WHILE THOR WAS journeying to retrieve Mjolnir, Jane, Erik, and Darcy, were returning to the lab. But when they arrived, they were thrown by the scene there—Coulson and a number of other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had identified the lab as a wellspring of data pertaining to the event, and they were removing all of its contents.
“What is going on here?” Jane said, as she rushed in.
“Ms. Foster, I’m Agent Coulson with S.H.I.E.L.D.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me? You can’t do this!”
“Jane,” Erik said, pulling her aside. “Jane, this is a lot more serious than you realize. Let it go.”
“Let it go? This is my life.”
“We’re investigating a security threat,” Agent Coulson explained. “We need to appropriate your records and all your atmospheric data.”
“By ‘appropriate’ do you mean ‘steal’?”
Jane walked over to a S.H.I.E.L.D. van, into which the agents were loading all of her equipment. Agent Coulson followed close behind her.
“Here,” he said, handing her a check. “This should more than compensate you for your trouble.”
“I can’t just buy replacements! I made most of this equipment myself!” Jane pleaded.
“Then I’m sure you can do it again,” Coulson retorted.
“And I’m sure I can sue you for violating my constitutional rights!”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Foster, but we’re the good guys.”
“So are we,” Jane said passionately. “I’m on the verge of understanding something extraordinary, and everything I know about this phenomenon is either in this lab or in this book in my hand, and you can’t just take it away.…”
Before Jane could complete her thought, another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent stepped up from behind and grabbed the journal from her hand.
“Hey!” Jane protested.
With that, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents brushed Jane aside and locked her research in their van.
“Thank you for your cooperation,” said Agent Coulson. Then he jumped in the van and drove off.
“Who are these people?” Jane asked as the van pulled away.
“I knew this scientist—a pioneer in gamma radiation. S.H.I.E.L.D. showed up and—well—he wasn’t heard from again.”
Jane looked stunned for a moment, then defiantly declared, “They’re not going to do that to us. I’m going to get everything back.”
“Come on, please,” Erik said. “Let me contact one of my colleagues. He’s had some dealings with these people before. I’ll e-mail him, and maybe he can help.…”
“They took your laptop, too,” Darcy reminded him.
Jane had other, more practical solutions. She was going to find Thor, and they’d travel to the site together. He would help her retrieve her data. And, if he really was who he said he was and not some crazy lunatic, she’d help him get back what he was looking for.
She drove around the town until she found him—which wasn’t too difficult given his height and heft.
“Still need a lift?” she asked him.
Thor hopped in without hesitation.
By the time they arrived at the site, night had fallen. Jane pulled up to a dark area at the rim of the crater, and she and Thor jumped out of the truck and looked down at the scene. S.H.I.E.L.D. had built an incredibly elaborate structure within the crater’s pit. It was brightly lit, with high-tech tubing creating passageways to and from the center, which was sectioned off in a huge glass-walled cube.
“That’s no satellite crash,” Jane observed. “They would have hauled the wreckage away. They wouldn’t have built a city around it.”
“You’re going to need this,” Thor said, wrapping a jacket around Jane.
“Huh? Wait, why?”
Thor smiled broadly and laughed.
“Stay here,” he said. “Once I have Mjolnir, I will return the items they stole from you.”
“Look what’s down there. You think you’re just going to walk in, grab our stuff, and walk out?”
“No. I’m going to fly out.”
And with that, Thor headed toward the encampment.
As he approached Mjolnir, clouds rolled in and lightning flashed all over the area, interfering with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s equipment. Thor took advantage of this, and sneaked past some guards, easily taking out those that he could not get by. Slipping in and out of shadows, Thor made his way toward his hammer. The lightning and thunder intensified. Soon, rain poured down on the site, muddying the desert sands and pounding on everyone from Thor to Jane, who finally understood why Thor had given her the coat.
Thor soon arrived near Mjolnir, which was heavily guarded. S.H.I.E.L.D. had its top agents keeping watch over the hammer, including its ace archer, Clint Barton, whose aim was so accurate he’d earned the codename Hawkeye. Clint was trained on Thor and waiting for orders to shoot, but Coulson—who was calling the shots—asked him to hold off. He wanted to see if Thor could lift the hammer.
Thor looked down at his old friend, Mjolnir. He smiled and reached down in triumph. He and his hammer were reunited. He would now reclaim it and then get Jane’s data back. He reached down and gripped Mjolnir by the handle, enjoying the comfort of its familiar grip.
But when he moved to raise it, the hammer would not relent. It proved immovable. Thor looked up at the heavens and howled up at Odin, the Bifrost, and all of Asgard. He dropped to his knees in defeat. Agent Barton dropped his bow, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents moved in to detain the god of thunder.