"So, you're saying you met Thor, got into a fight with him, and now you're all stuck on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier?"
Anyway, since Pepper had already left and Tony wasn't around, for the moment Tohka was basically the person with the highest authority in the tower.
Of course, even if she hadn't been, it didn't matter—in any case, the two of them easily found a room to talk. Just then, she also received a message from Tony, and because she wasn't there, everyone had ended up fighting just like before.
"Yeah—who told that guy to show up and try to take Loki away the second he arrived? Sure, the big brute did help us before, but he doesn't have to be so arrogant about it."
Hearing Tohka's question, Tony was still fuming. Honestly, even though Thor had mellowed out a lot, he and Loki were alike in that they carried the unshakable pride of the gods.
That made it very easy for Tony to find him insufferable—and with Captain America's completely different values, Tohka thought she'd rather let Nick Fury deal with them. After all, this whole Avengers initiative was his idea, so he could be the one with the headache.
"Alright—since there's nothing urgent over there and Miku Izayoi wasn't hurt, why don't you come up here? Loki's still dangerous."
Seeing that Miku was unharmed, Tony wanted Tohka to join them, since just thinking about the prisoner they were holding was enough to give him a headache.
"No thanks. Those attackers still haven't been identified—I'm not going up there no matter what."
It wasn't just an excuse—Tohka was genuinely worried that if she set foot on that Helicarrier, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from cutting down every so-called Hydra agent she saw. If she did that, never mind the coming Chitauri army—S.H.I.E.L.D. itself would be thrown into chaos first.
"Honestly, you don't need to worry. You two are in my Stark Breakup Tower—it's the safest place you could possibly be. You know I have an entire monitoring system here. Don't even think about a sneak attack—if even a fly comes near, I'll know." Tony patted his chest and gave Tohka his personal guarantee.
"Uh...heh heh." Hearing that, all Tohka could do was laugh hollowly.
She really didn't know what to say—Tony's mysterious confidence... If she hadn't seen the movies, maybe she'd actually believe him. But now—no way was she going to say anything to burst his bubble.
"I'm staying down here. If something happens, call me. Since you're all still in New York, it'll only take me a few minutes to get there." Tohka had already made up her mind—she wouldn't go up there even if they dragged her.
"Alright then, fine. I still need to discuss next steps with Dr. Banner anyway—right now, the top priority is finding the Tesseract."
Tony could tell she was dead set against joining them. As for the reason, he already had a pretty good guess. There was no way S.H.I.E.L.D. was as united as it pretended to be.
Hell, the battle hadn't even started yet, and the whole place was already tense as a powder keg. He had a feeling that once this was over, Nick Fury would probably carry out a major purge.
"What is it, Tohka? Are we going to stay here from now on?" Seeing Tohka finish the call, Miku Izayoi asked uncertainly.
Judging from her expression, she was also very unhappy—after all, who wouldn't be upset after their home got blown up?
"Yeah—we'll stay here for now. Hmph, I'd like to see what tricks those bastards try next."
If Tohka remembered correctly, activating the Tesseract required a stable energy source—and Tony's latest project happened to fit the bill. So, she was going to stay right here and watch what they did.
Meanwhile, on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Nick Fury returned to his control room after dealing with Loki. But he didn't look the least bit relieved. The Hulk earlier and Miku Izayoi this time—both incidents proved there were problems inside S.H.I.E.L.D.
But unfortunately, this was exactly when Loki had launched his invasion, and from what they'd learned from Thor, there might be an army behind him.
Until the Tesseract was secured, Nick Fury couldn't risk a purge inside S.H.I.E.L.D. If he made a single misstep, he'd cripple his own forces before the real fight even started.
Elsewhere, Hawkeye—having made all his preparations—was getting ready to storm the Helicarrier.
"Looks like we'll need to go shopping. Damn it—those bastards blew up the whole building. We didn't even have time to grab anything. Though, thankfully, we made such a commotion at the start that everyone inside ran out, so no one got hurt."
On the other side, Tohka and Miku ran into another little problem: they had nothing. They'd have to go buy all their necessities again.
"Alright then—let's just go together." Hearing Miku's complaint, Tohka nodded.
Honestly, she hadn't planned on leaving this place, but since Miku wanted to go out, she had no choice but to be careful. Didn't Hydra already figure out a way to counter Miku's mind control? The only reason those enemies were crushed so quickly before was because they'd completely underestimated her strength.
After all, Tohka had said back at S.H.I.E.L.D. that Miku Izayoi's direct combat ability wasn't very strong. What those people didn't realize was that "not very strong" was only relative to Tohka herself—Miku was still a lot stronger than the average superhero.
Then Tohka and Miku Izayoi stepped into the elevator and slowly descended. But unfortunately, sometimes the very thing Tohka feared most was exactly what happened.
As they left, a pair of sharp eyes was locked on the building.
"They seem to be leaving. Head to Stark Tower at once—proceed with the plan. I'll take a team to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier."
Lowering the binoculars, Hawkeye spoke calmly to the person on the other end of the radio. He immediately grabbed his bow and left—clearly ready to move on to the next step.
"Understood. Looks like we won't need to stage a terrorist attack to distract them." The voice over the radio sounded relieved.
Even though they'd been brainwashed by Loki, none of them were truly evil—doing these things still made them instinctively resist inside.
"What's wrong, Tohka?" At that moment, Miku Izayoi looked over in confusion. Tohka had suddenly stopped and was scanning the area.
"It's nothing... Just feels like someone was watching us. Let's hope I'm imagining it."