Thor was starting to miss Mjolnir.
If that hammer were still in his hand, there's no way he'd be enduring all this humiliation.
Jane looked from the TV to Damon. Though she didn't want to believe he was the mysterious culprit being discussed on the news, something deep down told her they were connected.
Otherwise…
Why did that thunder-wreathed god of storms look exactly like Damon?
Dr. Erik Selvig frowned as if he wanted to say something, but before he could, Damon walked over to Thor.
Without a word, he placed a hammer on the table.
"Pick it up," Damon said evenly. "Fight me.
If you win, the hammer's yours."
Thor's eyes lit up like a child's on Christmas morning.
"My Mjolnir! My beloved hammer!"
He lunged forward and clutched the weapon like it was the rarest of treasures, running his fingers lovingly across its surface.
"Look, look! Just one day apart, and you've gotten thinner! You must've been so lonely without me."
Jane and Darcy took an involuntary step back.
They stared at Thor — a tall, brawny man with the build of a warrior — and realized, to their horror, that this was the same guy… talking affectionately to a hammer.
They'd heard of men who liked lizards.
Men who liked men.
Men who liked… younger girls.
But this?
A man who liked hammers? That was a first.
"How did you find my Mjolnir?" Thor asked, voice trembling with emotion.
"Took it from a bald guy," Damon replied casually.
Darcy blinked. "Bald guy?"
Her mind flashed to a certain agent. "Wait… that jerk who stole our data? I think his name was…"
"Coulson!" Jane snapped. "Agent Coulson!"
She'd never forgotten that face — that smug government agent who'd shown up with credentials and muscle, taking away all of their research and equipment.
Damon nodded. "Yeah. Him."
Darcy clenched a fist triumphantly.
"Good! Finally, someone made those S.H.I.E.L.D. goons pay. Serves them right!"
Erik's frown deepened. Tangling with those people was never a good idea.
"Thank you for returning my hammer," Thor said, straightening up. "As gratitude, I shall defeat you in honorable combat — warrior to warrior!"
He grinned proudly and tried to lift Mjolnir.
Nothing happened.
Thor's smile faltered.
He wiped his palm and tried again, this time with both hands.
Still nothing.
The hammer didn't move an inch — though it rested on a flimsy wooden table.
Darcy sighed and muttered,
"Where's the camera crew? Did the director forget to yell 'cut'? He's overacting again."
"Wait," Damon said, raising a hand.
He ran his fingers along the hammer's handle.
Through his Map Editor's item interface, he casually deleted the "worthiness restriction" condition in Mjolnir's description.
"Try now."
Thor blinked. He remembered Odin's enchantment clearly — only the worthy could wield Mjolnir.
"Impossible," he muttered. "No one can undo Father's magic—"
Then the hammer moved.
"Wait… I picked it up? And… put it down again? Picked it up again!?"
The hammer hummed, a surge of divine lightning bursting forth.
Thor's body flared with golden arcs of electricity as his godly power returned in full force.
"I—Thor—am reborn!"
Jane and Darcy's jaws dropped.
He… he really was the God of Thunder?
Then what about Damon? Was he another thunder god?
"I don't know what trick you used," Thor declared, "but once Mjolnir is in my hand, no one can defeat me!"
He pointed at Damon, ignoring the fact that the man had just effortlessly edited divine magic out of existence.
"If you are unarmed, I shall not use Mjolnir either!"
Damon smiled faintly.
"No need. I've got spares."
He gripped the air — and two identical Mjolnirs appeared in his hands.
In his inventory, ten more waited.
Twelve in total.
As the hammers' divine energies overlapped, Thor's power of thunder trembled — Damon's stats for Strength, Endurance, and Energy all spiked again.
Thor gawked.
He stepped forward and inspected the weapons like a man seeing double.
"How… how do you have two Mjolnirs!?"
"That's not the question you should be asking," Damon said coolly. "Come on."
He'd never really used a hammer before, but that didn't matter.
As far as Damon was concerned—
"Brute force creates miracles. Leave everything to the stats."
"Thor," he warned, "if you lose, I'm keeping your hammer.
If you want it back, you'll need to trade something of equal value."
Once he'd picked up Mjolnir, it was his now — no matter how he'd done it. Damon wasn't some generous loot courier; he liked being admired, not doing the admiring.
Even with plenty of Mjolnirs in his arsenal, principle was principle.
Thor's grin faded.
He nodded gravely.
"Understood.
Even if you wield two counterfeits, a fake will never surpass the real one!"
He had fought across the Nine Realms for fifteen hundred years, undefeated and unyielding.
With Mjolnir in his hand, he was invincible.
Defeat? That word wasn't even in his vocabulary.
Damon's body flickered — and in an instant, he vanished from the room.
Thor followed, lightning crackling at his heels.
"Why are they fighting?" Darcy asked, baffled.
"Men," Erik said solemnly. "You wouldn't understand."
Darcy rolled her eyes.
"Understand this, old man — if you keep acting wise, I'll hit you with a hammer."
Before Erik could respond, a deafening boom split the air.
Lightning laced the sky as storm clouds gathered over the once-clear town.
Thor's Power of Thunder had returned — and with it, his dominion over the storm.
"Oh no, they're gonna destroy the place," Darcy whispered, clutching Jane's arm. "Like in New York…"
Through the window, they saw two bolts of lightning collide in the raging sky — one gold, one silver.
"I thought Thor was supposed to be a hero," Erik said uncertainly.
But seeing Damon start the fight so casually, his conviction wavered.
Was Damon… actually the villain?
"Who do you think will win?" Jane asked softly, biting her lip.
"If nothing unexpected happens," Erik started, "they'll probably fight for a while. After all, they're both gods of—"
BOOM!
A massive figure plummeted from the heavens, crashing into the ground like a meteor and carving a crater ten meters deep.
Erik coughed.
"Of course, sometimes… unexpected things do happen."
Darcy blinked.
"Wait—who won?"
Jane's heart jumped. Instinctively, she thought of Damon.
After all, ever since New York, he'd seemed different — stronger, darker, impossible to read.
And sure enough…
A calm figure descended slowly from the sky.
"It's Damon! Damon won!"
Then, a familiar mechanical tone echoed in his mind:
[Abnormal Entity 'Thor' Defeated. Recorded Successfully. +3000 Anomaly Points]
[Map Editor Upgraded to Version 3.0...]
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