Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 150 - 149: Loki’s Bargain, a Scepter’s Secret, and the Eve of Invasion (2011-2012)

The discovery of a Chitauri "Sanctuary" class vessel lurking in Earth's asteroid belt, a harbinger of Thanos the Mad Titan's apocalyptic ambitions, threw Elias Thorne's meticulous long-term plans into sharp, immediate focus. The Kree were a future threat; the Skrulls, manageable opportunists. Mutants and terrestrial superhuman factions were pieces on his internal chessboard. But Thanos and his Chitauri... they were an existential blight upon the cosmos, and their presence so close to Earth demanded an immediate, decisive, and profoundly unconventional response.

Elias's [Prime Essence Shard Reserve] stood at a frustrating [2.3/5.0] (after Logan's continued, albeit less frequent, Hydra remnant clean-up and some minor esoteric acquisitions by his Feral Legion Alpha Squad, who were now largely focused on global rapid response and guarding key Thorne facilities). He needed more Shards for any significant System initiative – another True Legionnaire, a critical personal augmentation, or even fueling the immense power required for Dr. Finch's more ambitious necromantic/dimensional rituals. He couldn't afford a direct assault on the Chitauri vessel with his current forces; it was too well-defended, its technology too alien. He needed a wildcard, a catalyst. He needed Loki.

Locating Loki Laufeyson, presumed lost in the dimensional void after the Bifrost's destruction, was a task that bordered on the impossible. But Elias Thorne had Dr. Alistair Finch, his [Arch-Necromancer Lv. 7], whose mastery over esoteric energies and psionic echoes now allowed him to scry across dimensions, albeit at great personal cost and with terrifying imprecision. And he had the residual chaotic magic signature of Loki himself, a faint but distinct thread in the cosmic tapestry.

For weeks, Finch, fueled by Elias's System energy and protected by his Giant bodyguards, peered into the abyss between worlds from his warded Montreal Sanctum. He saw glimpses of nightmare realms, of entities that defied sanity, of stars dying in silent screams. Then, finally, he found him.

Loki was not "lost"; he was imprisoned, not by Asgardians, but by Thanos himself, through his intermediary, The Other. He was trapped on a desolate, unnamed world at the fringes of known space, broken, tortured, but his cunning mind still burning with a desperate desire for revenge against Thor and Odin, and for the power he believed was his birthright. Thanos was offering him a bargain: command of a Chitauri army, a chance to conquer Earth (which Thanos apparently coveted for reasons beyond simple conquest, perhaps related to its hidden Nexuses or its burgeoning superhuman population), and the Tesseract (which, it seemed, Thanos had somehow located or always known the whereabouts of, a chilling thought) as his instrument of power. In return, Loki would deliver Earth to the Mad Titan.

[LOKI LAUFEYSON – LOCATION CONFIRMED (THANOS/THE OTHER – CAPTIVITY/COERCED ALLIANCE). OBJECTIVE: CONQUER EARTH FOR THANOS USING CHITAURI ARMY & TESSERACT. STATUS: PSYCHOLOGICALLY COMPROMISED, POWER TEMPORARILY AUGMENTED BY CHITAURI SCEPTER (CONTAINING A MIND STONE FRAGMENT/ECHO – SYSTEM DETECTS MINOR INFINITY STONE RESONANCE).]

A Mind Stone fragment. The Chitauri Scepter Loki was being gifted... it wasn't just a weapon; it was a tool of mental domination, capable of enslaving wills. This was how Thanos intended to quickly subjugate Earth's diverse, chaotic population.

Elias saw his opening, a gamble of cosmic proportions. He couldn't outbid Thanos. But he could offer Loki something else: a more refined, more personal path to power, and a chance to betray the Mad Titan and seize a piece of his power for himself.

Through Finch's amplified necromantic/dimensional scrying (a process that nearly killed the old scholar and consumed [1.0 Prime Essence Shard (Reserve: 1.3)] from Elias to stabilize the trans-dimensional link), Elias projected his consciousness, his System-shielded will, directly into Loki's prison.

The Asgardian Prince of Mischief, chained and battered but his eyes still blazing with defiant cunning, was stunned by this unexpected, powerful psionic intrusion.

"Loki Laufeyson," Elias's mental voice was a calm, irresistible river in the chaos of Loki's tormented mind. "Thanos offers you a blunt instrument and a borrowed crown. He sees you as a pawn, a useful tool to be discarded. I offer you... finesse. True power. And a chance to not just conquer a primitive world, but to perhaps... outwit a Mad Titan."

Elias subtly revealed glimpses of his own power, his True Legionnaires, his Prime Conduits like Logan and Nox, the Klyntar, his System's ability to analyze and counter Kree, Skrull, even Celestial technology. He showed Loki the potential of an alliance with the "Thorne Ascendancy," a force that understood strategy, subtlety, and the true nature of power beyond brute force. He explained that Earth was not undefended, that an overt Chitauri invasion would be costly, perhaps even fail if Earth's hidden guardians (like Captain Marvel, Namor, and others Loki didn't yet know of) were fully unleashed.

He proposed a counter-gambit: Loki would accept Thanos's offer, take the Scepter and the Chitauri army. He would initiate the invasion of Earth, as planned. But he would do so with specific... inefficiencies. He would allow certain key human assets (S.H.I.E.L.D., the nascent Avengers initiative Fury was desperately trying to assemble) to rally, to resist, to even achieve minor victories. He would use the Scepter to "enslave" certain expendable human pawns, creating chaos but avoiding the immediate, total subjugation of Earth's true power centers.

Elias, in turn, would use the invasion as a crucible. He would "allow" Earth's conventional heroes to shine, to unite, while his own assets operated in the shadows, selectively eliminating key Chitauri commanders, securing Chitauri technology, and, most importantly, analyzing the Tesseract and the Scepter's Mind Stone energies.

The ultimate goal: allow Loki to "fail" in his conquest in a way that didn't draw Thanos's immediate, catastrophic wrath down upon Earth or Loki, but that did leave both the Tesseract and the Scepter vulnerable, perhaps even "lost" on Earth, where Elias could then... "secure" them for "safekeeping." It was a plan of breathtaking duplicity, designed to pit Thanos, Loki, and Earth's heroes against each other, with Elias Thorne positioned to be the ultimate beneficiary.

Loki, a master manipulator himself, recognized the sheer, audacious cunning in Elias's proposal. Betray Thanos? Use Earth's "heroes" as unwitting pawns? Seize an Infinity Stone (or two)? It appealed to every fiber of his trickster being. The alternative was being Thanos's tortured slave.

"You propose a dangerous game, Thorne of Midgard," Loki's mental voice was a purr of amusement and dawning, predatory interest. "One with a very high chance of all our demises. But... it is infinitely more entertaining than rotting in Thanos's dungeons. Very well. I will play your... Chitauri charade. But know this: when the dust settles, the true prize – the Infinity Stones, Earth itself – will be mine to claim, not yours, nor my oafish brother's."

Elias didn't expect loyalty. He expected self-interest. And Loki's self-interest, for now, aligned with his own. [LOKI LAUFEYSON – TEMPORARY, HIGHLY VOLATILE COVERT ALLIANCE ESTABLISHED (DOUBLE AGENT PROTOCOL). OBJECTIVE: ORCHESTRATE "FAILED" CHITAURI INVASION OF EARTH TO FACILITATE HOST ACQUISITION OF INFINITY STONES/ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY. LOYALTY TO HOST: <5% (PURE SELF-INTEREST/OPPORTUNISM). RISK OF BETRAYAL: EXTREME.]

With Loki's unwilling "cooperation" secured, Elias Thorne focused his remaining resources on the final preparations. His [Prime Essence Shard Reserve] was now [1.3]. He needed to ensure Earth's conventional heroes, particularly the nascent Avengers, were strong enough to play their part, to be a credible (if ultimately unsuccessful) defense that would satisfy Thanos's initial expectations for Loki's failure, without drawing Elias's own True Legion into overt, globally witnessed conflict too soon.

Anya Petrova reported that Nick Fury, through the World Security Council, had greenlit the "Avengers Initiative." Their initial roster was forming: Tony Stark (Iron Man), Steve Rogers (Captain America, reluctantly pulled back into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s orbit by Peggy Carter for this global crisis), Dr. Bruce Banner (whom S.H.I.E.L.D. was desperately trying to locate and "reason with" before his Hulk persona became a Chitauri weapon or a casualty), Thor (whose return from Asgard was now Earth's most desperate, prayed-for hope, though how that might happen without the Bifrost was unknown), and two of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top human operatives, Clint Barton (Hawkeye) and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow). It was a chaotic, disparate group, powerful but deeply flawed.

Elias saw them as useful tools. He instructed Anya to subtly "leak" information to Fury that would allow S.H.I.E.L.D. to successfully "recruit" Banner (perhaps by highlighting the Chitauri threat to his love interest, Betty Ross) and even to provide anonymous technical assistance (via O'Malley's untraceable channels) to help S.H.I.E.L.D. locate Thor, or at least, to understand the trans-dimensional energies that might herald his return (Elias suspected Odin would find a way).

The Chitauri invasion of New York City, when Loki finally opened the Tesseract-powered portal above Stark Tower (as per his "flawed" plan, which allowed the portal to be contained and eventually closed from Earth's side), was precisely the managed chaos Elias had envisioned. The Avengers, despite their internal squabbles and inexperience as a team, fought bravely, spectacularly, against the alien horde. Iron Man soared, Captain America led, Hulk smashed, Thor (who, as Elias anticipated, found his own desperate way back to Earth, drawn by Loki's actions and Odin's intervention) rained down lightning, Hawkeye and Black Widow provided crucial tactical support.

Elias's True Legionnaires, Nox and Vex included, remained in the shadows, operating from the Nightfall III in high orbit and from hidden Blackwood facilities. Their role was not to fight the Chitauri grunts, but to monitor the Tesseract and Scepter energies, to neutralize any Chitauri "Alpha" units or high-level commanders that threatened to overwhelm the Avengers too quickly, and to prepare for the "salvage" operation once the battle was over. Logan and Miller "Argent" were positioned near Stark Tower, ready for a precise, surgical strike to secure the Scepter if Loki "lost" it.

The Battle of New York became a global spectacle, the birth of Earth's public superheroes. It was also, for Elias Thorne, the culmination of a year-long, incredibly complex cosmic gambit. As Black Widow, guided by a "reformed" Loki (playing his part beautifully), used the Chitauri Scepter to close the portal, and Iron Man heroically diverted a nuclear missile aimed at Manhattan by a panicked World Security Council, Elias knew his plan had succeeded, at an almost unbelievable cost in collateral damage to New York City.

[CHITAURI INVASION OF EARTH ("BATTLE OF NEW YORK") – CONTAINED/REPELLED (DUE TO AVENGERS INTERVENTION/LOKI'S DELIBERATE "FAILURES"/HOST'S COVERT STRATEGIC MANIPULATION). TESSERACT SECURED BY THOR/S.H.I.E.L.D. (TEMPORARILY). CHITAURI SCEPTER (MIND STONE FRAGMENT) – RECOVERED BY ASSET LOGAN FROM LOKI'S DEFEATED FORM AND TRANSFERRED TO HOST ELIAS THORNE FOR SECURE CONTAINMENT/ANALYSIS. PRIME ESSENCE SHARD ACQUIRED: +3.5 (FROM SCEPTER'S IMMENSE MIND STONE ENERGY & DEFEATED CHITAURI "ALPHA" COMMANDERS). TOTAL SHARDS: 4.8/5.0.]

Elias now possessed the Chitauri Scepter, and with it, a direct link to the power of an Infinity Stone. He was agonizingly close, once again, to five full Shards. The Avengers had been born, Earth had been saved (for now), and Loki was a "prisoner" of Asgard, his true allegiance to Elias a carefully guarded secret.

The shadow war had just acquired its most powerful, most dangerous artifact yet. And Elias Thorne, the master manipulator, now held a piece of infinity in his hands. The true "New World Order Protocol – Phase 2: Cosmic Contention" was about to begin.