"Is something troubling you, Thor?" Sif asked, catching sight of his furrowed brow as she stepped out of the training grounds.
"Yes, have you seen Torunn?" he asked, "Was she possibly in the arena?"
"I'm sorry I have not seen her since breakfast."
"I have asked many people and searched the forest and her chambers." Thor sighed.
"You might ask Fandral. They have become very good friends." Sif smiled as she said it.
"They have?" Thor raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. I last saw him sparring with Hogun."
"Thank you." Thor nodded and headed off, but again, Fandral had no idea where Torunn was.
"I believe I saw she and Loki talking earlier." Fandral told him, "But I do not know where they are." Thor sighed and walked away.
"I still do not understand," Loki said as they walked through the halls, away from the library, "What is so bad about magic to you?"
"I just...I don't like it." Torunn said. "Too much you can do with it, and its really hard to fight against."
Loki scoffed at that. "So you do not like it- no, you hate it- because you do not know how to fight against a sorcerer? Certainly there is more to your reason."
"Well, its also really complicated and sometimes its hard to even know if you're under the influence of a spell."
"It honestly is not that hard, not if you're one of us." Loki said.
"I am one of you." Torunn reminded him.
"Yes, but not completely. You still had a weak mortal mother-" There was a loud smack! As the back of Torunn's hand connected with the side of Loki's face.
Loki stood frozen in place, eyes locked with Torunn's as he brought a hand up to his face. "Do you realize that you just slapped a god?" he asked, saying it slowly, so as to get through to her tiny mortal mind. "A god that could kill you with the flick of my wrist?"
He stepped forward and Torunn stepped back. "You wouldn't," she said, forcing her voice not to waver, "Thor would kill you."
"Oh, I will not kill you." Loki said, grinning. It became obvious to Torunn that he was planning something in his head. He reached out, too fast for Torunn to move away, and grabbed her wrist. She tried looked down and stomped as hard as she could on his foot, making the grin fade. He took hold of her other arm and yanked her forward, holding her only an inch away from him.
"Believe me, I will give you a real reason to hate magic, mortal." Loki snarled, tightening his grip on her wrists. Her eyes went wide as everything around her faded to white. And Torunn was falling.
"You did what?!" Thor shouted, inches away from Loki's face, Mjolnir clutched tightly by his side.
Loki's face remained straight and uncaring, having not even looked up from his book. "I've sent her away, I know not where."
"Why?!" Thor's voice bounced off of the walls of the library. Had they not been the princes of Asgard, someone would have kicked them out by now. "What has she done?!"
"She insulted my magic." Loki stated simply, turning the page.
Thor grabbed the book and ripped it from Loki's hands, forcing him to look up at him. "How do we find her?"
"How do you find her?" Loki said, wanting absolutely no part in this, "I suppose-"
"How will we find her?" Thor corrected, "You sent my daughter away and you will help me get her back."
Loki sighed irritably. "Fine. But Heimdall will be of use to us this first time, considering she is in many alternate universes."
"What?!"
"Yes." Loki sighed, snatching his book back, "I can find available passages through time and space and send her through them. I will simply follow behind and continue to send her through them until I find one that leads back here."
"What happens to her during all of this?" Thor asked, "While you simply follow her around, sending her from one place to the next? Will she even know what's going on?"
"In some places, she may be aware of who she is and what happened, in some places she may not." Loki said, heading towards the door. "We must first go to Heimdall and find out where she is now."
Several minutes later, Thor and Loki dismounted their horses and approached the pedestal on which Heimdall stood.
"Where is Torunn?" Thor asked, "Can you see her?"
"Yes." Heimdall said, "She is on Midgard."
"Send us to her." Loki ordered, coming to stand by Thor's side before Heimdall. Things glowed around them and in a few seconds, they were sent shooting through the stars, soon landing on Earth.
Torunn was sure that she was falling as slowly as humanly possible. The ground was getting closer, but it did so very gradually. She was going to kill Loki when this was over. She became bored after a few minutes of this and wondered if the other people could see her.
Then she sped up suddenly and just as she was about to hit the sidewalk, someone grabbed her wrist and everything went white again.
When Torunn opened her eyes, she was back in her room at the orphanage, being shaken awake by Daniel.
"Torunn, c'mon!" Daniel said, pulling her out of the bed once he saw that she was awake, "You and John have to go, it's 12:00."
"Crap!" Torunn said, realizing that she was already dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Daniel threw a pair of red converse and a black hoodie at her and she put them on as quickly as she could.
John walked over and stood in the threshold of the door dressed in dark jeans and a brown leather jacket with a hoodie underneath.
"Ready?" he asked, pulling on some black gloves and throwing a pair to Torunn.
"Yeah," Torunn walked out of her room and into John and Daniel's. John grabbed the escape rope and threw one end out of the open window, handing the other end to Daniel so he could attach it to the leg of a bed. Torunn grabbed a lighter off of the dresser and John took a couple match boxes. They shoved the things into their jean pockets and John climbed out of the window, followed by Torunn after a few seconds. Once they were both down to the bottom safely, John looked up and waved to Daniel, who pulled the rope back inside after the signal.
They ran through the bushes and soon began the now very familiar process of winding through houses. Torunn had to lead the way, since she was the one who had been to their particular destination before. After passing the basketball court running a few more houses down, Torunn stopped.
"This it?" John asked, staring at the house in front of him.
"Yes." Torunn said.
"You sure?" John asked again, "'Cause we can't afford to do this to the wrong one, Tor."
"Yeah, I'm sure." Torunn said, "There's no way I'll ever forget this place."
"Alright, well I'll get the gas, you make sure the truck isn't in the garage." John turned and disappeared behind a some houses. Torunn walked around the house and looked into the conveniently already opened garage. No black pickup truck. No Jason.
He's probably at the bar again, she thought.
She went back to the front and met John, who was now standing beside a gas can.
"We're doing this from the back yard, right?" he asked, grabbing the handle. Torunn nodded and jumped the backyard fence easily, turning and unlocking the gate for John. He walked through and set the can down again. "Start it on the inside," he said.
Torunn picked up a few big rocks and threw them at a window, breaking it completely within a seconds. She climbed up to the window and threw one leg over the side. John handed the gas can up and Torunn took it, pouring all of it around the floor of the room she was in. She jumped down from the window and nodded to John.
He pulled the matches out of his back pocket and lit one, throwing it in through the broken window. Nothing happened. He lit another one and threw it in, both he and Torunn jumping back as the room erupted in flames.
They ran out of the gate and pulled their on their hoods, making sure their faces were still concealed. Hidden behind a houses, they watched as the flames started to spread through Jason's house. Torunn stared at the flames, somehow finding great joy in seeing the house that held so many horrible memories burn away. John tugged on her sleeve and she turned back to him, blinking to get used to the darkness again.
"Lets go," John said, leading her through the maze of houses. Soon they spotted a glowing sign that said "Ray's Arcade" up ahead. Torunn ran to the back and leaned on the back door, making it pop open easily. She and John stepped inside and John closed the door behind her.
He reached up into the air, feeling around for the chain, pulling is down when he found it. The room before them was soon bathed in light, revealing dust covered arcade games, a couple coin exchange machines, and various electronic devices. Beside the other door, Torunn spotted a huge stack of comic books, taller than herself.
The sound of police, fire truck, and ambulance sirens started, although very distant, and they both breathed a sigh of relief. They had just made it.
"You okay?" John asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. She turned and stared at him for a second.
"Yeah," she said, trying to brush past him.
"Torunn, really," he stopped her again and looked her in the eyes, "You wanted to do this. We succeeded and this is gonna be okay." Torunn nodded and headed up to the other door, followed by John. She flipped the switch in the back room, grabbing some of the candy they'd hidden behind one of the game machines.
John stole some from her hand and grinned, stuffing it into his mouth as she scowled at him. "There's more over there, you know." Torunn said irritably.
"Then there shouldn't be such a problem with me taking some of yours." John smirked. Torunn just rolled her eyes.
After several minutes of talking and eating candy, the sirens finally stopped and they listened as the trucks and cars passed the arcade again, heading back to the police station, fire house, and hospital.
"Hey, I gotta go to the bathroom," John said, chewing up the last handful of Nerds, "Then we'll get back to the place, okay?"
Torunn nodded, picking up a bag of gummy bears as John opened a door on the side of the room and disappeared behind it. She leaned against the wall beside the doorway with the star covered curtain and started digging around in the bag for the blue gummy bears.
She looked up when she thought she heard very quiet footsteps in the front room. She barely moved the curtain aside and peeked into the front, gasping as someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the other side of the door way. He was tall and obviously strong, with golden blonde hair going down to his shoulders. And that armor.
Torunn only stood there and stared, wide eyed, at the man before she started trying to pull her wrist back. He only glared at her, towering over the girl and looking her up and down.
Her struggling slowed as she looked at him and realized she recognized him from somewhere. But it was a very vague memory, from when she was really young. "You...you're..." she whispered, unable to form a sentence with her mind racing and her heart beating out of her chest. This was not a police man.
Another man appeared beside him. He just appeared, as if by magic. This man was tall, lean, and black haired, wearing green and black leather with gold armor pieces.
"Who...who are you?" she asked, staring at both of them.
The dark haired man stepped closer to her and took both her wrists from the blonde man. Torunn watched in both horror and amazement as swirling blue lines of light floated from the man's hands and circled around her wrists before her vision went white.
