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Inside Thor’s room in the Asgardian Palace.
“Old soldier. You guessed right, but there’s no reward.”
Kyle flashed a wicked smile, his silver hair turning black and his face growing paler and more delicate. His casual clothes turned into a tight-fitting uniform, revealing his true identity as the trickster god Loki, who had previously fled Earth with the Tesseract.
Loki couldn’t believe his luck; sneaking back into Asgard amid the chaos, he had unexpectedly encountered Steve, who was returning the Aether.
“Loki… give me back the Aether! It belongs to this timeline; it shouldn’t be in your hands!”
Steve gritted his teeth and stared intently at Loki. With a slight clenching of his fist, Thor’s hammer on the ground suddenly flew into his right hand. Lightning crackled from the hammer’s handle, wrapping around Steve’s arm, and his eyes glowed menacingly with electric light.
Loki’s expression darkened as he looked at Steve holding the hammer. He muttered bitterly, “Thor’s hammer, which didn’t recognize me, has recognized an outsider from Asgard?”
“Hand it over. This is your last warning!” Steve raised the electrified Thor’s Hammer and pointed it at Loki without hesitation.
Loki was not intimidated. Instead, he grinned wickedly and said, “And if I don’t?”
“Then I’ll have to teach you a lesson on behalf of your brother!”
As soon as Steve finished speaking, he swung Thor’s hammer down, unleashing a powerful, fearsome bolt of lightning that struck Loki, who was standing by the door.
“Well then, goodbye.”
Loki had no intention of fighting the future Steve. With a swift motion, he revealed a cracked Tesseract in his left hand.
In a split second, Loki used the Tesseract’s spatial energy to open a misty portal and vanished from the room without a trace.
Steve’s pupils contracted sharply. He tried to pull the hammer back, but the charge released was too powerful to retract. The lightning struck the golden-carved door of the room, knocking it off its hinges with a resounding crash.
“What happened?”
“It’s the prince’s room…”
“Quick! Go check it out!”
The loud noise drew the attention of nearby Asgardian guards, who rushed to Steve’s room.
“This is bad.”
Steve’s mouth twitched. He hadn’t expected that their intervention in the Battle of New York would indirectly allow Loki to escape with the Tesseract. This unexpected change not only affected the history of the current timeline, but also put him, a future visitor, in a quandary.
Because Loki was not captured by the Avengers during the Battle of New York, he was not imprisoned in Asgard as he should have been. Instead, he remained active in the universe, free to cause trouble. Because the Tesseract still retained some spatial energy, Loki was able to appear and disappear at will.
In other words, the current Loki was a chaotic force, disrupting the original timeline.
Steve had no time to dwell on this. When he heard the approaching footsteps, his body tensed. He had to escape before the Asgardians captured him; to be caught in this timeline would be disastrous.
But escaping the heavily guarded Asgard with only Thor’s hammer seemed unrealistic.
“Should I leave this timeline?”
The thought crossed Steve’s mind and he prepared to act on it. However, the footsteps approaching the room suddenly stopped.
“What are you doing?”
A calm, cold voice made Steve’s heart skip a beat. That voice was…
In the corridor of the Asgardian palace.
The captain of the guards saw Kyle and said respectfully, “Guardian, we heard a strange noise coming from the prince’s room, so we came to check…”
Kyle waved his hand dismissively and said, “It’s all right. The noise was just me accidentally kicking the door in.”
“I see.”
The Guard Captain looked relieved. He might have doubted Kyle’s words before, but after the battle that morning, all Asgardians were convinced of Kyle’s immense strength.
Kyle said calmly, “Everyone in the palace is in mourning for the queen. Let’s not create a commotion. Return to your posts and continue your patrols. We’ll repair the door after the funeral.”
“Yes, Guardian, as you say!”
The guard captain nodded quickly, glanced at the golden door lying on the floor of the corridor, and then led his assembled guards away, dispersing through the corridors.
Once the Asgardian guards were gone, Kyle maintained a calm expression as he slowly walked into the now doorless room.
His golden eyes scanned the empty room and the Thor’s Hammer resting on the table. Irritated, he said, “Stop hiding. Do you really think you can fool me?”
“Click-
An antique wardrobe creaked open from the inside and Steve stepped out, carrying his briefcase. He looked at Kyle with a bitter expression and said, “Thanks for covering for me. Kyle, it really is you this time, isn’t it?”
“Who else would it be?”
Kyle frowned slightly, then narrowed his eyes as if he realized something. “I felt Loki’s presence earlier. He was here, wasn’t he? Disguised as me, and he fooled you.”
Steve sighed helplessly, “He tricked me into giving him the Aether by pretending to be you.”
Kyle took a few steps forward and glared at Steve. “You’re not the Steve I know. Raina mentioned someone who could fly and shoot electricity, who broke into the Office of Supernatural Affairs and returned the Mind Stone. That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” Steve nodded.
Kyle continued calmly, “You showed up at the Battle of New York six months ago, didn’t you? You tried to take the Tesseract and fought with the Steve of that time, almost getting beaten by him.”
“Yes.” Steve nodded again.
Kyle continued, “Ceasar left with you then, didn’t he?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Steve spread his hands in acknowledgment and said seriously, “But Ceasar didn’t come back, which I didn’t expect.”
Kyle smiled faintly. “I had many theories before, and now that I see you, they all make sense.”
“However…”
Kyle’s tone changed. “I still have many questions that need to be answered by you!”
Losing the Aether, the Reality Stone, was a setback, but it could be retrieved later. What was more important now was to understand the meaning of this other Steve’s presence.
For the first time, Kyle felt that there were elements in the Marvel Universe beyond his control. It was inevitable; after all, he had only gone as far as Avengers: Endgame before crossing over to this world.
Now Kyle was living his life, chasing the unfinished story of the Avengers.
Steve and Kyle locked eyes, and finally Steve relented and said, “All right, Kyle, ask your questions. I have a lot of time to waste. But I’m not going to share any information that could disrupt your timeline. I hope you understand.”
“No problem.”
Kyle nodded. That was exactly what he wanted to hear.
(End of chapter)
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