Don't Get Blood on the Cards, He's Still Alive

Helicarrier, detention level.

Amid the piercing alarms, Loki elegantly stepped out of his cell.

His plan had been perfect. Hulk had drawn away their strongest fighter, Hawkeye had crippled the systems, and now no one could stop him from leaving.

Except... that agent who looked like such a harmless nice guy.

Phil Coulson stood at the end of the corridor, panting as he held a massive Destroyer Prototype Gun larger than his upper body.

"Step back, Loki." Coulson's voice trembled slightly, but his gaze was resolute. "You know what this thing does."

"Oh, I know."

Loki stopped, a mocking smile on his face. "Can this thing kill me, mortal?"

"No, but it can hurt like hell." Coulson pulled the trigger's preheating switch, and the muzzle lit up with an orange glow.

But just then.

The air behind Coulson suddenly warped.

It was one of Loki's illusionary duplicates! The real Loki had long since circled behind him, the sharp tip of the Mind Scepter silently stabbing toward Coulson's back!

"Goodbye, Agent."

A cruel curve formed at Loki's lips. This strike would be his greatest mockery of these mortals.

"Pfft!"

That was the sound of a blade piercing... air?

Loki froze.

Something was wrong. There was no spray of blood, no scream.

Coulson, who should have been pierced through, vanished into thin air right before his eyes!

All that remained was a blue whirlwind that tousled Loki's long hair.

"What?"

Loki whipped around.

At the other end of the corridor, fifty meters away.

A blue-and-black alien leaned against the wall, one hand supporting the still-shaken Coulson while the other lazily spun the visor on his helmet.

"Kineceleran—XLR8!"

"If you want to kill someone, you'll have to move faster, reindeer baby."

Jiang Li's electronically distorted voice rang out in mockery. "Your arm movement was way too obvious. I saw it from the hangar next door."

"You again!!"

Loki completely lost it.

That damned transforming freak again!

The first time, he had stolen his Destroyer. The second time, he had blasted him with nuclear energy. And this third time... he even had to interfere when Loki was killing some insignificant grunt?!

"I'll kill you!" Loki raised his scepter, about to fire an energy blast.

"You want a fight? I'm game. But..."

Jiang Li pointed at the huge circular glass cage behind Loki. "Your brother seems to have something to say to you."

Loki turned around and saw Thor trapped inside the cage originally meant for Hulk, frantically hammering at the bulletproof glass.

"Loki!! No!!" Thor had witnessed the perilous scene just now, and he was furious and terrified in equal measure.

"Hmph."

Loki calmed down.

He knew he could not beat this absurdly fast guy, nor could he beat Thor inside the cage.

But he had a brain, and he still had one last card to play.

"I am a god. I won't stoop to arguing with barbarians like you."

Loki suddenly slammed a red button on the control panel and stared at Jiang Li with venomous eyes.

"You saved that mortal, but can you save your brother?"

"Crack!"

The floor beneath them suddenly opened.

The massive cage holding Thor instantly lost its support and plummeted from an altitude of ten thousand meters amid Thor's desperate roar!

"Thor!"

Jiang Li instinctively tried to rush out and save him.

But in that instant, Loki's scepter unleashed a powerful psychic shockwave. It did not hurt Jiang Li, but it slowed his movements slightly.

Then Loki leaped aboard the waiting Quinjet. Its cannons sprayed the corridor with fire, blocking Jiang Li's pursuit route.

"You got lucky and ran fast."

Jiang Li had no choice but to stop and shield Coulson from the flying shrapnel.

Thor was tough enough to survive the fall, but if no one looked after Coulson, a random stray bullet could finish him off.

The jet screamed away and vanished into the clouds.

Jiang Li canceled his transformation, helped Coulson up, and patted the old agent's face.

"Wake up, Phil. Stop playing dead. I know you're not hurt, just a little motion sick."

Coulson braced himself against the wall, his face pale as he looked at his completely uninjured chest. He gave a bitter smile. "If you could keep your speed below Mach 5... I'd appreciate it more."

Half an hour later.

Bridge conference room.

The atmosphere was stifling.

Tony Stark sat in a chair, looking exhausted.

Steve Rogers stood by the window, gazing at the clouds outside.

They had just suffered a crushing defeat. Hulk was missing, Thor had fallen, Loki had escaped, and even Hawkeye was nowhere to be found.

Nick Fury walked in holding a stack of vintage Captain America trading cards stained with blood.

He tossed the cards onto the table, his tone heavy with grief, even carrying a trace of a choked sob.

"These were found in Coulson's jacket."

"He always wanted you to sign one, Captain."

Fury's voice carried a tragically infectious weight. "We've lost a lot. The medical team did everything they could... Coulson's heart stopped twenty minutes ago."

Tony turned away, his eyes reddening as a massive wave of guilt rose within him.

Steve looked at those bloodstained cards and clenched his fists, his nails digging into his flesh.

"That's why we need a reason," Fury continued. "The Avengers... the idea was to bring a group of extraordinary people together and see if they could..."

"Enough, Nick. Aren't you done acting?"

A poorly timed, almost lazy voice interrupted Fury's emotional speech.

Jiang Li leaned against the doorway, holding a lollipop he had swiped from the infirmary. He unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth.

"Agent Coulson is currently lying in the intensive care ward, drinking glucose. The doctor said he was just badly frightened, had a mild concussion, and feels a little nauseous from my high-speed trip."

Jiang Li pointed at the stack of cards on the table.

"As for the blood... it was probably from when he hit his head earlier? Or maybe props you requisitioned from the blood bank?"

The entire room went silent.

All the grief instantly froze, then turned into stunned disbelief at being deceived.

Tony abruptly raised his head and glared at Fury, his eyes turning cold in an instant. "He's lying? Coulson isn't dead?"

Fury's single eye twitched, but he was the king of spies. Without blushing or missing a beat, he simply gathered up the cards.

"This is called a necessary... motivational measure. You were all scattered like loose sand. I needed to give you some drive."

"We don't need motivation built on lies!"

Steve rose angrily to his feet. The feeling of being played filled him with fury. "Someone's death might motivate us, but that would be a desecration of life! You're exploiting our feelings!"

"Alright, stop arguing."

Jiang Li walked over and slapped the table, making the stack of cards jump.

Coulson isn't dead. That's good news. But that doesn't mean we've won."

Jiang Li looked at Tony and Steve, his joking expression gone.

Loki got away. He has the Tesseract, an army, and a crazy plan to conquer Earth. He took a dump on our heads and tore this ship to pieces.

"If that isn't enough reason for you to strike back, then what is? Do you have to wait until someone really dies before you get serious?"

"A man's pride is sometimes more important than his life."

Tony fell silent.

A few seconds later, he stood up. His eyes sharpened with the confidence unique to Iron Man.

"Loki is an egomaniac," Tony suddenly said. "He wants to defeat us. He wants us to watch him be crowned. He needs an audience."

"Like Stuttgart?" Steve asked.

"No, bigger than that." Tony's thoughts began racing. "He doesn't just want us to see it. He wants the whole world to see it. He needs a monument, a skyscraper, and enough energy..."

Tony and Jiang Li exchanged a glance.

They said the name at the same time:

"Stark Tower."

"That bastard!" Tony cursed. "He wants to turn my building into his throne!"

"Not just a throne. A gateway."

Jiang Li added, "Stark Tower has an independent Arc Reactor power supply, enough to keep a massive portal open for a long time. He plans to bring the Chitauri army through."

"That's war." Steve drew a deep breath, and the aura of a commander returned to him.

He looked at Tony. "Stark, how long will you need to fix your armor?"

"Now that we know the target, there's no armor I can't fix." Tony strode out of the conference room. "I'm going to prepare the Mark 7. It was designed for war."

"I'll get Natasha. We need the best pilot." Steve looked at Jiang Li. "Are you coming too, Advisor?"

Jiang Li smiled.

He lowered his eyes to look at the Omnitrix.

After the rest just now, the Master Control Mode trial time had refreshed. Moreover, the system seemed to sense the coming large-scale spatial invasion and had entered an extremely active state of combat readiness.

"Of course."

Jiang Li walked to the window and looked at the faint blue light glowing in the direction of New York.

"How could I miss a show like this? After all..."

Jiang Li turned back and flashed a brilliant smile at Director Fury, whose expression had darkened.

"I haven't become a Captain yet, have I? This time, let S.H.I.E.L.D. see what a real 'Avenger' looks like."

New York, the top floor of Stark Tower.

Loki stood on the terrace, watching the controlled Dr. Erik Selvig activate the device.

A pure blue beam of energy shot into the sky, tearing open space ten thousand meters above.

The once-clear blue sky split apart, revealing a massive black void.

Countless armored Chitauri soldiers riding flying vehicles poured out of the wormhole like locusts, letting out bone-chilling howls!

The Battle of New York had officially begun.

And beneath the gaze of that sky-filling alien army.

A Quinjet carrying Earth's strongest force of resistance was racing toward them at full speed.