The Bifrost carried Minerva and a battered Loki away, leaving Thor alone. Returning to Asgard this time, he would slip into his long-term "lazy house" mode—so he decided he'd better find a way to trigger more missions before heading back to digest them slowly.
The ones he thought about most, of course, were the legendary original six Avengers. Natasha's situation had already taught him that even a hero who hadn't yet grown into their role could trigger tasks. At this point, most of the story hadn't started yet: Captain America was still frozen, Banner and Hawkeye were unknown, and almost no one was active. The only one who stood out was Tony Stark.
But right now, Tony Stark hadn't yet become Iron Man. He was in his most unbearable stage—arrogant, narcissistic… aside from being rich, there were hardly any redeeming qualities. No one except Thor could have imagined that such a spoiled playboy would one day become a savior with the courage of a god.
Thor finally managed to get a meeting lined up with Stark—through a back door opened by S.H.I.E.L.D.—in exchange for a valuable piece of intel.
"Steve Rogers is still alive. And… so is the Red Skull."
The first half of that sentence made Nick Fury nearly jump with excitement; the second half nearly made him lose his composure. Thor had only added it as a bit of bad humor.
The meeting was supposed to be that very afternoon. But at noon, Stark met a model—and promptly stood Thor up.
He got stood up.
Stood. Up.
Thor fumed. If it weren't for the fact that you're the future savior, I'd ship you off to be a son-in-law in the Far East right now!
For the first time, Thor understood exactly why Killian wanted to kill Tony Stark so badly.
"Drip! Congratulations to the host for triggering an Iron Man–related mission: Iron Man Forever—
After the Killian incident, Stark will choose to give up the identity of Iron Man. Later, when the world faces a crisis, he will don the armor again, until the final battle… when he snaps his fingers and dies."
Mission Objective: Prevent Iron Man from retiring, and keep him an Avenger forever.
Mission Reward: The improved Extremis formula.
(Maya Hansen passed all of Extremis's data to Tony before her death. Tony later improved it: the formula became milder, with weaker physical enhancement and no explosive side effects, but the self-healing ability increased dramatically.)
Note: This mission is open-ended. There are many possible solutions. Please explore freely, host!
Thor blinked in shock. The task triggered… without me even meeting him?
After some thought, it made sense. He hadn't physically seen Tony, but they'd still crossed paths—if only by the fact of being stood up. Task triggers had always been unpredictable: Carol's mission hadn't appeared until Ronan was defeated, yet Natasha's had triggered the moment they met.
But this mission… was confusing.
In fairness, the reward was tempting. Extremis ranked alongside the super-soldier serum and Wakanda's heart-shaped herb as one of the top three miracle enhancements. And unlike the others, Extremis could actually be mass-produced. With its improvements, it might not make soldiers stronger than gods—but its regeneration was so powerful that Thor imagined an entire Asgardian army of self-healing warriors, nearly impossible to kill.
The problem lay in the objectives. The first part—convincing Stark not to retire after Killian—was easy enough. No matter how dangerous Killian was to mortals, Thor could handle him. He could even prevent the Mandarin fiasco from happening altogether.
But the second part—stopping Stark from snapping his fingers in the final battle? That was a whole different level of difficulty.
Thor had long planned to end the war in Wakanda by killing Thanos early, changing fate itself. But doing so would delay his missions for decades…
And besides—Thanos could be crushed. But what about Extremis?
Thor scowled. His frustration with Tony Stark only grew. Not only had the man stood him up, but now his exclusive mission was a nightmare.
Could it be… that the mighty "core protagonist" of Marvel—Tony Stark—comes with missions so troublesome they're not even worth it?