96- Avengers (2)

Meanwhile, Mason leaned on the deck’s railings, right next to Fury. The director of SHIELD did not show any reaction to the invasion of his private space, but Mason was sure he was annoyed somewhere inside, so that was enough for him. Staring at Fury with a smile, he said, "We should also try to predict the man if we want a better chance at getting him. Do we have any idea of what his goal is?"

Fury replied, "In his own words, he is ‘burdened with great purpose’. From what we could see? He is a power-hungry tyrant who seeks to use the Tesseract to rule over us. He seeks absolute control, to take freedom away from us."

Mason nodded slowly, having already thought of how to approach this matter. He asked, "So he wants us alive?"

"Enslaved."

"But not obliterated? Then that means he does not intend to wipe the planet off the map with the Tesseract. Do we know if he is acting on his own, or on behalf of someone else? Or in alliance with someone else? In the briefing, you guys described the Tesseract as not only a source of unlimited clean energy, but also a ‘gateway to the other end of space’. Could he be more interested in the portal than the energy?"

SHIELD probably already had their own theories, as Fury immediately caught on. "Are you saying he means to bring an army from outer space to Earth? And enslave us with them?"

Steve commented with a nod, "Makes sense. Loki has shown the capability of turning people with his scepter. Had he wanted to take us over covertly, he could have done so with slightly more time, turning Presidents and kings. By the way, do we know for a fact he has not already turned key figures? Do we have a way of identifying controlled targets?"

Fury shook his head, "No, and we don’t even know the limits of his brainwashing. It could be permanent or temporary. Irreversible or not. However, we most probably can rule out the possibility of Loki having placed pawns prior to his theft of the Tesseract, since he only reached our world through the Tesseract in the first place."

Mason hummed, "Loki is the god of trickery and mischief, so we should expect convoluted plans."

Fury eyed him carefully. "I understand you have experience with that."

Mason chuckled, thinking of Krahllak. "Better not mention it, that demon called me a hammer for punching my way through schemes. Until I punched through its heart. But I do believe that if we understand his final plan, then we will have a better shot at stopping him. And in this case, I do believe that the highest probabilities are that Loki intends to cause infighting and to bring an army from outer space."

"Infighting?"

Mason nodded at Steve’s question. "The number of people with superpowers has multiplied in the past year, even if one does not count the return of the mutants. Considering the power of some of those, if we are manipulated to fight one another, we might be truly endangered. However, that is a double-edged sword, and there is no lack of individuals who could make Loki eat dirt, so bringing additional players from somewhere else is the highest possibility, in my opinion. That could be outer space, or other dimensions, like demons, now that I think about it."

Mason did his best not to blindside himself with his meta-knowledge, but it was only now that he realized that maybe Loki was not planning to bring the Chitauri, but another army. One potentially more dangerous. He did feel confident that bringing an army truly still was Loki’s goal, because he was not the kind of person to fight his battles alone. Or at all.

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Fury said, "We have considered this possibility. Since Loki still has not done it, it would be the logical assumption that he still lacks something and cannot do it with only the Tesseract. Unfortunately, he took our top specialist on the subject with him."

"Wait, no, that could be a good thing."

Fury raised an eyebrow, and Mason explained, "I’ll go on a limb and assume Loki is not an expert in astrophysics, or whatever the study of the Tesseract is. He wouldn’t have taken this specialist otherwise. And that specialist of yours, however good he may be, is a scientist from Earth, who works with Earthly systems. Given the same framework, a sufficiently skilled scientist should be able to know what he plans to do."

"That would mean involving someone else in the Tesseract, something I would rather avoid."

Steve refuted, "Sir, with all due respect, one more person knowing about the Tesseract is better than the planet being destroyed. And so long as you sling it back to the bottom of the ocean when we’ve retrieved it, no one will be able to use it against us again."

Fury did not reply to that, and Mason guessed they had already had this conversation. Something that was not surprising, considering Steve’s history with the thing.

Still, the three of them theorized for a while longer, and Fury appeared amiable to some of their suggestions, but any of them would take time. Time they could only hope they had.

Mason would have liked to tell them about Germany and New York, but he simply could not. For Germany, Mason only remembered that Loki would appear somewhere there as a decoy for Hawkeye to steal a material he needed to create the portal.

What the material was exactly, where it was stored, or even where in Germany Loki would appear, Mason did not know. And most importantly, Mason always ran into the same problem with meta-knowledge, and that was whether it would be correct or not.

Even if SHIELD believed him and evacuated New York, Loki very well might just attack another, utterly unprepared city, doing more harm than good as SHIELD and the Avengers would be late to intervene.

However, what Mason had hinted at appeared to at least have some effects as the Helicarrier drifted over to Europe, though it was not because of the material, but because of a scientist.

While the Helicarrier hovered in the air, it was a little dangerous, but workers with harnesses would still come out when necessary. However, while it was in motion, everyone was expressly forbidden from going on the deck, as the risks were far too great. The winds would, in the best-case scenario, make any work impossible, and in the worst case blow them off the Helicarrier.

So naturally, Mason meditated out in the open while they were moving. They were above the clouds, so it gave him a clear view of the sun, which was great for studying the Dao. Studying the Dao of the Sun as a whole meant slower progress than if he focused on either the Fire or Gravity Dao, but it did also mean progress in both.

The realm of the Intent was an interesting one for the Dao. There was an increase in potency compared to the level of Concepts, of course, meaning that Mason could further influence gravity around him, or the temperature and size of the flames he conjured. But his control over both Daos also grew more refined, granting new capabilities.

For Gravity, for example, Mason had developed a new ability that could allow him to resist a much higher gravity than normal. With his sheer physical body, Mason was capable of withstanding 48g, thanks to recent advancement. But if he used his Gravity Intent, at a rather small expense, Mason could resist over 100g.

A slightly more advanced trick was the ability to manipulate speed, or rather, acceleration. It took some concentration to pull out, but through an advanced manipulation of gravity, Mason could suddenly accelerate himself or those around him, or slow them down. The effect was not overwhelmingly strong, but in the middle of a fight, it was enough to throw off most people, especially if they did not expect it. It was also how Mason managed to nearly attain the speed of sound while traveling.

Mason was also working on specialized attacks using gravity only. The first idea was to use a precisely localized attack, like suddenly increasing the gravity on someone’s heart to cause it to burst, but that was too complicated, and a tad too deadly. So Mason was taking inspiration from manga and planning to create a ‘named’ attack, where he would mix Dao and martial arts. It was still a work in progress.

As for the Fire Dao, it was currently slightly less advanced than his understanding of the Gravity Dao, but the largest change was easily that he was no longer restricted to instant eruptions of fire, but could create continuous flames, ones capable of persisting as long as he fueled them.

Additionally, Mason also developed something similar to his Gravity resistance, but for temperatures, be they hot or cold. Mason was already hard to burn, and if he used his Fire Dao, normal fires could no longer harm him.

Finally, Mason was also working on creating attacks that mixed in the Fire Dao, but he was not making much more progress than with the Gravity Dao. That was why Mason liked to meditate on the Dao of the Sun as a whole, it gave him a kind of broader picture he hoped would help.

However, Mason’s meditation came to an end when he felt the Helicarrier slowing down beneath him, and spotted a Quinjet rising from the sea of clouds, coming to land on the Helicarrier.

Fury’s new specialist had arrived.