Magical Marvel: The Rise of Arthur Hayes-Chapter 286: The God of Mischief

The heavy silence of the underground bunker was broken only by the hum of the Tesseract and the erratic sparking of blown consoles.

Nick Fury stood perfectly still. His eyes locked onto the intruder who had just stepped out of the void.

"Loki of Asgard," Fury said. His voice carried across the ruined chamber without rising. "To what do we owe your presence?"

Loki’s smile sharpened. He tilted his head, studying Fury with open, arrogant amusement.

"The mortal knows my name." His voice was smooth and cold. "I assume the mage Hayes has been spreading tales. And yet I see no fear in your eyes, Director. That is either admirable or profoundly foolish."

"I save my fear for the unknown," Fury replied evenly. "Hayes told me plenty about you. In fact, I have already sent him an invitation to this little gathering. He should be arriving any minute now. He might even bring your brother along. Thor has been mourning your death, you know. He will be absolutely thrilled to see you breathing."

The smile vanished from Loki’s face. The mention of Thor mourning him struck a raw nerve he refused to acknowledge. The mention of Arthur Hayes arriving soon put a very strict clock on his plans. The trickster god’s green eyes darted around the room as he rapidly calculated his next move. He needed the blue cube. He needed the scientist. And he needed to leave immediately.

Loki adjusted his grip on the golden scepter.

Fury signaled his soldiers. A dozen men raised their weapons. Red targeting lasers painted Loki’s chest. Clint Barton stepped out from behind a support column, nocked an arrow, and drew the bowstring tight.

Loki’s gaze swept across the armed perimeter. He looked at the soldiers the way a chess player looked at pawns.

"You dare draw weapons against Loki of Asgard? Should I call you brave or just foolish?"

"We do not need to fight, Loki" Fury said. "Put down your weapon and we can talk civilly."

Loki’s eyes narrowed. He lifted his scepter. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Seeing that the god did not come to talk, Fury gave the signal. The SHIELD agents opened fire.

Loki did not just stand there and absorb the bullets like a sluggish brawler. He was a thousand year old god of magic wielding an Infinity Stone. He moved with terrifying, fluid grace.

Before the first bullet could even reach him, Loki split into four identical copies. The soldiers ended up spraying suppressing fire into phantoms that simply dissolved into green mist upon impact. The real Loki appeared directly on their flank. Bright green energy shields flared to life around his wrists, effortlessly deflecting the few rounds that came close to his real body.

He unleashed centuries of combat magic in a matter of seconds.

Concussive waves of raw force blasted from his hands, throwing heavily armored men into the concrete walls like broken dolls. He spun the golden scepter with lethal precision. Beams of cold blue light struck the remaining agents, turning their assault rifles to melted slag and throwing them violently across the laboratory.

Thirty seconds. That was all it took. The room fell quiet, save for the groans of broken men. Every single tactical agent was down.

Only Fury, Clint Barton, and Erik Selvig remained standing. Selvig cowered near the main console, untouched simply because Loki knew exactly who he needed to build his portal.

"You are making a massive mistake," Fury warned, his hand dropping to his sidearm.

Loki stepped elegantly over a groaning soldier. "Be quiet, mortal."

Fury and Barton did not hesitate. They engaged together.

Barton moved first. He drew and fired three tactical arrows in the space of a single breath. Explosives and high voltage tasers screamed toward the god. Loki swatted the first two out of the air with a casual flick of his scepter, but the third detonated right near his face. A blinding flash of light and sound disoriented him for a crucial fraction of a second.

That was all Fury needed.

Fury crossed the distance with terrifying, superhuman speed. He drew back his fist and threw a brutal, perfectly calculated punch that carried the immense weight of a man whose biology had been rewritten by Extremis. Loki, expecting the sluggish movement of a normal human, was caught entirely off guard. Fury’s fist connected solidly with Loki’s jaw.

The Asgardian’s head snapped back. He actually staggered a step.

But Loki was still a god. He recovered instantly, his eyes flashing with sudden, vicious anger. He parried Fury’s next strike with the haft of his scepter, kicked the Director hard in the chest to send him skidding backward across the floor, and turned his full, furious attention to the archer.

Barton tried to create distance to notch another explosive arrow. Loki was much faster. A burst of green magic erupted from Loki’s free hand, slamming into Barton and pinning him forcefully against the metal railing.

Loki stepped up to the struggling archer. He pressed the glowing tip of the scepter directly against Barton’s chest.

"You have heart," Loki whispered, his voice dangerously soft.

The blue cosmic energy spread from the weapon into the archer’s body. Barton went completely rigid. The fight drained out of him instantly. His eyes turned pitch black for a terrifying second before settling into a glowing, icy blue. He lowered his bow and stood at perfect attention, waiting for a command.

Loki smiled in deep satisfaction. He turned back around.

Fury was already back on his feet, his enhanced body shrugging off the heavy kick. He raised his gun, but Loki closed the gap in a blur of green and gold. The god knocked the weapon away and lunged forward.

"Now for you," Loki sneered. "You were impressive for a mortal, but still totally inadequate."

He tapped the glowing tip of the scepter firmly against the center of Fury’s chest, expecting the man’s mind to crumble and submit.

Instead, the room exploded in golden light.

Before the blue cosmic energy could even enter Fury’s body, a hidden pendant beneath his dark shirt ignited. Ancient runes flared blindingly bright through the fabric.

A massive, concussive magical shockwave detonated outward from Fury’s chest. It hit Loki like a solid wall of moving concrete. Loki had no time to react. The force lifted the Asgardian completely off his feet and threw him violently backward through the air. Loki crashed hard into a thick bank of computer servers, shattering the electronics in a shower of sparks and twisted metal.

Fury staggered but stayed upright. He touched the pendant hidden under his shirt. It was warm, but the magic was fading. The protection was a one shot failsafe, and it had completely spent itself.

But it had worked.

"Getting this from Hayes was worth the effort," Fury said, calmly straightening his jacket. "What do you think, Loki? How does Earth’s magic compare to Asgard’s?"