Chapter 418: Loki
At the exact moment Batman recognized the trap in the Adirondack Mountains, two other things were happening simultaneously.
In the City Hall Batcave beneath Manhattan, a green figure stood with its hands clasped behind its back, moving slowly between the rows of comatose gamma creatures, studying each of them and nodding to itself at intervals.
At the same moment, that same green figure was standing in the North Brother Island laboratory, hands still clasped behind its back, facing a group of people who had gone very still the instant it appeared.
Batman's read on the situation had not been wrong. Someone had been orchestrating all of it -- carefully removing him from the board, creating distance between him and his operations, and then moving on both locations the moment the gap opened.
On North Brother Island, the Lizard Professor and the Hulk had both already transformed. Professor Morbius stood slightly to one side. All three of them had positioned themselves in a protective ring around Dr. Otto, who was now down to two functioning mechanical tentacles.
"Hulk, you handle it. I'll protect Otto. Otto -- contact Batman." The Lizard Professor's golden slit-pupils carried a cold, metallic sheen. He bared his teeth at the green figure as he said it, his voice barely above a growl.
The Hulk's entire musculature went rigid. In ordinary circumstances the two of them argued constantly and irritated each other almost without pause. Right now he listened without any hesitation at all.
He drove both fists straight down into the laboratory floor. The reinforced concrete gave like wet clay. He hauled his arms upward and tore most of the floor surface free with the motion, then brought the whole mass down toward the green figure in a single enormous overhead throw.
The figure didn't move. The debris simply passed through it, every slab and fragment dropping as if through open air, landing and scattering on the far side. The figure remained standing in the same position, untouched.
It raised both hands slowly. Its expression was pleasant. "There's no need for alarm. As you can see, I am a deity of some considerable standing -- one of a kind, in fact." A mild, almost apologetic smile. "I was passing through. I simply wanted to observe."
The Hulk did not listen to any of this. He took one step forward.
The sound that step produced was not a footstep. It was a detonation. North Brother Island shuddered -- visibly, perceptibly, a full-body tremor that traveled through the concrete and out into the ground. And that was only the sound of him accelerating. In the same moment he had already crossed the distance and thrown a full-force punch directly through the figure.
His knuckles cleared the other side without resistance, continued through the laboratory wall behind it, punched through that too, and the Hulk's momentum carried him clear of the building and into the East River below in an unbroken line.
The green figure turned its head to glance at the path the Hulk had taken. Then it looked back at the remaining four, who had gone even more still.
"No need for alarm," it said again, with the same mild tone and the same raised hands.
The Lizard Professor watched it carefully. He could detect no scent on it. Thermal imaging returned nothing -- no heat signature, no body temperature. It had passed through falling debris, through the Hulk himself, through solid concrete walls. He could not, at present, identify any form of technology that could produce a projection this convincing and this responsive.
He filed that problem aside. Batman was not here yet. Until he arrived, the only viable option was to keep the figure talking.
"Who are you?"
"I am the protector of Asgard." The figure's voice carried no urgency. It spoke the words the way someone might recite a title they had repeated many times, finding it neither tiresome nor impressive. "The true sovereign of the Nine Realms. Ruler of Jotunheim. The rightful heir to the throne of Odin." It paused, then continued with the same unhurried cadence.
"I am the master of sorcery. The poet of lies. The artist of chaos. God of mischief and of cunning."
"I am Loki."
The Lizard Professor's body had no pores after transformation. He still registered the precise moment Dr. Otto's skin rose behind him.
From the direction of the East River, a sound arrived. Then the laboratory roof ceased to exist, the Hulk crashing back through it from above and landing squarely in the ruined space with a ground-shaking impact. He did not swing immediately this time. He walked forward slowly, balled one fist, and reached out to close it around Loki's collar.
His hand went through without contact.
The Hulk stared at his empty fist for a moment. Then he stopped adding to the structural damage and began to circle instead, pacing around Loki's position with fists tight and eyes tracking every slight movement.
The Lizard Professor studied Loki as well. Green robes with gold trim at the borders. Black hair, slightly wavy, falling to the shoulders. The nose was sharp and hooked. The eye sockets were deep. The mouth was a thin, precise line in a lean, angular face. He looked like someone whose next move was always already assembled, waiting.
Loki seemed not at all concerned by the Hulk's orbit. He addressed the room.
"Your power is being wasted. All of it." He gestured at the clenched fists, the rigid posture around him. "Look at yourselves -- beings of genuine consequence, cooped up in a laboratory of this size. You have already tasted what strength actually feels like. And yet here you are, wearing the collar voluntarily."
He let that sit for a moment.
"Come with me. Serve under my command. I can offer you a world in which power, authority, respect, and freedom are not things you have to beg for or disguise yourself to hold. No pretending. No restraint."
He looked around the ring of them.
"The Nine Realms will remember your names. There will be monuments. Histories. You will not merely be strong -- you will be mythological. You will be gods in truth."
"Come with--"
"You have said enough." The Lizard Professor's voice had gone to a temperature that made the sentence feel like something physical. "You think a few sentences will make us walk out behind you?"
Loki's mouth curved upward very slightly. "Oh?" He waited. He appeared to be expecting a counteroffer, some negotiated terms.
The Lizard Professor made a short, dismissive sound through his nose and said nothing further.
The curve went back down. Loki's eyes moved to Hulk, then to Dr. Otto, then to Professor Morbius.
The Lizard Professor turned his head slightly, keeping Loki in his peripheral vision. "Otto. Have you reached Batman yet?"
Dr. Otto was standing behind all three of them. His color was somewhat off -- the first time he had faced something of this nature at this range had done that to him. But his voice was stable. "No."
The Lizard Professor's golden pupils flashed. "Are you planning to go with Loki?"
For a moment it looked as though the situation might collapse inward. Loki's expression shifted upward again.
"No." Dr. Otto shook his head slightly. "The Norse god of mischief -- every action he takes is built on deception. He's trying to use our presence here to occupy Batman's attention and misdirect him." He spoke to the Lizard Professor directly, but his voice was level enough to carry. "Trust my assessment."
The Lizard Professor took a breath.
"Whatever you say to us," Dr. Otto said, addressing Loki now, "and whatever you do -- we will not follow you, and we will not serve under you. And you should not expect me to contact Batman and pull him here on a false alarm." A pause. "Your real target is not this island."
Loki's expression settled into something that, under different circumstances, might have been appreciation. "A pity," he said, with what sounded like genuine regret.
Then he looked past them. "And you, Morbius?"
Professor Morbius straightened the collar of his coat -- black on the outside, deep red lining visible at the fold. "As it happens, I've probably studied Norse mythology more thoroughly than anyone else present. It likely diverges from reality in several respects. But my conclusion is the same -- you want to use us. That's the full extent of what you're offering."
"Batman is also using you," Loki said. He said it pleasantly, without any attempt to sharpen it into an argument.
"I'm actually curious about something," Morbius said, redirecting without any sign of being bothered by the observation. "If you -- the actual Loki, god of mischief -- are genuinely standing in front of us, then what of the All-Father? What of Odin?"
Something passed across Loki's face. He did not answer. Instead he turned to the Hulk.
"Hulk. Listen to me." His tone shifted into something quieter, more direct. "There is a place where you don't have to compress yourself into Banner's body and keep a lid on everything. Where your rage has somewhere to go. Where nothing needs to be suppressed. All you have to do is come with me."
The Hulk stopped pacing. He bared his teeth. His mouth stretched wide.
"Hulk doesn't understand."