Chapter 192: The Adventures of Thor (2)
Chapter 192: The Adventures of Thor (2)
"I think... we might be in trouble," Peter turned to Thor, who was standing next to him.
They were facing a group of vicious thugs, the kind of street gang that often extorted younger students in the arcade.
There were six or seven of them, all clearly hardened criminals who had taken advantage of the owner's absence to target Peter, who was closest to the door.
"Look at this poor boy, bringing his dad to a place like this. Did you lose at the fighting game and cry to your parents?" the leader of the gang taunted.
The others laughed mockingly, but Peter was unfazed. He may have been younger than them, but as Spider-Man, he had seen more than his fair share of trouble. "Whether I win or lose at the game, at least I'm not here trying to extort people," he replied calmly.
The leader was about to retaliate, but his lackey next to him noticed Peter's Captain America T-shirt. "Look at him, wearing that bootleg T-shirt. He probably crawled out of a mud pit, all dirty and poor. Let's find someone else."
Peter found the gang's behavior childish, but Thor couldn't stand their arrogance. He raised his fist and said, "Were you not taught manners by your parents?!"
To Thor, Peter was just a child, and he couldn't stand seeing them bullying him. The leader replied with a string of insults, but Thor didn't understand what he was saying. He knew it was not good, though, and as an Asgardian prince, he wasn't one to be trifled with. He threw a punch, and the gang prepared to fight back.
Thor was tall and strong, but the gang members were no pushovers. Two of them were even as tall as him, so they weren't afraid. Just as the fight was about to break out, Peter warned them to stop, but it was too late.
Thor was experienced in battle, and he quickly took down one of the shorter thugs with a punch. He dodged the hook from the bigger one and kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying.The gang leader picked up a chair and was about to hit Thor with it when Peter grabbed his wrist and threw the chair away. "Stop it!" he shouted.
Thor picked up another chair and swung it at the leader, who retaliated by pushing a game machine over. Thor dodged it, stumbled back, and threw the chair at the gang member, hitting him square in the chest. He fell back onto another game machine, causing it and a few others to collapse.
One of the machines fell on a younger student who had been playing, and he screamed in pain. Peter rushed over and lifted the machine, freeing the boy. He saw that the boy's arm was broken and took him to a clinic in Manhattan, paying for his medical bills.
When the boy's parents arrived, Peter apologized and tried to make amends, but they were unhappy with him. They saw him as a troublemaker, not a hero.
Thor was angry. "Your Earth has no rules! Those thugs should have been punished, but instead, you had to pay for them. In Asgard..."
"In Asgard, what?" Peter asked.
"I'm sure they would have apologized to you, whether they were the ones who attacked or just caught in the crossfire. Even their parents would have come to apologize, because you are a prince..."
Peter understood Thor's point, but he also knew that the Earth had its own rules. Sometimes, those rules didn't make sense, but it was up to them to make the best of it. They walked away from the arcade, hoping to find a better way to spend their day.
Thor listened half-understandingly. He said to Peter, "That's because I'm right. I stopped those people from bullying others!"
"But you also affected the innocent. I reminded you before you acted that you couldn't fight there. There were many young students in the arcade. Once a fight broke out, children would definitely get hurt..."
"I was standing up for justice!"
Peter sighed and said with a complicated tone, "I never thought that one day I would be advising others like this. I used to think the same way as you."
"But then I realized that doing good also requires methods. Blindly standing up for justice and causing destruction is no different. It is difficult to get good results and may even cause a lot of trouble. In the end, others have to clean up my mess."
Peter looked at Thor and said, "I know you are the prince of Asgard. Your parents can definitely handle the trouble you caused. My friends are the same. There is nothing they can't handle."
"But I found out that I can't always rush to stand up for justice, hurt the innocent, cause a lot of chaos, and then let others clean up my mess. This will make me a burden to others."
"Standing up for justice?" Thor looked at Peter and seemed very skeptical that this small body could stand up for justice.
Peter also understood Thor's gaze. He sighed, stopped walking, and Thor stopped with him. Peter glanced at the intersection where a big truck was parked.
The tires of this heavy truck were almost higher than Peter's height, but Peter reached out and grabbed the groove of the truck tire, lightly lifted it up, and the side tire of the truck directly left the ground for dozens of centimeters.
Thor widened his eyes. When Peter let go, the truck landed, and the ground vibrated. Thor walked up and tried to lift it up in the same way, but the truck did not move at all, indicating that it was really heavy for ordinary people.
Scratching his head with confusion, Thor said, "How long has it been since I came, and human infants have evolved to this level?"
"Infants? I am not an infant! I have a driver's license, and I have a girlfriend!"
Thor sneered and said, "In Asgard, your size is still an infant, and a child under 300 years old."
"3...300 years old??" Peter opened his mouth in surprise and asked Thor, "How old are you?"
"Me? Well, I'm not very old, less than 1,600 years old."
Peter swallowed and said, "Okay, you win in terms of lifespan. But if you convert it proportionally, you are still a child."
"But compared to me, you are more childish." Peter explained to Thor, "I know those little gangsters are annoying and deserve to be beaten up. If it was before, I would definitely beat them up without distinction."
"But during this time, I've thought a lot. This idea is actually a bit irresponsible. Although I am happy to beat them up, the arcade owner is innocent. He was damaged, and several machines were damaged. Even if I paid for it, he still has to spend time and energy to replace and rearrange them. He may even have to close for a day to clean up my mess."
"Not to mention the child who was affected. His right hand was broken, and his parents had to stay at home to take care of him, unable to work. They may even be scolded by their boss because of this."
"If I put myself in that child's shoes, my uncle would definitely be very angry, and my aunt would shed tears with pity."
"And a fracture really hurts. If I were affected for no reason, I would definitely feel wronged and angry..."
"You think a lot," Thor still said straightforwardly, "As long as what I do is right, the father of the gods will support me. I am..."
At this point, Thor stopped himself. He sighed and said angrily, "I'm obviously doing the right thing, why doesn't my father understand me? And he even..."
"I can see that you are actually a very just person. I feel that we are very similar. We both have hot-blooded aspirations to do good things, so I can understand your current thoughts because I used to think the same way."
"Then how do you think now?" Thor looked at Peter.
Talking to Peter, who was younger and looked very weak, let Thor have less pressure, and he could temporarily break free from his rebellious mentality towards his father for kicking him out of the house.
The main reason why he couldn't communicate normally with Earth people was that, on the one hand, the language was somewhat different, and on the other hand, he was very dissatisfied and aggrieved with his father's behavior of kicking him out of the house. Even if he was an Asgardian, once he fell into extreme emotions, he could not listen to others' words.
However, Peter always carried a positive and highly infectious sunshine temperament, which made people feel like there were no difficulties in the world that couldn't be overcome, and made it easier for people to get rid of negative emotions.
"I feel like it's a bit of a hassle to talk to you, oh, of course, I'm not mocking your accent, just stating a fact."
"And I don't think my past self could have listened to long-winded morality lectures, so how about this, I'll take you to one of my friends, his name is Matt, it was his actions that inspired me, and I'm sure it will help you too."
Speaking, Peter was about to pull Thor forward, while Thor walked and shouted loudly: "But I am the prince of Asgard, there is nothing that can't be solved without relying on humans, I can do it myself..."
"Okay, okay, but we just solved a trouble together, we should be friends, are you going to refuse a friend's invitation?"
As Peter spoke, he released Pikachu from his backpack. Pikachu also watched the whole process. He said to Thor, "Big guy, I have to say, you did pretty well when you beat those rotten people just now, especially when you hit the one with brown hair..."
Pikachu waved his short hand, imitating the way humans box, and said, "I can tell you've practiced, that thug flew out directly, he definitely won't dare to come to this arcade again!"
This happened to scratch Thor's itch, and he said, "People always think that I'm best at using war hammers and spears, but actually my boxing is very strong, I just haven't had the opportunity to show it off."
"If you ask me, in all of Asgard, except for my father, my boxing is the best!"
Peter also became interested, and he said to Thor, "Your moves are really cool, different from human boxing, more like the kind of moves I see in movies, can you teach me? I also want to look cool when I fight!"
"That's easy, I'll teach you two moves later, I guarantee you can beat those wimps left and right when you face them!"