"O faithful familiar, have you discovered anything?"
After settling the agent on the ground into a comfortable position, Fischl stood and questioned Oz.
"My lady, your friend is at a base up ahead. He appears to be trying to breach its defenses and retrieve his weapon."
"Oh~ Has the clarion call sounded for the hero's charge against the demon king?" Fischl murmured.
A gleam flashed in her eyes.
Looking at the unconscious agent on the ground, Fischl parted her lips. "How could this Prinzessin possibly miss such a glorious occasion?"
With a thought, she merged with Oz:
"It is time for this Prinzessin to act."
S.H.I.E.L.D. had surrounded Thor's Mjolnir with hastily constructed glass walkways. Several scientists stood around the hammer, using various instruments to record information about it.
Outside the walkways, fully equipped agents patrolled the base with weapons in hand.
"This wasn't a satellite crash at all. Otherwise, they'd haul away the wreckage instead of building facilities around it."
Jane Foster lay on a small hillside, surveying the inside of the base through binoculars.
She was furious at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s outright theft of all her research materials and data.
When Thor had suggested coming to retrieve his hammer, she had somehow found herself bringing him here.
But S.H.I.E.L.D. had deployed far too many people. This self-proclaimed "God of Thunder" from the planet Asgard was alone. Was it really a good idea for him to charge into their base single-handedly?
She began to worry.
"Wait, are you serious?"
Thor glanced at the dark clouds gathering above Mjolnir, then draped his clothes over her.
"Once I get Mjolnir back, I'll make them return everything that belongs to you."
His tone was utterly earnest, and his gaze was gentle as he looked at Jane. He did not seem to be lying.
Thor's words left Jane stunned.
As she looked at him, an unfamiliar feeling suddenly stirred in her heart.
By the time she came to her senses, her face was still warm, but at least she had not lost all reason. "Look at what's down there. Do you really think you can just stroll in and walk right back out?"
"No."
Thor was utterly confident, certain of his own abilities.
"I'll fly right back out."
Once he got his hammer, his divine power would return. How could these mortals possibly stand in his way? With that, Thor crouched and slipped quietly down the other side of the hill under cover of darkness.
Jane shook her head helplessly. "I must be crazy."
She raised her binoculars and followed the direction Thor had gone.
Thor reached the fence and used a pair of pliers he had found in Jane's car to cut a hole in the wire large enough to fit through. Then he hunched over and squeezed inside.
But he had still underestimated human ingenuity. The supposedly stealthy operation he thought no one had noticed had already been caught on surveillance.
"Sir, there's something outside the west fence."
"Delancey, this is Jackson. Check the west fence."
The outcome was inevitable. Thor's infiltration plan had died before he even had a chance to put it into action.
"Stop! Someone's here!"
The agents spotted Thor and immediately raised their guns to aim at him.
"Intruder! Reporting an intruder!"
Forced to leap out from behind a wall, Thor quickly ducked behind a vehicle and crouched motionless in its shadow.
Up on the hillside, Jane saw the chaos in the base as a searchlight swept toward her.
"Oh, God."
Jane hurriedly flattened herself against the ground and crawled backward.
Before she had moved even half a meter, she felt something heavy land on her shoe.
Still lying on the ground, she looked toward her feet.
A pair of faintly glowing eyes stood out vividly in the darkness.
"Good evening, madam."
"Aaaaah!!!!"
Jane's mind exploded. She sprang up and swung the binoculars in her hand at him.
"Go away! Go away!" she shrieked, flailing wildly without a shred of composure.
Startled, Oz flapped his wings and took to the air. He circled overhead once, then landed on the wrist of Fischl as she emerged from the darkness.
"Cease your ignorant actions, mortal. You have offended this Prinzessin's familiar."
Fischl frowned. Ignoring the searchlights sweeping the area, she stood brazenly on the hillside and looked down at the chaotic base.
"So time truly is the cruelest shackle in this world. Can even this Prinzessin not escape it?"
She sighed mournfully.
"My lady," Oz said, "Mr. Thor appears to have reached an impasse."
"A... a talking raven?"
Hearing the girl mention Thor's name, Jane cautiously edged closer. Once her fright had passed, she realized that the greeting she had heard earlier had actually come from the large bird before her.
Jane studied the pitch-black bird and found that he bore no ill will. He was simply watching her calmly.
"Haha, why be startled by such a trifling matter, fair lady?"
Oz was not angry about what had just happened. He patiently replied, "We are merely friends of Mr. Thor."
"Zone B! He's in Zone B!"
An agent shouted into his radio.
Thor ran with long strides. Faced with an agent blocking his path, he crashed straight into him, sending them both to the ground.
Rather than get up immediately, Thor decisively punched the agent pinned beneath him, taking him out of the fight.
"He's entered the South Corridor!"
The figure on the surveillance feed barreled through the base, drawing ever closer to the hammer at its center.
Even without his divine power, Thor's robust physique let him break through the cordon of agents surrounding him.
As soon as Coulson got out of his car, he hurried toward the Command Center. He had never expected an intruder to appear during his brief absence.
"Barton, get to high ground. Bring your gear."
Here was another familiar face: Clint Barton, the expert marksman known within S.H.I.E.L.D. as Hawkeye. Upon receiving the order, he quickly took position at a high vantage point.
Barton drew his bowstring all the way back, aiming at the man who had broken through the obstacles and reached the hammer.
"I'm ready, Coulson."
His mechanical arrows could discharge electricity, knocking an enemy unconscious the instant they struck.
Thor slowly reached for the hammer's handle.
"Wait."
Coulson wanted to see whether this stranger could lift the hammer.
"Haha."
Laughing, Thor gripped the handle tightly and heaved!
But the very next second, his smile froze on his lips.
He could not lift it.
He could not lift it!!
No matter how hard Thor pulled, whether with one hand or both, Mjolnir was like a lousy boyfriend, offering no response to his desperate pleas to stay.
Mjolnir, it's me! Have you forgotten your little Thor from Asgard?
Thor called out and pleaded inwardly, but it did not do a damn thing.
"That's enough."
Coulson was disappointed. This man had brought him no pleasant surprises.
Receiving the order, Barton aimed at the nearly crazed man below and released his bowstring.
The instant his arrow flew, Barton caught a flash of purple out of the corner of his eye.
Crack!
A lightning-like streak of light pierced the air. His arrow snapped in half, veering off course and falling to the ground.
"Who's there!"
Barton's pupils contracted. Drawing his bow, he looked toward the source of the streak. A girl stood on the hillside, still holding a longbow wreathed in purple lightning.
The girl opened her mouth and said something.
Because of the distance, Barton could not make out what she had said.
But Jane, standing beside Fischl, heard every word clearly.
She said:
"Ma da ma da da ne!"