8

Magic and Machine

Tony stood, arms crossed on the launch pad of Avengers Tower and waited as the Quinjet landed. Kratos hopped off and walked past Tony.

"You gonna be stealing the jet often?" Tony asked.

"No."

"Raiding NATO bases isn't exactly what we do here, you know that."

"No one died. I walked in. I walked out."

"That's not the point. You were all over the news. 'Pale dude punches a bunch of 'murican soldiers'." Tony waved his hand through the air as if reading a headline. "We can't be sending mixed messages to the public. We don't need people confused about who the good guys are. Are we heroes, or are we people that beat up NATO prisoners and invade military property?"

"Your rules are limiting. Live as long as I have, and then tell me you have the patience for bureaucracy."

Tony shrugged and looked to the sky.

"Just sign out the damn plane before you take it for a joy ride, huh?"

"...Humf."

/

"But it's a trick!" Barton exclaimed, looking at Mjolnir as it sat on the table.

Saturday night. The party had calmed down, and the only people left on the party deck were the avengers themselves and their coworkers, War Machine, Maria and some doctors.

"Oh no, it's much more than that," Thor replied, finishing the last glass of his Asgardian ale.

"'Whosoever shall be worthy shall haveth the power!' Whatever, man, it's a trick!"

"Well, please be my guest." Thor pointed his open palm to Mjolnir, still innocently sitting on the table.

"Oh, this is gonna be beautiful." War Machine stated as he leaned back into the couch.

"Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Tony joked.

The group chuckled as Barton hovered over the hammer. He grabbed ahold of Mjolnir's handle and pulled, giving out a loud grunt.

"I still don't know how you do it!" Clint said, laughing as he backed off from Mjolnir.

"Smell the silent judgment?" Tony asked.

"Please, Stark, by all means," Barton replied. The onlookers cheered and laughed as Tony got up from his seat on the couch.

"Never been one to shrink from an honest challenge. It's physics. "

"Physics!" Bruce repeated to the group sarcastically.

"Right, so if I lift it, I then rule Asgard?" Tony turned to Thor as he wrapped the hammer's strap around his forearm.

"Yes, of course," Thor replied dismissively.

"I will be reinstituting Prima Nocta," Tony replied as he yanked on the handle, to no avail.

"Be right back," Tony said as he left the room.

/

Tony pulled with his armored hand, jets firing, still nothing. James grabbed his gauntlet from the War Machine armor and joined in. The hammer remained motionless.

"Are you even pulling?" James asked.

"Are you on my team?" Tony replied.

"Just represent. Pull!"

They grunted and groaned but the hammer remained unmoved, and Thor just sat and sipped his drink, grinning smugly.

"Perhaps you could lift the table instead of the hammer." Kratos hypothesized.

"If you would like to try, Socrates, then go right ahead," Tony said, letting go of the hammer. Kratos approached the table, grabbed it with both hands and pulled. The table began to crack in half but didn't lift off the ground.

"Hey, don't break the nice table!" Clint laughed. Kratos let go of the table and grabbed the handle of the hammer.

Don't even try. Not even close to worthy.

"Don't ruin my night, Athena," Kratos whispered.

"What was that?" Tony asked.

"Nothing." Kratos pulled at the handle, causing the floor to groan and buckle underneath his feet. The hammer still didn't move. Kratos stopped once cracks started forming in the floor where he stood.

"It's not a measure of strength, it's a measure of Mjolnir choosing you, so be kind to the floor, Spartan." Thor laughed. Tony inspected the cracks in the floor where Kratos stood.

"Perhaps the Green One," Kratos said, looking at Bruce.

"Hey, no more strong people, I don't need any more footprints in my floor!" Tony argued

"Me? I mean, ok…" Bruce approached the hammer, got on the table, took it in both hands and pulled. His grunts turned to screams as he let go and raised his arms to the ceiling. The room fell silent as the Hulk didn't show himself. Bruce awkwardly sat back down.

Thor took another sip. Steve looked around, then got up to try his own mettle. He rolled up his sleeves as the others looked on.

"Come on, Cap," Tony called out.

Steve took the hammer with both hands and pulled. Mjolnir lifted off the table a few millimeters for just a split moment. Thor's face turned from smugness to confusion to concern. Steve continued to pull, but the hammer failed to move again. Thor sighed with relief and Steve backed off from the magic hammer.

"Ok, so how does the building not crumble beneath its weight?" Mimir asked, sitting by Kratos on a side table.

"Maybe it's a friction thing. Maybe it's got infinite friction, so it doesn't crush the building, it's just stuck to the table." Tony guessed.

"But then how does the table not move when you pick up Mjolnir if the hammer is 'stuck' to it?" Kratos asked. The group shrugged and all groaned 'yeaaah' together. Thor giggled and took another sip.

Everyone turned to Natasha, raising their eyebrows and pointing to the hammer.

"Oh, no that's not a question I need answered." Natasha replied to the group.

"All deference to the man who wouldn't be king, but it's rigged," Tony said, grabbing another beer.

"Bet your ass!" Clint said, patting Tony on the shoulder.

"Steve, Clint said a bad-language word." Maria joked.

Steve sighed and looked to Tony. "You tell everybody about that?"

"The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' is, I think, the literal translation?" Tony asserted.

"Yes well that's uh…" Thor said as he got up from his seat. "That's a very interesting theory. I have a simpler one."

Thor grabbed Mjolnir with one hand, picked it up with ease and gave it a flip through the air. "You're all not worthy."

See? But you already knew you weren't…

Kratos winced with frustration as the voice pestered him. Mimir looked over.

"Hey," Mimir whispered, "All good?"

Kratos waved his hand "It is fine."

The group jeered in disagreement as Thor flipped his hammer through the air, boos and groans abound.

Suddenly, a loud high pitched ring interrupted the party, forcing everyone to cover their ears, of course, except for Mimir. Then, from behind them, the sound of metallic feet could be heard unevenly trudging in their direction.

"Worthy...how could you be worthy?"

One of Tony's Iron Legionnaires, broken and leaking oil, looking much like a robotic zombie, turned to face them all.

"You're all killers." The robot declared, waving his mangled arm at the Avengers.

"Stark?" Steve said to Tony.

"Jarvis?" Tony called out, eyes never losing sight of the shuffling Legionnaire. Kratos' fists tensed.

"Sorry, I was asleep...or...I was a...dream…" The robot shook its head, as if in confusion.

"Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we have a buggy suit," Tony spoke into his work pad, tapping the screen.

"There was a terrible noise, and I was tangled in...in...strings," The robot said as it tried to keep its balance on its melted and half-deconstructed legs. "Had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy..."

"You killed someone?" Steve asked, just as tense as the rest of the team as they stared down this crazed machine.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" Thor asked. The machine cocked its head to one side and played a recording:

"I see a suit of armor around the world." The recording played back Tony's conversation.

"Ultron…" Banner exclaimed.

"In the flesh. Or, no...not yet-"

"You created this machine, Stark?" Kratos asked, picking up Mimir and attaching him to his belt.

"Yeah, sorry, long story, not really the time," Tony replied, everyone slowly readying themselves for whatever came next.

"I'm on a mission, see..." Ultron continued.

"What mission? Natasha asked.

The machine turned to her. "Peace in our time."

Immediately after speaking those words, the walls exploded in a blast of splinters as Iron Legionnaires came pouring through the wall.

Kratos braced as a machine tried to ram him. When the machine hit his body, Kratos absorved its momentum. He quickly ripped it's head off, throwing the metal body at another legionnaire as it blasted James out the window. Another machine came for Kratos, this one using its hand blasters. Kratos dodged the blasts, ripped a metal railing away from the stairs and plunged the railing into the machine's neck.

"We are here to help. We...arrrrrrrre..." The machine sputtered as it shut down. Kratos Spartan-kicked the machine's corpse into the wall, blasting it apart.

"Brother, behind you!" Mimir called. Kratos turned, grabbed the oncoming machine and ripped it in half from head to legs. He jumped and grabbed a flying legionnaire by the foot, pulling it in and kicking it back into the ground, smashing it into the floor.

"Goddammit, why always the floor…" Tony lamented as he looked over. He jumped onto a Legionnaire's back and tried to shut it down.

"Stark!"

"One sec! One sec!" He replied as he poked and prodded the machine's circuitry.

"We are here to help. We are he-" One legionnaire repeated as Kratos had it in a sleeper hold.

"Shut…" Kratos grunted. He tugged lightly and the machine's head snapped off.

"...up."

Steve threw his shield across the room, smashing the last machine. All that remained was the broken robot that Ultron was possessing.

"Well…that was dramatic," Ultron stated, "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to...evolve?"

The broken Ultron picked up the head of a defeated Legionnaire.

"With these?" He continued. "These puppets? There's only-"

A desk flew through the room into Ultron, ripping it apart entirely. Everybody turned to Kratos.

"It talks too much." Said Kratos, giving his neck a crack.

"I was gonna do that…" Thor grumbled.

"He steal your thunder, Thor?" Banner said, coming out from behind the bar.

"That's not funny." both Thor and Kratos exclaimed at the same time.

Kratos walked up to the machine.

"I had strings, but now I'm-"

Kratos put his foot through the Ultron's head, silencing its singing.

"This machine sings poorly..." Kratos stated.

18

The Witch's Vision

"I don't know why we even repair this tower, every time we fix it up, zwoom! Another baddy breaks it all back down."

Tony looked around his demolished party deck. The crushed Legionnaires, the broken wall, the destroyed lab gear.

"Stark!" Thor called out, "The scepter is missing!"

"Shit...don't tell me one of the bots flew off with it," Tony said to himself.

"That's not all he took," Bruce said, walking up to Tony. "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."

"He's been in everything." Natasha added, "Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

"The internet?" Mimir said nervously. "That means he has access to…"

"Anything. That includes nuclear codes." Maria mentioned.

"This machine. It is your creation?" Kratos asked, inspecting the broken machinery on the floor.

"He was the A.I. that was gonna direct the Iron Legion. Make our lives easier, keep the places we can't always be safe." Tony explained.

"He has NOT made our lives easier…" Kratos grumbled.

"Stark, your A.I. said it killed someone," Clint mentioned.

"But there wasn't anybody else in the building," Maria replied.

"Yes, there was…" Tony said as he turned on the Jarvis interface. What remained of Jarvis was represented as a hologram of a broken and glitching code, incomplete and beyond repair.

"This is insane…" Bruce said, stressfully stroking his face with his hand.

"It has destroyed the tower, destroyed Jarvis.." Kratos listed.

"And it has taken the scepter!" Thor exclaimed angrily, walking up to Tony until they were face to face. "Now we must find it, again!"

"But why did it go wrong? Why is Ultron trying to kill us?" Dr. Cho said, working on James' wounds.

Tony began to laugh but stopped when he looked at Kratos' scowling face.

"What...did you do...Stark? Kratos demanded.

"We...used the scepter tech to help us create Ultron…" Banner stepped in before sitting down in a ripped couch, "We used the energy to increase the processing power, intelligence..."

"That was foolish. There are consequences to using godly weapons improperly." Kratos said to Tony.

"Don't talk down to me, okay? There's, what, seven of us? We can't be everywhere at once. We need something else to be there when we can't." Tony said in his own defense.

"Tony, maybe right now isn't the time to argue that this was a good thing…" Bruce said timidly.

"Bruce, back me up here, you agreed Ultron was a good idea!"

"It was a good idea until it became a murder bot…"

"We DIDN'T...create a murder bot. We weren't even close, we didn't even have an interface…"

"The machine is alive now. Clearly, you were close." Kratos said curtly.

"Anybody remember the wormhole, the alien invasion?" Tony asked the group.

The team stayed silent. Kratos and Thor nodded.

"Ok good, so the two of you do at least. A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We were standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there? That's...that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together" Steve confidently announced.

"We'll lose," Tony argued.

"Then we'll do that together too."

"Stark is correct, what awaits us in the void is powerful and inevitable. We will need an army and a plan to defeat it..." Kratos said to Steve. He then turned to Tony "But you, Stark, have tampered with technology beyond your grasp, and your haste for victory has cost us."

"Ultron is out there somewhere," Steve interrupted. "Let's bite this problem in the butt before it gets any bigger. We'll worry about the existential threat from space later."

"Let's find the metal bastard," Clint exclaimed.

"Does 'bite it in the butt' count as naughty words?" Tony asked no one in particular as the team dispersed to begin the search.

/

Kratos sat in his room, waiting for the call. The Blades sat beside him on the bed, the chains vibrating, begging for Kratos to pick them up. Kratos attached the last piece of his armor to his shoulder. He tested the mobility of the pauldrons. Once satisfied, he grabbed the blades. The chains instinctually wrapped themselves around his forearms like vines around a tree. He stared at them for a brief moment, then placed the blades on his back, the chains retracted and detached from his arms.

"You look troubled, brother." Mimir observed, "I mean, more so than usual."

Kratos sat, head lowered.

"I never told you…" Kratos began.

"What? Never told me what?"

"Thor told me...Atreus was alive in Asgard." Kratos said under his breath.

"Holy Gods, what?" Mimir exclaimed, his glowing eyes widened.

"For many years, I thought he was dead, disposed of by Odin. I learned he was alive and well...until some weeks ago."

"What do you mean, 'until'?"

"He died recently, protecting the 9 realms. But for millennia, he was alive. For millennia, I could have gone to found him and I did not. I could have done...anything...and I did not."

"I'm so sorry to hear that, but brother, you thought he was dead. All you would have been searching for was revenge if you went after him. Faye would have cut you in two if she saw you barge your way into Asgard, hacking and slashing."

"Yes. I'm sure she would have."

The two sat in solemn silence.

"...Sounds like a great video game plot, though."

Kratos raised his head. "Video game?"

"Nevermind. You probably don't even know what a video game is."

"I am not THAT out of touch, head. I know of the Pac Man, and...Pong."

There was a beep on the intercom.

"Kratos, we have a lead on Ultron. Launch bay in 5."

Kratos sighed, raised himself off his bed and departed for the launch bay, his godly armor thudding and jingling with each heavy step.

/

The Quinjet landed a safe distance from the target: a salvage yard off the African coast, the last place Ulysses Klaue, a black-market seller of vibranium, was seen. Likely a person Ultron would visit.

"Ok, it's a stealth mission until we find out what's in there," Steve said to the group.

"Do you guys think you'll need me?" Banner called after the team as they deployed from the jet.

"Stay there for now, until we call in a code green, okay?" Natasha replied. Banner gave a thumbs up, then plunked down in a seat and put his headphones on.

The team closed in on the yard where a ship was sitting dormant.

"Ok, the coast is surprisingly clear, Kratos, you have a hostile to your left," Steve said over the comms.

Kratos emerged from his position behind a sea can, moved left to intercept the nearby soldier and quickly snapped his neck. He looked to the deck of the ship in time to see Natasha slit another soldier's neck. Kratos heard a gasp and turned his head. A guard had spotted him, but before the soldier could load and ready his rifle, an arrow punctured his skull through his eye, killing him instantly. Kratos looked back to see Hawkeye waving to him from a tower of sea cans. He nodded back.

"Looks clear, folks. Let's see what all the hubbub is about." Tony said, swooping down and landing on the ship. The team split up and took separate entrances to the lower decks.

Kratos took the right flank with Widow. They entered the ship and approached the main cargo hold. Tony, Steve, and Thor were already inside, standing on a catwalk, talking with a large machine.

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Thor's voice could be heard echoing through the empty hold.

"I think you're confusing peace with quiet." Ultron's voice could also be heard. Kratos and Natasha took cover and waited for the signal.

"Uh-huh, what's the vibranium for?" Tony asked the machine.

"I'm glad you asked that because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan." With that said, Ultron pulled Iron Man towards him using a magnetized beam, then shot him with an energy blast, knocking Tony into the wall behind him.

"I guess that's the signal!" Natasha yelled to Kratos. Kratos grabbed the blades from his back, felt the cold of the metal, then the heat of the flames. An iron legionnaire came flying towards Kratos. He swung the blades, slicing the machine in half effortlessly. He looked to Ultron, who was occupied brawling with Stark. Suddenly, gunfire erupted throughout the ship as the black marketeers came charging into the hold, firing at everything that moved. Kratos waited until Black Widow was out of his range, then unleashed.

The blades melted and sliced, carving up soldiers and walls alike. Any bullets that hit Kratos bounced off pathetically as the armor absorbed every hit without so much as a scratch. Kratos watched as his hands mindlessly did their dirty work. Like riding a bicycle, he quickly recalled his graceful choreography as the blades carved away at everything in their path. Soldiers screamed as cauterized legs were amputated, melted heads were thrown into the air and the walls began to glow red. The smell of burning bodies, soiled pants and carbon filled the air as Kratos cleared the hall. The last soldier alive dropped his rifle and sank to his knees, shivering uncontrollably and crying in a foreign language. Kratos approached the man, surrounded by his cleaved comrades, kneeling in a pool of his own bodily functions, hands clasped in prayer. Kratos stood over the whimpering man, sighed and swatted the man's head with a blade's pommel, knocking him out.

He turned back towards the battle behind him. He re-entered the cargo hold in time to see Pietro Mixomov rush towards Thor in a blur of silver. Thor threw his hammer, which Pietro tried to catch in mid-run. Maximov, upon wrapping his hands around the hammer, flew backward and crashed into some metal boxes. Pietro looked up, gasped and zoomed off as Kratos stood over him.

Kratos looked up and saw Ultron fly through the roof of the hold.

"The machine has retreated," Kratos announced through the comms.

"G-s- is-a-co-n?" Banner's voice could be heard cracking on the radio.

"Say again, Bruce?" Steve called out.

No response.

"Thor, status?"

Still nothing.

Kratos went in search of Thor's location. He entered a second-floor hallway, slicing open a soldier as he tried to open fire. He turned a corner, then suddenly a red mist covered his sight, just for a moment. He turned to face his attacker but saw nobody there. Just an empty hall, fighting and gunfire still ringing in the distance. He turned back, but what used to be the darkened halls of a rusting ship was now the halls of Asgard, golden and vast. He looked about the spacious halls. A vacant throne stood at the far end of the spacious room. He wandered into a nearby hallway, the walls decorated with braziers and weapons. In the first room he passed, he saw Freya, facing away from the entrance. Freya, the same woman that swore vengeance on him so many years ago. The mourning mother of Baldur. Behind her was another figure, but the figure was hidden behind a semi-transparent drape, and he couldn't make out who it was.

"The Godslayer yet lives on Midgard." Freya spoke to the figure, her voice angered, but echoey and faded, "Odin has grown complacent and lazy and will do nothing about it. I trust that you will use this information better than the Allfather ever could."

Kratos entered the room quietly. Could they see or hear him? Unsure, he kept silent but tried to get a better look at the figure behind the drapes.

"For years, we have yearned for this moment in time, my lady." The figure whispered, "You must only give me his location and we will dispatch him. He will never trouble you again." The other voice was familiar to Kratos but lost to his memory.

Kratos approached further, looking past Freya's shoulder. The figure…he recognized her now.

"Artemis..."

Freya's head swiveled on her body to face Kratos. Her eyes were purely white and her mouth was grinning wide.

"They will find you and kill you. You, and your friends!" Freya screamed, her voice echoing in Kratos' ears.

Kratos slashed the head off Freya's body, her neck steaming as it cauterized from the blade's heat. Freya's head continued to laugh and stare at Kratos as it bobbled on the floor.

Kratos looked up from the head at his surroundings. He was now in Strucker's cell. Strucker was on the ground, several of his body parts missing as he squirmed on the ground. The figure was standing over him.

"You let him take the armor? AND the blades?! Those were meant for ME!" Artemis' angered shrieks echoed through the cell as if the cell was a massive cave.

"Pwease! Iwm beggig yoouu!" Strucker screamed, his bloodied tongue lying on the ground beside him, his mouth spurting blood as he gurgled the words.

"You have failed me. No mortal fails me. Ever. Tell me where he is. Now." Artemis said as she chopped off another piece off the husk that was once Strucker.

"HEESSH ANG ABEDGER! ABEDGER TOWER! YOU FIND HIM DERE! PWEAAASHE!

"Avenger Tower? And where exactly might that be found?" Another slice of Strucker splattered against the floor. Strucker's screams echoed through the cell before he slowly became silent and hunched over, dead from the shock. Artemis sighed.

"Oh well, guess I'll have to Google it."

/

Kratos awoke in the infirmary, next to Bruce and some other members of the team. Many were unconscious, some were awake, but lying in a daze.

"Relax," Dr. Cho said, looking down at Kratos.

"I...I have to leave. Now." Kratos said as he rose from the bed.

"Woah, Woah, big guy, a witch just mind-melded with you, take it easy," Clint replied. He was sitting in a nearby chair, watching the news as footage of Hulk's witch-induced rampage was played for the masses. The headline read "Avengers: Heroes or Monsters?".

"You don't understand. We are all in danger. If I do not leave now-"

"We need to run some tests, make sure you're alright!" Dr. Cho said, failing to keep Kratos in his bed. Kratos easily pushed past Cho and staggered out of the infirmary.

"Don't make me chase after you, come back!" Clint called after him. Clint ran up alongside Kratos as he walked down the hall to his quarters.

"Buddy, you're not leaving. If you think it's the right thing to do, don't listen to it. The witch is screwing with your mind, man."

"Trick or not, I cannot risk your lives for a battle that is not yours to fight."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Barton took hold of Kratos' arm, but Kratos shook him off, sending Clint flying into the wall, creating a hole in the plaster.

"What's going on here?" Tony asked as he ran down the hall, responding to the noise.

"It's Kratos, he's gone wacky. The witch got to him!" Clint yelled back, trying to pull himself out of the hole in the wall.

"Casper, buddy, what did she show you?" Tony asked, following behind Kratos.

"My past is returning to destroy me. If I don't leave to face it, you may all be at risk."

"Risk is part of the job! Haven't you noticed that? Look, we need you right now. Ultron? Remember him? He's kind of a big deal. Can we worry about him first, then figure all this out after?"

"No."

"Come on, work with me here. Whatever it is, we'll fight it with you!"

"This fight is of my own creation. It falls to me alone to fight it."

"I'm not letting you!" Tony jerked his hands outwards, activating his suit. Pieces of his suit began to fly in from the lab through the halls towards Tony's outstretched body. Kratos turned and punched Tony in the nose before his full suit could arrive. Kratos then turned and walked away, leaving Iron Man on the floor, his suit flying in and forming around his unconscious body.

"Brother, you look...unwell," Mimir said as Kratos barged into his Quarters.

"I am leaving. We are all in danger if I stay." Kratos explained, walking to his armor's case.

"What? Danger? Here? No…" Mimir said sarcastically.

"You do not understand. The Olympians have found me."

Kratos opened the case, the armor was bloodied and crusty.

"The Olympians? Which ones?"

"Artemis."

"Well, take me with you, if you're going."

"No, head. Had I not taken the actions I had on Mount Olympus...all those years ago...I would not be in this circumstance. This is my burden, not yours."

Mimir sighed.

"Brother, we've been through a lot, you and me. From the time you happened to find me stuck in that cursed tree, to the battle with Baldur, to the wars for Jerusalem, to the fall of Xandar, I've stood beside you. Now...I've been sitting here in this boring room for 3 days now. Straight! I'm bored out of my skull! You're not going into one more fight without me watching your back."

Kratos paused from putting on his armor, then turned to Mimir.

"Very well. But if we die, do not complain."

"Yes, yes, now come on, mount up, you old war dog, let's fight us some Olympians!"

/

Kratos walked down the halls. Steve intercepted him and placed a hand on his chest plate.

"Move. Now." Kratos ordered.

"Kratos, you know the visions she gave us were to divide us, to split us up," Steve said.

"If the visions are false, then I will return. If they are true, then I will try to do so, regardless."

"If you don't, then you're leaving us all here to fight Ultron alone."

"I am sure you could defeat him without me."

Kratos shoved past Steve on his way to the launch pad.

"When I said we'd win or lose together, I meant it!" Steve called out to him. Kratos stopped walking.

"Then go and win, for you are together," Kratos replied.

Kratos walked onto the launch pad. Tony caught up to him, still in his Iron Man suit, holding an ice pack to his nose.

"Chromedome, you stubborn, rude, GROUCHY old man!" Tony yelled, his voice nasally from the broken nose.

Kratos turned around, approached him and placed a hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Trust that I will return. But do not try to stop me again." Kratos said.

Tony sighed, shook his head and walked to the nearby wall.

"I guess that's as close to an apology as I'll get." He said. Tony pressed a button on the wall. A large glass canister appeared from the floor.

"A couple upgrades for your armor. Mostly just so you don't steal the jet anymore. Gas ain't cheap."

Kratos opened the canister. Inside were several pieces of armor or different sizes. The pieces, once the canister opened, sprang to life and flew to attach to Kratos' armor. The larger piece attached to Kratos' back. There was a click, and metallic wings extended from the piece. The Blades fit perfectly in the sheaths built into the wing's chassis. The other pieces attached to his trapezoids, rows of missile pods popping out from them. Pieces attached to his legs and arms, becoming propulsion thrusters. The last piece attached itself around his neck, forming a gorget, which then expanded around Kratos' head and face. The familiar holographic HUD booted up before his eyes.

"Hello, Kratos. I am the Spartan Mk II helmet voice interface." The female voice announced in Kratos' ear.

Kratos looked at Tony.

"Thank you, Stark."

"Look, I get it. The visions, they affect you. They affected me. It's why I built the Iron legion in the first place. Hopefully, you figure out whatever it is you gotta figure out, then get right back here. Not like you're a prisoner. Go easy on the throttle 'till you have the aerodynamics figured out."

"This is not my first pair of wings, Stark."

"Say again?"

Kratos sprinted off the edge of the pad, wings outstretched. Kratos jumped and gracefully took to the sky.

"SWEEET MARY MOTHER OF GOOOOD!" Mimir cried as his head flapped in the wind, the ground beneath him shrinking as they gained altitude. "WHERE ARE WE GOING?!"

"We are going back to the beginning," Kratos replied.