Kate returns to the center of the base after talking to Coulson, looking at the hammer in a whole new light. She's trying to keep an open mind for all possibilities, but her skepticism for the Thor explanation is slowly fading. That man knew too much to be delusional, right? And the hammer — as well as its symbols, foreign particles, and fulgurites — is clearly real. Not to mention the storm, and the man within it.

As Kate, Dave, and Francesca are working, there soon comes an odd energy spike, not unlike the one from the storm. But it's weaker, and fifteen miles northwest of the hammer. Kate, using her now-clean walkie talkie, contacts Coulson. "You guys saw that, right?"

"Yeah. We're going now. Hurry up; you're coming with."

"On my way," Kate replies. She turns to Dave and Francesca. "Keep researching. I'll be back soon." She rushes to the main area, getting in the passenger side of the nearest car. Coulson gets in the driver's side, and a few vans and cars follow.

After a few minutes of driving, base contacts them. "Hey, Garrett and Cale just called in some oddly dressed people walking through town."

"Oddly dressed?" Kate asks.

"The exact description was, 'Xena, Jackie Chan, and Robin Hood.'"

Kate's brows furrow, trying to picture it. She glances at Coulson, who glances back. "Citizens of Asgard?" He's half joking. Kate only shrugs.

After a few more minutes, they reach the site, finding a strange pattern in the sand — circular, intricate. It puts Kate in the mind of the Norse Mythology drawings.

"Get somebody from Linguistics out here," Coulson instructs as Kate crouches on the outside of the circle.

"I need a sample of this," she says, wanting to test the chemical composition, compare it to the sand tower the hammer created.

Coulson turns behind him to other agents. "Somebody get her the supplies from base." One of the agents nods and takes off in a car as a storm begins to brew overhead.

The dark clouds churn with lightning, stirring up wind. They quickly form into a funnel-shape, and the ground begins to shake. Like the first storm. Coulson puts a hand on Kate's shoulder, pulling her back as she stands. "Well that's not good," she comments.

She, Coulson, and the other agents take cover behind cars and vans, waiting only a few moments before the funnel hits the ground, then quickly retracts. It leaves a large monster-robot-type thing, dark and formidable in its wake. Human shape, but decidedly not human.

"Oh, my stars," Kate whispers.

"Ditto," Coulson replies.

If this thing is metal as she suspects, it's going to take a while for her to melt it down. This isn't going to be easy, unless there's a person inside that they can get out.

Kate swallows. "Is that one of Stark's?"

"I don't think so," Coulson says. "That guy never tells me anything." He steps out from behind the car, taking a megaphone from Sitwell and drawing himself up in front of the robot, which approaches with thundering footsteps. "Hello! You're using unregistered weapons technology. Identify yourself." The robot doesn't answer but stops walking, and Coulson mutters, "Here we go."

The robot's face begins to open on both sides of the metal bar down the center, and fire burns within it, showing through the metal pieces on its chest.

"Incoming!" Coulson shouts, running back to the car. Kate sighs deeply, inching closer to the front wheel, but Coulson pulls her back just as a blast of fire shoots from the robot's face and incinerates another car.

Kate turns to him. "What are you doing?"

"You can withstand fire, but if there's something in it, the impact could still hurt you!" he argues. The robot blasts two more cars, sending agents running.

"Well, it looks like just fire to me," Kate grumbles. She huffs, pushing herself to her feet and walking out from behind the car, regrettably facing the robot. Her limbs shake, and it doesn't hesitate to blast her, forcing her to dig her heels into the ground to avoid being knocked over by the force. The heat surrounds her, flames the only thing she can see, but it doesn't burn. It hasn't burned since the first time.

~_~_~_~_~

It was dark outside, save the street lights. Kate hadn't noticed, zeroed in on what she was doing. Her focus was locked; if it wavered, everything else would come flooding back.

The pain, the guilt, the anger, the emptiness. She kept it all at bay, disconnected from everything, even things that might help her. Because she was sure she would be disappointed when they didn't work, or at least not as well as she'd want them to.

She did her work, trying to make her idea into a reality. She couldn't stop until it was done. Then, maybe, she would rest. Or move on to the next thing. But if she didn't figure it out, if she didn't succeed, more people could die. Suffer serious injuries at best. Stopping was not an option.

It was well into the night, and she started to test another variation. Her mind was muddled, and she was exhausted. She'd taken her gloves off to eat what Jones brought her for lunch, and she never put them back on. Her hair was half down, having fallen out of its usual ponytail. She didn't notice, started testing the theory anyway. At the very least she had on her lab coat and googles.

She got out the old jacket Jones had given her, the lights in the lab hitting the reflective strips, bringing her back to that night. Shining at her through the doorway-

Quickly, she shoved it down, frantically soaking the jacket in the mixture she'd made to get everything else out of her head. The jacket discolored significantly, and, when she hung it up, the thick mixture dripped onto the floor, the small, periodic splats filling her ears. She grabbed a lighter, then lit it before looking back at the jacket, hoping it would work as she reached forward and set it on fire.

Instantly, it exploded, and she was thrown back with the inferno, her hands out in front of her, her head turning. She got hit with whatever substance she'd created, and there was a horrible taste in her mouth as she shouted, her skin burning — her face, her hands, her forearms.

In less than a second, she hit the ground, and everything went black.

~_~_~_~_~

When the fire dies down, the robot notices that Kate is just fine, standing exactly as she was before. It seems confused, even without a true face, and blasts her again, receiving the same result. Bolstered by her own survival, Kate lifts her hands, the warmth turning to heat turning to flame. "It's just not gonna work out. We have way too much in common."

It blasts her again, and this time Kate dodges, rolling to hit the ground, hurting her hip. She still springs back up, running at the robot, throwing a fireball at it, which does nothing, as she suspected. You can't fight fire with fire. A couple agents begin shooting at it, which also does nothing.

"Where's Barton?!" Kate shouts back at Coulson, hating the entire situation and wishing he was here.

"What could Barton do?!" Coulson replies.

"More than me! And I wanna see what would happen if he shot an arrow into its face!"

"It would incinerate the arrow!"

"Not if it doesn't react in time!" she retorts, turning back to the monster. What's inside it?

It's forgotten Kate and the agents, heading in the town's direction. Kate sighs again but runs after it, lobbing fire balls. She doesn't even think it can feel them; it never turns around. If she could just catch up-

A SHIELD car drives past, then another stops abruptly next to her. Coulson leans over and opens the passenger side door. "Get in. You may have fire powers, but you can't chase that thing for miles."

Kate, breathing hard, knows he's right and slides into passenger seat, slamming the door behind her. She takes a moment to catch her breath, then asks, "You didn't happen to contact Stark in the last minute, did you?"

"He's a bit busy right now."

"Oh, great." That means Nat probably is, too. Kate thinks again. "Sharon?"

"Sharon doesn't have an Iron Man suit or any sort of super power."

"Yeah, but... it's Sharon."

"We're on our own here, Kate. Unless 'Thor' decides to show up."

"Let's hope so. Because I hate this."

"I'm aware."

"Any chance you won't tell Fury I just tried to fight that thing?"

"You kidding?" Coulson replies, glancing at her. "He'd find out anyway."

He's soon navigating burning, destroyed streets, trying to make it to the robot. Kate scans the skyline, searching for it and/or fire. Then, they get communication from base. "Energy is spiking with the hammer. It's-" Whoever it is cuts themselves off, a faint voice in the background signaling they're getting an update. Then, "The hammer is gone! Research said it just flew out of there!"

Kate turns back to base, seeing a small object rising in the sky. Coulson hits the brakes and turns with her, allowing Kate to unlock the door and get out. Within moments, she can tell the hammer is getting closer, and follows it with her eyes until it passes over. Then, she runs after it. Clouds beginning darkening, stirring up above.

"Kate!" Coulson shouts, but she continues on, glancing at the sky as another funnel starts to form. Suddenly, a blast of lighting from the cloud touches down ahead of her, more lighting striking in one spot than Kate has ever seen. She anticipates rain, a ginormous thunder crack, but neither come.

She gets closer to the lightning, turns a corner, breathing heavily, and watches as the hammer bursts forth from the lighting funnel, hits the robot, flies past it, then hits it again as it comes back like a boomerang.

Donny — or probably Thor — is standing in the lightning as he catches the hammer, dressed in armor like he's at a Renaissance fair. Four more people are dressed likewise, three of them likely who Garret and Cale saw. Selvig, Jane Foster, and the other woman from before are there, watching with wide eyes. The clouds above still swirl, taking up debris. Most likely Thor flies into them, and the robot blasts at him, though it misses.

Selvig, Jane, and the others begin running for cover as the wind gets stronger, and Kate, hanging onto a building to stay on her feet, realizes she should probably be with them and follows. She feels heat as the monster blasts her from behind, pushing her closer to her destination even as it knocks her down. She gets up, calling back, "Thanks! It wasn't nice knowing you!"

She reaches the others, standing outside of the tornado as cars start to lift from the ground. Then, the monster does, and Kate watches raptly as it shoots fire. A steady beam goes upwards but shrinks, definitely Thor pushing back against it. When he makes contact with the robot, there's an explosion, spreading out above the town instead of causing much destruction.

Until the robot hits the ground, cars and other debris following as the tornado dissipates. Thor walks out of it, completely unscathed. A thousand questions burn in Kate's head as he stops in front of Jane and Selvig.

"So, is this how you normally look?" Jane asks, referring to the armor and red cape.

"More or less," he replies.

"It's a good look."

He turns to the oddly dressed people. "We must go to the Bifrost site. I would have words with my brother."

"You mean Loki's here again?" Kate speaks up, and he looks at her in surprise.

"Kate? Where did you come from?"

"You mean just now or like... where I'm from?" she replies. "Because one of those questions has a story for an answer."

"Hold on, can we address the fact that you just got totally hit with a whole fire beam and walked away completely fine?" Kate turns, finding the woman she doesn't know the name of looking at her expectantly. "Like, your clothes are still good and everything. What the heck, man?"

Kate sighs bit. "I fixed the clothes situation myself, but as for, you know, the rest of me..." she lights a small flame on her fingertip, "... I'm kinda... like this."

The woman looks at the fire with wide-eyed fascination. "Cool."

A car then pulls up and Coulson gets out of it, shouting, "Excuse me!" Kate's relieved to hear his voice. He slams the car door, walking over, glancing at Kate before turning to Thor. "Donald? I don't think you've been completely honest with me."

"Know this, son of Coul. Kate." He nods to her. "You and I, we fight for the same cause — the protection of this world. From this day forward, count me as your ally... if you return the items you have taken from Jane."

"Stolen," Jane corrects.

"Borrowed," Coulson fires back.

Kate shakes her head, chuckling before she looks at Jane. "You'll get your equipment back. You're going to need it to continue your research... which I would really like to take a closer look at with you." She looks at Jane hopefully, wanting to delve deeper into all of it, practically needing a better understanding.

Jane eyes Kate for a moment, considering, then says, "You made notes in my book."

Kate shrugs. "Well, I had some thoughts."

"They were right — mostly," Thor adds, and Kate smiles, thinking on everything, going back over all she wrote in her head.

Jane brings her back to the present, awkwardly saying, "You know, I thought you just did... chemistry."

The explosion was all over the news when it happened, especially seeing as Kate was becoming a big name in science at the time. She sighs. "Yeah, it's a mixed bag nowadays. I want to know everything, though."

Jane smiles a bit. "Well, I can give you the rundown on what I know."

"That would be awesome," Kate replies, looking like a little kid on Christmas morning. Jane's smile grows to almost match.

Thor looks down at Jane, asking, "Would you like to see the bridge we spoke of?" She nods, and he pulls her to him, both of them smiling. There's discomfort in Kate's chest for only a moment as they take off quickly, shooting into the air.

"Wait, I need to debrief you!" Coulson shouts, looking up.

Kate follows his gaze. "Thanks for the invite! Lots of luck to you and yours, I guess."

Selvig, the woman, and the oddly dressed people get in the nearby RV, and Kate wants to follow, but Coulson puts a hand on her shoulder. "Come on. I'm sure your researchers need some guidance, and we have a lot to do now. You've fought enough today."

"I don't want to fight, I want to see the bridge," Kate argues.

"I'm not letting you potentially go to outer space, Kate," Coulson replies as the RV takes off. "We need you down here."

Kate huffs, walking to the car. "You're lucky I can't drive." Now she'll have to hear about it secondhand from Jane.

~_~_~_~_~

After everything is packed up, they take Jane's equipment back to her, and Kate, Dave, and Francesca go with the agents. They help Jane, Selvig, and the woman — whose name, Kate learns, is Darcy — set the equipment back up. Jane begins explaining everything to Kate, using the book, which Thor drew in.

Kate was right; essentially, they're aliens the vikings adopted as deities. So, real, and they have weird powers, but they aren't actually gods. There's also a tree that connects the nine realms (Jane isn't sure if they're other planets or dimensions just yet), and the Bifrost — the bridge — is now likely gone, for one reason or another. Which means Thor is gone, too.

"But I'm gonna find him," Jane declares, and Kate can see the love in her eyes. It makes her heart sag.

"Well, if you ever need any help with that, I'm here." She scrawls out her number on scrap of paper, then passes it to Jane. "Just give me a call."

Jane smiles. "Thanks."