Deep within the abandoned archive storage area of the S.H.I.E.L.D. temporary Base.
Jasper Sitwell felt his uniform soaked through with cold sweat.
"What... exactly are you?" Sitwell asked, his throat dry.
"A thing?" Loki seemed to have heard a particularly funny joke. He tapped the still-warm corpse on the ground with the end of his Scepter. "Is that how you Midgardian insects address your God?"
He took a step forward, looking down at Sitwell.
"I am Loki, son of Odin, Prince of Asgard."
Sitwell's mind raced through fear and information overload. Asgard... a God?
The greater the risk, the greater the opportunity.
"What... do you want?" Sitwell forced himself to remain calm.
"Simple," Loki said bluntly. "I want someone to disappear completely—the one who fell from the sky."
Sitwell's pupils constricted sharply. "He is..."
Loki saw through his hesitation and let out a scoff. "Of course, I didn't expect a pack of mortals like you to handle it. I will deal with this myself."
But then his tone shifted, and the gem atop his Scepter pointed directly at Sitwell.
"However, I do not like surprises in my script. There is a meddling Magician here who seems able to see through my magic, which displeases me greatly." Loki's tone turned cold. "I want you to eliminate this nuisance for me. His name is Lin Huai."
Lin Huai!
Upon hearing that name, the fear in Sitwell's heart was immediately replaced by ecstasy.
"What... can we do for you?" Sitwell's voice sounded extremely excited.
"You will be responsible for stalling him and causing him trouble. Use those schemes and intrigues you're so fond of." Loki gave a playful smile. "As for me, I will personally see that person off. Once it's done, everything you desire... power and order, I can give it all to you."
Sitwell's eyes darted around, and then without a second thought, he dropped to one knee, swearing a feverish oath:
"At your service, Your Highness. Cut off one head, two more shall take its place... Hail HYDRA!"
Loki nodded in satisfaction and signaled Sitwell to rise.
"Very good. Your loyalty pleases me."
"I will personally go to see that man; he still trusts me for now. At that moment, I will use this Dagger to give him the fondest of farewells." As he spoke, an exquisite Dagger appeared in his hand, its edge glinting with a cold light.
"Of course, we Asgardian Gods are quite sturdy after all; I might fail." Loki tucked the Dagger away and continued, "So, I have prepared a backup plan. Should the assassination fail, I will immediately summon the Destroyer to descend upon this place."
"The Destroyer?" Sitwell repeated, puzzled.
"A killing weapon from the Asgardian treasury," Loki said nonchalantly. "It will level that place to the ground, along with everyone in it."
Sitwell immediately grasped the key to the plan.
"Your Highness, you mean we need to stall Lin Huai while you make your move?"
"Stall him? No, that is far from enough." Loki's eyes sharpened. "I want you to make him vanish from this play entirely! I don't care what methods you use—stage a terrorist attack or create some other chaos to keep him running ragged. In short, before I finish off Thor, he must absolutely not appear before me!"
Loki leaned in close to Sitwell, his voice dropped to a whisper, both seductive and threatening.
"Complete this task, and I will personally help you eliminate Lin Huai, fulfilling a God's promise to a mortal."
Sitwell nodded heavily, his eyes filled with fanaticism and resolve.
"Understood, Your Highness. We will clear the stage for you, so you can perform your play in peace."
"Very good." After Loki spoke, his figure slowly faded into the shadows, eventually turning into a handful of green light particles.
The archive area returned to a deathly silence.
Sitwell glanced at the cold corpse on the ground, his expression indifferent. He turned and walked away quickly, activating HYDRA's highest-level encrypted communication as he went.
"Secretary Pierce, I've figured out the true situation in New Mexico. Additionally, I've found an outside asset. Although he seems to possess Beyonder power, he appears naive and easily manipulated."
After Sitwell left, a scoff echoed in the air... On the other side, at the Base's temporary training ground.
Deprived of his divine power, Thor felt tired for the first time. He followed Steve's pace, performing basic physical and combat drills. Without his hammer, his attacks were nothing but brute force, full of openings before Steve's textbook combat techniques.
When the sparring ended, Thor collapsed onto the ground, panting for breath.
Steve handed him a bottle of Water and sat down beside him.
"Your strength is great, but your mind is in disarray. When you throw a punch, you only think about knocking me down, not why you are knocking me down."
"I... don't understand." Thor tilted his head back and gulped down half the bottle of Water. "Doesn't a Warrior fight for victory?"
Steve fell silent. He didn't know how to explain a mortal's conviction to a God.
"I don't know how to teach you," Steve shook his head. "I can only tell you how I feel."
His gaze drifted toward the distance.
"When you are willing to stand up to protect others, you are on the right path. If one day, when you face danger, your mind hasn't even decided what to do, yet your body has already rushed out to shield someone else... at that time, I believe you will surely regain the hammer's worthiness."
Thor was stunned.
He looked at the War Hammer in the distance that had rejected him; for the first time, his gaze was not just one of longing, but had become complex and profound.
The two walked back to the Base's main building in silence, preparing to take a break.
Just as they passed an equipment dispatch area, a piercing sound of metal grinding suddenly came from above.
A crane was hoisting a massive shipping container when a shower of sparks suddenly erupted from the cable interface, and the securing latch snapped with a loud crack!
The multi-ton iron box plummeted downward with a whistling wind.
And directly beneath the iron box was Jane Foster, who was still arguing with a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, trying to get her research data back!
"Get out of the way!" someone nearby shouted in terror.
In that split second of hesitation, a blue figure flashed past him.
Steve Rogers didn't think at all; he lunged forward like an arrow, using all his strength to shove the unreacting Jane out of the way.
"BOOM—!!!"
The container crashed heavily onto the ground, sending dust billowing into the air.
Steve and Jane rolled to a safe spot several meters away, both covered in dust and grime.
Thor stood where he was, his body frozen.
He stared fixedly at the dust, then looked at Steve, who was picking himself up and brushing off dirt while asking Jane if she was hurt.
That scene just now, and those words, exploded in his mind with a bang.
"...Your mind hasn't even decided what to do, yet your body... has already rushed out..."
He saw it.
He saw with his own eyes a mortal—a soldier he could have easily bested in combat earlier—prove those words through action without a second thought.
An indescribable feeling, a mix of shame, confusion, and admiration, welled up within him.