VAINGLORIOUS (Worm/Thor)

[Numen]

Brad III

I am wrath incarnate.

And yes, of course I realized that I was being an idiot.

I moved towards the titanic frost giant, who was slugging it out with Lung; their blows were the stuff of legends: fire and ice, wind and steel. Pyrotechnic bursts flashed into existence as scaled fist met frozen skin, tearing the landscape around them apart like one of Behemoth's kill-zones.

Without hesitating, I swung through the frozen branches of dying trees and hurled myself towards the towering monstrosity.

I crashed hard against his skin, the uneven surface broke apart as twisting hooks sank into them, preventing my body from sliding off, though I grimaced as the cold bit into my body, despite the steel that covered me.

I scaled up the Jotun's enormous arm, crawling like an ant, swinging again and again with my hooks, leaving crimson lacerations all over the surface of the giant-skin. WIth a great heave, I launched myself up towards the ugly face of Laufey. He glared down at me with his fearsome eyes of crimson.

I roared and slashed towards his face, but I wasn't even close to making it.

Giant fingers snatched me from the air and a crushing pressure surrounded me. Then there was pain like nothing else as I was torn in two. I felt my spine twist and snap as sinew and intestines flew out of the gaping maw where my waist used to be.

Gurgling blood, I watched in dismay as my legs were flung away into the distance.

Then I was unceremoniously dropped to the ground, shattering the permafrost that cushioned my fall. My internal organs— what few remained— protested in distress as pain flared up and down my body.

Despite the pain, I was defiant. I held up my shaking arm, this was very important for the maneuver I was about to perform next.

I stared at Laufey right in the eyes.

And I gave him the finger.

My ultimate technique. I was immensely satisfied. After-all, what greater death could a warrior ask for?

"F-fuck you." I stammered, spewing blood into the air. I was dying. The blood of man staining the ice of Australia, so distant from my home.

Where was home?

I was found in New Mexico.

But, I felt nothing for that place. Nor for Brockton Bay. Or anywhere in America.

Or anywhere in the World.

The stars were bright.

Melody, I would miss you. If only—

The sole of Laufey's hideous foot slammed down on my face.

And then there was nothing.

+++

Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.

If he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.

The power of Thor.

THOR.

+++​

I screamed in exultation and pain, and terror.

And then a deep, unimaginable, uncomprehending fury. The fury that was my very birthright.

Lightning filled my visions. Runes burned themselves into my palms and carved themselves into my back.

Power, divine and ecstatic coursed through my veins, evaporating my mortal blood.

My eyes were fire.

My bones were steel.

The steel of my skin peeled off, shattering into twisting molecules around me. I could not see them, but I could feel them as if they were part of my own body.

The comforting scent of ozone and the distinct odour of rite filled my nostrils, reinvigorating me with every breath as my lungs worked themselves.

My Hamr, my very flesh-skin shifted, and a sensation I could only describe as skipta hömum— the skin change— overcame me. I remember when Loki played a prank on me when I was younger. He had cursed the latrines and as I was doing my business, the spell overcame me and twisted my skin, my very flesh, against my will. I turned into a snake (ironically an animal I much admired) and I fell into the privy.

It was quite embarrassing and I had given him a severe whipping for it, though mother was quite angry at me for the disproportionate response.

And with that thought I opened my eyes.

I looked down at my chest— and gleaming metal filled my visions. It was techno-sorcery of alien make, forged into fine scales and mastercraft wrought vambraces and plate. A crimson cape flowed behind me, crackling with electric power.

Ahead of me, the pool of liquid I knew was my skin of iron— my "power"— twisted and turned and finally reforged itself into a Hammer with a burst of electric flare.

"Mjölnir." I whispered.

It was with me all this time, and I never knew.

With a flex of my will, as a child would twitch his fingers— the Hammer of the Thunder God shot through the air and landed in my right first.

In the distance, the titanic visage of Laufey whoreson and the equally titanic Dark Elf fought each other. I watched in dismay as Laufey pulled the Elf under the waves and frozen it solid.

I had no love for Dark Elves, not after all of the tales my father told us growing up. I used to be scared of them. I was never scared of Frost Giants, indeed, I had wished many times in secret that they would invade so I could fight them and be lauded as a great hero.

But Dark Elves scared me. An ancient race, malicious and incompatible with all life.

But this Dark Elf was a comrade. She fought to defend Midgard against the Jotuns.

She was my ally. And that meant I had to protect her as well.

I lifted my Hammer and a storm answered my call. Hurricane winds and rain followed, the temperature around me rapidly increased, melting the snow as the weather quickly transformed into a thunderstorm. Torrential rain was whipped into existence around me, washing away the blood of my former vessel.

Brad was dead, he died as a great mortal hero, succumbing to wounds that would see him in Valhalla.

My avatar's death could be dealt with later. As well as the reason I had an avatar in the first place. That golden man and the silver woman, and the threat they represented.

But first things first.



Lightning flashed across the sky and I felt myself pulled towards it, Mjölnir following it at the speed of lightning.

I heard the crack-a-thoom of thunder right as my Hammer slammed into Laufey's face and splattered his nose into bloody chunks.

"Fuck you, Laufey!" I roared in rage, electricity streaking out of my eye sockets.

The Giant stumbled as his head snapped backwards by the force of my blow, though unfortunately his neck did not break. A god, a King no less, would be hard to kill indeed.

But I was Aesir, and the God of Thunder.

I am wrath incarnate.

"Thor Odinson!?" Laufey yelped in shock, before I fell upon him like an avenging Caananite deity.

Yelling a furious battlecry, my hammer rose and fell as I carved flesh and ice from the Jotun. Thunder boomed as lightning streamed from the heavens to tear through the flesh of the demon in front of me.

Laufey weathered my wrath, and then his fist snaked out to strike at me, the speed catching me nearly off guard.

"Nice try, Laufey!" I roared as I blocked his titanic blow with Mjölnir. The Hammer blocked a blow that would have shattered tanks and tore ships asunder. Yet, against the might of Uru metal, Laufey's blow was all but meaningless.

Instead, I heard the Jotun's fingers broke against the steel of my weapon, even as every joint in my body screamed in pain as the kinetic energy of the punched funnelled through my body and tore the air apart behind me, sending my cape fluttering.

Laufey was dangerous.

Beyond dangerous.

But I would prevail, as I have always done in my many adventures and battles. Even if Loki usually helped out once or twice.

Fast as the legendary Fenris, I scrambled over his bleeding fingers, raised Mjölnir and struck down on the damaged hand. I was rewarded with a satisfying crunch and Laufey's cry of pain.

Before the Jotun could react, I was a whirlwind of wrath again, my hammer moving as if it was lightning itself, shattering Laufye's arm.

Dodging his other hand's attempts to grab me, I stabbed forward with Mjölnir, right for his jugular.

The protective runes on Laufey's body burst into prismatic colours and I was blasted away by arcane energies.

I was sent flying through the air, against my will, as the world around me spun and spun and spun and I finally punched through the surface of the frozen waters and into the deep.

In the black depths, I could see the titanic form of the one armed Dark Elf trying to break free of her bondage. The ice around her glowed with unnatural energy, reinforcing itself again and again even as layers shattered from the struggle of the powerful Dark Elf.

I threw Mjölnir and sent it flying straight at the Dark Elf with all of my fight. Lightning exploded in the waters and lit up the darkness, revealing the cool expanse around them, oddly beautiful as the reflective light of the ice above them casted everything into a dream-like vision.

Mjölnir atomized the tendrils of ice that had trapped the Elf and while the Elf reared back in pain at the force of Mjölnir's blow, she was finally free.

With flex of her muscles, the giant Elf broke the surface of the ice.

I willed Mjölnir back to me and twirled above me, the waters spun and flew away from me, creating a pocket of vacuum that exploded upwards.

I burst into the surface and flew across the sky. Just in time to see Dark Elf tackled Laufey into the ice and used a particular sharp edge of her armoured elbow to strike him in the face.

I grinned as Laufey hissed in pain. Not to be outdone, I called forth triple bolts of lightning to spear Laufy already damaged chest.

The Dark Elf looked up as I came closer.

She was wearing no mask of course, so I could see her suspicious gaze.

"Aesir?"

"Yes, Dark Elf." I tried to be cordial. It was difficult. A Dark Elf was a legendary monster, a foe the likes of which the Universe should never see again. But I had already decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Is Asgard coming to help us then?". She emphasized the "us", as if she was Midgardian or something. Well, I suppose in all fairness, she was a legitimate (if absent) part of the Nine Realms.

She sounded nervous as she voiced her question. That was expected. As far as she was aware, Asgard was hostile to her existence. Truth to be told, Asgard still would be hostile to her (and who could blame us for it?), but I would put in a good word on her behalf. I desperately hoped my stubborn Father would be okay with showing some leniency.

Maybe I should recruit that silver tongued brother of mine; to be her advocate. Loki was good at that kind of thing, where I was never that much of a talker. I prefer letting my hammer do the talking of course.

My musing was cut short when Laufey fist knocked the Elf across the sky. She crashed a short distance away back into the waters as ice splintered and exploded upwards from the displacement of an aircraft carrier's worth of weight and then some.

The Jotun swung his good arm against me before I could bring up Mjölnir to block and I was knocked far away into the sky. Laufey then closed his empty fist, runes on his body glowing brightly.

The air around me froze solid and I was unable to move. I hung in the sky, frozen in space. In the distance the expanding portal of Canberra continued to grow. We must finish this soon, otherwise Midgard would break under the power of the cheap bifrost knockoff.

Laufey laughed. "You fools have no idea of the true power of Jotunheim."

Evidently, I truly did not. However, it seems that the Jotuns still stuck to the same kind of boring boasts the history books recorded. They must be a terribly boring people.

I saw to my dismay, that his flesh was knitting itself back together as the power of Jotunheim continued to pour into its chosen vessel. The legends say that Jotunheim, the power of Winter itself, was the skull of Ymir himself. This was the power of a Celestial I was fighting against.

I could do nothing, and sorcery wasn't my forte.

Laufey twisted his fist and I could feel everything slow down.

Time was slowing down.

Laufey was freezing time.

"N-no," I gasped.

To freeze time… what power.

The red light of Elven sorcery flashed across the ocean and vapourized Laufey's spell-casting fist. The Jotun screamed in pain as the spell holding me broke.

I gasped in relief as I felt gravity took hold. Before I could fall back down, I used Mjölnir to lift myself away, twirling around me as I flew towards Laufey, the storm following in my wake.

I was distantly aware of the Dark Elf behind me running across the ocean, her torso breaking the waves apart, her very movement sending gigantic waves away from her.

Her single remaining arm was raised, red lightning dancing around it. I had no idea what it was, but I didn't want to be hit by it. I never liked magic, for all that my mother's people practiced it often.

"Keep Laufey still!" She roared, her voice reverberating across the waters. So loudly was this, that I was certain everyone on the coast had heard as well.

Her spell must be a powerful one.

I reached Laufey first, burying my hammer in his left eye-socket. A hundred bolts of lightning struck the Jotun. The thunder following in their wake sounded like a hundred missiles going off. The crack-a-thoom of their fury roaring like a dragon.

Speaking of dragons, that was when Lung bursted back out of the waters, shattering the frozen surface, right behind Laufey. He grabbed Laufey and put him into a hold.

Laufey tried to kick Lung away, his foot thrusting backwards to smash into the dragon's face, but Lung held on tight. A blur from the sky and Alexandria slammed down on the Jotun, punching him in the head on her way down, before grappling one of Laufey's leg.

Spiralling lasers signalled Legend's arrival as the blasts forced the Jotun down. Some kind of kinetic lasers, perhaps.

Despite all of our efforts to hold him in one place, Laufey raised a fist, gathering energy, and unleashed a fearsome beam of energy at the Dark Elf rapidly closing in on him.

As the energy flashed across the ocean surface, a great primal roar was heard.

A dragon of red steel descended from the heavens and blocked the energy beam with her body. The dragon suit— for that must have been Dragon— exploded. Nay, it shattered, into atom sized particles of ice.

Laufey fired another shot, but a blue dragon suit emerged from the horizon to block that shot, also sacrificing itself to defend the Dark Elf.

Screaming in rage, Laufey raised a hand and a ball of energy began to gather, no doubt to fire a ranged spell of some sort against the Dark Elf. Judging by how brightly it glowed, it was probably far more powerful than the previous attacks.

Three more metal dragons descended from the sky, firing missiles and all kinds of exotic energy weapons at the Jotun, but the damage they dealt were minimal; the Jotun was regenerating at a rate that was a bit terrifying.

The energy Laufey was gathering turned into a swirling disk of ice particles, and I could see the fabric of space and time twisted around it. What fearsome magic!

However, before the King of Jotunheim could act, a magical portal opened, and Eidolon of all people flew out.

The Triumvirate hero raised two hands, glowing mandalas circling around them, and called forth tendrils of the ocean itself to wrap around Laufey's forearm, pulling it away at the last moment before the spell could be cast. Laufey released the spiralling discus of freezing energy, the force of which sent me sprawling the air before I righted myself.

The disk of energy spun through the sky, gently, like an ethereal spirit, before it ascended into the dark sky and exploded. Night turned into day. It began to snow. I think every drop of water in the sky above was frozen.

I was personally more astonished at Eidolon's display of magic, for it was clearly magic. I know that feeling anywhere, thanks to Loki's constant usage of the art. Eidolon was a sorcerer? That was something I would never have expected. Of course, what even were parahumans? I guess it was something to ask Father.

Large sheets of ice fell from the sky to crash into the frozen surface around us, like daggers stabbing into the frozen sea.

And then Dark Elf finally reached Laufey.

Her spell-covered fist smashed into Laufey's chest in a cataclysmic flash of energy, and the Jotun screamed as he was covered in a furious explosion of sheer power.

Lung was blasted away by the force of the blow, disappearing into the distance.

Hurricane winds flung me away as well, and I was dimly aware of Legend flying away to avoid being swept by the power. Alexandria yelped as she was knock-backed into the sea.

All of the dragon suits still flying were forced by the winds into the sea, some of them struggling to stay afloat.

Looking down, I noted that the two titans were covered by prismatic colours of sorcerous energies. The power unleashed by the Dark Spell vapourized the waters around them and churned the oceans. Steam rose into the air.

Eidolon emerged casually from a portal a fair distance away, still floating in the sky. He caught me staring and gave me a polite nod. I nodded back.

That was awkward. For a moment, I remembered that he was a hero of Midgard, and I was a "villain". I winced. Something would have to be done about that. But after the day was won.

I turned my attention back to the fight.

When the light show ended, I was dismayed to find Laufey still standing, two hands gripped around the Giant Dark Elf's throat, choking her. This was despite tendrils of red sorcery trying to pull his arms back. What monstrous strength the Jotun had.

The Dark Elf's fist was still buried in Laufey's guts, tendrils of red energy wrapping around the Jotun, burrowing into his flesh as it sizzled and burned. It must be some kind of immobilization spell.

Laufey snarled, "You bitch! That won't be enough to kill me."

And then a giant sword (the same Sword I recognized Dark Elf had wielded), still gripped by a giant, decapitated arm— burst from sea and stabbed into Laufey's open mouth and out of his back. Grunting in pain, Laufey reared back, but couldn't move thanks to the cage of energy keeping him immobilized.

At the same time, the Giant Dark Elf's face dissolved into a miasma of dark energy as a human-sized Elf exploded out of her face.

The human-sized Dark Elf had a corona of swirling twisting dark matter around her, spiralling around both of her arms, whole and unblemished again. The strange matter was like nothing I have ever seen, almost sentient. The rest of her giant body began to dissolve slowly into air, leaving only her much smaller true form behind.

She leapt towards the giant arm, landed smoothly on one knee, before running straight for Laufey, running up the arm and onto the blade that was deeply buried in Laufey's throat.

The twisting material around her hands transformed into what I immediately recognized from the Book of Yggdrasil as a Dark Elf Particle Cannon.

Steadying her stance, she fired volleys of scarlet streaks at Laufey while screaming in fury, marching inexorably forward like an implacable wall of destruction.

I was impressed. Truly, she was a warrior without peer.

Laufey's face was torn apart by the storm of wrath, his skin flayed open as flesh and blood was pulverized. Yet even so, I could see his face regenerating from the attack, flesh was torn apart only to knit back together.

The sudden lethality of the attack broke me from awed stupor and I remembered that I could still fight.

"For Asgard!" I screamed loudly.

I raised my hammer, uttered a prayer to the All-Fathers of the past, and threw it with all my might.

Like the legendary Astras of Odin's Vault, it sailed across the sky like an avenging deity's judgement; every inch the divine missile of which Mjölnir's design was copied from.

And yet, I could see Laufey already twisting to dodge, straining the energies keeping him in place. His muscles bulged as he leaned away just enough that the trajectory of Mjölnir would miss him by mere inches.

Except it didn't miss.

At the last moment, giant black blades exploded out of the waters and stabbed into Laufey's shoulder, pinning him in place. A scarred and bleeding Hela roared in triumph, one arm hanging from the side of the jagged blade.

On wings of lightning, Mjölnir shattered Laufey's skull in a pyrotechnic display of power. Once more night became day. Shards of Jotun skull were blasted into the air, exposing Laufey's brain to the world.

With all of its energy spent, Mjölnir disappeared into the waves below.

Seeing the damage done to the Jotun, the Dark Elf continued to advance, firing her cannon.

She screamed as she poured more weapons fire into the wound on the Jotun's skull, depressing the trigger on her Particle Cannon until it overloaded and broke apart into crude glowing dark matter.

The Dark Elf grabbed the crude dark matter with her hands, gathering them around her and immediately transmutated a belt of Black Hole Grenades.

I watched in awe as she tossed the mythical weapon of my childhood bedtime stories into the Jotun's brain.

And then there was a blackhole where the Jotun's head used to be.

Before I could shout a victory cry, the Canberra Portal shot upwards across the sky, and a great rift split the Heavens in twain; and I could see the Worlds beyond.


________________________________________
NOTE: I am back! And we are beginning to enter the endgame.

 

[UnfortuWatcher]

IT IS BACK BABY!!!!
And now off to read the chapter.
Thank you for not giving up on this wonderful story.

 

[Cape KaosMage]

Yay, looking forward to it

 

[Lord Sia]

Not enough likes in the world. Truly, an epic battle!

 

[Shulta]

Well... That's one way to comeback....... You realize this means a reread......

 

[ironwar32]

Sweeeeet, also figures that Asgard shows up after all the fighting ends. I wonder when Her mom and true king of the Jotun will show up.

 

[Zakara]

Wow, full on Avengers moment there, every big player still in the fight coming back to take Laufey on. I counted Thor/Brad, Taylor, Lung, Eidolon, Legend, Alexandria, Dragon, Hela, Excalibur, and Mjölnir, all working together as a halfway coherent team. Hopefully having his entire head replaced by an infinitely collapsing singularity will be enough to keep Laufey down for good this time. With Laufey and the Casket gone, the Frost Giants should lose most of their momentum, leaving the malfunctioning Proto-Bifrost as the only serious threat remaining. Well, that and whatever other shit the universe feels like throwing Earth-Bet's way while the chaos is still at a high point. I think Asgard, the Bet-GotG, and Arthur are the only allied forces still absent at the moment.

Seriously though, I hope someone managed to record all of that final battle with Laufey, cause the PHO reactions will be fucking insane.

 

[Blaflaix]

recognized from the Book of Yggdrasil as a Dark Elf Particle Cannon.

Click to shrink...

Something about this phrase amuses me greatly.


"After the Dread Shadowlings, the next entry is about the Poison Darkroot. It is a rare, but deadly plant that will slay any being drinking water that has been tainted by its presence."

"What is that on the next page?"

"That is the Dark Elf Particle Cannon. It goes *pew**pew**pew* and makes things explode."

 

[Forsaken knight]

dude that fight was so badass !!! sooooo goood. good to see your back man!

 

[Slayer Anderson]

Excellent new chapter! I look forward to it coming out that Dark Elf is a Brockton Bay native. Seriously, between her, Lung, and the Ascended Hookwolf/Thor Odinson people are going to be wondering if there's something in the water in that crazy fucking town.

Also, Eidolon is a wizard now, and that's amazing.

 

[Kuriboh]

Excellent new chapter! I look forward to it coming out that Dark Elf is a Brockton Bay native. Seriously, between her, Lung, and the Ascended Hookwolf/Thor Odinson people are going to be wondering if there's something in the water in that crazy fucking town.

Also, Eidolon is a wizard now, and that's amazing.

Click to shrink...

I know Myrridan is so Jelly right now lol.

 

[geogio13]

That was pretty fuckin metal.

 

[P.Hominoidea]

my spine twist and snap as sinew and intestines flew out of the gaping maw where my waist used to be.

Click to shrink...

As far as I'm aware Hookwolf becomes a non-differentiated organic core when he extrudes blades.

and I fell into the privy.

Click to shrink...

I believe that privy is an almost uniquely English phrase, and Hookwolf/Brad/(probably) Thor wouldn't use it.

casted

Click to shrink...

Cast.

 

[Captain Usoland]

It lives!!!!!!!
I felt a tear when u saw the alert.


I need PHO THREADS! STAT!😭😭😭🤗

 

[Malix2]

YAY! I saw the alert and smiled with excitement. This story has many unique elements I've never seen in another story, so it's wonderful to see it alive and still kicking.

Epic fight, though now I'm looking forward to reading what happens next with the portal, is there going to be some /other/ big threat or will there be some other surprise.

 

[vohlm]

awesome! keep up the good work.

 

[LilyWitch]

I believe that privy is an almost uniquely English phrase, and Hookwolf/Brad/(probably) Thor wouldn't use it.

Click to shrink...

On the comics Thor usually speaks in a faux english accent.

 

[bradspawn]

2 days ago I decided I wanted to re-read the story cuz I was bored and then today I see this update hallelujah

 

[NecroMac]

I can't wait for next update. Hopefully in this year

 

[Numen]

As far as I'm aware Hookwolf becomes a non-differentiated organic core when he extrudes blades.

Click to shrink...

That's correct, but I made a narrative decision to make it a skin layer instead, to double down on the Mjolnir thing.

Not as thin as a skin I should say, the skin is meant to thematically evoke "skin", or Flesh in Germanic Religion.

Eh, it's an aesthetic choice.

 

[vohlm]

souldn't he still be able to use his power as a cape. After all the little girl trigger with ice powers. My thoughts is that Thor should be able to still use it..... Or did i miss it and he subconsciously use his power and i miss it.?

edit; Never mind just reread it his power was his hammer all along. Odin just twisted it with magic and Brad death shattered the curse

 

[Numen]

DOCTOR MOTHER II

Fortuna kicked the door to my office open and beckoned to me with one hand.

"It's time."

Oh boy, here we go again. Cryptic path-to-the-future-full-of-riddles-save-the-world-quest bullshit.

And I was getting to the good parts too! I closed the romance novel I was reading, and scratched an itch on my butt. I was in a black tanktop and my unfashionable panties.

Nobody said this saving the world business required a goddamned dress uniform.

"Time for what? In case you haven't noticed, there's a freaking war going on out there!" I pointed out the window, where there was just snowing mountains. The vista of some virgin Earth somewhere. I was being figurative, obviously.

Fortuna skirted around the island in my kitchen and went straight to the fridge. "The war would be over soon enough, I have seen it. Even now, the noose closes upon the King of Jotunheim's throat."

I sat straight up. "That's news to me."

Fortuna opened the mini-fridge and grabbed a small box of chocolate ice-cream. "Well the paths are coming to a close in that regard, despite the workarounds I had to do to simulate Dark Elf's actions. Unfortunately, our forces are quite depleted, and the Jotun Army is still just as powerful as ever; however, their eventual loss of leadership would be their undoing, especially considering their plainly feudal hierarchy, though feudal is a bit generous, and of course, their lack of a proper chain of command."

A great weakness, to be sure, to be ruled by the literal strongest. Fortunately, natural selection had seen fit to gift Mankind with the power of cooperation. And the power of friendship will naturally defeat the Jotuns.

It helped of course, that un-natural selection had seen fit to gift humanity with superpowers.

And of course, a shadowy cabal of literal power-brokers definitely helped keep "cooperation" running smoothly in these trying times. Uncooperative people would just get disappeared by Fortuna.

"Still, the war is hardly over, there would be Jotun footholds for months afterwards, maybe even years." Fortuna finished her analysis as she licked the last bits of her ice cream off a spoon and dropped the ravaged carcass of the icecream box into the sink. Christ, girl, that was fast.

"Also, Doctor, don't pretend you're actually worried, you were reading a romance novel in your underwear." She scoffed as she wiped her mouth with water from the tap.

"Worrying doesn't change anything," I snarked before I went to grab my pants. This wasn't my first Fortuna Ex Machina rodeo— sooner or later, I just knew I'd end up somewhere inimical to underwear.

"Alright, where to?"

I shrugged on my white lab coat. My closet was mostly white lab coats. It wasn't because I was trying to be professional or anything, I wasn't even a real doctor after all; I was just lazy.

"England. My power is telling me to go to England. Specifically, London."

"What's in England?"

Fortunas' face scrunched up. "I— I am not sure. My power just needs us to be there, right now. I think something has happened, some kind of fail-safe in my power has been triggered. I don't know what, but I feel that the worst case scenario has happened."

I frowned. None of that sounded like good news at all. In fact, it actually scared me, and I hadn't been scared for a long time. Jotuns invading Earth Bet? Who cares, there's thousands of Earths beyond this one.

But Scion...well, now Scion was a true threat.

The Entities were no friends of humanity, that much Fortuna was certain of. Or at least, Fortuna's Power was certain of the threat that Scion represented to the many Earths.

Fortuna had often described her Power as an almost sentient being, something with a Will beyond her own. And of course, that was fairly concerning, considering the source of most peoples' powers.

As far as Fortuna remembered, she just woke in the middle of the night with powers, like waking from a dream. Her life prior to that point had felt surreal and difficult to recall.

It was certainly slightly different than how most people triggered, but then again, considering the nature of the Entity and the artificial powers I myself had a hand in making work, Fortuna was almost certainly an unexpected recipient of one of the dead Entity's agents.

Probably. The world was making less and less sense. It is the case that nowadays, there were aliens and people calling themselves actual gods, fucking around in Australia right now.

And Eidolon— seriously what the fuck, Eidolon!?

When I heard about his miraculous return after weeks of being MIA, I had expected that he would show up here to report to me why he went incognito.

Instead, it seemed he had founded a cult of grab-bag parahumans, which, for some reason, all seemed to be using an eclectic mix of powers similar to his current powerset.

This cult reportedly referred to themselves as the Masters of the Mystic Arts.

If David joined a Cult, I will kill him. He should've known better.

Or the worse case scenario: He was brainwashed.

In any case, they seem to be on humanity's side, for now, so we'll cross that bridge when we get there. They were key to rescuing many people, their portals were of great interest to Cauldron.

Of course, Doormaker and Clairvoyance was still the greater, thanks to the Power of the Tesseract.

"Door to London, United Kingdoms." Fortuna called.

A portal opened in front of the streets of London, in front of some apartment building.

"What the hell is here, that is so important?"

"I don't know." Fortuna replied.

I grimaced. The downside of Fortuna's paths was of course, that was she wasn't always sure why she had to do something. Something like, "why did the five year old little girl had to be pushed down the stairs?"

Sometimes, I feel like Cauldron was just far too villainous to be real. It was absurdly cliched that we had to do such evil things for the greater good.

But here we are.

We walked up the stairs and stopped in front of an unassuming wooden door.

Fortuna gave a timid knock. Was she...was she being timid? That was most unlike her. How cute!

It opened almost immediately and we were greeted by a blonde haired old man who looked down at us. Tall for a geezer. He wore striped pajamas in colours that clashed horribly. I mean, bright yellow and lime green?

I did immediately noted the dark eye-patch however.

Fortuna, whose power takes the form of an eye, leads us to another person who also had one eye.

Interesting. This was probably not a coincidence.

"Excuse me sir, are you Mister Kevin Norton?" Fortuna began, but then choked on her words.

"You...you're…" the Old man began before his exposed eye rolled back into his skull, becoming white.

Fortuna began to hyperventilate, and a beak bursted from her eye-patch.

"KRAAA!"

A raven exploded from Fortuna's face, splattering me with viscera. She dropped to the ground, and became still.

I screamed.

The Raven soared across the short distance between hallway and door...and roosted on the Old Man's shoulder. The moment it did so, the Old Man gasped and his eye returned to normal.

I stepped back in fear.

The Old Man gave off a palpable aura of bloodlust and death. And then it was gone.

"Ah. Hello, Muninn. I have missed you, my memories."

Fortuna was dead. Fortuna was dead.

She was almost like a daughter to me. I was gripped by terror more than grief however.

The Old Man set his eye upon me and I froze up. It was like some ancient alien intelligence staring down at you.

"Numberman!" I screamed.

A door opened beside me and a knife flew out of it towards the old man— who promptly caught it between two fingers.

"That wasn't very nice, James." The Old Man chided.

Fuck, how did he know the identity of the Numberman?

James physically emerged from the portal, more knives clutched between his fingers.

"Who the fuck are you and what did you do to Fortuna?" He demanded.

I have to admit, if I wasn't upset at Fortuna's death, I would find James very hot right now.

The Old Man raised a hand, and smiled. "Ah, James, Doctor. This is going to sound unbelievable, but in a round-about sort of way...I am Fortuna."

I gaped.

"Bullshit." I cried. How I wish I had a gun. But all I bothered putting on this morning aside from my underwear was my pants.

"Kraa!" The damnable Raven, the thing that had killed Fortuna hopped up and down, as if it had something important to say.

The Old Man continued, as if he wasn't speaking nonsense. "What Muninn here was saying, is that technically, he was Fortuna. More so than me anyway. For you see, Fortuna was my avatar. Or the Fortuna you knew anyway, the original little girl that she was died the moment she became Muninn's host, her memories added to Muninn's own."

James lowered his knives. "He's telling the truth."

"What." I turned to glare at James. "Surely you don't believe this nonsense!"

"Think about it. Muninn is one of Odin's Raven. We have Jotuns and Hela in Australia. Someone obviously helped you kill the Entity."

The Old Man twitched at the mention of Hela. Interesting.

James turned to the Old Man. "Are you Odin?"

"That's right, James. Was it the eyepatch that gave me away?" The King of Asgard asked sarcastically.

This was Hela's dad?

"Great. Can you help us stop the Canberra Portal that's expanding right now? I fear it may soon...become unstable."

I turned to James in alarm. "What! I thought it was stable!"

"Laufey's the only thing slowing the portal down, a side-effect of the Tinkertech, the Casket of Ancient Winters, which was what originally stabilized the portal," James explained. "Unfortunately, we're doing everything we can to kill Laufey, which means that his death will also spell the end of whatever was holding the Canberra portal together. To catastrophic effects, I am quite sure. Remember what Hela said?"

Right, the world-destroying super wormholes.

"Thus is the danger of the Bifrost," Odin interjected. "If you were wondering, Doctor, that day when you wielded Jarnbjorn to kill the first Entity, the truth was that it I was who I had earlier decapitated it, with the Bifrost of Asgard, while it was wounded from battling the Ancient One. All part of my great plan."

I turned back to Odin, "I still don't believe you."

Odin sighed, looked up at the ceiling, and then through clenched teeth said, "I— that is to say, Fortuna— underwent menarche in your care, and you had to give her the talk after her Path to Google Image Search turned up images that terrified her even more."

I stared at Odin.

I turned to James, "Against my better judgement, I have to believe him."

"Kraa!"

"Silence, Muninn. We will not speak of this. Ever." Odin admonished his Raven.

"So can you help us, Mister Odin?" James asked.

Odin sighed. "I am very weak right now, metaphysically speaking. I drained the Deathcore of Asgard, the Odinforce, in order to bring about the First Entity's demise. I founded Cauldron for the purpose of—"

"No, I founded Cauldron," I interjected.

He glared at me, and then continued. "You were a pawn in my plans, Doctor. I founded Cauldron with an elaborate ,carefully constructed, multi-stage plan in mind.

"After expending a great deal of my powers and wits killing the first Entity— all the while without being able to directly act against them due to a binding geass upon my person— I knew I had to be careful on how I proceed to kill the second, much more powerful Entity without triggering total war across the Nine Realms, without bringing Ragnarok down upon our heads.

"Cauldron was meant to be my indirect way to engineer the death of the second entity. But—"

"But things didn't go according to plan?" I hazarded a guess. "I mean, why else are you some random old guy in London instead of lording it up in the godly realms or whatever, thinking of solutions to the Scion problem, right?"

You know, maybe save me all the stress of trying to solve that problem every night, and slowly losing hope we'd have any real chance of killing the golden bastard.

The King of Asgard nodded his head solemnly. "The unforeseen obstacle in my plans was that my wife overthrew me— and the Dark Elf also threw several paths off kilter, I'd admit. Can't believe they're still around. Anyway, it was kind of my fault, I kept too many secrets close to my chest and she—" He sighed. And shook his head. "It's too late now, anyway, for regrets."

Oy, blame us women for everything would you?

I was getting pissed, first Fortuna died, despite whatever Raven Keeper here claimed, and she was so certain coming here would be able to resolve whatever crisis was coming. And of course, now the Viking Aged God was a chauvinist pig, which was not surprising to me at all.

James held up a hand, as if he knew I was about to get snarky again, and asked again. "But can you help us or not?"

Odin nodded his head. "With the Space Stone, I could definitely stabilize the inevitable rift. But….I have no power left to do anything about the Celestial."

"The what stone? And what is a Celestial?"

Speak English goddammit.

"I think he meant the Tesseract, Doctor." James clarified, "And I think the Celestial refers to Scion, hmmm, a species designation, correct?"

"Yes."

Ah. That. Well, if he was truly Fortuna's....higher self or whatever, then of course he would know about the Tesseract, the secret source of Doormaker and Clairvoyant's powers.

"Let me get my nice suit", the Asgardian began to close the door.

"A superhero suit?" I asked.

"No, just a suit. And my bowler hat."

He closed the door in our face.

Minutes later, he opened the door again. Gone was the striped pajamas, and now Odin was magnitudes more handsome and dignified. If eccentric. After all, he had a raven on one shoulder.

"Let's go, we—"

A voice interrupted us. "So, are you fellas LARPERs? What game are you playing? I mean all this Odin, and Scion stuff. Interesting storyline!"

The three of us turned our heads and spied some hairy old guy eating a bag of cheetos leaning outside of his apartment entrance.

Our unwelcome voyeur stared at Fortuna's body. "Bloody hell, mate, those are some realistic blood! Kids these days, using tinkertech to make roleplaying more realistic. I envy you lads, why back in my day–"

"Should I kill him?" James asked me.

"Sure. I could use a meal." Odin replied.

"We're not killing anyone!" I screeched.

Sure, that was hypocritical of me, maybe. But I hadn't hit affably evil just yet, and while James was a former member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, letting him indulge in those murder-hobo habits wasn't healthy for him.

It wasn't like keeping Cauldron a secret was a priority anymore anyway.

And I didn't want to know what Odin meant by a meal. Images of cannibalism entered my mind and I frowned in disgust.

We stepped through the Door back into Cauldron's home base on another Earth. Odin turned to James and asked him to bring us the Tesseract.

The Numberman disappeared through a door towards another facility, on another Earth.

I turned towards Odin, who was stroking his Raven.

"If you can't stop Scion, and Fortuna was certain you could, what is the plan?"

I was still angry about Fortuna. She died because she thought this old bastard would be able to solve our problems. But he couldn't, and Fortuna was still dead. Dead. My adopted daughter, dead.

If this bastard doesn't do something useful and soon, I will kill him. So far, the Norse God was very disappointing; but why was I surprised? Despite my religious background, I became an atheist almost as soon as I entered High-school. Gods have been disappointing me since my girlhood.

"We'll have to do it the hard way," Odin declared as he headed for the mini-fridge.

"And what is the hard way?" I demanded. Cauldron was all about finding the next Eidolon, about finding the silver bullet that can take down Scion. There has to be a way, right?

Some ancient Asgardian superweapon, maybe.

Or perhaps a mysterious weakness that we could exploit.

Odin answered my question while opening a new box of ice cream. The familiar action made me think of Fortuna...and the fact she was dead.

"The hard way, Doctor.... is Ragnarok."



__________________
Edit: I fixed several misspellings of Muninn.

 

[Shulta]

Well..... Fuck..... This will only end badly for everyone ...

 

[The Dude]

Poor Fortu...ahem...Muninn.
Had to give up his people suit.
I'm sure he loved having thumbs. And hands. And hats.

 

[Numen]

Well..... Fuck..... This will only end badly for everyone ...

Click to shrink...

Oh you have no idea :3