157 The Impending Crisis

After receiving the call from Nick Fury, Joss immediately contacted Steve to confirm the current status of their group.

The specific situation was much as Nick Fury had described. They had simply set out to deal with a group of armed mercenaries today, only to find themselves sucked into an inexplicable wormhole.

The good news was that they were still gathered together, allowing them to look out for one another no matter what they encountered.

The bad news, however, was significant. According to Tony's scans, they were no longer on Earth—and definitely not anywhere close to it. Physical travel back was completely out of the question, meaning the only way home would be through the exact same anomalous method.

In other words, regardless of the approach, there was no way they could return anytime soon.

Joss felt a surge of exasperation. Hadn't he just jinxed it by establishing a flag? What kind of ridiculous twist was this? Weren't the Avengers supposed to roll over the enemy? What happened to an easy, effortless victory? How was he supposed to process the sudden loss of eighty percent of their personnel just like that?

Although it was unclear whether this abrupt and unexpected accident was related to Loki, there was no doubt that, whatever the answer, the trickster would never let such a golden opportunity slip away.

The only small comfort was that the fellow remained under constant surveillance.

Yet, considering the worst-case scenario—that Loki had long since detected the Avengers' surveillance and cleverly turned it against them, ultimately managing to neutralize the vast majority of their combat strength in one fell swoop—things still had not reached the most desperate stage. After all, Loki had not yet obtained the Tesseract, and even if the Chitauri intended to launch an invasion, they still needed time to prepare.

Combined, these factors provided Joss and the remaining Avengers with a brief window of vacuum time. Though this period would not be enough to wait for Steve and the others to return, it was nonetheless a precious and invaluable buffer.

Having confirmed this, Joss let out a long sigh. No matter what, it seemed this crisis would have to be resolved by the few of them left behind.

In this race against time, Joss made up his mind. He glanced back briefly in the direction of Stark Tower, gave a slight nod, and muttered to himself:

"Well, as long as there's still time, things will be manageable. Anyway, let's call it a day for now; going home for dinner is much more important."

……

Early the next morning, when Joss arrived at the Avengers Hall, the only sight that greeted him was Nick Fury—burdened with massive, dark circles under his eyes... oh wait, those weren't dark circles—desperately calling various factions one after another.

Beside him, Thor held a bucket of fried chicken in his left hand and a cola in his right, staring heavily at Loki on the surveillance screen, his eating pace noticeably slowed.

Unlike the unhurried Joss, Nick Fury had been so stressed out over the past night that his hair was practically growing back in white, while Thor, weighed down by heavy thoughts, had managed to consume a couple of extra buckets of fried chicken.

After all, unlike Joss who possessed a carefree heart, both of them were deeply tied to this incident. The former was determined to safeguard world peace, while the latter... well, the latter was the troublemaker's brother.

As for Bruce Banner, he was nowhere to be seen. After making some inquiries, Joss learned that Bruce had been dispatched to enlist certain individuals, including Gambit.

Nick Fury was quite open-minded about it. He didn't expect these people to blindly take orders from him or the Avengers; instead, he simply intended to inform them of the situation, hoping they would help defend their own respective turfs when the Chitauri attacked.

The previous war had taught these independent actors that stubborn individualism was a luxury they could no longer afford, so when taking action now, they all knew to weigh various factors.

Still, there was no counting on anyone stepping up to resolve the main trouble for them.

After all, the truly powerful heavyweights either cared only about their own backyards or couldn't be bothered to care at all, whereas those willing to help generally lacked sufficient ability.

Moreover, without target-type figures like HYDRA or Apocalypse this time around, there was naturally no hope of relying on those ceiling-tier powerhouses to take action.

"As for our currently predictable combat strength... we have Thor and Bruce, and on my side, there's a total of four... doesn't seem that bad, right?"

Joss looked around the Avengers Hall, pondered for a moment, and realized that they still held the upper hand in terms of sheer combat power.

After all, during the timeline of the first Avengers movie, the only ones truly capable of fighting were Tony, Thor, Hulk, and a guy who fought to a stalemate, while the roles of the others in combat were essentially equivalent to coasting.

In contrast, the current situation featured the two strongest members still present—even if slightly on the chubby side—and Joss himself along with Lilith, any of whom were far stronger than Hawkeye or Natasha. Looked at this way, things seemed pretty secure...

"Bah, bah, bah! I didn't say it out loud! I didn't even think it! This is a major crisis! An absolute, major crisis!"

Joss hurriedly pinched his own thigh to snap himself out of his stray thoughts, cutting off any possibility of a jinxing curse.

After sharing his thoughts briefly with Nick and the others, everyone's expressions relaxed visibly, and Thor was so cheered up that he immediately ordered another box of fried chicken on the spot.

……

Several weeks had flown by since Steve and the others were cast adrift into outer space.

A few days ago, Loki had successfully and imperceptibly "stolen" the Tesseract. At that moment, he was hiding out in a luxurious hotel, disguised as a wealthy businessman as he prepared to open the portal.

Although Joss and his team appeared as usual on the surface, their battle preparations had long since been completed, awaiting only the moment Loki opened the portal to unleash a thunderous strike upon him.

The reason they played along with this charade was ultimately to fool Thanos, who stood behind the Chitauri. In the best-case scenario, they might even leverage Loki to get their hands on the Infinity Stones currently held by Thanos.

However, that did not mean Joss and the others would sit idly by and watch Loki devastate New York City. Now that they were aware of the enemy's plan, their goal was naturally to minimize casualties to the greatest extent possible.

During this period, Nick Fury had contacted numerous superhuman entities while quietly installing a series of defensive measures throughout the city under the guise of avoiding suspicion.

Bruce Banner, even without transforming into the Hulk, was a man of extraordinary intellect. Over this timeframe, he had drafted multiple contingency plans to counter Loki's invasion.

Meanwhile, as Loki's non-biological brother, Thor had worked exceptionally hard during this period, consuming a minimum of thirty boxes of fried chicken and twenty two-liter bottles of cola every day. Aided by the formidable digestive and absorptive capacities of the Asgardian race, he had successfully more than doubled his body weight!

"So seriously, what on earth is this guy here for?" Joss shook his head in disappointment, then turned back to continue grinding away at the freshly made game demo on his phone.