by Alex Irvine
“You can’t stop it,” Loki said proudly. “The Bifrost will build until it rips Jotunheim apart.”
“Why have you done this?” Thor shouted over the sound of the Bifrost’s increasing energy.
“To prove to Father that I am the worthy son!” Loki answered. “When he wakes, I will have saved his life. I will be proved a worthy heir!”
“You can’t kill an entire race!” Thor could not believe Loki would do such a thing. The Bifrost would soon destroy Jotunheim, and with it every Frost Giant. It was unthinkable.
“What is this love for the Jotuns?” Loki asked. “You, who went seeking war.”
“I’ve changed,” Thor said simply. It was true. At the moment of his banishment from Asgard, he had still been foolish and stupid. He had learned much in his short time on Earth.
Loki scoffed. “So have I,” he said, and struck Thor across the face with Gungnir. It was a soft blow, meant to provoke Thor.
“Fight me,” Loki demanded.
But Thor contained his temper. “Is the throne worth what you’ve done?” he asked.
“I never wanted the throne. I wanted only to be your equal.” Loki hit him again. “Now, fight me!”
Thor held himself back. “I will not fight you, brother.”
“I am not your brother!”
Thor couldn’t understand how Loki had become so consumed with jealousy. “Loki, this is madness,” he said.
“Is it? What happened to you on Midgard that turned you so soft?” Loki’s expression changed. “Ah. It was a woman.” He grinned. “Perhaps when we’re done here, I’ll pay her a little visit myself.”
Thor had tried to restrain himself, but the threat to Jane was more than he could handle. He readied Mjolnir, and this time when Loki attacked him, Thor fought back. They battled back and forth with hammer and spear under the gleaming branches of the ice tree.
Loki battered Thor with Gungnir, the enchanted tip of which could pierce even Thor’s armor. Thor smashed him back with Mjolnir. Loki skidded across the Bifrost and slipped over the edge! He was barely hanging on.
“Brother, please!” he cried out in fear.
Thor reached to help his brother… but it was an illusion! Loki was actually behind him and hit him hard enough that Thor himself nearly fell off the bridge. Thor got his balance and spun around.
He was surrounded by twenty Lokis. All laughed and mocked him. Loki had created illusions of himself!
Enough, Thor thought. He raised Mjolnir and brought down a stroke of lightning. The blast knocked all the Lokis down. The illusions disappeared, leaving only the real Loki behind.
Before Loki could get up, Thor laid Mjolnir on his chest, pinning him in place. Because no one but Thor could lift Mjolnir, Loki could not move the hammer or get out from under it.
Then Thor went to the icy tree, fighting the surge of Bifrost energies and trying to get close enough to free the controls and turn the beam away from Jotunheim. There would not be much time. Soon Jotunheim would be destroyed.
“Look at you!” Loki said, mocking Thor even though he lay pinned by Mjolnir. “The mighty Thor, with all your strength, but what good does it do you now? There’s nothing you can do!”
But Loki was wrong. There was one thing Thor could do.
He reached out his hand and called Mjolnir to him. The hammer’s handle smacked solidly into Thor’s palm, and he raised Mjolnir to the skies. Thunder rumbled over Asgard and lightning arced from Mjolnir’s head.
Thor brought the hammer down on the Rainbow Bridge. The blow was like an earthquake, shaking everything from the Observatory all the way down to the Vault, far underground, below Asgard’s throne room.
Loki scrambled to his feet. “If you destroy the Bridge you’ll never see her again!” he screamed.
Thor ignored him. Loki picked up Gungnir and ran toward Thor as Thor raised Mjolnir again.
“Forgive me,” he said, and brought the hammer down again.
The blow shattered the bridge into millions of glittering fragments. The blast wave rolled out from the break point, rolling over the Observatory and tearing pieces of it away. The great gyre powering the Bifrost spun slowly down. The beam of energy shooting out from it toward Jotunheim faded away.
The explosion hurled Thor and Loki backward, tumbling them both over the edge of the bridge. Thor caught the edge and held on, but Loki was too far away. Stretching as far as he could, Thor reached his other hand and grabbed onto Gungnir. He held the spear with Loki dangling from its other end over the infinite space that stretched among the Nine Realms.
Thor’s grip began to slip. He fought to hang on—and then a strong hand grasped him around the forearm.
He looked up and was astonished to see—Odin! Awakened from the Odinsleep and looking younger, stronger, more vital than ever.
The raging storm of energy pouring from the broken bridge still raged. “I could have done it, Father!” Loki cried over the roar. “For you! For all of us!”
“No, Loki,” Odin said. He did not raise his voice, but somehow it carried over the chaos anyway. Sadness, regret, and a father’s disappointment were clear on his weathered face.
Thor wondered what the All-Father was saying no to. But he was never to find out, because Loki saw their father’s expression. Thor looked from Odin down to his brother just in time to see Loki realize what he had done. He had betrayed the father who had raised him; he had opened Asgard to its enemies; he had nearly destroyed another realm; he had nearly killed his brother.
The burden of it was too much for Loki. Thor saw Loki make a choice.
“No!” Thor shouted, but perhaps Loki did not hear him. Or perhaps it made no difference.
Loki let go and fell away into space, swallowed up in the endless spaces among the Nine Realms and swept away by the surging energies pouring from the broken bridge.
Odin pulled Thor up onto the Bridge. Thor staggered and fell against his father. He dropped Gungnir, and then dropped Mjolnir.
“It is over,” Odin said.
EPILOGUE
There was a great feast in Asgard two days later. War with the Jotuns had been averted! Odin had awakened from the Odinsleep more quickly than anyone could have expected! Thor had returned, his banishment lifted!
Only the treachery of Loki hung over the festivities… and, of course, Loki’s death. For surely he was dead, wasn’t he? Sif thought so.
She could see Frigga thought so as well. The queen was looking out from a corner of the banquet hall, a quiet spot far from the main party. “My Queen,” Sif said. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Frigga nodded. Sif looked out the window, too, and saw that the queen was watching her husband and her surviving son. Odin and Thor stood together on the shattered Bifrost spur, looking out over Asgard. Beyond them she could see Heimdall, standing his eternal watch at the very edge of the broken bridge.
“How is he?” Frigga asked. Of course she was asking about Thor.
“He mourns for his brother… and he misses her. The mortal,” Sif said.
Again Frigga nodded. They all had suffered losses because of Loki.
“You’ll be a wise king,” Odin said. He was planning to complete the ceremony soon. It was time to hand the throne of Asgard over to his son.
“There will never be a wiser king than you,” Thor said. “Or a better father. I have much to learn. I know that now. Someday, perhaps, I shall make you proud.”
Odin turned to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve already made me proud.”
He left Thor then, and Thor walked to the broken edge of the Bifrost. Heimdall was there. For a moment Thor looked at the stars. “So Earth is lost to us,” he said.
“No,” Heimdall said. “There is always hope.”
“Can you see her?” Thor asked. He could, in his mind. He hoped Jane Foster thought of him as much as he was thinking about her.
“Yes.”
“How is she?”
Heimdall paused as if consid
ering how to say something. “She searches for you,” he answered.w
Thor couldn’t help but smile at this. He would see her again. As Heimdall had said, there was always hope.
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He remembered the green light of the scanner playing across his face. He remembered the feeling of the gamma radiation, like a tingling heat on his skin. He remembered being scared when he felt his body start to change.
After that, things were confused. There was a chair smashing through a window. Wrecked lab equipment scattered across the room. Betty slumped on the floor. Crushed lab furniture and computers jumbled on top of the two people beside her. General Ross, his uniform torn, scrambling.
A hole broken through a wall. Cool air. Screaming and sirens.
And anger, so much anger.
Then nothing.
The hospital room was blinding white. Betty was hooked up to tubes and life-support machines, unconscious. She looked so small.
A strong hand landed on his shoulder. He looked up to see General Ross staring at him. You’ve got a lot of nerve coming in here after what you did, General Ross said.
Bruce had never felt so tired in his life, so filled with misery. Worst of all was the rage that lingered in his blood. He could feel it, waiting for its chance to escape again. The monster wanted out, and he didn’t know how long he could hold it back.
I just wanted to see her, he said. Make sure she’s all right.
She’ll be all right as soon as you leave her alone, General Ross said. Permanently. Steer clear of her. You’re a project asset now. That’s all.
He felt his pulse start to race, and knew the monster was waking up again. Terrified, he pushed past General Ross and ran—out of the hospital, out of the country, out of Betty’s life. He didn’t stop running.
Contents
COVER
TITLE PAGE
WELCOME
PROLOGUE
THE ALL-FATHER’S FEAR
A GROWING CHILL
WHAT LOKI SAW
THE POWER OF THREE
THE ALL-FATHER’S BURDEN
A STRANGER’S ARRIVAL
A TOUCH OF BLUE
A FEAST OF DELIGHTS
LONG LIVE THE KING
FINDING ANSWERS
S.H.I.E.L.D.
DARKEST HOUR
UNEXPECTED ALLIES
A NEW TALE TO TELL
BROKEN
EPILOGUE
A SNEAK PEEK OF PHASE ONE: THE INCREDIBLE HULK
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Marvel. All rights reserved.
Cover art by Danny Haas
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First ebook edition: January 2015
ISBN 978-0-316-38356-1
E3