The icy wind ceased to burn her already frozen cheeks as she rounded the corner into a alleyway. After a year and a half of working with Scotland Yard as both a detective and a Forensic Pathologist, the alleys and backstreets of London no longer worried her. If known well enough they could provide a very useful shortcut. It had begun to snow an hour ago and although a co-worker had offered her a lift, she only lived around the corner and it was out of his way, so she declined. Looking back upon it, she probably shouldn't have stayed later and had just accepted the lift. As she trudged through the building snow, he sharp eyes picked out a figure standing 10 metres in front of her; tall, most likely male and leaning, tense against the brick wall. Training forced her to scan for ways out, despite realising that this alley was closed in and the buildings were old factory buildings. She had two options: turn and run and allow the person to know that she had seen him and perhaps start a pursuit or keep walking and hope that they were simply a delinquent or someone hanging around. She opted for the latter; it was far too late to turn back safely. She kept walking warily, until five meters away the figure stood out in front of her, blocking her path. Her breath caught in her throat. She had left her gun, even her pocket knife back at the laboratory, not wanting to carry too much in the heavy snow. It was as she began to profile the figure that se gasped in a breath of cruel, icy air. Although he had a fair bit of muscle, most of it was disillusioned by the chunky silver and red armour and a long cape her wore. She stopped in her path, snow gathering at her feet
Even at 5,8 she had to look up at the man as she spoke. "May I help you, sir?" She queried. No reply. The figure merely shifted his weight from one foot to another. The shadow from the building disguised his face in blackness but the street lights showed an outline of golden hair. "I had no idea there was a.. uhm.. comic convention? In town… I'm afraid sir that I cannot help you, if you're looking for it that is." Although she had adopted her formal police tone, he voice dripped with sarcasm.
"I know not of what you speak of Midgardian." His voice was deep and had an accent that she couldn't identify. Silence ensued and she took a small step back. "I am Thor of Asgard. What do you call yourself my lady?" "Alina… I'm Alina, and I really must go. Goodbye, Thor" She began to back away in haste when she hit something solid. A chest. Another person.
"What the Hell!?" She exclaimed as she slipped backwards in the snow, only to have a strangers arms grab hers, holding her still against his chest from behind. She looked up, over her shoulder to see another man with slicked back raven hair and a smirk on his face.
"Ah Ah Ah" he tutted "You're not going anywhere, Alina of Midgard" His voice was rich and smooth and threw her off for a moment before she glared up at him resolutely through her piercing green eyes.
"My, aren't you ravishing" he murmured above her ear. She shivered, and not just from the cold.
"Come Loki, we must go" demanded Thor who had stepped into the light properly to display above the shoulder golden locks and an impressive figure.
"I am NOT your fetching animal at your disposal, Thor" her captor snapped back, as he begun to shuffle her forward towards Thor.
Taking advantage of their distracted bickering, Alina dug her heels in and yanked one of her arms free, using it to elbow the raven haired man, Loki, in the side of the neck. His grip loosened in shock enough for her to pull her other arm free and flip him into the snow, before making a run for it with the aim of making it back to the road. As she ran, she chanced a instinctive glance behind her to monitor pursuit, when she ran into something so hard she was knocked into the snow. Confusion clouded her head as her vision blurred and dizziness seeped in through the cracks. She could have sworn there was nothing in front of her. After regaining her vision she looked up, it was Loki, smirking down at her as he dusted snow off his shoulder plates. From her angle on the ground, she noticed that he was clad in black leather with accents of green and gold amour plates. His forearms were covered in golden armour braces, intricately designed with etched vines and snakes.
The sound of heavy footsteps came from behind her and through her ringing ears; she vaguely heard Thor's voice.
"Now Loki, I hope you haven't hurt the Lady"
"She fights. I can vouch for the fact that she has caused more harm to me than I have to her" Loki replied smoothly and Thor gave a hearty laugh which echoed off the walls as loki hauled her to her feet. She was in no position to fight them. They were both armed, Thor with a strange hammer and an assortment of knives and Loki with a dagger in his belt, she was injured with a possible concussion and both men were much larger than her physically. Using this reasoning, she didn't resist as Loki once again began to move her forward.
"Are you sure you can handle her again" Thor asked humorously
She felt a chuckle in loki's throat. "I believe I definitely can Thor" His grip tightened on her forearms and Alina struggled out of instinct, throwing her heel into his shin, making him grunt but not lessen his grip.
"You son of a bitch let me go." She seethed.
Loki only laughed quietly as he finally managed to reach Thor, who looked down and said
"My lady. Please, do not worry; we are not here to harm you. I promise you as Prince of Asgard"
Alina rolled her eyes. Were these guys serious? What was going on? This better not be MI6 again she thought sullenly. Asgard must be code for something…. A place, an object, a mission maybe. Either of those options, she did not like where this appeared to be going. Her thoughts were rather violently interrupted as she was thrusted in between the two men, as they each took one of her arms.
She looked down at the snow, allowing her long brown waves to her hide her face as she attempted to form some kind of plan. In her attempt to run she had lost her jacket, leaving her standing in the snow in no more than black combat style pants and a long sleeved whit e button down. The close fit certainly didn't help as snow began to seep through it and stick to her skin.
Thor emitted a loud "HEIMDELL" which caused her to jump slightly, earning a pleased grin from Loki. She turned her attention back to Thor and assessed him. He was grinning up at the night sky, as if waiting for something. There were no stars and it was heavily clouded, even for London, and she began to wonder if perhaps they really were insane. She soon found out she had never been more wrong in her entire light.
A tunnelled shot of Rainbow coloured light beamed down onto the ground in front of them and Alina attempted to pull backwards. However as they began to move towards the pulsing light, she soon realised that no matter how much she resisted they were going to walk into that light. And there was no better way to describe it in her mind other than a giant rainbow vacuum. It was indeed what it felt like as it sucked them in. All around was multi coloured moving at the speed of light which carried them with it with little choice concerning the matter. And as quickly as it had begun, it promptly ended and they were spat out. The hands stopped holding her and she immediately stumbled to the ground from the momentum and loss of balance.
She spent a good minute on her hands and knees trying to regain balance and stop the spinning in her head. Moving back on to her haunches, she pushed her locks out of her eyes and was shocked at her surroundings. She rose to her feet cautiously. They were in a orb like room which was reminiscent of some grand observatory: There was a half open top displaying constellations and an a spill of stars which stopped only when they were cut off by a golden roof which curved all the way down to the marble floor. In the centre was a circular platform with stairs leading up. It was only very slightly raised and in the centre stood a black man adorned in golden armour and brandishing some sort of stick made out of similar gold. Probably not MI6 she concluded. Although she was beginning to wish it was.
In front of her to her right, Thor and Loki were conversing with a small group of people. Four to be precise, she noted. Which consisted of 3 men and a gorgeous woman, all dressed in armour that belonged in a fairytale. She ruffled snow out of her hair and began to think. The situation did not appear to be overly hostile. Weapons were present but they were not pointed at her. In fact, in comparison to other hostage situations and abductions she had the bad luck of experiencing, this was definitely pleasant. No one was tying her up, dragging her anywhere and her captors were even laughing and appeared to be joking with each other.
While she had been drawing her conclusions, it appeared the topic of conversation had finally turned upon her. She glanced up to the group, whose eyes were all fixed intently on her.
"Lady Alina" Thor began to address her but one of the new strangers stepped in, quite literally, walking up to her confidently.
"Alina! Such a beautiful name befitting for such a beautiful maiden. You are perhaps one of the most beautiful women I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in all the nine realms. I am Fandral of The Warriors Three" He kissed her hand. She tilted her head and drew herself back a little, giving the room a questioning look. This man, Fandral, was the spitting image of a fairytale prince charming. He was dressed flamboyantly in beautiful teal and green furs and a cape, set off by silver armour. Alina had to admit, her childhood part found him attractive with his floppy blond hair and eager eyes but experience had worn her down to know that Prince Charming did far from exist. So, when no one gave her an answer, she grabbed Fandral 's hand and twisted, throwing her weight towards him and sending him into a wall, effectively preventing him from moving without attacking her. Those behind her erupted into laughter and when they had finally gained control f their hooting, the women said,
"Well Fandral, it seems that someone has finally done what we have all wanted to see happen for years now" Laughter was still shadowed in her voice.
Confident that he wasn't a threat, she let him go and Fandral dusted himself off while walking back dejectedly to the group. He soon regained his lustre.
"When you spoke of her being fighter, I did not forsee that you meant it quite so literally" he spun to face her, "I like her" he finished with a wink.
Alina was beginning to feel well out of her depth now. Already suffering a concussion, her head begin to spin more and she felt a horrible cold sweat erupt on the back of her neck. She took a large step back when once again she hit someone. And once again, it was the raven haired loki. She turned to where loki once was but was shocked to see him still standing there, studying her intently. There were two of them. The shaky cold sweat began to reach her hands and slipped down her spine as panic began to set in. She reached out to touch the second loki but he disappeared as she came in reach. An illusion. She gasped, feeling ill and weak. A part of her felt so childish, so out of her ability that she wanted to break down in tears, but years of training set an instinct which said no to this. So she stood there, shaking from cold sweat and panic.
"Loki!" Thor chided But before he could continue, the black man who Alina later learned was Heimdall spoke out.
"You are putting her into shock" His voice was poetically deep and rich like melted chocolate dripping off a spoon, "You must understand, my princes, that you have taken her from Midgard, taken her through the bifrost, set Fandral upon her and have now introduced her to illusionary magic. And she has not even met the AllFather yet. It is a lot to take in"
Fandral began grumbling about the comment light heartedly but she couldn't focus and his voice soon began to drift out of her consciousness. Her hands buzzed up through her shoulders and everything became distant. Somewhere far away, her name was being called out but she lacked the ability to respond. Her tongue was dry and stuck to the roof of her mouth. Just as she thought the spinning in her head was going to cause her to faint, she got the sudden feeling as if someone had injected her with a tonne of caffeine straight to the bloodstream. A surging power enveloped her, out of her control and over head. She was drowning in it like one drowns in love. Helpless and powerful all at once. Everyone in the room had frozen and was staring at her, wide eyed and incredulous. Cautiously she glanced to her reflection in the marble and saw her eyes were no longer the antifreeze forest green she had gotten so used to. No, they were now fizzling gold sparklers. She stared at the marble in awe.
"I.. this… This is n-new" she muttered in fear
Heimdall began to speak gently "If you had allowed me to continue, I would have finished with putting her under this much external pressure with the aura of Asgard could trigger her abilities"
"Incredible" The asian man murmured
But as quickly as the power had come, it left. And much like caffeine, she felt herself hit a low like some internal drainage system. All her exhaustion, pain and fear came rushing back accompanied by this tenfold.
Her eyes rolled back into her head and she promptly hit the floor.