Iron Man hit the God of Thunder like a falling meteor.
The impact carried them both off the jagged cliff and sent them plunging into the dark forest below. They crashed through the thick canopy, snapping ancient pine trees like brittle matchsticks, before slamming into the muddy earth. The sheer force of their landing carved a deep trench through the soil and threw a cloud of dirt and shredded bark high into the stormy air.
Thor rolled to his feet instantly. He gripped Mjolnir tightly, his blue eyes flashing with immediate annoyance. He was not hurt in the slightest, but his pride was certainly bruised.
Tony landed a few yards away in a perfect three-point crouch. The sleek, red and gold plates of the Mark X armor hummed with aggressive power. The mechanical faceplate snapped open, revealing Tony's thoroughly unimpressed expression.
"Do not touch me again," Thor warned, his voice rumbling like the thunder above them.
"Then don't take my prisoner," Tony shot back casually.
"You have no idea what you are dealing with," Thor stated, taking a heavy step forward.
"Uh, Shakespeare in the park?" Tony quipped, shifting his voice up into a theatrical imitation. "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"
Thor narrowed his eyes. "This is beyond you, metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice."
"Uh-huh. Look. Your brother surrendered to us. We are taking him in. Once SHIELD gets its compromised agent back and we know exactly where that alien invasion fleet is coming from, you can have him. Take him home. Put him on trial. Ground him for a thousand years without supper. I really do not care." Tony offered a highly dismissive wave as his faceplate snapped shut with a sharp metallic clack. "Until then, big guy, stay out of the way."
Thor did not appreciate the dismissal. He swung his arm and threw Mjolnir with blinding speed.
Tony braced himself. The enchanted hammer slammed into his chest plate, sending him flying backward through two massive tree trunks.
In the past, a hit like that would have shattered his ribs and crushed the suit's internal dampeners. But this was the Mark X. It was reinforced with advanced Kree metallurgical designs and powered by a completely revolutionized arc reactor. More importantly, the man inside the suit was enhanced by Extremis. Tony's altered physiology absorbed the crushing kinetic shock without breaking a single bone.
Tony flipped gracefully in mid-air, his thrusters firing perfectly to arrest his momentum. He landed firmly on his feet and immediately raised both gauntlets.
"Okay," Tony muttered inside the helmet. "JARVIS. Note the magic hammer. We are going to need to talk about that later."
"Noted, Sir."
Tony fired both palm repulsors at full burn.
The twin beams crossed the clearing and slammed directly into Thor's chest. The Asgardian crossed his forearms in front of his face and weathered the blast, his boots digging twin furrows into the earth as he was pushed back ten meters. When the beams cut out, Thor was still standing.
Tony was already in the air.
He came in fast and low. He drove a repulsor-boosted shoulder directly into Thor's stomach, lifting the heavy god completely off his feet. They went flying through a thick stand of pines together. Each massive trunk snapped at the base in their violent wake, raining heavy branches down around them.
Thor grabbed the back of the Mark X's helmet in mid-flight and slammed his own forehead brutally into the armored faceplate.
Tony saw stars.
He saw actual, twinkling stars. A whole little constellation of them scrolling across the HUD where his sensors had briefly given up on having opinions about the physical world.
He fired both boot thrusters straight down, broke the Asgardian's crushing grip, and corkscrewed up through the ruined canopy into the open night air.
"Sir, structural integrity at eighty-one percent."
"He headbutted me, JARVIS."
"Yes, Sir."
"Through the helmet."
"Yes, Sir."
Below him, Thor was already up and moving. The Asgardian spun Mjolnir rapidly, gathering the ambient storm energy from the dark clouds above, and pointed the heavy hammer straight at the sky.
Lightning struck the forest.
A massive, blinding bolt of pure atmospheric electricity slammed down onto Thor, and he directed the entire devastating charge straight up into Iron Man.
Tony was completely engulfed in a blinding white storm of raw electricity. The trees around him instantly caught fire.
Inside the helmet, the warning alarms shrieked for exactly one second before the new power systems kicked in. The suit did not melt. The upgraded arc reactor spun wildly, eagerly drinking in the massive surge of divine energy.
"Sir," JARVIS announced, sounding almost surprised. "Power is at four hundred percent capacity."
Tony grinned fiercely. "How about that."
He channeled the massive surplus directly into his chest plate and fired the unibeam.
It struck Thor with the force of a small detonation, completely leveling the surrounding trees and throwing the Asgardian violently backward through the burning forest.
Thor skidded to a halt, digging his boots deep into the dirt. He wiped a smudge of black soot from his cheek. His eyes were wide with rising battle joy.
He charged.
Tony fired his thrusters and charged right back to meet him.
They clashed in the dead center of the smoldering, ruined clearing.
Thor swung Mjolnir in a heavy overhead arc. Tony rolled smoothly under it, came up tight inside the Asgardian's guard, and drove a brutal, piston-driven punch right into Thor's jaw. Thanks to Extremis, Tony possessed a physical density and muscular power far beyond any normal human. When his armored fist connected, the impact sounded like a heavy cannon firing.
Thor actually staggered. His head snapped sideways. He tasted hot blood.
The Asgardian looked back at the metal man with genuine shock. He swung again, a heavy backhand meant to clear distance. Tony ducked it, fired a burst of shoulder micro-missiles at point-blank range, and used the fiery cover to fly straight up under Thor's chin with a rising uppercut.
Thor caught the punch squarely in his free hand.
He grinned through bloodied teeth.
"You are good, metal man."
"I have been working on it."
Thor swung Mjolnir down and clipped the Mark X's armored flank. The blow rang the suit like an enormous church bell and threw Tony sideways into another thick, splintering tree. Tony came out of the wreckage already firing with wrist lasers, palm repulsors, and a second burst of micro-munitions all at once. Thor walked right through the fiery explosions like a man taking a casual stroll through a heavy spring rain.
When he came out the other side of the smoke, Tony was already on him.
They locked up in a desperate, standing grapple. Thor's massive hand gripped the front of the glowing chest plate, threatening to crush the casing. Tony's metal gauntlet locked securely and immovably around Thor's thick wrist. Each of them strained heavily against the other, their boots sinking deep into the muddy forest floor.
And in that brief moment of immense, grinding pressure, Tony realized something very specific.
Thor was actively pulling his punches.
The God of Thunder was swinging hard enough to test the armor and test the man inside it. He was not swinging nearly hard enough to crush the fragile human he assumed was hiding inside the shell. Thor was deliberately holding back his world-breaking strength.
Tony immediately understood that Thor did not actually want to hurt him. He was going easy. Tony smiled inside the helmet, profoundly grateful that the alien god standing in front of him was not actually a true enemy.
At the exact same moment, Thor felt the impossible, superhuman resistance in Tony's grip and realized the mortal inside the metal shell was grinning right back at him.
Before either of them could speak, a blur of red, white, and blue dropped rapidly through the burning tree canopy.