by Alex Irvine
Jane stifled a laugh while Selvig raised an eyebrow and gave Volstagg’s belly a look.
“Perhaps I’ve put on a little more muscle since I was here last,” he said, sounding a bit hurt.
“That would have been a thousand years ago? Northern Europe?” Jane said, looking over at Darcy and Selvig as if to say, “I told you so.”
Volstagg looked thrilled to be remembered. “Exactly!” he said, smiling.
Thor had been oddly quiet since Lady Sif and the Warriors Three had arrived. Now he walked over and put an arm around Volstagg. “My friends,” he said, “I’ve never been happier to see anyone. But you should not have come.”
The warrior called Fandral looked confused. “We’re here to take you home,” he said.
“You know I can’t go home,” Thor said. “My father is dead because of me. I must remain in exile.”
Sif and the Warriors Three looked at one another, puzzled. “Thor,” Sif said. “Your father still lives.”
Jane saw the pain flash across Thor’s face. He had not told her everything about the events that had brought him to Earth. But he had said that his actions had caused his father, Odin, to banish him and to strip him of his godly powers, making him mortal. Her heart ached for him. She almost stepped forward to reassure him, but she stopped.
Lightning flashed across the sky, and the distant sound of thunder boomed. But it was not a storm—it was the Bifrost. Something had followed Lady Sif and the Warriors Three to Midgard. Something much more terrifying.
The sky grew even darker and the wind howled, sending trash dancing along the streets and causing people to duck into buildings for shelter. Jane felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She was frightened, but she was determined not to show it, especially not in the face of Asgardian warriors.
“What is it?” she asked.
Thor looked grim. “I don’t know,” he said sadly. “Perhaps this is another one of Father’s lessons that I just don’t understand.” His eyes suddenly flashed, showing his determination to do the right thing. “Jane, you must leave now.”
She shook her head. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
Before he could reply, Volstagg stepped forward. “He’s going to fight with us, of course!”
Thor’s shoulders sank and he turned back to his friends. “Not today,” he said softly. “I’m just a man.” Then, as though comfortable with his fate, he added, “You must stop this on your own. I’ll stay and help evacuate this town. But we’ll need some time.”
“You’ll have it!” Volstagg cried.
With a salute to the humans—and Thor—they walked out of the lab and into the growing storm.
As soon as they had left, Thor and the others jumped into action. Racing out into the street, Jane began loading people into various vehicles with directions to get as far out of town as possible. At first, some of the townsfolk balked, but when they saw the storm in the distance, they nodded and got in the cars. Meanwhile, Selvig cleared out Isabella’s diner and Darcy rushed to the bus station to tell the drivers where to go.
Soon, the place was virtually empty, more like a ghost town than ever before. Satisfied they’d gotten everyone out, Jane, Thor, and the others gathered in the back of the lab. They could hear the sounds of battle, and Jane saw Thor flinch as one of his friends let out a shout.
Thor could stand it no longer. He stormed out of the lab and onto Main Street. Jane, Darcy, and Selvig followed.
What they saw astonished them. Puente Antiguo’s downtown was already in ruins. Fires burned and cars were overturned.
And in the middle of it all stood the Destroyer.
How had Loki gained control of it? It should only have been responding to threats against Asgard! It must have truly believed him king of Asgard, with the All-Father gone into the Odinsleep.
It was nearly impossible to defeat the Destroyer, even for Asgard’s mightiest warriors. In his mortal form, Thor couldn’t imagine what he could do to help. But he was determined to find a way.
After Loki had sent the Destroyer over the Bifrost to Midgard, he waited in the Observatory. Heimdall, still frozen at his post, was poor company. “What’s it like, Heimdall, to know what is happening and not be able to do anything about it?” Loki asked.
Only Heimdall’s eyes moved.
“Such a pity,” Loki said. He shifted the Observatory controls and opened the Bifrost again.
Laufey and two other Jotuns emerged.
“Greetings, Father,” Loki said.
From a block down Main Street, Thor watched as Fandral executed a battle move Volstagg called the Flying Mountain. It was more or less exactly what it sounded like. Volstagg ran toward Fandral, who knelt and made a stirrup of his two hands. Volstagg stepped into it, and Fandral heaved him in the direction of the Destroyer. It was a devastating, unstoppable move, even if it tended to be hard on Fandral’s back. No enemy could stand against the hurtling mass of Volstagg.
Except the Destroyer, which swatted him away as if he were an insect. He tumbled through the air and smashed down onto the hood of a parked car. The Destroyer’s flame began to glow. In another moment it would incinerate Volstagg where he lay stunned by the blow.
At the very last second, Lady Sif leaped from the roof of the nearest building, spear held in both hands. She put all of her strength into the thrust, driving the point of the spear through the back of the Destroyer’s neck and straight down into the street. The Destroyer slumped and went inert, as Sif landed on its back and steadied herself.
Volstagg grinned at her. It was not the first time she’d saved his life. All of them were always there for one another.
They relaxed for a moment… and then the Destroyer started to move again.
Its head began to turn, all the way around like an owl’s. The bands of its armor spun and reoriented themselves so that within seconds it was bent backward over Sif’s spear instead of forward. The furnace within its helmet glowed, and the roar of its gathering fire spurred Sif to leap aside just as it shot a bolt of fire through the space where she had been.
The Destroyer pulled itself up slowly until it was loose from the spear that had impaled it. It turned again and raked the street with its fire. Cars flew everywhere, and so did Sif and the Warriors Three as they were blasted by the irresistible Odinforce flames.
Thor had to act. “Go now. Run!” he said to Jane.
She did, with Darcy and Selvig. Thor ran, too, in the other direction—toward where Sif had fallen.
“Lady Sif,” he said as she struggled to get up. “You’ve done all you can.”
“No,” she said through gritted teeth. “I will die a warrior’s death. Stories will be told of this day.”
Thor stopped her from charging off toward the Destroyer. “Live, and tell those stories yourself,” he said. “Now go. You must return to Asgard. We have to stop Loki.”
“What about you?” Sif asked.
“Don’t worry, my friends.” Thor looked back toward the Destroyer. It was searching for them at the other end of Main Street. “I have a plan.”
As his friends, both Asgardian and mortal, fell back toward the abandoned Smith Motors building, Thor walked down the middle of Main Street. The Destroyer approached from the other direction, looming through the smoking wreckage and kicking aside cars.
Jane called to the others to wait. “What’s he doing?”
“Brother,” Thor said. He spoke to the Destroyer, but he knew Loki could hear him. “Whatever I have done to wrong you, whatever I have done to lead you to do this, I am truly sorry. But these people are innocent. Taking their lives will gain you nothing.”
He stopped, looking up at the Destroyer, which had also stopped. They were less than ten feet apart. The front of the Destroyer’s helmet opened up, and the fires within roared to life.
Undaunted, Thor went on. He had learned something in his time on Earth. True valor was not in simple fighting. It lay in knowing when not to fight, and knowing when to
lay your life on the line for your friends.
“So take mine and end this,” Thor said.
A long moment passed. Thor steeled himself for the consuming blast of fire that he was sure would come.
But then the Destroyer powered down. It turned around and took a step back toward the place in the desert where the Bifrost had brought it to Earth.
Thor took a breath. Whatever had come between him and Loki, they were still brothers.
That was what he was thinking when the Destroyer stopped, turned around, and backhanded Thor with all its strength. Thor flew through the air and crashed back onto Main Street more than a block away, unmoving.
“No!” Jane shouted. She ran to him, with the rest of Thor’s friends close behind. The Destroyer strode away, out of Puente Antiguo and back into the desert.
Jane knelt next to Thor. His eyes fluttered open. He was badly hurt.
“It’s over,” he said. Speaking was hard for him, she could tell. Was he dying? He couldn’t be.
“It’s not over,” she said.
“I mean you’re safe,” Thor said. He was fading.
“No,” Jane said, weeping. Tears stood on the faces of Sif and the Warriors Three as well. They could never have imagined Thor struck down in battle.
Then they all heard something. It was like the sound of a falling rocket.
Or the sound of thunder.
They looked up into the sky and saw something falling toward Thor, almost faster than their eyes could track it.
“Jane!” Selvig cried out. He tried to pull her away from Thor, but she wouldn’t leave.
At the last moment before the falling object struck… Thor’s hand reached up to catch it!
Lightning flared around him, touching but not hurting any of the mortals or the Asgardians. It crackled around Thor, and they saw him change. His clothing disappeared and a shining suit of armor replaced it. A rich red cloak appeared draped over his shoulders as he sat up, and a winged helmet covered his head. In his right hand he held Mjolnir.
All of them thought they could almost hear words, like a voice was speaking distantly in all of their heads. Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.…
Thor stood and looked around, his wounds healed and his true Asgardian nature revealed on Earth for the first time. By sacrificing himself for his friends, he had proved himself worthy again.
“Oh… my… God,” Jane breathed.
Thor smiled at her, but on the edge of Puente Antiguo, the Destroyer sensed that Thor was not yet dead. It turned and rushed toward him.
With a battle cry, Thor flung Mjolnir at the Destroyer, knocking it off-balance. It recovered, and blasts of fire struck all around Thor as Mjolnir returned to his hand. Whirling it over his head, Thor rose into the air. A storm gathered around him, growing more intense as Mjolnir created a whirlwind. The Destroyer was lifted off the ground. Again and again it blasted at Thor, and every time he blocked its fire with Mjolnir.
As the Destroyer rose higher, Thor dove down through the whirlwind to meet it, holding Mjolnir before him and forcing the Destroyer’s fire back into it. Mjolnir blocked the opening in its helmet. The fire built inside the Destroyer until a huge explosion blinded everyone on the ground. They flinched away.
When they could see again, the Destroyer was falling back to Earth. It landed with a huge crash and lay still.
Thor landed a few seconds later, the thrill of the battle still clear on his face. Jane had liked his looks before, but now he was a sight to behold. “Is this how you always look?” she asked.
Thor shrugged. “More or less.”
She admired him a little more. “It’s a good look.”
They shared a brief moment before Thor returned his attention to what needed to be done. “We must go to the Bifrost site,” he said. The Warriors Three and Sif prepared to go with him.
Before they could leave, a big black car pulled up and several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents got out, including the small man who had questioned Thor the night before. “Excuse me!” he said.
Thor turned to see what he had to say. As the man approached, he took in Thor’s new appearance, and said, “Donald, I don’t think you’ve been completely honest with me.”
Thor had heard the small man’s name in the buildings surrounding where Mjolnir had fallen to Earth: Coulson. “Know this, son of Coul,” Thor said. “You and I, we fight for the same cause: the protection of this world. From this day forward, count me as your ally… if you return the items you have stolen from Jane Foster.”
“Not stolen,” Coulson said. “Borrowed. You’ll get your equipment back,” he said to Jane. “You’re going to need it to continue your research.”
“I, um… what?” she asked.
“It’s going to be very important,” Coulson said to her, but he was still watching Thor and the other Agardians.
Thor could wait no longer. It was time to return to Asgard. “Would you like to see this bridge we spoke of?”
“Uh… sure,” she said.
A few minutes later they stood at the great circle inscribed on the desert. This was the place where the Bifrost would open. Thor looked up into the sky and called out, “Heimdall, open the Bifrost.”
Nothing happened. “He doesn’t answer,” Fandral observed.
“Then we are stranded,” Hogun said.
Thor wasn’t ready to give up. “Heimdall, we need you now!”
In the Observatory, Heimdall struggled with all his might against his icy prison. He could hear Thor’s voice, but Loki’s magic held him fast. Asgard needed him. Would his strength fail him now, at this crucial moment?
No! He shattered the bonds of ice and struck down the Jotun guard waiting for Laufey’s return. The cold began to leave his limbs, and he felt his strength returning. There would be a battle coming… but first he had to answer the call of Thor.
Outside Puente Antiguo, the sky crackled open in a storm of color and energy. Selvig and Jane gasped. At last they were seeing the mythical Bifrost!
“I must go back to Asgard,” Thor said to Jane. “But I give you my word, I will return for you. Deal?”
She answered him with a kiss. Thor’s heart thrilled to it. He had never imagined having feelings for a mortal woman. The Nine Realms held many mysteries.
“Deal,” Jane said when they broke away from each other.
And then it was time to go.
BROKEN
In the chamber where the All-Father lay deep in the Odinsleep, Frigga sat by her husband’s bedside. She had seen him succumb to the Odinsleep before, but this was deeper and more sudden than usual. She was deeply concerned and afraid for him. With Thor gone, and Odin sleeping, Asgard was vulnerable to its enemies.
From outside the chamber, she heard the shout of the guards and the clash of weapons.
The doors burst open and a Jotun charged in. Frigga took up a sword leaning nearby and struck at it. The blade bit deeply into its shoulder but it batted her aside. She hit the wall and lay stunned.
Behind it, another, much larger Jotun came in… and behind it came Laufey.
The Jotun king approached Odin and lifted the lid of Odin’s one eye. The eye did not respond; Odin was too far into the Odinsleep to respond.
“It’s said you can still hear and see what transpires around you. I hope it’s true, so you may know your death came at the hand of Laufey,” he said. In one of his hands he had formed a blade of ice. He raised it slowly, relishing the moment.
A blast of energy hit Laufey from behind, shattering the ice blade and knocking the Jotun king to the floor. He looked up to see his attacker.
It was Loki! He stood with Odin’s spear, Gungnir, leveled at the wounded Jotun. Around Gungnir’s tip crackled fierce energy.
“And your death came by the son of Odin,” Loki said, and unleashed another blast. Laufey lay still.
The huge Jotun that accompanied Laufey lunged at Loki then and would have done him in—but it stopped short, it
s mouth opening in surprise. It toppled over slowly, revealing Frigga, holding the sword she had used to cut it down.
Loki rushed to her, seeing she was hurt. “I swear to you, Mother. They will pay for what they’ve done today.”
“Mother!” cried a familiar voice at the door.
Loki turned to see Thor in the doorway, looking at the scene with amazement.
“Thor!” Frigga said. She ran to him and embraced him. “I knew you’d return to us.”
Loki saw that Thor held Mjolnir. He did not know how it had happened, but he knew it was not good for him.
“Found its way back to you, did it?” he said to Thor, nodding at the hammer.
“No thanks to you,” Thor said. Frigga looked from one of her sons to the other. “Why don’t you tell them how you sent the Destroyer to kill my friends?” he asked Loki. “And to kill me.”
“It must have been enforcing Father’s last command,” Loki said, but he could see neither his mother nor his brother believed him.
“You’re a talented liar, brother,” Thor said. “Always have been.”
Loki smiled at this. It wasn’t the compliment he would have wanted, but it was true.
“It’s good to have you back,” he said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
He raised Gungnir and unleashed a bolt of energy that blew Thor through the wall and out into the courtyard far below. Frigga screamed, but Loki was already on his way out of Odin’s chamber.
Loki had killed Laufey. Now the only thing to do was take care of the rest of the Jotuns. He had to end the coming war before it started.
Thor got to his feet and saw Loki racing across the Bifrost spur toward the Observatory. A moment later, the Observatory shifted and aimed. Its energy was unleashed, and a beam of rainbow power arrowed out into space… pointed toward Jotunheim.
Thor swung Mjolnir upward and catapulted himself up onto the Bifrost spur.
The Observatory’s controls were encased in a huge version of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. It was made entirely of ice, and its thicket of roots held the controls in place. Thor would not be able to break it without destroying the controls, too.