A crack of thunder split the air. Storm's brow furrowed. She'd lost control of the lightning. Electrical energy was gathering, but not according to her will.
The next instant, a bolt of overwhelming force hammered down onto the World Serpent.
"Guys! Sorry I'm late!" Thor bellowed, as casually as if he'd known them for years.
Iron Man and Cyclops exchanged baffled looks. Who the hell is this? Do you know him?
Fortunately, the Asgardian quartet shouted Thor's name, confirming he was on their side.
"Aren't you afraid?" The World Serpent locked eyes with Thor, his gaze sharp and probing. He feared death too, and he believed in prophecy. If words could make the thunder god flinch and withdraw, so much the better. "Don't you know what fate awaits you?"
Thor called Mjolnir back to his palm and met the Serpent's stare without blinking. "This is our war. Today a hero has already fallen. The sacrifice mortals have made is enough!"
The World Serpent grinned, cold and thin. Just as Thor expected some grand retort, the great axe came screaming in on a horizontal arc aimed at his waist.
Reflexes faster than thought saved him. Thor's body twisted clear, and in the same motion he launched himself skyward, Mjolnir blazing with gathered lightning. He brought it down like a comet.
Thunder tore across the battlefield, scorching not only the Serpent but annihilating every foot soldier in a cone behind him.
"My nephew—" the Serpent began, but Thor was already moving, guided entirely by combat instinct. The hammer swung upward and cracked into the Serpent's jaw with enough force to launch his entire body a hundred meters into the air.
Something inside Thor had been burning for over a month: every indignity, every moment of helplessness, every day of exile from his own power. It all ignited at once. He went berserk, blow after blow raining down on the Serpent without pause.
Lightning pierced heaven and earth in brilliant arcs, each one carrying staggering energy as it slammed into the Serpent's body. In his human form, the World Serpent hadn't anticipated this level of raw fury. He'd lost the initiative from the first exchange.
He blocked two strikes. On the third, Thor's hammer shattered the great axe outright. Disarmed, the Serpent became a punching bag.
"For Asgard!" Thor poured every last ounce of strength into one final overhead smash. The World Serpent rocketed downward like a sack of garbage and cratered through a marble courtyard.
The impact obliterated the stonework. As Thor prepared to pursue, dark water surged from the rubble. Instinct screamed danger; he held back.
Debris and dust obscured the damage. There was no telling how badly the Serpent was hurt.
The minions didn't care that their master had been pummeled. If anything, they attacked more viciously, and with the Serpent no longer bothering to direct them, they flooded in like a tide.
"Where'd you come from? What do you do?" Stark shouted over the din, back-to-back with Thor as they held the line.
"I come from Asgard. Your female commander knew me." Thor smashed a facepaint-streaked Dark Elf into the distance. "Sadly, she's fallen."
Iron Man fired a spread of repulsor rounds and toppled a dull-eyed Frost Giant. "Who? Who's fallen?"
Thor described Daisy's appearance. Stark went rigid. Disbelief first, then silence.
His hands never stopped. The arc reactor surged to near-maximum output. Missiles, pulse rounds, lasers, every weapon in the suit's arsenal poured out without restraint.
A hulking beast charged from the flank, easily three meters tall (10 ft) and over ten meters long (33 ft), built like a battering ram. A flick of Stark's wrist sent an orange-red thermal laser through its center of mass. The beam kept going, toppling two hide-clad warriors behind it.
Cyclops and the Asgardian quartet didn't have the same connection to Daisy, but they ramped up their own attacks.
Susan and Johnny took it hardest. Human Torch dove headlong into the enemy ranks, incandescent flames melting everything in his path. Susan conjured force fields inside enemy bodies and detonated them.
Storm's reaction was something else entirely.
"Daisy's dead?" The words came out flat, as if her brain wouldn't accept them. Daisy had been one of the few people she could truly talk to. No prejudice against mutants, and more importantly, she had real strength, her own convictions, and never followed anyone blindly. Daisy had been like a sister.
And now she was gone?
A volcano of rage built behind Storm's white eyes. She rose into the air, hair whipping in the wind, and stared at the sky without speaking.
"I promise you," Thor said, his voice heavy with sincerity, "she won't be the last to fall. The prophecy says I die here today too. All I can say is that fighting alongside you has been my honor."
It was dramatic stuff. Whether anyone else was moved, he couldn't tell. He was certainly fired up.
Then something felt wrong. His lightning was destabilizing, draining away. What the—
He turned to his right and his jaw dropped.
Storm hung suspended in midair, white tresses streaming, no divine power, no enchanted weapon. Flesh and blood alone, she was pulling in every last volt of electrical energy across the entire West Coast. High above, an enormous mass of gathered lightning was condensing into shape.
Earth women were all this terrifying?
Thor stared, mouth slightly open, body still mechanically swatting enemies while his mind went blank. This woman could absolutely earn Mjolnir's approval. She could seize control of lightning without a divine artifact. Hand her the hammer, and how strong would she become?
He'd never met Storm before. Now he found himself silently grumbling at Peter Parker's Uncle Ben. With great power comes great responsibility? After watching this, maybe Earth should be the one protecting Asgard.
Storm's control was far more precise than his. Thor could only swing the hammer and let the lightning follow; Storm could sculpt it.
The gathered charge erupted. Lightning punched through the air in countless golden serpents, a writhing web of destruction that slammed into the oncoming tide. Sparks flew, bodies fell, and the bombardment lasted a full five minutes before Storm finally let go.
She dropped to the ground gasping, hands on her knees, face pale.
The cost was steep, but the payoff was devastating. The Serpent's army had been cut by more than half in a single salvo. The pressure on the remaining fighters dropped sharply.
"There's still plenty of charge in the air," Storm said, managing to sound like a professor critiquing a student's homework. "Keep using your lightning."
Thor nodded dumbly. His brain had stalled, but his body didn't argue. He bobbed his head like a junior officer taking orders, hefted Mjolnir, and charged.
Meanwhile, the surging thunder jolted awake a certain someone Thor had already pictured feasting her heart out in Valhalla.