Thor Chen Xiao

"Fuck! Fuck! This isn't right!"

Chen Xiao stared at the meteor streaking across the sky with a long tail of flame, nearly dropping the cola in his hand. Its speed had not slowed from atmospheric friction—it carried scorching white light as it tore through the night sky and crashed straight toward the ground.

He quickly tried to calculate its mass, speed, and kinetic energy, then laughed at himself. What the hell did he know about calculating that stuff?

"No way... if that thing hits, everything within a dozen kilometers will be turned upside down."

Yet an image of a mushroom cloud automatically surfaced in his mind, making him shiver. There were towns nearby. S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't blind, the military wasn't deaf, and seismic stations around the world would record it.

"No wonder Master sent me," he muttered. "If no one handles this, people will die."

There had been no such scene in the movie. The hammer had landed in a little crater, easy as anything. Now he understood—Ancient One had intervened. The Sorcerer Supreme had secretly neutralized the kinetic energy and swallowed the shockwave. The audience had only seen the result. And now, the job had fallen to him.

The hammer drew closer and closer. White light ripped through the night sky, while the wind shrieked.

Chen Xiao did not hesitate. He drew a circle before him with both hands, then pushed upward. Blue spell patterns surged from his fingertips and rapidly spread outward.

The Mirror Dimension, a mirrored world created from the real one.

He aimed the spell formation at the falling hammer.

"Get in here!"

The blue ring abruptly expanded, swallowing the flaming meteor whole. The hammer vanished into the circle, leaving only the fading trail of flame in the sky.

Chen Xiao closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the Mirror Dimension.

Everything in the Mirror Dimension mirrored reality—the same desert, the same night sky, the same outlines of mountains.

Then the hammer crashed in. The instant it struck the ground, the earth caved in like the surface of water.

The entire land contracted inward around the hammer, like a tablecloth being pulled down from the center. Dirt, rocks, gravel—everything slid toward the middle faster and faster, forming an enormous ring of ripples. Then came a massive mushroom cloud, energy created as matter was violently compressed.

Wherever the shockwave passed, the ground was overturned and rolled up. Starting from the impact point, the land for kilometers around swelled and collapsed like waves.

Chen Xiao's gaze descended from "above" the Mirror Dimension. Looking down at the silent destruction, his pupils shrank slightly. "Damn."

At the very center, the hammer had already sunk completely into the ground.

The original desert landscape had vanished entirely. In its place lay a massive depression several kilometers wide, with raised edges like a lunar crater. The ground had melted under extreme heat and cooled again, forming a smooth black glassy shell that reflected a faint sheen beneath the Mirror Dimension's golden light. The vitrified surface was covered in dense cracks, like a dried-up riverbed.

Chen Xiao hovered in midair, staring at the reshaped earth below with wide-eyed amazement.

Once the hammer's kinetic energy had fully dissipated and the dust had settled, he extended his right hand and lightly clenched it.

The Mirror Dimension dissolved.

"Not as outrageous as I thought," Chen Xiao said with a sigh of relief. "Done. Master should give me a good review."

The hammer appeared in the real desert. Chen Xiao thought about it and felt that something was missing—how could Thor's hammer land without lightning?

He raised a hand and snapped his fingers. A bolt of azure lightning descended from the sky and struck the hammer with perfect accuracy.

"Mm, now that's more like it."

Mjolnir rested quietly in a small crater—not large, only two or three meters across. The dirt around its edge was lightly scorched, giving off wisps of white smoke. Silver-gray metal, dark brown leather straps wrapped around the handle, and intricate patterns carved across its surface. It glinted coldly beneath the moonlight.

Chen Xiao walked to the edge of the crater and crouched down.

Arcs of electricity began dancing around his fingertips.

That hammer contained immense energy, energy he knew all too well—it was lightning. The power of his Rumble-Rumble Fruit seemed to have been lightly stirred by something, as though greeting it.

"Pretty nice-looking."

He reached out and grasped the handle.

The instant his palm touched the metal, a powerful current surged from the hammer and raced along his arm through his entire body. It was neither pain nor burning, but a warm, tingling sensation, like soaking in perfectly heated water. Lightning arcs wrapped around his arm and the hammer, glowing blue-white in the night and illuminating the entire crater.

He drew a deep breath and gently lifted upward.

The hammer moved.

It came free from the dirt and rested in his hand. Its weight was just right, a little lighter than he had expected. The leather wrapping conformed to his palm while lightning arcs leaped between the hammerhead and his arm, as if dancing.

Chen Xiao held up the hammer at the edge of the crater, his eyes wide as saucers.

"Hey, hey, hey? That's not right!... I picked it up?"

He was a little dazed. Scenes from the movies rapidly replayed in his head—Hulk being pinned down by the hammer, Thor's smug pride in claiming that only he could lift it, the moment Captain America made it budge slightly, everyone's shocked expressions when Vision lifted it, and Odin's words: "Whosoever is worthy shall wield Mjolnir."

Then he remembered that picking up the hammer was supposed to transform him—Thor's armor, a cape, a helmet, lightning crackling all around him, majestic and imposing.

He waited several seconds.

No Thor armor. No sudden surge of divine power. No cape, no helmet. Nothing at all.

"So... I can just pick it up?" He looked down at the hammer. "You're not going to transform me or anything?"

The hammer lay quietly in his hand. The lightning arcs flickered twice, as if shrugging.

"Old man Odin has pretty good judgment. Looks like I really am upright and brave. But aren't people usually supposed to transform?" He turned the hammer over and over, and the image of the female Thor's outfit flashed through his mind again.

He unconsciously rubbed the hammer as he began to think.

The Rumble-Rumble Fruit, lightning power, the hammer's divine lightning. Maybe it was not a matter of whether he was "worthy," but whether they were "on the same frequency." The hammer recognized frequencies. His lightning and the hammer's lightning were the same thing, so the hammer did not treat him like an outsider.

As for transforming—perhaps it was because he himself was already an embodiment of lightning, and the hammer's divine power was merely a buff to him? Besides, Captain America did not seem to transform when he used the hammer either. Or maybe there was some kind of spell?

"Fine." Chen Xiao did not dwell on it.

He raised the hammer over his head and shouted at the air, "I am Thor Chen Xiao!"

Nothing happened.

The wind blew past, stirring the sand beside the crater into little spirals. In the distance, a foraging lizard poked its head out from between some rocks, glanced at him, then withdrew again.

"...Knew it."

He studied the hammer in his hand for a while. It really did feel good, with a stable center of gravity, as if it had been custom-made for him. He flipped it over and examined the bottom, where several unreadable runes were carved—probably Odin's signature, or something like "Asgard reserves the right of final interpretation."

He swung it twice. Lightning crackled, stirring up a gust of wind that blew the loose stones around the crater several times over.

"Fun."

He tossed the hammer into the air. It flipped twice in midair before he caught it, lightning bursting across his palm. Then he tried controlling it with electric arcs—the hammer floated before him for several seconds before steadily dropping back into his hand.

"Such an obedient little thing."

He played with it excitedly for a long time and even took selfies. Tossing and catching it, spinning it, using electric arcs to drag the hammer in circles through the air. The hammer cooperated well, striking wherever he pointed, as if it was enjoying the process.

As he played, he wondered what expression Ancient One would make if he brought the hammer back to Kamar-Taj. She would probably hold her teacup in silence for a few seconds, then say, "Put it back." What would happen if he simply took the hammer away? Old man Odin would probably come knocking in person. Forget it, he should not bully the elderly. It was absolutely not because he was afraid he could not beat him.

It was not his, so having a little fun was enough.

He crouched and stuck the hammer back into the crater, restoring it to its original position. Taking a step back, he planted his hands on his hips and looked at the hammer gleaming coldly beneath the moonlight.

"Too bad you're not mine." He patted the handle like he was patting an old friend. "Your master will be here in a few days. Then you can go home with him."

The runes on the hammer's surface glowed faintly, then dimmed again.

Chen Xiao looked up at the starry sky. The Milky Way stretched across the heavens like a glowing river.

"Next, it's time to find our stranded prince."