Thor's "Little Trouble"

The old air conditioner in the small-town motel hummed away, blowing the damp smell of mildew throughout the room. Lin Mo lay on the creaking wooden bed, staring at the yellowed water stain on the ceiling—it looked like an eagle spreading its wings, somewhat similar to the symbol on Hawkeye's quiver. Ted snored thunderously in the neighboring bed, still clutching half a piece of unfinished beef jerky in his hand. He was probably dreaming about Cousin Dale's barbecue.

Outside the window, the wind carried grains of sand against the glass with a soft rustling sound, like someone lightly scratching it with their fingernails. Lin Mo turned over, picked up the remote, and switched on the television. The screen was filled with static. After fiddling with it for a while, he finally found a clear channel that was broadcasting local news.

"...At three o'clock this afternoon, police arrested a blond man suspected of assaulting an officer on Pepper Town's main street. According to eyewitnesses, the man attempted to enter a S.H.I.E.L.D. restricted area. After being refused, he clashed with patrolling officers and punched straight through the door of a police car..."

A photo of Thor appeared on the screen. His messy blond hair clung to his face, fury filled his blue eyes, and his hands were bound in specially made handcuffs, yet he still struggled without pause. Lin Mo's heart skipped a beat, and the wristband on his arm lightly vibrated.

[Detected energy fluctuations from the Asgardian Royal Family. Moderate intensity. Currently suppressed.]

"This idiot." Lin Mo could not help muttering under his breath. He had seen Thor standing beside Mjolnir last night, his eyes full of unwillingness. He had not expected him to end up at the police station after only one day. With that explosive temper of his, he definitely would not behave in a cell—maybe he was breaking iron bars right now, or splitting the interrogation table in half.

The footage switched to the entrance of the police station. Several officers were gathered around a wrecked police car, talking among themselves. The hole in its body was large enough to fit a basketball through. "...The man claims to be 'Thor,' and said he would summon lightning to strike the whole town. Police suspect he may have mental health issues and have applied for a psychiatric evaluation..."

"Mental health issues?" Lin Mo frowned. If Thor really got sent to a psychiatric hospital, when would the people of Asgard find him? Without Thor's hammer, without someone capable of lifting it, what would happen to the future Battle of New York? He did not want to get involved in such major events, but he could not just watch a key figure get locked up as a lunatic.

"Ted, wake up." Lin Mo nudged the person in the neighboring bed. "Get up. I need you to help me with something."

Ted opened his eyes groggily, mumbling, "The barbecue isn't done yet..." Only when he saw Lin Mo's serious expression did he reluctantly sit up and rub his eyes. "In the middle of the night? What are we doing? Stealing Mjolnir?"

"Something easier than that." Lin Mo pulled a dark jacket from his backpack. "We're going to get someone out of the police station."

"Get someone out?" Ted instantly woke up halfway, his eyes widening like brass bells. "Are you insane? We're tourists, not prison-breakers! Besides, who are we getting out? That blond lunatic?"

"He isn't a lunatic." Lin Mo put on his jacket as he spoke. "Trust me. Letting him out won't do us any harm." He did not explain Thor's true identity—telling Ted, We're going to save Thor, would only make him think Lin Mo had an even worse mental problem.

Ted was still hesitating when Lin Mo had already pulled open the door. "It's fine if you're not coming. I'll go by myself. If the cops catch me, remember to let Aunt May know."

"Fuck! You're forcing me into this!" Ted cursed as he jumped out of bed and grabbed his pants. "If my cousin finds out I'm breaking someone out of jail, he'll break my legs!" He kept grumbling as he got dressed. "I never should've come to this dump with you. New York was perfectly fine, but no, we had to come here and rescue some lunatic..."

Lin Mo ignored his complaints and began mapping out the route in his head. The town police station stood at the end of Main Street, a two-story red-brick building with barred windows and two officers guarding the entrance—the same ones shown on the news. With his current Physical Enhancement and Phasing Ability, sneaking in would not be difficult. The hard part was getting Thor out without exposing himself.

When the two slipped out of the motel, the streets were deserted. Only the streetlights cast dim halos across the sand. Ted followed closely behind Lin Mo, his steps trembling. "I'm saying, are we really doing this? Maybe we should forget it. That lunatic can stay locked up. What does it have to do with us?"

"It'll have something to do with us when he summons lightning and strikes the town." Lin Mo lowered his voice and turned into an alley leading to the rear entrance of the police station. Several trash cans stood piled in the depths of the alley, giving off the stench of spoiled meat. A few stray dogs were startled by their footsteps. They lifted their heads and stared warily at them, low growls rumbling from their throats.

Lin Mo stopped, took out the leftover beef jerky from that morning, and tossed several pieces over. The dogs immediately pounced on the food and stopped paying attention to them. "See?" he said to Ted. "Even dogs know who their friends are."

Ted swallowed but said nothing. He only gripped the folding knife in his hand tighter—the one Lin Mo had told him to bring "just in case," though it would not really be needed.

Sure enough, there was barely any security at the police station's rear entrance. Only a flickering streetlamp shone on the rusted iron door. Lin Mo activated his Phasing Ability, and his body instantly became translucent, like a shadow blending into the night. "Wait here. I'll go check things out," he told Ted, then stepped through the iron door and landed silently in the yard.

Several police cars were parked in the yard. One of them indeed had a large hole in its door, with specks of blood still staining the edges. Lin Mo held his breath as Dynamic Vision activated automatically, clearly catching the shadow moving behind a second-floor window—it was the officer on duty, holding a cup of coffee and yawning.

He moved along the base of the wall toward the main building. His Phasing Ability allowed him to pass easily through the glass door and enter the police station lobby. The desk officer was slumped over the counter, sleeping soundly. Drool ran from the corner of his mouth and spread into a damp patch on the incident report book. The clock on the wall pointed to two in the morning, and the ticking of the second hand sounded especially clear in the silent lobby.

Based on the news footage, the cells should have been in the basement. Lin Mo headed down the stairs, every step as light as a cat's paw touching the ground. Just as he reached the stairwell, he heard a loud crash of tables and chairs, accompanied by an angry man's roar and police officers' startled shouts.

"Again! You cowards don't even dare arm-wrestle me?" It was Thor's voice, louder than when Lin Mo had heard him outside the restricted zone that day. It made the walls tremble faintly.

Lin Mo quickened his pace and phased through the basement's iron door. The sight before him made the corner of his mouth twitch: Thor was locked in the innermost cell, arm-wrestling two police officers through the bars. The table had already been twisted crooked, one leg sticking up at an unnatural angle and on the verge of falling apart. A young officer stood nearby filming with a camera, shouting excitedly, "Come on! Break his arm!"

He's the real lunatic. Lin Mo muttered inwardly. He circled behind the cell, where there was an air vent large enough for one person to crawl through. He activated his Phasing Ability, passed through the metal mesh of the vent, and landed in the shadows outside the cell.

Thor was pressing one officer's arm to the table, a smug grin on his face. "Do you see? This is the strength of Asgard! You mortals..." Before he could finish, he suddenly sensed something and sharply turned toward Lin Mo's hiding place. His blue eyes gleamed startlingly in the dim light. "Who is there?"

Lin Mo's heart tightened, and he quickly held his breath. Could Asgardians sense energy even while he was phased? He saw Thor's brow furrow as he prepared to rise, so Lin Mo hurriedly stepped out from the shadows and made a shushing gesture.

"You?" Thor recognized him, surprise flashing through his eyes. "The mortal who can resonate with Mjolnir? What are you doing here?"

"Getting you out." Lin Mo lowered his voice and pointed at the cell lock. "Don't talk. Just cooperate."

The two officers were confused by their conversation and rose with their batons raised. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

Lin Mo ignored them. The power of Physical Enhancement erupted in an instant, his fingers shooting toward the cell lock like lightning. It was an ordinary pin tumbler lock, no more than a toy to him. With a soft click, it opened.

"Move!" Lin Mo pulled open the cell door and growled at Thor.

Thor froze for a moment, clearly not expecting it to go so smoothly. He looked at the open cell door, then at the dumbfounded officers, and suddenly burst into laughter. "Good lad! Interesting!" He shoved aside the officer blocking the way and followed Lin Mo toward the vent. As he passed the two officers still standing there in a daze, he even patted one on the shoulder. "We'll compete again next time!"

Lin Mo led Thor through the air vent and phased through the metal mesh back into the yard. When Ted saw them emerge, he was so frightened he nearly dropped to the ground. "My God, you really got him out!"

"Less talking. Run!" Lin Mo grabbed Ted and ran deeper into the alley. Thor followed close behind them, striding along without the slightest effort.

Only after they reached a safe place did Lin Mo stop to catch his breath. Thor studied him, then suddenly grinned. "Why did you save me?"

"Because you shouldn't have been locked up in a place like that," Lin Mo said. It was the truth. No matter how reckless Thor was, he was still the hero who would protect Earth in the future. He should not have ended up in such a miserable state.

Thor raised an eyebrow, a complicated emotion flashing through his blue eyes. "You know who I am?"

Lin Mo hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Thor, Prince of Asgard."

Ted's mouth dropped open beside them, and the folding knife in his hand clattered to the ground. "Th-Thor? You mean the Thor from mythology?"

Thor proudly puffed out his chest. "It seems my fame has spread throughout the Nine Realms."

"Quit showing off." Lin Mo spoke irritably. "This isn't the time for that. What are you planning to do next? S.H.I.E.L.D. and the police are both looking for you."

"I will retrieve my hammer." Thor's expression turned resolute. "Without it, I am not Thor, and I cannot return to face my father."

"You can't take it." Lin Mo recalled the scene from last night. "Mjolnir is sealed by Odin's power. You can't lift it right now."

Thor's face instantly darkened. "How do you know that?"

"I can feel it." Lin Mo pointed to his wrist. The vibration from the wristband had weakened, but the resonance remained. "Mjolnir is waiting for someone 'worthy' of it, and right now, that isn't you."

Thor fell silent. His golden hair glowed softly beneath the moonlight, and for the first time, a vulnerable expression appeared on his face. "You are right," he said quietly. "I was too reckless. I thought strength was everything, and in the end, my father stripped me of my divine power and banished me to this mortal world..."

"It's good that you know you were wrong." Lin Mo patted his shoulder. He had not expected this Asgardian prince to be capable of self-reflection. "Maybe you should first learn how to be a mortal before thinking about being Thor again."

Thor looked up and stared deeply at him. "You are a strange mortal." He turned and walked toward the desert. "I will prove to you that I am worthy of my hammer."

"Hey, where are you going?" Lin Mo called after him.

"To find somewhere to think about life." Thor's voice drifted back from afar, and his figure soon vanished behind the dunes. "Thank you, mortal. I will remember you."

Lin Mo watched the direction in which he disappeared and let out a breath of relief. At least he had stopped the future Thor from truly being sent to a psychiatric hospital.

"So... we just dealt with an actual god?" Ted had still not recovered. Even his voice trembled.

"Something like that." Lin Mo picked up the folding knife from the ground and shoved it back into his hand. "Come on. Let's get back and sleep. We still have a ride to catch tomorrow."

By the time they returned to the motel, the sky was already beginning to lighten. Ted collapsed into bed and fell asleep immediately. This time, he slept especially heavily, probably frightened half to death. Lin Mo, however, had no desire to sleep. He sat by the window and watched the desert sunrise. Golden sunlight spilled over the dunes like flowing honey.

The wristband suddenly vibrated.

[Detected that the host has established a positive interaction with the Asgardian Royal Family. Physical Enhancement synchronization rate increased by 5%. Current rate: 53%.]

[New effect unlocked: Energy Perception (can roughly determine the intensity and properties of nearby supernatural energy).]

Lin Mo smiled. He had not expected rescuing Thor to raise his synchronization rate. It was an unexpected gain. He tried scanning his surroundings with the newly unlocked Energy Perception—the motel owner's energy was ordinary, Ted's carried a trace of fatigue, while the energy from the distant S.H.I.E.L.D. restricted area was like a mass of rolling dark clouds, heavy and oppressive. Mjolnir's energy was hidden at the center of those clouds, like a beating heart.

"Interesting," Lin Mo murmured. It seemed this trip to New Mexico had yielded more than he had expected.

The next morning, while Lin Mo and Ted ate breakfast in the motel restaurant, they heard officers at the neighboring table discussing the matter. "...That blond lunatic escaped in the middle of the night! Someone opened the cell lock, and the surveillance cameras didn't catch anything. It was like a ghost did it!"

"He must've opened it himself. That guy's freakishly strong," another officer said. "The chief has already requested help from S.H.I.E.L.D. They'll probably catch him again soon."

Lin Mo paused with his coffee cup in hand, unable to stop the corner of his mouth from rising slightly. He glanced at Ted. The man had his head lowered over a stack of pancakes, pretending he had heard nothing, but the tips of his ears were red as boiled shrimp.

"This coffee's pretty good." Lin Mo took a sip and looked out the window. Several more S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles had appeared on Pepper Town's main street. Phil Coulson had probably learned that Thor had escaped. Would the agent trace it back to him?

"Finish up and let's go." Ted suddenly looked up, his voice very low. "I keep feeling like someone's watching us."

Lin Mo followed his gaze. A man in a black trench coat stood at the restaurant entrance, looking in their direction—it was Hawkeye! He held a thermos as though waiting for someone, but his eyes drifted toward them from time to time, and a faint, unreadable smile sat on his lips.

"Don't panic. Eat." Lin Mo added a piece of bacon to Ted's plate. "He's just watching the show."

Hawkeye watched them for several minutes before turning and leaving. Lin Mo knew it was a warning, but also tacit approval—S.H.I.E.L.D. had probably already learned that he had rescued Thor, but did not intend to pursue the matter. Perhaps Phil Coulson believed it was better to let the reckless Thor leave the police station than continue causing trouble inside it.

"Let's go." Lin Mo set down his coffee cup and picked up his backpack. "Back to New York."

As they got into the taxi headed for the station, Lin Mo took one last look at the distant barricade. Under the sunlight, Mjolnir was still embedded in the rock like a silent oath. He knew his connection with this place was not over. When Thor truly understood what it meant to be "worthy of Mjolnir," he might return.

Ted leaned against the car window, dozing off as he muttered, "I'm never coming back to this damn place." Lin Mo smiled but said nothing. Some experiences, even dangerous ones, were worth treasuring.

At the very least, he could brag to Peter—he had not only met Thor, but had helped him escape from a police station. That was far cooler than street magic.