AN: Changes are going to be more plentiful as we start to diverge from the MCU Storyline into my plan more and more. As most of you know, we are now leaving Iron Man for a bit and heading to meet Thor, all of the guesses received so far for the mystery figure are incorrect.
Arriving in New Mexico, Harry was happy to be off the plane having been spoiled by Tony's private jets. Disembarking and getting in the SHIELD provided SUV, Harry climbed in the back with Coulson. "Run this down for me again on why we are heading to the middle of nowhere in New Mexico?"
Coulson nodded and pulled out his tablet. "Three days ago, following a weird light show…" He flicked to the picture of the aurora in the sky. "What is currently believed to be a hammer, was found in the middle of the desert in a crater. Which has since attracted a lot of attention."
He flicked through the images again, first to the hammer and then again to the crowd amassed in the area. "The reason we are bringing you out is because none of the assembled crowd have been able to move the damned thing and it did a number to the several trucks it was tied to which then tried to pull it." Flicking the picture once more showed a truck flipped upside down.
Harry took the tablet and studied the pictures. "Well there is a lot of magic I know of that can prevent someone from picking something up, but nothing that would prevent it from being pulled or moved by natural forces." Looking up at Coulson, he continued. "I assume you already cordoned off the area and moved out all the locals?"
Coulson nodded. "We have several agents on site, as well as an asset to help us protect it. We would like you to analyze the hammer and help us to protect it while we find a way to move it to a secure SHIELD holding."
An hour later, they arrived at the site of the crater. Climbing out of the SUV, Harry immediately felt an immense magical presence coming from the hammer. He turned toward Coulson; "Whatever this is… it's powerful." Reaching into the vehicle and grabbing his backpack, he walked over towards the hammer and cast several detection spells which all came back inconclusive. Frowning, he knelt down next to it and there were several runes carved along the framework of the hammer. He ran his hand around the hammer casting revealing charms. He found a rune that covered the entire left side of the hammer. Pulling out his journal he quickly sketched it out before standing up and turning around.
"Potter! What do you think? Can you help us?" Coulson asked as he walked over to where Harry was studying the hammer. Another man joined them carrying to what looked like a bow.
Harry nodded. "Possibly. There are several rune clusters along the hammer itself as well as one that takes up the entire left side of the hammer. They all appear to be Norse in origin. The smaller ones all seem to talk about focusing power, but the bigger one however seems familiar. I am going to have to do some research if you could point me to my room." Coulson nodded but ultimately seemed lost at what Harry was saying before ushering him inside.
Gesturing to the man walking beside him, Coulson introduced him. "This is Clint Barton, codename Hawkeye. He may not have any powers, but he is damn good with a bow. Can hit just about any target. The two of you will be working together on protecting the hammer until you can figure out a way for us to move it." As he finished, they approached a room. "These will be your quarters for the foreseeable time Potter, good luck." Nodding, Harry turned and entered the room.
Harry spent the next several hours cross referencing his texts on Norse runes, however none of them seemed to have an answer on just what that rune was. Just as he was about to give up for the day, an alarm started blaring: a perimeter breach. Groaning, Harry got up, opened his pocket dimension and put on his jacket and pants before pulling his bracers on. He apparated into the command center, appearing behind Coulson and Barton. "What's going on?"
Both men jumped before realizing it was Harry. Coulson gestured to the feed of a blonde man who was running through the facility taking out agents. "He snuck in the facility. He's good; obviously he has had some training." Turning to face Barton and Harry, he nodded. "The two of you are up." Harry apparated from the room, appearing in the final hallway between the intruder and the hammer.
As the intruder came around the corner Harry fired off several stunners in rapid succession which did not do much but slow him down. Frowning, Harry let his magic flow down into the ground before bringing it up and allowing it to wrap around the intruder in a chain like fashion. Seeing the man bound, Harry started to approach him intending to bind him further. Just as he was about to conjure ropes and tie him up, the intruder managed to snap the chains, jumping out of the way from the outward strike. Harry was surprised; those chains should have held as long as he was feeding them magic. This guy clearly wasn't human; all of his spells were nearly ineffective on him. The only thing that worked on him was pure magic and even that seemed to wear off after a couple seconds.
Running through his spells in his head, he recalled one spell he could cast. It would probably wipe him out after, but it should stop the intruder in his tracks no matter how magically resistant he was as the spell was designed by dragon handlers to help restrain the more unruly breeds. Bringing up his hands, he gathered his magic and cast, "loco addicere!" The power of the spell firing off knocked him back a few steps and brought him to his knees. Looking up he saw the spell strike true getting him up he walked over and grabbed the intruder, "Let's go. Time to answer some questions."
Bringing him into the interrogation room, Harry sat him down before walking out and closing the door. Heading to the command center, he met up with Coulson. "That man was resistant to all my low level spells it took pure magic and my strongest binding spell to subdue him, but he is waiting for you."
Coulson nodded and walked out of the room to go an interrogate the intruder and Harry sighed and returned to his room to continue researching the runes. Taking off his uniform he folded it and placed it on the dresser with the bracers, not able to muster enough magic to open his pocket dimension to return it there.
Harry spent the next couple hours studying the books on Norse runes attempting to figure out what the cluster was when he finally had a breakthrough.
Not much is known about this rune other than it is said to be one of the personal runes of Odin All-Father himself. Mostly believed to be legend, the rune is used to judge the worthiness of an individual or individuals. No attempts at using the rune have ever been successful and it is believed that the rune is a hoax with no actual power.
Harry frowned after reading the section multiple times. So apparently the hammer was supposed to judge someone for some form of worthiness. Yawning, he decided the discovery could wait until morning. He climbed into bed and passed out, just missing the burst of magic that was Loki projecting himself to talk to Thor.
Waking up the next morning with his magic recharged, Harry opened his pocket dimension and deposited his bracers, jacket and pants into it. Picking up the book on the runic symbol, Harry walked out of his room and headed towards the command center stopping along the way to grab some breakfast. Finding Coulson, he pulled him aside to go over his findings. "so according to the texts I have, the rune on the hammer is un-named, however it appears to be from the personal archives of Odin All-Father. it seems to judge for "worthiness" only allowing those who meet the criteria of the caster to pick up the item it is engraved on. However, it was believed the rune is a hoax as no-one has been able to get the rune to work."
Coulson nodded turning to face the screen showing a feed of the hammer. "Well apparently someone got it to work, because not even our strongest agents have been able to move that thing…" He turned back around to face Harry. "Does it say any way to get around the rune?"
Harry shook his head. "No one has ever been able to get it to work, so there was no way to ever figure out a way around it. I can attempt to do some testing to see if I can figure it out, but no promises. If I do anything wrong, it could blow us all to kingdom come."
Coulson nodded. "Well just do what you can, I suppose." Harry nodded, picking up his book and leaving the room with ideas going through his head on how to get around the rune.
Over the next week Harry made several attempts to bypass what he had now come to call Odin's Rune. Each attempt to modify the runes on the hammer ended with him getting shocked, blown away, or in one instance causing a miniature explosion. Having decided to take a break from trying to modify the rune, he was sitting in his room meditating, working on improving some of his mental barriers. It was around noon while in this meditative state when he felt a burst of magic fill the air and begin gathering before he felt something touch down. Opening his eyes, Harry opened his pocket dimension quickly, changed into his Dragon/Basilisk pants and jacket before sliding on the bracers. Pulling up the hood he apparated out, letting his magic guide him to the source of the magic.
He appeared just behind Coulson. In front of him, he saw a giant robot. At first glance, he thought it may have been Tony, but when it reared back to slap Coulson, which most likely would have been the end of the poor agent, Harry grabbed him and apparated them out of the area. "Uhm, how about you let me handle the giant robot, instead of letting it rip you apart without trying?"
Seeing Coulson's nod, Harry stood up, and apparated behind the robot which was now halfway to the town. He fired off several blasting and exploding curses at the robot which seemed to not leave even so much as a dent in the plating. It only caused it to pause before rotating at the waist, where it seemed to analyze Harry. After deciding that the blasts must have come from Harry, it opened its faceplate and unleashed a beam of pure energy that if Harry hadn't managed to get his shield up in time, would have completely annihilated him.
Not bothering to wait and see if the threat was neutralized, the robot turned and continued towards the town. Dropping his shield after the last of the blast died off, Harry cursed seeing that the robot was entering town. Apparating, as close as he could to the town, Harry took flight and flew as fast as possible getting there just as the robot was about to open fire on a gas station. He quickly threw a shield over the gas station and turned his attention to what appeared to be the intruder from last week and some cosplayers approaching. Trying to keep attention on him, Harry fired off several spells that only served to irritate the robot, although he wasn't sure if robots could get irritated. Turning its attention to Harry, the robot reached out and slapped Harry away causing him to crash through several buildings.
It took Harry a minute to steady himself before apparating back to the site of the battle. He rushed and found the blonde intruder and what appeared to be his friends, as they were working together to attack the robot. Running towards the fight Harry fired off several spells attempting to assist. After he realized his offensive spells weren't doing anything, he switched to fire based spells, throwing several fireballs at the robot aiming towards some of the dents and holes made by the foursome who were fighting as well.
Seeing the robot send the intruder flying, Harry flew after him throwing several "arresto momentums" at him to slow him down. Catching him and lowering him to ground he steadied him. "Are you ok?"
The man nodded. "On behalf of the Royal Family of Asgard, I, Thor Odinson, thank thee Seidr. I must get back before the Destroyer harms my friends." The man ran back to the battle.
Harry shook his head, confused. "There is no way he is actually 'The' Thor," he mumbled under his breath as he watched him charge back into battle. Just as Harry was getting back to the site of the battle, he saw the now named Destroyer taking aim at an older man and two women. Before Harry could cast any kind of spell to protect them, it fired. The man, the so-called "Thor," threw himself in the line of fire taking the entire blast.
Watching him fall to the ground, Harry raced over and began trying to heal all the wounds he could, but before he could close off more than three or four of them the Destroyer turned its attention towards Harry. Preparing for another blast, Harry threw up a shield protecting himself and those behind them at the last second. Not to be fooled again, the Destroyer continued firing upon Harry, his shield starting to crack at the continued onslaught.
Pushing more magic into the shield in an attempt to keep it from failing, Harry felt a burst of magic come from below him where "Thor" was laying, followed by a whoosh of air coming from the direction of the crater. Harry was able to just move out of the way in time as the Hammer landed in the outstretched hand of Thor.
A burst of lightning came down from the sky, striking the Hammer. Standing up, Thor turned to Harry. "Seidr, thank you for protecting my friends and me, yet again. Let us say we put a stop to the Destroyer once and for all."
Nodding, Harry was just stunned that the man in front of him was, Thor, THE God of Thunder,."I'll drop the shield on three, then you go in. I'll back you up." Thor nodded and Harry prepared to drop the shield.
"Okay, on three. One…" Thor started spinning his hammer getting ready to go flying "Two…" Thor got into position and Harry got ready to duck "Three!" Harry dropped the shield and Thor went flying, letting Mjolnir take the lead, diving the blast. Once reaching the Destroyer, he smacked him with the hammer, sending him flying.
Flying after the pair launching bolts of pure magic at the Destroyer, Harry touched down next to Thor. "I have a plan. If you keep him distracted, the next time he goes to fire I can seal his head with one of my shields so that way it will take him out. Those blasts of his are the only thing that seem to have any effect on it."
Thor nodded. "It is true. The Destroyer was created from the strongest metals in all of the Nine Realms. The plan is good; my father was correct when he said the Seidr where Men and Women of great intelligence." Thor flew at the Destroyer, attempting to piss it off enough to get it to fire once more.
Finally, after several hits from the Hammer and a few blasting spells from Harry the Destroyer prepared to fire at Thor. Harry waited until the very last second possible before casting a shield around the Destroyer's head. He funneled all the magic he could into the shield. The Destroyer let off a blast and the shield held tight. The blast filled the shield and before the Destroyer was able to process what was happening, its head began to melt and it exploded.
Dropping the shield, Harry and Thor started laughing. Thor walked over to meet up with Harry. "We did it, Seidr. I thank you for your assistance. Your people have always been worthy allies."
The four from earlier came walking over. "Friends, our fight is not yet over. Loki is still in Asgard, we must go quickly…" Turning to Harry, Thor continued. "Seidr, come with me. With you by our side, there is no way we can lose."
Harry took a moment to consider the offer. Ever since hearing the tales from the Norwegian wizards about the kind of magic that came from Asgard, he had always wanted to learn more of the spells. He nodded, summoning his backpack with all of his things from the Hammer's crash site.
"Let's go."