You see, Hawk had long since considered Thor to be his friend. And now, his friend had actually been bullied to tears!
This was something Hawk simply could not accept.
Under the watchful, terrified gaze of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, the divine metal of Mjolnir in Hawk's ear-grip began to aggressively flicker with lightning. High above in the star-studded night sky, a deafening crack echoed, and a massive bolt of lightning suddenly struck down from the void.
Its target was the empty patch of mud directly in front of Thor.
The moment the lightning struck, all the surrounding soldiers took a step back, raising their rifles as their eyes filled with extreme vigilance.
"Thor, are you okay?" Hawk asked, his tiny voice amplified by the storm. "I'll protect you!"
Hearing Hawk's brave declaration, the profound sadness in Thor's eyes receded slightly. But when he looked up and saw the legendary Mjolnir firmly in the grip of a little pink pig, the expression on Thor's face instantly shifted back to a look of wanting to cry, but having absolutely no tears left to shed.
At the same time, the smoke cleared at the spot where the lightning had just struck.
A figure wearing Asgardian leather and a golden horned helmet slowly materialized from thin air. Loki's soot-blackened face opened, and he exhaled a comical puff of black smoke.
The killing intent in the Trickster God's heart had never been more intense than it was right now.
A piece of livestock actually dared to treat him like this! He was the Prince of Asgard! The rightful King! The God of Lies! Such profound disrespect!
"Loki, don't be angry!" Thor stood up in a panic, using his massive body to block Loki's path toward the pig. "Hawk is just... he's just a bit... simple-minded. He might have misunderstood something. Let me go explain it to him!"
Having spent nearly a thousand years by his side, Thor understood his brother quite well. Arrogant, deceitful, and highly skilled at disguise. Seeing the twitch in Loki's jaw, Thor knew he was already murderous.
One side was his beloved brother; the other was his new friend. He really didn't want the two of them to start fighting.
"Thor, you are already a mortal," Loki sneered, his green eyes staring straight past Thor to lock onto Hawk. "Just go live your pathetic mortal life."
Thor, standing firmly in front of him, didn't make Loki shift his gaze for even a microsecond.
Thor opened his mouth to plead again, but before he could formulate the words, the 'Loki' standing in front of him shimmered and vanished like a mirage. The true Loki had already appeared behind Hawk at some unknown moment.
SCREECH!
An Asgardian dagger collided violently with the magical armor encasing Hawk's plump body, carving out a shower of brilliant sparks.
The moment the blade clashed against the divine metal, Loki took a tactical step backward and instantly slipped into invisibility once again.
Hawk's pink pig head swayed frantically left and right.
"Where is he?! Where is he?!" Hawk panicked.
Mjolnir, held tightly by his elongated ear, swung wildly left and right along with his frantic body movements. If not for the sudden manifestation of Thor's armor, Loki's lethal strike just now would have pierced his tiny heart.
At this moment, it wasn't just Hawk who was tense. Even Coulson and the surrounding S.H.I.E.L.D. elite felt their pupils constrict. They swept their tactical flashlights across the crater, looking around nervously. Against an enemy possessing true invisibility, they were completely helpless.
They retreated step by step, leaving only the armored pig looking around in a panic in the center of the mud.
In a flash of green magic, the vanished Loki reappeared directly above Hawk.
The dagger in his hand stabbed fiercely downward, aimed precisely at the unarmored gap at Hawk's thick neck. As the lethal blade drew closer, a victorious, cruel smile appeared at the corners of Loki's mouth.
'Even with the power of Thor...' Loki thought smugly. '...in the end, you're just a stupid pig!'
However, at that very microsecond...
A silver hammer abruptly jerked upward on its own accord, dragging Hawk's ear with it, perfectly blocking the path between Hawk's neck and the descending dagger.
CLANG!
The Uru metal collided with the blade, sending a shockwave of sparks flying everywhere.
BZZZZT!
A concentrated, hyper-lethal bolt of lightning shot out from the head of the hammer, traveling straight up the conductive metal of the dagger and directly into Loki's body.
'Mjolnir!!' Loki's mind roared in agony.
The absolute paralysis brought by the divine lightning made his entire body seize up, leaving him completely unable to make any other move. The dagger fell from his smoking hand, and he collapsed heavily into the mud.
Lying rigidly on the ground, Loki's body jerked and twitched uncontrollably from the residual voltage, resembling a fish stranded on a riverbank.
"Hehe!" Hawk giggled, hovering slightly in the air. He brought the hammer on his ear close to his snout and thanked it loudly. "Thank you, Hammer! I won! Now don't you bully my friend anymore!"
At that exact moment, following a sharp hand signal from Coulson, the S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical team rushed forward. While the 'magical hostile' was still paralyzed in the mud, they swiftly and ruthlessly zip-tied his wrists and slapped a pair of heavy-duty vibranium-laced cuffs on him.
In the distance, Thor desperately wanted to plead for his brother, but he was firmly held back by four soldiers and couldn't move an inch closer.
Under everyone's stunned gaze, Hawk slowly floated down from the air.
He placed the tightly held Mjolnir back onto its pedestal of earth. Without a single hint of lingering attachment, he uncoiled his ear and released his grip.
"I'm giving this hammer back to you," Hawk said cheerfully, patting the metal. "Thank you for letting me play with it for so long!"
Hawk turned to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s commanding officer.
"Thanks, Balding Uncle! (〃'▽'〃)"
Coulson's polite smile froze, a slight twitch developing above his receding hairline.
As Hawk let go of the hammer's handle, the majestic armor and the tiny red cape on his body vanished into thin air. Restored to an ordinary-looking pig, he skipped and hopped happily over to Thor's side.
Looking down at the pig, Thor finally seemed to understand something profound. He finally realized why Mjolnir didn't recognize him, but had instantly recognized this little creature.
'He has no greed. No desire for power or conquest,' Thor realized, his pride completely shattered. 'He only sought to protect a friend. He is... worthy.'
Still deeply dazed, Thor allowed himself to be led out of the base, Hawk trotting faithfully at his heels. The soldiers along the perimeter, having received Coulson's orders, did not block their path.
Outside the razor wire, Jane Foster, Darcy, and Dr. Selvig were waiting nervously by the SUV. Because of their connection to the intruders, the three of them had been briefly detained by agents for routine questioning. However, since the scientists had done nothing aggressive, they had long since been released with a stern warning.
The strange group silently piled into the battered car and began the quiet drive back toward the town.
[S.H.I.E.L.D. Command Center - Temporary Holding Cell]
Inside the base, Loki had just been unceremoniously shoved into a reinforced polycarbonate holding cell.
He was currently rolling his shoulders, shaking his cuffed wrists, and inspecting the transparent walls of the cage he was confined in with an air of aristocratic boredom.
"Sir," Coulson's voice came through the intercom. "I think you may need to explain yourself. Why did you attack our base?"
Outside the glass, Coulson and Clint Barton stood side by side, their arms crossed. Coulson was the first to speak, maintaining his perfectly even interrogator's tone.
Inside the cell, Loki still looked as if he were on a leisurely museum tour. Facing Coulson's questioning, he didn't even bother to turn around. Instead, he answered with total, supreme nonchalance. The sheer arrogance of his attitude made it hard to tell exactly who was interrogating whom.
"Humans," Loki mused, tracing a finger along the glass. "Thousands of years have passed. It seems you have entirely forgotten who your superiors are. I am the Prince of Asgard. Loki Odinson. You should currently be kneeling in greeting."
This imperious speech made Clint's brow twitch slightly.
Hawkeye shot a deeply skeptical look at the man in the green leather inside the cell. Then, he tilted his head toward Coulson.
"Are you sure this guy didn't just escape from the local psych ward?" Clint whispered, keeping his eyes on the prisoner. "The Prince of Asgard? I feel like I'm watching a really bad Norse mythology stage play."
The polite smile on Coulson's face remained as constant as ever. However, Loki's specific choice of words caused the senior agent's eyes to involuntarily turn incredibly serious.
"You saw everything that just happened out there, didn't you, Clint?" Coulson replied quietly. "The atmospheric anomaly? The hammer? The magical armor?"
Coulson glanced sideways at his top marksman.
"Do you really believe it's just a stage play? We've already dealt with ancient Dragons and an Undead Overlord in New York. The appearance of an actual god doesn't seem like something so hard to accept anymore. Does it?"
Coulson's grim words yanked Clint's memory back to the Manhattan Incident half a year ago. That level of apocalyptic combat—the Blood Valkyrie piercing the Dragon's heart, the vacuum of death—had made even him, a Tier-1 S.H.I.E.L.D. strike agent, feel utterly, terrifyingly powerless.
But looking back through the glass at this so-called 'God of Lies and Deception' inside the cell, who had just been electrocuted by a farm animal...
A look of profound doubt flashed in Clint's eyes.
"I don't know, Phil," Clint muttered. "Compared to the monster that leveled Hell's Kitchen... this 'god' seems a bit too weak."
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