104- Avengers (10)

Once Tony explained to everyone Mason’s suspicion concerning where Loki would put his plan into action, they decided not to act overtly on it. First, it was only a suspicion, not a known fact. Second, Loki might have secretly controlled an agent and left them behind to spy on SHIELD’s actions, to always stay one move ahead.

So they kept a lid on it, at least until they were surer of it, and acted like they knew none of it. Mason was sure Natasha would be hovering much closer to New York in her search, though.

Speaking of which, it was a slightly humbling experience to have the only ‘regular’ person in the team actually being capable of helping. For all their power, Thor, Mason, or Tony could pretty much do nothing but lie in wait.

‘Pretty much nothing’, because while Mason himself did not possess the skills to do much, he did have useful friends.

Mason visited Kamar-Taj secretly to get counsel from Yao, but she was surprisingly unhelpful. Actually, her words would have been helpful to anyone else, as she told him the chances that Loki would target New York were the highest, but this was something Mason already knew.

At least, Mason got to confirm that wherever the attack happened, Sorcerers would be there to help. Covertly, most likely, but they’d still help.

Mason was on his way back to the Helicarrier when he received a call. Loki had appeared again, and not just anywhere. At the X-Mansion. Not to attack, but to kidnap one of the students. SHIELD had only learned of it just now, after Loki had already left. Not Audrey, thankfully, but that did leave Mason wondering, what was the point of that?

Loki had enough enemies already, why would he kidnap a random student from the X-Mansion? Bailey Hoskins, a kid with an utterly unremarkable ability. Nor with any meaningful connection to the Avengers, or to anyone really. He was part of the time-displaced mutants.

No matter how much he thought about it, this would be counterproductive. He felt that the intention was obvious enough, to anger the X-Men and force them to act, but why?

As Mason was boarding the Quinjet to return to the Helicarrier, he received yet another call. From Tony, this time.

Mason picked up, and Tony immediately warned, "Your friends, the Fantastic Four, are under attack. Loki was seen."

Tony hung up, and Mason looked out through the window with a frown. He could see Baxter Tower from here. This was definitely intentional. Loki was riling up the strongest forces of Earth on purpose. The decision did not make sense to Mason, which made it even scarier because he knew Loki to be a creature of sense and cunning.

But since this was close… maybe Mason could kill the scheme in the egg.

Rapidly moving through the city, Mason used the buildings as footholds to reach Baxter Tower in seconds. The tower had been completely repaired since the attack from Doom before, and from the outside, it did not look like they were being attacked.

But Mason spread his Divine Sense to the interior of the building, and he did find Loki’s presence inside.

His face hardening, Mason stopped against the building next to theirs, gathered power in his legs, and leapt.

His body broke through the glass first, then took a single step strong enough to crack the ground before smashing through a wall, arriving directly behind Loki.

This duplicate was made without the author's approval, while NovelPhoenix hosts the chapter as published by its creator.

They were on the 32nd Floor, one of the living quarters. The Fantastic Four were all there, facing the Absorbing Man. He looked like he had taken Ben’s rocky skin this time. Meanwhile, Loki was in the room next to them, completely unnoticed, as he made himself a cup of tea.

Even the God of Mischief did not expect such a swift response, or for someone to attack from the wall behind him.

Before he could react, Mason struck the back of his head with a Star Fist, smashing him into the ground. Mason followed up with a second attack, and despite the earlier punch, Loki managed to weave in a spell that turned his body illusory.

Unfortunately for him, that meant nothing to Mason’s Chi.

The floor cracked further beneath them, but Mason had to stop there as a bolt of green energy came flying at his head. That was enough for Loki to get back to his feet, staring daggers at Mason.

"You!"

"Me. What are you doing, Loki? And what have you done with Hoskins?"

Loki grinned, licking his lips. "Oh, he’s fine. He did not even resist, so I did not need to hurt him. Actually, you might even consider me his benefactor, I only intend to help him. At least until I open the portal in New York."

The shock made Mason freeze. Had Loki still managed to figure out that they suspected he would attack the city?

Loki giggled, "Oops, that was meant to be secret. Sometimes, my mouth got a mind of its own. Well, not that it matters. The Tesseract Accelerator is currently being set up on Stark’s Tower. Knowing it won’t change anything. And as for why I’m here? I’m just doing a friend a favor. You ruined that, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. Well, about time I leave. I think the X-Men should have entered the city. I believe your fellow Avengers are on the way too."

Mason narrowed his eyes. "You’re biting off more than you can chew, Loki."

"Because you think I’m going to face them myself? I’m bringing in an army, boy. And now, I've got someone with a secret power no one has even fathomed. A secret weapon to take you all down, and pave the way for my coronation. You think more numbers will do you good? It will be your end. And among all you pathetic mortals, know that I will enjoy your death more than any other."

With a laugh, Loki disappeared in a green mist, his presence truly vanishing, along with Creel, leaving Mason behind with furrowed brows.

The way Loki behaved somewhat reminded him of Krahllak. The demon too had gloated when it was believed its plans had come to fruition and nothing could stop them. The problem was that Mason felt like this was not something Loki would do.

Mason was not basing this feeling on his meta-knowledge, but on what he had seen of Loki so far. Loki was certainly proud, but he was also careful. And more than anything, he looked down on them. He looked down on Mason and every other human as beings below himself.

That was why Mason still believed there was something wrong with Loki. Unfortunately, Mason was left with no time to ponder the strangeness of Loki’s actions. But even the timeline was puzzling.

SHIELD and the Avengers had assumed Loki would take at least several more days to finish building his machine because it was not something that could be organized so quickly. It was an extremely complex machine, it should not have been possible to properly construct in so little time. Yet, somehow, he had done it.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Mason used the same tactic as with Loki and burst through another wall, arriving directly beside the Absorbing Man.

He was already in a pretty bad shape after facing the Fantastic Four on his own, and his reaction time was not as fast as Loki. Mason easily tripped him, and the Fantastic Four immediately dropped on him. Four invisible constraints locked his limbs, Ben pinned his knee to the middle of Creel’s back, and Johnny grabbed his face, his hand ready to erupt.

Creel groaned before deactivating his ability. Mason promptly knocked him out.

With the Absorbing Man slumping down into unconsciousness, Reed wiped the sweat off his forehead, asking, "Mason? What are you doing here?"

Mason sighed and explained the situation to them, or at least the parts that mattered. They took the news that a god had targeted them personally remarkably well, but then Mason figured they must have faced plenty of more dangerous things in space.

Reed was still frowning by the end of his explanation, though. "So Loki claims to be bringing an army to Earth, but he is deliberately provoking every powerhouse on the planet? And you believe he was controlled before? This army, I assume they are not from Asgard?"

Shaking his head, Mason replied, "No, impossible. They are an army from outer space, lent to him by someone else."

Reed’s neck stretched more than what was humanly possible in something Mason figured was a head tilt. "Then isn’t it obvious? Loki is pitting Earth against his former employee. They’re not his army. We are."

The next moment, there was a loud crack outside. It sounded utterly foreign to the Fantastic Four, but Mason recognized that sound. It was the sound of space tearing.

They rushed to the windows and looked up. A giant blue rift had opened into the sky.

The war had started.