Chapter Fourteen: Studying the Scepter

“This way, the portal won’t collapse like S.H.I.E.L.D.’s did,” Tony remarked, exchanging a few casual words with Coulson before stepping forward and slipping into his role. “We know each other better after a fight. That move of yours was impressive, God of Thunder.” Tony patted Thor’s left arm, then glanced over at Artanis and gave a thumbs-up. “And you—thank you for helping us hold Loki. Gilgamesh.”

Since Tony’s arrival, Artanis had been watching him intently. Ever since their first meeting, he had been surprised to discover that this human possessed considerable psionic potential.

“Additionally, the iridium allows Loki to adjust the portal’s duration and stability as needed,” Tony continued, striding over to Fury’s command console. “Raise the mainmast and set sail at full speed.”

The busy staff below couldn’t help but pause their work and look up at Tony.

“That guy’s playing ‘Big Bee,’” Tony said, pointing at one of the agents. “He thinks no one will notice, but I caught him.”

He turned and spotted another monitor, covering his face with his hand. “How does Fury manage to watch both screens at once?”

Agent Hill folded her arms. “He turns around.”

“That must be exhausting.” Tony scoffed at such an inconvenient method and began swiping through S.H.I.E.L.D.’s control panel.

“The remaining raw materials are all within Agent Barton’s reach. Now, all Loki needs is one thing—a high-density energy source,” Tony explained as he deftly attached a small device beneath the control screen. “To activate the Tesseract.”

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Hill sounded genuinely surprised.

“Last night,” Tony replied, as if it were no big deal. “I read the mission files, Selvig’s notes, and a few top-tier papers. Was I the only one?” He spread his arms in mock incredulity.

Artanis, bound by his people’s laws, could only feign ignorance. As for the others—one was a century-old ‘man out of time,’ one preferred muscle over intellect, and the last was a career spy—none were likely to have read the research.

“Does Loki need any specific type of energy?” Steve tried to narrow down the possible portal locations by this clue.

“He has to heat the Tesseract above a hundred million degrees to overcome the Coulomb barrier,” Dr. Banner, the second scientist present, responded to Tony’s question.

“Unless Selvig has found a way to stabilize quantum tunneling,” Tony added, lowering his hands and moving toward Banner.

“If he has, then any reactor could do the job,” Banner replied, having studied the files Fury provided, which was why he kept advising everyone not to dwell on Loki.

“Finally, someone who speaks English!” Tony looked around, then extended his hand to Banner. “A pleasure, Dr. Banner. Your work in anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I particularly enjoy your transformation into that big green monster.”

Banner swallowed and raised his brows. “Thank you.”

“Dr. Banner is here to help us find the Tesseract,” Fury’s figure appeared in the control room. “I hope you’ll assist him.”

“Let’s start with Loki’s scepter. It may be enchanted, but it looks a lot like Hydra’s weapons,” Steve suggested, glancing at Tony in search of scientific validation.

“I’m not certain, but its power comes from the Tesseract. I want to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest minds I know into his flying monkeys,” Fury said, hands on hips, clearly disturbed by Hawkeye’s compromise.

“Monkeys? What are you talking about?” Thor looked perplexed, but Steve interjected, “I know that reference.”

Tony rolled his eyes in silence as Steve looked around. “I know where that’s from.”

Natasha spoke up, “Director, Thor says his friend Artanis can help break Loki’s magic.”

Fury turned to Artanis. During their journey here, he had learned about this being from another Asgard, and maintained a deep wariness toward this unexpected ‘man.’

“I’m not sure what kind of magic Loki used. I’ll need to observe it up close before I can answer,” Artanis replied. The director’s mind was too shrewd and suspicious—Artanis preferred not to reveal too much about his psionic abilities.

“What are we waiting for, then? Let’s begin,” Tony said, only now learning that Artanis claimed the ability to break Loki’s magic. Even so, he still placed greater faith in himself.

Artanis and Tony made their way to Dr. Banner’s lab, where Loki’s scepter had already been brought for study.

“So, how are you going to use your… magic?” Tony, though confident in his own skills, couldn’t help but be curious about the process.

Artanis didn’t bother to explain the distinction between psionics and magic. To outsiders, they amounted to the same thing. “I’ll meditate to sense the scepter. During this time, I won’t communicate with the outside world, so you can just ignore me.”

With that, he sat cross-legged near the scepter, closed his eyes, and began to sense its presence.

Tony watched with interest and had JARVIS scan for any energy fluctuations nearby, but the system detected nothing, so he temporarily gave up and joined Banner in examining the scepter.

As soon as Artanis closed his eyes, he directed his psionic energy toward the scepter. The instant he touched the gemstone embedded in it, he sensed trouble—strange magic lingered around the gem. Uncertain of its exact effects, Artanis dared not force a brute decryption and could only attempt to dismantle it bit by bit.

Dr. Banner, in the midst of scanning the scepter, noticed Artanis suddenly bathed in blue light, his body slowly levitating.

“Wow, that’s impressive,” Tony remarked, raising an eyebrow as he instructed JARVIS to keep monitoring Artanis. Although Tony was a master of science, he understood the basics of meditation.

Banner returned to his work and discussed his findings with Stark. “The scepter’s gamma readings exactly match those in Selvig’s notes about the Tesseract, but analyzing it will take weeks.”

“We can bypass their mainframe and connect to the central cluster,” Stark said, clearly unimpressed with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s firewalls and computers and planning to hook up his own supercomputer for remote calculations.

“Too bad all I have is a toothbrush,” Banner said, half-jokingly envious of Stark’s computing power, as he was perpetually on the run and penniless.

“You should visit Stark Tower sometime. The top ten floors are all dedicated to R&D—you’ll love it. It’s like a candy land for scientists,” Stark replied warmly, appreciative of Banner’s scientific prowess and extending a personal invitation.