Visions- Chapter 1
*Takes place after Thor: the Dark World. I'm writing this on my phone, so my documents can only be so long. Sorry. Shouldn't effect my writing in any way though. Hope you like.
- Hel*
A world faded into view. A world of contrast. A forest, lush, green, vibrant, ancient. It was burning. Not just burning, it was consumed by red flame, black smoke, and grey ash. Tree branches fell to the earth with a sound like bone breaking. In the distance, a chorus of screams rose with the billowing smoke. A heartbeat, strong, rose up and filled the ears, slowly replaced by a woman panting. Her. It was her own breath, she was running through the flame and mossy undergrowth.
Where was she going? She had to do something... something important... The screaming was getting closer now. Did she recognize that scream? She paused to look around. She knew this forest. She grew up here. She hadn't been here for hundreds of years. What could possibly make her return? Damn.
The smoke was getting thicker, filling her nostrils and lungs. She coughed, trying to force the dense air out. A flash, behind her to the left, accompanied by possibly the greatest boom of thunder she had ever heard. She turned to look, squinting through the darkening air. Beside her, a woosh of air. She instinctively leapt away, a flaming sword the size of a great man gashed and simultaneously carterized the ground where she had just stood. She looked up through the smoke and saw glowing red eyes a good three men above her. A flash of green coming from the right. Suddenly everything was cold, far too cold, then black. Then gone.
She felt a shock run through her body. Electricity unlike any she could imagine tore through muscle and nerve, shocking her into her current reality. She gasped, sucking in air violently like a drowing victim before settling her lungs on panting. Putting her hands to her throat as if it would help with the intake of air. When she was finally wheezing, the ambient noise around her faded in.
"What. What happened?" a voice choaked out. Weak, raspy, it was hers. Her lungs screamed as if she really had been inhaling smoke.
"I could ask you the same thing!" a voice, high and breathy from stress and worry, practically panting herself.
"Hey! What's happening down there!" a bluntly irritated voice rang down from above.
"Oh nothing, just Vallera having a seizure," the concerned voice called back.
"Really? Like with the shaking and everything?" the curious voice neared. Vallera slowly blinked her eyes open. She hissed at the light, though it was only the dim yellow of a 60 watt overheard, it seemed blinding at the moment.
"I'm fine... I think," she said confused. Her voice and breathing had leveled. She sat there for a moment, ignoring her two friends' concerned jabbering for the moment. "I think I just had a vision."
The other women stopped midsentence and stared at her like she had grown another head. "A vision? Like E.T.?" the woman with dark hair asked.
The other woman rolled her eyes. "E.S.P., Darcy. E.S.P."
"I suppose," Vallera replied thoughtfully. She hadn't had a vision in centuries. Not since she'd come to Midgard.
"Hey, are you ok?" the gentler woman asked.
"Yeah," Vallera said slowly. "I think I need some water."
The worried woman looked to Darcy. Darcy got the hint. "I'll get it," she said leaving.
"Jane?" Vallera asked. "When's that god friend of yours visiting?"
XxX
The trio of woman landed in New York the next evening. They were now in the tower belonging to the esteemed Midgard warrior group known as the Avengers. There were half a dozen armed guards positioned throughout a grand glass entrance. Among the sparce furnishings was an enormous wooden desk with a lone woman typing away. She was gorgeous in a secretary sort of way. She peered up at the newcomers from cat's eye glass frames. "Names?" she asked in a bored yet professional tone.
"I'm Darcy, this is Jane, and this..."
"We don't have an appointment," Jane interrupted. "We need to see Thor."
The woman behind the desk saw dozens of daring fanatics daily. This was not the first time women had come seeking Thor, or Steve, or Tony, or any of the Avengers really. "Ladies," she started coolly. "Thor and the Avengers are very busy people. You'll need to make an appointment through the proper channels if you want to see..."
"There may not be time for that," Vallera said definitively.
"We'd call but Thor can't work a toaster, let alone a phone," Darcy quipped.
The woman fought back a sigh. This may be quicker if she called up. May as well squash all hope so these fanatics could get on with their day elsewhere. "Names?" Now armed with their names she picked up the phone and called up to an agent on a higher level. It was Jane's name and Bruce Banner's voice that gave the women clearance to proceed to the elevators.
Two dozen floors later the metal doors slid open to a sterile hallway where a man with curled hair and glasses awaited them. He held out his hand and with a welcoming smile said, "Bruce Banner. I thought Thor wouldn't mind having you here waiting for him. He's told me a lot about you." He shook Jane's hand first. "You must be Darcy," he said shaking her hand next. "And you are..."
"Vallera," she said accepting his hand.
"So which one are you?" Darcy nosed, looking him over. "I know you're not Iron Man. You don't look buff enough to be Captain America..."
"Darcy!" Jane snapped.
Bruce chuckled good-naturedly, he was rather used to the lack of recognition outside the science community. He liked having a bit of anonymity. "I'm the big green one." Darcy took a nervous step back. Jane shot her a glare. Darcy's nervous reaction phase him in the slightest. "Come on, I'll take you up." He and the ladies got back in the elevator. Bruce pulled out a key and inserted it into the elevator just below the floor buttons. Vallera briefly wondered how they were going to go up. This was the last floor on the panel. But the key opened a hidden panel. There were another ten floors. He picked the second and up they went.
This time the doors opened to a much more hospitable location. Modern but cozy, this grand room was equipped for relaxing. An enormous red sofa curved around the main area where a red headed woman lounged, flipping channels on a ridiculously sized television . She looked over the back of the sofa. "Oh hey, Bruce. Who's your friends?"
"Natasha, this is Jane, Darcy, and Vallera," he gestured to them in turn. "They're waiting for Thor."
Natasha's eyes widened slightly in realization. "Oh, you're THAT Jane. Big guy should be here soon." As if on que, a crack of lightning and rumble of thunder split the cloudless sky. The building trembled slightly from the weight of Thor's arrival. Vallera could tell Jane was trying to contain her excitement.
A few minutes later, two men appeared from the direction of the elevator. There was no question which one was the Norse god. One man was on the shorter side but stood tall and proud with slicked back black hair, an expensive pair of jeans and an AC/DC tee. He took a quick look around at Bruce and the women. "Well helLO, ladies. And you too, Natasha," he said, insinuating Bruce was one of the ladies while Natasha was not, with a suave smirk. Bruce just smiled while Natasha rolled her eyes.
The other man was tall with golden waves of hair and Asgardian armor. His eyes brightened when he saw who was in the room. "Jane," he said happily. Jane took that as permission to run and leap into his arms. Darcy seemed used to this where as Vallera stood there awkwardly. Jane seemed to finally remeber her friends waiting and pulled away reluctantly and cleared her throat awkwardly.
"Thor, you remember Darcy."
Darcy gave him a two-fingured salute. "Hi-ya." Thor nodded and smiled a friendly acknowledgment.
"And this is my friend Vallera. She's been helping me with a few experiments while Erik is taking a sabbatical."
"Well met, friend of Jane," Thor boomed happily. "Uh, Thor, we need to talk to you," Jane said looking up at him.
Thor nodded. "Very well." He led the women down a hall where Tony's comment of Thor getting to have all the fun wafted after them. Once they were safely inside what Vallera assumed to be Thor's room, Thor questioned what brought them here.
Jane seemed a little nervous, like Thor would think her crazy. "Well... Vallera thinks she's had a vision. She thinks it may have something to do with you."
Thor looked the woman over. He took visions seriously. The visions of others had been very useful in his times on Asgard. There was definitely something odd about this woman, she wasn't like other Midgardian women. She had long, straight, white hair that shone like a waterfall of silver ending at her waist and large eyes of the darkest green. She was as pale as the moon and had a delicate looking face as though she were a porcelain doll.
She took a breath through pale lips before she started. "I'm from Vanaheim." Darcy's confused look spoke volumes. "I'm one of the Vanir. Vanaheim is much like Asgard."
"We warred with them centuries ago but have since made peace," Thor elaborated.
"Wait. So you're from space too?" Darcy exclaimed. Vallera nodded and explained her vision to Thor. All listened curiously.
After a moment of contemplation, Thor spoke. "It sounds like an attack from Muspelheim."
"The realm of the fire giants," Vallera clarified for the Midgardians. "Why would they attack Vanaheim?"
"I don't know, but we must tell my father." Thor was sworn protector of the Nine Realms. If there was to be war, or a massacre by the sound of it, he had to do everything in his power to stop it. From the thunder in Vallera's vision it seemed he was destined to help anyway. But the green flash and the extreme cold... That sounded familiar, but the only one he knew to have powers like that was dead. Wasn't he? Maybe it was just the guilt weighing on his heart that made him think of his brother. Maybe...
XxX
*Sorry no Loki yet. Setting things up. I'm gunna try to post weekly. New chapter every Friday. I have more written than posted, hopefully that way I can meet my deadline even if I hit some writers block. Think I'll post the second chapter now so people can get a feel for the story right away. Please review, it'd make me happy. Maybe earn the readers a double chapter post ;)
- Hel*