Kate sighs, watching the flat, dusty ground pass by as they drive through the middle of nowhere. Of course, there was a little town a few miles back, but they've been in the van for hours altogether.

"Bored?" Clint asks. He's the one driving. Kate called shotgun before they got in, despite the fact that it's just the two of them and a bunch of equipment.

"Well, I'd say your lack of interesting conversation can tell you the answer to that," she replies. "We've been driving in silence for ages."

"What are you talking about? I've been talking."

"Oh? I wasn't listening."

Clint rolls his eyes. "Sorry I'm not Nat, but I don't think I'm that boring. You're just being dramatic."

"But Nat tells me all the embarrassing stories — you don't."

"I can talk about things far more entertaining than embarrassing stories."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

He sighs, glancing out the window to his left. "Speaking of, we're getting closer, so we need to keep our eyes peeled for this... thing. Whatever it is."

"Strange object, fell from the sky during a freak storm. I'm aware."

"You think you're gonna be able to figure out what it is? What if you can't, like, test the chemical composition or whatever?"

"I'll use my knowledge in other fields to try and figure it out. And if I have to learn a whole new field in a night or two, then I think this'll be a fun little mission."

Clint chuckles, and they lapse into silence for a moment, looking out the window at desert and the van in front of them, which is occupied by Coulson, Sitwell, and some other agents. Then, Clint asks, "How do you think Nat's doing right now?"

"Last she updated me, dealing with Stark is like dealing with a spoiled child who happens to be a scientific genius."

"So basically you?"

"I am not a spoiled child," Kate argues, indignant. "Definitely not as bad as Tony Stark. All those brains mixed with all that arrogance... Though, at least he's doing the hero thing now. Coulson says he's not that bad of a guy, once you get to know him."

"Yeah, as if that'll ever happen."

Kate shrugs. "Maybe it will, maybe it won't. If it does, though, I'll definitely want to look at all his notes. Like, ever."

"Ah, you science nerds and your... science."

Kate laughs. "I don't even need a comeback for that; you did that all by yourself." Clint just shakes his head, continuing to search for the strange object.

It turns out to be an easy find; a bunch of people, likely from the town they passed through, are surrounding a small object in a large crater. They're hollering, grilling hot dogs, sitting on lawn chairs and truck beds. One guy has a chain attached to the object, leading to back of his truck. When he hits the gas, the object stays put, but his entire truck bed pops off like the lid coming off a can of soup.

Kate watches in fascination and curiosity, wondering what could be so heavy and/or stuck to do that.

"Got any theories?" Clint asks, brows raised.

Coulson gets out of the van in front of them, going to break up the party.

"You ever heard the tale of King Arthur?" Kate replies.

After the disappointed townies leave, they put up a whole operation around the object, fencing everything off. They set the equipment up surrounding an open, square hole where the object and the small sand tower it's stuck in are. None of it makes sense, but that's just the way Kate likes it — at least, at the beginning.

"What do you think?" Coulson asks her, watching as she walks around the object, crouching at certain points, trying to take in everything. She pulls on the handle once out of curiosity, and the thing doesn't budge.

Two research assistants are booting up equipment. They don't pay much mind to Kate yet, letting her do her thing.

"Well, I was expecting a sword," she says, "but instead it appears to be... a large hammer." Like a sledgehammer with a larger metal piece and shorter handle, which strangely comes included with what seems to be a handy wrist strap. "It is in stone, though — sort of." It seems to have hardened the sand it's stuck to, creating the tower and encasing itself.

Coulson chuckles. "I wasn't aware literature was a type of science."

Kate's eyes leave the hammer for a moment, going to his amused face. "You can't tell me this isn't weirdly similar to the whole sword in the stone thing."

"So, what, we're dealing with the hammer version of Excalibur?"

"The question is," Kate says, turning back to the hammer, "who's the once and future king?"

~_~_~_~_~

Some time later, after the lab is all ready to go, Coulson says he and some of the others are going to seize lab equipment from some small-time scientists, one of which happens to be Eric Selvig. Kate's seen the thin file on him, containing basic information as well as his connections to Dr. Bruce Banner and Dr. Hank Pym, both people she wants to meet but hasn't yet. Selvig deals with theoretical astrophysics, which she hasn't really delved into, so, of course, she declares, "I want to go, too."

"I thought you might say that," Coulson replies.

Kate looks back at one of the research assistants — Dave. "Start testing the chemical composition of that sand-thing. We'll look at it more when I get back."

"Yes, ma'am," Dave replies. Kate stops on her way out the door, looking at him pointedly. They've just started and somehow still had this conversation multiple times already. He grimaces. "Yes, Dr. Carson."

"Thank you."

Coulson laughs as they exit the makeshift building, heading outside. They take a couple vans, a truck, and one loading truck.

The makeshift lab is in the middle of the town they passed through before, in an open, empty, one-story building. As agents begin loading up the strange equipment, Kate looks at the research.

There's multiple pictures pinned to a board, presumably of the same event. It looks like some sort of tornado, and Kate's willing to bet it's the freak storm SHIELD came here for. Oddly enough, two very orange pictures seem to show the silhouette of a man inside the storm. They never heard anything about it, and you would think somebody caught in a storm as strange as that would call somebody. But if he was injured...

"Hey, Coulson," Kate calls.

He walks over, looking at the pictures — particularly the thermal scans. "Yeah?"

"You might want to check nearby hospital records. ER specifically." She points to the orange pictures, and Coulson nods, instructing someone back at base to do just that. As he's walking away, three people run into the building — two women, one man. The man is Eric Selvig, the first, upset woman is the other scientist Jane Foster, and the third woman, whose name is a mystery, doesn't seem to care as much.

"What is going on here?!" Jane Foster shouts.

Coulson smiles easily at her. "Miss Foster, I'm Agent Coulson, with SHIELD."

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?! You can't do this!"

Selvig flashes a disarming smile at Coulson, pulling Jane aside. Kate can hear him whispering to her. "Jane, this is more serious than you realize. Let it go."

She pushes past him, heading for the loading truck. "Let it go?! This is my life!"

"We're here investigating a security threat," Coulson explains, half lying. Kate walks over to them, for now content to just watch it all happen. "We need to appropriate your equipment and all your atmospheric data."

"By 'appropriate' do you mean steal?!" Jane asks, trying to grab some equipment out of an agent's hands. He yanks it back.

Coulson hands Jane a check. "This should more than compensate you for your trouble."

"I can't just pick up replacements from RadioShack!" Jane shouts. "I made most of that equipment myself!"

"I thought so," Kate comments.

Jane turns to her angrily. "What, is that supposed to be an insult?! Who are you?!"

"Dr. Kate Carson, SHIELD scientist, and, no, that was not an insult. All of this is incredibly impressive; I've never seen anything like it before."

She seems to recognize Kate's name and looks at her for a second as if she's trying to decide how to respond, clearly glancing at the splotch of a scar on the left side of her face. "Well, you can build your own. This stuff is mine."

"You built it once, I'm sure you can do it again," Coulson replies.

"And I'm sure I can sue you for violating my constitutional rights!"

"I'm sorry, Miss Foster, but we're the good guys."

"So are we! I'm on the verge of understanding something extraordinary! Everything I know about this phenomenon is in this lab and in this book-" she holds it up "-and no one has the right to take it from me." A passing agent grabs the book out of her hand, and she shouts, "Hey!" while lunging for it. Other agents try to grab her, but Selvig steps in.

"Easy! Easy," he says, pulling her back. Agents close the truck doors.

"Thank you for your cooperation," Coulson says, walking away.

Jane looks devastated, and Kate frowns. "When we're done, we'll return everything to you."

"It's not yours to take in the first place," Jane replies bitterly.

"I know. But we have a good reason. Promise." Kate offers her a small smile, but Jane just turns away. Kate sighs, getting into a van with Coulson. She turns to him. "Is there any way we can, like... have her join the operation? She knows more about all this than I do, and while I can totally teach myself, it'd be easier with a teacher."

"Can't. Security; we want to keep this close."

"What about Selvig?"

"He knew people we knew. Banner's... well, there's a lot going on with Banner, but he's more outside of SHIELD than in, and Pym left in the eighties. Selvig knows of us, but not enough to join us on this. You're on your own here."

"Then somebody needs to get me better internet connection out there."

~_~_~_~_~

The chemical test came back saying the sand was sand. But there's something different in it: glass — specifically, fulgurites, made by lightning. They're broken up, more of them at the top near the hammer than at the bottom. There's also some tiny particles that Kate's never come across before. At first glance, they look like microscopic bismuth crystals, but it's not that.

Meanwhile, the hospital check turned up an entry of Jane Foster bringing in some guy named Thor, no last name. Though, it mentioned him being hit by a car and tased — nothing about a storm. It's entirely possible they lied about where his injuries came from, but it's still unclear. Kate's decided to table that for now, instead focusing on Jane's research.

Kate and the research assistants take in all the equipment emptied from the trucks, setting it up where they have room, trying to figure out how it all works. As she reads from Jane's book, writing on post-it notes and sticking them inside when she thinks of something, she keeps a laptop close by, looking up things she doesn't understand. The SHIELD research database helps, though she doesn't have clearance to access all of it. She's already tried researching other things in her spare time with no luck. It was just like talking to Fury, only with less sass.

"Is this an iPod?" Kate asks, grabbing the thing from the pile of equipment and research that they're still sorting through. She turns it on, wondering if Jane rigged it to do something else, but there's just a bunch of music on it. It's an... odd selection. She hands it to another agent. "We can give that back to Jane Foster." She turns to her research assistants. "Keep combing everything else for anything that could possibly be about the hammer or the storm. The rest, unfortunately, I'll have to look at later."

"Yes, M- Dr. Carson," Dave says.

"Loving the progress, Dave," she replies with a bit of a smile, going to the hammer.

"Um... thanks."

Kate runs her fingers over the cool surface of the hammer, right where it meets the sand. She traces the carvings on it, feeling the ridges under her fingertips. "Someone try looking up this symbol, see if we can figure out what it means."

"On it," Francesca says, passing in front of Kate on the other side of the hammer, going for a laptop. They research all day, finding that the hammer is interfering with their tech, making things more difficult — but also more interesting. They only take a break for lunch when Clint calls down from the walkaway over the hammer, reminding Kate that they all need to eat.

Then, that night, there's a sudden storm, beginning with flashes of lightning. The computer Kate's working on glitches, and she sighs, looking back at the hammer. "Remind me why they decided putting absolutely no ceiling over that thing was a good idea."

"I guess so the agents can see what they're guarding," Francesca answers.

"They don't need to see anything except their targets, and they are not shooting my hammer."

Francesca shrugs. "Maybe something cool would happen."

Kate turns to her. "So, why aren't you normally assigned to help me with research?"

She chuckles. "I'm not normally at the base you tend to operate at."

Suddenly, there's commotion outside. Kate looks up, hoping to find Clint, but he's been moved somewhere else. Instead, she uses her walkie talkie. "What's going on?"

"Perimeter breach," Coulson replies. "Protect the hammer."

"Let's just hope it's some dumb kids who can climb a fence."

"Yeah, I don't think so."

Kate sighs, taking the walkie talkie with her as she stands in front of the hammer, facing the main entrance into the area. "Whoever it is better leave my stuff alone." A few seconds later, lighting cracks again, and the hammer emits a high-pitched hum. The sky opens up, and Kate, getting drenched, calls, "Somebody audio record this!" Is this because of whoever broke in, or is it a coincidence? Or is it the rain?

"I need eyes up high, with a gun," Coulson's voice instructs. There are agents shouting and footsteps clanging on the metal walkways, groans and punches being exchanged. So definitely not dumb kids.

"The equipment is severely malfunctioning!" Francesca shouts.

"Barton, talk to me," Coulson says.

"You want me to slow him down, sir?" Clint asks. "Or are you sending in more guys for him to beat up?"

"I'll let you know."

Kate presses the button down, bringing the walkie talkie to her mouth, blinking against the onslaught of rain. "Just don't kill him. I wanna know why he's here in the first place."

"He's on a rampage, Kate," Coulson answers.

"Then he's obviously here for a reason."

"If you want to deal with it, be my guest. I'll be on standby," Clint says.

Coulson sighs. "Wait for my instructions, Barton. Kate, protect that hammer."

"What do we do, Dr. Carson?" Dave asks.

She keeps her eyes on the entrance, a metal walkway almost as high as her shoulders. "Protect the equipment!"

The hammer hums behind her, the rain soaks her clothes. She pushes loose, wet, red hair off her forehead, keeps her blinking eyes on that walkway. And then he turns the corner, a huge dude with dripping, shoulder-length blonde hair in a blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He locks eyes with Kate, and she gets into fighting stance, raising her hands. He tilts his head at her, confused, clearly not expecting her to fight him.

And she doesn't get the chance to, because a large agent runs in, knocking him to the ground. Blondie looks up at him, unfazed. "You're big," he says. "Fought bigger." He gets up, punching the agent in the face, causing the agent to hit him multiple times, eventually tackling him through the thin, white plastic that serves as walls. Kate can see them on the ground outside, rolling in the mud.

As far as they know, he's the only trespasser, and he's here for a reason. A reason that might help Kate figure something out about the hammer. She makes a split second decision, hoisting herself up onto the walkway. "Watch the hammer!" she calls back, running through the new hole in the plastic.

"Dr. Carson!" Dave protests, but Kate continues until she's outside.

"Kate, what are you doing?" Clint asks.

Coulson's voice contains a warning. "Kate..."

She ignores both of them, watching the agent and Blondie. She wants to know what he wants, but she isn't dumb enough to try and get into the middle of that fight. Not when she has a better option.

She walks closer, dropping the walkie talkie as her hands get warmer, her mind going back to memories she'd rather forget. But every time she does this, they return.

~_~_~_~_~

Her throat was raw from screaming, her skin was burning. Orange and red surrounded her. Somebody shouted, "Her clothes!"

Water was thrown on her and the flames went out, but still she burned. It felt like the fire was in her veins, coursing through her, destroying her from the inside. She screamed again, in agony, her vision swimming. Voices were all around her, one of them trying to comfort her, calm her down, but it wasn't one she knew.

"Ryan!" she called out desperately.

"He's on his way," someone said.

"Where's my dad?! Dad!"

"They're coming together, okay? They'll be here soon."

"Kate!" a voice shouted, but she couldn't figure out who it was before she slipped back into unconsciousness.