"Lifting the hammer"—this was the reason the two of them came here.
Although Matilda was young.
But in Coulson's eyes, she was the strongest among them, so he planned to let her try lifting that strange hammer.
Up until now, he still believed that Ye Li brought Matilda to New Mexico for this very reason.
"Hmm!"
Matilda had seen a lot of footage of people failing to lift the hammer, and she found it quite amusing.~
"I...."
She was about to say something.
"Wei! A! ———A!!!"
A desperate roar that pierced through the clouds suddenly came.
Matilda: "Huh? That voice... is that the weird uncle who rides a pig...?"
…..
"kou~kou~kou~"
The pig buried in the bushes seemed to be infected by Thor's emotions as well, raising its head and calling out with him in the heavy rain, "Oink—Oink—!"
…..
The next day.
The rain had passed, and the sky was clear.
Daisy opened her eyes, recalling the events of last night, and smiled sweetly.
But... something seemed off... Why did she have no memory after entering the bedroom?
'Did I black out from drinking? Forgot everything?'
'...That would be such a pity... It must have been wonderful...'
"Daisy~"
Darcy was still daydreaming.
Then Jane poked her head in from the door, teasing her with a smirk, "Time to get up. Your Prince Charming left early~"
"Jane?"
Darcy was stunned, "Why are you here? Don't tell me you also... He likes this kind of thing?"
"What are you thinking~"
Jane explained what happened last night, "...We were having a serious academic discussion."
Darcy: "Then my clothes...?"
"Of course, I helped you take them off. You reeked of alcohol... You drank quite a lot~"
Jane was quite invested in Darcy and Ye Li's relationship, so she probed, "How far have you two gotten?"
Darcy pouted, "...It should have been done... In my dream... Jane, you ruined my beautiful dream..."
"You little rascal, not shy at all."
Jane pinched her cute nose, "...You sound strange... What did you drink last night?"
Darcy blinked, "Ye's mixed beer 'Devil Bomb,' the taste explodes instantly in your mouth~"
"Can I try it?"
"He won't let you drink it~"
"Heh~"
…..
Dr. Selvig glanced at the Norse mythology book in his hands, then couldn't help but look up at Jane and Daisy, feeling something was off...
'Why do they seem much closer to Mr. Ye today...?'
'Daisy is one thing.'
'But even Jane...?'
"How was your rest?"
Ye Li casually sat across from the two ladies with breakfast in hand and asked, "Drank too much? No headaches?"
"Even though I don't know why you did it..."
Jane was flipping through the backup research data, but still thanked him, "But I still have to thank you."
After Ye Li finished breakfast, Darcy pulled him aside and whispered, "You tricked me! You have to compensate me!"
"Mm-hmm~"
Ye Li pinched her soft cheek, "Didn't I already compensate you? 'Devil Bomb'~"
He had to admit, when it came to this, Darcy was among the best he had ever experienced...
"Mm~..."
Darcy pressed down on his retreating hand, pouting her full red lips, and whined, "That's not enough~"
Even though she felt that Jane also had some ambiguity with Ye Li, she couldn't bear to let him go just like that...
Ye Li felt that Darcy had contributed quite a bit, and her face was quite useful too, so he coaxed her, "Daisy, as long as you behave, you can come find me for a reward from time to time~"
Darcy nodded excitedly, "Mmm! I'll be good!"
…..
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s temporary facility, Thor's holding cell.
Loki deceived his foolish brother, "Mother won't allow you to return home either. I came to say goodbye, brother. I'm truly sorry..."
A single tear rolled down Thor's face, "No... I'm the one who should apologize... Thank you for coming to see me..."
Loki: "Farewell."
Thor nodded slightly...
…..
After fooling his gullible brother.
Loki walked over to Mjolnir, reached out to grip the handle, and tried to lift it, but the hammer didn't budge.
He tilted his head, placed both hands on the handle, gritted his teeth, and exerted all his strength—
"Eh...!"
Loki used every ounce of strength he had, but the hammer still didn't move an inch...
Seeing that he couldn't lift it.
He glanced at the sky.
Tidying his clothes, he prepared to leave.
Just then—Coulson, accompanied by Barbara and Matilda, approached...
Loki halted his steps, confident in his illusions, and decided to stay for now and watch.
"This is the hammer that made that old guy scream so miserably?"
Matilda walked up to "Mjolnir" and curiously poked the iron lump with her finger.
Barbara was also eager to try, "Why don't I give it a go first~"
Coulson nodded, gesturing for his colleague to proceed.
"Hoo—"
Barbara blew on her hands, rubbed them together, then gripped the hammer handle, "Hee-ha—!"
"Hmm?"
"Hee-ha!"
No matter how cutely Barbara called out.
The hammer didn't move at all, not even a speck of dirt beneath it shifted...
"Tsk~"
Loki sneered with disdain, mere mortals daring to covet an Asgardian artifact.
After all, even he—Loki! The new king of Asgard!—couldn't lift the hammer...
"I'll give it a try."
This time, Matilda placed her small hands on the hammer, "It looks heavy, but my brother tested my strength—I should be able to lift something this size..."
"Matilda, don't use too much force at once."
Coulson warned, "Based on the data, this might not be about pure strength. Try slowly first..."
He was also worried she might strain her hand, and then Ye Li would come after him.
"Okay."
Matilda gradually applied force...
Loki found it amusing. Had they run out of people? They even sent out a little girl...
Buzz—~~—
[Commander, we have a peak reading! The numbers are rising!]
Coulson heard the report from the monitoring staff, and his pupils shrank... Could it be—?
Crackle...
The dirt pile beneath "Mjolnir" began to crumble, with chunks of yellow soil rolling away...
The gauges on the instruments were going wild...
Loki's eyes widened, "What!!?"
"I think... it's happening!"
Matilda felt the hammer loosen slightly in her hands, smiled, and applied more force—
"Here goes!"
Bzzzt—!~~—!!
Boom!
Boom—!
Boom—!!
The dirt pile suddenly exploded—!!
Amidst the shocked gazes of everyone present—
Whoosh—!
The hammer was lifted over her head by a slender arm!!
"Yay! I did it!"
Matilda wasn't overly excited.
She thought it was just a game, looking at Barbara with her clear, cool eyes and smiling lightly, "Can I have a cigarette to celebrate?"
Boom—!!
Boom—!!
The previously clear sky suddenly erupted with loud thunder.
A bolt of lightning cracked across the sky.
"Oh... my God...!"
The scientists rushed down, exclaiming, "It's been lifted! This thing couldn't even be moved by a crane...!"
Woom~
At that moment—
Loki suddenly appeared in front of Matilda, furious and humiliated, reaching out to grab her, "Mortal! How did you do this!? You are desecrating a god!!"
Matilda was startled by the sudden enemy in front of her and instinctively swung the hammer—
Boom!!!
Caught off guard, Loki was sent flying backward, crashing through the railing—
No one knew where he landed...
"Oh, my cake..." (A Chinese internet slang for "Oh my God")
Everyone was dumbfounded.
…..
"Li, you'll never believe this..."
Barbara stopped Venika outside the open hall and was about to tell Ye Li something...
"Brother! Brother!"
But Matilda beat her to it, running up to Ye Li excitedly with Thor's hammer in hand.
"Hmm? Did Coulson and his team already make a 1:1 replica? Let me take a look."
Ye Li saw Matilda holding Mjolnir and assumed it was a fake. He reached out and took "Mjolnir" from her hands...
"Oh~ Looks quite realistic... Huh?"
As soon as the hammer landed in his hands... he felt something was off...
Matilda, Barbara, and the newly arrived Coulson all had dumbfounded expressions as they watched Ye Li hold Thor's hammer effortlessly...
Was this thing just up for grabs now?
Coulson suspected something had changed with the hammer. "Can I try?"
Ye Li had already realized the hammer was the real deal. Hearing Coulson's request, he handed it to him with a strange expression...
Clang—!
Mjolnir dropped straight to the ground, nearly dislocating Coulson's hand from the impact...
…..
"Could that guy have been telling the truth...!?"
Watching Mjolnir fly around Matilda, occasionally striking lightning into the sky.
Dr. Selvig compared the hammer to the descriptions of Mjolnir in his Norse mythology book—his entire worldview shattered...
"Is he really Thor?"
Jane recalled what Thor had said and looked at her cousin Matilda. "But why isn't the hammer in his hands and instead with my cousin...?"
"Because only she... uh, and Mr. Ye, can lift it..."
Coulson asked them, "Who exactly are you talking about? Are you hiding something?"
Jane rolled her eyes at Coulson and didn't bother answering him.
Even though Ye Li had helped her keep a backup of her research, she still had no fondness for S.H.I.E.L.D. for confiscating her equipment.
Dr. Selvig, being more diplomatic, explained Thor's situation to Coulson, "At the time, we thought he was just a drunk vagrant, or a lunatic..."
After hearing Dr. Selvig's story, Coulson took out a photo of Thor and showed it to him. "Are you talking about him? Your description matches."
"Oh! Yes! That's him!"
Selvig confirmed but was puzzled, "Why do you have his picture? Did you capture him?"
"This Thor broke into our temporary facility and tried to lift Mjolnir, but he failed."
Coulson and Selvig exchanged information—
"He also came with a Duroc pig. To be precise, he rode in on it."
"We looked up information on the pig. It had escaped from a household and into the wild. Other than being unusually strong, it's quite normal."
"But as for Thor, we couldn't find any records on him. It's as if he appeared out of thin air..."
"Thor told us..."
Selvig recalled something. "He said... he was exiled by his father. The same Odin from Norse mythology..."
As he spoke, he flipped the mythology book to the page about Odin and slid it in front of Coulson.
Coulson glanced at it. "Dr. Selvig, you're an astrophysicist. Do you believe this?"
Selvig looked up toward the door. "What do you think?"
Coulson followed his gaze—
Only to see Matilda soaring through the sky with Mjolnir, giggling, "Meow-meow~ Fly slower~"
Coulson: "..."
[Bring that guy named Thor here immediately!]
[Yes, sir.]
Coulson: [And that pig too... Just bring it along.]
[Uh... okay...]
On the upstairs balcony.
Watching Matilda happily flying in the sky.
Ye Li sat comfortably in a lounge chair, one hand resting on the railing, looking completely at ease. "Hmm... I've only been in New Mexico for a little while, but I'm already missing my little girlfriends... especially their delicate little tongues..."
"Mmm... Hah~"
Darcy exhaled softly, her gray-green eyes filled with curiosity. "What little girlfriends?"
Standing beside him, Barbara raised her gaze slightly, pinching a toothpick between her fingers as she fed Ye Li a piece of cactus fruit. She teased, "He's got plenty of little girlfriends~"
"Mmm~..."
Darcy rested her head on her knee, her wavy hair cascading down, as she pouted coquettishly. "Did I not perform well enough...?"
"You performed wonderfully."
Ye Li picked up a black cherry, a specialty of New Mexico, from the fruit platter and placed it between her plump, luscious lips.
His gaze drifted toward the distant horizon.
"Let's keep going... Things here are wrapping up... It's almost time to return to New York..."
Just as he finished speaking.
The clouds swirled into a vortex, a colorful beam of light bursting straight down from the center—
—Biua!!
It was the Bifrost from Asgard.
It seemed that Sif and the Warriors Three had arrived, and the Destroyer was likely to follow soon...
Wuu—
Meanwhile, Coulson had his agents transport Thor and the pig, and their containment vehicle arrived downstairs.
"What?"
Thor, handcuffed, stepped out of the vehicle and was instantly dumbfounded.
Seeing his own hammer flying around with a little girl, he fell into deep existential doubt...
"Oink~ Oink~" The pig nudged Thor from behind, urging him to move aside.
[Commander, we just detected an extremely powerful energy surge! Then it vanished suddenly, approximately 15 miles northwest...]
Coulson, just about to interrogate Thor, froze upon hearing the report. He then hopped into the vehicle with his agents. "Let's go check it out!"
And just like that.
Thor was left unattended for the moment. He called out to Matilda, who was flying in the sky, "Little girl! Why can you lift it?"
"Weird old man?"
Matilda landed in front of Thor. "I don't know why I can lift it. This hammer is yours, right? That's what my brother and the others said."
Thor sighed, "…It used to be mine… but it seems I am no longer worthy to lift it… Can you let me try again?"
"Oh."
Matilda was about to hand Mjolnir to him but, remembering how Coulson nearly dislocated his arm, she thoughtfully placed it on the ground in front of him. "Be careful, old man."
Thor nodded.
He gripped the handle and tried again...
But no matter how much force he applied.
The result was the same…
Thor, looking disappointed, released the hammer and turned to Matilda, asking, "Little girl, how do you intend to use this power?"
He wasn't exactly at ease knowing that the power of Mjolnir had fallen into the hands of a human child.
Matilda gestured, and Mjolnir flew back into her hand. She beamed at Thor and said, "I'm going to use it to protect innocent people!"
Thor fell into deep thought. "Protect..."
He recalled the words of his father, Odin—
A heart of compassion...
Bzzzt—~
Mjolnir trembled slightly…