Puente Antiguo, New Mexico36 Hours Later
The desert air was dry enough to crack lips, but Elias didn't feel it. He was lying prone on a sandstone ridge overlooking the SHIELD crater site, five hundred yards out.
Through the lenses of his high-powered binoculars, he watched Phil Coulson barking orders. In the center of the plastic tunnels and floodlights lay Mjolnir.
"Atmospheric pressure dropping," Elias whispered. "Electromagnetic interference rising."
"Sir," Alfred's voice buzzed in his earpiece. "The thermal signature of the object in the crater is... confusing. It radiates zero heat, yet the surrounding air is ionizing."
"It's not just an object, Alfred. It's a password-protected nuke."
Elias stood up, dusting off his desert-camo fatigues. He wasn't wearing a superhero costume. He wore a matte-black tactical bodysuit woven with experimental Kevlar-titanium weave—a prototype from his own R&D department. It was light, silent, and heat-resistant.
"Time to introduce ourselves."
The Infiltration
Getting past the perimeter was insultingly easy. The SHIELD agents were trained to look for soldiers, spies, or vehicles. They weren't trained to look for a ghost.
Elias moved through the blind spots of the cameras. He calculated the rotation speed of the guard patrols— Agent A: 45-second loop. Agent B: 52-second loop. Intersection window: 3 seconds.
He slipped through the gap like smoke.
He reached the central containment unit. A large, blonde man was currently shackled to a chair in the interrogation room—Thor. Elias paused by the one-way glass. He looked at the fallen god.
Analysis: Muscle density 3x human average. Bone structure distinct. Currently depowered. Emotional state: Broken.
Elias bypassed the interrogation room and walked straight to the hammer. It sat in the mud, unassuming.
He crouched next to it. He reached out a hand.
"Don't bother," a voice said.
Elias didn't jump. He slowly turned his head. Clint Barton—Hawkeye—was perched on a scissor lift above, bow drawn.
"Better men than you have thrown out their backs pulling on that handle," Clint warned.
Elias smiled behind his tactical mask. "I'm not here to lift it, Barton. I'm just checking the calibration."
"You know my name." Clint's string went taut. "That puts you on the bad list."
"Wait," Coulson's voice came over the loudspeaker. "Stand down, Barton. Let him talk."
Elias tapped the side of his headset. "Director Fury sends his regards, Agent Coulson. He told me you were having trouble with a '0-8-4'."
Coulson stepped out from the shadows of the tunnel entrance, gun drawn but lowered. "You're the ninja from the Stark Expo. Thorne."
"I prefer 'Consultant'," Elias said, standing up.
Suddenly, the sky cracked open.
It wasn't rain. It was a wormhole. The Bifrost slammed into the desert floor two miles away, shaking the ground so violently that the floodlights shattered.
"That's not weather," Elias said, his eyes narrowing. He felt the shift in air pressure. "Something just arrived. And it's not friendly."
The Destroyer
Twenty minutes later, the main street of Puente Antiguo was a war zone.
Elias stood on the roof of the local auto shop. Below, Sif and the Warriors Three were engaging a towering monstrosity of enchanted metal—The Destroyer.
It was magnificent. It was a walking furnace.
"Alfred, record everything," Elias commanded.
"Recording, Sir. But I advise retreating. That construct is emitting energy blasts in excess of 500 gigajoules."
"It's beautiful," Elias murmured.
Down below, Volstagg was thrown through a building. Sif drove a spear into the Destroyer's neck, but the machine simply rearranged its metal plates, turning its head backward to blast her.
The Warriors were losing. Thor, powerless and mortal, was walking toward the machine to sacrifice himself.
"Brother!" Thor shouted, his voice cracking. "Take my life and end this!"
The Destroyer paused. Its faceplate opened, a fiery orange glow building deep within its chest. It was preparing to incinerate the son of Odin.
"Not today," Elias said.
He jumped.
Eyes of the Lord
Elias didn't land softly. He landed like a meteor, right between Thor and the Destroyer. The pavement cracked under his boots.
Thor blinked, confused. "Who—?"
"Move," Elias ordered, his voice flat.
The Destroyer looked down at this tiny human. It didn't care. The beam fired.
A concentrated lance of heat, hot enough to melt tank armor, screamed toward Elias.
Snap.
The world turned gray.
Elias's eyes changed. The blue iris dissolved, replaced by the intricate, red-and-gold clockwork pattern of the Eyes of the Lord.
He saw the beam not as a blur of light, but as a slow-moving river of excited particles. He saw the magic weaving through the heat. He saw the trajectory.
Calculation: Dodge left? No. Too much splash damage. It will hit the gas station behind us.
Option B: Reflection.
Elias didn't possess magic. He couldn't generate the beam. But his muscles, his nerves, and his bones could replicate the action of the force exerted.
He dropped his center of gravity. He watched how the Destroyer braced its metallic legs to handle the recoil of the blast.
Copying Stance: Asgardian Anchor.
Elias's legs seemed to bulge, his pants tearing slightly as his muscles rearranged instantly to mimic the density of Uru metal.
He didn't fire back. He slapped the beam.
Using the perfect leverage and speed he had copied from watching the beam's particle flow, he struck the side of the energy lance with the back of his hand. It was a move that defied physics, a parry of pure light.
The beam refracted, shooting wildly to the right and carving a trench through the empty desert.
BOOM.
Silence fell over the street.
Sif stared. The Warriors Three stared. Even the Destroyer seemed to pause, its internal turbine whirring in confusion.
Elias stood there, smoke rising from his glove. His hand was burned, the skin red and blistering. The heat was immense.
"Ow," Elias said dryly.
The Destroyer didn't like being parried. It charged.
It was ten feet of unstoppable metal. It swung a fist the size of a mailbox.
Elias's eyes tracked the hydraulic motion.
Speed: Mach 0.5.Force: 40 tons.
Elias saw the punch before it happened. He saw the wind displacement.
He moved inside the guard. He didn't just dodge; he moved faster than the machine.
Divine Reflection.
Elias threw a punch of his own. He targeted the one weak point he had identified with his Wayne-level structural analysis: the joint where the neck met the torso.
His fist connected.
CLANG.
The sound was like a church bell ringing inside a submarine.
The Destroyer stumbled back. A visible dent appeared in its armor.
"He... he hurt it," Volstagg whispered. "A mortal hurt the Destroyer."
But Elias was paying the price. His nose began to bleed. A sharp, searing pain shot through his optic nerves.
Warning: Neural Overheat at 20%.
Copying a god-killing weapon was taxing. His human brain was struggling to process the divine data.
The Destroyer regained its balance. It began to spin, its entire body turning into a cyclone of metal and fire.
"I can't keep this up all day," Elias gritted out. He looked back at Thor. "Hey, Goldilocks! Any time you want to be a god again, feel free!"
Thor looked at Jane Foster, then at Elias fighting a losing battle against the machine. The selflessness triggered the enchantment.
Mjolnir, miles away in the crater, began to shake.
The Ascension
The Destroyer backhanded Elias.
Despite his eyes seeing it, his body was half a second too slow to fully evade the area of effect. The shockwave sent him flying through the window of the diner. He crashed into the counter, glass and ketchup bottles raining down on him.
He groaned, spitting blood. "Alfred... remind me to build a better suit."
"Sir, energy spike detected," Alfred replied.
Outside, a boom of thunder shook the foundations of the earth.
Elias pulled himself up to the window just in time to see Mjolnir fly into Thor's hand. The lightning struck, blinding and brilliant. The armor formed. The cape unfurled.
The God of Thunder was back.
Elias slumped against the counter, wiping the blood from his nose. "Showtime."
He watched as Thor dismantled the Destroyer in seconds, creating a tornado to lift it and driving the hammer through its skull. It was effortless. It was true power.
Elias's eyes throbbed. He deactivated the Eyes of the Lord, his vision returning to normal blue. He felt exhausted, like he'd run a marathon while doing calculus.
Assessment
The dust settled. Thor stood victorious. He shared a moment with Jane, then turned to his friends.
Finally, the God walked over to the ruined diner. He stepped through the broken window.
Elias was sitting on a barstool, nursing a lukewarm coffee he'd found behind the counter.
Thor looked him up and down. "You fought well, mortal. You have the eyes of a warrior. I have never seen a Midgardian move like that."
Elias took a sip of coffee. "I drink a lot of caffeine."
"What is your name?"
"Elias Thorne."
Thor nodded respectfully. "I am Thor Odinson. I owe you a debt. You bought me the seconds I needed."
"Just remember that when you're done playing tourist," Elias said, standing up. His legs wobbled slightly, but he hid it. "There are worse things out there than metal suits."
SHIELD vehicles began to pull up outside. Coulson was running toward them.
"I should go," Elias said. "I'm not big on paperwork."
"Where will you go?" Thor asked.
Elias adjusted his collar. He looked at the wreckage of the Destroyer. He had scanned its energy signature. He had memorized the way its metal folded. He had data.
"Back to the lab," Elias said. "I have some upgrades to make."
He walked out the back door just as Coulson entered the front.
The Drive Home
Elias sat in the back of his private jet, soaring back toward New York. He held an ice pack to his eyes.
"Alfred, analysis."
"The subject 'Destroyer' utilized a form of disintegration energy," the AI replied. "You were unable to fully replicate the beam, but your physical mimicry of its durability allowed you to survive the impact. However, your bone density in the right arm has suffered micro-fractures. You are not Asgardian, Sir. If you attempt to copy that level of power again without support, your body will tear itself apart."
Elias looked at the reflection in the window. The eyes stared back.
"I know," Elias said softly. "I need a container. A shell that can handle the output."
He pulled up a holographic schematic on his tablet. It was a design he had been toying with. It looked like a mix of the Batsuit and Iron Man's armor, but sleeker, designed for agility rather than flight.
"Alfred, begin Project: Valkyrie."
"Very good, Sir. Oh, and Mr. Stark is calling. Again."
Elias smirked. "Put him through."
"Thorne!" Tony's voice crackled over the speakers. "My sensors just picked up a massive energy spike in New Mexico. And guess whose private jet just left the same airspace?"
"I was just sightseeing, Tony," Elias lied smoothly. "Beautiful desert. Very peaceful."
"Bullshit. You're up to something. I'm building a tower in New York. You should come by. I want to pick that giant brain of yours."
"I might take you up on that," Elias said. "But first, I have a date with a Cryo-chamber."
He cut the line.
He closed his eyes. In the darkness of his mind, he replayed the fight. He replayed Thor's lightning.
Can I copy the lightning? he wondered.
Not yet. But soon.