Chapter Text
“Is that the magic hammer that summons lightning?” Dean asked, gesturing at Mjolnir from where he was gathering weapons out of his trunk.
They were getting ready to enter a hideout that was listed as Hydra, but Bobby and Dean had helped decipher some of the codes now that they knew Hydra were working with the supernatural. This was a nest of vampires with some humans who were protected as long as they donated blood to keep the vampires fed when they didn’t have prisoners to drink from.
Most of the Avengers had been skeptical in the beginning, until Dean had found Lenore and asked her to help out. Sam had been the one who had changed the hunting landscape for the better, teaching hunters, like Dean and Bobby, that not all beings deserved to be outright killed. Sam was also known for having stopped the apocalypse, which would have ended in everyone and everything except whichever side, angels or demons, won.
It took some coaxing, with an offer by Bruce to help look into the vampire bloodwork and see if they could produce some pseudo substance that would keep Lenore’s people happy, while keeping them from craving human blood. She was doubtful, suspicious of their motives, until they showed her the video.
“For anyone else,” she shook her head, “I’d refuse. Sam actually listened and then advocated for us. As long as what you’re asking from me won’t expose my people to those who don’t believe the same as you and your brother, I can help.”
She’d showed them her fangs and given a few vials of her blood. She’d also given all the information she had on the Hydra sites that she had heard the rumors of among other supernatural beings in the communities they communicated with. Thor had bowed to Lenore in respect as he had dealt with Draugr in the past. He had great respect the ‘again-walkers’ that guarded burial mounds on Asgard. The Draugr on Asgard were as close to vampires, similar to revenants as well.
“Aye,” Thor responded. “It was created for my father from a dying star. Mjolnir is a powerful weapon in its own right, but it helps focus my own abilities, as well as contain and channel my powers in those who are worthy to wield it.” He hefted it thoughtfully.
“And his brother is worthy?” Tony asked over the in-ear comms.
Dean frowned, glaring at the unseen man who was back at the tower with Bruce and Bobby.
“Tony,” Steve admonished him.
“Just asking for clarification, Cap,” came Tony’s response.
Thor frowned, holding up the hammer.
“It must be so, as he did so, as was seen,” he said. “With my father in Odinsleep, Mother would say no more than if he could indeed wield it, as he did, his worthiness is not in question.”
Dean stood back up, sliding the machete into his thigh holder. He thought back to his brother standing up to Lucifer and the utter shock on Michael’s face as he realized Sam had overtaken Lucifer’s control, something a mere human should never have been able to do.
Sam had been more than human, demonic blood notwithstanding. His father had feared him and feared for him. Dean had always known Sam was pure of heart, doing the right thing, even if it was the hardest to do. All the people he’d saved, as well as the ones he had tried but not succeeded in saving, were not Sam’s failures, but the outside forces doing their best to break him, to push him. Dean hadn’t seen the larger plan soon enough and even after the angels, especially Cas, had stepped into the picture, it seemed Sam had been nearly alone against Heaven and Hell.
And Sam…Sam had still done what he had believed was best for other people, never stopping to consider the damage he might take. The only time he’d even been sort of selfish had been when he’d left for college, wanting a safe life. It was as though he’d sensed all the bad coming and was trying to head it off, but even that hadn’t been enough. Their dad, and then Dean, had been pushed and manipulated with half-truths and violence to drag Sam back kicking and screaming into the life of hunting.
“No,” Dean said, reaching in for additional weapons. “Sammy has the strongest, brightest soul. Both demons and angels commented on it.” He gestured at the hammer with the handful of syringes he had filled with dead man’s blood. “If anyone besides a god would be worthy, it’d be him.”
He had grabbed extra machetes to hand out to the Avengers with him. He offered to Clint and Natasha but they pulled out their own large blades that would do the trick. Clint had already modified a few of his specialty arrows to deliver a dose of the dead man’s blood. He’d grimaced but once Dean and Bobby had explained that it was like a paralytic to vamps, he’d filled the arrowheads without another word.
Steve had disgust on his face at the machete, but he allowed Natasha to help him strap one to his thigh as well, ‘just in case.’ Thor had taken the machete with a nod, tossing it lightly to test the balance.
“Any of you every test your own worthiness with that thing?” Dean asked, tucking two handguns into his waistband for the non-vamps. He heard Clint snort behind him and turned, closing the trunk with a quiet clunk. They’d not asked about the sigils inside the trunk, but he could tell they had questions. Now was not the time.
“I think we’ve all grabbed it, even accidentally, once upon a time,” Clint expanded on the snort. “It went flying past me once.” He chuckled, checking over the string of his bow. “Wasn’t thinking at all when I reached for it and it yanked me right along until I remembered to let go.”
“Right over the edge of the roof,” Natasha rolled her eyes, arms crossed. “Thankfully that dumpster hadn’t been emptied yet.”
“Thankfully for him,” Tony gagged over the comm. “The rest of us had to smell rotting fish from that restaurant.”
“Hulk definitely can’t lift it,” Bruce chimed in over the comm. “He tried that during the first battle on the helicarrier.”
“That one time Thor forgot it by the elevator, Tony and I both tripped over it,” Steve shrugged.
“There’s a rule about unmovable objects in open areas now because of it,” Tony grumbled.
“Not something I need answered,” Natasha sighed, raising an eyebrow.
Dean shook his head at Thor, who had lifted an eyebrow as he moved Mjolnir closer.
“No need to test the obvious,” he said as he glanced around. He saw that everyone was ready, so he turned to Steve.
“Stick to the plan,” Steve said bracing the shield and squaring his shoulders.
“Be home by curfew, kids,” Tony said as they moved towards the Hydra hideout.
*****
“The highest probably match is 67%,” came Jarvis.
“Better than I found so far,” Bobby muttered. He leaned forward to read the information that the AI was projecting where he was sitting.
Behind him, Bruce shifted his glasses up the bridge of his nose and looked over his shoulder.
“Is that what I think it is?” Bruce gasped, pointing out one area in the text with his free hand.
Bobby scowled, then frantically swiped over the table-top screen that he was using for more reference. There were images of sigils, runes, and other symbols scrolling past, some with a colored highlight. He and Jarvis had worked out a color coding for the likelihood of each being part of the current research. There were a lot of them left in black and white, with a smattering of yellow ‘maybes’.
He slowed down over the ones with yellow highlights and double-tapped to get a closer look. If his own experience pushed him towards serious consideration, he’d hold down until it turned green. There were already a few green ones that Jarvis had matched to the Book and cross-matched to what Dean and the Avengers had found in the Hydra hideout with the vampires, then also found in the werewolf compound.
The two groups working together had found several mentions of strongholds in the possession of the Hydra members killed that first night in the cemetery. Their transport had been sort of a mobile occult lab-slash-alter that Nick had recognized right away once the SHIELD team had identified the abandoned vehicles the next day. That and the Book had sent him to Bobby and now had brought the teams together.
Tony came behind Bobby’s notations, pulling out the green and yellow sigils to drop a copy of them on a separate screen, with whatever caption had been with them.
“That’s Thor’s hammer,” Bruce said softly, pointing at the one norse rune then over at another from Christianity. “And a symbol that looks like a chalice pierced by spears with an ‘x’ as the base.”
“The archangel Michael’s spear,” Bobby mumbled. “Piercing Lucifer.” He glanced over to frown at the sigil. “IT was found in a grimoire in the 1500’s.”
“Michael?” Tony asked, tilting his head. “The same one in the Cage with your boy and Satan?”
“Yep,” Bobby replied. “That other sigil there is Michael’s. They are used for summoning or invoking. With the Cage sealed, they should be out-of-order, but with Hydra workin’ with the supernatural fuglies who don’t care to play nice, I’m thinkin’ they found a way to chain the runes with the sigils, and this binding ritual from the Book to attempt to summon and control Lucifer.”
“But your boy took control again and used Thor’s god-hammer,” Tony sighed. “And he beat the devil back and destroyed the summoning devices.”
“You think it was truly coincidence that we were in the right place at the right time for Thor to be on hand to lend him the hammer?” This was Bruce, who had leaned back, pulling off his glasses to bite the earpiece.
“Hell,” Bobby rubbed his hand over his beard. “I don’t believe in coincidence anymore, if I ever really did. I know the angels and demons did a lot of manipulatin’ of them Winchesters. They fought back hard once they, we all realized it. And damned if they didn’t win.” He huffed. “From the last thing Castiel said at the cemetery before he fucked off to Heaven, God himself had intervened, but only after Sam had already taken out Lucifer and Michael himself.”
“You think this is God’s doing too?” Bruce asked. “You think he’s pointing us towards the way to help Sam?”
“Or usin’ Dean’s love of his brother to get Michael out.”
“I take it you have doubts about all this leading to a safe way to free Sam?” Tony mused. He tapped the screen in front of them to get a wider view.
“This should be Dean’s call,” was Bruce’s response. “I mean, if he can be unbiased enough to do it for the right reasons.”
Bobby looked at the two men. He was sitting in a laboratory with two of the smartest men in the world, both Avengers, superheroes, friends of Nicholas J Fury, who he also knew was also Marcus Johnson once upon a time. He had joined them in New York, a city he had avoided most of his life. They were working to stop Hydra from taking over the world and from releasing Lucifer, who would destroy the world before he’d help them.
Didn’t matter if they tried to leash him with a binding spell, Lucifer was one of the most powerful forces in the world. Hydra had opened the Cage, but thankfully, hadn’t been stupid enough to break the barrier that kept the Cage from the rest of the world. They hadn’t expected Sam to climb out first, or for the Avengers, especially Thor, to show up. There had been notes in the mobile lab that Thor had been lured to some other part of the world because Mjolnir could possibly close the portal.
It was clear from their notes that they didn’t know about Sam. They were relatively certain that Thor could close the portal with the hammer, but didn’t know how it would work, so they were cautious. Not enough to let them succeed, thought Bobby.
“They checked in yet?” he asked.
“Captain Rogers just communicated that the latest raid was successful.” Jarvis replied. “There were minor injuries to Agent Romanov and Dean Winchester. However, Captain Rogers stated that they found something important and they will be arriving at the tower within the hour. He said Dean requested Bobby provide a devil’s trap.”
All three of them showed their surprise.
“We’ll meet them in the med bay,” Tony said. “J. Transfer what we have to the central monitors there so we can add what they found to what we already have.