Damian was sleeping when suddenly he opened his eyes and felt the Tesseract activating. He couldn't help but smile slightly, thinking about how he now has the Mind Stone within his reach.

Ignoring the event, he closed his eyes and hugged Natasha before going back to sleep.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Natasha felt the vibration of her watch and assumed she was being called.

Natasha also woke up quickly and checked her communicator, surprised to see it was a higher-level emergency.

She quickly left Damian's comfortable embrace, got dressed, and rushed to the location.

Natasha's ship arrived at one of SHIELD's bases after a few minutes. She didn't really know what they were doing in this place, as Fury usually keeps those things very confidential.

Upon arriving at the entrance, she saw a vehicle leaving the facility with Barton, Erik, and a guy who clearly didn't look like he was from Earth.

Upon seeing a ship flying in his path, Loki quickly used his scepter to send a ball of energy towards it.

Caught off guard by the sudden attack, Natasha couldn't dodge it, and the ship took the hit.

Fortunately, the ship had an energy shield that dispersed the attack, although Natasha realized that almost all of the energy was consumed.

Frowning, Natasha quickly activated her suit before setting the ship on autopilot and propelling herself towards the vehicle.

As she flew through the air, she noticed that Clint and Erik were acting strangely, which made her furrow her brow.

Natasha somersaulted in the air before striking the vehicle's hood with her heel.

The vehicle came to a stop almost instantly, and the rear lifted due to the inertia, causing the entire hood to dent from the impact.

Barton, Erik, and Loki were sent flying out of the vehicle due to the sudden halt.

Erik fell to the ground and was knocked out instantly, while Clint and Loki landed conscious, looking at Natasha.

"Take care of her, we must go," Loki said to Clint before looking at Natasha with a smirk.

To Natasha's surprise and great anger, Clint obeyed and began shooting arrows at her eyes, which were the weakest part of her suit but still impenetrable to his arrows.

Natasha quickly ran towards Loki, who she assumed was responsible for this.

Clint stepped in to intercept her, and although Natasha wanted to avoid hurting him to reach Loki, Clint was a very skilled fighter. Even with her enhanced strength, it would take her a while to knock him out if he focused on evading. Plus, she didn't want to harm him.

Loki watched with amusement as the old comrades fought, but once again he told himself to be careful, even though the strength of the woman before him was not much, it was still far beyond his understanding of humans.

He had suspected since he saw that woman stop the Destroyer's beam. Clearly, that woman wasn't human; Loki could tell at first glance.

But this still meant that Earth wasn't as ordinary as he had been taught.

Natasha began to overwhelm Clint before delivering a powerful blow to his head, causing him to stagger dizzily.

Natasha showed no mercy and kicked his head, sending him to the ground. It would surely hurt him the next day.

Looking at her new opponent, Natasha couldn't help but be irritated just by looking at the smirk he gave her. It was definitely a smirk that said "Hit me."

So, charging at full speed, Natasha went for a direct hit to his face.

To her surprise, the man didn't even attempt to dodge, and her fist collided forcefully with his face.

Loki simply continued to look at her with a mocking smile as he felt the impact on his cheek. Even if she was a powerful mortal, she was still just a mortal.

He was a Frost Giant, a physically powerful race, and with the enhancement of magic, no one on Earth could match him.

Loki smiled before kicking Natasha in the abdomen, sending her flying several meters.

The smile on his face froze slightly as he saw Natasha get up as if nothing had happened. Maybe the only thing that changed was the annoyance he felt coming from her.

Natasha ran towards Loki, unleashing a barrage of kicks and punches that Loki easily dodged with great precision. If it weren't for the fact that he had both hands occupied with two of the six most powerful objects in the universe, he might have counterattacked.

Seeing that Loki seemed to be dodging by just a few millimeters, seemingly to taunt her, Natasha cruelly smiled before delivering a punch, suddenly extending her fingers and revealing the claws of her suit, which she didn't usually use.

Loki was surprised and tried to retreat further. Even though he managed to react, three bloody cuts still appeared from his eyebrow to his cheek.

"You!..." shouted Loki, touching his wound and looking at Natasha with eyes full of anger and indignation.

Just as Loki was planning to torture Natasha with his scepter, several helicopters and soldiers started appearing, surrounding him.

Loki looked at his two occupied hands and gave Natasha one last resentful look before opening the briefcase and taking out the Tesseract.

Once his army conquered Earth, he would have his revenge.

He approached Erik before putting his foot on his body and teleporting them both to an unknown location.

Fury quickly arrived in a helicopter, scanning the surroundings in panic.

"Uh, yes, I'm fine," Natasha said, rolling her eyes inside her helmet.

"He took the Tesseract," Fury said, sighing as he remembered Damian's words.

"Arrest Agent Barton and keep an eye on him," Fury ordered, looking at Clint on the ground.

"Hey hey, calm down," Natasha said, quickly appearing next to Clint and looking at the soldiers as if challenging them to arrest her friend.

"Natasha, Clint is under mind control. It's better if we keep him under supervision," Fury calmly explained.

"Of course I know that. Just look at the mark of my foot on his face. I'll watch over him," Natasha said, staring at Fury, making it clear she wouldn't back down on this.

"Fine, you're responsible for him," Fury agreed.

"Do you know anything about the attacker?" Fury asked.

"His scepter is magical and shoots energy. He's very strong and fast, and he seemed to be in a rather unstable mental state," Natasha quickly described Loki.

"From his clothes, he seemed Asgardian," Natasha added thoughtfully.

Fury simply nodded in agreement before boarding his helicopter. He had a lot to do, and he could already feel a headache coming on.

He lost nothing more and nothing less than the most precious object humans had. Now, he must retrieve it at all costs.

"I guess it's time to gather them," Fury murmured to himself before closing the door of his helicopter.

....

Damian woke up the next day without haste about what had happened.

The game had just begun; after this, the world would change irreversibly.

There had been supernatural occurrences before, but it was as if the world didn't want to acknowledge it or talk about it. However, after an alien invasion, the world changed, and it couldn't be avoided any longer.

People learned that they were no longer at the top of the food chain, and the universe was full of dangers.

Natasha wasn't in bed, but Damian expected as much; she probably didn't come back the previous night.

His gaze pierced through the wall, reaching his daughters' room. The three of them were still sleeping together, usually rotating between their beds.

Next to their bed, three small Velociraptors were sleeping in a stack. They were gray with stripes, each with stripes of a different color—one had yellow stripes, another had black, and finally, one had green stripes.

They were the little eggs he had given his daughters on their birthday. It had been half a year, and they had hatched from their shells.

Although the three little dinosaurs were the same age, Damian could see that the little green one was special compared to its siblings.

Of course, this was Ivy's doing. He was still watching over everything, waiting for the surprise her daughter would give him.

He just smiled slightly at them before disappearing and reappearing in Madripoor.

It was time to conclude his experiment.

Damian arrived at the sealed room, which opened automatically for him.

Inside, to his surprise, he only saw one person, the guy 506.

"Hm, I think someone is missing," Damian joked when he saw him.

"He died," the guy said flatly.

"Hm, I see you were successful. It's quite impressive; you have talent," Damian said, nodding as he felt the guy's power.

It took a lot of mental fortitude to carve the magic circle since he couldn't stop in the middle.

"I suppose you'll kill me now or continue experimenting on me?" the prisoner taunted.

"What do you think? Of course, I'm going to set you free. A king always keeps his word," Damian said seriously.

Although the man tried to maintain an emotionless expression as if he no longer cared about anything, he was moved inside.

His micro facial expressions were easily read by Damian, but he didn't say anything.

"I'll release you, but what if we make a deal?" Damian said, smiling at him, his bright red eyes filling the prisoner with fear.

''If you do a little work for me, I'll give you a way to get into the third circle," Damian said with a smile.

"What do I have to do?" the man asked, with effort after several seconds of silence.

"Go to New York. There will be a fight. I want you to bring me these two objects," Damian said, smiling before creating two realistic holograms of the Scepter and the Tesseract.

Damian waved his hand, making a set of complete clothes appear next to him.

"By the way, what's your name?" Damian asked, pausing for a moment.

"Harry," the black-haired man said, looking at Damian with resentment.

"Well, Harry, now you're a wizard," Damian said, laughing before quickly enchanting a coin.

"Infuse a bit of your magic into it, and it will teleport you to New York. When you have the items, bring them to my house," Damian said, tossing the coin to Harry and leaving the place.

....

Loki appeared in the middle of the desert where the Destroyer had first appeared; he could only teleport to places he knew.

Looking at Erik, Loki frowned, seeing that he still hadn't woken up. It was only a small blow, and he fell unconscious.

He quickly used a bit of magic to heal him and make him wake up.

"Oh? Hello," Erik said, disoriented, his eyes now blue with crystals.

"We need a vehicle and men," Loki said, looking at Erik.

"Sure, but this isn't a good place. If we do something here, he might come," Erik said, fearful.

"He?" Loki asked, confused.

"King Damian. The most powerful man on this planet," Erik said, looking at Loki.

Loki frowned before using the scepter and touching Erik, accessing his memories. Loki remained silent as he processed what he saw. He couldn't be sure about Damian's power, as Erik had only seen small things.

Still, he saw Monica, the woman who stopped the Destroyer's blast with her hands, and considering that Damian was her father, it would be logical to think he was more powerful than her.

Loki frowned, feeling that things would be more challenging than he thought.

Normally, he would put on a good show and have some fun before calling in his army, but with so many variables, he decided to call in his army directly and deal with all obstacles swiftly.

"Where do you think we should strike with an army?" Loki asked Erik.

"New York, that's where Damian and his family live, along with Iron Man. They pose two significant threats," Erik replied, looking at Loki.

"Then that's where it shall be. For now, we need transportation," Loki said, smiling, as he began to walk towards the town, enveloping them in an illusion so that no one would recognize them.

He would swiftly bring his army and swiftly deal with all the threats, catching them off guard.

After that, no one could oppose them. With the Bifrost destroyed, Asgard couldn't send its army.

The only one who might come is Thor, but his foolish brother isn't strong enough to defeat their army.

----

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