The golden blur of Leo's wings was a sight that even Thor, suspended in the eye of the swirling storm, struggled to track with his divine eyes. The boy moved with a fluidity that transcended human physics, a shimmering ghost of light and kinetic fury that seemed to exist in ten places at once.
By the time Leo appeared behind the Destroyer, his work was already done.
Hundreds of glowing golden scars had been etched across the Destroyer's dark, intimidating form. To the naked eye, they looked like shallow scratches, mere surface damage on the indestructible Uru-metal shell. However, the reality was far more complex. Each golden mark acted as a microscopic anchor for Leo's "Nirvana" energy. From these points, a faint golden light began to bleed outward, spreading like a virus across the obsidian armor.
The Destroyer froze. It was as if the golden marks were pins driven into its nervous system. The machine stood paralyzed, locked in a silent, desperate struggle. A violent, prismatic light pulsed from within the armor—Odin's enchantments fighting tooth and nail to purge the foreign energy—but for those critical seconds, the God-slayer was a statue.
Leo's golden wings shimmered and retracted, folding back into his body with a soft, metallic click.
Down on the ground, the world was a chaos of black dust and swirling debris. Jane, Erik, and the others could only watch from the periphery, squinting against the wind. To them, the battle was a blur of thunder and flashes of golden light. None of them would ever dream that the small, masked boy standing silently in the shadows was the one who had just paralyzed a weapon of the gods.
High above, the storm reached its crescendo. Thor spun Mjolnir with a ferocity that bent the very air around him. The centrifugal force was so great that cars within a fifty-meter radius were dragged across the asphalt like toys, and the heavy Destroyer, still locked in Leo's golden paralysis, began to drift upward, caught in the localized hurricane.
Leo stood in the center of the howling wind, his feet anchored firmly to the ground by his own power. He watched the massive metal giant float higher and higher, the golden light on its body finally beginning to flicker and dim.
A small frown creased Leo's forehead beneath his mask. 'I still can't truly break it,' he admitted to himself. 'The metal I can find here just isn't dense enough. My telekinetic grip can't bend Uru, and even my Golden Wings can only scratch the surface before being countered by the enchantments. To beat magic like this, I need my own magic—or a better material.'
He watched as, after a grueling ten seconds of immobilization, the Destroyer's internal furnace flared bright orange, finally shattering the last of Leo's golden paralysis.
Leo didn't stay to watch the final clash. He turned and walked calmly toward the others, away from the eye of the storm. He found Lady Sif, who was leaning on a piece of rubble, and handed her the war spear he had been using to defend her. His eyes gleamed as he looked back at the two titanic figures silhouetted against the dark clouds.
The Destroyer, now fully autonomous and enraged, looked up at Thor. It opened its faceplate and unleashed a concentrated beam of white-hot destruction.
CRACK!
Thor didn't flinch. He swung Mjolnir with a practiced flick of the wrist, the hammer acting as a perfect lightning rod. The destructive ray didn't just stop; it was physically deflected, redirected toward the empty desert where it carved a mile-long scar into the earth. Thor knew better than to test his mortal-turned-divine skin against that heat, but with Mjolnir in his hand, he was invincible.
Thor dived. He became a silver streak of lightning, charging straight into the teeth of the Destroyer's second blast. He used the hammer like a shield, the energy of the ray splashing harmlessly around him as he closed the distance.
The destructive beam intensified, a continuous stream of fire, but Mjolnir pushed through it. Thor reached the armor in an instant, thrusting the head of his hammer directly into the Destroyer's faceplate—right where the energy was being channeled.
The resulting collision was catastrophic. The energy that hadn't been discharged met the blunt force of the hammer. A massive energy fluctuation rippled through the air, creating a blinding flash that turned the morning sky into white-out conditions. A massive shockwave roared outward, flattening the surrounding dust and knocking the onlookers back.
The Destroyer's internal systems gave out. The orange fire in its eyes flickered once, twice, and then died.
In Asgard, Loki felt the connection sever. He sensed a signal from Jotunheim—Laufey was ready. Loki didn't waste another second on the failed machine. He dropped the control scepter and turned toward the Bifrost, his mind already on his next betrayal.
The hollow, three-meter-tall shell of the Destroyer fell from the sky like a dead bird, hitting the ground with a dull thud and kicking up a final cloud of soot. As the tornado dissipated, Thor landed softly nearby, his cape settling behind him. He looked spotless, his armor gleaming as if he had just stepped out of a royal ceremony.
Leo watched him, feeling a rare pang of envy. 'That hammer is the real deal,' he thought. 'If I had a weapon that could channel energy like that without melting, I wouldn't have to play tag with robots.'
Thor walked over to Jane and Erik. Jane looked at the man she had hit with a van just days ago—now a literal god in silver scales—and smiled. "So... I guess this is the real you?"
"More or less," Thor replied, his voice deep and warm.
"It's a good look," Jane said softly.
Thor turned to Sif and the Warriors Three. "We have to move. Loki has a plan in motion, and I can feel the shadows lengthening over Asgard. We must return to the Bifrost."
"Wait!"
Agent Coulson had just pulled up in a dusty SUV, jumping out and running toward the group. He looked at Thor, then at the smoking pile of metal that was the Destroyer. "It seems I owe you an apology for the interrogation room. You've been keeping some pretty big secrets."
Thor looked at Coulson with a new level of respect. He saw a man who, like himself, was trying to stand against things much larger than he was. "Son of Coul... we are more alike than you know. We both fight for the protection of this realm."
Thor placed a heavy hand on Coulson's shoulder. "From this day forward, consider me an ally to your people. But I have one condition: return everything you took from Dr. Foster and her team."
Coulson nodded seriously. "I gave my word to Leo, and I'll keep it to you. The equipment will be returned today."
Leo walked over, his expression unreadable behind the mask. "You okay, Coulson?"
"Better than my cars," Coulson sighed, looking at the wreckage. "Where's the robot? What exactly did you guys do to it?"
Thor didn't answer. He turned to Jane, a playful spark returning to his eyes. "Would you like to see that bridge we've been discussing? The one that leads to the stars?"
"Are you kidding? Yes!" Jane laughed.
Thor wrapped an arm around her waist and began to spin Mjolnir.
"Wait! I have more questions!" Coulson shouted, but he was drowned out by the roar of the wind. Thor and Jane launched into the sky, heading toward the desert landing site. Sif and the others hopped into the remaining vehicles with Erik to follow them.
Coulson turned to Leo. "So... care to give me the short version?"
"Thor got his mojo back, smashed the tin man, and now he's heading home to kick his brother's butt," Leo said simply. "Nobody died, the town is standing, and you've got a very expensive pile of scrap metal to look at. I'd call that a win."
Leo looked at the massive Destroyer lying in the crater. Its head was caved in, but the body was mostly intact. With a subtle flick of his fingers, Leo exerted his control. The three-meter-tall armor began to hover, floating out of the hole and following Leo as he started to drift away.
"Hey! Where are you taking that?" Coulson called out.
"Recycling," Leo yelled back, disappearing over a ridge before Coulson could protest.
Agent Sitwell, the bald senior agent, walked up beside Coulson, looking at Leo's receding silhouette with a dark, calculating curiosity. "Coulson... who exactly is that kid?"
"Just a friend, Sitwell," Coulson said, though his eyes were worried. "Just a friend."
Leo didn't go to the Bifrost. He knew Thor would be busy saying his goodbyes and dealing with the Rainbow Bridge. Instead, he steered the floating Destroyer toward a desolate, jagged Gobi wasteland several miles away.
He landed in a canyon of red rock, the dark armor thudding into the sand before him. Leo stood before the hollow god-slayer and slowly spread his golden wings.
"Now," Leo whispered, his eyes glowing with an intense, hungry gold. "Let's see what you're really made of."