1.2
"I was resigned to another boring evening's repast." I flinched at the smooth male voice belonging to the person who snuck up from behind me. He smiled, probably knowing that he'd already gotten under my skin. I was so familiar with the type. "Then Hilda appears with sight unseen in these oh so hallowed halls."
Green and black, trimmed with gold went well with his pale complexion and dark hair. He had me by at least three inches and his regal bearing made me want to crawl away somewhere and hide, at least until I could find something to wear that would fit in better amongst those that I've already passed on the way to the Hall of Asgard. Brunnhilda was speaking to the King while I waited in the very back.
It was times like these that strengthened my resolve to get my powers back, if for no other reason than to never get snuck up on again. At least I recovered quickly enough.
"Sight unseen?" I asked.
He nodded lightly and I watched as his attention drifted to Odin. "My father would sooner blind his other eye than to allow a mortal free reign within."
"Well, I'm not exactly free… reigning." Dear God, Mom would have been so disappointed with my ability to speak, or rather my lack of ability in this particular instance. "Hold on. You said father."
A smile accompanied his nod, along with a hand held to his heart and a slight bow in succession. "I am Loki, Prince and son to the Allfather, and judging by the spear you wield, are late of Valhalla, I presume?"
My degree of nervousness increased tenfold. "Uh… yeah. Today… just the one day."
I had to stop and grit my teeth before appearing even more like an uneducated idiot.
"My name is Taylor Hebert of Earth Bet. Brunnhilda brought me to Valhalla just this morning."
There; success; a complete sentence! Two even!
His brow furrowed and I watched transfixed as he cocked his head in curiosity.
"Earth… Bet. I am familiar with hundreds of planets, and a thousand civilizations, none of which is the purview of the valkyries. No, they alone travel the Nine Realms in their duties, one of which is Midgard otherwise known by its inhabitants as Earth."
When I just stood there contemplating the part where he said, "thousands of civilizations," and the implications thereof, Loki had to prompt me once again.
"Shall I alert the scribes that a new edit is fast approaching? I dare say that they should all be flustered at the thought."
"Alternate dimension," I clarified. "An alternate Earth."
Finally, I seemed to have taken him off guard. His eyes widened only a fraction, and it was more surprise than disbelief, so he had to be aware of the concept.
"Why would…?" he started before a resounding thump cut him off and both our attentions were brought to the throne. "Ah, another time. My father often maintains business before pleasure. I look forward to continuing our conversation, Taylor Hebert."
Not me. Definitely not me. While I could appreciate the intellectual conversation, not to demean the eye candy, I really didn't like to feel so out of place. Loki was a prince, or possibly a god, or maybe a demi-god, and I was… well, I was me.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, L… Prince Loki."
Quickly, I made my way across the length of the giant hall, eventually to the side of my soon-to-be boss.
The ceremonial armor Odin was wearing made judging his actual size problematic. He was big, and the spear he held beside his throne even bigger. He cocked a measuring eye at me and even went so far as to raise a brow before shifting his attention to Brunnhilda.
"Do we not have something more formidable, Hilda? We risk much imposing our presence on Midgard without just cause."
Was I just insulted? I think I was. Fucker. "Hey, I…."
"Taylor," Brunnhilda said, stopping me before I wound up killing myself at the end of Odin's spear, most likely. "I do not choose this mortal lightly, my King. Her actions speak for themselves, not to mention her tenacity. Her power is ideal for this mission."
He leaned forward and stroked his close-cropped white beard while I wondered how his eye-patch wasn't falling off since there wasn't anything obvious holding it on. I highly doubted they used super-glue on Asgard.
"Very well. I accept the terms," he said to her before turning his full attention to me. "Heed me well, mortal woman. Times like these rarely occur. Twice my father, Bor, brought mortals from Midgard into Asgard, granted them power beyond their imagination, a station amongst the warrior-elite, and twice he had them beheaded on the battlefield soon thereafter for their incompetence."
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry.
"My valkyrie has confidence in your skills that you have proven on your homeworld; I do not. However, this mission will be your testing ground – a quest if you will. You will be granted a temporary commission amongst the Valkyrior and all that entails. Your body will be mended and your power will last only as long as the mission. When… if you return from Midgard successful, you will be granted a permanent position if, that is your wish."
Well at least he was straight forward and didn't jerk me around. I could respect that for what it was. At least until I got my bugs back.
I won't go into the experience of having my arm regrown or even the feeling of two white hot spikes being driven into my head from where Contessa shot me. I will however expound on what it was like for my passenger to reawaken and its being bound to me.
Even with Bonesaw's villain monologue on her thoughts regarding the shards in every parahuman's brain, and including Lisa's numerous theories on the topic, I didn't really think of it as an intelligent being. What I mean by that is I thought of it more as a living component of a greater whole, working in concert with me to do… something. As to what, I still wasn't all that clear on. People threw their thoughts on the subject at me, but in the end it wasn't really all that important, save for the destruction of Scion. By then I was all but dead anyway, so it didn't matter.
When Odin did his thing, I actually felt when it reawakened.
It wasn't what I would call intelligent. Maybe it was right at the cusp of being so or maybe it was me projecting my hopes and fears on the thing, but I could have sworn, as Odin's power coursed through my body, that I felt the slightest tinges of fear.
Like I said, it could have been my own. It probably was. Most likely.
Whatever it was that I felt was immediately quashed, imprisoned in my mind, or possibly my brain. That was something I was sure of – don't ask me how. All I know is, seconds after it happened, the world came alive around me once more and a cruel smile rose on my face at the thought. With my head bowed at the knee of Odin and his massive hand resting on the crown, nobody would have seen, but I knew it for what it was.
Weaver and her goals of defeating Jack Slash and Scion afterward were gone. This was more akin to the feeling I had after I had defeated Lung and carved out his eyes for the protection of those that would come afterward and haul his fiery dragon ass away to the Birdcage. It was triumph – facing the unbeatable foe and coming out on top once more.
People doubted me so many times: Lung, the Nine, the Protectorate, Tagg, Alexandria, all of them. They doubted the abilities of the bug girl, Skitter.
When the pain eased away I took a cleansing breath and pushed that part of me down, the desperate part that would do almost anything to insure victory at all cost. She wasn't who I was anymore. Mere months she was alive before Weaver took her place. Khepri was closer to what I truly was even more than my second guise – Skitter returned with what amounted to godlike power, but she was dead too. What stood here before the throne of Odin was something altogether different.
My passenger didn't define me anymore; I defined it.
~O~
"Taylor," Brunnhilda almost scolded me. "What are you doing?"
We had been given access to the Palace Armory for the valkyrie's tools of trade. Odin wouldn't even think of having anything made specifically for me until I'd proven myself in his eyes. Not that it was my primary goal or anything. I was fully alive once again, more than I was even when I was on Earth Bet. All of my ills were cured: old fractures, torn ligaments, my lingering issue with the concussion that Amy had gifted me with at the bank job. I felt new, fresh off the conveyer belt, on the showroom floor new. Most of all was my connection to the alien bugs around Asgard.
"Sorry. It's all the new species. We didn't have anything like this on my world. There's… so much and they're going to be so useful."
She raised an eyebrow at me. "None of which you can take with you to Midgard. Introducing them to that environment could be dangerous to the extreme."
I was about to protest, but the rational part of my brain chose that point to see what she was talking about. "Damn."
"Well, I'm making a costume out of the spider silk anyway. It feels stronger than even the Darwins on Earth."
"What…," she stopped and looked around, "kind of spider?"
I called out the mated pair I'd found in one of the unused alcoves. They came skittering across the floor unafraid of anything. I was fascinated at the seven extra limbs that were solely devoted to web manipulation and the multiple venom sacs with varying degrees of poison inside. The body was a good four inches long and an inch or two wide. The things I could have done with a few hundred of these in Brockton Bay.
Brunnhilda took two steps back and watched as the spiders raced to me, crawling up my legs to my waiting hands. They scurried up my arms to my shoulder, one on each turning to face my new boss.
"Aren't they beautiful?"
I actually heard her swallow harshly. "You have total control of those… creatures?"
I nodded and reached up to run a finger along the strange exoskeleton. I bet with their speed and this armor they were really hard to kill.
"Oh, yeah. No problem. Even in my sleep or if I was knocked unconscious, they'll defend me or keep on with whatever their last command was that I gave them."
She nodded in understanding while she kept a good distance away from me. In a very measured voice she asked, "Are there anymore on the palace grounds?"
I thought about it for a few seconds. "I don't think so, but I'm still processing all the new life. It's a little overwhelming, but it shouldn't take too much longer."
That information seemed to ease her mind. "When you are finished with them I would suggest you cage them or kill them, and do not ever bring them into the presence of the Allfather."
I realized then that I was back in creepy-mode for the average person that couldn't truly appreciate what these bugs could accomplish with the proper guidance – or maybe that was exactly what she was afraid of. Heh.
~O~
"I don't really need all of this," I complained at the full outfit of tight fitting armor and giant spear. "They don't exactly wear armor like this on Earth."
While it wasn't full plate mail, the stuff was still fairly heavy. Most of it was some kind of composite fiber that I'd never seen before, obviously. The rest was made from the same stuff of which Brunnhilda's spear was comprised. The outsides of my legs, knee, forearms, shoulders and breasts were plated up. I could move well enough, and the really hard stuff didn't get in the way. I suppose it was specifically made that way to protect the places more apt to get hit in a sword fight. Still, it was a little much.
"This is the armor every valkyrie wears. Once we chose a sword for you, it can be dispelled at your leisure and recalled whenever needed," she answered as she was looking over a vast amount of weapons.
"Dispelled? You mean it wasn't my imagination that you were wearing something like this when you came to get me in Valhalla?"
"You will find the sword of an Asgardian is more than a sharp form of metal with a handle, Taylor. It is a true weapon and utility of ours. With it we can change from casual clothing to battle armor with but a thought channeled into the sword. We can absorb energy and physical blasts from the enemy and return our own, and certain weapons are enchanted to do much more."
Well, that made a lot more sense than some advanced alien race relying on ancient blades to fight with.
"Here, this one," she said while taking a sword from rack with a dozen identical ones alongside. "Grasp it with your hand and hold it up to your breastplate like this."
It was a kind of salute, which I performed for her. "What did that do?"
"Until your mission is over that sword is yours, attuned to that armor. Now wave it downward in front of you and think about dispelling your armor."
Which I also did. Everything from the winged helm to the armor covering portions of my boots glowed blue and faded away until the base clothes I wore underneath was all that remained.
"I could have used this years ago," I murmured.
"Now hold the sword out to your side and dispel it in the same manner."
Oh, excellent! I get to do the disappearing sword trick!
In another moment it was gone, and without her urging I did the same trick to the spear I was issued. All gone… uh.
"Where did everything go?"
Brunnhilda gestured to the door and explained as my two spiders ran to catch up. "Some call it the Heavenly Realm, while others explain it as a pocket dimension.
I personally care not, as long as they are always returned to me in the condition in which they left my presence."
I nodded and was pretty much of the same mind. I really don't think I'd need any of it in the first place once I had my new costume made. Speaking of which.
"Can I store other things there? Like supplies and…."
"No."
"But…."
"No."
"Bugs."
She glanced down at me. "You will not take any Asgardian bugs with you to Midgard, Taylor."
"No, I mean when I get there. I could build a swarm, store them away, and it would be a lot less noticeable to the civilians there. I could…."
"No. Only the items made specifically for a valkyrie's use can be attuned to the Heavenly Realm."
"Damn." I thought about that for a few moments. "How, uh… do they attune items like that?"
Her brow furrowed. "Ask someone more fluent in Runelore than myself. I know only those that are pertinent to my duty."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Well, obviously Asgardians live long lives. Why not learn more things that might be useful under unusual conditions." It was me that cut her off this time, before she could counter my idea. "When I first started as a cape, people constantly underestimated me. I was the bug-girl – the one with the creepy useless power.
"So I thought of ways to use it to my advantage. The spider-silk armor, using my bugs for reconnaissance, using flight capable bugs to carry those that weren't so I could deliver a bigger punch, covering certain bugs with a liquid that burns sensitive areas, and so forth. You can get so much more out of what you have when you think creatively using other items in new and useful ways."
Brunnhilda stopped and turned to me. "You would have me become a Runescribe so that one day, that might never come, I might use said talent in… creative ways?"
I shrugged. "I have no idea what's involved, so I don't know."
She looked like it was far too much work. "Carving – endless amounts of intricate carving. Besides, only Loki ever had the patience for the art, and Odin is the only one with the power and knowledge to use them for anything other than minor things. I highly doubt the Allfather will take the time to teach it to a mortal."
I nodded as we moved on. "So, Loki then."
