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 109[May 2012]

StarkJet

–Randall–

Now, this was quite the conundrum on his hands. They were still in the Stark Jet but it was effectively only flying in circles, with no fixed destination on hand. They had not received any new orders from the Invisible Man but he was sure that Tony and Bruce were going to interrogate or atleast try to interrogate Loki about what he had been doing ever since he came to Earth.

More importantly…"You said something about an Invasion of Earth? Care to Elaborate?" He asked Thor who was sitting on a sofa, with his right hand firmly placed on Loki's shoulder, who had a metal mask sitting on his face, something that Thor had brought as a precaution of some sort.

Thor looked up at him, from his pensive thinking, "Aye, the Chitauri. They are a race of bloodthirsty, unfeeling, relentless species of warmongers who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, even if it means certain death. Loki, through some means, has gained their loyalty and means to bring them to Earth,"

"How?" Bruce asked as all of them were seated around a large sofa, as was customary when it came to anything that Stark did or built.

"That, I do not know but I am sure the Tesseract comes into play with whatever scheme he has planned," Thor replied, face stuck in confusion.

"Oh. Okay. So we know that the Tesseract is involved and we also know that Loki took the Tesseract. So, either it is with him, which I doubt unless he has some extra dimensional storage space attached to him?" Tony asked Thor who replied.

"Aye, he does have such magicks but the Tesseract is unique, it cannot be stowed away like that,"

"Okay, then it is with his lackeys, the one he mind controlled with the sceptre. The sceptre which should be on its way back. Now, we just need the location of the Tesseract. If we secure the Tesseract, then it's game over, right?"

Thor nodded at that, "Aye, but do remember that my mission on Earth is not just to retrieve Loki but also the Tesseract because it was kept here to hide it from the rest of the cosmos. Your experiments have sent signals across the galaxy that there is something on Earth and Midgard is not ready for that type of warfare,"

"Hey-Whoa, it was not me who experimented on it but sure, it's your property and more importantly, it just seems more hassle than it is worth so feel free," Tony shrugged and turned around when he heard a double beep. All of them followed his gaze to the door, and were promptly confused when Agent Romanoff was standing there, with a suit standing right beside her, holding the sceptre in one hand.

He kept Loki in his vision at all times, which was just common sense and he could sense nothing from the guy, which was obvious since the man was a thousand year old alien God, but the fact that his gaze lingered on the sceptre more than he would be comfortable with, told him one thing and one thing only.

"Tony, can you please get the sceptre to Manhattan, ASAP?" He said out loud, keeping his gaze fixed on Loki and he was pleased to find the slightest hint of irritation on his face at that.

Tony gave him a look at that, "Okay. That was the plan anyway. So, should we get the plane to Manhattan then?"

"Manhattan is the domain of the Newest psionic master of Midgard, am I correct?" Thor asked all of them.

"If you are talking about the Invisible Man, then, yes, Manhattan is currently the safest place on the planet, and believe me, Loki will not be able to escape that man's gaze. He is everywhere," 

Thor just nodded at that, oddly quiet.

"Alright, Jarvis, secure the Sceptre, please show Ms.Romanoff to her guest quarters and make sure she doesn't "wander off" anywhere," Tony clapped his hands and stood up, rapidly ordering Jarvis to set course to Manhattan.

"I think it would be safer to continue this conversation when we are under the umbrella of the all seeing Invisible Man," Tony snarked and went out of the room.

"Jarvis, I remember telling you to get just the sceptre. Then, why, pray tell, is a SHIELD agent.." Tony's voice faded out as the door closed.

He shared a look with Bruce and exited the place as well, leaving the two brothers alone.

"Jarvis, seal the room and be ready with the oxygen suppressors. As far as we can tell, both of them need to breathe," He ordered Jarvis before heading to the captain's deck with Bruce.

"I don't like this," Bruce muttered at his side.

"Huh?"

Bruce turned to him, his eyes wide in realisation, "Loki. He has the ability to cast multiple illusions, all at once, practically indistinguishable from whatever tech we have. He could have easily cast another illusion on himself and escaped. So, why did he expose himself to us? The only reason he drew attention to himself was because he was the–"

"A distraction," He finished for Bruce.

"Dr.Banner, you might be correct because I am getting reports of stolen Iridium, from the vaults whose access codes were with the single casualty of the Stuttgart incident," Jarvis piped up in between.

"Why would he need the Iridium?" He asked Bruce.

"I don't know but that's just another clue we have to trace the Tesseract. Jarvis, inform Tony. ETA to Manhattan?"

"2:23, sir,"

"Great. Nothing should happen in the meantime. And Jarvis, please maintain full stealth, we can't risk getting attacked in between, either by SHIELD or by Loki's mind controlled lackeys," He said as they finally reached the captain's deck, where Tony was snacking on….

"Blueberries?" Tony offered them.

_____xx____

Manhattan

–Axle Riddle (Invisible Man)–

"Whoa, this is so cool," He resisted the urge to groan as he had to keep his attention on COulson, who was riding in the prototype flying car that Randall had made and had kept as a display piece in the lower levels of the base which were mostly just empty caves with high ceilings with power and lightning installed everywhere, just in case Randall needed it for another one of his experiments.

"Okay, I will give you my life's savings if you can install this system into my car," The car finally landed on the ground and Coulson came out of it, breathless, smiling, and markedly less tense about the whole Fury dying situation than before.

He didn't even think that tough son of a bitch was dead. Fury dying this early in the timeline was not likely. It was probably some green bitch who was impersonating him, and was much less badass that died.

Further evaluation was impossible because Fury's body was right next to the epicenter of the explosion, which most likely vaporised everything around it.

"Oh please, SHIELD agents aren't paid that much. Most of it goes into the fancy toys you waved around,"

Coulson deflated at that, "That's true."

"Hey, what about the request I made earlier about-"

"No."

"But he can-"

"No."

"You don't understand. If only he came for-"

"Coulson. I said NO. We are not involving him unless absolutely necessary. The man has earned his retirement a hundred times over. We don't need to bother him with a situation that he has no control over,"

"But he can do so much! If only he came forward and told everyone the truth, then-"

"Then, we will lose SHIELD as a whole and then it will be divided like a pie with most of it going to the US military, which we all know is a shining beacon of morality. No, COulson, this has to be handled properly. WSC has to go, but SHIELD gets to stay, and once the dust settles down, I have the perfect candidate in mind,"

Coulson's eyes widened in shock before he frantically waved his hands around, "No. No, I am not suited to be the Director. I don't know the first thing about--"

"Don't worry about that. It will come to you in time. Plus, we can have the Captain as part of SHIELD under your tenure,"

Coulson looked really thoughtful at that, his mind probably imagining the scenario.

"Anyway, your playtime is done. The team will be here soon with Loki and Thor. Get ready because you are the only one here with any interrogate experience, Agent Coulson,"

"Yeah. Alright. Interrogating a thousand-year-old Godly being? No pressure." Coulson muttered to himself as he went to the lift.

Sigh. Even the most serious of agents can become children when confronted with their most wanted Toys.

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