Loki Has Arrived

Time passed faster and faster.

In the blink of an eye, six months had passed, and it was now early 2012.

Leo had vanished from everyone's sight.

Even Tony Stark had begun to worry, and he had even considered charging into Wakanda.

But then he remembered what Leo had told him before.

"Mr. Stark, I'm not sure whether anything unexpected will happen this time, because these four months of training have completely exceeded my expectations."

"At the same time, I promised Aunt May that I would return for the New Year. If—if I haven't returned by then, please help stall them. Whatever you do, don't come to Wakanda. Promise me."

"Fine, but you'd better come back soon. I have plenty of ways to deal with young ladies, but when it comes to an aunt looking for her child, I really have no idea what to do."

Tony stared at Wakanda's marker on the map.

Satellite scan images of the site were displayed on the screen.

Yet there was nothing but forests and mountains, with no abnormalities at all.

Tony frowned deeply. "Leo, you'd better come back safely!!"

At Pegasus Base, the Tesseract's energy readings had recently become increasingly abnormal.

Dr. Erik continued faithfully recording the energy readings as he began preparing large-scale testing plans.

Every action gradually caused part of the Tesseract to awaken.

Because of the unusual situation, Hawkeye had been stationed at the base to monitor the Tesseract and Dr. Erik's activities.

Nick Fury had long known how terrifying the Tesseract's energy was, and he had always hoped that Dr. Erik would find a way to harness it.

More than ten days later, Tony Stark could no longer handle Jenny and her husband, so he simply brought them to his Malibu villa.

"You two, I'm just as anxious as you are that Leo hasn't returned. But could you stay here for now? The moment there's any news about Leo, I'll tell you. Please don't run around outside, all right?"

"Tony Stark, tell us where Leo went. We can go find him ourselves."

"The Earth is so big. Where would you even look? I guarantee Leo is fine. Trust me. And when he comes back, he'll definitely come here."

George pulled back the somewhat frantic Jenny. "Jenny, trust him this once. Didn't he show us all those recordings of Leo? Let's wait a few more days."

Tony hurriedly backed away as well. "It's very comfortable here. You can go out and have some fun. I'll cover the expenses. Leo will be back in a few days."

With that, he hastily put on his Iron Man Armor and flew away.

Jenny, Leo has grown up. Trust him!

"Mm. We'll wait a few more days."

Loki accepted the Mind Scepter from Thanos, and a strange energy silently invaded Loki's body.

It endlessly magnified the desires in his heart—his desire to become king.

Loki stroked the Mind Scepter in his hand and lightly swung it a few times.

The Tesseract, countless light-years away, released a powerful surge of energy.

This massive, unauthorized energy fluctuation drew serious attention.

Three hours later, Agent Coulson looked at the report in his hand and decisively issued the order for a full evacuation.

At the same time, Nick Fury hurried toward Pegasus Base with Agent Hill.

An hour later, the helicopter landed, and Coulson was already standing there, waiting for the two of them.

Nick Fury, dressed in a black trench coat, walked up to Coulson.

"How bad is it?"

"The worst part, sir, is that we don't know what's happening."

Coulson shouted over the powerful wind from the helicopter.

Nick Fury's gaze turned grave.

He quickly headed toward the laboratory.

Along the way, Coulson reported everything they knew to Director Fury.

"Four hours ago, the Tesseract emitted an unexplained burst of energy. It was triggered automatically without any authorization, and Dr. Erik wasn't even in the lab."

"What level is the energy at now?"

Director Fury asked.

"It's still rising. Once we confirmed that Dr. Erik couldn't shut it down, I gave the evacuation order."

"How long until everyone is out?"

"Another half hour, and the area will be cleared," Coulson answered.

"Speed it up."

Coulson left to continue accelerating the evacuation.

Hill and Nick Fury continued toward the laboratory.

Agent Hill spoke with some urgency.

"Sir, if we don't find a way to shut down the Tesseract, evacuating anywhere will be useless."

Nick Fury continued striding forward as he spoke.

"I need you to make sure the Phase 2 Prototype can be safely relocated."

"Sir, shouldn't that be the least of our priorities right now?!"

Fury suddenly turned back and spoke to Agent Hill with complete rationality.

"Unless the world is ending, life still has to go on. Inventory everything immediately and load all related equipment onto the trucks."

"Yes, sir."

Hill immediately went to carry out the director's orders.

Nick entered the underground testing ground. "What's going on, Doctor? Tell me the situation."

"The Tesseract is highly active, and it's doing whatever it wants."

"Did you try unplugging it?"

"Sir, it's an energy source itself. We shut off the power, and it turned itself back on."

The doctor explained the situation, and it looked extremely dire.

Fury lightly tapped his earpiece. "Agent Barton, where are you?"

"Did you see what activated it?"

Nick looked at Barton descending from above and asked directly.

"No one entered or left the lab. The doctor's clean—no contact, no messages."

Barton stood before the Tesseract with his arms crossed, pondering.

"If there's a problem, sir, it won't be on our side."

"Our side?"

"Yeah. The Tesseract is a door to the other side of the universe."

Agent Barton turned to look at Nick Fury. "This door should be able to open from both sides."

At that moment, the Tesseract erupted with violent energy, shaking the entire massive Pegasus Base.

On the surface, Agent Coulson and Agent Hill both frowned grimly and quickened their pace.

Everyone still in the laboratory looked toward the tiny cube at the center.

An immense amount of energy gathered around the blue Tesseract, slowly rotating and condensing.

Once it condensed to its limit, it fired a blue beam of light.

It struck the Energy Convergence Device twenty meters away, tearing open a Spatial Barrier.

It rapidly expanded, gathering into a sphere.

The next moment.

The energy sphere exploded. Pale blue energy spread outward, then gathered high in the air through the surrounding walls.

A figure holding a sharp blade appeared at the center of the explosion.

Four agents with rifles immediately surrounded him, their muzzles aimed at the figure in the center.

Nick Fury's single eye fixed on the figure. All he saw was a smile of ultimate evil.

Loki had arrived.