Loki Captured

Tony Stark and Black Widow Natasha had had enough. Watching Loki use S.H.I.E.L.D.’s robots to slaughter people wantonly had long since filled them with fury. They swore to make Loki pay.

Seeing two somewhat heavyweight figures arrive, Loki finally nodded in satisfaction. He had played enough; it was time to prepare to be captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. He still had his own plan to carry out and could not keep wasting time here.

"Loki, surrender!"

Tony Stark swiftly flew over and spoke to Loki in an icy tone.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Rat-a-tat-tat…

The moment Iron Man Tony Stark appeared, before Loki could even attack or speak, the hovering intelligent robots crazily launched an assault on Tony.

Bullets struck Iron Man’s body with a series of clanks and thuds, making Tony stagger.

"These are nothing but trash!" Tony snapped. Several missiles shot down the remaining robots, and he looked at Loki with utter disdain.

"???"

Loki looked utterly bewildered.

What did that have to do with him?

He had clearly done nothing!

Neither Tony nor Loki knew that, inside a nearby S.H.I.E.L.D. base, Ivan Vanko sat with a toothpick in his mouth, staring at the computer screen with an unhappy expression.

He had provided the technology for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s robot army. At the same time, he had joined the Avengers under the name Whiplash. Although S.H.I.E.L.D. controlled the robot army, he had installed a backdoor long ago, allowing him to control the robots with ease.

The reason those remaining robots had attacked Tony Stark was because Ivan Vanko had controlled them.

The only thing Ivan Vanko wanted to do now was kill Tony Stark. That was why he had joined S.H.I.E.L.D., even the Avengers.

He had always been looking for an opportunity, and Loki’s appearance was undoubtedly an excellent one.

As for controlling those robots to attack Tony, he had merely wanted to vent a little and disgust Tony. That had only been an appetizer.

Watching Tony destroy all the robots, Ivan Vanko’s expression did not change. He put on the Whiplash Armor he had forged and headed outside.

He had no intention of helping capture Loki. He planned to go straight to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier. Hadn’t Nick Fury said the Avengers were assembling?

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

As for Tony, he thought Loki had taken control of the robots.

"Fine. Is there no one else?"

Loki curled his lip and looked at the two of them with disdain.

He was wondering how they could "defeat" him later in a way that looked natural rather than staged.

If it looked too fake, would these people refuse to believe it?

"Why waste words on him? Let’s fight!"

Looking at the miserable scene around them, Tony spoke coldly. The moment he finished, he launched an attack at Loki.

Unfortunately, Loki remained standing where he was with a smile on his face, showing no concern whatsoever for the missile flying toward him.

Sure enough, the missile passed straight through his body without causing him any harm.

An illusion.

"Use infrared imaging."

Black Widow immediately found a solution. She told Tony through their internal comms, then activated thermal imaging herself. It instantly broke Loki’s illusion magic. From her perspective, the many Lokis on the ground were exposed for what they were—none had any body temperature. Instead, in an "empty" corner, someone was sitting on a small stool watching the show.

Without another word, Black Widow Natasha fired a shot at that empty corner.

"Ow!"

Loki, still watching the show, had no idea his position had been exposed. Facing the incoming missile, he did not have time to dodge. The blast struck him solidly, knocking him face-first into the ground.

All the illusions he had created vanished as well.

Loki was stunned. Had Black Widow guessed the right spot?

Thermal imaging was not some advanced technology, but Loki clearly knew nothing about it. He looked suspiciously at Black Widow in the sky, inwardly cursing his bad luck.

"Hmph, I refuse to believe you’re that lucky!"

Loki refused to accept it. He activated his illusion magic again and vanished from where he stood. At the same time, another group of Lokis appeared, each holding Thor’s Spear and staring solemnly at Tony and Natasha in the sky.

His real body, meanwhile, turned invisible and carried his little stool farther away. These days, even sitting on a stool and watching the show was dangerous.

However, Loki did not know that every move he made was plainly visible to Natasha and Tony. To them, he looked utterly ridiculous.

"He doesn’t know we’ve seen through his magic. When he lets his guard down, attack him directly."

Natasha said to Tony over the channel, "But before that, pretend we don’t know where he is and attack those fake illusions a little."

With her wealth of combat experience, she would not miss such a good opportunity.

"Do you really need to tell me that?"

Tony gave a smug laugh. He instantly understood Black Widow’s plan, though he still stubbornly replied that way.

Still, Tony’s body was honest. He obediently followed Black Widow’s arrangement and launched a feigned attack on Loki’s illusions alongside her.

That put Loki at ease, and he found another safe spot to sit down and watch.

However, Loki did not notice that as Tony and Black Widow fought the illusions, they were getting closer and closer to his actual position.

"Now!"

Once they were within effective range, Black Widow shouted and fired several restraints toward Loki. They could release electric currents to limit an enemy’s movements.

Tony had also been charging up for some time. With his palms aimed at Loki, he fired an energy blast from each hand.

"Motherfucker! A sneak attack!!"

Caught off guard, Loki stared blankly as the energy blasts struck him. The next moment, agonizing pain surged through him, leaving Loki seriously injured.

It was a case of one thing countering another. Loki’s illusion magic could easily toy with Ivan Vanko’s robot army, yet simple infrared thermal imaging had effortlessly broken his magic.

And because the arrogant Loki had been careless for a moment, two blasts had subdued him outright.

Although Loki still had many tricks up his sleeve, he could only stare helplessly now. In his misery, he had no way to use them.

"Cough, cough… You two!"

Loki clutched his stomach in pain. After taking an energy blast, his entire body ached. He could only watch as Natasha picked up Thor’s Spear, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Behave yourself! It’s time for you to face judgment!"

Tony walked up to Loki, kicked him irritably, then grabbed him by the collar and prepared to take him straight back to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier.

The Tesseract still had not been found. They could not let their guard down!