Chapter 282: Streets of New York
11th February 2013, Sayre Manor
(Loki Odinson POV)
Loki’s eyes, who were tearing up were replaced with steel. His anger was not as maddening as it used to be towards Thor. No, it was cold, calculating. It felt right. He was never the explosive kind. He planned and manipulated to get what he wants and right now, he wants to wipe these Shadows from existence.
The Morrigan spoke once more, “This is the last chance you have to free yourself completely from the Shadows’ control. The last Thor had dealt them a grievous blow, and now, even their Seers are useless. We will never have a better chance at this.”
Thor interrupted him before he could answer, “Are we just going to trust him, after all he has done?”
“Trust my rage, brother. I am no one’s puppet. No one dictates my actions.” The God of Mischief then turned to the witch and gave her a very dangerous smile, “What do you need me to do?”
The woman returned his smile, “I have a plan that you will be perfect for.”
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3rd March 2013, New York City
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
After a long day of training with Loki and Thor, I decided to take a small break and just take a walk in the city. I haven’t done anything unrelated to training for months, and I needed to relax for a while.
Looking back to my two students, I have to say that I am happy with their progress. Thor was becoming an unparalleled warrior even without his hammer. His new connection to the Odinforce had magnified his already powerful magical might, and he had spent the past few weeks relearning how to control his powers once more.
Currently, he was starting to learn how to delicately control wind and storms, after he finally learnt how to use thunder creatively.
Loki, on the other hand, came to his own when it came to his illusion, and he was finally starting to unravel his true potential. His inner madness was distracted by his dedication in fighting the Shadows who had planned to make his life miserable. Sure, I played him like a fiddle, leading him around to helping me and Odin in freeing Asgard, but I didn’t lie to him. He truly suffered at the hand of the Shadows, and he would only be truly free once they’re gone.
It was for his benefit that I turned the seed of rage and madness towards an enemy. The Shadows worked very hard in creating an enemy of Asgard even should their control wane, and I was slowly turning his hatred towards them. I couldn’t just undo what happened to him with a snap of my fingers. His madness was born out of compulsions that were centuries in the making that were accentuated by a proximity to the Mind Stone.
The Shadows slowly worked on his jealousy, stopped him from believing in himself and with it prevented him from achieving his true potential. They did not control him as much as they slowly manipulated his mind. It was too engrained to his being and removing them would just kill him. He needed centuries of experience to undo what happened to him. In the end, time will heal him, and his mental scars will fade.
The Jotun was proving himself to be a very good student. From him, I learnt how his usage of the Odinforce worked. It was far wilder, more primal than Midgardian magics. It reminded me slightly of Cosmic energy, but after being processed somehow. From my theory that all mystical energy in this universe originated from cosmic energy, I could deduce that the Odinforce was probably the leftover energy that remained after the cycle of Ragnarök. The energy, which is currently being hijacked by the Shadows, should power the expansion of the universe, but the cycle can have some leftover energy after its role is finished, which would be the Odinforce.
The Shadows probably don’t drain it dry because they often use Odin as a pawn in their little puppet show and without the Odinforce, Odin’s control is flimsy at best. Although, they’re obviously limiting him. Considering the tales I heard from the last Thor of his war with heaven, Odin was far stronger in the past.
In the end Energy was Energy and I was good enough with mine to teach Loki. The principles of manipulating energy were very similar, after all. The God of Mischief excelled at all transforming magics and mental magics. Illusions concerning sight, hearing, smell, touch or even the mind were as easy as breathing to him. He excelled at transfiguration, conjuration, even with animals.
He could create physical magical constructs at will. Even his ice magic was very precise, very controlled. He was becoming a powerful man under my tutelage, but he suffered immensely when it came to enchantments and charms. For some reason, they were often brittle, and his power just wouldn’t shape to do them properly, so he relied on outside sources, like Golden Apples to do them, something that Odin didn’t give on a whim.
For some reason, any element other than ice just didn’t work for him, outside of light, believe it or not. He was using it subtly with his illusions and constructs. I started to teach him how to control the very powerful element, but the progress was slow, which frustrated the two of us.
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I think that I might've taught him this element just because he reminded me slightly of Rose. Not the personality, of course, but their magics were just so similar.
My mood dipped at the thought of my sister. I could understand her pain, I really did. She was probably irrational because of her brother’s death. Love was irrational in general, and Rose loved Nathan. She was confused with her love for him and his betrayal of her. With my involvement in the whole thing, she just wanted some space.
I could understand her frustration at my lack of grief for Nathan, even for her sake. But if I grieved for every single relative of everyone I met in my long life, I would have spent thousands of years of my life grieving. For now, I am leaving her on her own to grieve, and so I scrapped any plan involving her in the future until she decides to stop wallowing in her grief with her parents or gets past it and returns to her apprenticeship.
I will admit that I am very angry at the fact that she just left me after I helped her so much. Perhaps, she wasn’t ready to undertake a mission on the scale of the Court of Shadows. Perhaps, I just expected too much from her. But damn, I have taught her magics that no one in this world knows except for me, an opportunity that every single mage would kill for, and she just left me with such ungrateful words. They might be rash words of anger and grief, but they did hurt.
Shaking my head, I chose not to think about my sister anymore. It wouldn’t help at all. Instead, I focused on the streets of New York. It was odd how I came to recognize this city as my home. I could walk anywhere in the world, and yet I always choose here. Funnily enough, it was a city with a very high crime rate and was some sort of beacon to mad scientists and supervillains. I didn’t even know why they chose to remain in the city after they got their powers, or discount super suits. They’re literally in walking distance from the Avengers Tower. If they end up presenting too much danger to the public, Earth’s mightiest heroes would just take them down in minutes.
With SHIELD’s implosion, a lot of the unwilling superpowered former criminals that they employed just disappeared into thin air for a couple of weeks, after which they all returned to their old ways. They seemed to be organized though, far more than they used to be. They only appeared to cause distractions and property damage, while other crimes were occurring. My suspicion was that Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, hired them.
In other news, Oscorp was going hard into incorporating leftover alien technology in their designs. Norman Osborn dedicated various departments into figuring out how that technology worked, and it was paying off, on the surface, that is. From the man’s reputation, he had to have used some unsavory means to get any success. Anyway, the businessman said he had plans to recreate the Chitauri energy cores and give New York completely clean energy at a lower price than it currently was. It was an indirect insult to Tony Stark who had done nothing with his infamous Arc Reactor.
Honestly, with the alien invasion, whatever misgivings he had to not share his arc reactor in fear of it being weaponized went out of the window. Although, funnily enough, I knew how expensive such an undertaking could be. Tony would never be able to synthesize his personal element on a large scale, considering that it needs a particle accelerator to do so, which means that he would have to use palladium to do it, which is very rare and expensive. A world powered by Arc Reactors was just unfeasible, which is why Stark Industries have been trying to find alternate ways to do so.
Still, Osborn and Stark going at it is not a good thing for everyone. Sure, Stark can be a bit arrogant and can make foolish decisions, but Osborn was just an asshole who only wanted to make a profit. Which is why I’m pretty sure that most of the weaponized Chitauri tech around came from him, one way or another. It’s very likely that the man was preparing for a deal with the military soon, with Stark and Hammer out of the picture.
Which is why the streets of New York started to get overrun by crooks with super suits, with a new one appearing every week or so. And with that rise in crime, vigilantes started working a lot more. Surprisingly, Spider-Man was one of the most successful ones out there. The kid was barely fifteen and he had a hand in lowering crime more than the entire New York Police Department.
It was just embarrassing, especially because the NYPD still hasn’t made a specialized task force to deal with the rise of supervillains in the city. I didn’t understand why Oscorp didn’t double deal, they could get a lot of money from both sides. The only reason I could come up with would be because Fisk stopped them from doing it, or there was a stipulation by the army for them not to make any deals to any other groups.
Ironically, Spider-Man was cleaning up the streets and everyone was glad he was doing it. Although, I wonder what they would think if they knew his true age. Fortunately for the kid, the suit I made him was almost indestructible, something that he really needed considering the rise in crime that was happening. Parker didn’t have to go to school half dead with bruises and injuries, anymore. No kid his age should worry about it, but Parker was just very guilty because of what happened to his uncle and his role in his death. He wouldn’t listen to anyone about stopping; it was his way of honoring the man who raised him as his own son.
My thoughts were interrupted by a large explosion. I turned and saw that Spider-Man was fighting Rhino, a man in a mechanized rhinoceros suit. I didn’t understand the role of the horn outside of esthetic reasons. I just shrugged; it was probably some New York weirdness.
The kid seemed to be struggling. Rhino had just grabbed him and threw him towards a parked car. He dodged the incoming fist by webbing away, before attempting to blind the cameras involved by webbing them too.
He seemed to have missed at least one, because Rhino decided to run towards the teenager. The kid should be able to handle it, but I guess I could subtly help him. I did owe him one with the whole thing with Fury’s goons. Nodding to myself, I decided to act.
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