29 Preparation
That night, along with agents from SHIELD, I landed on the roof of Sage Towers in New York.
Getting out of the Quinjet, I dial Fury.
"Hey, I'm going to track the Tesseract from the ground, use my tech in New York. What's the situation on the Helicarrier?"
"We got Loki in confinement, but it seems he wants to be here. Thor says that Loki has an army called the Chitauri from outer space backing him up and waiting for him to open up a portal like he did in SHIELD. Only this one, he needs iridium isotopes to stabilise the gate.
Problem is, he got Burton to steal and Selvig to process the Iridium isotope from Germany, those guys are still missing, so is the cube. I have Dr Banner currently looking for the gamma signature released by the tesseract, while I need you to find out how he can use it to open up a portal. Talk to Stark, he has the details." Came Fury's voice from the phone.
.
So, I set up shop in the Towers, and start tracking the Tesseract.
"Great Sage, where exactly is it at the moment."
{The Tesseract is currently En route to Manhattan. It should take a few hours by the time it gets here. So, about tomorrow morning.}
"Nice, gives me just enough time to deal with the stuff around here."
Sitting back on a sofa, I lean back, kick my legs up on the hand rest and video call Lily.
"Hey honey, how are you doing there? Enjoying Seychelles?" I ask
"Oh, you wouldn't believe it. It's the best, the spa is wonderful, the beaches filled with white sand, its wonderful. Emily loves it as well. Wish you were here though. She misses you.
How's the situation at your end?" came her reply from the screen.
"Its fine for now, though it's going to get really busy, a storm's coming. Anyways, I left a few coupons, along with my credit card. Go shopping with Emily, blow off some steam, I'll come and enjoy with you guys right after work here is done. Bye"
Hanging up the phone, I sit up on the sofa and wave my hand in the air.
"Great Sage, bring up the map of Manhattan.
Hmm.
Ok.
Update on Project BEHEMOTH."
{Of course, 7 bigger units currently functioning, 52 units in total ready to use. Do you want to start them up?}
"Keep them on standby, deploy when I give the signal.
Okay, I'm going out now. Take care of the building. Deploy the energy shields."
Saying so, I create a portal and jump through.
Landing in Harlem, I place down a 10-meter-tall black obelisk craved with numerous runes all over its body in a secluded area. Pushing it into the ground, the 10 meter obelisk now looked almost 3 meters tall.
Opening up another portal, I repeatedly placed similar obelisks in various locations on the outskirts of Manhattan, such as National Museum south of New York, one at Chelsea Piers, Gantry Plaza and numerous others.
In total, 12 such obelisks could be found appearing around New York overnight, causing a bit of commotion.
Teleporting back to my room in the sage towers, I sit cross legged on the bed, closing my eyes and activating the two replica infinity stone around my neck.
Blue and green glow emitting from my body covers the whole room, making it look ethereal and calm.
With me as the centre, a huge magic circle, runes written and glowing blue green, appeared. The circle kept expanding as it started to rise up into the air, slowly turning invisible.
Concentrating and commanding such a huge magic circle would have been impossible for any regular wizard, but for me, it was a piece of cake.
As the circle raised above the Sage Towers, it spread until it collided with similar circles emitted from the black obelisks around.
The whole process took about an hour to complete. But by the end of the hour, an invisible magic circle of 5-6 km diameter, hovered a couple of hundred feet in the air, looking a bit like an umbrella covering most of Manhattan.
Opening my eyes on my bed, the glow from the replica space and time stone dims, until they are retracted back into my body.
"Phew, that's done. Now all I have to do is wait for tomorrow to come."
.
.
Morning.
Waking up and getting changed into my self-made fabric clothes, I get myself a cup of coffee.
Walking up to the balcony and sipping on the coffee, enjoying the bittersweet taste, I pick up my phone and dial.
"Hey, Fury, by any chance, Loki escape from the ship in a jet?" I ask.
"Yeah, made a mess escaping. Wait how do you know, our communications are down." He asked, surprise filling his face.
"Well, I can see him, Selvig, a few other agents and some weird machine outside my window. Ah wait, I found the Tesseract. Its right in front of my window." I tell him, adding in a bit of 'surprised' discovery.
"WHAT. What is your location, I believe Stark and the others found him as well, they should be following him from a distance." He asked, disbelief in his voice.
"Ah, that's simple, Loki is at Stark Tower, my guess is that he plans to use the Arc reactor from the building to power up the Cube.
Wait hold on, let me call Tony, I'll get him to turn the reactor off." I say, still relaxed, sipping on the hot coffee.
Disconnecting and dialling Tony, the phone gets picked up after a few rings.
"Lucifer, kinda busy at the moment, can I call you back in like a few hours." Tony's distracted voice came from the speakers along with sounds from his propulsion system on the Iron Man armor.
"Yeah, well, calling to let you that Loki is planning to use the Arc reactor from your building to power the cube, might wanna shut it down.
Ah wait, it seems it's a bit too late, he started it."
"Yeah, I know, I just asked JARVIS to do the same, and got the same response. Wait, how do you know Loki?" asked Tony, confused.
"Ah, well, I kinda forgot to mention, I'm also a consultant to SHIELD, and was tracking the Tesseract since yesterday after it was stolen, and then just now, I saw Loki flying in to your tower and setting up the machine. I figured out his plan and called you to shut off the power, but I guess I was too late huh." I respond calmly, as if talking about random stuff and not about an extra-terrestrial invasion about to happen.
"Wait, so you knew about all this, for how long? You know what, we'll talk later, I have to stop this son of a bitch. B-Bye"
*Click*
Hanging up the phone, I finish the coffee, and place the cup down.
Waving my hands around with green mist enveloping them, I whip them out.
A burst of green travels around the island of Manhattan, drifting into the air, and seeping into every corner of the bustling city.
One by one, the green mist enters through the noses of all the inhabitants of the city unknowingly, travelling through their bloodstream, and diffusing into their brains.
"Alright, the stage is set. All that remains is the final battle." I say, rubbing my hands together, as a maniacal smile finds its way on my face, which along with the now floating white hair and blood red eyes, could even frighten the toughest of the tough.
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