Amidst the wreckage of cars and the shattered facades of buildings, lay the dismembered corpse of a god machine.
Its head, helmet shattered, lay near a lamppost that was bent at a ninety degree angle.
Its torso, a lifeless hunk of alien metal, was half submerged in a crater of its own making.
Its limbs were scattered, torn from their joints. It was a monument to a battle so one sided it could only be called an execution.
Standing in a casual formation around the wreckage were the victors.
Tony's armor had a few new scratches, but its crimson and gold finish still gleamed.
T'Challa stood with a regal stillness, the purple energy in his suit having faded.
Namor floated a few inches off the ground on a column of mist, his trident resting on his shoulder.
And Wanda Maximoff's hands, moments ago blazing with the reality altering power of Chaos Magic, were now calmly at her sides.
Beside them stood Thor, Mjolnir in his hand, his eyes crackling with residual lightning, his expression a complex mixture of righteous fury fulfilled and awe.
It was into this quiet tableau that the first wave of the cavalry arrived.
A series of armored vehicles rolled silently into the town.
The doors opened, and out stepped Aryan Spencer, the Leader, Pietro, and Bucky.
Their arrival was followed by the low thrum of EDF stealth transports descending, disgorging teams of ERO operators and combat engineers who immediately began to secure the perimeter and assess the damage.
Aryan's core team…. walked forward, their boots crunching on the shattered glass and debris.
They stopped a short distance away, their faces a gallery of stunned disbelief as they took in the sheer scale of the destruction, and the even more unbelievable sight of the defeated Destroyer.
Pietro was the first to speak, his usual quick witted humor replaced by pure astonishment.
He looked from the dismembered automaton to his sister, who offered him a smile.
"Wanda," he breathed. "You... you did that?"
He had always known she was powerful. But this... this was the power to unmake legends.
He felt a surge of pride so fierce it almost buckled his knees, followed by the sobering realization that he, the fastest man alive, was a bullet, while his sister had just demonstrated the power of a tactical nuke.
Bucky Barnes stood beside him, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield with a soldier's practiced eye.
He saw the precision of the destruction: the targeted joints, the focused energy burns, the deliberate dismantling.
This was a surgical procedure. He had spent his life as a weapon, a tool for lesser men fighting for petty goals.
He had believed himself, as the Winter Soldier, to be the pinnacle of what a soldier could be. He now knew he was just a foot soldier in an army of gods.
And for some strange reason, he was okay with that. The burden of being the ultimate weapon was no longer his to carry.
He looked at Tony, T'Challa, Namor, and Wanda, with the quiet respect of a veteran for a higher class of warrior.
Sharon Carter, coordinating the cleanup from a data slate, was all business on the surface, but her mind was reeling.
She was re evaluating every threat assessment she had ever written.
The power on display had been flawless, a coordinated application of unbelievable force.
Her gaze fell on Aryan, who was now walking calmly toward the victors.
She remembered her desperate pleas for him to stay off the front lines, to let them protect the "normal, un enhanced human" at the head of their council.
From the edge of the town, hidden behind the shell of a wrecked pickup truck, Jane Foster, Erik Selvig, and Darcy Lewis had witnessed the entire battle.
"Did you see the energy readings?" Jane whispered, her voice hoarse, her eyes glued to the Stark tech tablet she was holding, which was still trying to process the flood of impossible data. "The magnetic field manipulation was off the charts. It violated at least three known laws of thermodynamics. And the kinetic energy release from the Black Panther... the force was equivalent to being hit by a freight train moving at the speed of sound. And the woman... her energy signature doesn't exist. It's a paradox. A void in the data that is somehow producing a result. It's... it's beautiful."
Erik Selvig, a man of science, a man who believed in observable phenomena sat on the ground, his face pale.
He was trying to reconcile the sight of a ten foot tall mythical robot being flash frozen, swarmed by scorpions, and then telekinetically disassembled with his understanding of the universe.
"They are not human," he murmured, his voice filled with a reverence that bordered on fear. "The stories... the old stories... Odin, Thor... they weren't just stories. And... there are new gods. On Earth."
Darcy, who had briefly fainted and been revived by a bewildered looking ERO medic, just stared. Her mind reduces the cosmic battle to a understandable truth.
Aryan walked calmly through the debris. He didn't look at the defeated Destroyer. His eyes were only for Wanda.
He came to a stop in front of her.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
Wanda, who was running on adrenaline and the dregs of her immense power, gave him a tired but radiant smile. "A little tired. But fine."
He reached out, his hand gently touching her cheek. "You were incredible."
"Just doing my job," she said, but then her smile wavered, and she leaned into his touch, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment. She let out a small wince. "Okay, maybe a little more than tired. I think I might have pulled something... in my soul."
Aryan's expression of concern deepened, though he knew she was faking it.
Her regeneration was already knitting together the minor strains of her exertion.
But this was their game, a private play on a very public stage. He immediately moved closer, his arm wrapping around her waist to support her.
"Here," he said, his voice laced with a gentle urgency. "Lean on me."
"Oh, I don't know," she murmured, her head finding its place on his shoulder, her body slumping against his with a theatrical weariness. "It's pretty bad. I might need to be carried."
"I think I can manage that," he said, his lips close to her ear.
"You might have to," she whispered back, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "And then maybe some bed rest. For at least a week. With a very attentive nurse."
"I think that can be arranged," he replied, a slow smile spreading across his face. He held her close.
It was Tony who shattered their private moment.
"Oh, get a room, you two!" he called out, his faceplate retracted, an amused grin on his face. "Some of us are trying to conduct a post battle damage assessment here. Don't make me get the hose."
Wanda just laughed, and hugged Aryan tighter.
Thor watched this interaction. He, who had just regained his godhood, was watching a scene of mortal affection.
Yet, it was framed by the impossible. He looked from Aryan and Wanda to the other figures.
The Man of Iron, a mortal who commanded the very elements. The Panther King, a warrior whose grace and power were supernatural. The King of the Sea, who looked upon the desert as if it were merely a temporary inconvenience.
These were the protectors of Midgard.
He looked at his own friends…. who were now being attended to by efficient EDF medics. Their injuries were not life threatening.
They were warriors, the best of Asgard. And they had been swatted aside like children.
He, the God of Thunder, had been needed to help finish the fight. But he knew, with a certainty that was both humbling and liberating, that he hadn't been essential.
They would have won without him. It would have been harder, messier, but the outcome was never in doubt.
He walked over to the group, Mjolnir held loosely in his hand. He stopped before Aryan, who was still supporting Wanda.
"I... owe you my life," Thor said. "All of you. And the lives of my friends. The might of Earth is... far greater than the tales in Asgard's libraries would have us believe. You have my gratitude. And my word. My business with my brother is my own, but while I am on your world, you have my allegiance."
Aryan nodded, accepting the oath. "We appreciate that, Thor. For now, get your friends, and get some rest. We have a lot of cleaning up to do."
He looked at Tony. "And I want every last piece of that thing," he said, gesturing to the Destroyer's remains, "collected, cataloged, and sent to a very, very secure R&D facility. I want to know what makes it tick."
"You got it, boss," Tony said with a sharp salute. "The boys from engineering are going to have a field day with this."
The atmosphere was light and celebratory.
They had faced down a mythical weapon of destruction and had done so with an overwhelming display of power. It was a confirmation of everything they had been building.
Thor stood back, watching as the humans and their allies worked.
He saw the speedster, Pietro, zipping back and forth, coordinating the ERO teams with efficiency.
He saw the man with the metal arm, Bucky, directing the heavy lifting crews with the calm authority of a seasoned general.
He saw the woman, Sharon, orchestrating the entire global logistics of the cleanup from a single data slate.
And at the center of it all, he saw Aryan, still holding Wanda, laughing at something she whispered in his ear.
A man with no discernible power, who commanded the absolute loyalty of gods and monsters.
Thor understood. The power of this realm was in its unity. Led by the smiling man who was, for reasons he could not yet comprehend, the undisputed king of this new age of wonders.
PS: We need only 22 more Power Stones for the bonus chapter.
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