Avenging Justice:

Two Worlds Collide

Part V

Earth, Arizona, Puente Antiguo

"Look at this Hank, isn't this a wonderful design?" Janet Van Dyne asked her lover, and frequent partner in heroics.

Henry, "Hank," Pym looked up from his instruments, "What's that for?"

"Your new lab here," she replied back. "It'll help you generate some positive energy. It'll be better for when you're mulling over a problem."

"I appreciate it, Janet," Hank went back to his hand-held device. "What I really need to know is why SHIELD is here. I was sure they weren't onto my work."

Janet sighed, "Hank, I don't think they are here for us. They set up a camp miles out of town."

"You don't know that!" Hank bit back, feeling horrible immediately. He hadn't meant to lose his temper with her. She was just trying to make him feel better. "I'm sorry, it's just I'm so close to a breakthrough."

She gave him that hurt look, "It's okay, Hank. I know how important this is to you. You're creating something that even Tony Stark has attempted, but not perfected."

"Close, too close. How did SHIELD know about this? Are they planning on stealing my work again," he said, more a growl as his blood began to run hot.

Janet suggested, "Well let's find out. I say we sneak in and reconnoiter."

A little while later, on the outskirts of the SHIELD camp, Thor waited impatiently. He could see his hammer, and all the SHIELD agents that guarded it. He could just rush in and take it, but since being stripped of his powers, things had started to hurt. Besides, beyond guarding his hammer, he had no quarrel with the agents. He was rather fond of the humans. They could be brave and boisterous, very much like him.

Having promised Jane Foster answers to her questions, he had her bring him out here. She wasn't sure of him yet, but he could see the curiosity in her eyes. Unlike any woman he had ever known, with a strength of spirit unmatched by her physical body. To him she looked like a Valkyrie born in a human body. Still, it was her pure spirit that drew him in. She held nothing back, and ran toward the answers to her questions.

Seeing his chance, he rushed into the camp, deftly eluding the SHIELD personnel. As Thor did so, a man on a winged ant and a woman flying on insect wings zipped through the facility as well. Ant-Man jumped off and resized back to human size in one room, meanwhile Wasp did the same in another. Rifling through the unlocked computers, very stupid for an intelligence organization, and loose papers left on the desks.

Both had to shrink back, as the assigned agents came back in. They exited immediately and continued this, when available. Meanwhile Thor had infiltrated inside the camp. Sneakily, which was odd for him, he managed to get very close to Mjolnir. Just on the other side of a plastic wall, was his hammer.

Then it all went horrible for the Norse God of Thunder. One of the SHIELD agents swatted at his neck, near where Ant-Man was flying with his ant. On impulse, Wasp shot out her bioelectric sting, to protect him. Which it did, but it caused the agent to cry out in pain and turn around to find Thor sneaking up to the unmovable hammer. Hitting the alarm, the agent rushed forward with this weapon drawn.

Thor heard the alarm, and knew he had to move. Whether he wanted to keep from hurting the humans, they were set to attack him now. He was withing three strides of his hammer, when the first guard lunged at him. Thor easily took him out, leaving the man gasping for breath, but alive. Another kicked out at him, aiming or Thor's head. He pushed up with his arms, sending the woman cartwheeling into the air.

One step away and Thor could swear he saw two small shapes flit by, but he had other concerns than Midgard insects. One agent had shot at him, and only a well-timed jump had kept him from getting hit. He rewarded that warrior with a rock to the weapon hand, thrown with unerring accuracy. The agent dropped his gun, while another agent ran up behind Thor with stun batons out. The Asgardian ignored the threat, he was too close to his goal.

Reaching out with his hand, he felt Mjolnir's handle and wrapped his fingers around it. Then he went to lift the hammer, reclaim his powers, and soon return to Asgard. Instead his body jerked as the hammer refused to move. As a result, his open side received a very nasty shock from the stun batons. Letting go of the hammer, he slammed his fist into the agent's helmeted head. The helmet burst into pieces, and the agent stumbled back in a daze.

Unfortunately for Thor, more were coming. He took out two more easily, but was hit three more times with stun batons. Agents on the periphery had switched to rubber bullets, more to protect the other agents than him. Nonlethal or not, they still hurt. He was weakening, an odd occurrence for him. He had taken on Frost Giants, and not been this weakened afterwards.

"Oh brother, when will you learn?" Thor recognized the sarcastic voice of his brother Loki. "Here let me get you out of this mess."

A green flash illuminated the camp, and when it was gone, so was Thor. The SHIELD agents immediately began a search for him, while others took their wounded to the infirmary. Other agents began to run the images collected against a database, hoping to identify the attacker. Nothing came back. The director was notified, and an hour later was notified at their failure at identifying the person of interest.

Thor reappeared in the desert, miles away from the SHIELD camp, "Take me back, Loki! I need my hammer!"

"Why would I do that brother? I should have let them take you," Loki said. "Are you so thick headed to think Father would allow you back?"

Thor clenched his fists, "Father was wrong, I attacked the Frost Giants for the glory of Asgard!"

"Did you brother? Did you really?" Loki shot back. "Or was it for the glory of Thor, future King of Asgard? Father has banished you upon pain of death. If you even try, our people will kill you."

Thor felt his spirits fall, "I only wanted to prove myself to Father."

"Well you have broken Mother and Father," Loki spat. "I'll do what I can, but it will probably be a very long time."

"Thank you, brother," Thor said, minus his usual braggart tone. "I am truly sorry for what I have done, and all the trouble I have caused you. You've been a better brother than I deserve."

Loki was shocked by this, "Take care, brother." With that he disappeared into the rainbow light of the Bifrost Bridge.

Thor let his despair take over him. A failure to his people, exiled from his home and disowned by his parents. He truly felt like the smallest being in the Nine Realms, possibly the universe. Stripped of everything that made him special, who was he really? Thor realized he was going to find out, the hard way.

He turned around, and couldn't make out which way would lead him back to town. Nor could he make out the direction back to the SHIELD camp. He worried Jane Foster was still waiting for him there, and he became worried for her. Would the agents find her and hold her responsible for his actions? Once more he cursed his impetuousness. If he had only slowed down to think about the consequences.

Hope it seemed came with the introduction of a green light, "Excuse me, did you see a weird space bridge open up?"

Thor looked towards the voice, seeing the green uniform of the Green Lantern Corp. The man flying though was human, and Thor was unaware of any Green Lantern that was a human. Asgard had an agreement with the Guardians on Oa, they would have full control of their system and manage the planets of the realms save Midgard.

"Leave me, Lantern," Thor said. "I fear I'm in no mood tonight."

The Green Lantern only for a moment seemed to find this curious, "Well, you certainly are far from home. Need a lift?"

"I need to meet someone at the town nearby," Thor said. "If you could point me in that direction, I'll be on my way."

"Unexpected, but okay," Green Lantern said. "The desert is no place for anyone at night, well the day either, but that's another story. I'll give you a lift back. I'd hate to tell my lady friend I left her for a false alarm."

Thor meant to protest, but found himself lifted up into the air. The air rushed beneath his feet, as the Green Lantern carried him towards town. It was humiliating, but Thor didn't say this. He was getting used to being humbled, and he just didn't have the strength to fight back. However, as they got closer to town, his spirits did lift.

At her team's headquarters, Jane was arguing with Dr. Selvig. He heard her pleading with the older man to help her get him out of SHIELD's custody. Thor was glad she hadn't been caught up with the problem at the camp. As if understanding, Green Lantern let him down near her.

"Are you okay?" Jane asked as she rushed to him, checking him out for injuries.

Thor smiled, "I am fine Jane Foster, and I am sorry."

"You should be sorry, I was worried for you!" Jane playfully punched his arm. "Don't do that again."

Green Lantern knew when to make an exit, and this was it, "Good luck, stranger. Stay out of the desert, would you?"

Jane watched the hero leave, "You do have interesting friends."

"Come Jane Foster, I owe you answers to questions," Thor said.

Jane smiled, "After you eat, I know you must be starving. Just remember, don't break the glasses!"

Earth, Above Arizona, Quinjet

Black Widow looked at the message from SHIELD. Beside her, Hawkeye flew the Quinjet. Technically it was on autopilot, but he was monitoring the instruments, just in case he needed to take manual control. Captain America was in the back, looking over the dossiers for each of their targets. Their current course was for Coast City, and its protector Green Lantern.

"Cap, SHIELD wants us to make a quick detour," Black Widow called back. "They just had someone infiltrate our temporary base there."

Captain America walked up to the cockpit, "Let's go. Any information on the attacker?"

"Just blonde, long haired and bearded," Black Widow replied back. "Apparently he's not a bad fighter, took out almost five agents with his bare hands."

"How long till we arrive?" Captain America asked.

Hawkeye switched over the controls to manual, "We'll be there in ten minutes. I'd strap in."

True to his word, ten minutes later the quinjet landed at the SHIELD camp. The commander of the camp met them. They were quickly escorted to monitoring station, where a replay of the intrusion was queued up.

"We know he found a pattern in our patrols and managed to skirt around them," the commander reported. "In fact, he was skilled enough to get past everyone. If it hadn't been for a stinging insect, we might not have seen him."

"That is impressive," Hawkeye said. "Look at how me moves. He's a seasoned fighter."

Captain America was curious, "How did he escape?"

"We don't know," the commander replied. "I'm sorry, he was there one moment and gone the next. One of my people spoke about a horn helmed man taking the intruder. I've already sent my resignation to Director Fury."

"I'd hold onto that," Captain American said. "We'll take a quick scout of the area."

While Captain America and his team started that search, Janet and Hank resized back in his hidden lab. They had their answers, SHIELD wasn't there for his work. They were after whomever owned that hammer, and it looked like they had plenty of people attempting to claim it. His work was safe, which was the important part.

Walking over to a covered object, he removed the tarp over it. A steel colored cylinder with two moon shaped lights and a center grated interface, it was Hank's current project. Unable to share his Pym particles with the world, he had decided to create the most advanced artificial intelligence on Earth.

This A.I. would aid researchers, and the public at large in ways that would revolutionize the world. Police could use it to search for criminals, an intelligence that would never tire or waver. Doctors could use it to consult and search for illnesses of all types. Scientists could have it work on experiments, even when they had to focus on the running of the lab. This ultimate electronic being would be a welcomed asset to humanity. His name for the project, as the Ultron Project.

What he hadn't told Janet, what he couldn't admit, was he was basing some of his design on Tony Stark's J.A.R.V.I.S. program. Stark had created the program, and gave it an advanced intelligence. It could react to him, talk to him, anticipate his needs, but it was still a program. What Hank Pym wanted, was something closer to a human mind, but better. Something that could think and make leaps of logic, like the human mind, yet never need rest or fall into ruts like organic brains did.

So, he had taken the next step, used what he had learned from Stark, and moved it forward. As it was, he was close, much closer than he had let on to Janet. She was a very intelligent woman, and very creative. When it was time, he'd bring her in to design the interface and the physical body it would inhabit. She'd be able to make it look appealing to people, make it more appealing and accessible to them. He had to just complete it, then he'd feel like he contributed to humanity. What harm would come of something like that?