Puente Antiguo – Main Street
The town was supposed to be empty.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had done their job well. The evacuation was nearly complete, storefronts dark and streets abandoned.
But Thor and the Warriors hadn't fled. They stood in the center of Main Street, weapons ready, watching the horizon.
Jane, Selvig, and Darcy had also refused to leave.
"What happened there?" Darcy asked, pointing at the distant mushroom cloud of dust rising from the desert.
"The Destroyer," Thor said grimly, hefting a makeshift shield he'd grabbed from a display. "It must have engaged Arthur Hayes."
"Where is Mr. Hayes?" Selvig asked, scanning the horizon. "Is he..."
"I do not know," Thor said. "But we have no time to mourn. It comes."
A silver streak descended from the sky, landing at the far end of Main Street with a heavy thud that cracked the pavement and sent spiderweb fractures racing across the asphalt.
The Destroyer rose to its full height.
Nine feet of dark metal, radiating malevolence. Its blank faceplate regarded the four Asgardian warriors arrayed before it with eyeless indifference.
Sif stood at the center, her sword drawn and gleaming in the morning light. Fandral flanked her left, rapier ready, his usual smile replaced by grim focus. Hogun held the right, his mace gripped in both hands. Volstagg anchored the rear, his massive axe resting on one shoulder like it weighed nothing.
"Well," Fandral said, forcing lightness into his voice, "I always did want a glorious death. Though I'd hoped for more witnesses. Preferably attractive ones."
"Less talking," Hogun grunted. "More fighting."
Sif raised her sword, her voice ringing across the empty street. "For Asgard!"
They charged.
—
Sif led the assault, her movements a blur of silver and steel. She closed the distance in seconds, sword flashing toward the Destroyer's midsection in a strike that had felled frost giants and dark elves alike.
The blade connected with a sound like a thunderclap.
And bounced off without leaving a mark.
But Sif didn't hesitate. She spun with the rebound, using its momentum to fuel a devastating slash at the Destroyer's knee joint.
At the same moment, Fandral flanked from the left, his rapier seeking gaps in the metal armor with acrobatic precision - joints, seams, anywhere that might yield to Asgardian steel.
Hogun came from the right, his mace swinging in a brutal arc that would have caved in a siege wall. The impact was tremendous, a blow powered by centuries of battle experience striking the Destroyer's shoulder with enough force to shatter stone.
The metal giant didn't move. Didn't acknowledge the attack. Simply stood there, absorbing punishment that would have demolished lesser foes.
Volstagg arrived like a freight train, his axe coming down in an overhead strike powered by centuries of battle experience and muscles that could lift a frost giant. The blow landed square on the Destroyer's back.
Nothing.
For a moment, the four warriors hung suspended in their attack positions, the reality of their situation sinking in.
Then the Destroyer moved.
It didn't plod slowly like some mindless automaton. It spun with terrifying speed, one arm sweeping out in a backhand that caught Volstagg across the chest. The massive warrior went airborne, crashing through the front of a hardware store and continuing through the back wall.
Sif tried to press the attack, but the Destroyer was already pivoting. Its faceplate cracked open, and a sweeping arc of orange fire forced her to dive aside. The beam continued past her, vaporizing a parked car and the building behind it.
"Spread out!" Sif screamed, rolling to her feet. "Don't let it target us together!"
Fandral was already moving, coming in fast and low. His blade danced in a pattern perfected over centuries - designed to find weak points in any armor, to slip between plates and pierce vulnerable joints. He struck a dozen times in the span of two heartbeats. Seams. Joints. The narrow gap where the faceplate met the helm.
Each blow rang off harmlessly.
The Destroyer's arm shot out, faster than anything that size should move. Fandral twisted aside, but the edge of the strike caught his shoulder. He went spinning, his rapier flying from his grip.
Hogun pressed forward, his mace a blur of Asgardian steel. He hammered at the Destroyer's legs, trying to bring it down, trying to find some weakness—
The Destroyer kicked him.
The blow lifted Hogun off his feet and sent him crashing into Sif. They went down in a tangle of limbs and armor, struggling to rise.
Volstagg burst from the ruined hardware store, roaring. His axe came down with the force of a falling mountain—
The Destroyer caught it.
One metal hand closed around the axe blade, stopping it cold. For a moment, Volstagg strained against the grip, muscles bulging, veins standing out on his forehead.
Then the Destroyer yanked the axe forward and drove its other fist into Volstagg's chest.
The warrior flew backward, his armor dented, gasping for breath.
Sif regained her feet, sword ready. But she could see the truth now, written in the scattered forms of her companions. They were outmatched. Hopelessly, utterly outmatched.
The Destroyer's faceplate began to open once more, that terrible orange glow building within.
"Shield formation!" Sif screamed.
Hogun and Fandral scrambled to her side. Volstagg staggered over, barely upright. They raised their weapons, forming a wall—
The beam came.
It struck Hogun's mace first. The Asgardian steel, forged in the fires of Nidavellir, lasted perhaps half a second before melting into slag. The beam continued, sweeping toward Sif's shield.
She threw herself aside at the last moment. The shield wasn't so lucky - it vaporized, leaving her holding a smoking fragment of metal.
"Fall back!" Sif ordered. "Regroup!"
They retreated, buying space with desperate parries and dodges. The Destroyer advanced steadily, its faceplate cycling between closed and open, forcing them to stay moving.
—
A Rooftop Overlooking Main Street
Coulson lowered his binoculars, his face ashen.
Beside him, Arthur Hayes sat on the ledge, watching the battle unfold with an unreadable expression. The handful of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who had accompanied them stood in stunned silence, their weapons hanging forgotten at their sides.
They had seen incredible things in their careers. Alien technology. Enhanced individuals. Weapons beyond imagination. But nothing like this.
Nothing so utterly hopeless.
"Can we stop it?" Coulson's voice was low, barely above a whisper. "Can Earth defend itself against things like this? Against civilizations this advanced? Against... whatever else might be out there?"
"Earth has its protectors," Arthur said quietly. "More than you know. You don't need to worry too much."
"Don't need to worry?" Coulson's voice cracked slightly. "That thing just dismantled four... warriors stronger than anything we have... in under five minutes. I watched you get blown away earlier. And you're telling me not to worry?"
"Physical strength isn't my primary weapon. I underestimated the Destroyer's capabilities. Used the wrong approach." Arthur's gaze remained fixed on the battle below. "In a real battle, that won't happen. With magic, I have many ways of defeating it."
Coulson's expression made it clear he wasn't convinced.
Arthur couldn't entirely blame him.
The truth was, he wasn't completely certain himself. He had no idea of the destroyer's true strength.
He remembered reading that the Destroyer had been created by Odin to fight Celestials. If that was true, then what they were seeing now was barely a fraction of the weapon's true potential.
If Odin himself were to inhabit the Destroyer, channeling his full power through its frame...
Arthur didn't know if he could match that. He had spells that might neutralize the armor, tricks that could potentially bypass its defenses. But Odin would have countermeasures. Millennia of experience. Power that dwarfed anything Earth had produced.
The outcome of such a battle was genuinely uncertain.
But Coulson didn't need to hear that.
—
Main Street
The battle was over. It lasted barely five minutes.
Sif lay groaning in the rubble of what had been a bookstore, her armor cracked and smoking. Volstagg was unconscious, sprawled across the hood of a crushed car. Hogun and Fandral had fallen together, battered and broken, barely breathing.
The four greatest warriors of Asgard - heroes of a hundred campaigns, veterans of wars that predated human civilization - lay scattered across the ruined street.
Bruised. Bleeding. Broken.
The Destroyer stood in the center of the destruction, unharmed. Unstoppable.