Silence.
The room fell utterly, painfully silent—so still that even the faint hum of the air filtration system felt deafening.
Every Avenger stared in shock, eyes wide and unblinking, as if afraid that blinking would make the impossible sight before them vanish.
Alex had lifted Mjolnir.
How was that possible?!
Captain America had been able to lift it once—that had been a moment of awe, born from a lifetime of unwavering selflessness and a noble heart. But Alex?
Alex was no hero.
This shouldn't have been possible!
"Nani?!"
The exclamation broke the heavy silence, but it didn't lessen the disbelief.
"I… actually lifted it?" Alex's voice was half incredulous, half amused, like someone discovering they'd just won the lottery without buying a ticket.
"No way!"
Even Alex himself looked stunned. He had been casually trying it, not expecting anything—just indulging in a bit of harmless curiosity.
Mjolnir was no ordinary weapon. It was a godly artifact steeped in ancient magic, forged in the heart of a dying star. Raw strength wasn't enough—as the Hulk had proved more than once.
Yet here Alex was, holding it as if it weighed nothing more than a baseball bat.
He gave it a playful toss into the air. The hammer spun in a blur, its metal gleaming under the overhead lights before falling neatly back into his grip.
Effortless.
And more than that—he could feel it. A faint, thrumming connection, almost like a heartbeat, pulsing between him and the hammer.
"No… NO! This can't be!"
"You—you shouldn't be able to lift it!"
Thor's voice cracked with disbelief, his tone edging dangerously close to panic.
Alex's casual display was like a knife twisting in his pride.
But the real shock was still to come.
Grinning at the strange bond forming between himself and Mjolnir, Alex took a slow breath and tightened his grip.
"Hah!"
With a swift swing—
CRACK!
Lightning erupted. Brilliant arcs of electricity danced across the room, casting harsh shadows and flooding the air with the sharp scent of ozone.
"Holy—he just summoned lightning?!"
"Thor, did you bring back a fake hammer or something?!" War Machine's jaw went slack as he elbowed the god beside him.
The rest of the Avengers looked equally dumbfounded.
Lifting Mjolnir was already a monumental feat, but calling down lightning? That was something else entirely.
"So this is what it feels like to be Thor? Not bad."
Alex ignored the gawking stares, focusing on the weight in his hand and the way the weapon seemed to respond to his will.
Another flick of his wrist—
ZZZT!
A bigger bolt split the air, white-hot light flooding the room for a heartbeat. The Avengers squinted against the glare, half-blinded.
Then, without warning, Alex hurled Mjolnir forward. The hammer shot across the room like a cannonball—then curved sharply in mid-air, slicing back toward him.
It landed neatly in his palm.
Smooth. Natural.
As if the hammer had always belonged to him.
Alex laughed aloud, unable to hide his amusement.
What the hell was going on?
Had Mjolnir just… accepted him?
"Alex is wielding that hammer like he's been Thor his whole life," Tony muttered, still sounding like he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.
"If I didn't know better, I'd think he was the God of Thunder," Rocket chimed in, his whiskers twitching.
"No," Scott said gravely, his eyes flicking toward Thor. "I think Alex is more worthy than Thor."
The group's collective gaze drifted toward Thor's slightly sagging midsection.
Scott… might have had a point.
At this rate, Alex looked far more like a god than the actual God of Thunder.
"OKAY, STOP! Alex, just—STOP!"
Thor stomped forward, his boots thudding heavily against the floor. He wrenched Mjolnir out of Alex's grip with a forceful tug, clutching it protectively to his chest like a child guarding a favorite toy.
"This is my hammer. You can't just—do whatever you want with it!"
He glared at Alex, his eyes filled with a mix of wounded pride and simmering confusion.
"Actually, Thor, this isn't your hammer," Alex pointed out with a smirk. "It belongs to the other Thor. So technically, it's unclaimed here."
"IT'S STILL A THOR'S HAMMER!"
Thor bellowed in frustration, hugging Mjolnir even tighter.
"Tch. Mjolnir…" Alex sighed, his voice tinged with reluctant admiration.
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't tempted to keep it.
But taking a god's weapon for himself? That wasn't really his style. Even if Asgard was too weakened to stop him now, he wasn't without a sense of boundaries.
With that little drama settling, the Avengers' attention shifted back to the Infinity Gauntlet.
Thor, however, wasn't listening. His mind was spinning.
How had Alex lifted Mjolnir?
It shouldn't have been possible… unless—
His breath caught.
That incident.
Years ago, Loki—under Thanos' orders—had tried to steal the Tesseract from Earth. Alex had not only captured him but marched straight to Asgard to confront Odin himself.
Thor had expected his father to crush Alex instantly for daring to challenge Asgard's authority.
Instead, after a fierce battle, Odin had done the unthinkable—made a secret deal with Alex.
Could that be the reason?
It was the only explanation that made sense.
Not to mention Alex had later stood alongside Asgard in one of its darkest battles, holding the line when others would have fled.
"Alright, people. Time to slot in the Stones."
Tony's voice snapped Thor back to the present.
The team gathered tightly around the Gauntlet, the air heavy with anticipation.
This was it—the moment everything hinged on.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
Mechanical arms, precise and delicate, lowered each Infinity Stone into its socket.
Every Avenger held their breath.
Then—
FLASH!
The Gauntlet blazed with light, a surge of raw cosmic energy sweeping through the room like a wave. For one terrifying heartbeat, everyone braced for the worst—expecting an explosion, a surge, something catastrophic.
But the glow gradually dimmed.
The Stones rested neatly in place.
Success.
"BOOM!"
Rocket suddenly shouted, mimicking an explosion sound with far too much enthusiasm.
Every single person in the room jumped, hands twitching toward weapons.
Of course.
Because only a lunatic would voluntarily join the Guardians of the Galaxy.
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