#aprimewriting

[0utlaww-blog1]

@whosgamora

Peter was thankful beyond words when he saw Gamora okay, and frustrated beyond imagination when S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to meddle in the business of the Guardians- and the two came back to back so quickly that he couldn’t decide on a singular emotion to feel. His time on Earth was less a grand return and more an endless series of meetings and debriefings. After a while, Peter finally settled down in his temporary quarters- a large apartment generously financed by S.H.I.E.L.D. 

Peter fiddled with the new cell phone he was given, eventually managing to work it fine enough. He didn’t really care for it, and quickly abandoned it for his communicator and Zune combo. After awhile, he worried he’d never see Gamora again- that she was really gone. Eventually, she returned and was on Earth alongside him- but Peter had grown distant. During the Infinity War he had done everything right and still had managed to lose her, and he almost lost his entire family in the process. 

S.H.I.E.L.D. informed Peter of her location, and once she was recovered Peter immediately went to visit her New York apartment, a few blocks down from his. In heavy rain, Peter knocked on her door.

“Hey Gamora? It’s Peter.”

[dontbeathorloser-blog]

Three Blondes Walk Into A Bar || Hulkling, Thor and Quasar

Teddy, Thor and Wendell are dispatched on a mission to investigate a dangerously drifting oil tanker. However not all is as it appears.

Teddy landed with a thud on the ship’s control centre, wings morphing away into his back. He wasn’t trying to be quiet, they were to be expected. He jumped down onto the ships deck and entered the room. He had planned to speak to the captain of the ship, but the room was empty which wasn’t normal. “Hulkling to team, the captain isn’t here, maybe they abandoned ship to let us do our thing or he’s in the engineering room or whatever.” Teddy wasn’t sure how ships worked, but he was sure the captain was supposed to be steering, but if the ship couldn’t change course, he supposed that you didn’t really need to steer. He was nervous, it was the first time working with Thor and Quasar, he was used to his team, but when S.H.I.E.L.D asks, you don’t exactly say no. “I can see the Island so I think we might have to move fast.”

While Wendell was still not an official hero, his probation offered him a bit of leeway when it came to getting a spot on certain missions that would not prove too much to handle. The upward limits of his absorption still couldn’t be determined so he was prohibited from being assigned anywhere with high voltage or energy reserves, though that didn’t seem to stop S.H.I.E.L.D. from pairing him up with Thor. He was instructed to stay closer to Hulkling just for good measure. This was why he hovered close to where Teddy had dipped into the ship’s upper deck. He landed soon after the younger male and began moving into the ship’s inner workings. “Quasar here,” he said into the intercommunication device lodged behind his ear. “I’ll head toward the engine room. These things aren’t electrical, so I can’t syphon any energy off of it, but I can try to shut off the main gas supply from in there.”

Though he had been on missions with the other Avengers before, Thor had never had the pleasure of operating with a S.H.I.E.L.D. ‘team’ before. They’d given him a comm channel, a small ear piece that they slotted into his left ear, before strapping a microphone to his helmet and even giving him a brief on what he should expect. “This is Thunderbird.” He had decided that he needed a new codename other than y’know, his actual name. “Wait no this is Lightningbird,” he smirked before shaking his head as he continued to hover above the ship, “I need more time for my new name.” He decided as he watched the ship drift closer and closer to the island at an alarming rate. “As soon as we cut the power I can prevent the ship from continuing in it’s trajectory, but at it’s current rate I won’t be able to halt it’s progress.” Even the God of Thunder had limits.

Teddy couldn’t help but laugh as Thor rattled off codenames. “I think you should stick to Thor.” He chuckled before leaving the room and making his way to the front deck of the ship. The ship gave him the shivers, like a ghost town would. “I don’t get it, where is everyone? There weren’t any evac vehicles we passed on the way here.” He realized that he wasn’t exactly being useful and leaped off the deck and flew towards the front of the tanker. He wasn’t used to not having America lead the team and nobody giving him orders. “Thor, or uh, Thunderbird 1, perhaps if we push the front of the ship on one side, we could change its direction?” He wasn’t sure if he’d have enough strength to work against the ships steering mechanisms, especially at this speed, but they had to try something in case Quasar couldn’t shut the engines off.

“Yeah, it’s almost a little too Twilight Zone for me. That show always gave me the creeps,” Wendell mentioned as he wandered about looking for the engine room. He found it rather swiftly. After inspecting the door and listening for any odd sounds, he pushed in and was met with a set of pipes and gears he had no clue how to work. If only he’d gone into the Navy reserves instead of infantry. “Yeah, okay...eenie...meenie...minie...you.” He grabbed onto a valve and spun it. Fire reared from the oil burner and he jumped back as it hissed, blue eyes blinking rapidly through his possible blunder. He pressed the intercom with the pad of his index finger. “Not sure which valve is the one with the fuel in it, so I’ll just turn them all.” And that’s what he did, going about spinning cogs indiscriminately until the whirring noises tapered out. “How’s it looking out there, Hulkling and Lightningbird? Are we losing any speed?”

“I’ve re-thought the bird options and decided that I am not only to majestic to be known as a bird, but also far too deadly, but Thunderrattleshark doesn’t have the same ambiance, bards wouldn’t sing great tales of Thunderrattleshark the Lord of Lightning,” Thor,  ordered as he hung in the air momentarily before dropping down and placing Stormbreaker on his back. With it securely in place, he moved to the front of the ship and then to the right. Pushing with all his might, he could feel the ship begin to turn and begin to slow down. Of course it would be far more difficult than he had anticipated. That was just the way of the world. Sighing dejectedly, he moved back up to the deck of the ship and spotted the ships anchor. “Hulkling, try and find a way to drop the anchors, that will slow the ship down enough to stop it I believe.” With his new plan in mind, he wiped sweat from his brow and kept pushing, doing everything in his might to stop the ship.

Hulking thought Thor’s codename was ridiculous. “I honestly think Thor works just fine.” He flew over to the back of the ship and landed on the anchor. He jumped a few times before changing his plan. He was now tugging at the metal chains that held the anchor in place. “It’s not working, where would the mechanisms be?” With a flag of the wings, he leaped to the control room again, pushing and pulling every button and lever he could, even scaring himself by pulling the ships horn by accident. Eventually his hand made his way to a lever that had its end broken off. “I found the anchor lever, but it’s broken off.” He couldn’t understand why. “Guys, I have a bad feeling about this…”

A lot of things happened all at once. The whirring of the oil had stopped, but in its place came a sudden grinding and a force against the side of the ship Wendell could only assume was from his allies attempting to stop the ship. His communication device buzzed with their conversation and he headed his way out of the engine room to the front deck. “We missed ‘a bad feeling’ two lefts ago. This took a sharp right into—Oh fuck!” Suddenly, the ship’s grinding had increased exponentially, becoming terribly jarring to the ear. Wendell had to cup his head to try and keep out the sound. One of his eyes was forced shut in a flinch. “Guys, it’s…” he tried to get out, but ended up wincing as his ears popped. It carried on for about a minute or so, with each second droning on for individual eternities. Once it passed, Wendell’s ears held a constant ring to them that made his teeth feel the need to chatter. He almost missed the sound of the lower deck opening up. Heavy footfall indicated that people were approaching the upper deck. “We, uh, have company.”

Thor had been forcing his body against the ship as its engines had cut out. Driving his shoulder into a boat that dwarfed any Viking longboat that he had ridden on was something he hadn’t exactly planned. He couldn’t help groaning from the strain of it, he heard the ship protest and creak in response as he pushed it away from the island or at least attempted to. As he finally managed to stall the ship, he hovered for a moment. Seconds later he began moving to the deck of the ship, he forcefully grasped the anchor and tugged it into the ocean without too much strain. “Thor here; I have solved our little anchor problem,” he said into his comm link, “Quasar, can you tell who the company is, something about the entire scenario is peculiar. The oddness of this situation would startle even the good Doctor Stephen Strange.” He laughed, loudly at his own joke. “Hulkling, you’re closer to Quasar’s position and it will take me a few moments to reach either of you. Link up and head for the deck, I want to be able to execute a swift exit if necessary.” He took one final look at the ship, as it slowly ground to a halt a  ew kilometres off the island coast,

Teddy’s jaw had somewhat dropped open at the might of Thor as he yanked the anchor chain loose. Thor’s order had awaken him and he realized he was staring at the muscular god through the ships front windows that peered out onto the decks out front. “Yeah, Right, On it.” He said as he turned on his heels and ran straight into another muscular man, not quite impressive as Thor, but still intimidating, that was blocking the cabin’s exit. Teddy stumbled backwards before speaking, “Excuse me, I believe you’re in the way.” The changeling quickly let his human form morph into his natural alien state, growing taller in seconds. “I’d say pick on someone your own size, but oh wait, that’s me now too.” He threw a punch at the man, he blocked it and delivered one of his own. The two sparred for a few seconds before Teddy finally threw a winning punch and knocked the other man out. “The company isn’t exactly friendly.” He stated over the comms, something he was sure Wendel already knew. “Where are you Quasar?”

After blinking through the pain that rang in his ears, Wendell touched the device near his ear to hear what the others were saying. Handle the company. Got it. “I’m coming,” he said as he quickly rushed down to where he could hear the footfall. As he moved, he flexed both of his hands and channeled as much sunlight as he could with the cover of the ship overhead. It wasn’t a lot, but it might be just enough to knock a few people down. He rounded a corner, got a good look at ten men rushing in the opposite direction, and the speed he used to spin back around that same corner before he was shot could only be described as inhuman. “I’m here.” He needed to quickly form a plan to dispatch all of the enemies in front of him. He didn’t think he had enough energy to create a cage just yet. How about a ball? One formed in his hands about the size of a baseball and the footsteps were only getting closer. He allowed it to bounce between his hands for only a moment, then sent it flying on the other side of the corner. It connected with the first man’s chest, bursted, and took out all but one of his allies with a strong pulse. The last man stood on shaky legs, having been knocked backward. Wendell was fast. He crowded the stranger’s space and delivered a punch to the man’s face with enough force to flip him. He took a second to survey them. “I think...they don’t look like crewmen.” Wendell had no time to check them out any further, however, as he was now face-to-face with another group. There was a man with a safari hat and an admission, one that the blond superhero was sure to record through his communication device for his teammates to hear. They were a distraction. The real poaching was commencing as they spoke. “Uh oh.”

The unfamiliar accent that rang through their comms as the man in the safari hat addressed Wendell, made it clear to Thor that they weren’t here for a meet and greet. Quite the opposite infact. Apparently they were attempting to empty animals off of the island, something that Thor could not abide by. He was a protector of the weak, a defender of the innocent and he would not allow these men to continue to take advantage of those who were unable to defend and protect themselves. “I shall way lay them before they can move the animals,” he announced, leaping into the air and using his abilities to take flight. “But I’ve got company.” Already he could spot aircraft moving towards him as he streaked through the sky heading towards the island. Twin propellers sending the aircraft hurtling towards him were the least of his worries however. The most pressing matter was the arsenal of high tech weapons hanging from the bottom of the black ship. A peppering of energy blasts rattled past him, scorching his armour and knocking him lower in altitude. “I’ve got company, make sure that the targets on the ship are detained, I’ll handle this.”

Teddy instantly felt torn. He wanted to help Thor save the animals, but at the same time, they still had to take down the men on the ship and essentially stop it. He raced down stairs to below deck, summoning Excelsior and taking out anyone who stood in his way. Teddy knew he was getting close when a flash of light appeared down the hall. Quickly he turned the corner, prepared for anything. He turned the corner so fast that he almost tripped over the men that had been knocked out by Wendell. “Woah. Nice job dude.” He said with a smile before wiping his head around in the direction which more footsteps were coming from. “Do you think you can do that again?” He asked with a smirk. He more than okay to stay behind and fight At Wendell’s side, but they were running out of time. “I mean, do you think you can do that again but at the engine? If you can shut it down, I’ll handle these guys?”

Relief was only temporary when Teddy appeared, mostly because he was being shot at only seconds later. Wendell rushed forward. He kept his body low to the floorboards beneath him to make his target smaller and harder to hit, allowing him to close the distance between himself and the first man. With aggressive force, he lifted the man up and slammed him down onto the ship. Thankfully, he didn’t have enough energy stored for extra augmented strength or he could’ve knocked him through the material of the vessel. “I think I’ve already fried the engine. We should be coming to a full stop soon,” he replied as he worked around the first guy’s body and knocked his fist into the face of a second. Then a third. Another man shot him in the back and the blue pulse of his weapon wrapped around the impact zone, drawing itself into Wendell’s bands as he toppled forward. His eyes flashed yellow and he had to quickly roll away to recover. “...but I can expedite that process if i can just get my hands on one of their weapons.” He slid toward the first guy, snatched his gun, rolled away and landed near the second, stole a second weapon, and took off for the bow of the ship. “I’m leaving them to you. I’m gonna go stop the ship.” As he moved, Wendell gripped the high powered firearms between both hands and concentrated on pulling the energy from them. The power coursed through him like blood through veins, only it was far warmer than he cared for it to be. He wouldn’t keep it for long, however. “Alright. All passengers please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at this time and brace yourselves for impact.” His body was obviously rejecting it and he released it as he held his hands out in front of him. A large wall of yellow light sketched itself out in front of the ship and when the mass made contact, the entire ship jolted, but it broke through the wall. Slowly. Very slowly. The grinding noise began again, but this time it felt like it was coming to a close any time now.

Ducking beneath a third volley of energy blasts that hurtled his way, Thor dipped towards the water before soaring upwards. Energy coarsed through Stormbreaker, and a lance of lightning hurtled towards the aircraft, clipping its undercarriage and sending it spiralling through the air. But it didn’t take long for the pilot to regain control, and within moments he had retaliated, hitting Thor with not a single missile, but three. Two seemed excessive, but as the third explosion caught his side he went head over heels and crashed into the cold ocean water. Gasping for breath, he pushed his wet cape out of his face and took flight once more. Charging his hammer as he went, he slammed the electrically charged weapon through the windshield and jerked it free, punching the lights out of the pilot and taking a step backwards before allowing the aircraft to spiral towards the water, a plume of black smoke pouring off of the aircraft as it collapsed into the waves that crashed below. “I’ve dealt with our air company, if you two can cope with the villains who’ve taken possession of this ship then I shall do my utmost to prevent the poaching of anymore elephants and rhinos, but I must go now.”

Everything happened so fast that Teddy could barely grasped what had actually happened. Before he knew it, Wendell has disarmed two men and left Teddy alone with a mixture of conscious and unconscious men. His mind quickly caught up with the situation and he finished off the rest of the men before he began to drag the bodies into an open room nearby. The room seemed to be sleeping quarters with no way out except the front door. Teddy grunted as the ship jerked and sent him stumbling to the floor. He was about to complain but he assumed it was Wendell working his magic and stopping the ship. Teddy shifted the heavy men into the room and closed the door behind him, punching the door handle and breaking it so that the men couldn’t escape. “Cleanup in aisle 9 completed.” He said over the coms before making his way to Wendell’s side and patting him on the back. “Good job dude.” Teddy couldn’t help feeling that he wasn’t really needed on this mission, not with heroes like Thor and Quasar around. “Thor, do you need backup or are you good?”

Seeing heroes in action was something Wendell could admit he could watch for hours. He was a trained fighter, capable of holding his own against the enemy by very human standards, but the famous Avengers and those with similar clout were just more awesome than simple military training. He couldn’t help but think that when he watched Thor face off against the helicopter. It had more than just distracted him too. He’d stopped moving, feet planted firmly beneath him as he stared up with wide blue eyes and a mouth that was slightly agape. The god of thunder was a marvel of muscle and strength, capable of rather easily dispatching an entire aircraft. It was truly impressive. “What a man.” The words came out of him without a second thought. He didn’t even think to register that they’d actually been from his voice until he was being clapped on the back by his other teammate. Wendell looked over to him, checking the younger male for any signs of physical injury, and then smiled at him. The tips of his ears were pink, but not from any chill. “Thanks. You too. Sorry I left you with so many of them,” he said softly. He then looked back up to the skies. His finger tapped at his communication device. “I should go call the proper authorities, huh? Wait with the boat while you two handle the rest of the poachers.”

Hurtling through the air, Thor spotted a small camp full of cages and poachers with guns. There were some very depressed looking elephants and rhinos, he at least recognised those. Not all of Earth’s fauna and wildlife was as familiar to him as he would’ve liked, however there was only so much that he could learn in a limited time. But he recognised these two rather famous animals at least. They were something that he had seen on the discovery channel with his roommate Darryl. Pausing for a moment, he hung in the air before summoning a tempest. Dark clouds rumbled in the sky above him, thunder boomed and lightning crackled before it began to fork down towards the ground. Striking the sand and turning it into glass with the pure force behind it. “My name is Thor, God of Thunder, rightful heir to the throne of Asgard and you all have a few moments to vacate this island and never come back before I turn you into rugs for my castle.” He allowed the lightning within him to leak from his eyes, energy pouring out of him. The poachers seemed too terrified to move, until one of them picked up what looked like a rocket launcher and opened fire at Thor. “I think we might need all of us for this one.”

Teddy wasn’t too excited to leave Wendell alone to wait for the authorities, not because he didn’t think that Wendell could handle it, he was just used to the mindset of leaving no one alone during a team mission. A small sigh of relief left his mouth when Thor called for both their help, now he didn’t have to stress about it. With a grunt, reptilian wings sprouted from his shoulder blades and stretched up. “Basically a dinosaur here.” He joked and with a flap, his body began to defy gravity. “Keep up Quasar.” And with that he was off, soaring through the air. Thanks to Thor, they didn’t have to worry about any aircraft, but Teddy realized why Thor had called them when he approached the camp. A rocket launcher had been brought out and had Thor occupied. Teddy flew up before hurtling towards the ground, and just before impact, used his wings as a parachute, breaking his fall but still allowing him to land with enough force to crush the bonnet of one of their vehicles. Then, with a hulk-like leap, he flew over the heads and landed close to the rocket launcher. Teddy summoned Excelsior again, but before he even had times to use it, bullets from automatic weapons rained down on him, causing him to tuck and roll behind a nearby vehicle. “I — should have thought this through.”

Wendell wasn’t sure what to make of Thor needed assistance, considering something that would trump him would surely be too much for the new hero. However, he put the thought of his own inadequacies aside when Teddy began to fly up. Right. They were supposed to be...doing that. His bands gave the faintest of glows and his body began to rise as well, albeit a little shakily at first. “O-on it!” he called after the other blond and rushed behind him. Without any energy reserves, he wasn’t moving nearly as fast as he could have been, so it appeared more like a lazy flying stroll than a real flight. The upside to this was getting to take that extra time to assess the camp. There were plenty of people, including a few with war-grade weapons, but this brought more comfort than worry in Wendell’s mind. He may have still been rather green in the gills when it came to plasma cannons and the like, but bullets he understood. Men armed with bullets were exactly the sort of people he was trained to take down. He rushed toward a man with one of the launchers while he was distracted with Thor and collided with him, wrapping his thighs around the man’s head and flipping himself to bring the man to the ground. Once they landed, he rolled and kicked the man on the side of the neck, then turned his attentions to the others harrying Teddy. He was able to draw half of their gaze when he began disarming the men with standard CQC. That soon turned into most of their attention in seconds. His knuckles were going to be bruised after this mission.

Thor could’ve dealt with the men on the beach on his own. It would’ve been painful and it would’ve taken him a lot longer than he had time for. But he could’ve done it. He was sure that it would include many injuries and wounds that he could do without. But friendship was forged in battle, he could read. He could see that the times were changing and bringing about a change that would require them to stand strong together. If they were ever going to build a team together then it would be on moments such as these. “Quasar, keep dealing with the launchers, I shall draw most of their hellfire if I can help it.” Pausing once more, he raised Stormbreaker and leaped through the air, bringing the hammer down on an enemy with a savage strike. Thunder crackled through the sky, lightning lancing through him and blasting them backwards. “Teddy, you are on crowd control, prevent these villains from escaping and keep them from hurting anyone else. I will have all of their heads by the end of this.”

Teddy almost rolled his eyes as Thor said crowd control. That’s always what the sidekicks or kids are used for, but as Thor continued his sentence, he realized that’s not what Thor was asking of him. “Roger Dodger.” Teddy said but instantly regretted. “I mean, I got this.” Teddy leaped from his hiding place. Thanks to Wendell, the bullets had mostly stopped flying in his direction. With sword in hand, Teddy began working his way around all the vehicles, slashing tires and ‘hulk-smashing’ the engines. These bad guys were going nowhere unless they planned on going on foot. Taking out bad guys here and there, Teddy made his way through the camp and eventually came across the area where the animal cages where being kept. What would the poachers be fighting for if their goods were released back into the wild? Besides, a charging rhino would only help their cause right? Not right. As soon as Teddy broke the cage open, a small herd of three rhino’s charged off in Wendell’s direction. “Quasar! Watch out!” He shouted before leaping and mounting one of the rhino’s backs. He swung his sword out at any poacher in arms length, but most moved out of the animal’s path anyway. “At least they weren’t elephants.”

Had it not been for the very professional nature of their current mission, something entirely different might have been an immediate response to Wendell receiving an order. He could thank whatever deity above later that he chose the words: “Yes sir.” The alternative might have turned him into mush. Which, all things considered, was probably better than looking like cartoon cheese with all of the bullet holes the poachers were about to make a permanent part of his anatomy. He had to dodge and maneuver the best he could around the enemies, knocking out those who took their eyes off of him for a second and trying to disarm as many as he could along the way to the launchers. He managed to disrupt their ability to fire any more rockets when thunderous footfall caught his attention. He looked over, seemingly at the same time as every other able-bodied individual in the area, and screamed internally. Only...the internal scream appeared to have also happened externally. Additionally, for some reason, his first reaction was to push his hips out at the creature, as if somehow being presented with his pert backside would make them think ‘ew, a butt’ and they’d change course of direction. They didn’t. Wendell had to roll out of the way, narrowly missing getting fully trampled, and his recovery involved him thrusting his body at a nearby poacher. He lunged at the man and brought him down to the ground with him, sitting on his chest and punching him in the face. “I think I would’ve preferred the elephants. At least they’re…” he trailed off. His body rolled off of the man and he drop-kicked the next man, laying him out just as fast as he did the previous one. “...gentle.”

Thor paused for a moment to watch his team in action. It worked. They weren’t working together perfectly yet, but there was something here. More than something. This was a team that he would confidently work with once more. “Good job comrades,” he boomed as he caused a circle of lightning to spark out of the sky and prevent any of the poachers from escaping. “Their weapons are a bit too powerful for them to have done this on their own,” he said as he narrowly avoided what looked like a chitauri laser blast before dismantling the gun with a swing of Stormbreaker, “perhaps there is something more to this than a ship off course as a distraction to allow some poachers to steal ivory, a barbaric act if I ever saw one.” He ducked beneath the swing of one of the bad guys, and knocked them on their arse with a hammer swing.

Teddy looked back at Wendell to make sure he was alright before shakely standing up on the rhino and leaping off it’s back, landing on a poacher and punching his friend in the face almost simultaneously. Wendell had performed a good job at taking out many of the men and Thor as well. Teddy was just glad Kate wasn’t here otherwise he would of had to compete with her. He dodged a few more bullets before springing out at another group of poachers and knocking them unconscious. “Yeah, these definitely look alien to me, I wonder who they got them from?” The sound of helicopter blades caused Teddy to whip his neck around into the sky. At first he thought it only meant more poachers, but when he saw the wings and eagle of the SHIELD sign on the side of the helicopter, he let out a sigh of relief. The alien tech was definitely something that they would have to follow up on, and leaving the poachers with the anyone else but shield at this point made him feel a little uneasy. Teddy used the opportunity to take out another two guys that were distracted by the helicopter. Other than that, it seemed like most of the poachers had dropped their weapons in surrender. “I guess this counts as a win right?” He asked his team over the comms.

The battle was arduous, but overall not as bad as Wendell had assumed it to be. Perhaps the hardest part was dodging bullets and animals while trying to fight. Thankfully, the ballistic nylon of the suit hadn’t been punctured by any shots that hadn’t missed him, but the bruising his skin would take on from the impacts would surely keep him up tonight. As he rolled off of another unconscious poacher, he shot a blue eyed glance up to the sky where the helicopter was approaching. “We’ll analyze the tech later and it’s a good thing so many of them are still alive. Maybe we can get some information out of them,” he said as he locked eyes with one of the poachers. They dropped their weapon and he gave them a curt nod. They didn’t want to get attacked any more than Wendell wanted to move forward to do so. Mutual understandings were nice. “I think this is a victory. What’s the, uh, after-party of a mission look like? Should we all get donuts? Krispy Kreme is on me.”

Frowning gently as the battle ended almost as abruptly as it had began Thor stroked his beard before nodding gently. “Those that know of this technology will get to analyse it,” he said agreeing with Wendell, “I am not qualified to make a comment about it and I stopped an oil tanker with my bare hands. So I could do with a break.”  Pausing, he looked over the poachers before nodding. “Aye, I expect they know something about it, but let the authorities handle them. These villains are not our mess to deal with. At least anymore.” Pausing at the mention of doughnuts, Thor’s face lit up with happiness. “Ah, yes, I know doughnuts, let’s have ourselves a dozen each!”

[whosgamora-blog]

- Incoming transmission from Director Johnson -

Dear ally of S.H.I.E.L.D

In this time of need, we hereby request your service in the Avengers Prime Initiative. We are aware that some of you are retired or are currently active in other teams, and we are not asking you to change your lifestyle. We are simply requesting that when the time comes, you aid us in placing Avenger Prime missions above all else.

If one should wish the become an Avenger Prime permanently, there will be accommodation made for you in Prime Tower, an orbiting space hub.

We urge you to accept our invitation as we aim to help those in need beyond the borders of this Earth. Space is intimidating and some may even say fearful, but that is simply because it is unknown and we strive to change this fact.

Please respond to us by letting us know if you’d like to accept this position or decline it.

Many Kind Regards

Director Daisy Johnson

Gamora was surprised to have gotten the transmission from S.H.I.E.L.D. She didn’t see herself as team player. The Guardians were about as many as she was willing to tolerate. However she wasn’t going to completely deny helping them. It didn’t make sense in the current times to cut ties with anyone who was fighting on their side. She sent a transmission back.

Thank you for the invite, but I have decline. I will help if needed, but I can’t put your missions above all else.  The galaxy is large and there are always several issues going on at once, and I can’t say if yours will truly be the most important. But if it is, you can count on the Guardians being there.

[your-not-so-dusty-spiderman-blog]

Una-void-able Complications

Peter, Stephen and Kate set out on a mission to repair the satellite dish, but things get a little complicated, making this mission a breath-taking experience.

Peter was nervous. He had seen way too many space movies to know how wrong this could go. However, dressed in his Iron Spider suit, he felt a whole lot better. The arms, or spider legs, would be able to help him grab into the side of the Tower and he had no trouble sticking to things in the first place. He was fully suited and was just outside the airlock, waiting for the rest of the team. “I mean, how hard could this be?” Peter asked and then covered his mouth straight away. “I probably just jinxed this didn’t I?”

Kate hated the space suit she was forced wear. Her Hawkeye costume wasn’t in any way revealing or scantily clad but it was lightweight and easy to move around in. It allowed Kate the flexibility and speed that she excelled in. This suit was… lacking in both of those categories. “Of course you think this is easy, Parker. You have your comfy, fitted suit to crawl around in. I feel like the Michelin man.” Kate moved slowly across the metal as her magnetic boots slowly traversed the iron terrain. This was definitely not what she had expected when she accepted the Prime Initiative’s offer. “Now stop trying to jinx us and let’s get the job done so we can get back inside.”

Stephen followed behind Kate, trying not to let the weightlessness disorient him. He'd felt it before-- on his acid trip journey into mystery that the Ancient One had sent him on-- but it wasn't a pleasant sensation. He flexed his fingers inside the suit and frowned at the lack of finesse. Spells were going to be interesting… Remember, you don't really need your hands. It's about focus. You can focus, right? He kept his eyes on the surface of the station and away from the endless void of stars. “So you guys haven't heard any theories as to who’s responsible for this, have you?”

“If we’re being honest here, it’s not as comfortable as it looks. Wedgies occur all the time.” Peter said, happy there wasn’t on at the moment. He crawled his way across the exterior surface of the spacecraft. The satellite wasn’t too far of a distance from the airlock. “I’ll speak to someone about making the suits more streamline when we get back inside?” The mission reminded him of when he clung to the exterior of Thanos’ ship back in the day. “I don’t have a clue who placed the device on board, but I sure as hell know that Thor isn’t happy about S.H.I.E.L.D not telling us about the Space Stone.” Peter said to Strange. Peter was actually happy that they couldn’t communicate with the inside of the Tower, it meant that no one was monitoring their comms and that they could speak freely.

“Gross.” Kate muttered in response to Parker’s comment. As long as the mission was as simple as it sounded, the three should have no issues. If anything went wrong or if they were attacked by any type of space alien whatever, then there might be some real trouble. Kate seldom considered herself useless on any occasion but her ability to help would be severely lacking. “Knowing who was responsible for things always seemed to be above my paygrade at SHIELD.” Kate admitted. “I mostly just shot at people when I was told to.” That was an over-simplification of the truth, but not by much. That had changed for the better once taking the mantle of Hawkeye. People started taking her more seriously.

“I'm not particularly happy about SHIELD not mentioning the Space Stone either,” Stephen said. “The stones were supposed to be kept apart. I was under the impression that the Time Stone was the only one still on Earth.” Each tug of his boot free of its magnetic lock made his stomach lurch. As odd as it was to have to force his foot free of the hull, the strength of the lock was a comfort. At least he wouldn't be floating away any time soon. “What I want to know is why the hell the stone was in the wall. What were they hoping to do with it?” He'd thought that the Battle of New York would have shown them that playing with that stone wasn't worth it.

Peter shrugged. “Maybe they have the stone because of New York. Knowing S.H.I.E.L.D, they probably wanted to learn how to open wormholes like that.” That was the only logical reason that crossed Peter’s mind, but the question as to why they had the stone was one to ask the Director. Nearing the satellite, Peter identified the panel with the wiring. “The dish seems pretty out of place, do you two think you can manage that and I’ll fix the wiring?” He asked. He didn’t think the other two would know how to do the wiring, but then again, Kate did always surprise him. “Unless you’d like to do the wiring Kate and I’ll do the heavy lifting with Doctor Strange?”

Kate understood their concerns. After all the chaos Thanos had caused, the last thing SHIELD should be worrying about is figuring out how to open more portals to other planets or dimensions or whatever the hell that mystical rock did. Kate had witnessed what could come out from the other side and it wasn’t pretty. “Humans just never seem to learn not to mess with shit we don’t understand, huh?” She laughed and shook her head. She was losing track of how many things were the aliens fault and how many were themselves. “Nah you got that part. I know nothing about wiring.” Kate admitted. Electronics and tech were one of the few areas of the super hero arts that she did not excel in. “But I’m sure I can figure out how to man handle a satellite. You ready Doc?”

“To be fair, I'm the one who played with an Infinity Stone because he was left alone in a library, but…” Stephen let a long breath out of his nose. “I feel like there's more going on here. Call it Wizard-Senses.” He moved, slowly-but-surely, toward the dish. Speaking of Infinity Stones, he wished he had the Eye of Agamotto right now. Would have made all of this much easier. So much for this just being a party. He risked a glance out at the stars; it wasn't so bad, now that he thought about it. There weren't any Q-ships, or interdimensional eldritch monstrosities… or space pirates from Missouri. If he didn't think about how little material lay between him and explosive decompression, it was kind of relaxing.

Peter moved and opened the panel of wires. Diving in, he started rewiring what he needed to. Luckily, they all had devices on their left arms that indicated what they needed to do and his was connected to his suit, causing a small section of his vision to show what the device showed, his suit helping him identify specific wires. “Your devices will tell you when the satellite is in the right position again.” Peter said over the comms. Peter was being uncharacteristically focused and not comedic. Perhaps it was the pressure of being group leader or maybe it was just being up in space again. “Strange, maybe you could use some of your fairy dust to make it float and lighter to adjust and Kate, you could do the adjusting?”

Brute strength wasn’t exactly a Kate trademark. She had normal human strength and endurance. Her true talents were in her agility and aim. Neither of those were going to lend her any favors in repositioning a satellite. “I’ll take any advantage I can get.” Moving over to the satellite was already enough of an obstacle. The magnetic boots, although helpful to avoid floating off into space and dying, were not exactly made for light travel. Once she finally made it to the satellite she needed to figure out how to reach up to it and adjust it. “All you need if faith, trust and a little bit of pixie dust.” Kate mumbled to herself to keep busy, mocking the words from Peter Pan as she worked.

Stephen smiled, raising his hands and focusing, letting energy flow into him. “It's already floating. We're all floating.” A mandala shimmered to life around each hand. “It won't weigh anything out here, Kate, so don't push too hard too fast. The only thing between you and moving it is friction, which I am eliminating… now.” Hopefully without melting anything this time. He pointed one mandala at the base of the dish’s support column, where it rotated, and pointed the other at the ball joint where the column met the dish. The mandalas glowed a fierce white-gold and spat sparks. “Okay. You should have zero friction. Go easy on it.”

Peter listened to the others over the comms whilst he worked. He was really getting tired of this, he’d rewired so many things, that he was scared that he had forgotten how to do everything else. He resisted the urge to whistle whilst he worked, knowing it would annoy the others in his team. ‘Red to red, Blue to blue, there’s no grounding wire due to the lack of ground’ he thought to himself, slightly listening to the other’s conversation, making sure nothing was going wrong on their side. It wasn’t until Karen spoke up in his headset that he was interrupted from his work. “~There seems to be multiple boogeys heading your way Peter. Activate advanced reflex mode?~” Karen asked. “Wait what?!” Peter asked,almost not believing his ears. He stood straight up from his position and looked in the direction that Karen had identified on his visor. Thankfully, it wasn’t aliens as Peter’s mind had first jumped too, instead, masses of debris headed their way. Ice particles? Metal shards? Who knew, they just seemed to clint in the sunlight and were heading to them at an astronomical pace. “Team, watch out! The far side of the Tower! Look!”

Kate had been busy trying to readjust the satellite when Parker called out to them. She stopped from working long enough to glance in the direction he was yelling about and noticed the items flying in their direction. “Shit.” This suit wasn’t exactly made for easy maneuvering, which would make avoiding this debris a bit more than difficult. She abandoned the dish, figuring she could come back to it after the danger of being struck by whatever was coming towards them was over. “Hit the deck!” She called out and pushed herself to the ground, clawing at anything she could grab onto so that she didn’t float away.

Stephen could just barely make out the debris. It was moving fast. Very fast. And it was going to hit the station. He heard Kate shout for everyone to hit the deck and he dropped the spells, moved to follow… Then he paused and looked up at the dish. The delicate equipment was exposed and unshielded. The debris would shred it. But he had the Sling Ring on under his suit. He raised his hands and opened a portal between the comms equipment and the oncoming debris, saw its twin open a few dozen meters above the station, and once the portal was stable, he moved toward cover as quickly as the suit would allow. Something bounced off the hull nearby; he felt the impact through his boots. Then another. And another. Something bright and jagged sailed past his head and he ducked down to the deck. “Keep your heads down.” As he pulled himself flush to the hull he felt a snag and his ears filled with a trilling alarm.

Peter hit the deck along with the rest of his team. There wasn’t much else he could do, there was no way he could use his web shooters to try to stop the debris, in zero gravity, the fluid would go nowhere. Peter looked up to catch a glimpse of Dr. Strange working his magic, literally and figuratively. The portal seemed to have cleared must of the debris, but Peter still heard some of it as his hit against the exterior of the Avengers Tower. Looking over at his teammates, he watched as a piece of debris snagged at Strange’s suit and couldn’t help but let out a yelp. “Dr. Strange, is everything alright?” He asked. The debris seemed to have passed, but Peter wasn’t sure. Nevertheless, he scrambled over to the doctor’s side. “I think you might have been hit?”

Thanks to the Doc, the satellite remained undamaged. Without his help they might have lost the satellite completely which would have caused a whole string of other issues. Kate and Parker were fortunate he tagged along for the ride. Unfortunate for him, however, was that he had been struck by the debris and as Kate moved closer to him could tell that his suit had been torn. “That’s not good.” Kate began. She wasn’t expert on space or space suits but some things were just common sense. “We need to figure something out or get him back inside or he’s going to run out of oxygen.

Stephen did his best to slow his breathing and smooth that edge of panic. He focused on the flashing red warning on the inside of his helmet. Suit integrity compromised. Oxygen line severed. Oxygen at 70%... 65%... 60%. He reached around, found the tear and the two ends of the severed tube, and pinched them closed. Kate was absolutely right.  He did need to get inside. He wasn't decompressing, thanks to the compartmentalized suits, but the severed line meant all his oxygen was venting straight into space. He closed his eyes, found the still point he went to in  meditation, and opened them again. If that dish wasn't repaired then they were stuck with no way to call for help or contact home. They were already here. May as well finish the job. “What we need to do is get that dish in place. We’re close, yes?” He looked at the readout again. 58%. He met the milky eyes of Peter’s suit, then Kate’s. “But I'll need both hands for the spell, which means I'll need to let go of this tube. When my oxygen dips below nineteen percent I will pass out. At that moment you will have six minutes to get me inside and get me breathing again before I'm brain dead.” He looked up at the dish. “Can you do that?”

Peter watched as the man grasped at the tube and closed the leak. Peter wanted to try and patch it up with a web, but he had no idea how his fluid would react and he definitely didn’t want Dr Strange dying due to web-inhalation. ‘Note to self, experiment with web fluid in zero gravity’ he thought before nodding at the older man. I can definitely finish the wiring in that amount of time, and thanks to my Iron-Spider suit arms, I’ll have no problem getting you inside asap. It might just be a close call though.” He said before looking over at Kate. “Can you get the satellite in place within 5 minutes?” He knew it would be a risk, but Dr Strange had suggested it himself and they were already outside and here. “Unless you think we should abort?” He asked Kate for a second opinion. She was the Agent here, she knew what protocol was. Peter was just a kid from Brooklyn trying to be a hero.

“Okay. We finish the mission then.” Kate answered. When in doubt, always take the riskier option. Kate had found that as long as she survived them it usually reaped the most benefits. And considering she was still alive, she had survived them all. Of course, it wasn’t her life on the line at the moment, but hopefully that would just motivate her more. “Do what you can to stop the oxygen from escaping while I work. With the Doc’s spell working its magic, repositioning the satellite shouldn’t be difficult. It was just those annoying metal boots that slowed things down. But now wasn’t the time to complain. So she got to work on repositioning the satellite.

“Okay. When ready…” Stephen checked his counter again. 56%. Christine would kick your ass for this. “Go.” He let go of the tube, ignoring the strident alarm, and raised his hands again. Mandalas spun to life and he aimed them back at the tower. He focused on the magic, blocking out everything else. The stars, the planet nearby, the flashing red warning, the counter… 51%... 46%. He pushed down the panic, like he had when he'd faced Dormammu. He’d been alone then. This time he wasn't. This time he only had to do his part; he trusted Parker to get him inside. And he may not have known Kate well yet, but he knew she wouldn't have been onboard if she couldn't get the job done. So he kept his hands up, maintained his focus, even as his head began to swim.

Peter leaped into action as soon as he said go, his hands frantically moving over the wires, connecting colour to colour and patching up any damages he could see with insulation tape. He finally finished and shut the panel closed before peering down at his counter. It had been 4 minutes. How had the time flown so fast? “Doctor, are you still with us?” He asked, although the fact that the spell was still working answered Peter’s question for him. “We need to move now before it’s too late.” He said as he stood up now, using his feet to stick to the side of the spacecraft. He trusted his spider abilities but it was still nerve racking to stand up straight like that. He moved over to Strange and was ready to wrap the metal arms of his suit around the man and make his way to the airlock. “Karen, radio the main Tower comms and all medical personnel as soon as we establish connection with the inside.” He said to his suit’s built in AI. “Ready when you are Kate.”

The satellite was easy to move, mostly because of the Doc’s spell. The only two things posing as obstacles for Kate was the apparent height difference between the satellite and how tall she could reach with her arms stretched as far as they could go; and the fact that the satellite apparently needed to be an annoyingly specific spot. She felt like every time her device was starting to go off, Kate pushed too far or not quite enough. Soon enough almost five minutes had gone by when Kate finally heard her device go off. Finally positioned in the right place. She held a thumbs up to the other two, “Good to go!”

The words 'good to go’ eased through the fog in Stephen's mind just as he saw the counter slip to 20%. He let the mandalas dissolve and reached to his side, trying to clasp hold of the severed oxygen line. His hands felt as heavy and dexterous as concrete slabs; no matter how he tried he couldn't get the fingers of the suit to cooperate. His vision greyed at the edges. He made another grab at the tear and missed his side entirely. The view out of his visor blurred, drained of colour. His lungs burned. I need to have a conversation with SHIELD about the durability of these suits… He swayed, and passed out.

Peter didn’t hesitate for a second and grabbed onto Strange as the man seemed to pass on. “Come on Kate!” He called out to her as he started to make a move for the airlock. As much as he didn’t want to leave a team member behind, he literally had a man’s life in his hands. He managed to make his way to the airlock at some speed, not as fast as he would have liked to go, but he also did not want to float off into the void of space. He got to the airlock and opened it with ease, thanks to his metal arms that held Strange, he still had both his natural arms free. He climbed inside and Karen pinged inside his mask, letting him know that they had established connection and that comms worked again. “This is Peter Parker, we are in need of emergency assistance. Dr Strange has passed out do to a lack of Oxygen.” He waited for Kate to enter and gravity to kick back in before he placed Dr Strange down on the floor. “What do we do? I don’t know CPR.” He asked frantically, removing the helmet of the pace suit.

As soon as Kate got back inside of Avenger’s tower she removed the space helmet and tossed it onto the ground. She needed to get out of the suit but the Doc still not breathing took precedence over her desire to feel comfortable again. “Other people will be here soon don’t freak out.” Kate tried reassuring Parker and fell down onto her knees at the Doctor’s side. “I can do CPR until they show up.” She had been certified, though that had been years ago. But she figured it was like riding a bike. She wasn’t going to forget how to do CPR. She placed her hand flat on his chest and laid her other hand on top before starting compressions. Then she just kept going. She wasn’t going to stop until Strange woke up or someone else arrived to take over.

Stephen thought he'd left it too long. Well… he probably had. The astral plane looked different this time-- unfocused, colours a bit muddy. And he felt sluggish. Maybe he wasn't totally clear of his body and this was how a lack of oxygen to the brain felt. Which was disconcerting. He'd only been out for around a minute and a half, but the lack of control made him anxious. He resisted the urge to make his astral form visible. Kate was doing an excellent job and making her jump wouldn't help anyone. But he was acutely aware of the passing seconds. Colour started to bleed back into his view. There was a tug in his chest, a falling sensation, and then his eyes-- his actual eyes-- opened. He gasped in a breath, dizzier than he'd been the first time the Ancient One had punched him into the astral mystery tour. The hall was blindingly bright. His lungs were raw. His fingertips were numb. He coughed, and it became a hoarse laugh. “I hate space.”

Peter let out a sigh of relief when Strange gasped for air. It would of been horrible if one of team members died on his first mission as a leader. Well, it would have been horrible if Strange died, again, full stop. “Glad to see you stuck with us Doctor.” He said before he was pushed aside by medics with an oxygen tank. “Great job everyone.” He reassured them over the comms so that they could hear him. Now the boring part came, debriefing. Peter’s humor had left him, and so had his clumsiness, his adrenaline still pulsing through him. “Let's just hope we never have to do that again.”

[hawkeye-kate-bishop]

- Incoming transmission from Director Johnson -

Dear ally of S.H.I.E.L.D

In this time of need, we hereby request your service in the Avengers Prime Initiative. We are aware that some of you are retired or are currently active in other teams, and we are not asking you to change your lifestyle. We are simply requesting that when the time comes, you aid us in placing Avenger Prime missions above all else.

If one should wish the become an Avenger Prime permanently, there will be accommodation made for you in Prime Tower, an orbiting space hub.

We urge you to accept our invitation as we aim to help those in need beyond the borders of this Earth. Space is intimidating and some may even say fearful, but that is simply because it is unknown and we strive to change this fact.

Please respond to us by letting us know if you’d like to accept this position or decline it.

Many Kind Regards

Director Daisy Johnson

Kate read the message while sitting cross-legged on her bed with a bowl of ramen resting in her lap. It took a few times to read over the message paragraph by paragraph before she understand exactly what the director was asking of her. But once she understood the message it made even less sense to Kate. An orbiting space hub? Avengers Prime? Kate didn’t know if the message had been forwarded to the wrong person or what the mix-up was. But it was obvious they were looking for someone like America or Thor or even Captain America. Not a girl with a bow. 

“Go to hell” Kate declared to herself, tossing the phone against her pillow and turning her attention back on the television. She just wanted to eat her ramen in peace.

[dontbeathorloser-blog]

An Alien, A God And A Bag Of Chips Walk Into A Fire Fight || Noh-Varr and Thor

Thor and Noh-Varr pursue some Skrull into space seperately, they get to know one another and make some memories.

Thor had been on the trail of the Skrulls since the attack on New York. Being Asgardian meant that he had somewhat of a studier physique. At least compared to humans. So as he travelled through space, tracking the Skrull fleet or what was left of it through the stars, he had plenty of time to consider the situation in his solitude. Could he really justify stopping his fight now? After so many years, didn’t the humans out there need him now more than ever. Pausing for a second, he bit his lip and shook his head. Before bright headlights of a ship blinded him and he swerved headlong through an asteroid. Ouch. Brushing what remained of the space rock off of him, he shook his head and turned to face the ship. “Who goes there?” he demanded brashly.

Noh-Varr had spent the majority of the Skrull invasion ferrying people out of harm’s way; which since he was a being created in a lab to be a super soldier, chafed him a little bit. But he had his chance at battle now, as he and his ship hurtled through space. Popping an earbud in he scrolled through music before settling on a playlist he’d made back when he and Kate were still together. The music pumped through him as he scanned for Skrull signatures before noticing something impact a nearby asteroid. “Ahh fuck.” English was a marvelous language for profanity, “Did I just hit a person?” A bellowing and brash voice echoed through his ship’s speakers and he cocked an eyebrow, turning on the external PA system “Noh-Varr, captain of the Marvel. Of….. well a lot of places. But currently earth. Who the fuck are you?”

If thunder could flash in space then Thor would’ve used that to effect. However, unfortunately space didn’t quite have the particles that he needed to generate lightning. Instead he would stick with hefting his hammer, which he managed to at least make buzz a little bit. “I am Thor, God of Thunder, King of Asgard, protector of the bifrost and weilder of the uru hammer Stormbreaker. I survived Ragnarok, I’m sure that you’ll have heard of me.” He gazed through the windscreen at the younger man inside. “Noh-Varr, what kind of name is Noh-Varr anyway?” he said sourly, somewhat pissed that he’d been crashed into an asteroid, but maybe he could turn this to his advantage. “What is your purpose here Noh-Varr.”

There was a lot of sass coming from outside the ship and Noh-Varr really wasn’t feeling it today. “The bigger the title the smaller the dick.” He muttered to himself before triggering the microphone again, “I’m sorry, I zoned out about two thirds of the way through that. I think I heard Quill mention you. Wasn’t particularly kind what he had to say but he’s a grumpy asshole sometimes.�� His brow furrowed and he flipped the stranger off through the front window of his ship, “Rude. That’s so uncalled for and rude. I was just driving along, listening to good music, hunting Skrull and you’re all up in here making fun of my name?” If dating Kate had taught him one thing it was how to be rude to someone who’d been rude to him first “I’m not the one who slammed into an asteroid. What’s your purpose here, God of Quasi-Douchebaggery?”

Frowning gently, Thor rolled his eyes at Noh-Varr’s answer. Of course he was here to hunt the Skrull, and the fact that they had a similar goal strategically made sense to him. After all, there was plenty of things that two could do better than one. “I have been fighting for the survival of this universe since before you were out of swaddling clothes,” he snorted in Noh-Varr’s direction. Although he couldn’t help but snort once more. “I’ve been chasing after this particular band of Skrulls since they attacked Earth, I plan to wring their necks out and turn them into the equivalent of space fly zappers.” He paused to stroke his beard, static still pouring off of the head of Stormbreaker. “But I have no need to explain myself to you Noh-Varr.” Thor was the god of thunder, a power into himself. He didn’t need to explain him to anyone, least of all someone who drove like the All-Father minus the two eyes. “Your bad flying hit me into the asteroid fool. Not the other way round.”

“That’d be a far more impressive statement if you were talking to someone who was actually from this universe. I’ve only been here for like….” Noh-Varr did some quick math in his head, “ten years? Something like that.” Shooting Thor a semi-sarcastic thumbs up (another by product of his relationship with Kate) he nodded, “Cool cool cool homicidal aggression is always a good choice. It’s what I was created for so I get that. And you better watch the sass about my flying, your sparkiness. The Marvel here is the finest piece of Kree engineering in the multiverse. If there was a collision it was because you hit my baby, not the other way around.” Gesturing to the interior of the craft he ran his fingers through his white hair, “Do you want to come inside? I’ve got upholstered seats. Far more comfortable than the freezing vacuum of space, I’d imagine. Snacks too!”

“Ten years and you’ve never heard of me.” Thor frowned and wondered whether he was truly the universe-renowned warrior that he had once believed himself to be. But then he scolded himself for having so little faith in himself. Kree engineering. That was hardly a good sign, however Noh-Varr seemed to be on the side of the good guys, at least for the moment. “I am not blaming your ship, I am blaming the pilot for not looking where he was going.” But on his offer to come inside, Thor considered refusing and flying with Stormbreaker, but he decided that it was probably not a good idea to upset this young hotshot once more, and he could do with a break. But it was the snacks that really sold it for him. Maybe they would have some doritos or pringles, two Earth snacks that he had become increasingly fond of. “Aye, I should like to look upon your face before I make my judgement as to your worth.”

“I live with Peter Quill. He takes careful pains not to mention you if at all possible. Drax mentioned a pirate angel man. Which I’m just going to assume is you.” Raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow Noh shrugged. “Whatever helps you sleep at night. You’re the one just flying through the vast emptiness of space. Don’t sass me about flying habits. Weirdo.” Thor’s response made him laugh a little “well. I’m genetically engineered to be stunning. So. Try not to fall in love when you look upon my face.” His fingers flew across the console “rear airlock is unlocked. Welcome aboard the Marvel.” As he waited for Thor to make his appearance he kicked some clothes under one of the benches. He’d packed a bag for this trip, since he had no idea how long it was going to take, but he hadn’t really bothered to tidy when he’d stopped meditating this morning. Really didn’t expect guests in the middle of space-nowhere.

“Unlucky for you,” Thor replied with a smirk, “I enjoy Quill, but he has never forgiven me for being … well me. I think I make him feel insecure.” Pausing for a second, he grinned at Drax’s comment. Of course he was still calling him a pirate angel, that made him feel much better after all. He was as good looking as a pirate angel. “If you hit a human with a cart or even one of their new cars, it is hardly the humans fault. The same should and must be said for your reckless driving.” Noh-Varr was good looking, his personality however obviously left something to be desired. “Don’t worry, I only fall in love with those who are worthy of it and you are so obviously not.” He smirked proud of his little dig. Stepping into the mess of a ship, he looked at the dirty underwear that had been kicked underneath a bench and raised an eyebrow. “Well, Noh-Varr, we need to find some Skrull to continue hunting them. So where exactly were you headed?”

“Probably. that’s actually one of my favorite pastimes. Making him uncomfortable and insecure. I’m very good at it now.” Rolling his eyes again at Thor’s diatribe Noh waved off his complaints. “You’re flying through space. Alone. Without a ship. This isn’t like I hit a cyclist. Your weird-ass needs to get a ship. And until then I’m ignoring your comments about my flying.” As Thor entered the ship Noh-Varr was temporarily taken aback at how tall the god of thunder was. But he managed to recover in record time and throw a smile on, it was nice to have someone who threw some good natured ribbing right back at him, “Awwww sweetheart that’s just because you don’t know me yet. Give it time.” He stuck his hand out, “I wasn’t expecting company. This was supposed to be some post-battle me time. But have a seat and raid the fridge.” He resumed his seat at the helm and shrugged, careful rolling and hanging his earbuds up, “I’ve been scanning for propulsion signatures and following that. The Marvel is a pod from the Kree diplomatic fleet back in my universe but I’ve tinkered with her enough to boost her scanning capabilities. Did you have any suggestions?”

“It is simply so easy, I cannot imagine how anyone would get any pleasure in it. I am a God and all I need do was flex a bicep and he would feel insecure.” Smirking gently, Thor moved a stack of clothes off of the co-pilot seat and strapped himself in. “I don’t need a ship to fly through space, obviously,and I can normally use the mighty power of the bifrost to go wherever I please, having a ship is hardly a requirement. Especially when the people who have ship insist on driving them as if they were Asgardian pensioners.” Turning obnoxiously in his swivelling co-pilots chair, Thor turned to face the fridge before standing and moving over to raid it. Maybe Noh-Varr wasn’t that bad after all. “I was following a tip from an old member of the Nova Corps, he suggested that the Skrull might be moving to these coordinates,” he brought up a map using his console and pointed it out, “If thou can calculate the trajectory of this fuel path, perhaps we can see if my tip was worth it.”

“I only look like a god and it’s still beyond easy for me. He just flusters so easily” Noh leaned forward to grab his mug of coffee while Thor made himself comfortable in the other chair. “I’m just tuning you out at this point. You’re like the gentle buzz of the background music I listen to when I’m doing yoga. That’s all that your comments about flying are right now. Yoga soundtracks.” Taking a sip of his now cold coffee and pulling a face Noh looked at the coordinates Thor brought up on the map, “uh huhhhhhhhhhhhh…” he trailed off slightly, lost in thought for a moment before his fingers flew across the console and the Marvel’s engines flared, shooting them off into a different direction “Well I guess we’re about to find out if your tip was worth it after all, Lord Lightning. Otherwise it’s me and you and a lot of empty space.”

“Yes, well Quill is certainly an interesting specimen,” Thor replied with a smirk. He had trouble understanding the motivations of humans at best of times, but Peter Quill was hardly even human. He’d spent such a quantity of time away from Earth that you could easily argue that he had become something else. Turning in his chair one final time, Thor shrugged. “I will just have to ensure that I make the comments all the louder,” he smiled smugly before shrugging gently. “Does your fuel trail lead somewhere different, if we can pick it up in the same area that my coordinates lead then we’re probably on the right track.” He raised a hand to his beard and ran his fingers through it thoughtfully. “Either tips are promising and any lead we can find would be useful.”

“That’s certainly one way to put it.” Noh-Varr finished his coffee and stood to refill it “humans have accomplished little on the multiversal scale… but the Keurig coffee machine is a goddamn triumph.” Taking a sip of the coffee he looked at the difference between Thor, in some seriously impressive armor, and himself, in comfortable jeans and a tank top, before shrugging. His ship. His rules. “The problem is the Skrull left a ton of trails leading in a ton of directions so really it’s a coin toss to figure out which one is the most important. Either one we follow will teach us something though.” He watched Thor for a moment more before moving through the cabin of the ship, cleaning as he went, “Well we’ve got some time before we get to your coordinates and I’m going to assume you’re losing interest in making fun of my driving so what would you like to do beyond sitting in stoic heroic silence.”

Raising an eyebrow, Thor nodded. “Aye, the human invention of coffee is certainly a thing of beauty, that much I shall give them. They are an impressive race for one who have accomplished so little.” He smirked gently, he was proud of the people of Midgard. They’d stood up to so much hardship and yet still readily accepted him. Although, with the current events after the attack on New York, he wasn’t sure how long it would remain that way. Humans were a malleable race, and anything could change their opinion. “We shall continue towards my tip, as for passing the time, if stoic heroic silence is not good enough for the great Noh-Varr, then what exactly would you suggest?” he asked not tearsely, but with a good natured humour. Noh-Varr was an interesting specimen and Thor wondered exactly how this reprobate filled his time.

“I”m mostly a fan of the fact that I can have a coffee maker on the ship without needing to grind the beans every goddamn time. While it’s impossible for me to get a caffeine buzz like some people enjoy… I do like the flavor.” Pausing his cleaning to transfer the music from his headphones to the ship’s interior speakers Noh shrugged expansively at the god, “I’m all for stoic heroic silence, that’s what I do when I’m by myself. Well that and study and talk to myself and listen to music and send snapchats to Kate. But really you’re the oh so big and powerful mighty whatever the fuck your list of titles was so hey I’m open to suggestions.” Thor seemed to have a tendency to sneak a jab into all of his comments and it made him spectacularly easy to talk to since that was Noh’s primary form of conversation, “But really though… I’ve got movies.”

“The dark bitter sweet liquid that the humans have named coffee is exquisite,” Thor replied with a brash laugh, “the flavour is not unlike a similar drink we had on Asgard, however the quantity that coffee is available on Earth is astonishing.” Pausing for a moment, Thor raised an eyebrow gently at Noh-Varr and realised that he hadn’t exactly planned on having to entertain himself. Flying through space at near speeds of light wasn’t exactly something that he could do without concentrating very hard and he didn’t bring anything but the essentials with him on this trip. “This music is certainly an interesting choice,” he replied with a smirk, “however I didn’t exactly bring many entertainment resources along with me, I didn’t anticipate company on this trip.” Shrugging, he slipped his hammer into the sheath for it on his right shoulder and placed his feet up on the side of a console. “Therefore, the onus to provide entertainment must fall onto you, my little blonde friend. So if movies are the only option then I shall accept.”

“Yeah alright Shakespeare it’s just coffee. No need to write a sonnet or anything.” Noh tidied up the table behind them, leaving room for them both to sit if they were so inclined, “hey I get enough shit from Quill if you’re gonna be a dick about the music you can go back to flying along through the cold vacuum of space because I do not need that kind of negafuckingtivity aboard the Marvel.” He rolled his eyes and pulled some beef jerky from a cupboard, crawling across the ceiling to another one of his bags as he chewed, “well I’m not doing a song and dance routine for you.” He plugged a hard drive that he’d retrieved into one of the screens and swiped through the files that popped up, “Well what does the god of thunder like? You have to have some input on this. All I know is you’re grumpy and sarcastic but that shit is just like looking in a mirror.”

“Shakespeare? I am not familiar with them.” Thor retorted confused by Noh-Varr’s statement, “I am afraid I do not follow. However, if you must know, I am simply speaking the proper English that my Asgardian tutors insisted that I learn. If there is another language or dialect that you would prefer to converse in, I am fluent in several languages.” Thousands of years being alive had seen to that. “I said interesting, not bad. Whilst this is not a ballad that I am used to, I am sure the bards that compose the music you enjoy are equally as skilled as the Asgardian bards.” To tell the truth he was enjoying the music. It was a nice change to what he was used to. He laughed at Noh-Varr and shrugged. “Movies are not a pass time for Asgardians, for our leisure we dedicate ourselves to the crafts and the arts, I have not even watched a movie before. I have watched what is called a television show, but that is all. So I will not be too much help, how about your favourite movie?”

Sitting for a very long moment, hanging from his perch on the ceiling, Noh-Varr let loose a very long drawn out sigh and thought, again, about the chain of events that had led to the God of Thunder currently driving him up a goddamn wall. “Okay so…. I just….. Jesus man how long have you…. Aren’t you like super old? I’ve been in this universe ten goddamn years and I know who Shakespeare is.” He took another bite from the beef jerky before waving it at Thor, “As great a goddamn show as it is we are not turning the Marvel into the Magic Goddamn Schoolbus where I teach you the glories of Shakespeare or some shit.” He dropped from the ceiling back to the floor and flipped through the movies before settling on Howl’s Moving Castle, “This has bright colors. So just…. Watch those, I guess, and sure go ahead and keep eating all the goddamn chips. I’m going to sit here and drink my coffee and regret not actually driving my ship into you.”

Frowning gently Thor shrugged more the  himself than anyone. “Aye I am well over a thousand years old, closer to two thousand than a thousand now. However, the universe is as vast as it is broad and I could not hope to know everything that it has to offer.” Pausing for a moment, he tried to imagine what the glories of Shakespeare could be. Perhaps it was some sort of weapon, the Shakespeare. He was certain it was a weapon. “I require no tutelage on the great ways of Shakespeare, I know how to read and there is this wonderful thing called Google back on Earth, you really must try it, you simply type in what you want to know and the computer provides you with information relating to that query.” Shifting more comfortably in his seat, Thor Odinson did as he was bid and reached for more chips. “Your hospitality shall not be forgotten, perhaps when we return to Earth we can share a mead together. You are 21 yes? I wouldn’t normally care, in Asgard you drink from childhood, not very much granted, but we start earlier than the humans. However they have some strange laws which make it difficult for anyone under 21 to drink.”

Noh immediately regretted snapping at Thor when the god busted out some very near pouting. “Supreme Intelligence whyyyyyyy” Noh groaned out under his breath. “Yeah cool. You do that, big guy. You seem like the kind of guy who’d enjoy Titus Andronicus so maybe start with that one. First thing I’m doing back on Earth is getting you a library card.” Propping his boots up on the table Noh watched Thor out of the corner of his eye. “I’m 22 actually. Nearly 23. While mead isn’t my drink of choice you can share a whisky sour with me. Or maybe some tequila. You seem like you’d be fun on a Tequila Tuesday.” They watched the movie in silence for a moment before Noh-Varr’s natural restlessness took hold and he started pacing the ship, tidying and fixing up as he went. “So. When you’re not going in on some snack food. What does the god of thunder actually do? We don’t have god’s where I’m from. Just one, really, but it’s not actually divine.”

Thor didn’t quite notice the words spoken quietly, little more than a mutter. Pausing for a second, he swallowed and shrugged. “Tites Andronichu,” he replied with a solemn nod, as if he knew exactly what it was that Noh-Varr was talking about. He was sure that there must be somethings that he knew better than Noh-Varr, they just hadn’t come up yet. Pausing for a second, he smirked and shrugged. “Well aren’t you getting old, do you think you’re completely done growing or might you get taller at some point?” Let it not be said that Thor wasn’t a petty or vindictive God. Like many Asgardians he was far from perfect. “Although, that being said my little friend, the sound of Tequila Tuesday is certainly enticing. Hopefully we will indulge when we return from our hunting trip.” Pausing at the question, Thor frowned. “Truthfully?” he asked, “Not a lot. I retired officially. After what happened with that Thanos. But after the assault on the United Nation’s place of strength, it became clear that I must resume my duties as protector of Midgard.”

As someone who was unfamiliar with being on the receiving end of ribbing, Noh was considering exactly how being teased so mercilessly made him feel. He couldn’t decide if it made him hate Thor or like him a little bit more. “I was created in a lab so I am sure I am exactly the height the Supreme Intelligence wanted me to be, a height, I’d like to add, that is above the Earth average for males my age.” The barbs about his height stung a little more than he’d like to admit, “we’ll take some victory shots. I know this great bar in Queens. Amazing food too.” Listening thoughtfully, Noh-Varr nodded as Thor talked. “I didn’t know you could retire from being a god. The Kree built our god ourselves, so, it’s its own separate sorta thing. But. Kind of you to swoop to Earth’s rescue again.”

“Perhaps,” Thor said, already laughing at his own joke, “you should call it the average intelligence not the supreme intelligence.” He paused for effect before continuing with his joke. “Of course I jest, I recognize that I am obnoxiously tall whilst other less fortunate beings aren’t endowed with my divine height.” He smirked gently, imaging the night that he and Noh-Varr would undoubtedly enjoy together when they made it back from space and to the fair city of New York. “I shall take you up on your offer, there is a wonderful German Pub in Brooklyn. They have divine steins of ale and larger. Much bigger than the regular glasses that the mortals on Earth seem to appear to enjoy. “Earth has swooped to my rescue more times than I could count, it has saved me in more ways than one. It seemed only just that I do the same.” Pausing for a second, Thor was about to continue speaking when an alarm went off and he heard ships swoop overhead, seeing them through the windscreen. “It appears we have company, tell me that this chariot of yours has weapons. I’d prefer not to go back out there if I could help it.”

“You did not just insult my god. You are obnoxiously tall, it’s true. Please strive not to put holes in my ceiling when you stand up. I’m far too busy to do those repairs at the moment.” Noh could easily imagine a fun night out at a bar with Thor, probably being annoyed constantly, but somehow in a fun way. “sounds like a plan, he-man. Fair warning… I can’t get drunk. So those gigantic steins of lager and ale won’t do too much for me, but I’m capable of enjoying them and some good food.” He was distracted by the alarms blaring and vaulted from the table to his pilot’s chair in one smooth motion, “We were diplomats, not idiots. Of course it has weapons.” He gestured to another seat, “looks like three Skrull cruisers. Strive to keep at least one alive for me. We can have…… a chat. In which they’ll tell me absolutely everything I want to know.”

“Don’t worry Noh-Varr, I don’t think that even my head is hard enough to crack the steel of this ship.” Thor smirked gently and decided that he liked the sound of being called he-man. Maybe that could become his code name. “If you cannot get drunk then what is the pleasure of drinking? Ale doesn’t taste as nice as many soft drinks, yet the alcoholic quality makes it worthwhile. I’d understand something like mead, but ale?” he frowned and shrugged. “Many ales taste like the scrotum of a dead badger, especially the less expensive ones.” He’d spent enough time drinking in the last two years to attest to this fact. Counting the cruisers, Thor did a little bit of battlefield calculation, deciding that it was far more likely that they were going to need him on the outside of the ship. Heading to the rear of the starship, he swept up a spare commlink and tuned into the frequency on his co-pilot’s dash. “We’re going to have to work together for this, otherwise things might get hairy.”

All joking went briefly out the window as Noh snapped into combat mode; switching on the ship’s external speakers as Thor left, “Attention Skrull vessels.” He broadened his voice into his most commanding tone, “I am Noh-Varr, Captain of the Marvel and Protector of earth. The distressingly tall and equally upsettingly handsome man leaving my vessel is the God of Thunder, also a protector of earth. You have initiated hostile actions against our planet and must answer for your crimes. You have thirty seconds to power down your weapons and submit yourself for interrogation or we will launch our attack.” He turned off the microphone and switched the speakers to play some Queen at an ear-splitting volume, one hand on the thrusters and the other the weapons system, “Alright big man. Let’s show these fuckers they attacked the wrong planet.”

Thor wouldn’t have bothered warning them. Their cowardly attack on Earth had been as unexpected as it was unprovoked. No quarter would be given here. They did not deserve it. Sighing however at Noh-Varr’s kindness, Thor hefted Stormbreaker and charged up the warhammer. “My name is Thor, King of Asgard, lord of Thunder and I shall smite every last one of you if you do not submit yourself to justice. You will return to Earth to answer for your crimes or you will die. The choice is yours.” He looked around himself, the three cruisers had turned to face them, bristling with guns that they would undoubtedly blow them out of the sky. Pushing off the Marvel, Thor floated towards a single asteroid floating adjacent to the Marvel. “They must make the first move, my honour demands it.”

Noh rolled his eyes at Thor’s comments on honor, “remember your royal thunderness I need one alive. I can’t mind control a corpse.” He activated the ship’s speakers once more, “Time’s up. Pray to whatever gods you worship for your souls… your asses are mine.” Pushing external stimulus aside Noh pushed his mind into a white state as he slammed on the thrusters. “They made the first move, Thor. When they attacked my home.” Fingers moved swiftly as he locked on and opened fire. He wasn’t concerned for Thor’s safety, but still kept an open line of communication. “Engaging center cruiser.” His voice was flat and precise, this was what he’d been bred to do. “Attempting to force left cruiser to engage my flank, use the Marvel as a shield while you engage remaining combatant.”

Speaking into his comm, Thor smirked gently. “The whole speech about death and destruction is just a speech, I don’t plan on killing any of them if I can help it.” Spinning his hammer through his hands, he charged towards the right Skrull Cruiser, thunder flashing off of the bright uru hammerhead. Lightning sparked off of his hammer before leaping the gap between them as he rocketed forward, kicking off of the asteroid behind him and slamming it against the Skrull ship which shields wavered, flashing bright purple for a moment before shattering. For someone as apparently easy going as Noh-Varr, he seemed to have a clear head in battle. Dodging a volley of laser fire from the now somewhat smouldering ship, Thor darted back and slammed his hammer into the ship once more, sending sparks flying through space. “Disable this one?” he asked, “Or do you think that I should destroy it and send a message?”

Watching dispassionately as Thor made short work of the cruiser he’d focused on, Noh-Varr unleashed the full complement of the Marvel’s weapons on the other ship that he’d engaged. As he manouvered to keep Thor separated from the third Skrull ship he ripped through the enemy’s shields and fired the kill shot that ruptured their engine core, “destroy it. We’ll disable and capture the third one.” His mind moved nearly as fast as his hands on the controls, positioning the Marvel in such a way where Thor could leap off of it to the third vessel, “I trust you’ll stay out of the way of my weaponry?” It wasn’t really a question; he knew Thor was competent enough to avoid getting hit, “If you disable their shields I can incapacitate their engines. They will be dead in the water as it were.”

Summoning a bolt of lightning in space was difficult, Thor wanted everyone to know how much effort he had to go through to get the move that he was about to try and pull off, to work. As the lightning flashed and sparked into the engine of the Skrull ship, setting it ablaze with all but impossibly hot flames taking hold of the craft, Thor propelled himself off of an asteroid one more time, slamming Stormbreaker through the ship and crashing through it in a heavy explosion. “It is destroyed.” He said before nodding and zooming into action. “Do your best not to hit me, I’d certainly consider it a professional courtesy if nothing else.” He smirked gently and spun his hammer in space once more, flipping it end over end braggadociously before slamming it against the shields, which vibrated angrily but held until his second hammer strike shattered it. “Destroy their engines, scupper this ship before it can escape.”  

Watching Thor work was nearly intoxicating. The sheer power he wielded was nearly beyond comprehension; but Noh was a warrior of the Kree, and wouldn’t allow the distraction, “I will do my best.” He intoned in somber tones before watching Thor eviscerate the last ship’s shields. With laser precision, Noh-Varr crippled the engines before standing and activating the comms again, “Remaining Skrull vessel!” He allowed the white state to slip, pushing all of his anger at the attack into his voice, “Prepare to be boarded! Any attempt to activate your weapons system will see you obliterated. You will submit to capture and interrogation or you will submit to death!” Maneuvering the Marvel close to the other ship he initiated docking procedures “Care to come aboard again, blondie? The fun’s just about to start. You don’t wanna miss this shit.”

Stepping on board the Marvel, Thor nodded at Noh-Varr and for the first time since the battle started he allowed himself to relax. “The fun started moments ago when they decided to attack us!” Thor boomed good naturedly with a bright grin. Hefting his warhammer as the doors opened to the crippled Skrull ship, Thor took one last look at Noh-Varr before stepping into the alien craft. Though he had had encounters with Skrulls before, he’d never fought on one of their ships and he wasn’t exactly relishing the opportunity now. There were several places he’d rather be than here. “Stand down,” he shouted to the first Skrull, who didn’t listen and tried to shoot him with an energy weapon of some sort. Sighing dejectedly, Thor smacked him on the head sending him slumping to the floor unconscious. “Anyone else?” he asked, “I am Thor, son of Odin, Lord of Asgard and you will stand down or you shall die.”

Stepping out of the white state and back into reality always left Noh feeling slightly staticky, and in this instance more than a little ill-tempered. He watched Thor backhand a Skrull into unconsciousness before sighing. “He even warned you fuckers. It’s not like that came out of nowhere.” One of the other Skrull decided to make a full tilt run at Noh, which he responded by growing one of his nails and implanting it in the Skrull’s chest. A quick kick sent him flying backwards and a thought from Noh detonated the nail, eviscerating the Skrull, and unfortunately killing his remaining crew mates. “Fuck” he spat out succinctly, as he wandered over to the one Thor had knocked unconscious. “You seem like you know how to tie a guy up.” He threw over his shoulder casually with a wink, “Wanna do the honors and we’ll bring this guy back to Earth and maybe I’ll buy you a burrito for not being the most annoying person I’ve ever been partnered with.”

Thor held the Skrull up by the scruff of their neck and shook them gently before rumaging around in the Skrull’s ship for anything resembling rope. Binding the Skrull together with his hands and feet behind his back, Thor hoisted him up so that his back was arched and his stomach hung towards the ground. “Exploding finger nails?” he asked incredulously, “What else is it that you can do?” He was curious at exactly what capabilities this Noh-Varr had. Could he do something else other than firing his cells and combusting them? “Really? There is someone less annoying than I?” he asked with a smirk, “I am pleased to have earned the honour of not being the most annoying person that you have ever worked with, I really wish that I could say the same.” He tried to keep a straight face for a moment, but he broke out into a laugh. “I only jest, you’re not the most annoying partner I’ve ever had. Quill gets that honour.”

Pursing his lips archly, Noh-Varr managed an expansive shrug within the confines of the Skrull ship, “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve. That’s what happens when you’re genetically engineered to be a warrior. Like this one!” He leaned in and spat neatly on the Skrull’s face. “In about thirty seconds he’s going to start having some hallucinations. About fifteen after that I’ll gain some very rudimentary mind control over him. Useful for interrogations. Not for first dates.” They walked back to the Marvel and Noh flipped him off over his shoulder, “I know for a fact I’m leagues less annoying than Quill is. Ive got better taste in music, I’m cuter, and I’ve got better tactical skills. You keep on comparing me to him and you’re out a burrito, sass-mouth.”

Raising an eyebrow gently, Thor made a mental note that there was a real possibility that Noh-Varr was not someone to be trifled with. After all, there was nothing stopping him from using these tricks on whoever he really pleased. “I’ll have to pick up some tricks so that I can keep pace with you!” he said barking out a laugh. Shrugging gently, he nodded and hauled the Skrull off of the floor and into his friends ship. “It is not difficult to do any of those things, after all, you said it yourself. You’re engineered to be a warrior and Quill, Quill is just a human after all.”

Firing up the Marvel’s engines, Noh turned his weapons on the last ship and obliterated it. No sense in leaving it behind, “I’ll see if I can’t put in a good word for you with the Supreme Intelligence, but I don’t think it’s taking applicants for modification right now.” He turned the ship back towards earth and turned up the music, and turned to smile at Thor, “That almost sounds like a compliment, Thor. Better watch out. I might think you actually want to be your friend.” He put his boots up on the console and heaved a contented sigh. Another mission well done.

[dontbeathorloser-blog]

Are You Shuri That’s Thortful?|| Shuri and Thor

Shuri tempts Thor over with a lie in hopes to study his hammer, things don’t exactly go to plan. 

A jug of ale that magically refilled itself with a cryptic message at the bottom? If there was anyone who could defeat this evil before it over took the world then it was Thor. Thunder clapped in the distance as he threw himself out of Darryl’s bedroom window and Stormbreaker sent him rocketing across the city, he broke the sound barrier as he took off, the speeds overwhelming the time it would’ve normally taken to approach Avengers Tower and soon he was landing. “Where is thy foe?” he crowed, thunder and lightning flickered off of his skin as he searched for the jug of ale.

Shuri’s intention was to study Stormbreaker. There were not a lot of things that baffled her mind, but a hammer being able to transfer matter through infinite time and space was one of those things. The potential information she could learn from it was revolutionary. Shuri also did not believe in magic, it was all science that just wasn’t understood yet. As she hang up the phone, the sound of thunder echoed off the buildings of New York, followed by what sounded like an extremely loud clap. Before she knew it, Thor was standing in Avengers Tower, singeing the carpets. “It’s this way.” She said, her mind making up the lie as she went along. She wasn’t a trickster or one to lie, but for science she would try to. She walked them into the bar area and by using her Kimoyo beads, cracked open the safe that held a magical mug that refilled itself. It was originally created my Doctor Strange but had somehow made its way to the avengers tower bar, where it was locked up for safe keeping and probably to prevent drunk New Avengers. “Here it is.” She stepped away and pointing towards the open safe. “Careful, it needs two hands.”

As static electricity surged off of his skin before finally coming to a stop as sparks littered the carpet. Thor stepped inside of Avengers tower, Stormbreaker grasped firmly in his hand as he recognised the mug of ale that Doctor Strange had once provided for him. “Ah, an old foe,” he said with a wry smile as he reached out and grasped the mug, turning and grasping it in one hand and placing Stormbreaker over one shoulder. “This mug is barely large enough for the youngest babe to need two hands to grasp such an odd trinket,” he started drinking, spotting no message at the bottom of the glass, but he was sure that Shuri wouldn’t lie to him for no reason. They had barely interacted before, but he knew that she was the sister of the Black Panther who was a noble warrior. But Stormbreaker was not a trinket to be tampered with and Thor was not a complete fool. Her mention of the hammer had been a bit of a give away.

Shuri cursed silently as Thor didn’t put down the hammer. She needed to move around the whole hammer to scan it, and with it over Thor’s back, that wasn’t possible. She sighed. “The message seems to have disappeared. I guess the agent who informed me about the message was wrong.” She threw her hands up with fake frustration. “I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing.” She paused. “But whilst you’re here, do you mind if I take a look at your hammer? Just a quick scan, I won’t even touch it!” She knew that the hammer meant a lot to Thor and was meant to be protected, but not allowing others to be able to study and learn from it is what she found selfish.

As Thor did his very best to quaff down as much of the ale that he possibly could, he barely heard what Shuri said. It took him a moment to recognise what she was saying and once he did he couldn’t help but lower the ale from his lips and fix his eyes on her. “I am no mere mortal to be summoned on a whim,” he warned with a flicker of lightning leaping across his irises, “If this was some attempt to get me to agree to allow you to study my hammer then I warn you against it again, the first visit was a courtesy that I’m not sure will be extended twice.” He kept a firm grip on his weapon, especially knowing that she wanted to scan it. “I’ve made my position with this weapon perfectly clear, it is no toy or tool which should be studied, it is a dangerous weapon that must be wielded by the correct person in the correct manner, so, no. You can’t take a look at my hammer.” He looked at her and waited for the inevitable argument. “You certainly cannot scan it.”

Shuri furrowed her eyebrows. He was no mere mortal to be summoned on a whim. She felt like asking what things he had to do that were better than being here? It’s not like he had a kingdom anymore and as far as she knew, SHIELD watched over his people now, not him. She shook her head, unimpressed by the so-called god of thunder. “Fine. I’d just like to add that I know that is a weapon, and that it is not a toy, I’m not 5 years old. When everyone else around the world saw Vibranium as the perfect material to make weapons, I saw it as everything else but a weapon. I’d probably be the most trustworthy person to study Stormbreaker.” She shrugged, “But the almighty Thor has spoken and obviously does not want to be summoned again, I guess I’ll go play with my ‘toys’ in my lab. You know, the ‘toys’ that are driving the future of technology forward.” She honestly didn’t wait for a response and she didn’t say this as a way to persuade him. She was tired of people underestimating her because she was only a child.

Raising his eyebrow at her, of all the things that Thor had expected from Shuri. Being summoned here there and everywhere was something that SHIELD seemed to pride themselves on doing to Thor. “My apologies young one,” he said quietly, “I did not intend to belittle or provoke you, you however must understand my position, I forged this hammer from a dying star. The express purpose of such an act was to destroy a Titan. This weapon is dangerous and it is my duty is to protect it from those who might want to misuse it.” He paused and stroked his beard whilst sipping his ale thoughtfully. “What guarantees do I have that you’re not simply attempting to gain the power of the hammer for nefarious means? How do I know this isn’t simply for personal gain?”

Shuri stopped and sighed. Yes, she was upset and expected more from Thor, but the temptation of maybe being able to study the hammer won her over every time. “Because, I’m a New Avenger. I want to be able to help those who cannot help themselves and to be able to do that at my best ability, I need to understand everything this world throws at me or presents to me.” She turned around and headed back to Thor, a smile coming to her face whilst she thought of the possibilities. “Being able to transport matter through time and space would be revolutionary! Imagine being able to send supplies to countries in need without risking innocent lives or the transport being intercepted! Imagine being able to evacuate wounded from a building right before the building collapses or even moving people out of a city before a flood!” The possibilities were endless and she could ramble on, but she didn’t want to bore the other. “That is why I’d like to study it.”

Running a hand over his still closely cropped hair and then stroking his ample beard, Thor listened carefully to her justifications and did his very best to decide whether or not he thought that she was truly worthy of studying his hammer. He was aware that there were a lot of people out there who would like to use the power of Stormbreaker and the uru it was forged from for evil. “The power of the hammer is something that I cannot simply allow people to possess, your civilization hasn’t perfected this technology yet and giving it to you before you’re ready could spell disaster, you yourself mentioned how you were the only one who wanted to use vibranium for something other than weaponry.” Pausing for a moment, he stroked his beard. “I realise what you think you’re going to be able to do with this technology, and I believe your ambitions to be truly noble. But I with a good conscience cannot just allow you to examine it right now. So I’m not saying no, I’m just saying not yet.”

Shuri listened at Thor explained himself. He wasn’t wrong. Even if Shuri developed the tech, there was no way she’d be able to keep it from someone else who’d use it for the wrong reasons. Someone would always try to replicate it or even steal it. She let out a soft sigh. “I appreciate that.” He hasn’t said no, and the idea of her being able to one day study it excited her. She started planning ahead, perhaps today she could try and replicate it by herself from what she knew. Nothing was impossible when it came to her and her lab. “I suppose you could keep the mug, nobody here will miss it.” Nobody here would even dare to try it.

Pausing for a moment, Thor was surprised to find that Shuri wasn’t arguing her point further. Maybe it was his new approach, maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t said no, just not yet. Perhaps it was something else. But he didn’t want to argue with her further. “I’m surprised that you haven’t attempted to investigate this wonderful chalice!” he exclaimed, knowing full well that this mug wasn’t a chalice, “I would imagine that someone with your goals would be intent on discovering exactly how this worked.” He smiled gently before moving back to the safe and placing the mug (now full once more) inside and closed the doors. “I shall leave it in your capable hands for safe keeping, for my next visit. Whilst I can’t allow you to study the hammer, perhaps I can show you the power of the bifrost? Where would you like to go?”

Shuri didn’t get out much so not only was Thor offering her the chance to experience the bifrost, but he was offering her to explore any place on Earth, no, any place in the universe! Shuri smiled as her mind skipped over the ideas of where she could go and what she could experience. “Does it have to be on Earth?” She asked, she had no idea where she would go or what she would like to see, but right now, she had the means and ability to go any place on Earth, but not anywhere beyond.

Thor had to admit that the question caught him off guard. For some reason he hadn’t even considered that she might go off world. Yet, fair was fair. What harm could taking a human off world really do? Peter Quill and the rest of the morons had been doing it for many years. “A pact cannot be broken without slighting my honour, so yes, it may be outside of the planet Earth. However there will be some ground rules.” Not that he particularly had any idea what he was going to make into these rules. “First there are some places which are simply too dangerous to go, Jotenheim for example. The frost giants don’t enjoy Asgardians or Midgardians.” He thought for a moment more. “Obviously there are some places where you couldn’t survive. So I won’t be able to take you there.” He paused a final time. “Be sensible with your choice, this won’t happen often.”

Shuri paused. The option to go anywhere in the universe had never occurred to her and for once she had no idea where she wanted to go. “Do you think that perhaps we don’t have to go right now?” She needed some time to really consider her answer and not waste her one chance as it won’t happen often. “I just need some time to consider my answer.” Not only that, but if she had enough time, she could even develop a suit for herself, one that could allow her to survive in certain conditions she normally wouldn’t.

“Of course, I am in no hurry. There is wisdom to patience, as this is a one time offer that I am making you. There aren’t likely to be repeat trips, at least not for pleasure.” Thor took a moment to stroke his beard thoughtfully. “All I ask is that you put that great intellect to use when you make your decision. Though that doesn’t appear to be an issue for you thus far.” Smiling gently, he spun Stormbreaker’s shaft, watching the balanced combination hammer / axe head spin around before he caught it again. “Do not wait for too long though, real life seems to have a strange way of obstructing our best laid plans.”

Shuri nodded and understood. She’d put a lot of her spare time into deciding where she wanted to go and what benefits that place would have. “Thanks for coming all this way Thor.” She appreciated the fact that he hadn’t just said no, but had given her the privilege of being able to travel using the bifrost instead. “Let me know if you ever want to have another go at the mug.” She smiled at him before adding, “I won’t take too long, I get that life happens and I should seize the opportunity before it’s too late.”

[dontbeathorloser-blog]

Footloose || Loki, Thor and Wendell

Loki is forced to reveal himself to Loki and Wendell during attempts to repair the assembly line.

Thor was hardly adept with technology. Even on Asgard he had strayed away from it whenever possible and the human technology seemed so much less sturdy then that which he was used to. That was why he’d suggested that Wendell come along, it wasn’t just that he enjoyed Wendell’s presence and that he was slowly coming to trust him after they’d met in a bar. There was also the fact that Wendell would absolutely know how to use the portable drive that they needed to get the stations work force of Starkbots back online. Thor couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t just stamp on it out of frustration. Yet he took a deep breath, and looked at Wendell once more. “So, it carries files on it this portable storage device? And these files are required to what?”

Being briefed on what the goal of the mission was seemed far less exciting than what Wendell was hoping for. Even though it would be astronomically worse, he kind of wished this was some sort of Alien situation. A xenomorph queen was planning on making the people of the ship her own personal incubators or something, not a team heading into an assembly room to plug in a flash drive into a control panel. He wouldn’t complain, though. It was the perfect opportunity to spend alone time with a real hero. Maybe he could pick up a few pointers on what to expect when he was finally promoted out of his simple role of SHIELD agent. “They’re going to reboot the bots that can help speed up the repairs,” he replied as they wandered toward their destination. “But they can also turn on this big assembly line with something on the end that I’m told looks like thousands of rotating titanium shark teeth. It’s supposed to grind down the broken droids, I think? We definitely don’t want that starting up.” He really hoped that was an exaggeration. “Plus that might alarm some other guard droids and if you know Mr. Stark, you can imagine how much of a fight those things will put on.”

The situation he’d got himself into was so far from ideal he hardly knew what to do with himself. As it was, Loki was sneaking around the ship in the most generic-looking SHIELD agent disguise he could think of. He was very much interested in not dying and the ship they were marooned on didn't seem to be in very good shape. Not to mention, the trickster was feeling a little twitchy since the space stone had appeared. He’d caught a glimpse of it from the doorway and now it was AWOL. Again, not precisely ideal. Who the hell had it now? He shouldn't have even been on board and now they were in unknown space on a broken ship. He had to admit he was panicking a little. Thousands of plans and back up plans were formulating in his mind but in the meantime he was busying himself making sure the ship didn't fall apart and life support remained online. Going to various spots on the ship and setting up magical defensive wards and helping the technology do its job with little traces of magic was likely to get him caught but that was preferable to dying in the vacuum of space. He’d already been choked to death once and he’d decided that suffocation just wasn't for him.

Thor and Wendell continued down the corridor and up to an elevator, joining a incredibly forgettable S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in an elevator that took them from deck three to deck twelve. Anything beyond deck twelve was out of bounds but unfortunately that was exactly where they are going. “Why does Stark have to make everything that he makes so damn well?” he asked with a frown that held similarities to thunder, “It would not be such a labour if they didn’t all inevitably turn on us.” Grunting, he tightened his grip on Stormbreaker, undoubtedly they would be forced to use it. “I believe I can handle any assailants that we may have to face, however keep an eye over your shoulder my friend, I’d hate for anything to happen to you because you thought I had your back and I didn’t.”

Very rarely did Wendell come across other agents that he didn’t know. Even those in deep cover who had been doing so since far before the blond had begun were listed somewhere and he had to know their faces in case of run-ins. His clearance wasn’t nearly at the top, but his status as a defacto hero gave him a few perks such as being aware whether or not the supervillain grunt he was facing was, in truth, an agent working for SHIELD. The agent in the elevator was someone he didn’t recognize. Not even from the party, in fact. This made them an irrefutable point of interest that he would engage, but first he’d have to respond to Thor’s ominous, yet helpful words. “Can do. I’m sure it’ll be fine. No Ultron here to worry about, right?” His tone was airy and light, unconvinced but hopeful. He then turned to the other person in the elevator. “Are you heading to the forbidden decks as well, Agent…?” Careful prying.

And of course the situation made itself worse. Loki should have known it would. His luck really wasn't what it used to be. The moment Thor stepped onto the elevator he was on, he turned white as a sheet and swallowed hard. This wasn't exactly how he’d been planning on meeting his brother again. Seeing him at a distance at the party or near the bomb was one thing, being stuck on a tiny elevator was something entirely different. He kept his eyes straight ahead and said nothing. That was, until he was directly addressed. Loki hadn't paid much attention to Thor’s companion but he glanced at him now. Suspicion was clear on the young man’s features. A young man Loki didn't recognize. Damn. “Yes, sir,” he responded easily, his voice deeper than his natural tone but carrying a hint of his accent. “I’m here to assist however I can.”

“We can hope that there is no Ultron, to the best of my knowledge he was dead.” Thor spun Stormbreaker in his hands before turning to face the agent curiously, looking at him carefully, he had to admit that he didn’t quite see anything out of the ordinary. “Well the more the merrier I guess,” Thor replied dismissively. There was very few people in S.H.I.E.L.D. that Thor actually did know. So it wasn’t that strange to him that there was someone he didn’t recognise. However he didn’t miss the suspicious look that Wendell was giving the agent and as the elevator dinged to a stop he stepped out before looking around the currently deserted corridor that they’d arrived on. “Agent Vaughn, after you.”

The fact that the agent didn’t give his name, and the reality that Wendell was not personally cleared on whether or not they’d be shadowed by another agent, meant something was amiss here. “Remind me to ask for your ID later, agent,” he said aloud, using a voice he rarely had to. Wendell was known for his chipper tone. It paired with his youthful face like a good wine paired well with steak. He decided it was best to leave that voice in the elevator. When he stepped out, he donned a more casual expression. His head whipped back and he flashed a slightly mischievous grin at the others. “Do you think we’ll run into the Predator down here?” He looked far too happy at the prospect, but considering he doubted one of them would understand the urgency or terror of something like that, he thought the name alone was ominous for Thor, and perhaps it would help establish something to talk about with the other human.

Loki had to school his expression so he didn’t snarl at Wendell’s tone. Jumped-up little shit, he thought indignantly, not enjoying being spoken to in such a manner by someone so much younger than him. I was alive before even your great, great grandparents were born. Saying nothing, he simply followed after the two of them with as much casual ease as he could muster. He didn’t know what the Predator was but it didn’t sound like anything Thor couldn’t handle. He also made a mental note to look it up once they made it back to Earth; if they made it back to Earth. His intention currently was to slip away unnoticed as quickly as he could, though perhaps he could help in whatever the mission was that these two had been sent on. In their younger years, Loki frequently had to fix Thor’s messes and get him out of terrible situations. Hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary, but it didn’t hurt to be ready.

Pausing at the mention of the predator, Thor raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “Perhaps, though you’ll have to be clearer about which predator you mean. I can’t exactly rule out there being predators on the ship however it seems unlikely that we’ll run into anything that we’ve not been previously briefed on.” Or at least that was his hope. Keeping himself as aware as possible he made his way down the corridor and out into a large room with a dome on top. Looking around, he noticed several robots slumped over with their arms hanging down towards the floor. Raising an eyebrow at these, he looked around. “Locate the terminal and use the portable device,” he said as he spotted the production line that was meant to keep the entire station running.

All things considered, Wendell found the prospect of other types of predators being aboard the ship far worse than the science fiction version. His expression nearly sobered up, but he found himself laughing instead. “It’ll be smooth sailing. No doubt about it,” he said with at least a modicum of confidence. The jokes were simply that. No Alien or Predator, or possibility of Jason Voorhees in space, though he didn’t even bother mentioning that last one out loud. He, instead, focused on finding the room. Once they did, he broke away from the group after giving the others a nod. He took the drives with him and looked for an access point on the control panel. It’s position was odd. It required him to be in a position nearly straddling the assembly line’s mainframe to reach without flying, which he didn’t think was a very good idea given the bands’ reactions lately. He didn’t want to activate them unless absolutely necessary, so doing a bit of scaling up the mainframe was the best solution. “Mr. Stark must really dislike the vertically challenged.” The words were mostly just for him, something to snicker at as he plugged in the device. The moment it was inserted, however, he knew something was wrong. File after file continued to be uploaded and the noise of the machines in the room turning on got a bit louder than “minor commotion”. The lights all turned on and the gears began to move, then the large grinding device began to spin and whirl as well, causing Wendell’s wide eyes to dart over to it. “Uh...guys? I thought they said it wasn’t supposed to turn that on.” He hopped down just as the floor beneath them began to shift. “...and uh...I think we’re standing on the assembly line.”

Loki caught Wendell’s words about Stark and couldn’t help the little smirk that played at his lips. Tony Stark wasn’t particularly tall to begin with; Loki remembered towering over the man in New York. He idly wandered while the young man plugged in the drives, evaluating the odd technology that Midgardians use. It seemed so blocky and primitive, dark metal gears grinding together and making terrible noises. His brow furrowed when Wendell spoke again but didn’t manage to get away before the floor beneath him moved and very suddenly his leg was yanked out from under him and he fell. The yelp he let out was far from dignified. He tried to stand, his pride already wounded, only to discover his foot was very, very stuck in the contraption. What terrible design, he thought, deciding maybe he’d have to have another chat with Stark sometime. It hurt but he’d faced much worse throughout his years. He tried to yank it free with his hands but it only seemed to dig in more and he started to worry it would draw blood. “I hate to impose,” he spoke up, forgetting to hide his accent in the midst of his embarrassment. “But I could use a hand before I lose my foot.”

As Wendell accidentally set of the assembly line, Thor was able to turn just in time to see the agent come crashing to the floor. Turning away, he bit his tongue and covered up his laughter as best he could. It wasn’t funny, and yet it was absolutely hysterical. “Not to worry midgardian,” he said stepping forward as he saw the man’s boot tangled in a number of gears and he gripped the agent’s forearm and tried to forcefully yank him free from the gears, of course that didn’t work, “I am sure that we’ll have you out in no time whatsoever.” Looking at the contraption, he frowned and beckoned Wendell over. “Is there realistically a way to free him without causing harm to himself or the machinery?” He was about to give him another yank when he heard a robotic voice from across the room and noticed a Starkbot flicker to life. Beams of light shot out from their eyes and they addressed the three of them. “Intruders detected,” a metallic voice croaked, “activating counter measures.”

Wendell really had to hand it to himself for his balance when the floor began to move underneath him. He was surprised he hadn’t landed on his ass. The same was not true for the agent. To make matters worse, somehow dizziness made the man...British? That was surprising and definitely something to note. For later, of course. He approached the pair and winced at the look of the man’s foot. Before he could comment, the guard drones were approaching and he yelped ever slightly. “I can try to temporarily absorb the energy in the system so I can grab him.” He shook his forearms and his bands began to glow. “...but you’re going to have to keep them off of us for like...two minutes, Thor. And agent, if you can shoot, you’re going to need to.”

Shit shit shit. Either he would have to shift his form to free his foot or he’d have to attack the drones with his magic. No matter what he did, he’d end up revealing himself. Not to mention he’d already messed up his cover by dropping the American accent. The faster he could get away from these two the better, then he could shift into a different person and lay low again. Loki was quickly digging himself in deeper and deeper into a hole of his own making. He had planned to eventually reveal himself to Thor, show him that he was alive, but he hadn’t planned it to be anything like this. He should have just stayed at the bar. The gears shifted as if they were trying to drag his foot in further and he hissed in pain. “Whatever you do, just hurry up,” he ordered, getting more tense by the minute. Surely Thor could handle the robots on his own, right? Hopefully Stark hadn’t made them resistant to lightning.

“I shall keep them at bay for as long as you need,” Thor replied resolutely, raising Stormbreaker and spinning it in his hand as he approached the Starkbots. Raising his hammer, he aimed it at the lead Starkbot and opened fire. Lightning leaped from the tip of his weapon and arched across the room, small lances of electricity flickering left and right as it struck the center of the Starkbot and leaped to the next and then the next. However to Thor’s displeasure the Starkbot’s didn’t halt and they certainly didn’t blow up like he had been hoping too, if anything they seemed to be more energetic, picking up the pace from what had been a careless lope and starting at a fast jog towards them. “Odin’s beard!” Thor exclaimed before charging away from Wendell, “be quick, it is possible that I may have just made them more dangerous than they previously were.” He didn’t have time to say anymore than that as he slammed into the first of the five Starkbots and brought Stormbreaker crunching into its arm as it raised in defence.

Being told to hurry up certainly wasn’t going to make the process any faster, but Wendell would be damned if he didn’t think the same thing to himself. The bands required a delicate touch, with each small piece of energy being absorbed into them needing to be monitored and secured before another could be drawn in. If he threw caution to the wind, the bands could cause very cataclysmic activity on their little space hub. He’d successfully taken down several of Thanos’ army ships just by drawing in the electricity from their circuits. “Working on it,” he replied carefully. He tried not to flinch when each pulse of electricity being pulled into him caused all sorts of jolts to ripple through his body. There was a pain to it that he couldn’t describe that never dulled. It would’ve been easier to just drain the whole assembly line, but he wasn’t sure if the bands would stop there or try to draw in the energy of everyone in the room as well. “Couldn’t you just, uh, bash them or something? No more lightning.” If the slowing was anything to go by, it wouldn’t be long soon.

Loki was cursing under his breath, yanking at his ankle and feeling something inside it pull in a way that it certainly shouldn’t. The gears had cut through the skin too. As a shapeshifter he could regrow the foot it but it would be a very painful and unpleasant ordeal to lose it in the first place. He doubted he would unless he sawed it off himself but he was being dramatic. Meanwhile whatever the young Midgardian was doing seemed to be dealing with some very unstable energy. With a glance over his shoulder, he could see his brother being swarmed by Starkbots powered up with his own lightning. The damned fool. “Oh to Hel with this,” he growled, shooting a bolt of pure magic energy at one of the bots that was readying to strike Thor’s flank. This might as well happen.

Thor whirled and flurried, Stormbreaker a metallic blur as it struck in a wide arch of destruction. He felt the axe bite through the metal alloy that Stark had designed, the uru of his own weapon chewing through the armour plating without much problem. Yet the sheer number of combatants was problematic and there was also the fact that they were powered up by his own stupidity. Swallowing, he was shocked when he saw a bright lance of pure magical energy slash through the torso of one Starkbots. He’d recognise that magic anywhere. Roaring, he slammed a statically charged hammer through the chest of the third Starkbot to cross his path, before turning and pointing at the agent. Obviously where the magic had come from. “LOKI?!” he bellowed, though it was perhaps more of a statement than a question, his brain was reeling. After all these years his brother was somehow alive. “When I finish off these tin men we shall be having a long conversation brother.”

The steady draining went on as expected, the urgency only beckoning the bands to perform their process with the same amount of precision but with at least double the speed. The gears underneath the assembly line were beginning to slow, having lost most of their power, and Wendell knew that he’d be able to get the agent’s foot free in less than a minute. What he didn’t expect was that the agent would begin flinging bolts of energy at the bots. He was going to question how when Thor called out his brother’s name. Loki. Wendell was in a room filled with killer bots, an assembly line headed for the robot equivalent of a meat grinder, and two beautiful Asgardians? He was going to need to lie down after this. “Whoa…” he whispered. His eyes were wide and the bands were now a bright gold as they confirmed that they’d slowed down the process enough. Wendell made quick work of lifting this and shimmying that until he could successfully get a good grip on the agent’s, now Loki’s, foot. “This might hurt just a little, okay?” His own fingers would feel the scraping as the metal gave way to his force to pull Loki’s foot free, but it was worth it. Three functioning combatants to fight off the bots was better than just the one.

Loki gave a long-suffering sigh at Thor’s reaction. He expected little else but he certainly hoped his brother wouldn't crush every bone in his body, either in anger or in a hug. He finally dropped the fake appearance, revealing his usual face in a shimmer of green-gold light. It seemed almost strange to be himself after so long hiding as various others. A grimace crossed his face as his foot was finally yanked free but he otherwise didn't complain. It was only his pride that was truly wounded. “Thank you,” he told Wendell, his tone earnest but inside he was still irritated with the young man. It would likely pass; Loki could hold a grudge like no one else he knew but it would take more than Wendell’s earlier tone of voice to earn that level of dedication.

Spinning Stormbreaker around and around, Thor brought it crashing down through a Starkbot before kicking a second across the room. It went crunching into the metal wall almost fifty feet away from him and it wasn’t long before he was dispatching and disabling the last of the adversaries. “Quasar,” Thor spat out of fury at Loki, “can you check on the portable drive and make sure that no more of those tin men turn back on. I’d prefer for us to have a chat with Loki in private where no metal machines are going to bother us.” Stooping down, he hauled Loki up into the air by the scruff of his collar and looked him dead in the eyes. Right now he really wished that he had a drink. He had wasted years of his life mourning the loss of his brother, of his best friend. Now he found him alive and well. “Talk.” He barked.

Hell hath no fury like an older brother’s scorn, Wendell supposed. He watched with wonder as Thor slashed, bashed, and crashed through the remainder of Stark’s guard drones without much opposition. He truly was in the presence of a god, wasn’t he? “Y-yes sir!” he called back, then gave a very remorseful look at Loki. He didn’t know what was going to come out of his superior, but the tone of his voice was not exactly promising of sunshine or rainbows. Without another word, he rushed away, used some of the energy stored in his bands to float, and inspected the drive. It had completely emptied its files into the control panel, so he’d have to manually edit the program. He wasn’t fully clear on how to do that, but if it was anything like illegally downloading songs on an iPod, he’d be fine.

Loki had been moving to his feet, lifting his hands in a placating gesture, before Thor grabbed him. The moment his feet left the floor, his eyes flashed with fear. Suddenly all he could think about was Thanos and a large violet hand wrapping around his throat. He could still remember the feeling of his neck snapping like a twig, his lungs screaming for air they would never receive. Not until much later when he awoke, confused, among the other Asgardians. His pupils were frightened pinpricks in wide eyes as he stared down at Thor, breath coming quickly as panic rose. Magic danced at the ends of his fingertips where his hands were wrapped around Thor’s wrist. “Brother, please,” he begged, voice uncharacteristically showing his fear. “Let me down, I’ll talk, just not like this.”

“Wendell, please, don’t call me sir,.” Thor replied to Wendell with a calming look at him and a gentle affectionate smile. Wendell being here made him feel somewhat better. Turning his gaze towards his brother, he looked directly into Loki’s eyes and sighing quietly. Setting him down on the floor, he subdued the thunder that boomed in his chest and took a long soothing breath. Setting his brother down before beginning to walk. Pacing through the wreckage of the Starkbots and glancing between Wendell and Loki. “First of all, how are you here? And don’t give me the smart arse answer about how you snuck unboard under one of your glamours? How are you even alive?” he paused, static trickling out of the corners of his eyes for a moment as he tried his very hardest. “Second, what the hell did you do to the space stone? And before you tell me that it wasn’t you why should I believe a word that comes out of your mouth?” he spat the words with such ferocity and such fury. “Third, if you were alive this entire time then why in the name of Asgard did you not come and find me?”

Files would be easier to navigate through if they were labeled things that ordinary people could understand. Wendell felt like he needed a degree in coding just to find where the files for the assembly line were placed. As he scrolled and clicked, he managed to find something that looked promising. He clicked ‘disable’ and the lights flickered off, which he immediately undid by enabling them again. “Sorry!” he called to the brothers. He shot them a look, but didn’t let his sight linger there for long. He really wanted it to linger, though. Instead, he went back to searching. An ear remained caught on their conversation. He was also curious about how Loki had survived through the Thanos event and also because he would need to know the information to corroborate Thor’s report should he inform the director of Loki’s presence. If he chose not to do so, then it would be necessary for Wendell to be able to fill in that information.

Loki steadied himself once his feet touched the floor, his damaged ankle protesting. It took him a few steadying breaths with his eyes shut tight to calm his rapid heartbeat. When he opened them again, they focused on his pacing brother. He was more worried about defusing this situation than he’d been about the bomb. Thor never was good at asking one question at a time. “I did sneak on board; among the catering staff. You might have noticed a red haired woman? That was me.” He began with. “I didn't have anything to do with the space stone appearing or disappearing. I don't know any more about all this than you do. If I did, I wouldn't still be here.” He doubted Thor would believe him but it was the truth. When the lights flickered out for a moment, he shot an irritated look at Wendell before continuing. “As for being alive: I don't know. The same way the rest of our people came back.” He paused a moment, frowning. “I died, Thor. It wasn't a trick that time, as much as I wish it had been.”

Frowning gently at Loki, Thor simply found it nigh on impossible to accept a single thing that Loki had to say on faith alone. “Forgive me if I don’t accept everything that you have to say to me,” Thor replied with a frown like thunder, “but this is the second, or perhaps even the third time that you have apparently ‘died’ and once more we find out the truth. Which is that you’re of course not dead. You seem impossible to kill Loki.” He paused for breath, his pulse racing, his fury with his brother was all but unbridled and yet he refused to give anyone the satisfaction of fully losing control. Taking a shaky deep breath, he looked him in the eye and paused for a moment more. “For all of this to happen, and then you show up, you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe everything that you’ve got to say.” He paused and looked at Wendell. “What do you think? Should we lock him up?” he frowned once more, “We should certainly inform the others of his presence.”

Two files down and still no stopping of the assembly line. Wendell was beginning to lose hope. Thankfully, he was starting to understand what certain keywords meant. These codes gave a little insight about what would be disabled and he had narrowed down what controlled the lights and what controlled the operating system on the control panel. As he clicked on the next one, he learned that this tag was attached to the bots. Progress. He just needed to find the one that controlled the gears beneath the assembly line that still shifted on the ground. By the time he found it, he realized that he’d not responded to the words directed at him by Thor. How long, he wasn’t sure, but he supposed that silence was awkward. “I don’t think we have a jail in here…” he trailed off, then gave a grimace when he looked over. His eyes shifted back to the control panel once more as he clicked on disable and the assembly line whirred to a stop. The grinding noise no longer serving as background noise was lovely. “I think we should report it, but whatever you plan to do is up to you. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you haven’t permanently lost your brother.” This time, the expression he offered was soft. The smile he held reached up into his eyes.

The expression on Loki's face turned cold and defensive. It hurt to have Thor react in such a manner; understandable, but painful. Before Thanos they had been on good terms, better than they'd been before his brother's botched coronation all those years ago. Now it was back to threats of imprisonment and anger. Loki straightened his posture, shoulders back, and kept his voice even and neutral when he spoke. "Imprison me if you must," he said. "But I would be of more use to you out here. When we crossed paths I was in the process of setting up wards and protective spells to keep the ship safe and in one piece. I would prefer to continue that work."

Frowning, Thor’s reaction finally relented. The thunderous look on his face eventually softening before he sighed. “I will put it to the director or the highest officer of S.H.I.E.L.D. to decide your fate, ultimately this is their vessel and I wish to respect that.” He paused and shrugged, picking Stormbreaker from where he had previously dropped it. “As for imprisoning you, I fear that it would do us little good, you’d undoubtedly find your way out. You always were too resourceful for your own good.” Pausing, he frowned one final time before nodding. “Do what you must, but please, stay out of trouble.” He turned to Wendell and felt a slight relief at the fact that Loki was safe. Better that he was here with him.

Wendell remained slightly elevated, straddling the control panel for the second time in the day. He felt the high ground was perhaps the only place he could avoid the chill of their conversation. However, when it began to feel warmer, he allowed himself to hop down. Feet carried him over to the grinding mechanism at the end of the assembly line and he crossed his arms. If they hadn’t have been careful, Loki could’ve ended up going through that. Any of them could’ve, really, though he imagined if it happened to anyone, the person with the greatest chance of survival was the one who’d gotten his foot caught in the gears. “We should probably head out now. Those guard drones aren’t the only ones in the area and we’ve technically completed the task,” he mentioned. His hand lightly tapped on one of the worker drones they were assigned to wake up.

Loki felt a certain warmth in his chest when Thor finally calmed. It wasn’t exactly the acceptance he wanted but he could work on it. Not getting into trouble wasn’t his specialty but at this point it was in his best interest to behave. Causing trouble could wait until they were safely back on Earth. “I’ll do my best, brother,” he promised. He was nearly done with the wards anyhow, then he could return to help. Hopefully his appearance didn’t cause any panic amongst people who knew him only for his attack on New York. He gave a curt nod to Wendell, not entirely fond of the young man yet, though he did owe him for getting free. “I’ll rejoin you soon, once my own task is complete.”

[0utlaww-blog1]

- Incoming transmission from Director Johnson -

Dear ally of S.H.I.E.L.D

In this time of need, we hereby request your service in the Avengers Prime Initiative. We are aware that some of you are retired or are currently active in other teams, and we are not asking you to change your lifestyle. We are simply requesting that when the time comes, you aid us in placing Avenger Prime missions above all else.

If one should wish the become an Avenger Prime permanently, there will be accommodation made for you in Prime Tower, an orbiting space hub.

We urge you to accept our invitation as we aim to help those in need beyond the borders of this Earth. Space is intimidating and some may even say fearful, but that is simply because it is unknown and we strive to change this fact.

Please respond to us by letting us know if you’d like to accept this position or decline it.

Many Kind Regards

Director Daisy Johnson

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Dear S.H.I.E.L.D.

No. Sounds dumb. We already live in space, douchebags.

-Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord

[dontbeathorloser-blog]

Eye See This Is A Thor Spot || Hawkeye and Thor

Kate and Thor meet for the first time since Thanos, it goes smashingly. 

The moments that preceded Kate being thrown through a bar window included a stop sign being ripped from the concrete and Kate attempting to stop the man from smashing a car with said stop sign. Unfortunately, ripping a street sign from the pavement was indicative of super strength and Kate had been passing by without her bow in hand. She got a little ahead of herself and attacked the man head on. Fast forward a few seconds to the man grabbing Kate by the leg and flinging her forward. Kate flew through the window, glass shattering all around her as she crashed into the bar stools and the man that happened to be sitting in one. Pain coursed through her entire body and it took a long second before she finally opened her eyes and began the arduous task of climbing back onto her feet. She paused only momentarily when she noticed the man she had just crashed into. “Thor?”

Thor liked to look back on things in retrospect, knowing that he would’ve truly made Odin feel proud. He’d spent his whole life trying and failing to be enough of a son for his father to truly accept him. As he sat in a german pub, chugging a stein full of golden larger, he was pretty sure Odin would’ve approved of that. It was more what happened next, because as he sat there a scrawny mortal had come tumbling through the window, slamming into his back and cracking the bar that he had been leaning onto. His perfect immortal nose had gone slamming into the bar in front of him and for a second he was dazed. The first thing that he did was turn around and pick the mortal off of him, holding her up by the collar before depositing her on her feet. He immediately recognised her as Hawkeye, not Clint Barton, the Hawkeye that he’d known, but Kate Bishop his successor. The second thing he did was feel guilty. Which led to the third he would try and do, which was drink the rest of his larger. As he raised the stein to his lips he watched the glass slowly fall apart almost comically in his hands. Leaving him drenched in fine German wheat beer. “Excuse me mortal,” he said, setting the handle of his stein down and stepping past Hawkeye, “that ruffian owes me another ale.” Brushing himself off, he stepped through the wreckage of the window and onto the street in search of the hoodlum that had assaulted Kate Bishop.  

Did Thor just actually pick her up by her collar? Like she was a baby doll or something? Kate crossed her arms impatiently as Thor lifted her off of him and then set her down. “Thor, I swear to Asgard if you ever do that again.” It was an empty threat obviously, she had no chance in actually harming an Asgardian. But she could always stab him with an electric arrow and make him hurt a little bit. Kate brushed the splintered wood chips off of her jeans and flexed her arms to assess the damage. A few splinters sticking out of her arms and some blood dripping from where the wood had penetrated the skin. She made quick work to pull the splinters out, though she would probably have to have Friday examine her for any leftovers when she got back to the tower. She watched Thor step out of the window and onto the street and yelled after him. “Hey!” She ran forward and leapt out of the window, using the sill launch herself into the air and land on her feet next to him. “Bad drunken god! He’s my guy!” Kate started forward towards the man who had just thrown her through the window and he took a second glance between Kate and the god of thunder before actually splitting himself into four separate identical clones of himself. Welp, that’s a convenient power. Kate slowed her pace and looked back at Thor, “On second thought, I don’t mind sharing.”

“You’ll do what?” Thor asked with a raised eyebrow as he raised Stormbreaker and sparks flickered across his arms and ran along the blade of the axe side of the hammer. His eyes flickered momentarily with electricity as he turned to look for their quarry. Her comment about being drunk made him smirk. Thor glanced up at the sun, which hung high in the sky indicating that it was maybe noon. There was no way he was drunk yet. “I’ve had like one ale child,” he explained kindly, “it would take several barrels more to sink my longboat.” Pulling at his beard with his free hand, he turned away from Kate as she landed next to him and sighed gently. Apparently they’d be doing this together. He supposed it had been a long while since he’d been in a fight with a comrade, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. “Wonderful, it appears that there is plenty of him to go around.” The power he displayed looked wildly similar to the illusions that his brother had been able to cast, so to test that theory he allowed a single lance of electricity to spring out from the end of his hammer. It caught one of the clones square in the chest and sent him flying back into a building. He’d put maybe 5% into that, so he knew he’d be back sooner rather than later. “Well, they’re real.” He smiled and hefted his hammer, and sprung forward, catching two of the clones with a full body tackle. “I think I’m winning!” he exclaimed with drunken glee as he swung his hammer end over end and hit it into the chest of one of the clones, sending him skidding down the pavement, “you’ll have to do your best to catch up!”

“I’ll annoy you to death” Kate threatened. Her true super power. Kate pretended like she was pissed off, but honestly it was hard to keep up the act when she was currently about to fight alongside Thor. Not that she would ever admit it to him, but it was actually pretty exciting. Thor shot a bolt of electricity across the street and into one of the men before flying forward and hurling himself into another two and bragging about his numbers. “Unfair advantage!” Kate called out as she began running forward, the last man standing starting forward too. Kate was unsure if this was the real guy or one of the clones but regardless he had the good sense to steer clear of the man wielding a giant axe and instead opted to come after the girl in jeans and a blazer. Without her bow or any weapon, Kate was severely lacking in the useful category, but she stripped the blazer off of her back and as the man swung into a punch she ducked out of the way and used her jacket to wrap around the man’s arm and swing him around and hurl him into a wall. She kicked his knee out and, once he was down on the ground, swung her own knee into his face and knocking him out.

Laughing, Thor nodded. “I’ll make sure not to do it again then!” he crowed with a bright and bubbly laugh as sparks of power cascaded off of him. Electricity jumped off of his body and crawled along the pavement and even shooting through the cars. One of the clones he’d hit earlier with electricity was starting to get back to his feet and headed towards Hawkeye, even though she’d already taken out her clone. Thor still had two more to focus on, batting one aside, he heard him crunch into a wall and watched the clone disappear, leaving two of them as the same thing had happened to Hawkeye’s already defeated enemy. Whirling round with Stormbreaker, the hammerhead caught the final clone square in the chest, causing him to dissolve too. That left one more, but as the electricity that whirred around him settled down, he turned and watched how Hawkeye was going to deal with her final enemy.

Kate watched the clone disappear and glanced over to spot the two clones Thor had taken out both dissolving too. So that just left one. She spun around just in time to catch the clone reach out to grab her and ducked into her arm, using the palm of her hand to swat his arm away plant a kick into his back that sent him tumbling forward. “So you must be the real one then?” She questioned, “I owe you a window.” The man just grunted and response and made his way back towards her. She closed her hand into a fist and threw it at the man, slamming it directly into his face. But the man barely flinched and just stared at her. “Okay, well I was expecting that to do more.” The man reached out and grabbed Kate by the chin, lifting her fully off the ground. Her legs dangled as his fingers clamped down, applying more and more pressure to her jaw. She used both of her hands to grab onto his wrist and brought her legs up, wrapping both tightly around his bicep and then twisted her entire body. It was enough to break his grip on her and she fell from his arms and recovered quickly, throwing her arm out and jabbing the man directly in the throat before grabbing him by his hair and shoving him forwardly directly into a car window. Kate waited a long moment, waiting for him to move again but the movement never came. When she realized the fight was over she finally took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall, “That was bullshit.”

Watching Kate Bishop AKA Hawkeye easily dispatch of a super powered human being all but sent Thor into flashbacks. He had first encountered Clint Barton in New Mexico and later in the battle in New York and both times he had underestimated him. Kate dealt with her enemy with such grace that it was all but reminiscent of seeing her previous mentor as he worked alongside them on countless occasions to save the Earth. Pausing for a second, he held his hammer tensely, ready to spring into action if an intervention was necessary. However he was impressed with the ferocity of Kate Bishop’s attack, she was quick, efficient and decisive. Exactly the type of attack that he would’ve gone for. Particularly given the fact that she wasn’t powered and this creature was. “Wonderful!” he exclaimed with a booming laugh, jogging to her side with a bright smirk. “This is a tale worthy of the bards of Asgard, who knew that jackets made such fine items worthy of use in heroic combat.” Grinning brightly he grabbed a piece of metal and bent it around the villains wrists, he could already hear the sounds of sirens. “We should probably finish our drinks.”

Kate sauntered over to her jacket still lying discarded on the sidewalk and scooped it up, shrugging it back over her shoulders despite the blood and dirt that now covered the thing. She dabbed at her forehead and her fingers came back red with blood. Either she got hit and didn’t remember or a shard of glass had nicked her from one of the two broken windows. “Thanks. Smart idea” Kate gestured towards the makeshift handcuffs Thor had crafted. The sirens were coming and soon enough the police would show up and after that, SHIELD. Kate and Thor’s job seemed to be done for the day. “A beer sounds fantastic.” Kate grinned and stepped back into the pub through the shattered window. “You guys are still open right? We need a beer.” She called out to the bartender and suddenly turned back to Thor, “What the hell are you doing here anyways?”

Stepping back through the large window that Kate had been thrown through, Thor brushed some glass off of his shoulder and placed Stormbreaker down by the bar before ordering them two large steins of ale. He was somewhat disappointed that this apparent nobody had ruined his bar, undoubtedly it’d close and he would have to find somewhere else that would serve him ale. “Of course they’re open, a mead hall always provides for warriors and heroes, isn’t that right my friends.” There was no response, but Thor didn’t appear to care, raising his stein and chugging half of its contents in one swift movement. Looking around at Kate, he scratched his beard confused, and frowned at her. “What do you mean child? Is it not obvious? I am drinking of course!”

“Not a mead hall” Kate muttered but mostly to herself. She understood that Thor was not an Earth expert and the two cultures were entirely different but Kate refused to be the one who felt the need to explain those differences. She had enough explaining to do with Teddy. Kate raised the large glass along with Thor but drank much less than him in a single swallow. It would take about two of these for Kate to be completely trashed but Thor would barely have his thirst quenched. “I didn’t mean this bar.” Kate reiterated before backtracking, “I mean, I actually do mean this bar too because its awful. But I mean here in New York.” Kate wasn’t sure if this was a touchy subject or not but she had always had a bad habit of ignoring tact and jumping right into fire. “You haven’t dropped by Avenger’s tower at all. Why stay in New York at all?”

Thor recognised that this wasn’t a mead hall, the distinct lack of mead was truth enough of that matter. But he ignored her, he would call whatever he wanted, whatever he wanted. He was a God after all and surely that made it his prerogative. “New York?” he asked, the truth was that he had wondered that very question himself. Pausing for a moment he scratched at the hair on the end of his thick jaw and shrugged. “This is clearly the central hub of activity or as near to it as can be had, on Midgard.” He leaned forward, setting his heavy jug of alcohol on the wooden bar, which was still dented from where he had accidentally headbutted it after Kate had slammed into him. “If I can’t live on Asgard then this will have to do.” He shrugged gently. “There is no city that is more necessary to my needs.” The truth was quite the opposite. Anywhere else would’ve worked just fine, but the truth was that he was trying to lose himself in a city, and New York seemed to be the perfect city to do that in.

Kate took another drink and shook her head. Nobody came out of that war the same. The Avenger’s had already been through enough and it seemed that they had met their breaking point. That point might have actually been reached before the war, but Thanos was enough to bring them back together; if only temporarily. But the damage was too large. Only one of the former Avenger’s signed back on for the new avengers. And although the Young Avengers had fought against Thanos also they had had to pick their pieces up and sewn them back together because now it was their turn to step up and protect the world. “Are you even a US citizen?” Kate sidelined the conversation with her sudden question. “Actually, doesn’t matter.” Kate wasn’t qualified to help Thor heal whatever wounds he had or help fight his battles. She wasn’t close enough to him and wasn’t sure she ever could be. Her mentor had already paid the price because she hadn’t been good enough. The last thing she needed was another suffering the fate. “Why not come to the tower? There are people there that could use your help. Not me, obviously. I get the regular SHIELD agents because I’m a mortal and all that jazz. But I know people that could use training by your hand.”

Pausing, Thor considered Kate’s suggestion. It seemed interesting that anyone would even want him around. He might’ve been a founding member of the Avengers but he had always wondered just how long it would be until he was eventually hated on Earth. There had been plenty of Asgardians who had opposed he and his family, Loki not least one of them. “Child, I have saved this city and this world several times, I have fought to defend the interests of the innocent. I think that guarantees my place here.” It was not an issue he had given much thought to, where would they send him? It wasn’t as if he had anywhere to go. “I’ve had my fill of S.H.I.E.L.D. and your so-called agencies, you play a dangerous game and I have had my fill of danger, death and destruction.” He paused and shook his head. “Besides, with young heroes like you, Hawkeye, the Earth is in far safer hands than my own.” He smiled before clapping her on the shoulder.

Nobody was arguing that if anyone deserved a spot, Thor was one of them. He had helped save Earth more times than most people probably even knew about, including Kate. SHIELD records indicated that Asgardians had visited Earth long before Loki ever showed up to steal the tesseract and long before America was even a country. Kate guaranteed people who resented the Avengers and wished they had never formed existed, but other than those lunatics she wasn’t sure she could find many that didn’t count their lucky stars that Thor happened to be on Earth all those years ago. “You’re tired of danger, death and destruction? The god of thunder?” Kate questioned, though she could hardly question his stance on SHIELD and government agencies. Kate had joined SHIELD shortly after the job was offered to her but she still knew to question the system. “We’d be stronger with your help.” Kate tried once more, but her heart wasn’t in it this time. All she could focus on was a single word. Hawkeye. Thor had just called her that and aside from Captain America who had given up Barton’s old bow to her, none of the old Avengers had called her by that name. “But I don’t work for SHIELD’s recruiting team. I just shoot bad guys with arrows.”

“Don’t mistake my caution for cowardice, I do not fear for myself. My ability to do battle has always made me fight. I doubt that will end. However, I’ve lost many around me during battle, my mother, my father, my brother, my friends, my planet, most of my people. It has not been easy. Forgive my hesitation to avoid further loss.” Thor didn’t even mention his eye. Though the spare that Rocket the Rabbit had on hand had been incredibly helpful.” Shrugging Thor swallowed another mouthful and sat in silence for a moment. “If the time comes where I am required to defend Earth once again then I shall, with glee in fact. However I refuse to look for battle and the Avengers is not the best place for me to do that.” The truth was that he didn’t see the point. Thanos had all but crushed them and despite this they were still expected to keep fighting. He had seen too much death to accept that.

Kate realized she had gone too far, pushed too many boundaries. “Okay. Obviously I went too far.” Kate also realized that she seemed to lack the ability to apologize properly. Even to a god. “No one questions your courage. And I don’t blame you for those reservations.” She wished she hadn’t been the person to have been thrown into this window. Probably any other person from that tower would have handled this situation better than Kate had. “My job is just to make sure that something like that never has to happen to my planet. That’s where I come from.” She shut herself up by grabbing her beer and finishing the amount left in it in one large gulp. “I would like to go on the record and say that I’m not looking for a fight either. None of us are looking for a fight. But we’re willing to, if the fight comes to us.”

Anyone else would’ve potentially faced the wrath of Thor. But after everything that had happened, and after being unable to save his friend and leaving her without a mentor, plus due to the hours of drinking he’d endured, Thor couldn’t bring himself to get angry. “I understand your desire for answers, but understand that my reasons are well thought through.” He paused for a second and nodded. “Your desire to fight for the safety of your planet is admirable, it will bring you honour and glory. I will fight besides you if the time comes where I am needed. But until that time I am more than content to wait.” He finished his own beer and stood. Realising that their conversation was all but over. “That being said, should you ever need me, you can contact my roomate Darryl, his email address is darrylthedestroyer69@gmail.com or you can just call our building.”

“Admirable, maybe. But chances are my desire to fight is going to get me an early death and a lot of ‘I told you so’s’.” Kate couldn’t count the number of people who had warned her against the path she set herself on. The majority of that opposition coming from her family. Still, their words of disapproval only seemed to egg Kate on more and drive her further onto the path she eventually fell into. But Kate wasn’t completely blind. She knew she was in over her head. She had thrown herself head first into a world of super soldiers, mutants and aliens armed with nothing but a bow and arrow. She had made her choice. “Hopefully when that time comes, you won’t be forced to fight alongside us. We will be able to do it ourselves.” Getting over the initial shock of one, Thor having a roommate and two, Thor being on Earth this long without setting up his own email address. “I’d write it down, but I’m actually pretty sure I’ll never erase that from my memory. Ever.” Even after therapy. She sort of wished she hadn’t already finished her beer. “Well it’s been fun, Thor. But I’m not Asgardian and can’t drink anymore beer without passing out on the bar floor so I guess I’ll call it a day. Oh and also we should really just make you your own email address it’s not that hard.”

“Well if you’re dead then there is no way that anyone can tell you I told you so,” Thor paused for a second and shrugged, “your desire to fight is often a heroes greatest weakness, but sometimes their greatest strength.” The more beer he drank, the less of a filter there was, but he wasn’t about to stop drinking and it wasn’t as if his words had ever gotten him in trouble. “Aye, we can hope that I won’t be forced to fight with you, however the likelihood is that there will be no other choice, besides I do love a good fight.” Pausing for a second, he stroked his beard thoughtfully and looked at her quizzically. “It is not a particularly appropriate name, he doesn’t destroy anything.” Pausing for a second, he looked at her confused. “Why would I make my own email address?”