Peter leaned over the railing, squinting into the locker room.
"Uumm… Why is there a guy sleeping on the floor surrounded by pizza and a big hammer?"
Tony sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That's Thor. God of Thunder. Or at least he used to introduce himself that way."
Inside the uniform room, Thor let out a low, miserable groan from his spot on the floor. Pizza boxes crinkled under his shoulder as he shifted. "I'm no god anymore. Just a regular guy trying to find the meaning of life. Probably involves more mead and fewer responsibilities."
Peter wrinkled his nose as he noticed the empty beer bottles and a few empty whiskey bottles lying under the table. "And it smells like alcohol in here."
Thor tried to get up, but couldn't. He had too much to drink.
Pietro leaned past him and winced.
"Is he dead?"
"No," Tony said. "Unfortunately." He walked over and looked down at the hammer sitting a few steps from Thor's outstretched arm. "So, you can pick it up again? Worthiness meter finally ticked back into the green?"
Thor groaned louder this time, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling like it personally owed him answers. "Noooo. I used one of those remote teleporters to bring it here. Figured if I couldn't lift it, at least I could bring it around with me so that when I'm worthy again, Mjolnir will let me pick it up again."
Tony pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Fantastic."
He flicked his finger in a casual arc. A small, shimmering portal snapped open right under Thor and his hammer. He fell straight on his bed and his hammer fell on the floor with a loud thud. Then, he closed the portal.
Tony turned back to the team, who had all drifted closer during the exchange, watching the whole thing like it was the weirdest reality show episode ever filmed.
Peter raised his right hand.
"Go on," Tony said.
"So, was that a god god?" Peter pointed his finger at where Thor was lying. "I mean, like a real god? From heaven?"
"Yes. He's a real god, but from Asgard. Think of it as another realm. If you want more info on realms and dimensions, you can read it in the Avengers database. I've uploaded all the necessary information there," Tony explained. "Moving on, you all can start from tomorrow. Official first day. Try not to break the planet before lunch and don't do anything outside the scope of your missions."
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a handful of black bracelets, each one etched with a faint silver Avengers sigil. One by one, he tossed them over. Peter caught it, Pietro snatched his mid-air without looking, and Lorna levitated hers into place with a tiny magnetic tug. Ava phased her hand through it first, then let it settle on her wrist. Elsa simply plucked hers out of the air and examined it like she was checking for hidden poison. Frank took his last, turning it over once before sliding it on without comment.
"Personal teleporters," Tony explained. "Linked to the base, to each other, to me if things go sideways. Use them responsibly. And no, do not use them just to go to the toilet and back to the couch. I will know. Friday will judge you silently. It's worse than Hermes ever was."
He reached into his pocket again and held out a small, matte-black keycard to Frank.
"Master key to the base," Tony said. "Full access. Overrides, armory, lockdown protocols, coffee machine settings. Everything. Don't lose it. Don't abuse it. Don't let Pietro near the armory without supervision because if he blows himself up, Wanda will kill us all."
Elsa turned her bracelet over in her hand.
"What happens if we lose it?"
"Then you don't bother returning home till you find it within 24 hours, and failure to do so will result in your transfer to North Pole Shield base," Tony said calmly.
He looked at all of them one last time.
"Go home and sleep or eat something that isn't delivered in cardboard. Recharge. The world isn't ending tonight. Probably."
Peter lifted his hand slightly.
"Do we get, like, a team group chat or something?" He asked.
"You got phone, figure it out," Tony replied as he raised his hand in a lazy salute and teleported out of the base.
The team stood there for a second, bracelets warm against their skin, the weight of the new reality settling in slowly and heavily.
Peter broke the silence first. "So... does anyone else feel like we just got handed the keys to the coolest clubhouse ever?"
Pietro smirked. "Speak for yourself, web-head. I already want to test how fast I can lap the perimeter."
Frank turned toward the corridor leading to the living quarters. "Save the joyride for daylight. Get rest. We move at oh-six-hundred."
...
[The Bronx] [Next Morning]
The casino used to be a furniture warehouse before somebody decided gambling addiction would pay better than sofas. Neon lights buzzed over the entrance. Music thumped through thin walls. It smelled like cheap cologne, bad decisions, and desperation.
Inside, chaos was already in progress.
Slot machines blinked wildly while customers crouched behind overturned tables. Security guards lay scattered near the entrance, groaning and clutching bruised ribs. A roulette wheel spun lazily without anyone brave enough to care where the ball landed.
At the center of it all stood a large man in a bright red and gold wrestling suit that looked like it had been designed by someone who lost a bet.
Gunther Bain, formerly Angelo Unuscione.
Stage name plastered across his chest in bold letters.
UNUS.
Angelo Unuscione was a superhuman mutant whose powers did not surface until adolescence. He first used them as a school bully, and later as a short time criminal. At some point after emigrating to America, Unuscione legally changed his name to Gunther Bain. He used his ability to create a virtually impenetrable force field around himself to launch a career as a flamboyant, invincible costumed wrestler known by the stage name of Unus the Untouchable.
The thing is, he lost all his money while gambling.
He raised his arms theatrically while casino employees scrambled near the vault door.
"I told you people," he boomed, voice echoing through the hall. "The Untouchable always wins. The house never beats me."
A security guard fired a taser at him.
The probes sparked against an invisible wall two inches from his body and fell uselessly to the floor. Another one took out his gun and emptied the clip, but the bullets simply struck an invisible wall and ricocheted all over the place.
Unus laughed loudly, hands on his hips.
"You cannot touch perfection," he announced proudly to a room full of people who very much wanted to.
Outside, blue light snapped open above the street.
Six figures stepped out: Frank, Peter, Lorna, Pietro, Ava, Elsa.
Peter adjusted his mask and looked at the casino sign.
"Wow. First official day and we are doing armed robbery. That feels very classic superhero starter pack."
Pietro cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders.
"Is it at least a good villain or are we dealing with a guy in a Halloween costume and emotional issues?"
Friday's voice chimed through their bracelets.
"Target identified. Gunther Bain, alias Unus the Untouchable. Generates a personal force field with high-density energy cohesion. Historically immune to ballistic, explosive, and moderate energy attacks."
Elsa loaded a round into one of her pistols with a smooth click.
"Moderate energy, she says. That sounds like a challenge."
Frank stepped forward slightly, eyes locked on the building entrance. He looked at Lorna. "Wrap him up in metal and drag him out."
Lorna tilted her head slightly and closed her eyes for half a second.
She felt it immediately.
Steel beams in the walls. Copper wiring in the ceiling. Rebar in the concrete. Nails, screws, slot machine frames, table legs, coins scattered across the carpet. The whole building hummed in her mind like a choir waiting for a conductor.
Inside, Unus was still laughing while two terrified employees struggled with the vault keypad.
"Open it," he barked. "The Untouchable deserves compensation."
The front wall of the casino groaned.
Unus blinked.
Metal screamed from every direction.
Slot machines ripped themselves out of the floor. Table frames twisted and shot across the room. Steel supports peeled from the drywall like someone tearing the skin off the building. The air filled with sparks and dust as everything metallic converged at once.
Unus threw up his arms instinctively.
His forcefield flared bright yellow.
The first wave of metal slammed into it and flattened like clay against glass. The impact cracked the floor beneath his boots. The second wave followed instantly, then a third, then a fourth. Chairs, beams, security gates, even the roulette wheel base folded and compressed around him.
Outside, Lorna's green eyes glowed brighter.
"Let's see how untouchable you are," she muttered.
Inside, Unus grunted as the pressure increased.
The metal did not try to pierce the barrier. It pressed. It molded. It layered over itself, compacting tighter and tighter until he stood inside a growing sphere of crushed steel.
Lorna clenched her fist.
The entire mass compressed again with a thunderous crunch that rattled the building.
Unus's laughter stopped.
From the outside, it looked like someone had rolled every metal object in the casino into a single dense ball with faint yellow light leaking through thin seams.
Pietro whistled softly.
Lorna stepped backward and pulled.
The metal sphere tore through the front wall of the casino like a cannonball. Brick and glass exploded outward into the street as the massive ball skidded across the asphalt, carving a deep trench before finally settling in front of the team.
Inside the sphere, Unus roared in rage.
"You think this can hold me?"
The yellow glow intensified. The metal vibrated violently as his forcefield pushed outward.
Ava activated her nanite suit.
"Keep it tight," she said.
Lorna nodded and increased the pressure, folding the outer layers inward like tightening a fist around a marble.
Ava inhaled once and phased.
Her body flickered translucent. She ran straight into the metal sphere as if it were smoke. Sparks crawled across her suit as she passed through the outer layers and then through the glowing barrier itself.
Inside the cramped cavity, Unus turned just in time to see her solidify.
His eyes widened.
"That is cheating," he snapped.
Ava drove her fist straight into his throat, giving him a massive electric shock.
His breath cut off with a wet choking sound. The yellow glow flickered violently.
Before he could recover, she pivoted and drove her knee upward, hitting his groin hard.
The forcefield collapsed as Unus's scream came out as a strangled wheeze.
Lorna carefully released the metal and placed them right before the casino.
Outside, Pietro winced, seeing Unus grabbing his groin and wriggling on the ground. "Ouch!"
Just then, Tony teleported before them. He looked around the destruction and turned to Frank. "Frank, maybe next time, use a simple power nullifier instead of causing such a big scene?" He waved his hand. A burst of red energy swept over the area, undoing all the destruction. "Score: F-"
...
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