Thunderclouds stretched across the New Mexican sky like the wrath of ancient gods made manifest. The roiling mass of storm clouds pressed down upon the desert with such oppressive weight that Agent Coulson found himself struggling to draw breath.
Yet despite the ominous atmosphere, his eyes remained fixed on the impossible scene unfolding before him. Steve Rogers stood defiantly before the towering Destroyer, Mjolnir crackling with godly energy in his right hand while his shield gleamed in his left.
"My God," Coulson whispered, his voice filled with a mixture of awe and disbelief.
Steve showed no trace of fear as he faced down the threat. Fear had never been part of his nature, not when he was a sickly kid from Brooklyn picking fights with bullies twice his size, and certainly not now when wielding the power of Asgard itself.
But courage wasn't about the absence of fear—it was about standing up regardless of the odds, about doing what was right even when victory seemed impossible.
"Captain..." Coulson breathed, transfixed by the sight.
"Move it, Coulson!" Fury's sharp command cut through the agent's fascination as the Director grabbed his subordinate's arm. "Everyone to the Quinjet, now!"
Fury's experience with powered individuals had taught him hard lessons about collateral damage.
Staying within the blast radius would be suicide.
The evacuation happened with military precision, agents scrambling toward their aircraft as the storm intensified around them. Within moments, only Steve and the Destroyer remained.
As the Quinjet achieved safe distance, its passengers lost visual contact with the battlefield. Massive clouds of sand and debris rose like a curtain, obscuring everything in a maelstrom of earth and lightning.
At the heart of the storm, Steve discovered that Mjolnir's blessing extended far beyond mere physical enhancement. Though darkness surrounded him—storm clouds so thick they blocked out the sun entirely—his vision remained crystal clear. Every detail of his environment stood out with clarity, as if the hammer had awakened senses he'd never known he possessed.
More importantly, he could feel the changes happening within his body. The super-soldier serum had already pushed him beyond human limitations, but this was something entirely different. power flowed through his veins like liquid lightning, healing old wounds and strengthening him in ways that science couldn't explain.
The wound Loki had inflicted during their previous encounter? Gone completely, as if it had never existed. Every ache, every minor injury accumulated over decades of combat—all of it erased by the hammer's mystical power. He felt better than he had since emerging from the ice, his body operating at levels that transcended even his enhanced physiology.
"Whoever is worthy to wield this hammer shall possess the power of Thor," he murmured, remembering the story Thor had told. Now he understood what those words truly meant.
With renewed confidence, Steve gripped Mjolnir tighter and called out to his opponent. "Come on then! This time I really can do this all day!"
The Destroyer's response was immediate and devastating. From his throne in distant Asgard, Loki poured his consciousness into the ancient weapon, his godly essence flowing across dimensional barriers to animate the construct. The armor's internal fires blazed like a miniature star, heating the air until it shimmered with distortion.
When the Destroyer's face plates split open, the energy that erupted forth was like staring into the heart of a solar furnace. Sand fused into glass in an instant, the very air igniting as temperatures soared beyond anything terrestrial. The beam that lanced toward Steve carried enough force to vaporize mountains.
Without conscious thought, Steve raised Mjolnir horizontally before him, setting the hammer spinning at impossible speed. The weapon became a barrier of pure motion, its rotation creating a vortex that caught and deflected the Destroyer's assault. Flames that should have reduced him to ash instead spiraled harmlessly away, dissipating into the storm-darkened sky.
In the same fluid motion, Steve's left hand sent his shield arcing through the chaos. Enhanced by strength, the vibranium disc struck with the force of a meteor, catching the Destroyer's head and snapping it violently to one side. The impact rang like a bell across the desert, the sound audible even above the raging storm.
Before his opponent could recover, Steve hurled Mjolnir with all his newfound might. The hammer streaked through the air trailing lightning, striking the Destroyer's chest with the sound of thunder itself. The ancient weapon staggered backward, its massive form driven several yards through the sand by the sheer force of impact.
From a safe distance outside the combat zone, Ben watched the battle unfold with a critical eye.
"Loki's barely scratching the Destroyer's potential," he observed to himself, arms crossed as he analyzed the weapon's performance.
The Destroyer represented one of Asgard's greatest achievements—a construct forged by Odin himself as a weapon capable of challenging the Celestials. Like Mjolnir, it was crafted from enchanted Uru metal, a substance that grew more powerful in proportion to the magical energy channeled through it. In theory, the Destroyer could access not just Odin's godly power, but the combined might of every god in Asgard.
Under proper control, the weapon was virtually unstoppable. Ben had read a comic where entire superhero teams had proven inadequate against an unmanned Destroyer operating at minimal capacity. The armor currently facing Captain America represented perhaps one ten-thousandth of its true potential.
"Remote operation across dimensional barriers," Ben mused, narrowing his eyes. "That's the weak point. Loki's trying to control a weapon meant for direct contact—from Asgard. It's like puppeteering through a broken signal."
The distance between realms wasn't just physical—it was something deeper, more abstract. Crossing from one dimension to another required the mystic pathways of the World Tree, and even a god's power didn't travel cleanly across that kind of space. Loki's control was weakened, reduced to a fraction of what it should've been.
But the bigger issue was Loki himself. He wasn't a warrior—never had been. The God of Mischief was brilliant at illusions, manipulation, and politics, but not at fighting head-on. He was treating the Destroyer like a big, slow siege weapon—just having it stand there and blast energy beams. He wasn't using its real strengths: its speed, flexibility, or destructive close-range power.
"And Captain America with Mjolnir is basically a cheat code," Ben added, a hint of grudging admiration in his voice.
He'd seen Steve's tactical brilliance up close during their last team-up. The guy could choke out Ultron drones barehanded and had gone blow-for-blow with Thanos across multiple timelines—winning not with brute strength, but with skill, grit, and perfect timing.
Giving someone like that godly power? It was like handing a master chef the best ingredients. You already knew how it was going to end.
"Might as well let Cap handle this," he decided pragmatically. "I'll just wait for the salvage rights."
Back in the heart of the storm, Steve ducked beneath another energy blast and launched himself upward with agility. Mjolnir's power allowed him to defy gravity itself, his leap carrying him high enough to strike the Destroyer's chin with a devastating uppercut.
The weapon's head snapped back from the impact, but Steve was already moving. As he reached the apex of his jump, he raised Mjolnir toward the churning clouds above. Lightning answered his call.
The hammer became a conduit. Electricity arced between the storm clouds in patterns that spoke to fundamental forces, the very air crackling with potential energy. For a moment, Steve Rogers stood suspended in mid-air like a figure from mythology, godly lightning gathered around him in preparation for judgment.
Then, with all the force of righteous fury, he brought Mjolnir down upon his opponent's head.
The impact was apocalyptic. Lightning that had been building since the storm's beginning discharged in a single devastating bolt, channeled through the hammer into the Destroyer's armored form.