Title: More Powerful Than A Sword

Author: Stormy1x2

Word Count: 1230

Time Frame: Season 1, Episode 9 – when the team's been given weapons, while Spidey was given a reminder.

More Powerful Than A Sword

"And me? What about me?"

"You? You have had the power inside you all along. But you must fully accept your charge. You have others who trust you. Lead them." The Master Dwarf's deep voice rang with power and confidence in the small cavern that was his workshop, deep in the heart of Asgard.

Hearing those words made Danny shudder. All of them had received magical weapons that would increase the powers and abilities – and the Master Dwarf wasn't giving one to Spider-Man because he already had the power to defeat the Frost Giants. That was... well, amazing.

He could tell Peter was a little disappointed in not getting a weapon. He wished he could speak up and tell Peter what this meant. The monks had spoken of warriors who wielded true power; power so great that weapons were unneeded. The power to command. The power to lead. It was an ability that couldn't be merely knocked from someone's hand, or run out of power. The truly enlightened monks that Danny had studied about – amazing individuals who had performed incredible feats that most of the human race simple did not believe was possible to do unless they were aided by mutant DNA or altered genetics.

Danny watched Peter straighten himself with acceptance and resignation at the same time. Danny agreed with the Master Dwarf – Spider-Man was a force of nature by himself. Adding Asgardian weaponry into the mix was apparently what one might call 'overkill.'

Ava gripped her bow tightly as she watched Peter listen to the words of the Master Dwarf. Peter had more power in him than could be provided by Asgardian weaponry? Seriously? Spider-Man – the habitually lazy and constantly late teenager who was constantly brushing off training and mouthing off to Director Fury – the 'power', or whatever the Dwarf was saying, was in him?

She had been supportive of the idea of having Spider-Man join the team back when Fury had first mentioned it. When Fury added that he meant for Spider-Man to lead them and show them the ropes, she'd been less supportive. Once she'd seen his utter disregard for order and training, she'd been, shall we say, a little disillusioned? But now an Asgardian weapons maker was praising him by telling him he had a power inside him that was stronger than anything he could provide, and Ava - for a split second – had wanted to test her new bow and arrows out on the web head.

It was petty, she knew, and she would punish herself later for such treasonous thoughts. It's just that it didn't seem fair. She trained so hard for her strength, and yet it came so naturally to the wall crawler. The part of her that was extremely jealous didn't disappear. She had a feeling it never really would.

Sam was having a little bit of trouble balancing the halberd he'd been given, but he was positive he'd get the hang of it in no time. But then he heard the words spoken by the Master Dwarf and beneath his helmet, his eyebrows had gone racing towards his hairline.

Spider-Man? More powerful than Asgardian magical weapons? Really?

But then his traitor of a memory reminded him of the way Spidey had electrocuted himself to try and destroy Venom. That had been a pretty epic (and painful) thing to watch. He'd also watched other battles, where Spidey's quick wits and even quicker thought processes had disabled his opponents plans, allowing him to achieve victory. Spidey had a way with words – jokes aside – and even though Sam hated to admit it, he couldn't help but pull himself up and pay attention when Spidey gave one of his famous speeches. They were heartfelt, passionate, and gripping to hear. Always.

The more Sam thought about it, the more he realized he believed the Dwarf's word. Spidey had a way of talking someone – villain or victim – down off a ledge. As he tried again to balance the halberd on his shoulder, he snorted silently and figured that it didn't matter if Loki's fabled silver tongue was real or not.

Loki was still no match for Spider-Man.

Luke had wanted to groan when he'd heard the Dwarf's words. It was something he'd heard from Fury and Coulson in the past:

'Stop holding back in a fight.'

'Use all your strength when you need to.'

'Stop being afraid of your power.'

It was the same old thing, again and again. But as he looked at the frankly gorgeous battle axe in his hands, he realized that Peter was just like him, and yet the Dwarf didn't seem to feel the need to push Spidey to use his full strength.

Luke could bench press and hold two tons. Spidey had been estimated at four tons in their briefings prior to the web head joining their team. Then they'd heard of a battle where he had stopped a train from running out of track – a six car train, travelling at about twenty kilometres an hours by the time he got to it, and SHIELD had upped their guesses to ten tons when under pressure and running on adrenaline.

If Spider could beat him in sheer strength, why wasn't he being told to let loose in what was sure to be an epic rematch with Frost Giants from Joutenheim? But as the Dwarf kept speaking about the power of Peter's words, Luke realized he had to give credit where credit was due. Peter did deal with his powers proportionately in order to keep from destroying things indiscriminately but his words? Yeah, those were pretty damn powerful too. He seemed to have a knack for speaking to a person's, well... at the risk of sounding like Danny, soul.

If there was anyone on the team who could out-talk and out-wit Loki the Trickster, it was Spider-Man.

Hands down.

Thor was impressed, and it took a lot to impress the God of Thunder – even if he was a frog. The Man of Spiders must possess great strength indeed for the Master Dwarf to say such things.

The Dwarf could see into the hearts of those who requested weaponry from him. It allowed him to make the perfect weapon and tailor it specifically to counter the weakness of the individual and increase their fighting prowess. It was a rare thing indeed to hear him profess that someone did not need one of his weapons to win a battle. That a child – this Midguardian mortal – was such a person was, to say the least, astonishing.

Thor watched silently as the Dwarf spoke gently yet with great power to the young man, and made a note to himself to pay more attention to this Man of Spiders in the future. Such a mighty youth would not be able to escape the eyes of evil, and Thor very much wanted to see what he would be capable of in the future – and not just as a sparring partner.

Perhaps he needed to pay closer attention to Tony Stark's assessment of the young man. Thor watched the Dwarf speak to the youth and wondered what the future would hold in store for them all.

End

I can't be the only person who got goosebumps listening to the Dwarf sing

Peter's praises, can I? Gave me the shiveries, it did, it did.