They arrived after sunset, to find a massive pop-up military base around the crater like a fortress, floodlights casting beams across barbed wire fences and armed guards patrolling the perimeter while tents and vehicles dotted the landscape. Darcy, Mark, and Thor crouched on a ridge overlooking the site. Mark turned to Thor. "What do you want to do now?" He asked.
Thor replied with a grin, his eyes fixed on the crater below. "I will go and reclaim what is mine, Mjolnir awaits."
Mark shook his head. "That seems like a bad idea—there are guards everywhere, and it's lit up like a stadium."
Darcy nodded vigorously beside him. "Yeah, totally you'll get caught before you make it ten feet."
Thor disregarded them entirely, rising to his full height with a determined nod before rushing down the slope in a full sprint, vanishing into the shadows toward the fence without a backward glance.
Darcy watched him go, then turned to Mark with a smirk. "Hundred bucks he doesn't make it."
Mark grinned back. "What, you think I'm a sucker? No bet."
They settled in to wait, the stars beginning to emerge overhead as Darcy leaned back on her elbows. "You know, this is the first time a boy's brought me to a military installation for a date, pretty romantic in a covert ops kind of way."
Mark chuckled, glancing over at her. "Is this a date? I thought we were just giving a maybe-god a ride through the desert."
"Could be," Darcy said as she shifted a bit closer, her shoulder brushing his. "Depends on how the night ends... stargazing's a good start, though."
Mark lay back fully, folding his arms behind his head to look up at the twinkling sky. "I wouldn't be a good guy to date right now, too much going on in my head."
Darcy rolled onto her side to face him, listening quietly. "Why's that?"
Mark thought about brushing her off for a moment, but then he considered why not. "My ex... she lied to me, hid some pretty important things," Mark said softly, his gaze fixed on the stars. "Broke trust in a way that's hard to shake, I'm not sure I'd be any good in a relationship now."
Darcy smiled gently and leaned onto him, her head resting lightly on his shoulder. "Dude, chill out, I just met you today, and while I do know I wouldn't mind going a few rounds with you, I'm not sure if I want you as a boyfriend."
Mark chuckled, the tension easing from his voice. "Just trying to use me for my body then, are you, Miss Lewis?"
"You got me," she said, holding her hands up in mock surrender.
"I think I can live with that," Mark said with a grin.
"Oh, you can, can you?" Darcy replied as she leaned forward, her face inches from his.
Before their lips could meet, an alarm blared from the base below, red lights flashing as shouts echoed through the night. Mark sighed, sitting up quickly. "Stay here, I'll go get the idiot."
Darcy grabbed his arm. "That's a bad idea—"
But Mark was already off, hopping the fence with and slipping into the base. He moved silently through the perimeter, spotting a pair of SHIELD agents on patrol who turned at the sound of his approach, one raising a rifle while the other reached for a radio. Mark closed the distance in a blur, delivering a quick chop to the back of the first agent's neck that dropped him limp to the ground, then pivoting to the second with another strike that sent him crumpling without a sound.
Deeper inside, Mark reached the central tent overlooking the crater and peered through a gap in the canvas, watching as Thor strained against the hammer embedded in the rock, his muscles bulging as he pulled with all his might but failed to budge it an inch. Thor roared in frustration, cursing his father under his breath and demanding to know why he had forsaken him, his voice cracking with anger and despair as rain began to fall in heavy sheets, soaking the ground and turning it to mud.
Mark rushed forward just as a sniper's arrow whistled through the air, catching it mid-flight inches from Thor's back, the tranquilizer tip glinting in the floodlights. "Thor, buddy we gotta get out of here; grab your hammer and let's go!"
Thor whirled around, his eyes widening in confusion and then narrowing in anger as Mark reached down casually and lifted the hammer from its pedestal, lightning sparking around the handle and crackling through the air with electric fury that lit up the night.
"How are you doing that?" Thor demanded, his voice a mix of awe and rage.
Before Mark could respond, Thor swung a wild punch, but Mark sidestepped easily, the fist whistling past his ear. "Thief! Scoundrel, you dare wield Mjolnir?"
Guards began to surround them, rifles raised and shouts filling the air, so Mark delivered a quick chop to Thor's neck that dropped him unconscious in an instant, then scooped him up along with the hammer and launched off the ground, flying out of the installation in a streak that left the agents firing uselessly into the empty sky. He landed back near the car, throwing Thor and the hammer into the back seat before turning to see Darcy held up by two guards, their guns trained on her as she stood with her hands raised. "Get down on the ground now!" one barked at Mark as he approached.
They opened fire, bullets ricocheting off his chest harmlessly, Mark closed in, crumpling their guns like tin cans in his fists before flicking each on the forehead with just enough force to send them sprawling unconscious to the dirt.
Darcy stared at him wide-eyed. "Dude, what the fuck—that was insane!"
"We need to get out of here," Mark said urgently, leading her to the car and sliding into the driver's seat as she jumped in beside him, peeling out onto the highway. Darcy sat in stunned silence for a moment, her breathing ragged before she turned to him, piecing it together with growing excitement. "Wait!!! you're Invincible! The guy from the news, the one saving everyone!"
Mark sighed, keeping his eyes on the road. "Listen, I'd appreciate it if you kept quiet about what you saw. I don't want to lose my secret identity so soon, you know."
Darcy's shock turned to a grin, but she nodded. "Fine, but only if you answer all my questions, deal?"
Mark agreed with a reluctant smile. "Deal, go ahead and ask."
She fired off a barrage, leaning forward eagerly. "Are you super strong? Like, can you lift a car? Do you have a weakness, like ultranite? What's your favorite color? Do you sleep in the suit? Are you single for real, or is that part of the hero thing?"
Mark laughed, answering what he could. "Yes to the strength—cars are easy; no ultranite that I know of; blue; no suit for sleep; and yeah, single." He skipped the more personal ones, like his origins or family, steering the conversation lightly.
"Are you an alien?" she pressed, eyes wide.
"Hybrid," Mark replied simply, "but I won't go into specifics sorry."
Darcy leaned back, wowed as she processed it. "Invincible... the world's first hero is in the car with me; this is nuts."
"Technically, Iron Man was first," Mark pointed out.
"Yeah, but what does he do besides party and build stuff, I haven't seen him on the news for saving a car in a tree?" Darcy replied with a laugh.
By the time they got back to the lab, the drive filled with her questions and his evasive but good-natured answers. When they got back Thor was awake in the back seat, rubbing his neck with a grumpy expression but saying nothing as he stared out the window, the hammer resting beside him.
Mark and Darcy got out of the car in front of the lab, and he turned to her with a nod. "Go ahead inside, I'll check on our passenger."
Darcy shrugged, flashing a quick smile before heading toward the door. "Sure thing, don't take too long."
Mark walked to the back of the car where Thor sat staring blankly out the window, his massive frame slumped in a way that made him look smaller than before, and opened the door gently. "You okay, buddy?"
(AN: Damn I wonder who expected Mark to lift the Hammer? Probably a lot of you tbf. Well since you guys are so smart. Have a guess at what he's going to do with the hammer.)
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