Thor’s Adventure (Part 2)

"I think… we might have run into a little trouble." Peter turned to Thor beside him.

Right now, they were facing several fierce-looking punks—the kind of thugs commonly found in arcades, extorting younger students.

There were six or seven of them, and they were clearly repeat offenders. Taking advantage of the boss going through the back door to restock, they had gone straight for Peter, who was closest to the entrance.

"Well, look at this. Why is there some little loser bringing his dad to a place like this? What, did you lose so badly at a fighting game that you ran home crying for a parent?"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Though they looked older than Peter, Spider-Man, after everything he had been through, was far more mature than them. He shrugged and said, "Whether I’m good at games or not, at least I don’t stand around here pretending to be tough while extorting people."

The blond punk leading them was about to lose his temper when one of his lackeys said, "Look, he’s even wearing a Captain America commemorative T-shirt. It’s definitely a knockoff. He got it all filthy too—some poor kid who crawled out of a mud pit. Forget it, let’s find someone else…"

Peter only found them childish, but Thor could not stand their arrogant attitude. He swung a fist and said, "Didn’t your parents teach you to speak more politely?!"

In Thor’s eyes, Peter was a child, while he was an adult. These people were clearly trying to bully a child, so he ought to protect Peter.

"Where’d this country bumpkin come from? Your accent is thicker than a sheepdog’s from the backwoods. Get back to your farm and plow fields. Stop wandering around New York!"

Thor could not understand what he was being insulted over, but he knew it was nothing good. The Prince of Asgard was not without a temper, and he raised his fist to hit them.

The punks on the other side also took up fighting stances, preparing to gang up on him.

Thor was tall and strong, but the punks bold enough to extort people were no slouches either. Two of them were nearly as tall as Thor, both close to two meters, so they were not afraid of him.

"Wait! Thor, don’t fight here, there are—"

Before Peter could finish, the group had already piled into a brawl.

A battle-hardened Asgardian warrior was naturally no match for a few street punks. He first knocked down a shorter thug on his left with one punch, then bent down to dodge a hook from the burly man on his right before kicking him in the stomach and sending him flying.

Then the blond punk leader shamelessly grabbed a chair from the side and smashed it toward Thor’s head. At that moment, Peter grabbed his wrist and flung the chair from his hand.

"Stop fighting! Don’t—"

Then Thor grabbed a chair as well and swung it straight at the other man. The man refused to back down and shoved over the arcade machine in front of him. Thor dodged backward and stumbled two steps before hurling the chair at him.

His aim was accurate. The chair slammed the man into the arcade machine behind him, knocking it over. Several machines nearby were dragged down with it.

A younger student had been sitting in front of one of them. He did not have time to dodge when the machine fell and was pinned beneath it.

The child let out a scream. Peter hurried over, lifted the arcade machine, and pulled him out, only to find that his arm had struck the machine’s console and was somewhat fractured.

Then, with a bang, the arcade owner returned with a gunshot. The punks scattered at once, leaving only Peter and Thor, who were helping rescue the child.

"Look at what you’ve done!" The boss stalked over menacingly. Peter stood in front of Thor, blocking him from trying to fight the boss.

"Sorry, boss! We didn’t mean to do it. They tried to extort us, and we were only fighting back. We’ll compensate you for the damage, but could you help stabilize this kid’s arm? It looks like he might have a fracture…"

Peter was a regular here. When the boss saw it was him, he did not say much more. In the end, Peter paid for the damages, then took the child to a clinic in Manhattan and paid his medical expenses.

When the child’s parents arrived at the clinic, Peter apologized to them as well. Though they did not pursue the matter, they were clearly unhappy. They regarded Peter as one of those bad kids who got into fights and did not treat him kindly.

When they left the clinic, Thor was furious. He said, "Your Earth has no rules at all! Those villains who tried to bully people went unpunished, yet you were the one who had to pay. If this were Asgard…"

"What would happen in Asgard? I’m guessing they’d rush to apologize to you. Whether it was the attackers, the child caught up in it, or his parents, they would all come to your door and beg your pardon. But that’s because you’re a prince…"

Thor only understood half of it again. He said to Peter, "That’s because I was right. I stopped those people from bullying others!"

"But you also hurt innocent people. Before you acted, I warned you not to fight there. There were lots of elementary school students in that arcade. Once a fight broke out, some kid was bound to get hurt…"

"I was upholding justice!"

Peter sighed, his tone complicated. "I never thought there would come a day when I’d be the one trying to talk someone out of that. I used to think the same way."

"But later, I realized that even doing good deeds requires the right approach. Blindly upholding justice is no different from causing destruction. It’s hard to get a good outcome, and it might even create a whole pile of trouble that someone else has to clean up afterward."

Peter looked at Thor and said, "I know you’re the Prince of Asgard. Your parents can definitely deal with whatever trouble you cause. My friends are the same way—there’s no mess they can’t handle."

"But I realized I can’t always charge recklessly into danger to uphold justice, hurt innocent people, cause a whole heap of trouble, and then make others clean up after me. That would make me a burden to others."

"Upholding justice?" Thor looked Peter over, apparently finding it hard to believe that someone with Peter’s slender build could uphold justice.

Peter understood the look in Thor’s eyes. He sighed and stopped walking. Thor stopped with him. Peter glanced toward the intersection where Thor stood, where a large truck was parked.

The tires on that heavy truck were nearly taller than Peter. Yet Peter reached out with one hand, gripped the grooves in one tire, and lifted gently. The tire on the truck’s side rose several dozen centimeters off the ground.

Thor’s eyes widened. When Peter let go, the truck dropped back down, making the ground tremble. Thor stepped forward and tried lifting it the same way, but the truck did not budge, proving that it truly was extremely heavy for an ordinary person.

Scratching his head in confusion, he said, "How long have I been gone? Have human hatchlings evolved this far already?"

"Hatchling? I’m not a hatchling! I’ve got my driver’s license, and I even have a girlfriend!"

Thor snorted. "With your build, you’re a hatchling in Asgard—a child not even three hundred years old."

"Th-three hundred years old??" Peter gaped. He asked Thor, "Then how old are you?"

"Me? Well, I’m not that old either. I’m not even sixteen hundred yet."

Peter swallowed. "All right, you win on that front. I’m only sixteen this year."

"I know you can’t compare Asgardians and Earthlings by lifespan, but even proportionally speaking, you’re still a kid."

"But compared with me, you’re more childish." Peter explained to Thor, "I know those punks were annoying, and they deserved a beating. If this had happened before, I definitely would have beaten them senseless without thinking twice, just to vent."

"But lately, I’ve been thinking a lot." Peter sighed. "That kind of thinking is actually a little irresponsible. Sure, beating them up felt good for me, but the arcade owner was innocent. Several of his machines were damaged. Even if I paid for them, he still has to spend time and effort replacing and rearranging them. He might even have to close for a day just to clean up the mess."

"Not to mention that child who got caught up in it. His right arm was fractured. His parents have to stay home and take care of him, so they can’t work. Maybe they’ll even get chewed out by their boss because of it."

"If I put myself in that kid’s place, my uncle would definitely be furious, and my aunt would cry because she felt sorry for me."

"And broken bones really hurt. If I got dragged into something like that for no reason, I’d definitely feel wronged and angry…"

"You think too much." Thor was still blunt. "As long as what I do is right, the All-Father will support me. I am…"

At that point, Thor stopped himself. He sighed, then said indignantly, "What I did was obviously right. Why doesn’t my father understand me? He even…"

"I can tell that you’re actually a very righteous person. I think we’re alike. We both want to do good with all our hearts, so I understand how you feel right now, because I used to think the same way."

"Then what do you think now?" Thor looked at Peter.

Talking to Peter, who was younger than him and looked so thin and weak, did not put as much pressure on Thor. It allowed him to temporarily break free from the rebellious resentment he felt after arguing with his father.

The main reasons he could not communicate normally with Earthlings were, first, the language barrier, and second, how dissatisfied and hurt he felt about his father throwing him out of the house. Even as an Asgardian, once he fell into extreme emotions, he could not take in anyone else’s words.

But Peter always carried a positive, sunny energy that was incredibly infectious. It made people feel as though there was no difficulty in the world that could not be overcome, and it made it easier to escape negative emotions.

"I think talking with you is a little difficult. Ah, of course, I’m not making fun of your accent. I’m just stating a fact."

"And I don’t think my old self could have listened to a long lecture about principles either. How about this? I’ll take you to see a friend of mine. His name is Matt. What he did inspired me, and I think it’ll definitely help you too."

As he spoke, Peter started pulling Thor forward. Thor kept loudly protesting as he walked, "I am the Prince of Asgard! There’s nothing that can only be solved with the help of humans. I can do it myself…"

"All right, all right, but we just solved a problem together. That makes us friends, doesn’t it? Are you going to refuse a friend’s invitation?"

As he spoke, Peter let Pikachu out of his backpack. Pikachu had watched the entire incident too. He said to Thor, "Big guy, I have to say, you weren’t bad when you beat up those jerks just now, especially that punch you gave the brown-haired one…"

Pikachu waved his little arms, imitating a human boxer. He said, "It’s obvious you’ve trained. That punk went flying. He definitely won’t dare come back to this arcade next time!"

Those words hit Thor right where he liked them. He said, "People think I’m best with a war hammer and spear, but my fistwork is actually very strong. I just rarely get the chance to show it."

"If you ask me, in all of Asgard, aside from my father, no one has better fistwork than I do!"

Peter became interested as well. He said to Thor, "Those moves of yours really were cool. They’re different from human boxing, more like the kind of moves I see in movies. Can you teach me? I want to look cooler when I fight too!"

"That’s easy. I’ll teach you a couple of moves later. I guarantee that when you face those weaklings, you’ll beat them to a pulp!"

Me, writing a Marvel comic fanfic:

Open the comics: Ma Dongmei

Close the comics: Ma Mei Dong

Open the comics: Ma Dongmei

Close the comics: Ma Dongmei

Open the comics: I completely understand Marvel now!

Close the comics: Was this person from DC or Marvel again…?