AGENT COULSON pulled up to on the side of a desert cliff and parked his car near the edge. He stepped up to the rocky ledge and looked out over the desert. Before him was a huge crater, similar to the kind a dangerously sized meteor might cause. The crater was filled with people drinking, laughing, partying, and lining up around an object at the center of the impact.
He removed his sunglasses to get a better look. Then he took out his smart phone and called Director Fury.
“Sir, we found it,” he said.
Meanwhile, back at Jane’s makeshift lab, which was set up in a former automobile dealership in the small New Mexican town of Puente Antiguo, Erik, Jane, and Darcy were examining the data that Jane had collected the night they’d met Thor.
“What do you see?” she asked Erik.
“Stars,” Erik replied.
“Yeah, but not our stars.”
She held up a celestial map. “See? This is the star alignment for our quadrant this time of year. And unless Ursa Minor decided to take a day off, these are someone else’s constellations.”
“Hey, check this out!” Darcy called from across the room.
Jane and Erik ran over to another wall of photos. In one of the pictures, the unmistakable figure of a man could be seen spinning amid the swirl of electrical clouds.
“No, it can’t be!” Erik said.
“I think I left something at the hospital,” Jane said, and then she quickly left the lab, with Erik and Darcy trailing not far behind.
They soon arrived at the hospital, but when they got there they discovered Thor had broken out without their help—trashing the place in the process.
“We just lost our most important piece of evidence. Typical!” Jane said.
“Now what?” asked Darcy.
“We find him,” Jane said.
“Did you see what he did in there?” asked Erik. “I’m not sure if finding him is the best idea.”
“Well, our data can’t tell us what it was like to be inside that event, and he can. So, we’re going to find him.”
As Jane backed her car out of its parking spot, she slammed into something big, solid, and blond. She put her truck in park, threw open the door, and jumped out. She rushed to Thor’s side.
“I’m so sorry! I swear I’m not doing this on purpose!”
Apology accepted, Thor expressed how hungry he was.
“This mortal form is weak,” he said. “I need sustenance.”
They ducked into a diner and continued their conversation there.
“How did you get inside that cloud?” Jane asked as Thor polished off an entire box of breakfast pastries, followed by a plate of pancakes, then two orders of eggs and another of waffles. He’d also discovered a taste for coffee.
“This drink…” he said. “I like it. Another!” he shouted, smashing the mug on the floor.
Jane apologized to the staff, scurrying to clean up the mess.
“What was that?” she asked.
“It was delicious, I want another.”
“Well, you could have just said that.”
“I just did!”
“I mean, asked nicely.”
“I meant no disrespect.”
“All right, well, no more smashing, deal?”
Thor agreed begrudgingly. “You have my word.”
Just then, a group of men walked in and sat at the counter. They were talking about a satellite that had crashed in the desert. They said it looked “like a hammer or something.” Nobody could lift it. People had a lot of fun trying though—until federal agents stepped in and secured the area.
Overhearing this, Thor stepped over to the men at the counter.
“Which way?” he asked
“Fifty miles west of here,” one responded. “But I wouldn’t waste my time. It looked like the whole army was coming when we left.”
Thor rushed out of the diner, and Jane, Erik, and Darcy followed him.
“Where are you going?” Jane asked.
“Fifty miles west of here.”
“Why?”
“To get what belongs to me.”
“Oh, so you own a satellite now?”
“It’s not what they say it is.”
“Well, whatever it is, the government seems to think it’s theirs—so, you just intend to go in there and take it?”
“Yes.” Thor smiled, and with that he was off.