Chapter 37 - Determining the point in time

Iron Man: "..."

　　Nick Fury: "..."

　　Both of them were amazed by the Black Widow's brainwave.

　　But when they went to analyse it carefully, they had to admit that that dark version of the story did fit the existing clues perfectly.

　　Not only that, but it even filled in some of the gaps and questions from the previous question.

　　That is, why Loki would join forces with the Chitauri to invade Earth.

　　At first, everyone guessed that the purpose of the aliens' invasion of Earth could be the Tesseract, but it turned out that they were wrong and the Tesseract was just a means for people to invade, not an end.

　　So what was their purpose?

　　What else is there for the aliens to seek after, apart from the loss of the Tesseract, which came from the universe?

　　Even going so far as to start a war?

　　The Black Widow explained this one query perfectly for them.

　　"So B and C are possible, what about A and D?" Slightly frustrated, Nick Fury continued to stare at the options on the big screen.

　　"Failed bid for the throne and self-imposed exile?"

　　"Search for Odin, his father, who is in exile?"

　　Everyone looked at each other for a moment, unable to analyse them at all, because those two options, that's what they were called, had no clue.

　　"That's quite a difficult question."

　　Iron Man rubbed his brow, but followed up with a turn of phrase, "But with a genius scientist, an intelligence chief, plus a top agent, I'm sure we'll come up with an answer."

　　"So Stark, do you have any ideas?" Nick Fury stared straight at the Man of Steel with one eye.

　　"I have a little doubt." Iron Man mused for a moment before suddenly twisting his head around, "Am I the only one who noticed that the question says 'own accord' and 'first'?"

　　Nick Fury and Black Widow were both extremely intelligent people, and with Iron Man mentioning the point like that, they each reacted to something as well.

　　"There is an active descent, then there is a passive descent, which means that Thor has descended to Earth before." Nick Fury added.

　　"We also can't be sure if this time, the Battle of New York, was Thor's first time or not." Black Widow continued to add.

　　"Good!" Iron Man nodded heavily, "We simply don't know at this point exactly what point in time the title says it is! We can't default to the idea that the Battle of New York was the time when Thor actively first came to Earth!"

　　On one side, Black Widow shrugged, "Thanks to Stark's reminder, the difficulty of the question has gone from devilish to hellish."

　　"That's not too bad for me, I like a challenge!" Iron Man shrugged.

　　"So Stark, you'll challenge yourself to try this question." Nick Fury made a gesture of invitation.

　　Iron Man started to analyse it.

　　"Although it seems that way at the moment, the system shouldn't give us four options that are completely unanalyzable, otherwise this wouldn't be an answer, it would be a lottery."

　　"So, some of the relevant clues we all have so far must be available to use as a basis for analysis."

　　"Is that something you all agree on?"

　　With that said Iron Man looked over to Nick Fury and Black Widow, only to see each of them nod their heads.

　　They did agree with Iron Man on this point.

　　"So, we might as well just list everything we have so far that's relevant and use it as a basis to analyse it."

　　"What do we have so far? Let's review it, it's just the following."

　　"One, Thor took part in the Battle of New York, two, Loki grabbed the Tesseract and helped the Chitauri invade Earth. Anything else? ..."

As for such inconclusive clues as Thor appearing in other answer options, suspected participation in the endgame battle, etc., Iron Man didn't mention them.

　　"Dr Sylvig knew Thor." Black Widow mused for a moment, adding off to the side.

　　"Yes, Doctor, can't forget about the Doctor!" Iron Man nodded heavily.

　　A few more people ran through the list, and that was all the definite clues about Thor that they currently had at hand, nothing more.

　　"There are a few things we can conclude from these clues: that Thor has been to Earth at least twice, once to meet Dr Sylvig and once for the Battle of New York."

　　"These two points in time are the only times we know of when Thor descended to Earth, so the point in time stated in the question must be one of these two points in time."

　　"Otherwise, this question would be impossible to answer!"

　　Iron Man said to the pair with a straight face.

　　"Go on, whether it is or not, that's all we can do to analyse it at the moment." Nick Fury spoke up from the side, "It's better than taking a wild guess."

　　"If you choose between these two points in time ..." Black Widow mused as she opened her mouth for analysis.

　　"The myth is that Loki is Thor's uncle, but Dr Sylvig knows that Loki is Thor's brother this would have been told to Dr Sylvig by Thor himself."

　　"If it was Thor who came to Earth on his initiative, then he must have had some purpose and had important business to attend to, so he should not have made friends with a random Earthling and even spilt the beans on his own life."

　　"So that one would have been a passive descent, like ... being exiled, so Thor was in a bad mood, devastated and needed someone to talk to, that sort of thing ..."

　　"Agreed!" Iron Man nodded, "So let's make the point in time of the Battle of New York, the point in time stated in the title."

　　"OK, we'll make the point in time the Battle of New York for now." Nick Fury spread his hands, "So A can be ruled out, right?"

　　"If Thor failed in his bid for the throne, that would mean Loki succeeded in his bid for the throne, how would a new king who has just taken office and should be too busy in God's realm to get away, come to Earth alone?"

　　"You have a premise here, Odin only has two sons, Thor and Loki, but we don't know that." Iron Man questioned.

　　"But even if that's the case, the inauguration of a new king is all a big deal for Asgard. Loki shouldn't be running to Earth at a time like this... so I think that can be ruled out too."

　　"D should be ruled out as well."

　　Black Widow carried on to add, "Odin as the father of the gods, why would such a powerful god-king stray to earth, this is not discussed first, if this thing happened, then the gods must be in great chaos."

　　"Asgard's priority should be to find Odin, whether it is for Thor or Loki, it should be the same."

　　"So the Battle of New York, it shouldn't happen at this time, which doesn't match the time in the question."