Chapter 132: Thor Gets Tased. Again. Again. Again.
Electric sparks flash.
Another security guard's backside suffers the same fate as all the others.
Thor ran through the tarp-covered corridors toward the interior of the base. The path behind him was already carpeted with unconscious agents he'd worked through on the way in.
He glanced at the taser in his hand with something like pleasant surprise.
Didn't expect this to work so well. Takes people down in one hit.
He kept moving.
He was almost to the area where Mjolnir was when a bald figure stepped into his path. This one was holding a baton.
"This is a government-controlled zone." Sitwell adjusted his glasses. "If you want to avoid injury, I'd strongly suggest you walk yourself to the nearest police station."
Thor registered this as noise and kept walking.
Mjolnir was right there. The man in front of him was not a relevant consideration.
Even if every Frost Giant in the Nine Realms had been standing in this corridor, he wouldn't have taken a step back. A human security agent was a footnote.
He said nothing. He gripped the taser and charged.
Sitwell watched him come and allowed himself a small, cold smile. "Heh. Thinking you can overpower me with sheer size—"
BANG.
Sitwell hit the ground.
The baton he'd been about to swing got punched out of his hand before he got the chance to use it. Then he was flipped, and the taser was applied to his lower half.
Zzzzt.
"Motherfucker—" The rest of what Sitwell intended to say came out as an involuntary vibration as he flopped on the ground like something freshly hauled out of water.
Even in this condition, the classic Old New York vocabulary came through. Some things were deeply ingrained.
Though what he was really thinking was:
Which bastard taught you to use a taser that way?!
You could apply it to someone's stomach and it would still work!
Why is it always the same exact location?!
He had nowhere to put this complaint. He couldn't get a word out. He lay on the floor in a state of comprehensive defeat.
He'd planned to unload his day's frustration on this intruder. What he hadn't accounted for was that this particular intruder had physical capabilities that were genuinely unreasonable. Five or six large men usually couldn't get near him. This one had put him down in a single exchange.
Thor stepped over Sitwell and looked at the center of the area.
Mjolnir.
"Mjolnir..."
"It's really you."
He crossed to the center in a few quick strides.
The sky had fully opened by now. Heavy rain. Thor stood in it without his divine power, looking down at the hammer embedded in the muddy ground in front of him.
Above, in position, Hawkeye had been waiting.
One word from Coulson and a charged shock arrow would come down and give Thor exactly the same experience he'd been giving everyone else.
"Requesting permission to fire." Hawkeye's voice was flat.
Coulson, watching the surveillance feed, didn't answer immediately.
He wanted to see why this particular man had fought through an entire perimeter just to stand in front of a hammer in the rain. Did he know the hammer? Know where it came from?
If this man could lift it, he might be able to explain the origin they'd failed to determine through any other means.
Coulson watched the screen.
He wasn't the only one. Most of the other agents had noticed too. The majority of them had experienced Thor's taser technique firsthand, but the question of whether someone might actually lift the hammer was enough to hold them still.
Thor stared at Mjolnir buried in the mud in front of him, the hammer in the stone. He took a slow breath, bent down, wrapped his hand around the handle.
And pulled.
"AUGH!"
Mjolnir didn't move. As though it had been welded to the ground.
Thor: "???"
"AUGH!" He tried again.
Nothing.
He tried twice more. He attempted it with both hands.
He nearly threw out his back. The hammer hadn't moved a millimeter.
Coulson's mouth made a small, helpless movement.
"What a madman."
"Hawkeye. You can fire."
"Got it." A light click, and the arrow was already gone.
Whether it counted as payback for Thor's technique, Hawkeye's shock arrow landed on exactly the same location it had been applied to on everyone else.
Then.
Zzzzt.
Blue light.
The great Thor was once again electrocuted and fell unconscious on the spot.
"Get this man to the hospital and put someone on him."
"And take the taser. Don't let him have it again." Coulson gave the instructions.
He didn't actually need to say the taser part. His agents were going to remove it voluntarily. Those who'd been on the receiving end of it once were highly motivated to ensure the man didn't wake up in reach of it.
On the hillside outside.
A bald eagle descended slowly to Matthew's shoulder, then dissolved into his body like liquid metal.
His gravity field had been deflecting the rain. The downpour was heavy but he was completely dry.
He'd watched the whole scene from here. Thor's attempt. The hammer's refusal.
Apparently his arrival as a butterfly hadn't caused any great storm in the department of lifting Thor's hammer.
He watched Thor get trussed up and loaded into a vehicle, then got in his car and drove away.
When he arrived back at the New Mexico villa, Jane and the others were already there, having been waiting for some time.
All three of them looked like someone had taken something they cared about.
Erik was the first to stand when Matthew came in.
They'd come partly because SHIELD had also taken Matthew's vehicle in the confiscation, and as people who'd been using it, they felt they owed him that information. But there was another part to it: they wanted to ask him about SHIELD, and if it was possible, find out whether there was any way to get Jane's research back.
Years of work.
"Mr. Lawrence. You're back."
Matthew nodded. "Professor Selvig. You're here late. What can I do for you?"
"We came about the vehicle mainly. I'm afraid some government people calling themselves SHIELD requisitioned it as well. We attempted to stop them, but it wasn't possible. They nearly drew their weapons at one point." Erik delivered this with a few additions for effect.
Matthew took it in with the expression of a man hearing news he had no personal stake in.
He kept a straight face and offered a small courtesy. "If it was the government that took it, that's nothing you could have done anything about. If you need transport, I can arrange another vehicle, and you don't owe me anything for the one they took."
Hearing that he wasn't liable for the car, Erik let out a quiet breath and sat back down.
Jane, sitting beside him, prodded him twice with her elbow.
That seemed to jog his memory. He stood again, looking mildly uncomfortable. "Mr. Lawrence. There's actually one more thing we wanted to ask."
"Which is..."
"Do you happen to know anything about this government organization called SHIELD?"
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