Chapter 33) – Play God

Lying on the relatively cool floor of the training room, Mara was fast asleep after our intense training session with May and Clint.

Just like May had hypothesised; us working together and having more objects to dodge, in Mara's case, and block or call out, in mine, led to an even higher rate of improvement.

The physical enhancements were kept to the bare minimum as well, just like the time with only Clint, so it was all foundational improvements.

There were a few close shaves and a few hairs removed, but for the most part my host suffered no injuries of any kind.

Although May wasn't as accurate as Hawkeye, it was clear how she got her reputation of being 1 of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best field operatives with her skills. That was only emphasised by the fact she was out of practice during the training and with each knife thrown or bullet shot, she only got increasingly more accurate.

Waking Mara from her slumber was May as she barged into the training unit and called out, "Mara! Get up, we need to move! We've got another possible 0-8-4 nearby with very similar signals to the first 2. We'll be acting as back-up support."

Hearing May's shouting, Mara jolted up into a seating position. As she did so, I removed my form that I had wrapped around my host to create a sleeping bag cocoon to give her a comfortable rest even on the training room's hard floor.

I transitioned straight into the agent form – without the facemask – as Mara rubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned to wake herself up from her daze.

As my host stood up, she looked at May stood in the doorway and questioned, "Are we setting out right now?"

Nodding in affirmation, May stated, "Yeah, right now. Coulson asked if you could bring the hammer along as well. It may be related to this 0-8-4, so it wouldn't hurt."

After the month of adjustment she had, Mara had finally got out of her habit of stretching. As such, she didn't need any more preparation before heading out other than to ask, "Is there anything to munch on for breakfast? I'm starving after using all that energy last night."

Meeting up with May at the door, I restored the facemask as our handler turned around to exit.

Mara walked beside her, and May answered my host's question, "Nothing to eat on the go that you're probably used to, other than your toffee popcorn. There might be some protein or calorie bars if you don't mind them?"

Bobbing her head, Mara replied, "Yeah they're fine. As much as I like my popcorn, eating it for every meal would be overdoing it. I'd be worried that I'd eventually get sick of it, which is the last thing I want. Hmm, actually that's a good point. May, can I change the snack request I initially asked for, please?"

Still walking in the general direction of the central command centre, May queried back, "There shouldn't be any problems with that. What do you have in mind?"

Rather than heading towards the entrance of the command centre, May made a slight change in course and aimed towards a black SUV parked behind an equally coloured sedan out the front of the unit.

Copying the trajectory change, Mara requested, "Could you ask whoever sources the popcorn to mix up the flavours? I don't mean mix up the kernels within the packets, but have each packet be a different flavour so that none of them get stale. They could change every day or 2, and they don't have to stick to sweet types either, whatever is easiest for the supplier. Like 1 day it could be toffee, the next could be chocolate or bacon or just salty, etcetera. Would that be feasible?"

May opened the rear passenger door for my host and Mara didn't hesitate to climb inside the vehicle.

Closing the door and making her way around the vehicle, May opened the rear driver side door and climbed inside as well.

As the pair put on their seatbelts, May resolved Mara's request, "I'll pass on the message to the relevant S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. Do you mind if they get a little experimental with the flavours? To be honest, I think the chefs are pretty bored creating the same food every day for the various staff members, and are unable to properly express themselves."

Once everyone was secure in the vehicle and the car ahead of us had set off, we swiftly followed suit while Mara smiled at May's response, "Yeah that's fine with me. Just make sure they try it beforehand, so they're not giving me something inedible. Tell them that I'll even mark the packets with a rating if they want, so they get some feedback? If they do want me to do that, tell them not to put the flavour on the outside of the packet so that I judge them without any preconceptions. This actually sounds like a pretty fun game now."

Shaking her head at my host, May spoke to the driver and front passenger, "Delancey, Jackson, either of you 2 got a protein or calorie bar for my charge? She's just woken up and we want her at full strength if something goes down."

Before either men could answer, Mara exclaimed, "Shit! I forgot the hammer. Keep driving, gimme 1 second."

Saying such, Mara rolled down the window of the SUV to grab hold of the roof of the vehicle, pulled herself out of it and flipped onto said roof.

Sending tendrils out of both the right and left of Mara's abdominal lumbar, I secured and stabilised her to the SUV without damaging it.

Holding up her arm with an open hand, Mara mumbled, "C'mon baby. Come to mami."

May was unsure about what exactly Mara was doing, so she rolled down her window to stick her head out and ask, "What are you doing Mara? Do you need us to turn back?"

Just before Mara could reply to our handler, we both felt the same distinct pulsing hum - even over the growing distance between us and Mjolnir.

Smiling to herself, my host answered, "Nah we've got it, she'll be here any second now."

Sure enough, in the distance dust could be seen being thrown into the air due to a speeding hammer charging towards us.

After only a couple of seconds the hammer was secured in our hands.

As soon as we grasped Mjolnir's shaft, like it could read our minds, all momentum it carried disappeared like it wasn't just hurtling at us multiple times faster than the SUV was moving.

Making sure not to drop the hammer, and potentially crush the vehicle we were using; I used my tendrils to slide Mara back into her seat through the window.

While I used another tendril to secure the seatbelt back into position, Mara turned to May, "See, light work. Did you get 1 of those bar thingies, I'm starving."

Shaking her head slightly, May handed over 1 protein bar and 2 calorie bars for my host to consume.

As Mara held the protein bar in her free hand, I used tendrils to unwrap it for her and uncovered her mouth.

While I was doing that, my host thanked the driver and passenger, "Thanks Delancey, and you too Jackson. I really appreciate it."

Both men just nodded in response as my host spent the rest of the journey consuming the improvised breakfast she was provided in preparation for the day ahead.

------

Pulling up to the site of the disturbance, Mara and May got out of the SUV alongside every other S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle that had travelled to the scene and was parked in a circle around the suspected 0-8-4.

Immediately Coulson was giving out his orders, "Secure a perimeter immediately, don't let anyone contaminate the site! Additional agents go with the ones securing the perimeter and look for any signs of exit or entry before we arrived!"

Walking towards the lead agent, May questioned, "What do you want Mara to do Coulson? Don't count me as a field agent, you know I don't do that anymore."

Looking directly at May, Coulson said, "I know. Don't worry, I won't go against your wishes. For now, Mara is on standby until we can determine if there even is an 0-8-4. From the looks of things, the only standout aspect is those markings on the ground. Until we can determine what they are, the assumption is that there's nothing here - at least not anymore."

Affirming Coulson's orders, Mara and May walked the few steps back to the SUV we arrived in to get out of the way of the agents fulfilling their orders.

As we watched on, we saw Coulson kneel down next to the circular pattern burnt into the desert sand.

Turning away from the markings, the agent in charge called out, "Get someone from research and linguistics over here. We need to determine what these marking are, and if they mean anything, as soon as possible."

Unfortunately, as soon as Coulson had finished speaking and stood up to continue dishing out orders, another atmospheric disturbance began overhead.

Clouds gathered in the sky from out of nowhere and started to swirl in a vortex.

Only gathering in strength, the centre of the vortex started to head towards the ground eerily reminiscent of how a tornado touched down.

Unlike a tornado, however, the stretching neck of the vortex was less cone shaped and was instead a long cylinder shape like a tunnel.

Thankfully the disturbance wasn't where any agents were stood and was a few metres outside of the ring of vehicles that circled the previous markings S.H.I.E.L.D. initially planned to investigate.

Touching down on the ground, the cylinder of clouds threw up sand and dust. All of the agents took cover behind the vehicles – us included.

When the clouds dispersed and the dust settled, the cause of the disturbance was revealed.

Standing in the centre of where the vortex touched down was a completely chrome, roughly 10-foot tall, metallic suit. It had the outline and definition of a muscular man made from small individual strips of chrome metal, like the strands of muscle on a human body. It had small spikes along its shoulder line as well as down the outside of its arms and legs. On its head it had 2 rectangular slots for its eyes and the top of its head was flat, but had small wing tips which somehow made it appear even more human-like.

While we were staring at the arrival, we overheard Coulson talking to Jasper from behind the vehicle in front of ours, "I don't know. It's not like that guy would ever tell me anything. He's more likely to tell Mara."

As the suit stayed stationary, Coulson called back to my host, "Mara, is this 1 of Stark's?!"

To which Mara immediately answered, "No sir! I don't know about you, but I don't get a friendly feeling from it either. Permission to engage?"

Not receiving a reply from the agent, Mara walked around the SUV so that she was out in the open and ready to jump into the fray if she needed to be.

At the same time as my host was moving, the metal suit also started moving and it headed directly for the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle encirclement.

With a megaphone in his hand, that he received from Jasper, Coulson shouted out, "Identify yourself! You are using unregistered technology! If you do not co-operate we will be forced-"

Cutting off Coulson was the movement of the suit's face plate. Or rather face slats, as it wasn't 1 whole piece, but multiple smaller segments.

Instead of a person answering Coulson however, the inside of the suit appeared to burn like a furnace and the flames only got brighter.

Quickly taking action, I transitioned to our full suit form as Mara ran at Coulson.

Just as the charged beam of fire was about to be released straight at Coulson, we threw Mjolnir at the suit without much accuracy in our haste.

The hammer hit the suit square in the chest and it was carried back by Mjolnir as the beam of fire was shot into the sky.

Stopping alongside Coulson, we informed him, "We told you it didn't feel friendly. We know we're not in charge, but you need to get everyone out of here while we hold it down. We'll try our best to beat it, but we can't promise anything since we don't even know what it is or what it wants."

Not losing his head, despite how close he came with death, Coulson responded, "Understood. You have free reign, do whatever you have to. I'll contact the agents in town to prepare for the worst and evacuate. Escape if you have to, you 2 are too valuable to lose."

Running away from where we were stood, Coulson set about doing as we had instructed.

Meanwhile, we couldn't help but mutter, "Fuck us, why is it always something hot. First electricity, now fire. Give us a break."

Running towards the direction the metal suit was sent, we held out our arm ahead of us and felt Mjolnir's connecting hum as we summoned her back.

Our initial throw of Mjolnir appeared to have sent the chrome suit quite a distance away from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents despite the size, and presumed weight, of it.

Slightly different from the other times we had called Mjolnir, this time it was almost like we could feel exactly how far away she was from the intensity of the hum that reverberated throughout our body.

After only a second or so, Mjolnir was back into our hand, and we had to quickly dodge to the left as a beam of fire was trailing after the mystical hammer.

Rather than throw her again, we kept Mjolnir close as it was the only cover we had against the fire beam in the vast, open, desert plain.

That quickly proved to be the right decision.

As we closed the distance between us and the suit, said suit fired another fire beam to which we held Mjolnir out in front of us to use her head as a shield.

Although the hammer head protected us from the brunt of the flame, the passive heat radiating from the beam was enough to cause the bond on our hand to nearly separate.

Not wanting to experience the pain again, we jumped to the side of the beam to catch a break from the heat.

Considering the beam originated from the suit, it stood to reason that the suit itself being made out of metal would conduct the heat and thus would be equally as hot, if not even hotter, than the beam.

Since we realised that we couldn't rely on closing the distance, the only things we could do that would be of use would be to either throw Mjolnir or try our shriek out.

Mjolnir was the best bet, but it would also leave us vulnerable to attacks should we miss or not offset the beam enough.

We could dodge all we wanted, but all it took was 1 clean hit and we would be fucked.

In our bonded suit form, Mara didn't need to tell me what she wanted to do, and neither did I need to ask.

Even without the mental connection we had, from the Adrenaline practically gushing from her body, I could tell what she wanted.

Pulling our right arm back, we launched Mjolnir forward towards the suit's leg.

Although the suit dodged slightly, it was too focused on attacking us after we had thrown our only means of defence to completely dodge the hammer.

As such, Mjolnir hit the inside of the suit's right knee which caused it to genuflect onto the floor and resulted in the beam it charged being fire into the ground creating a snaking curved groove into the desert sand.

Summoning back Mjolnir, we took a deep breath.

As soon as the hammer was back in our grasp, we unleashed our shriek as the suit began to recover, "AAAHHHHHHHHH!!"

The force of the shriek hit the suit as it had finished picking itself up from its kneeling position but it, unfortunately, did nothing other than make it take a couple of steps backwards from the impact of the blast.

With our only method of attack narrowed down to Mjolnir, we had no alternative but to fight on the razor's edge.

For what felt like forever, but was probably closer to 20 minutes, we dodged beam after beam and threw Mjolnir time and time again, making no progress in defeating the chrome suit.

Jumping into the sky to dodge another beam, we noticed that the suit was gradually making its way closer to us so that its beams didn't have to travel as far.

As we landed, we threw Mjolnir at the head of the suit and, for the first time, the suit itself successfully dodged the weapon leaving us completely defenceless.

Taking full advantage of the position we found ourselves in, the suit moved to fire a beam at our form, but, just in time, Mjolnir crashed into the back of its head - forcing the suit to the ground - as she made her return journey to our hand.

Since the suit was on the ground, we took the opportunity to move further away from it.

The more beams of fire it launched, the hotter the suit passively became and thus the more unbearable it was to be near it.

The biggest problem was that the suit seemed to recognise that fact, and was beginning to learn that we couldn't get close to it. Its dodging was also getting better even as it closed the distance between us even though it gave it less time to avoid Mjolnir.

While the suit was still on the ground, we tried out something we didn't even know would work, let alone if it would harm us.

Raising Mjolnir into the sky we muttered, "C'mon baby. Show us what you're known for. You know you want to show-off a little."

Responding to our wishes, Mjolnir sent out the largest pulse we had felt yet throughout our body.

Accompanied by the pulse was dark storm clouds gathering overhead.

Small sparks started to roll around the hammer's head as the clouds got thinker and darker above us.

The suit had already begun to pick itself up off the ground as wire strands of lightning fell from the clouds and impacted Mjolnir's head.

As more lightning hit the hammer head, the wire strands became thinker and the interval between the impacts got shorter.

The attack built up until the suit stood up straight and prepared to attack.

With the last lightning bolt hitting the hammer's head being the thickness of our arm, we pulled down Mjolnir to point the top of her head at the suit as the built-up lightning discharged and a beam of solid electricity flew towards the target.

The heat from Mjolnir's lightning being discharged was noticeable and made the connection on our hand holding the hammer separate slightly.

However, since it had already happened when we blocked the beam from the suit, it was more bearable than the first time. As such, we could hold on for long enough to where the entire capacity of Mjolnir could be discharged.

When the bright light from the lightning dimmed, the damaged caused by the attack was visible.

Surprisingly, for the flashiness of the attack, the damage was very little.

Whether or not the suit had shot a beam of fire to counteract the lightning was unclear as the brightness of the attack made it difficult to determine what exactly happened right before the impact.

What was clear, was that the suit had some burn marks and some small dents, presumably from the heavy impact of the lightning's small surface area, but other than that the suit was still fully operational.

Feeling like we had spent way too long stalling for time, we couldn't help but mutter out, "For fuck's sake. What's taking so long?"

As with most things in the universe, sometimes all it took was to speak something into existence.

With the words leaving our mouth, 5 people could be spotted running towards the metallic suit from its back.

Not letting us enjoy the potential success of our efforts, the suit went straight back on the offensive launching beam after beam at us while we dodged and threw Mjolnir at its torso – the largest target – aiming to give us some breathing room.

All the while we dodged, we made sure not to face the suit towards the newcomers so that they had somewhat of an element of surprise.

To be expected with Murphy's Law of all things though, what could go wrong, did go wrong.

Fully expecting the Asgardian's to use the situation to their advantage, the largest of the group decided not to do that and instead shouted, "Odin's beard Thor, that creature is wielding Mjolnir!!"

Stopping from shooting its beam at us, the suit didn't turn itself but rather rotated the various metal panels it was made out of to perform a 180-degree direction change and face the podgy Asgardian that shouted.

Recognising that the situation could take a turn for the worst, we jumped high over the suit, to avoid the heat, and landed in front of the newcomers.

Slightly pissed off that the dumb fuck wasted a perfectly good ambush chance and at ourselves, for the fact that we weren't able to do much in the fight other than stall, our words came out sharper than we would have liked or intended, "Thor now would be a good fucking time to become worthy. We can't get close to that thing. We can't stand HEAT! Why is it always HEAT?! Tell us you've got a cunting plan!!"

Before Thor could answer, the suit charged up its face beam again and in our bubbling anger we threw Mjolnir at the head of the suit with all our strength while shouting, "FUCK OFF!!!"

After the hammer hit the head of the suit and knocked it onto its back – which prevented it from firing its beam - we realised that my fear of the heat, and Mara's stress about not being able to fight the suit properly was creating a mixture of anger and impulsiveness that wouldn't help us at all.

As such, we turned to the new arrivals, took a deep breath, and requested assistance, "Look, we're sorry. We can't do heat, and being unable to fight that thing properly for however long we've been at it is getting to us. Do you have a plan? If not, can you play with it for a while so that we can cool our head and think of something, please?"

All 5 of the Asgardian's looked at us, but it was Thor that spoke, "Your apology is unnecessary friend. I know all too well how difficult it can be to contain one's emotions during a battle and only recently have I understood how it affects those around me. Fret not Red Crown. Although your appearance is different, the fact that you wield Mjolnir is a clear indicator of who you are and, as such, I have an unpaid debt to you. Thor, the Warrior's 3, and Lady Sif would be honoured to join you in battle against an opponent such as the Destroyer!"

The other 4 Asgardian's smiled and nodded at Thor's words.

The only female Asgardian of the group, Lady Sif, stood at the same height as Mara naturally did – 5'9". She had long, black, hair that extended below her shoulder, to the mid-point of her back, and distinct hazel eyes that stood out ever further due to her rosy skin. She was wearing an armoured, dark red, short skirt dress. Had a shield in her left hand, which was quite small, but too big to be classed as a buckler. While in her right hand was a straight sword which, we would later find out, was able to transform into a double-bladed sword or split into 2 swords to duel-wield.

As for the Warrior's 3, they couldn't be any more distinct.

Starting with the podgy 1, as he was closest to Lady Sif, he was the same height as us in our suit form - 6'2" and, similarly to Lady Sif, he was wearing armour that had red fabric underneath to function as clothes. Unlike Lady Sif, however, his red was much lighter and, whether intentional or not, was very close to matching his hair colour. Speaking of his hair colour, it was copper red that shone wherever the sunlight hit it and sat where his neck met his shoulders. He also had a beard of the same colour that was as long, and voluminous, as the hair on his head with it extending down to the centre of his chest. His weapon of choice was a rather sizable 2-handed battle axe.

Stood next to the redhead, also wearing battle armour, was a man around 5'10". The clothing underneath his armour was a dark, almost black, purple. He had slicked back black hair that was tied into a ponytail with the ends frayed out, and had long sideburns but was otherwise clean shaven. His eyes were similar to the rest of his shadowy appearance, a dark brown, that from a distance looked black. His weapon of choice was a mace, which we would later find out, could extend via a chain to become a flail.

The last of the warrior's 3 was the most flamboyant looking of the bunch. Like the rest he was wearing armour, but his seemed to be designed to show-off. For starters, unlike the others, he had not 1, but 2 capes - 1 hanging from each shoulder. His armour was an ostentatious gold material which made it stand out the most compared to his compatriots. His hair was blonde, and the shortest of the group, settling on a medium length, side shifted style. The facial hair he sported was the same blonde as his hair, but was in a Balbo style. His weapon of choice was an equally ostentatiously decorated rapier.

The Warrior's 3 charged head first towards the Destroyer while Lady Sif used their charge as a distraction to make her way around the suit, so that she could ambush it – the very thing the podgy Asgardian prevented them from doing in the first place.

While they were doing that, we called back Mjolnir in the hopes that Thor could now wield the mystical hammer after going through some self-reflection to adjust his priorities, his principles, and his attitude towards the people, as well as situations, around him.