After a round of laughter, Wonder Woman voiced her question: "Did I hear you right, Atreus? You're saying an alien powerhouse sent someone like Loki to invade Earth?"
"Strange, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that's exactly it! To Thanos, Loki is just a harmless pawn. Plus, Loki has a safety net—his brother Thor. Thor may be his rival, but family bonds mean he would never kill Loki. In fact, when it matters most, he might even save him. Remember, even though the gods have largely vanished from Earth, Thor is still one of the strongest beings out there."
Atreus pulled up a video on the massive projector screen.
The footage showed a massive metallic creature, The Destroyer, that resembled a humanoid in armor, battling Thor.
The Destroyer fired a terrifying flame beam from the opening in its faceplate.
With just a single sweep, the beam instantly vaporized over ten wooden houses. Everything knee-high to an adult was turned to ash in moments.
Meanwhile, with a single hammer strike, Thor caused a football field-sized area to sink over a meter. Violent lightning spread across the area, overloading electrical wires within two kilometers, causing sparks to fly and burning out countless transformers.
This kind of destructive power made even Wonder Woman sober up, admitting, "He's a true god."
"Indeed. I've always been curious—who's stronger, Odin from Norse mythology or Zeus from Greek mythology? After all, Asgard still claims to be the protector and ruler of the Nine Realms."
Diana shot Atreus a side-eye, as if warning him to stop stirring trouble. "I haven't sensed any sign of Zeus (Father God) in this world."
She said the words "Father God" using a divine tone that only Atreus could hear.
Atreus wasn't upset. He didn't bother to mention that in Thor 4, Zeus had turned into a shut-in who spent all his time partying in his palace. After all, in this merged universe, who knows how characters will turn out?
Suddenly, White Canary spoke up: "So, we're just going to watch?"
"Pretty much. At least for now, a very powerful sorceress is still protecting Earth. As long as she's alive, no one will dare openly attack Earth. Even if we take down Loki, others will still try to cause trouble. Rather than wasting time eliminating spies one by one, it's better to cut off the hand reaching out. At least make sure they feel the pain."
This logic made sense, but once again, it seemed like New York was in for another round of destruction.
Atreus turned to Gwen, who was on the video call: "There's a huge danger coming to New York. I'll find a reason to get your dad out of there. You should take your mom and leave the city too."
Gwen hesitated for a moment. "Okay."
In history, superhero families often got lucky and escaped harm, but Atreus didn't want to leave their fates to luck.
"Liz! New York is about to face a large-scale attack. Get your mother out immediately. Try to convince your 'good sister' and all of Peter Parker's loved ones to leave the city as well."
Liz froze. If Atreus hadn't come to her, she would've forgotten that such a big boss was behind her. After hesitating briefly, she nodded, "What about Peter?"
"He might need to fight."
"Got it."
Atreus issued command after command, even sending one to Superman, though he wasn't sure if it would get a response.
Either way, he'd done his part. Whether or not they listened was up to them.
Superman shouldn't think he's safe—his girlfriend and adoptive parents were in New York, after all.
In truth, Atreus was curious to see what would happen if the Chitauri pissed off Superman in this merged universe.
But he couldn't take that gamble. If Superman's loved ones died and he turned dark, that would be a disaster.
After finishing, Atreus noticed Wonder Woman standing with her hands on her hips, looking at him: "You're really busy, huh?"
It was obvious she was teasing him.
After all, a lot of his messages had been sent to women.
Atreus shamelessly replied, "Can't help it, with great power comes great responsibility!"
He never underestimated his enemies, nor overestimated his allies.
Just as he remembered, the Avengers were arguing endlessly.
Tony and Cap had captured Loki and were transporting him back to the infamous helicarrier for interrogation.
But they couldn't torture Loki, so a bunch of people ended up arguing. How could they out-talk the God of Mischief?
Loki wasn't subdued, and the newly-formed Avengers began infighting.
While Bruce Banner (who hadn't yet turned into the Hulk) was getting along well with Tony, and they developed a computer model to track the Tesseract (the Space Stone), Bruce became frustrated when he discovered that Director Fury had prepared a special containment cage just for him.
This made him feel humiliated and disrespected.
Meanwhile, Tony, using his superior tech skills, found classified files revealing that S.H.I.E.L.D. was planning to use the Tesseract to develop weapons.
Cap took the simpler route, finding actual weapons in the helicarrier's cargo hold, made using Tesseract energy. This made him feel like S.H.I.E.L.D. was just another Hydra. After all, 70 years ago, he had fought enemies wielding similar Tesseract-powered weapons.
As for Black Widow, being a spy, she wasn't too bothered.
But Thor, who saw himself as Earth's protector, had a fierce argument with Fury.
Thor believed that with Asgard's protection, Earth didn't need to arm itself like this.
Fury insisted Earth needed the ability to defend itself.
"You're sending a signal to advanced civilizations that Earth is ready for war," Thor said. In a way, he wasn't wrong.
But Fury wasn't having it: "Excuse me! No Earthlings have gone to your planet to cause trouble!"
This standoff had Tony feeling quite reflective. He suddenly recalled asking his friend Atreus a question not too long ago: "What would you do if the U.S. government saw you as a major threat?"
Atreus had given a philosophical response: "If the White House sees me as a threat, I'd better be a real threat. At least then we'd have peace. Never forget, being the White House's enemy is dangerous, but being its ally is deadly."
Honestly, the situation was now completely deadlocked.
From the director to every single member, the entire Avengers team was filled with mistrust.
As the saying goes, the best way to unite a group with different beliefs and interests is to give them a common enemy.
Had Loki waited any longer to make his move, the Avengers might have fallen apart.
Right in front of everyone, Hawkeye—under Loki's mind control—led a special forces team to attack the helicarrier. Not only did they free Loki, but they also injured and killed several people. They nearly destroyed the helicarrier's engines, almost causing it, with thousands of people onboard, to crash.
The worst part was that Loki killed Agent Phil Coulson.
As someone beloved by Cap, Tony, and the others, Phil had been a good guy to everyone. He even had a collection of Cap's trading cards and wanted an autograph. He had also helped Tony and Pepper quite a bit.
Losing such a universally liked figure was devastating.
anger simmered in silence, and every Avenger's eyes burned with determination.
Tony repaired his damaged Iron Man suit, put it on, and made a call: "A friend of mine was killed by Loki. I'm going to New York to beat him up. You coming?"
"Yeah," Atreus replied tersely.