Chapter 86: The Hammer That Wouldn't Budge

[ Nazi Base, Antarctica ]

Compared to the pitiful strength of their enemies, SHIELD had almost overcompensated. They'd deployed nearly all their elite squads, the absolute cream of the combat crop Earth had to offer. If they had lost, it wouldn't have just been abnormal—it would have been catastrophic. But when you pit trained mortals against fractured remnants of the past, the odds tend to tip in favor of the living legends.

"There's a room up ahead sealed by a thick metal door," Rumlow radioed from the front line. "Looks like there's something... secret hidden inside."

His voice lacked the usual bite. Clearly, he wanted to keep this nugget of mystery for Hydra. But with so many agents crawling over the site, silence wasn't an option.

Daisy Johnson instincts told her that this room was the endpoint. The destination. The place where Skadi's hammer had landed.

As on-site commander, she made it clear that she would personally supervise the breach.

A thick, one-meter slab of steel stood between them and revelation. Plasma cutters were rolled in, hissing like serpents as they melted through reinforced hinges. Sparks danced across the cold, dust-laden floor as the elite agents cut through it with the efficiency of surgeons.

When the door finally groaned open, Daisy stepped inside first, flanked by a small squad.

Her eyes fell immediately upon the centerpiece: Skadi's Hammer.

It looked nothing like Mjolnir. Where Thor's weapon bore sharp edges and square-headed hammer, this was all elegance and cold menace. Silver-white from head to grip, with a gleaming golden handle, and a fencing-style handguard, it resembled a noblewoman's auction mallet more than a god's war hammer. But there was something primal in it. Something that hummed with restrained violence.

The room, roughly a hundred square meters in size, was lined with aging research equipment, now cloaked in thick dust. It was clear that once, this had been a center of fervent scientific obsession. The Nazis had invested heavily in studying the artifact—but time had worn them down. Hope faded with the fall of their empire. Their grand pursuit was now a forgotten relic, buried in bureaucracy and defeat.

"What is this?" Daisy asked, knowing full well what it was. Still, she turned dramatically to the elderly Nazi scientist SHIELD had unearthed from the bunker's crawlspaces.

The man—a relic himself—was draped in the remains of a lab coat. His skin, waxy and pale, looked like old parchment. Whatever aging serums and radiation he had been dosed with had only delayed the inevitable.

He muttered in guttural German, eyes glazed with either madness or fanatical reverence.

Daisy knows German, so she understood what old Nazi said.

Which was basically they've studied it for decades and still didn't understood much about hammer.

Daisy couldn't stop the smirk that tugged at her lips. Sixty years and they still know less than I do.

Still, the pieces fit. She radioed the results of the battle to SHIELD HQ, carefully highlighting the contributions of Rumlow, Ward, and a few others. Recognition and rewards were valuable tools. People fought harder when their names were remembered.

Hydra had never been a monolithic entity. More like a nest of serpents sharing the same skull. There were still splinters—Dr. Whitehall, Baron Strucker—who retained a twisted sense of loyalty to their old empire. If they learned that Pierce and his band had butchered Nazi remnants, they'd likely feel betrayed.

Daisy already had a plan in motion. Propaganda, cinema, serialized documentaries. She was going to make this operation infamous and market the event like a war-time blockbuster. She wanted to lure the remaining serpents back in.

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[ Some Time Later ]

Nick Fury arrived promptly—dark coat swirling like a storm cloud, his ever-watchful eye assessing the situation. With him came Alexander Pierce and two members of the World Security Council. Curiosity sparkled in their aged eyes.

A living Nazi was a rare artifact. But a magic hammer? That was a whole other auction.

"A ancient hammer?" Nick Fury asked, eye narrowing. "What's the writing say?"

He looked pointedly at Daisy. He knew she'd studied runes.

She didn't disappoint. "The inscription says it belongs to Skadi, Norse goddess of winter. These Nazi fossils poked and prodded it for over a decade, came up with nothing."

She handed Fury a stack of yellowing documents. He flipped through them quickly.

"Another Red Skull fiasco?"

Daisy nodded. "Apparently, whoever lifts the hammer is supposed to gain the power to conquer the world. Red Skull tried. Hitler too. Neither of them even managed a wiggle."

Only she and Natasha had seen the full records. Now, whispers of "world-conquering hammer" drifted through the gathered agents like perfume. Rumlow looked nervous. Ward's jaw clenched. Even the ever-cunning Pierce looked... tempted.

Fury turned to Daisy. "You try it yet?"

Daisy shook her head, There was no need to show loyalty in a superfluous way.

Fury nodded approvingly. But the problem was that the pot was thrown on his hands. What should he say? Say that he wanted to conquer the world! Want to gain infinite power, so I will try it first?

He turn to look at the two councilors and former director Pierce. As if his gaze saying "You want to say something?".

Although the three had come from different backgrounds, they were all tempted. Who doesn't want to gain super powers? However, they were still rational. If they stood up at this time, it would definitely become a blunder for them as their political opponents will use this blunder to attack them later.

The old woman who was representing the United Kingdom asked Daisy, "Agent Johnson, what are the selection criteria for this hammer?"

Daisy considered her words carefully so that the other party could understand. "Mrs. Lance, they have been studying this hammer for decades. According to the data analysis from several aspects, the actual weight of this hammer should not exceed 40 kilograms. However, it seems that there is an unknown force acting on the hammer. Our science cannot explain this and can only be attributed to magic. In theory, no one on Earth can lift it except its chosen one."

The words were very vague and the old woman seemed to understand them vaguely.

As a politician, she chose to take a step back, and other councilor made the same choice.

The ones who had the decision-making power became Fury and Pierce.

Daisy stood aside and watched the fun.

Pierce wanted to grab the hammer very much, but he had to maintain his image.

He couldn't think of any excuse, so he finally refused the opportunity to hold the hammer on the grounds of his old age and frailty.

"If I mutate into a frost giant, kill me," he muttered to Daisy, low enough for only her to hear.

She responded with a cool smile, "No promises, Director. Might keep you as a pet."

He rolled his one eye and stepped toward the hammer. Gripping the ornate handle with both hands, he heaved.

Nothing.

He tried again, grunting softly.

Still nothing. Not even a wiggle.

Pierce's reason was defeated by greed. So he stepped up next, feigning reluctance. "Old bones, you know."

He yanked at it with the eagerness of a man who'd kill to be young again.

Still nothing.

One by one, the council members, top agents took turns. Each effort ended the same. A beautiful, unmoving insult in the form of a hammer.

Even Daisy had her turn. She pressed her hand against the smooth metal. The hammer's frequency slammed back at her with such force it was almost personal.

If it had a mouth, it would have screamed, "Buzz off, you pretentious princess!"

Of course, she could have lifted it using gravity manipulation. She'd already calculated the bending of spacetime around it. A little string tension, a slight curvature—and up it would float.

But the hammer would know. It wasn't about lifting it. It was about being worthy.

And the hammer? The hammer wasn't impressed by tricks.

Magneto had done the same with Thor's Mjolnir before. Lifted it. Moved it. But he never got the thunder.

Without acknowledgment, there was no power. Just a very shiny, very heavy piece of junk.

So Daisy tried, felt it snub her like an elitist bouncer, and simply raised her hands with a dry chuckle.

"Well," she said, brushing invisible dust from her sleeves, "at least I didn't break a hip trying."

To Be Continued...

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