Inside the warm seaside villa, Thor sat shirtless on the couch, his round belly exposed as he flipped through TV channels.
When a familiar face appeared on the screen, he suddenly sat up, sending popcorn flying everywhere.
"Hey! Yujin! You're on TV!"
Marvel Yujin jumped down from the attic, clutching a feather in his hand. The moment he saw the news, he nearly crushed it.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had put him on the wanted list!
"And you're laughing?" Yujin smacked the back of Thor's head. "If I hadn't saved you, would I even be on television right now?"
"Hehe, sorry about that. You're actually doing fine. I'm wanted across the Nine Realms myself, and now I'm stuck in a mortal body. Guess that makes us brothers in misfortune."
"Oh, give me a break! Everyone knows you're Odin's son. Who'd dare to kill you? You really think your father doesn't care about you?"
Thor blinked in surprise. "How do you know about my father?"
"Just a guess. What father would ignore his own son? I'd bet anything your brother's behind this."
"Loki? That's impossible!"
"Why not? Since ancient times, power struggles for the throne have always been bloody. In China, fighting for the emperor's seat cost millions of lives. And we're talking about the leadership of the Nine Realms! If it were me, I'd scheme to kick a big oaf like you out of the palace too."
"Now that you mention it, it does sound like an old royal drama. The eldest prince sent to the frontier, the youngest left by the emperor's side, with a conniving princess and a venomous empress dowager plotting together... cough, wrong script!"
Thor didn't fully understand half of what Yujin was saying, but he caught the meaning behind the words.
Thinking back on everything Loki had done, a sense of unease rose within him.
After all, Loki was the God of Mischief.
Could anything that came from his mouth be trusted? The kind of guy who could lie about the time of day? Whatever had really happened in Asgard, it definitely wasn't what Loki told him.
The thought lit a fire in Thor's chest.
He brushed the spilled popcorn off his body and stood up, striding toward the balcony.
"Where are you going?" Yujin called after him.
Thor's expression hardened. "Back to Asgard!"
"You can barely even climb onto the bed. Come back already, don't catch another cold. The sea breeze is strong at night, and if you get sick again, you'll use up more tissues than anyone else with those big nostrils of yours."
"Hmph! Just watch!"
Thor looked up at the sky. "I know you're watching, Heimdall! Lower the Bifröst! I must return and see him! Heimdall! Don't pretend you can't see me! I know you can hear me! You can see me!"
"Heimdall!"
Thor shouted toward the sky until even Yujin was getting annoyed.
Just then, Tony Stark walked out from upstairs, wrapped in a towel. He glanced at Yujin.
"Hey, what's our godly friend doing? Casting a spell? Is this going to affect us too? At the very least, the neighbors are going to complain."
Yujin shrugged. "Relax. He's been cast out by Asgard. If you shout for the Bifröst, the chance of it showing up is still higher than his. And as for neighbors—come on, the nearest convenience store is a ten-minute drive away. What neighbors?"
The words had barely left his mouth when a bright light appeared on the horizon!
"What did you say? He actually summoned the gods?"
Even Yujin was surprised. His Sharingan eyes turned toward the sky.
The light was approaching fast.
Then another beam appeared.
And another.
Three.
Then eighteen in total!
Thor's eyes lit up. "You see! You heard me!"
He turned back toward Yujin and shouted, "I'll remember this, my friend! When I return, I'll fulfill my promise. A god's word always counts. You have my—"
Before Thor could finish, Yujin suddenly rushed toward him.
"What are you doing?!"
Thor thought the man had turned against him, trying to stop him from returning to Asgard to regain his power. Anger flared, and he prepared to resist.
"Duck!"
As Yujin reached Thor's side, his hands flashed through a series of seals. That's when Thor finally realized something was wrong with those lights in the sky.
Wait... wasn't that thing in the movie called a missile?!
"Suit up!"
Yujin barely had time to warn Tony Stark before slamming one hand against the ground.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
Boom!
Eighteen missiles struck Tony Stark's seaside mansion with pinpoint accuracy.
Fire erupted in all directions, turning the luxurious villa into a blazing ruin within seconds.
The devastation was even more tragic than when Stark Industries sold weapons to those moldy old warlords who bombed oil-rich nations.
In the sky, three attack helicopters hovered, confirming whether anyone had survived.
Beneath the rubble, Yujin held up a piece of the collapsing ceiling with one hand, then kicked Thor out from underneath with his right foot.
"How did you get out?" Thor was stunned.
Yujin didn't answer. In a flash, he disappeared beyond the ceiling!
Bang!
A deafening crash echoed as Tony Stark's seaside mansion finally collapsed.
Seeing this, the operator in the armed helicopter grabbed his radio. "Target is dead. Over."
No sooner had he spoken than a red dot appeared in the rubble!
A red-and-gold armored flying figure shot out!
Spotting the target, the helicopter immediately fired missiles!
Iron Man quickly twisted his body, pulling the missiles upward at incredible speed!
Just as the three armed helicopters breathed a sigh of relief, an even stranger figure appeared in the distance!
This figure flew much slower than Iron Man, but compared to the Iron Man who had destroyed the Ten Rings' base, the people in the helicopters feared this newcomer even more!
"What kind of monster is that?"
Seeing a human grow wings and fly, the helicopter pilot's heart raced, and he forgot to fire.
"Don't just stand there! Shoot!"
Whoosh!
Just like the earlier attack on Iron Man, all three helicopters simultaneously launched missiles at Yujin!
However, the moment the missiles were about to hit their target—
The target vanished.
In the blink of an eye, inside the cockpit of one helicopter appeared the figure of the "monster" from before!
"Ahhh!"
The co-pilot quickly pulled the trigger, but Yujin casually twisted his neck, letting the bullets graze his face and hit the cabin instead.
Terrifyingly, Yujin made a very unrefined motion, lifting his buttocks.
But this movement wasn't pointless. If he hadn't done it, the ricocheting bullets could have taken his "small head."
Faced with someone who could calmly dodge bullets, the Ten Rings' members on the helicopter were stunned.
This was practically a god.
"Don't move. Land quietly. Don't try any tricks. If these helicopters weren't worth money, I'd have torn you two apart already!"
The two pilots nodded frantically, too scared to resist.
The same scene soon unfolded inside the cabins of the other two armed helicopters.
By the time Iron Man finished dealing with the missile and returned to the shore, the three armed helicopters were already in Yujin's hands.
Iron Man landed, took off his mask, and looked puzzled at the six terrorists hogtied by Yujin.
"Obadiah's men? That shouldn't be possible. Isn't he in prison?"
"Don't worry about that for now," Yujin interrupted. "Can you help me turn these three armed helicopters into cash? I need to buy a very expensive metal and I'm not sure if it's enough. If it's not, can you chip in the rest?"
****
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