Corin's punch was like a hammer striking the hearts of Nick Fury and Coulson.
That strange buzzing hum made both of their heads go numb.
Until a crisp cracking sound rang out. On the transparent wall of the cell, several cracks appeared near Corin's fist.
"Thank god! Thank god! It didn't shatter."
Agent Coulson looked at the few cracks and finally relaxed a little.
There was only this one cell on the Helicarrier, and Loki was still on the way back under escort.
If, because of his suggestion, this one and only cell broke, it would be extremely awkward: On a fully equipped flying fortress, there wouldn't even be a proper cage.
Crackle! Crackle!
At that moment, a sound like glass breaking and hitting the ground rang out.
Agent Coulson despairingly realized that the scene he least wanted to see had still happened.
To be fair, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s R&D wasn't completely useless. Under Corin's powerful strike, the transparent cell didn't completely shatter.
Only a large hole formed where it was hit, and thick transparent fragments were dropping down here and there.
"Director Fury, looks like your agency still has a long way to go when it comes to cage development."
Corin was in a good mood. He walked out of the cell and slowed slightly as he passed Fury, speaking earnestly.
Then he headed toward Agent Hill.
She was standing there waiting for Corin, holding a cup of coffee.
Ever since the freezing incident, Agent Hill, who wasn't even very diligent about making coffee for the Director anymore, had gotten hooked on making coffee for Corin.
It wasn't that Corin had some special charm that attracted Hill or made her like him.
It was just that watching the scalding hot coffee get gulped down by Corin, glug! glug!, had recently become a stress relief method she discovered.
Nick Fury stared at the big hole in the transparent cell wall, the corner of his mouth twitching.
After giving Agent Coulson a look full of unclear meaning, he left.
Agent Coulson calmly dialed a phone number, "Hello? R&D department? The cell materials don't meet standards. Redo it…"
Ignoring the loud questions coming from the other end of the line, Agent Coulson straightened his tie.
———
[A S.H.I.E.L.D. Aircraft]
Thor knocked flying Iron Man, grabbed Loki, swung Mjolnir, and vanished into the end of the thunderclouds.
"This guy just shows up whenever he wants!"
Tony steadied himself again and, ignoring Colonel Rogers shouting that Thor was on their side, immediately gave chase.
The Mark armor vanished into the night trailing flames.
"I will sit this one out, cap. These guys come from legends, they're basically gods!"
Natasha turned back and shouted a reminder to Rogers.
Captain America quickly secured his parachute buckles and picked up his shield, "There's only one God mam, and I am pretty sure he doesn't dress like that!"
Before the words even fell, Captain Rogers leapt straight out of the aircraft hatch.
At this moment, Loki, his hands bound, was thrown onto a reef, letting out a pained cry.
"Where is the Tesseract?", Thor demanded harshly.
"I missed you too, brother," Loki replied warmly, as if he truly missed him.
"You should thank me! Do you know how much dark energy Odin had to use to send you to your beloved Earth?"
At this point, the two brothers had an exchange about what it meant to rule.
Ever since Loki had seen Thanos's methods and the true power of the Tesseract, it was as if a door had been opened for him. He had tasted the flavor of power.
"Give up those unrealistic fantasies! Hand over the Tesseract! And then… come home with me…"
Thor spoke from the heart. They had grown up together and fought together. He wanted his younger brother to come home with him and abandon those unfounded feelings of inferiority.
"Listen well brother—"
Whoosh! BANG!
Just as Thor learned that Loki didn't actually have the Tesseract on him and seemed about to say something else, a rocket-like figure slammed into him and sent him flying on the spot.
"I'm listening."
Loki watched Thor suddenly vanish from in front of him, his face full of amusement.
Tony shoved Thor at least two kilometers away. Only after Thor crashed awkwardly onto the ground did Tony stop and face him.
"Do not touch me again…"
Thor, interrupted mid-conversation with his brother, was a bit angry, gripping his hammer and staring hard at the Iron Man in front of him.
"Then don't take my stuff."
Tony didn't back down at all, making it clear that Thor's appearance had messed up their plan.
"You have no idea what you're dealing with!"
Thor's pride as a god made him unwilling to bully a mortal, but Tony was clearly the kind of person who could easily break anyone's composure, "Uh… shakespere in the park? Doth mother know... you weareth her drapes?"
At this point, their goals conflicted.
Thor wanted to take Loki back to Asgard for judgment, while Tony wanted to use Loki to find the Tesseract.
One disagreement, and the hammer flew.
The two started fighting, hammer against kick.
Seeing that he couldn't gain the upper hand in hand-to-hand combat against the guy in metal armor, Thor raised his hammer high and summoned a thick bolt of lightning.
Crack!
He wanted this arrogant mortal who dared to scorn divine might to see the power of a god.
Lightning gathered, charging the hammer. As Thor pointed his arm at Tony, several bolts shot from the hammer, connecting to various parts of the Mark armor, releasing dazzling sparks and arcs of electricity that lit up the surrounding jungle.
After the lightning passed, Tony swayed but didn't fall. JARVIS reported:
["Energy at 400 percent…"]
Tony instantly realized that this so-called God of Thunder had just perfectly supercharged his armor with a big move.
"How did that happen?"
With a mischievous tilt of his head, Tony fired energy beams from both hands and the arc reactor in his chest at the same time.
The charged beams were insanely powerful, blasting Thor into a huge tumble.
They fought from the ground into the air, then from a cliff down into a mountain ravine, destroying large swathes of forest, yet still neither could gain the upper hand.
Tony couldn't help but marvel at how tough this god from the divine realm was. Even his hard alloy helmet had deformed after colliding head-on with Thor's head.
At that moment, a metal round shield struck Thor and Tony in quick succession, like a chain of lightning, then spun back into the Captain's hand.
"Enough!"
Captain America, Steve Rogers, finally arrived.
If you're wondering why the Captain came so late, only after Tony and Thor had beaten each other's heads out of shape, just look at the parachute hanging on the distant cliff.
Captain America can't fly. Being able to get free from a parachute stuck on a cliff was already impressive.
"What is your purpose here?"
The Captain looked seriously at Thor. He knew Thor was part of the Avengers Initiative, but clearly S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't had a proper talk with him yet.
"I'm here to stop Loki's scheme," Thor told the truth.
"Then prove it to me. Put down your hammer…"
As an outstanding representative of American soldiers, Captain America wasn't intimidated even when facing a god.
"Oh no, that's not a good idea. He really loves his hammer."
Tony, having traded a few rounds with Thor, had some understanding of this tough guy and quickly cut in, but was immediately swatted away by Thor with a backhanded hammer strike.
"You want me to put my hammer down?", Thor seemed deeply provoked. He leapt up, soaring into the sky.
He swung the hammer in a full arc and smashed it toward Captain America.
Colonel Rogers had extraordinary confidence in the shield in his hand.
He held his ground, raised the shield, and prepared to take the blow head-on.
Clang!
Violent blue-white lightning flashed. For a moment, the entire forest was as bright as day.
Vibranium's shock-absorbing ability was no joke.
Thor was blasted high into the air by the recoil of his own attack.
"Are you done yet?"
Having vented most of his anger, Thor stood in a triangular formation with Tony and Rogers.
He had regained a bit of his rationality.
———
The scene shifts.
On the Helicarrier, two fully armed squads escorted Loki into the specially made transparent cell.
Looking at the large hole in the transparent wall, temporarily sealed with a layer of tape that bulged and sucked back with the airflow…
The confident smile on Loki's face instantly collapsed, "What's going on? Who are you looking down on?"
[T/N: Seeing the lack of readers, I am conducting a vote to see which novels I should drop. So if you don't want this novel to be dropped, please vote in discord announcements or p@treon pinned post, whicever suits you. There are no paywalls anywhere.]
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