ASGARD. PRESENT DAY.
"Loki!" cried Thor, rising to his feet and overthrowing the massive banquet table.
His brother's spectral form grinned maliciously.
"Greetings, brother, from beyond this realm," his sneering voice echoed creepily throughout the hall.
"Thor! I thought you said he was imprisoned in Valhalla!" said the beauteous Lady Sif, scowling, but still being super attractive.
"This is impossible!" said Thor, calling his mystical hammer Mjolnir to his hand.
"But nothing the Warriors Three can't handle!" cried Volstagg, seizing his axe from the air. Fandral had slipped to the weapons rack and tossed weapons to them all. Black Widow politely wiped her mouth with a silk napkin and pushed her dishes back while the others postured. Her gun and Widow's Bite were charged and ready to deploy at her whim.
"How fitting that you're all so ready to assist my dear brother," smirked Loki, his grin unending. "For that is just such the challenge I've arranged for you all to face."
"What manner of treachery is this, brother?" demanded Thor, brandishing Mjolnir fiercely at the vision before them.
"Perhaps you remember the lesson on Ancient Treachery we both took as boys? The one you failed utterly because you were so fixated on horseplay with your friends?" sneered Loki.
The others looked to Thor. He frowned.
"Nay. Speak directly!"
"Of course. I am accustomed to explaining everything to you, my dear, simple brother," said Loki, grinning smirkily. "With this spell, I will banish you to another dimension – a trial dimension, where you will face 4 challenges, each drawn from your own psyche to test you. Your friends' aid will be necessary, for this trial requires you to rely on them in ways that you have likely never seen before."
"We shall defeat any challenge you throw at us, cur," taunted Hogun. "We have before, and we shall again."
"Hmm, we shall see," smirked Loki. "Observe."
Black Widow stepped aside as a strange artifact appeared in the air on the table before her. Thor seized it as soon as it manifested.
"A horn?"
"Indeed, brother. You will use the horn to summon the essences of your friends to you in the trial dimension. Select them carefully, for they will be joined to you in turn."
"I've seen a horn like this before," said Sif, taking the horn from Thor and turning it over in her soft but very girl warrior hands. "He isn't lying about how it works."
"Then he is lying about something else!" cried Volstagg.
Loki smirked.
"Am I?"
There was thunderclap, and a strange purple swirl began to grow in the center of the room.
"Farewell, brother," said Loki, with a sneer. "No, wait! This is not right! What's happening?"
"Thor?" said Black Widow, feeling her attractive self dematerialize. She was being pulled into the swirl. "Someone, help!"
Thor was already diving across the hall. In a flash, he secured his friend's hand, and held her tightly. He pulled her back from the swirl, but it was getting stronger, and he could feel her disappearing.
"We can't keep her from going in, but we can help her inside," said Sif. "The horn! She needs the horn!"
Thor nodded and Sif tossed him the horn. Thor looked Black Widow's outfit up and down, and all its tight pockets and zippers, deciding the only way to get it to her was to stuff the horn into her exposed cleavage. It was not a moment too soon, for she was immediately sucked into the purple swirl and vanished from view.
"This is disastrous," said Loki, sneering with disappointment. "How can such a spell, er, miss?"
"Heimdall mentioned a bizarre magic at work this day," offered Thor. "Interfering with the curtain between realms."
"Disgusting," sneered Loki. "I have no use for that woman. Why does everything involving you become ruined? What a bother. I've wasted years on this spell only to have it foiled by a simple magical flux? Goodbye, you plebian fools. I will be back somehow. Count on that!"
With a flourish, his vision disappeared.
"Well, then. Now what?" asked Volstagg.
"We ready ourselves to help the Widow," said Sif. "I bound us four to the horn. When she calls, we will be joined to her in the trial dimension, body and soul. She will be able to summon one of us at a time to aid her in each of the challenges. It will be difficult but we must do what we can to help her escape."
"Thank you, my friend," said Thor, looking sad and also very handsome. "She was my guest, and I intended to share a sumptuous feast with her in celebration of our latest Midgard victory, but instead she has been cast into a personal hell from which there may be no escape. I am greatly embarrassed."
"Of course," said the others.
Time passed.
"How long is this going to take?"
"Does she know how to use it?"
"It's as simple as blowing into it."
"Then why hasn't she summoned us already?"
"If it's going to be a while, I say let's eat. Wench! More meat and ale!"