"Hmm? He's not in the town."
Goku, riding the Nimbus Cloud, instantly teleported to the small town in broad daylight. He extended his senses but found no trace of Thor.
Closing his eyes, he expanded his perception of Ki outward in all directions.
"Found him."
Opening his eyes, he teleported once more, vanishing from his original spot.
Meanwhile, fifty miles away from the town, inside a temporary base hastily erected by S.H.I.E.L.D...
Thor sat in a chair, his face etched with an expression of profound pain and guilt.
Earlier that afternoon, with Jane's assistance, he had made his way to the vicinity of the impact crater where his hammer had fallen.
After subduing the guards stationed there, he finally laid eyes upon the object he had yearned for so deeply: his hammer, Mjolnir.
However, no matter how hard he strained, he could no longer lift Mjolnir with the effortless ease he was accustomed to.
Let alone harness Mjolnir's power to break the seal and reclaim his full strength as the God of Thunder.
Yet, even that paled in comparison to the true source of his anguish: just moments ago, when his younger brother Loki had come to visit, he had delivered a piece of terrible news.
Due to Thor's own past recklessness, their father—the All-Father Odin—had fallen.
In order to secure a truce with the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, Thor had been permanently exiled to that realm.
He was forbidden from ever returning to Asgard.
Only then did the realization strike him with full force; he finally understood just how foolish his past actions had been, and the true meaning behind the words his father had spoken to him.
Unceasing warfare, in and of itself, cannot resolve every problem.
"Sir, I must ask you to identify yourself. Who exactly sent you here? Why are you trying to take that hammer? Do you even realize what it truly is?"
Coulson stared at the blond-haired man before him—who remained utterly silent, his face a mask of pure grief—and felt a distinct sense of bewilderment.
When this intruder had first breached the perimeter, he had merely appeared frustrated; how, in the brief interval it took Coulson to answer a phone call, had that frustration transformed into such profound sorrow?
Moreover, it didn't appear to be an act; his grief seemed genuinely, painfully real.
"Hey, Thor! Did you find your hammer?"
At that very moment, a figure suddenly materialized right beside Thor and raised a hand in greeting. Upon seeing this figure, Coulson's face instantly registered a look of shock:
"You are... you are... Mr. Goku?"
"Oh, I know you! Your name is... Kukusen!"
Goku turned his head to look at Coulson; after a moment of thought, he seemed to recall something.
He had encountered this man last year when he visited this world to summon the Divine Dragon and resurrect the fallen soldiers.
He remembered that the man appeared to be a colleague of Aunt Natasha.
"It's Coulson."
Coulson gently corrected the pronunciation of his name, then immediately asked:
"Mr. Goku, you know him? Is he a friend of yours?"
"Yes, he is Thor—the God of Thunder from Asgard."
Goku replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"What? Thor, the God of Thunder? *The* Thor from the myths and legends?"
Coulson stood frozen in place, dumbfounded.
If anyone else had said that, he would have dismissed it as a joke without a second thought.
But coming from Goku, he actually found himself half-believing it.
After all, Goku was no ordinary person; Coulson had personally witnessed him summon the Divine Dragon and use a wish to bring the dead back to life.
"It's you, Little Wizard. I am no longer worthy to lift Mjolnir, nor do I deserve to be called the God of Thunder anymore.
It is all my fault. If it weren't for me, Father would not have died."
Thor looked up at Goku, his expression still heavy with grief.
Seeing this, Coulson swallowed hard:
"You two talk. I'm going to go make a phone call."
Leaving aside the question of whether the man claiming to be Thor was the real deal or not, the fact remained: Goku had appeared. He had to notify Director Nick Fury immediately.
After all, Director Nick Fury had been searching for Goku for a whole year.
Stepping out of the room, he took out a specialized communicator, dialed Director Nick Fury's number, and quickly reported the situation unfolding there.
However, Nick Fury's response came as something of a surprise to him.
He had assumed Nick Fury would instruct him to keep Goku occupied at all costs while dispatching Black Widow to the scene.
Instead, Nick Fury told him to do absolutely nothing—specifically, he was not to interfere with anything Goku chose to do.
As long as Goku wasn't committing murder or arson, they were to fully cooperate with whatever he wished to undertake.
Even if Goku decided to take that strange hammer, they were not to stop him.
Although he couldn't fathom what exactly had happened on Director Nick Fury's end to trigger such a sudden and drastic shift in their stance toward Goku...
He decided to follow the Director's orders nonetheless.
Consequently, when he re-entered the room, his face was beaming with a broad smile.
"So, you turn out to be a friend of Mr. Goku. In that case—Mr. Thor—you are free to go.
As for the hammer: if it belongs to you, feel free to take it with you.
If you are unable to take it, leave it here; we will look after it for you."
"Thank you, Coulson. You're a good man."
Seeing how reasonable Coulson was being, Thor temporarily suppressed the sorrow in his heart, looked up, and expressed his gratitude.
"I'd like to give it one more try."
"By all means."
Maintaining his smile, Coulson led Thor—along with a rather curious Goku—to the center of the makeshift base, where the hammer was located.
Thor took a deep breath, reached out to grasp the hammer, and summoned every ounce of his strength.
"It seems it's still no use. I truly am no longer worthy to be the God of Thunder."
The hammer shifted slightly, yet ultimately, it remained unlifted.
"Is this hammer really that heavy?"
Standing beside Thor, the Goku, driven by curiosity, reached out and attempted to grasp the God of Thunder's hammer.
And just like that, the hammer was lifted with effortless ease.
"It's not heavy at all!"
After giving the hammer in his hand a few swings, a look of bewilderment crossed the Goku's face.
At that very moment, a surge of immense power coursed down the handle and instantly flooded into the Goku's body; simultaneously, a sudden realization dawned upon him.
Wielding the God of Thunder's hammer, he now possessed the powers of lightning and storms bestowed by the weapon itself.
Furthermore, his physical body was being reinforced by the divine energy radiating from the hammer.
As he naturally hoisted the hammer aloft, the skies above immediately churned with dramatic shifts in wind and cloud; a formidable bolt of lightning was drawn down from the heavens, channeled by the hammer.
He slammed the hammer toward the ground, and the lightning—guided by the direction the hammer pointed—streaked down with devastating force.
"That's impossible!"
Witnessing the Goku effortlessly lift his Mjolnir—and even execute a technique that only *he* was supposed to be capable of—Thor's face was a mask of utter disbelief.
After all, even back in Asgard, no one—save for his father—had ever been able to lift his Mjolnir.
Yet, this young wizard from Midgard standing right before him had done it—and, ironically, Thor himself couldn't even lift it right now.
"Could it really be... the legendary Hammer of Thor?"
Coulson, too, wore a look of utter bewilderment.
To be honest, he had been somewhat skeptical of the things the Goku had said just moments ago.
He might have been willing to believe that the blond-haired man was an alien, but to claim that he was Thor—the God of Thunder from ancient myths—had sounded completely preposterous no matter how you looked at it.
But now... his convictions seemed to be wavering.