Everyone's expression changed at once. Stark even stepped in front of Thor, about to warn him not to come any closer — and was promptly sent flying by a single hammer swing.
Thor gave a cold snort, grabbed Loki by the collar, and flew straight out of the Quinjet.
"That's Thor, the God of Thunder!" Natasha said bluntly.
"Don't get worked up. He's on our side." Natasha tried to calm a thoroughly irritated Stark.
"I wouldn't bet on it! Whoever he is, the one person who knew the Tesseract's location — Loki — is gone now." With that, he plunged headfirst into the pitch-black storm clouds.
Black Widow could only sigh. She knew exactly how sharp Stark's tongue could be. If this went sideways, it might very well escalate into an interstellar diplomatic incident.
Natasha felt a headache coming on. After reporting the situation to the Helicarrier, she set the jet to autopilot in a holding pattern.
Tony Stark, having caught up to Thor, immediately threw a straight punch without the slightest courtesy.
The symbiote armor had elevated Tony Stark's combat prowess to an extremely high level — enough to make him a powerhouse even on a cosmic scale. It was far stronger than the Bleeding Edge armor from Avengers: Endgame, because, well, he had developed the Bleeding Edge long ago. At this point, the Bleeding Edge armor was considered obsolete.
Thor took Tony's punch, then returned the favor with a hammer blow.
Thud!
A thunderous impact, and Tony was sent flying.
"Sir, the target's resistance to impact is beyond imagination. The armor's hundred-ton output means nothing to him," Jarvis analyzed.
"Are you serious?"
Tony watched Thor raise his hammer and gather lightning, and couldn't help but grumble. A hundred tons to the face, and not even a bruise!
A massive surge of lightning struck Tony. This natural lightning carried immense power. Though not as destructive as the divine lightning Thor would later unleash after fully merging with his own thunder god force, it was still more than most targets could withstand. Thor, naturally, didn't think the tin man opposite him could block this strike.
Tony was firmly protected by the symbiote armor. Outside the flashy silver-white shell, electric arcs danced incessantly. But fortunately, Tony had insulated his armor, so even though the natural lightning was terrifyingly powerful, it didn't cause him any real trouble.
Instead, Tony formed two energy cannons on his arms and fired at Thor.
Boom!
This time, it was Thor who was blasted backward. Loki, the Trickster God, simply watched from the sidelines with the attitude of someone enjoying a good show.
"Iron man!"
Thor was enraged. He leaped straight up and brought Mjolnir crashing down onto Tony's blocking arm. The arm promptly formed a shield.
Boom!
A deafening explosion — the sub-krypton liquid metal dented inward immediately. Thank goodness Tony dodged in time; otherwise, that hammer would have come down right on top of him.
At close range, Tony was absolutely no match for Thor. He was beaten down in just a few moves.
"Damn it!"
Tony activated the symbiote armor's Giant Killer Mode. Liquid metal rapidly replenished itself, and in moments, Tony transformed into an armor as colossal as the Hulkbuster. Then it was Thor's turn to eat dirt. After all, Tony Stark in Giant Killer Mode was incredibly powerful, capable of going toe-to-toe with the Hulk in his normal state.
A single punch sent Thor reeling, the corner of his mouth splitting and bleeding. But Thor was no stranger to fighting giants — his experience was plentiful.
Their fierce battle utterly devastated the entire stretch of forest. Only then did Ben, the Thing, arrive on the scene.
"Stark is currently fighting that Thor guy. Should I step in?" the Thing asked Black Widow.
"Stop them. This is an unnecessary fight."
Natasha felt utterly exhausted. These guys were each more impossible to command than the last.
Hearing this, the Thing charged straight in.
"Stone giant?"
Thor saw the charging stone giant and didn't think twice. Mjolnir flew directly from his hand. The Thing was instantly sent flying by the hammer, his incredibly hard stone skin cracking on impact! This left the Thing completely dumbfounded. Were Thor and Loki really brothers? How could the gap between them be this huge?
But once he picked himself up and joined the fray, the farce quickly came to an end. After all, even the current Thor would struggle to win a two-on-one.
The night passed swiftly.
With Loki captured by Public Beta Avengers 20 and locked inside a custom luxury cell, a resounding victory set the new Avengers off to an auspicious start. Loki's scepter, which he had carried with him, was confiscated and placed in the gamma ray research lab, where Banner and Stark attempted to use it to locate the Space Stone.
Though Thor informed everyone that Loki's true goal was to use the Space Stone to summon an alien army and fulfill his ambition of conquering Earth and becoming its king, the group only felt a mild sense of urgency. With two geniuses on the case, finding the Space Stone was merely a matter of time. And as for time… heh. The mastermind, Loki, was in his cell playing toss-the-soap with himself. The Avengers had all the time in the world to take things slow.
Everything seemed perfect, but everyone knew this was only the illusion Nick Fury presented to the Security Council. Though Loki had been captured, the whereabouts of Hawkeye and Dr. Erik, who were still under his control, remained unknown. More importantly, the Tesseract — the absolute top priority — was still out there with zero leads.
And these were merely the surface-level problems. Internal strife within the Avengers ran far deeper. The greatest of all was mistrust. As the initiator of the Avengers, Nick Fury went by the moniker "King of Spies," which already said plenty.
As for Thor, he trusted no one except Loki. And after his beloved brother stabbed him in the kidney, he no longer trusted Loki either.
Beyond the distrust toward Nick Fury, there wasn't the slightest rapport among the super-elites themselves. Each of them was a dominant force accustomed to handling things solo. Their intensely vivid individual personalities made them intolerant of anyone telling them what to do. The super-elites gathered together like a raid party ready to clear a dungeon. On the surface, they looked flawless, but underneath surged treacherous currents — ready to shatter at a single touch.
Most critically, even though Nick Fury had assembled all these people, he had not found a suitable leader to guide them.
Add to that a Loki pretending to be captured and stirring the pot from the inside, and the future of Public Beta Avengers 20 looked bleak.
If they could find Director Zod Hess, there would naturally be no problem. Because whether superhero or ordinary civilian, everyone knew perfectly well the extent of Zod Hess's capability and strength. He was exceptionally outstanding — so outstanding he was one of a kind in the entire century.
But Zod Hess was, as usual, in a state of disappearance. S.W.O.R.D. couldn't find him at all.
And sure enough, the moment proved it: before Loki even had to lift a finger, the team was already quarreling so fiercely it was unbearable. The one who caused this scene was none other than Stark — that proud representative of America, holding high the banner of justice and dedicating himself to the cause of freedom and equality.
/-\
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