·Stark Tower – Ruined Office Level
The floor was a warzone. Jagged beams of metal jutted from collapsed walls, fires flickered in shattered corridors, and the night sky poured in through a gaping hole where floor-to-ceiling windows once stood.
The acrid scent of burnt wiring mixed with the cold air as Tony Stark hovered above the wreckage, repulsors thrumming with lethal intent.
Across from him, Loki stood with eerie poise, brushing dust off his emerald-green cape.
His golden horns gleamed in the dim light, his smirk untouched by the chaos around them.
"You fight admirably for a mortal," Loki mused, his voice smooth as silk, eyes gleaming with amusement.
"But it is a futile struggle. You wield power, yes—but power without understanding. Do you even grasp what lurks beyond your little blue planet?"
Tony's HUD flickered as his AI, MARVEL, ran simulations in the background, tracking Loki's energy fluctuations.
He remained airborne, arms crossed. "Oh, please, don't hold back. Let's hear the grand monologue. Maybe I'll pick up some bedtime stories for my next board meeting."
Loki chuckled, stepping forward as blue energy from the Tesseract pulsed at his fingertips.
"You jest because you are afraid. Do you know what awaits beyond the veil? Titans that consume galaxies for sport. Celestial beings that could erase you with a mere whim. And then, there are those who see this realm as nothing more than a chessboard. You, Stark, are nothing but a piece—one that can be removed at my leisure."
Tony narrowed his eyes behind his helmet. 'Alright, let's see where he's going with this.'
Loki paced, enjoying the sound of his own voice. "Your intelligence is commendable, but knowledge without wisdom is a curse. Submit now, kneel, and I shall ensure you stand beside me when the new order rises."
Tony let out a mock gasp. "Wow. You mean I get to be the assistant to the assistant of the assistant overlord? Do I get dental with that?"
Loki's smile twitched.
"Enough."
With a flick of his wrist, the Mind Stone in his scepter pulsed, sending out a golden ripple.
The energy surged toward Tony like a tidal wave—intangible yet inescapable. The moment it reached him, the world shifted.
The ruins of Stark Tower faded. In their place, a vast void of swirling galaxies opened around him.
He stood in what felt like endless space, his body floating yet weightless. And before him—memories.
His parents, Howard and Maria Stark, standing in the light before it flickered into the crash site of their brutal end.
Stark Industries and everything he knows burning in flames.
Pepper, arms outstretched—before her image twisted into dust.
Tony clenched his fists. His gaze narrowed, but he didn't move.
He was being—manipulated, taunted, made to relive his past pain and painful possibilities. But something was off. His HUD flickered erratically, warning signals blaring.
'Nice try, reindeer games. But I don't do déjà vu.'
He closed his eyes for a second, tapping into his dimensional awareness.
'Good thing I know a thing or two on magic and never skipped my study of the mystic arts,' Tony sneered.
His mind pulsed, and just like that, the illusion cracked. The stars flickered like a dying projector, and Loki's smug face emerged from the false reality, his scepter glowing.
"You see now, don't you?" Loki cooed. "You are shackled by your past, bound by ghosts. Let me free you, Stark. Just bow."
Tony let his head hang for a beat. Then—he laughed. Loudly.
"Oh man. That was cute," he said, shaking his head as he floated. "You really thought that would work? On me? Do you even know who I am?"
Loki's eyes narrowed. "Amusing bravado. But you are already ensnared—"
Tony snapped his fingers. The Infinity Suit's anti-telepathy shielding activated, sending a ripple of feedback through the mental plane. Loki's smirk vanished.
A violent CRACK echoed.
The illusion shattered like glass.
Loki staggered back into reality, his head snapping to the side as if struck. For the first time in the fight, his composure cracked. His breathing hitched.
"You—what have you—?!"
Tony pointed at his helmet. "You're not the first mind-meddler I've dealt with."
'Well, in the comics at least. But who cares.' Tony thought.
" I Had a whole phase with some fun telepathic upgrades. Oh, and by the way—feedback loops? Really nasty side effect."
Loki's vision blurred for a moment. The Mind Stone's backlash sent a splitting migraine through his skull.
His control wavered—just long enough for Tony to capitalize.
A swarm of nanite drones shot from his back, forming into razor-thin tendrils.
They lashed toward Loki like liquid metal, wrapping around his wrists and ankles. Before he could react, the nanites pulsed with an anti-magic disruption field.
Loki's eyes widened.
"Ah-ah, no cheating," Tony quipped. "Your magic tricks? Not so fun when they get scrambled, huh?"
Loki let out a snarl, then roared.
A violent pulse of cosmic energy detonated outward. The nanite tendrils shattered.
Tony rocketed back, twisting mid-air to stabilize. Loki's aura blazed, his body surrounded by a corona of blue energy, his hands crackling with the raw power of the Tesseract.
"You are becoming tiresome, Stark!" Loki growled, his voice echoing unnaturally. "Let me show you the difference between a god and a man."
The air rippled.
Tony's sensors screamed as space itself tore open.
Reality bent, twisted—before the Tony, Loki, and even a large piece of the building vanished.
Tony's boots landed on something solid, but when he looked down, there was no ground—only a reflection of infinite galaxies beneath his feet.
Above him, the cosmos stretched, stars spiraling in unnatural orbits.
He was standing in a pocket dimension, one Loki had torn from the fabric of space itself.
'This Loki is much more troublesome than the one in the MCU Movies' Tony thought.
Loki hovered above, his silhouette outlined by cosmic flames.
"This is my domain now, Stark," Loki declared, arms outstretched. "No more buildings to hide behind. No more physics to obey. Just you, me, and your inevitable downfall."
Tony exhaled, rolling his shoulders. "Oh good. I was getting tired of holding back anyway."
The Infinity Suit's core pulsed, adjusting to the environment.
The Mandarin's Ten Rings integrated into his gauntlets flickered to life, glowing with ethereal energy.
Loki smirked. "You still think you stand a chance?"
Tony clenched his fists.
"Buddy, I don't think—I know."
To be continued…