The rush of activity after Odin's summons went past as somewhat of a blur. Thankfully, with the vision of the future still fresh in his mind (after all, from his perspective he might as well have actually lived through that alternate timeline), Eitri decided not to wait for the outcome of my meeting with the King of Asgard and to continue with our deal as soon as possible regardless of the Allfather's decision. However, the other Dwarves hadn't seen what he had and so were understandably a lot more cautious about potentially upsetting a man of Odin's station and power.
Their concerned questions were silenced by the gruff voice of their King, who looked grave and drawn as he spoke up to them.
"We must act. To do otherwise would spell our doom. And I'll do everything it takes to keep that from ever happening."
"But surely Asgard will defend-" one of the others tried to speak up, but was immediately interrupted by Eitri, a low growl coming into his voice.
"Asgard will not come." He bit out, to the shocked muttering of his people.
He cast his look around, staring his people down and none could meet his eye. Seeing them cowed, Eitri took a deep shuddering breath as a haunted look entered his eyes, future memories playing over and over again in his mind.
"Asgard cannot come." He softly muttered, though the silence of the forges meant everyone still heard him clearly.
With the absence of the promised aid of their old ally during the past year or so, the already crumbling faith the Dwarves held in their Asgardian friends almost fell completely and no more objections were raised against helping me survive in order to stop Thanos and his legions for good.
Instead, it was quickly decided that I would portal all relevant personnel, machinery and schematics over to Nidavellir as soon as possible, considering it would still take them a considerate amount of time and effort to complete my new body. Considering how I ended up designing my upgraded form (with added input from Eitri whenever he could), "relevant" in this case amounted to… pretty much everything that I had scavenged, gathered and invented up to this point.
Uru would form the skeleton of my new build. Literally. The bones would be made out of Uru that had been enchanted to hell and back by the Dwarves, my Sorcerers and what Elliot Randolph could remember from his time on Asgard (though since he was a mason at the time and over a millennium has passed since then, he confessed it wasn't really all that much). The bones would form a sort of alloy with my newly improved stores of Vibranium, though "lattice" was probably a more appropriate term. It would take care of all the biological functions that the mystical metal couldn't perform, on account of it being… well, metal.
Incidentally, that had been the source of Sterns' initial refusal to coat my bones with Vibranium in Africa so long ago. It may have taken several years, the aid of the greatest forgemasters in the universe and an entirely new body, but in the end I finally got my way!
Ha! Take that!
Understandably, Sam was rather grumpy throughout most of the discussions as a result of the smug looks I sneakily (and not-so-sneakily) kept sending his way.
So, my skeleton would be metal, but in practice function almost identically to the way normal bones worked. In addition to filling my Uru bones to take the role of marrow, the Vibranium would also form the ligaments between them and cover the bones themselves in strategic patterns, forming the connecting point to where the actual flesh of my body would adhere to/grow from, creating a unified whole.
I could in theory create a Vision-like body created solely from Uru/Vibranium, considering I had the technology and (more importantly) the Mind Stone, but I decided against it as it just didn't feel right, somehow. I wanted to be myself, just… more.
So, actual organic flesh would form the majority of my body, from my organs to my muscles to my skin, though laced with Vibranium through the Cradle, infused with Gravitonium and Pym Particles through the Particle Infusion Chamber, toughened with the Amber Armor solution bath that would fill the chamber/cradle and once again enchanted to hell and back.
The flesh would be created based off of my own DNA, meaning it should still carry my own mutations, such as the Extremis, Gamma-enhancement and Jessica's powerset. Additionally, since there would be a pretty massive overhaul of my DNA involved, Radcliffe felt confident he could splice in an Inhuman-data packet inside my genetic information, which would subsequently be activated in the forging process of my body (which I insisted everyone kept calling the process, as "birthing" just sounded… disgusting) by placing a reverse-engineered Diviner-substitute on the Cardle/Chamber, activating it and guiding the Terrigen Mist inside.
Due to his research into various Inhuman powers (courtesy of my deal with the Afterlife) as well as the Kree's own notes on their uplifted supersoldiers (courtesy of the databanks in the City underneath San Cristobal), Radcliffe felt he could design the data packet in such a way that the emerging powers would be fairly predictable. In my case, it would be centred around the production, intake and/or control of energy. Which was still rather vague to be honest and the actual powers I received could range from powers like the mutants Rogue or Bishop had, to merely control over warmth, either creating frost or fire on command by manipulating thermodynamics.
Hopefully, whatever I would end up getting would aid in containing the massive influx of power my body would receive from having the Infinity Stones implanted inside it. The Time and Space Stones would be implanted in my legs (allowing me to walk through both Time and Space), the Mind Stone in my forehead (boosting my Psychokinetics and hopefully aiding in the transfer of my mind between bodies) and the Power Stone in my dominant right hand, in which I had first activated my chi and created the Meteor Fist.
I had initially wanted to place the Power Stone at the base of my throat with some nebulous ideas of unleashing Black Bolt-levels of destruction with my very words alone, but Sterns had gently, yet firmly, reminded me of something.
"Michael. You already breath fire. There's no need for another breath-attack."
As for the Reality Stone and the Soul Stone… I didn't really have a clue, honestly. Focus on keeping them out of Thanos' reach for now, come up with how to use them after.
At first, Eitri had called me mad for even suggesting incorporating the Stones inside of my body as he initially thought I had meant I wanted him to create a form powerful enough to merely wield the things. He still called me a madman (which, all things considered, was probably fair enough), but had halted his objections after I had shown him Vision from my own memories, showing that it can, in fact, be done, albeit with a single Infinity Stone.
Whether it would work with four… best to not think about that one too hard.
Regardless, while the Inhuman powers would hopefully be an added boost in overcoming so much energy, the bulk of dealing with that particular problem would actually be carried out by a significant other portion of my newly designed DNA, which would actually build my new flesh.
It was a mix of me… and the Celestial strands of Peter Quill's own DNA.
Ego's Seed had taught me much about Celestial flesh and the powers it contained (and had sparked my initial suspicions regarding the true nature of Vibranium's organic and mystical origins), but Noah had also been very clear in the dangers such ancient power represented.
Except, I had a prime example in my employ who didn't suffer any of those horrible Cronenberg mutations. For some reason, Ego's DNA was content with playing nice with Peter's human DNA and it was that which had allowed Noah to essentially neuter the DNA extracted from the Seed.
In some way, Peter and I could be considered half-brothers if the procedure was a success.
Considering Eitri's gobsmacked expression once I revealed just how much Vibranium I had in my possession, my reveal that I had actual live Celestial biomatter in my base nearly caused an outright panic attack. I knew that the Celestials hadn't been seen for uncountable millennia and clearly, as far as some of the older races in the galaxy were concerned (like the Dwarves), it was good riddance too.
Me having a piece of Celestial sitting in my base (I decided to keep Peter's true nature and role in all of this a secret for now) apparently made Eitri think that a several-kilometre-tall humanoid was currently on his way to split the Earth in half and perhaps tear the Yggdrasil out by the roots while it was at it.
It took me revealing Ego's history and current status to finally calm him down (wisely, I refrained from revealing Ego's plan for the universe, as it would probably cause the Dwarf King to order all of Nidavellir to immediately be dismantled down to the smallest nut and bolt in search of a possible Seed), but he still clearly felt uncomfortable with it all and firmly stated that the Dwarves would have as little as feasible to do with the whole Celestial part of the equation.
"We're smiths, boy. Let us deal with steel and flame. Let your people figure out what to do with the… squishy bits." Were his final words on the matter and that was that.
In order to smelt, forge, grow and fuse all of this, it would be placed in a combination of the Cradle and the PIC, which would be built with the aid of the Dwarves until it somewhat resembled a more massive, exotic looking version of the tank that Steve Rogers was transformed in. Massive slabs of metal, various sci-fi looking odds and ends, panels and wiring and of course various runic scripts criss-crossing the whole lot of it.
On a separate sarcophagus would be my current boy, hooked up to the Genesis Chamber (Foster came up with the name and it quickly stuck) in a rather similar set-up to when we lifted Phineas from his original body into his new pedestal, if with more and larger cables and stuff.
Nobody knew what would happen to my chi (not even the Ancient One could confidently state whether or not it would travel with me to my new body), so just to be on the safe side I would infuse all materials, from the Vibranium-Uru lattice, to my new Celestial-based biomatter, with as much of my Chi and Captain Marvel's energy field as I could spare.
During the final stages of the process of building/growing/forging the body, while the Mind/Soul transfer was happening, the Genesis Chamber would be placed in a direct line with the Iris, allowing the full might of Nidavellir's neutron star to impact it and infuse it, a replacement for the Vita Rays which had been so instrumental in giving Captain America his powers.
We didn't know what my new body would actually end up looking like until much later in the process as the flesh grew into its final shape (thankfully completely… ahem… anatomically correct, if you catch my drift) and even then, the Ancient One warned that its final appearance could be drastically influenced once I was actually in the driver's seat, so to speak, especially since she was fairly confident that the Light Dimension-connection would carry over.
Still, we knew some things based off the foundations, namely the metallic skeleton and the donor material (meaning myself). It would be well-proportioned, heavily muscled (though probably not to Hulk-like levels and likely even slimmer than my current form) and look either like me or like a very close relative since it was still my DNA that formed the base. And from the skeleton, we knew that it would be human sized… compared to Dwarves of Nidavellir.
Peter Dinklage, in all his three-meter-tall bearded glory, would still have to crane his neck in order to look my 5,5-meter-tall form in the eye. A necessity due to the way I wanted to incorporate all of my powers, not to mention the Infinity Stones themselves (Eitri speculated that similar requirements had caused the Celestials to grow to their own humongous sizes as well), but ultimately not a detriment, due to the infusion of Pym Particles during the forging process.
Once it was done, I would have complete control over the size of my body, able to go from the size of Mount Everest to the size of an ant without issue. Sam explained that going from the size of a human to even smaller than a tartigrade was a far larger change, though he suggested on holding off on actually trying the mountain-to-ant shift for the time being due to various concerns about such drastic and untested changes (not the least of which what would happen if you displaced that much air that suddenly). In practice this meant that I could easily revert to human size at will. In theory (which was mostly still inside Sam's oversized head as he was the foremost, and only, expert in this field) this should even allow me to travel to the Quantum Realm at will.
Thus, inside the Genesis Chamber would be the culmination of (nearly) every scrap of technology and information I had managed to gather over the past three years, ever since that faithful day where I sneaked into a Stark Industries facility to tear some blueprints off the walls.
Rather understandably (at least in my mind) I was somewhat uncomfortable with having so much of my people and stuff, not just outside of Othrys, but in another star system entirely. Not to mention having something so crucial as the forging of my new body happening outside of my seat of power.
My hesitations were brusquely and effectively brushed aside by Eitri himself, who merely sent me a firm look.
"Do you have a neutronstar lying around whose energy you can harness?"
Conceding that, no, sadly I did not (though Sterns gained a worryingly speculative look), I resigned myself to the fact most of my operations would have to be housed at Nidavellir for the moment. Honestly, I should just be glad Eitri wasn't demanding more of me in return for the body, considering the effort and sheer amount of Uru that would be going into it. They were essentially working for free here, after all.
Then again, knowing that I was his best shot at not having every single one of his people mercilessly slaughtered was motivation enough, I suppose.
Though I would be surprised if the ancient forge master wouldn't be able to find some way of incorporating some kind of safeguard into my new body. Me not being able to set foot in Nidavellir if I meant them harm, for instance.
Get that whole "blood-protection-ritual" thingy going on like Lily did to Voldemort in the Harry Potter series.
Actually, come to think of it, why didn't he do something like that in the first place with Thanos? The Mad Titan is hardly a fool, but if he could understand the intricacies of Dwarven forging, he wouldn't really need them in the first place, meaning that the Infinity Gauntlet almost had to be above his comprehension. Which in turn meant that he wouldn't be able to tell if the Gauntlet had been tampered with or not in the first place.
So, why not engineer the damned thing in such a way that it blew up in his face the moment he integrated all six Stones?
When I asked Eitri that question, he just stared at me for almost a full minute, mouth opening and closing several times as he tried to think of an answer, before his face suddenly went slack and with an eerie calm he walked away from me, straight towards the nearest wall in the inner ring.
And then he started bashing his head against it, muttering "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" with each hit.
He was quickly begged to stop, not only because a massive bruise was forming on his forehead, but because his fellow Dwarves feared a hullbreach if he kept at it.
All in all, it had taken not even an hour for us to hammer out (heh) a rough schedule of who would be visiting Nidavellir at what point and what machines should be built first. Truthfully, I delegated most of that to Sam, considering he was far more up to date at where my Think Tank was in their specific areas of research than me thanks to how preoccupied I've been lately.
After a final round of agreements and firm handshakes, I once more ask my small group to stand closer to me, making sure to keep a secure physical connection with all of them. It wouldn't do to have one of my friends lose their grip and get spat out in the middle of the universe with nothing but dust in billions of lightyears in every direction.
Not exactly good for your health, that.
Once more the blue tunnel of Tesseract energy forms around us as I look over the curiously watching Dwarves, locking eyes with Eitri and exchanging a grave nod with him. And then we're gone, standing back in the same spot in Othrys' courtyard from which we left, not a hair out of place (where applicable) as if we hadn't even left at all. Thankfully, my companions manage to remain standing on their feet this time around.
Waiting for a couple of seconds to allow them to catch their breath (can't expect them to have developed their Tesseract-legs already after all), I turn to Sterns with a nod.
"Sam, gather everyone and everything you think you'll need. You have my notes, you know what I want to incorporate into my new body. Make sure to share everything with the Dwarves, they have unique and invaluable input. This is not the time to keep secrets from our allies, too much is riding on this. Get it done."
"Sure thing Michael." Sterns says, nodding his oversized head.
"What will you be doing? We need you to portal everything up to the Dwarves." Radcliffe asks.
"Not necessarily. Selvig, you have your data from our Tesseract-powered trip?" I respond, turning to look at the scatterbrained scientist.
"Yes, yes of course. It's marvellous, Michael, some of this is truly extraordinary-"
"I'm sure it is, Erik, but you'll have to show me another day. For now, do you think you can use that data to calibrate our own Bifrost? Things would go much smoother with a secure and direct route to Nidavellir without me having to hold everyone's hand whenever someone needs to go down there."
"I'll get it done, Michael. Expect results by the end of the day." Selvig nods, his blue eyes unusually focused and clear.
Having access to travel across the Yggdrasil would require you to keep your wits about you I suppose.
"Well, we still need to address one thing about our own Bifrost before we can really use it though." Radcliffe interrupted, gaining a surprised look from everyone present.
Seeing the glances he was getting, Holden rolled his eyes at us.
"Well, we can hardly keep calling it the Bifrost can we? Michael is part of an entirely different pantheon! The Asgardians will probably sue us if we don't change it to something more appropriate."
"You know, I don't think they'll see that as a priority for now-" I started, somewhat nonplussed, but was interrupted by my oldest friend.
"While you are correct, I can't really think of a proper alternate name. Unlike the Asgardians, the Olympian pantheon resided on Earth itself, so they didn't need an interstellar spanning connection. And we can hardly call it 'the rocky road up Mount Olympos', that hardly rolls off the tongue."
"We could call it the Styx? In Greco-Roman tradition, rivers were significant borders and crossing the Styx was the proper way to leave Earth behind." Foster now bumps in as well, though to my surprise it's the Ancient One that answers her.
"That won't really work here, I'm afraid. Not only does the name 'Styx' imply that we would be sending people to the Afterlife, instead of merely another planet, it's also the name of a river, not a passageway. If we were to use the Styx in some fashion, then it'd make more sense to rename the East River, considering that's where Charon is currently on his ferry and trying to accomplish that is quite honestly more trouble than it's worth."
"Oh, whatever happened to Charon?"
"Last I heard he was very upset with us for lifting the island out of the river without telling him. Now he's a ferryman whose destination is several hundred meters above his head. Sadly for him, boats don't travel vertically."
"Why didn't we tell him though?"
"We… forgot."
"Oh. Well, now I feel bad for the guy."
"I know, right? Hey, that gives me an idea!"
"Dare I even ask?"
"Well, think about what you said: boats don't travel vertically… yet."
"Ah, I see. Well, strap a couple of massive blue boxes to its hull-"
"-we can add those turbine flaps that the Helicarrier has for stability-"
"-of course, while we're at it, there's no reason at all why we shouldn't also include more sophisticated navigational arrays on board-"
"-which would lend itself perfectly for more onboard targeting systems as well! I like how you think."
"-oh! What if we add-"
"ENOUGH!" I eventually called out, desperate to put a halt to the surreal conversation that was picking up speed within the little group.
Shooting the Ancient One a look that basically screamed "Et tu, brute?" (at least the Sorcerer had the decency to look somewhat abashed), I glare at the others.
"Focus, people. The Dwarves need to get to working on my new body ASAP and they'll need all the help that they can get from us, especially for the more organic parts of it all, considering how far out of their usual field of work this lies. Additionally, I have a meeting with one of the most powerful beings in the Nine Realms coming up and I don't think he's all that happy with the way I've been doing things these past few years. So, can we please put a pin in the discussion to turn my ferry into a literal gunship and return to the matter at hand?" I say firmly, seeing the scientists duck their head at my admonishment.
For a few moments, we're standing around in complete silence, the wind rustling through the thick grass our only companion, until I speak up in a somewhat more subdued tone.
"We really didn't tell him? At all?"
"Nope."
"… fuck. Now I feel bad too."
After deciding that we should all do something nice for the beleaguered ferryman, I finally set off.
Leaving my friends at Othrys with the orders to get our own Bifrost online as soon as possible (which I decided to just call the Iris Way to finally put an end to the whole bizarre discussion before the group got the chance to start up again) and work out a schedule amongst themselves as to who should visit Nidavellir at what time, I fly away from my floating island further inwards to the city.
Odin hadn't really given me a date for when I should show up in Asgard and from what I knew about him from my metaknowledge and Norse mythology, "expected as soon as possible" was a rather mild way for him to ask me to haul ass, all things considered.
Freya's influence at hand, perhaps?
Regardless, while the wording might have been somewhat vague and not expressly urgent, I figured one doesn't keep a man of Odin's calibre waiting. Besides, having Asgard either as a neutral party or yet another ally could only benefit my chances of stopping Thanos before he found a way to get his hands on either the Soul or Reality Stone.
Which is why the Avengers Tower was rapidly coming closer.
What better way to start of negotiations with the King of a foreign nation than by returning his sons to him? Seems like Thor is in luck: he finally gets to go home.
Whether Loki would consider his own return as lucky is somewhat debatable.
Considering the last time I had spoken to the team of superheroes I had just informed them of the new rules regarding customs and immigration for Othrys (which for them basically boiled to: don't step foot on my island without my express permission), I decided to play nice and extend them the same courtesy.
Instead of just slamming down on Tony's helipad, I floated closer to the tall windows lining the common area on the uppermost floor, the ones that the inventor had been thrown through by an irate Frost Giant/Asgardian Prince during the Chitauri Invasion, a little over a year ago now.
I couldn't spot the Avengers, but a beautiful, darkhaired woman was sitting on a long couch, bare feet tucked underneath her as she read carefully through a datapad, a large mug held carefully in her other hand.
Quite an idyllic scene, all told, until of course I knocked on the window and the woman looked up in surprise to see a giant man in a suit seemingly standing on air right outside of the skyscraper. Rather predictably (in hindsight), the woman let out a startled scream as she tried to shoot up from her seated position, losing her balance and toppling over the backrest of the couch.
Bare feet stuck up straight into the air, the datapad went flying through the room at impressive speeds and the mug spilled its contents all over a rather unfortunate Betty Ross.
… Crap. I really hope Betty still has the presence of mind to calm her boyfriend down.
I don't fancy punching the Hulk into another state right now.
As Betty managed to work herself into an upwards position by pulling herself up on the backrest of the sofa, she looked at me with wide eyes, strings of hair slapping her face and I just couldn't help myself.
"Hello, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour, the Flying Spaghetti Monster?"
Betty's scream had caused about half the Avengers to come running to her aid, with the others presumably on their way. They were understandably surprised at the scene they found, with a dripping Betty working herself to her feet and me smiling and waving somewhat awkwardly outside their windows.
Thankfully, "Thunderbolt" Ross' daughter proved to be the exact opposite of her dear old dad (meaning she was a kind, decent and understanding person) and was quick to calm down the other Avengers, allowing me to touch down on the Helipad and walk inside.
Tensions were further reduced when I used a simple spell to dry and clean Betty (no need to bust out the Time Stone for something so trivial). Thankfully, Bruce had been in a lab on another floor entirely, so when he came into the living room everyone had calmed down significantly, meaning there was no reason for the Other Guy to butt in and make things even more… complicated as Betty hugged her man close.
I politely didn't pretend to notice the way that Bruce's eyes remained utterly fixed on me, even as he hugged his girlfriend back.
They were a blazing shade of green.
"So, to what do we owe this… unexpected little visit, Mr. McCole? Or, sorry, do you prefer King Hyperion, Lord of Random Floating Islands,these days? Of course, you don't have to tell us, you know: I can always have a goat brought up so we can go read what its liver says instead? Not that I'm really looking forward to that, I'll be honest: I'm a vegetarian." Tony immediately said, opening the conversation, his tone slightly mocking, though his thoughts betrayed his wariness.
"No, you're not." Pepper spoke up, somewhat exasperated, though I could feel how she took some comfort in Tony's familiar joking attitude.
"Well, no, but I'm trying to be and that's what counts. Honestly, is it my fault cows are made of steaks?" Tony replied glibly, pouring himself a whiskey as he moved behind the bar, finishing a song and dance he and Pepper had been doing for years now.
They sought security in the mundane, in the recognizable and having gone without the comfort of familiarity for almost all my life in this alien universe, I could understand where they were coming from.
It wasn't odd that they were somewhat uncomfortable around me. The last time I was here, their friends at SHIELD tried to strongarm me into their custody, using a superhero they hadn't even heard off before in order to do it, only to turn out that said superhero was apparently the terror of the Kree Empire meaning SHIELD didn't really have a leg to stand on and I got pushed too far.
Resulting in a punch through a portal that sent the new arrival across the Atlantic Ocean while simultaneously cracking the floor and shattering most of the windows.
Sure, I fixed the damages, but that didn't erase the event from their memories and most of them were imagining various ways in which a similar fight between me and them might go down. None of them were really looking forward to it.
Currently, it was only Steve, Tony and Pepper, Bruce and Betty and Thor. Tony and Bruce of course lived here with their girlfriends and Thor didn't really have another residence (though he and Jane had a hotel that they favoured since the Asgardian prince felt uncomfortable staying the night in Othrys). Natasha and Clint were at the Barton estate so that Black Widow could recuperate from her own death (not a sentence you hear often, even in a world like ours). Loki was secured in a SHIELD blacksite they thought I didn't know about, the Ancient One's magical anklemonitor still fixed firmly in place.
Out of thanks for his aid during Hell Week, he was gifted playing cards and an expanded menu of fine dining. An attempt at applying gilding to his cage, but considering the truly mindboggling wealth he had grown up in, I doubt the fallen Prince could appreciate the effort.
Really, the odd man out here was Steve, who as far as I knew had moved in with Peggy not long after I had healed the aging superspy. Yet from what my senses could pick up from him, he had been staying at Avengers Tower for at least a couple of days now.
Trouble in paradise, huh? I'm guessing the way that Peggy had tried to keep me in line didn't sit quite right with the honest man, even if he shared some of her fears regarding me and my ultimate goals. A quick peek with my telepathy confirmed my suspicions.
Interesting. Potentially useful. However, not my immediate concern.
"McCole, or just Michael, is fine, thanks. And no need for the goat, I had a quick lunch before I came here." I reply with a modest smile.
"Please forgive my bluntness, but why are you here? You're not the type to make social calls just for the hell of it, especially not with us. What do you want?" Steve asks, firmly but not aggressive, piercing blue eyes meeting my molten orange ones without hesitation.
"Some new information has come to light. A new threat, not only to earth, but all life in the galaxy is on the move. The Mad Titan Thanos has begun to enact the final stages of a millennia-long plan. I have already reached out to potential allies and struck a deal with them so that I can face the coming storm. I imagine that you know of them: I have spoken with King Eitri of the Dwarves of Nidavellir."
The news receives some mixed reactions. Pepper and Betty just feel worried at the notion of yet another threat, the damage the last two have caused still fresh in their minds. Tony, Bruce and Steve all feel determined to face the threat head on, their fearlessness born from ignorance as they simply don't understand the threat that is Thanos.
And Thor…
"Eitri?! You've spoken with him? How? When? How is he, how are his people-?"
A flood of questions washes over me as the Crown Prince of Asgard strides up to me, one hand coming up and firmly clasping my shoulder as worried eyes look into my own. Slowly reaching out and gently, yet firmly removing the hand, I send Thor a calming smile.
"They are well, if harried. With the destruction of the Bifrost, Asgard has been unable to come to their aid and they have been forced to face threats ranging from interstellar marauders to ogres and trolls on their own. But they are strong and skilled and Eitri is a good leader: they've managed to fend for themselves so far. Though their faith in Asgard is shaken very deeply." I reply, seeing the guilt well up in the young prince's mind as he casts his eyes downward.
"After my talks with King Eitri had concluded, however, I noticed that we had been watched. By a raven no less."
At those words, Thor's head snaps up, as does Bruce's. The others remain somewhat confused however.
"My father…" Thor hesitantly begins, expelling a deep breath when I nod in confirmation.
"Odin Allfather, son of Bor, King of Asgard, has summoned me to his court. Though he didn't mention what for, so it might be nothing. Or, it could be very bad." I speak up, looking to the rest of the room.
"Odin isn't one to intervene in the affairs of the other Realms unless the situation were truly dire. It was a… topic of discussion, between us. Before my banishment." Thor says, thick arms crossed in front of his broad chest.
"Right. So instead of just, regular daddy issues, it turns out Thor's dad actually has an issue with you." Tony begins, walking around the bar with glass in hand as he leisurely approaches me.
Looking up as he takes a sip of the amber liquid, dark eyes peering over the edge of his glass, he locks gazes with me.
"So, remind me again how any of that is our problem. Except for Thor, of course, since it is his dad's issues we're talking about here." He says with a slow smirk.
"Thor. If Odin decided he needs to act against Michael here, how would that affect Earth? Would it mean Asgard declaring war on Midgard, or is it a conflict just between the two of them?" Steve interjects, his voice calming and reasonable.
The God of Thunder is silent for a few long moments, looking out the tall glass windows overlooking the skyline of New York, before his eyes halt on the floating island of Othrys, its size and altitude making it clearly visible even from here.
"My father… is a good King, but a hard man. I have been away for too long. I cannot say how severe the plight of our Vanir cousins or our Dwarven allies is. But if he spoke to Michael directly… If he decides that Michael is a threat to Asgard… to the fragile peace amongst the Realms, then he will send his Eihenjar to deal with him. That would mean an army of Asgardian warriors travelling to Midgard. Otrhys may be its own nation now, but it's still here: I don't think the humans will take kindly to my people's presence should they suddenly stand on your doorstep."
A surprisingly thought-out answer from the normally hot-headed prince. Then again, he has been practically on vacation for a year now (barring a demonic invasion), spent living with his friends and dating the woman he loves.
I suppose even the likes of Thor would mellow out from that.
Turning to us, a frown mars the Thunder God's face.
"However, with the Bifrost broken, moving a large host like the Eihenjar quickly enough is almost impossible. We haven't had a need for a standing fleet for a long time now, thanks to the might of the Bifrost. Asgard still has many ships, but they are mostly leisure craft: not suited for the deployment of a large army. Unless my father drew very deeply on the well of power within him, I don't see full-scale invasion of Earth by Asgard."
"That would explain the summons then. Instead of taking his army to Michael, he's making Michael come to him." Steve quickly summarized before Tony speaks up, placing his glass on his marble countertop and leaning his chin on his hand as he lounges against the bar.
"Which doesn't explain why the King of Othrys is standing in my living room instead." He drawls, his dark eyes snapping to mine as a slightly admiring and mischievous look enters his gaze.
"Inspiring that, by the way. My compliments, really. I've been trying to do something like that for years now, but Pep won't let me."
"I'm not going to let your civil status match your ego Tony. You'd just get bored at playing royalty eventually anyways. Remember when you came up with the idea to strap rockets to the throne of the Queen of England?" Pepper immediately responds in a tone of well-practiced suffering.
It's silent for a moment as we collectively shoot Tony a Look, which affects him as much as water rolling off the back of a duck who has been dunked in a vat of high-quality olive oil.
"Really? I can't remember that one."
"You were drunk."
"But still, rockets-"
"You were very drunk."
"Well. That would do it, I suppose. Besides, she probably deserved it. Gaudy looking thing. Probably uncomfortable too." Tony eventually conceded with a mutter, quickly draining the last of his drink.
If I had a nickel for every time I was part of a surreal conversation today, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
"Right. To bring things back on track: ancient omnicidal maniac is a threat to all life and on the move. In order to stop him before he's become too dangerous, I've reached out to allies, which just so happened to be ancient allies of the Asgardians as well, prompting one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy to contact me personally to talk things through with unknown levels of civility, though prospects aren't exactly promising. We all caught up?" I say, shaking off the weirdness that is Tony Stark.
Seeing various nods and eye rolls (three guesses to who the culprit is), I continue.
"Which leads me back to Stark's question. Why am I here? Well, if I'm being perfectly honest-"
"Must feel weird, huh?"
"Tony!"
"What? I'm just sympathizing here-"
"Anthony."
"Yes, dear."
"-if I'm being perfectly honest, I honestly just want you along for goodwill. Or rather, I want Thor and Loki along, but if you wanna tag along, which I imagine you will, you're free to come along. Hopefully, seeing his sons again will keep Odin distracted enough he won't try to smite me on the spot or something." I explain nonchalantly, clasping my hands behind my back.
"Well, that is rather honest." Steve was the first to fill the beat of silence, blinking in surprise a few times, before softly muttering to himself with a slightly hurt expression. "A bit too honest perhaps."
"I can see the merit in your proposal. And I must confess, as much as I have enjoyed my stay on Midgard… it is time for me to visit my homeworld. See my people. My family. And Loki…" Thor falls silent at the mention of his adopted brother, a deep, weary sigh escaping him.
"If you hope to pacify my father by returning Loki to him, you will likely be disappointed. The last time we saw him… his crimes, against my people, against the Frost Giants, against Midgard… his fate upon his return to our father can range anywhere from execution to lifelong imprisonment. I have pleaded with him against the former, but in the year of my absence… who, other than Mom, can truly know what course my father's thoughts have taken?"
"From what I know, Odin will not kill Loki. Lock him in the dungeons and throw away the key, sure, but I don't think execution is on the table here. Regardless of the outcome, he has to go back Thor. He's merely been held in custody by SHIELD here, but I'm fairly certain that the court of Asgard still feels that he has to face judgement for his crimes and the only one qualified to dispense said judgement is Odin." I state, understanding but firm.
Thor thinks over my words for several long moments before shaking his head with another sigh.
"You're right. Despite all he has done, Loki is my brother. For what he has suffered… he deserves a fair trial at least. Not to mention it won't take him too long to figure out how to slip the collar the Sorcerer placed on him and disappear to some desolate place nobody's ever even heard of." The Thunder God said with a wry smile.
"If Thor is going, then I think I speak for all of us when I say we will want to come with. Loki attacked our world. I think it's only fair that we come along to see him face proper justice. Like Thor said, he at least deserves fair trial, especially after his help during Hell Week." Steve speaks up firmly, and I politely pretend not to notice the way all of the Avengers' eyes flit towards Thor's left arm, which briefly he clenches and unclenches with a pained expression on his face.
The arm that he had lost to the massive tentacles surrounding the portal leading to Dormammu's Dark Dimension. If it hadn't been for Loki's timely intervention (shoving his brother aside with a powerful blast of magic) then Thor would've suffered much worse than merely a disintegrated appendage.
"Does that include me? I mean, it's not like the Court of Asgard will require a radiation physicist, right? And I think that the Other Guy had shown the extent of his diplomatic skills regarding Loki during the Chitauri Invasion already." Bruce speaks up with a lopsided smile.
Remembering the specific incident, I glance at him in amusement.
"Fair enough, I suppose."
"So, when does this whole shindig go down. Do people still say that? Shindig? If they don't, they should and I'm bringing it back anyway." Tony said, glancing the bottle on his countertop with a speculative look in his eye, before Pepper sighs and firmly places the bottle back on the shelf, drawing a massive (if ineffective) pout from the genius inventor.
"Well, he didn't set an exact date, so honestly I was thinking as soon as possible. Which is right now."
That draws some surprised looks from everyone present. While I could have waited until Foster and Selvig finished the Iris Way, there was no real reason to as the group was still small enough, I could still use the Tesseract in my Aurelion Armor to transport us all safely on my own. The Iris Way would find its major use as a direct line for the rest of my forces and large amounts of material to swiftly make the roundtrip to Nidavellir and as such I felt a lot more comfortable to keep that as under the radar as possible (which, considering the existence of Heimdall's hax-powers, might be entirely useless).
"Now? As in, right now, now? Don't you wanna bring some back-up or something?" Bruce asks in surprise, merely receiving a shrug from me.
"Sure, now now. There's no reason to delay any further and risk straining Odin's patience. I want these negotiations to proceed as smoothly as possible, so some politeness on my part can go a long way in ensuring that. As for my back-up, we can quickly pop over to Othrys where my people will be standing ready. I don't anticipate needing too much back-up: should a confrontation become inevitable, I much prefer returning to Earth than razing the palace to the ground and in order to do that it'll be better if I have fewer people to grab before I portal away."
Thor frowns at my threat to his home, but thankfully otherwise doesn't react.
"We still need my brother before we leave." He says instead.
"He's at a secure SHIELD facility. They won't be happy to just hand him over to you, but after the whole 'Captain Marvel' fiasco I'm not sure they can really refuse." Steve replies, looking somewhat troubled when mentioning the spy agency and Tony quickly jumps back into the conversation.
"Well it's not like they have a say right? Give me ten minutes, I'll figure out where he's kept at and then we can just tear the roof off the place-"
"About that, I don't think that'll be necessary, Stark." I interrupt, getting a surprised look from Iron Man.
"I already know where he's kept at and ensured transportation. He's on his way as we speak."
Steve narrows his eyes at my casual reveal of SHIELD secrets (though why he's still surprised at my constant knowledge about things I shouldn't even know exist is beyond me), but it's Bruce who speaks up.
"How are you gonna transport him safely? Thor already said, the magical security on him might fail at any moment. Sure, you've got a lot of Enhanced in your employ, but he's a highly skilled escape artist, he might-"
Holding up a hand, I interrupt the scientist, smiling generously.
"Ah, I see where your concern is coming from, but please rest assured, this particular mode of transportation is quite foolproof. No human elements, straight delivery and no exploitable vehicles or surroundings to facilitate escape." I proudly state, getting either interested or sceptical looks in return.
"How-" Thor starts, but he's cut of when I describe a tight circle with my index finger and a portal opens up against the ceiling.
It has barely formed, its bright orange sparks slinging off the madly spinning circle, before a dark-clad shape falls through, landing spread-eagled on the carpet of the Avengers' living room, the dimensional tear closing right behind him.
In the stunned silence, the figure, tall and lithe, works itself to its elbows, dark hair tussled to hang down in front of brilliant green eyes. The otherwise handsome face is drawn in a rictus of anger and sheer frustration.
"I have been falling… FOR THIRTY MINUTES!" Loki, Prince of Asgard and God of Lies yells out to the baffled expressions of the assembled Avengers.
I imagine somewhere deep inside an ostensibly hidden SHIELD facility, a nervous intern is scratching his head as he stares at a suddenly empty cell, wondering how on Earth he's going to explain to his commander that a hole suddenly appeared underneath the prisoner, swallowing him whole and then closing without a trace.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that particular conversation. Oh well, I'll just ask Phineas for the recording somewhere down the line.
"Well, that's all of us assembled then. Shall we be off?" I ask brightly, another portal spinning into existence behind me, showing the lawn of Othrys as Sterns and Security Chief Jim Harper walk out accompanied by one of Phineas' lighter Soter-platforms.
Since Phineas had been listening in on my little talk with the Avengers all along, he had made sure to alert both Sam and Jim ahead of time, so we're all prepped and ready to go pay a visit to the home of the Aesir. I had decided against taking along anyone else outside of those three, since my heaviest hitters were unavailable anyways (Jess still needed to recuperate and if it were up to me wouldn't leave Othrys' safety until I had buried Thanos six feet deep and Beta-Ray Bill was still on his way to Sanctuary to try and extradite Gamora). There was no reason to bring any of my scientists (many of whom had to prepare for the massive project on Nidavellir) or any of my security team considering that I wasn't looking for a physical confrontation either way (and if one were to happen regardless, I was worth more than all twenty of them put together).
I had considered bringing in Jeri Hogarth, but she was still fielding the flood of calls that kept pouring in as more and more people became aware of Othrys' new station as a floating sovereign nation and the far-reaching consequences it would carry, anywhere from international law to trade agreements. She was most valuable here, especially since she simply didn't know enough about Asgard's history to effectively leverage it against them as I could.
My only other expert on the Asgardian world, the ex-Berserker Elliot Randolph, was very firm in his wish to stay as far off Asgard's radar as was humanly (or rather, alienly) possible. Considering he had been living peacefully amongst humanity for over a thousand years now (something that Asgard was probably aware of considering Elliot didn't know how to hide from Heimdall's gaze), he wasn't sure what to expect from his former people.
His desertion (and theft and subsequent destruction of an important Asgardian weapon/artefact) could mean execution, while his spotless record of pacifism might soften the sentence to mere imprisonment instead. He was much happier to remain in the Forges of Othrys instead, thankyouverymuch.
I suspect much of his reasoning could be applied to Loki as well (for all of Thor's claims that Loki might slip away at a moment's notion, he hadn't seemed overly interested in breaking the Ancient One's spell since the end of Hell Week, probably because he didn't exactly have anywhere in the galaxy to run off to), but contrary to Elliot, he didn't much have a choice in his return.
Something he seemed to realize as his brother helped him to his feet as Sam, Jim and Phineas stepped through the portal into Avengers Tower, judging by the resigned, somewhat angry look he shot me, though he kept his silence even as Thor quietly started fussing over him.
Half-turning to face my small team, I raised my hand to close the portal, but Thor stopped me.
"Wait! Please, if it's possible… could Jane join us? I… I would very much like for her to… meet my mother. They'd like each other. I hope." The Thunder God cuts in, drawing a scoff from Loki which is immediately answered by a swift elbow to the ribs.
I pause for a moment, before giving him a slow nod. There's no real harm in letting her tag along I suppose, other than the small chance that the scientist would prefer to stay in her boyfriend's palace. Not really likely all things considered: between the cold reception she would probably receive from Thor's people, combined with the massive lure of working with cutting-edge SCIENCE! at Othrys meant that there was a good chance she'd be coming back to Othrys with me regardless of the effectiveness of Thor's puppy-eyes.
Even so, should she be persuaded by the Thunder God's pleading, then it still was no great loss to me in the overall scheme of things. (Almost) everything she could do, Selvig could do as well, so it shouldn't hamper the timetable of the construction of my new body. In addition, she would still function as an Asgardian-hammer-up-my-ass-deterrent even in Asgard itself, given how Thor would very likely feel indebted to me for facilitating their romance.
If she stayed, she might even end up making a decent spy for me at Odin's Court.
All of this shot through the blink of an eye and all it took was a brief glance in Phineas' direction for him to alert the bubbly scientist and receive an affirmation in return. Focusing on Thor, I give him a wide, disarming smile (leading to another snort from the God of Lies, figures).
"It should only take her a few moments to come through. She merely needs to leave some instructions for her interns and pack a few essentials." I respond calmly, leading to a surprised look from Tony.
"You want us to pack?" he asked in surprise.
"Well, I don't know how long the talks are going to last, so it might be useful."
"It's not that hard to figure out: either Odin hates your guts and smites you on the spot and you die and the negotiations will be short. Or he smites you, you live, but you don't want to go to war with Asgard so you portal out of there and again, short negotiations. Or, he decides he likes the cut of your moxy, you become pals of floating islands, brothers of various mothers and tadah! You get to go home and once again-"
"-conversations will be short?"
"Got it in one." Tony replies with a smile to my exasperated expression.
For a moment I just stare at him, before in a somewhat tired voice I address the resident Asgardian expert.
"Thor. How exactly do your people celebrate Yule?"
The Tunder God brightens at my question.
"Jol? Oh, it's glorious! On the first day, we organize a hunt of the sons of Dain: great deer that are as fast as they are clever. It's great fun and it can take a week before we bag one! So we cook it, which takes a couple of days and then we eat it, which takes a couple of days more, we keep drinking through all of it of course, chasing deer makes you thirsty like you wouldn't believe! And then as we eat we bring up all the barrels of Nidavellir ale that has been waiting for a year, just to get started and all the meats from the kitchens that have been preparing for months, and then the party can finally begin, which we do by-"
"Thank you, Thor, that was very… informative."
I knew (most of) this already of course, courtesy of my own ex-Berserker, and as such I was aware of just what the Asgardians consider a proper party. Or how they consider doing anything important properly. Considering they are the wealthiest of all the Nine Realms (with the possible exception of Nidavellir as they kept their treasures a jealously guarded secret) with life spans that averaged several thousands of years and which only increased the more powerful an individual was and they would make excellent allies to the Ents.
They hardly did anything too hasty.
Feasts were the most notable ones of course, lasting weeks at a time with ease, but more official business, like state visits (which this essentially was, considering my one day old reign as King of my own country) could easily last just as long as well, if not longer still.
Clearly, the Asgardians had quickly understood this as well, judging from Tony's soft "ah."
"Well, better to have it and not need it I suppose. Let's pack and meet up back here again asap." Steve calls out, adapting faster than his colleagues, before immediately following his own advice, turning on his heel and stalking out of the room with purpose.
Tony gives a put-out sigh as he makes to do the same, but is halted by a slim hand on his hand as Pepper sends him a somewhat amused glance.
"No."
"No?"
"No."
"Why no?"
"Because you can't pack." The current CEO of Stark Industries calmly states, before walking off as well, a faux-affronted Tony right on her heels, protesting loudly.
"What do you mean I can't pack?! I'm great at packing! I'm done in, like, less than a minute! Never heard any complaints!"
"That's because you just throw random stuff from your closet into your suitcase Tony."
"And I've never once complained about it!"
"Those are Armani, Tony. You can't treat them that way, you keep wrinkling them!"
"No they don't! I've never worn a crinkly suit after a trip! They're wrinkle proof."
"No, Tony, you've never had to wear a wrinkly suit because I sent them all to the dry cleaners right after we landed. That, or I just packed a separate suitcase for you."
"They aren't wrinkle proof? Then why are they so damned expensive? Besides, if that's our go-to strategy, why chance what isn't broken? We can just-"
"I am not going to ask the Court of the Viking Pantheon to do your laundry, Tony."
"Well, now you're just being unreasonable-"
Slowly, the conversation faded out of even my hearing and very slowly, I let my head fall into my hands, questioning the thought process that had eventually led to me standing here, listening to that. Have I gone wrong somewhere? I must have, right? Right?
Surprisingly, it's not someone from my team that comforts me, but rather Betty Ross who places a dainty hand on my massive upper arm, a well-meaning smile on her face.
"You'll get used to it."
Her eyes gain a far-off, almost haunted look.
"Eventually."
"Thanks." I say with a grateful smile, straightening and taking in a deep breath.
Right. I can do this. Sure, Tony is so much of a loose cannonball… he… he… I can't even come up with a good metaphor, that's how much trouble he can end up being, but it's not like I can tell him not to come along. I mean, I can say so, but it'd cost me a lot of goodwill with the Avengers if it looked like I was trying to split them up and take away their heaviest hitter.
Still, my own people are reliable, Thor and Loki are necessary so not really worth worrying about since they need to come along regardless, and Steve and Pepper are solid, dependable people, both experienced in herding the legion of ADHD, cocaine addicted bag of cats that is Tony's attention span. The inventor might induce a headache, but on his own, outnumbered against cooler, saner heads, this all should be fine-
"Hey Michael! Hey Thor! Where's Mim-mim? Who's that?"
The cheery voice caused a terrible horror to take hold of me as I slowly turned around, watching in mute despair as Jane Foster and her bubbly assistant Darcy Lewis stepped through. Jane's attention immediately zeroes in on Thor who has an immense, dopey grin on his face as he stares back, whereas Darcy is looking with undisguised curiosity at the tall form of Loki standing besides his brother, almost as a study of contrasts.
For his part, the disguised Frost Giant gives the intern one long, bored look, before glancing away again, meaning that, to his own misfortune, he misses the way that Darcy's eyebrows raise in surprise, before a small smirk finds its way on her face and a challenging gleam enters her eyes.
I feel like I should intervene (for whose sake I cannot tell. Loki's? Darcy's? Mine?), but before I can do so, Steve Rogers walks back into the room, duffelbag slung easily over one broad shoulder.
"That was fast." Bruce remarks in surprise, who has opted to pretty much ignore most of the commotion and is now making a soothing tea in Tony's drinking corner, glancing at his fellow Avenger over the rims of his glasses as he removes a teabag from its packet.
The supersoldier shuffles somewhat awkwardly on his feet, not looking the radiation expert in the eye.
"Never really unpacked, so… it was easy." He mutters, gaining a soft, sympathetic expression from the Banners.
Surprisingly, it doesn't really take all that long for Tony and Pepper to return, Tony dragging two trolleys behind him as Pepper's on the phone, apparently giving instructions to a small legion of colleagues, assistants and inters in order to make sure SI can survive a few days without her supervision.
Thankfully, I didn't really have to do the same as Phineas could remain in constant contact with Othrys at all times, thanks to some clever "quantum-entanglement communications array" that Sterns had come up with a little while back, meaning that I could direct my forces even from inside Asgard's palace.
Thor and Loki of course didn't need to pack anything, considering that Thor at least had a room waiting for him and Loki… well, I'm sure that Asgard's dungeons provides its unwilling guests with at least basic commodities.
"Well then, if we're all hear and ready?" I trail off with a questioning look, glancing at each person present, receiving affirmative nods in return.
"Then please step closer to me and make sure to be in direct contact with either me or someone who is in contact with me. It'll make sure that you're carried along safely for the trip." I explain calmly, spreading my arms and clasping hands with both Sam and Darcy, who grabs hold of Jane, who (blushing like mad) eagerly clasps hands with Thor and so on and so forth, until we all form a tight circle.
"So, is this the part where we start singing Kumbaya, cause if we are, I really should go for another drink first-"
Before he can finish, our surroundings are replaced by real-space with the dazzling, shifting, pulsing blue of the Tesseract's energy, immense speed and unending stationary feeling precisely the same and equally weird. Our internal organs seem to cheerfully go on several different rollercoasters as once, time stretches on, stands still and goes backwards and with a hop and a twirl…
… we're there.
Solid stone underneath our feet announces that reality has returned, the air on our skin and the light in our eyes signalling that we once more exist alongside the rest of creation.
And, predictably, the civilians among us (Darcy and Pepper) immediately start heaving. Foster is somewhat used to it now, though she has her eyes still firmly squeezed shut and is clenching Thor's hand so tightly that the God looks somewhat uncomfortable. Tony looks green around the gills, but manages to pretend to have kept his composure and much the same is true for Steve.
Experience in outmanoeuvring fighter jets in a tin can for the former, superior genetics for the latter, I suppose.
Jim is breathing heavily through his nose, but is rapidly looking better, his eyes already flitting around in order to take in his surroundings and Sterns seems to be right as rain, despite this only being the third time he has experienced this kind of travel.
Thor and Loki appear completely unaffected besides some brief blinking and wide eyes.
Casting the same spell I had used upon my earlier group's arrival in Nidavellir I clean up Pepper and Darcy, allowing them to gaze at their surroundings with the same awe that the others have been doing since the blue haze of the Tesseract had faded away.
And not without reason, as we were standing on the shattered edge of the broken Bifrost, the gleaming Palace far off into the distance in front of us, while at our backs was a gaping expanse filled with glittering stars and swirling galaxies that was honestly quite breathtaking, a waterfall raging underneath our feet as water fell into an endless nothingness. Even the resident Princes looked around, albeit it with very different expressions.
Thor looked almost as awed as the humans, his eyes bright and a wide smile taking over his expression.
Loki looked… troubled. As if he couldn't be sure if he was supposed to feel fear or relief at seeing the familiar golden-bronze spires that had been his home for so many centuries. And whether or not he was supposed to feel angry or betrayed about either emotional response. His emotions to the gaping void of Ginnungagap swelling ominously behind us were rather more straightforwards in that regard however: a dread that made him sick to his stomach.
He wasn't given the time to sort out his emotional state however, as the group and I were brusquely dragged out of our gawking by the sound of a boot striking against glass or crystal, the unmistakable sound of a sword tip coming to rest against the floor reaching us.
Our eyes were immediately drawn to the golden-clad figure that had stepped closer to my group, his ebony skin and unusually decorated helmet and sword immediately giving away his identity, which was only confirmed when deep, blazing orange eyes sternly looked over each and every one of us, somehow staring far beyond the merely physical and truly Seeing us.
After a moment of silence, Heimdall, Gatekeeper of Asgard, speaks up in a deep, baritone voice.
"The Allfather will see you now."
…
"Well that's not ominous at all."
"Tony!"
Fun Fact: In the comics, Tony owns Area 51. He uses it to hide the Reality Stone, though the idea was originally born from the fact that Area 51 was used to test captured enemy war material, making it a perfect cover for early Iron Man suits. The latest appearance of Area 51 was in the Immortal Hulk series where it was used by US Hulk Operations (think pre-Red Hulk General Ross, but even more of an asshole). There's also an Area 52 that deals with various superhuman-related occurrences and materials, though as far as I'm aware, there has yet to be a Naruto-run attack on either compound. Deadpool would probably be up for it though.
AN: I know that I promised the Asgard fight scene last chapter and I really, really wanted to include it in this chapter. Unfortunately, things just ended up getting way too long early on. I debated on keeping the thing intact and keep on writing until I reached the confrontation and then cut off there, but the reveal I have planned which will instigate the fight is SO big that it would've been a MASSIVE cliffhanger and that would've felt like a dick move. So, I briefly entertained the thought of simply writing the confrontation as well, but that just became too much. Additionally, it might have meant that this upload would've been pushed back potentially by weeks, which also didn't sit right with me. After reaching out to my reader base over on SpaceBattles (sadly, it's far more difficult to get in contact with you all here over on ) and pretty much universally getting the response of "you do you man", I decided that I should do what I think is best for the chapter and that means cutting it off here. It sucks I can't live up to the promise I made you all, but I really feel that if I had kept on going even further, it would mess with the pacing of the chapter, which in turn would lessen the AWESOMENESS I wanna deliver to you guys. So, for the sake of preserving that, for the sake of giving you the best that I can create and for the sake of my current drunkenness meaning I can't continue writing the chapter even if I wanted to, this is what you get. I hope you're still happy with it, and if you're not, I'm happy to hear that too. Thankfully/Hopefully, we'll get to the fight next time. I intend to get started on writing the chapter first thing tomorrow. Thanks to all of your for reading this long-ass AN, I hope you all are staying safe and enjoying the story and we'll see each other next time. Cheers!