After hearing enough stories about Thor's family history, even Drex occasionally felt the urge to ask Odin a question himself.
I don't care that you keep leaving disasters for your son to clean up, but could you at least provide the full list of ancient god-level enemies you pissed off while you were young? It'd help everyone prepare mentally.
That was exactly why Drex didn't mind Thor staying on Earth with Jane for a while.
The poor bastard had plenty of suffering waiting for him in the future anyway.
When Sif finally arrived, the most awkward person in the room turned out to be Jane.
Human mythology painted Sif as Thor's destined wife, after all.
"No, no, no," Thor said quickly when he saw Jane's expression. "Sif and I are just comrades. Why do Midgardians keep making up weird stories about us?"
Unfortunately, the moment he said it, Sif's expression dimmed noticeably.
Even Jane picked up on it immediately.
Sif forced herself back into professional mode.
"Thor, the All-Father has entered the Odinsleep. The Nine Realms are becoming unstable again. Asgard needs a king to lead them."
Thor scratched the back of his head.
"But I don't even know how to get back right now."
Part of him was absolutely pretending to be clueless.
As far as he knew, he'd already stabilized the Nine Realms after the destruction of the Bifrost. Things should have calmed down by now.
"Thor."
Sif's tone turned firm.
"The Queen also wants you to return as soon as possible."
That instantly killed any remaining resistance.
Thor and Loki alike had always been helpless against Frigga.
Once he heard his mother wanted him home, he could only look apologetically toward Jane.
"When are you coming back?" Jane asked softly, grabbing his arm.
"I'll put down the rebellions and return as fast as I can."
Thor sounded confident.
He didn't think this would become some permanent farewell. Even without the Bifrost, Asgard still possessed hidden pathways connecting the Nine Realms. Slower than the Rainbow Bridge, sure, but still usable.
Jane couldn't stop him.
All she could do was tell the giant idiot to come back alive.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Tony Stark had problems of his own.
Several months had passed since the monster invasion incident.
On the surface, Los Angeles appeared to be recovering. Reconstruction efforts were progressing steadily, and life was beginning to normalize.
Underneath that fragile calm, however, terrorist attacks had become increasingly frequent.
The timing coincided perfectly with the ongoing presidential campaign season.
Official reports claimed the victims were random civilians.
That wasn't true.
Every major bombing had targeted wealthy elites, influential businessmen, or political supporters tied to specific candidates.
Normally, Tony wouldn't have cared much about political violence.
Unfortunately, after Stark Industries rolled out its clean energy initiative, government contracts flooded in. Tony had reluctantly offered limited financial support to certain campaigns because, at the end of the day, money was money.
Now those same political circles were being targeted.
Which meant Stark Industries was likely next.
If someone came directly after Tony himself, he wouldn't be worried in the slightest.
His symbiote armor wasn't a joke.
Between the Chitauri invasion and the kaiju attacks, Tony had already realized that future threats would only become more insane. He'd been obsessively upgrading his armor systems and autonomous combat technology ever since.
At this point, his suits were practically evolving into a genuine Iron Legion.
But if the attacks bypassed him entirely...
If the target became Pepper instead...
That was different.
The first warning came from Rhodey.
According to Colonel Rhodes, a terrorist calling himself the Mandarin had been openly provoking the President through a series of increasingly brazen attacks.
Rhodey had been assigned to investigate.
The problem was that the bombings made no sense.
No explosive residue.
No conventional triggers.
Nothing.
Every explosion looked physically impossible.
Originally, Rhodey had considered asking S.W.O.R.D. for assistance, but this technically fell outside their jurisdiction. Eventually, he settled on asking Tony for help instead.
Tony agreed immediately.
Which only made him worry about Pepper even more.
The problem was that Pepper absolutely hated seeing him throw himself into danger wearing the armor. Even if he built additional suits for her protection, there was no guarantee she would actually use them.
So eventually...
Tony went to Drex.
"Honestly, I doubt you'll personally get involved," Tony said after finishing his coffee and wiping his mouth with his thumb, "but I can't provide much information. Every bombing so far has left behind zero explosive residue. Nothing."
Drex wasn't surprised.
"Theoretically impossible events tend to look very different from our perspective."
Killian might still be frozen somewhere, but Advanced Idea Mechanics had never truly belonged to him in the first place.
A.I.M. belonged to M.O.D.O.K.
The oversized floating head with no neck.
In most timelines, M.O.D.O.K. and Tony Stark were practically destined to become enemies.
The real A.I.M. in Marvel wasn't some harmless scientific institute. Its full name was Advanced Idea Mechanics, a terrorist organization born from Hydra during World War II.
They specialized in advanced weapons development and supplied Hydra with absurd amounts of experimental technology before eventually splitting off due to political conflicts.
After decades of growth, A.I.M. had evolved into a massive independent terrorist organization dedicated to world domination.
Officially, they didn't exist.
Unofficially, everybody important knew they existed.
Hydra knew.
The Hand knew.
Half the underground knew.
Only S.H.I.E.L.D. somehow remained embarrassingly behind the curve.
As for Aldrich Killian...
A volatile narcissist like him could never have climbed that far without powerful backing. His Extremis project had almost certainly been funded by A.I.M. from the beginning.
He'd merely served as the organization's representative during its cooperation with the Ten Rings.
Which explained why Advanced Idea Mechanics possessed Extremis soldiers and related technology.
What puzzled Drex was something else entirely.
Killian launching terror attacks against Tony made sense.
Personal grudges were easy to understand.
But why would M.O.D.O.K. care enough to do the same?
Drex looked at Tony thoughtfully.
"So you want me to protect Pepper?"
"More accurately," Tony corrected, "I want to hire some of Umbrella's special operatives to protect her."
His expression practically screamed money isn't an issue.
Tony wasn't stupid.
He already knew Drex would never sell Compound One or allow outside enhancement programs.
Fine.
He didn't need the technology itself.
Hiring Umbrella personnel was enough.
"My operatives are expensive," Drex said calmly.
"No problem."
Tony nodded immediately before adding:
"But I do have one condition."
Drex gave him a knowing look.
"They all have to be women."
Tony pointed at him.
"Exactly."