Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 153 - 152: Helicarrier Havoc, a Hulk Unleashed, and the Puppeteer’s Finesse

The "capture" of Loki and his subsequent confinement aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s airborne fortress, the Helicarrier, was a critical, if theatrically staged, act in Elias Thorne's meticulously crafted "Chitauri Counter-Gambit." Elias, from Sanctum Umbra, monitored the events unfolding aboard the Helicarrier with an almost preternatural calm, his mind linked to the Scepter (now safely secured in his deepest Montreal vault, its Mind Stone fragment pulsing with cold, alien intellect, already under intense study by Finch and O'Malley) and subtly to Loki himself via the lingering psionic tethers he had woven during their dimensional "negotiation." Loki was playing his part, sowing discord among the Avengers, subtly manipulating their fears and egos, all while appearing to be a defeated, captive demigod.

Anya Petrova, as "Miss Sharma," was conveniently present on the Helicarrier, "consulting" with Nick Fury and Peggy Carter on the "Asgardian threat." Her true role, of course, was to be Elias's eyes and ears, to provide real-time updates on the Avengers' internal dynamics, and to subtly nudge events if Loki's performance faltered or if S.H.I.E.L.D.'s response became too... competent. Her reports were invaluable: Stark's arrogance clashing with Rogers' idealism, Banner's growing anxiety as he was surrounded by military hardware and aggressive personalities, Romanoff's and Fury's wary attempts to control the uncontrollable. The Avengers were a powder keg, and Loki, with Elias's remote guidance, was expertly laying the fuse.

The System flagged this developing situation: [AVENGERS INITIATIVE – INTERNAL COHESION: LOW (25%). VULNERABILITIES: EGO CONFLICT (STARK/ROGERS), EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY (BANNER/HULK), EXTERNAL MANIPULATION SUSCEPTIBILITY (ALL VIA LOKI/SCEPTER ECHOES). OPPORTUNITY FOR HOST: EXPLOIT DISCORD TO FURTHER CONTROL BATTLEFIELD OUTCOME DURING CHITAURI INVASION.]

Elias's primary objective during this phase was to ensure the Tesseract remained in play and accessible, and that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most potent weapon, the Hulk, was unleashed in a manner that was both destructive to Loki's (Thanos's) immediate plans and illustrative of humanity's own terrifying, uncontrolled potential – a lesson for any Kree or Skrull observers still lingering in the system.

He had "allowed" Clint Barton (Hawkeye), still under the Scepter's subtle influence despite its physical absence (Finch had confirmed the Mind Stone left lingering psionic "hooks" in its victims), to lead a covert assault team of Scepter-controlled S.H.I.E.L.D. agents onto the Helicarrier. This was the catalyst for the managed chaos Elias desired.

The assault was brutal. Barton, his skills amplified by the Scepter's lingering power, systematically crippled the Helicarrier's engines, disabled key command systems, and, crucially, targeted Dr. Bruce Banner's containment lab.

Elias, watching through Anya's discreet sensor relays and even fainter, long-range necrotic energy readings Finch was picking up from the Scepter's "psychic spoor" on Barton, subtly manipulated the unfolding pandemonium. When S.H.I.E.L.D. security forces cornered Barton's team near Banner's lab, Elias, using his own [Energy Siphon/Manipulation (Tier Alpha+)] to cause a precisely timed power surge in that sector of the Helicarrier, overloaded Banner's stress dampeners just as an explosion rocked the deck.

The result was inevitable, and spectacular. The Hulk erupted.

A green goliath of pure, mindless rage, he tore through the Helicarrier's internal structure like tissue paper, swatting aside S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Barton's mind-controlled attackers with equal, indiscriminate fury. He was a force of nature, a living embodiment of uncontrolled power. Thor, the only Avenger capable of potentially matching the Hulk's raw strength, was drawn into a desperate, ship-crippling brawl with the monster, their battle tearing apart entire sections of the airborne fortress.

[HULK (BANNER, BRUCE) – UNLEASHED ABOARD S.H.I.E.L.D. HELICARRIER. RAGE LEVEL: EXTREME (OMEGA-CLASS THREAT). CONTAINMENT: FAILED. OBJECTIVE (ELIAS): SUCCESSFUL – HULK DEMONSTRATES CATASTROPHIC DESTRUCTIVE POTENTIAL, SEVERELY DAMAGING S.H.I.E.L.D. OPERATIONAL CAPABILITIES AND DIVERTING AVENGERS' ATTENTION FROM LOKI/TESSERACT.]

Amidst this chaos, Loki, as per Elias's meticulously implanted "suggestions" (delivered via the Scepter's now-refined Mind Stone link to Elias, a subtle two-way street Loki was only partially aware of), enacted his "escape." He feigned weakness, then brutally dispatched Agent Phil Coulson (a calculated loss Elias regretted but deemed strategically necessary to galvanize the fractured Avengers against a common foe – Coulson's death would be the "blood" Fury needed to unite them) and jettisoned himself from the plummeting Helicarrier. He had "lost" Thor (who was busy trying to prevent the Hulk from tearing the Helicarrier out of the sky), and was now ostensibly free to open the Tesseract portal above Stark Tower in New York City, as per his "agreement" with Thanos (and Elias).

Elias noted that during Coulson's "death," the agent had managed to fire a blast from a prototype S.H.I.E.L.D. energy weapon – reportedly based on salvaged Destroyer technology – at Loki. The Asgardian had seemed... genuinely surprised, perhaps even slightly wounded by its power, before "killing" Coulson. Interesting. S.H.I.E.L.D. was clearly making its own anachronistic technological leaps, a factor Elias would need to monitor.

While the Avengers reeled from Coulson's death, the Helicarrier's destruction, and the Hulk's eventual, rampaging departure (he leapt from the crippled carrier and vanished into the clouds), Elias's assets were not idle.

Logan and Miller "Argent," under cover of the Helicarrier's chaotic descent (O'Malley remotely stabilized one of its damaged turbines just enough to prevent a catastrophic crash, guiding it towards a relatively unpopulated area), made a lightning-fast, surgical insertion into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s primary R&D labs aboard the vessel. Their objective: secure any research data pertaining to the Tesseract, any notes on countering Asgardian physiology (which S.H.I.E.L.D. had undoubtedly been compiling after Thor's arrival), and, most importantly, any surviving fragments of the Destroyer-derived energy weapon Coulson had used. This technology was too valuable to leave in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fumbling hands.

They encountered heavy resistance from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s elite internal security, but Logan's Berserker Ascendant fury and Miller's unkillable Legionnaire resilience, combined with their practiced combat synergy, proved overwhelming. They secured several key data cores and the damaged prototype of Coulson's energy cannon before exfiltrating cleanly via a high-altitude, low-opening (HALO) jump just as S.H.I.E.L.D. emergency response teams began to regain control of the situation.

[S.H.I.E.L.D. R&D (HELICARRIER WRECKAGE) – KEY INTEL/PROTOTYPE WEAPONRY SECURED BY LOGAN/MILLER. Prime Essence Shard Echoes Acquired: +0.6 (from Destroyer tech fragments & elite S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives possessing minor combat stimulants/implants). Total Shards: 4.3/5.0.]

Anya Petrova, meanwhile, played her role as "Miss Sharma" to perfection, expressing shock and concern, offering "Mr. Blanchard's" condolences for Coulson's loss and subtly guiding Nick Fury's rage and grief towards Loki and the imminent Chitauri threat, reinforcing the absolute necessity of the Avengers Initiative, despite its internal fractures. She also "discovered" evidence suggesting Barton's mind control had been unusually potent, hinting at a power source (the Scepter) far beyond conventional Asgardian magic, thus subtly preparing Fury for the true nature of the weapon Elias now possessed.

Elias Thorne, observing this symphony of manipulated chaos, allowed himself a moment of profound, if chilling, satisfaction. S.H.I.E.L.D. was crippled, its leadership distracted and emotionally compromised. The Avengers were battered, disunited, but now, with Coulson's "sacrifice," slowly galvanizing around a common purpose. Loki was en route to New York, believing he was still serving Thanos (and his own ambition), but actually walking into Elias's perfectly prepared stage. The Tesseract was about to be activated. The Chitauri were about to pour through.

The Hulk was now a truly wild card, a force of nature temporarily removed from the immediate equation, but his destructive potential logged and understood. The secrets of the Mind Stone were being analyzed in Elias's vaults. The lessons from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Destroyer tech would soon be integrated into his own arsenal.

And he, Elias Thorne, puppet master supreme, held nearly enough Prime Essence Shards [4.3/5.0] for his next grand evolutionary step, likely after the dust settled from the Battle of New York and he had harvested its inevitable, tragic, but highly profitable, bounty.

The stage was set. The actors were in place. The invasion was imminent. And Elias Thorne, with the Scepter's cold power thrumming in his secret vault and his legions waiting in the shadows, was ready to conduct the final, spectacular act of Earth's "salvation," an act that would leave him as its undisputed, if still largely unseen, master. The true Age of Miracles, and of Thorne, was about to be born in fire.