Perhaps influenced by Su Ye's calm demeanor, Tony Stark slowly descended and approached the Tesseract.
"Hey, Su… Uncle Su? You've been researching this for a while now. What exactly have you tried so far?"
Hearing Tony's question, Su Ye scratched his head and gestured randomly a few times.
"Like this, this, and this."
Tony Stark was speechless. "Are you… casting spells?"
Su Ye rolled his eyes. "Of course not. Do you know about Qi?"
"..."
Tony frowned. Why is this conversation suddenly about Qi? I'm trying to talk science, and you're dragging me into mysticism?
Seeing Tony's reaction, Su Ye shrugged helplessly. "Then I can't explain it to you. You know, for someone without a concept of mathematics, calculus is like an incomprehensible script."
"..."
Tony frowned again. Is he calling me a primitive? After all my years as a genius, someone's calling me a primitive?
Tony Stark, who had never lost an argument in his life, wasn't about to let a young guy get the better of him.
Just as Tony was about to retort, Su Ye spoke again.
"Judging by your confused look, maybe I should explain it."
"What is Qi?"
"When Heaven and Earth's Qi converge, all things come to life."
"The Void cannot exist without Qi, Qi cannot gather without forming all things, and all things cannot disperse without returning to the Void."
"True Qi comes from Heaven, combines with food energy, and fills the body."
"Humans draw Qi from food, which enters the stomach, is passed to the lungs, and nourishes the organs."
"Does this make you more confused? Don't worry, I'll explain step by step."
Tony quickly raised his hand to stop him. "No need! I have zero interest in what Qi is. I just want to close that portal and end this catastrophe as soon as possible!"
Tony Stark used to love talking, often spouting random nonsense in various situations, leaving others baffled—and he was quite proud of it.
Now, he finally understood the pain of those he had overwhelmed with his quick wit.
"Fine, since you're not interested now, we'll talk another day. There's plenty of time," Su Ye shrugged, then gestured for Tony to proceed.
"It seems my methods don't work. Your turn—let's see what brilliant ideas you have."
Su Ye stepped back to give some space. Tony Stark thought for a moment, then raised his hand and fired a repulsor blast at the Tesseract.
Boom!
A blue-white energy shield appeared once again, blocking Iron Man's blast and dispersing it outward in a wave.
Dr. Erik Selvig, who was lying unconscious nearby, was slammed against the wall with a thud.
Su Ye's lips twitched. Isn't this basically the same as what I was doing?
The news that the portal couldn't be closed and the nuke had been dismantled mid-flight quickly reached the military's operations room. Everyone there looked grim, realizing their careers might end today.
The silence dragged on for a long time before someone finally spoke.
"There's no way. The superheroes won't let us deploy nukes. Unless we detonate a high-yield nuke near New York, destroying a large area, any missile we send will just be dismantled."
"Detonating a nuke outside the city—aside from the damage and fallout—can you guarantee it'll close the portal? What if the portal remains open after the detonation?"
"Then we'll be fighting a grueling battle with the aliens in a radioactive zone."
"Rather than that, we might as well deploy forces now and fight directly in New York!"
"But if we fight directly, New York will be destroyed!"
"That's still better than destroying it with a nuke and then having to fight over the ruins!"
Amid the endless arguments, the remotely attending President made the final decision.
"Fight in the city!"
With those words, the arguments stopped instantly. They all knew this was the only option left; it's just that no one wanted to take the blame.
After all, this decision could came at the cost of the entire city of New York.
With the decision made, the massive machinery of the military swiftly went into action.
Soon, fighter jet squadrons appeared on the horizon again, while tanks, armored vehicles, and rocket launchers rolled into the city in an orderly line, accompanied by countless soldiers.
According to the military brass, even in the early days of the Afghanistan war, they hadn't deployed this many troops.
As the large-scale military operation unfolded, the superheroes' presence became increasingly insignificant.
At this point, the battle had escalated beyond the superheroes' ability to contribute meaningfully. They could only play a minor role, and even that came with the risk of being accidentally harmed by friendly fire due to their aggressive tactics.
Gradually, all the Avengers gathered on the rooftop of Stark Tower. Due to the Tesseract's unique properties, both the military and the Chitauri had ceased their attacks on this location, making the rooftop the safest place for now.
The Avengers, along with the Guardians of the Great Wall who were already there, formed a group of about a dozen heroes around the Tesseract activation device.
Outside, the military had fully taken over the war, engaging in a life-or-death struggle with the Chitauri. Meanwhile, the dozen heroes on the rooftop suddenly found themselves idle, creating an awkward atmosphere.
"Hey, nice lightning!" Thor said, hammering a stray Chitauri soldier off the rooftop and turning to Max beside him.
Max beamed. "Right? I even designed some moves, like this, and this!"
As he spoke, Max struck two dramatically over-the-top poses and released twin electric blasts, destroying a passing Chitauri craft midair.
Thor nodded approvingly. "Good moves! Add a couple of catchphrases, and it'd be perfect!"
"Really?" Max pondered seriously for a while, then shook his head helplessly. "That's tough. I can't think of any right now. Got any suggestions?"
Thor thought hard, then nodded. "Like this."
With a serious expression and a fierce tone, Thor declared, "I am Thor, God of Thunder! You have five minutes to get out of here, or I'll fly over, cut off your hand, and shove it up your backside!"
Everyone nearby quietly moved away from the duo, fearing their collective IQ might drop just by proximity.
Superheroes, when idle, were never truly idle. Banter was part of their routine, and a hero who couldn't crack jokes or talk trash had no future.
Thor was a prime example. Starting as a stoic, overpowered warrior, he was gradually pulled down to Star-Lord's level of goofiness with each passing film.
As a result, while gaining massive popularity, Thor became the only hero with a fourth solo movie and was set to remain active in the MCU.
In the post-Avengers era, where the original team had either died or retired, Thor's continued presence was nothing short of a miracle.
Judging by the ending of Thor: Love and Thunder, the fourth movie isn't the end. Developing parts five, six, and seven to complete a Dragon Ball-esque set for summoning a cosmic dragon isn't out of the question.
Compared to Thor and Max's antics, the others were more serious. Regardless of their actual knowledge of mechanical structures or energy systems, they all gathered around the device, to offer suggestions.
After all that discussion and countless attempts, they still hadn't made any progress.
Finally, Dr. Erik Selvig, who had been unconscious, woke up due to the earlier double impacts. It was then that the group learned how to close the portal.
"Use Loki's scepter. The scepter's energy is something the Tesseract cannot resist—it can't fight its own power. Plus, I built a backdoor into the system!"
Dr. Selvig spoke with conviction. At this point, no one on Earth, not even Thor or Loki, knew about the Infinity Stones. They all believed the Mind Scepter was merely a tool created from the Tesseract.
Although this understanding was slightly off, it didn't hinder the process of shutting down the activation device.
However, there was one problem.
Where was Loki?
Without Loki, they couldn't get the Mind Scepter. Without the scepter, they couldn't close the portal. It was a deadlock.
Since the Battle of Los Angeles, Loki hadn't shown himself on the front lines, nor had he come close to admire the portal he opened. Was he indifferent, or was he still haunted by the painful memories Su Ye had left him?
Finding him would be challenging.
First, Loki could shapeshift. If he changed his face, facial recognition systems would be useless.
Second, the gamma radiation emitted by the activated Tesseract disrupted sensors, rendering Bruce Banner and Tony Stark's earlier plan to track gamma radiation ineffective.
After their discussions, they realized that their only option was to wait.
They would have to wait for Loki to appear, seize the Mind Scepter, and then close the portal.
In fact, Su Ye knew of another way: the Eye of Agamotto hanging around the Ancient One's neck. The Time Stone inside could also work.
According to lore, Infinity Stones could influence one another. If the Mind Scepter could pierce the Tesseract's energy shield, the Time Stone could do the same.
But even if Su Ye mentioned this method, it was impractical. After all, it was the Ancient One—how could he explain such things to her?
The last thing he wanted was to fail to borrow the stone and end up exposing himself as a time traveler and system holder.
Besides, Su Ye had no intention of closing the portal so easily, nor did he plan to suggest it himself.
Thus, the next task was to find Loki.