Creel stopped the car.
It was a surprise. He slammed his foot on the brake pedal with such force that the car left tire tracks on the ground behind him from the melted tires.
I stared the vehicle down as it hurled towards me before finally coming to a stop before me. I let out an annoyed grunt as the front bumper pressed itself against my stomach, and when it saw no give, that was its final warning to ground to a halt. He was lucky he stopped it, I doubt he would've survived the collision.
We stared at each other through the windscreen. My pale blue eyes against his dull brown. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it back. After four more times of flapping like a fish in surprise at my presence and audacity, I decided that enough was enough.
"Get out of the vehicle."
At my words, he finally regained himself, and with a frown, he did as much. He stepped out of the car, rising to his full height of just a little over six feet. If he aimed to intimidate me with his height like he had done to others all his life, then his act of craning his neck up to look me in the eyes shattered that.
"Get out of my way, big guy, this has nothing to do with you," Creel said, yet he left a hand pressed against the door. Despite his disarming words, I could see his hand change, a metallic sheen covering it and spreading upwards.
"You're going to walk back, and apologize, then sit and wait to answer to your act otherwise..."
He replied to me with silence.
He, more than most of the folks in this little town in Dakota, understood what it meant for someone to look and act like me. Only power gave such bravery and audacity. I could almost feel him consider my words, then he glanced back to the bag in the car, and his features hardened. He had made his choice; he had determined that whatever he had stolen and was transporting was more important than standing down.
The metallic sheen had covered the rest of his body and was rapidly moving up his neck, bolstering him with some level of confidence, because his next words sealed his fate.
"Otherwise what?"
He asked, his hand releasing the door of the car, as the metallic sheen covered the top of his head. I did not reply with words this time.
I let out a breath. He had not harmed me personally, so restraint was required. Decision made, I closed my hand into a single meaty fist and struck down.
Ozone filled the air.
Then the blow slammed into him with a crackle of displaced energy as I hit him faster than he could see and hard enough that a split second later, he was an imprint in the concrete ground, as the shape of my fist left an impression on the metallic sheen that covered his face.
An impression so fine that even the wrinkles on my knuckles were clear on his face.
Creel looked up to the sky from his earthen cradle, his eyes white and his pupils rolled over. His fingers twitched for a second, and once more my fist closed, but before I could hit him again, he stilled, and the metallic sheen that covered him slowly left his form.
He was unconscious, probably with some level of brain damage as well if he was lucky, if he wasn't, he would not be waking up again. Regardless of the damage, he was alive, which was more than a lot of people who have faced me could say.
It was more mercy than the giants ever received.
"Dumbfuck." I muttered as I bent down, just low enough to grab him by his bald dome, and ripped him out of the concrete before he completely lost his superhuman durability.
I dropped his limp form on the bonnet of the car, then searched the vehicle for something to bind him with. I didn't see anything until I glanced at a toolbox, and the crowbar resting inside.
"That will work."
I took it out, and with no effort, I twisted the steel rebar into shape around Creel's wrist. His fingers were clasped together to avoid him waking up and absorbing the metal, and I twisted the crowbar tight enough that I was certain I had fractured one of his wrists, yet he did not so much as jerk in pain.
Brain damage was looking more likely by the second. I shrugged uncaring shoulders before looking into the car and the bag he had carried with him. I could leave whatever he had stolen alone and back there, but I didn't feel like risking it, too much heat on the already fragile people, so I carried the bag along, then walked to where I left my dropped groceries.
"Is he... is he going to be alright?"
Marie asked from the doorway of the general store, while Sam remained inside speaking furiously on the phone. Then he slammed it down and began walking down to us.
"Maybe, maybe not," I replied.
"You should get out of here, Ginger. The sheriff is on his way. We'll make up an explanation for why the attacker is lying unconscious and on the bonnet of the car he stole, but it wouldn't work if you're here."
"The old woman?"
"Miss Chen? She'll be alright. Those kids got her into their car and are most likely on their way to the hospital now." Marie replied.
I stared into the eyes of the duo, despite standing in the shadows of my bulk, the old couple did not have a single shred of fear for me as they spoke, even after they watched me knock down a metal man with a single blow. I nodded at them in response and began the long journey back, but not before I glanced to the side and saw a single kid rooted in place, his phone held up in shaky hands.
With a grunt of displeasure, I ignored him and continued walking.
I had come to town to pick up groceries and somehow ended up knocking an enhanced man unconscious and looting whatever stolen tech he had carried, and yet for Thor, it was just another Tuesday. He had gotten into worse on his drinking binges while running about the nine realms. Case in point, Laufey.
__
Tony Stark
For the first time in over a month, he was a free man, devoid of responsibilities, and he was determined to enjoy his day. What did he do for fun? He tinkered. Tony Stark was three cups of coffee deep into finally redesigning the Mark 50's repulsor array when FRIDAY interrupted him.
He had somehow managed to finish the schematics, the fact that he was using nanotech to construct this was proving a challenge, but Tony Stark had yet to see a challenge he had been unable to conquer.
"Sir, I need you to see something."
He didn't look up from the holographic schematic floating before him, his fingers making minute adjustments to the nanite distribution patterns, as well as making sure they followed the correct flow of repulsor energy outlined when he tried to simulate a repulsor blast from his simulcrum's arm.
"Unless the world has grown by another additional ten percent, FRIDAY, it can wait. I'm in the zone."
"It concerns the anomaly from last month, sir."
There had been many anomalies over the past month. The discovery of the earth swelling up for one, then there was the new group of superpowered barbaric humans that had rampaged around for a bit, as well as the random dead coming back to life, trolls, and that one dragon that had found its way to Italy and made the leaning tower lean even further.
However, a vast majority of the anomalies were magical in nature, and according to his sources and FRIDAY's finds, they had somehow been contained by strangely dressed people with a penchant for appearing out of glowing portals and calling themselves sorcerers... He had laughed in the face of the one he met, then left the man to deal with what they were calling incursions.
He doubted the fat Asian man called Wong was all too happy with that, but if there was a mystical order of Hogwarts rejects running around and taking down ice zombies, then he was going to leave them to it.
Despite the sudden change, the world had grown... Preharphs, jaded was not quite the right word, but it fit this scenario. After the battle of New York during the Chutari invasion, the convergence a few years ago, and then the battle of Slokovia. It was getting a little hard to surprise people.
However, before Tony could discard Friday's words, she continued.
"It's about the impact in Norway."
Thor.
Tony's hands stopped moving. Slowly, he looked up from his work, coffee, schematics, and simulcrums forgotten. "I'm getting tired of that drama queen appearing right when I'm getting in the zone." He grumbled, but the fact that he stopped was enough reason for the AI to continue.
"A video was uploaded to social media approximately seven minutes ago. Location is a small town in South Dakota. The video quality is poor, shaky, and recorded on what appears to be an older smartphone model. However, I spotted an energy signature that was in line with the energy signature our satellites have picked up twice now. The last was a few days ago, and the first was a month ago, and they both match the readings we recorded during the Norway incident."
"Show me."
The holographic schematics disappeared, replaced by a video player. Tony leaned forward as FRIDAY hit play.
The footage was absolutely terrible. Whoever had recorded it had hands shakier than a leaf in a hurricane, and should be banned from ever doing any fine work with those fingers on the threat of death by spacing, and all of that was compounded by the phone's camera which was clearly several generations out of date. The image quality was grainy, pixelated in places, and the autofocus kept trying and failing to lock onto anything coherent. How did regular people function?
But even through the poor quality, Tony could see what mattered.
A man. He was Massive. Had to be at least seven feet tall based on the forced perspective with the car beside him. Red hair? Though the color was washed out by the bad camera. The person recording was clearly terrified, and the phone kept shaking so badly that the already bad image kept blurring every few seconds.
"FRIDAY, stabilize this."
"Working on it, sir."
The image steadied slightly, AI interpolation filling in gaps and smoothing out the worst of the camera shake. Tony watched as the massive figure faced off against someone standing beside a car. Words were exchanged, though the audio was somehow even worse than the visual, which was a bar so low, Tony would've doubted it existed a few minutes ago. Then he was forced to focus as things changed. Everything had happened so fast, he had not even seen it. Almost like the video had skipped.
"Take that back FRIDAY, and slow it down preferably by a factor of 50."
The video was taken back, and this time, Tony saw what happened. The big man had moved.
It happened so fast that even with FRIDAY's enhancement, it was still almost a blur. One moment, the massive figure was standing still. The next, his fist was coming down in a hammer blow that would have made the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs jealous.
And for just a fraction of a second, there was a spark.
Lightning.
Then the blow connected.
The other man, who Tony now noticed had a metallic sheen covering his body, crumpled like a tin can under a hydraulic press. The impact cratered the concrete beneath him, spider-web cracks spreading outward for yards in every direction.
"Jesus," Tony breathed.
"The energy signature is a ninety-seven percent match to the readings from Norway," FRIDAY said quietly. "The lightning discharge, while brief, carries the same harmonic frequency as Thor's previous documented power usage. But sir, there's more."
"More?" Tony was still staring at the frozen frame, at the massive figure bent over the unconscious metal man. "What more could there be?"
"From what our satellite recorded that day, the power output is significantly higher than what Thor has been noted to use. His energy discharge has always averaged around 4.3 gigajoules. This discharge, despite lasting less than a tenth of a second, measured at approximately 7.7 gigajoules."
Tony's eyebrows rose. "That is double his average output in a fraction of the same time. That's..."
"Concerning, yes," FRIDAY finished. "Additionally, I've analyzed the figure's physical proportions based on known reference points in the frame. He stands approximately seven and a half feet tall at the least. Weight estimates are vague because the speed and the way he moves defy his sheer bulk, but it's somewhere between three hundred and four hundred kg."
"What the hell did they feed him in Asgard, or is this some strange godly middle-aged growth sprout? Hell, is this even Thor?" Tony stood, pacing away from his work table. Times like this, he missed the rest of the team. Most of them were useless flops off course.
He loved them more than the very earth itself, but Thor and Clint would probably drop the total IQ of whichever room they stepped into. The same couldn't be said for Banner. Green rage monster aside, the physicist had a mind comparable to his, and together they could've brainstormed this better.
"FRIDAY, tell me you got a facial recognition."
"Negative, sir. The video quality is too poor, and the subject never faces the camera directly. However, I did identify the unconscious assailant."
A profile appeared next to the video. Shield Database, gotten from one of their remnant cells, notes him as "Carl 'Crusher' Creel. Also known as the Absorbing Man. Small-time criminal with significant meta-human abilities. He can absorb the properties of any material he touches, gaining its strength and durability."
"And Thor knocked him out in one punch... " Tony murmured to himself. He watched the video again, noting how casual the movement was. No wind-up. No visible strain. Just a simple downward strike that hit like a bunker buster. He needed to understand this. To see this man for himself, with the rest of the team gone to ground, he was the only one who could.
"Where did you say this was?"
"Madison, a small town in South Dakota. The population is approximately six thousand. The video was posted by one Marcus Webb, age seventeen, a local high school student."
"And you scrubbed it from the internet?"
"Affirmative. Removed from all platforms within thirty seconds of detection. However, I cannot guarantee that others did not see it in that window."
"Send the kid a better phone as well as a scholarship to whichever videography school of his choice."
"Done, sir," FRIDAY responded immediately.
Tony nodded absently, still staring at the frozen frame. Red hair?. Massive build. Lightning. It was like an annoying Jigsaw puzzle where some of the pieces fit, but they also didn't.
After a few more minutes of trying to put the puzzles together once more, he let out a sigh as he made a decision, the best way to get an answer was the simplest way. Swiping the video aside, he called out. "FRIDAY, I'm going with the prototype Mark 50. And get me everything you can on this town. Population, layout, notable residents. I want to know who lives there, who owns what, and if there's been any other unusual activity in the area."
"Already compiled, sir. Sending to your HUD now."
"Good girl." Tony moved toward his armor station, then paused. "And FRIDAY? Send a discreet alert to Hill. Tell her I might have found Thor, but I'm going alone to confirm."
"Sir, is that wise? After the Norway incident, and also using the prototype Mark 50. I would suggest at least gathering up what is left of the team."
"I would rather not, which is exactly why I'm going alone," Tony interrupted. "If this is Thor, and for some reason he has decided to hide in bum ass South Dakota without contacting anybody, then showing up with a group or an army will just annoy him. And that is not something I would have loved to do even before this sudden growth spurt. Better to approach this diplomatically. Besides, if things go south, I'm certain I can at least get out of the dodge."
"Understood. Plotting a course to South Dakota. Flight time approximately two hours at cruising speed."
He tapped his chest, and the compartment carrying the nano particles opened, and the nanotech came to life in his preferred form.
The armor began to assemble around him, nanobots spreading, and crawling over him. The process was slower and more uncomfortable than it's finished one most likely going to be, he was also going to be lacking some of it's finished weapons and designs, but considering what they knew, he could not risk going there with anything shy of the hulk buster, and since this was supposed to be a stealth/diplomatic mission he couldn't go running around in a multi pound armour.
Tony watched the video one more time as his faceplate slid into position. "Well," He said to himself as the workshop ceiling opened above him. "This should be interesting if nothing else."
His repulsors fired, and Iron Man shot into the sky, leaving New York behind as he headed west first for he needed to take a little detour and pick up their resident Asgardian experts, Jane Foster and Doctor Selvig.