Just like that.
Loki disappeared.
The culprit who brazenly invaded S.H.I.E.L.D. and caused the Dark Energy Joint Base to be reduced to ruins.
After the battle with Tony and Captain America, he completely vanished without a trace.
It was as if he had never appeared.
Two weeks passed, and he not only took no further action but also seemed to have evaporated into thin air.
He had completely "vanished," and there was no further movement.
However, the more this happened, the more uneasy the Avengers stationed at the new Base felt.
Because no one believed Loki would give up so easily.
He had been biding his time, likely preparing for a big move.
"I checked our satellites again, and as usual, there's nothing."
Inside the Base control center, Hawkeye Barton tapped a few times on a computer screen, checked, and then shook his head.
"Stark, what about you?"
Hawkeye Barton then turned to Tony, who was eating snacks, and asked.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s satellites were much more advanced and had a wider coverage than those of ordinary intelligence agencies.
But compared to a powerful system like Jarvis, they were still somewhat lacking.
"Jarvis hasn't told me he has found anything."
Tony also gave an answer that didn't surprise anyone.
"So, that's it? Loki just evaporated into thin air?"
Red Guardian spread his hands, a hint of dejection in his expression, "I still can't figure out how he did it."
Under the dual surveillance of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s satellite system and Jarvis, not even a fly could hide!
How could a living person like Loki possibly do it?
Unless he had been holed up in some secluded place this whole time, biding his time.
"Erik, we're talking about a God!"
Black Widow interjected, "Achieving the impossible, that's what a God does, isn't it?"
"What we need now is not to boost others' morale and diminish our own."
Red Guardian shook his head.
"Exactly, I highly agree with that statement."
The Playboy pointed at Red Guardian, full of vigor, "Loki is indeed a God, but so what?"
"Don't forget we gave him a good beating once, oh, no, *I* gave him a good beating!"
"I'd love to see you do that again, but first, we need to find him."
"We will, I will!"
Everyone exchanged a few words, communicating briefly, and then returned to their respective tasks.
Tony was not accustomed to such a serious and dull atmosphere and kept trying to joke around, but everyone's enthusiasm was not very high.
Or rather, everyone was a bit too serious.
Especially Captain America.
"Stark, please, can you be more serious? This is a critical time!"
Captain America really couldn't stand the Playboy's style and couldn't help but remind him.
"Precisely because of that, we can't put too much pressure on ourselves."
Tony also had a strong argument.
"Can't you boys just get along?"
Black Widow shrugged, muttering a slight complaint, then got up and left the room.
What was she going to do?
Nothing, just to relieve herself.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
In the restroom.
Black Widow, having finished, was washing her hands at the sink in front of the mirror, as usual.
But suddenly, Black Widow's movements paused; she sensed something.
Her breathing deepened slightly, and her spirit instinctively tensed. Black Widow instinctively looked up, and her pupils immediately constricted!
She saw in the mirror, behind her, a man in a long robe, grinning and smiling at her.
Loki!
This thought instinctively flashed through Black Widow's mind.
Then, by reflex, she pulled out her gun and quickly turned around.
But she found that behind her was empty, not even a ghost.
???
What's going on?
Did she see it wrong, or was it a hallucination?
Logically speaking, a highly trained Agent like Black Widow shouldn't experience hallucinations or misperceptions for no reason.
Yet, there was clearly no one behind her!
With this question, Black Widow quickly scouted the restroom, confirming that she was indeed alone.
So, what was going on?
Black Widow then turned her gaze back to the mirror in front of her.
She saw only herself, with no one else.
However, Black Widow did not relax her guard and intended to continue scouting.
But just as she turned her head, her peripheral Vision caught something.
She immediately refocused her gaze on the mirror.
She saw Loki standing beside her in the mirror, his smile growing even more sinister.
Whoosh!
Black Widow turned around at her fastest speed, according to the direction in the mirror.
Thud!
But before she could do anything, Loki's staff was pressed against Black Widow's chest.
A silent energy surged from the staff, and Black Widow's eyes instantly turned pitch black, then returned to normal.
However, after that, Black Widow put away her gun.
At this moment, she was completely controlled by Loki.
Casually putting away his staff, Loki's smile grew even brighter.
"You know what I need you to do, don't you?"
Loki looked at Black Widow with a triumphant air, asking in a tone that suggested everything was under his control.
"Tesseract."
Black Widow immediately gave this answer.
"Very good."
Loki nodded approvingly.
Whoosh!
Then he suddenly disappeared.
Just like in the movie *Thor*, when Thor failed to retrieve his mjolnir from the S.H.I.E.L.D. temporary Base and was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., Loki suddenly appeared and disappeared.
It must be said that a God indeed possesses means that ordinary people do not, and cannot imagine.
Black Widow, controlled by Loki, showed no excessive reaction to this, acting as if nothing had happened.
She looked in the mirror, tidied herself up, and then nonchalantly returned to the other Avengers.
Neither a super-intelligent genius like Tony Stark nor someone as familiar with Black Widow as Hawkeye Barton could detect any flaw.
Black Widow continued to work with everyone as usual.
Everything was normal.
But everything was so sudden.
Just three days later, Black Widow, like Loki, suddenly disappeared without a trace.
And she took the Tesseract with her.
It must be said that this incident truly caught everyone off guard.
"Why did Natasha do this?"
"Why would she steal the Tesseract at this time?"
In the control center, the atmosphere began to become oppressive and heavy.
Hawkeye Barton, who had the closest relationship with Black Widow and understood her best, was the first to speak, unable to accept it.
If possible, Hawkeye Barton would have preferred to believe that it was all a misunderstanding.
But the surveillance cameras had indeed recorded Black Widow's every move.
Black Widow had used everyone's trust, played a small trick, temporarily sent everyone away, and then successfully took the Tesseract.
This matter was now undeniable.
"Little Natasha, she's truly a born spy. So many of us were fooled."
Red Guardian sighed, "My judgment wasn't wrong, she is indeed the best in this line of work."
"No, Erik, I believe Natasha must have a reason for doing this."
Hawkeye Barton argued vehemently for Black Widow, "She must have been in a difficult situation, Officer!"
As he spoke, Hawkeye Barton even went directly to Nick Fury, pleading for Black Widow, "You know Natasha, don't you?"
"Barton, none of that matters now."
Nick Fury, however, shook his head, "What matters is that she took the Tesseract."
"Exactly, so we need to find Natasha and get the Tesseract back!"
Captain America added decisively from the side.
This was, of course, beyond doubt.
Nick Fury then made a series of arrangements and deployments.
After a temporary pause, he casually walked out.
He went to the self-service coffee machine in the lounge, intending to get a cup of coffee to refresh himself.
"It's Loki."
Tony Stark, who had not spoken much until then, also walked over quietly.
"Loki has a way to control people's minds, doesn't he?"
The diary had already revealed this important piece of information.
In the original New York Battle, Barton was controlled by Loki's mind and almost blew up the Helicarrier.
So now, Black Widow's defection, no matter how you look at it, must be Loki's doing behind the scenes.
Loki must have seen the Tesseract's defenses, known that a direct snatch was impossible, and so controlled Black Widow.
Breaking it from the inside, a spy-versus-spy scenario.
"If you were controlled by Loki, you wouldn't actively reveal that to me."
"So you shouldn't be controlled by Loki, right?"
"But considering Loki is the God of Mischief, no one can guess his intentions, so I can't be certain about that."
Nick Fury continued to pour coffee, but his voice drifted over leisurely.
"Yes, that's Loki's cleverness."
Tony agreed deeply, "Because I can't be sure you haven't been mind-controlled by him. In fact, I can't guarantee anyone in this room."
This was also the reason why Nick Fury and Tony did not mention this important information in front of everyone.
"Loki wants us to suspect each other, to be unable to trust."
"Though I hate to admit it, he succeeded."
After saying this, Nick Fury's coffee was full, and he said no more to Tony.
He casually threw the full cup of coffee into the trash can and then swaggered away.
He didn't say where he was going.
No one, including Tony and the other Avengers in the room, knew what Nick Fury was up to.
So, what exactly was Nick Fury doing?
After some contemplation, Nick Fury once again went to see someone.
Who?
Satan, or rather, Zhou Cheng.
In fact, for a while now, Nick Fury had been considering whether to hire Satan to investigate Loki's whereabouts.
After all, the Loki matter was indeed very serious.
If not handled properly, it could trigger a major disaster of alien invasion.
And given that S.H.I.E.L.D. and Jarvis couldn't find Loki, if anyone could still find Loki's whereabouts...
Nick Fury thought long and hard, and the only one he could think of was the unfathomable Satan.
However, as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury naturally couldn't just seek outside help every time he encountered a difficult problem; that would diminish his prestige, wouldn't it?
So Nick Fury had always kept it in the thought stage and had not put it into action.
However, Black Widow's "defection" this time made Nick Fury realize the seriousness of the situation.
He couldn't delay any longer!
He had to find Loki as soon as possible!
Or rather, he had to catch Loki as soon as possible!
Not only that, considering that all the Avengers guarding the Tesseract could now be controlled by Loki, he essentially had no one left to use, didn't he?
He couldn't rely on ordinary Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., could he?
So in the end, Nick Fury still came before Zhou Cheng.
This greatly surprised Zhou Cheng, and he was also deeply curious.
He just wondered what trouble Nick Fury had encountered this time?
"Satan, seventeen days ago, this person stole something from S.H.I.E.L.D."
After a brief opening between them, Nick Fury roughly explained the situation to Zhou Cheng.
As he spoke, he also placed some relevant photos in front of Zhou Cheng.
Zhou Cheng glanced at the person in the photos, his expression outwardly calm, but his heart immediately stirred.
Loki?
Isn't this Loki?
Then, the item Loki stole from S.H.I.E.L.D. must undoubtedly be the Tesseract!
So, the New York Battle has already begun!
So this World has had so many deviations, so much so that Zhou Cheng could hardly recognize it.
But in the end, the New York Battle, this iconic major event, still happened!
"Satan, name your price. I need you to help me get the item back."
As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Nick Fury's voice immediately sounded in his ear, pulling Zhou Cheng back to reality.
Zhou Cheng then fell into contemplation.
Should he accept Nick Fury's commission this time?
Why not?
Just a moment later, Zhou Cheng made this decision very happily.
Based on his impression from the movies, Zhou Cheng's current strength had no problem crushing Loki.
Since that was the case, why refuse money that came knocking?
Anyway, beating up Loki wouldn't bring him any trouble, would it?
You know that so many Avengers had fought Loki, and not a single one was retaliated against by Loki or Asgard afterward.
So, was it possible that he would be targeted by Thanos for preventing the New York Battle and thwarting his plan?
Zhou Cheng indicated that this was also not an issue.
First, the possibility of Zhou Cheng's identity being exposed was small.
Even if it were exposed, and he truly became an enemy of Thanos, what then?
You should know that in his battles with the Avengers, Thanos never once went for the kill.
Aside from killing Vision by snatching the Mind Stone and killing Loki for his overconfident assassination attempt, he seemingly never actively killed any hero!
Although he didn't know what psychological reason Thanos had for not killing his mortal enemies, he indeed did so.
Since that was the case, what was there to hesitate about?
"One billion, same old rule, once the advance payment arrives, I'll start acting."
Zhou Cheng quoted his price to Nick Fury.
Even for S.H.I.E.L.D., this price was absolutely astronomical.
However, Nick Fury also knew that he had no capital to bargain with Zhou Cheng.
The only thing Nick Fury could do at the moment was to do his best to raise money for Zhou Cheng.
But as for such matters, Zhou Cheng was too lazy to bother with them.
After Nick Fury left, he instinctively had a thought and recorded his mood in the diary.
Tony, who was drinking coffee in the lounge area of the temporary Base, immediately saw that the diary had been updated with new content.
[Loki still snatched the Tesseract from S.H.I.E.L.D., unexpected yet expected.]
[So many things in this Universe have deviated, but the New York Battle still arrived as scheduled.]
[Indeed, this is Marvel's first major event in the true sense!]
[If even the New York Battle is gone, what would it be called Marvel?]
[No, Nick Fury has already approached me. If the money from his side is in place, the New York Battle might really be gone!]
[To be honest, my feelings are a bit complicated.]
[After all, the New York Battle has so many famous scenes!]
[Iron Man carrying the nuclear bomb, Hulk smashing Loki, how classic!]
[It would be a bit of a pity if it just disappeared.]
[But Captain America's 'Hail HYDRA' shouldn't be missing, right? Haha, that's also a classic scene.]