Not An Avenger

The UFO

Moving from India to the US was not easy. I had to acclimatise to a completely new life, new culture and new surroundings. On top of that I had to adjust to working in the environment of a secret government agency. It had been a month since I moved and started my medical internship at the SHIELD hospital in New York.

Everything was hush-hush there. You weren't supposed to ask a patient's name, let alone his medical history. Any injury, be it a gun shot, a stab wound or radiation injury were treated with no questions asked. It was convenient even for the doctors. Experimental drugs, surgeries in trial phases, unauthorised trials, everything was allowed here.

Despite my initial doubts, I was loving my new job. Though exhausting, the adrenaline kept me going through my 72 hour shifts. I was finally settling in, when I got my first field assignment.

I was working in the ER that not-so-busy day. I was already doodling on surgical dressings by the time Agent Coulson arrived. He spoke directly to my attending.

"Dr Davidson, I need a doctor, asap. We're leaving in 10 minutes. Don't need a good one, by the way." He left as soon as he said that.

My attending looked at us for 10 seconds before saying, "Ray, go to the helipad."

I followed her command and walked away quickly, feeling rather hurt. I am a good doctor, I told myself. Though, it turned out I wasn't very good at finding directions. I ended up getting lost and it took me 15 minutes to find the helipad. Agent Coulson was already inside the helicopter. He did not look happy.

"I'm sorry. I got lost." I said, climbing in. "I'm Dr Amrita Ray." I held out my hand.

"Get a map." He said curtly, without as much as looking at my hand.

I tried not to piss him off anymore during the rest of the flight. It was quite difficult sitting beside him, especially when he seemed to be taking offence at me breathing. He scowled at me when my phone rang. Damn! I should have switched it off.

"Hello?" I answered the phone, despite the formidable look from Agent Coulson.

"Hey, Dr Amrita. This is Tony Stark. Remember me?" He didn't wait for my answer. "I'm organising a Red Cross Society charity function tonight. I would really like you to come. Would you be able to make it?"

Tony Stark? How did he get my number? More importantly, why was he calling me?

"I'm sorry, Mr Stark. I'm out of town for work." I answered.

"Oh. That's fine. May be next time." He hung up. He sounded genuinely disappointed. What was happening?

"You know Stark?" Agent Coulson could not contain his curiosity.

"Umm... Not exactly. He was my patient two days ago, after that incident at the Stark industries. Of course, before he announced he was Iron man. He was brought in for first aid and investigation. There wasn't any major injury so I discharged him." I told him, trying to remember if anything unusual has happened, something to give him a reason to call me and invite me to a party.

We landed at the New Mexico base at twilight. We had to drive the rest of the way. Agent Coulson wasn't particularly happy about sharing his ride with me. But due to the recent SHIELD operational guidelines making it compulsory for at least one doctor to be present at a temporary SHIELD base, he had to endure.

I wondered why they needed to make a temporary base.

"So, where are we going?" I asked Agent Coulson.

He sighed. "An unidentifiable flying object was found to have landed 10 miles from her. That's where we are going."

Holy Crap! WE WERE GOING TO SEE A UFO!

He pulled up at a gas station. That's where the UFO was?

"Be right back" he said, putting the siphon in the tank and then walking towards the utility store.

Thinking he was going to be a while, I picked up my phone and dropped it in the process.

Great! I bent down to pick it up and when I got up, the scene had changed completely. Through the glass windows of the utility store, I saw Agent Coulson, kicking asses to two what-looked-like-robbers. Wow! He knew how to fight.

However, he didn't see their third companion sneaking inti the store with a gun. Uh-oh!

I quickly got out of the car and grabbed a crowbar lying there. I snuck up to the gun man and ignoring my first instinct to hit him on the head (that might kill him), I hit him on the back.

Unfortunately, due to the limited strength of my small stature, it didn't have the effect I was hoping for. He turned around and pointed the gun at me. He was about to shoot when Coulson took him down with a taser.

My heart beat was still above 120 even when we were miles from the gas station. Agent Coulson had been really nice to me. He even offered me one of his donuts.

"It was very brave, what you did back there." He said, slowing down. I suppose we were approaching our destination.

"I'm sure you do that all the time." I tried to be modest.

"Well, it's my job. It's not yours."

I didn't say anything. I just looked at him, remembering hoe intimidating he looked earlier. No, he just looked like.... a nice person.

I noticed we had reached the base. I got out of the car and looked around in awe. We were surrounded by giant temporary structures filled with agents and technicians, in the middle of the dessert.

An agent (we called him Agent Haemorrhoids at the hospital) was briefing Coulson. Agent Sitwell, I remembered his name.

Not knowing where to go, I followed them into the clearing. In the centre of the clearing was a crater and at its centre was a......hammer? So, this was the UFO? Technicians were surrounding it, scanning it from every angle with every possible instrument.

I looked at the hammer closely. It reminded me of something I'd seen before. There were inscriptions on its handle in some unrecognisable script.

I remembered now. I had seen it in my book on Norse mythology. Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, the god of thunder. It was supposed to be enchanted so it could be lifted only by Thor.

"Agent Coulson?" I said, walking towards them.

"Yes?" he responded, much to the surprise of Sitwell.

"Why wasn't this... um.... UFO moved to the base? Surely, it would have been easier than setting all this up."

"Easier said than done." He answered." This thing isn't easy to lift. Our biggest machines couldn't move it."

All I could do was blink in surprise.