Under the effect of Slow Time, Loki barely registered Mario spinning around at impossible speed, then a kick slammed into his abdomen.
Before he could even process what had happened, the force had already sent him hurtling across the plaza.
The attack shattered his concentration completely. His invisibility flickered and died, along with all his duplicate illusions.
Kaecilius didn't fully understand why Loki appeared to be moving in slow motion through the air, but he recognized an opening when he saw one. Golden light erupted from his hands as a magical whip materialized, lashing out to wrap around Loki's torso before the god could recover.
"That was almost too easy. Loki's nowhere near as tough as Thor."
Mario looked at the god trussed up like a Christmas ham and tossed the scepter into his inventory. Then he pulled out an Imperomite staff.
He had tested the Slow Time spell on Thor before. It hadn't been perfect, only slowing him by about fifty percent, but on someone like Loki, the effect was devastating.
Loki struggled against the bonds.
"What did you just do to me?!"
The magical rope held firm. He wasn't the Hulk, and he certainly wasn't Thor. Physical strength had never been his specialty.
"Do you have any idea who you're dealing with! I am a king! I am your—"
CRACK.
Mario brought the Imperomite staff down on Loki's side. He pulled the blow, just enough force to trigger the weapon's special effect without causing serious injury.
"Mortal, you cannot harm me with such pathetic—"
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
Mario didn't respond verbally. He just kept swinging. The crowd of onlookers, still kneeling on the cobblestones, watched in disbelief.
Everything had happened so fast. One moment, this powerful murderer was demanding they kneel. The next, he was bound and getting his ass kicked by some guy who'd been sipping from a thermos. They wondered if they'd drunk too much that day.
Loki's shouts continued at first. Mario had to admire the god's mental fortitude, if nothing else. Most people would have given up after the first dozen hits. But after thirty strikes, Loki's voice suddenly ceased. Mario paused, staff raised for another swing, and noticed the god's eyes had gone completely blank, and drool leaked from the corner of his mouth.
"Kaecilius, unwrap him."
The golden magical rope dissolved instantly. Free from restraints, Loki's body gave an involuntary response, his left hand twitched in one direction, his right in another, saliva running down his chin.
He looked like someone who'd suffered brain damage.
Mario couldn't resist pulling out his phone and snapping a few photos. "Thor's gonna love seeing these later."
From his testing on vampires, he knew the Hollow effect wasn't permanent in the real world. Vampires recovered after about ten hours. Loki, with his Asgardian physiology, would probably bounce back even faster.
"Let's move," he said, pocketing his phone.
They had gotten the Mind Stone. Next up was the Tesseract.
Dealing with a brain-dead Loki would be trivial. The hard part was over.
They were halfway to Kaecilius' portal when the Avengers arrived.
A Quinjet screamed overhead, and Captain America dropped from the rear ramp. He landed in a three-point stance, shield raised. His eyes lingered on the drooling Loki for just a moment before fixing on Mario with laser focus.
"I'm afraid you gentlemen need to stay right where you are," Rogers said. "Who are you?"
Mario's face lit up with delight. "Captain Rogers! Man, it's been forever. Feels like just yesterday we were fighting side by side."
He said it with such warmth that for a second, even Rogers looked confused.
Mario was messing with this universe's Captain America, and he was enjoying every second of it. Behind him, Kaecilius' portal spun to life.
Rogers' confusion lasted exactly two seconds before his instincts kicked in. These men were leaving, and he couldn't allow that. Not with Loki in whatever state he was in, and definitely not without answers. His arm snapped forward, shield whistling through the air toward Mario's head.
Mario caught it one-handed.
"Cap, you really shouldn't throw your shield around like that. What if you hit some innocent bystander? Or worse, some poor plant? Those can't defend themselves, you know."
He met Rogers' eyes, still grinning. "Besides, you really can't afford the medical bills if you hit me."
The shield disappeared into his inventory, and he stepped backward through the portal. Kaecilius followed, and the gateway snapped shut before Rogers could do more than take three steps forward.
He stood alone in the plaza, staring at empty air.
His earpiece crackled to life. "Captain, what's your status?"
"Agent Romanoff," Rogers said slowly. "Does S.H.I.E.L.D. happen to have... a spare shield?"
There was a long pause on the other end. "...I'll check."
---
Inside the Quinjet, the Avengers gathered around Loki.
Natasha crouched beside him, checking his vitals and testing his responses to stimuli. After a minute, she looked up.
"He's completely non-responsive. Eyes are dilated, no reaction to pain or light. Neurologically, he's functioning at the level of a vegetable."
Tony, having arrived fashionably late as always, turned toward Rogers with mock concern. "Hey Cap, you didn't have to hit him quite that hard. Looking at him now, I doubt we're getting any useful intel out of this guy."
Rogers didn't even bristle at Tony's needling. "It wasn't me. He was already like this when I arrived. Two men took him down before we got here."
Natasha picked up a tablet from a nearby console, tapped a few commands, and pulled up surveillance footage from the plaza. The video showed Mario and Kaecilius' entire encounter with Loki.
She froze the image on their faces. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has no records of either of these individuals."
Her eyes shifted to Rogers. "The one who took your shield said you'd fought together before. Any chance he's from your time? Maybe someone you knew during the war?"
Rogers shook his head slowly. He'd been thinking about exactly that since the encounter. "No. I've never seen either of them before in my life."
Tony stepped forward, the arc reactor in his gauntlet powering up scanning equipment. A blue beam swept across Loki's catatonic form, and J.A.R.V.I.S. began analyzing the data.
After a moment, his helmet retracted. "Well, this is new. His brain activity is almost nil. Whatever they did to him, it's not something I can reverse."
He looked at the team. "He's done."
Thunder cracked across the sky. The Quinjet shuddered violently as something landed on its roof.
"Here we go," Tony muttered, his faceplate snapping back into place. He moved toward the rear ramp and triggered the door release.
Thor stormed into the cabin. When Tony stepped into his path, the God of Thunder didn't even pause, just shoved him aside like he was moving a piece of furniture.
Tony crashed into a equipment locker. "Okay, rude."
Thor ignored him completely, his attention locked on Loki's restrained form. He grabbed his brother by the collar and yanked him upright.
Without checking Loki's condition, he jumped straight out of the aircraft with his brother in tow.
Tony picked himself up off the floor. He looked toward the open rear ramp where Thor had disappeared. "Anyone want to bet on how long before he comes back?"
The Avengers exchanged glances.
"Given Loki's... condition," he continued, "my money's on five minutes."
---
Thor landed on a small island, dropping Loki onto the ground.
"Where is the Tesseract?!"
Loki's response was a giggle. "Hehehehe..."
"I don't have time for your tricks!" Thor grabbed him by the shoulders. "Tell me where you've hidden—"
"Hehehehe..."
He froze. Even in his anger, he wasn't so dull as to miss that something was clearly wrong with his brother.
"Loki? What happened to you?"
Even knowing Loki wasn't his biological brother, he had loved this brother. Still loved him, if he was being honest with himself.
Grabbing Loki again, he flew straight back toward the Quinjet. He was going to get an explanation, his brother couldn't have ended up like this for no reason
---
Deep beneath Central Park, Mario sat on a cobblestone block, the Mind Stone scepter resting across his knees. On the wall, a projection showed everything happening from Loki's perspective.
"Think you can remove the stone without destroying the scepter?" he asked, turning the weapon over in his hands. "I like this thing. Seems a shame to smash it apart."
Kaecilius shook his head. "The power contained in that staff is beyond my abilities to safely manipulate. And I must confess, I can feel it affecting my emotions even from here."
Mario immediately stored the scepter in his inventory. The Mind Stone had no effect on him, but he wouldn't risk Kaecilius' mental state. "We'll have the Ancient One take a look when we get back. She might know a trick or two."
On the projection, Thor had just returned to the Quinjet with Loki. Before he could say anything, Natasha pulled up the footage of Mario beating Loki senseless and displayed it for everyone to see.
Thor's expression cycled through several emotions in rapid succession.
"Who is this man?!" he roared, pointing at Mario's image. "I will hunt him down and make him answer for this dishonor!"
Mario burst out laughing. "Listen to him." He glanced at Kaecilius. "Want to go play with him for a bit?"
Kaecilius had fought Thor before. Everyone in their group had. After a moment of consideration, he nodded. "Get the armor."
Mario grinned, and pulled Kaecilius' battle armor from his inventory. Against tech-based enemies, the armor was good but not exceptional. Against magical opponents, however, it was practically tailor-made.
"I simply have no interest in being hit by a flying hammer today," Kaecilius said dryly as he began donning the armor.
The moment the enchanted plates settled into place, the armor came alive. Countless glowing runes surfaced across its surface. Forged from Uru and adamantium, the armor amplified his magical abilities exponentially. It wasn't complete yet. As he grew in knowledge and power, so too would the armor, until it eventually transcended the limitations of even its legendary materials.
Fully armored, he didn't even need to gesture. A portal bloomed into existence before him, the other end opening directly inside the Quinjet's cabin.
The Avengers tensed immediately as the golden gateway appeared. When they saw the figure in dark gold armor step through, several took combat stances.
"Who are you?" Tony demanded, though his mind was already analyzing the armor's design. Something about it felt familiar, like seeing a reflection of his own engineering philosophy.
Mario stepped through behind Kaecilius, and looked directly at Thor. "I heard you were looking for me. What's the problem? Want to fight?"
Thor's eyes blazed with fury. "What did you do to Loki?!"
He raised Mjolnir and launched himself at Mario through the portal.
Mario's smile widened. "Close it."
The portal snapped shut before any of the Avengers could react, leaving them staring at empty air and each other.
Thor burst into the mirror dimension swinging Mjolnir. But Mario just stood there, perfectly still.
In that same instant, the space around Thor shattered like glass.
Though Mario was barely three meters away, the distance refused to close, as if space itself had warped.
A golden whip lashed out. He reacted instantly, crashing Mjolnir into it.
Kaecilius' expression turned serious.
"Wizard," Thor growled.
Electricity surged violently around him as he became a living storm. Mjolnir flew from his hand, streaking toward Kaecilius with the force of a meteor strike.
The mirror dimension trembled under the assault, shattered fragments instantly reconstructing themselves.
Multiple magical shields materialized in the hammer's path. They shattered one after another.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK.
When the hammer finally hit Kaecilius' armor, it didn't even leave a scratch.
Kaecilius looked at Thor calmly. "Thor, God of Thunder... you've grown weaker."
---
Merry Christmas!
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50 Advance Chapters!