109- Avengers (15)

For a moment, no one moved. They simply stared at Supergiant’s corpse. Then, Tony broke the uncomfortable silence. "Well, you certainly are efficient, Mason. And here I thought we had a boss fight on our hands."

Mason said nothing, though he noted that the chaos of the city had considerably lessened. It sounded like the Chitauri had been completely vanquished. Perhaps with the closing of the portal?

Jean, who was staring directly at Supergiant’s spirit body, said. "No, she’s not dead. She is primarily a psychic being. She can still possess anyone."

With a slight crease of her eyebrows, she placed two fingers on her temple and fired a spear of spiritual energy at Supergiant. The daughter of Thanos was no longer as arrogant as before and did not disregard that attack, forming a proper shield to stop it.

Meanwhile, Loki urged, "I don’t mean to be rude, but if you want to get out of here, you better possess someone soon because I’m not staying here to get killed."

Thor stood tall among the Avengers, his voice like thunder as he watched Loki carefully, ready to attack. "Fear not, brother. You will be taken alive to stand trial before the Allfather."

"Or that."

Mason, who was still in the middle, slightly moved to place himself between Spider-Man and Loki, and made a hand sign on his back. He had his thumb, index, and pinkie extended out, with his middle finger and ring finger pressing down on his palm.

Then, he said, "Loki-"

Loki immediately swiveled to him. "Oh no, no, no, you’re not getting close to me. Look at what you’ve done to poor Supergiant. You even shrugged off my paralysis spell. Take one more step towards me, and I’m teleporting away. Supergiant, I’m serious, the only reason I’m still here is the deal, but I can still deliver the Space Stone to the Mad Titan myself. I’m not getting killed because of your stubbornness."

Supergiant still stood in the air, watching Loki and the others cautiously. Something felt wrong about this. The pieces refused to fit together, but Supergiant could not identify why.

And with the circle of heroes tightening around them, she was not left with any time to think.

So, she decided to trust her ally, and dove for the human teenager Loki had been stringing along. If his power truly was as disastrous as Loki claimed, maybe she might even kill the insolent human who had killed her carefully cultivated physical form.

Jean, as the only one capable of seeing her along with Mason, exclaimed, "No!" and tried to stop her. And ironically, it was this single action that convinced Supergiant.

Even if Jean had a stronger mind, her control over it was far weaker than Supergiant's, so the alien still easily invaded the body of the teenager.

And precisely at that moment, when Loki became so focused on the possession, Mason clenched a fist and tilted his body to the side.

He then watched with bated breath as a web passed by his elbow, extending towards Loki. He expected the God of Mischief to have one last trick up his sleeve, but he did not even see it until the very last moment.

A provenance detail: this page copied the author's NovelPhoenix chapter without approval, and reading it there supports the writer.

He only realized something was wrong when the web latched onto the cube, and by then, it was too late, as Spider-Man yanked it out, dragging it over to him.

Even Spider-Man was surprised when the cube landed in his hands, and Supergiant was the first to react, her new body lurching forward. "You fool! How could you-"

Loki snapped his fingers, and her body turned utterly still, the words caught in her throat. Loki clicked his tongue chidingly. "Now, there’s no need to be so rude."

He gave a side-glance to the Tesseract, a sharp huff escaping his nose. "Keep the thing, I got no use for it. Not too interested in getting chased across the universe. I would have probably ended up selling it anyway."

"Because you think you’re escaping now that you no longer have the Tesseract? You will be joining your pal." The Thing huffed.

Thor took a step forward, and Loki quickly raised his hand. "Ha, I’d be careful there, Thor. You wouldn’t want me to do something unfortunate."

"There is nothing you could do, Loki. You have lost, accept it."

"Lost? Lost! Me? You dumb oaf, you all have been playing into my hands. My goal was her from the start. Currently, she is being sealed by that boy’s body, ready to explode. So you have two choices now. Let me go and let her explode, or try to stop me, and I release her. And don’t think you’ll be taking her down easily. Against someone like her, numbers are a hindrance, not a strength."

There was a powerful roar in the distance, unmistakably the Hulk. He sounded like he was getting closer.

"Looks like your deadline is approaching. Because I don’t think your monster will be very interested in parlay. And a brute like him, I wonder how much damage she could make through him. How many lives she could take."

A few looked in the direction of the X-Men, and Cyclops clarified, "Bailey Hoskins. His mutant ability is to turn himself into a bomb. It is a one-time power."

Suddenly, Audrey stepped forward, the golden aura erupting out of her again. "You can’t seriously be considering this. We can’t let Bailey get killed. He’s one of us!"

"She’s right. This boy is an innocent victim." The Invisible Girl also stepped forward.

Mister Fantastic sighed beside her, "You haven’t seen what Supergiant can do. She would turn us against each other, which would cause far more innocent casualties."

Iron Man nodded along, "We got to be rational here, people."

Spider-Man, usually reserved, erupted, "Rational? We’re talking about someone’s life here. I’d rather fight for a whole more day than let him die."

"You are forgetting about Loki. He is the one who caused all this to start with. Supergiant would never have reached Earth if not for him. What tells us he won’t bring something even worse the next time he comes around? That could be even worse than letting Supergiant go." Invisible Girl argued.

Thor surprisingly agreed, "Loki is not getting away."

Mason looked at Loki, and the God of Mischief was watching this all with a grin on his face. He was enjoying this.

On the side, Doom let out a little laugh. "So quick to tear at each other’s throats. Such an obvious ploy, and you willingly jump into the hole either way and start digging further. Supergiant dies, one way or the other."

Mason smiled back. "That’s the burden of morality, Victor. But if you want to prove your superiority, please do come with a third solution."

Saying this, Mason winked at Jean, and after a moment, felt a connection establish itself between them.

As for Doom, he turned to the Tesseract. "Easy. None of you know how to use it. Give it to me, and I can instantly teleport Supergiant into the sun and block Loki."

"Do you seriously think we’re about to hand over one of the most powerful weapons in the universe to you? Spider-Man, whatever you do, don’t give him the Tesseract." The Human Torch said.

Spider-Man clutched the Tesseract closer to his chest, while Mason planned with Jean. Mason himself did not hesitate. He would not let the kid die. And seeing that Jean was hesitating, he convinced her to act with him. To destroy Supergiant the moment she appeared.

Then, finally, the deadline arrived. The Hulk landed with a powerful roar, crushing Supergiant’s corpse beneath his giant feet, and turned to Loki. At that moment, Thor also moved, Mjolnir swinging at Loki.

Loki opened his arms wide with a grin and released Supergiant.