Marvel MK: CH 164 – Loki’s Mind

In the command center of the Helicarrier, Captain America, Natasha Romanoff, and Bruce Banner were still processing Jack’s cryptic answer.

“He’s helping, right?” Steve asked, an uncertain edge to his voice.

“Hey, of course I am!” Jack’s voice cut through the tension. He pointed a half-eaten donut across the room. “That man is playing Galaga. He thinks we don’t see him, but we do.”

The agent in question froze, his face a mask of pure, busted guilt.

Scott Summers sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Okay, but we have a context clue. One of your agents, codenamed Hawkeye, raided a secure facility for iridium.”

Banner’s head snapped up. “Iridium?”

“He needs it for something,” Hank McCoy added, stepping forward. “Something within the mechanics of using the Tesseract.”

Just then, the doors to the command center slid open. Nick Fury walked in, and behind him were Tony Stark, Jean Grey, and Professor Xavier.

“Ughh, someone turn off the lights,” Jack groaned dramatically. “The glare bouncing off these two bald heads is too much.”

Nick was not amused. Tony, however, let out a snort of laughter.

Hank’s eyes widened, the pieces clicking into place. “It’s a stabilizing agent.”

“There’s a secret organization called ‘Stabilizing’?” Jack asked, genuinely curious.

The joke did not amuse the crowd.

“That’s right,” Tony said, striding into the room. “It means he’s building another portal. A portal that won’t collapse on itself, like it did at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base.”

“It’s going to stay open as long as Loki wants,” Hank finished, his expression grim.

Tony snapped his fingers. “Thank you! Took the exposition right out of my mouth.” He walked to the main command deck, which had screens on both sides, and closed his left eye. “How do you even see with these?”

“I turn,” Fury said, his tone flat.

“Exhausting.” Tony tapped the control panel. “The point is, Loki used Agent Barton to grab the material he needs. He used that wind god, what’s his name…” He snapped his fingers a couple of times, trying to remember.

“Susanoo,” Jack supplied helpfully.

Tony snapped his fingers again. “He used Susanoo to sow chaos around the world. But you know what he doesn’t have?”

“A big dick and hoes,” Jack said with a completely straight face.

“A power source,” Tony corrected, not missing a beat. “Of high energy density. Something to kickstart the Cube.”

Maria Hill, who had been listening from a nearby console, spoke up. “When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?”

“Last night, give or take,” Tony said with a shrug. “The Selvig Theory.”

“Is Loki going to need any particular kind of power source?” Steve asked.

“He’d have to heat the Cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier,” Banner explained.

“Unless,” Tony said, a thoughtful look on his face, “Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect.”

“Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet,” Banner mused.

“Finally!” Tony exclaimed. “Someone who speaks English.” He walked over and shook both Hank and Banner’s hands. “It’s good to finally meet you, Dr. Hank, Dr. Banner.”

“Dr. Banner is here to help us track the Cube,” Fury interjected. “I was hoping you would help him. And I also hope for Dr. McCoy’s help, too.”

“How about that spear of his?” Scott asked suddenly. “It kind of looks like that stick the Alfar used for making Christmas gifts.”

Steve looked at him, utterly confused. “Christmas?”

“Never mind,” Scott said quickly.

“No, we could start there,” Steve said, ever the strategist. He then turned to Xavier. “Professor Xavier, I’ve read your file. You can read minds. What did you find on Loki?”

Xavier’s expression was grave. “That’s what is concerning. He has a powerful mental barrier around himself. I will need Jack’s help to do it.”

They all looked at Jack. He was in the middle of licking the powdered sugar off his fingers. He saw them all staring and let out a long, theatrical sigh.

“Fine.”

…

🎶They see me rollin'... they hatin'...🎶

The distinct, looping beat of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’” echoed through the sterile corridors of the Helicarrier. Professor Xavier, a faint blush of embarrassment on his cheeks, rolled his wheelchair forward. Beside him, Jack Hou walked with a casual bounce in his step, holding a phone aloft like a boombox from a bygone era.

“Kekeke, no need to be embarrassed, Professor,” Jack said cheerfully. “It’s a good intimidation technique.”

“Do you have to, though?” Xavier asked, his voice a low, pained murmur.

“If you don’t need my help, then I can stop.”

“It’s too late for that,” Xavier conceded with a sigh.

They came to a stop before Loki’s glass cage. Jack silenced the music. “Hello, Odin’s adopted son.”

Loki’s eye twitched. He turned, a slow, condescending smile spreading across his face. “Jack Hou. The monkey god who sides with mortals. How are your clones?”

“Your attempt at stalking doesn’t bother me at all,” Jack said with a dismissive wave. “After all, I know all about you.”

“Do you?” Loki purred, his smile widening. “Or are you jesting, like the jester that you are?”

“Oof, the bastard laughing at the jester like he sits on the throne,” Jack retorted. “I would rather shit myself on a date than be you. Kekeke.”

Loki’s eye twitched again, his smile held in place by sheer force of will.

Jack then placed a hand on each side of Xavier’s bald head. “Now, be a good bastard and stand still.”

Xavier put two fingers to his right temple and closed his eyes, his powerful mind reaching out, beginning its slow, careful descent into the labyrinth of Loki’s thoughts.

…

In the Helicarrier’s main lab, a symphony of genius was in full swing. Tony, Hank, and Banner moved around the central console, their minds a whirlwind of theories and calculations as they worked to track the Tesseract’s energy signature.

“Dr. Banner,” Hank began, his tone one of academic curiosity, “I have a theory on your ‘other side.’ As soon as I got the information on the Harlem destruction, I compiled every piece of data I could get. I have several ideas.”

Banner looked up from his monitor, a small, weary smile on his face. “Well… it’s not really under my control. Unlike you, mine was born from gamma radiation.”

“You should come by Stark Tower sometime,” Tony interjected, not looking up from his own screen. “Top ten floors, all R&D. You’ll love it. It’s a candy land.”

“Our labs are quite sufficient,” Hank said, a note of pride in his voice. “But hey, we’re not competing.”

Tony’s head snapped up, a competitive glint in his eyes. “Oh, now we are. Say something you have that you think I don’t.”

…

While the scientists were locked in their friendly intellectual battle, a quieter conversation was taking place in the command center.

“How long have you known Jack Hou?” Steve asked, his gaze fixed on the quiet, empty feed from Loki’s cell.

Scott and Jean looked at each other. “He came to the school one day, acting like a missionary and teasing Teacher Logan,” Scott explained.

“He also helped me with my power,” Jean added, her voice a soft, grateful thing. “For a while, I couldn’t even control it. Now, I can control it a bit.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Scott said, his own voice softening. “You worked hard.”

Jean smiled. “He means well,” she continued, turning her attention back to Steve. “He’s unpredictable at times, but he’s one of the gentlest people I’ve ever known.”

Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff, who had been listening from the main console, exchanged a look. It was a silent, professional, and utterly incredulous expression. The man who had toppled governments with a single peach tree, the chaos agent who had made the world’s intelligence agencies look like fools… gentle? The word did not compute.

…

The world inside Loki's mind was a swirling, colorless fog. It was a place of quiet, oppressive gray, a stark contrast to the vibrant, chaotic world of Jack Hou's own soul.

Xavier and Jack stood in the mist, their physical forms rendered as psychic projections.

"Oh, god, it's a miracle!" Jack shouted, his voice echoing in the stillness. He pointed a dramatic finger at Xavier. "You can stand! Oh, thank you, Odin, Zeus, and Shiva!"

Xavier, who was indeed standing, let out a long, weary sigh. "It's just the mind, Jack. Focus."

"Oh, yeah," Jack said, looking around. "So, this is what you saw before?"

"Yes, just like this," Xavier confirmed. "It's just his surface thoughts. Usually, I can just pass through this without materializing, but somehow he's forcing me to be here."

"Hmmm, it's quite tricky, huh?"

"He is the God of Mischief," Xavier pointed out. "I suspect this has something to do with Norse myth, some trick he's using."

"It's all just fog," Jack observed.

"Let's take a walk," Xavier suggested. "We should find something."

"Oh, I know!" Jack said, his eyes lighting up. "Let's split up!"

"No," Xavier said firmly. "We stick together."

"Okayyy…"

They began to walk through the endless gray mist.

"Are there Zeus and Shiva, too?" Xavier asked, his voice a low, curious thing.

Jack shot him a sideways glance. "Are you scared of them?"

Xavier just looked at him, his silence a more potent answer than any word.

"No need to worry," Jack said, his tone softening for a fraction of a second. "It's not the time to worry about other pantheons. There's someone keeping them in check."

"Is that someone you?"

"Oh, no, no," Jack said with a dismissive wave. "It's my sworn brother. And he will not let us down."

As they walked, Jack saw that Xavier still looked worried. He let out a long, theatrical sigh. "Okay… fine. What's bothering you?"

"Do you think it's better to be dead, and to which death god?" Xavier asked, his voice a quiet, philosophical murmur.

"Are you suicidal, Professor?"

"It's not about me," Xavier said, his gaze distant. "It's about…"

"It's about Lorna Dane and Warren Worthington III, isn't it?" Jack cut him off. "Are you giving up?"

"They are tortured," Xavier said, his voice laced with a deep, aching guilt. "To live without growth."

"Death is not as scary as you think," Jack said, his tone surprisingly gentle. "Most of them are just obsessed with their paperwork, anyway. But to assure you, they are not being tortured. They didn't grow, but they are okay. Soon, they will be awake."

Xavier looked at him, a flicker of hope in his old eyes. "Let's hope so." He then saw something in the distance, a dark shape against the gray. "There."

As they drew closer, they were faced with a giant, black stone, its surface etched with glowing green runes. In the center, a single, larger rune pulsed with a dark, ancient power.

"Bingo," Jack said, his grin returning. "Kekeke."

"What is this?" Xavier asked.

"The gate."

Jack touched the giant, rune-etched stone. The moment his fingers made contact, the ground began to shake, a low, guttural rumble that seemed to emanate from the very heart of Loki’s mind.

“Jack!” Xavier’s voice was sharp with alarm. “There’s something else.”

Jack turned. The grey fog around them was no longer empty. It swirled and solidified, forming the ghostly, silent ranks of an Asgardian army. They were a tide of spectral steel and horned helmets, their phantom eyes fixed on them, their phantom weapons raised. They began to charge.

“Don’t worry,” Jack said, a wild grin spreading across his face. “It’s just an illusion from his mind.” He turned back to the stone. “Hold them off. I need time to decrypt the rune.”

“What?” Xavier asked, stunned.

But Jack had already pressed both hands to the stone, his eyes closed, his focus absolute. Xavier turned, his back to Jack, and raised his hands. Minds, be they real or illusion, were his domain. He was a grand conductor of a phantom orchestra, and this was his symphony.

The ground of Loki’s mind cracked and split under his command, swallowing the first wave of charging soldiers. He reached into the surface thoughts of the illusion, grabbing the phantom soldiers’ own fears and turning them into weapons. A spectral warrior suddenly saw not Xavier, but a monstrous fire giant, and spun, his phantom axe cleaving through his own comrades. Xavier was a master, turning the illusion back on itself, a puppeteer pulling the strings of a nightmare.

But they just kept coming. For every soldier he turned, for every chasm he opened, a dozen more materialized from the fog. The sheer, overwhelming force of Loki’s disciplined, militaristic mind was a relentless tide. Xavier could feel the strain, a psychic pressure building behind his eyes. He was holding back an ocean with a teacup.

“Jack, hurry up!” he grunted, the effort now a visible tremor in his hands.

Jack’s eyes snapped open. “Jie Suo Fa!” he roared, the Lock-Breaking Spell a bolt of pure, chaotic energy that shot from his palms. The massive stone cracked, a web of glowing green fissures spreading across its surface before it split open, revealing a swirling, black vortex within.

“Let’s go!” Jack yelled. “Suck on that, you bastard!”

Xavier saw the armies pushing in, their phantom blades just inches away. With a final, desperate push of his will, he threw himself and Jack toward the gate. They leaped into the darkness.

They landed hard, the world a disorienting lurch. Xavier groaned, pushing himself up.

“Look,” Jack said, offering him a hand.

Xavier stood, and his breath caught in his throat. They were in New York. Or a nightmarish, apocalyptic version of it.

“Where are we?” Xavier whispered.

“In his core mind,” Jack explained, his voice grim. “What you see is Loki’s plan.”

The sky was not just dark; it was a black, suffocating void, the unmistakable presence of Amatsu. From this void, a rain of shrieking, dark creatures—Oni, Shinma, and other horrors from Yomi—fell upon the city. But that was not the worst of it.

Over the distant, familiar silhouette of the Xavier Mansion, a massive, swirling portal tore open the sky. From it, a Chitauri Leviathan, a grotesque fusion of ribbed metal and alien flesh, emerged, followed by a swarm of chittering Chitauri soldiers. Then another Leviathan. And another.

The very fabric of the sky seemed to crumble, the buildings of New York leaning against each other like tired, dying giants.

“That is Amatsu,” Jack said, pointing to the black void. “A slimy void that is quite hard to catch. And those black creatures are residents of Yomi. They will bring death to the surface of the world.” He then pointed to the portal above the mansion. “And that… that is the only plan I know. The portal opens to let the Chitauri in. But it seems he has his eyes on your mansion. Do you have a powerful energy source there to help him open the Tesseract?”

Xavier’s face went pale. “Moira…” he breathed, the realization a cold, hard knot in his stomach. “She was making a plasma reactor. From Bolivar Trask’s papers on the Sentinels.”

“Well,” Jack said, his tone grim, “at least we know where to go now.” He looked at the impossible, horrifying scale of the attack, at the convergence of three separate, world-ending threats. He had expected Loki to be a problem. But his own presence, his own chaotic, world-bending existence… it had turned a simple invasion into a full-blown apocalypse.