by Alex Irvine
Turning, Thor walked out of the restaurant.
“Where are you going?” Jane asked, rushing after him. This guy was acting stranger and stranger. But she couldn’t risk letting him leave again. He still hadn’t helped her.
“To get what belongs to me,” Thor said. Then he stopped, as though it had just occurred to him that he had no idea where he was going. He looked at Jane. “If you take me there now, I’ll tell you everything you wish to know.”
Jane raised an eyebrow. “Everything?”
“All the answers you seek will be yours—once I reclaim Mjolnir.”
“Mjolnir?” Jane repeated quietly. What was Mjolnir, and why did it sound like something Selvig would mutter when he was angry?
As if he could read her mind, Selvig pulled Jane aside. “Listen to what he’s saying,” Selvig insisted. “‘Thor.’ ‘Bifrost.’ ‘Mjolnir.’ These are the stories I grew up with as a child… in Scandinavia!”
Jane looked back and forth between the two men. True, Thor could maybe answer her questions, but Selvig had never let her down. Maybe he was right, maybe this was a fool’s errand. Maybe this “Thor” was just a delusional stranger who thought he was some kind of Viking.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “I can’t take you.”
“I understand,” Thor said. “Then this is where we say good-bye.” Taking her hand, he raised it gently to his lips and, after bowing to the others, walked off.
Jane watched him go, and for the first time in a long time, she wondered if her heart was more powerful than her head.
“Now,” Selvig said. “Let’s get back to the lab. We have work to do.”
LONG LIVE THE KING
Sif led the Warriors Three to the throne room, where they waited for the elite Einherjar Guards to open the door and conduct them in. Looking down in proper deference, they approached the elevated throne and knelt. “All-Father,” Sif said. “We must speak with you.”
They looked to the throne and froze in shock.
On the throne, wearing his ceremonial helmet with its great curving horns, sat Loki. In his right hand he held Odin’s mighty spear, Gungnir.
“What is this?” Volstagg demanded.
“My friends,” Loki said. “You haven’t heard? I am now ruler of Asgard.”
“Where is Odin?” Fandral asked.
“Father has fallen into the Odinsleep,” Loki said sadly. “My mother fears he may never awaken again.”
Sif changed her tack. “We would speak with her,” she said, glancing at the Warriors Three as if to tell them to let her handle the conversation.
But Loki shook his head. “She has refused to leave my father’s bedside,” he said. “You can bring your urgent matter to me, your king.”
“We would ask you to end Thor’s banishment,” Sif said simply. She knew there was little chance of success, but she had to ask.
“My first command cannot be to undo the All-Father’s last,” Loki said. “We’re on the brink of war with Jotunheim. Our people must have a sense of continuity in order to feel safe in these difficult times.”
Nothing could have been worse news. If only they could have spoken to Odin, to make him aware of their suspicions about Loki… but now that chance was gone.
As Thor’s friends, the Warriors Three and Lady Sif would now be under suspicion themselves—especially if Loki believed they knew he had permitted the Jotuns to enter Asgard and try to steal back the Casket of Ancient Winters.
“All of us must stand together, for the good of Asgard,” Loki said. He looked at them, not saying anything else, but they knew what he meant.
He was telling them that he was in charge and that he would not tolerate any opposition.
“Of course,” Fandral said before the more hot-headed Volstagg or Sif could say something to anger Loki.
The group bowed their heads and left the throne room. None of them spoke until they were well away, for fear that Loki would hear what they said.
There was only one thing they could do now. It was dangerous and uncertain, and it might not work. But the only alternative was to surrender Asgard to its enemies.
FINDING ANSWERS
Jane Foster’s life had been turned upside down overnight. First, she had discovered a man in the middle of the desert. A man who, according to pictures she had taken herself, had fallen to Earth out of a rainbow-colored tornado. Then this same man had made cryptic remarks in answer to all her questions, only to kiss her hand and disappear into the desert in search of a fallen “satellite.”
Yet none of that had prepared her to walk back into her lab at Smith Motors and find it being raided by what appeared to be government agents. In the parking lot, men ripped equipment out of her utility vehicle, transferring it into large black vans. More agents came out of the lab, holding boxes and files in their arms.
Jane rushed forward and burst into the lab, her heart pounding and her fists clenched. “What is going on here?!” she demanded.
One of the men stepped toward her. He was slight, with thinning brown hair and a warm, friendly face. He held out a hand. “Ms. Foster,” he said, “I’m Agent Coulson, with S.H.I.E.L.D. We’re investigating a security threat.”
S.H.I.E.L.D.? What the heck was S.H.I.E.L.D.? Was it some part of the FBI or CIA that they kept hidden, like in those crazy cop shows? Jane had the uncomfortable feeling that this had something to do with Thor’s arrival. It was too big a coincidence.
“We need to appropriate your equipment,” Coulson went on, “and all your atmospheric data.”
“By appropriate, you mean steal?” Jane snapped. As if it weren’t obvious that they were taking whatever they wanted, with permission or not. “We’re on the verge of understanding something extraordinary.” She held up her notebook as proof.
Coulson leaned down and picked up the box at his feet. Then, reaching out, he snatched the notebook out of Jane’s hand and placed it on top of the pile. “Thank you for your cooperation,” he said, and turned to leave the lab. A moment later, the rest of the agents left as well.
Silence fell over the room as Jane, Selvig, and Darcy took in the damage. There was nothing left but a few small pieces of paper stuck beneath thumbtacks and a couple of loose pages of printer paper lying on the floor.
“Years of research, gone,” Jane said, defeated. “They took our backups! They took the backups to our backups.”
Selvig reached out a hand to comfort her, but she shook it off. He couldn’t help her. No one could. Then she looked out the window and a sliver of hope blossomed. Across the street, she saw Thor. He hadn’t made it to the crater yet after all.
Smiling, she raced outside. She had an idea. Thor was going to help her get her research back.
A few minutes later, she and Thor were in the van. The sun was beginning to set, and storm clouds were forming in the evening sky. Jane concentrated on the rough terrain, but out of the corner of her eye, she snuck glances at Thor. He looked excited, almost as though he were going into battle. Jane, on the other hand, wasn’t as confident.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said, breaking the silence.
“You’re brave to do it,” Thor replied, glancing over at her. For the first time since she’d hit him, he gave her a genuine smile.
“They just stole my entire life’s work. I really don’t have anything left to lose,” Jane said.
“You’re clever,” Thor said. “Far more clever than anyone else in this realm.” She shot him a confused look. “You think me strange?” he asked.
Jane caught the laugh that threatened to bubble out of her. Strange? That was putting it mildly. “Who are you?” she asked, trying to change the subject, or at least to start getting answers.
Thor nodded. “You’ll see soon enough,” he said, looking up ahead.
Jane followed his gaze, and her eyes grew wide. They had found the satellite. Parking the van, Jane and Thor made their way to the edge of the valley ridge and lay down on their stomachs.
Pulling out a pair of binoculars, Jane looked down. The valley was illuminated with bright lights that reached high into the night and spanned outward. Guard towers were set up with armed men sitting inside, while other men and women rushed about on the ground. A glass-walled command trailer was at the center of the station, and Jane could just make out something beyond it. It looked small and dark and was partially buried in the ground. The satellite! There were massive tubes and wires that snaked around the grounds, leading in and out of what appeared to be temporary offices. On the side of one of the buildings, Jane saw the word S.H.I.E.L.D. written in bold white letters.
She turned and looked over at Thor. It seemed what she was looking for and what he was looking for were in the same place.
Getting to his feet, Thor shrugged off his jacket and handed it to Jane. “You’re going to need this,” he said.
“Why?” Jane asked. As if in response, thunder rolled across the desert sky. Jane could have sworn Thor had commanded the thunder to do that.
“Stay here,” he said, ignoring her question. “Once I have Mjolnir, I will return what they stole from you.” He looked her deep in the eyes. “Deal?”
“No!” Jane yelled, surprising both her and Thor. “Look what’s down there! You can’t just walk in, grab our stuff, and walk out!”
“No,” Thor agreed, and Jane felt her shoulders relax. And then he added, “I’m going to fly out.”
Turning, he walked away, leaving Jane lying there with her mouth open. As he slipped into the valley, the first drops of rain began to fall.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
Thor might have made it unseen to the outer walls of the complex, but lightning flashed and revealed him to the sentries. He had just made it through the outer fence, tearing it up from the ground. He fought off the first guards and ran for the building, aiming for an open door with a ramp leading up to it. When he got inside, another soldier was just coming out. Thor knocked him down and took away his weapon. It was long and black and poorly balanced. He wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to throw it or hit someone with it.
A light hit him, and he turned to see a vehicle bouncing in his direction. Rain fell harder, visible in the light shining from near the driver’s seat.
He took the weapon away from the soldier and flung it at the vehicle, which was like Jane Foster’s, but smaller. And with no roof. The weapon smashed into the light and the vehicle careened out of control as its driver ducked away from the fragments of glass. It crashed into the wall and part of the tunnel fell in on it. Other soldiers came to help their comrade.
Thor moved quickly away from them, toward the center of the huge pit, where the main structure was. Lightning crackled from the hole left in the roof. Thor knew Mjolnir was within.
He was almost there when a huge soldier stepped around the corner and punched him hard in the jaw. Thor went down but sprang right back to his feet and charged the soldier. They smashed together through the wall of the tunnel and back out into the rain.
When they hit the ground, the impact separated them. Thor got to his feet. So did the soldier. He was as big around as Volstagg, but a full head taller than Thor.
“You’re big,” Thor said with a grin. “I’ve fought bigger.”
He grappled with the huge mortal, wrestling and landing punches as best he could. This was a real battle, not like the others. This man could give Thor, at least in his mortal form, real fight.
But Thor did not lose battles—on Asgard or Jotunheim or Midgard—and he did not lose this one. He got the enormous mortal down and lunged back toward the hole in the wall, but the man seized his ankle. Thor pivoted in his grasp and landed one last powerful elbow to the man’s midsection. The man gasped as the blow knocked the wind out of him, and Thor scrambled back into the structure.
He tore through the wall, which was made of some kind of tough fabric he could almost see through. It peeled away from the boards supporting the structure in great sheets, and he threw it aside.
There. Mjolnir!
It sat half-buried in the mud, with spotlights shining down on it through the rain. Energy, bright and blue, crackled from it toward Thor and up into the sky. The rain fell harder, pounding the earth into mud around Mjolnir as Thor approached it, a broad smile spreading across his face. More of the black-clad soldiers might be gathering around him, but Thor knew it wouldn’t matter when he had Mjolnir in his hands again.
He reached down, and felt the leather-wound handle of the ancient Uru war hammer. It felt right in his hand, as if it were made to be there. Thor smiled, and lifted…
Mjolnir did not budge.
Shocked, he pulled harder. Mjolnir was his! Given to him by his father!
But taken away, there in the Observatory when they had returned from Jotunheim. No, Thor thought. No! He strained with all his might, muscles standing out in his arms and shoulders… but his mortal form could not move the mighty hammer from the ground. Runes glowed on the side of its head.
Thor dropped to his knees. Mjolnir had refused him, and he was in the hands of his enemies.
The All-Father still deemed him unworthy.
He did not resist when the black-clad soldiers came to take him away.
Watching from outside the fence, Jane had a decision to make. She could not save Thor… not right then. Live to fight another day, she thought.
And ran for the van.
DARKEST HOUR
A short while later, the van screeched into the parking lot at Smith Motors. Jane leaped out and raced inside. “I can’t just leave him there!” she cried when she saw Selvig and Darcy. The two had been attempting to clean up the mess left by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Darcy, however, had been distracted by a children’s picture book that had somehow been left behind.
Flipping through it, she half listened as Jane filled Selvig in on what had happened out in the desert. Suddenly, a word on one of the pages caught her eye. “Hey! Look!” she shouted. The word looked an awful lot like the one Thor kept repeating. And above the word was an image of a hammer.
Jane walked over and grabbed the book from Darcy. “Where did you find this?”
Selvig answered, “In the children’s section. I wanted to show you how ridiculous Thor’s story is.”
“Aren’t you the one who’s always told me to chase down all possibilities?” Jane said. “If that’s really an Einstein-Rosen Bridge out there, then there’s something on the other side. Advanced beings could have come through it before.” Like Thor and his hammer, she added silently.
For a moment, no one said anything. Jane had never dared challenge her mentor before, but there were just too many signs pointing to the fact that Thor, whoever he was, was not from Earth. And now he was trapped by agents intent on covering up his existence.
Finally, Selvig spoke. “I don’t know what any of this means, Jane,” he said. “But I’ll help you because it’s you.” Sevlig didn’t want Thor staying in Puente Antiguo. It was too dangerous… for all of them. But he also knew that Jane needed information from Thor. And despite his reservations, he knew that Jane would eventually guilt him into helping her.
Selvig grimaced at Jane, who let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding.
“Thank you, Erik,” she said.
He nodded and went to make a call. Now all she could do was wait and hope whatever plan Selvig came up with would work.
Thor sat in a chair while one of the soldiers spoke to him. A small man, calm, not threatening. He asked Thor questions about places he had never heard of. He accused Thor of crimes, and Thor did not bother to respond. None of it mattered. If Thor could not lift Mjolnir, he was unworthy of his father’s gift. He did not care what happened to him.
After interrogating him for what seemed like all night, the small man left. Thor lowered his head.
“I thought he’d never leave,” a familiar voice said.
Thor looked up, startled. Loki was there! “Loki? What are you doing here? What’s happened? Is it Jotunheim
—?” Thor knew he had acted rashly. He hoped he could atone for his mistake.
But what Loki said next made that impossible. “Father is dead.”
Thor was speechless. Loki went on. “Your banishment, the threat of a war with the Jotuns… it was too much for him to bear.”
It was my fault, Thor thought. I did that. I killed my father, the All-Father of Asgard, because I was too stupid to listen. There were tears in his eyes.
“You mustn’t blame yourself,” Loki said. “I know you loved him.” He paused and then added, “The burden of the throne has fallen to me now.”
Loki ruled Asgard. Thor understood this. It made sense. It also gave him a small glimmer of hope. “Can I come home?” he asked.
With sorrow plain on his face, Loki shook his head. “The truce with Jotunheim is conditional upon your exile. Mother has forbidden your return.”
Thor was cast out from Asgard.
Forever. He lowered his head. No wonder Mjolnir had refused him. He was unworthy even to be called Asgardian.
“This is goodbye, brother,” Loki said. “I’m so sorry.”
“No,” Thor said. “I’m sorry. Loki… thank you for coming here to tell me.”
“Nothing could have stopped me,” Loki said.
He vanished then, as the small man from S.H.I.E.L.D. came back into the room. “You have a visitor,” he said.
Behind him, the older man who was Jane Foster’s friend burst into the room. “Donny, Donny, there you are!”
Who was Donny? Thor wondered. Then he remembered the name tag on the shirt from Jane’s closet. “It’s going to be all right, my friend,” Selvig said. “I’m taking you home.”
Thor let Dr. Selvig lead him from the building. Along the way they passed a clutter of instruments and machines on a table. Thor spotted Jane’s notebook and picked it up as they walked by. He was not a thief; he was returning it to its rightful owner.