Thor wrapped both hands around Mjolnir's handle and pulled.
Nothing happened.
The hammer remained completely motionless.
A horrible realization struck him.
"No!"
The cry echoed across the containment pit.
Thor dropped to his knees.
The last shred of hope drained from his face.
Moments later, soldiers rushed in from every direction and tackled him to the ground.
This time, he didn't resist.
He simply allowed them to bind his hands.
Far away in Asgard, Loki watched through his enchanted water mirror.
A satisfied smile spread across his face.
Then he gave the order.
Attack.
High above the Bureau facility, the cloaked spacecraft opened its side hatches.
The effect was surreal.
It looked as though two doors had suddenly appeared in the middle of the sky.
One after another, Frost Giants and Chitauri biomechanical soldiers leaped from the vessel.
Dark figures began raining from the heavens.
At the same moment, alarms erupted throughout the base.
Sirens wailed.
Emergency lights flashed.
The facility immediately entered lockdown.
"Just as expected."
Drex Valen watched the live feed while transmitting everything directly to the Security Council.
"The aliens are back."
This attack was completely different from the previous one.
The invaders weren't approaching from outside the perimeter.
They were dropping directly into the heart of the installation.
The Bureau's defenses had been designed to repel an assault from the ground.
Nobody had expected an army to descend from orbit.
The first person to notice was Thor.
He looked up.
Dozens of humanoid shapes were falling from the sky.
His eyes widened.
"Frost Giants!"
Before he could react, the leading giant crashed directly onto a parked Murder Hornet gunship.
The impact was catastrophic.
The Frost Giant's enormous mass combined with terminal velocity punched straight through the aircraft.
Metal twisted.
Fuel ignited.
The helicopter exploded into fragments that scattered across the compound.
More Frost Giants followed.
Then came the Chitauri biomechanical soldiers.
Several Frost Giants landed directly among clusters of personnel.
Bodies were crushed instantly.
Men and women disappeared beneath tons of falling alien muscle and armor.
The Chitauri soldiers drew laser rifles from their backs and opened fire indiscriminately.
Red beams slashed through the chaos.
Blood sprayed.
Screams filled the air.
Within seconds, the facility had become a slaughterhouse.
"Damn it!"
The Bureau soldiers fought back immediately.
But this was an ambush.
And these weren't the Frost Giants they'd encountered before.
These were elite warriors.
The difference was obvious.
The defensive line collapsed almost immediately.
Several Murder Hornets attempting to take off were shot down before they could gain altitude.
The Chitauri concentrated their fire with brutal efficiency.
Thor could only stare.
His mind struggled to process what he was seeing.
Three hundred Frost Giants.
Three hundred.
Where had they come from?
These giants were far more heavily armored than the previous group.
Their ice armor was thicker, denser, and visibly stronger.
Ordinary rifle fire barely scratched them.
Heavy machine guns might have been able to penetrate their defenses.
Destroying them reliably would require artillery or tanks.
Unfortunately, neither was readily available.
"Run!"
Thor suddenly shouted.
"They're Frost Giants! You can't beat them!"
Despite having died only hours earlier, he charged forward anyway.
He snatched a rifle from a nearby soldier and fired at one of the giants.
The bullets struck solidly.
Nothing happened.
The ice armor didn't even crack.
And when tiny fractures did appear, they rapidly repaired themselves.
Thor's expression darkened.
This wasn't good.
Meanwhile, Drex continued his presentation to the Security Council.
The footage played live across their screens.
"As primitive as they appear, these extraterrestrials are clearly adapting."
He spoke with perfect calm.
"They've already evolved countermeasures against our weapons."
The council members exchanged uneasy glances.
Comparing the current Frost Giants to the ones from the first attack, the difference was impossible to ignore.
Drex's explanation sounded entirely reasonable.
"So they're targeting Earth now?"
One official looked pale.
"What do we do?"
Another sounded equally concerned.
Then someone remembered.
"Don't we have the Hulk?"
"Where's the Hulk?"
As if answering the question, Emil Blonsky appeared on the battlefield.
Several Frost Giants immediately noticed Thor and began advancing toward him.
Thor, however, was staring at Blonsky.
The Midgardian wasn't carrying a weapon.
Not even a knife.
What was he doing?
Then Blonsky transformed.
His body expanded violently.
Muscles swelled.
Bones shifted.
Within moments, a gigantic monster stood where a human had once been.
The Abomination had arrived.
One Frost Giant froze in shock.
A Midgardian giant?
Before it could react, Blonsky seized its head.
The Frost Giant's reinforced ice helmet shattered instantly.
Then so did its skull.
Crunch.
The giant collapsed dead.
The surrounding Frost Giants recoiled.
A heartbeat later, they roared and charged with massive ice axes raised high.
Blonsky grinned.
It was not a pleasant grin.
Then he charged straight at them.
Back at Bureau headquarters, Drex activated a communications channel.
"Red Devil."
"Send Logan."
"Understood."
Red Devil immediately grabbed Logan and teleported him to the battlefield.
Thor barely had time to register the appearance of two more strange beings.
One had appeared from thin air.
The other looked like an ordinary Midgardian.
Then Red Devil delivered Drex's message.
"The Director wants you to become Hulk and finish off these monsters."
Logan shrugged.
He still wasn't entirely accustomed to using Hulk's power.
But orders were orders.
The Bureau paid well.
And unlike many human organizations, it treated mutants fairly.
That counted for something.
A second later, Thor's jaw nearly hit the ground.
The short, rugged mutant transformed into a towering green giant covered in thick hair.
At the same time, massive Adamantium claws extended from his hands.
Drex had personally redesigned them to match Hulk's size.
The original claws would have looked ridiculously small on a Hulk-sized body.
The moment Logan entered the fight, the battlefield changed.
He lunged at a Frost Giant.
One swipe.
Just one.
The Adamantium claws sliced cleanly through armor, flesh, and bone.
The Frost Giant fell apart into four separate pieces.
The cuts were so clean they looked polished.
Even the enchanted ice armor offered no resistance.
Blonsky saw it happen.
And instantly became jealous.
Of course.
Every version of Hulk seemed to possess something special.
Unique powers.
Unique abilities.
Unique advantages.
The Abomination?
He was just strong.
Back when there had only been a few Hulks, Blonsky had been satisfied.
He possessed one of the most powerful bodies on Earth.
Now the number of Hulks kept increasing.
And somehow everyone else seemed to be getting upgrades.
The feeling annoyed him more than he cared to admit.
Only three minutes passed.
Three minutes.
That was all it took.
The base had already become a nightmare.
Bodies covered the ground.
Blood flowed through shattered concrete.
Wounded personnel cried out from every direction.
Yet despite the devastation, the Frost Giants and Chitauri soldiers were dying even faster.
The combined assault of two Hulks was simply too much.
The invaders were butchered at an alarming rate.
Back in Asgard, Loki's face had gone completely dark.
Months.
He had spent months arranging everything.
Gathering Frost Giants.
Acquiring Chitauri biomechanical soldiers.
Building the perfect plan.
And now?
Destroyed in minutes.
True, they had managed to kill some Midgardians.
And he had learned something valuable.
Midgard possessed giants of its own.
Not one.
Two.
And both were terrifyingly powerful.
Still, that wasn't remotely close to what he had intended.
The original plan had been elegant.
The Frost Giants would rampage across Midgard.
Asgard would be forced to intervene.
During the campaign, evidence would "accidentally" reveal a joint Frost Giant and Chitauri plan to conquer Midgard.
Asgard would take the threat seriously.
Events would unfold exactly as he desired.
Instead...
The operation had barely begun before it collapsed completely.
The realization made Loki want to scream.
Everything had gone wrong.