super soldier, a living legend that kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breathtaking anger-management issues." I looked back at Stark as he listed each member of his team. His descriptions were simplistic, and yet nothing could be more accurate. "A couple of master assassins, and you, big fella have managed to piss off every single one of them."
I nodded as Stark took a sip from his drink. "That was the plan."
"Not a great plan," he said, coming out from behind the bar. "When they come-and they will-they'll come for you."
"I have an army."
"We have a Hulk." He took several slow steps towards me.
"I thought the beast had wandered off."
"You're missing the point," Stark said, taking step after step closer to me. "There is no throne. There's no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes, and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be dang sure we'll avenge it."
Stark took another sip of his drink as I approached him, gripping the Scepter. The Avengers can't "avenge" anything if they're torn apart. "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"
The Scepter's power surged as I raised it. Stark's expression filled with fear as I touched the sharp tip to his chest. The metal clanged against his Arc Reactor and the blue glow of the Stone diminished, retracting back into the Scepter.
That wasn't right. I tapped Stark's chest with the Scepter again, forcing power from the Gem to go into him, but again, it was neutralised by his Reactor. "This usually works."
"Well, performance issues, you know. Not uncommon," he sympathised. "One out of five-"
I grabbed his neck and threw him to the floor. His commentary might have been entertaining before, but now he's pushed the limits of my patience.
"Jarvis," he muttered, "any time now."
As Stark strained to get up, I grabbed him by the throat and pulled him the rest of the way to his feet, preventing him from saying anything further. "You will all fall before me," I growled.
"Deploy!" Stark strained.
Whatever he was deploying wouldn't make it to him. I lifted Stark by the neck and threw him towards the window. The glass shattered instantly, and Stark plummeted to the Earth.
The sound of an engine firing up made me turn. A red casing blasted out of an opening door and rapidly closed in on me. I ducked, managing to dodge it, and I raced to the broken window, watching it descend towards Stark. The casing expanded as I watched, laying itself over Stark. A metal suit formed around him, and he pulled up, rocketing back towards me. "And there's one other person you pissed off," he announced as he came to my level. "His name was Phil."
I raised the Scepter, redying a blast, but Stark raised his arms and delivered a golden beam towards me before I could fire. The fiery energy of the blast hit me so hard in the chest that it threw me back several feet. The Scepter slipped from my grasp, so I felt the pain of it all the more.
As I laid catching my breath, straining to reach the Scepter, the deafening sound of hundreds of engines filled the air, accompanied by explosions.
My fingertips grazed the end of the Scepter, and the weakness instantly vanished, the power of the Gem rushing back into me. With renewed strength, I grasped the Scepter and got to my feet. I walked up the ramp that had removed Stark's suit earlier, and summoned my Asgardian armour as I went. I stood on the extending landing platform and watched around me.
The Chitauri flew around the humans as they ran, swarming above them like insects. My army delivered blast after blast, cutting down everything in their path, buildings caught fire, and explosions ripped the streets apart.
The war that would win me both the Earth and the Scepter had finally begun.
The interaction between Loki and Tony in this chapter was so much fun to write. If they met under different circumstances, I think these two would make the best of friends. And at risk of sounding like a TV announcer:
The Battle of New York has finally begun. We know how it ends, but does Loki? Find out next week in The Once Scepter: Chapter 11.