Part 3
100 Cuts
(So this is a shameless whump fun that has nothing at all to do with my typical stories! Please enjoy. Based on the challenge by Jensendaddy: Maybe the little bruises and cuts that show up on your body seemingly out of nowhere are actually little injuries that happened to your soulmate and you get the same marks on your skin as them. Boy Howdy.)
Thor looked at himself in the glass reflection, lacing one finger along his left eyebrow as he considered the peculiar mark. Life hadn't given him too much of a right hook lately, but there the evidence remained nonetheless. The little creases in the corner of his blue topaz eyes squeezed together over the shades of blue-green blood pools. A red square roughly the size of a man's ring highlighted the center of his temple.
The Asgardian stood and traded glances with the reflection in his mirror as the two men considered what could have happened to them. He was mostly certain that when he went to sleep that night he'd been mostly normal.
"First time your dreams and nightmares appear to have bested you," Thor sighed.
The rune stone counter top rumbled in time with his ringing cell phone. There were a number of styles in this day and age. Ones like Tony's which required little more than a small stick and some JARVIS interface. Natasha had a "smart" phone. Even in his mind, Thor used air quotes. When he shopped for a phone of his own he had few actually needs. Did it ring? Could he talk to someone on the other side? Did it not have inter-web? Could it somehow be manipulated by Asgardian brains to pick up a signal through the Bifröst portal and still work? Then good enough. Ignoring the disheartened look of his reflection, Thor dropped a hand down to answer the phone.
"Thor," He quipped, returning a probing hand to the side of his face.
"Is this the Son of Odin? I'd like to order one side of boar, three rounds of ANOTHER!, two dashing blond Valkyries—"
Thor stopped probing to exchange glances with the ceiling. "Stark," he said the word with a depth of venom and surprise in it.
"The one and only. Look, we've got a situation down here and unless you're busy feeding your Intergallactac green dog, I suggest you swing by."
"What sort of situation?" Thor asked.
"I might come and pick you up," Tony said suddenly.
Figuring the situation, whatever it was, might be spiraling out of control even as Tony spoke to him, Thor exited the washroom and fished a hand blindly into his closet. The last time Tony called them together he'd accidently opened a worm hole back to the location of the Chitauri army. It was small and easily managed, but difficult to handle nonetheless. No one had even felt the need to ask Thor's assistance then. Before that the country was under siege by the Mandarin, Stark was assumed dead, Pepper Potts had been kidnapped, and Stark hadn't felt the need to ask for any assistance at all.
"The Bilröst only opens to those worthy of Valhalla," Thor replied. "I doubt you could appear in my bed chamber uninvited. Where shall I meet you?" The cell phone nearly slipped from the crook of his arm to break apart on the floor. Thor readjusted to keep it against his ear as he yanked on his clothes.
"I believe the last time we had this conversation, you agreed I could rule Asgard."
"You did not lift Mjolnir. That was the requirement." The Asgardian heir stripped out of his shirt and before pulling on the remainders of his armor plates. He doubted he'd have a chance to change wherever Stark's emergency took them.
"I'll be there in three minutes."
Thor glanced around his room skeptically. He was, in fact, still in Asgard.
"Make that one minute."
Thor abandoned his closet and fished around in his bedside for his hammer. He attached the strap to his belt loop. "While it would cause me endless entertainment to see you attempt that, I think to save your ego and my time, I will meet you at the Avengers training grounds. Do you mind telling me what's going on?"
Equipment in hand, he headed out of his room. He nodded to the three guards posted outside, accepted their salutes, and started in the direction of the great hall. It was easier to reach the Bifröst from there rather than flying his way around the entire chateau and hoping not to fling himself into a patrol ship.
"Son of Odin!" A garrison announced, pulling to a hault from the adjoining hall. They snapped to attention, presenting their weapons in front of their chests. Thor accepted their subjugation.
"Captain," Thor replied with a nod of approval.
"Hey is that your hot, black-haired girlfriend?" Tony asked.
"Not helping," Thor quipped.
"I'm here."
Thor paused in the stairwell and directed his eyes upward. "Are you speaking truthfully?"
"Getting slow, old man," Tony said.
"Respect your elders. I am the son of Odin and older than your country," Thor replied, looking around him. He didn't see any indication that the Bilröst had been opened, nor that Stark had walked through some scientific experimentation to appear on his plane of existence. Changing direction, he took the remaining steps two at a time upward. Within a few minutes, he arrived at the dome-shaped spire of the chateau. Stark stood across from him, cross armed and tapping his foot impatiently. He wasn't as surprised to see the man decked out in yet another new suit of armor as he was to see Stark at all.
"Wow, Thor, what got you?" Tony asked, probing one metal finger forward against the red square in the center of Thor's black eye.
Thor batted his hand away. "I had a scuffle with a bilge rat. I'm sure you understand the sensation. How did you arrive here?!"
"Toy I was playing with. I wasn't sure it would work, or if it would dice me in a million little pieces, but hey, it looks like It worked. Ok, we need to go."
Thor tried to shake of his myriad of questions. Instead he said, "What trouble has come? My brother is locked in—"
"It's not Loki."
"Then the Chitauri plan—"
"Nope, no aliens. At least, I don't think so. There actually is a real chance there could be aliens."
"I don't understand. The earth has faced untold dangers and you have not called upon my help. What has changed?"
Tony's fingers curled into a fist with his thumb shoved backward at nothing at all. "Blame you. Apparently you had an old friend show up and everything kinda went to crap after that. Barton's gone."
Thor's look changed. "Gone?"
Tony nodded once. "So this guy showed up at the front door, asked for you, and Hawk took a swing at him."
Still, Thor had no clearer picture of what had occurred, and why it required his assistance specifically. "That is no surprise, if Barton chose to uphold my honor, then I commend him for it."
"Yeah, well, I figured the same. Then we got this," Tony held out a folded paper and shoved it toward Thor.
Thor looked down and scrutinized it as Tony spoke.
"He's been gone four days now. Figured we could handle it, then some strange things started up, and it all went sideways and spacey. That name mean anything to you?" Tony leaned forward and stabbed the letter with his finger. "Cause yesterday that note showed up with a severed head in the box."
The Asgardian's gaze shot up from the paper.
"It wasn't Clint's head. We don't know whose it was. Your name got carved into the forehead, though, so explain that part to me."
Thor's mouth ran dry. His grip tightened on the letter, the words written in blood, the words calling him out in his native tongue.
It has been too long, son of Odin
-Zarrko
So, where was this going to go? I'm really not sure. I had this idea of switching Thor to Steve, or keeping it with Thor, I didn't really know. I'm not sure what I wanted to do with the mysterious Zarrko, and whether he was going to be a multi-book-baddie bent on world domination, or if it was going to be a little personal grudge match. We may never know. One thing was for certain. Epic Thor/Clint whump would have ensued to the nth degree.