Just a second ago he was still bragging about how his Chitauri army was invincible, and the next second he watched his troops and soldiers fall out of the portal like raindrops.
The sheer gap between those two moments left Loki's mind unable to process it for a while.
"How could this happen?"
"What happened to my army?"
"What did you do?"
Loki suddenly turned to look at his brother. Thor looked just as confused at first, but then he burst out laughing.
"This is your so-called invincible army? Brother, see? I told you, you were being fooled."
"You didn't believe me just now, but now you do, right? My dear brother, stop struggling pointlessly and surrender."
Loki shouted, "No! It shouldn't be like this. I am the king of Asgard. I will rule Earth. He promised me that!"
Thor immediately said, "Who? Tell me right now. Who made you that promise? And who gave you this army?"
Loki laughed, "Why should I tell you? You'll never know the answer, my dear brother."
Thor said angrily, "Things have already come to this. What are you still hiding?"
"Loki, come back to Asgard with me. Mother is waiting for us."
Loki's eyes shifted slightly. The word "mother" clearly still carried some weight, even for him, the so-called God of Mischief.
But he quickly returned to normal, keeping his usual smile, "My dear brother, that's your mother, not mine."
"So you see, whether she's waiting for me or not, I don't really care."
Thor stepped forward and shouted, "Is there nothing in your heart that you care about?"
"Of course there is!"
Loki also stepped forward, pointing at Thor as he roared, "I want Father's approval. I am the one fit to inherit the throne."
"And you, son of Odin, Thor the Thunder God, you're just a brute who only knows how to fight! You're impulsive, reckless, and never think about consequences. You are not fit to be king!"
"But look at what Odin did. He promised the throne would go to one of us. But what happened? I am clearly more suitable than you, yet he still passed it to you!"
"It makes me sick!"
"All your fake kindness, the way you look at me, like I'm some pitiful stray dog by the roadside."
"Odin took me back from the Frost Giants. Was it really because he was afraid I would die with no one to rely on?"
"Or was it because he felt guilty for starting that war?"
"Otherwise, why didn't he save the other orphans back then? Why only me? Answer me, you hypocritical Asgardians!"
At that moment, Iron Man flew over and hovered in midair, "Looks like I interrupted a family reunion, but right now isn't the time for catching up."
"Hey, you thief, hurry up and shut down that portal!"
"Loki is an Asgardian. Show some respect," Thor said, pointing his hammer at Iron Man before turning back to Loki, "But he's right. Tell us how to close the portal. I don't want anything else falling out of it."
Thor glanced upward. Things were still falling out of the portal, but even more than that, there was a surging torrent of blazing fire. The portal looked like it had opened the gates of some legendary hell, flames inside raging as if they could burst out at any moment.
Loki pointed at the device, then shook his head, "You think I would understand this?"
Iron Man activated all his weapon systems and locked onto Loki, "I think you do."
"Tin man, don't think those toys you use to scare children will work on me. When I was roaming the Nine Realms, you didn't even know where you were," Loki sneered at Tony Stark.
Inside the helmet, Tony chuckled, "Is that so? Then I'd like to try."
"Enough talking. I'll destroy the device," With that, Thor spun his hammer and shot toward the rooftop. He summoned lightning and smashed down at the device from midair.
Iron Man quickly shouted, "I already tried that. It doesn't work!"
Before he even finished speaking, a loud hum rang out from the rooftop. Thor cried out and was blasted backward, electricity rebounding off the protective shield and sending him flying far away before he awkwardly returned.
Loki pointed toward Thor in the distance and quietly moved toward the edge of the corridor, "See? I told you he's reckless. Leaving Asgard to him would be a disaster. Too bad no one wants to listen to me. No one."
Just as he reached the edge, a voice rang out, "Step back, Loki, or we open fire."
A Quinjet rose vertically, the aircraft cannon beneath it aimed straight at Loki. Inside the cockpit, Captain America, Black Widow, and Banner could be seen.
Loki raised his hands and stepped back, smiling, "Alright, there are too many of you. I surrender."
Inside the Quinjet, Steve Rogers carried the untransformed Banner and jumped onto the sky bridge. Thor returned as well and personally restrained Loki, cuffing his hands and sealing his mouth so the "God of Mischief" couldn't use his silver tongue to deceive anyone anymore.
Then they went up to the rooftop. On the rooftop, Dr. Erik Selvig had regained consciousness, his eyes back to normal, seemingly freed from the scepter's mind control.
"Doctor, how are you?", Iron Man walked over and helped him up.
Dr. Erik nodded, "I'm fine. My God, what have I done…"
Captain America walked over, "Now's not the time for that. Doctor, you must know how to close the portal."
The doctor thought for a moment, "The scepter."
He looked at Loki, "His scepter. The energy it releases is something the cosmic magic can't resist."
"They share the same kind of power."
Iron Man nodded and glanced at Banner, "Banner and I confirmed that earlier, back on the Helicarrier. We analyzed Loki's scepter."
Dr. Erik nodded, "That's right. Using Loki's scepter can stop it, because it can't oppose itself."
Iron Man clapped his hands, "Great. We just need to close the portal. Once the Chitauri can't get back, we can end this party. Then tonight we grab some drinks, listen to music, and have a nice interrogation with this gentleman to find out who's behind him."
"Now the question is, where's the scepter?"
Thor stepped forward, "I know where it is."
"Where is it, big guy?", Iron Man looked at him and added, "I bet the ladies love your muscles."
Thor grinned brightly, "The women of Asgard love me too."
Black Widow spread her hands, "Gentlemen, can we get back to the point?"
Thor cleared his throat, "Back on the Helicarrier, I was with Banner. Well… at the time he was the big green guy."
"We were fighting that man with the red cape. Honestly, he likes red capes just like me. Maybe I should switch colors. What do you think about blue?"
"Anyway, Loki's scepter was taken by him."
Captain America tightened his grip on his shield, "Does anyone know where that mysterious man is?"
At that moment, a voice came from above, "Sounds like you're looking for me?"
Everyone looked up. Thor tightened his grip on his hammer, Black Widow pulled out her pistol from behind her, Banner quickly moved behind Iron Man, and Tony Stark put his helmet back on, entering combat mode.
Loki, unable to speak as a prisoner, raised his head curiously and saw a bright red cape fluttering like flames in the wind. A blond man in a black battle suit slowly descended, landing on the rooftop beside the portal device.
Then he saw that his scepter was in that man's hand.
After negotiations with Thanos broke down, Alex didn't hesitate. He struck first and destroyed the Chitauri's interstellar flagship, also known as Thanos's "Sanctuary II."
The Chitauri soldiers had undergone mechanical modification to adapt to different environments and harsh planetary conditions, turning them into half-biological, half-mechanical combat units.
These units maintained a close connection with the mothership, the "Sanctuary II."
The command center of the mothership could control each unit with maximum efficiency, while each unit still retained independent thinking, creating an incredibly powerful army.
But the Chitauri never imagined their base would be attacked, nor that the mothership would be destroyed.
Because of this control system, once the mothership was destroyed, all subordinate units became paralyzed. This allowed Alex to easily dismantle Thanos's army.
Originally, he hadn't planned to do this. The ideal outcome would have been for Thanos to agree to cooperate, trading the Power Stone for the other two.
That way, Alex could take over Thanos's Chitauri army and then try to awaken the power of the Space Stone to gain new abilities.
Unfortunately, the so-called overlord of the universe didn't take him seriously at all.
He didn't even consider it before rejecting the negotiation.
Now, Alex returned to the rooftop, planning to retrieve the Tesseract, the Space Stone, as a small compensation.
Loki wasn't the only one who noticed the scepter in Alex's hand. Thor saw it too and pointed at it, "You've taken our property. Return it to me, sir."
Alex looked at the scepter in his hand and smiled, "Yours?"
Black Widow said in a low voice, "You took it from our Helicarrier, didn't you?"
[T/N: For me the best part of bringing you chapters everyday is reading your comments. Be it anything witty or a simple "Tftc", they all keep me motivated to keep posting chapters. So, do comment and please give a REVIEW.]
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