"On the bright side, at least you cleaned up that old devil Roarke, so Hell won't be making any major moves for a while," Nick Fury said. On the communication screen, he rubbed his temples, his face lined with deep exhaustion.
"Probably," Ethan Hunt nodded. "However, the temporal physics of the Convergence—the Nine Realms overlapping—are highly volatile. Since the main portal couldn't be opened, Doctor Strange and the sorcerers at Kamar-Taj couldn't arrive in time. Handing the demonic fallout over to the magic side was our best logistical option."
Fury let out a long, heavy exhale. "If that's the case, we'll take the win."
"You don't need to look so relieved," Ethan pointed out, eyeing the Director. "S.H.I.E.L.D.'s actual participation in this mess was minimal. You only dispatched two agents: Coulson and Melinda."
Fury fixed Ethan with a flat, unimpressed glare. "You know damn well the scale of this problem. Just half an hour ago, the Turkish president called the White House. He was demanding the launch codes for the nuclear stockpile the United States keeps at their local base. He was convinced they were under an active nuclear strike."
Ethan glanced around at the scorched, desolate wasteland surrounding him. "Honestly, using nuclear weapons out here wouldn't be the worst tactical decision. Dropping a couple of warheads on a demon army in an empty no-man's-land has its merits."
"You're missing the point," Fury snapped. "He didn't want to nuke the demons. He wanted the codes to nuke Moscow. The man firmly believes that because he ticked off the Russians last month, they are using the current global chaos as a smokescreen to retaliate."
Ethan blinked, genuinely taken aback. 'Well, that escalated,' he thought. "Uh, that's certainly a president who likes to make headlines."
"You have the nerve to judge someone for making headlines?" Fury's singular eye narrowed. "Now I finally understand why you cause a scene everywhere you go. What else should I expect from Magneto's heir?"
Ethan coughed into his fist, awkwardly deflecting the accusation. "Right. Let's talk about Coulson. You were interrupted earlier. What's the situation in England?"
"The situation is that at least a billion people are watching it unfold live," Fury said, pulling up a secondary video feed.
On the screen, a massive, thirty-foot beast was tearing through the center of London. It possessed thick, muscular limbs, razor-sharp claws, and scales the color of bruised ice. It looked like a nightmarish hybrid between a prehistoric theropod and a monitor lizard.
Thor leaned closer to the monitor, his brow furrowing. "Isn't that a Frost Beast from Jotunheim?" He recalled his ill-fated raid on King Laufey's realm; he and his companions had barely fought off several of those exact monsters.
Luna stepped into the frame, her tone analytical. "The Convergence causes the spatial boundaries of the Nine Realms to bleed into one another. It's an inevitable consequence that foreign fauna will randomly drop into our space. The dimensional tremors Ethan caused by destroying the interface channel likely widened the tears. We should expect an increase in these anomalies over the coming days."
Fury rubbed his jaw, a deep scowl settling over his features. "So, we're looking at a passive alien invasion. Earth's current human civilization is barely holding together as it is; humanity isn't ready for this level of exposure. The reality of the universe is pushing us to the brink."
"It's not entirely a bad thing," Ethan countered. "Extreme external pressure accelerates internal unification. It might force the world to actually work together."
"Wait," Thor interrupted, pointing a massive finger at the screen. "Isn't that Erik Selvig?"
In the chaotic background of the footage, an older, disheveled man was scrambling away from the carnage. It was undoubtedly Jane Foster's mentor.
Fury's eye tracked the man on the screen. "It appears so. Ever since his mind was compromised by your brother last year, he's been erratic. He recently requested an extended leave of absence from S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearly, his vacation isn't going as planned."
"I need to find him. And I need to find Jane," Thor declared, his voice tight with sudden urgency. The demonic invasion had briefly sidelined his primary reason for returning to Earth.
"Then I will see you all later." Without another word, Thor swung Mjolnir in a rapid circle, the hum of the hammer building until he launched himself into the sky, rapidly shrinking into a distant black speck.
A few seconds of silence passed.
Then, the speck grew larger again. Thor landed heavily back onto the dirt.
He looked at Ethan, a sheepish expression crossing the Thunder God's face. "Do you, perhaps, know which direction London is?"
Ethan just stared at him. 'Unbelievable,' he thought.
Ultimately, Ethan and Luna opted to travel to London with Thor. The Quinjet they had arrived in was undamaged, having been parked safely away from the epicenter of the battlefield. The only issue was that their pilot was nowhere to be found. If they didn't want to hike across the globe back to The Academy, intercepting Coulson and Melinda in the UK was their best play.
As for how a pilotless Quinjet was going to cross the English Channel? That was Ethan's department. After all, his mentor was Magneto.
"Let's go," Ethan said, taking a seat cross-legged on the roof of the Quinjet's fuselage.
He extended a hand, his mind connecting with the physical forces surrounding the massive aircraft. Instead of relying on engines, Ethan manipulated the fundamental vectors of the jet's mass. He isolated the downward vector of gravity acting on the Quinjet and inverted it to zero, effectively nullifying its weight. Simultaneously, he gathered the ambient air currents, accelerating their kinetic velocity to create a focused, high-pressure updraft beneath the hull. With a precise shift of his wrist, he applied a continuous forward thrust vector, propelling the floating aircraft smoothly into the sky and banking toward London.
An hour later, they arrived over the chaotic streets of London from Eastern Europe. The Frost Beast was still rampaging. A magical creature of that density, native to the harsh climate of Jotunheim, was practically immune to standard police firearms; anything short of a heavy missile strike wouldn't even dent its scales.
On the ground, Phil Coulson and Melinda May were expertly coordinating the London police, holding a defensive perimeter to buy time for civilian evacuation and distract the beast.
"Your end has come, big lizard!" Thor bellowed.
He leapt from the hovering Quinjet, plummeting toward the earth like a meteor. He brought Mjolnir down in a devastating arc, smashing directly into the Frost Beast's skull.
Coulson exhaled a sharp breath, dropping his shoulders slightly. "Thank God you're here," he called out, watching Thor effortlessly subdue the massive creature in a matter of seconds. Dealing with interdimensional apex predators was drastically above his pay grade.
Dusting off his armor, Thor strode over to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, his expression grave. "Agent Coulson. I require your assistance, and the resources of S.H.I.E.L.D. I am searching for Jane. I know you likely haven't found her, as she vanished from Heimdall's sight several hours ago. I just need any intelligence you have on her prior movements, or the location of her associates, such as Dr. Selvig."
Coulson held up a placating hand. "Hold on, Your Highness. Let me summarize: you've been talking for a while, but you just want to find Jane Foster, correct?"
"Yes, but finding her is no simple task," Thor insisted. "If even Heimdall cannot locate her, she may no longer be within the Nine Realms..."
As Thor continued his grim theorizing, Coulson caught May's eye and gestured. May stepped forward, supporting a pale, visibly exhausted Jane Foster.
"I can't speak to where she was a few hours ago," Coulson interrupted gently, "but we found her collapsed alone in the plaza while we were clearing the perimeter."
Thor spun around, his jaw dropping. "Jane? Why are you here?"
Jane blinked heavily, her eyes focusing on the Asgardian. Her initial shock quickly hardened into a fierce glare.
"Where did you go a few hours ago?" Thor rushed forward, his relief palpable. "I asked Heimdall to scour the Nine Realms, and he saw nothing! I thought you..."
"What did you think?" Jane snapped coldly. "You suspected I went on a blind date behind your back?"
'Where was I?' Jane fumed internally. 'I should be asking where you have been! I thought I finally found a decent guy, an actual god from the stars. But the relationship barely starts, and he's off dealing with his psychotic brother, completely ignoring me.'
"I am deeply sorry, Jane," Thor said, his voice softening with genuine regret. "So much has happened. The Bifrost was shattered, and the Nine Realms fell into rebellion. I had to end the chaos."
"Oh, really?" Jane crossed her arms, shivering slightly but holding her ground. "Then why aren't you out protecting the world right now?"
Thor froze, caught completely off guard by her righteous anger. He was a straight-laced warrior—he had no idea how to coax a furious woman. He desperately searched his mind for what to say. Ironically, it was the silver-tongued tactics of his treacherous brother, Loki, that suddenly flashed through his thoughts. Sometimes, bold, emotional honesty was the only play. He stepped closer and decisively grabbed her hand.
"Because I realized I was being too stupid," Thor murmured, his gaze locked onto hers. "I was ignoring the things I should truly cherish, and I ignored your feelings. I do not want to lose you."
Jane scoffed. "Do you honestly think a speech like that is going to make me forgive you?" Though she said the words, the small smile breaking through on her face completely betrayed her.
Even someone as dense as Thor recognized she was relenting. Pressing his advantage, he guided her hand to rest flat against his armored chest. "If you still refuse to forgive me, then strike me as much as you want. I hope it helps you vent your anger."
"You're impossible," Jane muttered, her tone affectionate. She balled her hand into a small fist and playfully hammered it against his chest.
In that exact fraction of a second, an aggressive, liquid-red energy violently erupted from Jane's body.
The kinetic backlash was instantaneous and catastrophic. Thor felt as though he had been hit by a runaway train. He was blasted backward at terrifying speed, skipping across the pavement and carving a thirty-meter trench through the asphalt before violently crashing into a nearby building.
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Word count: 1768
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