Yongye caught the Square Hammer and let it hang at his side. Looking at Thor's face, flushed with rage, his teasing smile deepened.
"Oh? Your goddess?"
"No wonder they call you the God of Hammers. You really do treasure it."
He shifted the Square Hammer from his left hand to his right, then added lightly, each word cutting deep. "To me, Mjolnir is just a gift that doesn't quite measure up."
Thor's pupils widened sharply.
He opened his mouth, the words "Say that again, you bastard" already on the tip of his tongue. But at that very moment, Yongye turned to Natasha and offered her the Square Hammer.
"Here. Catch."
Natasha stared at him, baffled.
She stood in the middle of the training mat, her red hair disheveled and her training clothes soaked with sweat. Confusion, wariness, and the faintest trace of curiosity swirled in her light-brown eyes.
She looked at the dark-gray Square Hammer Yongye held out, then at Thor's face, twisted with rage, before turning her gaze back to Yongye.
She hesitated for less than half a second.
She knew and trusted Yongye. And her agent's instinct urged her to test the unknown. She reached out and took it.
The instant her fingertips touched the handle—
Boom!
A blinding burst of blue-white lightning exploded from the center of the hammerhead!
The light flared from the Square Hammer like an ignited star, washing the entire Training Ground in stark white.
At its center, Natasha was wrapped in a dazzling mass of electric arcs. Silver current climbed her arms, coiling and bursting, leaping across her body in a shifting web.
Before that flash of lightning, the lamps in the Training Ground's domed ceiling went dark for an instant, like a row of candles blown out at once.
Hawkeye stumbled half