71 Asgardian form

Thor and I alone stood in the middle of the wasteland, waiting for the flares firing off that would signal the test starting. So we passed the time doing something I'd always wanted to try.

"Ugh!" I tugged, hard. Nothing. I did it again, but it was as though the thing weighed a million pounds! It didn't even budge. I laughed, stepping away from Mjolnir. "Yeah, I figured."

Thor gave me a cocky look and stepped forward to easily lift the hammer off of the desert floor. "Don't feel bad. Even the greatest warriors can't lift it. Though I am curious to see if changing forms will change your worthiness."

"Probably not. My mind is still the same. Or my soul, or pride, or whatever Mjolnir reads," I thought for a moment. Well, maybe the more robotic forms like Upgrade or Clockwork could do it? Did inanimate objects or robotic creatures count? But Vision and Ultron had never been able to lift the hammer in the comics. Wait, had they? In some comic I hadn't read yet? Damn it, I wish I had the Marvel Wikia on hand...

"Mahmoud," Thor said hesitantly, getting my attention. "I need to tell you that I am not sure how this may go. Asgardians... The meaning of our existence is strange to describe. My father might have some idea of how this will go but I don't."

I blinked. "Okay. So you're saying..."

"Be ready for anything," Thor said simply. He hesitated. "Mahmoud. What do you believe most represents you? When you think of yourself, your actions, who are you, at your core?"

That threw me even more. "Wait, are you saying that you think I'll change based on my personality?"

"As I said, I'm not sure," Thor shook his head. "We are, unfortunately, in uncharted waters."

Damn it, I hadn't even changed and the Asgardian form had already made me bewildered to all hell.

The flares went off then. We shared a look before I lifted up the Omnitrix and hesitantly flipped through the menu. On reaching the Asgardian form, I stopped to think about the possibilities before me. Then I pressed down on the dial.

And the change began. In that timeless instant, I felt the changes come. It was by far the weirdest transformation so far.

I felt my height rise until I had an inch on Thor, my muscles filling until I was only slightly less bulky then he was. Then my muscles felt as though they began to get filled with lead, becoming heavier and heavier as the dried out wasteland earth beneath me shifted at the increase in my density. I felt something within me shift. I couldn't explain it. It was like a new organ grew in my chest, one somehow connected to the world around me. My clothes changed in the flash of green light, my normal shirt being replaced by a white metal on my upper chest and a black shirt beneath the armor that felt as though it was made of a smooth and cool liquid. A long red piece of cloth that wrapped around my waist with one end going down along my right leg was matched by the one wrapped around my shoulders, the cloth going down my back. My pants were like some combination of Thor's and something Aladdin would have worn, black scale on top of white cloth, with boots the exact same as Thor's. A pair of black gauntlets rested on each of my forearms, the Omnitrix glowing brightly on my left arm.

"Asgarditen!"

Wait, really? That was what I could come up with on short notice? Damn, need to come up with a better name than that. I'd brainstorm later. Even Ben had to rename a couple after all.

I felt so strange. Like I was me, but more. It was an unnerving feeling, being in my body but better.

I looked down at myself, rubbing at the carvings on my new white chestplate. "Thor, are these... Arabic?"

"Some of it," Thor stepped forward, looking intrigued. "But the rest is all different languages. Including my own," he tapped the lower part of the armor, where my ribs ended. "There, that's, old. I have no idea what that means. But I've seen it once."

I frowned, then tried to move around a bit. Arms, legs, neck, everything was working. Except it felt a thousand times stronger. All the little aches and pains that came with being human were gone, replaced with the incredible strength of this new form.

"So, uh, what should I do?" I asked.

"Hmm," Thor rubbed his bearded chin. Then he put Mjolnir down and walked towards me. "Well, let's see how strong you are."

Then Thor, the God of Thunder, punched me in the face. A shockwave followed the impact, and I staggered back with a pained shout. For a moment, I blinked at the feeling coming from my jaw.

Something within me roared to the forefront. Anger that felt like some combination of the rage I could feel as Rath and Four Arms. The sheer power that Rath's anger could rise too, combined with the code of honor in my DNA when I changed into Four Arms. Righteous anger, burning in my soul.

So I punched Thor in the face, sending another shockwave outward and staggering Thor.

"Oh shit!" I shouted, shocked at my own action as the founding Avenger blinked in surprise. "Thor, I am so sorry, my friend, I simply lost control of myself. Are you well?"

I blinked. "Wait, has my method of speech changed? Or..." I focused on my speech. "Okay, no, that's the placebo effect. Seriously, are you okay, dude?"

Thor laughed, rubbing his chin. "Yes, I'm fine. Well, you are quite strong," Thor winced. "Actually, more than I expected. Like I was just hit by Volstagg."

I felt a bit of pride at that, being compared to arguably the strongest of the Warriors Three. A tightness in my chest seemed to ease as I thought about that comparison and saw Thor's pride in me.

"Okay, let's see what else you've got," Thor stepped forward and swung his fist again. I blocked it on my arm, working on some instinct deep within me to follow with a counter-punch Thor parried. He kicked me in the chest, sending me flying into a thorny bush. The thorns snapped against my tough skin. I rolled through the bush and down a rocky hill before rising to press my booted feet against the light brown earth. Thor was in mid-leap with a punch aimed at my face. I dodged to the side, letting him crater the earth behind me, then grabbed his shoulders and spun around to throw him at a boulder, which shattered.

"Come on!" I shouted, the power getting to my head a bit.

"Yes!" Thor cheered, ignoring the boulder he'd turned to gravel, speeding forward and smashing into my waist, his massive arms squeezing. "Show me what you can really do!"

"Yaagh!" I lifted my arms and dropped my fists into Thor's back. He shouted, then lifted me up and German suplexed me into the ground, cratering it.

I barely felt it. I wasn't as strong as Four Arms, but I was damn powerful, enough that Thor, despite hurting me, was only giving me an average bruising.

I twisted around and punched Thor in the chest, the ground nearby splitting apart as the sand around us rose. Thor grabbed my shoulders and headbutted me, thunder sounding out in the distance before lightning struck.

"Damn!" I scowled, my nose stinging from his blow. Something inside me reveled in the pain, a strange burning sense of anger within me. I ducked the next one and uppercut him back, more sand from the wasteland around us shaking, filling the air with dust that I could somehow see through.

"Well done!" Thor cheered, grinning as he stepped in and blocked my next blow, backhanding me away. "Come, Mahmoud! Show me what you really have!"

He punched me again, and I growled before kicking him back, the world quaking with the hit.

Above us, a storm gathered, hot wind and sand flying around us as we battled. Something within felt that was appropriate for a fight between Dial and Thor.

Victoria Hand/Vice-Director of SHI-BRIDGE

Victoria stared at a screen before her with the image of the section of desert that Dial and Thor were 'sparring' in, her eyes wide.

On the screen, two massive swirling vortexes like localized storms were clashing. The helpful computer program measuring things identified them as unusual weather patterns. One was identified as the kind Thor had created a few times. The other, however, was new, because the wind surrounding it seemed a symptom of the power behind it.

"Make sure to update the weather warnings," Victoria said to one of the scientists in the room, looking at a window nearby as rain and sand bounced off the glass. "We don't want people in one of the nearby towns freaking out."

Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk

"This is because of Thor?!" She-Hulk shouted at Hulk, who only nodded seriously.

The two were standing in the hanger, watching as the world outside seemed to go insane. As they stood there watching lightning cross the gray clouds above and felt the ground shake, a Quinjet landed nearby and opened the back. Creel and Steve came out of the jet in their 'costumes' quickly running over to join them when hail began to fall and hot desert winds picked up tumbleweed to send it flying across the tarmac.

"What is this?!" Steve yelled as soon as he was close, holding his shield over his head to let the ice falling from the sky bounce off. "We were supposed to help with the Graveyard survivors when the weather went nuts?!"

"Thor was supposed to train Dial in his Asgardian form!" She-Hulk yelled.

"You think Dial got his powers?!" Creel shouted over the storm around them, the man switching to a steel form so he could ignore the granules of sand hitting everything.

"No," Hulk declared, the tall green giant said, his eyes on the storm above. "Different... New."

"Since when are you insightful?" Creel mumbled to himself, watching as the Quinjet that had brought them began to shake under the winds assaulting it.

Name Forgotten

Far away, in a nursing home called Shady Acres, an elderly man's eyes snapped open, gazing on the sky above New York City. Within him, something snapped into focus.

Then it faded away. Whatever clarity that had suddenly filled him slowly left, only embers remaining. A small smile rose on the man's face as his mind was once again taken from him.

But the tiniest of cracks had appeared, far earlier than it would have before.

Sadly, a crack which anyone could take advantage of.

The shadows of the world felt change rise and were changed in return as the wind picked up.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

Thor lifted me up and slammed my back onto the floor. I gasped out, spittle flying out of my mouth.

Something was wrong. I could feel it inside me. Like a secret I knew was being kept from me, something about the world calling out to it. I tried to reach for it as I rose unsteadily to my feet, my fingers digging into the wasteland beneath me, dirt crumbling in my fingers.

"Are you alright?" Thor asked, his eyes worried.

"T-There's something," I coughed, clenching my fists. "I can feel a power inside me, something more. But it isn't coming to me."

I couldn't understand it. Before now, every alien had come with an instinctual ability with their powers. They may not have come with a manual, but a combination of instinct and an excellent children's cartoon franchise to guide me allowed me to easily use every alien I'd gained.

It was frustrating, feeling something within me and not even having a clue what it was.

"Maybe you have my powers?" Thor suggested as he frowned thoughtfully. "How does this feel?" he raised a hand and Mjolnir flew into his palm, lightning surrounding the badass weapon. He held out in front of me, electricity flowing from it. "Anything?"

I pulled my head back, squinting my eyes against the blinding white light. "I feel like you're threatening to electrocute me, does that help?"

"Ah, sorry," Thor embarrassed put Mjolnir away at his waist. "Well... damn it, I wish my father was here," Thor sighed, looking as though he was half-tempted to do something before dismissing the idea. "What calls out to you then? What makes you-"

His next words were drowned out by the wind. I waved at some of the dust rising in the air. On instinct, I took a deep breath, reaching within.

The sand flying around us drifted away with the wave of my hand. I blinked dumbly. Thor stopped talking.

Hesitantly, I waved my hand again. More sand rose from the rocky wasteland with my hand motion.

I gritted my teeth, reaching within myself, and clenched a hand. Sand rose up from the ground, swirling upward in a tiny swirling tornado, barely as high as my chest.

"Sand?" Thor said, eyes wide. "That... I've never seen that happen before."

"Cooool," I said with a grin. I mentally reached out to the sand, the tightness in my chest fading as I gathered it to come around my feet, gathering underneath my boots.

Sand powers. Seems simple, on the surface, until you see what a person with the ability with the power to control sand can really do. And while I couldn't think of any Ben 10 alien with the powers I apparently had, I'd watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, Naruto, and One Piece, and had read Spider-Man. I certainly had plenty of sand-using characters to use as inspiration.

So I created a platform of sand and rose up into the sky on a shifting wave of grains that I later heard had gotten to over 110 feet high, letting me sore above the desert with a dumb grin on my face. Thor spun Mjolnir around and launched after me.

"WOOOO!" I shouted, standing with my arms spread on the wave of sand and shooting across the desert on the platform I'd created. The tightness in my chest was gone entirely, relaxed from finally using my powers. I twisted my hands and suddenly I was inside the wave. I laughed with joy as I surfed inside a tube of brown grains, boots sliding across the dirt. Thor flew by, the storm above us dropping lightning around us as he searched for me.

"Mahmoud!" He called out to me.

"This is awesome!" I yelled to him. "Hold on, I wanna try something!"

I reached out to the sand. Gaara had been able to do some cool stuff in Naruto, including making statues. I reached out to the sand with my mind, trying to mold it. The desert shook as I reached for the grains and forced them to move, ignoring the tight pain in my chest-

The loud sound of the Omnitrix's beeping was followed by the watch timing out. Just like that, I was in my normal human form, and the wave of sand fell apart, leaving me to fall out of the sky. My catom armor surrounded me the instant the AI registered a possibly lethal fall, but that still left me spinning through the air.

"Yaaaaaa-oof!" a large arm wrapped around my stomach, saving me from a painful hit to the ground.

"I've got you!" Thor said, bring us down for a landing.

We came to a landing as the tan waves of brown came down. The wasteland, once a place of dried stone cracked from the immense heat, now had a large dune right in the middle of it. I stared up at it as the rain above us continued to fall, wind picking up granules and blowing them away.

I was feeling pretty jazzed. I mean, that was insanely awesome! Asgardian's are supposed to be strong after all, and this form was epic, man! "Aw, man! That was so freaking cool! Weird I timed out so fast though, especially when I made sure to wait so it was charged. Should I just wait to try again?"

"No."

I blinked, looking at Thor. He looked contemplative. "We need to wait for my father. I don't know what to do with sand," he blinked. "Why is it even sand? No Asgardian has dealt with sand as far as I know."

"Can't blame them," I said, seeing my chance and taking it. "It's coarse and rough and it gets everywhere."

Thor frowned. "Is that a reference? I think Steve mentioned something about that."

Captain America had watched the prequels. It truly was the darkest timeline.