Chapter 115 – The Voodoo Curse
"Qin? Why are you calling me?" Tony asked.
At the mention of that name, everyone in the lab froze. Tony and Dr. Banner were the leads, but Pepper Potts was there too—she, after all, was a fruit user herself. Betty Ross stood by, her presence a necessary safety valve for Banner; if the Hulk emerged, she was the only one who could pacify him. They all knew of Qin Xiao, and Tony's call left them deeply uneasy.
"Are you all on the Helicarrier?" Qin Xiao's question caught them off guard.
"You know about the Helicarrier?"
"I know many things. I'm calling to deliver some unpleasant news."
"What kind of news?" Tony's anxiety spiked.
"Tell Nick Fury: Loki and Barton came to see me in Hell's Kitchen just now," Qin Xiao stated bluntly.
The room went cold. Was Nick Fury right? Was Asgard aligning with Hell? Was the Devil Envoy calling to tell them to retreat? A terrifying thought took root: What if the Envoy is calling to force us to surrender?
"Loki and Barton? What could they possibly want with you?" Tony demanded.
"They came to trade for two Devil Fruits," Qin Xiao replied, casually betraying his "clients." "One was the Pop-Pop Fruit, which amplifies speed and size. With that, Barton is effectively a super-sniper; one arrow is all it takes to kill any of you. The other was the Straw-Straw Fruit, which allows the user to plant straw dolls inside other people and transfer any damage they receive onto those victims. Barton has more firepower, and Loki now has an incredible life-preserving curse. You'd better watch yourselves when you face them."
"Why are you telling us this?" The voice wasn't Tony's—it was Nick Fury, who had been monitoring the lab's communications.
"Why?" Qin Xiao countered, his tone dripping with mock righteousness. "Because Loki is insufferable. He came to me posturing as the 'Ruler of Earth.' A man who hasn't achieved anything yet calling himself a king? I don't expect him to succeed, so I figured I'd give you a heads-up to avoid any messy misunderstandings."
"If that's the case, why agree to the trade at all?" Fury pressed. "Someone with your power shouldn't be so easily coerced."
"You know the power of his scepter," Qin Xiao shot back. "He controlled my man, Frank Castle. I had to trade to get him back."
Fury was silenced. He had no leverage to continue the suspicion.
"We understand. Thank you for the tip—this intel is vital. By the way, do you know where Loki hid the Tesseract?"
"Regrettably, no. I've told you all I know. Now, let's see if you can stop his conspiracy. If you fail, he really will become the Ruler of Earth. Then you'll all be in deep trouble. I'm a bit better off—at least I have a trade history with him, so he won't target me just yet. Good luck with the search."
Click. The line went dead.
"What now? Do we just wait?" Frank asked, still simmering with rage over being mentally enslaved. He wanted nothing more than to tear Loki apart.
"Prepare yourselves," Qin Xiao commanded. "The war might spill over into our territory soon enough. As for you, Blonsky, learn to control your Tremor-Tremor Fruit. If you fight in New York, you have to ensure your tremors don't level the city, or you'll become a target. Logan, your combat style is freer than his—you don't have to worry about collateral damage. And Frank, you rely too much on hot weapons. Once you realize they can't solve everything, you'll finally start developing your fruit powers properly."
Meanwhile, on the streets of Germany, Loki had begun his "planting." He couldn't care less about the lives of mortals. He spared only the people he needed, like Dr. Erik Selvig, but everyone else he encountered was cursed with a straw doll. The Straw-Straw Fruit opened a door to a new level of psychological warfare.
Loki was walking through the streets when he was spotted by S.H.I.E.L.D. A team was already en route. As Loki stood before a crowd, delivering a mad manifesto, Captain Rogers intercepted him. Iron Man arrived shortly after, raining down firepower, forcing Loki to consider a staged "surrender."
Suddenly, the sky ignited with the arrival of the Bifrost. Thor stepped out, having been alerted by Heimdall that his brother had resurfaced on Earth. The situation spiraled into chaos.
Thor ignored the bystanders, charging straight at Loki and slamming him into the pavement. "Loki! I trusted you! I brought you to Father and Mother, and you fled! What are you doing here?"
"Hahaha! Thor, my brother," Loki wheezed, bleeding but grinning. "Do you know what you've just done? You've committed murder."
As Loki moved, his arm morphed into straw. A small voodoo doll fell from his sleeve, covered in bruises and blood.
"Murder? I don't believe a word of your lies!" Thor roared.
"It's no lie," Loki laughed, looking at Thor like he was a dim-witted child. "You traded with the Envoy for the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, and so did I. I chose a curse. I've planted thousands of these dolls in the people of this city. Every strike you land on me is transferred to them. The blows you just dealt would have killed an ordinary human. So yes, Thor, my brother... you've just killed innocents."
A heavy, sickening silence fell over the square. Even Tony Stark, standing in his armor, was horrified by the sheer, cold-blooded madness of the act.
"How do you modern men choose to deal with this?" Captain Rogers asked, his face pale with confusion and helplessness.