The Strength of a Hundred
"A sound soul…"
"... and welcome, to the first ever annual Mjolnir Heavy Lifting Competition™!"
Cue screams, whoops, claps, and confetti cannons. Tony had actually done it, Pepper realized. Everybody had thought it was a joke, but nope. He was Tony freaking Stark, why joke when you can make offhanded comments into reality and shock them with your "yes, I was actually being serious, why, did you think I wasn't?" face?
She sighed and pushed her face into her hands, a random drink she had gotten from a food truck in front of her on the folding table. This meant completely rewriting the budget for Stark Industries, didn't it?
If Tony hadn't been on stage, he might've said something like, "C'mon, Pep, you know you have to let the team and I have a bit of fun every once in a while, right?"
Of course, though, she would respond with how he can have fun with the team on his own money and not infringe on the budget she had just finished finalizing, mind him.
But then he'd counter with something else and it really wasn't worth it, seeing as everything was already paid for and you just can't undo something like this.
Besides, Pepper supposed it was a pretty good day to do an outdoor event like the Mjolnir Heavy Lifting Competition™. The sun was shining prettily in Central Park (how Tony had managed to rent it out, she was happily naive), and the weather was blissfully cool for them to be in the peak of summer.
When the ticket boy came around and offered her a deal of a lifetime, a chance to attempt to hold Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, she declined politely. She had enough money to balance, thankyouverymuch, and was therefore terrified of adding any more to her list of problems. Plus, fifteen dollars a ticket? No, thanks.
At least all the money was going to some charity or another, Pepper sighed again.
And, surrounded by food trucks parked on the grass, tourists milling about, and a few musical performers (how in the world- Fall Out Boy? Really, Tony? Really?), one o'clock struck. And, just as advertised (and Pepper had no idea how she had missed all the insane flyers and billboards and universally translated internet ads, though she assumed she had just been in infinite denial), the competition began.
"...dwells within a sound mind…"
"So where should we go next?" Maka asked. "I think we've hit most of the hotspots, except for the Statue of Liberty, but the ferry isn't running today."
"What about Central Park?" Liz suggested. "I've been there a few times myself, back when Patty and I lived in Brooklyn."
Patty nodded along. "Yeah, yeah! It has the zoo and a playground and lots of food and everything you could ever want there!"
"Well, it's not like we haven't had enough food on this trip," said Kid. "But it seems to be a nice place, according to the guidebook."
"What? Guidebook?" asked Black Star, seemingly offended. "Why use a guidebook? That isn't how you vacation! You gotta get out there, explore! Fight your way through the jungle! Guidebooks are for sissies! What's in there, anyway?"
Without waiting for a response, he snatched the book out of Kid's hand (much to the victim's displeasure) and quickly skimmed.
"'Aesthetically pleasing fountains?'" he asked, ludicrous. "'Historical statues?' This has to be the lamest thing here! And that's saying something!"
"You weren't whining when we climbed up the Empire State Building, or at those weapons museums, or when we visited all those street food vendors the other day," Maka scolded lightly. "Besides, it was your idea to go on this cross-country trip, you should be able to deal with a bit of touring."
"Alright, alright, let's just go to the dumb park," he sulked.
"I dunno about 'dumb'," Soul said, picking up a flyer off the ground. "It seems like there's a big competition going on over there. Huge. Something about… a hammer-lifting contest."
Almost instantly Black Star perked up and began ranting about how he'd "totally beat you losers!" and "I'll have you know I'm getting closer every day to beating God!", every other sentence punctuated with excited "Yahoo!"'s.
Maka sighed and Tsubaki patted her shoulder sympathetically, an ever-present smile on her calm features.
"At least he's interested in going," the weapon consoled.
"I guess so. I just wish he weren't so loud about it." Maka slouched before standing up straight once more. She pointed her finger up to the sun to get other students' attention. "But if everyone's fine with it, I guess it's decided. On to Central Park!"
And they were off.
"... and a sound body."
The park was huge. Big enough to host several different parties and have none of the guests ever interact, even. Or maybe just big enough to host one giant, Stark-sized party with most of the NY population with the day off present. And then some.
The day was bright and simply oozed of happiness, and different people from different cultures and even different parts of the world mashed and mingled and interacted with each other. Maka attempted to extend her Soul Sense to keep track of her small team, but the sheer size of the crowd gave her a headache and she settled for grabbing tightly onto Black Star's arm and Soul's hand to make sure the ones most prone to wandering away didn't get lost, the others trailing quietly after her. Thankfully, they were too busy taking in the exciting new area to speak, excepting when they pointed particularly notable things out to one another.
They meandered closer to what seemed to be the biggest group of people to "see what's up," to use Soul's words.
"He-llo, ladies and gentlefolk, and welcome, to the first ever annual Mjolnir Heavy Lifting Competition™!" the announcer cried.
"And the competition begins," an official-looking redhead from the table to the left of them muttered.
"This is the hammer lifting contest, right?" Tsubaki asked. They had approached the stage as close as the metal rails would allow them to, a spot they jealously guarded after finally earning it from a bit of people pushing and crowd navigating. It was on the grass, next to a small sea of folding tables and off to the far side of the stage, but it was better than being crushed by all the people who, unfortunately, got caught in the trap right by downstage center. That was Maka's opinion, at least.
Then a group of people stepped out on stage and the crowd went wild. One of them, a buff blond, held up the hammer from the poster. In one hand. The hammer… was tiny compared to what Maka had been expecting. Yes, it had the same carefully carved marks as the one from the flyer- Maka unfolded it from her pocket to check- but there was no way the hammer, about the same size as the war hammers they had seen in the museum, could be as "unliftable" as the advertisement had described.
"It's a bit… small for a heavy lifting contest, isn't it? I mean," started Soul, "it looks like a dinky little thing. It couldn't be that heavy, right?"
"It's so… symmetrical," gasped Kid.
"Oh, no!" giggled Patty.
"There he goes again," Liz muttered.
"Its symmetry must be unparalleled, those designs are exquisite-,"
"EVERYBODY RUN! KID'S HAVING A MOMENT!" Black Star shouted.
"Quit causing a scene!" Maka scolded, but it was too late. At least two dozen heads in their area had turned, and that included those sitting at the folding tables and those in the crowd next to them. They had already witnessed Kid praising Mjolnir (and, sadly, he was now collapsed on the ground muttering about how he's "asymmetrical garbage"), and Black Star began poking his collapsed form with his foot during his "moment", making the whole ordeal even more embarrassing than it needed to be. Why her?
Her eyebrow twitched wildly. She let go of Black Star's arm and reached into her long coat for her favorite book when Soul gave her hand a squeeze. Oh, right. She'd forgotten she was still holding… his… hand.
She quickly dropped it and slipped The Dark Side of the Moon back into her coat.
"Yeah. Sorry. I forgot I was holding your… Yeah. Sorry," she said awkwardly, words tumbling like a waterfall of flustered incoherence from her lips.
Soul, bless him, just raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "No problem, Maka. Don't worry about it."
Thankfully, though, the announcements began once more and drew the attention away from the team.
"We have already gone around and sold tickets-" Had they? Perhaps we hadn't been around for that part, Maka mused. "-and we shall start the drawings after a word from our sponsor!"
A man stood up, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, a strange light (or was it just a design?) glowing through the center of his chest.
Maka was surprised. "A word from our sponsor," meant there was only one sponsor, and anyone rich enough to rent out what seemed to be most, if not all, of Central Park must be loaded. She had expected someone dressed rather smartly, maybe a nice suit, perhaps, like how Kid usually dresses or the really nice one that Soul owns-
Shut up, brain, she scolded herself, smacking her cheeks with her now-free hands. Her right one was still kinda warm...
Ohmigod, brain, shutupshutupshutupshutupSHUTUP.
"Uh… Maka? Are you okay?" asked Soul. "It isn't cool to hit yourself in the face that many times."
"Huh? What? Yeah! I'm fine!" she rambled again. Now Maka was sure she was blushing, at least a little bit.
He looked a bit… was that amusement? before shrugging and turning around again to face the strange "sponsor".
"Hey, ladies and gents of New York and beyond!" The crowd went even wilder, if that was possible. The surprisingly well-muscled man nodded to the crowd and people screamed, reaching their arms through the metal gate to try and touch him, regardless of the fact that he was still a good five yards away and on stage. "I'm hosting the first ever Mjolnir Heavy Lifting Competition, and it sure is a pleasure to see such a turnout. Mostly because if nobody came or bought the tickets the budget would be so unbalanced that Pepper would kill me. Everybody, cheer for Pepper!" The crowd cheered for Pepper as… waitwaitwait.
Maka double checked the flyer. She was right. Brown hair, all muscly, glowing chest thing, it was so obvious Maka felt a bit slow for not realizing it sooner. This event was being hosted by Tony freaking Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Also, he was Iron Man. Now if only she could remember what Mjolnir meant... She was sure it was something she had read about before, but she couldn't remember it for the life of her. It felt like it was just on the tip of her tongue…
She turned her head away from the stage in thought and noticed the redheaded business lady was covering her head with her hands, almost as if embarrassed. By what, though? Was… Oh.
This lady must be Virginia Potts, the one who has to deal with the messes Mr. Stark must make.
"Aw, she's turned around. Wanna be mad at me? Fine. Now then, let's begin the raffle!" He sashayed his way to the giant bowl full of bright red tickets and moved his hand around it slowly and dramatically before choosing one. "011456B!"
Some guy in a loud Hawaiian-print shirt cheered and ran up to the stage. The giant blond man smiled and let out a booming laugh at his eagerness before leading him off the stage, flipping the hammer once in his hand before placing it carefully on the ground, handle facing up.
The man took a deep breath, signed the cross, patted his hands down with what Maka assumed was chalk, and gripped the hammer before pulling at the handle as hard as he could. This is the position he was in for a full minute, the strain tugging veins and making deep marks in his forehead.
Then he fell on his back, hammer still stubbornly stood up in the grass. The man sighed and glared and tried once more.
This continued for what Maka thought was quite a while, before the other blond on stage, wearing a star spangled suit -wait omigosh was that Captain America?- blew a whistle. Apparently, the man was deemed "unworthy" by the judges (who Maka realized were the Avengers) and was to step off the stage.
Thor, the buff blond, Maka finally recognized, patted the disheartened guy on the back, very nearly knocking him over in the process.
Mr. Stark was back on stage after that, swirling his hand in the bowl in a mock interpretation of what Maka assumed was the Hunger Games before drawing another ticket. The next hour continued on like that, the "judges" letting each contestant futilely try for about four or five minutes each before ushering them off the stage for a Thor-sized back pat.
It was around this time that Maka suggested moving on, since once she'd seen one floral-print man or woman try to pick up Mjolnir, she'd seen them all, but Black Star insisted on staying because, "Nuh-uh! If something exciting happens, I'm not gonna be the one loser who misses it!" and the others followed him.
Maka sighed and bought about three hotdogs from a local food truck, deciding that while she was forced to wait with her team, she might as well eat more of the local food.
As she stepped back into her spot, she realized she had missed a few announcements.
"Oh, c'mon, Pepper. Just pick some volunteers." The crowd cheered in agreement.
Pepper-from-the-folding-tables sighed and pointed in their general direction. What? "How about those kids, then?"
Tony looked at them before seeming to notice the symbol of the DWMA on Kid's suit. "Academy students?" He whistled lowly. "Nice pick, Pep. Step on up, kids! C'mon, we don't bite. Usually."
Black Star cheered loudly and Soul and Kid smirked. The girls just blinked in confusion. Maka repeated, aloud this time, her thoughts on the subject. "What?"
By the time what exactly had happened had processed, she and everybody else was already on stage. Thankfully, though, she still had one hot dog. Silver linings.
Black Star was the first one on it, grabbing at the hammer and digging his heels into the ground while the audience marvelled at the gang's surprisingly strange (even for NY) attire and, in Black Star and Soul's cases, hair of the gang. Maka picked at her very normal, mind you skirt and took another bite of her hotdog while she watched Soul try to lift it with Black Star, in hopes that teamwork would make the dream work.
At some point, Soul lost his temper and turned his arms into scythes and began hacking away at the hammer. Black Star, from what Maka could tell, began biting it.
The judges blinked nervously.
"Stand back, everyone," Kid butted in, holding his arms straight out dramatically. A bit surprised, they obliged, while kid had his turn.
"For me to see something as beautifully symmetrical as this in this confusingly sectored city… It must be fate!" And with that, his hands in a vice grip around the handle, he heaved…
And fell flat on his back, the hammer not having been moved an inch.
"Oh, boy," sighed Liz.
"There he goes!" sang Patty.
And there he went, thought Maka. Kid began crying in a curled up ball on the floor, going on about how he must be, "asymmetrical garbage, just garbage!" for being "unable and unworthy to wield a hammer with beauty such as Mjolnir's".
Soul and Black Star just stared at his crumpled form, for once not saying anything.
This was apparently Liz and Patty's cue to go for it, and they lept upon the hammer with a vengeance, while Tsubaki helped tend to Black Star's now hurt teeth.
Meanwhile, Maka's mind gears whirred. "Unworthy?" "Mjolnir?" "Thor?" That actually sounded a lot like a book she had just finished a few weeks ago, Mythology and Legends from-
"Hey, Maka."
Her train of thought derailed.
She sighed. "Yeah, Soul?"
"Aren't you gonna give it a shot?" he asked, gesturing towards the hammer.
"Nope," she answered easily, finishing up her hotdog.
"Oh, c'mon, Maka, you have to try it!" Black Star shouted, adamant.
"Nope," Maka repeated.
"I think you should at least give it a shot," Liz drawled.
"Yeah, yeah! You have to prove that you're worthy of being our team leader!" cheered Patty.
"I already told you guys, the answer is-"
"I think you should do it," Soul interjected. "Just give it a shot."
Maka puffed up her cheeks in silent fury and sent him a Maka Glare™, until it was clear he was not budging on the subject.
"C'mon, Maka. Just give it a shot," he repeated.
She sighed and let her shoulders fall. "Fine. Whatever."
She strolled over to the hammer and felt nothing special. There was no dramatic music, no tension, no crowd silence. The long time the rest of the DWMA team had taken had made the crowd turn away and begin to chat amongst themselves- besides, they thought, this one was just a little blonde girl. The others were buff young men. Like this one would do anything special, amirite?
Maka held the end of the hammer experimentally between her thumb and forefinger, feeling the cool metal a bit before wrapping her one hand around it. Nothing's going to happen, why bother? This whole thing was just a waste of their last sightseeing day in New York.
Hoping that her failure would discourage the group and allow her to convince them (mostly Black Star) to keep looking for new things to do before having to leave, Maka gave Mjolnir a half-assed tug.
And lifted the thing easily over her head.
The judges (the Avengers, Maka reminded herself), unlike the crowd, had been watching carefully, and were now seemingly stuck in a freeze frame.
Captain America (who was one of Maka's favorites, personally) was blinking and wide-eyed, his mouth a small "o". Hawkeye (Clint something, Maka thought) was looking mildly concerned, his eyebrows furrowed and a tiny pout decorating his features. Dr. Banner (Was this guy really the Hulk?) had his eyebrows so high they were nearly touching his hairline, and Natasha Romanoff (Maka's favorite) had already cleared herself of shock and seemed to be biting her lip, holding in what was either an angry declaration or a laugh. Maka hoped it was the latter. Tony was-
"Hahaha… HAHAHAHA!" Loud, booming laughter erupted from somewhere to the left of her. Thor, it seemed, was finding this situation hilarious. "This small midgardian girl seems to be stronger than she looks!" he chortled joyously.
Maka sputtered a bit before regaining her composure, hefting the hammer once more, just to be sure.
"This… This is actually pretty light," she said, surprised.
"Oh, yeah, best partner ever," smirked Soul, brimming with pride.
Ignoring the shocked and appalled, "WHAT?" from Blackstar and Kid, she passed the hammer from one hand to another.
"Were you guys just faking it?" she asked, oblivious.
This seemed to be the last straw to break the camel's back.
"How can a tiny DWMA student lift it, but not me?" asked Tony (her formalities with him were steadily waning).
"DWMA?" asked Ms. Romanoff (whom Maka's respect for had not changed a bit). "I read about that. Isn't that in Nevada?"
Maka turned to answer, but was cut off by Clint… something, Maka was sure she knew his name. "You are a small, blonde girl from Nevada, how are you able to lift Mjolnir, but not me?"
"It's gotta be the hair," Black Star blurted. They all turned to look at him. "No, seriously!" he added. "Look how it flows in the wind! She's got Main Character Syndrome or something!"
"Main… what?" Maka asked.
"Hey! Hey! She's worthy, big deal!" Tony jumped back in. "It's not like she's saved the world or anything."
"Actually…" began Tsubaki.
"Well, there was that time with Arachnophobia, and with the Kishin, so…" Liz added on.
Tony made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. He looked like he was going to respond, but he got distracted watching Maka spin the hammer around her arm like a baton twirler.
"Okay," he cut in after a particularly well-executed toss, "now you're just showing off."
Dr. Banner scoffed. "Like you don't ever show off."
Maka was about to listen in on their conversation a bit more, just to see if she could find out anything else (she was curious about the saviors of NY, sue her), but everybody seemed to be in a rush to cut her off today.
"Hey, hey, hey!" cried Black Star. "I may not be able to lift the hammer, but if I can beat you, that's even better, right? So let's have a spar! That'll make me even closer to beating God!"
"Let's not," Maka deadpanned.
"Why not? C'mon, right here, right now!"
"Well, for one, we're in public, and surrounded by people."
"So? It should be a quick, clean battle, just me beating the pulp out of you-!"
"Maka…" she began, pulling out her book. Black Star froze and paled, while Maka began mentally recording the results of her Pavlovian experiment.
Soul sighed. Maka put the hammer down.
"Best Meister ever," Soul grinned. "Lifting Mjolnir."
Mjolnir.
Suddenly, like a floodgate of knowledge bursting open, Maka remembered what had been dancing on the tip of her tongue since she had seen the flyer.
Mjolnir: Norse Mythology- a hammer forged by brothers Sindri and Brokkr. Real World- a hammer considered to be "unliftable", only to be held by those it deems "worthy" and grants them the "strength of Thor".
Maka paused for a second as information ran through her brain. She was worthy of Mjolnir.
… Well, damn.
She was brought back to the real world by Soul's voice. "Oh, yeah, and before I forget," Soul had said thoughtfully before grabbing Maka's arm and…
what
. . .
w h a t
Maka was pretty sure it was short, less than a second, even, but it was enough to short-circuit her brain. But, like a sharp staccato note held out by a damper pedal, felt like an eternity. Too short of an eternity, but still kind of… nice.
She was still a little lost, though.
But really, who cared?
Soul kissed her.
Maka began to make a little whining noise, making a valiant attempt not to squeal as loudly as she could.
She knew she was probably making the stupidest face in the world, but omigosh omigosh omigosh she was so darn HAPPY, like, butterflies in her stomach and bright smiley-face suns and cloud nine and everything like whoa they never mentioned this in books this is amazing!
Maka blinked and realized her eyes were dry.
"Ooh, get some, Soul!" crowed Black Star.
There was no time to think. No time to assess the situation. She reacted on instinct.
"MAKA CHOP!"
Instinct was still a fairly good judge, though.
A̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶t̶y̶
Pepper was… surprised. But relatively happy, as well, she supposed.
One one hand, the main event was over and all the rented inflatables and stages and such could be returned several hours early, giving them a small (but still considerable) refund. Tony was happy with the fact that he actually found someone who could lift the hammer, even though he acted slightly envious at the girl's ability to do so, and Thor had new drinking buddies to laugh and make merry with as soon as the DWMA gang was legal. The Avengers made new world-saving friends, all of them, and with promises to visit whenever the students were in NY or the team was in Nevada, the kids departed to their hotel after dinner (Tony's treat) at a giant restaurant. On the other hand… Well, there weren't many negatives at all, now that Pepper thought of it.
Maka, as it seemed, revealed her true colors as a hesitant fan of theirs once her polite side wore off. Maka, as she had put it, "fangirled" over Natasha and Steve and even Pepper herself. Tony whined about the lack of attention, but got over it once Kid complimented the symmetry of his suit ("Well, it helps to have several settings, but it also helps if I have copies of them, just in case," he had responded, quite humbly for himself. Pepper was surprised. But, as it turned out, he was fishing for compliments, which was a plan that succeeded with bountiful rewards.).
Also, judging by the kiss on stage (or really, it was off to the side of the stage where the actual hammer lifting was), it appeared Soul, the white-haired boy, and Maka, the hammer-lifter, began dating. Really, it was adorable. Reminded her of her own school days, kissing boys and eating ice cream and hitting them with textbooks as soon as they toed the line.
Pepper was pleasantly surprised when talking to the girl. Maka was very mature and felt no discomfort speaking with an adult and adult topics, and, once the ice was broken, she had no discomfort drifting topics from the expenses of the event to complaining about the antics of their (and in Maka's case, her new) boyfriends.
Perhaps, once the Maka graduates, she could get Tony to extend a couple Stark Industries internship offers. They could have coffee together.
Because, truly, there was nothing better than having someone you can relate to.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
And so, Pepper makes a friend, Maka gets a kiss, and I'm pretty sure I neglected the Avengers in exchange for showering the DWMA gang and Pepper in attention but oh, well. Maybe I'll add in an extra bit. Also, just so you know, I have this story on Q under undefined (or EchoinfThroughTheEons) and on AO3 under .china. So... don't flag me and stuff.