Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 147 - 146: Gamma’s Echo, a Shield’s Scrutiny, and the Asgardian Bridge (2008-2010)

With Obadiah Stane neutralized and Tony Stark's "Iron Man" identity now public knowledge, a new era of overt superhuman activity dawned upon a bewildered world. Elias Thorne, however, found himself less concerned with Stark's flamboyant heroics (which Anya Petrova's network and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own efforts were largely keeping contained, or at least, predictable) and more with the lingering, chaotic echo of General Thaddeus Ross's disastrous gamma radiation experiments: the Hulk.

Dr. Bruce Banner, forever wrestling with the green behemoth within, was a fugitive, hunted relentlessly by Ross's specialized military units (now often referred to as the "Hulkbusters," though their success rate was abysmal). The Hulk's sporadic, destructive appearances across several continents were a constant source of global anxiety and a frustratingly unpredictable variable in Elias's carefully managed world order. The System still flagged Banner/Hulk as an [OMEGA-LEVEL PRIME CONDUIT (UNSTABLE)], his raw power almost limitless, his Prime Essence signature incredibly potent but virtually unharvestable due to his invulnerability and uncontrollable rage. Direct confrontation, even for Elias's True Legionnaires or Logan, was deemed too risky, the potential for catastrophic collateral damage and unwanted global scrutiny too high.

Elias's strategy towards the Hulk remained one of cautious observation, containment (where possible, through indirect means, such as anonymously "leaking" intelligence to Ross that might steer Banner away from densely populated areas), and intensive research. Dr. Finch, using the fragmented data from Banner's original accident at Culver University (which Anya's agents had discreetly acquired from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s classified archives) and O'Malley's analysis of Emil Blonsky/Abomination's altered physiology (samples discreetly taken by Miller Argent before Blonsky was cryo-frozen and secured by S.H.I.E.L.D.), was tasked with a seemingly impossible goal: develop a "Gamma Neutralizer" or, at the very least, a "System-Derived Gamma Dampening Field." This research, however, was slow, painstaking, and consumed significant resources from Elias's [Prime Essence Shard Reserve (Now 5.0 after Stane)] as Finch experimented with stabilizing exotic energies. He allocated [1.0 Shard] to Finch's Gamma Research, leaving him with [4.0/???].

The bigger, more immediate threat stemming from Ross's gamma obsession was the General himself. Ross, embittered by Banner's escape and his public humiliation after the Harlem incident, was becoming increasingly unhinged, his methods more brutal, his disregard for civilian casualties more pronounced. He was also, Anya reported, making dangerous alliances with rogue military factions and shadowy industrialists (some with lingering Brandt connections) who promised him new weapons, new technologies, even new "volunteers" for gamma exposure, all in the name of finally capturing or killing the Hulk. Ross was rapidly evolving from a determined soldier into a monomaniacal antagonist, a force of conventional military might being pushed towards unconventional, Hydra-esque extremes by his obsession.

Elias saw an opportunity to neutralize two threats with one subtle push. He instructed Anya to leak carefully curated, highly incriminating evidence of Ross's unsanctioned experiments, his human rights abuses, and his illicit dealings with disgraced industrialists directly to Peggy Carter and, more significantly, to Captain America. Steve Rogers, already disillusioned with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s moral ambiguities and haunted by the specter of unrestrained military power, would undoubtedly react to Ross's excesses with righteous fury.

The gambit worked perfectly. Captain America, using his "Task Force Vigilant," launched his own independent investigation into Ross, bypassing S.H.I.E.L.D. protocols. The ensuing confrontation between America's iconic hero and its most decorated (and now most disgraced) General was a messy, public affair involving tense standoffs, covert skirmishes between Rogers' team and Ross's Hulkbusters, and a series of damning media exposes (some subtly amplified by Elias's Blackwood news networks). In the end, General Ross was publicly censured, stripped of his command of the Hulkbuster unit, and "retired" to a remote desk job in Alaska, his gamma ambitions effectively neutered. The Hulk, for a time, vanished into the world's deepest wildernesses, the immediate hunt for him largely called off.

Elias had removed a dangerous wildcard from the board and further isolated Captain America from official US command structures, making Rogers even more reliant on "Mr. Blanchard's" discreet intelligence for his independent crusade against perceived global threats. The System logged this as: [ROSS, THADDEUS ("THUNDERBOLT") – THREAT LEVEL DOWNGRADED (MARGINALIZED). HULK (BANNER, BRUCE) – STATUS: DORMANT/FUGITIVE (ACTIVE THREAT TEMPORARILY REDUCED). HOST INFLUENCE (US MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE INFIGHTING): INCREASED. CAPTAIN AMERICA OPERATIONAL INDEPENDENCE: ENHANCED (POTENTIAL FOR FUTURE HOST MANIPULATION INCREASED).] No direct Shard gain, but a significant strategic victory. freewebnøvel.coɱ

While these terrestrial power plays unfolded, a new, far more esoteric development began to ripple through Elias's cosmic senses and Finch's arcane research. For months, the System had been tracking faint, intermittent energy pulses emanating from the New Mexico desert, not far from Los Alamos, but unrelated to atomic research. These were different – rhythmic, ancient, and resonating with what Finch could only describe as "filtered Asgardian dimensional energies."

Then, an event: a localized, contained but incredibly powerful energy discharge, followed by the brief appearance of a rainbow-hued light bridge touching down in the desert before vanishing. S.H.I.E.L.D. had registered it as an "unexplained atmospheric phenomenon," but Elias's orbital Sanctum Umbra, with its Kree/Skrull-derived sensors and O'Malley's refined detection algorithms, saw it for what it was: the Bifrost Bridge, the legendary transporter of Asgard.

[ASGARDIAN CONTACT EVENT (BIFROST BRIDGE – NEW MEXICO) DETECTED. ENERGY SIGNATURE: UNIQUE (DIMENSIONAL/ESOTERIC – TIER OMEGA). PURPOSE: UNKNOWN (POSSIBLY RECONNAISSANCE/ARTIFACT RETRIEVAL/EXILE PLACEMENT). IMMEDIATE THREAT: UNKNOWN. OPPORTUNITY: EXTREME (ACCESS TO ASGARDIAN TECHNOLOGY/MAGIC/POTENTIAL PRIME CONDUIT INTERACTION).]

Asgard. The realm of Norse gods. Elias had dismissed it as mythology, despite Finch's occasional, insistent ramblings about ancient texts and otherworldly visitors. Now, here was irrefutable proof. Another cosmic power, one based not on science or biological mutation, but on something that bordered on pure magic, had just made its presence known on Earth.

Elias immediately dispatched Logan and Miller Argent, under the guise of "Blackwood Geological Surveyors investigating seismic anomalies," to the New Mexico impact site. What they found was a perfectly circular, scorched depression in the desert sand, and a single, astonishing object lying at its center: a beautifully crafted, impossibly heavy war hammer, radiating an aura of immense power and ancient enchantment – Mjolnir. It was utterly immovable by either Logan's Berserker strength or Miller's Legionnaire might.

S.H.I.E.L.D. forces, led by Agent Coulson, arrived shortly thereafter, establishing a massive, secure research outpost around the hammer. Their attempts to move it, study it, were equally futile. It was clear Mjolnir was more than just a weapon; it was an artifact of immense, specific enchantment.

Anya, through her S.H.I.E.L.D. contacts, learned the official story: a "magnetic anomaly." But she also picked up whispers of a "blond, powerfully built man, dressed in strange, archaic armor," who had stumbled out of the desert near the impact site, disoriented, belligerent, and claiming to be... Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, somehow stripped of his powers and exiled to Earth by his father, Odin. This "Donald Blake" (the human alias Thor was now apparently using, his memories fragmented) was being held under discreet S.H.I.E.L.D. observation at a nearby facility.

[PRIME CONDUIT (THOR ODINSON – ASGARDIAN GOD OF THUNDER) DETECTED ON EARTH. CURRENT STATUS: DEPOWERED/EXILED/AMNESIAC (PARTIAL). ARTIFACT OF POWER (MJOLNIR) PRESENT BUT INACCESSIBLE TO NON-WORTHY. POTENTIAL FOR RE-EMPOWERMENT: HIGH (IF "WORTHINESS" CRITERIA MET). THREAT/OPPORTUNITY: COSMIC TIER.]

This changed everything. Elias now had definitive proof of Asgard's existence, the presence of a (currently depowered) Asgardian prince on Earth, and an artifact of unimaginable power just sitting in the desert. The Kree, the Skrulls, they were comprehensible galactic empires. Asgardians... they were literal gods, beings of magic and myth. Their intervention in Earthly affairs, or Earth's intervention in theirs, could have consequences beyond anything Elias had yet contemplated.

He looked at his [4.0 Prime Essence Shards]. He could create two more True Legionnaires, further bolstering his Praetorian Guard to its full planned complement of twenty (plus Nox and Vex). This would provide maximum terrestrial defense and offensive capability. Or... he could attempt another, highly targeted [Host Power Augmentation (Mk. IV)], specifically focusing his remaining Shards and System energies on understanding and potentially replicating/countering Asgardian "magic" or dimensional energy manipulation. It would be a dangerous delve into forces the System itself only vaguely understood, labeled under [ESOTERIC ENERGY THEORY – ASGARDIAN VARIANT].

The Kree Purifier Fleet was still a year or more away. Apocalypse was dust. Hydra was fragmented. The immediate global threats were, for the moment, manageable by his existing forces. But Asgard... Asgard was a new, entirely unknown factor. And Mjolnir, lying inert in the New Mexico desert, was a silent, irresistible challenge, a testament to a power that dwarfed even his own current cosmic understanding.

Elias Thorne, the alchemist who had stared down cosmic empires and ancient mutant gods, felt a familiar, exhilarating chill. The universe was, it seemed, infinitely more wondrous, and infinitely more dangerous, than he had ever dared to dream. And he was determined to master its every secret, claim its every power. His next move would not just be about earthly dominion; it would be his first, tentative step into the realm of true gods and magic.