Asgard.
In the gleaming golden throne hall, the King of the Gods, Odin, summoned his son, Thor.
"Father, are you sending me to Vanaheim? I hear the fighting there has grown fierce. Just give me leave to join the battle and I'll bring back the enemy commander's head within ten days."
Young, brash, and radiating confidence, Thor's face lit up at the mere mention of combat. He hadn't spared a single thought for whether he might be wounded or killed. In his mind, a battlefield was a stage for personal glory and the roar of soldiers cheering his name.
Odin stood in golden armor, Gungnir in hand, studying his son with an unreadable expression.
Even by Asgardian standards, where brawn was the default setting, Thor's conduct could be called valiant. Valiant to the point of reckless.
Knowing his words would accomplish little, Odin counseled him all the same. "My son, do those other races truly submit to you? They submit to your hammer. Without Mjolnir, could you still claim victory after victory?"
Thor answered without hesitation. "I can, Father! The hammer and I are one. If those cowards submit to Mjolnir, they submit to me. It makes no difference!" He roared with laughter.
His son's understanding of courage and victory did not align with Odin's hopes. The Allfather sighed inwardly. This son of his worried him to no end. He moved on to the business at hand.
"There is a task on Midgard that requires your attention."
"Please, Father."
"The Titan Kronos has been held captive by humans. I need you to release him."
"What?!" Thor's shock gave way to fury. "Those mortals on Midgard dare to imprison a divine being like Kronos? This is a declaration of war against the gods!"
Odin raised a hand, motioning him to calm down. "It is merely the body left behind after that earlier explosion. The nature of time caused a new consciousness to be born within that body. Afterward, certain humans on Midgard imprisoned it deep underground. A new era is approaching. Kronos should be free. That was the compact among the gods."
"I understand, Father."
Thor turned to leave. Odin extended his left hand, and Mjolnir flew to his palm.
"My son, I want to see your strength. Not the hammer's. Do you understand what I mean?"
Thor puzzled over it for a moment. "Then I'll use my old weapons. Father, I will prove my valor to you. Rest easy!"
Odin covered his face with his hand, at a complete loss for words. He waved Thor off, and the God of Thunder left the throne hall looking like a man heading out on vacation.
...
The Cabin in the Woods facility was situated deep in Oregon. The forests here were dense, the population sparse. The area had originally been home to Native American communities, and even after colonization, the state's population had never swelled. The entire state of Oregon barely topped three million people.
After experiencing Bella's teleportation firsthand, Natasha had torn up half her extraction plan. No need to worry about finding a truck for exfil. The only real challenge was getting in.
"If I show up there, it'll raise suspicion. You have a way around that, right?" Natasha asked while driving.
Bella certainly did.
"I can use visual deception on the personnel, and then you alter the security feeds... Hm?! What's she doing here?" Bella had been scrolling through the dossiers of Cabin in the Woods staff, planning to use the same infiltration method she'd employed against Sector Seven, when something stopped her cold.
Natasha glanced over. The screen showed a female employee's photo: large eyes, high-bridged nose, long chestnut hair, a trace of mockery at the corner of her mouth. She didn't recognize the woman. "Someone you know? She doesn't look like your type."
Bella winced. "She's a friend, actually. Remember last year when I helped Professor Xavier rescue those mutants? She was the hacker on the team. Goes by Root. After I stepped back, she started taking jobs directly from Xavier's people. I assumed she was still in New York... turns out she's been here the whole time. The security holes in your Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division are honestly staggering."
Since Miss Root had already embedded herself inside the Cabin in the Woods, there was no need for an elaborate mental-illusion infiltration.
Bella arranged to meet Root at a small town outside the base.
Root looked the same as always: head tilted, clear-lens glasses perched on her nose, leather jacket and jeans. Nothing about her screamed female hacker or assassin. She sipped her coffee and, seeing that Bella had no intention of introducing Natasha, didn't ask.
"My dear boss..."
"Don't. I'm not your boss."
"Then you're Shaw's boss."
"Ms. Groves, Shaw and I are just friends who get along. You don't need to be jealous of me."
Bella had to simultaneously defuse her jealous partner beside her and make clear that she harbored no improper thoughts toward Shaw. Being an irresistibly charming woman, she reflected, was genuinely exhausting.
After considerable verbal acrobatics, she finally got around to explaining the purpose of the visit.
Root produced something resembling a card reader, then held out her hand to Bella. "I didn't bring any electronics with me."
Bella hadn't brought any high-tech gear either. With Natasha sitting silently nearby, nursing her coffee, she had no choice but to hand over her tablet.
Root took the tablet, ran through a series of configurations and uploads, then generated two completely new identities and handed over a pair of ID badges.
"The base's deputy supervisor took the day off. You two are listed under his staff. Even if something goes wrong, it won't trace back to me."
A smile lingered at the corner of Root's mouth, though it was hard to say whether it was a smirk, a sneer, or something else entirely.
She waved and left the town.
A hacker of her caliber would never go anywhere without an electronic device. Her earlier claim had been pure mischief, born of boredom and a lifelong disregard for boundaries. While she had Bella's tablet, she'd secretly copied its entire contents onto her own device.
On the drive back, she browsed through the data at leisure.
Most of Bella's tablet was filled with records on religion, arcane techniques, and runic inscriptions. Root had almost no interest. Driven by idle curiosity, she gave it a cursory pass.
Boring woman. So that other one is her lover? Seems like a prickly personality too... Hm? Something caught her eye. After a flurry of keystrokes, she recovered a set of deleted experimental procedures and data.
The contents genuinely shocked her. Artificial sperm and female independent reproduction technology.
Root's relationship with Bella was nowhere near close enough to share secrets of this magnitude. After a few moments of deliberation, she swung the car onto a different highway. The Cabin in the Woods could go to hell. She had far more important matters to verify.