Asgard.
Odin took a rare stroll along the still damaged Bifrost Bridge, following the fading remnants of rainbow light until he stood beside Heimdall.
"My king."
Heimdall bowed respectfully. Odin merely gave a faint nod in return.
He seemed as if he wanted to speak, but after a long hesitation, he simply walked past Heimdall and let his gaze drift across the shattered bridge, out toward the infinite cosmos beyond.
After a long silence, Heimdall quietly asked, "My king, are you worried about Prince Loki? He appeared briefly on Midgard, then vanished once more."
"Not exactly..."
Odin responded with a deep, weary sigh.
"I simply have a sense of foreboding. It feels connected to an old enemy. Last night, I dreamed once more of the wolf Fenrir devouring me. It seems a constant reminder that Ragnarok draws near."
He shook his head in resignation.
Hearing this, Heimdall replied with his usual calm composure. "My king, you slew Fenrir long ago. He can never return from the realm of the dead. You may rest easy."
"I hope so..."
Odin nodded, then fell completely silent.
Back on Earth, Thor was currently living a life his father could never have imagined. The son had no idea of the immense pressure his father had been carrying all these years.
Gone was the despair and anguish Thor had displayed just days ago. At the Heisenberg Nightclub, Thor had become the number one regular, spending his days and nights indulging in ceaseless revelry. He had long since shattered the club's all-time drinking record.
When Heisenberg arrived at the nightclub, he found Thor with his arms slung around two members of the Nuke Gang, drinking himself into a state of pure bliss.
Upon spotting Heisenberg, Thor showed little reaction. He simply drained an entire bottle and laughed heartily.
"Ah, it's you, my friend! Come, join me for a drink or two! These Midgardians have no tolerance for good mead! Hah! I've yet to meet a single soul who can outdrink me!"
With that, he tossed a bottle of beer toward Heisenberg. Heisenberg caught it without ceremony, flicking the cap off with his thumb.
"Cheers, then. To Midgard."
Thor clinked his bottle against Heisenberg's with practiced ease and downed the contents in one long gulp. Heisenberg did the same, his bottle emptying just as quickly.
Setting down the empty, Thor showed no sign of slowing down. He was clearly gearing up for another round. Heisenberg shook his head, amused and a little exasperated.
Leaving Thor to his drinking, Heisenberg's attention shifted to a corner of the nightclub where a sizable crowd had gathered. Even Bullseye was there, peering intently at something in the center of the circle.
Heisenberg walked over and clapped Bullseye on the shoulder.
Bullseye flinched, turning to see who it was. "Boss?!"
"Yeah. What are you doing? Still hoping to lift Mjolnir?"
"I..."
The question struck a nerve. Bullseye shot a sour look toward Thor, who was still drinking in the distance.
"I just can't figure it out, man. If that thing requires some special kind of worthiness, then why can that drunken idiot Thor lift it, but I can't?"
He shook his head in frustration.
"I could accept it if it were only Thor. He's Asgardian. He's the god of thunder from the legends. But Captain America? He's a normal guy! A genuine, ordinary human!"
"So, you feel cheated?" Heisenberg asked with a grin.
Bullseye sighed. "Boss... it's not just about feeling cheated. It's more like... a hunger for that kind of power. You know what I mean? It's like watching a woman on stage strip down to the very last piece of clothing, but that final piece just won't come off. No matter how much money I throw, she won't give me the satisfaction. It means it's not about the money. It's about me. It's not that I can't have her... it's that she thinks I'm not worthy."
He stepped away from the crowd, taking a long, bitter swig from his bottle.
Nearby, Barbara had been watching Heisenberg. Seeing him out of the theater for once, she grabbed a drink and began making her way over. Spotting Bullseye sulking with his bottle, she decided to simply join him at his table. She knew Heisenberg would be along shortly.
And sure enough, Heisenberg sat down beside them a moment later, opening a fresh bottle for himself.
"Well, well, Barbara. It's been a while since I've seen you hovering around me."
Heisenberg smiled and raised his bottle in a toast. Barbara took a sip, then muttered with a hint of resignation.
"Not much I can do about that. You moved. The whole area around the theater is crawling with your people now. It's not exactly easy for me to blend in there."
"Heh. Ever think about why you can't just become one of my people instead?"
As he spoke, Heisenberg pointed to the communication patch tucked behind Barbara's ear. "I know Hill is probably listening. You do take quite an interest in my affairs, after all. So, hand over that patch. Let me have a little chat with Hill."
Without waiting for Barbara's consent, Heisenberg used his telekinetic field to pluck the patch from behind her ear and attach it to his own. Sure, he could have heard the transmission perfectly well from across the room, but he figured he might as well respect Earth's primitive technology.
Barbara could only shrug helplessly at the sight.
"You really have no manners, you know that? Chatting up another woman right in front of me?"
"Heh..."
Heisenberg reached out and ruffled her blonde hair.
"Woman?" He smirked. "No matter how much you know, you're still just a girl. A little girl at that."
As he said this, his eyes flickered down toward Barbara's legs. The gesture made her flinch violently, and she clamped her thighs together as tightly as she could. She knew that if Heisenberg truly wanted to look, no posture could hide anything from his gaze. But at least in this position, she felt a tiny bit more secure.
Heisenberg, however, had already moved on from teasing her. He spoke into the communication patch, his voice directed at the person on the other end, Maria Hill.
"Lately, the number of agents crawling around New York has increased again. You should know more about that than I do."
"You're right. I have to admit it. A weakened SHIELD can no longer keep the intelligence agencies of the United States and other nations out of our backyard."
Hill's admission of SHIELD's decline was frank. Heisenberg let out a cold chuckle.
"Are you certain those aren't your own people?"
"Absolutely not, Mr. Heisenberg. The only SHIELD assets still actively operating in New York are Coulson's team, Barbara's team, and Natasha's team. We're talking less than forty people total."
"Good. As long as you're sure. Because there are far too many annoying mosquitoes buzzing around my theater lately. I'll be cleaning house tonight. Consider the potential fallout and plan accordingly."
His tone turned more serious.
"Also, find time to meet with me. We need to discuss something important."
"Understood. I can be at your theater within two hours."
Hill's response was immediate and efficient, but Heisenberg rejected the proposed location.
"Not my theater. Bleecker Street, 177A. The apartment building. Meet me there within two hours."
With that, Heisenberg removed the patch and flicked it back behind Barbara's ear with a casual motion. Before she could speak, he patted her shoulder and said with a friendly smile, "If all goes well, you'll be working for me soon, Ms. Mockingbird."
He didn't linger to watch the anxiety that surely gripped both Barbara and the agent on the other end of the line. He simply left the nightclub and made his way toward the Ancient One's domain.
After he departed, Thor, still deep in his cups, felt a sudden pang in his chest.
Heisenberg... what a complicated man. Thor didn't know how to feel about him.
Did Thor hate him? Of course he did. The man had destroyed his hammer.
But as a warrior, how could Thor blame an opponent for being stronger than him? He had charged recklessly into Jotunheim and been taught a harsh lesson by Laufey, the Frost Giant King. Then he was cast down to Midgard, where his own brother made a fool of him. When he finally reclaimed his power, he barely had a moment to savor it before Heisenberg delivered another brutal lesson.
And then, to top it all off, he discovered that there were mortals on Midgard worthy enough to lift his hammer, mortals who could replace him.
After all of that, Thor couldn't bring himself to blame anyone else. It was his own weakness that was to blame.
"Drink!"
He raised his glass again, drained it, and launched back into his tall tales, regaling the crowd around him with stories of his two thousand years of conquest across the Nine Realms.
As for love... what man has the courage to pursue romance when he feels his entire life's purpose has crumbled into dust?
Leaving the nightclub, Heisenberg chose not to fly.
Ever since Tony Stark had hung up his Iron Man armor to get married and dedicate himself to the noble pursuit of fathering children, and since Heisenberg himself had grown tired of zipping through the skies, New York had quickly returned to a skyline free of soaring superheroes.
And with the Nuke Gang's rapid expansion, the city didn't really need superheroes anymore anyway.
As Heisenberg strolled through the streets and alleys, he didn't witness or overhear a single violent crime. Letting a real criminal syndicate clean up the streets was, paradoxically, an effective way to sweep away most of the filth. The mob didn't argue legalities with criminals.
When the cost of committing a crime shifted from a jail sentence to castration, or even a one-way trip to the bottom of the harbor, potential offenders had to seriously reconsider the risk-reward ratio. It just wasn't worth getting fitted for cement shoes over the contents of a corner store cash register.
That said, most criminals, given the choice between castration and drowning, generally preferred the harbor.
In any case, New York had unexpectedly become the safest city in the entire United States.
One had to wonder if a certain young spider would ever get his start in this town. If he did, he'd probably never run into anything more serious than a jaywalker.
Heisenberg took a leisurely forty-minute walk, timing his arrival at the Ancient One's Sanctum perfectly. Just as he reached the front door of 177A Bleecker Street, Hill's car pulled up to the curb.
Hill and Natasha stepped out, greeting him from a distance.
"Long time no see, Mr. Heisenberg."
"Yeah, long time. Come on in. Let's talk."
Heisenberg nodded, pushed open the door, and walked inside. Hill and Natasha followed, their jaws dropping the moment they crossed the threshold. From the outside, the building looked like an ordinary, if somewhat large, townhouse. But the interior was something else entirely. It was a castle, vast and brimming with an aura of profound mystery.
And there to greet them was the Ancient One, looking as youthful and serene as ever. She stood flanked by her two newest disciples and the guardian of the New York Sanctum. As Heisenberg entered, they offered him a slight bow.
Heisenberg returned the gesture, then gestured toward Hill and Natasha.
"You've met them before. They're with SHIELD. I figured it was about time they got a glimpse of the bigger picture."
"Indeed, Mr. Heisenberg."
The Ancient One smiled, her gaze falling upon the two women with profound meaning.
"In the futures I have seen, the first great storm is about to break upon this world. It would seem the time has come for SHIELD to join our Justice League."
/-\
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