From Thor's mighty hammer, Mjolnir, torrents of lightning surged forth with a sharp, crackling roar. Thick, blazing bolts of electricity coiled like serpentine dragons, striking head-on against Scarlet Witch's crimson barrier. The collision between thunder and chaos magic created a brilliant explosion of light — for a brief moment, the two forces seemed evenly matched.
But balance never lasts long in battle. Thor was not fighting alone.
A barrage of rockets and a hail of bullets followed immediately after the lightning strike, hammering against the glowing scarlet dome. Under the combined assault, the shimmering barrier began to fracture — and finally, a circular breach nearly five meters wide burst open in the magical wall.
It wasn't a large opening, but it was enough for a squad to slip through.
"Alright, everyone, with me— Wait! Hold your fire!" Captain America's voice rang out sharply as he raised a fist to halt his men.
The soldiers froze mid-charge. Before their eyes, the hole they had worked so hard to open began to seal itself. The crimson energy surged inward, tendrils of light weaving together as if the barrier were alive. Within seconds, half the gap had already vanished. By the time they could reach it, the breach would be too small to pass through — or closed entirely.
"She can repair it that fast?" Steve muttered through clenched teeth, slamming his fist into a nearby tree in frustration. He knew Thor's lightning strikes required a brief charge between attacks; their one perfect opportunity had just been wasted.
But Thor, as always, had no patience for waiting.
While the others held back, the thunder god surged forward, Mjolnir spinning in his hand. In a streak of lightning, he hurled himself through the shrinking opening — slipping past just as the last traces of crimson light sealed shut behind him.
"Thor!" Steve shouted, but it was too late.
Inside the barrier, Hydra's soldiers instantly turned their weapons on the intruder. Dozens of heavy laser cannons and energy rifles opened fire at once. The air was filled with blinding beams of destruction.
Thor swung his hammer in furious arcs, deflecting several shots, but even he couldn't block them all. The sheer volume of Hydra's alien technology forced him to dive off the edge of a cliff, seeking cover among the shattered rocks below.
He was lucky. If Scarlet Witch had possessed full control of her power, that impulsive charge would have been a suicide mission.
Still, the god of thunder was not one to retreat quietly. From his hiding place, he called up to the captain through the barrier, his voice steady and proud.
"I'll handle the witch! Wait for my signal to break through!"
"You don't look fine from here," Captain America replied, pointing to the jagged gaps in Thor's armor.
"Oh, that? It was itching, so I scratched it off myself."
Thor's grin had barely formed when a blur of blue light streaked past him like a lightning bolt — but faster. He barely saw the movement before he was spun in the air like a rag doll and slammed hard into the ground, armor fragments scattering in every direction.
"Still itching? I can help you with that," a voice mocked.
Standing a few meters away was a lean young man in a silver-and-blue combat suit, his stance relaxed and smug. The air shimmered around him with residual kinetic energy.
Pietro Maximoff — Quicksilver.
Thor gritted his teeth, clutching Mjolnir. "Not bad."
He raised the hammer and hurled it with all his strength. The enchanted weapon cut through the air faster than any bullet, but to Quicksilver, it was crawling.
With a casual smirk, the speedster sidestepped, vanishing in a streak of azure light before the hammer even passed by.
By the time Mjolnir circled back, Quicksilver was already behind Thor. He struck — a blur of motion and a flash of pain — sending the god of thunder crashing to the ground again before he could even react.
Thor's world spun. The hit had come and gone faster than thought. He hadn't even seen the attack — only felt the impact afterward.
Quicksilver slowed his pace, walking casually past the fallen Asgardian. He looked down, smirking. "Didn't see that one coming, huh?"
"I saw it."
Lightning roared.
Mjolnir shot back into Thor's hand, crackling with power as he slammed it into the ground. The impact unleashed a violent ring of electricity — a storm of white-blue lightning expanding in a twenty-meter radius.
Everything within range — rock, metal, and air — was scorched and split apart by the storm's fury.
Everything except Quicksilver.
The speedster was nowhere to be seen.
Thor looked up just in time to see him standing safely at the top of the cliff, smirking down at him from above.
"Nice trick," Quicksilver taunted, crossing his arms. "But how long can you keep it up?"
He wasn't wrong to be cautious — even he knew better than to test his luck against divine lightning. But as long as he stayed outside the strike zone, Thor couldn't touch him.
Realizing this stalemate couldn't continue, Thor reluctantly withdrew the lightning field. It wasn't that Quicksilver was faster than light — it was that Thor's every movement, every wind-up, looked agonizingly slow to someone who lived in a world of microseconds.
To Thor, Quicksilver was a blur.
To Quicksilver, Thor was moving in slow motion.
Hydra's data logs had thoroughly documented Thor's combat style — every strike, every swing, every reaction time, all analyzed and cataloged by alien technology. Quicksilver had studied it. He knew Thor's every habit and opening.
Thor, on the other hand, knew nothing about his opponent's abilities.
It was a completely one-sided fight.
No matter how many lightning bolts he hurled, no matter how furiously he swung Mjolnir, Quicksilver was always gone before the blow landed — a phantom dancing between flashes of thunder.
The god of thunder's raw might was terrifying, but against an enemy too fast to see, it meant nothing. His attacks scorched only air and stone.
Each miss, each futile strike, only made Thor's frustration grow. His power was vast — but what use was it when he couldn't even touch his enemy?
Fighting Quicksilver was like trying to swat a mosquito with a hammer — and missing every single time.
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Author's Note:
In this story, Quicksilver's characterization and ability set primarily follow The Avengers film version, though certain aspects and abilities from the X-Men movies have been incorporated to expand his combat versatility. After all, the MCU's version of Quicksilver met his end far too soon.
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