663 Mighty Ball Crusher

The research lab was barely equipped to accommodate so many people. Natasha, Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, Tony, Bruce, and the Captain. They all looked towards Nik, their gazes trying to pierce through Nik's expression and understand the youth's inner working. Tony and Bruce were surprised by Nik's appearance. It wasn't his features that greatly startled them but his probable age with how young he looked. Captain was used to that slightly naive but sly smile that never left Nik's face and honestly, he felt that the same smile completely described Nik and that is why he thought Nik could be behind Loki's disappearance.

"So? Where is Loki?" Nik inquired again. There were only three chairs in the lab so he promptly reached out for the nearest one and sat down, greatly relieving the group. Still, Fury's gaze remained condensed on him.

"You tell us, Nik," Fury said while turning the tablet's face towards him, showing the scene where Tony and Steve cornered Loki only for him to disappear suddenly. Seeing this, Nik furrowed his brows and looked towards everyone else. As if he understood something, Nik suddenly stood up, his nostrils flared and his tone no longer respectful.

"You think I did this? Have you all lost your minds?"

Everyone in this room had gone through many experiences. Banner had faced treachery time and again, forcing his body to transform into the Hulk. Tony Stark had been kidnapped and almost killed. He had been attacked by many assassins and approached by countless spied. Nick Fury and Captain were leaders in their own rights. Every person in this group had experience in ascertaining many things from other's expressions and body language. Even Coulson was well-versed with this and that is why, when Nik looked at him with an indignant gaze, Coulson couldn't help but feel that they might have just made a mistake.

"Calm down, we are not pushing blames," Fury stated with an effort to keep the situation from getting worse.

"You guys indirectly pinned the blame of kidnapping a freaking god on the loose! Calm down?! I should be cutting off your Hellicarrier in half!" His words instantly alerted everyone except Natasha.

"Nik, come on. You are the only guy we know that has spatial abilities. And we didn't pin anything. There are many suspects that we are investigating," Tony chuckled nervously. He still wasn't done with Extremis project and didn't want to die this early. He was just in his late thirties!

"Oh... you don't want to do that," Bruce shook his head dismissively, his words implying that another green giant was privy to the conversation.

"Did you guys consider that maybe... Loki has the spatial abilities, too?" Nik's words stumped everyone.

"Does he?" Natasha inquired mentally. She greatly benefitted with Loki captured. After all, only the God of Mischief knew Barton's current location.

"He can resist my abilities so he might just have them but right now, he's sleeping soundly," Nik replied mentally as Natasha let out a sigh of relief.

"We really hadn't considered that," Bruce mumbled while Fury shook his head.

"If he did, then Loki didn't need to use vehicles to escape the original research lab. So him having spatial abilities is highly unlikely."

"Anyway, you guys should seriously have yourself tested. Saying stupid things and blaming others. I don't want to be in your 'big boys' club any longer. Sorry, Agent Widow, and Agent Coulson. I'll stick with the minor ring," Nik scoffed. Pickle slowly started to cover him. In the entire conversation, he had perfect control of his expression and showing his youthful appearance to Banner and Tony for the first time, he wished to greatly reduce their suspicion. After all, Tony is regarded as a major asset by the Shield and Banner as the most dangerous.

"Wait," Coulson stated hurriedly, "We really had no intention of subjecting you to an interrogation. That's why I called you here. And as you said, a God is on the loose. How can we not take drastic measures?" His words 'seemed' to reduced Nik's indignation as he slowly calmed down and gazed at everyone in the room. With Pickle covering him, the others look more threatened than usual and as Nik said, he might just be capable of tearing the flying base in half. This instantly raised Nik's fear factor and value in Fury's eye.

"We cannot just argue among us right now," Captain stated impassively. He hadn't joined the Shield because of his own reason but he agreed to help them out. "We still don't know Loki's motive. We had him for a few moments but he then disappeared. He either has spatial abilities or a helper with these methods."

"We cannot rule out Invisibility," Tony stated, "Although my sensors couldn't detect him at all, invisibility is a real thing now," his words making Nik's thoughts drift towards the comely blonde who had started to grow warmer towards Nik after a single lunch.

"Sir," Maria's hurried voice passed through Fury's transmitter, attracting everybody's attention. "There's an unknown flying being headed straight towards the Hellicarrier. Time of impact remaining— 3 minutes, and the area of impact is the third engine!"

Her words greatly startled everybody in the room as Fury looked at everybody in the room. "Dr. Banner, you'll be alright?"

"As long as I'm not affected directly," Banner nodded and Nick looked at Coulson, "Code 43, go. Tony, the Invisible panels are still working which means that this guy knows who we are and where we are. I need you out near the engine."

"Fine," Tony grumbled and left after nodding at Nik.

"Nik, can you—"

"I'm not your subordinate, remember, Director?" Nik smirked as Fury raised his index finger. This was the amount and Nik finally nodded eagerly.

"You won't be blown away if you step out, right?" Fury inquired as Nik thought for a moment, "First time for everything, I guess," and then he vanished.

---

Despite the large size, Hellicarrier moved at extreme speed. Its task was to hover all around America. The Shield still wasn't willing to invade other countries and cause wars so they stuck to modest coverage and the invasion of privacy of the Americans. Just like a navy battleship, the Hellicarrier's surface was modeled to a runway for jets that were locked in their places.

Standing on the communication detector of the carrier, Nik couldn't help but think what would happen if someone made Hellicarrier perform stunts. It would be a wonderful sight before the beauty crashes and burns, Nik knew that.

In the distance, Nik observed a man led by his hammer followed by a bolt of lightning. The grizzly sound of thunder accompanied the broad-shouldered man while Tony's suddenly launched a group of missiles. Seeing that it would take a few moments for the missiles to hit the target, Nik smiled evilly and created a pool of small portals that instantly connected to the space around the man.

Boom!

A loud explosion echoed as everyone from the command room could observe the mysterious man's flight interjected by Tony's missile when combined with the small portals and targetted the opponent cruelly. Many shivered but Coulson couldn't help but appreciate the act. Spatial abilities had huge potential in enhancing the efficiency in a team and the more Nik shows this aspect of his ability, the greater he would be valued by the Shield, which would also make the others from his team standout.

"That was nice!" Tony flew over as his voice boomed from his mask. If his volume was even a little bit weaker, his voice wouldn't have reached Nik at all.

"Watch out!" Nik stated plainly as a bolt of lightning that would have struck Tony entered a small portal and came out a little away from the carrier as if it was a natural one.

Tony instantly looked towards the source and found the same blonde man flying towards him. The red cape continued to flutter behind the man as Nik and Tony came to know the identity of the man.

Thor.

They had been detailed on Loki's 'relatives' and it helped that Thor had visited Earth prior before all of this happened.

"A God..." Nik looked at the man with his heart shivering slightly. Thor was completely different from Loki and the videos. The more one knew the more they understand. Nik had been in contact with formless energies like aura and the stuff Lucifer used to greatly pressurize him and from Thor, he felt the same pressure, albeit, only a sliver of it.

"I can try to fight him," the moment the thought came into Nik's mind, he decided to test the strength of the God to see if he should engage in a physical battle. He punched into the portal and his fist landed against Thor's cheek. Surprised by the sudden 'long-ranged' attack, Thor's flight was disrupted once again and Nik retracted his fist. Clenching and unclenching his fist, Nik analyzed internally.

'Damn! My hand is creaking!'

This wasn't just a slight difference in physique. Thor firmly stood in the stage of rank 4 when it came to his physique. After all, he once again shot towards the duo and with Nik's enhanced vision, he could see that Thor was furious and his right cheek looked like he was blushing.

"Oh, boy," Nik snickered at the appearance but now, Thor had reached and he landed on the surface of the carrier with an outstanding tremor passing through the ship. After all, he could no longer crash against the engine with his flight interrupted twice.

"Where is Loki?!" His voice boomed and he stood straight despite the fierce wind affecting him.

"Probably having dinner. I've heard that brutally killing someone can really work up an appetite," Tony landed on the surface with a heavy metallic klink as Nik only prayed for the 'big boy' that his armor is capable of withstanding whatever the God can throw at him. Be it his punches or that hammer of the legends.

'Should I also compare my soul ruler with his hammer?' Nik considered again but his thoughts instantly focused on the man. Now that Angela was starting to look like an adorable, bikini-loving, and quite straightforward, Nik was interested in her but he still needed to know what he was dealing with. Odin would surely be stronger than Thor and if he has to run away now, he really needed to consider if pursuing Angela was the right decision. It didn't even take a second to consider it. Of course, when did he knowingly give up on a booty, and angelic one to the boot?

"I am in no mood for comical conversation," Thor started walking as lighting gathered around his hammer while Natasha's voice instantly resounded in Nik's mind.

"We can't have Thor using lightning above the Hellicarrier. Once the communication is down, it would only take a little more force to bring the carrier down and force us to take drastic measures."

Tony said the same within a few moments while Nik sighed softly. He wasn't going to stupidly face off against Thor. But he could disrupt the man by taking his hammer, right?

With a cackle, Nik's hand entered yet another portal, alerting Thor for any visible attack but nothing came. Instead, a hand latched onto the handle of his hammer. Sensing the plot to unarm him, Thor smiled coldly and let go of his hammer.

"Wha—"

Feeling the sudden push, Nik instantly created a bigger portal and much to Tony's surprise, appeared beside Thor, his back bent as Nik gazed at the hammer in surprise.

"Oh... hello," Nik slowly looked up. His lips twitching as he continued to fend off the mental connection that the hammer wanted to establish with him as Thor's eyes sparkled with lightning. Under the stormy weather and blanket of darkness, the blonde god looked particularly terrifying as Nik suddenly thought of completely unarming the god until the situation pacifies.

'Can't have a super angry god with super-strong body running around attacking. So...' With a smile, the hammer disappeared. Instantly, Nik's hands covered his chest and blocked Thor's kick, sending him flying as Thor roared!

"How dare you snatch Mjolnir! I shall have your head!" And he pounced, instantly forgetting everything and turning Nik into his target.

Swish!

Dodging the punch swiftly, Nik found himself grazed by lightning while Pickle grunted softly but this was good. Now, Nik knew the range needed to stay safe as another lightning lathered punch came towards his face and Nik shifted above Thor and let himself fall with both of his hands held together, knocking the top of his head harshly.

Crack

"Gah!" Thor grunted.

The injuries to his fist instantly started to heal with the properties of his bodies but Nik didn't let go. Injuries can be healed in time but once Thor truly has his neck, it'll be hard to just shift away so instead of simply running away, Nik thought of showcasing a bit of his 'close-combat' prowess so that Thor may understand that fighting without his hammer might not be the most ideal.

Nik tried to act smartly. He didn't hold his punches and deep down, he was greedy enough to have the thoughts of not giving Thor his hammer back. After all, even though he might not use it, a man needs to has his weapon collections! And his was drained when he formed Soul Ruler.

'Oh, right!'

With a chaotic glow of lights, under Tony's surprised expression, a 30-cm wooden ruler appeared and smacked Thor in the face as if a slap!

"Aaagh!"

For the first time, Thor felt that Nik's attacks weren't just pinches.

This was a proper slap!

Only once Thor had been slapped by his father but this time, from a stranger, the slap did not only hurt more but also 'stung' greater!

"Enough!"

Thor roared, his battle instinct kicking in and almost grabbing Nik's hand with a high force but met with the terrifying smile under the darkness as the set of jagged teeth glimmered brightly, a portal connected to Thor's crotch let out Thor's own hands as he clenched his balls harshly!

'Only a god can crush his own balls! Oh, karma!' Nik chanted internally as Thor's expression finally froze. His fury died down, the surrounding weather calmed down, and the god fell on his knees with a low, guttural groan.

"Damn... I'm happy that I caught it on the footage," Tony breathed with cold sweat pouring from his forehead.

"Sir, should I add increased protection near crotch to the to-do list?" Jarvis inquired as Tony gave it the silent assent.

***

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